WEBVTT - Has politics changed forever as left-wing violence becomes “normalized”? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.720 Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College. All Things 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.440 hillsdalet Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:08.920 advantage of the many free online courses there and of 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.280 course I listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.560 at hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Biogle, Apple 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:24.000 iTunes and Hillsdale Jes. Welcome back in America. I've changed 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:28.200 Matt Continetti's thump music. Matt is the head of Domestic 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.520 Studies at AEI. He is also a calumnist for the 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:35.160 Wall Street Chunal Free Expressions Page. But he really belongs 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.199 to the city, being the city of the district to 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.200 Columbia and the Beltway. He's really mister Beltway. I think 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.400 he was at the White House Correspondence Association dinner at 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.559 Junior High. Am I right about that? Matt? Did you 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:47.320 go when you're like in sixth grade? 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:51.080 No, though I did. 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.440 Used to go to the Capitol Building when I played 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.880 hooky from high school. To show you what a political 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:56.480 nerd I am. 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.440 You you are so I when you. 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:01.400 Could go and you could sit in the gallery and 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.400 even take the Capitol Hill subway, you know, without having 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:07.080 a pass. 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:08.160 That those were the glory days. 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.400 I'm glad you're married. Before that came out on national 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.680 television and radio, you wouldn't have been able to put 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.520 that on your dating profile on the app. 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:18.480 What's done is done. 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.959 I have no shame, all right, Matt. You remember ten 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.880 years ago, I'm sure you do, the Comet Ping Pong 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.399 pizzeria shooter who walked in to feed the freed the 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.679 kids because he'd been deep into the inner tubes and 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:34.920 he'd become persuaded that there was a pedophilia ring that 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.760 kept children hostage in the basement of Comet Pizza. Do 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:39.200 you remember that? 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:41.600 I remember well. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.880 It was on all the news, and Democrats denounced it 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:51.560 and offered entreaties for everyone to tone down the rhetoric 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:52.400 as a result. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.960 It was ten years ago and three miles away from 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.120 the White House Correspondence Association dinner. Now the lunatic and 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:05.000 President Trump called him crazy and unbalanced and troubled. On 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:09.560 Sunday night, that lunatic swam in waters similar to the 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.680 unbalanced man who shot up comment pizza. Do you think 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.120 the reaction to the waters of the ten year ago 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.320 that's four chan and QAnon will be the same as 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:23.919 the reaction to the waters in which this guy swam, 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.320 which is basically blue Sky and Jimmy. 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:32.400 Kimmel, Well, I don't think the response from Democrats is 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.639 the same, Hugh. I think that plenty of Democrats condemned 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:40.320 political violence in the abstract in the aftermath of this 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.280 attempted assassination of President Trump and his cabinet at the 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.120 White House Correspondents dinner. 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:46.799 But very few have. 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:53.440 Affirmatively stated that President Trump is not any of the 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:57.079 horrible things that the assassin claimed he was, and that 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.680 Nora O'Donnell repeated to the President's face less than twenty 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:06.000 four hours after the assassination attempt on sixty minutes Sunday night. 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:07.680 So that's what I'm looking for. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.800 I would I would ask the Democratic leaders to go 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.880 out there and say, for starters that Trump is not Hitler, 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.359 that Trump is not a dictator, He's not a king. 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:24.160 He is a populist politician. He has his flaws, he 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.320 there are ways to criticize him. Democrats can have a 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.400 different view of where the country is going or should go, 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.440 but they need to really pull back on the depiction 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.800 of Trump as some type of fascist leader, because what 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.920 that does is it lowers the bar for people who 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.400 think that they are going to save the country by 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.440 going after this president in a violent way. 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.920 Now, I began the program with Aaron McLain, who has 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.200 put out the School of War podcast today with Douglas Murray, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.200 and there's two of the leading public intellectuals like you, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.560 they're going to be around for decades. And they ended 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:04.200 up talking about the meaning crisis, which is too many 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.320 people of both the far left and the far right 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.240 lack meaning and so they attach on to this crazy stuff. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.320 But also education in America has failed, both in the 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:18.159 numeracy and literacy but also into basic civic education. What 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:23.720 do we do about that matter? That's not an unsolvable problem. 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.120 Well, these are big issues. 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.720 And you know, my hero Charles Kradhammer like to say 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.640 that politics matters most because if you get the politics right, 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:34.640 then everything else will follow. But if you screw up 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.200 your politics, then all you're going to reap is misery. 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:43.520 And I think that beyond these kind of metaphysical questions 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:45.880 you discussed in your previous interview, Hugh, we need to 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:50.000 think about the politics here. And our political system is 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.640 kind of off kilter, and the fact that the primaries 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.960 now matter more than the general election. The fact that 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:05.039 the type of hateful rhetoric is normalized online and appropriated 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:11.520 by elected officials. That's been a feature in temperate rhetoric, 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.679 has been a feature of American politics, but it's certainly 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.919 producing I think viral effects now with the new landscape 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.960 of social media where you have three assassination attempts on 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.520 Donald Trump in less than two years. You have the 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.919 high profile shooting of Charlie Kirk, a conservative leader. You 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.440 have the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO, and then 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:38.080 the lionization of his murderer. There's something going wrong with 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.880 our political system, and I think it starts with just 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:47.839 across the board denunciations of these acts full stop, and 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:52.000 denunciations of people who would justify them, like the Democrat's 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.359 newest heart throb, this Hassan piker guy who was featured 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:00.480 in the New York Times justifying murder just a few 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.159 days before this assassination attempt on President Trump. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.640 Well, it is an extension of the from the River 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:12.240 to the Sea rhetoric. It's an extension of the takeover 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.680 of your Alma Maters campus by radicals and Murray talks 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.160 about that. They they all those young activists from high 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:20.839 schools around the United States arrived at Columbia expecting to 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.719 be climate activists, and they became hamas activists and they've 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.800 been they've been bent, and I really think we've got 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.160 to go back deeper than college. Can't save this. Now, 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.919 this goes back into your high school. Did you have 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.720 a sane teacher for American government? Did you have a 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.679 great inspiring teacher anywhere that said read these books over here? 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.080 Oh, I had several great teachers at public schools in 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.200 northern Virginia, Hugh that I'm forever grateful for my ap 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.680 US history teacher, in particular, Kevin Kelly, fantastic teacher. He 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:59.320 assigned Richard Hofstedder's American political tradition as as a senior 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.840 in high school, and I'm sorry, in junior in high school, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:05.920 I read that book and it really kind of opened 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.119 my eyes. And I think there are great teachers out there. 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.640 But I'll say that one thing that's going wrong with 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:18.280 our political system is this desire for absolutist solutions. You 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:23.560 mentioned the climate hysteria there, the idea that we're going 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.240 to rid the world of fossil fuels in order to 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.280 prevent this apocalypse. That's sort of apocalyptic thinking that Donald 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.120 Trump is a fascist tyrant who is going to end 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:38.920 democracy in America. What that does is it inspires people 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.640 to take apocalyptic actions. And so this is where we 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.280 have to move away from in our politics. We have 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.480 to start getting back to kind of serious, concrete discussions 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:54.200 of the issues. The Israel Palestine is a great example 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.800 of this. This idea that from the river to the sea, 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.120 Palestine must be free. The idea of you're going to 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.600 end a country, the state of Israel, the only homeland, 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:04.840 national homeland for the Jewish people. You're just going to 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.640 end it and not think about the consequences. That's really 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.720 I think where we've gone wrong. And the Democratic Party 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:17.280 in particular needs to understand that it is becoming captured 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:22.480 by radical elements in our society. And that's a danger 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.840 because to have one of our major parties go completely 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.679 off the rails can cause a great deal of damage 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:30.440 in the short run. 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.840 You know what happened in the twenty twenty primary, Matt 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.240 is that the Democrats had a series of debates with 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.480 friendly moderators, none of them ask them, for example, if 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.640 climate change is really your number one agenda? Why are 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.400 you concerned about the blockade of Iranian oil? Why do 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.120 you think the president? I mean, there's easy questions to 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.960 ask that are not confrontational, not but just generally the 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.720 logic of the left doesn't add up. But they didn't 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.640 get anything except underhand pitching. Will they get other than 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.760 underhand pitching in their selection process this time around? 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.760 I really I'm afraid they won't, Hugh, I really think 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:11.840 he will be up to some of the candidates, you know, 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.080 I mean there's one. There will be something important I 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.800 think happening if Ram Emmanuel gets on that debate stage 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.240 for the Democratic primary in twenty twenty eight. 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.280 Now, Ram Emmanuel is a liberal Democrat. I don't agree 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:24.560 with him. 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.680 You're way too polite, Matt. He's way too polite now. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.520 But you know, I don't know, yeah exactly, you say it, 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.040 and you know the real rom he will he will scratch, 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.000 he will be scrappy, and he will mix it up, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:41.360 I think, and introduce some sharp, sharp distinctions in the debates. 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:42.600 If he gets on stage. 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:45.840 I think that will be critical because otherwise the voices 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:48.400 of dissent in the Democratic Party, the. 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:49.800 Voice is like Emmanuel. 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:54.600 Then Senator John Fetterman, my favorite Democrat who's different from 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.360 Emmanuel in a lot of ways, but he's courageous in 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.000 standing up for what he sees is tradition liberal beliefs. 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.200 In the Democratic Party, they're going to be shut out 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.560 and it's just going to be a conversation of the 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:08.640 left among. 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:09.640 The left and for the left. 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.840 And by the way, Hugh, you know all this glorification 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.000 of the left and the celebration of these I think 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.040 very toxic voices like pikers that are rising within the 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:20.960 Democratic Party. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.120 The media loves it, right, but they don't. 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.680 They forget that it was less than two years ago 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:31.880 that Donald Trump was re elected right in the opposition. 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.959 Yeah, after being in the consigned to the political wilderness. 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.600 So this is still a country that I think is willing. 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.800 To reject the left, and the Democrats are tempting fate 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:44.640 if they go down this radical course. 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.800 Oh goodness, I hope you are right. Matt Connetty from 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.600 the Wall Street Journal of the American Enterprise Institute. Follow 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.160 him on at Continetti, read him in the Journal Free 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.520 Expression Vertical, and stay tuned in America. I'm he Hewan 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:58.400 on the Salem New channel of the Salem Ready or 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.239 not Working, and all of our affiliates north, South, East. 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:02.439 And West. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.560 Welcome back to America. I'm joined now by Eli Lake 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.200 of The Free Press, host of Breaking History. He was 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.840 at the White House correspondence dinner on Saturday night. I 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.800 listened to his recounting of it on the Commentary podcast yesterday. Eli, 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:21.720 I was not there. I was actually at a school 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.000 play hours away. I've only gone once because I hate 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.280 for you, I know, I really really hate those things. 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.200 Part introversion, part Shina's part. I don't do small talk 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.360 very well with people, but some people like it, and 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.600 I'm not condemning it. I am just curious. In the 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:42.520 aftermat of the Comet Ping Pong pizza shooting, which happened 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.440 in December twenty fifteen, it was about three miles away 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.880 from the Washington Hilton Suddenly, and I knew nothing about 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.839 pizzagate lunacy, but once I learned about it, q Chan suffered. 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:58.439 We had four chan, QAnon, four chan, anyone who dealt 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:05.600 in that particular weird, very very odd, left wing conspiracist world. 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.520 They were shunned. Do you expect the same shunning on 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.120 the right yeah, I was on the right. It was 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:13.880 very on the right. Right right now, do you expect 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.080 the same shunning on the left of the water in 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:21.160 which this killer or would be statement assassin swam, which 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.760 is the no King's water. That's really what it is. 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.800 It's the no king's water. Will it will no kings 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.960 go away? No. 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:31.760 I don't think no kings will go away. What I 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.440 do think, though, is that it is kind of forcing 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.160 a new conversation among Democrats. And what I mean by 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.000 that is that if you just look at the sequence 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.400 of events in the last few weeks, the entire news 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:49.200 cycle about Hassan Piker, who you know, your last guest 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.640 Mike Rogers, kind of went into chapter and verse you 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.920 know things America deserved nine to eleven, praises the communist 0:12:54.960 --> 0:13:01.000 regime in China, supports thinks Hamas's morally. 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:02.079 Superior to Israel. 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:03.199 Go through it. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.720 These are fringe opinions, their radical opinions, and their anti 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:11.160 American opinions. And there was a column by Ezra Kleine, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.400 who's very bright New York Times guy and is something 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.640 of a gatekeeper for American liberals, and he is the 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.400 original title of that column was Hassan Piker is not 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.560 the enemy. They change the headline, and then Hassan Piker 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.120 goes on a bunch of other kind of liberal podcasts. 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.360 You know, he goes on Crooked Media, the Pods of 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.760 America guys, And he's asked about some of his past 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:41.080 statements regarding to Hamas, and he does not use the 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.319 opportunity to sort of say that quote was taken out 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:44.800 of context. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:45.920 This is what I really believe. 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.679 He kind of doubles down, and then you know, we 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.760 see what he does in another New York Times kind 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.800 of really softball interview extraordinary, where you know, he's he 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.600 would like to see you know, more crimes like art 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:04.239 theft and you know, Mikey, you know, stealing and shoplifting 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.199 is micro eluding. And you know, he understands why a 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:12.880 lot of Americans supported the you know, Luigi Mangione. So 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.920 these are fringe opinions. And I think something like this 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.840 which kind of makes it real. Uh, you know, thank god, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.880 this guy did not succeed in any way and didn't 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.040 really get past the first barrier of security for the event, 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.720 so we should say that, but it makes it it. 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:30.920 I think it will force a kind of conversation. I 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.400 think you're going to see people like rama Manuel. I 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:35.120 think you're going to see others who are going to 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.880 stand up and start to say, wait a second, we 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.920 are we are committing kind of political suicide if we 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.880 say that the Hassan Pikers are part of our coalition 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:48.600 and if we just game this out a little bit more, 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.920 because I believe that Hassan Piker is really a proxy 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:55.760 for a fight between socialists and you know, liberal Democrats 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:00.360 basically and the party. The Democratic Socialist of America has 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.760 had an entry est strategy, which means that they will 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.960 run in democratic primaries and they'll use their cadres to 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.160 basically kind of get the nomination, and that that is 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.920 that's a strategy that ultimately is aimed at taking over 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.600 the Democratic Party. And I think that now's the time 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.640 for Democrats who a don't agree with this kind of 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.960 thing and be really would like to remain a national 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.640 party capable of winning a presidential election, would have to 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.480 say something like, if Democratic Socialists want to run on 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.240 their own, go right ahead, that you can do that 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:39.160 in our system, but you're not going to you can't 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.640 be Democrats. You can't run in the same Party as us, 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:44.720 and in that respect, I think that that's the big 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.680 fight that's coming, and we'll see what happens. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:52.440 Because before I wish I was as optimistic as you. 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:53.760 I look at the Democrats. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:55.680 I'm not optimistic. I'm just saying that that's the fight. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:56.360 I'm saying. 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:58.280 I don't know what to hope that they hope it 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.520 actually happens. Yeah, I want. I want there to be 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.680 a fight too. All of my Democratic friends from the eighties, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.440 nineties and forward, they're all normal people. I had a 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.880 party with them on Friday night before I left town, 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:14.800 and they're Clinton administration people and Biden administration people in 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.680 Obama administrator, but they're my age and they're not crazy. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:22.359 I think the Democratic Party sort of their liberal activists, 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.720 the Joshua Micah Marshall's, the Matthew Iglesias, they all kind 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.080 of lost their footing in a tug of war with 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.160 these people on the left. Ezra Kline, you know, I've 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.760 told this story before. Ezra was in my daughter's class 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.400 back in California, so he's always been the surfing sandit 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.200 to me, he's always in sixth grade. I can't take 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.760 him seriously. But that's not fair to Ezra, he is 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.000 taken seriously, but he's trying to be on with Iglesias 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.840 and Marshall. They've lost they've been pulled over the line 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.320 by the Hassan pikers and the AOC's. I don't know 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:56.760 how they ever get traction again. 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.880 Well, I mean, this is going to take some work 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.320 if they're serious about saving their party. But you've got 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.800 to find young voices that are willing to stand up, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:09.000 that are going to be gen Z in their twenties 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:10.920 right now, and they're going to they have to be 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:12.480 willing to sort of stand up and saying this is 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.400 not the direction that we want to go. We don't 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.040 like you know. I mean, if they're Democrats, they don't 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.640 like Trump, that's obvious. So we could say we don't 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.480 like Trump, but we also don't like communists China and Humas. 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.080 I mean, it shouldn't be that difficult to sort of 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.239 say that, but that's what's needed. And you know, what 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.159 I would say is that the right has done a 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.880 pretty good job, in my view, of producing younger conservatives 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.840 at this point. That obviously a lot of them right 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:39.760 now because that's where the party is. They like Trump, 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.920 but they haven't you know, I look at a guy 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.639 like Josh Hammer, and that guy's terrific. He has not 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.080 gone along with the elements of the right that have 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.520 decided to obsess over Israel and sort of go in 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:54.760 a populist direction that I think you and I would 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.720 agree is not that great. They need to find their 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:59.440 young leaders who are going to stand up to a 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.560 Hassan PI or on his own terms. They have to 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:03.879 find their own streamers, that to find their own podcasters. 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.560 Maybe that's going to be the work over a few years. 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.480 Maybe you can't do it right away. But because I mean, 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.320 you know, Iglesias and Marshall, they're around my age. It's 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.680 it's not really for that generation. It's for the It's 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.040 for the younger people to sort of meet meet the 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.520 Hassan pikers where they are and say no, no, no, not, 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:22.320 you know, not another step forward. 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:23.480 This is we don't want this. 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:28.520 Meanwhile, if I'm the state Democratic Party of South Carolina 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.240 or New York City or whatever, I would make sure 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.080 that if you are a DSA person, you don't get 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.200 to run in my primary, full stop. That's the other 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.680 thing you gotta you gotta, you gotta end their entry 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.199 as strategy which has been going on now for a 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:42.720 few years. 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.199 At this point, now, I got to go back to 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.000 the generational thing. Uh, you know, Conservative have done a 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.639 pretty good job, and we have one minute, Elis, I 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.679 might keep you for I can't keep you. Who is 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.280 who follows the Mary Katherine Ham, Guy Benson, Seth Mandel's. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.360 We got a lot of those, Ben Shapiro, a lot 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.439 of forty somethings. Do we have any twenty five year 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:03.000 old people? 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.879 Well, you know, I painted to the Israel Shabas Keston. 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:10.960 Bob is a pretty young guy. I think he's pretty good. 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:12.960 And you'd have to get I got to I got 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:14.720 to think of it in terms of the right. But 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.000 I think that yeah, you can find those people. In fact, 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.960 I would say the rebels on campus right now. If 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:23.760 I'm thinking about this kind of as a generational strategy 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:28.600 on the right, the people who are chafing under wokeness 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.399 at elite universities, those are the future leaders of the 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.280 of the conservative movement as I see it. 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.239 I hope you are right. Eulila can be followed at 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.080 Breaking Histories of Correspondent for the Free Press. Follow him 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.800 on x at Eli Lake. Thank you, Eli, I'll be 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.800 right back in America station be shooting on Saturday night 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:49.040 because it's a big story and we're beginning to get 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.760 our arms around it. And I begin with Aaron B. McLain. 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.080 Aaron's the host of the School of War podcast. He's 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:58.119 also a contributor to The Free Press. He is also 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:02.280 a CBS National Security and I discovered today that after 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.159 his undergraduate years at Saint John's he did what everyone 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.080 would do. He got Masters in Medieval Arabic from Oxford. 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.840 That's kind of what everyone does, right Eric. 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:14.760 It makes sense at the time. It made sense at 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:15.080 the time. 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:17.880 You know, it was it before or after the Marine Corps. 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:22.120 That was before, that was before, and you know, one 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:25.000 of its main consequences was it led me to believe, 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:26.320 when I was joining the Marine Corps that I was 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:27.120 obviously going to go. 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.040 To Iraq because my Arabic was decent. 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:31.199 In those days, seven years in the Marine Corps, never 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.280 set foot in an Arabic speaking country, not a layover 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.159 at an airport. Went to Afghanistan instead, which was, you know, 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.439 very operationally exciting, but no one speaks a look of 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:41.000 Arabic there. 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.680 Now I've got a retired marine Corps Major General Buddy 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:46.720 mel Spies, and he was in charge of all in 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.040 Marine Corps education, and he said, the sixteen weeks, I 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.240 don't know if is OCS sixteen weeks or was the 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:53.720 basic school sixteen weeks? 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:57.920 The basic school is longer than OCS, so it's it's 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.439 probably up there in the sixteen weekghborhood. 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:01.560 My OCS class was. 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.719 Ten weeks, okay, So he said about the basic school, 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.159 we cram eight weeks of education in the sixteen weeks 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.399 because a lot of our young marines arrive without a 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:12.280 moral compass. 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:15.000 In other words, they've got to put judgment and values 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.159 in as well as skills training. You and Douglas Murray, 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:20.439 in one of the best hours of podcasting I've heard 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.000