[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West. You are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show.
[00:00:24] Happy to have you along my fellow American Sam Bushman, Liberty Roundtable Live, another hard-hitting show. Gotta love it. Freedom Fest. Man, people are everywhere having a fantastic time. What is this? Day two, I guess. We're gonna be hanging out Thursday. That's today, all day, Friday, Saturday. It's gonna be a tremendous opportunity for people to get together, become liberty-minded, focus on liberty. The Libertarian Party is strong here. There's all kinds of people everywhere talking about financial matters and all kinds of things.
[00:00:51] We've got a gentleman with us now that's into game shows, and it's always hard to find another game show that makes sense, right? You're gonna have one that's fun, one that's kind of hard-hitting. It's kind of like late-night comedy, but it's on YouTube and Rumble and everywhere. His name is Daniel O'Connell. He's with me now. Welcome, sir. Thanks, Sam. Thanks for having me. Give me your background first. How did you, or what do you do? Who are you? I'm a long-time libertarian, so that's how I came into the Liberty Movement. So I got a question. Yep. They say the libertarians, what's the difference between a libertarian and an anarchist? And the answer is how long you've watched elections, right?
[00:01:20] That's exactly true. All right, so where do you sit in that? I'm definitely on the anarchist-agorist. Okay. All right. And so you've been a libertarian for a long time. What got you there? Ron Paul was my introduction and, you know, basically realizing that, you know, most of the people in Washington are owned by someone and have to follow an agenda. We needed to think, be more liberty-minded and think outside the box.
[00:01:47] So there's bureaucrats, thugs, politicians, and then there's statesmen, right? That's right. And Ron Paul was a statesman, no doubt about it, one of my favorite. I cut my teeth on people like Ron Paul and Ezra Tab Benson, who wrote An Enemy Had Done This, and other books like that. I've been around in, you know, the world for a long time. I don't believe that in politics at all, though. Daniel? I think every issue is a moral issue. There are really no political issues. What do you think of that?
[00:02:14] Well, I think politics is the dirty way that they figure out moral issues. So... Which means we want to fight about moral issues. That's correct. Okay. And you decide that's a waste of time? Fighting about the moral issues? Yeah. I think it's a waste of time to legislate morality, but... Okay. I think that you're never going to convince someone that they're going to give up their advice because of a law. Sure. So do you vote? I do. All right.
[00:02:42] Because usually the real landmarks decide they don't want to vote anymore, right? It's a waste of time. I... You know. I argue with them a lot and I say, you know, I'm willing to fight for liberty wherever the fight is. If we can claw back any sort of liberty or money, you know, cut our property taxes, whatever it is, I'm willing to fight for it. Amen to that. Are you friends with Ernest Hancock? I am not. All right. You know who that is? I don't. He's a well-known talk show host libertarian from Phoenix. Okay. That's pretty well known and stuff too. And he's... That's where I kind of got that, hey, the election cycle discussion.
[00:03:12] He always says that, you know, hey, what's it do to see the libertarian and an anarchist? An election cycle libertarian. Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of a fun guy. I used to syndicate his shows while I bring it up. Okay. Anyway, so tell me, you've got a game show? That's correct. Called? It's called, Are You Smarter Than a Politician? All right. So I'm going to answer this. The first time I heard about this when I said, hey, you want to do this interview? I'm like, I'd love to. And I thought, yes, of course I'm smarter than the politicians. These guys are dumber than dirt. They belong in the bottom of the whale with ocean droppings kind of thing. Right. Whale droppings, right? Okay.
[00:03:40] And then, but I kind of thought about it and I thought, you know what? I'm actually not as smart as a politician. You want to know why? Why? They're rich, I'm broke. That's right. That's right. All right. So that's the show. How does it work? So we have three contestants that are usually people from somewhere in the Liberty Movement. And how do you get them? Do they sign up? Do they volunteer? Usually it's, you know, friends or people I've met at great festivals like Freedom Fest here. Yeah. So now you're going to try to draft me to be the contestant. I gotcha. Yeah. All right.
[00:04:10] Go ahead. Your name's on the list. Okay. And so it's a satirical game show where we use an entertainment format to teach Liberty issues. And so the twist is that the chat controls the score. And so they can give or take away the chat. You mean the people. We have a live chat during every show. The show is totally live and unscripted. So it's really, truly grassroots driven. That's absolutely true. I understand. I just want everybody to understand in the audience what you mean when you say that. Right.
[00:04:40] Yeah. So the chat controls the score so they can give or take away points based on whether they like an answer or any reason really, if they like what, what the person's wearing or they don't like their decor in the office. If they don't like your dog from the air, then your vision point. Exactly. I got it. Exactly. Okay. So, and then, yeah, so, so it gets really funny because of the chat and we give people a voice, which is kind of interesting. You know, people like to tell people. Does the chat show up as tickers on the bottom of stuff? We select which ones we want to show. Of course. When we're giving the score.
[00:05:09] But I'm just saying that when you give the scores though, you're seeing what people are saying. Got it. Okay. Okay. So everybody can participate. So it's super interactive. Very interactive. Okay. Absolute chaos. I love it. Very good for an anarchist. Jerry Springer though, with, with a real value. Exactly. Okay. Keep going. Yeah. So, um, we've had, so how do you get the questions or how do we decide what we're talking about? So I ask everybody, like, well, actually my producer asks everybody before they come on,
[00:05:38] what are their fave five main current issues that they want to talk about? Whether it's, you know, clock cameras are big right now. Sure. Or, you know, all guys, this idea that it's going to keep us safe and it's a big old lie. That's correct. Surveillance. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. And so we asked them what their top five issues are. And then I write a show trying to find a common theme between those 15 issues, five from each contestant.
[00:06:04] And then I ask them the questions and, and they go wild with them. How much overlap do you see? Between the contestants. So you got 15, 15 points or topics. How many of them usually do you see overlap? Because at some point of me and a contestant or two bring up topics, you're going to narrow down to eight or nine or whatever. Right. If they duplicate. Well, the, the smart contestants are the ones that pick things that are particular to them. So they, they don't overlap a lot, but we do get a lot of, you know, people that are more
[00:06:34] fiscally conservative want to talk about taxes and, you know, property taxes are a big one right now. And yeah. So there's a lot of overlap there for sure. So how do we prevent it from getting too serious? Cause if you get pretty much a good service in there, nobody's going to laugh and just like, I don't know. I point and I'm going to, right. Yeah. I started off. So when you, when the show begins, I show these fake prizes that I don't give out to the winners and they're usually satirical gag gifts. Yeah.
[00:07:01] And so, um, one of them, like a truck with like a, a Elon Musk truck with the windows broken, that kind of stuff. Yeah. Well, like we have a Lego killdozer for example, killdozer, or we, uh, an ongoing gag I have is we have a Trump nativity set where it's Trump's face on everything and it's all gold and ornate. And so I kind of break the ice by using my sense of humor and my satirical style. Okay. So I think it loosens that up. We do encourage, you know, if they, they like to have a beverage, you're welcome to
[00:07:31] do that on the show. So, you know, And are these people all virtual? Uh, well we do it live. So we're doing it live tomorrow night here, but, um, we've done like 10% of them live. So of the 110 we've done, this will be, I think our 10th live one this year. And the other people are virtual. Well, most weeks, most episodes, all three are virtual. Yeah. I understand. Okay. The reason I bring that up is because it can't really turn into Jerry's finger punching people and stuff. Yeah. We, we have a dust ups, but you know, tomorrow could happen. Okay.
[00:08:00] So tell me what are the most interesting topics you've discussed to me taxes and, uh, flock cameras. And those are cool political topics of the day. I get it, but they're not super crazy. Yeah. I like anything based in solutions, you know, being, you know, on the agorist anarchist side, I like talking about parallel economies and I like talking about privacy coins and building things in our local communities that will make us more resilient and less reliant on the federal government. Sure. Do you talk about topics that are really crazy controversial?
[00:08:31] We try to work them in, you know, we talk about things like armed protests, like showing up to a protest, you know, strapped. What do you think about that? I'm in favor of it. You're in favor of armed protests. I'm, I'm an open carry guy. So I don't think we need, you know, a permission slip for any of our rights. So when you say you're an open carry guy, you're really a constitutional carry guy. Well, I don't think, you know, I, I, I think that the constitution thinks that they guaranteed it, but I think it's an inherent right. It's an inherent right. The only thing the constitution did was codify it for people to be put on notice. Right? Correct.
[00:09:01] There's no doubt it's a God given inalienable right, but it's not really a right to be armed. It's a right of self-defense. Right. That might be arms. That might be nice. I'm a nuclear bomb. I should be able to do whatever I want to. I like it for my defense. You're speaking my language. It's a right of self-defense, not a right of keeping bare arms per se. The keeping bare arms is just the constitutional codification of that via the bill of rights. Right? Right. See, I've talked to libertarians a little bit. You got, you know, the lingo. I'm a libertarian with morals. There you go. All right. So tell me, does anybody make any money on the game show?
[00:09:30] I mean, I only in if there's money. Yeah, we know. There's no cash prizes or anything. Come on. I don't even get a cash if I win. But if everybody loves my face and my mug on TV and they're like, this guy is awesome. I don't get it. I don't get anything for winning. Aren't bragging rights better than cash? No. You get to lure it over people. What if I get bragging rights and cash? That would be better. You're correct. And a following. Now we're talking. Yeah. All right. So you don't make any money on it either? Do you have sponsors and stuff?
[00:09:59] We have sponsors, you know, so we do okay, but I mean nothing, you know. So you're not getting rich, but you are making money. I hope. Yeah. Because look, in America you're supposed to make money. It's not evil to make money. Sir. Yeah. It's a good thing to make money. In fact, it's the American way, baby. Yeah. Now that doesn't mean we go naked capitalist on everybody and rip everybody off and be a thug, but it does mean the free enterprise system matters, right? I agree. All right. So do you think we ought to have any government? Do I think what? We ought to have any government at all? I think it should be all voluntary.
[00:10:27] Do you want to live somewhere that's got, you know, a government or a sort of moral structure? So if you want to get able any force, we ought to vote you off the island. That's correct. All right. I just, that's how I understand. I'm not a total libertarian because I do believe that there's a vacuum, right? And I believe that vacuum will be filled by force. And I believe that there's no way volunteers can prevent that from occurring without using force. So a simple force can stop a greater force. And I believe no force in a real society where everybody was moral could work. Problem is they're not right.
[00:10:57] And so when people do bad stuff, sometimes you got to force them to stop this. But I think living in a community that more does a better job of representing your values and morality would be a stronger community than our current community. There's no question. That's beyond debate. You already won that argument. Excellent. 100 points to me. There you go. So tell me then, do you, when you pair these three people together, is it random or do you try to get people that are literally truly opposed? Do you understand what I mean? Yeah.
[00:11:25] So sometimes we do theme shows like we're about to do one that's all about two ways. So we have three two way experts coming on. So sometimes we put them, you know, all together so we can teach a broad range of two way guy and a pro two way guy and stuff. And no, we usually like in that case, we would be wanting to teach about, you know, two way to a greater depth. Kind of like I just did with the right to self defense. Exactly. I mean, not exactly, but I'm saying that's the point, right?
[00:11:53] To educate about the principle more than to argue about the details. Right. So that's what you mean? Yeah. So instead of just having one category that's gun rights and we say, yes, we're for gun rights. We talk about gun rights in all applications. Sure. And, you know, sometimes the laws against guns unfairly hurt women more than men because women are less likely to be able to defend themselves. You know what I call guns though, don't you? What? They're called rape me knots. Yeah, exactly. They're not called assault weapons. They're called rape me knots in the hands of a good female. It's a rapey.
[00:12:23] Not it's an equalizer. Exactly. It's a don't do that crap. You'll regret it. Right. So by going to greater depth, we get awesome nuggets like you just dropped there. Whereas if we stayed at a high level, we just say guns good or self defense good. Right. No, that makes sense. I think that's valuable. Do you take transcripts of these? Cause this stuff should be archived. Oh, and we have, it's the video. I know, but I want you to transfer and put transcripts out because people can read up on this stuff and you can create a book and you can create all kinds of a sub stack.
[00:12:51] I'm just telling you there's some great stuff you can do with it, sir. That's a great idea. I'm just kind of redneck, stupid guy, but I think that makes sense to me. Yeah. I like it. We, it'd be a way to search it and come up with the topics that people wanted to review things or focus on things or highlight topics you've done, or I'm just telling you that there's a treasure trove there. Yeah. Mostly we spend that time making shorts. So we have a library of shorts on different topics. So people can go in and see like the best of the best answers on those topics. All right. So you tell me about this.
[00:13:21] Then am I smarter than the politician? Is it, is that the name of the game? Yeah. But the website is smarter games show.com. So it's smarter games show.com. But the question is, are you smarter than a politician? That's correct. Kind of the sub headline. What's the takeoff on, are you smarter than a fifth grader? So me comparing a politician to a fifth. Yeah. The answer is no, I'm not smarter than either of them, but I'll tell you what I do know. I know God lives and he loves us. And I know that I want people to, it's kind of like the redneck 10 commandments. Don't hurt me.
[00:13:49] Don't take my stuff and leave me the freak alone. Amen to that brother. And are we okay with that? We're okay with that. What have we overlooked that you want to bring out about the game? I mean, I don't know it, so I'm learning about it, but I hopefully I ask questions that help people get caught up. Right? Absolutely. I think we, you know, talk to a broad range of topics. Sure. And so you might come to hear gun rights stuff and you might be a one a absolutist or something like that, but then you might find out about stuff that you never find out about like
[00:14:14] privacy coins or flock cameras, things that, you know, aren't in your social media feed all the time. privacy coins and flock cameras are the opposite, huh? Are the opposite of what? Each other. I agree. It's a little joke, right? I agree. All right. Keep going. Yeah. So I think it's a great way of giving bite-sized nuggets of information out to people. So in a 90 minute show, sometimes we're able to cover, you know, dozens of topics. So people get, you know, a wide range of Liberty based ideas and solutions.
[00:14:44] Who works on this with you? Uh, my producers, Terry bats and she does an amazing job. She handles all the behind the scenes. All right, Terry. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, uh, my buddy Casey Rasmussen also here, he helps me with all the tech stuff. Like, so he's helping me with the live setup. His family, they're actually from Utah as well. They drive around and they, uh, come to the live shows. Okay. Uh, so they do the help with the live setup. And then my girlfriend, Amity.
[00:15:13] How'd you get to know Casey? Uh, online. Okay. Yeah. Long time friends on acts. We're mostly on acts. Okay. So, uh, we've been long time friends on there. So is the one helping you guys get coverage? Uh, Elon doesn't like me turns out. So thanks Elon. Yeah. All right. Is he going to, is he going to, uh, shadow ban you and stuff or? Oh, I, I, I've gotten in trouble on all the platforms, even acts since he last day. Uh, you know, it sounds like an innocent game show having fun. Come on.
[00:15:41] Well, I think my ex posts are a little bit different than just my show. So what are your ex posts? I'm very anti-war. I don't think that's, uh, I'm anti-war too. Yeah. I don't think that's really popular with the algorithm these days. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people are pushing. They're at war with us anti-wars. Yeah. There's not, there's no money in peace. Right. So they don't like us a whole lot. All right. So your girlfriend introduced us to your topic. Yes. She did a great job by the way. Thank you. She represents you well, just so you know. Thank you. Yeah. She helps with a lot of this stuff, uh, the live events.
[00:16:10] She does a lot of the coordination for she's big helping us out with, uh, within the community. She's actually a bigger deal than me on social media. So she's helped raise the profile of the show. All right. So has it ever turned into the three stooges? Uh, we've had shows that have been sillier than others. That's for sure. All right. We're trying to make it fun and entertaining and bring people into the community and then hand them off to other people. So they might, you know, tune in when you're on and find out they like you and then they go watch their show.
[00:16:37] And now, now we've opened up a whole new world of possibilities for them. Cause then all the, my audience starts to like what you do and learn about it and stuff like that. Correct. All right. Do you, you're the host, right? Yes, sir. So do you try to calm everybody down? Uh, or do you try, or do you try to play the, uh, Oh, stir the pot guy? I, you know, usually I, I like to hear ideas, even if they're ideas that I don't agree with. So most of the time I'm respectful of people. Sometimes I push back. Sometimes I roll my eyes, make it, make a comment or two. All right.
[00:17:07] Is your girlfriend on the air too? Uh, yeah, she's actually a five-time champion of are you smarter than a politician? Really? She will work that into any conversations. She's so proud of it. Well, do you blame her? Absolutely not. It's impressive to do. Okay. Is there anybody that's one more than she has? No, she's the top of the pile. So you got to give her the ultimate prize. You know what that is, don't you? What's that? Do I really got to tell you? Uh, I don't, I don't, I don't know if I like where you're going. I need to think left hand, left hand.
[00:17:36] I think you need to just think about the ultimate prize for a woman. A lefty high five. No, hold on. What? The ultimate prize for a woman. Hmm. Come on now. I, it seems like it'd be something materialistic. Goes on the second finger over. Does it? Interesting. Yeah. I was just saying, you have to type that into a search engine. Maybe you ought to turn that into a show. Yeah, that'd be fun. You could have three people talking about, you know? There you go. I mean, you'd get the wedding dress sponsors. You'd get, I mean, it'd be fantastic. There you go. So, and it can be libertarian minded though.
[00:18:05] Real housewives of, uh, libertarian. What's the game show called? Are you smarter than politics? Liberty smart housewives. There you go. Cause there's few of those, right? Liberty minded, smart housewives. We have a lot of great women in our, in our movement for sure. So there's a lot of them, not few of them. No, I think that the, the women's voices and Liberty have really been amplified in a good way. In a great way. Absolutely. Uh, anyway, I say that cause I'm hoping to generate a little bit of controversy that will turn it into a show for you. There you go. See what I'm saying?
[00:18:35] All right, Daniel, we appreciate your time. Give out your website. One more time. Smarter game show.com. The, the show is called, Are You Smarter Than a Politician? Thanks for doing this. Come on down. You'll be the next contestant. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Sam Bushman for Liberty round table live. God save our constitutional Republic.