Jon Gabriel: Is Joe Biden Channeling Jimmy Carter?

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Podcasting from Memphis, Tennessee. He's
a soldier, storyteller, historian, and

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maybe a bit of a hell raisers
and enjoy It's Dave Carter. Are you

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worried? Yes, the audi ady
audio, a soldier, a storian,

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blah blah blah blah, and he's
occasionally be fubbled. So much so in

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fact, that I recently purchased a
book on how to improve one's memory.

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And no, I haven't lost the
book just yet. But the day is

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young, so you never know.
The technique seems to hinge on powers of

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association, where you take several items
and you make them into an acronym or

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you associate a certain phrase, I
before, Eve, sepptercy, whatever,

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and that's supposed to help you recall
specific items. Just more to it,

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of course, but that's kind of
what I'm working on. Oh yeah,

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I should say, welcome to the
show. Speaking of forgetting stuff, I

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am Dave Carter, and it's a
delight and an honor to welcome you to

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them. Today we have Ricochet editor
editor in chief and columnist and Twitter rockstar

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John Gabriel. He'll be with us
in a few minutes and then joining the

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festivities will be a long time Ricochet
member, goes by the name of Franco,

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and he has some thoughts on political
morality, which is a tricky subject,

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if not an outright contradiction in terms. Oh yeah, I was talking

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about memory. Plato said that all
knowledge is but remembrance, And of course

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remembrance is based on observation, whether
we directly experience things or events, or

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learn about them from reading or hearing, or watching documentaries, or maybe just

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touching a hot stove, you know. I mean, that's how you form

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memories, which you in turn used
either repeat successes in life or to make

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sure to not repeat colossal failures.
But lately it seems that we're supposed to

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We're not supposed to observe certain events
or certain phenomena, and if we do

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observe them, then we're encouraged to
forget our observations as quickly as possible.

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Of course, that's not how one
learns some history. On the contrary,

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that's how one screws things up.
But then history itself has grown out of

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favor. There's a quote from George
Orwell. In the first one or two

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hundred times that I heard it,
it resonated, but then it became.

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It was popping up in social media
every five seconds, it seemed, and

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it became tedious. But that doesn't
make it any less true, any more

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than the tediousness of say, two
plus tweek was four becomes less true the

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more that you hear it. Here's
what Orwell said. I'm going to read

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the quote for you. Every record
has been destroyed or falsified, every book

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rewritten, Every picture has been renamed
or excuse me, repainted. Every statue

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street building has been renamed. Every
date has been altered, and the process

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it is continuing day by day than
minute by minute history has stopped. Nothing

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exists except an endless present in which
the party is always right. Quote.

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Well, it's almost wrote for for
some of us at this point, but

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it bears repeating precisely because we're not
supposed to remember. Oh, I don't

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know, say riots for example,
wherein a reporter stood in front of a

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burning building in Minneapolis and described the
mayhem as a mostly peaceful protest. Now,

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riots are only riots when the rioters
doing the writing either they're fit within

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a certain riotous demographic or their writings
serves a certain riotous narrative. Isn't that

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a riot. We spent the better
part of the last year hearing that property

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damage isn't actually violence, and that
burning police precincts, looting and destroying private

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businesses, and attacking government buildings and
dragging innocent motorists from their vehicles and beating

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the hell out of them and assassinating
police officers all constitute and mostly peaceful protest,

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and therefore falls squarely within the parameters
are protected First Amendment speech, so

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long as those engaging in these barbaricos
on people and property, or Black Lives

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Matter activists or the Motley Group a
fascist who without any sense of irony call

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themselves anti fascists. Of course,
if the rioters are on the other side

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of the political spectrum, and they
harbor some suspicion, for example, that

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all the last minute election law re
engineering that took place just prior to the

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twenty twenty presidential election might not have
been strictly for benign purposes, then they

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go over to the nation's capital and
show their collective arses. Well, that's

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different. That, according to President
Joe Biden, is the worst assault an

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American democracy ever. The attack on
Pearl Harbor was child's play. The grizzly

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carnage and death of thousands of Americans
in the savage attacks of nine to eleven

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pale in comparison with some dupisent of
Viking hat standing in the Senate Chamber looking

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like Conan the Contrarian. The assassination
of retired police officer Robert Doran, mostly

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peaceful. The business owner was stomped
and kicked to death in the street while

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trying to protect his small business.
Not move along, please, nothing to

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see here. The setting a fire
of the historic church adjacent to the White

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House. Now that's not the tragedy. The real tragedy was Donald Trump standing

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in front of that church holding get
ready for it, a Bible. Now

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that's a threat to democracy. The
demolition of minority neighborhoods. The continuing murder

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in mayhem in major cities as policing
is being reimagined nearly out of existence.

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Now, don't look at that,
Pay no attention to the jackasses behind the

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curtain. Avert your eyes from the
mayhem. You can see the nearly two

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billion dollars in damage, the twenty
five people who were killed in the moronic

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violence. The resulting city blocks were
even the police dare not tread. Focus

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instead on a single ride in Washington, DC in which one person was confirmed

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to have been killed during the breach
into the Capitol, and that was an

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unarmed woman, and watch your government
relentlessly tracked down everyone involved in that lamentable

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episode while ignoring the very real carnage
in your own cities and neighborhoods. Because

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speech is violence, and violence is
benign when the politically correct mob does it,

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up is down, and down is
up. Right is wrong and wrong

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is noble. And if you say
otherwise, if you speak that which you

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can see with your own eyes,
then you're the problem. Perchance. Do

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you remember the get ghastly and hideous
murder of eight people in Atlanta not long

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ago, six of whom were Asian
women. The killer was white, so

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that white supremacy became the go to
explanation for anti Asian hate crimes. We

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were supposed to focus on that one
size fits all explanation for everything that's gone

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wrong, except that Professor Brian Levine, who's the director for the Center for

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the Study of Hate and Extremism,
took a look at the actual data behind

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the anti Asian hate crimes and hate
crimes in general. In New York City,

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for example, where so many of
these crimes take place, the data

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show that Blacks and Latinos account for
ninety percent of those arrested for carrying out

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hate crimes, and in the first
three months of twenty twenty one, hate

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crimes against Asian Americans in New York
City have increased some two hundred and twenty

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three percent. Now, if that's
a white supremacy issue, then nine Marie

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Antoinette. Consequently, as the facts
came to the surface, the subject of

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anti Asian hate crimes as all but
vanished from the news. If you've noticed,

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because we aren't supposed to notice actual
facts that alone remember them. Speaking

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of memories, anyone, remember what
happened way back in the misty past,

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I say, last April April the
second of twenty twenty one. We all

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know what happened in January sixth,
right, what happened in April the second.

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You may or may not recall that
that was the day of the next

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assault on the US Capital and Washington, DC. You remember the guy who

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rammed his vehicle into police officers,
killing one of them. He then got

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out with a knife and tried to
attack other police officers, which resulted in

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the cops shooting and killing him.
In the meed of aftermath of the attack,

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Twitter was twittering away with people such
as one doctor Melissa Hillman, who

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quoted c and n's reporting that the
suspect as at that point, was not

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on the radar of the Capitol police. But the attack does not appear to

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be terror. Isn't related what CNN
said, at which point doctor Hillman wrote,

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well we know, well, now
we know the attacker was white.

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Doctor Helman wasn't an outlier as far
as that sort of conjecture was concerned.

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Then came word that the attacker was
one Noah Green, a black man who

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was a devotee of Minister Lewis Ferricon
of Nation of Islam Fame, whom Green

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considered to be his quote spiritual father. In fact, Green had initiated the

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legal process to have his name changed
to Novah Zahim Mohammed, but failed to

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appear for the final hearing on that
subject just three days prior to attacking and

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waging cheehad on the Capitol And just
like that, reporting on that particular insurrection

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and that threat to American democracy,
Dear disappeared off the ratear faster than you

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can say Allahu Akbar, which an
angelist translates to my motives are unclear.

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There are plenty many of other examples
of things you really aren't supposed to notice

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from critical race theories supposition that racism
can only be successfully fought by applying still

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more racism to the historical similarities between
President Biden's governance and that a former president

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Jimmy Carter, along with historically similar
results ranging from restless Iranian adventurism in Middle

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East unrest to inflation, joblessness,
energy shortages, growing energy, and dependence

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on other nations. Then you know
a government that rules with an iron fist

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on its own citizens while putting a
giant kick me signed on its back side

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and inviting the rest of the world
to commence kicking America. What we're seeing

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here, folks, is an attempt
to put you, the American people,

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into a politically induced coma where you
will amble through national life in a mental

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fog, paying no attention to the
red flags that are popping up like weeds

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all around you. You're happy when
Uncle Sugar dispenses streets and pays people not

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to work and not to notice their
nation, their culture, and their very

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lives imploding. Voltaire philosopher Voltaire has
said that if you want to know who

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controls you, look at who you
are not allowed to criticize. Indeed,

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look at what subjects get you canceled, or what questions and comments will garner

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unwanted attention or facts that you dare
not utter too loudly. Odds are that

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those are precisely the areas on which
to focus. And those are a few

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of my thoughts from the continuing calamity
that is will America. I'd like to

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hear your thoughts on the topic,
so feel free to comment over on Ricochet

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or on YouTube where you'll see this
video, and let's see what you have

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to say about it. But meanwhile, let's turn our attention to our first

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guest. If you follow this guy
on Twitter, you may or may not

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recognize him without without his signature coffee
cup, John Gabriel. Well, there

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it is. That's a Mason jar. Yeah, there's a moonshine. I

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like it, Arizona. We need
to hydrate along John Gabriel as a friend.

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Obviously, he's the editor in chief
of Ricochet. In addition to being

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a political writer. He's also a
marketing consultant, contributing articles to The Wall

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Street Journal, The New York Post, in USA Today, among others.

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Up until twenty twelve, he was
the director of marketing for the Free Market

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gold Water Institute, where he converted
policy initiatives into compelling stories. In the

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private sector, he led marketing out
efforts some excuse me for a cold Stone

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Creamery, which by the way,
is the happy food of the gods,

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and he also led marketing efforts for
Honeywell and several technology companies. He also

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helped create a political satire blog which
garnered the attention of Rush Limball, Hugh

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Hewitt, National View, the New
York Times, among others. Mister Gabriel

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is a cimicum laude graduate of Arizona
State's Cronkite School of the Journalism. He's

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a US Navy veteran, having served
as a submarine reactor operator, and he

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writes that when he's not obsessing about
the news, he obsesses about the Green

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Bay Packers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and
Indie rock. Don't I don't know where

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to go with that anyway. He
lives in Mesa, Arizona, with who

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he describes as his long suffering wife
and two precocious daughters. And it's a

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treat to welcome you to the program. John, How are you? How

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are you doing? I am doing
great? How about you? I'm doing

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wonderfully. Thank yous. Today's the
day off for me, so I get

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to do this and this is what
I enjoy. So it beats the hell

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out of retail any day. You
mentioned something recently about the time zone issue,

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and I can't remember if you guys. Do y'all do the Daylight savings

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time or is it like we could
go last Thursday over there or what?

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Yeah, we're kind of like trying
to keep up now. I belong to

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the Orthodox Church, and it's like
us to Easter. It's just like your

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best guess, you know, we
don't know what time it is right now

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Arizona. We aren't liberal or conservative. We're contrarian and okay. Prime example

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of this is in the early seventies
when Congress said, henceforth, all states

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must change their time and pretend it's
an hour later or an hour earlier.

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And I can just imagine Goldwater the
bap, you know, flip the bird

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and saying no, we're not going
to but that'll make it complicated for the

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rest of us. He's like,
I don't care. I'm not going to

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do it. So we are currently
on Pacific time, and then we will

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shift to Mountain time whenever you spring
forward, leap back, whatever it is.

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So we're kind of in this weird
languolier like our own time time zone.

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Basic. Bet it throws all the
smartphones off. Oh yeah, yeah,

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it gets confusing digital. Many years
ago, I worked in an IT

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department. Yeah, that was always
your manually switching everything, you know,

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when people are calling in from around
the world. You mentioned something and I

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had not attended to talk about it, but it got it got my attention.

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When did you go to the Orthodox
Church? That was fairly recently,

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wasn't that? Yeah? Yeah,
almost a year ago. I think it's

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like eleven months. It's best.
Okay. My brother in law is Orthodox

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as well. Oh really wow.
And I went from Southern Baptist to Catholic

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inf so okay, fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, And it was similar for

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me because I had attended Southern Baptist
churches and usually went to a lot of

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non denominational kind of places, but
several of the places, especially in the

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Navy, when you're moving around a
lot, I would find the local Baptist

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church and go there because I'm like, Okay, there aren't going to be

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too far off, and I leave
in six months, so I can't shop

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around too much. Yeah yeah,
yeah, so yeah. And if you're

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going from that to orthodox, I
mean, that's like a happy kind of

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whiplash, but it's whiplash nonetheless,
right, right, And my little month

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monologue just before you came on a
running stream of whatever it was, did

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I talked about things that we really
aren't supposed to notice, but that we

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can't help but noticing. And among
those things I was not I was talking

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about the similarities that I see,
and I think he wrote about this between

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President Biden's accomplishments and those of former
President Jimmy Carter. Inflation, emerging energy

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dependence, energy shortages, rising unemployment, iran up to mischief, wonderful things

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like that. You see those kind
of similarities as well, absolutely, And

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I first noticed probably a month into
his administration, but at that point we

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hadn't seen the effects of US policies
yet, but just his gloom and doom

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malaise kind of talk. COVID is
a good example of this. Is all

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he was doing was talking down the
COVID relief, talking down the vaccine.

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It's going to take a long time
to get out of it. We can't

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change the trajectory of the virus and
just all this kind of doom and gloom

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talk. But now that he's actually
passed this, you know, in stain

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version of stimulus that he passed,
now have inflation is kicking in car waiting

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for fuel in long lines. I
had like a vague recollection of that when

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I was a kid waiting with my
dad and three and a half hours to

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get gas. And you're seeing that
pop up again. Russia's hacking us and

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he's not really doing much about it. We're paying the ransom or ran As

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attacking our main ally in the Middle
East, and he's trying to get them

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more money, and it's it's just
crazy. And it's amazing to me how

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quickly this happened. At least the
you know, the press is still on

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his side, but they were for
Carter two until they realized he's a liability

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And maybe we should promote Ted Kennedy
or someone. I guess, I guess

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the term of art is what the
hell. I mean, did nobody understand

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that this would happen again? When
you get certain so when you do certain

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policies, you get certain results,
right, right, right, It should

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be obvious to anybody. But now
it's just nobody wants to talk about policy

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anymore. It's just about personality.
This is really common sense, and especially

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one thing that's flummox me is the
Mid East problem has always been framed as

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Palestine versus Israel. Trump did an
un run around that did all these Gulf

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states, all these Arab states who
are terrified of Iranian culture, who are

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not Arabs, They're terrified of them, and they want to basically undermine Iran's

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position. This was given to Biden
on a plate, totally re envisioned Middle

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East, and immediately he tries to
reverse its. It's amazing because we were

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in the middle of defanging the largest
menace in the region, rendering them irrelevant.

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The same with Hamas, and we
said no, no, no,

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we want to boast of these troublemakers. And see, I mean it's just

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crazy yeah yeah, and trying to
fund our enemies and kick our allies when

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they're down. I know that you
mentioned this, that President Carter referred to

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said that the American American people suffered
from malaise. I think what's happening now

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is not necessarily malaise. I think
that the left is trying to give us

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a politically induced coma instead on the
part of the American people. So do

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you My question, I guess is
because it needs to be a question or

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someplace. Do you think that a
sufficient number of people are actually paying attention

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to make a difference in twenty twenty
two. I think not yet, but

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they will be. I've heard from
enough people who are pretty a political somebody

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I always use as kind of a
sounding board when I write for a mainstream

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paper. They're like, is my
sister, a couple of years older than

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me, doesn't care about politics?
Ever? Has When I hear her complaining

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about a political issue. When she's
complaining we live in Arizona, she's complaining

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about immigration, she's complaining about fuel
prices, she's complaining about inflation, That's

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when I realize, Oh, it's
really hitting now. This isn't one of

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those people. She's not on Twitter
twenty four to seven and getting in cultural

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battles with people. But when she
starts complaining about these things, I'm like,

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Oh, something is actually happening,
and it's reaching people not only in

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their pocketbooks, but their neighbors as
well. That you know, she kind

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of usually goes with the flow,
and when she's complaining about stuff, it's

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like, Okay, things are difficult, Yeah, it's time to perk up.

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You mentioned immigration, So what's what's
the story. I know Texas,

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I see a lot of that,
but I don't hear a lot from from

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you guys. What's happening in Arizona. With respecting that it's been very bad

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here, the national press isn't really
covering it. To their credit, we

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have Republican Governor Doug Doocy, but
also we have two Democratic senators and they've

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joined with the Republican governor demanding that
Biden addressed the problems the border. And

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that's first off, very shrewd politically. People think that, you know,

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I don't know, why is Kirsten
Cinema not voting with the Democrats all the

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time. It's like, because she
has a brain and she would be reelected.

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And Arizona has always been on the
front lines of immigration issues, a

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legal immigration, I should say.
And yeah, there have been people overrunning

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the border in the Yuma sector that's
right on the border with California. California

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who complains about Trump but built a
fence before anybody else, My dad,

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And we've also just the problem too, is now that we're into May,

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getting into June, people are going
to try to cross one hundred and fifty

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miles of desert, young children,
moms and dads, people who are not

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prepared for it. You know,
I don't like driving over you know,

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that much desert, and they are
going to be staggering around walking. It

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is not compassionate to give these people
false hope that, oh, yeah,

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come on up here, you can
get a great job. It's dead and

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they find bodies in the desert all
the times. And that's what I'm really

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concerned about right now, because they
have not stemmed the flow at all.

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Well, Kamala Harris is in charge, so since since gone mute, she's

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silent as a graven image, since
she got that appointment. So I don't

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know, you wrote a piece of
a change of subject because we know what

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the answer is. It's the same
answer to the previous issue that we talked

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about in foreign policy. But they're
not going to do that because they didn't

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like the guy who was instituting those
policies. You wrote several weeks ago about

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on subjectble Liz Cheney and what eventually
got her booted from the leadership position within

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the Republican House Representatives. She castigated
Donald Trump rather thoroughly, but then she

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wouldn't lead the subject alone. Right
to quote you. For example, you

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wrote that if House leadership's job is
to divide its own party, Cheney would

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be a perfect fit. But Republican
conference chairs are supposed to unite the team

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and take the fight to the Democrats, you know, the party that controls

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the House to send it in the
White House and is jamming through a radical

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progressive agenda to what extent, just
extrapolating that out, to what extent do

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you think that leadership within the GOP
generally is continuing down the Liz Cheney path

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of hectoring the party's base. I
think it's still their default position, and

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I think you see this a lot. There are conservative public pundits that I've

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loved for twenty years, and they're
complaining about Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gates

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and Donald Trump. But then back
to MTG again and saying how great Liz

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Cheney is. No one in the
rest of the country cares about any of

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these issues. We care about rising
fuel prices, we care about national defense,

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we care about secure borders, and
they just constantly get into this.

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Let's talk about Liz Cheney and how
her machinations against Kevin McCarthy and what this

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means for the future of the party. How about flying into Wyoming and talking

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to voters there. They are the
star of the show, not list changing

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right, not serving them, And
she's going to be turned out of office,

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whether she feels forced to resign or
she's going to easily get primaried out.

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And that's what a lot of these
One reason I never wanted to move

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to DC. I'd gotten years back
job offers there, but I didn't want

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to become a part of this hive
mind. It's just this strange thing where

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everything is viewed through the prism of
power politics in Washington. That is not

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what politicians are sent to Washington Washington
for. They are sent to represent we

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the people, and the second they
forget it, time to go. Yeah.

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I agree, I agree, and
I hope that that that's the case.

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I love the way that you described
the way she was hectoring and staying

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on that one note of castigating Trump. I'm going to quote you again because

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it's fun. You're right say.
I bought a Sweet nineteen sixty seven four

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in westing Candy Apple read three hundred
and twenty horses, lovingly restored, but

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six months ago my wife borrowed it, ran to stop sign and totaled the

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car. I'd be upset. We
would have a long, painful talk.

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I would talk for a few weeks
and then buy a boring used Honda to

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replace it. I've got a Civic
by the way, it's good. Then

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my wife asked me to drop off
the kids at school, and I reply,

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oh, should I bring them in
my crappy accord I had to buy

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because you destroyed my beautiful Mustang.
And when don't She asked, if I

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want to think in Starbucks, I'd
say, how about a hot Venti for

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Ducino? Do they have one of
those? That's kind of where we were

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and where so many people reside.
Yeah. And you would think that in

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leadership, you're supposed to be healing
the riffs, and what she was doing

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is just tossing salt in the wound. At twenty four to seven. That's

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all she cares about is complaining about
a person who is not president anymore.

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And I think, Okay, she
opposes Trump. I'm fine with that,

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and I think most Republicans are fine
with that. Look, she didn't like

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the guy, we get it.
He can be a jerk. But what's

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Mitch McConnell doing. He's like,
Okay, how do I get the majority

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back? How do I stop Chuck
Schumer from pressing this liberal legislation that he

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has? Right, he's focused on
He's not worrying about what Trump wrote in

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his blog two weeks ago about him. He's focusing on the job at hand.

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That's what everybody should be doing instead
of looking backwards. Let's move forward.

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Biden has enough to complain about,
and that's I mean, that makes

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sense. And that's what I do, regardless of who is advocating the policies.

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I look at the policies themselves.
Ultimately, that's what affects people.

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And I have to confess I haven't
followed this as closely as I would like

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to because I have a day job
of mortgage and all that kind of fun

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stuff, So I can't do what
i'd like to do, but I'm not

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sure. Maybe you are on the
progress of HR one. I know that

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seeks to change and solidify some election
laws, dilute, if not suspend,

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voter ID that kind of thing.
Is that still going full steam ahead through

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through the legislature to the Congress.
It's moving ahead, but pretty slowly because

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they're really facing a roadblock in that
you have about three or four Democratic senators

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who don't want to change the filibuster. Unless they change and get rid of

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the filibuster completely, none of these
things we're going to have a chance because

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they can't get sixty votes. What
a same president would have done kind of

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like this COVID relief quote unquote package, which is most slush fund for favorite

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interests. What he could have done
is actually to go to negotiate it with

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Republicans and gotten ninety votes for something. Instead, he decided to say Republicans

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are evil. It's going to be
one party rule from here on out,

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even though he barely has a majority
in the Senate. It's just very foolish

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politics and policy because it's going to
bite him pretty hard in the midterms.

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I wonder, I wonder though,
what he's thinking, what they're thinking is

359
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they historically have gotten bit pretty hard
in the midterms when they've tried to ram

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stuff through and couldn't get it done. So they're thinking, this is my

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supposition that we've got to get We've
got to try harder, we have to

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get it through more. Because if
we can get this stuff through, we

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can do the filibuster, if we
can do we can pack the or if

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we can change voting laws, then
what do people say after that doesn't matter

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because we're in the driver's seat at
that point. Yeah. I think that's

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what they're thinking, and I don't
think they thought it through well enough.

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You've seen something very similar in the
EU and why briggsit was such a big

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deal with the UK leaving. They
want to create a structure where they're no

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longer held accountable. I recently read
a piece on COVID in the Czech Republic,

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something I knew nothing about, but
what it was is the European Union

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in Brussels made bad mistakes. Everybody
realized their mistakes, but when you go

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to blame someone, well, this
was the sub subcommittee on this subcommittee over

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here in Brussels, and they interfaced
with this team. So nobody's ever to

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blame. You can't kick the people
out who are officially making the decisions because

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they're all covering their bases to make
sure nobody officially calls for a decision A

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or decision B. So that's what
the Democrats want to see, completely unaccountable

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power. What happens do you think
I've said a while back that I think

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everything's hanging by the skin of Joe
Mansion's teeth. What happens if they do

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get hr one through? I mean, how much more difficult does it?

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Does? Do the Goop's future electoral
prospects become much more difficult? And thankfully

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it would be tied up in litigation
for quite a while. But we cannot

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rely on courts to save our bacon. Fight this tooth and nail. And

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you need a system where fifty states
have fifty year for a set of rules,

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because that's the way our constitution is
set up. The states create the

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federal government. It's not the other
way. No, I'm afraid you don't

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00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:40.279
have to agree with this. If
you don't want to, that's fine.

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But I think we played Russian roulette
with this last election, and we hope

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00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:48.400
like hell that it works. But
it is Russian roulette. Nevertheless, yeah,

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I agree completely. So let's have
a little bit of fun now,

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00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:55.119
just tap dance on the landmine.
To quote Stephen Tyler, you always have

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fun on Twitter. You do a
great deal over there, folks. That's

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00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:02.720
he's at. Little Hander is at
x John E X j O N.

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00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:07.079
His photo is of well, him
holding a coffee cup to his lips,

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but not raising his pinkie, so
that we have that to be thankful for.

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You posted something recently. The directions
to the photos said, the last

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saved image is your entire moral philosophy. John posted a photo which I'm going

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00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:25.920
to put on the screen now now. As you can see, this is

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a really old photo, presumably when
child labor was a thing, and it's

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00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:33.480
a little boy apparently been working in
the minds or something. I think he's

400
00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:36.400
got a pickaxe in his hand.
He looks really tired, got a pipe

401
00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:40.920
in his mouth. His kid's a
tough little customer, from which we can

402
00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:47.160
deduce that John's moral philosophy is gritty, rather gritty and hilarious. What I

403
00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:49.920
want to know is how did you
get your hands on my kindergarten photo?

404
00:29:52.079 --> 00:30:00.039
Because I thought that thing was secured
away no ices. I know people of

405
00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:03.480
the NSA, and they ended up
planning it. I'm so screwed. Okay,

406
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:06.480
all right, well, I mean, you really do have fun on

407
00:30:06.519 --> 00:30:11.119
Twitter, and you managed to make
some salient points without taking yourself too seriously.

408
00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:15.960
And I gather that makes for a
good social media philosophy, right.

409
00:30:15.799 --> 00:30:19.160
Yeah. I've never really been able
to take myself seriously even when I make

410
00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:25.279
I take issue seriously, but not
myself seriously. And it's very difficult for

411
00:30:25.319 --> 00:30:29.480
me to get offended or getting outraged
about something. I was always the kid

412
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:33.319
in class making, you know,
smirking remarks to my buddy and my fellow

413
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:38.160
friends in the back row in between
shooting spitwads. I was always like,

414
00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:41.359
I'm muttering in the back of the
room and trying not to take it too

415
00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:45.599
seriously. Yeah, me too,
so angry all the time. It's pretty

416
00:30:45.599 --> 00:30:48.640
easy to be abused by it.
I always had an the side. I

417
00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:51.559
got in trouble one time, and
I don't know why I've just remembered this.

418
00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:56.359
It's in high school, in study
hall and the library. Lovely ladies,

419
00:30:56.359 --> 00:30:59.759
sweet, I mean, but for
some reasons she upbraided me for something

420
00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:03.160
that I'm sor I deserved, and
so we had a staring contest. I

421
00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:06.200
mean she just locked eyes on me. So I locked eyes on her,

422
00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:10.839
and she said, you may lower
your eyes and I said I can't.

423
00:31:10.920 --> 00:31:18.519
They're right here, don't And there
we went. Last question that overall over

424
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:22.839
on Ricochet, on the good ship
Ricochet, as I call is it pretty

425
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:26.839
fairly smooth sailing in the midst of
all this political termoil right now. Yeah,

426
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:30.519
it's been going pretty well, and
we have disagreements, but they've been

427
00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:33.880
remarkably civil, especially kind of moving
on a few months after the election.

428
00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:38.039
Yeah, that was one of my
frustrations with this kind of continuing complaints about

429
00:31:38.079 --> 00:31:44.119
Liz Cheney, etc. Is people
are pretty united on Ricochet. I'd getting

430
00:31:44.200 --> 00:31:47.920
rid of Joe Biden, and it's
like we can focus on that and patch

431
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.640
up a whole lot of problems because
we see our way of life under threat,

432
00:31:52.119 --> 00:31:55.759
and I think voters in the middle
are seeing it as well, and

433
00:31:56.200 --> 00:31:59.680
conservatives better be willing to take the
fight to the Democrats and the midterms.

434
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:02.680
Just push back on the silliness from
your lips to God's ears. Of course,

435
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:06.599
All right, well, then thank
you for taking your life in your

436
00:32:06.599 --> 00:32:09.319
hands again now we appearing on the
program. I appreciate it. You bat

437
00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:12.519
always a pleasure. It's a trick
talking to you, John. Thank you

438
00:32:12.559 --> 00:32:15.839
so much, folks. That's right, Brickish editor in chief John Gabriel on

439
00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:28.480
the day of Carter program. The
biggest music We've got, big music this

440
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:45.200
Carter not Mercy. Sound like the
Blues, don't it? Yeah, baby,

441
00:32:45.920 --> 00:32:54.839
yeah, yeah yeah. I mean
that's like, imagine the best greasy

442
00:32:55.200 --> 00:33:00.599
finger lick and good barbecue you've ever
had. Turn that stuff from the music.

443
00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:07.559
This is what you get. I'm
having it entirely too much fun here.

444
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:12.440
But speaking of a treat for the
years, how'd you like the conversation

445
00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:15.119
with John Gabriel? Then it's nice
to see and hear from a guy who

446
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:22.000
scary smart, but he's not pretentious, doesn't take himself too seriously. I

447
00:33:22.039 --> 00:33:23.599
mean, quite honestly, that's the
kind of person you would try to find

448
00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:30.559
to whole political office, right,
which immediately disqualifies just about everybody's seeking office.

449
00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:32.920
I guess I need the noodle that
one for a little bit. But

450
00:33:34.720 --> 00:33:38.160
meanwhile, if you've enjoyed the exchange
thus far, I would encourage you to

451
00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:43.039
check out the many offerings. The
audio offerings available for your consumption on the

452
00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:49.279
Ricochet Audio Podcast, Ricochet Audio Network, from Job's podcast aptly called The King

453
00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:53.440
of Stuff to Commentary magazine podcast and
my friend Nick Plosser in his show called

454
00:33:53.480 --> 00:33:59.240
The Half Percent, where he interviews
veterans and act duty folks and gives you

455
00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:01.799
a sense of what's being done on
your behalf by members of the armed forces.

456
00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:07.160
And of course the Ricochet flagship podcast
keeps humming right along each week as

457
00:34:07.160 --> 00:34:12.519
Peter Robinson and Rob Long and James
Lilax engage some of the most interesting and

458
00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:15.000
knowledgeable people in the news today.
So if you want to pony up,

459
00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:19.599
save four and a half bucks a
month, right you listen to all the

460
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:22.599
podcasts. Of course, you can
read or all the articles on the main

461
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:24.639
feed as well as behind the pay
wall on the member feed, and you

462
00:34:24.679 --> 00:34:29.159
can comment on any of that stuff
that you want. Now, for fifty

463
00:34:29.159 --> 00:34:31.360
cents more a month, you're gonna
write your own articles for the whole wide

464
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:35.079
world to look at and read,
and you can let folks know what you

465
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:37.760
think about things you know. But
if you're not sure, if you want

466
00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:40.519
to make that commitment just yet,
and you want to just try this thing

467
00:34:40.519 --> 00:34:44.119
out for a little while. I
got a deal for you, Okay,

468
00:34:44.559 --> 00:34:47.960
for listeners to this program, just
haul your cursor up there to the top

469
00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:55.400
of the screen and type in ricochet
dot com slash gumbo gumbo. You'll get

470
00:34:55.440 --> 00:35:00.880
a free thirty day trial of Ricochet
courtesy of this kid and Louisiana. So

471
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:02.719
try it all out for a while. If you want thirty days, see

472
00:35:02.760 --> 00:35:06.320
what you think, write comment,
do what you like with it, and

473
00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:08.000
if you'll like it at the end
of that thirty day period, well then

474
00:35:08.039 --> 00:35:13.599
four and a half bucks gets you
in the door. After that sound pretty

475
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:16.480
good. That sounds good because it
is good. Remember that's ricochet dot com

476
00:35:16.519 --> 00:35:43.239
slash gumbo gum bo, newsmakers,
celebrities, authors, toundits, don's no

477
00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:53.800
all people to all here all of
the day cars to show all right,

478
00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:58.119
folks now comes. They're really fun
part of the program, and that's when

479
00:35:58.159 --> 00:36:01.400
I get to talk to Ricochet members
and asking their wisdom and their good senses.

480
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:06.159
I never get tired of saying Ricochet
members come from all walks of life,

481
00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:09.360
and they bring such vivid experience and
expertise to the site that it would

482
00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:14.280
be just nuts not to have them
on and talk with them and gain from

483
00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:17.079
their ideas and their experiences. As
a reminder, if you take me up

484
00:36:17.079 --> 00:36:21.719
on my offer of a free thirty
day trial of Ricochet by going to ricochet

485
00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:24.880
dot com slash gumbo, you can
become part of the Ricochet community and even

486
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:28.639
end up here on the program as
my guests as well. That's possible.

487
00:36:28.679 --> 00:36:30.880
I mean, worst things have happened. I suppose now this will be fun

488
00:36:30.920 --> 00:36:36.320
because my guests became part of Ricochet
virtually from the very beginning of the website.

489
00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:38.280
I'm not positive, but I may
have even had hair back then.

490
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:43.599
At any rate, I can remember
shortly after I became part of Ricochet reading

491
00:36:43.960 --> 00:36:47.719
the articles and arguments advanced by a
guy who goes by the name around these

492
00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:52.760
parts simply as Franco. He joined
Ricochet beeck in September of twenty ten.

493
00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:58.840
In his mini posts and comments are
always interesting reading. In our notes in

494
00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:01.280
the conversation leading up to today's interview, I learned that Franco has led a

495
00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:07.840
rhthern full life which has included the
experience as a performer, a professional musician,

496
00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:10.119
a merchant, seaman, and a
great deal more. He's traveled around

497
00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:14.679
the world, including Switzerland on some
other places, and he's even worked at

498
00:37:14.599 --> 00:37:20.679
a few casinos in Atlantic City.
His interest includes sports, psychology, and

499
00:37:20.960 --> 00:37:24.559
yes, politics, which is where
he focuses most of his writings on Ricochet.

500
00:37:24.599 --> 00:37:30.880
I've been struck from the beginning by
Franco's realistic approach to political events and

501
00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:35.280
his ability to explain things in a
graceful yet fourth right way, which he

502
00:37:35.360 --> 00:37:37.440
will get to in a minute.
But first, Franco, sir, thank

503
00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:42.440
you so much. Welcome to the
program. Great, thanks, I'm glad

504
00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:45.239
you're here. Thank you so much
for being a part of it. How

505
00:37:45.320 --> 00:37:50.000
you doing, by the way,
pretty good, very good. I'm very

506
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:53.360
happy. I haven't been happier in
a long time. Actually well good invest

507
00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:59.960
in terms of depressions scale and yeah, but yes, coffee, coffee Hill.

508
00:38:01.639 --> 00:38:06.000
My day job is in retail,
and I've had to expand the hours.

509
00:38:06.039 --> 00:38:08.599
I've been working mornings as well as
afternoons and evenings. And I'm not

510
00:38:08.639 --> 00:38:13.159
a morning guy. So if I
could put the coffee like, if I

511
00:38:13.159 --> 00:38:15.639
could, you know, mainline it, I would be a great deal more

512
00:38:15.719 --> 00:38:21.519
cheerful with with folks. But you
know, we do what we can now.

513
00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:24.320
In the article you wrote an article
today, which really encapsulated a lot

514
00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:28.039
of the things that you and I
talked about on the phone, was week

515
00:38:28.159 --> 00:38:32.119
or two ago, and the articles
called moralism by Proxy. And in the

516
00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:39.000
article you distinguish between the moralisms of
people on either side of the political spectrum.

517
00:38:39.079 --> 00:38:42.400
And I'm going to quote you here
if I may, you right quote

518
00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:49.719
those on the left hold an exaggerated
value of policy morality, while though many

519
00:38:49.760 --> 00:38:53.519
on the right require a kind of
personal morality. Now, would you mind

520
00:38:53.559 --> 00:39:00.519
walking me through the distinction there between
policy and personal morality as you see that

521
00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:05.199
distinction to exist. Well, I
think that in general that our side,

522
00:39:05.239 --> 00:39:14.199
so to speak, our side has
has has overvalued personal morality and undervalued,

523
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:19.480
more important, undervalued policy morality in
terms of like, well, as long

524
00:39:19.480 --> 00:39:22.480
as you don't cheat on your wife
and don't embarrassons, right, then we're

525
00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:25.559
cool with you, even though you
didn't get all the stuff that you promised

526
00:39:25.599 --> 00:39:30.800
done. And that's that's the sense
that I'm going with that I think,

527
00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:36.119
okay, And you go on to
make the point exactly that point by pointing

528
00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:39.800
out the Republicans really didn't do themselves
a great deal of favor by heaping scoring

529
00:39:39.880 --> 00:39:43.320
on people like Bill Clinton, for
example, in the grounds that if he

530
00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:45.559
lies to his wife, he's going
to lie to you as well, right,

531
00:39:46.159 --> 00:39:51.639
ignoring the fact that all politicians pretty
much why as as as a matter

532
00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:58.280
of doing business, Yes, but
also he was particularly reprehensible not to say

533
00:39:58.320 --> 00:40:01.159
that he wasn't putting it in everybody
face it right, and right around the

534
00:40:01.199 --> 00:40:05.599
time when that was actually not just
a moral issue, but it was a

535
00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:10.199
kind of a power issue of sex, you know, the sex gender divides,

536
00:40:10.920 --> 00:40:15.199
so which we were coming out there. You know, it's almost something

537
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:17.400
that I didn't even realize at the
time. I mean, I've grown through

538
00:40:17.559 --> 00:40:22.639
through the ages, and I just
really didn't quite understand sexual harassment when it

539
00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:24.599
came out. But then I got
it at some point. It's like,

540
00:40:24.639 --> 00:40:29.079
oh, I see, and actually
I had been sexually harassed by gay man

541
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:32.360
in a restaurant, so I didn't
bother me. It wasn't a deal.

542
00:40:32.440 --> 00:40:37.119
But if I had chose to make
a big deal out of that, then

543
00:40:37.679 --> 00:40:40.519
I could have had a suit if
I wanted to. But I'm just saying

544
00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:45.960
in those terms, I understood,
I began to understand it, and obviously

545
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:47.960
I maybe I didn't understand it because
I would never do it, or I

546
00:40:49.320 --> 00:40:53.639
wasn't feel I wasn't into that power
thing. Yeah, um, you know,

547
00:40:53.679 --> 00:40:57.360
speaking of voting on the basis of
who lives to their wives. You're

548
00:40:57.400 --> 00:41:00.000
right. I'm going to quote you
again because this is such a quotable article

549
00:41:00.119 --> 00:41:02.360
number one, but makes you makes
some good points here. You say,

550
00:41:02.360 --> 00:41:07.280
this is not a bad metric as
a component in choosing a leader, but

551
00:41:07.440 --> 00:41:14.639
not as an exclusive shortcut that eliminates
competent candidates who can win and thereby advance

552
00:41:14.719 --> 00:41:19.920
the conservative agenda. Now there's an
important distinction there, okay, because you

553
00:41:20.039 --> 00:41:23.519
then go on to say, I'm
convinced that many Republican voters don't especially care

554
00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:29.440
about having a president who tries to
advance the policies they ostensibly desire. They

555
00:41:29.480 --> 00:41:31.960
only care about appearances, and that
for many of these people has become a

556
00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:37.480
paramount that they're president, the one
their side is responsible for electing, keep

557
00:41:37.559 --> 00:41:43.079
up appearances for their sake. The
morality is more virtue signal living than anything

558
00:41:43.159 --> 00:41:46.920
else. There's a distinction there between
the two. Right, Yes, and

559
00:41:47.119 --> 00:41:51.840
like an overattachment to our side in
the sense of a moral thing, like

560
00:41:51.920 --> 00:41:58.039
our guy is better than your guy
morally speaking, which is always questionable,

561
00:41:58.079 --> 00:42:01.760
but I usually think the Republican is
morally superior. But that's just that's just

562
00:42:01.960 --> 00:42:07.199
my own stupid reasoning. But beyond
that, I'm the kind of step back

563
00:42:07.239 --> 00:42:12.800
and say, like, yeah,
it's like this overattachment to the result,

564
00:42:12.920 --> 00:42:15.559
the result. So if if if
mit Romney and I felt this way too,

565
00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:20.079
It's like I felt this in my
life. I remember being a young

566
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:23.280
Catholic and thinking, oh and watching
the sound of music and just thinking,

567
00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:29.840
well, if everybody saw us Catholics
in this life, and it would be

568
00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:35.480
wonderful. So over identifying with a
certain thing and promoting something like that.

569
00:42:36.360 --> 00:42:40.800
Uh So, so if everybody saw
that Mit Romney as a great moral man

570
00:42:40.840 --> 00:42:45.000
and he's done all these great things, it doesn't really matter. And I'm

571
00:42:45.039 --> 00:42:49.360
not putting him down for that or
obviously, you know, but I'm just

572
00:42:49.400 --> 00:42:53.320
saying that. But you know,
we'll give him a pass on on the

573
00:42:53.440 --> 00:42:59.920
thing because he represents us, he
represents our ideals, he represents our morale

574
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.639
holiday sort of, and we're kind
of trying to impose that on the culture

575
00:43:04.719 --> 00:43:07.159
because we can't win the culture were
anywhere else. So that maybe if we

576
00:43:07.199 --> 00:43:15.400
elect Dudley do right, oh disrespected, Yeah, the world will get get

577
00:43:15.519 --> 00:43:22.280
that we're and also to promote our
country as this great thing, which it

578
00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:27.840
is. But it's not a great
country because we have a great president or

579
00:43:28.039 --> 00:43:30.599
here there because we have good count
presidents and bad presidents. That's not why

580
00:43:30.639 --> 00:43:36.719
it's a great country. So I'm
just maybe a little bit on that fact.

581
00:43:36.840 --> 00:43:39.280
I was just thinking as you were
saying that not very many people would

582
00:43:39.320 --> 00:43:47.000
dispute the notion that Jimmy Carter was
a good man, faithful to his wife.

583
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:52.519
He would get my vote for Sunday
school teacher. He was a great

584
00:43:52.559 --> 00:43:57.440
moral, good guy. But as
a president, he was an unmitigated disaster.

585
00:43:57.679 --> 00:44:01.559
So you have to ask yourself with
the job that you want done,

586
00:44:02.599 --> 00:44:06.559
do you want it done or do
you want someone that Because we could have

587
00:44:06.599 --> 00:44:12.679
had another four years of Jimmy Carter, but we elected not to Well,

588
00:44:12.760 --> 00:44:17.239
yeah, I mean I think it
was just he just was was a very

589
00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:22.000
bad also being a very nice guy, he was not a strong self promoter.

590
00:44:22.119 --> 00:44:24.960
And when he was when he tried, as I call it was kind

591
00:44:24.960 --> 00:44:29.719
of young politically in those ways.
But when he tried, he came off

592
00:44:29.760 --> 00:44:34.119
as a little bit indignant, and
but he wasn't really graceful in terms of

593
00:44:34.239 --> 00:44:37.559
in terms of how to deal with
with criticism. And of course it was

594
00:44:37.599 --> 00:44:45.280
just the mayais. It was just
that or however you say that French word,

595
00:44:44.440 --> 00:44:49.079
Yeah, with mayonnaise, I think, but it was you know,

596
00:44:49.360 --> 00:44:53.360
anyway, it's not really that important. Yeah, we have had good you

597
00:44:53.400 --> 00:45:00.400
know. Yeah. And in a
way he was I know, people that

598
00:45:00.440 --> 00:45:04.599
really put him up to be well, he's a Christian. He's a really

599
00:45:04.639 --> 00:45:07.800
strong Christian. And that was back
when there were a lot of Democrats who

600
00:45:07.800 --> 00:45:10.599
are Christians. I mean there still
are, but there were many more.

601
00:45:12.039 --> 00:45:15.800
Yea, and he bridges a divide
between the religious and me. But I'm

602
00:45:15.800 --> 00:45:20.960
not I mean, well, and
excuse me to bring it to more recent

603
00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:25.480
times with respect to the election in
twenty sixteen, we had and tropic guy

604
00:45:25.519 --> 00:45:29.719
who, as you note in your
article, didn't make any pretensions that he

605
00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:35.559
had been a wonderful moral guy up
to that point. But he But again

606
00:45:35.679 --> 00:45:38.199
if if if this may or may
not be an apt comparison, but I'm

607
00:45:38.199 --> 00:45:40.639
going to use it. If someone's
breaking into my house and I called the

608
00:45:40.679 --> 00:45:44.840
police, I'm not going to ask
for character references on the policeman that shows

609
00:45:44.920 --> 00:45:47.079
up. I don't care in the
heat of the moment, if he's been

610
00:45:47.079 --> 00:45:50.840
faithful to his wife or not.
I want him to stop the guy trying

611
00:45:50.840 --> 00:45:52.599
to get into my house and harm
my family. If the house is on

612
00:45:52.679 --> 00:45:55.480
fire, I'm not going to top
the fireman and say, now, let

613
00:45:55.480 --> 00:45:59.360
me go through a less of questions
here before I consent to let you save

614
00:45:59.480 --> 00:46:02.400
my home. Is that is that
an apt comparison in your mind? Yeah?

615
00:46:02.440 --> 00:46:06.840
Absolutely, But I would go further
and to say that it's just it's

616
00:46:06.840 --> 00:46:09.679
just kind of silly because everybody,
I mean, I just don't know anybody.

617
00:46:12.320 --> 00:46:15.920
Maybe I live in in racy circle, running in racy circles, but

618
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:21.280
I don't know many people who have
been and also famous people. All the

619
00:46:21.360 --> 00:46:23.840
people that I know, I don't
know many people over twenty year period have

620
00:46:23.960 --> 00:46:29.840
been. Theyble did their wives or
their husbands or can to provide the scrutiny

621
00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:35.039
of being a label immoral person because
you did X, Y or Z at

622
00:46:35.079 --> 00:46:37.159
some point, like what they did
to Kavanaugh, which is all made up

623
00:46:37.199 --> 00:46:40.760
out of Paul Claude. But I
mean even they could even do that.

624
00:46:42.280 --> 00:46:46.039
But but even when it's partially true, even if you have a bad divorce

625
00:46:46.239 --> 00:46:52.920
or two I've had a divorce.
I don't want my ex wife telling everybody

626
00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:58.079
all the things that she wants loved
tell everybody about me. Now not really,

627
00:46:58.519 --> 00:47:01.119
she's not like that, but if
she were to, we don't want

628
00:47:02.760 --> 00:47:08.480
None of us are perfect. And
also people have their own interpretations. So

629
00:47:08.880 --> 00:47:14.079
when you come up, when you
obfuscate everything with that kind of thing,

630
00:47:14.519 --> 00:47:22.280
it you can just pick any strain
of that. You can talk yourself right

631
00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:24.639
out of where the accusation goes down
the river. You can just pick that

632
00:47:25.239 --> 00:47:30.880
and go right to the source and
wherever and try to make them look really

633
00:47:30.920 --> 00:47:32.559
bad, which is what they did
with Trump for four years. You can

634
00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:37.639
talk yourself out of any viable governable
option that way. I think it was

635
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:40.559
Bill Buckley that observed that not all
the people we think of as great men

636
00:47:40.559 --> 00:47:45.639
were necessarily good men. Right.
Eisenhower Head a mistress, pat and Head

637
00:47:45.639 --> 00:47:49.880
a mistress. Oh JFK was a
woman, is is there? Churchill was

638
00:47:49.920 --> 00:47:52.840
a boozer. I mean, nobody
would pass muster at a certain point.

639
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:55.679
So you have to look at the
policy and see what you want done and

640
00:47:55.719 --> 00:48:01.400
the best way to get that done
right, and to use it against to

641
00:48:02.039 --> 00:48:09.440
use these moral arguments on the Republican
side against certain candidates and not others,

642
00:48:09.960 --> 00:48:15.199
or really to knock them out of
the game. I think that Fox News,

643
00:48:15.199 --> 00:48:19.079
for example, had an outsized influence
on the Republican Party because they had

644
00:48:19.079 --> 00:48:22.159
the eyes and ears of all the
Republican sione there was a primary, they

645
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:25.679
were all, you know, listening
to market Rubio or whoever, Jeff Bush,

646
00:48:25.679 --> 00:48:30.400
whoever was on the screen, or
Trump or whoever. So but we're

647
00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:34.800
getting all their analysis. We're going
to hold their analysis between the McCain and

648
00:48:34.840 --> 00:48:38.360
the Romney because we're not listening to
adopt MSNBC or CNN. So therefore they

649
00:48:38.360 --> 00:48:46.760
have an outsized influence on how Republicans
will vote in the primary. So that's

650
00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:51.119
pretty powerful. I mean, you
know, that's really, really, really

651
00:48:51.119 --> 00:48:52.480
where you want to win your battles. You want to win the battle before

652
00:48:52.480 --> 00:48:57.960
it's even started. And that's these
These are smart people. It's much smarter

653
00:48:58.039 --> 00:49:00.440
than me in those senses. So
let me have you a question that's gonna

654
00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:05.199
call for you to do nothing,
engage nothing but conjecture probably, but why

655
00:49:05.239 --> 00:49:10.960
not. You've outlined two opposing camps
in the Republican Party. Okay, Uh,

656
00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:15.880
those those who who will moralize themselves
out of an out of office or

657
00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:21.480
out of a position, and those
who do there the opposite. So my

658
00:49:21.559 --> 00:49:25.639
question is I started to ask which
camp has a larger number of people,

659
00:49:25.679 --> 00:49:29.599
but that might not be different than
that may be different from saying which camp

660
00:49:29.679 --> 00:49:36.199
is the more powerful? Well,
I think I think it's a I mean,

661
00:49:36.239 --> 00:49:37.360
if you're really going to say,
like, if you want to divide

662
00:49:37.360 --> 00:49:42.239
this into really more crude because this
is not I mean, there's a lot

663
00:49:42.280 --> 00:49:45.159
of overlap, okay, but if
you want to talk about the two factions

664
00:49:45.159 --> 00:49:49.159
that are basically contending, right,
yes, one side. The way I

665
00:49:49.199 --> 00:49:52.039
see it is one side has has
the platforms, they have the pundits,

666
00:49:52.039 --> 00:49:55.000
they got a lot of uh you
know, there are a lot of powerful

667
00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:01.039
politicians in office already existing that are
based the establishment that might be anti Trump,

668
00:50:01.400 --> 00:50:06.079
generally speaking Republicans who want to take
the Republican Party in a different direction

669
00:50:06.119 --> 00:50:09.280
away from Trump and his supporters.
And then there are those, then there

670
00:50:09.320 --> 00:50:14.840
are the Trump supporters who are voters. So it's a problem because the equipoise

671
00:50:14.880 --> 00:50:19.840
of it is like each has what
the other needs, and there's there's maybe

672
00:50:19.880 --> 00:50:24.840
a couple of them like me that
doesn't really care about Trump either way,

673
00:50:25.239 --> 00:50:30.320
there are certain things we need to
advance or the US goes down the tubes.

674
00:50:30.559 --> 00:50:32.360
That's what I'm concerned with, right
right, And it's not about him,

675
00:50:32.639 --> 00:50:37.800
obviously, yes, And it's unfortunate
that he gets used as speaking of

676
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:44.000
the word proxy as for the arguments
for basically what Yeah, people kind of

677
00:50:44.039 --> 00:50:47.800
believe who vote for him that it's
not attached to him. And I really

678
00:50:47.880 --> 00:50:52.119
bristle when people call it a cult
or just say, oh, his personality

679
00:50:52.400 --> 00:51:00.480
or you know, you're just a
whatever. It's not a sycophantical personality that

680
00:51:00.599 --> 00:51:05.000
has anything. These things pre existed
him, right, they were. They

681
00:51:05.039 --> 00:51:10.119
were the Tea Party, which was
huge, and multiple betrayals, multiple betrayals

682
00:51:10.119 --> 00:51:20.159
by the gop ass starkly speaking one
way or the other, whether they're getting

683
00:51:20.280 --> 00:51:23.679
us, whether they're getting blackmailed.
As I mentioned about what was happening to

684
00:51:23.880 --> 00:51:29.639
Denny Hastert, I was going to
close with that if because you closed your

685
00:51:29.760 --> 00:51:32.719
article by remembering the tale of a
former Speaker of the House, Republican Denny

686
00:51:32.719 --> 00:51:37.159
Hastert, who had evidently exploited underage
boys back when he was a coach,

687
00:51:37.719 --> 00:51:42.840
and the young man later took to
extorting him, and he found himself in

688
00:51:42.840 --> 00:51:45.280
a world of trouble. You write, quote at the time, I was

689
00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:51.519
wondering, why is Denny Hastert staunched
conservative from a safe district, making so

690
00:51:51.559 --> 00:51:57.480
many unnecessary compromises? But the Democrats
stilly me unquote, So what lessons do

691
00:51:57.840 --> 00:52:00.039
we draw from that? From your
what you saw, what you experienced,

692
00:52:00.039 --> 00:52:05.559
and what you learned, what do
we infer from that? It's pretty pretty

693
00:52:05.639 --> 00:52:10.400
nihilistic, but I think that basically, I just think that that people have

694
00:52:10.559 --> 00:52:16.039
dope on every every person in politics, and it's just a matter reeling and

695
00:52:16.119 --> 00:52:20.679
dealing about how you control what that
is and how you keep it trool coming

696
00:52:20.719 --> 00:52:24.559
out. Whether you're Harvey Weinstein,
Bill Clinton, Jeffrey Epstein, all of

697
00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:29.400
these people, they're the worst.
I mean, sure the saying, but

698
00:52:29.559 --> 00:52:36.679
I'm just saying, they're all the
way down to the things that well,

699
00:52:36.760 --> 00:52:42.639
maybe you had a sister who we
all lied about, who went to Missouri,

700
00:52:42.960 --> 00:52:45.480
she had a child, she came
back, and she has a secret

701
00:52:45.559 --> 00:52:49.920
child somewhere, and they know about
it, and if if, if,

702
00:52:49.679 --> 00:52:54.079
if someone knows about it. It
can be just something really innocent, so

703
00:52:54.320 --> 00:52:58.760
or it could be something really horrendous, like that Denny has to think.

704
00:52:58.800 --> 00:53:02.000
But whatever it is, they were
using it again against every everyone and the

705
00:53:02.079 --> 00:53:07.679
people who are best controlled. That
sounds but the more dope they have on

706
00:53:07.800 --> 00:53:12.039
somebody, then the more control they
are, so y haster would have to

707
00:53:12.039 --> 00:53:15.360
be if other people knew about this, which obviously they did. Come on,

708
00:53:15.840 --> 00:53:20.440
come on, let's grow up.
This is a big world of intelligence

709
00:53:20.519 --> 00:53:22.920
agencies. They all know, they
all talk to each other, everybody knows

710
00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:30.599
everything. Everything is digital and so
so they they've discovered these things about various

711
00:53:30.599 --> 00:53:36.320
people, whether they whoever they are. So it sounds conspiratorial, but it

712
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:40.920
is. That's what they do.
That's what the CIA does, billions and

713
00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:45.400
billions of dollars to figure out how
to manipulate the world one way or the

714
00:53:45.440 --> 00:53:50.679
other. And it's unfortunate that they're
doing it, you know, apparently here

715
00:53:50.719 --> 00:53:53.960
and also through the FBI. So
anyway that will get that will get us,

716
00:53:54.000 --> 00:54:00.079
that'll get us canceled day. Sorry, you're plow the article by saying

717
00:54:00.119 --> 00:54:05.440
let's pick our moral hills to die
on wisely, which I think is good

718
00:54:05.440 --> 00:54:08.599
advice, folks. The name of
the article again is moralism by proxy,

719
00:54:08.960 --> 00:54:12.079
and I hope it ends up on
the main feed. I'm not sure if

720
00:54:12.079 --> 00:54:14.400
it has yet. I think it. I think it. I think it

721
00:54:14.440 --> 00:54:16.360
ought to be, because it's certainly
worth reading. Now before I let you

722
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:21.639
go, you've been part of ricochet
since the dawn of the Christian era as

723
00:54:21.679 --> 00:54:24.880
far as I can see. So
how did how did you find this site

724
00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:30.760
way back then? I really don't
know, but I wasn't I don't know,

725
00:54:30.880 --> 00:54:35.199
I don't know, but it was. It was in a way a

726
00:54:35.320 --> 00:54:39.159
god send for me. I really
appreciated it, and I really invested in

727
00:54:39.199 --> 00:54:46.360
it and psychologically a lot um and
you know, it's it's and yeah,

728
00:54:46.440 --> 00:54:51.280
but I don't know. I was
kind of arguing online. But one thing

729
00:54:51.400 --> 00:54:54.320
is I was tired of I realized
that I wasn't going to convince any Democrats

730
00:54:54.400 --> 00:55:00.840
or leftists of anything true much.
Actually democrats really hard. Our core leftists

731
00:55:00.840 --> 00:55:05.599
are easily or to convince than than
Democrats. But our convinced were for me

732
00:55:05.679 --> 00:55:10.800
to align with in some ways.
Yeah, but uh so, but I

733
00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:16.400
wanted to kind of see. I
was also disenchanted with the Republican Party or

734
00:55:16.440 --> 00:55:21.079
factions of it, and I wanted
to deal with that in terms of just

735
00:55:21.159 --> 00:55:24.599
like interacting with people. And it
was really great and it is a great

736
00:55:24.599 --> 00:55:30.440
place to interact along where you know, it turns out that I can't convince

737
00:55:30.480 --> 00:55:37.119
anybody here. Yeah, I think
the only one I have any real uh

738
00:55:37.440 --> 00:55:40.599
sway with is our little dog if
as long as I've got a treat took

739
00:55:40.599 --> 00:55:44.519
to offer at the same time.
But you know, we do what we

740
00:55:44.559 --> 00:55:47.480
can. Well, look, I'm
glad that you keep coming back to Ricochet

741
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:52.519
for more and keep writing. Please
keep doing that. Always always informative and

742
00:55:52.679 --> 00:55:57.480
uh and the most important in my
book, always thought provoking. So please

743
00:55:57.559 --> 00:56:02.320
keep writing, all right, and
thank you for taking the time to be

744
00:56:02.360 --> 00:56:06.920
on the program, sir. I
really appreciate folks. That's Ricochet member Franco

745
00:56:07.320 --> 00:56:13.639
on the day, because some people
just need to pack on the head with

746
00:56:13.800 --> 00:56:29.599
a hammer. Dave Carter un Ricochet. See. I like music with a

747
00:56:29.639 --> 00:56:43.920
little bit of subtlety to it,
something soothing, something bone crunching, fun

748
00:56:43.960 --> 00:56:46.239
times. Speaking of fun times,
I hope you've enjoyed the proceedings here today.

749
00:56:46.840 --> 00:56:51.039
It has been a lot of fun, as always bringing the program to

750
00:56:51.159 --> 00:56:53.280
you. If you like this stuff
and you want a little more of it,

751
00:56:53.480 --> 00:56:57.800
then I would encourage you to head
on over to my website over Dave

752
00:56:57.880 --> 00:57:01.239
Carter online dot com. I've actually
spruced it up a little bit here lately,

753
00:57:01.239 --> 00:57:05.639
to be honest, to change the
graphics, updated some of the material

754
00:57:05.760 --> 00:57:09.679
on there. The Politics and Culture
page has more information recent information on it

755
00:57:09.719 --> 00:57:14.480
things that I've written, including a
piece on spitball conservatives I call them,

756
00:57:14.760 --> 00:57:20.159
another piece on the pitfalls of pathological
politics say that five times fast, and

757
00:57:20.239 --> 00:57:24.400
a piece called why I Stand wherein
I explain why You'll never find me kneeling

758
00:57:24.679 --> 00:57:29.320
for the National Anthem. There's also
a page on the site called the Inkwell,

759
00:57:29.760 --> 00:57:32.880
and that's where I write more introspective
items for the leaders of the website.

760
00:57:32.920 --> 00:57:37.559
In fact, I wrote a piece
very recently called Shiny Temptations, and

761
00:57:37.719 --> 00:57:44.119
that deals with the ever present temptation
to find ways to distract ourselves from work

762
00:57:44.159 --> 00:57:47.639
that needs to be done in favor
of more fun stuff. And again I

763
00:57:47.679 --> 00:57:51.880
preach to the choir a lot in
those pieces, but I think you may

764
00:57:51.880 --> 00:57:53.519
find them interesting as well. It
was a lessure to me, but you

765
00:57:53.599 --> 00:57:59.920
may like. The podcast itself is
doing rather well. We are last time

766
00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:01.719
I looked, we were being listened
to and over one hundred cities and towns

767
00:58:01.719 --> 00:58:07.079
across the country and then over thirty
countries across the world. And while I'm

768
00:58:07.119 --> 00:58:10.480
on that topic, I invite you
to go over to iTunes if you like,

769
00:58:10.880 --> 00:58:14.119
give us a five star rating if
you think the show deserves it,

770
00:58:14.239 --> 00:58:16.280
and leave your comments and what you
thought of the program. You can also

771
00:58:16.360 --> 00:58:21.039
find us over on YouTube, and
I invite you to follow me there.

772
00:58:21.119 --> 00:58:23.679
Just look for Dave Carter on YouTube
and you can chime in over there as

773
00:58:23.719 --> 00:58:28.280
well if you like. And I
look forward to hearing from you and hearing

774
00:58:28.360 --> 00:58:31.079
your comments and hearing what you think. As always, folks, with thanks

775
00:58:31.119 --> 00:58:37.920
to Ricochet editor in chief John Gabriel
and Ricochet member Franco for joining in the

776
00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:42.679
services today and with a special thanks
as always to you the listener. I'm

777
00:58:42.760 --> 00:58:49.599
Dave Carter and I'll see you next
time. Thank you for listening to The

778
00:58:49.719 --> 00:58:53.639
Daker Show. Don't forget to subscribe
on iTunes so you won't miss a single

779
00:58:53.679 --> 00:58:58.000
episode. While you're there, please
leave a review and tell us who you

780
00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:00.920
do end on behalf of all of
us at Dave Carter Show and the Ricochet

781
00:59:00.960 --> 00:59:02.920
Audio Network. Thank you for listening.