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    "text": "The party that called anyone who opposed their genocide a Trump supporter isn’t going to be receptive to any message critical of the party. \n\nHogg did the unthinkable. Suggest there is something wrong with the party’s strategy. \n\nRead the full transcript and don’t listen to this lib scold.",
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        "uri": "https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/05/10/maher_to_david_hogg_social_safety_net_issues_are_not_why_democrats_lost_it_was_more_the_woke_stuff.html",
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        "title": "Maher to David Hogg: Social Safety Net Issues Are Not Why Democrats Lost, \"It Was More The Woke Stuff\"",
        "description": "HBO's 'Real Time' host Bill Maher interviewed DNC vice chair David Hogg about his ambitious agenda to reform the Democratic party. Maher asked Hogg why the Democratic party establishment is mad at him and called his ideas \"basic Democratic stuff.\"  \r  \r BILL MAHER, HOST: First up, he's the vice chair of the DNC and co-founder of the Leaders We Deserve PAC, David Hogg. David. How are you?\r \r Good to see you, pal. How are you doing? David Hogg.\r \r Wow. It's like deja vu. Look, we're very proud of you.\r \r We feel you grew up on this show. How many times have you been on this show? This is my third time.\r \r Oh, I thought it was like eight. Okay, well. No, I'm not that old yet.\r \r You're done very well. No, you're only 25, and you're the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. Very impressive.\r \r What does that job entail?\r \r DAVID HOGG, DNC VICE CHAIRMAN: So that job really helps to play a role in managing a lot of what the DNC focuses on, which is things like the presidential primary. It's helping to lead the campaign and waiting for the president. It's helping to manage the debate schedule and helping to support our state parties and local parties around the country.\r \r It's a volunteer role, I should add, as well. So it's entirely a volunteer capacity. So nothing.\r \r No, yeah.\r \r MAHER: Well, I was hoping to say. But why am I... I'm reading your name all the time in the paper.\r \r There's so much controversy around you. What is the controversy? You must have hit a nerve somewhere.\r \r What's going on there with you and the DNC?\r \r HOGG: Well, look, I'm not here to defend the indefensible. The fact of the matter is, last election cycle, we lost vote share with every single demographic except predominantly the older people and people with PhDs. That is a major problem.\r \r We have an issue here that goes way beyond our messaging. If this was just a messaging problem, we spent $2 billion last election cycle and we still got the result that we had. This is a messenger problem.\r \r And what I'm trying to do here is say, all right, we're going to light a fire under Democrats' asses to make sure that we are here to meet the moment that our country is in and show people how we are not just the party that is against Donald Trump, but we're a party that is here to provide an alternative vision for the future of this country. To show... To show, Bill...\r \r To show how are we finding to make it so that people don't have to make impossible decisions. And this really became true to me last September when my father was on his deathbed with early onset Parkinson's disease. Despite being a Navy helicopter pilot with full VA benefits and a medically retired FBI agent, his cost of care at the end of his life was $19,000 a month.\r \r And I had to make a spreadsheet to figure out how long we could afford to keep him alive. And the only reason why my family didn't go bankrupt is because my dad didn't live long enough for that to happen. And unfortunately, that's not a unique story in this country.\r \r And there are so many people around this country that are having to make impossible decisions like that every day. And what I want the Democratic Party to be is the party that shows what are we doing to ensure that nobody has to make impossible decisions like that anywhere in the richest country on the planet. And what are we doing as well to fight back against the corruption that has broken this system, that has eviscerated the American dream?\r \r And what are we doing to revive it?\r \r MAHER: So connect me from the story about your father to Democratic politics. Democrats passed Obamacare.\r \r HOGG: Right. That's part of the reason he had insurance in the first place.\r \r MAHER: And look, part of- What I'm saying, what should they have done? Where is the gap there that the Democrats didn't do something and then your father had this terrible experience?\r \r HOGG: So I want to acknowledge that the reason why my dad was able to even remain on his insurance in the first place was because of the protections of the Affordable Care Act, which was championed by Democrats. Along with the fact, along with the fact, Bill, that the reason why my family didn't go bankrupt before that was because of the social security system that we helped to build as well. And that's amazing.\r \r But we have so much further to go. Right now in this country, far too many people, especially younger people, are struggling to afford their rent. They're struggling to afford college.\r \r They're struggling to afford their health care. And what we have to show is, what are we doing to make it so that that's not a necessity?\r \r MAHER: OK, but you're not answering my question. What are the Democrats proposing? What are you proposing to get that money from the people who don't have it and need it?\r \r Where are we going to get that money?\r \r HOGG: An expanded social safety net, the same way that we expanded it for hospice, for example, that covers many people. We should do that for our elder care. Because what really concerns me, Bill, right now is that my generation and people that are in the generation above me as well, millennials, we're a sandwich generation that are experiencing skyrocketing costs of things like child care and skyrocketing costs of things like elder care at the same time.\r \r And if we don't address that with interventions from the state, we have a real problem.\r \r MAHER: But people know that this is what the Democrats are better at. The voters know that. And they still didn't vote for them.\r \r I mean, if you go and look why they didn't vote for them, it was more the woke stuff, wasn't it? It's not the strategy that Trump employed, like, she's for they, them, and he's for you. That was the big ad that worked.\r \r HOGG: I think the reason why that worked, though, Bill, is because people felt like they weren't heard by us. Voters told us two things, more than anything, in the past election. And I'm going to get a lot of heat for what I'm about to say from my fellow Democrats.\r \r But we told people, people heard from us that Joe Biden, people said to us that Joe Biden is too old. And they said that prices are too high. And we said with, we said with the power of $2 billion behind us, no, he's not.\r \r Then, yes, he is. And then, no, they aren't. Look at this graph of, you know, the stock market or whatever it is.\r \r If you tell people not to believe their eyes or their wallets, you're going to lose them. And part of what I'm trying to do here is...\r \r MAHER: Trump does it all the time.\r \r HOGG: Well, he is Donald Trump. Ultimately, unlike Republicans, Democrats have the hard job of making government work. We don't run on the idea that it's not going to work and then do a terrible job by screwing up our economy of tariffs and then blaming the guy that just came before us and saying, oh, this is all because of us, when we see clearly it is his fault.\r \r But we heard it. What we're here to do, Bill, what we are here to do is to make government work, and that's always going to be harder. It's always going to be harder to make something work than it is to make it fail.\r \r But that is the sacred task that we're trying to take on. And I should acknowledge the fact, too, that the reason why I ended up in Parkland in the first place, where the shooting happened, obviously, is because of California's housing crisis. That wasn't because of Republican leadership that created that.\r \r And it's still a major crisis today, because my father, we couldn't afford to pay our mortgage anymore, had he medically retired in California. That's how we ended up in Florida in the first place. So what I'm trying to do with this initiative, with Leaders We Deserve, the organization that we're working with, is to challenge Democrats that we feel like are failing to meet the moment in safe congressional seats that don't risk us losing the House, and say to them, look, nobody's entitled to their position of power, because, ultimately, the positions of power in this country don't belong to any member of Congress that is out there. They belong to the people that vote them into office. And the people are showing us right now, with our record low approval ratings, that they're not happy with us.\r \r And what I'm trying to do here is show that we're trying to bring in a new generation.\r \r MAHER: So why is the establishment mad at you? This sounds like basic Democratic stuff. I mean, James Carville called you a contemptible little twerp.\r \r HOGG: Uh-huh. Well, then he flipped, as well. And he came around, and he said, actually, the DNC should not remove David.\r \r And you're not a twerp. Exactly. Well, it's because...\r \r Thank you. It's because... Very important.\r \r I think part of it, though, is because we have become very uncomfortable with having conversations with people who don't agree with us. And you know why we were able, I was able to reach that agreement with Bill? It's because...\r \r Sorry, James. It's because I talked to him. We debated each other, and we stood our ground.\r \r And we agreed, look, we have our differences, but ultimately, we all want to do the same thing here, which is get back to winning majorities and delivering for the American people. And that's what he saw there. And part of what happens in politics is people want to do two things at the same time that are incompatible.\r \r They want to keep the same people in the positions of power that they're in that are individually beneficial to them, and they want to get back to winning. But we're not going to be able to do that with the same cast of characters that got us here. And the answer to that is to use democracy within our own party, to give voters the option of voting for somebody new, so that they at least have the option.\r \r MAHER: Right. So you want to get rid of the deadwood.\r \r HOGG: Effectively. Yes. But it's not just a matter of age, to be clear.\r \r Unfortunately, Bill, as you know, there are young people who suck just as much as there are older people who suck as well. Yes, I do. Right?\r \r But... But... Thank God.\r \r Right. It's not that simple to just say, well, if you're above a certain age, you shouldn't be there.\r \r MAHER: But whenever I see someone your age talking politics, it's usually a Republican guy. I mean, that seems to be where all the energy and we know that the Democrats do have a problem with men. Yes.\r \r What are you going to do about that?\r \r HOGG: Well, I think, one, it's for us to acknowledge the fact that a lot of younger men, I think, agree with what Democrats are saying in terms of making sure that we're getting things cheaper, that nobody wants to pay incredibly high costs for their medical bills or their cost of care. Right? Nobody wants to see, in my opinion, nobody wants to see members of Congress that are doing insider trading either, at least I certainly don't.\r \r And that goes for both Democrats and Republicans. And right now, what I think happened last election is younger men, they would rather vote for somebody who feels, who even if they don't completely agree with, they don't feel judged by, than somebody who they do agree with, that they feel like they have to walk on eggshells around constantly because they're going to be judged or ostracized or excommunicated. And what's interesting about this moment is it feels like the two parties in some senses have flipped where, you know, Republicans used to be the judgmental assholes in many ways.\r \r And since many Democrats, despite us, I would say for most of us coming from the right place of wanting to do the right thing, we've created a culture where we say, well, if you say the wrong thing, you're excommunicated. And that's just not how human beings work. Nobody is perfect.\r \r But ultimately, what we have to do here is figure out how to bring people back in and work towards the bigger goal of advancing the future of this country and helping young people especially get by, so that they're able to focus on their lives and, you know, getting with a young woman or something like that, instead of how are they going to pay their rent, for example, or how are they working their two jobs. Young people should be able to focus on what young people should be focused on, which is how to get laid and how to go and have fun."
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