It seems like there continues to be very little ideological overlap between Republicans and Democrats. Yet, a recent New York Times poll found that midterm voters DO agree on one thing. The poll found that 85 percent of participants agree on one, specific danger to American democracy. In this clip, Glenn and Stu reveal that ‘danger,’ and they discuss some of the the poll's other, shocking results…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Let me talk to you a little bit about, let me tell you about the voting data. There is some new actual data, the turnout is pretty big for early voting.
STU: Incredible.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: I would say.
GLENN: Incredible. Because we're comparing this now to a presidential election. Democrats, 57 percent in California, in 2020, 57 percent at this point was the balance of the, that we're coming in.
STU: The ballots that were coming in from registered democrats.
GLENN: 22 percent from registered Republicans. This time, 49 percent are from democrats and 27 percent are from Republicans. This doesn't mean anything other than, I mean, I think that Republicans are less likely to vote early, usually.
STU: Oh yes. Absolutely. We've had candidates encouraging them not to. More democrats are always encouraged to get out there, get that vote in early.
GLENN: Correct.
STU: There's advantages to campaigns for doing this. Not only do you get the vote locked in you also don't have to spend resources getting that person out on that day. It's a massive advantage to get your people to vote early.
GLENN: Florida 57 democrat at this time in 2020. Today it is 42 percent. That's down 9 percentage points. The last time, for Republicans, Florida, 29 percent, this time 39 percent. So the spread is what interests me. You're a guy who loves stats. Does that spread mean anything?
STU: It means something but it's important to not put too much into it. Early voting data has has been known to be misleading when you're trying to draw grand conclusions from it.
GLENN: I'm only drawing from that we are more than that are, we are more motivated to go out and vote than they are. And if that continues all the way through, that a really good sign.
STU: That would be a great sign.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: Again, it's just early. I think you can take this an indication that something might be happening it's a point of data.
GLENN: There's another poll from the New York Times, New York Times poll, asked its respondents to select one of the two following statements that is aligning closest to your view even if they don't match exactly. American democracy is currently under threat. American democracy is not currently under threat. 71 percent say we are under threat, 21 percent say no. The poll then took the 71 percent who thought it was under threat and said where is the threat coming from? Republicans major threat, 28 percent minor threat, 39, not a threat, 29. So the Republicans are a threat to the republic. Major threat 28, minor threat 39. Democrats are a real threat. Major threat, 33, minor threat 30, not a threat, 34 percent. Not a threat for democrat oar or for Republicans was 29.
STU: So basically about equal.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: Both sides are saying the other are threats.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: Which shouldn't surprise you.
GLENN: No.
STU: But you need to read into this a little further.
GLENN: Save that because I want to give you the rest. Donald Trump, major threat 45 percent, minor threat 22, not a threat 31. Joe Biden, major threat 38, minor threat 22, not a threat 37. So not that far off of Donald Trump. Isn't that interesting? Mainstream media, major threat, 59 percent, minor threat 25, not a threat 15 percent. That's incredible.
STU: Yeah, this is a reallying narrative that's developed over the past month or two which is the democrats believed, looking at polling like this, that so many people thought democracy was in trouble. That if they ran on January 6, people would run to them. There's not a, it's not a insane viewpoint from their view.
GLENN: No.
STU: We saw what happened on January 6, people didn't like it, they think democracy's in trouble, let's build that up and have these hearings in prime time, let's launch the hearings when we have nothing, let's make everything about Donald Trump. It's understandable.
GLENN: I think 2008 that would have been absolutely the thing to do and would have won. But because we had gone through a year of setting cities on fire with nothing
STU: In 2008?
GLENN: In 2008, if it would have happened, if somebody had stormed the cam Tolkien.
STU: 2008.
GLENN: People would have paid attention and went whoa. Because we had cities on fire and the government did nothing we weren't as shocked when people stormed the capitol. We all saw it and went this is horrible.
STU: That's an interesting point.
GLENN: It lowered and gave the equivocation of you didn't do anything here, you're doing something here, and these people have a reason to be pissed. It just gave all new wrinkled in the argument that hadn't been there 10, 15 years before.
STU: Yeah. The two things the democrats didn't understand when they saw this polling early on was there is real concern for quote unquote democracy in our country, there are much bigger concerns. People are much more concerned about the economy and inflation, and crime and the border, and many other things than democracy as a voting ish issue. Number two, they didn't realize that half the people saying they thought democracy under threat believed the democrats were the threat. They were the ones who were the problem here. It wasn't that everyone thought democracy was under threat because of January 6 or because of Donald Trump, many of them believe there were problems with the election. Many of them see what is going on when Republicans are being investigated by the IRS, for example. All of the corruption and massive problems that have gone on, even outside of the electoral process just the way the country's run. While it motivates and animates at some level, it's not the top of the mind issue. Also, there's half of the country who see the, let's say the left is doing with the January 6 commission and say you're the ones doing this. You're the ones violating the rules of our democracy. They've really invested a lot of resources in this and it's falling on its face.
GLENN: I find it amazing, mainstream media, major threat, almost 60 percent, minor threat, 23, not a threat 15. 15 percent, that's about I think the number of people that work for the federal government and the mainstream media. I mean, that is amazing.
STU: It's really bad.
GLENN: That's amazing. One more thing.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Also from the New York Times, they ranked major issues by importance. Let's see. Economy was 26, inflation 19.
STU: They split those two but that the same issue.
GLENN: Right.
STU: That's 45 percent saying it's the top issue. That's incredibly high.
GLENN: Here's what also is interesting to me, Trump Republicans and crime are in a three-way tie with climate change. I don't believe this poll. Crime is tied with Trump Republicans and climate change? Crime? You know; you're only going to get climate change and Trump Republicans, you get each side. Or you get double because climate change is really important and Trump Republicans are really important. But crime you get both parties saying crime.
STU: Yeah. I mean, again, I think the way the poll is phrased is top issue; is that right? Not just is it an issue. But is it your top issue? I think a lot of people who might say crime or the border are instead saying the economy or inflation.
GLENN: You're right. It was number three on my list.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: You know what I mean?
STU: Right.
GLENN: You have economy, inflation, the state of democracy, immigration, then climate change with Trump Republicans and crime.
STU: And where was abortion again?
GLENN: Abortion was 5th, 4%.
STU: So think about what they've invested in here.
GLENN: I know.
STU: The democracy thing which is not paying off, the trump Republicans and abortion. They've funneled all of their resources and now there's pretty significant evidence that independent women are turned off by all of this abortion focus. Like wait a minute, I'm talking about independent pro-choice woman who are saying well, you know, pro-choice is an important issue for me, but guys like I gotta pay my bills. I gotta be able to afford bread. They're seeing this as you're focusing on that in this time? I think. Important too, and I want to fight for it, but wait a minute, I can't get my kids to school because gas is 5-dollars a gallon.
GLENN: This is, I mean, this is the number one thing, I mean; the number one lesson from political campaigns in my lifetime has been the economy, the economy. People look at their pocketbook first, first, when things are going badly.
STU: James Carvil.
GLENN: Yeah, it's the economy, stupid. If things are going poorly for the average person the party in charge is not going to do well. How they have, I mean, maybe because they just knew the economy wasn't going to do well because we're just dismantling it. We're just dismantling it.
STU: I think people, a lot of times people look at the economy as people just care about money. The economy is your entire pragmatic life; right?
GLENN: It's your family.
STU: It's everything. It's your entire existence. It's how, if you have enough money you can do the things that you want to do, you can spend your time pursuing the happiness yo want to pursue, there's a reason why people like getting rich. It's not just because they want shiny things.
GLENN: It's not even rich.
STU: I know. But this is why people pursue it.
GLENN: I know.
STU: Not because they want shiny things in their apartment or diamonds, that's all nice but you are able to do the things you want to do, to spend time with your kids instead of busting your butt at a second job. All These things are crucial to peoples lives. While, yes, I don't know what the max is, but maybe we can, maybe there's some liberals in our audience that can answer this, how many abortions can you have in a year? How many in a lifetime? Even if you really love abortion, how many times are you going through that? A couple? I don't know how many per week you can have but I know how many times I go to the grocery store. I know how many times I go to the gas pump. You're doing this all the time. These are things that affect your daily life. While you might think abortion is -- again, I do not support this view, you might think this is a good get out of jail free card
GLENN: This is a bad way to put it, but this is where I you're going through, but it's a luxury item. You know what I mean? It's not a necessity for most
STU: To end the life of a child?
GLENN: For most people they're not like -- it's like you said, get out of free, get out of jail free card. It's something that some people look at as a way out of a problem. So that a luxury item.
STU: Right. We know half the country doesn't agree with at all. Half of the country are males. So you're talking about let's say 25 percent of the country that would even consider at any point getting an abortion, and then you eliminate that to the people who actually do it. So what are you, at 5 percent of the nation? Like, I'm not saying it's not an important issue, but it goes back to quickly how Stacey Abrams talked about this the other day. In your minds you can abort your way out of inflation. You can abort your way into a good economy. That's a totally different view than the average person.
GLENN: You lost me at men can't have babies.