¶ Senator Jack Danforth joins the Chuck ToddCast
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¶ Why he's focused on rehabilitating the Republican party
rates themselves may vary as well, but trust me, life insurance is something you should really think about, especially if you've got a growing family. So joining me now is who's frankly has got the passion that I'm trying to bring to this podcast, and you know which is to focus on how do we get out of this current mess we're in. We all know we're in a mess.
We have disagreements about why we're polarized. We have disagreements about whether the current situation is sort of a symptom of something larger or whether the current actors are the problems themselves. I've obviously been focused on the media side of things. My guest today is a very familiar name
¶ We need to restore the role of congress
to those of you that are political junkies. Jack dan Forth, former Republican senator from Missouri, an episcopal priest. And I bring that up because, as you know, as many of my listeners know, Senator, I've been yearning for what I call for a pastor for patriotism. I feel like America needs somebody to help us. They're just sort of renew civics and renew sort of what we understood America to be. That it was an idea, it's not an ethnicity, there's
not a religious thing. And boy, there's nobody that could speak better to this moment. I wish you were thirty years younger right now, and let's run you for breadth it right, trust me, we all want to be twenty.
Three other reasons. Yeah, yes, so.
But your your focus is trying to rehabilitate the Republican Party. Walk me through what your focus is.
Yeah, I mean, I guess the broad picture is pretty
¶ Congress has become about self-promotion over legislating
much as you present it. I think that a great purpose of America has been simply to hold ourselves together as one nation, with all of our differences, with all of our conflicting opinions, but to hold ourselves together, and right now we're coming apart, and to hold ourselves together means to me to restore that part of the country which is a venue for bringing us together. Part of that,
I think is restore the role of Congress. Congress was created as the place where all these different interests, all these opposing points of view came together and worked things out. It was a place of compromise. Congress has now been diminished. And one of the things that's happened is, and this is now an issue before the Supreme Court in that tariff case, is the concentration of power, not just in a few hands, which is what Madison was concerned about,
¶ The parties are weak, but partisan loyalty is strong
but in one person's hands, the presidency. The power to tack the Congress has withered away, so it doesn't really amount to much of anything now, much less not being a place where different interests work things out. A lot of people, a lot of people have said that the basic role of now a member of Congress has performative that is, self promotion rather than legislating part of it. And then the second part of the sort of creating the venue is restoring the political center of America. And
that's what doesn't exist anymore. Really, It's right now, each of the two parties has gravitated toward its extremes. And so now people go to the polls now and they're faced with the choice, and the choices to two alternatives, neither of which they want. You know, one would be the far left, one would be now the Republican Party, the maga right. And so the idea is, Okay, where do people come together? Well, most people are in the center, So let's restore that center.
¶ What could moderate both parties?
So this is the conundrum I have, which is, let me, let me. Let's deal with one of the fun riddles that I like to throw out there about American politics today. The two major political parties have never been weaker, and yet are the pull of the two of the red and the blue. Right has never been stronger. Right, The
parties as institutions are super weak. They have no money, no resources, no ability to vet I mean, look, I'm old enough to remember when the chairman of the RNC tried to shame Donald Trump for attacking John McCain that eventual chairman of the rn C would become the chief of staff at the first Trump presidency. I say this with no disrespect to rights previous. I think he's a man with a good heart, and I think I think if given the opportunity, would try to do, would try
to do the right thing here. But is the problem our political parties are too weak? Is the problem too much money? And the reason I say I'm offering a lot of choices here these answers to say, it's all a problem, But what's solvable first? What do we need to do first? I keep coming back to a third party or an independent candidate temporarily because of the impact I saw Ross Perrot have on both parties. It sobered
them both up right. It made the Democrats a little more fiscally responsible, made the Republicans a little more sensitive to working class folks on the issue of trade. So it actually had a moderating effect on both parties. So I think about the various reform efforts. Where do we begin? Where would you begin?
Well, actually, I've tried both of both approaches. I am a Republican and I've spent so much of my life in Republican elected politics, that's my identity. But I did
¶ Rehabilitating the Republican party might be futile
in the last senatorial election in Missouri, I did support an independent candidate, and he was the independent candidate really was is a true ditional Republican, you know, I mean, you would just say Okay.
Wait, by the way, John Bailey and I work together.
Oh yeah, okay, back in the day. Yeah he So this guy was just right down the line, bright guy, attractive guy, very well educated, and he ended up with less than one percent of the vote.
Yeah.
So, I mean the history and the third Party is actually winning has been pretty bad. So maybe, I mean, maybe that's the one alternative. My approach has been within the Republican Party because right now, of course, elections are determined in primaries, and that means to energize the extreme base.
But I think that there are just a ton of people out there who are essentially conservative in their outlook, traditional Republicans in their in their way of thinking and approaching things, and that the idea is to appeal to them. So that's my focus has been on trying to restore that traditional Republican party. Maybe maybe it's feudal. I don't know, I just don't.
Well, let me ask you this about the party. I always comfort myself by reminding people that the the isolationist wing, the sort of America First wing, whatever you want to describe sort of in MEGA has a lot of resemblance to it. Okay, it's not fully that, and in fact, I think we're about to see the I think the coalition is cracking. I think we're and part of it
is just the passage of time. I mean, I think you've you've been through a lot of these periods where there's these cultive personalities that have a grip on the nation of the country or a part. But the grip
¶ Politics has become incredibly ugly, aggrieved and bitter
basically is a decade, and it is tough to ever hold on beyond it. Right, Reagan's grip basically didn't last but half of Bush's term. Right, Clinton's grip didn't even make it to a third term. Neither did Obama's.
Right.
It just and I think we're seeing that now. It's just sort of exhaustion, We burn out. Do you think if Trump is disappears, the the Reagan coalition comes back and the America First sort of isolationist wing, arguably both of Missouri senators or members of that wing, does that fade or what do you foresee in the near term. You know, you got started in politics during the old Taft Eisenhower disputes.
Right, Well, I'm I'm not quite that old, No.
But you were, but you were familiar with them. You were familiar with them back then.
Yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, you know what here's here is
¶ The joy has left politics
and maybe this maybe I'm just Pollyanna, you know, but I think that it's not just that. Do people say, okay, you know the cost of living and that's going to turn people, And yeah, I think that's part of it. But I think mainly most people in our country are not ugly. They're not nasty, they're not.
¶ Republicans were the "family party", now has ICE breaking them up
Mean.
And I think what's happened in politics now, and particularly in the Maga world, in the Trump world, is it's ugly. I mean, it's just terribly mean and angry and aggrieve and bitter. And look, I've been out of politics for thirty one years now, but I don't believe human nature has changed that much in thirty one years. And I really knew the people of my state. I thought, really well, I mean I for a long time. I spent so much time with them, and you know what, they're good people.
I mean, they're just good, decent people.
And does it matter if you're in the rural parts of Missouri seven or the inner city know, and.
They're you know, and it was and they had they they were funny, I mean, they had good senses of humor. They laughed. Where's the laughter now in politics? Where's the
¶ Christians have been whipped up into a persecution complex
joy and adult It's all so angry and so bitter and so outrageous cruel I would say, there's a cruel some of this immigration stuff, you know. I mean when they're when they are sending ice agents out to break up families. I thought our party was supposed to be family values. Well, how about deporting the husband and what's going to happen with a wife and children. I know of a case like that right in my home state.
This man is he's going to be deported and he won't be able to return for a minimum of twenty years. And he's married, and he has two small daughters and one of them is a special needs child. Are we that kind of country? Are we that kind of country that cheers that on, that says, oh, we got to keep these immigrants out to the point of shoving them out the door when they've got families. So there's a
cruelty in all of this. I think that if there's a way, and I've been thinking about how to do this as a matter of fact, if there's a way to just ask the American people put the question to it, are we really like this Are we really this angry?
¶ The country hoped Joe Biden would serve as a healer
This mean? You know what? This week, there's going to be a meeting in Washington. I read about it, and it's a meeting about how Christians are being picked on, I mean crimea river. Christians are supposed to feel they're victims, They're being pushed around. The elites are out to get them, governments out to give them please. Are we really is it? Is it sustainable to stoke up that kind of grievance,
feeling of grievance and anger? Is that sustainable? Or is there some equilibrium out there where most people really are kind and decent and caring and want to live with their neighbors, whether their neighbors are progressive or conservative, whatever they are them.
I was counting on that exhaustion, the exhaustion from the anger, the exhaustion, and I think we all thought, let me put it this way, I shouldn't do the we all. I thought the idea of Biden's presidency was supposed to be this they I don't want to give me the jolly guy, right, You're in the Joe Biden I covered for most of the time, and I'm not going to count the presidency because, frankly, it was a different Joe
¶ Smartphones have warped political discourse (AUDIO ISSUE)
Biden than the guy I covered his vice president and the guy I covered as a senator. And I'm sure you probably felt the same way. Yeah, But the one thing about Joe Biden is that guy was always joyful. That guy was always a better he was a better angel guy. So I do think that's what the country kind of hoped he was going to offer of a of a moment. Frankly, I go back to my phrase pastor for patriotism, that maybe he was going to serve as a bit of a faith healer, you know. And
I'm not a very religious person. I know you are, but I kind of need we need a We need somebody to restore faith in the idea of America. And I do think it has to end up coming from our If our president can't do it, who can, right?
¶ There has to be a focus on "who we are as a people"
And we are we?
You know?
I think I think Obama had that ability in him. I think he made a few errors at the end and sort of not reading, not understanding what was happening inside his own party, and they led them down the wrong road there. But so I take your point on this, is this something I mean? Do you think I know what I think? When you say those, I think, well, this is what social media has done. It has made us all self centered, it is, it's made us all
¶ Trump has caused more damage to U.S. than any other person
more it is, we're all I always joke because I'm obsessed to try to fix local news. So I'll always say, well, the one thing I've learned with this phone and I'm holding it up, is we're all a little bit narcissistic, and we all think whatever's happening right around us. We had to talk about, Hey, that's local news. Maybe people want more local news, right, let's let's get more micro.
But it does feel as if our politics changed when the iPhone became the primary source of communication for political information.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's right. And there's been a lot of commentary about that. It's a great book called The Anxious Generation. I'm just that about the effect that the iPhone is having, especially on on younger people, and I think that all that's true, And I don't know, I don't know that there's any antidote to that, but I do think that there has to be a sustained effort to focus public attention on the question of who are we and are we really angry and mean and
¶ James Lankford could be a leader in moral revival of GOP
cruel as people? Or are we not? And I think that that that effort will call for a lot of us, and it will call for the media, We'll call for anybody who's got.
Well, what do you do if the sitting president of the United States does not agree with that assise?
Oh no, he doesn't know. He's the opposite. He is the opposite. He's the That's what he is. And that's why. I mean, that's one of the reasons I think he's caused more damage to our country than any other person in our history. But so now what it was, and I think it's got to be more than just top end. I think it's got to be bottomed up. I think it's got to be the American people being faced through that question of who we are and is this really right?
And does Donald Trump and what he stands for really represent us and what we stand for who we are? And so how to sustain that well, I can think of how to do it in bits and pieces.
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¶ We need to show kindness to people on the other side of the aisle
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get the discount. I'm telling you it's excellent, excellent. Brett, Well, let me give you a suggestion because, and I know I'm curious how much conversations you've had. There are two senators that always jump out to me as two senators that I would like to lead, to see lead a
¶ We as a people, are not like Donald Trump
conversation like the one you've described. And they're the actual They're the two senators who are also happened to be pastors, James Langford out of Oklahoma and Raphael Warnock go to Georgia. Langford, to me, is the closest thing to you that exists in this current Senate. I say that not just because of his past being an ordained pastor, but more his in who he is, who is his temperatip. I think I got to think you know Langford a little bit.
He is I think a top notch human being. I think if it were politically safer, he would be speaking out more. But I go back and forth of whether I how much grace I give certain senators. I'll give him more grace than others because I feel like I know who he is. Should what role could those two play? I feel like if they chose to play a role here, they could play a powerful role. But Langford would have to criticize his own party, and I don't know if he's ready to do that.
Well, I don't, yeah, But I don't think you need to start out criticizing your own party. I think you end up. You start out as we have with our organization called our Republican Legacy, putting forth certain points of view or principles that are positive, that stand on their own and if you put, if you put to the
¶ Trump's governance and style are not conservative
American but who are we? How do you want to treat your neighbors? You know? Do you? How do you want to do that? I think there would be a response. I don't think it's necessary. It would be wonderful it would come for the present and wonderful of more political leaders. Anybody with the soapbox, though, can do it. I think that there's a real role for religious congregations to do
¶ Conservatism has lost all meaning in the era of MAGA
this bringing people together who are different, who have different opinions, breaking bread together, you know, invite a Republican to lunch? How about that? Right? I mean any other way around? Right? No anything, And they're you know, so, I mean there could be a real effort. It could be led by religious congregations, and it should be because the root of the word religion is the same as for ligament, holding things together. So how do we do that? Are there
tactics for doing it? Invite a Republican to lunch? How about if somebody that you know who has got the opposite political view has hit something awful, happened by way of health or family laws, call them up. Call that person up and say I care about you. And Saint Paul said, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. And I think that that is what it takes. I think it's I think essentially it's a question of
what we're really right and we're not like this. I know that, I absolutely know that we as a people are not like Donald Trump. I know that.
So obviously you hope this is repairable from the inside out, But when you look at the grip he has on the party, like I said, I think it's a coalition that's in the midst of fract because it doesn't have an ideological glue. Right, He's supposedly for non interventions, and yet we're about to go on an escapade in Venezuela where he's getting involved in the Honduran presidential election. He's
inserted it. You know, it's as whatever you think of Marjorie Taylor Green, I think I take her at her word that she looks at this and said, hey, I actually voted for ideology here. And I think Trump's got a problem. I think there's some true believers in his
¶ Republican voters need to be offered a truly conservative candidate
movement that are like, wait a minute, we didn't vote for this. We didn't vote for Ukraine, or Israel or Venezuela. And we know that Trump's a transactionalist. He jumped in front of that parade because he saw it as the fastest way to get the nomination. And now he's like, oh, well, I can get paid helping out the Hondurans here, and you know, I'll dabble in this over there, and the Middle East Royalty loves me and so and it's actually counter to what he promised his constituents.
But it hasn't broken our position, our position in our Republican legacy, which is our effort to keep the ember of traditional conservatism burning. Our position is that none of this is conservative. None of it. It's not. I mean, we used to think of ourselves we're the conservative party. Okay, let's say, let's ask the Republicans that question, do you view yourself as conservative or not? But please don't let the conservative label be appropriated by the MAGA people, because they are not. Jack.
I think the words lost its meaning to most. If you ask my son, who's eight in college studying, he
¶ The GOP is now a "strong government" party, not "small government"
thinks whatever Trump supporter is a conservative And I'm like, well, that's it's an ideological label that doesn't fit what the definition used to be. And I was trying to walk them through this, and you know, right now, it's just a label that's a fixed on anything Trump.
Yeah, I know that's true, But I mean we've got to reclaim it. And that's what our group of ours, our Republican legacy, is attempting to do. I mean pointing out there's nothing conservative about blowing out up the National death that's not conservative. There's nothing conservative about deep Washington
¶ "Our Republican Legacy" is trying to restore traditional GOP
involvement in the economy, which was high protective caress Ronald Reagan rolling over in his grave?
Can you believe how many pieces of companies the US government now has.
An owning company? That is what's conservative about government owning companies? What's conservative about government? The Washington and the President trying to tell universities what they should teach, or law firms about whom they should represent, or late night comedians about who they should not. What's conservative about that? That's not conservative? What's conservative about cottoning up to Vladimir Putin? How does that square with the Republican Party of Dwight Eisenhower and
Ronald Reagan? It does not. So it's not that this is just a different part of conservatism. It's it's the opposite of what our party was, has been, and what I think if faced with it. But that's why I think it's important to field candidates and hopefully in the presidential election. Also maybe the person would lose, so he loses, she loses, whatever, but at least present it to Republican voters. How do you feel about huge deficits that are growing?
¶ Does the Republican party stand for anything anymore?
You feel about the Trump administration in its first term that increased the national debt in four years by more than almost forty percent, and that's going to increase it by another three trillion over the next decade. How do you feel about that? Do you think government should own businesses? Do you favor high protective tariffs? Do you feel favor pulling the plug on Ukraine? Put those questions to Republican voters. Do you talk about fracturing of the Republican Party. I
don't think it would be fracturing over little stuff. I mean, this is fundamental stuff that is defined the Republican Party historically as the conservative party, which it isn't anymore.
Look, one of Missouri's US Senators, Josh Holly, I think is smarter about understanding that the voter, the voter that elects Republicans now, doesn't necessarily agree with that definition of doesn't rejected that version of the Republican Party and prefers one that is I always say, this is not a small government Republican party. This is a strong government.
Republican You bet. It's really remarkable as a matter of fact that I remember when I was a kid, somebody said this to me. There they're really it is like a convergence in a circle of the extreme right of the extreme life right.
¶ There are enough shellshocked Americans to get constitutional changes
Eventually they touched.
Yes, it's it's that, that's right. But here's the thing. I mean, we're trying to do this in our group, our Republican legacy, we're trying to do this. We're trying to to plant the flag for a principle. But not enough people are doing it. Not enough people are really putting the issue. So that's what I think we should do it. Maybe maybe Hally's right. We are the party of big government and writing two thousand dollars checks to people and all of that. Maybe we've become a maybe
that's the way to be popular. A lot of people historically in politics think this is the way to become popular, way to win elections is to give it away.
Checking in every pot.
Right, remember that that's right. That comfrequent Hubert Humphrey used to call it the politics of joy, just give it away.
¶ Why a constitutional convention would be a bad idea
Government intervenes and everything government should be big. Government isn't big enough now. Government doesn't spend enough now, It isn't powerful enough now, and it doesn't abuse your enemies the way it should and it should do more of that. So that yeah, So that's that, that has been I guess the formula that they're relying on. But what if
you put the opposite to people. I mean, what if somebody were to run for president, not caring whether this person necessarily had to win for his or her ego, but just put the question to people, who are we as a people and what are we as a party? What do we stand for? Do we stand for anything anymore? Anything?
So should we have more? I mean, do you think you know this is?
This is?
Well, let me start with this. I'm obsessed with having a constitutional convention. I think we need one, and I think if you look at every period, every period in our history where we've been at the brink, okay, where we we hit a low Civil War being the lowest we've we've actually that's always the moment we've actually amended our Constitution. We created more equal protect Essentially, the equal
¶ The founders trusted us to govern ourselves
protection clause comes in after the Civil War.
We have mead the Constitution. We didn't have any convention to do it.
No, that's true, but I don't trust this Congress actually allow that to happen. But let's say, but either way, we can do it in any which way. After the debacle of the early twentieth century, when arguably the worst scandal we ever had, teapot Dome. Well, we get the direct election of senators, and then we get the amendment to allow the income tax, which actually creates the property tax structure that funds local governments to this day. And
of course we gave women the right to vote. So I just think that we will have an opportunity in the next ten to fifteen years to do some reforms, because I do think there's enough shell shocked Americans like WHOA the last ten years, right, whether it's amending the constitution to take away the power of the part to an individual. I mean, this is the abuse of the pardon processes is clearly I think turned out to be a problem. Maybe we do term limits, maybe we do this.
What do you do? You think we need a moment here where? And if the reason, I like a constitutional
¶ The founders did fear the voter, and added checks to their power
convention because I want to bring liberals and conservatives. Let's talk about the balanced budget amendment, Let's talk about term limits, let's talk about the pardon power, let's talk about age limits. Right, all of that would have to be constitutional amendments, but the process itself could be restorative for civics.
Terrible idea.
Oh, you don't want it. You think it's okay, tell me why?
No?
No, okay?
Because I think that our constitution is a work of genius. I do too, and I think that our guiding principle is a principle of genius. And the principle is it's the famous what five words and the declaration of independence. All men are created equal. Did we depart from that right from the beginning. Yeah, But is that our basic standard? Yes? And we believed that we are capable, we the people, are capable of governing ourselves. We don't have to be
governed by the powers that be. We take responsibility for
¶ Money isn't the same as speech, and it's corrupted our politics
governing ourselves. And that was Jefferson's principle, and that was what the Constitution was designed to do. No more big deal king, no more big deal aristocracy, no more big concentrated power in one person's hands or a few people. We do this. That is our republican form of government. That is what we are responsible for. And I think we just have to insist on that. And that's it's not a new principle, it's our principle.
It's the I don't think we disagree here. I think we may disagree in the vehicle to amend the Constitution. But I do think we need to freshen it up. We need to add some amendments, do you.
Know, Well maybe yeah, amendments, But that's not counc usual convention. What I mean the first Constitution.
I'm not interested in rewriting. I see what you're saying. I'm not interested in rewriting it. That's what you're Okay, the first Constitutional Convention was presided over by George Washington. What if then another countutional convention was provided side by Donald Trump?
Well, I don't.
I've heard that. I get that. I don't want to fear the voter. Sometimes I do think we make certain decisions like we fear, we fear the voter.
Right.
The electoral College arguably was a creation because ultimately they feared the voters and they were like, we better have
¶ Congress must retain the power to tax
one more check on the voters. And you know, look at jerrymandering. Right, I would argue they fear the voter and we need to we need to get rid of that principle of fearing the voter and instead realizing, no, the voter is in charge.
Okay, should please do it by months?
And now, well I what I So that's what I I But what I could see us having is gathering for to debate these amendments, and I think that we should have a form for it. And I think it's pretty clear we've got some problems, whether it's money in politics. The courts are going to rule one way. So if you want to have any limitation, you're going to have to create a constitutional amendment jerry mandering, you know. I think I happen to think the House is too small.
I actually think we don't have enough representatives in Washington given the size of our population. I know, more politicians doesn't sound like a reform to many people. But that's if you if I, if I go back, I look at it as founder's intent and the House of Representatives is no longer the people's house, and that's a problem.
And how do you bring that mindset back to it? Yeah, you know, I think the point is is that it does feel as if we need, you know, like any house, it needs updating, and the American House needs some updating.
Yeah. I mean, no, I understand what you're saying, and I think they're you know, discrete areas which would be worth addressing. I mean, my own view is in the same of the money in politics. I don't think that money is the same as speech, which is basically with the Supreme Court decided. I think that there's a right to speak, of course, into assembly. There's not a right
¶ GOP congress has mostly been on vacation and doing TV hits
to bring a bull horned into a political meeting. And that's essentially what we have now. So now I understand that I haven't thought about a constitutional amendment on the germandering or increasing the sides of the House. I just don't have any.
And I get that those are my hobby horses.
Yeah, but I mean, maybe they're good ideas, maybe they're not, but I don't I'm not for scrapping what we have. I'm for restoring what we have. I think that the Supreme Court's decision in this tariff case is really going to be important.
How badly. Let me say, let's say this, what if they uphold the president's authority? What does that do to the checks and balances.
Of our It removes them, Yeah, it really removes them. But it basically says that the president has absolute power to do anything. He can do anything he wants if he wants. He could paint the White House orange, and by the way, he might decide to do that, you know, Yeah, it's I mean, if Congress doesn't retain the power to tax right, which is you know, an express power an article one of the Constitutions, the power to attacks that that can be given away.
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¶ Congress is doing nothing to solve the insolvency of social security
just hoping to get away with paying as little as possible. Morgan and Morgan fought back ended up winning millions. In fact, in Pennsylvania, one client was awarded twenty six million dollars, which was a staggering forty times the amount that the insurance company originally offered. That original offer six hundred and fifty thousand dollars twenty six million, six hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. So with more than one thousand lawyers across the country, they know how to deliver for everyday people. If you're injured, you need a lawyer, you need somebody to get your back. Check out for the people dot Com slash podcast or Dow Pound law Pound five two nine law on your cell phone. And remember all law firms are not the same. So check out Morgan and Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. Why do you think it's been so hard to get Congress to flexits?
I mean, I've had a theory that Congress doesn't want the responsibility that the laws that they pass that could come with it, so they intentionally allow the ambiguity in the laws they pass, especially if they think the first administration that will execute those laws is one that they agree with. And that's how the ambiguity gets into the
¶ Medicare cuts are coming if congress doesn't act
lawmaking process in the first place, and then puts us where essentially an administrative state interprets the law, and then we end up in the courts, and then we have this sort of over time it is essentially accumulated to the executive's advantage.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think even back in ancient history, namely when I was around, the way to bridge what seemed to be a reconcilable differences in the writing of legislation is to bridge it with fuzz. So ambiguity is sort of the default in how to finally pass legislation. So I think there's that, but I think now it's more than that. I think that Congress, now it really would be an interesting question to put two members in Congress.
What are you doing? Well? What is it? Please? What is your job?
Tell me?
Tell me what you've done other than say get on Fox News or put something on social media? What what? What have you done other than take many many vacations? I mean the vacation done. I mean now Thanksgiving, Christmas is coming, then we've got the first of the year, and then we've got whatever comes after that. But I mean they just they go on vacation all the time. Well, I was joking.
A three day weekend, a three day weekend for the
¶ The public learned things during the deliberations over Obamacare
rest of us is always a two week.
Recess, unbelievable. And the work so called work week is three days. Yeah, And it's what are they they're drawing paychecks for what? I mean what they're not legislating because legislating is controversial, So to avoid controversy, and legislating is producing something other than what Donald Trump wants you to produce, So don't do it.
Well, take take health Care's where's the legislators trying to come up with a plan to deal with the expiring healthcare subsidies. Where's there a health and if your publican party is an alternative plan, show me the process.
What are you doing about the pending and solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund? When it comes, which is
¶ There is no "perfect bill", it's supposed to be a compromise
scheduled to become in eight years, social security benefits will drop by sixty six hundred dollars.
And Senator, I'm a well aware being a member of Gen X and not a baby boomer, that I'm going to be the first generation Okay, because that eight years it's about I'm getting close to when I'm going to be eligible and my generation is going to be the one that gets the first haircut and we didn't make the mess.
Yeah, and the nice thing about being my age is it's your problem. So no, that's right, But I mean you think about so what do you like take major pending issues okay, the national debt and then related issues the pending and solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund, which will result in major reduction of benefits, and then
the pending and solvency in the same year. I think it's twenty thirty three of the Health Insurance Trust Fund in medicare you think we're all hospitals have suffered because of Medicaid cuts. Wait till the Medicare cuts come. So, I mean, these are are huge problems that are going
¶ Judicial confirmation and judiciary have become politicized
to affect people. And is Congress doing anything about this? The answer is nothing, punt. You know what they'll end up doing. They will end up appointing a condition. Now, I was Bob carry from Nebraska and I were the co chairs of something called the Carrie Danforth Commission in nineteen ninety four to deal with these problems?
Was this a successor to the old wasn't there a Moni Han Commission before that? Wasn't this yours was a successor to what moynihan was a part of, right during Reagan? But there was wondering Reaganimpson bowls. I remember Simpson balls after that?
So and what happened to those?
Yeah?
So, Tanaschel, So we have now we we have a we have it's been created. The name of it is Congress. It's not named carried in for their Simpson bulls. It's called Congress. So here's my idea. What would happen if Congress would cancel just one of its vacation times, just one, it could keep the other eight or nine or whatever of them. Yeah, cancel one and just deal with these problems.
¶ We have collectively starting thinking of the judiciary as policy making
Just legislate, show us and by the way, let us watch, yes, let's watch the process. I remember one of my favorite moments was when Obama hosted Republican senators and they debated Obamacare in front of the American people, and everybody learned something about that process. You didn't have to agree with the idea or not, but it was so healthy to see Lamar Alexander and Barack Obama going back and forth about it. You're like, Okay, this is kind of what our founders hoped would happen.
Or or the alternative and the alternative. Why not just have a little back room politics among real politicians and decide, okay, we'll come out of this with something.
Right, as you the way it worked. When people want something to pass, you find reasons to support legislation. When you wanted not to pass, you can find reasons not to support.
Right.
I'm sure every vote you cast in the affirmative you could have made the case to go against your go against that vote if that's what you wanted.
To do, right, Yeah, I guess I don't know.
The point is, everything's a compromise everything. How often did you vote for a perfect bill?
Okay, No, that is exactly right. And that's how it was designed. I mean that is how the frame that the Constitution designed it. They designed it, They designed the legislative process. It's a place of.
Compromise, and it was supposed to be incrementalism.
They designed it as they designed it as sausage making. Yeah, and I happen to think sausage making is a good thing to do.
Yes, And you don't want to worry.
And hopefully it's going to be relatively good sausage. But it's not going to be it's not going to be, you know, a prim rib. It's going to be sausage.
Let me get you out of here. On two questions that always befuddle the Senate these days. One is judicial nominations and the other is the filibuster. Yeah, I'm a I've obsessively read Federalist seventy eight, which is Hamilton's defense of the of the judiciary, and most importantly, of what he thinks will make a good judiciary. He's essentially outlining heap he comes. He comes out against the election of judges.
He says, you can't have these as elections. So why state some states do this is beyond me, but I'm going to set that aside. But the goal was as neutral of arbiters as you can get, and now they don't. He doesn't say how it should be done right. He doesn't expressly say it should be two thirds of the Senate, three quarters of the Senate, whatever. He just says the goal should be that we're a long way away from that goal. I would argue that, unfortunately, these black robes
are red and blue. Right. I'm not saying every liberal justice it only thinks about being a liberal before being a justice, and vice versa. But that's what the public sees, and it feels as if the judiciary is just another
¶ If we restored the filibuster for justices, we may never be able to confirm
political game. How would you? And look, I can make the case that Harry Reid did this, or Mitch McConnell, I think they collectively broke this. Personally, I think everybody's got dirty hands here. But what would you what would be a better way to create our judiciary. I don't like fifty votes. I don't. I think it's made the judiciary more partisan than it needs to be. But I also respect the fact that the founders, when they wanted
two thirds or three quarters. They actually said two thirds or three quarters if they wanted super majority, they wrote it in there, and this one they were trusting us not to worry about a supermajority. I kind of think it turns out we're wrong, But but what say you?
So? I think that we publicly have thought of the judiciary is yet another policy making branch of government, and I think that that's that goes back away. I thought that, you know, when I was around, like Supreme Court nomination,
¶ Many senators are just automatic no votes against other parties nominees
it was all about, Okay, what's going to be the policy result of this judge, particularly on the issue of abortion is there? Are they going to stick with roversus way? Are they an row versus way? It was viewed as a policy making branch of government. It was not created to be that. It was crazy an arbiter right. It was yes, And the meaning of judicial conservatism as opposed
to political conservatism is judicial restraint. It's judges saying, wait a second, if we're going to get into deciding a case, it has to be based on the clear understanding of the meaning of the Constitution and not broadening the constitution to the point where I've got a freehand to come out with policy results. That's what's happened. I'm not sure now they've got rid of the pillarbous fear for judges. I know that. You know, I was very much supportive
of Clarence Thomas in his nomination. There's no way he could have been. I think we ended up with fifty one votes.
In a Democratic Senate. I mean, I always have to remind people Clarence Thomas got confirmed by a Democratic Senate. I don't know if that nomination even gets accepted today right now.
It was you know, he used to work for me. Yes, that was my involvement. He I gave him this first job out of law school, and he worked for me, and when I was state Attorney general, and he worked
¶ What should the filibuster rule be in a perfect world?
for me when I was a senator, and I just saw the suffering of the human being at that time. I can say that that process was you want a good weight loss program? Yeah? That did it? That Thamas? Yeah?
So yeah, do you did that process scar him? Do you think it changed his views?
No? I you know, amazingly, No, I don't. I think he is. I think the sort of the presentation of him was sort of this scowling he's the opposite he is.
I've heard this from people who know him, his friends, that he's a jolly guy.
He's really a good guy, the jokester guy. From people who have clerked, from other Supreme Court justices, that Clarence is the most popular justice among all the clerks in the Supreme Court building. He's he's just a good guy, and he's a very caring person. That's what he is. That's what was so brutal about that whole yeah episode, restoring the filibuster for justices. I don't know anybody he confirmed anymore.
No, no, no, and I don't know. But instead of restoring the number with it, here's what I had a friend at the Bush who was part of Bush's Bush forty three's White House Council's office and said, you know, when he was making nominations, when they were finding nominees, betting
¶ Hope for restoring more traditional conservatives to congress
nominees for the for the federal and circuit level, you know, he said, when you know you have to get sixty votes, you find a certain type of person. When you know you only need fifty votes, you can go with a different type of person. So it has changed, whatever we think. It has changed the makeup, right, we have more more ideological legal thinkers now, maybe that's healthy over time, but that can be damaging.
In the Yeah, because in different moments understand that. I think that's right. I think, you know, necessity maybe the mother of invention here is, how are we going to confirm anybody? No, there are people, there are people in the Senate now who simply vote against nominees for the
other party. They just automatic quotes against them. Right. You know, I counted up the number of times when I was in the Senate that I voted against any nominee for anything, and this would be all of uh Carter and the first part of Clinton.
And all of Reagan, so basically years of twelve years of another right one.
¶ What conservative values would you like to see restored?
Yeah, but all of these, including like six years of nominees for the person of the other party, only twice I ever voted against the nominee. I mean, I just said, okay, this is the president's now. These people just automatically, yeah, vote against them.
So let me ask about the filibuster in general. Would you I'm going to guess you think it's this process is overused, Yes, which is created because what I think the real problem with governing these days is the reconciliation process. What was created as sort of a as you you
just use the phrase great necessities. The mother of all invention, the reconciliation invention by Bob BYRD was essentially a mother of you know, one of those moments where they were like, hey, we can't ever get a budget passed if we if we try to keep doing this with the with sixty votes. And yet you know, I was, I certainly was raised a part of the generation. I'm going to guess you
were too, of the mister Smith myth. And I say that it's a myth, but there is this idea that hey, one person can make a difference, one person can stand up. So what should the rilibuster rule be if in your in your vision of it, regardless of what it is, now, what would well, how.
Would you like to see it. I do think it's
¶ High character used to be an asset in politics
I do think it's overused. I mean, now it's commonly said that it takes sixty votes to pass anything. Yeah, but I do think it's overused. I think we never thought that way. But I do think that it's important to retain the filibuster. I do believe that because otherwise that you just have these wild gyrations. Right, who's in the majority at a given time, and the filibuster at least forces some degree of bipartisanship that otherwise wouldn't exist at all.
Yeah, well, what's the goal in twenty twenty six of restore Republican legacy? What would be a good year as far as your concern.
Well, we're so, we're working on it. We're that our Republican legacy is really two couple of things that it's doing. One, we're messaging. We're trying to articulate in as many forms as we can, the basic conservative principles that define the
Republican Party. We're organizing at the statewide level, We're recruiting state chairs, and then increasingly we're going to get in the business of trying to influence and support conservative basic Republicans, fundamental Republicans, traditional Republicans in elections, both for party positions, party organizational positions, and for elections themselves. So I hope that we will, you know, have a team on the field, and I hope that I hope that there will be
some candidates. I just heard of one yesterday and Nebraska, and mostly I don't know these people themselves, but that's what we're looking for. People who are good, responsible conservatives, which is not what mega is today.
And by conservative you mean less government, not more government, right, I mean government not involved in business. I mean what what what you know any other principles you would add into that?
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, uh, certainly fiscal hawks right. Certainly limited role for government and its intervention with the private sector and the economy, and universities at law firms and all of that. Certainly, respect for the rule of law, which means not weaponizing government against political enemies. Certainly, respect for the constitutional order, which means not the extreme concentration of power in the president. Certainly a national defense second
to none. And also a foreign policy that supports our our friends and our allies that would include Ukraine. All of that comprises the Republican Party as it has existed for decades and decades and decades. All of that has been scrapped, not modified, but I mean thrown in the trash heap by Donald Trump, all of it. So we're just standing for principle, and we're looking for people who will make that stand in elections.
Well, I hope this conversation provides some hope to some of my I would say demoralized conservative friends who just look at this and the character doesn't count anymore morals and ethics.
You know.
Look, I can tell you this, Senator dan Forth. I always tell you as a as a high character person, and I thought that was an asset in American politics, and the high character people are there doesn't seem to be room for them anymore. I hope you're I admire that this is what you're trying to leave as a legacy.
Thank you very much.
Anyway, good luck, enjoy the rest of the holiday season, and I'll check back in closer we get to the election.
Good thanks, Jech.
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