The Closing Argument: A Hypothetical Campaign Speech for the Midterms

Send us Fan Mail Overview No candidate has given this speech yet. I wrote the one I want to hear from Democrats running this fall. The speaker is invented. Every number and every quote is real and on the record. In this episode What voters are paying: tariffs, utility bills, gas prices, and Affordable Care Act premiums that more than doubled for millions of people The jobs picture, and the people behind it: a skate shop owner in New Hampshire and a laid-off worker in North Carolina The White House's answer to gas prices: an ad for a discount gas chain it wouldn't identify One story, not a hundred scandals: early access to the president's posts for trading firms, an IRS audit deal, idle jets, crypto money, a meme-coin dinner for foreign buyers, well-timed stock trades, and billions paid to kill clean energy What a Fox News poll says voters care about most What changes the day after Democrats win either chamber: subpoena power Why one vote, this one time, matters even if you don't love the Democratic Party Why it matters Democrats need to gain three seats to win the House and four to win the Senate. A Congress with subpoena power can make this president answer for what he's done. A Congress without it can't. With races this close, the message candidates carry in the final days can decide who controls Congress for the next two years. Support the show Bella Goode is a pseudonym — but the voice, research, and mission are all real. A Republican turned Democrat advocate in 2016, I was raised by middle class parents in Pennsylvania.  I’m a former marketing executive, entrepreneur, and lifelong learner with an MBA from Wharton and a Master’s in Psychology from Penn. I spent decades telling stories in the business world; now I use those skills to connect the dots in American politics. I’m here because the truth matters — and because the stakes have never been higher. Surviving Trump isn’t lighthearted. It’s clarity, evidence, and a fight for the future of our democracy. Follow my blog on Substack https://survivingtrumppodcast.substack.com