Democratic disconnect is likely here to stay as mega-donors are reportedly set to “astroturf” audiences with a desperate spending blitz to “find the liberal Joe Rogan.”
Widely considered a difference maker for President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, the GOP leader sat with influential podcasters for lengthy, unscripted conversations, providing tons of viral clips. Rather than learning not to squander opportunities, the apparent takeaway from then-Vice President Kamala Harris snubbing her own shot to sit for “The Joe Rogan Experience” is to artificially prop up a progressive Rogan.
Featuring podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen at the top of his article in the New York Times, journalist Teddy Schleifer shared his report on the left’s plan to counter “G.O.P. Clout Online.”
“Democratic mega-donors are debating plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on a range of influencer plans to ‘find the liberal Joe Rogan.’ We’ve got pitch decks, investor meetings, and more internal docs,” he wrote, summing up his piece on X. “One Democrat has a spreadsheet of 26 different proposals.”
NEWS:
Democratic mega-donors are debating plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on a range of influencer plans to “find the liberal Rogan.”
We’ve got pitch decks, investor meetings, and more internal docs.
One Democrat has a spreadsheet of 26 different proposals. pic.twitter.com/0VBN52HM3z
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) May 20, 2025
Within the article, Schleifer detailed, “At donor retreats and in pitch documents seen by The New York Times, liberal strategists are pushing the party’s rich backers to reopen their wallets for a cavalcade of projects to help Democrats, as the cliché now goes, ‘find the next Joe Rogan.’ The proposals, the scope of which has not been previously reported, are meant to energize glum donors and persuade them that they can compete culturally with President Trump — if only they can throw enough money at the problem.”
This is from the same party that had its 2024 vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, admitting that he was put on the ticket to “code talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck, doing that, then I could put them at ease. I was the permission structure to say you can do this and vote for this…”
The MSNBC contributor also highlighted that Democrats appeared to have learned nothing from the backlash of thrusting politics into entertainment, as witnessed in boycotts of Disney’s woke shoehorning and sports where athletes kneeled during the national anthem.
“Democrats widely believe they must grow more creative in stoking online enthusiasm for their candidates, particularly in less outwardly political forms of media like sports or lifestyle podcasts,” wrote Schleifer.
Another way of putting that could be: audiences will be made to care.
Of course, since Trump’s return to the White House, Democrats have seen their approval rating drop to the lowest in history amid their insistent defense of violent illegal aliens, the murder of unborn babies, and mutilating confused children.
“Ruthless” podcast co-host Comfortably Smug drew attention to the stacked playing field that had long been in favor of the leftist agenda as he reacted, “Dems have had every advantage possible. Control of the mainstream media, Hollywood, funding from billionaires, NGOs, hell, even USAID. And they threatened boycotts to pressure Fortune 500 companies not to advertise on conservative shows … They had all that they still blew it.”
Meanwhile, many reminded that Rogan was the “liberal Joe Rogan” before the left’s Overton Window shift continued marching toward extremism, and some pointed out, “Democrats are convinced that it’s just a matter of finding the right messenger, vs. the possibility of people disliking their message,” Christina Pushaw asserted, “There are plenty of popular influencers on the Left who are edgy and charismatic, and have devoted followings without being astroturfed like this. The problem for Democrats is that the popular left-wing influencers hate ‘liberalism’ and train their fire more on the Democratic Party than the GOP.”
There are plenty of popular influencers on the Left who are edgy and charismatic, and have devoted followings without being astroturfed like this. The problem for Democrats is that the popular left-wing influencers hate “liberalism” and train their fire more on the Democratic…
— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) May 20, 2025
The Left is never wrong; the people are wrong.
— jeebus (@jeebus2122) May 21, 2025
They had liberal Joe Rogan.
It was Joe Rogan
— Keef.hl (@0xKeef) May 21, 2025
Everything they do is fake.
— THE ILLYRIAN (@the_illyrian_) May 21, 2025
No point in rehashing this but the idea of a progressive Rogan is paradoxical. Maher plays a Rogan like role on the left but he’s still firmly establishment. Such a figure would have to be anti establishment and the power edifice on the left requires total obedience to the…
— Midwest State of Mind (@mwstateofmind) May 20, 2025
— Syco (@twitchy_bro) May 21, 2025
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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