Point of View November 5, 2024 – Hour 2 : Make America Graceful Again

[00:00:04] Across America Live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson.

[00:00:20] Back for the second hour today and of course today is election day and as I mentioned at the outset, very important questions.

[00:00:28] First of all, who will win the election? Of course four years ago that was a little bit up for grabs. Eight years ago the same and I gave you some examples of that.

[00:00:36] The second question, how peaceful will our transition be to power? And again four years ago we recognized not so peaceful.

[00:00:44] And so I thought it would be good to look ahead for a little bit to recognize some of the entrenched situations that probably are not going to change.

[00:00:54] And we'll look at the bottom of the hour a very good piece by Victor Davis Hanson about why these 16 years of vilification from bitter clingers to garbage.

[00:01:05] And we'll get into that. But I thought you might like to also hear from a younger voice because one of the things we've always wanted to do here on Point of View is to provide that opportunity.

[00:01:16] As a program note, I might just mention a week from today, next Tuesday, we will have another millennial roundtable.

[00:01:23] I'm beginning to think we need to rename that now because, as you know, we've had one guest on the program who was part of our, if you will, Gen Z radio.

[00:01:34] And I hope that maybe she can join the roundtable occasionally.

[00:01:37] And another one is the guest that I'm going to be talking with right now.

[00:01:41] That is Ethan Watson.

[00:01:43] He is one of the Young Voices contributors.

[00:01:46] He's also a student at the University of Kansas.

[00:01:49] He holds both undergraduate degrees in accounting as well as an undergraduate degree in political science.

[00:01:54] He's now working towards a master's degree in accounting before continuing on to law school.

[00:02:00] He also teaches business writing.

[00:02:03] He's a tutor.

[00:02:04] As a matter of fact, he's been featured in Real Clear Politics, Free the People and Inside Sources.

[00:02:10] And one of those articles from Free the People is entitled Make America Graceful Again.

[00:02:16] So, Ethan, thank you for joining us today here on Point of View.

[00:02:19] Thank you so much for having me on.

[00:02:21] You know, as the old guy around the table, old enough to be your almost grandfather, certainly, there are some things that I sometimes try to bring to our younger audience.

[00:02:31] And one of those is when we had these two presidential debates, I finally felt it was necessary to say, I just want you to know that some of these past presidential debates were not like this.

[00:02:42] And then we had the vice presidential debate.

[00:02:46] And I said, now that one, I think, was more like what we've come to expect, less name calling, a little bit more humility.

[00:02:55] And so, Ethan, you really chose to begin your article by looking at that vice presidential debate.

[00:03:02] So tell us what you saw and why you thought that was a good way to start the article.

[00:03:07] Right. Well, I can't believe that was almost a month ago already.

[00:03:10] But the first thing I noticed from that vice presidential debate was it was really refreshing to have someone on stage who's actually a good public speaker.

[00:03:16] J.D. Vance was smooth, calm, cool and collected, which I really appreciate.

[00:03:20] But the deeper takeaway that I got after I was thinking about it was both men were asked about some mistake they had made or some change of judgment they had.

[00:03:28] They asked J.D. about how his opinion on Donald Trump had changed over the years.

[00:03:33] And they asked Tim Walls about a claim that he made that he was in China during the Internet Square riots, which turned out later to be false.

[00:03:40] And both men said, well, J.D. said, I changed my mind and here's why.

[00:03:45] And Tim Walls said, I made a lapse in judgment.

[00:03:48] I should have said that I misspoke.

[00:03:50] And then we moved on.

[00:03:51] And I thought, wow, that was really nice.

[00:03:53] Right. No one pounced on the other guy and said, oh, I got you.

[00:03:56] You're not a true loyal Trump devotee or, oh, I got you.

[00:03:59] You lied about this 10 years ago and now I'm going to use that to take you down.

[00:04:02] No, both people accepted the apology or the change of position at faith value with grace and then moved on from there, which I think we should offer to all of our political opponents or even everyone we meet in our daily lives.

[00:04:14] Now, that doesn't mean I'm OK with flip flopping.

[00:04:16] Switching positions is fine, but flip flopping, going back and forth on an issue depending on the way the wind is blowing.

[00:04:22] We should be wary of that. But accepting a change of heart or an admission of an honest mistake is something that we should do.

[00:04:29] And I think it will make our public discourse better if we do that.

[00:04:32] Well, and again, I've said before, I don't think flip flopping is always wrong if you flop to the right position.

[00:04:38] In other words, if you are pro abortion and then you begin to realize what abortion is, you become pro life.

[00:04:42] That is the case. But again, the American people, Ethan, are very forgiving.

[00:04:49] And you give some examples there. Donald Trump was once a Democrat.

[00:04:53] Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat.

[00:04:54] You talk about Barack Obama advocated against gay marriage, was for traditional marriage.

[00:05:00] Yesterday we were talking about Tulsa Gabbard.

[00:05:02] She and her father actually started a traditional marriage focus and alliance in Hawaii.

[00:05:08] That's even before she even ran for Congress or anything like that.

[00:05:11] So sometimes people change their minds.

[00:05:14] And I always welcome people that are willing to change their minds and come to a much more biblical perspective, a much more conservative perspective.

[00:05:23] And that's the case because if we are going to always play gotcha, as you point out here, then you're going to never give people the freedom to get more information.

[00:05:36] And it seems to me that your first couple of paragraphs talk about this issue of humility.

[00:05:41] And Evan, the other day when I put together this article that we have, and now it's a booklet that people have on free speech, I point out that the Bible is clear that we actually see through a mirror darkly.

[00:05:54] We don't always understand everything that we need to understand.

[00:05:58] So being willing to listen, we should be quick to listen, slow to speak.

[00:06:03] That's what it says in James 1.

[00:06:05] One, we should be more humble, as it says in Philippians, to treat others more important than ourselves.

[00:06:11] And so if people are acting that way in the political arena, I really have some hope, don't you?

[00:06:18] Oh, definitely.

[00:06:19] And I love that you brought up sort of the biblical or conservative origin of that, right?

[00:06:23] Because what it means to be a Christian or conservative, I think, a core belief is that man is inherently flawed, right?

[00:06:28] Like we come out into the world and we're immediately flawed and then we're socialized and civilized by the world around us.

[00:06:33] And so once you accept that basic precept, then it's really easy to say, well, I don't know everything because I'm inherently flawed and no one else knows everything either, right?

[00:06:41] That's the same reason we can't have a centrally planned economy because no one at the top can make all decisions.

[00:06:46] No one has all the answers.

[00:06:47] So once you accept that, that immediately puts you in a place of humility and you can say, okay, this person holds a different belief than me.

[00:06:53] Instead of assuming that they are an evil person and I'm going to claim the moral high ground, why don't I talk to them for just a second first and say, hey, what do you believe?

[00:07:00] And then once we have a discourse, then maybe I can decide where I stand on that.

[00:07:04] But immediately assuming that someone who is, say, a Republican is some sort of Nazi or someone who's a Democrat is some sort of communist, second coming of Mao Zedong, that's not a productive way to have a conversation.

[00:07:16] And we're not going to get anywhere.

[00:07:17] We're not going to change any hearts or minds if we go into our interactions like that.

[00:07:20] So that's really what I'm trying to avoid by writing this article is just engage with the ideas.

[00:07:25] Stop with the personal text because, you know what, we all get things wrong sometimes.

[00:07:29] Yes.

[00:07:29] Let me just mention that we're talking with Ethan Watson.

[00:07:32] And if you might say, you're talking about an article, I'd like to read that.

[00:07:36] It's very easy.

[00:07:37] You can print it out.

[00:07:38] It takes just two pages.

[00:07:40] Make America graceful again.

[00:07:41] And, of course, you can probably find it by going free the people dot O R G.

[00:07:45] But we've made it very easy for you to learn more about Ethan and more about the article.

[00:07:49] And that, I think, is something that should give you hope as I've been traveling around these last couple of weeks.

[00:07:55] I have so many times I ask, well, what do you like about point of view?

[00:07:58] What you would like to change and all that.

[00:08:01] And what's so interesting is every once in a while I have somebody say, well, I'm not all that interested in the millennial round table.

[00:08:06] So I tend not to turn it on or turn it off if it's on.

[00:08:10] But I've had so many other people say, I really appreciate the millennial round table because it gives me hope for the future.

[00:08:17] And it helps me understand that they're very educated, articulate young people that are certainly going to make a difference in the future.

[00:08:26] And that's why we wanted you to hear from Ethan today.

[00:08:29] And as we come back from the break, let me just mention that one of the booklets we're sending out right now, it's our November booklet on censorship.

[00:08:37] It gets into the other part of his article.

[00:08:40] So if you don't have the booklet, it's coming if you are a donor.

[00:08:43] And if not, you might write and get a copy because that's sort of what we'll be talking about right after this.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:02] Today is Election Day and two important questions might or might not be resolved tonight.

[00:09:07] The first question is, who will win the election?

[00:09:09] Given our experience four years ago, the answer might not be obvious.

[00:09:13] The second question is, how peaceful will be the transition of power?

[00:09:17] Again, our experience four years ago is reason to be concerned about that.

[00:09:21] In 1960, there were questions about whether John F. Kennedy won the presidency fairly.

[00:09:25] Rumors quickly spread that voting in Illinois and Texas had been manipulated.

[00:09:30] Perhaps the narrow margin of victory, 112,000 votes, indicated that the vote total should be challenged.

[00:09:36] Richard Dixon conceded the election because he said our country cannot afford the agony of a constitutional crisis.

[00:09:43] In 2000, George W. Bush led Al Gore in Florida after the first results were tallied because the vote was so close, a statewide recount was implemented.

[00:09:52] The machine count was even closer, so a legal battle developed.

[00:09:55] Those of you who are older probably remember the debate over the hanging chads.

[00:10:00] The case finally reached the Supreme Court that ruled that the hand recounts unconstitutional and essentially declared Bush the winner.

[00:10:07] Al Gore then conceded by saying, while I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it.

[00:10:12] In 2016, Donald Trump won three swing states by a mere 77,000 votes.

[00:10:18] In 2020, Joe Biden won three swing states by 42,000 votes.

[00:10:23] Controversy surrounded both elections.

[00:10:24] If voting is close this time, the election results may go into overtime.

[00:10:29] Will we have a clear winner or will we have to wait days or even weeks to find out?

[00:10:34] And will there be controversy over the election?

[00:10:36] We will know that in a few hours.

[00:10:39] I'm Kirby Anderson and that's my point of view.

[00:10:47] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net.

[00:10:53] That's pointofview.net.

[00:10:57] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:11:03] Here's what you have with us for a little bit longer, Ethan Watson.

[00:11:06] This article, Make America Graceful Again, came out in October, but we're talking about it here today.

[00:11:11] You can get a copy of it by going to the website pointofview.net.

[00:11:15] If you'd like to communicate with him, of course, we have some links, one of those which goes to X, formerly known as Twitter.

[00:11:21] And I was really struck by the fact that our November booklet, which I'm holding up right now for those of you watching online, on censorship and free speech.

[00:11:30] And I have a whole section here on what would be a biblical view of free speech, including going all the way back to John Stuart Mill and what he has written about that.

[00:11:38] We have been making that available.

[00:11:39] If you're a donor, you already probably are receiving it in the mail.

[00:11:42] Maybe you've already received it.

[00:11:43] If not, and you'd like to get a copy, of course, just contact us and we'd be glad to send it to you.

[00:11:48] Because in some respects, some of the things that I wrote about are actually dealt with in this very good piece by Ethan Watson.

[00:11:57] And Ethan, let me come to another point that you make here.

[00:12:00] Young people are now terrified to make their beliefs known.

[00:12:06] Speaking out could get you in trouble.

[00:12:08] My generation has been cowed by political correctness.

[00:12:12] Now, not only do I talk about that in this booklet on censorship and a previous one on the politicized society, we've talked about political correctness.

[00:12:21] And it does seem to me that we have not allowed your generation to be able to express your views without paying a heavy price.

[00:12:30] And free speech means that you and I may disagree, but I will certainly tolerate you in the sense that I will allow you to express a viewpoint.

[00:12:39] And yet today, as you point out, it is becoming more and more difficult for those of you in the university, those of you that are even in the military or just out there in the public sphere, to be able to express a viewpoint without having people come down on you.

[00:12:56] And that's one of the reasons why we need to be talking about graciousness and civility here in the 21st century, don't you think?

[00:13:04] Oh, definitely.

[00:13:06] And political correctness is the tool by which they have actually made conservatism the counterculture, right?

[00:13:11] We are not the dominant culture anymore.

[00:13:14] You know, the hippies of the 1960s, that was the counterculture back then.

[00:13:17] But today we are the counterculture and we've been pushed aside by political correctness because they wield it like a club.

[00:13:23] One wrong turn of phrase or even, you know, a turn of phrase that five minutes ago was okay, but now they've moved the goalposts and this is suddenly a horribly offensive thing to say.

[00:13:31] And they use that to exclude us from institutions to make us afraid to speak out because they're afraid, you know, you might get kicked out of college.

[00:13:38] You might get kicked out of your job.

[00:13:40] You might get shunned by friends and family.

[00:13:42] And it's really just an authoritarian way to view the world.

[00:13:46] And cancel culture is sort of an outgrowth of that.

[00:13:49] And really what it does is it stops ideas that challenge the dominant narrative.

[00:13:53] And that's not a good thing all the time, right?

[00:13:56] I mean, let's keep in mind that at one point the United States of America was an idea that challenged the dominant narrative and the heads of a few, you know, colonists at the edge of the known world, right?

[00:14:05] And so it's good when ideas challenge the narrative sometimes then we can engage with them and decide if they're good ideas or not.

[00:14:11] Also, entertainment.

[00:14:12] This is a point I like to make as well.

[00:14:14] Comedians are oftentimes the target of political correctness.

[00:14:18] But this is a thought exercise I like to do with people.

[00:14:20] Imagine a world where comedians were afraid to take risks, to push boundaries a little bit, to crack a joke that might, you know, insult someone.

[00:14:27] Then we wouldn't have any comedy.

[00:14:29] And is that really a better world?

[00:14:30] Is that a world that any of us want to live in?

[00:14:32] Yes.

[00:14:33] The answer for me is no.

[00:14:34] Yeah.

[00:14:35] And again, I just point out that you are the University of Kansas and I've spoken there.

[00:14:40] And again, Lawrence, Kansas is maybe not Madison, Wisconsin or Berkeley, California, but it's close.

[00:14:46] And in some respects, you are right in the middle of a university that probably is maybe not as tolerant of conservative ideas as maybe Kansas State in Manhattan or anywhere else we can point to around the country.

[00:15:00] And it's just an illustration that we need voices like you in these institutions.

[00:15:06] And we certainly need professors to go in there and provide the opportunity to talk about freedom of speech.

[00:15:13] But back to our point, since it is an election season and we have an election today, you go on to say that politicians aren't helping this climate because we aren't getting a national discourse.

[00:15:26] Instead of changing their minds, they typically dig in, double down, triple down on indefensible positions.

[00:15:33] And I would have to say that I want to give high marks for Vivek Ramashwamy and maybe even J.D. Vance who are willing to engage in a discussion because so much of what we see today, don't you think, are individuals that just want to shut down discussion or just label you as a fascist or as garbage or whatever that phrase might be so that they don't have to deal with the substance of your conversation.

[00:16:02] Oh, absolutely. I mean, it just shows to me a lack of, you know, intellectual strength and understanding of nuance.

[00:16:08] Right. And we've gotten this sort of sneering contempt from the left for a long time. Right.

[00:16:13] Obama called us bitter clingers. You've got the basket of deplorables.

[00:16:16] It seems like every every Democratic president has one of these lines, but it really just shows their their lack of willingness to tolerate alternative viewpoints.

[00:16:24] And I think they do a really, really big disservice to the public discourse when they fling around terms like fascist, racist, Nazi, things of that nature, when they fling around like they're going out of style.

[00:16:36] Because the truth is, those things are real and they're awful things.

[00:16:39] And the vast majority of people you meet in your life are not even close to one of those. Right.

[00:16:44] So it's they do such a terrible disservice to what those words actually mean that almost now, like they don't mean anything.

[00:16:50] Like if someone were to, you know, comment on one of my articles about why Kamala Harris would be a poor pick for president saying that I'm just a racist,

[00:16:57] I would just like be like, oh, this is just another Democrat that disagrees with me because everyone and everything that they don't care for is now racist.

[00:17:03] So they cheapen these terms in an awful way.

[00:17:05] Yep. And we're going to go after you, we let you go to a piece by Victor Davis Hanson, who, by the way, has been on the program on his piece about from clingers to garbage.

[00:17:14] Why the 16 years of vilification? And we'll talk about that after you leave.

[00:17:19] But you also then want to bring it bound to your generation.

[00:17:23] You say, I challenge Americans, especially young Americans, to assume the best in those we discuss politics with.

[00:17:30] Don't crucify people for past lapses in judgment.

[00:17:33] Don't cancel them for an off color tweet from 2012.

[00:17:36] And I think that is good. We should be much more charitable.

[00:17:40] We should be much more civil.

[00:17:42] I think civility is the word I like to use.

[00:17:45] Tolerance has been so redefined.

[00:17:47] But civility means you treat other people as you'd like to be treated.

[00:17:50] That's the golden rule.

[00:17:51] And what you're really calling for is your generation to maybe change the narrative.

[00:17:57] And I think that's a very positive trend that we need to really encourage.

[00:18:01] Right. And I would call on people of my generation.

[00:18:03] First of all, we're young enough that we're a lot of us are still forming our political opinions.

[00:18:07] So this is a perfect time to be open minded and treat other people civilly and just take it all in and consider everything.

[00:18:14] And then, you know, if someone comes at you and says, you know, you're let's say you're a young Republican or a young conservative like me.

[00:18:21] And someone comes at you like has happened to me one time where, you know, they said, oh, well, I saw you're Republican.

[00:18:27] So I just assumed that you're just like a rabid Trump fan.

[00:18:29] And, you know, my knee jerk reaction is to get kind of offended and I could start, you know, hammering them over the head with with an attack of a personal attack of my own.

[00:18:37] But that's not productive.

[00:18:38] So instead, I said, actually, I don't believe that.

[00:18:41] Here's why I don't believe that.

[00:18:43] Now, tell me why you believe what you believe.

[00:18:44] And let's have a conversation.

[00:18:45] Defuse the situation.

[00:18:46] If they go low, not to quote Michelle Obama here, but if they go low, you should go higher and say, OK, now don't make aspersions about who I am as a person.

[00:18:55] Let's walk it back.

[00:18:56] Here's what I think.

[00:18:57] Tell me what you think.

[00:18:59] It's up to you to defuse the situation because most people have been so brainwashed by our media environment that runs on this clickbait, this outrage farming, that they just they almost can't help it.

[00:19:10] But it's up to us to defuse that situation and get that conversation going.

[00:19:13] I think you've got a great future because you really thought through this very well.

[00:19:16] One last point I thought I'd pick up, and that is mix it up.

[00:19:19] If you talk politics with someone, also talk football, Netflix or a last concert and things like that.

[00:19:25] If every time people see you come and go, oh, boy, here we go again.

[00:19:28] Ethan's going to talk politics.

[00:19:30] That's not going to be helpful.

[00:19:31] But, again, that is part of who you are.

[00:19:34] But there are other ways to engage individuals.

[00:19:37] There are other ways to build bridges.

[00:19:39] And I think you also talk about that in your article.

[00:19:42] Right, exactly.

[00:19:43] And I think you'll find that we all actually have a lot more in common than we have differently.

[00:19:47] Like I have some very close friends that I disagree with vehemently on just about every political issue.

[00:19:51] But, you know, we also love camping or we love, you know, football.

[00:19:54] We like to, you know, argue with each other about Star Wars movies or whatever the case may be.

[00:19:59] But it's possible to have relationships and friendships across the aisle.

[00:20:03] And, in fact, you should because if you live in your own echo chamber, you're never going to grow or change as a person.

[00:20:08] And as I quote Winston Churchill, the great but flawed Winston Churchill, to improve is to change, and to be perfect is to change often.

[00:20:14] So good.

[00:20:15] Well, again, Ethan, we have loved your article.

[00:20:17] We certainly appreciated the conversation we've had with you today.

[00:20:21] We do have a millennial roundtable.

[00:20:22] I'm going to have to rename it.

[00:20:24] Maybe we'll just call it the Next Generation Roundtable because we're going to start bringing some of our Gen Zs on to that,

[00:20:29] along with all the millennials that have been doing that for some time.

[00:20:32] They don't let old guys like me do the program.

[00:20:34] But I'm sure this won't be the only time we talk with you, and I'm looking forward to the next opportunity.

[00:20:39] So thank you for writing the article, and thank you for taking some time out of your schoolwork to join us today.

[00:20:45] No, no, thank you.

[00:20:46] It's a welcome break from tax homework.

[00:20:48] Ethan Watson, if you would like to contact him, we've given you a link there.

[00:20:52] If you'd like to read his piece, I would highly recommend it.

[00:20:56] It printed out.

[00:20:57] It only takes about two pages.

[00:20:58] I think we did a pretty good job of summarizing it, but you could read it in its entirety.

[00:21:02] And, again, I'll just also encourage you, if you don't have a copy of our latest booklet on censorship,

[00:21:08] first of all, one of the reasons why I encourage people to support this ministry,

[00:21:13] dollar a day, $30 a month, as offered to a way that you can become part of our truth team,

[00:21:19] we send these out automatically.

[00:21:21] But whether you give to us or not, if you'd like a copy, certainly let us know.

[00:21:26] We're going to take a break.

[00:21:27] Have more right after this.

[00:21:30] Many years ago, they began saying that we live in the information age.

[00:21:35] Well, today, there is so much information coming at us from every direction.

[00:21:40] The hardest thing is to discern which issues are really important, and how can I make a positive impact

[00:21:47] without wasting my time trying to figure out accurate information.

[00:21:51] Let me give you a suggestion to help with that.

[00:21:55] Visit pointofview.net.

[00:21:57] Look at the tabs across the top.

[00:21:59] Find the one named Viewpoints.

[00:22:02] Kirby Anderson and others on our team are constantly watching for news to identify those issues that you really need to know about.

[00:22:09] They boil things down in a brief summary, and then you can decide if it's something on which you want to learn more and get involved.

[00:22:17] Again, when you go to pointofview.net, click on Viewpoints, you'll see exactly what I mean.

[00:22:23] You'll see the issues that we are covering right now.

[00:22:26] And when you like what you see, I honestly think you will,

[00:22:30] you can slide on over, enter your email, and get them automatically sent to your inbox each day.

[00:22:37] That's it. Take a minute now. Be informed.

[00:22:40] Pointofview.net. Click on Viewpoints.

[00:22:47] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:57] You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:02] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of the station.

[00:23:10] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:13] We'll be back once again.

[00:23:14] Let's, if we can, for just a few minutes talk about a couple of key issues.

[00:23:18] First of all, if you go to our website, you'll see that we've said today is Election Day,

[00:23:22] and if you haven't voted yet, please go out and do so.

[00:23:25] And you might want to think about bringing somebody with you.

[00:23:27] Or if you have already voted, you might want to check and make sure that somebody in your family has voted.

[00:23:33] It's amazing to me.

[00:23:34] I've told the story before of this individual that ran for office in the state of Ohio, and he lost by one vote,

[00:23:42] and then found out that neither of his sons, who actually lived with him at home, had voted.

[00:23:49] And so, you know, there are sometimes individuals that you know that you think, surely they voted.

[00:23:55] And it's just worth asking, have you actually gone out and voted?

[00:23:58] So that is the case.

[00:24:00] And, of course, we'll try to answer the first question about who was elected tonight and tomorrow.

[00:24:06] Maybe we'll have a better answer to that, although some probably will be requiring some recounts and other things.

[00:24:13] So we'll see how that goes.

[00:24:14] And then, of course, how peaceful will our transition be?

[00:24:18] I wanted to mention that a couple of times because it's shown up so many times.

[00:24:22] Whether I was in Georgia or South Carolina or Missouri or now even here in the state of Texas where I'm back here,

[00:24:28] I've had people bring that up.

[00:24:30] So I think all of us are thinking the same thing.

[00:24:32] So we'll see how that unfolds.

[00:24:35] Why is that the case?

[00:24:36] Well, that brings me to my piece that comes from Victor Davis Hanson.

[00:24:41] And in some respects, even though I picked it, I wasn't necessarily realizing how much that would overlap with the conversation we just had with Ethan Watson.

[00:24:50] But, of course, Victor Davis Hanson has been on the program with us before, has this article that just came out,

[00:24:56] From Clingers to Garbage, Why the 16 Years of Vilification?

[00:25:01] Interesting enough, Ethan mentioned some of those.

[00:25:03] Let's go through them again because he asked the question, who actually are the garbage people?

[00:25:09] Are they the one and the same with Joe Biden's semi-fascist chumps and dregs of society?

[00:25:15] Or are they Barack Obama's bitter clingers?

[00:25:19] Or do they include Hillary Clinton's deplorables and irredeemables?

[00:25:23] Or are they the FBI grandee Peter Strzok's Walmart shoppers who smell?

[00:25:29] Yesterday, by the way, if you were listening, Gary Bauer couldn't think of Peter Strzok's name.

[00:25:34] And I wasn't sure.

[00:25:35] I almost said that because I was thinking Peter Strzok and Elisa Page, but I thought I wasn't sure if that's what he meant.

[00:25:40] But nevertheless, we now have the answer to that question.

[00:25:43] And then he says, then you also have many others that have been making the statements.

[00:25:49] For example, of course, the various individuals who either have run as president, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden.

[00:25:57] But then you also have some that run as vice president, like Tim Walz and others.

[00:26:02] And they're all what you might call self-described elites who then look down their noses at people or are condescending towards people.

[00:26:12] And he also then says that then supposedly the Trump supporters are either what Joe Biden calls the ultra magas or what Tim Walz calls fascist without necessarily preferring the semi-fascist prefix to that as well.

[00:26:30] And so I think in general, what Victor Davis Hanson is saying is, quote, these adjectives of disdain denote about a half a country according to the results of what will soon be three presidential elections.

[00:26:45] This half, he says, by the way, is more than urban.

[00:26:48] It's characterized by larger than smaller families, more high school diploma than college degreed and more conventional and traditional than vanguard and trend setting.

[00:26:59] In other words, this isn't just a small group.

[00:27:02] Sometimes it's used to make it sound like we're only talking about hillbillies, which I'm surprised they haven't used that against J.D. Vance since he wrote the hillbilly elegy.

[00:27:10] But we'll go on.

[00:27:11] He says, as a matter of fact, he says, statisticians tell us that the new non-clinging Democratic Party finds its greatest support from those who earn less than $50,000 or from those who are considerably making more than $100,000.

[00:27:26] It is intriguing because it used to be that the Democratic Party was seen as the middle class and poor party.

[00:27:34] We're standing up for the poor guy.

[00:27:36] But that has changed.

[00:27:38] And as I've pointed out, if you look at the major donors to the Democratic Party, yes, they bring up the Koch brothers and a few others.

[00:27:47] But almost all the others are donors to the Democratic Party.

[00:27:51] You know, and even the Koch brothers weren't always supporting Republicans, but more libertarian.

[00:27:55] But nevertheless, most of the, first of all, billionaires, not Elon Musk, but most of the other billionaires, most of the other millionaires have actually been supportive of the Democratic Party.

[00:28:08] And so he says, in terms of generalized income and earnings, the left is now the party of the well-to-do professional and credential class and the rich, along with then the other group, the subsidized poor.

[00:28:22] The Republicans, by contrast, are increasingly represented by the middle class.

[00:28:27] Which, again, is one of the puzzles, I think, even for people on the other side.

[00:28:32] How is it that an individual, a self-described billionaire, millionaire, whatever you want to consider Donald Trump to be, an individual that lives a very good life, seems to connect up so well with working class Americans?

[00:28:46] And I think, of course, most of us have figured that out.

[00:28:49] But then he goes on to deal with a few issues.

[00:28:52] Victor Davis Hanson says, two truisms stand out about the elite boutique agenda.

[00:28:58] One, when these theories are implemented, often by the courts and the permanent, unelected, administrative and bureaucratic state,

[00:29:07] the architects of such experimentation do not really feel the inevitable deleterious consequences.

[00:29:13] That's a long way of saying they can say what you need is what we would need in the country.

[00:29:20] But it really doesn't affect me.

[00:29:23] The best examples, he points out, are, of course, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the Silicon Valley masters of the universe, professors of law, corporate CEOs, Bill Gates of the world and all that,

[00:29:34] really don't care whether gas is $3 a gallon or $6 a gallon, whether wire is $39 a spool or $150 a spool.

[00:29:44] Which is kind of interesting you pick that one.

[00:29:47] And that is really the case.

[00:29:48] If you indeed live a fairly affluent lifestyle, maybe you even live behind a gated community,

[00:29:57] a lot of the things that most of us as Americans have to deal with never really touch you.

[00:30:04] He goes on to say that illegal aliens do not go to their children's schools or crowd the offices of their cardiologist or oncologist,

[00:30:12] much less dump trash on their streets and curbs.

[00:30:18] And Victor Davis Hanson is like some of us that live in two different worlds.

[00:30:22] When he is in his farm in California, he is actually seeing more and more of these people that have come in here illegally.

[00:30:31] We call them migrants or illegal aliens.

[00:30:34] And seeing how, in some respects, that has affected his world in some very deleterious ways.

[00:30:41] He says when you go into a bank, if they want to take out a loan, all they do is put an X on that because they can't necessarily even sign their name.

[00:30:49] Maybe he can't even read the document that they're signing.

[00:30:52] Then he gets in his car and drives over to Stanford University because he, of course, is at the Hoover Institute.

[00:30:59] And there he's surrounded by individuals that are making at least six-figure, seven-figure incomes, driving very nice cars.

[00:31:09] If he goes into a bank, they are driving up in nice cars.

[00:31:12] They are making very shrewd decisions and, of course, know how to sign their name.

[00:31:17] And so that is, I think, the dichotomy that he's run into in California.

[00:31:22] I've run into it.

[00:31:24] And most of us, if we live in the real world, have run into that as well.

[00:31:28] And so then he goes on to say that given their income and status,

[00:31:31] the new Democratic credentialed and moneyed classes do not care about the struggle of others to live one more day

[00:31:38] clinging to middle-class vestiges of their parents' era.

[00:31:42] Instead, for the anointed who have transcended the fear of not filling up their tank

[00:31:46] or coming up short on monthly rent or power bills,

[00:31:50] it's not hard to mandate job-killing electric vehicles

[00:31:54] or to chuckle over biological boys' and girls' locker rooms

[00:31:58] or even having pride flags flying over the embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

[00:32:04] He says in some respects they then square their circle by then actually calling for government subsidies

[00:32:12] for individuals and calling for all sorts of types of woke kinds of programs and policies

[00:32:19] which really don't affect them but affect the working-class Americans.

[00:32:24] And so he says the struggling middle class instead have to deal with so many issues,

[00:32:30] trying to deal with secure border, immigration that has gotten out of control,

[00:32:37] a problem of finding affordable food and energy, safe streets, and a whole lot of other issues.

[00:32:43] And the point he's making is they really just live in a very different world.

[00:32:47] So it really becomes very easy for you to be one of the elites to look down your nose at

[00:32:53] or to have condescension towards individuals and refer to them as clingers or as garbage

[00:33:00] or semi-fascists or deplorables or irredeemables.

[00:33:05] And I think this article is just a great reminder of what it is sort of becoming

[00:33:10] in terms of a very significant class warfare

[00:33:14] and even a wage gap and class gap that I think is going to maybe manifest itself tonight

[00:33:22] when we start counting up the votes.

[00:33:24] But we'll see.

[00:33:25] Anyway, I wanted you to see that article because I thought it was a good, if you will,

[00:33:29] bookend to some of the conversations we just had a minute ago with Ethan Watson

[00:33:34] about Make America Graceful Again,

[00:33:37] the need for us to be gracious, to be civil,

[00:33:40] but also recognize we've got some problems that need to be addressed,

[00:33:44] even if some are ignoring them.

[00:33:46] Let's take a break.

[00:33:47] Come back with more right after this.

[00:33:55] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:34:01] Back for a few more minutes.

[00:34:02] Of course, we've talked about the presidential elections,

[00:34:04] senatorial and congressional elections.

[00:34:06] One other thing I thought I'd just mention in passing,

[00:34:08] and that is tonight we'll also be looking at and reporting over the next couple of days

[00:34:13] some of these other initiatives.

[00:34:15] We have six states that are voting on some aspect of abortion as initiatives.

[00:34:21] Some are poised to really provide reproductive health,

[00:34:26] which, of course, is just a euphemism for abortion.

[00:34:29] Some are wanting to change some of the abortion statutes.

[00:34:32] So six of those are the case.

[00:34:34] We've covered that a couple of times.

[00:34:36] As a matter of fact, Penna Dexter even has a commentary out on that,

[00:34:39] and we did some interviews last week.

[00:34:41] As a matter of fact, she did one this time last week on that subject as well.

[00:34:44] We also have six states which are looking at what you might call pot initiatives,

[00:34:50] marijuana or cannabis initiatives.

[00:34:52] That's something we've talked about before,

[00:34:54] and I will have a commentary coming out next week about that as well,

[00:34:58] because the argument is always made that, well, after all, so many people are using marijuana.

[00:35:03] Why not legalize it?

[00:35:06] And, of course, big pot, as some people have said,

[00:35:09] is as aggressive as big pharma or big business or big agriculture, big tech,

[00:35:15] and that is certainly something we'll be looking at as well.

[00:35:19] It is ironic if you think about this,

[00:35:21] because we now know more about the dangers of marijuana than we did when we first started this experiment in Colorado,

[00:35:29] Colorado being the first state to legalize recreational marijuana.

[00:35:34] First of all, the potency of marijuana is much greater.

[00:35:38] I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area,

[00:35:40] and I have to say that some of the kids or students around me using marijuana had about 2% to 3% THC.

[00:35:47] Now the marijuana being sold in these dispensaries has anywhere from 15% to 25% THC,

[00:35:55] and as a result, we now know that the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that about 30% of cannabis users become addicted,

[00:36:05] especially if they start after the age of 18.

[00:36:08] I remember years ago when I did an interview for the first time with a New York Times reporter who,

[00:36:14] and this goes back quite a number of years, in which he was reporting at the time in one of his books,

[00:36:20] that there is a very definite connection between cannabis use and schizophrenia.

[00:36:26] He stumbled upon it because his wife, who works as a counselor when they were talking about the number of marijuana users that have schizophrenia,

[00:36:34] he said, what?

[00:36:35] And she says, oh yeah, we always know that.

[00:36:37] And of course, we have had other stories.

[00:36:40] As a matter of fact, a good one came out the other day by our good friend John Stonestreet at Breakpoint.

[00:36:44] The pot experiment has been a disaster.

[00:36:47] Of course, Ann Coulter had one.

[00:36:48] It's not your father's pot anymore.

[00:36:49] But we even have a new study from Denmark that has found 30% of schizophrenic cases could be linked to marijuana use.

[00:36:57] We now know more dangerous than we've ever done before,

[00:37:00] and now we're going across the country encouraging more and more states to legalize something,

[00:37:06] which we now know is pretty dangerous.

[00:37:08] And so we'll see how that unfolds in the next couple of days as well.

[00:37:13] So be looking at, of course, candidates who were elected, campaigns that have been effective,

[00:37:18] as well as others which were not, maybe some lessons we can learn,

[00:37:22] even looking at some of these different initiatives that take place.

[00:37:26] Again, if you aren't familiar with some of those, I did mention at iVoterGuide,

[00:37:30] they have a list of all of those from the various states that have those initiatives,

[00:37:34] and you can learn a little bit more about that or the candidates.

[00:37:36] But, again, I suspect almost all of you have voted on that already.

[00:37:41] Just before we wind down, another one of those issues, which is going to be very large next year,

[00:37:49] and we're going to be doing articles in January in Outlook on what next.

[00:37:55] If Donald Trump is elected, he wants to dismantle the administrative state or the managerial class,

[00:38:04] as Vivek Rameshwamy refers to him.

[00:38:07] If Kamala Harris is, Congress, if they have at least a few Republicans, are going to want to address that issue.

[00:38:14] And, of course, there's a very good book out right now by Ned Ryan called American Leviathan.

[00:38:20] The Leviathan is actually back to the Thomas Hobbes book, if you've ever read that.

[00:38:25] But it's called American Leviathan, The Birth of an Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism.

[00:38:32] And my last article is just a reminder that, at one point, the biggest criticism the Democrats had of one of the Supreme Court justices,

[00:38:41] which would be Neil Gorsuch, was that he was not really standing up for the average American.

[00:38:48] This article by Molly Hemingway reminds us that a number of years ago, on the steps of the Supreme Court, I might say,

[00:38:59] Senator Chuck Schumer said that some of the decisions by Neil Gorsuch were actually awful for working Americans.

[00:39:07] When the chips are down, he said, far too often he sides with a powerful fuel over everyday Americans just trying to get a fair shake.

[00:39:14] First of all, that wasn't true at the time, and it's certainly not true now,

[00:39:19] as evidenced by the fact that the biggest concern and criticism of Neil Gorsuch,

[00:39:24] not only from his decisions but from a book that he's co-authored,

[00:39:28] is the fact that he's been very critical, actually, of the administrative state.

[00:39:33] As a matter of fact, there's a very good piece here where Molly Hemingway points out that now Politico

[00:39:39] and the Washington Post are rushing to the defense of bureaucrats and poo-pooing the punishment Yates received.

[00:39:47] That's one of the court cases there as well,

[00:39:50] and pointing out that this has really become kind of the big issue, and it is.

[00:39:55] If you want to understand more about that, as you might imagine, we have a booklet on the deep state,

[00:40:01] and whether you call it the deep state, whether you call it, in a sense, trying to drain the swamp,

[00:40:08] or whether you call it the administrative state, or you call it the managerial class,

[00:40:14] what you're talking about is a massive bureaucracy made up of individuals, unelected,

[00:40:21] and, frankly, unaccountable to what is taking place in our society.

[00:40:26] And so, as a result, starting with the progressive movement under Woodrow Wilson, Ned Ryan, and others,

[00:40:33] take you through the goal of building a bureaucracy that is not accountable to the American people,

[00:40:40] that then you can push forward a very radical, liberal, progressive agenda.

[00:40:45] They rejected the idea of a rights-based government because they thought it was too limited in size and scope.

[00:40:51] And what do we have today? This massive, sprawling federal bureaucracy.

[00:40:58] And so the bottom line is, if Donald Trump is elected tonight,

[00:41:02] he, I think, under people like Vivek Ramayevami and Elon Musk, are going to try to dismantle it.

[00:41:09] It won't be easy. It will be very controversial.

[00:41:12] You'll hear arguments about it every day, arguments for and against by all sorts of people that have vested interest.

[00:41:19] If, indeed, Kamala Harris becomes our next president,

[00:41:23] then those people that have been wanting to dismantle the administrative state

[00:41:27] are going to try to figure out some way by defunding some areas of the government

[00:41:33] or actually calling for a complete reform of civil service or something to bring about that change.

[00:41:40] And, again, when Elon Musk, the other day, asked,

[00:41:44] well, how much money do you think we could save by using some of your proposals?

[00:41:48] He says, I think we could reduce the cost of the administrative state by $2 trillion.

[00:41:56] We need to do that because the millennial generation, Generation C, grandchildren,

[00:42:02] even future great-grandchildren are going to pay the price

[00:42:06] if we don't figure out a way to begin to limit the size and scope of government

[00:42:12] and try to get to a point where we can balance a budget.

[00:42:16] Anyway, that's another issue on the table, and we'll see what tonight brings in that regard.

[00:42:22] I want to thank, again, everybody who's been a part of this program.

[00:42:25] First of all, I want to thank Megan, as always, engineering the program.

[00:42:28] Karen, thank you for all the work that you do, not only posting the articles,

[00:42:31] but for being the producer today,

[00:42:33] while our other producer just walked back in from an event that he was part of.

[00:42:38] And so we want to thank Steve for that as well.

[00:42:40] If you find yourself saying,

[00:42:42] I'd like to find some of the material that Debbie Wolfnell was talking about,

[00:42:46] we have a link to the iVoter Guide.

[00:42:48] If you'd like to read the article by Ethan Watson,

[00:42:51] Make America Graceful Again, that's available there as well.

[00:42:54] And if you'd like to maybe even see some of these articles that I've just been quoting from,

[00:42:59] they're all available at the website pointofview.net.

[00:43:03] Let's take a break.

[00:43:04] We'll watch the report tonight.

[00:43:07] We'll talk about it tomorrow right here on Point of View.

[00:43:10] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority.

[00:43:16] They say men can be women and women men.

[00:43:20] People are prosecuted differently or not at all, depending on their politics.

[00:43:25] Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens.

[00:43:30] It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing.

[00:43:33] You feel like giving up.

[00:43:35] But we can't.

[00:43:36] We shouldn't.

[00:43:37] We must not.

[00:43:38] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II,

[00:43:43] never give in.

[00:43:44] Never give in.

[00:43:45] Never, never, never.

[00:43:47] Never yield to force.

[00:43:49] Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

[00:43:53] And that's what we say to you today.

[00:43:55] This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos.

[00:44:03] We can't do it alone, but together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness.

[00:44:09] Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151.

[00:44:19] Pointofview.net and 800-347-5151.

[00:44:27] Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.