Speaker 1: You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, welcome to The Buck Sexton Show. Jared Stepman,
Speaker 2: my man, he is with us now. He is the
Speaker 2: author of the War on History, The Conspiracy to Rewrite
Speaker 2: America's Past.
Speaker 1: Jarrett.
Speaker 2: Great to see you. I could see the book behind you.
Speaker 2: So tell me this, my friend. What did General Schuyler
Speaker 2: do to deserve all of the hate up in Albany,
Speaker 2: New York recently that he was getting? What happened here?
Speaker 1: I thought?
Speaker 2: I thought Skyler was tied in with what Hamilton's family
Speaker 2: or something. Right, isn't this how this all went down?
Speaker 2: Tell me what's going on here?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, it's amazing. It's to see General Philip Schuyler,
Speaker 1: who was a general during the American Revolution, to have
Speaker 1: his statue taken down knob of Albany, which is, of
Speaker 1: course the capital of New York. Skyler was in fact
Speaker 1: tied to Alexander Hamilton. He was his father in law,
Speaker 1: was one of the more prominent men of New York
Speaker 1: during that time. He was instrumental during the Saratoga campaign
Speaker 1: of creating the defenses at that time, which is how
Speaker 1: he became so prominent as a general. And at one
Speaker 1: time he was very well thought of. He was a
Speaker 1: prominent member of New York. He was one of the
Speaker 1: big families. Being tied to Alexander Hamilton was something that
Speaker 1: the family was very much proud of. The state was
Speaker 1: very much proud of him. He's been a fairly uncontroversial
Speaker 1: figure and a pretty prominent one until quite recently when
Speaker 1: it was discovered that well, he owned a few slaves
Speaker 1: during his lifetime, so therefore all of his accomplishments are
Speaker 1: Nolan Voyd and his statue had to be removed from
Speaker 1: the front of the Albany State Capital because people may
Speaker 1: have been offended by the fact that he at one
Speaker 1: point had owned slaves. So his statue was dragged off
Speaker 1: kind of in the almost in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night by a truck. There was very little fan feather fair.
Speaker 1: There was very little public discussion about whether or not
Speaker 1: people were actually offended in the community. They simply removed
Speaker 1: the statue, got rid of it, done away with again.
Speaker 1: Of course, many of the arguments about taking down statues
Speaker 1: and figures of America's past revolved around whether or not
Speaker 1: they were confederates or something along those lines. Of course,
Speaker 1: Skyler was in no way a Confederate whatsoever. He was
Speaker 1: tied to the American Revolution at one time, considered a
Speaker 1: great patriot that could be celebrated by all Americans. Now
Speaker 1: he's gone, and now he held no record of him
Speaker 1: or his statue in front of the state capitol.
Speaker 2: So I just need to understand what the rules are,
Speaker 2: because if being a figure from the Revolutionary War era
Speaker 2: in America and having any connection to slavery, having owned
Speaker 2: slaves at any number at any point in time, is
Speaker 2: enough to get your statue torn down, we got some
Speaker 2: problems with the founders, don't we, right, Like what happens
Speaker 2: to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Yeah, what happens.
Speaker 1: To Washington, d C. What happens to Benjamin Franklin. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: he did release his slaves at some point, but is
Speaker 1: that good enough? It doesn't seem to be good enough
Speaker 1: for those who want to destroy our past. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we're basically going to have to cut through all the Founders.
Speaker 1: The capital city is going to have to be renamed,
Speaker 1: They're going to have to be names across the country
Speaker 1: that are changed and done away with, and of course
Speaker 1: I think there are a number of people who be
Speaker 1: very happy if that took place. But this really gets
Speaker 1: the heart of the criticism of America. It's history, our
Speaker 1: founding itself, this idea that because it was linked to
Speaker 1: ideas and things that again we today obviously reject. We
Speaker 1: are happy that institutions like slavery are gone largely because
Speaker 1: of the philosophy of the founding fathers, because those flaws
Speaker 1: existed in our founding. That means we have to effectively
Speaker 1: erase our history, or some body somewhere will be offended
Speaker 1: and will decide that they may either officially try to
Speaker 1: take down a statue or remove a name, or they
Speaker 1: may do so with a mob, as we saw in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, where we saw people actually go after figures
Speaker 1: in history and statues to try to take them down
Speaker 1: to themselves.
Speaker 2: It's remarkable, you know. There's also been recently some situation
Speaker 2: tell us about this.
Speaker 1: Robert E.
Speaker 2: Lee his horse traveler. There was a marker at the
Speaker 2: grave of Robert E. Lee Civil War Confederate general of
Speaker 2: his horse that was messed with.
Speaker 1: What happened here This is really quite remarkable. Traveler, his
Speaker 1: horse that was sort of famous during the war and
Speaker 1: after it was his favorite horse, was there at the
Speaker 1: Washington and Lee University. They buried his horse on the grounds. Recently,
Speaker 1: they decided that the plaque to this horse, you know,
Speaker 1: the racist horse, had to be removed because it referenced
Speaker 1: the fact that it was tied to Robert E. Lee,
Speaker 1: one of the men who was responsible for the existence
Speaker 1: of that college. He was the first president of Washington
Speaker 1: and Lee when it became a prominent university after the
Speaker 1: Civil War, he least served in a civilian capacity trying
Speaker 1: to rebuild the country after the terrible Civil War. Traveler
Speaker 1: was a well known horse. People came to put apples
Speaker 1: by the grave and was very much beloved. But as
Speaker 1: we've seen with the iconic class of our moment, that's
Speaker 1: not good enough. And it doesn't matter if it's simply
Speaker 1: a horse. This is some symbol of America's horrible, terrible
Speaker 1: past that needs to be taken down. So they actually
Speaker 1: cracked up the statue. They removed it and tore it
Speaker 1: out from its place that existed there in Washington Lee campus.
Speaker 1: And it's certainly something that should be asked, is how
Speaker 1: long the school of Washington and Lee will continue to
Speaker 1: exist with its name. Certainly Lee is going to be
Speaker 1: checked off the list very soon. How soon is it
Speaker 1: going to be Washington as well? I would say not
Speaker 1: very I would say quite so.
Speaker 2: Quite frankly, So, you wrote a great book, The War
Speaker 2: on History, which people should get a copy of. They
Speaker 2: don't have it already. Why are they waging this war
Speaker 2: on American history? Why is the left seeking to truly
Speaker 2: tear down physically literally tear down in the case of
Speaker 2: some of the statues and monuments. What's this all about?
Speaker 1: I think they see the American project, the Constitution, the
Speaker 1: American people as a major impediment to their ideas and
Speaker 1: their plans. I think that that is what a large
Speaker 1: part of this is. America stands for many traditional values.
Speaker 1: It stands for limitation on government and limitation on power.
Speaker 1: It stands for many traditional ideas that they find repugnant,
Speaker 1: and so I think their aim is to, of course,
Speaker 1: want to associate America with all terrible things. Of course,
Speaker 1: outside the larger scope of history. When you go after
Speaker 1: American history, you say, oh, America has a legacy of
Speaker 1: racism and has a legacy of slavery. Well, the whole
Speaker 1: world has a legacy of racism and slavery. What has
Speaker 1: made America different, of course, is that there are criticisms
Speaker 1: of those things even from the beginning. Even from that founding,
Speaker 1: of course, we have things like the sixteen nineteen Project
Speaker 1: and other I think radical ideas that say that essentially, no,
Speaker 1: the entire point of the United States wasn't liberty, wasn't
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six. It was slavery and tyranny, and therefore
Speaker 1: you should give us power. We're going to tear down
Speaker 1: all those good things that you thought were good, which
Speaker 1: were actually terrible. We're going to tear down those things
Speaker 1: and put something in its place. And I think that
Speaker 1: that is a large part of what this is. It's
Speaker 1: not a nerdy discussion about history or statues. It's about power.
Speaker 1: It's about power in our society, and it's about removing
Speaker 1: any symbol or notion of traditional ideas that I think
Speaker 1: built this country and have made this country great. It's
Speaker 1: about removing those from symbols of status in this country.
Speaker 1: And I think that the left, unfortunately has been very
Speaker 1: successful in doing so.
Speaker 2: I want to come back and ask you this question.
Speaker 2: I'll put it out to you now, Jared, you can
Speaker 2: answer it to after our quick word from a sponsor here.
Speaker 2: But it's what do they want to replace our history with?
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Speaker 2: if they want to tear our history down, what does
Speaker 2: the left plan to replace it with?
Speaker 1: You know, I think there are many things. I think
Speaker 1: you have to look at the writings and the ethos
Speaker 1: of for instance, Nicole Hannah Jones, who is the creator
Speaker 1: of the sixteen nineteen project that became very famous that
Speaker 1: was pushed by the New York Times that now exists
Speaker 1: and schools across our country. Her mentor was an outright communist,
Speaker 1: and not just a communist, but a Stalinist. He thought
Speaker 1: that the United States was an evil country, as an
Speaker 1: evil institution that needed to be brought down. He said
Speaker 1: a lot of things that were in fact outright. I
Speaker 1: think defensive of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator. I think
Speaker 1: that she has a very left wing, I think Marxist
Speaker 1: view of the world. I think that she wants to
Speaker 1: lay this country low. She wants to tear up its
Speaker 1: traditions and replace it with something a morkin to her
Speaker 1: Marxist philosophy. But I think there are also a lot
Speaker 1: of liberals, just social liberals, who feel extreme guilt about
Speaker 1: this country's past, to have simply allowed those to criticize
Speaker 1: our country, tear it down, have offered no resistance, no
Speaker 1: defense this country because they feel embarrassed about this country.
Speaker 1: They think it really is just a racist, bigoting country
Speaker 1: that has no reason to be defended. I think what
Speaker 1: it's going to leave us with is a lot of radicals,
Speaker 1: empower people who want to control your life, who want
Speaker 1: to aggrandize themselves, and a lack of resistance and the
Speaker 1: institutions that we're supposed to at one time defend what
Speaker 1: made this country great. Unfortunately, many of those institutions now
Speaker 1: work actively against it. I mean, you talk about Harvard
Speaker 1: or Yale or the Ivy leagues or any of the
Speaker 1: other elite institutions. They're no longer able to put up
Speaker 1: any kind of defense of what built this country, even
Speaker 1: built those institutions themselves. And so I think this is
Speaker 1: a lot about gaining power and power over you and
Speaker 1: me and just regular Americans across this country and reducing
Speaker 1: any kind of resistance, reducing i think the constitutional limits
Speaker 1: on power, and empowering them in society. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what a big part of this is. They have
Speaker 1: ideas of creating this revolution that's going to equalize things.
Speaker 1: Of course, they themselves will not actually surrender the power
Speaker 1: that they have. Person This is about controlling you in
Speaker 1: your life.
Speaker 2: What do we know about some of these fights that
Speaker 2: have come up on a policy level. Florida as a
Speaker 2: one example of this with Governor Ron De Santis and
Speaker 2: the pushback on a black studies curriculum. Why is it
Speaker 2: that these days we're being told that there's a problem
Speaker 2: with teaching honest history. That's what they'll say. And then
Speaker 2: you look at this and say, well, wait, how is
Speaker 2: critical race theory honest history If you're supposed to be
Speaker 2: talking about like the American Revolution or you know, other
Speaker 2: periods in history. It seems like there's an infusion of
Speaker 2: ideology that's going through all of this.
Speaker 1: Now, that's exactly what it is, that honest history line
Speaker 1: which continues to be used over and over again. It's
Speaker 1: quite remarkable given the fact that they themselves do not
Speaker 1: promote honest history when they're actually pressed to it. I mean,
Speaker 1: the sixteen nineteen project headed a number of flaws that
Speaker 1: they absolutely denied that even got criticism from which was
Speaker 1: funny from even some socialists criticized it because it was
Speaker 1: just bad history in general. So I think there's that
Speaker 1: element to it. I think what it really is it's
Speaker 1: about imposing an ideology on the American people. This really
Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to do with actual historical baits about
Speaker 1: the various peoples of the past and the arguments they
Speaker 1: had about structure of government. This is about power in
Speaker 1: the modern times. It's about imposing ideology on the American people,
Speaker 1: especially young people who don't maybe have a lot of
Speaker 1: knowledge about history anymore about civics, something that's very much
Speaker 1: been lost in this country, where they're willing to accept
Speaker 1: I think a lot of radical ideas because they don't
Speaker 1: know any better. They don't know much about the founding.
Speaker 1: They don't know much about the history of the country
Speaker 1: or the world around us. They haven't been taught to
Speaker 1: have that kind of informed patriotism that I think existed
Speaker 1: for previous generations. That's been lost in the newer ones,
Speaker 1: and it's made us quite susceptible to a lot of
Speaker 1: radical ideas that have nothing to do with history, have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the truth, And I think this
Speaker 1: is really the problem of where we are. I think
Speaker 1: it's it's great to see states like Florida and hopefully
Speaker 1: many others finally battle back, especially on this issue of
Speaker 1: curriculum and what we're going to pass along to the
Speaker 1: next generations of Americans.
Speaker 2: Are you a country music guy, Jared?
Speaker 1: I do like some country music. I'm not a fan
Speaker 1: of all the all the new pop country music, but
Speaker 1: I do enjoy country music alongside a lot of other music.
Speaker 2: So I want to ask because I want to ask you.
Speaker 2: You know, there's the fight over history, but there's also
Speaker 2: the fight over culture, and these things are very much intertwined.
Speaker 2: And you may have seen that Jason al Dean is
Speaker 2: getting a little bit of a little bit of heat.
Speaker 2: We'll come back to this in just a second. They're
Speaker 2: saying that he has a song that is racist, I
Speaker 2: think is what they're claiming the country music star. We'll
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Speaker 2: by Rogue Economics. All right, Jared, why did they why
Speaker 2: are they having such a big problem with try that
Speaker 2: in a small town. The Jason Alden.
Speaker 1: Song, Yeah, it's it's really amazing. And I loved his
Speaker 1: song Flyover States. I think it is a great patriotic song.
Speaker 1: But there's really a freak out going on right now
Speaker 1: with the left because of this song by Jason al Dean,
Speaker 1: which shows the various images of the protests and I
Speaker 1: would say the riots that took place in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: And the song has lyrics that say things like, well,
Speaker 1: we're not going to accept robbing a store, beating up
Speaker 1: a grandmother, talking about the crime that exists in a
Speaker 1: lot of big cities across this country. Some of those
Speaker 1: cities I've lived in, I've experienced. The song is basically about, hey,
Speaker 1: in our small town, don't try to do anything violent here.
Speaker 1: We don't accept that in small town America. I think
Speaker 1: it's actually a great message for the song. The way
Speaker 1: that the left has twisted this is to say that
Speaker 1: he's actually promoting violence in his song, that this is
Speaker 1: a pro lynching song that some have said on the left,
Speaker 1: and this has actually prompted his music to be canceled
Speaker 1: on CMT. There's a lot of leftist celebrities, Cheryl Crow
Speaker 1: and many others saying that this song is deeply inappropriate,
Speaker 1: that it's racist, that it's offensive, and so he's being
Speaker 1: canceled for this. I think, very much like the econoclastic
Speaker 1: movement that's taken down statues in American history, I think
Speaker 1: they're going after al Din. They're canceling an actual person,
Speaker 1: this case a country music star for saying something that
Speaker 1: bucks the narratives that they want about America, which is
Speaker 1: that the twenty twenty riots were good and well and
Speaker 1: that any opposition to them makes you a racist, defending
Speaker 1: a country that's based on systemic racism.
Speaker 2: It also seems perhaps a little crazy to say this,
Speaker 2: but I think it's I think it's true, or maybe
Speaker 2: it's just the observation sounds crazy when you say it
Speaker 2: out loud. I think that the left really has just
Speaker 2: developed a hostility for the notion of small town like
Speaker 2: small town America bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's this idea that, oh, those hillbillies and the
Speaker 1: small towns, they're just a bunch of bigots and know
Speaker 1: nothings and they're bad and we should look upon them
Speaker 1: as bad, and anything that praises them or says something
Speaker 1: good about their lifestyle we're against and is in itself
Speaker 1: bigoted and racist. I think that's the mentality you have now.
Speaker 1: There's just this deep contempt, I think, an elite contempt
Speaker 1: of large swaws of America. I mean, most Americans do
Speaker 1: come from small towns. It's really amazing. You know. At
Speaker 1: one time in this country there used to be kind
Speaker 1: of recognition like, look, we like the cities, we like
Speaker 1: small towns, we like all parts of our country. There's
Speaker 1: something good and specialle about each one of those. But
Speaker 1: I think what you're getting from many of the elites
Speaker 1: in this country is this idea that it's funny, it's
Speaker 1: almost ironic, given this song about flyover States, about people
Speaker 1: kind of mocking the middle of the country. You know,
Speaker 1: as anybody who's been to large parts of the middle
Speaker 1: of the country, I think so there are many wonderful
Speaker 1: places across this country, from sea to shining Sea. But
Speaker 1: there's a real contempt I think for a lot of
Speaker 1: Americans maybe who haven't gone outside the confines of New
Speaker 1: York City or Los Angeles. For the people who live
Speaker 1: in those places, they see as representative of many of
Speaker 1: the traditional views that they find utterly contemptible and want
Speaker 1: to destroy and eliminate, just like the statues.
Speaker 2: I want to end this podcast on a positive note
Speaker 2: chart though it's important we talk about these important issues.
Speaker 2: If you had to tell them, it's your history, guy,
Speaker 2: You've written a defensive history. You don't like when they
Speaker 2: destroy the history. Your three best historical films all time?
Speaker 2: You get three your three favorite history movies right, So
Speaker 2: anything that is a historical piece, what are they.
Speaker 1: Does is that consider? Does that consider like a series? Two?
Speaker 1: Like historical series?
Speaker 2: Oh no, movies, just movies. Feature films, sir, feature films only.
Speaker 1: Okay, So one, I love The Battle of Britain, which
Speaker 1: is just one of my favorite war movies. It's just
Speaker 1: like one of those great classics, a lot of great actors,
Speaker 1: a lot of great action. Another one is maybe a
Speaker 1: little off kilter. One is Rawn by Kira Kurosawa, which
Speaker 1: I think is a great take on Shakespeare. It's actually
Speaker 1: King Lear. I highly suggest that people go back and
Speaker 1: watch the movie. It's a little less known in the
Speaker 1: United States, but as an incredible, incredible action sequences on
Speaker 1: top of being Shakespeare. I think the last one is
Speaker 1: a personal favorite of mine, which is to Tour Tour,
Speaker 1: which is about Pearl Harbor, which is one that I
Speaker 1: think I watched about fifty times when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: that I think is a great historical take on an
Speaker 1: attack on Pearl Harbor. Of course The Day That Will
Speaker 1: Live in Infamy, which is definitely heavy on the history,
Speaker 1: but has a lot of great scenes that of course
Speaker 1: use a lot of the planes and the actual things
Speaker 1: that were there in World War Two at Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 1: That I just found to be a great movie. It's
Speaker 1: historically accurate, and a lot of the technology they use
Speaker 1: was accurate too. It didn't rely on the modern cgi
Speaker 1: as much that I don't like as much.
Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, I don't think I've heard of
Speaker 2: any of those movies before. So I learned something new.
Speaker 2: Do the do the show Gater Day by Fred Everybody
Speaker 2: should get a copy. I'll check out those movies I
Speaker 2: would be. I'd say, like Braveheart, Gladiator, you know a
Speaker 2: little more. I do love Master and Commander. So apparently
Speaker 2: I'm a big Russell Crow historical epic fan, Last of
Speaker 2: the Mohicans. But you've you've expanded my horizons, mister Steppens.
Speaker 2: Part of part of how you roll. I know that
Speaker 2: ever should get a copy of the War on History. Jared,
Speaker 2: thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.