American Identity

What's up, what's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of part of the problem. I apologize for the late start today. That was 100% my fault. Rob Natalie are off the hook. Rob has been doing nothing but the right things. So this late start is, in fact, he managed to get himself inside today. That's how seriously Rob has been taking preparation for today's show. How are you doing, sir? Where are you at? Where are you at now? I am well, by Lake Tahoe for another day. And then I'm headed to Salt Lake City for Port Store. Go to Port Store.com after that. Got a bunch of gigs in Texas. And then I'm back in Chicago area. So Port Store.com. Come porch everybody. Very nice. And I can't wait to come meet up with you for a leg of this tour this weekend. We will both be out in Salt Lake City Friday and Saturday. And then in Las Vegas on Sunday. So Comic Dave Smith dot com for those tickets. Really looking forward to the shows, fellas and ladies. Well, there's not that many ladies who listen. And most of them. No, no, no, it's a, I saw, I think I saw one of the demographic breakdowns of our audience that was, I forget what it was like whether I can't remember this was like Twitter or YouTube or Spotify or whatever. But I saw one that was like an 80 20 breakdown. And I swear to God, I went, All right, look at that. Look at that. That's, that's, I think that's better. Anyway, okay. So there's a few things that I wanted to talk about today that were on my mind that we hadn't gotten to. And it's just been one of those things where, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's on our minds. And I wanted to have the discussion with Orin about libertarianism and some of these topics. And then I wanted to talk about the Gaza images yesterday. But we hadn't commented on this Sarah Huckabee Sanders ad. And I wanted to talk about this with you a bit, Rob. It's kind of on, I think a similar kind of theme as the, the University of Texas stuff that we were talking about last week. And I do think this is, this is a very important subject in a lot of ways because this is, I think, a comment on what this country is going to look like going forward. And what the issues and grievances and, and frankly, what the in and out groups are, who's fighting with who and about what? And I would, I guess preface this by saying, Rob, this does just on the face of it, right? Like just the topic of Sarah Huckabee Sanders running this kind of, really kind of cheesy ad to begin with. This, this on its face almost seems like a topic that would be, frankly, not the type of topic that we cover on this show, just kind of a cyber, the type of thing that Ben Shapiro would have fun try and make viral clips at him. But not the type of thing we would touch it would just be kind of be like a silly issue. But I really do think much like the UT thing. The reason why I think this is worth talking about is because the second you see this, you're like, Oh, no, dude, this is like, um, this is an indication of something. This is an indication. It's like the thing I always bring up in in 2012 when Newt Gengrich launched against the, uh, that King guy at CNN against how corrupt the corporate media was. And it got like a five minute standing ovation. That's like a moment where you go, Oh, look, dude, look how angry the Republican base is with CNN. Okay, four years later, they nominated an elected Donald Trump. You know, like it's, okay, that's what this seems like to me. I don't know, how do you feel about it, Rob? Cause man, people are angry about this. But you're muted. I guess I didn't catch just how much backlash there was to it, but it was clearly a stupid ad. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't produced very well. And what I'm guessing without seeing the criticism, what I'm guessing people are gravitating to is that I think it would be fair to criticize the government spending and social programs within this country. And I think that that would be a very important talking point for conservatives to take on is that, Hey, your goods and services can be better met by the free market. And uh, this is actually keeping people down and making things more expensive. And I even think that you could go a step further and go, I don't know if we're helping the people that were actually giving some of these benefits to because perhaps we're keeping them from working, we're incentivizing single families. There's a lot of very good conservative talking points that we haven't really heard over the last 10 years, but certainly valuable conversations. But if you want to focus that the biggest problem of, uh, scamming the system and not working when someone could be working towards 20-year-old white men, uh, the statistics are probably not in line with you of that those are the people who are abusing the system and should be working harder in life. It seems like you've probably picked the wrong target, um, in terms of trying to express where that problem might lie. All right. Well, that is, I think for sure. And this is why this is interesting. There's a lot of different elements to this. And one thing I would just add in there, which I think, you know, Rob was, was getting at, but that there's probably almost no one within this, the, the, the, you know, within the industry of like shows that talk about politics like this in terms of like popular shows, there may not be anybody who opposes welfare about as much as me and you do. Like we're really against this stuff and for lots of reasons. So it's kind of just to be clear with that in the backdrop, we're talking about a campaign ad that's going after welfare. And we are two people who oppose welfare, like much more than Sarah Huckabee Sanders does, let's just say. Um, and so we, you know, if she saw the type of cuts that we would make to welfare, she would be worried about it. But at the same time, you, you can look at this and understand that their running campaign ads are about speaking to the race that you're running in. There's always a context that they exist in. And I also would venture to disagree or I would venture to guess that the point that you just made, Rob, about how there would be lots of very good, like conservative or libertarian arguments that you should hear all types of brilliant conservative economists making about this. I don't think those arguments would have gotten her the reaction that she's gotten. I think there's other elements involved. So let's, without further, let's play the, uh, the ad. And then we can, we can kind of break down several interesting elements of this. Yeah, you want some of this? Me, Brad. Brad has turned relaxing into a full-time profession. But you, you actually work hard. You pay taxes to cover welfare for guys like Brad, who just choose not to work. That's why I launched a welfare to work requirement. Almost there. Now more arcansons are working than ever before. Even Brad. Yeah, all right. So, um, hmm, where do we, where do we start with this? So number one, right? You're not just, um, you're not just taken on welfare, let's say. And I, I, I do think that particularly right now, Rob, and I say this is someone who is substantially more against welfare than Sarah Huckabee Sanders is. I think that number one, the first problem you have with this ad, before you get into, say, like the racial component of it or things that are going to really make some people upset. But the first issue you have here is that even as the most hardcore libertarian person that you know out there on this, the idea that at this moment in time, any politician or political candidate or a political candidate who was attached to this president's previous administration or whatever, for you, for you to make the target of your ad, these lazy Americans on welfare, you know, for you to make the target of your ad that is already just, I don't know, dude, politically speaking, like it's not even, and I understand she threw the thing in there at the end about how it's good for him to or whatever, but it's just already like, look at this lazy bum sitting on the couch. Now, if you're in politics, Rob, Rob in politics, if you're going to do that, I'm not saying you never can. I'm saying you, you just know you're playing with fire here now. You're going after a demographic of the American people. It's like, okay. Now, I'm sorry, but even as a libertarian, to be going after the demographic that you're going after to be American people who are on welfare. And by the way, I say this thing, there are some American people who are on welfare who are absolutely despicable and should not be on welfare and are gaming the system. And they are, it is so fucked up. They're like, you actually completely able-bodied people who are collecting a welfare check. Anyway, I have like very, very low levels of respect for people like that. That being said, for a politician to be going after that guy, it's just, it just reeks of cowardice, like immediately already. It's like, Rob, every billionaire in this country is on some type of welfare. In this goddamn corrupt system we live on. Big farm is on welfare. Big banks are on welfare. You know, every goddamn university is on welfare. Israel is on welfare. NATO is on welfare. You know what I'm saying, dude? There's like welfare queens all over the place. And who did you pick in American in his living room with the courage you have to go after that? You know, my God. Like what? So, so it's all, it already, it's already cowardice to just be going after the person before you even get to the demographic that she made the person. All right, guys, let's take a moment to thank our sponsor for today's show, which is CalShi CalShi.com. Everybody's talking about it. It's the prediction market where you can bet on the outcome of just about anything. And of course, for me, I'm obsessed with politics. So that's what I'm always focused on. But it's interesting because you can see where people are putting their market. We were just the other day on the show looking at the predictions for the midterms and man, it is not looking good for the Republicans. If only there was someone who could have been predicting this for the entire last year and a half. Well, now you can be predicting things at CalShi.com/R/DaveSmith. That's our link. Go check that out. CalShi.com/R/DaveSmith. We're going to be keeping our eyes on where the action is on the midterms. And of course, you can go through all the individual races as well to really look at who's going to get what. There's a lot of big ones coming up. Go have some fun. Go check it out. We'll be watching with you CalShi.com/R/DaveSmith. Let's get back into the show. Well, I guess it's, it's cowardice on two levels. Firstly is if this person theoretically exists, the 20-year-old able-bodied male who has decided I want to sit at home and play video games all day and he cheesed noodles. I will point out, fuck you, ozempic people who are recently thin and now we're trashing fat people. Just total, total aside. But, you know, you didn't forget. No, I get you point. No, it's a real, it's a, uh, nobody's in there like there's a market flaw in there that fat people were serving by like the problem is you're going to get fat. Anyway, go ahead, continue. Keep cooking. But if that were true, well, what has happened in our economy that this kid has given up? Have you made it impossible to get a house? Is the job market become so horrific for 20-year-old males that they've given up? So I would think firstly, you could have had a more inspiring message of and it's not supported by the numbers. But if you could theoretically say, hey, we've got a problem that our young working men in Arkansas aren't working and I've got to fix the system here and make sure that there's opportunity for them because we can't have these people on welfare. Hey, you might have more of a message there. But the true cowardice is that if you want to criticize all the entitlement programs that are taking place in this country and that we're going bankrupt for them, I think you could talk about illegal immigrants coming into the country. I think you could talk about fraud that exists in the system. I think you could talk about the corporate welfare that you were talking about or you could talk about the minority groups that are probably in much higher statistical numbers actually abusing the system. But when you're doing this, you're clearly don't want to take on any of those other groups of people and you probably also so you have a fake target and it's also politically speaking. Why why why are we going after the 20 year old white kid? Oh, yeah, completely, dude. Well, look, man, there's so much. By the way, on that list of people on welfare and thank you for saying that because I should have added them to old people, dude, the entire generation of old people are on welfare. You're going to have to the young people, the young people for the most part are pay. They have to take money out of their door dash job to pay. What do you think it is when they tax you social security and Medicare and all that stuff? That's old people on welfare and I don't care if they have their mind fucked to believe that no, I paid into this system and now I'm collecting out of this system. That's just an idea you have in your head. That is demonstrably not true. What actually happened is you gave the federal government of the United States of America money 40 years ago, they spent it immediately on nonsense. The entire thing that you gave them all over those years has all been wasted and gone and then borrowed against and then borrowed against more and then printed the currency to devalue the money that we owed back. That money is gone. You paid sucker. You got robbed in the past. That is nothing by someone else has nothing to do with what's going on right now. Right now they're robbing young people to pay for the welfare that is the Medicare and Social Security for old people. That's what they're doing. People who have a much higher net worth, by the way, than these young people. So there's that point right there. But then Rob, the demographic of young white men. I think about who they're going after here. The demographic of disenfranchised sitting in the basement, young white men. First of all, by the way, if we're talking about welfare, it is like the most unlikely demographic to be on welfare. You have to go to like married Asian women who take violin lessons before you get to a group who is less likely to be on dependent on the state. That's just not who's dependent on the state. They may be dependent on their parents too often. But the white young men aren't dependent. Okay, now just saying black men say are much more likely to be on welfare. But why wouldn't there be a black guy in this commercial? And we all know the answer to that. Because Sarah Huckabee Sanders would never dare. She would never dare. There is an interesting, oh man, he's getting so ripped apart on this, but he deserves to. But that Joel Barry guy, he just had the, sometimes, no, it doesn't even matter what he says, but he just said it the perfect way. Because he's always trying to defend Trump in Israel and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whoever the establishment is. And he goes, no, no, guys, the reason they make it a white kid is because then it's, then you're not making it a racial issue. You know, if you make it a black guy, now you're making it a racial issue. And now everyone's going to fight about race. But if you make it a white guy, then it's just, it's not about race anymore. Now it's just about welfare or something along the lines. That was the point he was making. And it's like, Jesus, dude. So like, that's the expectation. And like, maybe this has been my point largely, you know, about the whole thing. So this topic isn't about, you know, it's the same way that like racial, the topic about immigration isn't about immigration. It's about mass migration. These are different things. It's about demographic replacement. It's not about whether we should have people coming in and out. Like, there's a bit like we always had Chinese people here my entire life. I've eaten Chinese food my entire life. There's been Chinese people here. That's a different conversation. Should they be allowed to be here as a different conversation? Then should we make the country majority Chinese? But it's just a different conversation. But anyway, in like within these dynamics here, you're not, you're not willing to go after the people who are actually likely to be on to welfare. But you don't, it's a, it's very woke of them. It's completely woke. No, but look, again, to my, I'm sorry, I just want to put a button on this. To the Joel Berry point, maybe perhaps it was reasonable if the country was 90% white, which it was through its entire history. And if it was always going to be 90% white and whites were always going to be the majority, and then there's 10% of minority here, maybe it is reasonable to say, white people, you should treat yourself as the absence of anything. And you know, it's not taking a shot at you if we just make it a white guy, even though it would be more likely to make it a black guy. But when the country is going to, is a majority minority country in 37% of Texas is non-Hispanic white. You know what, I mean, like, I don't know, dude, and then these young, it's like how many shots are these young white men just expected to take? That's Joel Barry's message. Just take another punch in the stomach, because no one else is strong enough to take it or something like that. Yeah, I mean, it's just very woke to go instead of what the statistical realities of this situation might be, let's be more politically correct and falsify reality and make it a criticism of white people so that we're not actually offending others. Yeah, and you know, I see some people, and I even see some of the, I don't even know how to exactly characterize them, but I see some people who are going, oh, so this is, people are being snowflakes about this, kind of the usual cast of characters. It's kind of, I don't even know how to say, both the guys I saw doing it happen to be gay dudes, but it was like gay, you know, like kind of political commentators, and they're like, oh, you're a bunch of snowflakes now, because you're upset that they're going after, oh, was the guy white? Oh, since when is it all about race or something? You know, you're being the woke one essentially is what they're saying. You're the one who's making this all about race, and you're the one who's being a snowflake. And it's just like, again, you would never say if they those same people, you're just cowards. Like you could pretend you're not, but go pretend somewhere else. If they had made it a black kid in a do rag, and black people had gotten upset about that, you wouldn't be saying that, even though that demographic is more likely to be on welfare, you wouldn't be saying get over it you snowflake. See, the rule is here that like minorities are allowed to have these grievances, and white people are not. That's always been the rule. Now, I'm just saying to be clear, I always thought that rule was bullshit, and I've been public about that for as long as anyone's known me, but also it just becomes so much more absurd when we've had this experiment in mass migration, and we're now a truly multiracial, multicultural society. It's like, look, the Republican party, this is just the reality of it, is supported by white people. This is a fact that it makes anyone uncomfortable, but the Democrats are the party of the multiracial party, and the Republicans are the white party. Now, when the Republicans can do a little bit better on the edges and not lose by so much with the minorities, then that helps them a little bit, but that's the reality. And why on earth, the party that white people all vote for should have to take between trash by their own people, on their own side, I'm sorry, dude, if you're going to make this a demographic, like, Rob, this is politics, it's political malpractice. If Hillary Clinton's going to make an ad that's targeting the American people, she's going to damn well make sure they have red maga hats on. So every Hillary Clinton voter who sees that knows, I'm telling you, the bad guy is the other side, the people who don't vote for me, okay? I'm not saying that's good or noble or accurate. I'm just saying like, that's how you do politics. You don't make it a person who might be the one who would vote for you. >> Unless your state's so old that you're rallying up all the old people actually vote to go, damn, these kids are getting into the cook jar and I need all those cookies. >> Well, well, that's, well, look, I mean, that is what she's doing, Rob. But that's, you know, that is what she's doing. And she is playing by the Joel Berry rules because those are the rules to the boomers because the boomers just have to close their eyes and pretend that they didn't give the whole country away, you know? So like the boomers have to, anyway, they have the attitude that's like for them, yeah, don't make it a black guy. That would make them kind of uncomfortable. We're not trying to be racist. Boomers like to feel good about themselves while they back genocide, you know, like that's, they got to feel good about themselves while they support the worst thing in the world. So like, no, they want to feel good. They actually, this is why the outrage is coming from the young people. But like they actually, and look, I'm not saying this is true about every boomer, but this really does characterize all of them. They'd rather demonize the people who look like their own grandchildren. So they don't have to feel racist about themselves. And it's really fucking disturbing, man. And people can say that that's racism, but I'm sorry. I think like somebody, I'm racist or whatever, but like somebody preferring to demonize their own, you know, I never thought about it this way until I had kids. Like before, before you have kids, I always rejected the kind of like, you know, listen, by the way, I should probably, I understand some people don't consider Jews white and then other people do consider Jews white. So whatever you consider us, I don't care. That's fine. But I always rejected the woke shit way before I was a popular podcaster and way before, way before I was even around people who identified Jews as anything other than white. And I was like, yeah, I'm not going to apologize for myself. Fuck you. Like if I have an opinion, I'm not going to be like, there's a straight white head row man who's cisgender. I just want to first apologize for that. But I would like to say my opinion, like fuck you. I'm a man. I've had opinion. I'll tell you what I fucking think. And the first opinion is all that fucking gay and retarded. But once you have kids, it's like do demonizing my own right? They're being demonizing my kids. How could I ever choose to do that? Anyway, the point Rob, the bigger point, the reason why I open the show with this today is that this might even work for her in this election. It's still boomers voting. But I'm saying like big picture America going forward, whether for better or for worse, this is going to be the new reality Rob, a majority minority country where white people are a grievance group too. And I don't think that's great man. I really just don't I just don't think this is good. And I'm to be very, very clear. I am not at all blaming white people for this. I think they have been pushed to almost like what else can you do here? Your only choice is to is to either just be a punching bag or say we're going to be a grievance group too. And I think it's a it's a terrible thing that we've been pushed into this situation. But going forward, it's like, I don't know like if you're going to be the majority and it's going to be your country, I think you can take being a punching bag a little bit. If you're not, I think you got to say we're not going to vote for people who are demonizing us. All right guys, let's take a moment and think our sponsor for today's show, which is of course Body Brain Coffee, the brainchild of Lewis J Gomez, the great Lewis J Gomez. Well, if you may know testosterone levels have been declining for decades, as a people were more stressed, we sleep like shit. We sit around all day and none of that is helping. And that's part of the reason why I started drinking body brain coffee. Body brain is real premium freeze-dried Colombian coffee packed with functional ingredients that have been linked to testosterone, support, stress management, focus and brain function. You've got Tungcat Ali, Ashu Agonda, two ingredients that have been studied for their potential to support healthy testosterone levels, stress and performance, L-theanine, which works alongside the caffeine for smooth focused energy. I can tell you this, I've been drinking body brain for months now. For like six months, I have one cup every day. I feel great. It really does make a difference. I highly recommend it. It's a delicious cup of coffee. It's going to make you feel better. It's a natural way to boost your testosterone. Plus, you support this show and you support the great Lewis J Gomez in his business venture, which really, he's the reason this show exists to begin with. So make sure you do that. Bodybraincoffee.com. That is the website. Bodybraincoffee.com. And the promo is Dave 20 for 20% off your entire order. Please go there. Bodybraincoffee.com promo code Dave 20 for 20% off. All right, let's get back into the show. Great. We turned whites into complainers too. Excellent. Yeah. Well fucking done. You know, anyway, by the way, I was, so I was thinking about that. And then I was also thinking about this other clip. And I think again, as I said before, you know, it's partly because Donald Trump has so taken his eye off of his domestic agenda that we haven't had any, it's crazy that Donald Trump's that back in 2016, there wasn't a national conversation and realignment over the issue of immigration and demographics and all this stuff. And we just kind of put it off and then let Biden open the border and make the problem 10 times worse. So, there was, you know, I, this issue of like American identity and drastic change in America and what it means to be an American. And this is going to be very important in determining the country that we all live in going forward. No disrespect to our listeners overseas. I know we do have some. This was a clip. I was looking for this during the orange Mac and tire. I wanted to play this for him when I was interviewing him, but I didn't have it. But this is from a few days ago. As recline interviewed Abdul El Said, the Senate candidate out there in Michigan, I have not paid a ton of attention to El Said. I know, you know, peripherally, I've seen a little bit of him. But it does seem Rob at this point that I think he's someone to pay attention to. Like he is, I think him and Mamdani and there's kind of the two big stars right now out of this DSA class. I don't know. Have you seen have you seen any of his stuff? I think we just recently played a clip and I've just seen more of him on social and more of his name in the media. And well, here is as recline who I would describe as reclines, politics as pretty progressive establishment. Here he is sitting down with El Said and they discuss, I'll say this before. Natalie, even just as you pull this tweet up, please, because I was just maniacally cackling about this before the show started. But if you pull this tweet up and Goddamn, maybe it's just my age and maybe there is something here that you think is me being prejudice or something like that. But I don't think so. But literally the sentence of the tweet, I just love this. Oh, shout out to Mario. He's the one who posted. I forgot it was his tweet. But he just says, Abdul El Said put the American identity into words. And just like reading that sentence, Abdul El Said put the American identity into words like, I don't know, man, I do think there is something pretty crazy about that. It's pretty crazy. I just don't, I just, I don't know, man. Now I'm not saying like he's not American. He can't have a comment on the American identity or something like that. But it kind of is something to like be even if you want to say that the identity of a team or, or even if you want to say there's a team who brings in new players, you know, and gets bigger and bigger for the newest player to be the one speaking on the identity of the team seems kind of bad form to me in principle. Yeah. Well, I think that's a particularly horrifying. If the guy is a democratic socialist. And so he's transforming the internet for the record. He claims not to be a socialist for the record, but just to say, all right. Well, it shows what I know. No, I thought so at first too, until I heard him say no, because he is like lumped in with that batch of guys. Well, I guess I'll have to dig up his political views and see how he's lying about his interest in democratic socialism. We got to, he gets into his take on Medicare for a little bit. We could play that. But let's do, let's do the American identity. I guess it's more Medicare, who has been giving him a democratic socialist. Rob, are you? You're telling me you didn't cheat. How did you? How did you possibly know it was more better care? All right. Hold that thought for the end of the show. That was crazy, dude. That's like your buddy at the beginning of six cents going, I bet he's dead the whole time. Is it pretty fucking great? How'd you know? Yes, more, Rob. That is his recommendation. But no, he's actually it's quite funny how he gets into it. Let's do the idea. identity one first though. Here he is on the American identity, American. So I'm curious what it means to you. This is a country where there is no ethnic identity. There's no religious identity. There is just a national identity. And I didn't appreciate it as much. Just pause it already, dude. And do you not get, listen, again, do you not get my point? Like, look, if, um, if shit, like, let's just say some, I bet that this country really falls apart, things get so bad here that I feel like I got to grab my family and flee. And I'm able to get a few things together. And Japan is willing to take me and I go into Japan. And then Japan lets me in, you know, and then I literally like, they even, they give me citizenship. They allow me and my family to live there. I thrive there. I'm doing really well. My, my family is doing really well. And then I turn around and I go, all right, I'm running for office. And let me tell you, first of all, about Japan. And, and let me tell you something, there is, um, the best thing about Japan, just say the absolute best thing about Japan is that they let me in. That's the best thing. Best thing is their openness to other people coming in. There's such thing as really even being Japan. There's no identity, there's no culture, there's no anything. The best thing about them is that I can come here and be just as Japanese as anybody else. Like, dude, do you not see where the optics of the, like, even if you think this is correct on principle, do you not go, man, I am coming over to a dinner party and just fart in the dining room right now. Is there, is there no sense of which you're, you're like, this is just like, I mean, look dude, now he's going to get into a point about why he's really arguing that America, he's actually arguing here, there's no other identity to American to being American other than the national identity. There is nothing else to it. And again, let's, let's go to his argument here, but that to me is, um, I don't know, that's a wild thing to, uh, to say to a, a nation as a very new arrival. Like, I just, I don't know, that is like, that is a really, really crazy thing to say, and look, essentially, my point's going to be this, we can play some more of what he's saying. I'm not saying, again, I'm not saying that they're the comparison to Japan, I'm using an extreme to paint a picture. Obviously, we do not have the same type of like ethnic and national identity that Japan has, but I'm just using it, but we don't have nothing. It's not correct that we have nothing. That's also not correct. And so I'm just using that to paint a picture that it is, well, it's not quite as crazy as it would be for me to do that in Japan. It is still pretty crazy for him to do that here. Um, and he thought you have on that, Rob. Yeah. I'm somewhat comfortable with speaking to that there's a national identity. But to me, part of that national identity is no free shit. It's if you want to work hard here, you can, you can make, you can earn a better life for yourself. That was a national identity. That's, that's the America that I grew up with is that, uh, you know, we're nation of immigrants and, uh, there's freedom here. And if you want to work hard and take the chance of being here, you can, you can make a better life for yourself for your family. But anything in line with, uh, hey, we need more social benefits or, uh, the American identity is that we have to take care of everybody and we have to include minorities and we've got to make sure that there's, uh, social benefits for them. Well, then I don't know what national identity you're speaking of. Please don't speak. Please don't speak for the American collective identity if it includes socialism. Well, listen, there is again, the history of the United States of America is the history of a nation. Hey, America is a very unique nation in a lot of ways, like in a lot of ways, America is a very unique nation and it's very unique in, um, how rich it became. It's very unique and how powerful it became both economically and militarily. It's very unique in the freedoms that were enshrined into its founding documents and it's very unique in the radical openness it had toward immigration and, um, and radical demographic change. There's kind of just no question about that. Like there were like major waves of, of immigration in America. There were also major periods of pauses on immigration, which the open borders activists don't like to talk about, but that's part of it too. Um, but okay, so all of these things are true, but that doesn't still mean that there's a nation here, or at least at some point there was, and that there are, and so in other words, like Dowl Cooper was talking about this on the Tom Wood show the other day. I thought you made a good point about like this, right? So, but this is me like kind of in my own words, borrowing from what I, I got from his point of maybe adding something to it, but like, let's just say hypothetically, right? You're, you're like a real heritage American or whatever they would call that, me and you are not, but let's say your, your family goes back to the Mayflower or whatever, and you've just been this, do you? Yeah, I'm like a fourth or fifth generation, I think. I don't know. Oh, I don't know why I just, I don't know why I just thought you were. You know what I'm not. We're, uh, we got a pretty good run here. Oh, where you, so you were like a real early, uh, okay, I mean, I knew one of my great, my great grandmother, and she was American and she had immigrated, but I had other great grades that were here. So I got to be like, oh, oh, I didn't actually, I did not know that about you, Rob. Well, look at that. Well, guys, well, I think we're going to have to, we're going to have to switch spots on this podcast, but I don't realize you go back further than me. Um, but like, okay, so if you do, if you, let's say you went all the way back, let's say you were like, oh, let's say like you were like the, uh, the descendant of like Thomas Jefferson or George Washington or something, one of the white ones. Uh, and let's say, uh, well, like, doesn't it just right, look, on the face of it, it kind of makes sense that if someone were to say to you, like, well, what's great about this country? What do you love about America? What is it to be America? And you're going to be like, well, like the, the founding tradition and the people and the, the liberties that are enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the this or, and maybe even some things that we don't like as much and we won the world wars and we did or whatever, but like, there's like an American identity there. There is a thing that people think of as American. There is a reason, you know, the example I gave the other day was like, when Vivek Ramaswamy's talking about all that tiger mom shit and there's like, you know, they got the people who like, um, there's the, the Asian, you know, moms who like your kid will be in violent practice and then we'll be in, in, you know, doing this, then we'll be reading more and maybe for fun on the weekends, we'll read nonfiction, but they're not, they're not hanging out with other people and they're going to be on high honours. I don't raise my kids like that at all, even though I value their intellectual development because like, I'm American, we kind of do things different here. We do have a cult. You can't say we have nothing. There's a culture here. There's a, okay, for that person who was the, the heritage American goes all the way back. You could see where they're more likely for that to be the story of America. Whereas Abdul al-Sahid, his story is more like, what's so awesome about America that they let everybody in. Like, you know, like, and I'm not saying that's not understandable because for his family, that's what's awesome about the country. They let everybody in and they have welfare and they have affirmative action and they make sure that it's really easy for the brown guy with a weird name to race right up to the top of the line and cut through all these white people who have been here for all these years. Of course, you like that about the country and of course, they like that about the country. It's like your interests are just diametrically opposed in some ways. The question becomes who should get their way and I say it's the people who are here. Like, I don't know, this is not crazy. This is the, this is common sense. It's obvious once you let your mind just entertain this opinion. Also, isn't the history of letting people in, almost suckers that we were putting to work? Like, yeah, go ahead. Go make your way out West. Enjoy. Yeah, we'll show up to New York. We'll shove you in a factory. Well, however you want to, I think you might be a little bit unfairly characterizing that as manipulative or making them suckers. I mean, the fact is that right at the very beginning, like, I don't know, Rob, like around the time of the Louisiana purchase or something like that, we need more people. We got this whole big frontier. We got to go explore this whole big frontier around the time of the industrial revolutions. We have these huge factories and we need jobs. We need more people for these jobs. Like, yes, there was a time where for other circumstantial situational issues, reasons, it made sense for major influxes of people. That is different than living in a gigantic welfare state following the Joe Biden years. Like, you know, it's just a different situation. But anyway, but just back to the idea that like, there is no American identity. I just, I don't know, man, like particularly, I think that people, more the liberal or left half of America, I don't think fully recognized how much the American identity means to the whole right half of America. They actually believe there is an American identity and they care very much about that. All right, let's keep playing. Until I went to grad school in the UK, where I'd meet third generation like Pakistani kids and I'd be like, you're British. They're like, I'm not British. I'm Pakistani. I was like, yes, but you're British. Like, you have a British citizenship. Like, yes, I'm a citizen of the United Kingdom, but I'm not British. They're British. I'm Pakistani. And the amazing thing about America is that we not only have the civics that enable us to become fully and foundationally American, but we also have a culture of that where, yes, there are some people who want to define America as being smaller than. that it can include certain groups of people whoever the out group is that they want a point to. But we are constantly in this process. - All right, so let's just make that change in the America. - So essentially, he says, we're constantly in this process of negotiating a bigger America, so, okay. I mean, I don't necessarily even completely agree with that, but like implied in negotiating is what? Like, someone doesn't want it. - Yeah, that there's someone else there and that we're going to compromise and be reasonable and that there'll be some type, you know what I'm saying? - No one's going to get everything they want, but we will all get some of what we want. Not you guys lose everything, all right? That's not negotiating, that's conquest. Now, again, I just like to take the logic here, right? 'Cause obviously the logic of what he just said is flawed if you really examine it. He starts off with the claim. A various, like, wild claim, that America has no other identity than national identity, no religious identity, no ethnic identity, no racial identity, nothing, nothing, just national identity. And what's the proof of that? I didn't realize that until I went to Britain and realized they have a much stricter, cultural or ethnic identity. Okay, well, just 'cause that was stricter, doesn't mean we have nothing. And yes, it is much easier and maybe even you could argue the difference is that it is possible to become an American word. It's not possible to become a Brit if you're an Indian Hindu or something like that. But that doesn't mean we have nothing. And dude, like, are you telling me, Rob, that like, and again, this almost seems to be the claim, that like if you just went to Haiti and gave them the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they're America now. There is no difference. Like, you know what I'm saying? Obviously, no, there would be different. That would be a different country. It wouldn't be exactly the same. And I gotta say this, I know we're a couple of Jews here, but to say there's no religious identity when the country has been 90 plus percent Christian for its entire history. Like, that does not make any sense at all, dude. You can't say that that is entirely, like listen, if you wanna say this hasn't been like a Christian nation through the legislative process or something like that, or that the government is secular, okay. But to say that there's absolutely no Christian identity to America or that there's no, but by the way, not white, white and black identity to America. Like, you're just telling me, like if you just saw a roof, if you just saw like an NBA game between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and whoever. Just say, and then I just showed you a court of a bunch of Japanese people. It's all basketball. There's no, it's all America. It's all the same. There's no difference here. Like, I'm sorry, no. It is app, this is like if I were to say to you, Rob. You ever watch the movie, "White Men Can't Jump"? - Not a full moon. - It's very familiar with it. - You're familiar with it? That has nothing to do with white and black culture. Nothing. Dude, it's just basketball or something like that. Well, what? No, it's not, I mean, obviously there's an element of basketball culture to it. There's an element of black culture. There's an element of white, I don't know. I just think it's crazy for new arrivals to say the best thing about America is that you never had the America before I got here. That's the best thing about us. The best thing about us is all that stuff doesn't exist at all. This is, again, to his next point here. This is not a, yes, it is true that the American identity and the American experience and the American story is different. And yes, a Chinese person can come to America and become an American. Okay, like this is how I view it. Yes, a Chinese, that's been the deal the entire time, Rob. Literally, that's been the deal the entire time. Since I was a fucking kid, the Chinese, I mean, I don't know if you know who had citizenship or who didn't have citizenship, but the kid of the guy who ran the Chinese restaurant was as much an American citizen as I was or whatever. Like, yes, that is the deal, right? But that is a separate conversation from if we imported a billion Chinese, are we still America? And I would answer the second question is no. The answer to the second question is no. We don't, if we import a billion Chinese people to America, so now it's like the, you know, the overwhelming majority is Chinese. They don't all become Americans. We all become a form of Chinese. I don't want to be Chinese. (laughing) And that's the perfect cap on that point. Exactly, yeah, let's go back to the clip as there's some more of this one. And so America to me is the notion that we can come together around our differences to build something that's greater than the sum of its parts because we believe in the process by which we do that thing. So, I mean, just pause it again. I mean, pause it, like America is a notion. That's it, we're a notion. We're the notion that you could do stuff. Like, no dude, America is the middle part of North America. We are what's between Mexico and Canada, and then we claim Alaska and Hawaii and a couple other little islands. Like, like, we're a place, we're a place. There's a people who lived here. It happened over the last 200 years. There's a history, there's a culture. There is art and science and innovations. Like, there's a real people here. We're not a notion. How do you get to come into a country? Be a person whose father still speaks with a thick accent, like a first generation, and then tell everybody else, you're a notion, by the way. - I guess, I have a slightly different perspective, which is, I don't totally disagree with this guy, but the process that he describes, where he goes, we're all supposed to be the sum greater than the parts through a process, and that process is supposed to be free market capitalism. - Well, that's true, too. Well, look, man, I don't think that's out of line with what I'm saying. Look, to the extent that America has a culture that we really recognize as American people are age, if we were talking about whatever we think of as like, the '80s and '90s and the 'Auts and the teens, and what America has been like throughout our life. That was largely built off of, first off, off of a period of time of very restricted immigration, to the point that there was a period in time where everyone had to meld together, and people's identities didn't become so much with their local ethnic enclaves, their little neighborhood. If you go to the 1930s and you go to downtown Manhattan or something like that, the Italians and the Irish and the Jews, I mean, their identity is gonna be so rooted in those different ethnic groups, but over a period of time without mass migration, they could come where their kids and their grandkids are all really kind of Americans or something like that, right? But during that time, if my argument is that there was a culture, there was a people, there was a tradition. The fact that it was a tradition of about 10% black people who were brought against their will from Africa and then later technically freed, but still quasi enslaved and then later ultimately freed. And that on top of that and a small percentage of the heritage Americans and a mix of European immigrants coming over. Okay, that's a lot more complicated than just French, but that doesn't mean it's nothing. It's what I just said. It's a mix of the 10% descendants of the African people who were enslaved and the 90% majority who may or a European mix, mostly Christians, different from all of Christendom. Okay, that still has a characteristic to it. That's something. That's what we knew as America. And yes, Rob, the cultural deal in America was always at least rhetorically was supposed to be what? Liberty. That was obviously always what the cultural thing that we were rallying around was the idea of remarkets, free people, you can do what you like. You can believe what you like and the government shouldn't be allowed to stop you from that. But at the same time, the government shouldn't be forcing me to subsidize you and all that shit. Yeah, that was always deeply embedded in America. It was so deeply embedded, man, that we used to just say it's a free country as like a saying when I was a kid. Like, it would be like, can I sit there and it goes free country? Like, that was just who we were. Don't tell me that didn't fucking exist. Let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show. Have you ever been watching the part of the problem podcast and thought to yourself, man, I have got to wear the same underwear as Dave. I've just got to get in whatever box of briefs he's wearing. I know you have, you all do. Well, if you want to, you now can at sheath.com. Sheath underwear, the underwear of legends, long time sponsor of this program. So if you love the show, you really should support them. And I will tell you, I stand by this product there and amazing pair of box of briefs. I love them. They're the only ones I wear. They're great. They've, I've had them for years at this point. They all hold up great. So I highly recommend them. Sheath.com, use the promo code problem. That'll get you 20% off your entire order. And then you just get to exist in the world knowing that you're wearing the same underwear as me, man. And that's worth its weight and gold or something. But seriously, the underwear is very good. Sheath.com promo code problem for 20% off. I think when you whitewash over the not socialist aspect to go, "Hey, we're all just supposed to be a collective identity." anyone should be allowed to come here and everyone should be occluded, you're just, I don't know, you're just preaching socialism. That's the root of what you're saying is that this is supposed to be inclusive of everybody and that everyone's supposed to be granted the opportunity of the free benefits of the state. Yes, and I think not American to me. That's right. That's right. And there is something where like that, it also creates, you know, as Darrell was saying the other day, it creates like this type of kind of like permanent revolution that the political class very much likes. And there's a reason for that, you know, kind of like constant changing and constant upheaval. All right. Let's let's keep on Egypt in like 20 years. And he still has an accent. He still looks the way he looks. And you watch him watch the lions on Sunday. I know like that's a full blood in America. So that's a, so there you go. So he goes, he's he's talking about his father. You know, you know, maybe if we could clean that up for post a little bit more to get that like point, because there really is something there that he essentially says that, you know, my father speaks in a thick accent and he wasn't bored. Yeah, let's just play it. I think probably just like the last 20 seconds even. It's funny. You know, my dad, I don't think he's been to Egypt in like 20 years. I mean, look, man, I just, uh, I don't have to say Rob, I just find that I think that shit is like really, I think that's wrong. There's nothing wrong about him saying that and having this attitude. It is so self-serving and awfully convenient to look around to America, to this country America. I'm sorry, I was born here and I love it here. And like I to say that somebody born in Egypt with a thick Egyptian accent that is there is no difference between that at America. And well, isn't that that's kind of convenient when that's your dad. But like, no, Rob, I do think to most people in America, we would say that like, I don't know if we would say exactly like that guy in Britain told them, like, you could never be an American because you're from there or you're, you're, you're, but like, no, like, is that as American as apple pie? No, like we have a saying that's a thing said, as American as apple pie, we don't say as American as a guy with a thick Egyptian accent watching the lions game. That hasn't been a popular slogan here. And I don't like, I don't know. I just don't think that's right. I don't think that should be the attitude. Also, Rob, everybody around Abdul El Saeed brags about how well spoken he is. They brag about the fact that he doesn't speak with an accent. Isn't there something a little strange about all this? Pick a lane, people either accents make you less American or not. Well, look, I mean, I just think like it's a, I think it's, it'd be one thing. This is just my position. I think somebody like Abdul El Saeed, I'm not even saying he can't run for anything or he can't, you know, I'm just saying, I wouldn't it be more like appropriate when asked about this for him to like say that like, even if he were, like, at least recognize the self interest in that where he goes like, well, look, obviously one of my favorite things about America is that they were willing to take my family and that my father who's got a thick accent can still watch the Lions game and still gets treated great in this country and doesn't face discrimination under the law, doesn't face prejudice isn't mistreated. You know, people like us have been totally incorporated into America and we love that and we're really grateful to the people who made up this country for that. Why is that crazy to say real people made the country? You can pretend that it was just a notion or it was just an idea. Nope, it was people who lived and breathed with organs and thoughts and dreams and goals. They were made of matter and particles, like they were real. They existed. They built the country. That's here for you and your dad to come here. How about a little bit of gratitude rather than saying they never existed. They were just a notion. And in fact, the thing we're talking about America that is my dad watching the Lions game. That is wrong and not true. And I'm sorry, but like if everything fell apart for me and me and my family had to go to Japan and they would have us there, I'd have gratitude to the people who built that society. I'd appreciate that. I'd learn their language and I'd adjust to their customs. And I wouldn't say that me having broken Japanese is every bit as Japanese as you speaking it fluently. That to me just seems like an incredible, it's like being incredibly rude to a house guest is like the, you know, you got invited over and then we're very rude to them. I just don't, I don't appreciate that. All right. Do you want to do, we got a little bit of time. You want to do is Medicare take rub. You might enjoy this one because you did. You had that prediction earlier. So let's see. All right. Here. Let's let's go to El Said and his, he's got some really creative new ideas about about universal healthcare and how we get there. Let's see. The nature of the debate has changed so much because the nature of private health insurance has become so porous and so frustrating for so many. If we can't, then the steps, even if you were to say we passed Medicare for all on, you know, in January of 2029, where would we go from here? Well, the steps would kind of be the same because you're not going to, there's no light switch in the, in the white house that like turns on Medicare for all. So you would make Medicare whole, because right now Medicare is extremely porous. You talk to seniors and they're like, well, there's all these different parts and it doesn't cover vision, dental and hearing and so you a lot of murder Medicare advantage plans. And that whole which are these private plans and they like them. I mean, that's going to, that would be hard to take away. I mean, the whole, the whole gambit on Medicare advantages, we give you some things on the front. So we, we lobby to keep Medicare porous. So then we can offer you quote unquote advantages like vision dental hearing, which normal Medicare doesn't offer. So you'd, you'd, you'd, you'd, basically show up all the parts. You would include a full robust part D. You would have vision dental and hearing. It would go to zero, copay, deduct old premium done. At this point, if you offer that a traditional Medicare, just pause it. So just to be clear, Rob, all he said so far is give them more. It's literally all he said, it's, it's like this ridiculous language to just say, like, it's very porous. We're going to make it not as porous. So more coverage. Okay. So more benefits. Okay. Like this, again, I just don't, it's even in a conversation just amongst two lefties. You just don't even see how crazy. I just want to look this up real quick here is how okay, according, according to the AI on Google, whatever that is, Rob. I don't know if that's not the best one. But okay. So I just looking up the unfunded liabilities that currently exist in Medicare. They came up with 60 trillion. That's the number that they're giving me. I'm not going to die on the hill of whether that number is exactly right. And if you want to go research that or whatever, but the number they came up with was 60 trillion way, way, way bigger than the national debt, which sits at a measly 40 trillion. So there's 60 trillion dollars of commitments that we've already made. So essentially what unfunded liabilities mean, Rob, is how would you say it? It's a commitment that we don't have the money for, right? Not a good way. We've said we're going to do it, but we don't have the money for it. So it's a you owe the money that hasn't been funded yet. So in other words, we've promised all these people. Once you get 65, you get this amount of coverage, but we've already promised 60 trillion dollars worth that we don't have. And we don't know how we're going to come up with that. And here's their answer. I haven't covered everything. Up that number way up. Vision, dental, more, more, more, less porous, more coverage, like, oh, well, geez, I don't realize why anyone ever thought of that. And that's everything. This is is collective American identity is that everything should be socialized and provided to you by the state. But we don't have any economic identity at all, I suppose, right? Like there's nothing to their America is no more capitalist or communist. There's not we don't even associate it with one of those because that I guess would be a different identity other than just the national one. But okay, so yeah, so this is this is the plan that you've come up with. We're in a nation in a debt spiral. Let's add a whole lot more to it. Here, let's keep playing more details. But he would jump from advantage. We would turn your head. That's number one. Then you start extending it to more. Yeah. Did you get his point there? That would take advantage of more free. No, no, no, he's saying jump. No, no, no, that's not what he's saying. That's, I mean, that is what he's saying. But That's not what he means. He's saying advantage the private supplement to all insurance. So they're going, "Hey, there's all these people who really love their private insurance 'cause they have this insurance and they don't want that to be outlawed and that's what you're gonna do, is you're gonna outlaw that." So how do you get away? 'Cause this is, Rob, you know this is the big, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, if you like your healthcare, you can keep your healthcare. This is the thing that actually makes, they pretend universal healthcare is popular because when you say, "Do you like Medicare for all?" People say yes most of the time. But as soon as you go, "Do you support Medicare for all?" If we have to eliminate all private healthcare, meaning you lose your healthcare, then it becomes unpopular. But it doesn't work unless you eliminate all private healthcare. How can you have private healthcare if you're gonna do a universal healthcare system, right? So they have to eliminate it. So the question there is, "Oh, what do you do about this?" So his answer is, we just give you so many benefits that everyone wants the benefits that the government program gives you. Wow. Rocket scientists. Thank God our Americanism was so open to incorporate these Egyptian geniuses in that we could never have figured this out. That had the government give so much welfare that nobody else even wants the other option. Has that ever worked out by the way? Has anyone ever have rich people ever wanted the government option, ever, anywhere, ever of anything? All those billionaires who love sand. But that's what he's got. Spend more. Karen, let's play the variant. At this point, if you offered that as traditional Medicare, the speed with which everybody would jump from advantage would turn your head. That's number one. Then you start extending it to more people. I think kids are obvious, right? Children. Thank God. I was hard. Wait, there's more, more welfare, more coverage, more stuff. Here's the, how do you solve the problem of $60 trillion of unfunded liabilities, Rob? You make it $80 trillion. Well, then you might ask, how do you solve that problem? You make it $100 trillion. You just keep promising more services that we know we can't possibly pay for is actually the answer here. And this is supposed to be taken seriously. - It sure sounds like a democratic socialist to me. - Yeah, really, what is the mean? What is, by the way, it is a fair question, Rob. Like, what is the meaningful difference? Because they never define what any of this means. All right, here, I'm sorry, is there a little bit more? He's good, because now we bring it to kids too. - Uncommonly healthy. And if they're not healthy, they're very sick. And so extending it to children is obvious. Extending it downward, right? From 65 eligibility age to 60, and then down into the 50s, 40s, that's kind of what needs to happen, right? All of that articulates better Medicare for more people. What I'm articulating is great Medicare for everyone. - Yeah, okay, so again, just until you got to get into any of this, there's the one question that destroys all of this. How are you going to pay for any of it? Like, there's no, again, I don't know how to express how juvenile, how infantile any of this is, Rob. Just go like, we have a piece of property, let's say, and we're just discussing building projects. And you go, alright, I'm thinking like, you know, whatever, 25s, 100 square foot house right here, blah, blah, blah. And I go, palis, let's do a palace. And you go, oh, we don't have money for that. We only have money for that. How are you going to do that? Bigger palace on top of the palace, flying palace on top of that. Like, what does any of this mean? How are you going to pay for any of this? What's, listen, okay. Medicare currently covers everybody 65 and up in America, right? And you have to pay taxes for Medicare every week. How much higher up do those taxes have to go to cover everybody 40 and up and all children? Give me a number. What's your figure here? Oh, you know what their figure is here? Rob, they just don't even pretend to have one. They just don't even discuss it. Doesn't even come up like it's an issue. Why, why would this be better? Rob, by their own logic, why wouldn't it just be better for me to just say, no, right now Medicare for everybody? But you mean lower it to 50? Lower it to zero, zero through 1,000. Medicare for why would you not do that? This is, I don't even understand why his pitch here is, we should do it just 'cause what? We can sucker people into it slower? This is, I'm sorry, man, but this type of like, economic, economic ignorance mixed with like, just hatred of America is not for me. I'm out. Anyway, anything else, Rob? Remind people where the shows are. Check out the run your math podcast. And of course, porch tours coming up in Salt Lake City and around the Texas area, go to porchdoor.com. After that, I got a Midwest run, Chicago, and a bunch of places. Go check it out. Hell yeah, Salt Lake City and Vegas. We'll see you this weekend. Catch you there. Peace. (upbeat music)