You know my figure core packing with the election is over. And now look, I know it's a great question, y'all. And I don't blame you for asking, but you know, the moment I answer that question, the headline and every one or your paper will be about that. Yes, yes, and it should be. I can't even wrap my head around the fact that that is working, not answering a question that huge. Um, And then that's your reasoning that that's astounding. Yeah, because if I answered that, that that would
be the headline. Because it's a big deal, is why it would be the headline. We asked because it's consequential. No, I won't answer it because it's consequential, is the answer, which boggles them now. As I've been saying in any other area era, I don't think he'd be asked anything
but this until he answered it. I'm not sure that's the case when most of the media is fully on board as part of the campaign, Let's appeal for perspective, experience, wisdom to Lani Chen, David and Diane Stephy, fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, also host of the podcast Always Interesting, Crossing Lines with Lani Chen Lani, how are you, sir? I am glad this week is almost done. I've been saying that every week for quite
some time. I know in any other era, you couldn't get away with that answer, could you. No, I don't think you. I don't think you would be able to. And I think you're right. It is an important question. I mean, it's an important Uh, it's an important policy question. It's frankly a very important question for the for the you know, where the country goes from here? Uh? And I think you're right. I don't think there's a whole
lot of accountability around it. I will say that I appreciate Biden's willingness to be completely transparent about what he's thinking. You know, he's not trying to make up some reason for for for why this is. I mean, he's just saying, Look, it's bad politics for me to answer the question. He's not wrong, He's not wrong about that. He's not. It's just not it's just not what our media's roles should be. Well, at a point in time, I think it's borderline charming
that he's old school enough. And I think it is. Corey's a pretty decent guy to say it's actually a good question. I don't blame you for asking it. He is ashamed of not answering it, in my opinion, Uh, yeah, no, I think he is. I think he'd much rather be able to answer it. Um, it does speak to the state of our media. But you know, more broadly, guys, I think it speaks to the state of the of the progressive movement. You know, where the where the Democratic Party,
and where the progressive movement is. Because he knows that there are a significant percentage of his supporters who would be demotivated, who would be angry with him if he said, no, I'm not going to tack the court. By the way, I don't think he will. I mean, I think he either if he knows if he does that, he has no first term agenda. He has no way of possibly getting anything through. Uh. You know, now, if there's a Democratic sweep, then he has a little bit more margin.
But still he knows that this is such a polarizing issue that if he gets out there and does it, he's in trouble. On the other hand, if he doesn't support it, you've got a bunch of Democrats who may not turn out to vote, and that may be a problem for him. So he isn't a difficult position politically. I understand the position he's in, but it doesn't excuse the responsibility of the media to hold him accountable, and it doesn't, frankly, excuse his responsibility to answer the question. Now,
this is why we love talking to you. It's not just shouted talking points in spin. What do you mean he would be in trouble if he did that, particularly if the Democrats hold both houses of Congress. What would hold him back and the progressives from just instituting all sorts of wild policies. Well, first of all, you know, they have to not just get rid of in order to get rid of the current constitution of the court, they would have to get rid of the legislative filibuster
as well. Which are I think that I think that's guaranteed they're going to do that. Yeah, you know, they may try. They may try, but but I think that there are enough Democrats on record. Now, look, it doesn't mean anything. Can be on record and change your mind, but there are enough Democrats on record saying, look, that's not the right path. You know, let's not do that. There's enough institutionals, you know, the Senate is an old
school institution. I just taught a class this week, actually, you know, focusing on the Senate and had an expert on who had worked in the Senate for twenty five years, and she didn't exclude the possibility, but she did say this, She said, Look, what you got to realize about the Senate is there are so many institutionalists in the Senate, so many people there who are trying to protect what the Senate has been since the founding, and the filibuster
is really a big part of that. Again, this is not to say that they couldn't just decide, forget it, We're going to screw all the norms. We're gonna do it anyway, but there are multiple steps that would have to happen before you get to court packing. And I may say close enough, margin Biden is really going to play the key. He's going to play the key role because he's basically got to say to these Democrats in the Senate, look, I know you want to do it,
but there's too many things on my agenda. There's too many things that I need to get some Republican support or somehow, because that will make the policy more durable, it will make it exist and stand over time. That's the argument he's got to make. So that's why I'm so a little bit skeptical. I know a lot of people aren't. Well, I hope you're right. I think we
live in a pure, pure power politics time. They can and they will, and they'll jam through all legislation with the fifty votes they've got and screwed if you get any buying. Obamacare went through with no buying from the other side. Yeah, that's true, although Obamacare has now been to the Supreme Court, you know, which is why I got challenged so much. That's why it's got challenged so much. No, there's a reason to want to get buying on the
other side. I don't think anybody cares anymore. Yeah. Well, and and that's the that's the sad state of our politics. I mean, there's a part of me that hopes that there is some effort to to try and move us back to a different time, move us to a time when there was there was more consensus, more effort to try and come together. But you know, you are you guys are right. This is a time of power politics. And and you know, we just finished watching Copra Kai,
which if you haven't. She is terrific and I know so many people that are into that show. And my wife is just adamant. She will not watch it, but that's great. Yeah, No, I was skeptical to you know, I'm like, three Karate Kid movies is enough? Why do you need another? Anyway, it was, it was good. But you know, there's this no mercy kind of kind of theme that runs through the first couple of seasons of it. And I do think there is this kind of no
mercy element of politics that's arisen now. So I totally understand where you guys are coming from. I guess I just have a little bit more optimism that that maybe we'll be able to to have a little bit more civility in our politics. Man, I hope you're right. Of the Hoover Institution is on the line. How much trouble is Trump in in Pennsylvania, without which he cannot retake the White House? Yeah, I mean, Pennsylvania doesn't look great for him. The public polling out of Pennsylvania has been
pretty rough the last week. In particular. What I keep coming back to is this, you know, the polling. We've
talked about this before. The polling depends on an assumption about who's going to show up to vote, and the Trump campaigns theory of the case has always been, look, we have all of these voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin who did not vote in ten who we believe demographically are going to be Trump supporters who we can register and turn out, and that's going to change the electorate. Therefore the polling is inaccurate. By the way, there's reason
to support that case. It's not all this hot air. If you look at early uh, if you look at voter registration numbers, particularly over the last couple of years, the Republican Party has done very well at registering more voters in the Democrats have and the key parts of Pennsylvania that Trump needs to win. So I don't exclude the possibility is one of Trump's top turnout guys that got tackled on his lawn in front of his house, So that didn't had a bad day. We all have
bad days. I haven't had a day that bad, But there are other tut guys who have shirts. Yeah, I mean, I think I think a lot of this depends on on how true that story is that they're able to make any changes. And you know, look, Trump has got to be able to hold on to a significant percentage of people who voted for him in sixteen, who who are swing voters or who usually vote for Democrats. And he said, look, I'm going to give this guy a shot.
And that's the dynamic I don't know about. I just don't know how many people who said I'm going to give him a shot in sixteen are signing up for a second go around. That that that's the part I'm still a little bit unsure about. You know, I appreciate your breath of optimism because I have been operating in the assumption Democrats take the Senate filibuster's gone and just it's now the House and all kinds of laws are going to get passed and signed. I hope you are
right and I'm wrong. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. Um. You know, there might be a nice sisilar or state dinner waiting on the side of it. But but I but I feel like my, my, you know, there, we just can't keep going like this, the pace, the level of partisan rancor how much people dislike each other. I mean, this Pelosi stunt they amend and stuff. Yeah, we're just take take on that right now. She's she's holding a speech, and there's a perfect example from my side of the argument.
It's not like she's some backbench or the freaking speaker of the House is pulling this maneuver today. Yeah, you know, it's what the kids call trolling, I guess, but it is really it is really remarkable that the third the person who's third in line for the presidency, basically isn't taking her job particularly seriously. And you know by the way parks on both their houses that there's not more effort to try and get some kind of coronavirus economic
assistance out the door before the election. I mean, it's this is remarkable that that you have. We're literally twenty days away from the election. We know exactly what the U. S. Economy needs going forward, and neither side is willing to step up and and lay down their arms to try and get this done. Of course, the Pelosi stunt basically guaranteed I think nothing's going to happen. But this is really uh, it's sad. It's a sad statement on where
politics is now. So you have kids, what age is okay for watching cobra um you know, I think, I think early teens is probably fine. I would say, you know, I mean, there's some violent things, but it's gonna get them into karate. They're gonna want to learn karate. I want to learn karate though I have no physical ability to perform karate, even I want to learn. Wow, Asian man feels pressure to learn karate. This is it's uncomfortable
for me. I can't figure out exactly why. So, Lanie, I'm gonna put you on the uh the spot here, and I apologize in advance when you were talking a second ago. I thinking, you know, one of my great things I tried to remind people of about politics is politicians almost uniformly these days, would rather have an issue than solve an issue. If I solve an issue, I can't get you to the polls with the promise that
I'm going to solve the issue. Um, when you deal with fresh faced youngsters, maybe your folks who aren't into politics much, finish this sentence. The one thing you have to remember about politics is you mean, when I'm talking to them or what they say to me, know, when you're talking to them, when when you want them to start to form an understate understanding of the way politics really works. What I say to them is, don't forget
what goes around comes around. Politics is a repeated game and and the players, you know, I mean, yes, there are new faces that come in and out, but people tend to stick around for a while, and people have long memories. And that's kind of why I feel like, at some level, you know, this this cycle cannot continue because we can't keep beating each other over the heads. We can't. I mean we we If you look back at American history, there's been a lot of polarized periods,
but those polarifed periods always somehow come to an end. Yeah, I pray that, James Madison, George Washington, you're right, that's that's that's what That's one of the problems with the youth movement is when you get older, you really realize that this the whole balloon drop in the confetti, and it's a new administration and everything's gonna change forever for
the next ship. The next election starts the next day, and the other party usually has a huge up and it's just you know, yeah, you gotta you gotta figure out a way to deal with this cychnical nature of this, Oh boy. Lonie Chen, David and Diane Stephy, fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, also hosted the podcast Crossing Lines with Lonha Chen always stimulating Thanks so much, Lonnie, wend you two. I wish I knew
the slogan of the Cobra Kai Dojo or something. I can hit him with breath of optimism from all Chen. He thinks there's enough serious senators that's saying now, we're not gonna do this right right, and they'll realize, all right, the hot headed children whose votes we just depended on, they got two years to cool off. They're screaming at me.
Now they'll be fine. Yeah, enough adults in the room. Um. I hope he's right, and he is absolutely correct that we have had a number of times in this country where we're at each other's throats to the point of killing each other's brothers and sisters, wholesale slaughter on the battlefield, to cite the obvious example, and and we more or less healed and more or less came back together. So
let's hope. There's hope for hope, everybody. I'll have to tell you a little bit about Nancy and her Amendment stunt that she's doing today, but just listening to it in the lunch room, it was an absurdity. I think you'll enjoy it. Cool, good morning, and