Possible with Reid Hoffman
00:00:00 · Reid Hoffman, Aria Finger
[00:00:00] S0: They... This is a very clear repudiation of the last two years. What do the last two years look like? [00:00:05] S1: How do you square that saying, I wanna get money out of politics, but I'm still gonna keep donating? [00:00:11] S0: I think we should collectively get big money out of politics. [00:00:14] S1: And what do you think about the types of people who won throughout the South? [00:00:17] S0: They're not trying to incite hatred. They're going, Americans are hurting and we're gonna do something about it. [00:00:22] S1: It's clear that the American people are distrustful of these tech companies. [00:00:27] S0: Just if you want a data center in my community, in my state, is that... What are you doing for me? [00:00:31] S1: Reid, I could not be more thrilled to be with you today for this special midterm election edition of Riffs. Usually, we talk about the future as it relates to technology. Today, we are talking to the future, but sort of more how it relates to the election yesterday, the Democratic Party, what that means for tech, but also what that means for the American people in general. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here this morning. [00:00:55] S0: It is an absolute pleasure on multiple levels, not just because of talking to you, but also because of what I think is a very good midterm moment.
00:00:55 · Reid Hoffman, Aria Finger
[00:00:55] S0: It is an absolute pleasure on multiple levels, not just because of talking to you, but also because of what I think is a very good midterm moment. [00:01:05] S1: So let's get into it. You had a thread on Twitter. And in this election night thread, you described results that exceeded your expectations and mine. And you pointed to Texas, Ohio, House races in Kentucky, Iowa, South Carolina, Indiana. I mean, so many races that overperformed and exceeded our expectations. And it was very clear that the voters wanted change. And your point was like, we should not discount voters anywhere, and we should listen to these voters. So what surprised you most about the results yesterday?
00:01:39 · Reid Hoffman
[00:01:39] S0: What surprised me was that despite a massive amount of Republican money, because there was both a huge spend from a whole bunch of people, including Elon Musk and a lot of intimidation, against, you know, Democratic donors over the last couple of years, especially in the last this year, but over the last, you know, the entire two years was how much the people made their voices heard of we want something different. And, know, the typical kind of commentary here is, you know, A versus B, red versus blue, Democrat versus Republican, David versus Goliath. And the really important thing for all of us is say, look, what does this mean about, you know, American voters and how are they experiencing, you know, their lives, their circumstances, and what's going on with them? Because that's the thing that we all, we should all focus on whether or not we're, you know, politicians or elected leaders or, you know, leaders of companies or citizens. It's, you know, kind of what does that mean for, you know, kind of where we're at. And I think the voters, you know, made very clear that they demand a different kind of country with different leadership. They want an economy that can deliver for them. You know, the six, as you know, as I wrote in the dual mandate, there's 60 plus percent of American voters who are American citizens who are struggling. They don't want handouts. They want where hard work means success for them. And they have a path and they have a channel. They want leaders who are gonna fight for their constituents, not start needless wars, not do all of this other kind of crap, not have corrupt federal agencies shooting Americans in cities. This is a very clear repudiation of the last two years. You know, part of the midterms, you know, Trump saying he's not on the ballot. Of course he's on the ballot. You know, what is the midterms is what do the last two years look like? And the short answer was the last two years are horrific.
00:03:56 · Reid Hoffman, Aria Finger
And, you know, we just see amazing, you know, I mean, like Texas going, not just Talarico, who obviously is the exact kind of leader we want as, you know, kind of as Americans, you know, not just Texans, but as across the country is like smart principled, you know, kind of, you know, with a, you know, how do we deliver for everyday American people and not corrupt all of the, the, the bad stuff Paxton was, But Abbott going, you know, all of the kind of jacannery that he was trying to do. Of course, you see this in multiple places. You see this in, you know, in Kansas, you see this in Maine. [00:04:38] S1: And what do you think about the types of people who won throughout the South? Like, to your point, it's not as if Talarico squeaked by. Talarico and Hinojosa both won by large margins. You had Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms winning by large margins in Georgia. So we're seeing younger people win. We're seeing people who wear their faith, whether it's Judaism or Christianity on their sleeve. Like, what do you think it says that these voters in the South in particular are voting for these kinds of Democrats?
00:05:06 · Reid Hoffman
[00:05:06] S0: I think it's exactly kind of leaders that we want across the country. I think that the important thing is to say, if you look at the majority of the Democrats who delivered these startling upsets, they're not the kind of, you know, far left folks that the Republicans like to win against. They're like everyday Americans who are just in it to try to make a difference for the American people. They're not trying to do the red versus blue. They're not trying to make demons. They're not trying to incite hatred. They're going, Americans are hurting and we're gonna do something about it. We're gonna- we're gonna work on this hard. And I think that's something that whether you're Democrat, Republican, or any other party, you should pay attention to. Because it's about the voters and it's about these kind of people leading the change. As you know, we've seen elements of it before, Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill and other folks. It's like, no, no. What we care about is people who are like, look, I of course care about business and prosperity for the overall American people. I also care about a society that's better for the 60 plus percent of Americans who are struggling. We can work on both. And, you know, an election cannot just be bought when it's so clearly a function of we are suffering and what you are doing is causing, you know, gas prices to go up, beef prices to go up, you know, you know, getting us involved in foreign wars that, you know, your whole claim some number of years ago was that you'd get us out of wars as opposed to into them. And so, and then, you know, your attempt to try to demonize the conflict within American society by saying, you know, we're, we're out hunting Democrats, you know, as a, as a function of what we're doing with the department of justice and so forth. It's like, that's not what American people want. What American people want is can you make a society by which we live to American values, which is we work hard and we get ahead. We provide for our family. We have, you know, an ability to get a good job and pay for things that matter to us. Yeah. And that's the thing that's important, not the narcissistic egos that have been kind of running rampant for the last two years. It's about the American people themselves. And I think that's what has been so amazing. And that's what the broad swath of the Democrats.
00:07:55 · Reid Hoffman
And it's part of the reason why like nobody would have predicted 54 plus seats in the Senate. Nobody. Right? We thought we'd get to 52. That's what we thought, you know, when we're kind of working with all the different Democrats in their own places and kind of saying, you know, Hey, what is it? We thought, you know, Hey, it'll be hard. 56 is, it's an orange crush in the Olympics rating of Trump, you know, zero to 10, zero. It's a red undertow. All of these, you know, clowns who have been posturing, whether they're you know, folks like Hegseth, you know, trying to televise an execution and make us look like North Korea or kind of other places versus a values, you know, society that we all, you know, believe in to folks like, you know, Mike Johnson, who, you know, says, well, I don't want be a minority leader. It's like, we don't want you to be a leader at all. Right. You know, you've been so bad that the American people have delivered a referendum on how bad you've been. Because, you know, part of it is a, what has the last two years been? It's been a Trump MAGA Republican trifecta. They've literally had the ability to do anything that they wanted to do. And as opposed to making things better for everyday Americans, they did things like, you know, dismantle USAID and cause, hundreds of thousands of children their health and lives. It's incredible. And so I think that what I think is... Like, it is literally... Like, I don't think we've seen anything like this in many decades. The, they voted at the ballot booth yesterday to show.