“I don’t believe we’re coming to take their money. We’re coming to take their power.” The week of the midterms, Marshall Herskovitz wants the people who won to understand the difference.
Help Me Understand with Dr. Rod Berger. Recorded while both of them are still worn out from election night, Emmy-winning writer, director and producer Marshall Herskovitz calls the result an immune response: millions of Americans who aren’t Democrats pushing back against Trumpism. Rod isn’t as sure. He brings Tennessee, where the margins shrank and a candidate who admitted to sending unsolicited nude photos still carried Williamson County, and asks whether persuasion can reach people who hear any argument as elitism. They work through trust in institutions, an economic agenda most Americans say they want, and why people who can track a running back to the decimal point skip the midterms. Then Marshall reads a speech he wrote before the election: “It’s not confiscation, it’s competition.”
In this episode
0:00 Welcome to Help Me Understand
1:33 How the midterms felt where each of them lives
2:56 Republicans who changed sides within hours
4:05 A crisis of values, and the courage of convictions
5:38 Tennessee: Memphis, Williamson County and the map
7:46 The work: one country again
9:11 Democracy proved stronger than Democrats believed
11:05 Vision or retribution
12:58 The edge of the volcano
15:27 Persuasion, and a vision most Americans share
16:33 Trust in institutions, and reforming them
18:35 The calling of our generation
19:30 An economic mandate
20:49 The people at the top are human too
22:40 Fantasy sports and the ballot
25:51 Not their money. Their power.
26:15 Robber barons, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln
28:36 Showing up for the team
31:42 A state of emergency since 9/11
33:33 Marshall reads a speech about taking the country back
38:30 Not confiscation. Competition.
39:17 Keep the conversation going
Questions this episode answers
What does Marshall Herskovitz mean by taking their power, not their money? The goal he describes isn’t confiscating fortunes. It’s ending the ability of billionaires, giant corporations, hedge funds and private equity to buy elections and lobbyists, making them pay their taxes and forcing them to compete. The speech he reads calls for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United and a research agency, modeled on DARPA, to create competition in industries so consolidated they’re no longer competitive.
Why does he call the midterm result an immune response? He reads the vote as the country, including many people who aren’t Democrats, pushing out what he calls the poison of Trumpism: the way it intimidates, overwhelms and frightens people. He also argues American democracy proved stronger than many Democrats believed.
What does he think Democrats should do next? Put forward a vision for the next 20 years that matches what most Americans already say they want, instead of spending two years only on hearings and prosecutions. He calls persuasion a word “almost forgotten in American politics.”
Where does Rod push back? He isn’t sure everyone can be reached. When trust in institutions is gone, he says, the easiest way out of any argument is to call the person making it elitist. And the people at the top are human: they will fight any change to how they operate, and Democrats should plan for that.
Who is Marshall Herskovitz? An Emmy-winning writer, director and producer. He co-created thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once and Again, produced films including Traffic and Blood Diamond, and is President Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America.
About the hosts
Dr. Rod Berger has conducted more than 4,000 interviews across five continents. He is Editor-at-Large at Fair Observer and the author of The Narrative Edge: Authentic Storytelling That Meets the Moment (Wiley). Marshall Herskovitz is his friend and, on some episodes, his co-host.
Visit drrodberger.com · Get The Narrative Edge in hardcover
Help Me Understand is part of The Dangerous Ones Network. Have something you’re trying to understand? Call The People’s Hotline and leave a message: 503-212-4600.
