WEBVTT - Donald Trump WILL NOT Be America's First King 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.120 It is the busiest travel day of the year. Tens 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.000 of millions of Americans are on the move on this 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:10.080 Thanksgiving Eve twenty twenty four, fifty four days before a 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:14.560 change in presidential power, Donald Trump has been handed something 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.680 called immunity by the Supreme Court. In simple language, it 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.640 means functionally, he is above the law. For the first 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.000 time America has a king or a caesar, we have 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.280 elevated someone who is one of us above us. It's 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.599 a dangerous precedent and one that should be reset at 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:41.640 the first opportunity. This is the warning. What is our 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:45.680 national purpose? Has there ever been one? Should there even 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.080 be one? Is it possible to even have one in 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:54.760 a country so geographically large, so populated, so diverse, made 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.240 up of all of the people from all over the world, 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.520 where every language is commonly spoke every day. One of 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.280 the things that was talked about in this campaign over 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:08.040 and over again as a plea, not really a statement 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.120 of fact anymore by Kamala Harris, though I believe it 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:15.160 to be true, is that, in fact, even in these 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.800 divided times, we share much more in common than we 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:24.600 do in disagreement. This boiling question if we should separate 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:30.520 or be together has long royaled the American conversation. It 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:36.880 is not possible to comprehend America without appreciating that one 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.480 hundred and fifty eight years ago there was a civil 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.399 war in a nation of thirty four million people that 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:49.160 almost killed one million people. The question that has always 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:53.440 hung in the air during America's darkest days and nights 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.400 is a combination of will we make it through and 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:02.520 what comes next? There's an adjacent question when times call 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.920 for immense sacrifice on the altar of freedom. When Americans, 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:12.720 through our history, mostly young men, have been called forward 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.680 to cross the river in service of their nation, to 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.320 lay down their lives. And when you ask people to 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.720 make a sacrifice to lay down their lives, it must 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:29.919 have purpose and meaning, or what the country is taking 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:34.880 will produce a cynicism, in a rage and in anger, 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:40.320 because the living will have stolen meaning from the death 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:45.240 of those who offered their lives as a measure of 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:50.200 their devotion to the country. John Lewis is an example 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.760 of an American born in the twentieth century who is 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:58.240 every bit as much a founding father of the America 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.960 we live in today as is Thomas Jefferson or George Washington, 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:07.200 and so is in this construct the man who redeemed 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.440 the union and saved it Lincoln and his general who 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:16.200 became a president after him. Grant what is the common 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:20.920 link the purpose of all of these people's lives. In 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:25.519 the end, what they shared in common was a commitment 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.440 to justice and freedom, and they were ready to fight 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.040 for it and to take a stand for it. We 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.080 live in a moment where we point fingers and recriminate 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.200 each other at the drop of a hat. When someone 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.680 expresses a fear and anxiety or worry, it has become 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.360 normal on the left the point a finger and accuse 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.200 somebody who expresses worry about World War Three, like Joe 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.400 Rogan and say they were a Russian asset, as opposed 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.360 to appreciating that Joe Rogan, like my twenty one year 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.720 old daughter and her sorority friends, is simply afraid. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.640 What I don't feel safer is right now they're launching 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.360 missiles into Russia. Yeah, how are you allowed to do 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:07.960 that when you're on the way out? Like the people 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:09.440 don't want you to be there anymore. This should be 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.800 like some sort of like a pause for like significant 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.600 actions that could potentially start World War three. Maybe that 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:18.160 would be a good thing that we would like to 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:24.320 avoid from a dying former president. The whole thing is nuts. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.400 They fired an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time ever, 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:29.440 so the first time one of those has ever been used. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.160 That sanity fucking insanity, because those intercontinental ballistic missiles can 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:36.839 have nukes on them. This wouldn't didn't, but if it does, 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.160 the whole world changes. That's what's scary about life. Is like, 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.080 you don't want to pay attention to that shit. You 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.040 just want to live your life. You want to just 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:47.400 be care free and have fun and do the thing 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.000 that you're passionate about. And meanwhile the world is burning. 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.159 They're terrified of war, and they should be. Joe Rogan 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.799 observed that for the first time in history, the Russians 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:04.240 launched ain't combat one of their intercontinental ballistic missiles. He 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.240 came after the United States government and the Biden administration 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:12.479 gave permission for Ukraine to fire American made long range 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:17.640 weapons into Russia. That came after North Korean troops arrived 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.440 on Russian soil. What are we to do soon? Maybe 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.280 Pete Hegsath will be the Secretary of Defense and when 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.400 I look at the turmoil of the world, what frightens 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.000 me is not a lack of American power, but a 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.800 lack of American judgment, not by ordinary people, but by 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.159 the people around Trump who have been brought to power. 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.880 And the choice we have made is to place the 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:47.120 most unfit man in American history back into power atop 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.480 the world's most powerful armed forces. It's interesting when you 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.120 have an appreciation for what is going to happen next. 0:05:55.560 --> 0:06:00.320 I love these old Life magazines. They're time capsules. Open 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:06.000 up on and see in vivid and graphic detail, the stress, 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:11.320 the worry, the advertisements, the culture of America in a 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.000 moment in time. This was the addition of Life magazine, 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:20.160 printed on September eleventh, nineteen thirty nine. The Italian dictator 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:24.360 Benito Mussolini is on the cover, and within this magazine 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.320 are the first images of a German soldier in Poland. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:32.080 It's incredible to see eleven days after the start of 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.760 the war, the photo from September first. There's no question 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.240 about how the war started. When you look at these pictures, 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.320 you know everything that happened in the war, but then 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.640 also for the next eighty years. But then in that moment. 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.360 Those people who opened up that magazine with dread and 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.159 fear and worry in America were no different than any 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.119 American today watching this with a deep sense of worry 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.120 about what's next. If you look at Life magazine covers 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.720 across our many July fourths, they paint a portrait of 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:12.360 a country in turmoil, in peace and prosperity, and in war. 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.480 This is the first edition that has a dead American 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.120 on the cover. And in this moment July fifth of 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:25.200 nineteen forty three, across twenty seven pages are the names 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.920 of America is Dead. There are more than twelve thousand 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:33.000 by nineteen forty three when the magazine is laid out. 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.360 There are fifteen thousand dead by the time it is published. 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.600 And I know how it ends in this magazine though 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.600 it's just beginning. And there is a question that is 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:50.240 posed that's necessary in this moment. Why did they die? 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:55.320 And for what? The magazine publishes a brilliant editorial, and 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.800 it posits that we have a national purpose and that 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:03.520 their lives and their deaths had great meaning in the 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.480 fulfillment of that purpose. The magazine makes the point at 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.360 the moment of their death they were not thinking about 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:14.520 great causes. They were not thinking about abstractions. They did 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:19.280 not voluntarily, in the moment, choose to die for their country. 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.760 What Life Magazine makes the point about is that it 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.840 is the living who decide the legacy of the dead, 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:33.160 because the living must give meaning to their life. There 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.600 is great purpose in the life of a John Lewis, 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.959 and there is great meaning in his life unless that 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:46.079 purpose is eradicated by a future generation of Americans who 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:50.640 stripped the meaning of his bravery by turning against the 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.040 purpose of his life, which was the expansion of freedom, 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.520 which is precisely what these men died for going over 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:02.760 the hill, crossing the river. Freedom is sublime, tophemeral, and 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:08.320 in the American tradition, we've appreciated that there is purpose 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:13.319 and worth in every human life, that the individual is 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.719 more important and more powerful, more righteous than all the 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:23.040 pronouncements of the state. We know in America that the 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:27.640 genius of our founders has protected us from the jackboot 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.839 of the state on our neck. And we know that 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.959 over and over again we've sent our young men and 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:39.600 now our young women forward into difficult situations in hard places, 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.840 with their lives on the line, and then it came 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.839 to be that a compact was broken, and young people 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.800 who had purpose in their lives and died for meaning, 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.599 had it stripped away by a politics who devalued it, 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.000 who entered into transactions for the self interest of the 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.040 people at the top, against the interests of all of 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.920 the beautiful mosaic that makes the country strong and powerful. 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.800 And the disgust that has flowed from that has written 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:14.800 the Trump chapter. And so now, on this Thanksgiving we 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:20.360 can choose bitterness and anger or a rededication to core 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:24.719 principles into a deeper purpose. What is the purpose of 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.680 involvement in politics, in civics in our country to defeat 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.920 Donald Trump or to look out twenty five years from 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.000 now and be able to play the smallest of parts 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.280 in the greatest of construction projects, the building of the 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:44.760 shining city on the hill. The only king that matters 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.120 in America was named Martin, and he had a vision, 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.280 a prophecy like the Viennese artist. But it wasn't of death. 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.280 It was a promise in justice, and he said we 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.839 would get there, and we will, but not tomorrow. In 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:03.040 the Life magazine, when there were fifteen thousand American War 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.040 dead on the Way to four hundred and five thousand, 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.440 and the question was posed about why about the sacrifice. 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.560 The author was skeptical if the country would have the endurance, 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.000 the grit, the stamina of the fortitude. He questioned the 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.720 resolve of that generation. He was unable to see forward 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.559 to this day, just as we will be unable to 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:28.880 see forward to where America will be. But if I 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:31.319 could talk to him, what I would say to him 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.000 is those people you doubted, we remember them in twenty 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:40.679 twenty four. Singularly we call them the greatest generation, but 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.920 they're not the greatest generation, because the greatest generation of 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.480 Americans has not yet been born. What I would tell 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.400 my children is that maybe it's their generation, or maybe 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:57.040 their children's, or maybe their great grandchildren's. The greatest generation 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.880 will be the one that summits Kings Mountaintop and builds 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.760 the shining city on the hill seen so very long 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:10.400 ago by John Winthrow and rededicated by John Kennedy. It's 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.319 an American city that shines for all the world was 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:18.439 built by great sacrifice. The purpose of America is not 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.959 defeating Donald Trump. He's among our smallest and lowest and 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:27.160 most malice men. But He will give us an opportunity 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:32.559 to find our way back to our purpose in this country, 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:38.280 the vigorous expansion of freedom. It is our faith, It 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:43.160 is the meaning of our lives as Americans. Happy Thanksgiving, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.120 Do not be afraid keep the faith. Our best days 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.640 are ahead of us, even though it will all get 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:55.120 worse before it gets better. Fortitude is very much part 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.880 of the American character. It will be needed. There will 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.080 be tough moments, there will be terrible days caused by 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.640 what's coming, but we will get through it as we 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:09.920 always have. This is the morning. I'm Steve Schmidt. This 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.880 is the morning, and I invite you to join. Subscribe 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:17.040 on our substack on our YouTube channel, follow us. Welcome 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:17.840 to the community.