1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,240
I turn on the burner to make
some eggs, and I turn on the

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:06,040
wrong burner and goes tick tick tick
tick, and it goes whoomph right like

3
00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:07,679
I should, and then I turn
it off. Then I turn on the

4
00:00:07,679 --> 00:00:11,960
other burner and there's no tick tick
tick, and the coffeemaker isn't working,

5
00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:18,199
and all the power in the kitchen
has gone. Ask not what your country

6
00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:23,239
can do for you, Ask what
you can do for your country. Mister

7
00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:30,160
Gorbuchoff, Tear down this wall.
It's the Ricochet Podcast. I'm James Lilyns

8
00:00:30,199 --> 00:00:33,280
back again, Steven Hayward sitting in
for Peter Robinson. Rob Long is with

9
00:00:33,359 --> 00:00:36,039
us, and we're going to talk
to Henry Olson about politics and elections,

10
00:00:36,079 --> 00:00:40,320
domestic and foreign. So let's have
ourselves a podcast. And now I want

11
00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:44,600
to hand it over to the President
of Ukraine, who has as much courage

12
00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:50,560
as he has determination. Ladies,
John, I'm a president Putin. I

13
00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,799
wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to
be vice president. I think she was

14
00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,960
not qualified to be president. So
let's start there. Did you ever watch

15
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:04,079
the debate afterwards? I don't think
I did. No. Welcome everybody,

16
00:01:04,079 --> 00:01:07,640
It's the Ricochet Podcast. Let's see
what number is. It's number six hundred

17
00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:12,280
and ninety nine. I think we
had to stop after this one and then

18
00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,560
just leave everybody with a shave and
a haircut and no two bits. But

19
00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,840
no, we'll be coming. We'll
be cruising to seven hundred sometimes soon.

20
00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:23,319
In the meantime, we're here for
an hour to discuss things small, large

21
00:01:23,359 --> 00:01:26,640
and great. And speaking of great
and large, I'm small. We have

22
00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:30,239
Stephen Hayward sitting in for Peter Robinson
and Rob Long as well. Now,

23
00:01:30,519 --> 00:01:34,079
Rob, we know that you are
in Gotham. I am not that daughter

24
00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:36,840
hates it when I call it that, or really, where are you?

25
00:01:37,359 --> 00:01:41,239
I'm on a little island off the
coast of Massachusetts. Okay, you can

26
00:01:41,239 --> 00:01:44,359
go straight to Hell. I'm sure
it's absolutely beautiful and well it's been a

27
00:01:44,359 --> 00:01:46,879
little bit foggy, so don't you
know, but it's lovely today. So

28
00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:48,920
I want to wrap this up so
I can go to the beach. But

29
00:01:48,959 --> 00:01:51,680
go ahead. We have fog on
the island where all the rich people are

30
00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:55,400
gambling about, no doubt, wearing
white with little parasols and having gin drinks.

31
00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,239
It sounds great. Stephen, where
are you? I'm the foggy and

32
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:02,680
cool central coast of California, where
today, by the way, I am

33
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:08,120
identifying as Peter Robinson. Oh okay, good, Well did you what you

34
00:02:08,159 --> 00:02:12,759
have to do? Would you do
that? You can't just do it.

35
00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,199
You can't just say you Peter Robinson. You have to put some effort into

36
00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:17,280
it. So you know, I'm
looking at you in the zoom here.

37
00:02:17,319 --> 00:02:22,560
You're not wearing a sweater that's carelessly
knotted around your shoulders. So let's get

38
00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:27,319
to that. Well, last week
I was in Glasgow, which is interesting

39
00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,759
meteorologically because sometimes it doesn't rain.
It actually happened. There's like forty five

40
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:35,680
second intervals in which the sun blares
through, which is great. But now

41
00:02:35,719 --> 00:02:39,080
I'm back in Minneapolis in a beautiful
summer day, and here we are barreling

42
00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:44,080
towards the election, wondering exactly what's
going to happen. And Joe Biden had

43
00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:51,599
a big boy conference news conference yesterday. So I did not actually see it.

44
00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:53,919
I was working on something else.
But I assume Stephen, it being

45
00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:59,400
your job, rob it being your
pleasure, you saw it, and you

46
00:02:59,439 --> 00:03:02,159
have thought, do you have thoughts? You know? I have to be

47
00:03:02,199 --> 00:03:05,919
honest, I did not see it. I just read about it, and

48
00:03:06,479 --> 00:03:08,879
I actually feel like it's more interesting
what I wanted to read about it wasn't

49
00:03:08,879 --> 00:03:14,520
really what happened, because I don't. My feeling about this is simple that

50
00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:17,879
every American, certainly I do,
and I think every American except they're very

51
00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:29,080
young, have a a familiarity,
unsought after familiarity with decline in old age,

52
00:03:29,159 --> 00:03:34,680
right either our parents or our grandparents
or our relative. I mean,

53
00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:38,080
we all have had that experience,
and we know what we're looking at.

54
00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:40,479
So the question isn't do we know
what we're looking at? The question is

55
00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:47,520
does President doctor Joe Biden know what
she's looking at? And whether the enough

56
00:03:47,639 --> 00:03:53,560
Democrats know what they're looking at?
And I think I think the answer is

57
00:03:53,639 --> 00:03:59,800
no. I mean, it doesn't
look at this point like this guy's gonna

58
00:04:00,039 --> 00:04:04,719
looks like he's standing for re election
in November, which is bananas to me

59
00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:12,520
and just the pinnacle of or the
nadier of where we are as a country

60
00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:15,800
where we I mean, say you
like about Trump. He's not a normal

61
00:04:15,919 --> 00:04:19,959
dude. He's a weird dude with
impulse control and all sorts of emotional problems.

62
00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:27,279
And Biden is completely Scottish cheese and
scrambled eggs up there and Robert F.

63
00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:33,279
Kennedy Junior is a crazy person.
It's like that we only have mentally

64
00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:41,720
deficient people running for president of the
United States of America. And I deficient,

65
00:04:41,759 --> 00:04:45,279
I mean yeah, I mean Trump
maybe a short fingered vulgarian, his

66
00:04:45,319 --> 00:04:47,839
spy famously called him, but he
can count to five without using him.

67
00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,040
Yes, right on Twitter, as
somebody was saying, you know, you're

68
00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:55,319
saying Biden's in decline now, you
guys were saying that four years ago.

69
00:04:55,639 --> 00:05:00,120
Yes, we were for a reason
because those of us have been watching this

70
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,319
guy all of these years, ever
since the eighties, know the baseline and

71
00:05:03,759 --> 00:05:10,759
know that this, this adult Joe
gildfigure is not the Biden that we knew.

72
00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,800
So yeah, we do four years
ago and four years on it's mortifying.

73
00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:18,279
Uh so you know we all know
this Stephen telling something new. Yeah,

74
00:05:18,319 --> 00:05:21,839
well I did watch the whole thing
out of professional duty, and it's

75
00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:27,839
like watching a high wire act at
the circus with the wind blowing and you're

76
00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:30,040
riveted to see if he's going to
fall, And there were a lot of

77
00:05:30,079 --> 00:05:34,959
wobbles, but I guess the consensus
is he cleared a very low bar that's

78
00:05:34,959 --> 00:05:39,079
not very reassuring. So, first
of all, so highlights from yesterday if

79
00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:42,720
you missed it. Before the press
conference at the end of the NATO meeting,

80
00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:46,040
he has Zelenski standing next to him
and he says, and now I

81
00:05:46,079 --> 00:05:50,160
want to introduce the President of Ukraine, President Putin, and then he walks

82
00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:53,160
two feet offices. Oh wait a
minute, and he comes back and he

83
00:05:53,199 --> 00:05:56,879
sort of catches himself and tries to
make a joke about it. And then

84
00:05:57,399 --> 00:06:01,160
finally Putin could be president of Ukraine. So maybe he's got in his old

85
00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:05,360
age he has second sight correct.
And then very early in the press conference,

86
00:06:05,759 --> 00:06:09,600
someone asked him about, you know, if you were had to stand

87
00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,839
down, are you confident that Kamila
Harris could win and be president? Something

88
00:06:13,879 --> 00:06:18,360
like that, and he says,
I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump if

89
00:06:18,399 --> 00:06:21,839
I didn't think she wasn't qualified.
I mean, it was just this total

90
00:06:23,439 --> 00:06:29,079
syntactical disaster, and then calling Harris
present vice President Trump, and it sort

91
00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:32,519
of it went on like that,
but the questions were mostly too polite.

92
00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:35,160
I thought, I thought they should
have had a harder edge about why did

93
00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:38,920
your staff conceal this? Things like
that, they didn't do any of that,

94
00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:43,600
and mostly what he did was filibuster
with obvious, canned speeches on foreign

95
00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:46,120
policy. So it sort of lean
on that. There weren't many questions about

96
00:06:46,199 --> 00:06:49,759
NATO or the Summitter foreign policy.
Most of them were about the political problem,

97
00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:54,279
and he sort of dodged all that. But there weren't any complete car

98
00:06:54,319 --> 00:06:58,079
crashes like you saw at the debate. So I think that means that the

99
00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:03,079
democratic agony is going to con you
for the indeterminate future. I love the

100
00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,399
idea. Okay, sorry, I
was going to say, and Rob you

101
00:07:06,439 --> 00:07:09,759
can, you can speak to this. I love the idea that is being

102
00:07:09,759 --> 00:07:13,040
brooded about now on the left and
the liberal side. That what we saw

103
00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:17,920
yesterday in a Joe Biden that was
not debate quality, that once again reminded

104
00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:23,439
this man really is a modern day
Metternick. It comes to Thorn, it

105
00:07:23,439 --> 00:07:27,519
comes to foreign policy. You know, Joe's Joe's got it. He's just

106
00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,879
he just has that innate nine dimensional
chess. This guy, you know,

107
00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,839
inherent understanding of these things, which
I find. I mean, I'm trying

108
00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:40,120
to think of an issue on which
this man has been correct my entire lifetime

109
00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:43,120
of observing him. This guy who
after nine to eleven, I believe was

110
00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,240
talking about what was he saying that, you know, we should send a

111
00:07:46,279 --> 00:07:47,800
bunch of money to Iran? We
should you know, send him twohundred million

112
00:07:47,839 --> 00:07:50,519
dollars or something like that. Let's
uh, let's partition a rack upt.

113
00:07:50,959 --> 00:07:56,360
I mean, I mean, I
don't get it. But anyway you were

114
00:07:56,399 --> 00:07:58,720
going to say, well that that
is the strangest thing. I mean,

115
00:07:58,879 --> 00:08:03,240
part partly is the idea that this
guy who I mean, even if you're

116
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:09,040
a supporter of his, this guy
is the most political hack. He defines

117
00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:11,800
political hack. He's been in politics
for one thousand years. He's only been

118
00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:18,000
in politics. He's had failed runs
for president. He was a joke for

119
00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:20,279
a long time. This guy is
not a statesman. He's been wrong,

120
00:08:20,279 --> 00:08:24,800
as you say, wrong about everything, especially in foreign policy and of course

121
00:08:24,839 --> 00:08:26,199
in legal policy. But I mean, I'm just talking about foreign policy because

122
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:30,040
it's sort of non partisan, right. I mean, I disagreed with everything

123
00:08:30,079 --> 00:08:33,440
he said is when he was chairman
of the House Judicial but I mean the

124
00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:37,960
Senate Judiciary Committee. But that those
are partisan disagreements I have with him.

125
00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:41,720
But he's wrong on the commander in
chief level. And somehow he's been turned

126
00:08:41,759 --> 00:08:45,639
in by some of this. Now
it's winally number of supporters, but still

127
00:08:45,639 --> 00:08:48,440
supporters. Has this great grand old
gentleman, this great statesman, thank you

128
00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:54,320
for your service to this nation.
This guy is about as dirty a crook

129
00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,000
as they come in the White House. And that's saying something. I mean,

130
00:08:58,039 --> 00:09:00,559
he's I mean, even if you
love him, you have to say

131
00:09:00,639 --> 00:09:05,879
the guy is guilty of influence,
pedaling it at the most extreme degree.

132
00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:09,240
And somehow the people are deciding he's
a great hero. And you know,

133
00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:11,960
it used to be this. We
used to say this thing about politics,

134
00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,440
right, Hey, politics ain't bean
bag. We would say, you know,

135
00:09:16,519 --> 00:09:18,080
this is like you want a friend, get a dog in DC,

136
00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,039
like all that stuff is because it's
tough. People are tough. It seems

137
00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:28,519
like the cushiest non tough job ever. Because any nobody would let this guy

138
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,720
drive home from the restaurant, Nobody
would let this guy run a company,

139
00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:37,080
nobody would hire him to do anything. In a real tough world that we

140
00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,440
live in, this guy would be
fired. As they say, every company

141
00:09:39,519 --> 00:09:43,000
or everybody I know who runs a
company says the same thing. Look,

142
00:09:43,399 --> 00:09:48,480
one of the rules is with hr
high or slow fire fast, meaning don't

143
00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:52,200
wait if you think it's going to
get better, it's not going to get

144
00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:54,000
better. Take your time in hiring
somebody, which of course we do in

145
00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,639
this concrete we take nine months practically. But fire him, and even if

146
00:09:58,639 --> 00:10:03,840
it's like a little unfair, it's
okay. Even if his feelings are hurt,

147
00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:09,320
it's okay. This guy should have
been dumped and we'll find somebody else,

148
00:10:09,399 --> 00:10:11,759
is what the Democrats should have been
saying, and they haven't. And

149
00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:15,440
to me, it's like, well, anybody, anybody listening to this podcast

150
00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:22,840
who has a job in that performance
not be gone. I think he's actually

151
00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,200
worse than being wrong and being a
crook. I think he's been pernicious to

152
00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:30,679
American politics for a long time.
And I just point to one thing that

153
00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:33,440
has plagued us ever since the mid
eighties. Remember in nineteen eighty six,

154
00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:37,080
he gives a quote to a newspaper
and I don't remember the exact words,

155
00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:39,440
but it went something like, if
President Reagan sends up Robert Borock, I'd

156
00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:43,679
have to vote for him because he's
qualified. And I'm not Ted Kennedy.

157
00:10:43,879 --> 00:10:46,600
He did. That was a direct
quote, I'm not Ted Kennedy. A

158
00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:50,840
year later, Bork is nominated Biden
became ted. Kennedy switched on a dime,

159
00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:58,440
stretched out the hearings to enable an
unprecedented personal tax campaign against Bork,

160
00:10:58,799 --> 00:11:03,720
and that has poison our judicial politics
and many other ways ever since. He's

161
00:11:03,759 --> 00:11:07,159
responsible for that. If he'd said
no to Norman Lear and the lefty groups

162
00:11:07,159 --> 00:11:11,279
had said we would have to attack
work, and they'd done a normal confirmation

163
00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:15,120
hearings within a month or you know, six weeks, we wouldn't have some

164
00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:18,399
of the poisonous politics that has spilled
out to other agents, you know,

165
00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:22,799
other aspects of our ever since.
He's responsible for that. That was a

166
00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:26,200
decisive turning point in American politics,
much for the worse. People who talk

167
00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:31,080
about how were dangerously polarized today,
they ought to point a really fat finger

168
00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,440
at Joe Biden. You're right.
I was in England a couple of weeks

169
00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:37,960
ago, and I was discussing American
politics with some friends who are very smart

170
00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:41,039
people, and one of them was
saying that you liked Joe Biden because he

171
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:46,799
was a He was a kindly man. He was a kindly man who radiated

172
00:11:46,799 --> 00:11:54,000
empathy. And I said, you're
thinking of Neil Kinnick. And she didn't

173
00:11:54,039 --> 00:11:56,000
know what I meant, and I
had to explain this, and had to

174
00:11:56,039 --> 00:11:58,960
explain who Joe Biden has been all
of these years, that what you are

175
00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:05,279
seeing is the diminished nerve version.
That you're right, that the perniciousness is

176
00:12:05,399 --> 00:12:09,120
there and we have been suffering from
it ever since we woke up after Bork

177
00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:13,919
with a ringing, pounding head.
Speaking of which, gotta tell you,

178
00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:16,799
there are times, you know,
when you have a great night out and

179
00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:18,639
you just don't bounce back. Yeah, it's hard to bounce back like you

180
00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:22,879
did when you were twenty. You
know, I'm not twenty. And there

181
00:12:22,919 --> 00:12:26,519
are times you go out, I
mean it was just in a great vacation.

182
00:12:26,759 --> 00:12:33,639
Who's at a pub where the selection
of ales and whiskies is extraordinary?

183
00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:37,480
You know, So you got to
make a choice, really, either have

184
00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:41,360
a great night or a great next
day. And you know how it is

185
00:12:41,399 --> 00:12:45,360
when you're out having fun. But
but, but, but but that choice

186
00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:50,679
does not exist when you get z
biotics. Z biotics pre alcohol probiotic drink.

187
00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:56,159
It's the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists

188
00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:00,159
to tackle rough mornings after drinking.
Here's how it works. When you drink,

189
00:13:00,279 --> 00:13:03,960
alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct
in your gut, and it is

190
00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:07,840
this by product, not dehydration,
that's to blame for your rough next day.

191
00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:11,120
Zbiotics produces an enzyme to break this
by product down. Just remember to

192
00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:16,240
take z biotics your first drink of
the night and then drink responsibly and you

193
00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:20,519
will feel your best tomorrow. And
I got to tell you, I made

194
00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:24,399
the mistake of not packing it went
to Europe. Oh you know, fine,

195
00:13:24,519 --> 00:13:28,039
but still it's something before I'm going
out that I like to note that

196
00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:31,679
I have on hand, especially when
you I mean summer's coming up. Back

197
00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:35,840
to summer's here, and what does
that mean? Vacations and weddings and birthdays

198
00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:37,840
and reunions. There's so much going
on. So you can get the most

199
00:13:37,879 --> 00:13:41,799
out of your summer plants and feel
great by stocking up on pre alcohol.

200
00:13:41,039 --> 00:13:45,799
Now go to zbiotics dot com slash
ricochet to get fifteen percent off your first

201
00:13:45,879 --> 00:13:50,120
order when you use ricochet at checkout. Z biotics is backed with a one

202
00:13:50,159 --> 00:13:54,200
hundred percent money back guarantees. Of
you're unsatisfied for any reason and I wasn't,

203
00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:58,200
they will refund your money no questions. Asked, so remember at do

204
00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:03,279
zbiotics dot com slash ricochet and use
the code that's right ricochet at checkout for

205
00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:09,559
fifteen percent off. And thanks zibiotics
for sponsoring this the Ricochet podcast, and

206
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:15,720
also for our good times and Awi. Welcome to the podcast. Henry Olson,

207
00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:18,360
Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public
Policy Center, the author of the

208
00:14:18,399 --> 00:14:22,960
Four Faces of the Republican Party and
the Working Class Republican. He is the

209
00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:26,279
host of the podcast Beyond the Polls, which you can find at this thing.

210
00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:31,639
I understand it's called ricochet dot com. Henry, Welcome, Wow,

211
00:14:31,759 --> 00:14:35,440
thank you for having me. We've
been talking about Joe Biden and the fact

212
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:41,000
that maybe it's just us. I
know, we're partisans here and sometimes that

213
00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,120
blinds a man to the truth.
But we're starting to get the suspicion that

214
00:14:43,159 --> 00:14:48,320
the man is a little bit old
and feeble in the brain. I know,

215
00:14:48,399 --> 00:14:54,080
I know, I know it's a
grotesque extrapolation. But ever since I

216
00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:56,279
don't know, six seven, eight, nine months ago, I've always been

217
00:14:56,320 --> 00:15:00,519
thinking, you know what, They're
gonna dump him before the convention. They're

218
00:15:00,519 --> 00:15:05,320
going to swap mod for Gavin Newsom
and gall will Win. Tell us how

219
00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:09,440
you think this is going to play
out up until to the convention and beyond.

220
00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:13,639
Are we seeing another sixty eight?
Are we seeing something unprecedented crystal ball

221
00:15:13,679 --> 00:15:18,039
time. Yeah, Well, by
definition, we're seeing something unprecedented because no

222
00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:24,879
one has dropped out this close to
a convention in I think history, certainly

223
00:15:24,919 --> 00:15:31,960
not somebody during the primary era where
delegates are not controlled by bosses but are

224
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:35,759
instead controlled by voters. I think
that what's going to happen is the pressure

225
00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:41,200
is going to ratchet up. That
there are a lot of senior Democrats who

226
00:15:41,679 --> 00:15:45,960
think that Joe Biden is not the
person who can beat Donald Trump, and

227
00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:48,879
not only that, that he is
the person who can give the Republicans a

228
00:15:48,919 --> 00:15:54,120
massive wave election, and they're not
going to stop. That doesn't mean Biden's

229
00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,639
going to give in. He holds
the high ground. But you know,

230
00:15:56,759 --> 00:16:04,440
if you have more and more Democrats
of elected office at different levels come in

231
00:16:04,519 --> 00:16:10,240
and say he shouldn't be the candidate, and maybe you finally have Nancy Pelosi

232
00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:15,919
or somebody like that bite the bullet
and go out in front and make Biden's

233
00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:21,200
position politically difficult and untenable, you
could see him dropping out. I think

234
00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:26,480
it'll happen before the convention rather than
after, but never say never. You

235
00:16:26,559 --> 00:16:33,960
basically have until September if you want
Biden's name on off the ballot. And

236
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:37,720
if you just want to tell Democrats
vote for electors and trust them, well

237
00:16:37,799 --> 00:16:41,360
heck, you could even wait until
October or so and then swamp them out

238
00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:45,679
to the r n c d As. I've got a couple questions. One

239
00:16:45,759 --> 00:16:48,879
is are they right? I mean, I just have to ask this because

240
00:16:48,879 --> 00:16:52,159
it seems like everybody nods and he
goes, there's no way he can win.

241
00:16:52,639 --> 00:16:56,720
Are they right? Is there no
way this guy can win? No

242
00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:00,399
way? I mean, you know, like or the risk is that we're

243
00:17:00,399 --> 00:17:03,400
really rolling the dice here. I
mean, already a high wire act with

244
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:07,000
both It was a high wire act
for both of these candidates when we thought

245
00:17:08,039 --> 00:17:11,039
both of them had you know,
one of them didn't have scrambled eggs up

246
00:17:11,079 --> 00:17:17,000
there. But now it's even higher
wire. I think that's an actual phrase.

247
00:17:18,519 --> 00:17:22,279
Yeah, how high is the wire
now for them? Yeah? The

248
00:17:22,319 --> 00:17:27,000
fundamental problem is that Joe Biden is
the most unpopular president in the history of

249
00:17:27,039 --> 00:17:32,440
polling, which is to say that
at this point in a president's first term,

250
00:17:32,519 --> 00:17:37,000
no one has lower job apoofa ratings
period. Jimmy Carter wasn't worse than

251
00:17:37,039 --> 00:17:41,839
this. Donald Trump wasn't worse than
this. So you've already got somebody who,

252
00:17:41,839 --> 00:17:45,319
by all rights, should be losing
in a landslide. He's not losing

253
00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,720
in a landslide because of Donald's Jay
Trump, who is also incredibly unpopular.

254
00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:55,279
But then you've got the fact that
now you have a person who is simply

255
00:17:55,359 --> 00:18:02,319
prone to being incapable of stringing three
sentences together. Yes, Biden did okay

256
00:18:02,599 --> 00:18:07,519
at the press conference yesterday. There's
no guarantee that over the next four months

257
00:18:07,559 --> 00:18:11,720
there won't be a freeze up on
camera. There won't be another moment like

258
00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:17,359
the debate. There won't be extended
moments like the debate. Everybody knows that.

259
00:18:17,799 --> 00:18:22,200
So you combine the two things together
and you say he could pull out

260
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:26,319
of it. But it's just not
realistic to think so. So my follow

261
00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:30,799
up there is have we mean,
part of like building any kind of team,

262
00:18:30,799 --> 00:18:34,960
political or otherwise, right, is
that there's a bench. And if

263
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,039
you look at the Republican primary,
there was a pretty deep bench. I

264
00:18:38,079 --> 00:18:44,279
mean, the primary vote has voted
for, to me, the most risky

265
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:47,079
of the candidates, But they had
a bench, they had people to choose

266
00:18:47,079 --> 00:18:52,799
from. I had. I had
my favorites, not the current non presumptive

267
00:18:52,839 --> 00:18:55,480
nominee, but I certainly had my
favorites. But you know, we could

268
00:18:55,599 --> 00:18:59,079
argue a whole bunch of things that
nobody would say, I'm not sure this

269
00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:04,240
guy's ready or that is ready.
The Democratic bench is much thinner. So

270
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:10,200
isn't this kind of problem the idea
of when you don't take the job of

271
00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:15,880
the or the part of the vice
president seriously and you throw all in for

272
00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:21,119
a popular president for two terms Obama, and you lose houses house races,

273
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:26,000
and you lose Senate races, and
you lose state houses. Isn't this aren't

274
00:19:26,039 --> 00:19:30,839
they reaping this sort of bad showing
season they've had for the past decade or

275
00:19:30,839 --> 00:19:34,319
two, Or am I just going
too far? I think they have a

276
00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:40,400
stronger bench than you're letting on.
But I think the problem is is that

277
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:45,559
they've got a week manager and they've
got a week assistant coach, and they're

278
00:19:45,559 --> 00:19:51,240
not really willing to rip the band
aid off and say let's clean house.

279
00:19:51,279 --> 00:19:53,640
You know, it's if this to
continue the sports metaphor, if there were

280
00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,000
a new owner in charge, the
manager of the general manager, and everybody

281
00:19:57,119 --> 00:20:00,119
this Keith Scout and the person who
sells folks would be out the door.

282
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:04,160
But that's not the case in the
Democratic Party. Look, the fundamental problem

283
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:10,400
the Democratic Party has is it is
beholden to a left that is wildly out

284
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:15,079
of step with the sentiments and values
of the American center. They're not willing

285
00:20:15,279 --> 00:20:21,720
to suppress that left and drive it
out of the party or limit its influence.

286
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:26,519
So it means it is continually the
tail that doesn't wag the dog in

287
00:20:26,559 --> 00:20:30,000
the way the tail wants, but
wags the dog enough that people notice.

288
00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:33,880
The fundamental fact that no one's talking
about except me, is this is going

289
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:38,920
to be the most pro Republican electorate
since the Great Depression. The Democrats since

290
00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:44,480
the Great Depression have always had an
edge in voter identification surveys, in exit

291
00:20:44,519 --> 00:20:48,400
polls, and general polling. That's
not the case anymore, guys. This

292
00:20:48,559 --> 00:20:55,079
is historic. Republicans will have been
ahead in either the straight party identification or

293
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:57,880
the leaned party identification, including independents
who say they leaned to one party or

294
00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:04,359
another in the Gallon poll for over
two and a half years before Henry Hold

295
00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:11,000
that thought about the Republican edge for
a moment. What I noticed is,

296
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:12,440
I don't want to take you back
to twenty sixteen for just a moment.

297
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:17,000
What I notice is the polls are
still really have a wide variance. Right

298
00:21:17,039 --> 00:21:21,720
now, there's some showing Trump with
a six even eight point lead nationally in

299
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:23,599
key states, and then there's a
couple of women out the last few days

300
00:21:23,599 --> 00:21:27,240
showing Biden even or ahead by a
point. I don't want to get off

301
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:32,400
into the weeds of polling methodology because
we'll drive listeners crazy. But here's the

302
00:21:32,519 --> 00:21:37,240
question. In twenty sixteen, I
think you were the first person to notice

303
00:21:37,279 --> 00:21:41,160
and make a point that every time
Trump did something stupid, attacked the gold

304
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:45,359
Star family of the Access Hollywood tape, his numbers would tank five, six,

305
00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:49,079
seven, eight points, but Hillary's
didn't go up. And that's when

306
00:21:49,119 --> 00:21:52,039
you were saying, hum, this
is interesting. And then Trump would Over

307
00:21:52,039 --> 00:21:56,680
the next week, Trump would improve
well like a point a day, and

308
00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:59,160
then, of course we know how
that turned out. It looks to me

309
00:21:59,319 --> 00:22:02,880
like something in the same is happening
here. I don't see Trump's numbers,

310
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:07,279
however, you want to wash out
the variation going up very much. You

311
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,000
see is Biden's going down. That
is the thing that says to me,

312
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:14,720
Biden's not out of it. You
know, we're having this great gooey shot

313
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,920
in freudy happy time right now watching
this disaster. But could he sneak up

314
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:25,319
on us the way Trump snuck up
on Hillary? Yes, and that I'm

315
00:22:25,319 --> 00:22:29,119
glad you made that point. That
is exactly what's going on. Is Trump's

316
00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:33,240
not going up, Biden's going down, which means that just like Trump with

317
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:38,119
his incessant foot in the mouth disease
in twenty sixteen, would drop and then

318
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:44,319
people who didn't want Hillary would come
back once that faded from view, you

319
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:48,279
could say that that'll happen with Bien. The question is will this fade from

320
00:22:48,319 --> 00:22:52,599
view that you know with Trump,
at some point you just incorporated the fact

321
00:22:52,640 --> 00:23:00,200
that this guy has virtues and flaws
to being a president candidate that we've never

322
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:06,359
seen before, and he ultimately benefited
from the fact that people really really didn't

323
00:23:06,359 --> 00:23:10,359
want Hillary enough, people really didn't
want Hillary, that they really held their

324
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:12,640
nose and voted for somebody they didn't
want to win. And that's the question

325
00:23:12,759 --> 00:23:18,039
for Biden. But this gets back
to the how it's different, which is

326
00:23:18,079 --> 00:23:25,559
that what we saw in twenty sixteen
is people incorporated Trump's eccentricity and they would

327
00:23:25,599 --> 00:23:27,799
react to specific examples of it,
but then then come back, which meant

328
00:23:27,799 --> 00:23:33,279
that the eccentricity itself was not fatal. Do people feel that about the president's

329
00:23:33,279 --> 00:23:40,720
mental capacity? Follow up question on
the Republican edge? You point out two

330
00:23:40,799 --> 00:23:45,480
parts of this. One, is
it okay that discount that Trump has got

331
00:23:45,759 --> 00:23:48,359
negatives almost as bad as Biden,
and that can account for the fact that

332
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:52,599
he has a hard ceiling. But
second, there are I know, you've

333
00:23:52,599 --> 00:23:56,440
seen a lot of the state by
statepholes showing a lot of Democratic Senate candidates

334
00:23:56,480 --> 00:24:00,960
in particular running ahead of Biden and
running ahead of the Republican challengers. And

335
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,519
so that makes me wonder is this
Republican edge not yet showing up or the

336
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,680
follow up question is a parallel the
row brought up a couple times the last

337
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,160
couple of weeks, which is just
in some ways the selection looks like nineteen

338
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:15,559
eighty when it was neck and neck. Sometimes Ronald Reagan was trailing. He

339
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,519
usually was ahead by a point most
of the time, but sometimes trailing,

340
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:22,519
and it broke big at the end
when people decided after the debate that gosh,

341
00:24:22,559 --> 00:24:26,599
you know, he actually looks fine
to me and Carter really is okay.

342
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:27,519
So there was a ten point win
in the end of the day,

343
00:24:27,559 --> 00:24:33,160
where well beyond the margin of the
last public polls. So it looks to

344
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:37,960
me like either the Republican edge is
overstated, oh by the way, and

345
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,799
the Senate races in nineteen eighty,
as you know, being history geeks,

346
00:24:41,559 --> 00:24:44,519
you have six or eight Republican candidates
who were way down on the polls who

347
00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:48,119
won, right. So do you
think we're looking at at this date a

348
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:53,039
possible rerun of a nineteen eighty surprise
where Republicans pick up six eight Senate seats

349
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:57,160
and Trump actually does win by six
points or something like that, or do

350
00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:02,359
you have a hunch on it right
now? With respect to the current Senate

351
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:07,000
polls. I've written about this for
National View online, I will worry as

352
00:25:07,039 --> 00:25:08,680
a Republican. As an analyst,
I don't worry because I can read the

353
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,839
polls all the time. But as
a Republican I would worry if we're on

354
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:18,559
October first and that's still the case. Why name identification? Every one of

355
00:25:18,599 --> 00:25:23,880
these Democratic senators has an edge in
name identification, So What you're seeing is

356
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,880
that when you look at the polls, Republicans like the Republican, Democrats like

357
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:33,599
the Democrat, and independents are going
to the incumbent. Why it's the name

358
00:25:33,599 --> 00:25:37,799
they've heard. What we know is
that over the next few months, Republicans

359
00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:40,680
will spend tens of millions of dollars
in each of these states, and by

360
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:45,960
October one they will know the Republican
as well, or at least the hard

361
00:25:45,039 --> 00:25:48,559
name idea will be pretty close to
the hard name idea of the Democratic senators.

362
00:25:48,559 --> 00:25:53,440
To ask me on October first,
how far Democratic senators are running ahead

363
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:59,680
of Joe Biden. Now I've looked
at the numbers being Nerd squared, and

364
00:26:00,559 --> 00:26:03,480
typically Democratic senators will run a couple
of points ahead of the president in the

365
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:10,480
modern era. So if Joe Biden
does bounce back and he's down by one

366
00:26:10,599 --> 00:26:17,480
nationally, that probably means he's running
even in Pennsylvania, which probably means Joe

367
00:26:17,599 --> 00:26:22,039
Bob Casey will be ahead by a
point or two. I don't think that

368
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,759
absent a massive candidate meltdown by Republicans, and I think Steve Danes, the

369
00:26:27,799 --> 00:26:33,200
head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has done a good job working with

370
00:26:33,279 --> 00:26:37,559
President Trump to make sure there are
not going to be doctor Oz's and herschel

371
00:26:37,559 --> 00:26:42,960
Walker's this night. These people may
be bland, they may be in experienced,

372
00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,960
they may largely be self funders,
but they are not fatally flawed in

373
00:26:49,039 --> 00:26:52,680
the way these other people work.
So what we know is that Democrats are

374
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:56,079
only going to run a couple of
points ahead of their president. So that

375
00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:03,559
makes Biden's standing crucial, which explains
the freak. Biden losing by four nationally

376
00:27:03,799 --> 00:27:10,119
means the possibility of as many as
eight Senate seat losses, including West Virginia.

377
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:15,640
Biden losing by one nationally probably limits
those losses to between two and four.

378
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,039
You know, Rob has some questions
I think that have to do with

379
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:27,359
US politics. I've got one that
shows that shows that my mind ranges far,

380
00:27:29,039 --> 00:27:33,359
far, very continental man. So
we'll get to that second. Here's

381
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:38,400
my question. My basic premise has
been I sort of agreed with the Democratic

382
00:27:38,599 --> 00:27:45,720
Party strategy, which is Trump is
awful. People hate him, He's unstable,

383
00:27:47,079 --> 00:27:51,079
he has impulse control problems. He's
going to say do something stupid.

384
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:59,480
Yeah, the Republican Party is now
in the grip of uh kamikaze uh,

385
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,759
politics in that they would rather lose
and you know, hold dear to their

386
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:07,200
crackpot views that are unpopular with Americans. And I though thought, like,

387
00:28:07,599 --> 00:28:11,759
that's a that's a pretty that's not
a crazy strategy. It's not a strategy

388
00:28:11,839 --> 00:28:18,880
I would use, but it doesn't
seem insane to me. The opposite seems

389
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:22,440
to be happening. You saw a
very forceful Trump. I mean I was

390
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,279
watching the debate, the debate with
a bunch of lefties from public radio,

391
00:28:26,759 --> 00:28:30,160
and you know, he made good
points and they go, it's good point,

392
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:33,960
made a really good point on abortion. I thought he made a really

393
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,200
good answer in a lot of these
things, and he kind of held himself

394
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:37,079
in check and he at one point
he kind of looked at it. He

395
00:28:37,079 --> 00:28:40,640
did a take. He looked at
the camera and said, I have no

396
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,519
idea what that guy just said.
That sentence means I don't think he does

397
00:28:42,519 --> 00:28:45,039
either, And he kind of looked
directly in the camera kind of Jack Benny

398
00:28:45,119 --> 00:28:49,160
style, which you know he's very
talented at that stuff. So so he

399
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:56,319
seems to be in control of himself. The Republican Party platform seems to be

400
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:59,720
a throwback, almost like you're looking
at it and it feels like it's nineteen

401
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:06,559
eighty eight again or ninety ninety two
again. What happens if the Republicans have

402
00:29:06,599 --> 00:29:11,720
their act together. First of all, Donald Trump has been demonstrating for the

403
00:29:11,799 --> 00:29:17,400
last year and a half that he
is a more disciplined candidate than he was

404
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:22,359
in twenty sixteen or twenty twenty.
Anyone who was surprised by the debate stage

405
00:29:22,039 --> 00:29:25,759
hasn't been watching, you know,
the old liberal bumper sticker. If you're

406
00:29:25,799 --> 00:29:30,480
not angry, you're not paying attention. If you're surprised that Trump's relative self

407
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:34,599
control, you're not paying attention.
And this gets to the incredible bubble that

408
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:42,759
so many aggressive activists live in.
Look two things, one, rally the

409
00:29:42,759 --> 00:29:48,799
base and split the independence. By
scaring works when you have an advantage in

410
00:29:48,839 --> 00:29:55,880
partisan identification, it's a recipe for
loss when you don't have. Democrats have

411
00:29:56,039 --> 00:30:00,880
never run a national campaign went out
holding the highhigh ground. They still think

412
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,839
they hold the high ground. Rally
the base, split the independence means Donald

413
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,640
Trump wins by two to four points
nationally. It's also hard to scare people

414
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,359
at that this is the democracies on
the line. But you know we're gonna

415
00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:17,720
let this old man kind of like
Totter his way to November. That doesn't

416
00:30:18,359 --> 00:30:21,319
that doesn't seem those two things cannot
both be true. More important than the

417
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:26,960
choices, the fact is the number
show people aren't buying it. Democratic voter

418
00:30:26,079 --> 00:30:32,799
registration has been declining in virtually every
state that tracks it during the Biden administration.

419
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:38,400
They're losing hundreds of thousands of registrants. Partisan identification in polls has been

420
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:45,400
declining throughout the Biden presidency. This
has nothing to do with Joe Biden's age.

421
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,680
This has to do with people look
at what's on offer. They hear

422
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:55,640
what the Republicans are saying, and
they don't drink the progressive kool aid.

423
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:00,880
And that is not something that is
getting through to these people because they have

424
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:06,240
drunk the progressive kool aid. Yeah, that's why I think that if you

425
00:31:06,799 --> 00:31:11,359
ripped the band aid off and put
on a ticket of Gretchen Whitmer and Rafael

426
00:31:11,359 --> 00:31:15,519
Warnack, they would have the credibility
to say we're turning a new leaf,

427
00:31:15,519 --> 00:31:18,279
We're a new Democratic Party, blah
blah blah. It would be trying to

428
00:31:18,359 --> 00:31:22,480
do here. And this gets into
the elections. Don't just happen in the

429
00:31:22,559 --> 00:31:29,000
United States of America. This is
Jacindomania from New Zealand where they got rid

430
00:31:29,039 --> 00:31:32,480
of the leader a few weeks before
their election, and suddenly this new,

431
00:31:32,519 --> 00:31:34,559
fresh, young face made people think, Hey, this is a new labor

432
00:31:34,599 --> 00:31:38,880
party. That's what I would do
if I were the Democrats, but it

433
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:45,559
requires courage to do it and an
organization which they've never had. Well,

434
00:31:48,119 --> 00:31:52,480
yeah, that is Will Rogers' statement. I don't belong for the people who

435
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:56,480
I don't know the same I don't
belong to an organized political party, and

436
00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,200
I'm a Democrat. But fundamentally,
what you just have to do is say

437
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:06,480
we are willing. I'm willing to
blow up my political career, potentially to

438
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:09,640
blow up the president because that's what's
in the interest of the party. And

439
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:13,359
nobody's been willing to do that so
far. But we've still got a few

440
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:15,920
weeks to go, so I know
James wants to come in. I just

441
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:20,480
have one scenario to pitch you,
which is a no. I'm reme'mb rethinking

442
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:22,480
all of my political fears. So
this is my pitch. I was talking

443
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:27,599
to somebody last night about this.
She didn't see that she was completely convinced.

444
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:32,440
But I feel that's probably because she
was an ardent partisan Democrat. It's

445
00:32:32,599 --> 00:32:37,400
entirely possible that Donald Trump in his
but it will be his second term,

446
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:43,279
his last term will be like every
other president in his second and last term,

447
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,559
and we'll be thinking about legacy,
not so much the fight, but

448
00:32:46,599 --> 00:32:50,839
the legacy. Am I going to
get on a stamp? Am I going

449
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,000
to get on a statue? Am
I going to get win over the people

450
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:58,519
who don't like me? How big
can I be? And that's to me?

451
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:02,039
I mean I could be reading he
leaves as I almost always do wrong

452
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:07,720
Lee, But it seems to be
that is his ability now to like shut

453
00:33:07,799 --> 00:33:14,599
up, to let a pretty anadyne
boilerplate Republican platform get passed through, to

454
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:17,440
kind of behave a little a little
bit suggests that he's thinking, well,

455
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,559
you know, he's not gonna be
able to run again. If he wins,

456
00:33:22,559 --> 00:33:27,640
he's going to have four years to
become something other than a very controversial,

457
00:33:29,119 --> 00:33:32,680
you know, kind of tainted president. He's gonna have a chance to

458
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:37,799
become a one of the great president's, A two term president. Is that?

459
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:43,880
Am I crazy? No? No, I don't think you're crazy.

460
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:49,960
But I think Donald Trump's entire life
is built on a couple of things.

461
00:33:50,079 --> 00:33:57,119
One is bringing the name Trump to
the center of every conversation possible. Two

462
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:02,440
is courting the media in order to
build a mass following that brings the name

463
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:09,760
Trump to every conversation possible. And
three is doing so by flaunting conventional wisdom

464
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:15,920
throughout. He's gonna build the biggest
building. He's going to build the biggest

465
00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:22,920
casino. He's going to sleep around
and dispense with his lives. He's going

466
00:34:22,039 --> 00:34:30,800
to be the guy who makes it
without conforming to expectations. And I look

467
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:37,159
and I think if Donald Trump were
going to be the person who wants to

468
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:42,159
be popular and conform, he would
have done that in his first term.

469
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:45,559
That would have been the easiest thing. That's what people were kind of hoping,

470
00:34:45,679 --> 00:34:49,960
is, Hey, now that you've
made it, make can be presidential.

471
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:52,159
So I look at this and I
think, Yes, Donald Trump wants

472
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:54,719
to have a legacy. He wants
to have his name in the center of

473
00:34:54,719 --> 00:35:00,719
every conversation. He wants that proverbial
statue. And he believes he's going to

474
00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:10,440
do it by being the most direct, confrontational, victory focused, ruthless president

475
00:35:10,599 --> 00:35:15,960
that we have seen since Franklin rose
Remember Franklin. One of my favorite lines

476
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:20,920
from Franklin Roosevelt is from the Madison
Square Garden speech in nineteen thirty six when

477
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:25,480
he's under attack from the Liberty Lobby
and so forth for destroying America, and

478
00:35:25,519 --> 00:35:34,320
he says, they are universal in
their hate for me, and I welcome

479
00:35:34,519 --> 00:35:39,599
their hatred. That's Donald Trump.
Yeah, well After Hour was pretty successful.

480
00:35:39,639 --> 00:35:45,159
So yeah, last time I checked, Yeah, Henry. Last Monday,

481
00:35:45,159 --> 00:35:49,400
I was in a hotel room in
the UK, enjoying my morning coffee,

482
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:52,320
watching the television, and there was
a bright faced young woman from Labor,

483
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,239
all happy and talking about the new
labor and how they're going to fix

484
00:35:55,239 --> 00:36:00,199
the country and sort everything. And
then they had the conservative spokesman, who

485
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:04,280
was a rather portly fellow with an
excessive number of jowels, who is named

486
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,440
Lord Pickles. And I'm like,
and I'm looking at this, and I'm

487
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:10,960
thinking, well, you know,
Bush comes to shove. I'm gonna go

488
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:15,360
with the picture. But this,
this this bright new face of labor.

489
00:36:16,119 --> 00:36:20,039
Hmm. Not sure. I'm not
sure I'm believing it. I spent a

490
00:36:20,119 --> 00:36:22,800
fortnight in England, and you know, I'm the kind of guy who reads

491
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:29,360
the telegraph so take that for which
you will, but dismaying to see what

492
00:36:29,519 --> 00:36:31,719
happened and how everybody said seems to
have said, well, yes, we

493
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:36,079
know that essentially labor is probably lying
to us, not going to drive the

494
00:36:36,079 --> 00:36:38,280
country off the cliff economically in terms
of energy policy and the rest of it,

495
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:40,639
and probably can't fish fix the NHL. But on the other hand,

496
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:45,840
you know, the Tories have just
really cocked things. Explain to us exactly

497
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:51,400
what happened over there briefly and why
it matters, because it does, and

498
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:54,440
maybe throwing in France for the for
the fun of it too. Yeah,

499
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:58,400
well, you know, it certainly
matters for Britain and it matters for us.

500
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:02,800
Look what happened over there was in
twenty nineteen. The Tories had done

501
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:07,639
something that nobody else had been able
to successfully do, with the possible exception

502
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:12,239
of Donald Trump, is that they
were able to lean into the global realignment,

503
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,719
which is that upper ed class educated
people are moving center left and working

504
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:22,199
class people are moving center right.
And they created a majority that, for

505
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:27,599
the first time in modern polling history, meant that the Conservatives did better among

506
00:37:27,719 --> 00:37:35,119
the social classes that are less well
privileged than the ones that are more privileged.

507
00:37:35,639 --> 00:37:38,519
They blew it up. They blew
it up, and they basically blew

508
00:37:38,519 --> 00:37:45,480
it up intentionally, although they didn't
know intention would actually give them a direction

509
00:37:45,639 --> 00:37:50,559
and a thought that they did not
possess fundamentally. They won an election in

510
00:37:50,599 --> 00:37:54,599
twenty nineteen making promises they did not
believe in and did not intend to keep.

511
00:37:55,199 --> 00:38:01,280
They did not intend to bring immigration
down to the net ten thousands.

512
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:09,039
They did not intend to level up
working class communities and working class people by

513
00:38:09,079 --> 00:38:14,840
tilting the public policies in their favor. They did not intend to take on

514
00:38:15,079 --> 00:38:20,039
the Tory shires and begin to force
them to allow more homes to be built

515
00:38:20,039 --> 00:38:22,599
in the most economically vibrant part of
the country, you know, London,

516
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:29,360
which has massively high home prices because
of restrictive zoning in the Tory areas.

517
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:34,079
They did not intend to do what
they said, and the voters finally figured

518
00:38:34,119 --> 00:38:38,199
that out that this was not a
problem of Boris Johnson having a lapse of

519
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,559
judgment. This is a fundamental problem
with the Tories. And so what you

520
00:38:42,639 --> 00:38:46,480
had was people who wanted competent public
services went to the center left, and

521
00:38:46,519 --> 00:38:50,639
for people who wanted the old promises, they either didn't vote or they went

522
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,239
to Reform Party, and that's what
happened. This was not a vote in

523
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:58,400
favor of Kere Starmer and Labor.
It was a vote to say, you

524
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:02,719
are incompetent and did honest and we
want the door to hit you very hard

525
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:07,599
on your way out. Can they
come back from that? Well, it's

526
00:39:07,679 --> 00:39:10,280
kind of like Joe Biden. I
can always say can. But you know,

527
00:39:12,679 --> 00:39:17,719
fundamentally, in a democracy, to
quote somebody who Steve would know,

528
00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:22,760
you know, public opinion is everything, you know. Abraham Lincoln said it.

529
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:27,679
James Madison said it. Oh well, that's what leads to my follow

530
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,199
up question, Henry, which is
to people who go beyond the headlines,

531
00:39:31,199 --> 00:39:36,519
which you do, you'll notice something
quite odd about both the British and French

532
00:39:36,559 --> 00:39:40,920
elections. I think it's correct that
Labor received fewer actual votes they did five

533
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,039
years ago, and second it was
thirty four percent of the total vote,

534
00:39:45,039 --> 00:39:49,440
and yet they got four hundred and
twelve two thirds of the seats. The

535
00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:53,039
old Lib Dem Party they got i
think twelve percent of the vote in seventy

536
00:39:53,039 --> 00:39:58,679
one seats, and Nigel Faraja's New
Reform Party got fourteen percent of the vote.

537
00:39:58,679 --> 00:40:00,800
And what five seats. So,
you know, here in this country

538
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:06,519
and in similar situation in France.
Here in this country, all the quote

539
00:40:06,559 --> 00:40:09,679
unquote reformers say, oh, our
systems so undemocratic. You know, jerry

540
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:14,840
mandering for the House the Senate is
you know, undemocratic, and of course

541
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:20,039
they hate the electoral college. Here's
a system where you have this massive number

542
00:40:20,119 --> 00:40:23,039
of seats with only a third of
the vote. And then similarly in France.

543
00:40:23,079 --> 00:40:27,920
The question I'm coming to is this. It seems to me that although

544
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:30,920
it's correct that, you know,
kick the Tories out for being so incompetent,

545
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:36,800
but it does seem to me that
these parliamentary majorities you see are wildly

546
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,039
out of step with the European public
opinion. I mean, I think in

547
00:40:39,079 --> 00:40:44,320
France, all you've done is postpone
and make more likely the presidency of Marine

548
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:49,000
Lapan three years from now. So, I mean, you know, in

549
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:52,119
the nineties, Bill Clinton, as
we all know, moved to the center

550
00:40:52,199 --> 00:40:55,280
after his he understood public opinion was
not with him. It doesn't seem to

551
00:40:55,320 --> 00:41:00,320
me that the labor rights in Britain, or certainly not in France, they

552
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:05,800
understand that they're wrong against public opinion
and aren't they setting themselves up for even

553
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:09,199
more populous furies in the next four
years. It's pretty much globally. I

554
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:14,360
mean, what are the establishment you
know, to be frank, what do

555
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:22,639
the establishment Republicans think? Well,
we can wake up and from the political

556
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:24,960
version of the Dallas Dream season and
Pam will go in and you know,

557
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:30,719
see Bobby's in the shower, and
then Trump never happened. Look, good

558
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:35,559
lord, you're showing our age,
Henry. Okay, well, I usually

559
00:41:35,639 --> 00:41:43,000
show my age. I don't know
what you boomers are talking about. Yeah,

560
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:47,280
hold my beer. Okay, Yeah. Look, this is happening globally

561
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:52,719
because there's a class of people who
legitimately see that the people who run their

562
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:57,119
countries don't care about them. They
care more about their own values than the

563
00:41:57,159 --> 00:42:01,199
traditional national values. They care more
about their own any economic benefits than anything

564
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:07,800
that flows to their broader citizens.
And this elite class exists, we know

565
00:42:07,079 --> 00:42:13,880
people in it. It spans left
and right, and they have now had

566
00:42:14,159 --> 00:42:16,920
ten, depending on the country,
ten to fifteen years to see and read

567
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,639
the mood of their people. They
refuse to do it. At this point,

568
00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,199
they're not going to change. And
so the question is do you think

569
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:30,039
that doing more of the same old
little twink here and there of the post

570
00:42:30,119 --> 00:42:37,639
nineteen ninety left right consensus will solve
the problems of the West if you do

571
00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:42,760
well, I want to have some
of what you're having, but you would

572
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:47,280
fit very nicely in the elites.
I think the entire world developed world is

573
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:52,719
focusing for a populist showdown. I
think that's one of the things that the

574
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:58,960
devils the inability to see why Donald
Trump can win, and center right parties

575
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:04,559
that want to lean into this and
actually become new center right parties kent profit.

576
00:43:04,639 --> 00:43:07,519
Those that don't go the way of
the Tories, go the way of

577
00:43:07,559 --> 00:43:12,480
the establishment, old guard Republicans,
you know, dream for two thousand and

578
00:43:12,559 --> 00:43:15,880
eight. You know, it's it's
kind of like going back to your high

579
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:19,840
school reunion and thinking that you can
still fit into your letterman's jacket. It's

580
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,320
just not going to happen. So
Hender, I know, we got to

581
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,639
let you go. But one question
is at a larger American history question,

582
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:30,719
are we living through something that twenty
years and now thirty years from now people

583
00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:36,480
will talk about a big transformation period
in American history where the parties are out

584
00:43:36,519 --> 00:43:42,880
of gas, where the traditional pathways
are got to go, and we look

585
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:44,079
at it, we look at the
past, go, well, you know,

586
00:43:44,079 --> 00:43:45,239
they're the whigs that around heads to
cop whatever. We had, all

587
00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:49,119
those parties, wed all those we
had, all those movements, and we

588
00:43:49,159 --> 00:43:52,800
think of them as eras that ended. Is this? What is this what

589
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:58,920
we're living through? Just read the
end of five days after the two thousand

590
00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:02,679
and eight election in Los Angeles five
six something like that, And I was

591
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:07,199
with my then young, now middle
aged assistant, and I said, let's

592
00:44:07,199 --> 00:44:13,639
go up to the top of the
Bonaventure Hotel Bonaventure with its revolving boone and

593
00:44:13,679 --> 00:44:15,239
I had a drink and I said, the reason I want to do this,

594
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:20,800
of course this person was too young
to remember. Why I know anything

595
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,360
about this is that in nineteen eighty
I did this after the Reagan election.

596
00:44:24,679 --> 00:44:30,679
And the Reagan era is over.
The Reagan era has been over since two

597
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:36,880
thousand and eight. The post nineteen
ninety era has been over since two thousand

598
00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,599
and eight. We are in the
middle of what we will look at as

599
00:44:39,639 --> 00:44:45,159
a thirty to forty year movement that
is on par with the rise of social

600
00:44:45,199 --> 00:44:50,760
democracy from the end of the nineteenth
century to its final triumph as the dominant

601
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:54,079
force after World War Two. We
are maybe not in the middle of it,

602
00:44:54,119 --> 00:44:59,119
We're only in the third of it. Maybe maybe it's the end of

603
00:44:59,199 --> 00:45:01,679
the beginning and not the beginning of
the end. But this has been going

604
00:45:01,679 --> 00:45:07,079
on. There is no populist moment. It is a populist era and the

605
00:45:07,119 --> 00:45:12,719
only question that remains is how will
it end. It will end with a

606
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:19,880
fundamentally transformed West. The question is
is it a fundamentally transformed West that we

607
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:22,320
want to live in or one that
we don't want to live in? And

608
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:27,440
that is the only question that elites
really ought to be trying to answer.

609
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:30,599
But of course that's not the question
they want to answer, which simply increases

610
00:45:30,639 --> 00:45:39,119
the likelihood of strong, rapid and
perhaps misguided populism. The question the elites

611
00:45:39,159 --> 00:45:44,360
want to have answered is what exactly
is going to be on the menu the

612
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:49,400
first day of DeVos because I have
a peanut allergy and my wife doesn't like

613
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:53,000
shrimp. Yeah, I think.
I think the next statement that's going to

614
00:45:53,000 --> 00:46:00,400
come out of DeVos is let them
eat gluten free, right to see.

615
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:01,599
I mean, I hope it is
the West that we recognize and I'll live

616
00:46:01,639 --> 00:46:06,000
in the pod and eating the bug
and that sort of thing. But we'll

617
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,800
see, so we'll have you.
This is podcast number six ninety nine,

618
00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:13,800
Henry. We're going to have you
on for podcast number one, three hundred

619
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:16,360
and ninety eight, where we'll discuss
exactly what has become of the West in

620
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:20,679
the meantime. Thanks, it's been
a pleasure talking to you and hearing your

621
00:46:20,679 --> 00:46:25,159
insights, and everybody go to his
podcast at ricochet dot com and read the

622
00:46:25,159 --> 00:46:30,760
books. Henry. Thanks, thank
k Henry. Before we go, a

623
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:35,000
couple of things. First of all, Rob's here, So Rob's going to

624
00:46:35,039 --> 00:46:37,000
be happy to tell you about all
the meetups which and he's going to I

625
00:46:37,079 --> 00:46:39,760
think he's going to every single one
of them, and he's going to be

626
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:45,400
I'd love to winch to down a
in a breeches boy. And so what's

627
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:47,280
coming up, Well, of course
that's the benefit of being a member of

628
00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:51,320
Ricoshet. You get to go to
the meetup, says one, the German

629
00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:54,039
Fest meetup in Milwaukee, which is
coming up actually weekend of July twenty six,

630
00:46:55,440 --> 00:47:00,400
and then there's one scheduled in Saint
Louis on October third, so there's

631
00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:04,519
only two in the on the docket
right now. That can change in an

632
00:47:04,559 --> 00:47:07,400
instant. You could change that by
joining Ricochet and picking a weekend or picking

633
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:13,440
a day. Post it and people, your fellow Ricochet members will show up

634
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:15,840
and you, guys, I guarantee
you have a great time. It is

635
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:22,119
always fun to hang out with the
Ricochet members. They are always lots of

636
00:47:22,159 --> 00:47:24,639
fun to talk to. It is
not all politics. In fact, the

637
00:47:24,679 --> 00:47:28,920
last one I went to, I
think I don't think I really had a

638
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:31,559
political conversation with We think we had
one, like we won a dinner time

639
00:47:31,599 --> 00:47:35,599
at the table. We had one, and it was just kind of casual.

640
00:47:35,679 --> 00:47:38,920
But it's really more about a big, wide life and world that we

641
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:44,920
live in which goes beyond the momentary
politics. It was music and movies and

642
00:47:45,039 --> 00:47:47,000
architecture the last one that I was
at, and not a word about politics,

643
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:51,719
because you know, there's just so
much more to life. Of course,

644
00:47:51,719 --> 00:47:54,920
nothing affects us as deeply on a
pocketbook level or a street safety level

645
00:47:55,039 --> 00:48:00,400
or all that stuff. But still
there's something about getting together with life minded

646
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,280
people and not expressing the like mindedness
that is all of Ricochet. To me,

647
00:48:05,159 --> 00:48:07,159
that's a very good way to put
it. Yeah, Stephen, why

648
00:48:07,159 --> 00:48:12,639
don't you host one out there in
your cality zone and report back. I'm

649
00:48:12,639 --> 00:48:15,599
sure people would love to congregate and
hear you expound on your tales of the

650
00:48:15,599 --> 00:48:21,679
world. Speaking of tales of the
world, there's a note here in the

651
00:48:21,800 --> 00:48:24,119
rundown and yes we do have a
couple of lines that are suggested to us

652
00:48:24,119 --> 00:48:32,360
by our producers. Perry big thumbs
up. It says James Lillax's European sojourn.

653
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:37,119
Well, my friends, A nobody
cares and b it's the entirety of

654
00:48:37,119 --> 00:48:40,480
my diner this week. But it's
not I went here and then I did

655
00:48:40,519 --> 00:48:45,559
this. It's who cares. It's
just various thoughts, observations and moments from

656
00:48:45,639 --> 00:48:50,920
Europe, which is a different place. I love the UK and I absolutely

657
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:53,639
now adore Scotland, but I have
to say this. The power of images,

658
00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:58,440
the power of deep fakes, the
power of falsehoes, the power of

659
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:06,719
belief. There's nothing that really drives
this home like sitting on a big boat

660
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:09,920
and realizing you've paid forty five dollars
to be driven out into the middle of

661
00:49:10,039 --> 00:49:17,719
loch Ness. This whole industry that
is of putting out ships and selling souvenirs

662
00:49:17,719 --> 00:49:22,440
for the lock Nest Monster. All
seems to be based on a grainy nineteen

663
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:28,280
thirties picture where somebody took a pen
and drew in a sea monster. And

664
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:34,960
so everybody deeply wants to believe and
piles one after the other, sun up

665
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:37,199
to sun down. These ships are
filled with people, and I'm laughing at

666
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:40,440
myself for a couple of reasons.
One, I wanted to do it.

667
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:45,760
I really did. I had no
illusions whatsoever. But there's just something about

668
00:49:45,159 --> 00:49:50,239
if ever the lock Nest Monster comes
up shrugging sort of and saying, yeah,

669
00:49:51,519 --> 00:49:55,079
I've been there, and it is
beautiful, and it is terrifying when

670
00:49:55,079 --> 00:49:58,760
they tell you the tales the deep
in the dark and what they actually do

671
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,480
think is down there. That's fascinating. And it took a long time to

672
00:50:01,519 --> 00:50:04,760
get there and a long time to
get back. And we saw all sorts

673
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:07,840
of Scottish highlands and this and that
and the irons and cairns and battlefields and

674
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:13,000
the rest of it, all narrated
by we Dennis McCafferty, who steered the

675
00:50:13,119 --> 00:50:15,840
enormous bus with one hand as we
went down these twisty roads at fifty kilometers

676
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:20,400
while he gestured with the other at
empty battlefields full of full of you know,

677
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,800
coups telling us that blood was spent
there, and the Campbell's and McDonald's,

678
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,840
and they're still angry about it.
But what amazed me, and it

679
00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:34,760
shouldn't have, because I've traveled a
lot. The bus stops were to walk

680
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:37,559
across this bridge to go to the
boats that will take us out there.

681
00:50:37,599 --> 00:50:43,920
And it's not a far distance.
But between the bus and boarding and boarding

682
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,639
the boat, my wife found a
store that she could just nip into for

683
00:50:47,679 --> 00:50:51,519
a second and have a look,
And having done so, she found a

684
00:50:51,519 --> 00:50:55,119
sweater. I don't know a man
in the world who doesn't think I'm at

685
00:50:55,119 --> 00:50:58,559
the bus. I must get to
the boat, and you go to the

686
00:50:58,559 --> 00:51:00,800
boat, and that's your first priority. But she sees, she sees this

687
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:04,639
little shop, and you know,
and I'm just gonna look in for a

688
00:51:04,679 --> 00:51:10,039
second, and I'd be like,
why you're not walking around in rags?

689
00:51:10,159 --> 00:51:14,559
You have clothes. God knows you
have an escape, but I don't.

690
00:51:14,559 --> 00:51:16,159
Of course, I just off she
goes, and then I just have to

691
00:51:16,199 --> 00:51:22,400
wait. James, I reject I
reject your your gender conformity. Yeah,

692
00:51:23,119 --> 00:51:28,039
but I will say this, you
clearly have been duped by the global elites

693
00:51:28,199 --> 00:51:31,400
because you think that the Lockedest Monster
does not exist. That's just what they

694
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:35,840
want, The dapples crowd wants you
to believe. Uh huh uh huh uh

695
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:39,280
huh. Probably so yes, would
you don't don't look, don't don't look

696
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:43,760
too deep, don't peer too deeply
into the midnight blue waters coming up?

697
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,239
You know, But I'm disappointed,
Rob. I thought our theologian and training

698
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:51,480
would say that the uh, the
fascination of things like the Lockedest Monster speaks

699
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:54,400
to the deep innate desire of human
beings for some kind of transcendence and mystery.

700
00:51:54,599 --> 00:51:59,639
And sometimes you said default, right, Well, my default is always

701
00:51:59,639 --> 00:52:02,280
going to be like you know,
James, that's true. But so I

702
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:04,920
just I know you got to run, Jays, But I do want to

703
00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:07,800
ask because I've been in this position
a couple of times and it is always

704
00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:14,400
weird but really fascinating to be in
a foreign country when they are in the

705
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:17,360
middle of that election. Yes,
and you kind of see how that goes.

706
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:24,159
It was. It's always really interesting
and like how they what they think

707
00:52:24,159 --> 00:52:28,559
about the mechanisms. And I'm certainly
in England it's or UK. It's interesting

708
00:52:28,599 --> 00:52:31,239
because of their parliamentary. Their elections
are always so so weird. There's always

709
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:37,360
some weird lunatic running as well,
but it's always it's just kind of a

710
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:38,400
strange things. You think, oh, well, elections are run, here's

711
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:43,559
how they go, the way we
go, but they don't and I don't

712
00:52:43,599 --> 00:52:45,719
know. So it's a it's a
it's a kind of a tourism only political

713
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:51,920
nerds would engage in. But I'm
I'm I'm jealous that you were there for

714
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,199
that. It was fun, But
on the other hand, it was sad

715
00:52:54,280 --> 00:53:00,840
because in my heart, you know, I have motions towards the British Isles.

716
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:04,039
I love the place I have.
I mean, my second favorite place

717
00:53:04,079 --> 00:53:07,960
on Earth is the town of wompers
Wick. It's my it's my second home,

718
00:53:07,119 --> 00:53:13,000
and I invested in it all doing
well, and it just feels as

719
00:53:13,039 --> 00:53:17,280
if they've taken a path, taken
a taken a choice that I I mean,

720
00:53:19,119 --> 00:53:22,719
granted I read the telegraph, but
the news is not good over there.

721
00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:25,760
There's not a good feeling about the
way the country is situated, and

722
00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:34,239
the problems seem large and insoluble.
And again, the political classes, you

723
00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:37,159
know, as Henry was talking about, just just completely blew off their ability

724
00:53:37,199 --> 00:53:40,480
to do anything about it. Now
where where I go to Walbers there is

725
00:53:40,639 --> 00:53:44,880
there is a sense of being not
besieged but the outside world, but that

726
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:49,719
it is somehow a they get they
it hasn't hit there yet. The energy

727
00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:52,360
prices are ridiculously high, and there
are things that complain about, but the

728
00:53:52,920 --> 00:53:59,159
problems that beset the country and the
big cities haven't gone there yet. And

729
00:53:59,199 --> 00:54:02,000
a lot of America few was like
that too. So yes, it was

730
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:06,480
fun to be there. But I
mean it's fun to be sitting in the

731
00:54:06,519 --> 00:54:08,320
bar and a guy walks in with
his dog and everybody's you know, you're

732
00:54:08,320 --> 00:54:12,599
looking at the dog, and then
you look at the guy. Oh he's

733
00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:16,039
a movie director. Did those things
about missions impossible? He lives around here.

734
00:54:16,039 --> 00:54:20,159
That's right, I forgot. And
then another guy walks in and oh,

735
00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:24,079
it's that guy who wrote the movie. It's just amazing town. It

736
00:54:24,239 --> 00:54:31,079
just is. And nobody bothers the
people who are there famous. It's just

737
00:54:31,119 --> 00:54:35,920
part of the atmosphere anyway, babbling
it Like I say, you thought that

738
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:37,800
was dull. Listened to the diner
this week. I'm really on a terror

739
00:54:38,039 --> 00:54:44,199
now it sounds great. Yes,
indeed, anyway, So okay, I

740
00:54:44,239 --> 00:54:46,679
gotta say one of the guys that
I met because he's friends of my friends.

741
00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:54,039
He's Jesus of Nazareth in the movie
in the nineteen eighties to the TV

742
00:54:54,320 --> 00:55:00,760
mini series. Do you remember that
guys, Oh, Franco Zephyrrelli, Anthony

743
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:06,719
Burgess scriptwriter. Yeah. It's very
interesting when you talk to actors and you

744
00:55:06,719 --> 00:55:08,119
want to ask them one little thing, but you really don't want to say,

745
00:55:08,559 --> 00:55:13,039
here's this role for which you were
known, you know, thirty forty

746
00:55:13,079 --> 00:55:15,639
years ago. So I'm not going
to see you entirely through that prison,

747
00:55:15,639 --> 00:55:19,679
but I just have to know.
And then once you ask that question,

748
00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:22,280
of course they go on for seventeen
minutes because they're very happy. John and

749
00:55:22,320 --> 00:55:27,519
I didn't even get around to the
fact that he'd played Gustav Mahler in Ken

750
00:55:27,559 --> 00:55:30,639
Russell's version of the Model Biography,
and I didn't even get to that.

751
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:35,880
Anyway, enough, we're done,
listen, folks. What you got to

752
00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:37,920
do is go to ricochet dot com
and sign up because it is your place

753
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:42,280
for fine, fun, civil center
right conversation on the internet. As I

754
00:55:42,360 --> 00:55:44,960
keep saying, you'll be wondering where
it's been all your life when you go

755
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:49,119
to the member feed, because that
is really more social, more interesting,

756
00:55:49,159 --> 00:55:52,320
more more of a community than any
place I've been on the web. And

757
00:55:52,400 --> 00:55:57,760
you need to go to Apple Music
give us five stars, because we are

758
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:00,320
been asking you to do that for
six hundred ninety nine times and it's you

759
00:56:00,360 --> 00:56:02,800
know, maybe seven hundred will be
the charm, but that's next week to

760
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:06,800
find out. Maybe Peter will be
with us next week, maybe not.

761
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:09,280
If so, Stephen, it's always
a pleasure to have you here, Rob.

762
00:56:09,400 --> 00:56:12,800
Likewise, always a pleasure to see
you guy's face. Good to be

763
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:15,960
back, and we'll see everybody in
the comment, said Ricochet. Four point

764
00:56:16,039 --> 00:56:25,639
oh next week. Next week,
Fells Ricochet join the conversation.