Rep. Jimmy Gomez
Appearances
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
I think the best messaging is an economic message. This guy is making things more expensive out across the country when it comes to grocery prices, when it comes to housing prices, when it comes to anything you can think of. He's just making it worse. So I think we need to stick to that message. This is a guy who said he was going to lower grocery prices on day one, and he hasn't done that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
He's actually made things worse. So I tell people you've got to – focus on where people are at, and that's that people are still struggling. Inflation prices, although they were reported that they came in lower, but people don't have confidence. That's why consumer confidence is down, prices are up, the economic outlook is, you're seeing a big flashing red light of a potential recession.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So we gotta talk about where people are at. That's groceries, that's childcare, that's just the bread and butter stuff. And we have to stay focused. Right now, people are all over the place, but we always have to take it back to an economic message, plain and simple.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
And people are pissed because, you know, if you're working multiple jobs to make ends meet and this guy is making it harder, of course they're going to be angry because there's uncertainty. They're scared. They have to take care of their kids. They have to take care of their parents. So economic message all the way.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
Partly, first, is Democrats have to be relatable. People have to know you're a person.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
I'm a person. I'm a working class person. My background is kid of immigrants, fucking went to a community college, work shitty jobs, all that. People have to feel that. I've been recording on social media more videos about just grocery shopping because I help with the grocery shopping every week. To show people, hey, I know what's going on because I see it every day.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
I don't have to read the statistics. I don't have to read the economic indicators. I can tell you because I see people in the grocery store look at comparison shopping. You know, like, oh, is this cheaper or is this cheaper? How can I make the dollar stretch? And Democrats are sometimes... terrible at really kind of being relatable. And that's where people need to focus.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
But here's the thing, be authentic. Like if you're not comfortable doing the Kendrick Lamar, you know, viral dance, don't do it. If you're a bookworm, be the bookworm. If you're like, you know, if you're the person that throws the F-bomb once in a while, do that. But be relatable, especially when it comes to how working people are struggling to get by. And that breaks through.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
What didn't I do? When I was growing up, I had a couple of paper routes who didn't though. I mowed lawns. In high school, I worked at a grocery store and I was handed, they're like, they handed me to the meat department to clean up the meat department.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So one of my jobs was to break down all the equipment, scrape all the beef and all the meat and put it into, scrape it into these big giant bone barrels. And then these bone barrels were sold to, I don't know if it was hot dog companies or dog companies, they were sold to somebody. But it's just all the scraps of the meat. And then I would spray everything down.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So every day I would leave smelling like, you know, hot meat. putrid and beef. So that was one of my terrible jobs.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
Oh, no. There's a huge contrast, and that's kind of what we have to talk about. Make it relatable, though, and then talk about policy. Because if they can't relate to you, they close down. The public closes their ears. They don't want to pay attention. If they feel like, oh, you get it, then you can talk about that. And there's a huge contrast, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
The tax cuts that they want to give to the billionaires and the ultra-wealthy. Yes. at the expense of Medicaid, you know, and healthcare and food assistance, that kind of stuff. Oh yeah, and Trump, when it comes to only listening to people who are billionaires, right? He doesn't listen to the person on the street.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
He listens to the CEO of a car company who tells him, hey, you're going to cost this $20 billion over 10 years if you go along with these tariffs. So that's the contrast, that he doesn't listen to the average person or the working man and woman. He listens to billionaires. And then, you know, it doesn't matter if he even goes against his own values.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
You brought up selling the Teslas on the White House lawn. Who do they think buys Teslas? It's not the drill baby drill crowd or the MAGA crowd. The left, who cares about climate change, it is insane about everything kind of he's doing. But the contrast is there. It's a billionaire establishment that's taking root in D.C.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
And the people that are going to pay for it are doctors, firefighters, working men and women, people that clean your streets, take care of your kids. So we've got to make it stick. But we also have to meet people where they're at.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
They got to man up, right? Stop just talking the talk about, oh, I'm going to oppose Musk and Trump. The way you do it is do you vote no or not? Do you actually use the only power you have? We all know that the Senate is a supermajority and they need two-thirds vote. So if those senators capitulate...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
They're setting—also, they're not only continuing some of these cuts that are going to occur because of the CR, but they're setting up the long play for the Republicans to pass their massive tax cut. That's what it's about. Their number one priority is a massive tax cut that cuts taxes for the rich, the ultra-wealthy, the billionaires, the corporations—
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
while gutting a lot of our programs that people rely on. This CR sets up that play. And if they don't stop them now, it makes it easier for them to score a touchdown against the American people.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
These are legislative terrorists. And when you give them to them once, they're going to keep doing it over and over and over again. The ransom right now is you don't do what we say and cut this funding, we're going to shut down the government. But that ransom gets higher and higher and higher. And
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
In order to basically break that, you have to show them that if they want to pass it, they have to do it on their own votes. And if they can't do it on their own votes, especially when it comes to the Senate, they have to negotiate. But this is for a long-term direction of our country. And if we don't stop them now, it gets harder and harder down the line.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
Great question. This has been occurring over numerous cycles. I know my consultant and different people, including myself, try to warn the Democratic Party, you're losing Latinos, you're losing minorities, you need to start talking about these issues. But People always think, oh, they're part of our base, they're part of our base.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
But when you stop talking to people about the issues that are first and foremost on their mind, you lose them. And when it comes to Latinos, when it comes to, I would say, even working class whites, it's a lot about affordability. We wouldn't really do anything when it came to housing issues. We wouldn't do anything to child care. And that's what they care about.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
They care about, like, these folks... I would have consultants at the same time show me polling, and they're like, hey, Latinos care about climate change. And I would have to remind them, oh, yes, they care about climate change. And they're glad we're doing it, but it's not the main issue that they're going to vote on.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
Yeah, exactly. So it's like, I've had this discussion with consultants. Oh, they clear about pro-choice. So we're just going to do one message about being pro-choice. And I'm like, yes, but their first issue is... My kid is not going to be able to buy a house in the same community that I live in. We can't afford rent. We're barely making it, especially when it comes to groceries.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
You have to talk about issues that they care about first, right? And it's not saying that they don't care about the environment. Latinos are some of the most pro-environment people around, right? You know, they have a sour cream jar with chili in it, right? They use stuff over and over and over again. It's in our nature when it comes to being pro-environment. But when people are struggling,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
And you're not talking about that, that's when you lose them. And that's where I'm like, you can do it all. You can still fight for the environment, protect a woman's right to choose. But when you talk to the Latino community or communities that are struggling, you've got to say, okay, what's the issue that's first and foremost on your mind? It's the hierarchy of need, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
It's like, if I can't... afford food I don't have a place to live then like this other stuff you know I can't focus on that so that you know the policies that I want to do housing and childcare, these two pillars. And economists have said that they're costing so much that they're bending down the GDP growth of our economy, right? It's bending it down. This was last year.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
Trump is now doing more damage than those costs. But if you want to kind of tackle the economy and affordability issues, you got to do that. Housing is now, Americans are rent burden across the board, 30% of income towards rent. Childcare, 26%. And this is based on a pre-tax income. So you have 60% of a family's income going to two things. Well, shit, no wonder why they can't get by.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So we have to have an agenda that meets the moment. And that agenda is creating a housing boom that we haven't seen since World War II, when the troops were coming home. We're building too slow, too small, and too expensive. We've got to break out of that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So we've got to tackle these problems at the federal level, but we also have to tackle it in the blue cities and the blue states that make building and construction too slow and expensive. Too small and too expensive. So we have to provide that message because people care about housing and they care about raising their kids. And guess where most of the working class people have their wealth?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
No, when it comes to LGBT issues, like for me, it's personal. I have a gay brother. When he came out, my mom was not, you know, hardcore Catholic, wasn't very accepting. Time, she's like, now she stays the night over at their house, right? So it's kind of like people can change. But when people are... suffering economically, the cultural arguments become more relevant.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
When they're not suffering economically, they become less relevant. And at the same time, I would say in the Latino community, almost like somebody always has a gay uncle somewhere, right? My brother included. They are a welcoming community, but when you talk to that Latino community, talk to these other communities, you have to focus on the issues that are first and foremost on their mind, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
My mom, she's hardcore Catholic. She's for choice because she remembers when, in the 70s, when I was born and my brother was born, before... Roe, the doctor had to ask your husband's permission if you can get your tubes tied, right? Like they get that kind of stuff.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
The issues regarding cultural issues become more relevant when people are suffering economically and no one's doing anything about it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
There's recovery, I'm going on, but the devastation was severe. Like I've never seen anything. I took a tour of Altadena. I didn't, because it's the closest to my district. When it comes to the blame, like, oh, we gotta just be sober about kind of what happened. and how to fix the problems, right? Was it not enough firefighters? Was it not enough water? Was it not, like, what happened?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
And what was, like, that we can do better, right? It's not, don't blame, learn. Let's learn about the mistakes that occurred. And I would say that's just across the board when it comes to governing in democratic cities and democratic states. Government has to work. Government has to work if you want to continue to push progressive policies.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
If you flip on the switch of your light and your light doesn't come on, or you turn the faucet and the water doesn't come out, well, you think people are going to care that you're combining climate change? No. So good governance allows you to be more progressive. It allows you to take bolder chances on these climate change policies, social policies.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
But if all of a sudden it's a train wreck, right? If it's like if they see their neighborhoods are less safe, they're dirtier, they're like people don't think that necessarily the firefighters or the police officers or the water is going to get, you know, is going to work when you want it to. you're going to have bigger problems.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So the way I kind of see it, and this is what I've been, we need to restore people's faith that government can work. Because government oftentimes is the only way you can solve certain problems. I can't afford my own fire department, or police department, or sanitation department, or school district. What most people have to do, we come together to form a government that works, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So it's counterintuitive, but people definitely need to refocus, refocus on making stuff work. And then also, is it affordable and is it reliable? That's first and foremost.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
No, people are excited about Luka. I think that game caught a lot of people by surprise. So I'm kind of like the home of a lot of the teams in L.A. I have in downtown, you have the Lakers, the Kings. I have Dodger Stadium. So this might be the real golden era of sports in L.A. But I'm excited about Luka. Dodgers are looking great. I'm like... Talking trash to Yankee fans.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
People complain that we're buying our way to the World Series. I'm okay with that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
I like that. You've got to win.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
Winning is good. If you win, you can get to do more things. It's something that applies to sports as it applies to politics. When you're hot, bet big. When you're cool, pull back. And we need to get on a hot streak. So that's what I'm pushing. But yeah, my Dodgers, the Lakers, and then I think my wife was telling me that we just acquired somebody for the Rams that's looking good.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep999: Sam Stein: How Do You Negotiate with Nihilists?
So we're looking good.