Matt Lewis: Mike Murphy On 'Donald Trump's Lame Duck Era'

"Join Matt Lewis and veteran political strategist Mike Murphy, co-host of Hacks on Tap, as they dive into the latest political firestorm! 

From Trump's economic tariffs sparking market uncertainty to new developments in the Epstein files, they unpack the chaos surrounding the former president. 

Murphy shares his take on Trump's fading "Maga magic," the cultural war traps hurting Democrats, and why 2028 could see JD Vance vs. AOC. Plus, insights on pop culture's grip on politics and a nostalgic nod to Michigan's music legends. 

Don’t miss this candid, no-holds-barred discussion!   Subscribe for more political deep dives!

 Check out Mike Murphy’s Substack: Howling at the Moon and visit evpolitics.org... 

Source:Matt Lewis talking to political pollster & strategist Mike Murphy.

From Matt Lewis

I saw this conversation over the weekend and it was very good. Mike Murphy is always very interesting, intelligent, great sense of humor and comedic timing, as well as 1 of the last of the true Conservatives in or outside of the "Republican Party" right now. And so is Matt Lewis for that matter. Which is why I listen to both men here. But there was 1 point that Mr. Murphy made in the 11th minute of this video that I think is the key point that he made in this conversation. And that's what I'm going to talk about today. 

So, back in 1976, sort of the mid point of the Great Deflation in America, not just economically, but politically as well, when the country was trying to move past and recover from the Vietnam War and the Watergate era, being a politician, especially a Republican politician who had anything to do with Richard Nixon, was about as popular as a Kanye West performance at a KKK rally. Or, a meat lovers buffet at a hippie farm... tuxedoes and trench coats on a nude beach. Perhaps you get the point by now. And because of all of this, peanut brain, (perhaps a bad joke) I mean peanut farmer Jimmy Carter, from Plains Georgia, wins the presidency in 1976. 

So how did then Governor Carter when the presidential election in 1976? You could just say "because, he got more votes then President Gerald Ford and won the Electoral College". And of course that would be true. But how he did that, is the real question here. 

So during Governor Carter's 1976 Democratic National Convention acceptance speech, there was this key line from that speech: 

"We want a government as good as the American people. We can have an American government that has turned away from scandal and corruption and official cynicism and is once again as decent and competent as our people."

To translate what Governor Carter was saying at Madison Square Garden, in Manhattan, New York, back in the sumner of 1976: "I want the government to be as good as the American people". 

So when Mike Murphy in talking about the Jeffrey Epstein story, says: 

"We've turned politics into a reality show, the fact that the pandering, underage, sex trafficker, billionaire buddy of Trump secret file might have Trump's name in it, is far more important... You know, politics is pop culture now, to our great harm. So it's a much more entertaining story. That's 1 of the big problems that we have, politics doesn't seem in people's mind to have high stakes anymore. It's all this entertainment and cheep conflict. You know in the old days, you vote wrong, your kid might wear olive grab in the jungle somewhere. Or, you might have a great depression... people took it more seriously. "What am I'm going to watch mow: Real Housewives From Hell, or White House Follies With Donald Trump... 

My point here is that Jimmy Carter's vision as far as what type of government we should have when it comes to morality and character, is here now. It's been here at least since Donald Trump's 1st presidency and you could perhaps go back to the 1990s with Bill Clinton. And I'm sure Mr. Carter didn't have this in mind where everything in America, including our own damn government and politics, is nothing more and no more serious than a tabloid celebrity culture newscast, or "reality TV show". 

When you vote for unserious, unqualified people to do serious jobs, they appoint unserious and unqualified people, people who are only the most loyal to the person who won the election, to work for them. And bad shit happens. (To be frank) But since we're still a democracy, even a liberal democracy, (unless Donald Trump is able to destroy those things) the voters who now don't like our government and our politicians, but voted for those politicians who've gave us this style of governing, only have the people that they see in the mirror to blame for this. 

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