Holding your Nose to Vote for Vivek

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1:00The mother-fly flat in the wing, they down in the forest, man they're gonna cause a tree fall, let it 5,000 miles away, man, if they know, but they're seeing nobody. You know what you need now, man? If you don't, it's like you're on the other store, and you got to like it, so like that, that's the way it might look. Like a day of a kennel, man. You're gonna get a better man. It's okay. All right, we are back. So a couple of things, right? We have an actual topic today. We're gonna get into it, but I just want to address some recent production issues, specifically on the YouTube side of this. We've now had two videos in a row with weird sound issues, and the first one I just sort of assumed, hey, I messed it up. That happens from time to time. But the second one, I was sort of intrigued by,

2:02because both of them happened the exact same way. Everything looked fine, it editing, published it, uploaded it to YouTube, nothing seemed weird, and then the audio was completely scuffed. So basically what's happening is I'm having a persistent video, publishing error. Sorry about that. I fixed it, and we'll add redundancies into the process. It annoys me because I do this every single day and have not had this issue until, well, the past two, but just wanted to let you all know. There are now steps in place, which will keep that from happening. I know the jokes, you know, I'm a professional podcaster, and I do make those two, because I make errors from time to time, but it is annoying. So sorry about that. Now, I realize listening to me talk about production issues is about the least interesting thing possible. We're here to discuss something, and discuss something relatively specific, which is the state of the GOP currently going into these midterms.

3:04Now, I have been a critic of the direction of the Trump administration for a very long time. Roughly since about Operation Midnight Hammer. And look, some of this discussion about the midterms, I think, is normal politics stuff. Hey, look, whoever's in power tends to lose some of that power in the midterms, sort of the metronome rhythm of, well, our political system. It's simply what happens. But there's something more broad going on. There's something bigger than that going on. And this is manifested in a large political fight or a disagreement. Over one, what is going to happen in these elections? And two, who is to blame? This is sort of risen to a head over one Vivek Ramashwami, the guy running for the governor of Ohio. You have two sort of camps. Let's call them Patriots and hardliners.

4:05The Patriots are saying, well, don't you know, you should vote for this guy. Look at how awful and horrible his opponent is. And truly, she seems to be awful and horrible. I'm not going to deny that. And the hardliners saying something like, I'm not going to vote for someone like Vivek. I'm not going to vote for an Indian. I'm not going to vote for someone who's truly as odious as he is. They're not willing to, if you will, hold their notes to vote for Vivek. And I have complicated feelings on this. Because on one hand, I truly despise Vivek. I think he is a bad person. And also, I don't think he belongs in this country. He should not be ruling over the people of Ohio. But also, as someone who's from Virginia, I very much understand that a Democrat coming to power can meaningfully make your life worse. For instance, right? In my own state, you had a popular Republican governor, lost an election in a massive landslide,

5:05largely due to picking a piss-poor, divided diversity candidate, something that may well be happening in Ohio, and what happened. Well, second amendment was curtailed. They attempted to redraw maps to completely sort of legislate the Republican Party out of existence. They decriminalized vagrancy. They became a sanctuary state for transgender minors. Quote, quote, really just a absolute slate of horrible policies that will make my life worse. And so in that situation, I find it hard to tell someone to put themselves and their family at risk of that, to spite the GOP. But also, I'm not sure if I could make my self-vote for Vivek, for any number of reasons. And I actually don't really have a piece of advice. I'm not from Ohio, so my opinion doesn't technically matter. But I understand both sides of this issue. However broadly speaking, the reason the Republicans are even in this place to begin with

6:08is entirely their own fault. They have been alienating their own voter base, really ever since Trump got into power. And so regardless of the alleged contributions, the alleged accomplishments of the Trump administration, it sort of doesn't matter. Because look, if you're listening to this, by definition you fall in down the rabbit hole. Most people aren't political junkies. Most people aren't nerds. So for instance, on the issue of the Iran War, which I am vehemently and ideologically opposed to, I think it is wrong, I think it is bad for the nation, sort of regardless of the economy. Most people aren't like that. They see, diesel is $9 a gallon, they look to the war, and they say, I don't like that. I want that to stop. They may well have opinions on the nation of Israel, more and more every day, but that's not the primary motivating factor.

7:09Largely, the GOP has done this to themselves, both through, well, alienating a core demographic, white war and class voters, through a number of reasons. One, obviously you have the disaster with the economy. Two, you have continual attacks on American white people, largely for no reason. And three, again, picking bad candidates. Vivek should never have gotten anywhere near power. Any other option would be better, because he is deliberately antagonizing the people that he is supposed to be cornered. So I think it's worth going into the situation with the war, specifically as it relates to, well, Donald Trump's approval rating. Because look, you don't have to be a genius to say this war is unpopular, it is making the administration unpopular, and it is turning off voters from the GOP. But there's an alternate view on this, of course.

8:09There's an alternate perspective on events. And who could I think better to express that than political visionaries, than absolute galaxy-brain geniuses, favorites on this show, Mark Leven and Ben Shapiro? Isn't there a lot of good that the Republicans can talk about in terms of those administrations, policies, as well as the bad that the Democrats are the worst, or the worst that they've ever been? I think that's exactly right. I mean, the thing that I think Republicans, again, need to keep hammering home is regardless of what you think of the president, obviously I'm very pro, or the administration, obviously I'm very pro. But regardless of what you think of that, the only thing that people should really be worried about is what's on the other side of that coin. Do they think that by staying home the country gets better? What happens when you have a pro-terrorism candidate in Michigan, in Dolos Sayed, who actually is in the United States Senate? What happens when you have a supporter of every radical policy on transiting the kids, like James Tallerico in Texas sitting in the United States Senate?

9:12What happens when Democrats have majorities in the House and the Senate, and then use every waking moment in order to target Republicans, Republican legislators, and members of the administration and drag down the administration and restore woke in a far more radical form than it ever was under Joe Biden. The great lie I think a lot of Republicans have told themselves is that woke is dead, that President Trump did such a thorough job of destroying the left, that they can never recover, they'll never come back. They are waiting, they're waiting, and they're watching, and they're ready to pound. So actually, ironically enough, I think Ben Shapiro is correct there. The consequences are very serious, particularly for the Trump administration. We have senators saying that Pete Higgseth should be sent to the Hague. We've seen what happens to Trump and what's happened to his family during the Joe Biden years. They will face political prosecution, and all likely, these people are saying that, I happen to believe them when they promise it. And so given that, you should be, well, using your political capital judiciously.

10:16If you're going to take a hit, well, you should take a hit for something that is likely to make future victories more possible. Things like the say that, things like immigration, which long-term set up a possibility for future victories. That is a good use of power, a correct use of political capital. If you're going to spend some, well, you might as well make a good investment. But what did we do with that immense stock of political capital? What did we do with that immense amount of goodwill that historic win? Well, we pissed it up the wall, and we pissed it up the wall for a deeply unpopular war, which, in addition to being in a front to American sovereignty, in addition to making our nation seem, seem, weak and subservient to afford power, was damaged the economy. It's the economy stupid, maybe, perhaps the most tired line in politics. But it doesn't mean it's wrong. A large part of the reason.

11:19Earn your Farm D in as little as 33 months with West Coast University's hybrid program No Bachelors Degree Required. Eligible transfer credits may be accepted. West Coast University, as real as it gets. Visit westcoastuniversity.edu. WCU cannot guarantee employment. Your path to pharmacy can be closer than you think. West Coast University's hybrid doctor of pharmacy program can be completed in as little as 33 months, and no bachelor's degree is required to apply. If you've started pharmacy coursework elsewhere, WCU may accept eligible transfer credits to help students keep moving forward. Learn online, train hands-on at our Center for Graduate Studies in Los Angeles, and prepare for real-world pharmacy practice. West Coast University, as real as it gets, visit westcoastuniversity.edu. WCU cannot guarantee employment. Joe Biden was set to be roundly defeated by Trump before he was hot-swapped the last minute for Kamala Harris. Was that people felt as if things were going badly. Trump's golden age was a promise that, hey look, the bad things are going to stop.

12:22And when things are getting worse, or at least have continued to be as bad as they were, saying, hey look at the scary guys, well, I don't know, it's not the most convincing case when you are, well, mirroring the exact same rhetoric. Let's go back to these two luminaries. When we look at the Fox survey, Iran is a 4% issue with the American people. So, whatever happens in the midterms, it doesn't appear that Iran is going to drive anything one way or another. What's your take on this? I think that's exactly right. So, look, I have no reason to disbelieve the broader point about that. I have no reason to think that there's a secret anti-war lobby I haven't heard of. I know a lot of guys in the anti-war movement. It seems to be a minority sentiment, especially among nominal Republicans. But what does matter is people's pocket looks.

13:22Look at the difference in reaction to what happened in Venezuela and what's happened in Iran. Now, there are principled distinctions between the two. One is in our sphere of influence, it was quick, it was easy, whatever, but largely speaking, the president's approval rating didn't fluctuate. People didn't really care because, well, it seemed very distant. It was quick over, it happened one night, the news had moved on the next day. Whereas this has been incredibly costly in terms of money, in terms of our ability to access natural resources, and also in American lots, sure not on the scale of World War II, not on the scale of D-Day, but still, we have lost people. Things have gotten more expensive exacerbating an ongoing cost of living crisis, and for what? So, sure, maybe the Iran war as a first-order effect isn't there, but as a second-order effect, many people see it as the reason we are in dire economic straits, and that is going to drive

14:23their responses to the midterms. Now, a lot of critics of Trump from the right have been predicting an absolute blowout, and that's sort of hard for me to parse one way or another if that's going to happen, because we have to understand that Republicans have been correctly playing electoral politics in the sense of redrawing maps, Jerry Mandor, right? They have done that. That is a smart political move regardless of what we may think of its morality. That may, offset some of what we're seeing in the sort of predictive models. Now, I'm not willing to call that one way or the other, I think that it is very likely that Republicans will lose the legislature. And there's this term that I've seen going around, I think is quite interesting, called the red undertow, which is we are seeing people who are ideologically opposed to the woke left. They're not going to cross the aisle, but they're also, well, they're unwilling to vote for this slate of Republicans, because, well, they had expectations that were not met. And a great deal

15:29of this has to do with, well, the disdain lobbed onto core, important voting blocks by nominal Republicans. So this is a video from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Red is turned relaxing into a full-time profession. But you, you actually work hard. You pay taxes to cover welfare for guys like Brad, who just choose not to work. That's why I launched a welfare to work requirement. Almost there. Now, more are Kansas or working than ever before. Even Brad. So what is this? Right? Well, it's on its face a relatively sensible policy proposal. The idea that for, well, people who are eligible, you should be working in order to receive welfare. You shouldn't simply be, well, dependent of the state. And fair enough, I think that's quite sensible

16:30if you look at restore Britain. They have announced a similar policy. Now, their welfare state is in probably even more of a disaster than R is. So you know what? That seems to be broadly speaking a good idea. But, especially for those on the audio feed, who is the poster boy of this? Well, it's a young white dude playing video games. Now, one, we know that white men under 30 swung hard in 24 for Trump. One of the groups that helped him attain the Oval Office. And this is a thumb in the eye. It's saying you are the problem. You were the issue, right? You're what we have to get rid of. And well, young men have responded to that information. They have said, I got the message. I get it. You don't want me around. I'll take my vote and stay home. Effectively, again, I don't see these guys crossing the aisle, so to speak. But I am quite

17:36understandable. But I understand exactly why they are low enthusiasts. Why they are unenthused to vote for the president, especially when we consider views on our relationship to Israel stratified by age. Sure, it may be 4% of Fox News viewers. But do you know anyone under 50 who watches Fox News? I sure don't. And again, if your whole argument is, well, look at how bad the woke left is. Well, it becomes very difficult to make that argument. If ultimately you have the same attitude towards young white guys as they do. As a specific example, of course, let's bring up this clip from Hillary Clinton. We haven't gotten to the more perfect union and we fought a civil war over part of it. And people have been protesting for hundreds of years that things were not as they should be, given our ideals and how we should be moving toward them. So I think that's what makes us so special as a country. And the idea that you could turn

18:42the clock back and try to recreate a world that never was dominated by, let's say it, white men, of a certain persuasion, certain religion, a certain point of view, a certain ideology. It's just doing such damage to what we should be aiming for. And we were on the path toward that. I mean, imperfectly, lots of, you know, bumps along the way, but I agree with you, we were on the right trajectory. Okay. So there you're getting it. In the neck from both sides. On one side, it is to be fair, explicitly racial and cultural. Get out of the way, straight white Christian men. You are old. What was it? Stale pay, whatever point is you know the turn of phrase, even if I can't remember it off the top of my head. It is an explicit identitarian attack. Similarly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders is going after a group of people who buy the numbers are not using welfare.

19:42White men in aggregate, young white men in particular, do not use welfare. In fact, they are the group in America next to, I believe Asian men, it's very close, who use welfare the least, who are by far the least active participants in that system. They're also large funders of that system. If you look at demographic breakdown of who is a net taxpayer, it's white men. And Hillary, the arch devil of the conservative movement, the woman we were all screaming to lock her up 10 years ago, is saying basically the same thing. The idea is you are a problem. You are the reason we're in this situation. You're just too stupid. Anything that we've done, well, that all makes a ton of sense. I can't tell you exactly why we'll get to that later, but you just have to support us. Now, we won't support you, we'll continue to denigrate you,

20:47but imagine how much worse it would be if someone else was in office. Shapiro has more comments about this. Let's get his thoughts on it. The reality is this, the president's has not markedly dropped since the beginning of the war. He was in the low 40s at the beginning of the war. He's in the low 40s now or high 30s now. And this attempt started to hide him off from core constituencies. That's not going to work. You may be able to take away the marginal, the people who joined on in 2024, just to oppose Kamala Harris, but the actual Christians who are voting in droves for the president and will vote for his successor, whether that is Marco Rubio or J.D. Vance or whomever. Those people are not going to turn away from the Republican party based on the posting of Amin. Sure, they're hardliners. I'm sure you've heard the birth of this phrase MAGA Republicans. In the polling, you'll see Donald Trump is supported by 99% of MAGA Republicans. Now, that terminology is slightly stupid because seemingly the definition of MAGA Republicans

21:51is Republicans who support Donald Trump. And I would imagine if you have a category for Trump supporters and ask them if they support Trump, you would get about, let's just say 99%. Approval seems to make sense. Now, that one extra guy, I'm not quite sure where he comes from, but you know what, I guess if you are a diehard Trump supporter who doesn't support Trump, it is certainly a position one could take. But nonetheless, this idea is it doesn't matter. We don't have to be popular. We don't have to appeal widely. Well, how did Trump run in 24? Well, sure, he threw out things that his core demographic of diehard supporters wanted to see. That's how every political race goes. But if you look at something like the appointment of, I don't know, RFK, what was that? Building out a wide coalition, bringing in people who could be seen as aligned? Into the fold. Similar with figures like, I don't know, Tulsi Gabbard.

22:56Similar to him going around on the podcast circuit, talking to guys like Joe Rogan, Theovon. This was wide appeal. And look, I am not a populist. I am not someone who thinks what most people think should be policy, or is even morally correct. But at the same time, that is how our system functions, and when you don't play by those incentives, well, you can't be mad when you lose. Also, the idea that going from a mid 40% approval rate to a mid 30% approval rate, which is the actual number, is inconsequential as, well, I don't know, kind of stupid. That's about a 25% decay. If you do the math, that's significant. If I ended this episode at 45 minutes, roughly 75% of my normal episode, people would notice. They'd say, hey, that seems a little short. Seems like we've not come up to what we normally can't expect. And look, we know, even if we take evangelical

23:57Christians, a group which buy and large votes heavily for Trump, that is not a majority in this nation. I may wish it were for any number of reasons. This is why I think immigration matters so much. But I'm sorry, you can't play off of the core demographic of die hard Trump supporters. Because you have bled. You have bled that margin needed for a wide victory. There's also been bleed within that group. Trump is underwater with white working class voters for the first time in really his entire political career. Now, I don't say that out of glee. I don't have some great desire for President Donald Trump to fail. But at a certain point, I'm calling it how I see it. What I'm seeing is what is apparently a willful desire to self-doseve and a disdain for the concerns of, well, the average Republican voter. And regardless of if you think it is wise for those people to stay home or not, if you think that it will be just like Virginia in Ohio,

25:00if Amy acted wins. Well, you can't blame people for staying home. You can't blame people for running that sort of calculus. Because it's very human. It's very normal. When someone feels as if they're getting screwed, they're probably not going to help you out. And that brings us to a broader problem I see with Trump loyalists. Look, there are things from this administration that I think have been by and large incredibly positive. The immigration reforms have been serious. Like many of us, I found out that under Biden, we were importing roughly 20 million Muslims a year. For really no reason, just kind of sending planes out to the Middle East. We don't do that. I think that's good. There have been changes to cafe standards. Some regulatory bloat got cut. I think that's good. I think that's positive. However, that abstract good is difficult to express when someone has seen their heating prices, their fuel prices, shoot up through the roof, especially

26:03if they don't care about immigration to the same level that I do. We have to understand that we are not representative of the public at all. And the things that matter to hyper online conservative activists don't necessarily translate to mom and pop down the road. Who you need. I know President Trump right now is very unpopular. And a little bit later on in the show, I'm going to get to why President Trump is indeed unpopular, but it is not because of this stuff. It is not in fact because of the stuff that he's saying at the UN. There isn't an op right now to pretend that the real reason for President Trump's unpopularity is foreign policy. That is not true by the polling data. It is not true. The reality is that Americans have affordability concerns. President Trump came into office saying he was going to alleviate the affordability concerns. He is not in fact alleviated the affordability concerns. And therefore his polling numbers have consistently slid since liberation day. I mean, it's kind of fascinating to look at those polling numbers. And we'll get back to that in a second. But the stuff that is not responsible

27:04for that is in fact his youth in America ought to be strong and powerful in the world. Okay, so look at that framing. One, yeah, probably should have introduced that clip better. Your path to pharmacy can be closer than you think. West Coast University's hybrid doctor of pharmacy program can be completed in as little as 33 months, and no bachelor's degree is required to apply. If you've started pharmacy coursework elsewhere, WCU may accept eligible transfer credits to help students keep moving forward. Learn online, train hands-on at our Center for Graduate Studies in Los Angeles, and prepare for real-world pharmacy practice. West Coast University as Realistic Guests visit westcoastuniversity.edu WCU cannot guarantee employment. My name is Shannon Maldonado. I'm the founder of Yowie, a gift shop from the lens of artists and handmade objects. I chose Shopify because when I was testing other platforms, it was definitely one of the most user-friendly. It was important to me to think about where we would be in the future. All of the tools for reading yourselves like planning inventory, they're just right there on your dashboard. For anyone starting a small business, the biggest

28:05thing I can tell you is it doesn't have to be perfect. Shopify can help you build upon it. Start your free trial on Shopify.com. Turns out Trump actually is unpopular. According to Ben Shapiro, it just depends on the context in which we're having this discussion. Sometimes he is, sometimes he isn't, if they didn't have low standards, they'd have no standards at all, of course. But also, this gets back to that core idea of sure it may not be the actual details of the terrain of the Oran War. Not many people particularly care about the fact that the Itolla's daughter was killed in their strike, even if I do, even if you do. The girl's school massacre sure that hit the news in some circles, but it's not nearly the headline issue that affordability is. But his framing, of course, that, oh, well, that's actually the tariff stuff, the things that I don't like about President Trump. That's what we have to get rid of. The Israel stuff has to stay. Our subservience to a foreign power has to stay. Our relationship to the sort of parasitic regime,

29:06that's no reason at all for the president's declining popularity. The fact that gas jump taft at the straight-up or moves closed, that's indeterminate. What we need is free trade with China, again, incredibly dishonest. And look, of course, he would say that. It's Ben Shapiro. I'm not exactly expressing any sort of confidence and his ability to express himself honestly, but nonetheless, we get back to that same concern, which is if you are telling people not to believe their lying eyes, if you're telling people just shut up and vote, if you're telling people, actually, you don't realize how good it is or how much worse it would be if I weren't here, what feels like you're selling people a scam. For example, we've seen comments from other figures connected to the Trump administration, where they say, well, look, I know it's bad, but imagine how much worse it would be if we hadn't invaded Iran. For example, here's Dan Bonjino.

30:07Our Fox News contributor former FBI deputy director, our friend Dan Bonjino is back. You said something to me when I had you on my podcast and I quoted it often. Those people that saw the intelligence and you were one of them. And without exception, the few people that got to see it said, Donald Trump had no choice on the issue of Iran. If the socialist win, because people worried about high gas prices, how are you going to feel about paying for every kids' college tuition and food and health care and everything in between? I know it's inconvenient. I don't like it either. However, I like the fact that our kids won't have to worry about a nuclear arm to round. So yeah, we see the exact same framing, right? It would be so much worse. Now, on its face, that might well be true. As I have said, severe negative feelings

31:08about the nation of Israel, to put it mildly, particularly their relationship to our politicians. That can be true. And also, the Democrats are very bad domestically. These things can be true. But this idea that President Trump had no choice, well, why didn't he have a choice? I thought he was the most powerful man in the world. Seemingly, he should have, well, more choice than almost anyone else. Why doesn't he have a choice? Was the evidence so damning that Iran was about to have a nuclear program? I'm not convinced. I don't tell you why I'm not convinced. One, because I've been hearing that my entire life. Over and over and over again, I've heard the Zionist shills say they're two weeks away from a nuke. And look, I'm not exactly beating the young allegations. I'm knocking on the door of 30 here. But it didn't happen for any of those two weak increments. Also, if President Trump didn't have a choice because,

32:13well, they had leverage over him. Didn't have a choice politically. It would end his career. Well, seemingly, we're already at that point. So why didn't President Trump have a choice? I don't know. It seems to be an interesting question, one that it may be who you to look into. Here's some other elements to it. Well, how has this actually gone? As I've said earlier, we have seen the absolute disillusion. The burning of a wide political coalition that sent the man into office. He's lost that. He's likely to lose power, perhaps in the midterms and certainly, in the next general elections. And what will happen? Well, as Ben Shapiro said, he's very likely to go back to jail. And so if you're weighing the calculus there, and one eventuality puts a very real possibility of you going to prison, or the very least facing over the top litigious law fair, it might be redundant, but you know what I mean from the likes of Letitia James.

33:14Well, why would you do that? Maybe he didn't know. Maybe the intelligence itself was controlled, something that we've heard about many, many times. But why? I don't know. That's sort of an open question, I guess. Let's let Dan respond. Yeah, Sean, and in no way am I attempting to minimize, you know, diesel prices and the cost of living Americans, you know, these are legitimate concerns, and we should all voice them. However, I'm glad you constantly bring that up because it's true. I had the privilege of working for President Trump, and you get the president's daily brief. And although I can't elaborate on some of the specifics, speaking in generalities, the Iranian issue had to be dealt with, or your gas prices would have been $8 and $10 a gallon. Okay. So you think it's bad because of something we did, a war of choice we actively chose to wage. And that, okay, I guess that did affect diesel prices. Dan is apparently a little more honest

34:17than Ben Shapiro, which again, is what we call damning by faint praise. But imagine how much worse it would have been if we hadn't had done that. It makes me think very much of, well, the covert era, right? We're okay, yeah, sure. The whole thing about masks may have been a lie. Maybe that wasn't completely and totally accurate. But think about how much worse it would have been if, well, we hadn't done that. It's a hypothetical. I mean, imagine how much worse it would have been if the sun didn't rise this morning. I mean, that's true, but not only did that not happen, it's sort of difficult to, well, prove, prove hypothetical in that way. And I don't think that will be convincing. To me, this reads like cope in the same way that the COVID defenders sounded like they were coping. It's not a very good argument. Now, look, the affordability crisis, the disdain for their core voting block has been a big part of this. There's no denying that. But there

35:23is also the fact that many of these candidates are piss poor, something I've said multiple times already. They're bad choices. Now, regardless of, on a purely legislative level, if they are better than Democrats, they are unappealing people. They do not play well with their voting base. For example, let's look at Vivek Ramishwamy. There's a different vision of American identity that's emergent in certain corridors of the online right. And it says that your identity as an American is based on your lineage, that how long you have been in the country, your lineage and your genetics tied to the blood and soil of the country determines how American you are. It is the idea of a heritage American that says the truest form of an American is somebody who is a descendant of the American Revolution period or before. I think the idea of a heritage American is about as loony as anything the woke left has actually put up. Okay, so let's remember that formulation.

36:27The idea of a heritage American is just as loony as what the left draws up. So here's an interaction from a friend of the show, a dissident soaps, and other friend of the show Joel Bear talking about this, talking about the fact that people don't feel represented by an Indian guy. Don't feel represented by a guy who's here as an anchor baby, who in his time here I might add, has defrauded the American public. A fake IPO, a sort of pump and dump deliberately withholding information about a drug he was working on to secure fun. So what does Joel Bear say? Vivek is Hindu. His political philosophy is pure Anglo Protestantism and his opponent is a psychotic communist. This isn't a hard decision. Vote the vek and save Ohio. Now dissident soaps off the top rope. Caitlin Jenner is a man. His gender philosophy is pure female. Of course, poking fun at the idea that someone can be a professed Hindu, but through some magical transmutation

37:31they become an Anglo Protestant. They reflect the core philosophy of this nation even though they don't share that philosophy. Well, of course it's complete and total coat and short people may not be the sort of philosophical nerds that my friends and I are. But I think a lot of people look at Vivek and they don't see an American. They don't see someone like them. They don't see someone who represents their values because well he doesn't at all. Clearly. And again, the idea that, well, we need a sort of conservative government to restrict immigration so that we can legally be ruled by fours. We can legally be replaced. Well, again, that's not much of a sale. The phrase heritage American is popular in online right wing circles. I don't think it has a lot of traction outside of those. But on a gut level, I think a lot of people realize, well, Americans is something identifiable. It is a people. It is a nation. And the point of a nation is to be a home

38:37for its people. You may remember that phrase. It was decades ago. America first. The idea that this is a nation. We should promote it. And again, if we're being lectured about what our country means about the identity by an anchor baby, by a foreigner, by a guy who, as I read, in the last sort of response episode, has a just boiling cauldron of hatred for the American population insulting them for spending too much time watching soap operas, too much time watching television, instead of grinding away like he did, instead of defrauding investors like he did, instead of scamming the American people like he did. Well, if they were just like him, if they just worked harder, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps better, well, they would get to be a Republican governor. And if you have that sort of disdain for your voters, why do you expect them to show up? Earn your Farm D in as little as 33 months with West Coast

39:38University's hybrid program No Bachelors Degree Required. Eligible transfer credits may be accepted. West Coast University, as real as it gets. Visit westcoastuniversity.edu. WCU cannot guarantee employment. Your path to pharmacy can be closer than you think. West Coast University's hybrid doctor of pharmacy program can be completed in as little as 33 months, and no bachelor's degree is required to apply. If you've started pharmacy coursework elsewhere, WCU may accept eligible transfer credits to help students keep moving forward. Learn online, train hands-on at our Center for Graduate Studies in Los Angeles, and prepare for real-world pharmacy practice. West Coast University, as real as it gets, visit westcoastuniversity.edu. WCU cannot guarantee employment. What I learned during that time, and I was a young person at that time, is that these values, they're familiar to me. They don't belong to Hindus, but these values, they don't belong to Christians either. They belong to God, actually. And I think they are the values that undergird

40:42our country. And so, can I be a president who promotes Christianity across this country? I can't. For a number of reasons, I'm not Christian. I don't think that's actually what we should want the US president exactly doing either. That's a job for pastors and others who need to carry that out. Okay. So, he's admitted, of course, he will not be promoting the majority religion of the nation. These values are not inherently Christian. These values I assume of America, which would run contrary to, well, I don't know, the guys who drew up this nation, the vast majority of people who lived it in the past, or currently living it now. Well, they're just general. They're God's values. Now, which God, of course, is the operative question there? And fair enough, maybe one of the kooky deists around at the time, like Thomas Jefferson might have conceptually agreed that sort of angels dancing on the head of a pen. But if you are a Christian person,

41:46if you want to be represented by a Christian, and you see someone who is describing himself as a Hindu, who says that his role is not to advance Christianity, well, again, well, why would you vote for him? Well, again, stats completely sidesteping the issue of on a policy level what makes the most sense. I'm not telling you how people should behave, I'm telling you how they are. This man is a massive own goal. Clearly, a gift to Democrats in Ohio. He's an odious man. People don't like him. And in a place like Ohio, or evangelicals are overrepresented, or President Trump, one quite handling. It is impressive that he is now projected to lose. Now, sure, he's facing the same national headwind because of the affordability crisis because of dissatisfaction with the president. But how do you think he handles this criticism? How do you think he handles the fact that people

42:48have an aversion to him? Does he do so well? Does he do so with grace? At the root of this, Kellyanne's, I think the most destructive human emotion of all, which is envy and grievance, which regards someone else's success as coming at your expense, that greatness of America was built on the proposition that someone else's success also lifts you up. Okay, so the answer is you're jealous. That's why you don't like feedback. That's what you have against him. He's just too good. He's just too perfect. He's just too great. If you were a real American, if you were someone who wasn't eating up with envy, well, you'd support him. Now, on a secondary level, of course, if you don't have a grievance, get the fuck out of politics. That's the game in politics. I have a problem fixed. Here's the process for fixing it. But also, again, where's this arrogant attitude coming from?

43:50Lecturing your voters when you're down. Lecturing voters when I might add, you haven't done anything. Of course, I mentioned the sort of IPO scam. He's alleged to have run. I should say alleged. I know my lawyer is going to chimp out at me for this. The IPO scam, he has broadly considered to have been involved in. But also politically, what did he do? Worm to seat for Donald Trump before he announced? Chimped out on Twitter about white teenagers because they weren't working as hard as some hypothetical young Vivek Ramashwami. It's the same rhetoric, of course, that we see from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Another woman who, much like Vivek, is in a position for no particular reason. They were not just that good. Huckabee Sanders is in power because of her dad. Vivek is in power, for a couple reasons. Well, actually, he's not in power and he's unlikely to gain power.

44:52But because he's a totie. He sucked up to the right people. He scammed Americans to make himself wealthy. And let's be honest, Republicans are slaves to token diversity, even more so than the progressive left is. Even more so than the nominal woke left were supposed to be so afraid of. Someone made a joke that the Democratic Party is straight white men pretending to be gay. And the Republican is the converse, right? Gay guys pretending to be straight. And that was an insult, right? It's funny. But ultimately, these people share the same basic vows. They share the idea that America is nothing, it is simply a proposition. And that really, if we want to get along with things, we should probably just accept the fact that America is a nation for everybody. That we should be pushing for diversity. And they will use affirmative action themselves to advance that goal. You may have seen Jeremy Boring and others bemoaning the rise of Candace Owens.

45:58While neglecting the fact that, well, she is a person of prominence because she was picked as a diversity hire by the Daily Wire. Again, everyone plays identity politics. You're just not allowed to play identity politics for the core voting base of the Republican Party. That's not allowed at all. And let's do doubt, of course, that Vivek is a committed Hindu that he is not representative of this nation. Let's look at a post from last year. Happy Diwali made a light prevail over the darkness. We're coming up on the anniversary, actually. Now look, there's always been a certain breadth of religious freedom in America. No one's denying that. We had exotic figures like Catholics and like that one Orthodox guy or guy who converted to Orthodoxy from the Confederacy. Does anyone imagine the founding fathers were talking about Hindus? We're talking about anchor babies,

46:58born in foreign lands for some, well, he isn't actually to be fair, he was technically born Ohio. His parents were and well, that's why they had him in Ohio. Who have foreign faiths are to represent us? And clearly the people of Ohio don't feel as if he is representative. So what have the Republicans done? They've picked bad candidates. They have insulted their core demographic and exacerbated many of the issues, many of the grievances we might even say. That they promised to fix. What's their response? And if you live in California, my son, our son took a picture of the prices at the pump. They are unbelievable. He got 72 cents a gallon, sales tax in California, the highest in the nation by far. Other expenses that they add on to gasoline and oil out there, it is nuts. And they want you to blame Trump and they want you to

48:01blame their ran war and on and on and on. No, I've said it before. Let me underscore it again. The prices for gasoline, the prices for everything when it comes to energy is higher due to what we call Democrats. Okay. So it's the Democrats. Now I don't like the Democrats. That should be quite clear at this point. I'm a right-winger. I'm to the right of the Republican Party. But guys, you've been in power. You've had control of all three branches of government. Who is the Democrat that said we have to go with war? We have to go to war in Iran. Who is the Democrat that let the Iranians close off the state of poor moves? Sure, taxes are bad. California's fuel prices are always comparatively exorbitant. But let's talk about a percentage difference. Fuel seems to be up. Let's say roughly 25 to 40%

49:04depending on where you are. That's significant because it has knock-on effects. It affects the prices of everything else. The same everything else we were all complaining about being expensive and looking at it is 100% true. A large part of the cost of living crisis was driven by the fact that we decided to shut down the entire world. And really after he got in the second time, Trump couldn't have done much about that. But he has exacerbated the issue massively and provably. You can see it. You can track CPI over time. Consumer price index and see that there's a big old jump when the state of poor moves closes. Now look again, COVID-19. Democrats make stupid rules. They enforce absolutely ruinous tax games. But is this their fault? Are they the ones who decided to do this? No. People like you, Mark Levin. Why might add, has the ear of the president?

50:07We see this all the time. He has access to Donald Trump. Screamed and wailed for decades that we had to go toward Iran. And eventually, President listened. Finally, after 40 years of being told they're just two weeks away from a nuke, there are threat to human civilization. We have to exterminate them. Well, finally, we listened. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel right in one spot and turn real-time reporting into big time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today. And what happened? Well, the Trump political coalition fractured into a million pieces. Gas went through the roof. The president's approval rating tanked. And what is your response?

51:12All right, it's the Democrats. It's those idiots who won't listen to me. And sure, you know, I'm not expecting him to have a maya culpa moment. But let's just put ourselves in place of the mythical undecided voter. How's that going to go? Let's put ourselves in the position of the young men who gave their confidence to Donald Trump, who said, fair enough, you know what, the system seems to be rigged against me, I'll give it a shot. I'll see if we can reform this from with it. Is that going to work on them? Is that going to make them stay home or encourage them to stay home? Yeah, I think it is. Again, regardless of the hypothetical, not even hypothetical, the very likely consequences of democratic rule, because you have to bring something to the table. Politics is not a marriage. It is not a forever contract where you sign on the dotted line in sickness and

52:15it's transactional. You do something for me. That's how it's always gone. Pay-trainage is the fundamental building block of politics. The Democrats obviously get this. Look at schemes like PPP loans or at least the lack of enforcement of those loan terms, giving people lots of money. Look at, well, HR departments hiring and firing practices. Again, my own state of Virginia where you are given a significant advantage on a government contract if you are not a straight white Christian male. Literally, free money to groups that, on average, vote heavily. For the Democrats, they get it, they understand. And what made Trump unique what made him special. Aside from his status as a political outsider was that he got this. And what kind of polterhip to power was the broad realization of the broad conception of him that I might actually get something out of this. I might actually see my needs, my wants, my desires represented in power.

53:18And so there were all these news stories I'm old enough to remember 10 years ago. When we were reading stories about new voters, people who weren't showing up in Poland. Was this line going to bring those people out? Is this line of attack going to motivate people, draw it into politics by feeling as if they had someone on their side? I don't think so. I don't think that's going to work. There have been wins from the Trump administration, both the first and the second. I'm not going to deny that the situation on immigration is a positive change, a change for the better you and if it is not good enough. We would not have gotten that under a different president. But those wins, those positive things on the on the right side of the ledger, do not erase what is a profoundly stupid series of tactical political decisions. Those do not erase the fact that a large percentage of Trump voters, a significant minority, shall we say, feel as if they're getting screwed.

54:24Feel as if they're being lectured to, they're being lied to, and they're not being represented. That if foreign nation has more representation in government than they do. And are those guys going to vote for the visibly insane Democrats? No. But they're not going to show up. We're seeing that already. They're not showing up. In special elections, in the polling for state level elections, my own is a great example, a state where the local party is extremely unpopular, where local conservatives are legitimately scared about their seats being legislated out of existence. They're also seeing absolutely horrible turnout because people are tired of this. People feel as if they've been sold a bill of goods and they have. And again, I would prefer, if the Democrat stayed in power in my state, I would prefer if the people of Ohio didn't have to go through what I have gone through.

55:28Can you blame people? When you've given them this, why do you expect them to support you? It's a bad deal or at least it presents as a bad deal. These were active choices made at every level. Active choices to piss away, to absolutely squander, completely blow, a vast collection of political capital. And for what? A forever war? A war that seems to be grinding on interminably with no end in sight? Was that it? Was that worth it? Was that enough? Apparently Donald Trump had no choice. He had no choice but to alienate his base. He had no choice but to slice off section after section after section of his coalition. I don't think you can blame those people. Are there some who have an irrational hatred for President Donald Trump who want to

56:29see him fail? Sure. Even now, the situation could be made better. And in every significant decision tree moment, you can go back and check what I have said. I've always advocated for what I think to be the best interest of this country, which was not to get me a ran war, which was to disengage at every possible moment. Because I saw what would happen. We didn't have to be a genius to see what would happen. And ironically enough, Ben Shapiro is right. There will be political persecution. There will be heinous, immoral, nonsensical laws passed. But whose fault is that? Is that the fault of the voters you've sped on? In some sense, but you didn't have to do that. You didn't have to alienate those people. You didn't have to go to war to rent. You didn't have to advocate people for people like Vivek Ramishwamy. You didn't have to needlessly antagonize

57:37young white men. Those were all active choices. Those were all deliberate decisions. And so, at a certain point, it's your fault whether that you is the Republican party or that you as President Trump. This is exactly my same line of reasoning when I talked about the gubernatorial election in Virginia. In that specific instance, we saw another diversity candidate promoted well above her merit-based station in life, which she should have been doing. And to be fair, unlike Vivek, she seems like a perfectly nice woman when some were all serious. But that was a choice. Not the choice of the voters. It did not have a primary. And so, well, what happened? She was rejected at the ballot box, which allowed Abigail Spanberger to come in and set about the

58:37work of Ruining Virginia. She made a good run up. And could you say, look at these dumb, stupid, Republican voters who were too lazy to get off they ass. Sure, that's one level of analysis. But you forget, it's your job to woo those people. It's not my job. I'm not a politician. I'm talking head on the internet. I think it's also somewhat ridiculous like I have the power to shift an election one way or the other. In this collection, a few thousand autistic young men on the internet have enough power to shift an election where millions of people vote. That's your job. That's your job to do that, to appeal to people. And when you fail at your job, it's your fault. You're the one with the power. You're the one with the position to make decisions. And we can't even make the same argument we did in 2016 or 2018. The Donald Trump was constrained that he didn't

59:39have the Senate. He didn't have the House. No, no, no. You had everything. And what did you do? You knelt to a foreign nation. And does that specific sacrifice of national subrenity was that in and of itself the thing that brought us here technically? No. Some of these people sure are frustrated about is some of these people are frustrated about the war. But I think it's all the other stuff. This dismissive attitude towards young white men towards the activist base of the right that has a whole lot to do with Israel doesn't. Let's be honest, these same people are going after Tucker Carlson are going after anyone who breaks with the official inner party line about Israel. And so that group is fractured. People are splitting off on that issue. That was a choice. We didn't have to slavishly devote ourselves to the nation of Israel. I think it would have

1:00:45been a good tactical move to just forget about the Middle East. Focus on domestic stuff because if you look at President Trump's approval rating, it was by far the by far the highest in those opening months. There was a brief period of time where he was above water. He was plus a he was positive approval rates with Gen Z women, a group he did not win. He was doing well when he was focusing on domestic stuff, things that Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson both find themselves an agreeant son. But then what happens? Well, yeah, Rand War happened. That splintered the base. And in response, these people started going after their own started devoting political capital to things that don't matter to large segments of their core base. They drove gas up through the roof. And now they have the nerve to lecture you and me to say that we're guilty, that we're responsible in some way because we're too lazy, we're too stupid. I don't fucking buy that for a minute.

1:01:46And here's the other thing. What's happened is that the visibility of this issue of our subservience to Israel has massively increased. Four years ago, especially in right wing circles, very few people were calling attention to this. But now, because everyone's noticed, hey, wait a minute, you seem to be more concerned about your approval rating across an ocean than you do here. You seem to be more concerned with the prospects of a nation halfway across the world than you do with ours. We start to notice things. So here's a clip, and I thought this was wild. Genuinely wild. This is General Jack Keen, a retired general served with the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne. I said that wrong, but bear with me. So a general, retired general, now a correspondent on Fox News. And let's see what he has to say. Not directly, of course, the lead up to this is perhaps more interesting than his specific narrative of events.

1:02:50General, you were just in Israel. You also went to Gaza. You also went to Lebanon 11 days, very intensive trip. What did you learn there and how do you think things are going there? Yeah, sure. Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I spent considerable amount of time in meeting with the top civilian and military leaders, the president of the country, the prime minister, the top military commanders, the massage chief currently and the formal one. And certainly, as you mentioned, I had to get out to see Gaza with the field commanders and, you know, and assess that situation and also in Lebanon. And my takeaways, a number one, is the IDF and sent com Israel and the United States working together, dealing with this challenge with the Roninous proxies. This is the best cooperation collaboration we have had in

1:03:52some time with an ally. And you have to go all the way back to World War II to find an ally that is capable and proven in combat as the United States military. The IDF is all of that. Okay. So what do we have there? Of course, the obsessive mention of World War II, the sort of founding myth of our entire civilization, apparently, what's he saying? A major media figure, a retired US general, is spending nearly two weeks in a foreign land, meeting with foreign heads of state, talking to a leader of a foreign intelligence group. That's kind of weird, man. If Tucker Carlson was meeting for 12 days with the head of the KGB, if Candace Owens had, you know, journeyed to North Korea and spent a similar time with whatever

1:04:57diminutive Asian man is in charge of their intelligence. If I don't know, Alex Jones spent a similar amount of time talking to the leader of the IRGC, that would be of concern. That would be weird. That would be concerning. It seems as if, well, prominent media figures, tired military personnel or, well, committing treason, you know, talking to, I don't know, taking orders from, apparently, I don't know, foreign governments, that seems to be an issue, that seems to be a problem. And so when your core point is that the country will not survive, years of Democrat rule, who knows, it way well-not. And then your own guys are playing for another team, have the priorities of another sovereign nation. Do you have a leg to stand on? Because I don't believe you. Of course, I believe the Democrats are awful, but I don't believe you have

1:05:59my best interest at heart. Why would I trust you with power? Why would I listen to anything you have to say? It seems to be an entirely reasonable conclusion to draw. Our government, our media is compromised. They have different goals from the ostensible goals of something like mega. To make America great again. And sure, Shapiro may be right. Levin may be right. That the concern about Iran is a minority one. But it's a growing one, especially among younger voters. And by younger, I effectively mean people under the age of 55 on the right. Where are they to turn? To see those grievances addressed. Clearly not to the Republican Party. Now, also not to the Democratic Party. I've clearly for any number of reasons, Hillary Clinton's comments, as well as I don't know,

1:07:00the entire last, I was going to say 30 years, but then I realized basically just sensed the civil rights movement. If not FDR, right should convince you of that fact. But what is going to bring those people back on side? Those people who feel alienated, those people who feel as if they are not represented. Is it the moral, hectoring tones of VVAC? Is it the shaming of Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Is it the demeaning attitude of Ben Shapiro? No. Of course not. It's not going to work. And I've been banging on for over a year now, about this idea of the woke right. Other terms like paganist, Nazi are thrown in as well. And what that functionally means is the people who have split from mega classic, who are annoyed by our subservient relationship to Israel. And what have they been saying? I think it's a big, it's projection, but they're saying

1:08:03you're splitting the things. You're going to cost us an election and when we have a disaster selection is going to be your fault. It's going to be the woke right. Is that true? I mean, those people's views clearly aren't represented in the halls of power. Find me a woke right legislator. Find me a isolationist Republican still in power. Sure, they're a couple, but it's far from a majority position. But we will be blamed for this. They will attempt, at least, to push all of this onto us. Now that's absurd because, well, we weren't in power. We weren't making the decisions. We did everything you guys. The hawks, the neoconservatives, the Zionist shils said to do. And it was a disaster. The people who opposed you, they were correct. But mark my words. That's exactly what will happen. The Republicans will

1:09:06suffer a setback to what degree who knows. And when we're talking about it as unlikely to be a blue wave of a surge of new Democrat voters, but this sort of red undertow. People aren't showing up. So we got sucked out, not showing up at the time they're supposed to. The blame will be placed on people like you and me by these shils, by these traders. They will say, you were the one saying something to extreme. You were the ones putting people off on this whole project. And it's a lie. It's not true. Because of the moment where we were doing things I liked, we were doing things that my friends thought were good. The early Trump administration, he was riding high. He was not burning through an immense amount of political capital. He was investing wisely, spending some and gaining much more in return. But the moment you won, Mark, the moment that VVAC became the face of this, the moment that the

1:10:09attitudes of Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Ben Shapiro came to dominate MAGA. The whole thing fell apart. And you have to wonder if, well, it's almost intentional. Right? A sort of murder suicide to prevent the right in America from becoming anything more than the stooges of a foreign nation. Conspiratorial, maybe, I read an article about this, the Republican Samson option, the GOP Samson option. But it's convincing case at least. So don't let these people skate on it. Don't let them run around. Bake their cake and eat it too. Hold them to account for this. They are the reason for any sort of setbacks in the midterms. They are the reason this administration is unpopular. They are the reason gas is expensive. Because of the decisions they argued for. And on another level, never forget they hate you. They make it very clear that they are better than you.

1:11:14You're lazy. You're motivated by grievance. You're jealous. You're staying at home. Playing video games, eating cheese puffs. You should be out there working. Working like VVAC. Working like Sarah Huckabee Sanders. They hate you. And so, as regards my advice for Ohio, it's a devilish situation. Democrats are awful. And I'd never encourage someone to vote in such a way that will create problems for their family. It will make it more likely their kids are stolen or they're clubbed to death by some feral scholar. I would never do that. But I do understand why people are coming to that conclusion. It's not because they're stupid. It's not because they're shortsighted. It's because they're reacting to incentives. Racting to incentives. Reacting to the messaging of the GOP.

1:12:17They did it to themselves. I have no sympathy for them. They earned it. Now look, these episodes like all the others sponsored by Axios, sponsored by Fox and Suns. If you want the episodes early and ad-free, with less production value, because with less production errors, I guess, because apparently the video version of this show is just cursed. You can pay me a few bucks, Patreon, Substack, Gumroad. These people, man, they make me wonder about the the caloric value of the double-on-block shot.