WEBVTT - The Karol Markowicz Show: A Life for Liberty with Randy Barnett 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.799 Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.040 I saw this viral video while I was on vacation. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:15.440 Let's play the clip. 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:18.119 Do you know what happens after your funeral? In a 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.439 few short hours, the crying will die down and your 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.200 family will be busy making arrangements for food or drink. 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.680 Some of your relatives will start discussing current events over coffee, 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.200 and some people will call your family to tell them 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.840 that they can't make it in person because of an emergency. 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.239 Your employer will begin to search for your replacement. In 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.480 a few days, your children will go back to work 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.560 because their bereavement leave has run out. In a month, 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.599 your spouse will be watching a comedy on TV and 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.360 start to laugh. You'll be forgotten at an astonishing pace. 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.920 If people will forget you so easily, then who are 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.600 you living your life for? You spend your whole life 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.000 worrying about what people will think about you. They don't, 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.600 so live your life for you. Remember, life is too 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.800 short to be lived for others approval. Embrace your true 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.800 self and make your own happiness a priority. 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.680 My family says, I talk about my own death too much, 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:19.880 But let's talk about it some more in the video. 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.120 We're supposed to be sad that our family and friends 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.520 are moving on, that they'll laugh even on the day 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.479 that they're burying you. I think this is the wrong mindset. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.200 You should want your family and friends to move on 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.479 when you're gone. You should want them to laugh at 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.759 something funny and hopefully remember that you would have laughed 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.720 at that too. There's this crazy idea that we're the 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.480 center of the universe and that everyone's life has to 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.520 stop when we die. I've had Twitter friends die, people 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.560 that I knew primarily on the app, but who I 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.480 liked a lot. When people find out someone died they 0:01:55.560 --> 0:02:00.000 knew online, they're sad. They may post remembrances and stories, 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.200 but minutes later they'll be retweeting the latest news and tape. 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.240 I love my online friends. They mean something to me, 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.840 but this is precisely why you have to live your 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:15.239 life offline. Your Twitter friends will be sad, but very 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.760 quickly move on. Your family and friends in real life 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.800 should move on too, but they'll carry your memory with 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.200 them in a way that your online friends really just can't. 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.560 But even still, you don't want your real life family 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.119 and friends to stop living the idea that if I die, 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.720 I want my family to grieve me NonStop in forever. 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.799 I absolutely do not. And the message in that video 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.160 that if people aren't tearing at their clothes and wailing 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.040 all the time because of your absence means that you 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.160 should have lived only for yourself and not for anyone else. 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.280 It's crazy. If we do this thing right, we'll be 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:57.639 living our lives for ourselves and for other people. When 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.160 I go, I want my kids to not only they 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.000 move on, I want them to thrive. I mean, of course, 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:07.280 remember our times together. Miss me, sure, because it would 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.800 just be weird if they didn't and I didn't raise sociopath. 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:15.240 But then go out there and live this big, wonderful 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.040 life that we get to have. Hopefully my kids will 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.160 have their own families, and they'll live both for their 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.240 children and for themselves and for their spouse and for 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.760 all the people that they love around them. The fact 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.240 that people's lives won't stop when you die is a 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.360 good thing, and you should use that information to live 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.840 a more fulfilling life, not just you know, stick two 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.280 middle fingers in the air and say nothing matters. It's 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:46.760 an opportunity to really live a full, healthy life that 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.000 you only get so much time here, and yes, not 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.000 everyone's going to carry you around with them when you go. 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.560 Coming up next and interview with Randy Barnett. Join us 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:02.480 after the break. Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.880 on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Randy Barnett, Professor of 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.280 Constitutional Law at Georgetown Los Center, where he directs the 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:14.040 Georgetown Center for the Constitution. His new book is called 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.160 A Life for Liberty The Making of an American Originalist. 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.200 Get it now wherever you buy your books. So nice 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:21.159 to have you on, Randy. 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:23.200 Well, thanks for having me, Carol. I'm looking forward to 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:24.680 this a lot me too. 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.760 So is Life of Liberty and Autobiography. 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.559 Yes, it is. I started off the idea of writing 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.400 it for my grandchildren because I've done so many things 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.920 in my life that by the time they're old enough 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:38.720 to understand them, I might not be around to tell 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:40.839 them about it. So I set out to write this 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.280 story for them, and that the book is dedicated to them. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.000 But in the course of writing it, I learned a 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.640 lot of life lessons, or I took life lessons from 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.000 the book that I think would appeal to a larger 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.680 audience than just my grandchildren, most particularly younger people who 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.520 are looking to make a career for themselves in advancing 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.760 ideas that they care about. In my case, it was 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.159 justice and liberty and how one can go about doing that, 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.760 even if one starts with a background that really is 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.440 not all that clued into how you go about doing 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.800 these things. I tell the story about what I did right, 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.479 but I also tell a lot of stories about what 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:18.560 I did wrong in the course of getting to where 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:19.159 I am today. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:21.479 So what was the beginning for you? How did you 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:22.359 get on this path? 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.000 Well, I mean, really it starts with my father, who 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:33.279 was an ultimate contrarian. He was a conservative Jew and 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.520 who was from the South Side of Chicago, a kind 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:37.440 of a street fighting guy who was in a gang 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:42.080 at some point during his youth, and he was a 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:42.640 tough guy. 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:43.120 He was. 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.640 My nickname for him when I was little was most Man, 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.000 because that's what he was. But he was also a 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.359 very principal conservative. I found out late in life that 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.400 he'd read Iron Ran earlier on the Fountainhead. I didn't 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:02.159 know that until a long time after that, and I 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.680 got my political principles from him. I also got my 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:07.800 the sort of the role model that said, you stand 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.960 up for your principles and you don't back down when challenged. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.200 And because he did e or back down, I love that. 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:20.520 He sounds amazing. That's exactly my kind of person. Rand 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:25.640 Paul referred to you as pioneering contrarianism in the blurb 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:27.880 for your book. What did he mean by that? I 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:29.120 mean he's pretty contrarian. 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.520 Yeah, well, it's one contrary into another. I mean, that's 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:34.400 that's that's why one of the reasons he likes me, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.480 I think. And I was a senior advisor to his 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.680 presidential campaign, so I got to know him a lot 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:44.480 better during that campaign than I did before. My dad 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.760 was a contrarian. To give you some idea, you know 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.160 that in those days, there were Chevy families. That was 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:51.520 the most popular car. There were Ford families, the next 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.839 most popular car. Naturally, we were a Chrysler family because 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.120 my dad was an automobile mechanic and he thought Kaisler 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.240 had the best power trained in the business, although he 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.960 admitted their bodies tended to rust out in the wintertime. 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.600 There was McDonald's families because that's the most popular hamburger. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.480 There were Burger King families, not us. We were Prince 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.840 Castle family, and I had no idea. There was an 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.960 obscure chain in northwest Indiana that I don't know what 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.320 happened to it, but he thought those were the best burgers, 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.360 so he would go what he thought was best by 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:27.080 his own lights. And that's kind of where I go. 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.800 And that took me to being a Jewish kid in 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.040 a Polish Catholic town of Caliuit City, where of the 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.720 four hundred kids in my high school graduating class, there 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:41.280 were four Jews. So I was kind of the Jewish outcast, 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.000 or not outcast. I was very successful actually socially, but 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.480 I felt like an outcast sometimes I was the Jewish 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:48.240 kid in the Catholic town. But then I was the 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.800 conservative kid amongst the Jews in northwest Indiana. In my synagogue, 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.440 which was across the state line, I was literally from 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.240 the wrong side of the state line as far as 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.640 they were concerned. But I was this conservative kid with 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.080 all these liberal Jews, and so I had to stand 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.080 up for myself there as well. So I never really 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:11.760 fit one hundred percent into any social group. And Murray Rothbard, 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.720 this famous libertarian, once told me that he thought that 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:18.200 was one of the causes of people becoming intellectuals because 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.040 they never fit completely within their group. They could kind 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.360 of see the group in an objective way as an 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.400 outsider that people within the group could never see. And 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:31.120 maybe that was part of the reason I became an intellectual, right. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.160 Yeah, when you have to defend your opinions, I think 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.520 that that goes a long way towards making you an 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:39.720 intellectual and really having to get into why you believe 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.000 what you believe. I think a lot of people think 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.439 contrarians just kind of disagree for the sake of it. 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.520 But I think a lot of the time, it's, like 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.280 you said, you end up being the only one and 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.920 it's you against the mob. It's you against the crowd, 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.520 and you need to kind of represent what you believe 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:56.600 and do it well. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:58.719 Yeah, near the end of his life, I told my 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.120 dad that I thought he was a contrarian. He took 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.559 it kind of as an insult because it was sort 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.440 of like, he's just a contrary guy. But he wasn't 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.440 really a contrary guy. I'm not a contrary guy. I'm 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.360 kind of a hat a glass half full guy, kind 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.920 of a happy warrior guy. It's just that I'm prepared 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:18.120 to look elsewhere for answers than what the mainstream is 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.200 offering at any given time. And when I am in 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:21.960 the mainstream and it happens every once in a while, 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.120 it makes me feel a little uncomfortable, Like, what's wrong? 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:24.959 Really? 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.240 Yeah, I mean, like, well, you know, I'm going with 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:30.079 the flow here, but I wonder if I should. 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.640 Be right the question of like I usually find all 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.320 these people to be wrong, Am I wrong this time 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:38.080 for being on the same side of them? 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:38.360 Yeah? 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:38.920 I get that. 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.040 So a question that I ask all of my guests, 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.480 and I'd love to hear your answer, is what do 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:46.560 you think is our largest cultural problem? 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.280 Well, I think we are in a culture war, and 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.720 I think our largest cultural problem is the rewriting of 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.920 American history to make America and the West, but in 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.199 the United States in particular, the bad guys in the history, 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:06.800 in the story of the world, when in fact we 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:09.520 are the good guys. Now, being the good guy doesn't 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.000 mean you are perfect. Some of the best heroes in 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:18.600 film played by John Wayne have flaws, and we have 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.360 our flaws. But every people has their flaws, every society 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.440 has their flaws, and our flaws are better than others, 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.719 and our virtues are way better. And so I think 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.719 the biggest problem we face is a concerted effort to 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.600 undercut the American culture and not teach it and not 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:39.800 transmit it to the future generations of young people. And 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.880 we can only hope that social media and alternate sources 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.760 of information will do an end run around in some 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:51.400 respects the establishment's desire to brainwash Americans into thinking America 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.280 is the bad guy and not the good guy. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.640 So you do think it's solvable. You think you're an optimist, 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:58.400 You think that we could turn this around. 0:10:59.880 --> 0:11:02.920 I think optimism is a little too strong. I don't 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.880 really know, but I'm hopeful, and I certainly don't think 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.199 the battle is lost. In fact, one way to look 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.680 at this is the battle for liberty is never one 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:17.160 because there are always going to be significant opponents of liberty. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.520 The battle for liberty can only be lost. You can 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.560 lose it, completely lose it. But as long as you 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.920 haven't completely lost it, you're doing okay. You know you're 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.959 in the game, and you can never completely win it. 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.800 So it's always going to be a struggle to preserve 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.120 liberty no matter what the situation is. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.360 Where do you see the threats to liberty in America 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:42.239 right now. 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.679 Well, right now, I see it from essentially left wing 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.600 or wokeism that has infected one of the two major 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.120 political parties. When when you grow up, when I grew up, 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.800 there were liberals and they were conservatives. Now I have 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:57.560 to say, as I talk about in my book, at 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.959 the age of twelve years old, I debated on being 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.400 half of Barry Goldwater in front of my entire ye junior, 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.199 high school and grade school student body. So even at 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:08.520 twelve years old, my twelve year in my twelve year 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.720 old heart, I thought he was right, but I was 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:15.640 debating against liberals. In fact, one of my mentors that 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.760 I talk about in the book, my band director Mike Landis, 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:21.760 who had a big influence on me after my dad. 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.680 He was my next mentor. He was on the left 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.040 or he was a liberal. So instead of my dad 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:28.520 arguing with me from the right, I had Mike Landis 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.240 arguing with me from liberals. But he was a liberal, 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.480 he was not a leftist. And what's happened is leftism, 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.920 cultural Marxism, whatever you want to call it, is displacing 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.280 liberalism as sort of the animating political force of the 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.080 Democratic Party, and that is a big problem in a 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.560 two party system, and so that that is really one 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:53.120 of our biggest threats, if not the underlying cultural problem 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.040 that I believe is a real challenge. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.920 So I completely agree. I just think that I get 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.120 asked a lot, well, how are they challenging, like, how 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.280 are they actually challenging liberty? They're not making laws to 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.520 limit liberty, are they? And I get that argument a lot, 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:15.200 But are are they passing laws to limit liberty? Do 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:16.200 you see that happening? 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.240 Well, I mean, right now, what we're seeing is with 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:25.080 respect to Jewish people, we're seeing street violence being committed 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:30.439 against Jewish people, including you know, but primarily in cities 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:36.120 that are controlled by democratic politicians. And I'm Jewish, as 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.800 I mentioned earlier, and believe in fighting back. It's one 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.160 of the reasons why my dad instilled in me a 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.280 belief in the importance of the right to keep and 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.959 bear arms, that Jews should never go passively or quietly 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.120 into the night. Again, that that was one of the 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.400 lessons of the Holocaust, was that we should be armed. 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.000 And I and he taught me how to use weapons 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.720 at a young age, and I you know, I'm armed today. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:59.880 I have a CCW permit. I had originally one in 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.000 now my permits in Florida because I don't live in 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.240 DC anymore. So I do think that we have a 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.880 real threat to Jewish existence here in this country. But 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:16.360 it's coming, I think, from an organized group of Islamo 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:21.720 fascist actors that are being organized and subsidized by foreign governments. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.440 We have a and here is where the domination of 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.840 the Democratic Party gets in the way. What we have 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.880 is a Democrat administration and a Department of Justice that 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.000 will not do the job it was devised to do, 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.120 which is to protect the people from terrorism. The DOJ 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:42.640 was founded during the Grant administration to protect the American people, 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:47.280 to protect free blacks and Republicans in the South from 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.400 organized terrorist violence. That's why we have a Department of 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:52.240 There was an Attorney General, but we didn't have a 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.440 Department of Justice until we had this problem. And right 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.600 now the Department of Justice is not doing the job 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.119 it needs to be doing to ferret out the sources 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.920 of this obviously organized campaign against the sactity of Jews, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.160 which is not actually about Jewish people. It's really about 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.240 America and the American way of life. This is part 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.960 of jihadi cause. To underline the West, it's happening in Europe, 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.480 it's happening here. We are not immune. As the point 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:20.840 and where the Democratic Party is falling down is in 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.480 not standing up because they have been so undermined from 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.200 within by their left wing contingent that they are not 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.480 able to stand up to what is a genuine threat 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.400 to them as well as to us. 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:33.360 We're going to take a quick break and be right 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:39.600 back on the Carol Marcowitz Show. So does the constitution 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:41.520 provide a way to fight back? 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.960 Yes, it does, and it's called elections. And when the 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:50.160 left has essentially taken over or undermined almost all of 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:55.040 our major institutions, there is one avenue left and that 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.360 is political power. We just saw that in the New 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:01.720 York congressional race. One of the members of the Hamas 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.160 party was defeated by a Democrat. So Democrats won. Hamas 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:10.680 lost in that race because that Jews got organized and 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.520 voted in en mass to get that of a result, 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.320 having previously voted for the incumbent in the last election 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.360 over a Jewish person who was holding that seat to 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.680 begin with. So we're seeing democracy use that. We see it. 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.040 Federalism is one of the most important ways we have 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:30.840 that the Constitution has given us to fight back. I 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.840 am now a citizen or resident of the state of Florida, 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.280 although I am sitting here right now in the Central Virginia, 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:39.280 but I'm a resident of the state of Florida, and 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.920 I moved there from DC because I like the form 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.160 of government they had there better than the form of 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.840 government we had in the d C. And that's because 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.760 of federalism. And so we have enclaves within this country 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.120 that from which we can provide a base in which 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.520 we can fight back against this And if we didn't 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.280 have a federalist system, there wouldn't be those enclaves. So 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.600 that's a very important thing that the Constitution has preserved, 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.760 notwithstanding all the checks and balances that have been overridden 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:06.919 by Supreme Court rulings over the years. 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.520 So I tend to ask my guests, what would you 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.840 be doing if you weren't doing this? But I kind 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.840 of can't see you doing anything but defending liberty. Would 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:17.520 you have a plan? 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:22.240 Be Well, in twenty sixteen, when I thought that Hillary 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.200 was going to win and Trump was going to lose, 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.199 and therefore I thought the Scalia seat was going to 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.880 be filled by the Democrat, by Hillary, and it probably 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.560 wasn't going to be Merrick Arland, it would be somebody else. 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.400 I thought it was really going to be game over 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.280 for the Constitution in this country, and it wasn't going 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.360 to be in my interest anymore, given how old I 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.960 am to continue to fight for the original meaning of 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.520 the Constitution, which is something that I've been fighting for 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.240 for the last thirty years, as evident as I discussed 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.359 in my book. So what my plan was to go 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:56.520 back to teaching contract law, which is what I taught 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.720 before I taught constitutional law, and then retire and enjoy 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:01.919 the remaining years of my life. So I think maybe 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.359 I would have sort of given up the fight at 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:09.080 least for the Constitution. But then lo and behold, Trump won, 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.600 and we knew, yeah, we did lose the Supreme Court, 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.680 and we got a lot of great judges appointed to 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:19.360 the Court of Appeals, and so it was a huge victory. 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.240 And that victory was made possible not only by Trump winning, 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:24.560 but by the fact that for twenty or thirty years, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:30.760 the originalism movement within JIC within legal conservatism has triumphed, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.000 has has developed. I've been part of the parcel of 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.680 developing the theory of originalism, and that coupled with the 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.280 mandate that Trump used to get himself the nomination, which 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:45.160 is by pledging to appoint originalist judges and then having 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.280 a White House counsel don again fulfill that promise. That's 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:50.119 how we got to winning. And so I didn't I 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:51.320 didn't have to go to my plan. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.080 B Yeah, that's great. I mean it's funny that I 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.600 don't feel like there's enough credit given to the fact 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:00.000 that there was a plan and that plan was implemented. 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.919 Did It wasn't just like kind of loose ideals in 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:05.600 the air. It was like, this is how it's going 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:07.720 to go, This is how, you know, how how we're 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:10.600 going to get our ideas through. And Trump was such 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.959 a huge player in that. It could have if it 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.439 wasn't Donald Trump. You know, do you think a different 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.080 Republican would have gone along with it? Yeah. 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:21.479 Well, I was a campaign advisor to Rand Paul and 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.360 he was one of the first candidates to take off 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.080 after Trump, although he worked with Trump very well when 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.159 Trump was president, and I would have preferred rand As 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.440 as my candidate, and I think he would have done 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.240 all the right things, especially with respect to the Constitution, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.000 which he cares very very much about. And I talk 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.200 a lot about rand in my role in his campaign 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:41.280 in the book, as well as him inviting me in 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.600 to interview Justice Kavanaugh and interview Justice Barrett while he 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.000 was they were doing their rounds of Senate interviews. He helped. 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.320 He invited me in to participate in their interviews. I 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.960 talk about that in the book as well. So I 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.320 do think other Republicans would have done okay, and I 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.199 actually think they would. They would have been pretty They 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:58.960 would have had a good chance of defeating the most 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.000 one of the most unpopular Democratic nominees in our history. 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.280 But there's no telling whether they would have broken through 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.919 in Pennsylvania the way Trump did. It's hard to know. 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:10.440 We may have come out ahead. But I can really 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.879 understand in hindsight why the voters Republican voters picked Trump, 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.600 which is they thought they were tired of being lied to. 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.639 They were tired of people telling them a conservatives singing 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.439 conservative song and then after election not doing anything about it. 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.520 And they thought Trump was independent enough and maybe even 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.120 crazy enough to do what he promised. And it turns 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.200 out that in some respects he did do what he promised. 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.920 Right, Can you see yourself working in politics some more 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:35.639 in the future. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:38.640 No, I think that was kind of a one off deal. 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.920 Although I was interested in helping Governor Desanis in his 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.280 campaign had he gotten the nomination, I would have done 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.879 everything I could to help him out. He didn't invite 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.679 me into his campaign the way Ran did, But I 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.280 really he was the guy I thought combined both substance 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:59.719