1 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:20,920 We're back with another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Joshinsky, 2 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:23,760 culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can email the show 3 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,640 at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr LST. 4 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,760 Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts into the premium version of 5 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:35,119 our website as well. Today we are joined by the one and only Kim 6 00:00:35,119 --> 00:00:37,560 really Strassle. She's, of course, a member of the Wall Street Journal 7 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,200 Editorial Board and the author of the new book, The Biden Malaise, How 8 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:47,000 America Bounces Back from Joe Biden's dismal repeat of the Jimmy Carter Years. Kim, 9 00:00:47,039 --> 00:00:49,719 thanks so much for joining us, Hi, thanks for having me. 10 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:53,439 Such an interesting book and such an interesting premise. And folks can see just 11 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,439 from the title of the book right there, it's kind of two parts. 12 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,039 One you really make the case persuasively that Joe Biden is peating the Carter years 13 00:01:00,039 --> 00:01:04,480 in a lot of different ways, and two that the Reagan parallel is the 14 00:01:04,519 --> 00:01:08,079 appropriate way to kind of dig out of the Biden malaise. So if we 15 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:14,000 can start just with the first part of that, the parallels between the Biden 16 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:18,159 economy and the Carter economy, And maybe inflation is a great place to start 17 00:01:18,159 --> 00:01:22,799 because you go through a number of different parallels. What is so similar right 18 00:01:22,799 --> 00:01:26,400 now, almost eerily similar when we look at inflation. Yes, so there 19 00:01:26,439 --> 00:01:32,000 are these incredible parallels, and they run across everything inflation for instance, energy, 20 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:37,959 immigration policy, foreign policy, dismal foreign policy, cultural issues, crime 21 00:01:38,159 --> 00:01:44,040 and streets across country. It really there's almost this eerie echo. But I 22 00:01:44,159 --> 00:01:49,280 really make the case that that is totally unfair to Jimmy Carter, you know, 23 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:53,680 for no, and because and we go through it subject by subject, 24 00:01:53,079 --> 00:01:57,640 because you know, for instance, take inflation, okay, which you just 25 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:01,640 mentioned, Jimmy Carter inherited a great number of his problems. Now it's true 26 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:07,040 he made most of them worse, okay, and phenomenally so. But you 27 00:02:07,079 --> 00:02:09,919 know, we were in the middle of the Great Inflation in the nineteen seventies. 28 00:02:10,879 --> 00:02:15,439 We were already he inherited an inflation rate that is about what we are 29 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,759 now, and he did make it worse, but we had a lot of 30 00:02:19,759 --> 00:02:24,240 trouble already. Joe Biden inflation was two percent when he came into office, 31 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:30,280 okay, and everything he has managed to take what was an incredibly strong economy 32 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:35,039 prior to COVID, it was already ready to roar back. And he threw 33 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:38,680 money at the economy over and over and over again, as we know, 34 00:02:38,039 --> 00:02:44,240 trillions and trillions over two years, encouraged the Fed to continue with sort of 35 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:47,800 a loose money supply for way too long. So he took a situation and 36 00:02:47,879 --> 00:02:53,560 destroyed it, whereas Jimmy Carter made things worse. And I think the other 37 00:02:53,599 --> 00:03:00,719 thing why this is unfair to Jimmy Carter is that Joe Biden had Jimmy's lessons 38 00:03:00,759 --> 00:03:06,240 to learn from. He was a Senator when Jimmy Carter was the president. 39 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:09,319 He also he had the lessons of Jimmy Carter and the mistakes, and also 40 00:03:09,599 --> 00:03:15,199 he had the lessons of Ronald Reagan showing us what went right. And nonetheless 41 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:19,520 he managed to double down and make things worse. You mentioned in the book, 42 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:22,960 of course, Paul Voker and deregulation, which a lot of people forget, 43 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:28,439 was sort of impressive under Carter's watch, despite adding to new cabinet agencies 44 00:03:28,439 --> 00:03:31,120 and everything else. But that also raises this interesting question of why Joe Biden 45 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:35,919 will never have a Paul Voker in fact, you know, maybe his Larry 46 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:38,840 Summer's example, like he didn't listen to Larry Summers, and that says, 47 00:03:38,879 --> 00:03:43,840 I think something very different about the Democratic Party, or something very important about 48 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,479 why this Democratic Party is is different than the one of the seventies and the 49 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:50,479 eighties, Doesn't it? I mean, isn't there doesn't it seem impossible that 50 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:53,680 Joe Biden would would listen to a Paul Voker. Oh? Absolutely, And 51 00:03:53,719 --> 00:03:59,439 I think it's a really important point again about why this comparison is a boat 52 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:01,439 unfair to Carter. Carter made a lot of mistakes, but you know, 53 00:04:01,639 --> 00:04:05,240 Carter was also a deeply religious man, a moral man. He was not 54 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:11,639 above admitting when things were not going right. You know, you saw this 55 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,759 in a number of different ways he did. You know, He'd had g. 56 00:04:14,879 --> 00:04:18,480 William Miller was his fed chief prior to Vulker, and it was not 57 00:04:18,639 --> 00:04:24,600 working. Okay, This guy was also maintaining very loose monetary policy. It 58 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,399 finally occurred to Carter that he needed to change course, so he brought Vulker 59 00:04:28,439 --> 00:04:31,639 in and obviously that was a beginning. It was Reagan who benefited from that, 60 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:34,000 but you know, Carter did have the ability to do it. At 61 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:40,240 one point, Carter fired half of his cabinet because there were problems in the 62 00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:44,360 economy. Okay, at one point, Carter, after years of not really 63 00:04:44,399 --> 00:04:47,480 caring about the military and military budgets, much like Joe Biden, by the 64 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:53,000 end of the year he was so concerned about the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan and 65 00:04:53,079 --> 00:04:56,759 what was going on there, he decided to bulk up military budgets. Joe 66 00:04:56,759 --> 00:05:00,439 Biden has never reversed himself in his life. And we know this that he's 67 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,920 a that's partly a character aspect of Biden. He's he's a bit arrogant. 68 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:10,000 He thinks he's the smartest guy in the room. Okay, but part of 69 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:14,839 it is because he's not willing to buck his party on anything, and he 70 00:05:15,079 --> 00:05:17,720 likes the fact that we're in this situation. He wants the Fed to keep 71 00:05:17,759 --> 00:05:24,240 easy money policy because he wants to spend more as well too. And you 72 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:27,120 know, when when the Fed is raising interest rates, it's harder for the 73 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:31,000 federal government to borrow as well. Energy is a really interesting part as well. 74 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:35,639 Obviously, people remember the energy malaise to borrow that word in particular from 75 00:05:36,079 --> 00:05:41,160 the Carter years and now the Biden years. It's a very obvious parallel too, 76 00:05:41,199 --> 00:05:44,680 but Biden has sort of just gone all in in ways like there's supply 77 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:48,839 differences between then and now where he's just like tanking American supply. Um, 78 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:54,439 can you explain that, flesh out those parallels? Sure, because it's another 79 00:05:54,600 --> 00:06:00,160 great comparer, but also contrast. All right. The easy comparison to Maya 80 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,600 is to say, oh, Jimmy Carter, gas prices were high, gas 81 00:06:02,639 --> 00:06:06,800 lines, Joe Biden. You know, gas prices are high. But obviously 82 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:12,759 two very different reasons. Again, Jimmy Carter inherited a global oil shock, 83 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:16,720 all right. We also didn't have a country in the United States that had 84 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:23,560 much of a domestic oil and gas industry. And curiously, people forget this, 85 00:06:23,639 --> 00:06:28,399 I mean, well, Jimmy Carter liked a micromanage industry overall in terms 86 00:06:28,439 --> 00:06:32,240 of health and safety, etc. He and his party actually deregulated some of 87 00:06:32,279 --> 00:06:39,920 the more hugely regulated industries, including the first steps towards deregulating the oil and 88 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,480 gas markets, which ended up becoming like a straight line to kind of the 89 00:06:43,519 --> 00:06:49,560 fracking revolution we had and the dominance we saw. Joe Biden took a magnificent 90 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:55,160 energy market one of the first times that we had actually, I mean, 91 00:06:55,199 --> 00:07:00,839 we had become the dominant supplier across the world and in really important swing producer, 92 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:03,759 which means the ability to kind of influence prices. And because he's in 93 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:13,240 hock too crazy progressive climate policies, he is systematically destroying that dominance that we 94 00:07:13,319 --> 00:07:15,560 had, and that is a huge difference between him and Carter. Carter would 95 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:23,160 have killed to have had that kind of energy sector, and he would have 96 00:07:23,319 --> 00:07:26,319 He was not against oile, he was not against gas, he was not 97 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:30,759 against coal. He was for American independence. He just didn't have that option 98 00:07:30,839 --> 00:07:35,360 at the time. You alluded to this just a moment ago, but you 99 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:39,480 make the case that Joe Biden is not a leader, that this is something 100 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:42,720 that's sort of baked into the character of Joe Biden, and I wanted to 101 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,279 ask that in the context of this broader question about why the Democratic Party. 102 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,279 You know somebody who is seen as I guess maybe fairly progressive in some important 103 00:07:50,279 --> 00:07:55,519 ways, but then sort of conservative in different ways, Jimmy Carter for his 104 00:07:55,639 --> 00:07:58,800 time, and now you have Joe Biden, who was the moderate candidate in 105 00:07:58,839 --> 00:08:03,319 twenty twenty, who governing from behind the progressives. Essentially he's letting them totally 106 00:08:03,319 --> 00:08:07,560 like lead the way. What does it tell us about today's Democratic Party that 107 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:13,000 even their moderate president from the center of their party is not grateful to have 108 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:18,560 so much American oil supply, is going on these insane economic policies, spending 109 00:08:18,639 --> 00:08:24,279 like a Bandit Isn't that just doesn't it tell something very very sad and scary 110 00:08:24,319 --> 00:08:28,759 about the left right now? Absolutely, And if you look at both of 111 00:08:28,759 --> 00:08:33,519 these men, Carter and Biden, another interesting parallel. They both ran as 112 00:08:33,639 --> 00:08:37,679 these more moderate versions of their party in the primary. Okay, Carter did 113 00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:43,919 it as well. The differences. Carter actually was in many ways. You 114 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:48,240 know, he was a very kind of curious persons. As you said, 115 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:54,200 he spread the gamut, spanned the gamut in terms of political views. In 116 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:56,679 some ways he was very liberal, in other ways he was more conservative. 117 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:03,480 Sometimes he twists in the wind because of pressure from different constituency groups that it 118 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:05,320 was out there. But you know, to the extent that Carter had very 119 00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:09,320 few friends in Congress, it's because he did sort of go all over the 120 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:13,120 place, and he didn't always just fall in line with one side of what 121 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:18,759 was at that point a very very Democratic Party. Now we have a Joe 122 00:09:18,799 --> 00:09:22,720 Biden, who claimed to be the centrist when he ran in the primaries, 123 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:28,480 who very much was rescued by voters in the South from what was otherwise likely 124 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:33,440 to be a Bernie Sanders nomination, and then upon winning the nomination, instantly 125 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,759 turns around and decides he needs to have a unity agenda with Bernie Sanders, 126 00:09:37,919 --> 00:09:45,559 which essentially involved adopting all of Sanders platform for himself. And he's been unwilling, 127 00:09:45,759 --> 00:09:50,519 utterly unwilling to confront any aspect of that part of his party or to 128 00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:56,240 come to the aid and rescue at any time of those key centrists who Democrats 129 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:00,519 need to be reelected in the House and Senate, they're going to maintain their 130 00:10:00,519 --> 00:10:03,320 majorities. And that's why one reason, by the way, why Republicans are 131 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:07,480 in control in the House right now is because Biden policies were just too left 132 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:13,879 for many of these districts where Democratic Centrists are increasingly becoming an endangered species. 133 00:10:15,919 --> 00:10:20,639 You also read about Iran, which it's somewhat interesting that Iran factors into both 134 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:26,799 presidencies in the way that it does, you know, is there And also, 135 00:10:26,879 --> 00:10:30,120 by the way, just this weekend, we've gotten reports the morality pieces 136 00:10:30,159 --> 00:10:31,639 sort of back on the streets in Iran. You know, things could be 137 00:10:33,159 --> 00:10:35,559 that could be a really big pressure cooker in the second half of Biden's presidency. 138 00:10:37,639 --> 00:10:41,000 What are we looking at in terms of those parallels. Yeah, you 139 00:10:41,039 --> 00:10:46,480 know, Russia factors into both presidencies, Afghanistan factors into both, Iran factors 140 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:52,879 into bold, China factors into both. Look, Jimmy Carter's presidency essentially ended 141 00:10:54,000 --> 00:11:01,320 with his failed Iranian hostage rescue attempt Joe Biden, but this was also a 142 00:11:01,639 --> 00:11:07,240 problem of Jimmy Carter's own making, because he just hadn't been tough enough and 143 00:11:07,399 --> 00:11:11,200 strong enough on the question of Iran. It's very concerning to me that we 144 00:11:11,279 --> 00:11:16,120 have an Iran that Joe Biden was vice president for eight years under an administration 145 00:11:16,279 --> 00:11:20,440 that insisted that if we just got to a deal with Iran that it would 146 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,399 give up its nuclear ambitions. Here we are, you know, going on 147 00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:28,200 twenty years after those promises were still made, and we have an Iran that's 148 00:11:28,279 --> 00:11:31,639 doubled down on its desire to do this, and to the extent that it 149 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:35,919 hasn't so far is not because of any reason having to do with the Obama 150 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:41,519 deal or now Biden's efforts to stop that, but increasingly because Israel has been 151 00:11:41,639 --> 00:11:48,759 much more engaged in attempting to undermine any progress that Iran is making. But 152 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:52,600 this is kind of a simmering thing. It's been overshadowed by what's going on 153 00:11:52,639 --> 00:11:56,559 in Ukraine and our attentions with China, but it is something that is no 154 00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:01,320 less of a threat than it has been for the last few decades, and 155 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:05,120 a lot of people on the left, I can just imagine, would object 156 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,080 to Well, let me start with this. There is, like you said, 157 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:16,080 this like pretty blatant clear lesson of the Carter years in the Reagan years, 158 00:12:16,159 --> 00:12:20,120 especially on economic policy. And I wonder, I mean, what I've 159 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,559 seen as an argument from the left when it comes to Biden deciding to spend 160 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:28,519 m just crazy amounts of money in the economy that he inherited. Why do 161 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:33,519 you think it is that, you know, their best defense for that is, 162 00:12:33,639 --> 00:12:35,600 you know, to some extent true that their corporation said, well, 163 00:12:35,639 --> 00:12:39,320 we're going to raise some uh, we're going to raise some prices because of 164 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:43,039 that. But that's like their best defense that you know, which which could 165 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:46,639 maybe account for some levels of inflation, but overall nothing, you know, 166 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:50,799 like the amount of spending that Biden, you know, the crazy spending route 167 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:54,759 that he went down. So why is it that the left, including you 168 00:12:54,799 --> 00:13:00,279 know, the centrist president himself, has basically no defense um for this sending 169 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:03,679 that he went on in light of the fact that they have this like glaring 170 00:13:03,759 --> 00:13:09,159 example of the Carter legacy of the Reagan years in front of them. Look, 171 00:13:09,279 --> 00:13:13,639 anybody who is sensible understands why we're having inflation at the moment. Okay, 172 00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:18,679 it's because they threw money at the economy and because that kept interest rates 173 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:22,879 too low for too long. And you mentioned Larry Summers. Okay, I 174 00:13:22,919 --> 00:13:26,799 mean there are plenty of very good economists who will acknowledge this. They might 175 00:13:26,879 --> 00:13:33,320 have disagreements about the degree of inflation that caused, but everyone understands. I 176 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:37,399 mean, this is one thing that came out of the nineteen seventies is when 177 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:41,399 Jimmy Carter took his job, everybody we had this great inflation across the world. 178 00:13:41,519 --> 00:13:46,679 Nobody entirely understood what had caused it. Okay, we were still a 179 00:13:46,679 --> 00:13:52,600 few years away between we had before we had Milton Friedman and others really explaining 180 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:56,360 better supply side and demand side economics and how this all comes to be. 181 00:13:56,879 --> 00:14:03,759 So you had world leaders everywhere that we're confused about this and just blindly falling 182 00:14:03,879 --> 00:14:07,360 Kanesian policy. We know that we know the problems about that now, right, 183 00:14:07,399 --> 00:14:11,200 And we also had eight years of Reagan explaining how this worked to us 184 00:14:11,279 --> 00:14:16,279 with supply side policies, So no one can claim otherwise anymore. I think 185 00:14:16,279 --> 00:14:20,639 the reason that the best they can say they don't really have an offense is 186 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:26,279 this is an administration that's very good at pointing fingers and trying to blame others. 187 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:31,320 And remember, don't forget, we've spent the last two years with Biden 188 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:37,039 claiming this was Putin's price hych. It's completely bogus. Okay, Putin isn't 189 00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:41,759 raising the cost of milk in America. It's even bogus on the energy price 190 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:48,080 front. Gas prices were going up in this country well before Putin's invasion of 191 00:14:48,799 --> 00:14:54,720 Ukraine. This isn't happening instead because of Biden energy policies. And it's remarkable 192 00:14:54,759 --> 00:14:58,320 to me that they don't have a better answer to it. Their argument is 193 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:03,039 to say, well, how many jobs there are, But that is not 194 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:07,759 an answer to the people that can't afford to go buy the chicken. They 195 00:15:07,799 --> 00:15:09,879 need to pay, you know, to feed their children at night, and 196 00:15:11,480 --> 00:15:15,399 a lot of those areas of goods too. Quite aside from the overall level 197 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:20,159 of inflation, pockets of it are still exceptionally high, and they happen to 198 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:24,559 be things that people have to pay on a regular basis from a week to 199 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:30,320 week in their paychecks. So while inflation is nominally going down, it's not. 200 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:33,320 For many people in America, they do not feel that it is. 201 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:39,200 It's interesting because, as you write, the Carter years really paved the way 202 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:45,639 for the kind of Reagan revolution to finally win out the argument and the Republican 203 00:15:45,679 --> 00:15:48,799 Party. And so you know, if you're sitting somewhere like the Federalist or 204 00:15:48,799 --> 00:15:52,000 the Heritage Foundation or the Law Street Journal right now, you're looking and you're 205 00:15:52,039 --> 00:15:56,000 saying, Hey, this is quite an opportunity for Republicans. And that's sort 206 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:58,639 of the second part of what you do in the book. You write, 207 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:00,919 just as democrats would be, why to absorb the lessons of Carter, Republicans 208 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:04,679 need to remember Reagan. Now, we just saw basically the entire field save 209 00:16:04,759 --> 00:16:08,759 Donald Trump. In conversation with Zucker, Carlson, and Iowa Friday getting pressed 210 00:16:08,759 --> 00:16:12,840 on a bunch of different things. Is there anyone you think is most well 211 00:16:12,879 --> 00:16:15,320 positioned? I'm sure you're going to get this question all the time in your 212 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:19,240 press tour for this book, But is most well positioned to be the Reagan 213 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:25,080 in twenty twenty four? Well, right now, none of them, Which 214 00:16:25,159 --> 00:16:30,639 is what my concern is. Just look, the thing about Reagan that people 215 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:37,360 forget. Why it's so important people remember this now, is Jimmy Carter created 216 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:41,480 a huge backlash in the country with his policies and with his mismanagement and with 217 00:16:41,559 --> 00:16:48,799 his lack of leadership, and that really bubbled and bubbled, and there always 218 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:53,919 was likely to be an inclination to vote for a Republican. But Ronald Reagan 219 00:16:55,000 --> 00:17:00,120 didn't just win that election, Okay, he wanted in a blowout, all 220 00:17:00,159 --> 00:17:03,960 right, And then he went on to win an even bigger blowout four years 221 00:17:03,119 --> 00:17:08,640 later. And that was because he fundamentally capitalized on what had become a shift, 222 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:11,640 all right. This is why we ended up with Reagan Democrats. A 223 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:18,440 lot of people who felt as though the Democratic Party no longer represented them. 224 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:23,279 Jimmy Carter and his party had become too liberal. And those Reagan Democrats, 225 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:27,359 you know what we call them today, We call them the base, okay 226 00:17:26,799 --> 00:17:32,200 of the Republican Party. So this was a guy, Ronald Reagan, who 227 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,759 didn't just win an election, he changed politics in the country for a generation 228 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:42,319 and beyond. This is the opportunity that is open to Republicans today. Joe 229 00:17:42,359 --> 00:17:48,359 Biden is so unpopular, his policies are so out of keeping with how many 230 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:55,079 Americans think about things. But it's going to take a leader who has optimism, 231 00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:59,480 who has a vision, who has a little humor and a smile, 232 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,559 who can say, hey, like, we might not as a Republican party 233 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:07,720 be everything you want, but we're a lot closer to what you care about 234 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:11,720 than Democrats at the moment. And I think if the party is going to 235 00:18:11,759 --> 00:18:21,240 completely run on very polarizing cultural issues entirely and not talk a little bit more 236 00:18:21,279 --> 00:18:26,559 about an economic agenda, a bright and shiny future, etc. That's going 237 00:18:26,599 --> 00:18:30,279 to be squandering an opportunity. And you write about this, I mean, 238 00:18:30,319 --> 00:18:34,599 this is a lot of people I imagine are going to read a sentence like 239 00:18:34,599 --> 00:18:38,440 this. You write years of liberal norm breaking, bogus FBI investigation, secret 240 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,559 impeachment, proceeding, stripped committee assignments, calls to end the filibuster, and 241 00:18:41,599 --> 00:18:47,039 attempting Republicans to focus on investigations and retribution rather than the business of governance. 242 00:18:47,200 --> 00:18:49,920 And you have covered all of that stuff fantastically. A lot of people will 243 00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:53,920 read that and say, well, why not focus on the investigations and retribution? 244 00:18:55,039 --> 00:18:57,400 Or they'll say why not do both? Is it impossible actually to do 245 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:00,799 both? To sort of be the forward looking optimists and also sort of get 246 00:19:00,799 --> 00:19:06,599 bogged down in the Trump investigations? Talking about that is are those things mutually 247 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:08,359 exclusive? Can you do both? What's the right way to handle all that? 248 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:11,480 Yeah, not at all. They are not mutually exclusive at all. 249 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:17,480 Call out the abuses. But by the way, tell the nation that you're 250 00:19:17,519 --> 00:19:19,440 going to be the antidote to that. Okay, you're going to be the 251 00:19:19,559 --> 00:19:26,680 leader again, and we are not going to tolerate or normalize the kind of 252 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:32,079 behavior that we have seen going on. Okay, and yet, and I 253 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:36,359 know there's going to be a lot of people who call for retribution. All 254 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:40,039 right, but one of my concerns is, like we as conservad let's just 255 00:19:40,079 --> 00:19:47,160 give an example. Okay, that first impeachment that happened to Donald Trump absolutely 256 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,400 outrageous. It was conducted in a basement. You know, we didn't even 257 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,640 know who the whistleblower was. Adams Ship. Whenever he opens his mouth, 258 00:19:53,759 --> 00:19:57,640 it's unlikely any truth is coming out of it. Okay, there was a 259 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:04,279 lot of problems with that impeachment, but I think that that's because, by 260 00:20:04,319 --> 00:20:08,240 the way, impeachments need to be very very rare. They need to be 261 00:20:08,319 --> 00:20:14,400 saved for the most horrible of circumstances. They also need to be saved for 262 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:19,960 the moment in which you have such evidence of wrongdoing that you've convinced eighty ninety 263 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:26,079 percent of the country that this person can no longer stay in office. I'm 264 00:20:26,079 --> 00:20:30,279 not quite sure that's the standard that we now hear from any Republicans who are 265 00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:34,799 demanding that there be an impeachment of Joe Biden. They've certainly not convinced eighty 266 00:20:34,839 --> 00:20:38,599 or ninety percent of the public that that's the case. So we need a 267 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:42,519 leader who can talk about this a little bit more, but who also promises 268 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:48,480 is going to be that person who wants to reinforce some of these norms and 269 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:52,799 bring people together. It doesn't mean that you can't call out the abuses of 270 00:20:52,839 --> 00:20:56,119 the past. In fact, you need to, and you need to talk 271 00:20:56,160 --> 00:21:00,279 about the radicalism on the other side as you bring people together there. But 272 00:21:00,319 --> 00:21:03,640 there's a lot that Republicans can be talking about that is optimistic. I fear 273 00:21:03,799 --> 00:21:08,519 very much that everyone feels that the ticket to the nomination is to show that 274 00:21:08,599 --> 00:21:14,240 you are angrier than the other person about what's going on. And you know 275 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:18,839 that wasn't Reagan's way. Reagan, you know, he showed indignation about the 276 00:21:18,839 --> 00:21:23,319 mismanagement of the country, but he also was just so optimistic about the future 277 00:21:23,559 --> 00:21:27,640 of the nation too. And you know, I'm a huge fan of things 278 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,960 like the child tax credit. But a lot of Republicans seem to think in 279 00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:37,279 order to win, like it's it's politically, the way to win people to 280 00:21:37,319 --> 00:21:42,440 your side is is to sort of go the Democrat route, use hands the 281 00:21:42,799 --> 00:21:48,079 right, which you know, I guess has been successful for Democrats to some 282 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:52,279 extent. But Ronald Reagan, for instance, won the youth vote. He 283 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:56,759 won, as you actually point this out in the book, basically every income 284 00:21:56,799 --> 00:22:00,640 cop cohort except for the very lowest, although he won forty six percent of 285 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:04,039 that, so a huge chunk of those voters, um was had good relationships 286 00:22:04,039 --> 00:22:10,359 with unions, etc. On a you know, Milton Friedman free market type 287 00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:15,279 economic agenda. How should candidates be talking about that right now, especially when 288 00:22:15,319 --> 00:22:18,440 so many of their own voters have suffered, you know, from from decades 289 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,599 in some cases of malaise in their own communities, offshoring the way it's hit 290 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,359 different pockets of the country in different ways. How should Republicans be having those 291 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:32,880 conversations? You know, one thing I always love Grover Northwest always called the 292 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:37,240 Reagan Coalition the leave us alone coalition, um, you know, and it's 293 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:45,319 what held together in particular economic libertarians, but also social conservatives as well too, 294 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,640 because you know, Reagan really made the case. He's like, we're 295 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:53,119 never going to attack you and your but we also you want your community. 296 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:57,759 We want so much of what is good and is happening in America to be 297 00:22:57,839 --> 00:23:03,759 happening through our institutions outside of government, through your churches, through your community 298 00:23:03,839 --> 00:23:11,480 centers, etc. And this was something that held everything together. I think 299 00:23:11,839 --> 00:23:15,559 Republicans need to be making a similar case at the moment. You know. 300 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:21,599 Instead, as you say, there's a populist element that is waiting in democrat 301 00:23:21,759 --> 00:23:25,640 light, as it were you know, we'll give you more tax breaks than 302 00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:29,200 they give you, but we'll do it for the policies we like instead of 303 00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:33,319 the policies they like. You know, we'll have regulation that's more enlightened. 304 00:23:33,559 --> 00:23:37,000 I mean. One of the things that kind of bothered me recently, you 305 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:41,440 know, when House Republicans were running, and they did when the majority in 306 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:42,920 the House, but they had all these policies saying, you know, we're 307 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:47,240 going to have a national parent Bill of Rights. You know, No, 308 00:23:47,559 --> 00:23:52,039 how about we just get rid of the Department of Education, which is the 309 00:23:52,079 --> 00:23:57,960 thing that is forcing all of this policy on local schools with the threat of 310 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:04,160 not sending along federal tax dollars unless schools adopt Biden's transgender policies, etc. 311 00:24:04,559 --> 00:24:08,839 So, instead of trying to retroactively help everybody at the back end from these 312 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,920 kind of horrible policies that are happening out of Washington, with a parental national 313 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:18,359 parental Bill of Rights and the Department of Education take some of the money to 314 00:24:18,519 --> 00:24:23,720 how to give it to the state's first voucher programs and then let the governors 315 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:29,640 get on with dealing like as you know, Rhonda Santists did in Florida with 316 00:24:30,279 --> 00:24:33,359 dealing because schools should be a state and local issue anyway, Like why is 317 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,559 the federal government even involved in this policy. That's what I'd like to see 318 00:24:37,599 --> 00:24:44,079 more coming out of candidates is instead of again chasing after Democrats and try to, 319 00:24:44,519 --> 00:24:48,200 you know, retroactively give guarantees that fix problems they've made, how about 320 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:52,039 we get the government out of our life and then we were not going to 321 00:24:52,079 --> 00:24:55,960 need those protections in the first place. Yes, it's amazing with the fact 322 00:24:56,039 --> 00:25:00,480 Ramaswamy taking a real new right l as I've said, come out in favor 323 00:25:00,519 --> 00:25:04,960 of ethanol. It just like small government populism is actually probably the morally and 324 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:12,599 politically palatable version of populism, not the ethanol subsidies populism. Many times you 325 00:25:12,759 --> 00:25:17,599 pay for ethanol, You pay for it like three times, and it doesn't 326 00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:21,559 even do anything. It does nothing. All you do is pay. It's 327 00:25:21,599 --> 00:25:25,880 just like a big rip off ethanol. I could talk for hours on ethanol. 328 00:25:26,279 --> 00:25:27,079 So, speaking of the big rip off, I was talking to the 329 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,240 author of a book called The Big rip Off, Tim Carney about ethanol the 330 00:25:30,279 --> 00:25:33,759 other day, and he was mentioning how it just destroys all his small engines 331 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:40,160 in addition to being horrible, it's absolutely horrible for everything you own. And 332 00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:45,880 it's entirely this legacy of let's just say it's a farm subsidy, okay, 333 00:25:47,079 --> 00:25:49,839 And it was tenuous when we came up with it if there was an environmental 334 00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:55,960 but if there's absolutely no provement benefit now and all it does is transfer money 335 00:25:56,039 --> 00:26:02,839 from one group of trans taxpayers to Kansas, then and as my colleague Tristan 336 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:06,440 Justice wrote last week, Ted Cruz one Iowa without coming out in favor of 337 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,400 ethan all subsidies, So you can do it. It can be done well. 338 00:26:10,599 --> 00:26:12,400 And on that note, I just I want to talk as we're wrapping 339 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:17,759 up here about those cultural questions. You mentioned that Reagan didn't lead with culture 340 00:26:17,799 --> 00:26:19,960 issues but had a pretty you know, he would say bold, bold collars, 341 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,319 not pale pastels when it came to culture, probably would be how he'd 342 00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:27,960 describe it. And I'm wondering about something like DeSantis, a six week abortion 343 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,960 band, which a lot of pundits have looked at and said he signed it, 344 00:26:32,039 --> 00:26:34,599 you know, late on a Friday night. He definitely hasn't led with 345 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,839 it. He did sign it though, as opposed to the sort of fifteen 346 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,039 week question that a lot of people are debating here in Washington, DC. 347 00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:45,839 And that's not just when it comes to abortion. I mean, obviously DeSantis's 348 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:49,640 foot forward has been culture issues, has been he says he's going to take 349 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:55,640 out the Department of Education. He's passed legislation. Some of it people think 350 00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:00,039 is weaponizing government. Some people on the right have disagreements with it. So 351 00:27:00,079 --> 00:27:04,359 what is the balance? You know, if you are the person the architect 352 00:27:04,519 --> 00:27:08,680 of a DeSantis campaign or Nicky Haley campaign, or even a Donald Trump campaign, 353 00:27:08,759 --> 00:27:12,359 how would you advise them to talk about these issues? So I would 354 00:27:12,599 --> 00:27:19,000 start again from the Reagan perspective of first of all, guaranteeing that if you 355 00:27:19,039 --> 00:27:23,680 were to become president, that you're going to make sure that government isn't weaponized 356 00:27:23,759 --> 00:27:30,200 against those who are against those who are different than you. From a social 357 00:27:30,319 --> 00:27:34,279 perspective, right, I mean, look at the attacks that the Obama administration 358 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:38,319 has has waged on like Little Sisters of the Poor over contraception, etc. 359 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:45,440 Look at the pushback that we've had against the High Amendment in recent uh in 360 00:27:45,559 --> 00:27:51,359 this recent administration and attempts to to get rid of that limit on taxpayer funds 361 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:53,799 to pay for abortions. Look at the Apartment of Defense at the moment, 362 00:27:55,519 --> 00:28:00,720 very ostentatiously going around the High Amendment to pay for women to ablem places, 363 00:28:00,759 --> 00:28:04,799 which somebody is deeply offensive. So I'd start by guaranteeing something that hasn't been 364 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,640 necessarily a case, which is to say that I'm not going to let the 365 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:15,240 federal government come after you for your religious rights and because you have different views. 366 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,160 And that was my point about the Department of Education. If the Department 367 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:22,279 of Education is attacking parents of views, then let's get rid of the Department 368 00:28:22,319 --> 00:28:26,599 of Education, right, So that would be the first thing I would do. 369 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,119 And then, you know, I think that people want to know that 370 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:36,400 their leaders have the views that they have. I do not believe that a 371 00:28:36,519 --> 00:28:41,759 six week ban is necessarily the you know, as controversialist. Some had said. 372 00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:48,200 Kemp signed one in Georgia and was reelected. Ohio signed one. Dwine 373 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:52,920 was reelected. You know, but you have to make the case. And 374 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:56,759 this is where I think Republicans have also gotten wrong, is that they're not 375 00:28:56,839 --> 00:29:00,960 doing a good enough job of explaining why it's the other sides that is extremists. 376 00:29:02,039 --> 00:29:07,680 Okay, the vast majority of America believe that abortion should be legal, 377 00:29:07,079 --> 00:29:11,720 but with restrictions on it somewhere. Okay, that's where seventy or eighty percent 378 00:29:11,759 --> 00:29:15,359 of the country are. The crazy people are those on the other side who 379 00:29:15,359 --> 00:29:19,039 don't think that there should be any restrictions on it at any point. And 380 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,599 the GOP is going to have to do a better job. And that's a 381 00:29:22,759 --> 00:29:26,880 uniting view, right when you get into these hot button issues. If you 382 00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:32,160 want to pull more people into your party, into your movement, you have 383 00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,640 to talk about what unites us, all right, And that's a little worry 384 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,400 I think I have right now at the field, as everyone's attitude is, 385 00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:41,880 if you're not right where I am on abortion, then you must be a 386 00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:48,480 bad person. And I don't think any future leader the conservative movement can afford 387 00:29:48,519 --> 00:29:52,440 to alienate people that way on these issues. There's a lot more that unites 388 00:29:52,519 --> 00:29:56,279 us in this country than divides us. Kim Strausso is the author of the 389 00:29:56,319 --> 00:30:00,440 Biden Malaise, how America bounce us back from Joe Aiden's dismal repeat of the 390 00:30:00,559 --> 00:30:03,759 Jimmy Carter years, and of course a member of the editorial board over at 391 00:30:03,759 --> 00:30:07,759 the Wall Street Journal, Kim, We'll have to do another podcast at some 392 00:30:07,799 --> 00:30:11,039 point about ethanol. Yes, let's do an anthanol, saying that I would 393 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,519 love that. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really 394 00:30:15,559 --> 00:30:18,599 appreciate it. Thank you, thanks for having me. Of course you've been 395 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:22,039 listening to another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Joshinsky, culture 396 00:30:22,119 --> 00:30:25,039 editor here at The Federalist. We'll be back soon with more. Until then, 397 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:26,559 be lovers of freedom and anxious for the frame