26: The Festivus Of Politics

Um, what say you? Because this cycle, I think more than most, we have seen outside money play big roles in primaries, and not outside money, but outside opponent money.

Mm-hmm.

Where the other side is propping up a potential candidate.

It's, it's a tried and true tactic in politics, but what do you make of it, Kurt? What do you think of all of this outside money? What say you?

Okay, like on one hand, the-this, it, it is, the spirit of it is disingenuous, right? Like if, if you are, if you are a Democrat, uh, running an ad because you want a certain type of, of Republican to be your opponent, it's like you're kind of rigging the game a little bit there.

Uh, and vice versa, if you're a Republican, you're like, "Ooh, wouldn't it be great if the crazy socialist won? So let's b- let's help prop up the crazy socialist because we can beat them in November much easier." It's like you're, you're kind of playing God a little bit, and as we have seen in the past, that could backfire on you big time.

Um, I think tactically there's a part of it that has always believed, like if you spend money elevating someone, no matter who they are, you are helping them whether you like it, and maybe that's by design, but it also makes it harder to tear them down later on, I feel like.

Um, because it, I, I just think playing God and meddling in other people's primaries is against the spirit of what our system is supposed to be.

And so I, I'm not a fan of it, um, but it's also the way the game is played, and it can be incredibly effective.

I, the one point I would push back on there is, you know, how this plays into the primaries, because in a state like Wisconsin, it's an open primary.

You can register day of and you can take a bal- you can register to vote day of and take a ballot for whichever.

It is a non-party primary, right? So you can walk in and say, "I want the Democrat ballot.

I want the Republican ballot." You don't have to be registered to those parties.

So in that instance, it doesn't necessarily work that the idea is-

Yeah

... that we're being disingenuous to the process, because some of these are open primaries, and people can vote, you know, Republicans.

I remember, especially in like the twenty eleven Wisconsin era, where Republicans would vote in Dem primaries because they knew who was winning their race, and they could-

Yeah

... have a play in this.

It-- Whether or not it's ads, and I think that maybe people don't realize, maybe it's ads, it's lit, it's something else, voters do it too.

Voters-

Oh, yeah

... do that in states where they will vote in a primary if they can for the opposing party to try and give themselves the upper hand.

I think tactically, it's not the prettiest tactic, but it certainly works.

I mean, if they, if the Republican Governor's Association is putting three million dollars in to prop up Francesca Hong-