After Sicily, they will pull, let us say, the Allied A team out of the Mediterranean, the leadership team, most of the landing craft, most of the air power, deploy it to Great Britain to begin, finally, preparations in earnest for an invasion of Western Europe.

Churchill's like, "Yes, of course.

I'm sure things will go really fast.

We'll be back in time for a nice early D-Day in 1944." He goes, "Look, we're all dressed up.

We're ready to go to the ball.

Let's do Sicily." [suspenseful music]

The Allies would continue to fight the Germans in Italy for almost another year.

I think Churchill went to his grave thinking there was an opportunity there that was missed.

Sarah, the last word, and if you could, please weigh in on if blah, blah, blah has officially been replaced by yada, yada, yada.

[laughs] Um, yes.

The answer is yes.

I mean, I think the discussion you guys just had about campaign finance basically encapsulates a lot of ordinary people's views on campaign finance without the nuance that Sarah offered in terms of big versus small dollar donors, which is that there's just too much freaking money in politics.

They don't know where it's coming from, and they don't think those people, whoever is donating money, and they largely think of corporations and wealthy people, putting small dollar donors aside, represent them.

[laughs] And it's just one more indicator that nothing is working according to what they thought this plan was all about when they think about the American project.

And so I guess it feels like I don't have a, I don't have an answer for how you message this and whether every day needs to be Schoolhouse Rock, as you said, Mike.

[laughs]

But then if you wait, it very much could be too late, right?

Yeah, I mean, I th- I, I take, I take Sarah's point that i- you know, exaggerating is not a good idea.

Catastrophizing doesn't help.

And, you know, crying wolf got us into a situation where now we really are in this (laughs) existential crisis for our democracy, right? So, the, the question is, you know, if we don't look at the entire federal government and everything that they're doing as one monolith, but you break it down, are there areas where you actually can sort of suggest, we don't know what's gonna happen, but you don't wanna take a bet on this.

You don't wanna take a bet on the FDA inspectors not being there to, you know, make sure that your baby formula is safe.

You don't wanna take a bet on whether or not your car seats are safe or whether, frankly, your veterans can get their benefits, or whether, you know, my mom can actually get her Social Security check or her questions answered.

In other words, you pick the things that are actually potentially doable fights and you actua- and you wage them.

(laughs)