against republican trolls like marjorie taylor greene, he thinks there are more like him, rational, pragmatic and disgusted than they are like gosar, there s no need to engage in guerilla tactics and they can reason and debate like adults and take the high road and play the long gain. all evidence would point to meier s optimism bordering dangerously close to naivety, but for the sake of our democracy i hope he s right. tim alberta wrote that piece on peter meier and he joins me now. i was struck by this profile because i do think there is a throwback situation, and i want to in some ways take this out of the realm of ideology because i don t think this what people stand for and believe in is really what we re talking about here. it seems to me there s just an approach to the job, to the con sengz of what it means to be a member of congress, that is
i was struck by this profile because i do think there is kind of a throwback situation, and i want to some ways take this out of the realm of ideology because i don t think actually this sort of what people stand for and believe in is really what we are talking about here. it seems to me that there is just an approach to the job. so the conception of what it means to be a member of congress that is being sort of stopped by that just fundamentally to the idea that meyer and other republican legislators have about going and doing the job of being a republican member of congress. chris, i don t know how much time you have but we could have a long time discussion on that subject. i ve written a lot about it. listen, everything is that there is right. i distinctly remember sitting with paul ryan and couple weeks after he retired from congress
he is, i think, in a lane largely that if he gets in it he could potentially own. which is what exactly? i think he s probably one of the candidates that we would consider on our side on the more moderate end of the democratic spectrum. he s someone who i think appeals across a range of voters who i think some in our party feel we must more actively go after. but the question will be i think is the vice president prepared to offer a vision about the future of the country that people can wrap themselves around? elections are always about the future and if we fall into sort of just a throwback situation where we re not talking about big, bold ideas, i think it will be problematic. but what if his critics or even just people who are scrutinizing him insist on looking at his long past and his record through a 2019 lens, is that fair? well, i think it s fair. obviously if you ve served in public office, there is a reckoning of your record and you ve got to be able to say where you w