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And 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.440 when you call them, make sure you ask them about 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.720 getting free silver in your account today one eight hundred 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.120 sixty fifty five eight eight four three. Welcome. It is 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.720 Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you, and 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.520 right now I'm in New York City getting ready to 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:45.640 host out Numbered on Fox News Channel. 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:46.880 It is two a m. 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:48.000 Center. 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:51.960 Ted Cruz is in Texas right now where it is 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.680 one am. He is traveling the state and we for 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:58.840 the last hour have been trying to get a connection 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.680 that was stable for us to do the podcast. This 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.640 is what happens on a regular basis when he's on 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:06.880 the road and I'm on the road. And tonight the 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.440 internet won and we lost. So what does that mean, Well, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:12.400 it means that the Senator and I were chatting a 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:14.440 moment ago on the phone about all right, what do 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.520 we do now. There was an interview that we did 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.560 with Eric Johnson and his incredible story being an African 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.560 American Democrat who switched to the Republican Party. In fact, 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.760 when we did this interview, it was the most listened 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.600 to episode of the month, the month of this came 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.360 out and it was one that went viral. So many 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:39.720 people were inspired by this story of Eric Johnson and 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.440 the bravery of switching from the Democratic Party to the 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.919 Republican Party and talking about his life being the sixtieth 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.120 mayor of Dallas. We've decided we were going to replay 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.120 that for you now and the Senat and I were 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.600 going to be back with you on Friday as normal. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.040 We did everything we could, I want to tell you 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.120 the last hour and dealing with it and tech sport, 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.639 everything we could to try to get a connection to record, 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.040 and it just didn't work. So what we're going to 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.200 do instead is we're gonna let you hear that interview. 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.320 If you missed it, we really want you to hear 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.079 it because it was an incredible interview. It was a 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:19.480 great conversation. And also please share it on social media. 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:19.720 Now. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.320 I my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast, is also out. 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.480 I will give you an update on the latest breaking news, 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.120 so if you're looking for that as well, today download 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.080 my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast. It is done and 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.400 you can hear that on those in between days when 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:35.520 we don't put out vertic. You can grab the Ben 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.440 Ferguson podcasts as well. So, like I said, here is 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.880 our conversation with the Mayor of Dallas, Eric Johnson in 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.760 the center. I will see you back here on Friday 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:46.760 with all the latest breaking news. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:48.560 Do not worry well. 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.480 I am incredibly proud to welcome onto the Verdict podcast 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.560 a good friend of mine, the sixtieth mayor of the 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.080 City of Dallas, the current sitting mayor, Eric Johnson, and 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.200 I want Eric welcome. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.240 Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here, so thanks. 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:05.440 For having me. 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.520 Now I want to tell our podcast listeners some of 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.960 Eric's background, because many of you may know him, but 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:17.760 some of you may not. Eric is the current mayor 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:22.920 of Dallas. Eric was He went to Harvard College, he 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.200 went to University of Pennsylvania Law School. He got a 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:33.760 master's from mi alma mater, Princeton, UH. He was elected 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.120 to the Texas State Legislature and he was an elected 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.480 Democrat in the state legislature. 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:40.679 And Eric is African American. 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:42.560 I am. 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.120 It's an audio show, so I so one. 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.240 Has to paint the picture. 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.520 And then Eric was elected mayor of the City of 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.359 Dallas again as a Democrat. And then he was just 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.520 recently re elected mayor of the city of da He 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.800 was re elected with ninety three percent of the vote 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:06.560 in the City of Dallas. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.800 Technically ninety eight point seven, but i'll take ninety three. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:11.000 We'll take ninety three. 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:16.400 And then after his reelection, Eric announced to the city 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.400 of Dallas in the world that he was switching parties 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.360 and he left the Democrat Party and he became a Republican. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:23.080 And it was. 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.640 A decision that those of us who knew him and 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.240 had worked with him, I have to say I was 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.400 not shocked or surprised, but it did shock and surprise 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.200 a lot of people. And so Eric is I think, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.760 a very important leader in Texas and a very important 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:42.640 leader in the country. And so Eric, I appreciate your 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.600 coming and joining us this evening and being a guest 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:46.000 on Verdict. 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:47.760 I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Thank you so much. 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:49.440 This is a real honor to be here. Thank you 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.560 for the invitation, and great to see all of you. 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.120 All Right, So you go to the Texas State Legislature, 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.039 you get elected mayor of Dallas, You get re elected 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.280 mayor of Dallas. This entire time you've been an elected 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.760 Democrat and there's an elected Democrat, there's an ecosphere around you. 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:12.240 You've got donors, you've got volunteers, you've got supporters. Walk 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:16.560 us through your decision making, because switching party is a 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.120 big deal and and I know you didn't make that 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:23.320 decision lightly, so so what led you to change parties? 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:27.919 Yeah, and you know, I don't know how how deep 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:29.440 we can dive into this guy. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.040 Was exactly the joy of a podcast, as we can 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.440 go as deep as you want. And that's that's actually 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.400 what's fun That we're not on TV with a six 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:37.120 minute sound bite. 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.280 We can actually get about what's really going on. 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:43.320 That's exactly what I wanted to know, because unfortunately, because 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.520 of the structure of the traditional media, you really have 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.600 to sort of hit that question quick and then get 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.000 out of it. And you don't really get to give 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.120 a full answer to that because it's because it's way 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.320 more complicated than you know. There was this one thing 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.279 that happened and I just said, I'm out of here. 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:08.400 It's an evolution for me and just kind of coming 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.920 to accept who I have always been and why I've 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:13.720 struggled as a Democrat the whole time. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.560 Was it the issues that made you think about becoming 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:18.320 a Republican. 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:26.720 The issues were a manifestation, a policy manifestation of problems 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.280 I had been having with the Democratic Party because of 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.440 who I am as a person for a long time. 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:33.240 So I'll give you, I'll give you some idea what 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:38.520 I'm talking about. I was born in West Dallas, very 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.200 poor community, to working class parents who never went to college, 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.840 but you know, got married right out of high school, 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.480 still married to this day, raised four of us. And 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.760 I was raised in a community that was very and 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.800 in a family that was very, very faith oriented. The 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.280 church was hugely important to us. I mean, grew up, 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.080 I spent more time in church than really any place else. 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.320 We'd go to church Sunday morning, stay almost all day, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.240 go home for just a couple hours, and come back 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.480 for Sunday evening. We'd go to Bible class. On Wednesday, 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:15.720 we'd have you know, I wasn't in the choir, I 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.000 couldn't sing, but you know, we had song practice and 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.080 things like that. So I spent a lot of time 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:26.000 in the church, spent a lot of time with grandparents 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:30.320 who were very, very very about the Church of Christ. 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.640 And that's how that's the tradition I was raised in. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:34.839 And so. 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.960 We were sort of taught and it was separate apart 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.400 from anything political. My family wasn't political at all. No 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:44.560 politicians in the family. I'm not even sure we had 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.679 a real awareness of what was going on around us politically, 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:53.320 but a very strong sense of just right wrong. You know, 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.080 this is how you treat people, this is how you 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.760 behave you follow the law, you obey the law, you 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.120 work hard, you you know, an honest day's work, honest 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.439 day's pay. That is sort of that was just always 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:11.400 in the background. And so I think I was always 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:17.839 politically in a weird posture with the Democratic Party because 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:21.560 at its core, and I didn't understand this at the 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.520 very beginning. Because and I hope we can actually get 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.560 to this and talk about this, there are some you 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:30.239 sort of inherit the Democratic Party as a cultural heirloom 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.439 when you're African American in this country. Yeah, this sort 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:35.880 of gets handed to you as part of who you are. 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.760 I probably had more phone call I know I had. 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.839 I had more phone calls with people distraught about this 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.800 party switch than I ever would have gotten if I 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.280 had told people that I was actually leaving the church. 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:52.880 There's no question about it. Wow, there's no doubt about it. 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:57.240 I will say that loudly and on the record. I 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.839 had more panicked phone calls from people genuinely concerned about 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.120 what I was doing and why I could do how 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.760 I could do this, then I would have gotten if 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:08.560 I'd said, I just don't think I'm into this Jesus 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:10.200 thing anymore like this, don't think I'm not a Baptist, 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:11.599 or I'm not a Church of pristper or I'm not. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:13.560 I don't think I would have had anywhere near the 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.040 same reaction. It's that cultural. 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:18.000 How intense was that? 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:18.439 Was it? 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:19.080 Family? 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:19.960 Was it friends? 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:26.000 It was? It was a lot of consternation. The family 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.920 and friends was well meaning, but I think a lot 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.839 of other folks it was just, you know, we have 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:33.840 to we have to take this guy down now. And 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:35.840 it got it was it got to be pretty quickly. 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.640 This the traditional standard partisan warfare stuff. But kind of 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:42.199 going back to what I was, and I said, I 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:43.480 want to know how deep we could go, because this 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.640 is actually pretty I haven't had a chance to talk 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:50.040 about this with anybody. The fit was almost in some 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:54.640 ways inevitable. It was going to there was gonna be 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.160 a problem because at the Democratic Party's core. Who I 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:01.680 was saying is a belief that how things turn out 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:05.600 for you in this country are largely determined by things 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.280 that are outside of your control. The race you're born, 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.560 the neighborhood you're born in. It just kind of it 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.000 excuses away your failures, and it excuses away your success 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.280 is to something that's out of your control. If you're 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.199 successful and you're white and males, because of course you are, 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.679 and if you're unsuccessful as an African American, it's well, 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.800 the deck was stacked against you. And I just wasn't 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.440 a person who ever believed that, and that wasn't how 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:33.120 I was raised and it's not how I was taught, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.520 but it was the overarching political philosophy of my party. 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.960 And there was always just that tension between wanting to 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.959 tell people, hey, this actually is a country where anything 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.559 you want to do you can do. And I'm living 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.840 proof of it, yep, Because at every turn, if I 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:55.600 put the work in, I was told repeatedly, over and 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:57.640 over by people who didn't look like me, who didn't 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.360 come from my community, were proud of you. We'd like 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.360 to give you more opportunity. I was having doors slammed 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:05.679 in my face. The harder I pushed, I was having 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.080 more of them given to me. So the story of 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.360 my life and then the rhetoric that my party wanted 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:14.760 me to put out there as the justification for what 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.280 we were doing politically just never really matched. 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.400 Because I've always thought one of the most important differences 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.960 between the parties is that the Republican Party believes in 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.760 individual responsibility and believes in merit and a meritocracy. Now 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:35.400 that's not to say that there aren't things that are unfair, 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.320 but in the reason people come from all over the 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.240 world to America is there's no country on Earth where 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.080 people can achieve their dreams the way you can hear 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.080 and you know, and I do think a lot of 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:57.680 the a lot of the Democrat Party is there. The 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:03.360 ideology in today's Democrat Party is about eliminating individual responsibility 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.760 and eliminating merit. And I think about you're a black man, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.360 I'm an Hispanic man. I think about what my father 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.439 said to me when I was a kid about racism. 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:14.600 And my dad, you. 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.440 Know, as you know, he came from Cuba as an immigrant. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.439 And my dad said when he came out of University 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.960 of Texas in nineteen sixty one, and my father said, look, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.720 I'm obviously an immigrant. My father had had and still 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.080 has a very heavy Spanish accent, you know my dad, 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.360 And he said, listen, if I'm applying for a job 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:36.240 and I'm applying against an American and we're equally qualified, 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.280 my dad said, you know what, they'll hire the American. Now, 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.720 my father wasn't particularly outraged at that. He said, you 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.280 know what, in Cuba, they'd hire me. That's just kind 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.640 of human nature, that's the way people often behave. And 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.000 my father's answer to that, he said, I'm just going 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.920 to be three times as good as the other guy. 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:56.000 I'll make it so. 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.760 You'd have to be a blithering idiot to hire the 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:05.320 other And when you take individual responsibility, and it's not 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.320 to say racism doesn't exist, racism absolutely exists, but how 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.640 you respond in the face of adversity. And I think 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.640 the the the principle of work harder, be better, be 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:19.760 more excellent. 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.880 I think that is a path that every one. 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.520 Of us think about what you teach your kids. 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.000 That's if you don't mind, please, I'll jump in here 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.880 and say this because there's so much that I could 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.680 say about this and again, this is the slow burn 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.920 over a career. But there's the specific policy things that 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.360 came about as the mayor that made this decision something 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.000 that needed to happen and something that became much more 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.840 urgent for me. But while we're talking about sort of 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.640 the underpinnings of this, and you talk about what you 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:58.560 teach your children, that's really kind of the point in 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:02.560 terms of the problem that I have with the Democratic 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.960 Party's philosophy on this particular issue is you have to decide, 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.160 one way or the other, what you're going to tell 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.720 a generation of African American kids or kids who are 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:14.920 growing up in tough circumstances. Are you going to tell 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.440 them that your country doesn't work for you. Doesn't really 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.480 matter what you do, it doesn't work for you. It's 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:22.480 not built for you, it's not designed for you. The 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.480 system is stacked against you. And just hope that they 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:29.000 don't turn to crime or turn to other things because 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:32.720 you've told them that essentially that's fine, that's okay, because 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:35.840 there's no way you could do the things you'd like 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.320 to do legitimately. You can't get where you want to 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.040 go legitimately anyway. The deck stacked against you. Or do 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.600 you want to tell them the truth, which is the 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.680 system that we have is the best on earth for 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:55.440 translating people's hard work and effort into tangible increases and 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.760 improvements in their life's circumstances. It just is. And I've 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.840 told old my liberal friends for many years, even before 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.040 I switch parties, I said, for the ones who go 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.080 around sort of bashing the country, I say, guys, if 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.040 there was a place on earth where they did it better, 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.720 where they really did convert your effort and your work 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:20.640 into benefits better, why don't you live and raise your 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.000 don't you owe it to your children to raise them there? 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.120 If you really believe there's a place that's doing it better. 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.480 And they don't believe that. It's rhetoric, but it's rhetoric 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.160 with the purpose. And this is kind of where being 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.120 a part of the party for so long and understanding 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.160 sort of the you know, the thought behind the strategy. 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:44.160 Really it's strategy. How do you how do you convince 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.000 large swaths of people, large groups that are just really 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:52.280 holding themselves together by identity, politics, race, or how do 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:56.000 you convince them to give their loyalty so completely to 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.040 a political party? If you can't convince them first that 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.800 they really need this political party to help them overcome 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.359 these horrible flaws in the system. 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.040 So basically this well, the Democrat Party, I think is 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.160 is vested in selling dependency. 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:15.000 Correct. And there's no question. 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.119 Example I've used also in my family, you know, with 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.520 my dad in nineteen fifty seven, when he showed up 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:22.399 in Austin, Texas. 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.200 He couldn't speak English, and so. 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.080 The first job he had was washing dishes, and he 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.120 made fifty cents an hour. And I've said a lot 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:34.040 of times, thank god some well meaning liberal didn't come 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.040 along and put his arm around him and say, Ralphiel, 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.119 let me take care of you. Let me give you 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.240 a government check, let me make you dependent on the government. 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.280 You don't need to work anymore, you don't need to 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:45.560 be responsible for your life. I'm going to take care 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.120 of you. That would have been utterly destructive. It would 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:50.840 have been the worst thing you could have done to him. 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:51.120 Yep. 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.880 And it's you know, we're talking about what you teach 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:56.520 your kids. You know, you think about it. If you 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.000 have a kid in kindergartener first grade who'struggling with how 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.600 many of us will do your kids homework? None of 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.840 us will, because doing your kid's homework is not helping 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.960 the kid. Now, you may, you may work with the kid, 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:11.560 you may get a tutor with the kid. You may 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.159 walk through and say if you having problems with But 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:16.719 you understand, you know, you and I are both fathers. 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.959 Uh Ben, You're a father, You understand when you're when 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.240 you're raising your kids, they need to learn those skills 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.720 and if someone else does it for them, it doesn't 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.480 help our children. That same thing is true for all of. 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:34.040 Us, Absolutely true. I had a conversation with one of 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:39.080 your colleagues, Senator Scott, when he was through Dallas a 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.960 few months ago, and we had a private lunch and 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.119 one of the things that we talked about, and I 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.920 said to him that resonate with him because he also, 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.800 you know, believes this is absolutely the. 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.000 Case, and it's right Him's a great guy. 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.359 It's right in line with what we're talking about right now. 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:05.480 I said, Tim, do you agree that there's really nobody 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.680 in our community who's achieved a high degree of success 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.600 who actually did it using anything other than conservative principles 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.159 as applied to their life. I go, but why do 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.240 so many of us when we get to that level 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:23.240 of success with these principles, pretend like it's something else 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.639 that got us there. It was working hard, staying out 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.639 of trouble, persevering when other people had given up, and 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.399 basically playing by the rules what we called it, that 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.199 got you there. But you get there and then you 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.400 pretend like you know, those aren't essential values and success. 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.880 And I told him, I said, here's why I think 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:50.359 that happens, because there's a price to pay socially in 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.439 terms of being accepted if you don't pretend like you 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.719 don't know what you know and you don't sort of 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.000 excuse the things that we were talking about. In other words, 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:06.000 long story short is every successful African American in this 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:09.199 country basically got to be successful by working hard and 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:11.480 doing what they're supposed to do. But they don't want 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.919 to be once they've achieved that level of success not 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:16.760 accepted by the community at large and appear to be 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.320 out of touch, and so they pretend like they don't 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.919 know the formula. They don't know the winning formula. I 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:24.399 just think we need to be more honest about what 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:26.760 the winning formula is. And the winning formula ends up 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:31.159 being exactly what the conservative ideology would tell you. It 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.760 has to do with taking upon yourself the responsibility for 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.960 yourself and not believing that the Democratic Party or any 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.560 party is there to save you. And the Democratic Party 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.359 wants you to believe they do. They want you to 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.240 believe you can't get there without them, which you. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.120 Know, there's an old saying that every time I see 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:54.800 luck luck, it looks amazingly like hard work. 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:59.399 Yep, it's very true. It's very true. So now to 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.960 the policy things. So this is you know, so I'm 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:05.960 bumping if anybody who's I don't presume that anyone in 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.840 this room has followed my you know, my relatively insignificant 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.879 legislative career, but it was marked with just fighting with 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.320 the Democratic Party about various issues, and we're just bumping 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:18.120 heads the whole way. 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:22.720 Well, as mayor, you showed enormous courage. So there were 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.880 Democrats on the City Council pushing with the radical left 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.080 movement to defund or to abolish the police, and you 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.240 were a fellow Democrat at the time, and you stood 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.320 up and fought them, and that that that's when you 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:36.240 and I first got to know each Other's when you 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:38.240 were newly elected and I came by your office. 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:40.280