We're less than two weeks out from the first Democratic Primary in New Hampshire, and the mood among Democrats is grim. Joe Biden is polling behind Trump in almost every national poll. And the feeling among Democrats is well, there’s just nothing we can do about it.
I listened to this getting more dismayed as the interview progressed. Not only is Dean Phillips hopelessly naive - he managed to blame the Jews for the antisemitism we are experiencing and Hamas’ attacks in Israel. A typical “progressive” - just one who also has a messianic sense of his own importance.
Yes! 100%. He clearly has no clue what Israel is actually dealing with - the naivety is beyond. His stance is butterflies and rainbows in the face of a genocidal regime that has brainwashed its people for DECADES to hate Jews and Israel. Palestinians were given EVERY opportunity for a better life and they elected a terrorist organization to power. Sorry Dean, butterflies and rainbows won’t work in this case.
I think he does know what Israel is dealing with. I didn't listen to the part where he talked about Israel, but a lot of American Jews think the same way. They blame Netanyahu and his policies in the West Bank, and they take pains to separate anti-semitism and pro-Palestine grievances. It's called being so open mind, their brains spilled out.
I agree - I was actually very intrigued by him until he blamed the whole current situation in Israel/Gaza on Bibi. How many times has Israel had to go to battle with Hamas due to the overwhelming attacks of rockets only to be stopped by US and international pressure all the way back to 2007. How much money has the US continued to fund the UNRWA when that funding is directly supporting Hamas and establishing education programs focused on indoctrinating hatred for Jews. How many times has Israel been pressured to open the borders and allow more aid and supplies in to Gaza when it was well known that this was being used to build rockets and tunnels. The blame for this goes well beyond just Bibi and even Israel. And fixing this will require complete destruction of Hamas, major changes to the entire question of refugee status for generations and dismantling of the UNRWA. Dean Phillips will not be my candidate of choice with these naive views.
His fundamental misunderstanding that Hamas (and most Gazans who supported/elected Hamas leadership) will never accept peaceful coexistence with an Israeli state and placing all the blame on Bibi completely disqualifies him from a foreign policy perspective imho. I actually listened intently in the early part of the interview and thought perhaps he was an anti-establishment candidate who could rally the people and find some compromise to get the country back on the right track. Eventually I realized I was hearing some great soundbites that unfortunately seemed to have no substance behind them (building millions of new homes for the homeless (how do we pay for that?), universal healthcare (I thought the ACA fixed that?), and finally legit anger over antisemitism but serious miscalculation of the cause. Where I did agree with Mr Phillips was with regard to the current Primary voting system(s). It is truly a shame that the establishment holds so much control of politics, that by and large, individual Americans are often left with 2 choices that really nobody wants, so we line up with whichever party most closely aligns with our beliefs and priorities and we get more of the same. I pray we can find a way to get our country back on track.
I wanted to believe that Phillips had potential and some of the things he said gave me hope. But like another commenter said, he is so naive about how the world works which is not encouraging for someone who is a leader in Congress.
He was 100% right about Biden being unable to do the job now, never mind for the next five years. He's also right about the broken political system that doesn't need to be torn down, but does need to be cleaned up (the duopoly and power in the hands of too few people were good points).
He was 100% wrong about how to handle Tlaib and Omar and the rest of the progressive whackadoodles. Sure, give them a chance and after 2 or 3 times of letting you know how they really feel, you condemn them fully and work to send them off into retirement. They are bad for America and bad for the world.
His Whitmer/Warnock option as a potential Democratic ticket (white woman/black man, check!) is ridiculous. While I'm willing to give Whitmer a listen, it's just stupid to consider Warnock for anything.
His perspective on Netanyahu was purely personal and political. He's not nice, he's out for himself, he's one of those people on the right...therefore no good. I happen to think that Netanyahu's days are behind him but Phillips' cynical view was not believable.
What really bugged me (well a lot did in retrospect) was his non-answer about what to do with Gaza. Eliminate Hamas! Don't hurt Palestinians! For obvious reasons, I'd vote for Bari before Phillips simply due to that ridiculous response. Plus, he blames the Israeli government for giving Hamas a pass (where Bari appropriately put Phillips in his place) but she should have finished the job by reminding him how many US taxpayer dollars have gone to Hamas tunnels and weapons under the guise of humanitarian aid. Bari was also right about the Gazans support for Hamas - maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome but if the Gazans (and oh, by the way, all of the dumb as a rock protesters in the US and other countries) were able to be more honest about the enemy being Hamas and not Israel, this conflict would have ended long ago.
So - no - and by the way, as much as I find Trump distasteful and chaotic, I prefer the lack of wars and strong economy under him. It continually blows my mind that people just don't get that half the things Trump says is to screw with his opponents' minds. Again, I don't like the strategy but it kind of is what it is. If it's anyone currently identified on the left including Phillips vs. Trump, I'll take Trump.
Well said Steve. I dislike Trump with a passion. Yet when it comes to the final vote we vote for the package . With Trump we get a conservative cabinet and constitutionalist judges. With Phillips we would get a Progressive cabinet and liberal judges.
He's well spoken and his personal story is very compelling. Coupled with the photo of him alone in NH TFP showed a few days ago, I actually was convinced to hear him out and was open to being convinced. But at the end of the day, I was disappointed. He talks about the wealth divide and families not able to make ends meet, then turned next immediately to advocate for the misguided liberal agenda of student loan forgiveness. So he wants the working class that can't make ends meet to pay for the transfer of their tax dollars to universities through students? Including universities like Harvard with their billion dollars endowment that inflated tuitions to the current insane amount because they can grift on the guaranteed student loan program? And after finding themselves sitting on all that money not knowing what to do with it, they created their bloated administrative staff, many of whom brought us the horror that is DEI? And also the working class is to fund a free ride not only for kids who study STEM or majors that can result in jobs where they can earn salaries to pay their debts, but also to kids electing majors that lead to no prospects of gainful employment but only to be indoctrinated? And that's not even counting kids from wealthier homes whose families can pay their tuitions and yet they take out guaranteed student loans to invest in stocks to get an even better head start? Sorry but no. The entire system of guaranteed student loans need to be re-examined so that bloated universities must stop profiting off it, and students must be held accountable for making better financial decisions instead of sticking taxpayers including blue collar workers without higher education with the bill. The student loan forgiveness scheme is an outright scam by Dems to buy votes from young people with taxpayers' money. It is a detrimental interference with the free market that enables colleges to inflate and keep tuitions artificially high.
The disappointment continued with him dodging Bari's question on why the Dems are allowing the southern border to be open and all these illegal immigrants including potential terrorists to come through. He kept not answering the question even though Bari persisted and asked him twice about it. He's on the foreign affairs committee, he said, and gets the same intel on the crisis as the others politicians. He said he agrees it's a threat and a crisis. So why did he dodge this question and kept diverting? It was so obvious he wouldn't say the reason why the Dems are completely ignoring the border crisis, even though everyone in the country wants to know why. That was the red flag moment for me.
And then his friendship with Rashida Talib. I don't even know what to say about that. I suppose his view that keeping communications open has some merit. It's no different than traditional foreign policy of maintaining a channel with opponent regimes rather than a total break on stance and principle. But he admits she literally wants Israel gone and would not compromise on a two-states solution. Does he think she would one day come around to his side? It just seems hopelessly idealistic, almost like the Jews who were hoping that at some point Hitler and the Nazis would stop if good Jews like them just do their best to appease. That if they go the distance and appease enough, the Nazis would see Jews actually meant no harm! Maybe I am just biased against the views of people like Talib and it's me who just don't get it. But this friendship of his sounds to me like an abusive relationship in which he's the wife who keeps deluding herself that her abusive husband is really a good guy despite him continuing to smack her around.
At that point I stopped listening. Anymore would be a waste of my time.
ETA: I might add also, can someone less naive warn him that while he sincerely remains good friends with Talib to keep his friends close, she's remaining good friends with him to keep her enemies closer?
Nice recap QX - completely agree with it. The most frustrating thing I heard (although most of it was for me, especially on the Israel/Hamas stuff) was the student loan forgiveness. No one in either party wants to address why college costs are so high in the first place. When government is involved in giving loans to anyone with a pulse, they will give loans and the colleges will benefit.
To me, it's not about addressing the actual payment of the loan, but why did that kid who majored in sociology, take out $100,000 in loans for a crap degree? And why is it so expensive to get that crap degree? And if the Dems are so tax-everything-that-moves happy, why don't they proposed to tax college endowments? Until anyone in government can truthfully address the real issue, nothing will ever be solved.
He is pathetically stupid and naive with respect to Israel, "Palestinians" - especially giving unrealistic perspectives on Pali's seeking a peaceful co-existence(!), and general foreign policy. He dances around issues of blatant Israel hatred concerning Democrat antisemites Tlaib and Omar. I wanted to like him, but he's ivory tower ignorant and he accepts the indefensible in the Democrat caucus.
Phillips seemed reasonable, seemed moderate, seemed honest and sincere. And then he said, without irony, that he thought the best winning ticket for Dems would be Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan (she of the "you can buy this, but you cannot buy that, covidity) and Raphael Warnock, Senator from Georgia. So--the aforementioned seemed's disappeared pretty quickly for me. Good luck Dean. We hardly knew you.
Great conversation with Dean Phillips, Bari. Thank you, as always for intelligent, thought provoking discussion. I wasn't familiar with Mr. Phillips and learned quite a lot. He sounds like an impressive candidate, but alas, reality sets in and frustration returns as I know full well how the US political machine works and it isn't in his favor. I would love to be surprised, and will continue to participate in the process. Hopefully others will too. Dialogue, diversity of opinions, and choice of candidates is healthy and imperative for our democracy to thrive. Encourage everyone to listen.
He makes some reasonable points but then goes off the rails on things like Netanyahu is the cause of the war, the desire of Palestinians for peace, universal basic income and student loan forgiveness,as well as his TDS. Personally, I am hoping for a republican candidate other than Trump, but I wish Bari would have asked Mr Phillips why exactly he thinks the country must be saved from Trump. This is the typical Democrat talking point that is never explained. Also, when he mentioned he was fearful because he thought the Jan 6 protestors were armed, Bari should have asked him if his thoughts changed when he found out they weren’t and also what we know today about what went on that day.
I didn't know much about Dean Phillips before this interview and now I am considering voting for him in our primary. In a better world we would be looking forward to watching Dean Phillips and Mitch Daniels discuss their policy positions during a series of Presidential debates.
I grew up in the 1960's and 70's. as a Kennedy Dem. The party has gone completely off its rocker. I think Phillips is idealistic not naive. If he can be in the Clinton level without the baggage it would be a huge win. Clinton- you could hate him or love him but i think most would agree he was skilled and moved the country. As flawed as he was he Left us in pretty good economic shape.
I had to disengage when Mr. Phillips was cowering in the Capitol in fear for his life.
He talks about the duopoly ignoring the fact that Trump is not a creature of the duopoly, but a disrupter of the duopoly.
He fears that Biden cannot win, but says nothing about incompetence and policies that verge on the criminal (refusing to enforce the law as he sore to do, looting the economy, establishing racial and other identities as the organizing principle of our society).
Let me assure him that the D party does want to win and will use spurious prosecution , censorship and manipulation of voting operations to do so.
He engages in the usual word salad of what is or is not "democracy", without engaging the ideas that motivate current conservative thought.
I don’t understand why everyone, especially the Free Press, is ignoring RFK jr. HE is exactly what Bari describes—someone everyone wants- an independent who has views from each party. He’s fit, healthier and smarter than any of the other candidates, and he believes in being honest with Americans (unlike Dr. Fauci and most of the politicians during the pandemic) which is a real issue to many of us. And he’s not antisemitic or anti-Israel which concerned me for a while. If you actually listen to his interviews, you will see.
Also, the dems probably wouldn’t mind if Biden died, so Kamala’s Harris can step in, who the progressives love.
He seemed to me to be a very good politician. Definitely side stepped questions and when he answers, for the most part, seemed to be naive or just plain dumb. Medicare for All!?!? Raise SS tax to make a fund to give to others... Just a couple of his gems.
It caught my attention when he was saying the people of Gaza are not Hamas. Bari raised an excellent pushback in my opinion. I recently wrote on that topic myself.
I listened to this getting more dismayed as the interview progressed. Not only is Dean Phillips hopelessly naive - he managed to blame the Jews for the antisemitism we are experiencing and Hamas’ attacks in Israel. A typical “progressive” - just one who also has a messianic sense of his own importance.
Yes! 100%. He clearly has no clue what Israel is actually dealing with - the naivety is beyond. His stance is butterflies and rainbows in the face of a genocidal regime that has brainwashed its people for DECADES to hate Jews and Israel. Palestinians were given EVERY opportunity for a better life and they elected a terrorist organization to power. Sorry Dean, butterflies and rainbows won’t work in this case.
I think he does know what Israel is dealing with. I didn't listen to the part where he talked about Israel, but a lot of American Jews think the same way. They blame Netanyahu and his policies in the West Bank, and they take pains to separate anti-semitism and pro-Palestine grievances. It's called being so open mind, their brains spilled out.
Me too.
I agree - I was actually very intrigued by him until he blamed the whole current situation in Israel/Gaza on Bibi. How many times has Israel had to go to battle with Hamas due to the overwhelming attacks of rockets only to be stopped by US and international pressure all the way back to 2007. How much money has the US continued to fund the UNRWA when that funding is directly supporting Hamas and establishing education programs focused on indoctrinating hatred for Jews. How many times has Israel been pressured to open the borders and allow more aid and supplies in to Gaza when it was well known that this was being used to build rockets and tunnels. The blame for this goes well beyond just Bibi and even Israel. And fixing this will require complete destruction of Hamas, major changes to the entire question of refugee status for generations and dismantling of the UNRWA. Dean Phillips will not be my candidate of choice with these naive views.
His fundamental misunderstanding that Hamas (and most Gazans who supported/elected Hamas leadership) will never accept peaceful coexistence with an Israeli state and placing all the blame on Bibi completely disqualifies him from a foreign policy perspective imho. I actually listened intently in the early part of the interview and thought perhaps he was an anti-establishment candidate who could rally the people and find some compromise to get the country back on the right track. Eventually I realized I was hearing some great soundbites that unfortunately seemed to have no substance behind them (building millions of new homes for the homeless (how do we pay for that?), universal healthcare (I thought the ACA fixed that?), and finally legit anger over antisemitism but serious miscalculation of the cause. Where I did agree with Mr Phillips was with regard to the current Primary voting system(s). It is truly a shame that the establishment holds so much control of politics, that by and large, individual Americans are often left with 2 choices that really nobody wants, so we line up with whichever party most closely aligns with our beliefs and priorities and we get more of the same. I pray we can find a way to get our country back on track.
I wanted to believe that Phillips had potential and some of the things he said gave me hope. But like another commenter said, he is so naive about how the world works which is not encouraging for someone who is a leader in Congress.
He was 100% right about Biden being unable to do the job now, never mind for the next five years. He's also right about the broken political system that doesn't need to be torn down, but does need to be cleaned up (the duopoly and power in the hands of too few people were good points).
He was 100% wrong about how to handle Tlaib and Omar and the rest of the progressive whackadoodles. Sure, give them a chance and after 2 or 3 times of letting you know how they really feel, you condemn them fully and work to send them off into retirement. They are bad for America and bad for the world.
His Whitmer/Warnock option as a potential Democratic ticket (white woman/black man, check!) is ridiculous. While I'm willing to give Whitmer a listen, it's just stupid to consider Warnock for anything.
His perspective on Netanyahu was purely personal and political. He's not nice, he's out for himself, he's one of those people on the right...therefore no good. I happen to think that Netanyahu's days are behind him but Phillips' cynical view was not believable.
What really bugged me (well a lot did in retrospect) was his non-answer about what to do with Gaza. Eliminate Hamas! Don't hurt Palestinians! For obvious reasons, I'd vote for Bari before Phillips simply due to that ridiculous response. Plus, he blames the Israeli government for giving Hamas a pass (where Bari appropriately put Phillips in his place) but she should have finished the job by reminding him how many US taxpayer dollars have gone to Hamas tunnels and weapons under the guise of humanitarian aid. Bari was also right about the Gazans support for Hamas - maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome but if the Gazans (and oh, by the way, all of the dumb as a rock protesters in the US and other countries) were able to be more honest about the enemy being Hamas and not Israel, this conflict would have ended long ago.
So - no - and by the way, as much as I find Trump distasteful and chaotic, I prefer the lack of wars and strong economy under him. It continually blows my mind that people just don't get that half the things Trump says is to screw with his opponents' minds. Again, I don't like the strategy but it kind of is what it is. If it's anyone currently identified on the left including Phillips vs. Trump, I'll take Trump.
Well said Steve. I dislike Trump with a passion. Yet when it comes to the final vote we vote for the package . With Trump we get a conservative cabinet and constitutionalist judges. With Phillips we would get a Progressive cabinet and liberal judges.
100% agreement, very well said and agree, I'd certainly chose Bari over Dean Phillips!
He's well spoken and his personal story is very compelling. Coupled with the photo of him alone in NH TFP showed a few days ago, I actually was convinced to hear him out and was open to being convinced. But at the end of the day, I was disappointed. He talks about the wealth divide and families not able to make ends meet, then turned next immediately to advocate for the misguided liberal agenda of student loan forgiveness. So he wants the working class that can't make ends meet to pay for the transfer of their tax dollars to universities through students? Including universities like Harvard with their billion dollars endowment that inflated tuitions to the current insane amount because they can grift on the guaranteed student loan program? And after finding themselves sitting on all that money not knowing what to do with it, they created their bloated administrative staff, many of whom brought us the horror that is DEI? And also the working class is to fund a free ride not only for kids who study STEM or majors that can result in jobs where they can earn salaries to pay their debts, but also to kids electing majors that lead to no prospects of gainful employment but only to be indoctrinated? And that's not even counting kids from wealthier homes whose families can pay their tuitions and yet they take out guaranteed student loans to invest in stocks to get an even better head start? Sorry but no. The entire system of guaranteed student loans need to be re-examined so that bloated universities must stop profiting off it, and students must be held accountable for making better financial decisions instead of sticking taxpayers including blue collar workers without higher education with the bill. The student loan forgiveness scheme is an outright scam by Dems to buy votes from young people with taxpayers' money. It is a detrimental interference with the free market that enables colleges to inflate and keep tuitions artificially high.
The disappointment continued with him dodging Bari's question on why the Dems are allowing the southern border to be open and all these illegal immigrants including potential terrorists to come through. He kept not answering the question even though Bari persisted and asked him twice about it. He's on the foreign affairs committee, he said, and gets the same intel on the crisis as the others politicians. He said he agrees it's a threat and a crisis. So why did he dodge this question and kept diverting? It was so obvious he wouldn't say the reason why the Dems are completely ignoring the border crisis, even though everyone in the country wants to know why. That was the red flag moment for me.
And then his friendship with Rashida Talib. I don't even know what to say about that. I suppose his view that keeping communications open has some merit. It's no different than traditional foreign policy of maintaining a channel with opponent regimes rather than a total break on stance and principle. But he admits she literally wants Israel gone and would not compromise on a two-states solution. Does he think she would one day come around to his side? It just seems hopelessly idealistic, almost like the Jews who were hoping that at some point Hitler and the Nazis would stop if good Jews like them just do their best to appease. That if they go the distance and appease enough, the Nazis would see Jews actually meant no harm! Maybe I am just biased against the views of people like Talib and it's me who just don't get it. But this friendship of his sounds to me like an abusive relationship in which he's the wife who keeps deluding herself that her abusive husband is really a good guy despite him continuing to smack her around.
At that point I stopped listening. Anymore would be a waste of my time.
ETA: I might add also, can someone less naive warn him that while he sincerely remains good friends with Talib to keep his friends close, she's remaining good friends with him to keep her enemies closer?
QX. You took the time to write in great detail most of my similar reactions and thoughts. Well done.
Nice recap QX - completely agree with it. The most frustrating thing I heard (although most of it was for me, especially on the Israel/Hamas stuff) was the student loan forgiveness. No one in either party wants to address why college costs are so high in the first place. When government is involved in giving loans to anyone with a pulse, they will give loans and the colleges will benefit.
To me, it's not about addressing the actual payment of the loan, but why did that kid who majored in sociology, take out $100,000 in loans for a crap degree? And why is it so expensive to get that crap degree? And if the Dems are so tax-everything-that-moves happy, why don't they proposed to tax college endowments? Until anyone in government can truthfully address the real issue, nothing will ever be solved.
He is pathetically stupid and naive with respect to Israel, "Palestinians" - especially giving unrealistic perspectives on Pali's seeking a peaceful co-existence(!), and general foreign policy. He dances around issues of blatant Israel hatred concerning Democrat antisemites Tlaib and Omar. I wanted to like him, but he's ivory tower ignorant and he accepts the indefensible in the Democrat caucus.
Phillips seemed reasonable, seemed moderate, seemed honest and sincere. And then he said, without irony, that he thought the best winning ticket for Dems would be Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan (she of the "you can buy this, but you cannot buy that, covidity) and Raphael Warnock, Senator from Georgia. So--the aforementioned seemed's disappeared pretty quickly for me. Good luck Dean. We hardly knew you.
Great conversation with Dean Phillips, Bari. Thank you, as always for intelligent, thought provoking discussion. I wasn't familiar with Mr. Phillips and learned quite a lot. He sounds like an impressive candidate, but alas, reality sets in and frustration returns as I know full well how the US political machine works and it isn't in his favor. I would love to be surprised, and will continue to participate in the process. Hopefully others will too. Dialogue, diversity of opinions, and choice of candidates is healthy and imperative for our democracy to thrive. Encourage everyone to listen.
He makes some reasonable points but then goes off the rails on things like Netanyahu is the cause of the war, the desire of Palestinians for peace, universal basic income and student loan forgiveness,as well as his TDS. Personally, I am hoping for a republican candidate other than Trump, but I wish Bari would have asked Mr Phillips why exactly he thinks the country must be saved from Trump. This is the typical Democrat talking point that is never explained. Also, when he mentioned he was fearful because he thought the Jan 6 protestors were armed, Bari should have asked him if his thoughts changed when he found out they weren’t and also what we know today about what went on that day.
Please explain why you think the Jan 6th insurrectionist were not armed? Where is your proof?I sat here and watched it live. They were armed.
I didn't know much about Dean Phillips before this interview and now I am considering voting for him in our primary. In a better world we would be looking forward to watching Dean Phillips and Mitch Daniels discuss their policy positions during a series of Presidential debates.
I grew up in the 1960's and 70's. as a Kennedy Dem. The party has gone completely off its rocker. I think Phillips is idealistic not naive. If he can be in the Clinton level without the baggage it would be a huge win. Clinton- you could hate him or love him but i think most would agree he was skilled and moved the country. As flawed as he was he Left us in pretty good economic shape.
This was amazingly inspiring. Thank you.
Why do I receive two copies of the Free Press, one "free" and one paid subscription? How do I cancel the "Free" subscription?
I had to disengage when Mr. Phillips was cowering in the Capitol in fear for his life.
He talks about the duopoly ignoring the fact that Trump is not a creature of the duopoly, but a disrupter of the duopoly.
He fears that Biden cannot win, but says nothing about incompetence and policies that verge on the criminal (refusing to enforce the law as he sore to do, looting the economy, establishing racial and other identities as the organizing principle of our society).
Let me assure him that the D party does want to win and will use spurious prosecution , censorship and manipulation of voting operations to do so.
He engages in the usual word salad of what is or is not "democracy", without engaging the ideas that motivate current conservative thought.
I don’t understand why everyone, especially the Free Press, is ignoring RFK jr. HE is exactly what Bari describes—someone everyone wants- an independent who has views from each party. He’s fit, healthier and smarter than any of the other candidates, and he believes in being honest with Americans (unlike Dr. Fauci and most of the politicians during the pandemic) which is a real issue to many of us. And he’s not antisemitic or anti-Israel which concerned me for a while. If you actually listen to his interviews, you will see.
Also, the dems probably wouldn’t mind if Biden died, so Kamala’s Harris can step in, who the progressives love.
He seemed to me to be a very good politician. Definitely side stepped questions and when he answers, for the most part, seemed to be naive or just plain dumb. Medicare for All!?!? Raise SS tax to make a fund to give to others... Just a couple of his gems.
It caught my attention when he was saying the people of Gaza are not Hamas. Bari raised an excellent pushback in my opinion. I recently wrote on that topic myself.
https://fromtheboulevard.substack.com/p/the-innocent-civilians-of-gaza
Well said!