WEBVTT - 12/23/25: Ryan CONFRONTS Emily On College Campus CANCELLATION 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:01.599 Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here. 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.240 Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:07.840 and we are so excited about what that means for 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:08.760 the future of this show. 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:10.760 This is the only place where you can find honest 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.280 perspectives from the left and the right that simply does 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:14.680 not exist anywhere else. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.080 So if that is something that's important to you, please 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.599 go to Breakingpoints dot com. Become a member today and 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.920 you'll access to our full shows, unedited, ad free, and 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.600 all put together for you every morning in your inbox. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:27.560 We need your help to build the future of independent 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:29.920 news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.600 dot com. 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:37.520 All right, this is a special holiday edition of Breaking Points. 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:39.400 We're coming to you from the past. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:41.879 We have no idea what is going on in the 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.000 world in which you are currently living. 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:45.680 We are recording this. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.080 Way back in the middle to early month of December, 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:52.320 year of our Lord, twenty twenty five. 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:54.560 I hope everything is going well for you. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:01:01.240 Today we're going to be joined by journalists Emily Joshinski. 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.000 Emily, thank you for joining us. 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:06.000 To be clear, this is part one of a series 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.399 we're doing where Ryan is going to interview me and 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.520 then I'm going to turn it back over to Ryan, 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:11.959 and we're going to interview Ryan. 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.000 Ryan appears to have googled me in preparation for. 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:18.560 This, and I did not do him the same courtesy 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.720 because I probably googled you before. I don't know, I'm 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:24.880 sure when we first started hosting, I'm sure I was like, 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.640 isn't that the guy who beat up Jesse Waters. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.760 Actually, right around the time that I was fighting with 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:39.119 Jesse Waters is when you were fighting with the big 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:44.319 LGBTQ lobby, which is what we're going to get into first. 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.440 And then I do want to, you know, hear about 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.520 more of like what got you into this world? But 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.080 I think this is actually a good place to start. 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.000 So we do have an actual element that I googled. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:55.920 There's a whole bunch, but I just grabbed one from 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.080 Raw Story. So the headline here and this is the 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.760 year twenty fifteen. I love the photo that adorns this. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.480 If you're only listening to this, you need to go 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.919 find the video because there's a picture of two women 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:14.880 making out next to the headline. College group hosting Rick 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:20.880 Stands Forum demands quote sensitivity training to teach gay's quote 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:26.240 respect and so this came from a GW hatchet article 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:28.639 while Emily was the. 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:32.680 At the at George Washington University and was. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:36.080 The head is that Right of Young Americans found hy 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:42.400 af right. This is the Buckley Organization, right William William 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:48.280 Buckley created this like youth organization, Young Americans Future or 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:48.760 something like that. 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:50.679 It's confusing. I can get a note if you want. 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:52.840 But yeah, so yeah, that's that's what that's what I 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:53.160 want to do. 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:58.040 And so then GW mandated that they were going to 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:04.920 do like you know, DEI stuff like sensitivity, sensitivity training 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.880 particularly I think it was I think this one correctly wrong, particularly. 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.280 Around trans issues. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:15.880 Pronounce pronouns, and you were quoted as saying, forget it, 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:18.640 we don't, we don't want to do this. And interesting 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:23.000 in the raw story article they have the College Republican 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:23.880 throwing you under the bus. 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:25.400 Oh, of course that's what always happens. 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.359 So the head of the College Republican says, look, it's 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.040 just a little just a little train, that little sensitivity training. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.359 That's how it used to be so sensitive. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.320 That's how it used to be. All right, So I've 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:37.200 been vindicated. 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.960 So you're a so that So when'd you graduate high school, 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.480 so twenty even, so twenty eleven, so you start sor year, 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:48.080 so this is your senior. 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:54.040 Year of college. So what is what is this Buckley Group? 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:55.800 And then we're going to get into the controversy because 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:57.760 it became like a little national thing. You pay, you 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.160 pay him like a punching bag for the kind of 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:03.240 left wing raw story huff Post. 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.080 I wonder ifuff Post did anything on you. 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.720 If I remember quickly, I think huff Post did, but 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.480 you know it was. It's actually very interesting and I 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.840 think telling story it's a little thing, but like the 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.400 dust up kind of it brings in a lot of 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.479 different I don't know, it does bring in a lot 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:22.960 of different trends that started to pop up, especially after 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.160 twenty fifteen. But basically in college, I was a president 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:31.800 of the YAFF chapter that's Young America's Foundation, which had 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.560 just merged in twenty twelve with Young Americans for Freedom, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.560 which is the Buckley Group that was created with the 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.240 Sharon Statement in nineteen sixty at the Buckley Estate. And 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.919 Ronald Reagan kind of comes out of Young Americans for 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:48.119 Freedom circles, who's you know, not a Young American of course, 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.760 but that was part of the Reagan Revolution, guys like 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.440 Roger Stone affiliated with YAFF and all of that. 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.880 But when I got to. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.960 College, you know, that was the conservative group on campus 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:08.320 that I got involved with. And this is the LGBT 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.960 sensitivity training story is a funny one because it was 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.159 I don't know, like a snow day, if I'm remember incorrectly, 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.920 And I got a call from the student newspaper, the Hatchet, and. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:22.400 That's your job in coming. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:24.760 Yeah, And they asked, does GW. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.640 YAFF oppose this bill that the student Association passed like 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:34.799 last night that mandates sensitivity training. And it was such 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.960 a trap because I hadn't given any thought to the 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:43.400 question of the Student Association like sensitivity training bill. And 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.039 I think actually what they asked is if we would 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.040 be requesting a religious exemption to the thing, and I 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:49.880 think the quote that I. 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.359 Have in The Hatchet is like, well, I'm sure we 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:53.000 would be, because it. 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:56.799 Doesn't sound very tolerant of other people's religious beliefs. Because 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.840 the sensitivity training was going to for student leaders of 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.560 student groups, it wasn't a huge deal, but it didn't 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.400 mandate that you go to preferred pronoun sensitivity training. 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:08.440 We have the receipts. 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.640 Right here, you said, mandated training is not really being 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.799 very tolerant of all religious beliefs. The way that people 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.279 who are deeply Christian behave is for a reason, and 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.600 if you're training them to change that behavior, there's obviously 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:23.560 a problem with that. So they were going to have 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:25.960 every student just if you were the. 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:26.960 Leader of a student group. 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.960 So if you're the head of a YEAF chapter or 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:34.240 even you know, the Muslim student group, like you all 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:34.880 would have had. 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:35.080 To do it. 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:35.640 Right. 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:38.400 Let me see if I can find the Republican one, 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.560 he said, regardless of this is Alex Pollock. What's he 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:43.680 up to now he's the head of the College Republicans 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:48.760 at GW. He's got to be like lobbyists or something by. 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:50.080 Now I think he works in publishing. 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.159 Wow, flamed out double track. 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.279 College Democrats and college Republicans like college democrats less. So 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.200 now it's there, they're more act TAVISTI. College Republicans certainly 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.080 to this day like that. Those those are people who 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.839 are just gunning for internships on the hill and trying 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.760 to figure out a way to run for Congress, and. 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.880 Right and and YAF gets by the way, in disclosure 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.560 I'm actually on the board of directors at YAFF because 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:18.360 that was my first job out of college. 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:20.280 I was a spokesperson there, and. 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:25.360 You know, oh a lot to them because as a 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:30.520 nonprofit group, you know, I got a lot of like experience, 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.720 you went to conferences, and they were the group that 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.200 paid for rick Anntorm to come to our campus and 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:41.320 it was a very, very very interesting experience having rick 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:42.120 Antorm come. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:43.200 But it was. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.040 The reason that that groups like Yeah are different from 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.440 College Republicans is because there's that sort of populist element 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.000 to it. And that's the forgotten part of the Reagan 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.360 Revolution is the forgotten part of Buckleyism. So it was 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:01.120 a revolution against the establishment Republican Party the time, against 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:05.000 Gerald Ford. That's what it was against. And so that's 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.680 what I've always liked about like YEAFF as a. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:09.600 Conservative student group. 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.760 So anyway, yes, they were trying to mandate sensitivity training. 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:14.040 I was like, m so. 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.320 Alex Pollock said, quote, regardless of this is the College 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.800 Republicans head, regardless of reviews on LGBT people. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:22.720 LGBT people exist. 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.640 He said, it should be mandatory from a sensitivity perspective, 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:32.319 which is not definitely not the Republican position anymore elephant 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:37.360 in the zoom and so so how did that so 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.360 how did how did that experience of becoming a momentary 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.280 kind of national figure in the sense that you're it's 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.240 got to you know. It's not as if like you 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.960 were a household name or anything, but like if you're 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.400 a college senior and all of a sudden your name 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:58.560 is in like national publications with people hating on you. 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:03.920 Was what was that like? And how did that shape 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.080 your who you are now? 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.600 Is this origin story stuff or were you this was 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:12.679 just like you were on the same trajectory Either way. 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.439 No, this is absolutely origent story stuff. 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.480 I had a job already lined up for when I 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.320 was graduating at a Republican consulting firm that was going 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.679 to be doing like oppo research, and I ended up 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:27.800 working at YAFF instead because after this happened, they were like, whoa, 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.760 things on campus are actually even crazier than we had 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:35.319 quite realized. Come work for us and do some PR stuff. 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:36.720 So that was my first job, and I took it 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.640 because I was very interested in media. I always wanted 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.560 to be a writer, and this job would let me 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.120 write columns and do that sort of thing. But it 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:49.520 was horrible, truly it was horrible. You know, they wanted 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.560 me to go on Fox News. I said no, and 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.360 of course after that, like ended up you doing a 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.720 decent amount of Fox News until about five years ago 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:02.679 when we started hosting together tapered off. But it was 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.200 it was truly horrible. I had people yell at me 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:09.559 from across the street. I went on spring break like 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:13.400 a student. Yeah, I went on with my friends. By 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.800 the way, I have many gay friends at GW who 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.880 were like, WHOA, what the hell you're the allied and 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:21.080 pride group on campus. 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:22.760 I would have to go look this up. 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.080 But they put out a statement, if I remember correctly, 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:27.760 that said we had committed an act of violence against 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:28.720 the transgender community. 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:30.360 I think they called you a hate group or something. 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.319 They tried to get us pushed off campus, literally tried 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.760 to get us pushed off campus. I think people were 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.439 agitated for us to get suspended. And this is again 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.080 not because we said anything other than we think that 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.480 mandatory sensitivity training on perfect pronouns is not tolerant. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:47.960 That was the statement. 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.160 So yeah, they tried to push off campus for that, 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.839 and it was very like proto woke. I guess you 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.240 would say, but it was horrible. It was genuinely horrible, 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:58.920 and a lot of people, I'm sure there are a 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:00.400 lot of people on the right who would of that, 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.840 But for me, I hated it and I don't have 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.600 like literal PTSD from it, but thinking about it feels 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.840 still really still I still feel kind of panicky, yeah, 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.240 because it was an early experience with a pylon, and 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.719 I've never been comfortable, you know, when you when you're 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:18.400 a journalist, even when you do a show like this, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.720 you know, it's everyone's been on something you say gets 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:24.839 clipped or what, and it's horrible every time. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:25.640 I hate it. 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:27.760 Yes, yeah, the headline. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.880 Here's another headline, conservative club labeled quote cancer quote hate group, 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.680 yes for requesting to opt out of LGBT training. 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:36.439 Come on. 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.800 Interestingly, I just noticed that the original Hatchet article has 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.280 a list of corrections that is almost as long as 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:45.640 the article. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.240 It's oh it doesn't actually yeah, oh that's awesome. 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:50.679 And one of them, And I wonder if this played 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:51.920 into the pilon. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.200 It says the Hatchet incorrectly reported that the sensitivity trainings 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.200 would include information about sexual assault. The focus of the 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:05.120 trainings would be LGBT issues. We regret these errors. And 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:09.840 so it may have initially been reported that you also 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:14.640 wanted to opt out of sensitivity trainings around sexual assault, 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.760 which would but I mean clearly it was originally reported 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:19.560 that way, like that's why they had to correct it. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.959 That would be even more egregious, probably to the public, 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:24.160 like how dare you? 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:26.079 How could you not? So I wonder if that played 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.160 a role. What really zip in the pile on. 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.240 What really started it was the Allied and Pride at 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.720 GW's statement and that started going viral on our campus circles. 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:36.680 Like Facebook was big back then. 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:39.480 And I think they yeah, they put out the statement 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.520 on Facebook, and when that happened, it was just everything 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.560 from their national media picked up on it, so like 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.280 raw storymever else picked up on it, and it became 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.400 a just a total nightmare. 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:51.280 We got like. 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:54.400 Hauled into a meeting with the student association. It was 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:59.120 it's origin story stuff. Just for the fact that this 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.040 was you know, I would say, the point of this 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.880 being mandatory and then having like a pretty I think 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.960 reasonable request to not have to go to a mandatory 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.040 like reprogramming training. 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:15.359 I feel like that was kind of reasonable. 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.320 Then you have the College Republicans throwing us under the bus, 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:22.080 and you have the ad and Pride group freaking out. 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.720 And this is about like three months before Bruce Jenner 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.640 became Caitlyn Jenner, and it's just all of the stuff 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.800 was happening in the spring of twenty fifteen. That was 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.400 pretty interesting because Trump was literally about to come down 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:37.360 the Golden escalator like a few months later. 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:37.679 Right. 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.640 Right, Yes, this is this is definitely an This is 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:47.760 definitely an interesting time. I could imagine some people coming 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.400 out of this with it with more of a more 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.240 of an ax to grind, Like you have a you know, 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:58.680 you're pretty firm and your culturally conservative politics, but I 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:04.360 haven't noticed you with any kind of hardcore like vendetta 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.840 and probably much more tolerant rhetoric than a lot of 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.440 people who have your same politics. 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:14.000 How did that come about? 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.560 I would yeah, it's kind of for me is the opposite, 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.080 because one of the things that one of the reasons 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.840 that it came to DC is I grew up like 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:25.280 in the woods in Wisconsin, not a super rural area, 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:30.360 kind of the exurbs of Milwaukee, but you know, my 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.960 my family definitely was like in the woods. 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.120 And could you see your neighbor or like, what was 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:36.680 your situation? 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.880 No, yeah, no, you can shoot on our property all that. 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:42.480 Good stuff, and. 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.520 We hopefully that means your neighbors were really far away. 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.200 Yes, well it's also just that even they have a 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.800 lot of woods, so they have a bunch of property. 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:58.040 And anyway, so all I was say, you can see 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.200 them now because all the trees are down. But anyway, 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:02.840 going on, going forward. 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:05.200 I grew up like why are the trees down? 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.320 What happened the cycle of the forest. 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:10.920 They're old and also my dad has just been like 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.000 deforesting and taking him down for. 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:15.040 Well because they're dead. 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.000 And yeah, anyway, I also good excuse to use the chainsaw. 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:22.440 But I grew up like hunting, fishing. My mom is 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:24.560 from a very rural area. My dad's from a very 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:30.680 blue collar background and going to church every Sunday. And 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:32.600 it was just like one of the reasons I came 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.760 here is that I was so frustrated by what I 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.360 was seeing on TV and in movies, just the way 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:39.960 that culture talked down to people. 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:41.160 I always felt like. 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:45.480 I just wanted to prove the point to elite that 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.600 these are decent people. I just am so annoyed by 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.960 this assumption that you are bad if you come from 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.520 a culturally conservative background for whatever reason. That has just always, really, 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.200 really really gotten under my skin. 0:15:59.320 --> 0:15:59.880 And. 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.720 That's why I came here. And so I hate feeling misunderstood, 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.960 like it just drives me insane. And so I like 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.400 having conversations. And that's where I think I don't have 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.280 an axta grind. I just genuinely have a point to prove, 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:17.040 and I like having those those conversations, like I want 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:21.200 people to see that, you know, I might disagree and 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:25.840 really disagree on difficult stuff, but I don't hate anyone, 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.720 Like it's really the opposite, right, and that's just frustrating. 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.960 Were your parents conservative? When did you get a political awakening? 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.760 So my mom definitely is conservative. My dad votes for 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.760 both parties. He's a He worked for the state. He 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.000 was an engineer for the state of Wisconsin. His whole 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.720 career is retired now, but he was a public employee 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.720 union and so went through the kind of Scott Walker era. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.160 I was funny to Scott Walker's president if you have now, 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.560 but you know they would really Yeah, my mom is 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:04.440 an HL for years at some big corporations like Johnson controls, 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:09.240 and they would argue about Walker and unions. She was 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:10.240 an HR and had to deal. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.600 With a lot of that, so a little bit a 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:13.399 little bit of both. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.840 My dad's Catholic when mom's Lutheran, so it was a 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.439 little bit of both. But for me, it was just 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:24.200 kind of this cultural It wasn't always like hardcore conservative. 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.960 And I don't think I'm you know, I'm not like 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:31.879 MAGA or Republican now. I just am kind of a 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.919 limited government, cultural conservative type person. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.320 I pulled up another twenty thirteen article. 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:42.560 This is another Hatchart article. 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:47.600 Another hatchet article I'll read from this one, says sophomore 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.960 Emily Jashinsky said she grew up in a strict Lutheran 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.920 household and is also morally opposed to same sex marriage, 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.719 but after honing her political views as a libertarian, she 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.080 doesn't and she'll be doing well. We did the reason 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.879 debate already. She does not think the government should be 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.160 taking a stance on the issue at all. She will 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.480 not head to the Supreme Court this week or there 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.480 was going to be a protest around marriage equality, ruling 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.879 Republicans do not need to get caught up in social issues. 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.920 She said Jashinski, a member of the Young America's Foundation, 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.560 said she is inspired by new voices in the Republican Party. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.000 They are more libertarian, like father and son, Ron and 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.639 Rand Paul. She called them the future of the GOP. 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:32.040 Amazing that seems so I can hopeful future, I can guarantee. 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.800 That was like a six month phase with libertarianism. 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:40.040 Although but the limited government that you still espouse is 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:42.720 But so this was hardcore libertarianism. 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:44.960 You were like, no, I mean, yeah. 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.120 Kind of it was becoming that. I mean the. 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.240 Sophomore year that's around when people try on libertarianism. 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:52.639 That's exactly right. Yeah, and it was. It was definitely 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:53.160 a short lived. 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:55.520 But the reason that I was attracted libertarians because I've 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.520 always been a populist and at the time Ron and 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.560 Rand Paul were popular, the Tea Party movement was populist. 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:04.840 And so the thing that I was wrong about and 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:06.800 Charlie Kirk was wrong about this at the time too. 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.119 I think I just came around a little earlier, was 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.320 that the Republican Party did need to get caught up 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.359 in social issues, not in the way. 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:18.320 That a lot of people, you know, wanted. 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:19.840 It to get caught up in social issues, and Rick 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:21.960 Sntorm is an interesting figure in this respect too. On 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:24.719 the one hand, was talking about Charles Murray's coming apart 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:29.359 and cultural elitism. Then on the other hand, was talking 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:34.840 about a pretty unappealing worldview that Americans were moving away 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.720 from that wouldn't fit on a populist platform. So anyway, Yeah, 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:40.760 that was short lived. I don't think I've ever really 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.359 considered myself a libertarian. I still really like Rand Paul 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:46.360 because I think he is a populist. I like Ron 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.280 Paul because I think he's a populist. But at the 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:53.680 same time, you know, I am kind of an economic. 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.720 Populist in a way that they aren't. Like. 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.960 I believe in industrial policy and protectionism and all that 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:00.600 fun stuff. 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.000 So yeah, So Ron Paul ran in two thousand and 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:09.360 eight for president when you would have been what you're 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:10.280 graduating eleven? 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:11.639 Yeah, I was in high school. 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.480 So was that kind of the first campaign you paid 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:16.359 serious attention to? 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.359 Or yeah, yeah, because I was in twenty four it 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:20.879 was twelve, or I'm sorry, it was eleven. 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.280 Yeah, so that was definitely the first major one. 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:26.720 Did he do better in twenty twelve? 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.480 I'm trying to remember, Yeah, so he runs in two 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:33.360