On CNN’s Monday episode of Inside Politics with Dana Bash, the host raised the subject of Democratic governors “try[ing] to bring back the voters the Democrats have lost,” and mentioned Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, himself a liberal Democrat.
But Susan Glasser of The New Yorker opined that, under the second Trump administration, Democratic leaders who focused on things like attempting to provide government services that their constituents actually wanted were on the wrong path. Rather, in her opinion, they should have been too busy whipping themselves up into a frenzy about a supposed “existential threat” to the American system under Trump and Musk.
Bash played a clip of Shapiro proudly proclaiming his appeals to the working class to Bill Maher:
JOSH SHAPIRO: First thing I did when I was governor, literally after taking the oath of office, I signed my first executive order, doing away with the college degree requirement-
BILL MAHER: Yeah-
SHAPIRO: For 92 percent of state government jobs-
MAHER:I love that. [APPLAUSE]
SHAPIRO: -I have followed that up by increasing our vo-tech budget in high schools by 50 percent, and get this- 81 new apprenticeship programs. Everything from dairy herd management to welding. And we've got 12,400 new Pennsylvanians going through apprenticeships.
We don't care if you're male, female, black, white- doesn't matter. We want you to have opportunity in Pennsylvania. We want to lift everybody up.
SHAPIRO: First thing I did when I was governor… I signed my first executive order, doing away with the college degree requirement for 92 percent of state government jobs. I have followed that up by increasing our vo-tech budget in high schools by 50 percent, and… 81 new apprenticeship programs… We've got 12,400 new Pennsylvanians going through apprenticeships. We don't care if you're male, female, black, white- doesn't matter. We want you to have opportunity in Pennsylvania. We want to lift everybody up.
Many voters, whether or not they liked Shapiro or his politics, would have applauded a governor focusing on doing things that his state’s people actually wanted, for their direct benefit. Many voters would have thought that was all they had elected him for in the first place.
Glasser didn’t see it that way, though. Apparently unimpressed, she fussed:
GLASSER: We're clearly seeing a shadow boxing fight over you know what's the future of the Democratic Party? And you know, I think a lot of it is a question of, are we going to see a kind of a more centrist, pragmatic governor-managerial class essentially come out and say, 'Listen, if you' -- they're banking on an anti-incumbency view of Washington again. And it seems to me they already have a theory of the case, that essentially, we have to disassociate ourselves from you know, the Biden-Harris administration of the previous four years. We have to emerge as the pragmatic, you know, more centrist opposition. That's what you're hearing in a lot of those clips you're playing.
But I would just point out that the other part of the debate that we're seeing right now, and it's early days, going back on Democrats on this question of are we really just in politics as usual, the oscillation from Democrats to Republicans in our very polarized 50/50 country, or, does Donald Trump and what he and his allies like Elon Musk, are doing really represent a kind of an existential threat to the country? Which is what, by the way, Democrats have campaigned upon. And if that's the case, I don't hear a lot of that from these governors right now. They don't seem to be acting like the country, like there's an existential threat. They seem to be positioning themselves for a kind of a politics as usual.
Bash hinted that the "existential thing" was tried in 2024 and failed: "Well, they're positioning themselves as if there is a major realignment in this country, which is what we have seen. We certainly saw that among a lot of these groups that have been traditionally voting for Democrats, moving towards Republicans recently."
Apparently, many journalists feel even being a liberal Democrat was not good enough under the Trump administration if you were wasting time and effort actually just trying to serve your voter base. If the hated Trump and Musk did not in fact present an obvious crisis, the thing to do was manufacture one.
To view the full transcript, click "expand" to read.
CNN’s Inside Politics
03/31//2025
12:30 PM
(...)
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: GOV. NEWSOM: ‘THE DEMOCRATIC BRAND IS TOXIC RIGHT NOW]
DANA BASH: But another dynamic here is governors talking about how they are working in their states to try to bring back the voters the Democrats have lost.
Josh Shapiro was also on Bill Maher. This was- not this weekend, but the weekend before- talking about how to reach voters who don't consider themselves part of the- my words, not his- Democratic elite.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: GOV. SHAPIRO: WE WANT TO LIFT EVERYBODY UP]
PA GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D): First thing I did when I was governor, literally after taking the oath of office, I signed my first executive order, doing away with the college degree requirement-
BILL MAHER: Yeah-
SHAPIRO: For 92 percent of state government jobs-
MAHER:I love that. [APPLAUSE]
SHAPIRO: -I have followed that up by increasing our vo-tech budget in high schools by 50 percent, and get this- 81 new apprenticeship programs. Everything from dairy herd management to welding. And we've got 12,400 new Pennsylvanians going through apprenticeships.
We don't care if you're male, female, black, white- doesn't matter. We want you to have opportunity in Pennsylvania. We want to lift everybody up.
SUSAN GLASSER: You know, I mean, we're clearly seeing a shadow boxing fight over- you know- what's the future of the Democratic Party?
You know- and I think a lot of it is a question of, are we going to see a kind of a more centrist, pragmatic, governor- managerial class, essentially, come out and say, ‘listen, if you-’ they're banking on an anti-incumbency view of Washington again, it seems to me- that they already have a theory of the case, that essentially, we have to disassociate ourselves from- you know- the Biden-Harris administration of the previous four years.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: POTENTIAL 2028 CANDIDATES JOCKEY FOR POSITION]
We have to emerge as the pragmatic- you know- more- centrist opposition. That's what you're hearing in a lot of those clips you're playing.
But I would just point out that the other part of the debate that we're seeing right now- and it's- early days, is going back on [sic.] Democrats to this question of, are we really just in politics as usual, the oscillation from Democrats to Republicans in our very polarized 50/50 country, or, does Donald Trump and what he and his allies like Elon Musk, are doing really represent a kind of an [sic.] existential threat to the country? Which is what, by the way, Democrats have campaigned upon.
And if that's the case, I don't hear a lot of that from, you know, what these governors are saying right now. They don't seem to be acting like- the country- that there's an existential threat. They seem to be positioning themselves for a kind of a [sic.] politics as usual.
BASH: Well, they're positioning themselves as if there is a major realignment in this country, which is what we have seen. We certainly saw that among a lot of these groups that have been traditionally voting for Democrats, moving towards Republicans recently.
