WEBVTT - Will Swaim Live In Long Beach 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:04.290 It's the John Phillips Show. Now, debating what drunk outlet 0:00:04.350 --> 0:00:06.530 purchase they'll make at the end of the show, here 0:00:06.550 --> 0:00:08.620 are John Phillips and Randy Wang. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.740 And we continue live from Glatz Jones at Long Beach. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:20.140 We're broadcasting live from the legendary Gladstones in Long Beach. 0:00:20.220 --> 0:00:22.650 I just stuffed my face full of fish and chips 0:00:22.670 --> 0:00:25.910 during the commercial break. We're here until 3 o'clock. Come 0:00:25.950 --> 0:00:29.910 have lunch. Have an early cocktail. It's happy hour. Enjoy yourself. 0:00:29.950 --> 0:00:32.130 Not literally happy hour, but it's always a happy hour. 0:00:32.690 --> 0:00:35.200 And we're here until 3, and we're here in support 0:00:35.229 --> 0:00:39.230 of Proposition 43 and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association. Susan 0:00:39.270 --> 0:00:42.050 Shelley is manning the desk out front, passing out yard 0:00:42.150 --> 0:00:44.610 signs and door hangers and anything else we can do 0:00:44.630 --> 0:00:47.949 to get out the word about Prop 43, the local 0:00:48.070 --> 0:00:50.769 Taxpayer Protection Act. Here's all you need to know. A 0:00:51.250 --> 0:00:55.170 yes on 43 makes it harder to raise your taxes, 0:00:55.230 --> 0:00:58.110 and that's a message we can all get behind. Yes 0:00:58.270 --> 0:00:59.950 on 43. 0:00:59.950 --> 0:01:02.130 And by this time in the show, Randy, at 2 0:01:02.130 --> 0:01:05.649 o'clock in the afternoon, I think we've eaten every kind 0:01:05.690 --> 0:01:08.050 of fish that had a speaking role in The Little Mermaid. 0:01:08.850 --> 0:01:13.110 I've had the Parmesan crusted halibut, the ahi tuna nachos. 0:01:13.530 --> 0:01:18.089 I've had the fish and chips, and I have had 0:01:18.270 --> 0:01:21.150 the lobster deviled eggs. They're going to need to carry 0:01:21.190 --> 0:01:22.410 me out in a stretcher, Johnny. 0:01:22.850 --> 0:01:25.170 And none of that fish came from the Tijuana River. 0:01:25.340 --> 0:01:28.500 Thank goodness. I also want to give a huge shout 0:01:28.540 --> 0:01:32.459 out to everyone watching us at johnnydontlike.com. We've got people 0:01:32.540 --> 0:01:35.160 watching us while they're watching us in person. It's like 0:01:35.260 --> 0:01:38.179 picture in picture. Thanks for hanging out in the chat, 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.539 hitting the like button. The show is exploding. We're at 0:01:40.580 --> 0:01:44.640 nearly 8,400 subscribers on the channel. So tell your friends, 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:46.979 tell your family, johnnydontlike.com. 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:55.750 800-222-5222 is telephone number 1-800-222-5222. It is our pleasure to 0:01:55.790 --> 0:01:57.970 welcome our next guest to the program. He is the 0:01:58.010 --> 0:02:01.570 president of the California Policy Center and the host of 0:02:01.670 --> 0:02:05.220 National Review's Radio Free California podcast, You can get him 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.940 online at CaliforniaPolicyCenter.org and follow him on X at Will Swaim. 0:02:10.220 --> 0:02:11.320 Will Swaim, welcome. 0:02:11.810 --> 0:02:13.630 What a pleasure to see you in person. I can't 0:02:13.669 --> 0:02:14.050 believe it. 0:02:14.310 --> 0:02:16.630 And look at you're wearing a suit and tie and 0:02:16.690 --> 0:02:17.889 it's about 90 degrees. 0:02:18.010 --> 0:02:20.770 I'm a Catholic boy. You got to wear a uniform. 0:02:21.169 --> 0:02:21.850 We're in radio. 0:02:21.889 --> 0:02:22.870 This is the uniform. 0:02:23.830 --> 0:02:25.880 You're wearing pants today. That is true. 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:27.579 All right. 0:02:27.700 --> 0:02:31.380 So you've been writing a lot about Proposition 40 that's 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.090 going to be on the ballot. This is the billionaire 0:02:34.340 --> 0:02:40.000 wealth confiscation tax that, if passed, would expand, I think, 0:02:40.180 --> 0:02:43.620 into all kinds of different taxes that would hit a 0:02:43.700 --> 0:02:47.679 lot wider of a, well, it would cast a wider net, 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:53.230 I should say, among California taxpayers and residents. What do 0:02:53.250 --> 0:02:55.590 you think is going to happen with that initiative, and 0:02:55.750 --> 0:02:57.530 how damaging would it be if it passed? 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.070 Well, I think you guys and probably everybody in the 0:03:00.130 --> 0:03:03.910 room here knows that we're just starting now to see 0:03:03.950 --> 0:03:06.770 the spending by the teachers union and other unions that 0:03:06.810 --> 0:03:09.990 are really ticked off at Service Employees International for proposing 0:03:10.030 --> 0:03:14.459 this thing. And to understand why other unions hate SEIU, 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.079 all you have to do is look at this initiative. 0:03:16.139 --> 0:03:20.000 It would drive out billionaires who pay a disproportionate amount 0:03:20.020 --> 0:03:22.880 of our income tax. So the general revenue to the 0:03:22.930 --> 0:03:26.010 state drops. And that means that the Teachers Association gets 0:03:26.210 --> 0:03:29.419 less out of the general revenue system. That's by virtue 0:03:29.460 --> 0:03:30.960 of an old law in 19, what was that, 88, 0:03:30.940 --> 0:03:35.580 Prop 98? So all the unions, every one of them, 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.640 is opposed to SEIU. And among us, it's just a 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:41.970 delight to see these guys pull knives on one another. 0:03:42.410 --> 0:03:43.430 So that's been fun. 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.510 I mean, they don't even get a cut of this thing. 0:03:45.570 --> 0:03:47.550 All the money's going to the SEIU. Some of it's 0:03:47.570 --> 0:03:48.770 going to their pension fund. 0:03:48.910 --> 0:03:51.670 That's exactly right. They are under no obligation to spend 0:03:51.690 --> 0:03:53.650 it for the health care they say they're spending. We 0:03:53.670 --> 0:03:56.450 could spend all day footnoting all of their errors. But 0:03:56.490 --> 0:04:00.070 the bottom line is, that their biggest claim, which is 0:04:00.190 --> 0:04:03.050 that this is just a one-time tax, just 5%, just 0:04:03.130 --> 0:04:05.130 on billionaires, you guys already know this, I've heard you 0:04:05.150 --> 0:04:08.210 talk about it, is complete bunk. The fact is that 0:04:08.250 --> 0:04:11.430 it says in fine print the legislature can change this. 0:04:11.510 --> 0:04:13.850 It can drop down to a million, down to 100,000 0:04:13.850 --> 0:04:16.330 if that's what they decide. It can apply to people 0:04:16.690 --> 0:04:19.740 every year. This is not a one-time thing. It's not 0:04:19.770 --> 0:04:21.920 only billionaires and it's not just 5%. 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.480 Now, can you get into the details as to why 0:04:25.540 --> 0:04:30.690 the California Teachers Association is opposing this, because what people, 0:04:30.730 --> 0:04:33.740 I think, normally think of is not true, which is 0:04:33.779 --> 0:04:36.080 that if this pushes Elon Musk out of state and 0:04:36.100 --> 0:04:38.000 he takes all his kids with him, that's going to 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.160 drop enrollment at the public schools by a lot. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:43.940 How many children are we up to? 0:04:45.060 --> 0:04:46.060 More than Sean Kemp. 0:04:47.620 --> 0:04:50.430 So, you have to go back to 1988. We got 0:04:50.510 --> 0:04:53.550 Prop 98, which was passed by some of us in 0:04:53.570 --> 0:04:56.480 the room. Some of you are too young, but I 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.380 voted for it. I used to be a commie. That's 0:04:58.500 --> 0:05:02.500 a subject for another day. But the idea was that 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.110 public education, by which we really mean the teachers' union, 0:05:05.150 --> 0:05:07.950 would get 40% of all general revenue. 0:05:07.950 --> 0:05:08.170 40%. 0:05:08.170 --> 0:05:10.570 If it goes up, they get more. If it goes down, 0:05:10.610 --> 0:05:14.370 they get less. But it's always 40%. So when SEIU 0:05:14.430 --> 0:05:18.310 comes in and says, we want to establish a wealth tax, 0:05:19.130 --> 0:05:21.800 lots of people who pay high income taxes, the top level, 0:05:22.410 --> 0:05:23.810 They just sort of look around and they say, I'm 0:05:23.870 --> 0:05:26.230 going to Tennessee. I'm going to Texas, going to Florida, 0:05:26.270 --> 0:05:28.270 going to Nevada. I'm going to live in an inclined village. 0:05:28.330 --> 0:05:32.539 Forget this. And the result is the income tax revenue drops. 0:05:32.900 --> 0:05:35.960 And that means that 40% that the teachers get, that 0:05:36.020 --> 0:05:39.479 drops as well. And the teachers want one thing and 0:05:39.580 --> 0:05:42.260 one thing only, really, money. They like a second thing, too, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.790 and that's never to be held accountable. Don't grade the teachers. 0:05:45.450 --> 0:05:49.550 So the teachers' union wants more money. SEIU is grabbing 0:05:49.610 --> 0:05:52.089 it for itself. That's why Newsom tried to get in 0:05:52.150 --> 0:05:56.479 and kind of broker a deal between everybody. SEIU reportedly 0:05:56.740 --> 0:06:00.240 threatened everybody in the room. That's how SEIU rolls. And 0:06:00.300 --> 0:06:02.380 so they broke apart. And this is going to be ugly. 0:06:02.420 --> 0:06:04.980 So you asked earlier, like, what's the polling look like? 0:06:05.620 --> 0:06:08.859 The fact is this thing started low and it's now sinking. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.419 And we've only begun to see the ads. And you 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.739 all have probably seen them. It's cops, firefighters, teachers, nurses 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:17.940 looking into the camera and saying, boy, if this thing passes, 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:22.130 it devastates me. They're going to drop. All the people combined, 0:06:22.190 --> 0:06:24.450 not just billionaires, but all these other unions, they're going 0:06:24.470 --> 0:06:27.180 to drop somewhere around $ 400 million by the end of this. 0:06:27.860 --> 0:06:32.380 They've already spent somewhere between $ 180 and $ 200 million. And 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.480 we've still got three weeks to go. So be prepared. 0:06:35.700 --> 0:06:38.410 Every football game you love will now be interrupted by 0:06:38.450 --> 0:06:40.570 a nurse telling you you're all going to die if 0:06:40.610 --> 0:06:41.390 this thing passes. 0:06:41.430 --> 0:06:42.610 Just paint it in the end zone. 0:06:42.650 --> 0:06:43.040 That's it. 0:06:43.990 --> 0:06:46.029 One of the things that I always tell people is 0:06:46.070 --> 0:06:49.229 that the state of California is so dependent on the 0:06:49.290 --> 0:06:52.790 tech industry to pay its bills. If something were to 0:06:52.890 --> 0:06:55.750 ever happen to that, we would be in a really 0:06:55.830 --> 0:06:59.840 bad place. And right now, we're right on the precipice 0:07:00.100 --> 0:07:03.460 of AI not only becoming the dominant industry in the 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.440 state of California, but the nation and the globe. And 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.460 there's nothing written in stone that says that AI and 0:07:10.490 --> 0:07:13.230 the tech industry has to stay in California. 0:07:13.250 --> 0:07:13.690 That's right. 0:07:14.050 --> 0:07:17.370 If our laws push them out of state, we could 0:07:17.430 --> 0:07:20.810 take the golden goose and force it to Texas or 0:07:20.890 --> 0:07:24.570 Tennessee or some other place, which would leave a hole 0:07:24.980 --> 0:07:28.800 in our budget, which would be awful for employment. 0:07:29.020 --> 0:07:29.739 It would be. 0:07:30.460 --> 0:07:34.020 Catastrophic for the Bay Area. All of that could happen. 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:38.450 Yes. And that's not... Merely hypothetical, John. I mean, we've 0:07:38.470 --> 0:07:40.650 seen it before, right, in our own lifetimes. I grew 0:07:40.770 --> 0:07:44.120 up in the 1960s and 70s when aerospace was king 0:07:44.150 --> 0:07:47.620 in Southern California. They all left. They left because of 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.780 pollution controls, employment regulation. They're gone. You'll see a little 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.220 bit of outposts here from like Boeing or something, but 0:07:54.260 --> 0:07:57.450 primarily that industry split. And then we just watched this 0:07:57.530 --> 0:08:00.690 big fiasco with Paramount and David Ellison trying to merge 0:08:00.710 --> 0:08:03.590 with Warner. And you got people up in Sacramento, John, 0:08:03.650 --> 0:08:05.960 who you would not trust with a toaster or a 0:08:06.010 --> 0:08:09.960 hairdryer telling Hollywood how to run its business. So as 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:12.240 soon as David Ellison started saying, like, you know, maybe 0:08:12.540 --> 0:08:16.580 Nashville looks pretty good, you heard Rob Bonta, our attorney general, 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.620 scream like, you're blackmailing us, says the guy who is 0:08:19.700 --> 0:08:22.800 threatening them with legal action all the time. So it 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.800 is not impossible that California will fumble the ball on 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.950 tech as well. They're not immune. And I've talked to, 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:31.880 you've probably talked to some of the folks who are 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.000 really affected by this billionaire wealth tax. They're all in tech. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.460 Many of them think they're libertarian. They lean progressive. And 0:08:39.500 --> 0:08:42.980 they are shocked that for years, decades, they have given 0:08:43.340 --> 0:08:49.150 millions to progressive organizations. And then one of those organizations, SEIU, 0:08:49.210 --> 0:08:51.370 turns on them and bites them. You all know the 0:08:51.450 --> 0:08:55.270 Aesop's Fable story of the frog and the scorpion. I 0:08:55.309 --> 0:08:57.270 talked to tech guys who had never heard of this 0:08:57.390 --> 0:09:00.360 idea that this is what the unions do. They will 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:03.560 crush you. So they've supported these people, and now they're 0:09:03.620 --> 0:09:04.340 on the dinner table. 0:09:05.059 --> 0:09:08.490 Do you think that the SEIU unknowingly woke up a 0:09:08.570 --> 0:09:11.950 sleeping giant? Because so many of the big players in 0:09:12.010 --> 0:09:17.640 Silicon Valley... regard themselves as apolitical or just not interested 0:09:17.740 --> 0:09:20.340 in state and local politics at all. They see themselves 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:24.020 as people of the world and not as Californians. But 0:09:24.100 --> 0:09:27.880 this got them to engage in the initiative process at 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.800 the state politics level. Do you think that they're there 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:33.750 to stay or this is a one-time thing? 0:09:34.590 --> 0:09:38.030 I hate to say it. I think that many people 0:09:38.090 --> 0:09:41.429 in California, the folks who work on the left, This 0:09:41.550 --> 0:09:44.250 is their job 100% of the time. If you're on 0:09:44.290 --> 0:09:46.650 the left, if you're in a union, if you are 0:09:46.670 --> 0:09:51.030 a nonprofit organization serving the homeless, I have air quotes, 0:09:52.570 --> 0:09:55.850 then that's your permanent job. For the right, for business people, 0:09:55.910 --> 0:09:59.270 even tech people, politics is not their job. It should 0:09:59.330 --> 0:10:03.090 not have to be. be our job as citizens. But 0:10:03.130 --> 0:10:05.689 we have let this government become so big that the 0:10:05.750 --> 0:10:09.189 industries step in occasionally, but only tactically. We saw this 0:10:09.270 --> 0:10:13.790 with 2022, was it, when Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash had 0:10:13.830 --> 0:10:17.320 to fight off Assembly Bill 5? You know, I was 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.640 talking to their representatives and saying, like, open this up. 0:10:19.700 --> 0:10:21.699 There are small business people out there who are being 0:10:21.740 --> 0:10:26.160 destroyed by AB5. And they said, not our fight. That's 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.370 how business people too often think about this. And you 0:10:29.380 --> 0:10:32.670 can understand they're thinking narrowly about their own bottom lines, 0:10:32.710 --> 0:10:35.730 about their own business model. They're not really interested in 0:10:35.790 --> 0:10:38.550 changing how the rest of the public thinks. But a 0:10:38.610 --> 0:10:40.610 lot of other people get left behind when they act 0:10:40.650 --> 0:10:41.010 this way. 0:10:41.170 --> 0:10:43.240 Well, and do that at your peril. I mean, look 0:10:43.290 --> 0:10:47.140 at what happened during the COVID shutdowns. When Disneyland was 0:10:47.179 --> 0:10:50.980 shut down for something like a year, their stock price 0:10:51.220 --> 0:10:53.700 went in the basement and has not come back yet. 0:10:54.220 --> 0:10:57.500 So how do we persuade, John, because you're a communications expert, 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.800 how do we persuade folks who are in the business 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.000 world that the fight for liberty, for personal freedom, for deregulation, 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.410 for lower taxes, this is a fight for everybody, including them, 0:11:07.570 --> 0:11:10.620 and not just them. but working with others and helping 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:12.300 us all work together. How do you do that? 0:11:12.500 --> 0:11:15.080 I don't know, because that entire fight was just done 0:11:15.100 --> 0:11:19.480 in a passive-aggressive way. Bob Iger resigned from a board 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.660 that Newsom put him on, and he, I guess, said 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.370 snotty things to him, but he didn't do what he 0:11:25.410 --> 0:11:27.630 needed to do to shut it down, which was to 0:11:27.710 --> 0:11:31.150 pony up money to the opposition. He never became a threat. 0:11:31.230 --> 0:11:33.130 He just became someone who whined about it. 0:11:34.470 --> 0:11:37.439 That's it, and I think business people do not want 0:11:37.460 --> 0:11:40.020 to get over their skis if they're smart and maybe 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:42.199 getting involved. And certainly I talked to a lot of 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.880 business people in California who tell me that if they 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.160 do anything political, they are on the radar, not in 0:11:48.179 --> 0:11:50.729 a good way, that they will have business regulators showing 0:11:50.770 --> 0:11:53.490 up at their doors, wanting to look through their employment files, 0:11:53.570 --> 0:11:58.370 their toxic emissions, their carbon emissions. And they'll just say, look, 0:11:58.470 --> 0:12:01.699 I can't afford to get involved in politics. So there's that, 0:12:01.770 --> 0:12:04.360 you know, when the state becomes as big as California 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.830 is like, I would argue, I don't mean to throw 0:12:06.870 --> 0:12:10.650 around hyperbolic terms, but when you become socialist, the government 0:12:10.670 --> 0:12:12.960 can actually tell, the government has a lot of tools 0:12:13.860 --> 0:12:16.220 to make your life difficult if you're a business person. 0:12:16.900 --> 0:12:20.699 And we've seen Gavin Newsom, Rob Bonta, the head of 0:12:20.740 --> 0:12:23.400 our public schools, we've seen them use those tools to 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.140 great effect to terrorize ordinary Californians. 0:12:26.780 --> 0:12:29.060 Now, since you brought up the S-word, what do you 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.100 think is going to happen in the L.A. mayor's race? 0:12:32.420 --> 0:12:34.969 Well, that's a socialist versus a socialist, is it not? 0:12:35.250 --> 0:12:35.850 Exactly. 0:12:35.870 --> 0:12:39.230 It is hard to find the distinction. What did Sigmund 0:12:39.250 --> 0:12:42.929 Freud call it? The competition of similar tribes? I don't 0:12:42.950 --> 0:12:46.010 know how these... This is where it has to get personal, really, 0:12:46.110 --> 0:12:49.270 because there's not a dime's worth of difference in policy 0:12:49.750 --> 0:12:53.630 between Nithya Raman and Karen Bass. Karen Bass, unfortunately for her, 0:12:53.730 --> 0:12:56.270 has a record of having burned down a significant part 0:12:56.290 --> 0:13:00.670 of her city, which is not something Raman can match. So... 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.609 My own sense is that poor Karen Bass is not 0:13:04.670 --> 0:13:07.350 well liked on the left. She has failed to do 0:13:07.450 --> 0:13:09.550 what the left wanted her to do, which is basically 0:13:09.590 --> 0:13:14.050 just socialize virtually everything. I think it's Rahman's race to 0:13:14.170 --> 0:13:15.290 lose at this point. 0:13:15.980 --> 0:13:18.939 Why do you think Bass didn't do what Willie Brown did? 0:13:18.980 --> 0:13:21.520 When Willie Brown was running for mayor of San Francisco, 0:13:21.620 --> 0:13:24.960 he was running against another person to the left. And 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:29.489 Willie went to the Republicans and he goes, okay, I 0:13:29.550 --> 0:13:32.600 need your votes to win. I'm going to give you X, Y, 0:13:32.660 --> 0:13:34.900 and Z, and I'm going to give you my word 0:13:34.940 --> 0:13:36.790 that if I win the election, I'm going to come 0:13:36.809 --> 0:13:39.110 through with it. And it was positions on different boards 0:13:39.170 --> 0:13:42.590 and commissions. They cut a deal. He wins the election. 0:13:42.910 --> 0:13:46.690 He comes through on his word. Spencer Pratt says that 0:13:46.730 --> 0:13:49.820 Karen Bass is not reaching out to him. She's not 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:54.060 offering anything concrete to him or his supporters or the 0:13:54.100 --> 0:13:59.260 people that financed his campaign. What motivation do any of 0:13:59.300 --> 0:14:02.450 them have to support her if she's not offering anything? 0:14:02.770 --> 0:14:05.710 That is such a great question. Let me try this 0:14:05.809 --> 0:14:08.030 out on you. I think there's two reasons. Number one, 0:14:08.290 --> 0:14:13.570 Willie Brown is smart. Karen Bass is Karen Bass. So 0:14:14.860 --> 0:14:17.540 I think that's one thing. The other thing is that 0:14:17.580 --> 0:14:23.120 I think the Overton window, the acceptable political discourse has 0:14:23.180 --> 0:14:26.220 changed so dramatically since that moment when Willie Brown could 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.800 talk to Republicans. Today, I mean, you guys saw when 0:14:29.900 --> 0:14:32.520 the LA Times simply decided, when the publisher of the 0:14:32.620 --> 0:14:36.230 LA Times decided no Kamala Harris endorsement. And what happened? 0:14:36.630 --> 0:14:39.530 It wasn't like subscribers said, oh, thank God you're being 0:14:39.630 --> 0:14:43.710 neutral in this really controversial, you know, really fraught race. No, 0:14:43.830 --> 0:14:47.940 they canceled their subscriptions, demanded that they, you know, print 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:51.020 the endorsement as if somehow it was going to change anything. 0:14:51.660 --> 0:14:54.920 So much of politics is performative now. It is theatrical. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.800 And I think the Nithya Raman... would blast Karen Bass 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.120 for making common cause with Republicans. And I can imagine 0:15:01.140 --> 0:15:04.110 that a significant number of Democrats in L.A. are sufficiently 0:15:05.190 --> 0:15:09.250 indoctrinated and ideologically partisan that they would see any kind 0:15:09.310 --> 0:15:14.790 of reach across the aisle as inflammatory, unforgivable, and clear 0:15:14.850 --> 0:15:15.970 evidence of fascism. 0:15:16.650 --> 0:15:19.050 What was your take on Spencer Pratt and his campaigns? 0:15:20.710 --> 0:15:26.680 That he is a really provocative Trump-like communicator. I think 0:15:26.700 --> 0:15:31.580 that served him really well. But unfortunately, you know, the 0:15:31.620 --> 0:15:34.530 polling numbers, let's just say the voter registration is just 0:15:34.590 --> 0:15:36.970 not in his favor. This is a problem we have statewide, right? 0:15:36.990 --> 0:15:38.990 When you've got 70% of people who just say they 0:15:39.010 --> 0:15:42.090 hate Donald Trump no matter what, you get Javier Becerra 0:15:42.130 --> 0:15:46.100 refusing to answer policy questions. Spencer was awesome on the message. 0:15:46.140 --> 0:15:49.040 I think a lot of the enthusiasm for him, unfortunately, 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.900 was out of state and only online. We have a 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.040 problem on the right side, on the conservative side of 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.460 California politics. We have a problem that our own people 0:15:57.580 --> 0:16:00.250 will not show up to vote. Just don't show up. 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.000 And there are countless races in this state where Republicans 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.720 just voted. And especially at the local level, where it 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.640 really does make a difference, but certainly at the top level. 0:16:11.690 --> 0:16:14.170 If Republicans just showed up, we win some of these 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.180 very close races. But a lot of people have just 0:16:17.220 --> 0:16:19.380 kind of given up or have developed a habit of 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.080 giving up and not voting. I'm sure you hear this 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.420 all the time, that it's hopeless. I had a guy 0:16:24.460 --> 0:16:26.280 who told me for years that he would donate to 0:16:26.350 --> 0:16:29.810 my organization as soon as, you know, when California burns down, 0:16:29.870 --> 0:16:33.630 everybody will know he was speaking figuratively. When California burns 0:16:33.650 --> 0:16:36.490 to the ground, then people will be ready for change. 0:16:36.710 --> 0:16:39.670 I called him in January of 2025 during the Palisades fire, 0:16:39.690 --> 0:16:42.460 and I said, how about now? He said, not enough. 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:44.920 The whole state, you know, so there's that. There is 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.700 this sense of hopelessness. And like you, I think that, 0:16:48.780 --> 0:16:51.180 what was it, Edmund Burke said something like, you know, 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.650 the only thing that will assure that evil people triumph 0:16:54.710 --> 0:16:57.200 is for good men and women to do nothing. This 0:16:57.260 --> 0:17:01.160 is it. This is our moment. We know for sure 0:17:01.220 --> 0:17:03.460 that if we do not vote, the other side wins. 0:17:04.140 --> 0:17:07.219 Last question before you go. You drive around Los Angeles 0:17:07.290 --> 0:17:11.690 right now. You can feel that it feels like a 0:17:11.850 --> 0:17:15.650 city without a pulse. It's a city where there's trash everywhere, 0:17:15.690 --> 0:17:18.610 there's graffiti everywhere, and there's a sense that it's not 0:17:18.630 --> 0:17:21.290 going to get better anytime soon. You go to San 0:17:21.330 --> 0:17:24.719 Francisco right now, outside of maybe three neighborhoods, it's the 0:17:24.780 --> 0:17:27.830 exact opposite. You go to that town, it feels like 0:17:27.869 --> 0:17:30.830 it's on the upswing. Did you ever feel like there 0:17:30.850 --> 0:17:34.070 would be a scenario where San Francisco's on the upswing 0:17:34.260 --> 0:17:36.199 and Los Angeles is circling the drain? 0:17:36.859 --> 0:17:39.500 No, I did not. That was not on my bingo card. 0:17:40.380 --> 0:17:42.160 I wrote a piece about the guy who's the head 0:17:42.180 --> 0:17:44.619 of the tourism industry in San Francisco, and he was 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:47.220 talking about how great San Francisco is. He's lived in LA, 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:49.950 he's lived in San Francisco. I looked him up, it 0:17:49.970 --> 0:17:51.830 turned out that this guy who's head of the tourism 0:17:51.869 --> 0:17:56.090 industry worked for Chesa Boudin, the district attorney in San Francisco, 0:17:56.590 --> 0:18:00.760 and for George Gascon in LA. This was his contribution 0:18:00.820 --> 0:18:03.840 to both cities, right? And so now he's telling us, boy, LA, 0:18:03.859 --> 0:18:06.340 you should really take a look at San Francisco. They 0:18:06.380 --> 0:18:10.379 got rid of your bosses in both cities. So I 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.700 think that if the problem LA's gonna have, and there's 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.480 an LA city attorney's race that you guys may be following, 0:18:17.060 --> 0:18:20.750 This person sounds like George Gascon redux. This sounds like 0:18:20.790 --> 0:18:23.109 another version of George Gascon. If they lose control of 0:18:23.150 --> 0:18:26.810 public safety, I think the city stops just spinning around 0:18:26.850 --> 0:18:28.050 the drain. I think it goes down. 0:18:28.730 --> 0:18:32.790 All right. Will Swaim, president of the California Policy Center 0:18:32.850 --> 0:18:37.139 and host of National Review's Radio Free California podcast. You 0:18:37.180 --> 0:18:41.639 can get him online at CaliforniaPolicyCenter.org and follow him on 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:43.739 X at Will Swaim. Will Swaim, thanks so much for 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.470 being here. It's the John Phillips Show, live from Long Beach. 0:18:48.090 --> 0:18:50.949 It's the John Phillips Show, live from Long Beach. And 0:18:51.010 --> 0:18:54.560 things are about to get crazy. John Sangmeister just brought 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.260 out the Mai Tais. Uh-oh. 0:18:57.260 --> 0:18:58.060 Cheers, Johnny. 0:18:58.140 --> 0:18:58.620 Cheers. 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.740 Hey, it's Friday. Got to enjoy ourselves. The Mai Tais 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.770 here are fantastic. The only better Mai Tais I've had 0:19:05.830 --> 0:19:08.290 are in Hawaii. But this place makes them great. The 0:19:08.330 --> 0:19:10.170 food is great. The drinks are great. And we're having 0:19:10.190 --> 0:19:13.000 a wonderful time. And, of course, we're here in support 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:18.370 of Prop 43, the Local Taxpayer Protection Act. A yes 0:19:18.390 --> 0:19:21.670 on 43 means that it is harder to raise your taxes. 0:19:21.730 --> 0:19:23.790 Listener Catherine, who goes to all our events, came up 0:19:23.830 --> 0:19:25.969 to us during the break and said, I just voted, 0:19:26.290 --> 0:19:29.440 and I voted yes on 43. She also voted no 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:31.180 on 40. 0:19:31.180 --> 0:19:32.540 Who'd you vote for at American Idol? 0:19:35.710 --> 0:19:39.500 We're also broadcasting on YouTube at johnnydontlike.com. We are getting 0:19:39.580 --> 0:19:45.730 really close to 8,400 subscribers because Johnny, that podcast with 0:19:45.869 --> 0:19:49.610 John Fleischman talking about the ballots has exploded in popularity. 0:19:49.970 --> 0:19:51.950 It's at over 60,000 views. 0:19:52.650 --> 0:19:53.229 All right. 0:19:54.540 --> 0:19:58.100 We've got 30 more minutes to go. Live from Gladstones 0:19:58.180 --> 0:19:59.960 in Long Beach, it's the John Phillips Show. 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:00.639 Cheers! 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.680 It's the John Phillips Show, live from Gladstones in Long Beach. 0:20:05.820 --> 0:20:06.139 Cheers! 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.150 We're at one of our favorite spots, Gladstone's in Long Beach, 0:20:13.310 --> 0:20:16.230 and it's Mai Tai time. We're having a real good 0:20:16.270 --> 0:20:19.369 time here. We're here until 3 o'clock. You've got to 0:20:19.410 --> 0:20:21.490 spend a weekend down here. They've got live music on 0:20:21.510 --> 0:20:24.010 the weekends. They've got great food. It's Lobster Fest, and 0:20:24.130 --> 0:20:26.750 oh my goodness, I had some lobster deviled eggs earlier, 0:20:26.869 --> 0:20:29.720 and they were special. But we're not just here to 0:20:29.770 --> 0:20:32.629 be gluttons. We're also here for a very important cause, 0:20:33.010 --> 0:20:38.310 Proposition 43. Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association, Susan Shelley is here 0:20:38.630 --> 0:20:41.409 passing out signs, passing out door hangers. We're trying to 0:20:41.450 --> 0:20:43.970 do everything we can to do at the grassroots level 0:20:44.350 --> 0:20:47.409 to get out the word on Proposition 43. There's a 0:20:47.470 --> 0:20:49.889 lot of confusing things on the ballot. This is a 0:20:49.970 --> 0:20:52.330 simple one that you can tell all your friends and family, 0:20:52.390 --> 0:20:56.189 everyone watching us in person, watching us in YouTube, listening 0:20:56.250 --> 0:21:00.739 on KABC or KSFO. A yes on 43 means it's 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:02.720