Speaker 1: Again this morning, we have the pleasure of talking for
Speaker 1: a few minutes with doctor Mark Skousen. You may have
Speaker 1: seen him on TV other places before. An incredible author, historian,
Speaker 1: and the prestigious Dottie Spoke, lead chair of Free Enterprise
Speaker 1: at Chapman University. If that doesn't mean anything to you,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna make it meet something to you
Speaker 1: by the time we get through this conversation. He is
Speaker 1: the author of the Greatest American and he is an
Speaker 1: eighth generation descendant of one of the founders of our country.
Speaker 1: Some people can argue maybe the most important innovator at
Speaker 1: the beginning of America, Benjamin Franklin. Doctor Scousin, welcome to
Speaker 1: the show. How are you.
Speaker 2: I'm doing well and I'm looking forward to making this
Speaker 2: a bestseller. I think it's possible. People. We need to
Speaker 2: bring pride back to America. And you know, when you
Speaker 2: go raw these days, there's a lot of people who
Speaker 2: are really angry at America. That's the ugly American view
Speaker 2: that a lot of people have that's going on these days.
Speaker 2: And it's nice to be able to talk about somebody
Speaker 2: that everybody loves. At least today. They did not back
Speaker 2: in Franklin's day, but he is definitely Ben Franklin is
Speaker 2: one of those. I mean, I've spoken at many conferences,
Speaker 2: and whether you're Republicans are Democrats, there's a lot you
Speaker 2: can like about Ben Franklin.
Speaker 1: Well, when we have people who are American citizens like
Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen going overseas and preaching basically their detestament of
Speaker 1: our president, our elected president, or the America he says
Speaker 1: he loves it's kind of easy to understand what you're
Speaker 1: talking about where some of this misguided mistrust and hate
Speaker 1: comes from when you go overseas.
Speaker 2: Well, I would take issue with you a little bit
Speaker 2: on that, because Trump he's a disruptor and he does
Speaker 2: try to insult people. I mean, I like Bruce Springsteen.
Speaker 2: I think some of his music is fantastic, and I
Speaker 2: think it's unfortunate that we're seeing this kind of divisiveness
Speaker 2: in this country. And I think if you said, well,
Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen, what do you think of Ben Franklin, he
Speaker 2: would probably say great things about him. One of the
Speaker 2: things that Franklin really emphasizes is the need to be
Speaker 2: humble and admit your mistakes. And so I think there's
Speaker 2: a lot to be said for Franklin as somebody that
Speaker 2: everyone could say, wow, you know, he really symbolizes the
Speaker 2: greatness of America.
Speaker 1: As far as what's going on right now in the news,
Speaker 1: Doctor Skousen, Let's compare Benjamin Franklin and what he would
Speaker 1: say or think about, for example, economic nationalism.
Speaker 2: Yes, he's very much a global thinker, and he loved foreigners.
Speaker 2: He spent nine years as the colonial agent in London.
Speaker 2: He loved London. He loved the life there, the intellectual atmosphere,
Speaker 2: the political atmosphere, until he was finally kicked out because
Speaker 2: of the American Revolution, and then he was beloved by
Speaker 2: the French people. So Frankly at one point said listen,
Speaker 2: I believe that the rights of man are universal, and
Speaker 2: I hope there's a day where I could stand on
Speaker 2: any country and say this is my country. So I think, well,
Speaker 2: he was a very proud American. I loved what we
Speaker 2: stood for in creating a new nation that was based
Speaker 2: on the rights of man. He would also want to
Speaker 2: extend that around the world. Don't think he would be
Speaker 2: critical of other nations and other countries. He would try
Speaker 2: to try to work together.
Speaker 1: So he wasn't necessarily an America first kind of guy.
Speaker 2: Then I think he was America free and all other
Speaker 2: countries free. But yes, he loved America and he was
Speaker 2: a devoted follower of American exceptionalism because look at the
Speaker 2: difference between the American Revolution the French Revolution. Franklin died
Speaker 2: before he could see the full effects of the French Revolution,
Speaker 2: but he would not be happy with the outcome of
Speaker 2: the French Revolution. What was very happy with the outcome
Speaker 2: of the American Revolution. So I think he liked the
Speaker 2: idea of America as a great country and spreading its
Speaker 2: message all around the world. But you you don't want
Speaker 2: an idea that we have have to we win only
Speaker 2: if you lose in other countries. And I don't think
Speaker 2: that's Franklin's view. I think he would like to see
Speaker 2: free trade. He was an advocate of Adam Smiths, and
Speaker 2: he would be a big believer in globalization today and
Speaker 2: new technology which is being developed because we have entrepreneurs
Speaker 2: from all over the world.
Speaker 1: What about America's sovereignty? Did he not believe in that?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yes, I'm sure he did, but he was he
Speaker 2: was very liberal when it came to immigration. He invited
Speaker 2: foreigners to come to this country. I think it's a
Speaker 2: little different today because of the terrorist problems and the
Speaker 2: gang problems and stuff like that. So I don't think
Speaker 2: he would be an open border guy today like he
Speaker 2: was back then, because back then, I mean, we really
Speaker 2: wanted people from all over the world to come, and
Speaker 2: they did come. But today I think his view would
Speaker 2: be more, we want the best in the brightest to
Speaker 2: come to America to do jobs that we're not willing
Speaker 2: to do or we're not qualified to do. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's just like one hundred thousand openings right now for
Speaker 2: engineers that we can't fill because we don't have enough
Speaker 2: engineers in our own country.
Speaker 1: Well, I've heard President Trump speak to that exactly, that
Speaker 1: exact thing. We want the best in the brightest. We
Speaker 1: want people here to add to our country, and what
Speaker 1: has been going on in the previous administration, I think
Speaker 1: illustrates how we weren't getting the best in the brightest
Speaker 1: here and that therein lies some of the issues we have,
Speaker 1: or many Americans, in fact, the majority of Americans have
Speaker 1: with illegal immigration. I tell you what, We'll take a
Speaker 1: quick break and we'll talk more about the greatest American
Speaker 1: that's the book Benjamin Franklin, eight Generations on. We're talking
Speaker 1: to doctor Mark Skousen. Good stuff. Conversation with doctor Mark Skousen,
Speaker 1: author of the Greatest American. The book does not come
Speaker 1: out until a week from today next Tuesday. That will
Speaker 1: be Amazon and the usual places, but you can pre
Speaker 1: order the book and what he illustrates here and what
Speaker 1: he parallels. Benjamin Franklin is great, great, great great great
Speaker 1: great great great great great. I ran out of greats.
Speaker 1: Dear doctor Skeleson descendant, and how he would view a
Speaker 1: lot of arguments and debates we have now in the country,
Speaker 1: including government spending, and that has been a huge thing.
Speaker 1: And Benjamin Franklin a penny saved, a penny earned, believe
Speaker 1: that government should be as as costless as possible, that
Speaker 1: we could be governed cheaply. Correct.
Speaker 2: I think that's a good way to look at it.
Speaker 2: He was definitely in Thomas Jefferson's camp of government. Government's
Speaker 2: best at governs least in many ways, and in fact,
Speaker 2: at one point he said, a virtuous and industrious people
Speaker 2: may be cheaply governed. So I ask people when I
Speaker 2: give talks about Ben Franklin, do we have cheaf government today,
Speaker 2: and whether you're Republicans or Democrats, you say, no, government's
Speaker 2: pretty expensive. We pay a lot of taxes in order
Speaker 2: to get these services, and they're not as productive as
Speaker 2: we would like. So Franklin would be really amazed and
Speaker 2: very upbeat about our higher standard of living today. Actually,
Speaker 2: one point said, I'd like to live to be two
Speaker 2: or three hundred years from now, which would be now,
Speaker 2: and he would love the new technology gadgets and the
Speaker 2: cell phones and the internet and the television and dry
Speaker 2: and the flying and he would love that. But he
Speaker 2: would also be appalled at the size of government and
Speaker 2: the national debt. He was very much anti debt in
Speaker 2: many ways, and he believed in kind of classical economics
Speaker 2: of a balanced budget and low taxes and free trade
Speaker 2: and open markets and that sort of thing. The regulatory environment.
Speaker 2: I think he would find that way overboard, So he
Speaker 2: would be very much in Elon Musk camp of doge
Speaker 2: and trying to bring government back to a you know,
Speaker 2: better and cheaper is the American way, right?
Speaker 1: Sure? Well, we talked about today's current foreign policy challenges
Speaker 1: and and Donald Trump kind of illustrated this on his
Speaker 1: trip to the Mid East. This commerce with all and
Speaker 1: war with none? Did he not?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's Franklin's another very simple formula. It's kind of
Speaker 2: similar to what George Washington said in his farewell addressed
Speaker 2: the system of America's commerce with all and war with none.
Speaker 2: So if we can expand commerce and private relations with
Speaker 2: individual countries, that's all the better. And I do put
Speaker 2: high marks in Trump's efforts to reduce international tensions and
Speaker 2: to work work with other countries to eliminate these wars
Speaker 2: that are going on. Of course, it's easier said than done.
Speaker 2: I mean, Trump said he would do it in a day,
Speaker 2: but obviously the Ukraine war is much more complex, and
Speaker 2: he's having a hard time dealing with Putin and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of evil out there and how do you
Speaker 2: how do you deal with that? You have to show strength,
Speaker 2: and I don't think Biden did that. That is a problem.
Speaker 2: But Franklin, you know wars. He said there's never a
Speaker 2: good war of bad peace. Uh. I think it's I
Speaker 2: think there can be a bad peace, but there's never
Speaker 2: really a good war. And as Trump points out over
Speaker 2: and over again, hundreds of thousands of people are being
Speaker 2: killed in these wars that hopefully they can end that soon.
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm optimistic. I'm idealistic, as as Ben Franklin
Speaker 2: is about trying to develop a peaceful international community.
Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin, you say in the book The Greatest American
Speaker 1: by doctor Mark Skousen out next Tuesday, we're looking at
Speaker 1: what the Fed is doing. Would Ben Franklin have even
Speaker 1: been a fan of the Federal Reserve? It wasn't part
Speaker 1: of the original plan, was it.
Speaker 2: Well, in a sense it was because he Franklin was
Speaker 2: around when the Alexander Hamilton created the first.
Speaker 1: Bank.
Speaker 2: He was actually a shareholder of the Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: Bank that.
Speaker 2: Started the central banking method. Franklin had a rather modern
Speaker 2: view that would fit rather well with J. Powell and
Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve and having a policy of a two
Speaker 2: percent annual inflation. He actually wrote a pamphlet when the
Speaker 2: British restricted the use of gold and silver coins in
Speaker 2: the colonies, and so there was always this talk of
Speaker 2: shortage of money, Franklin wrote a pamphlet in favor of
Speaker 2: printing paper money that was not backed by gold or silver,
Speaker 2: and he said this would be very helpful for expanding
Speaker 2: business and get the economy going and so forth, and
Speaker 2: he wrote this pamphlet, and then interestingly enough, he became
Speaker 2: the printer of the currency that the Pennsylvania Colony had
Speaker 2: printed up, so in a sense, he became the first
Speaker 2: crony capitalist profiting from that, I will say, if I
Speaker 2: don't mind saying, when he saw that we inflated too
Speaker 2: much and the continent it wasn't worth a continental because
Speaker 2: of the runaway inflation. As a result, in Congress he
Speaker 2: did write critically and criticize excessive inflation. So he's in
Speaker 2: favor of a little inflation, but not a lot of inflation.
Speaker 1: There is so much to unpack here, I tell you what.
Speaker 1: Let's take another quick break and we'll come back more
Speaker 1: with doctor Mark Scousen this morning, author of the Greatest American.
Speaker 1: He is an eighth generation descendant of Yes D. Benjamin Franklin,
Speaker 1: and I think there are so many parallels to what's
Speaker 1: going on today and how Franklin would view them. And
Speaker 1: the Doctor's got a pretty good hand on it from
Speaker 1: what I've heard so far. We'll be back in just
Speaker 1: a moment. You're on fifty five KRC, the talk station.
Speaker 1: As we continue with doctor Mark Scowsen this morning, we
Speaker 1: want to talk about political polarization, which is just everywhere today.
Speaker 1: And Benjamin Franklin, just like George Washington, not a fan
Speaker 1: of party politics whatsoever, believed it was counterproductive to what
Speaker 1: they were trying to do in the country they were
Speaker 1: trying to build. I concur with this. How do we
Speaker 1: How would he suggest we get out of the situation
Speaker 1: we're in with the polarization of politics in this country.
Speaker 2: Doctor Well, Franklin had to deal with enemies all the time,
Speaker 2: and he had a formula. He would, for example, somebody
Speaker 2: didn't really like him for whatever reason, he would go
Speaker 2: to that person and say, listen, I hear you have
Speaker 2: a book on your bookshelves that perhaps I could borrow
Speaker 2: that would be helpful for me, and he would develop
Speaker 2: a personal relationship. And I think that is really the key,
Speaker 2: if you can develop that with an avoid the labeling
Speaker 2: and the name calling that we so often engage in.
Speaker 2: Franklin was very good at that. He really worked hard
Speaker 2: at it, and that becomes evident in his autobiography. And
Speaker 2: so he worked really over time to help and become
Speaker 2: friends with people that were not necessarily in agreement on
Speaker 2: a particular issue. There's a lot to be said for
Speaker 2: that approach and to avoid the labels as much as possible.
Speaker 2: Ronald Reagan I think was very good. He worked with
Speaker 2: Tip O'Neil and so forth on these kinds of issues,
Speaker 2: and we're able to accomplish a lot of good things.
Speaker 2: So that's the I think that's the Franklin approach. He
Speaker 2: certainly did a very good job of fundraising in in
Speaker 2: France to win the American Revolution, so he was beloved
Speaker 2: by the French people, even though John Adams and others
Speaker 2: were very critical. They didn't like the French people and
Speaker 2: as a result, they were not able to raise any money.
Speaker 2: Franklin raised all the money, and a lot of people
Speaker 2: say without the French help, we would not have won
Speaker 2: the American Revolution.
Speaker 1: You know, doctor, you've seen them. I'm sure the bumper
Speaker 1: stickers on the backs of some people's cars that say coexist,
Speaker 1: and it's got all the different religious or faith symbols
Speaker 1: as spelling out the word coexist. It's hard to coexist
Speaker 1: with people who want to kill you or put you
Speaker 1: in jail or bankrupt you. And I think that's some
Speaker 1: of the issues that President Trump has with the other
Speaker 1: side of the political realm. Just my own personal comment.
Speaker 2: Franklin had the same problem. He had His own son,
Speaker 2: William was a loyalist, and even though Franklin arranged for
Speaker 2: him to be become the governor of New Jersey during
Speaker 2: the American Revolution, his own beloved son, William was a
Speaker 2: loyalist and put his life, his own father's life at
Speaker 2: risk because of it, and they never reconciled. So Franklin,
Speaker 2: there are some lines that Franklin would not cross, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure that applies very much today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, And finally the juicy part. Been waiting to
Speaker 1: get to this. In the Greatest American there is a
Speaker 1: chapter on Benjamin Franklin's towards sex life. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised that you're an eighth generation descendant. I'm
Speaker 1: sure Benjamin has plenty of descendants. As far as the
Speaker 1: stories I've heard, I don't know. But this was the
Speaker 1: only content that was ever censored from Newsmack's column.
Speaker 2: I wrote some of these columns for Newsmatches Franklin Prosperity Report,
Speaker 2: and I sent him this issue about Franklin's sex life,
Speaker 2: and that was the only the only column that they rejected.
Speaker 2: I had to replace it with another one. But that
Speaker 2: chapter is that to call him is in the book.
Speaker 2: I think it's chapter seventy seven about his hard to
Speaker 2: govern passions and William, his son was an illegitimate child.
Speaker 2: But there's really evidence that he only had one illegitimate child,
Speaker 2: but he did have aliances with a number of other
Speaker 2: women that he was definitely he was definitely the ladies man.
Speaker 2: I mean, his critics call him a womanizer. He was married,
Speaker 2: he was devoted to his wife, Debbie, but when she
Speaker 2: passed away, then he went to France and he was
Speaker 2: the ladies man there with Madame Brione and Madame elve Seuss.
Speaker 2: And one thing that was really great, he was a
Speaker 2: defenseunder of women's rights and treated them as equals in
Speaker 2: intellectual interests and so forth. So there's a lot to
Speaker 2: be said for again Benjamin Franklin as the most modern
Speaker 2: of the founders. Even in the case of slavery, he
Speaker 2: was the he changed his mind on slavery and at
Speaker 2: the end became the president of the Institution to abolish
Speaker 2: slavery and stuff. So there's a lot of things that
Speaker 2: you can say about Franklin that are really quite positive
Speaker 2: and why we can be proud to call him the
Speaker 2: Greatest American.
Speaker 1: He was a civil rights pioneer and a randy feminist.
Speaker 2: Well that's true, and and and he was active sexually
Speaker 2: into his eighties.
Speaker 1: So how about that without viagra? Mind you? Thank you,
Speaker 1: and you you mentioned that he'd be a fan of
Speaker 1: doze and trying to cut government waste and spinning. He'd
Speaker 1: also be a fan of Elon Musk and people like him,
Speaker 1: as far as entrepreneurs and inventors and innovation without government.
Speaker 1: It's all covered in the book The Greatest American. Again,
Speaker 1: that is not out till next Tuesday. Correct, that's correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it'll be in Barnes and Noble bookstores next
Speaker 2: Tuesday as well as Amazon, and you can pre order
Speaker 2: it on Amazon.
Speaker 1: All right, doctor Mark Skows, and thank you so much
Speaker 1: for the time. I love the conversation, and it paints
Speaker 1: a whole new or a broadened picture of one of
Speaker 1: our founding fathers that many people have not really thought
Speaker 1: about very much. I think, and I know it kind
Speaker 1: of cause.
Speaker 2: See him on one hundred dollars bill every time. He's
Speaker 2: quite I'm sure that would please his vanity.
Speaker 1: All Right, very well, I wish you great success with
Speaker 1: the book, and thank you for your time this morning.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you, you bet.
Speaker 1: We continue five krc V Talk Station stay on top
Speaker 1: of the day's biggest stories at the top of the
Speaker 1: hour and that's so important. Another update coming up on
Speaker 1: fifty five krc the Talk Station. This report is sponsored
Speaker 1: by