It's International Women's Day, which means it's time to talk about what's really breaking the Republican Party apart, and why Ted Cruz is the only viable alternative to Donald Trump. Plus, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are making complete asses of themselves on Fox News, and it's International Woman's Day. Ben Shapiro is back on The Ben Shapiro Show, and he's here to break it all down. Today's episode is a mashup of what's happening inside the R.P.D. behind the scenes, and what's going on in the rest of the country outside of the Beltway, and how it's going to affect the presidential race in 2020 and beyond. Subscribe to the show to get immediate access to all of the latest breaking news and analysis, and to stay up to date with the latest in politics, pop culture, entertainment, and politics! Subscribe today using our podcast s promo code POWER10 for 10% off your first pack! Subscribe, Like, Share, and Share on Apple Podcasts and become a Friend! Thanks to our sponsor Reagan Privacy for sponsoring the show! Go to ReaganPrivacy.com/TheBenShapiroShow and use discount code: PODCAST10 at checkout to save 10% on your first month of your rate, and get 20% off the entire month! Plus, we'll be giving out TWO FREE Bonus Months of PODCASTS! Get in-depth previews of our new book "It's Not Yours Truly, Yours Day, Your Day Offers! by clicking here! Learn more about our upcoming book "I'm a Natural Woman Who Feels Like A Natural by Ben Shapiro, My Day" by clicking HERE! and learn more about Ben Shapiro's new book, "It s Not Too Late: How to Be A Natural Woman, I'm Not a Conservative Anymore! on Amazon Prime Day, My Thoughts on the Real Thing? in the next episode on Tuesday, February 14th, February 15th, 2020! Also, check out my new book: and I'll Be Your Best Friend, I'll See You're Not a Badass, My Life's Day! coming soon! - Ben Shapiro and I'm Here's My Best Day, I Can't Have It All That & I'll Tell You'll Hear It Out! at That's Not Really That's My First Day, Too Good?
00:00:34.000So it is International Women's Day, a day when we celebrate the fact that a bunch of men voted to make an International Women's Day in what has to be one of the more condescending moves ever.
00:02:26.000And he will have deprived Donald Trump of enough delegates that this actually becomes a really close competitive race.
00:02:32.000Not to beat Donald Trump in the delegate count, but to prevent him from getting to 1,237 delegates.
00:02:39.000If that happens, then the question is whether there's some sort of backroom deal between all of the other candidates to get behind Ted Cruz, because the only other people who are eligible for the nomination are people who have won eight states.
00:03:07.000My David Brooks, who's a fake conservative who writes for the New York Times.
00:03:10.000We've talked about David Brooks before.
00:03:12.000He's sort of a faux conservative, an establishment guy.
00:03:15.000A couple of weeks ago he wrote a piece saying that Barack Obama, we're gonna miss him when he's gone because he's so genteel and civil and wonderful.
00:03:23.000This is the columnist who's the conservative at the New York Times.
00:03:26.000Today, he has a piece called, It's Not Too Late.
00:03:51.000selves and all the hope you had about entering a campaign with such a deep bench of talented candidates?
00:03:56.000Back in the early evening before the current panic set in, Republicans understood Ted Cruz would be a terrible general election candidate, at least as unelectable as Trump and maybe more so.
00:04:05.000He's the single most conservative Republican in Congress, far adrift from the American mainstream.
00:04:09.000He's been doing well in primaries because of the support of extremely conservative voters in very conservative states.
00:04:15.000He really hasn't broken out of that lane.
00:04:17.000His political profile is a slightly enlarged Rick Santorum, but without the heart.
00:04:28.000He says on policy grounds, Cruz would be unacceptable to a large majority in this country, but his policy disadvantages are overshadowed by his public image ones.
00:04:37.000His rhetorical style will come across to young and independent voters as smarmy and oleaginous.
00:04:52.000One that doesn't leave you self-loathing in the morning.
00:04:54.000It's a long shot, but given the alternatives, it's worth trying.
00:04:58.000And that is, basically, prevent Trump from winning the nomination, go to an open convention, and then select somebody who's not really conservative.
00:05:05.000He says, this isn't about winning the presidency in 2016 anymore, this is about something much bigger.
00:05:10.000Every 50 or 60 years, parties undergo a transformation.
00:05:15.000What happens this year will set the party's trajectory for decades.
00:05:18.000And David Brooks, remember, an establishment guy, he says, since Goldwater and Reagan, the GOP has been governed by a free market, anti-government philosophy.
00:05:26.000But over the ensuing decades, new problems have emerged.
00:05:29.000First, the economy has gotten crueler.
00:05:42.000Orthodox Republicans, seeing no positive role for government, have had no affirmative agenda to help people deal with these new problems, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:05:49.000What we really need is a big government conservatism.
00:07:27.000And what's happening is that the anti-establishment people are pulling at the conservatives from one side, saying, you can't go along with those establishment people.
00:07:36.000They're the ones who surrendered to Democrats.
00:07:38.000And then on the other side, you've got the establishment people pointing at the anti-establishment people and saying, conservatives, you gotta come with us, you can't go with those people, they back Trump, and Trump's not even conservative.
00:07:47.000You gotta come with us, he's crazy, he's gonna destroy the conservative movement.
00:07:50.000And so what you're seeing is the conservatives, the people who actually care,
00:07:54.000about constitutional conservatism getting torn right down the center between the anti-establishment and the establishment.
00:08:01.000And this is why things are playing out the way that they are.
00:08:04.000To understand this, you have to understand anti-establishment is not conservative.
00:08:14.000And how do we hope all of this shapes up?
00:08:16.000So first things first, the establishment.
00:08:19.000The establishment, they're people like David Brooks.
00:08:21.000The establishment are people like David Brooks.
00:08:23.000They find Donald Trump, they actually kind of like Donald Trump on policy is the truth, but they find Donald Trump off-putting.
00:08:28.000They think that he's rude, they think he's loud, obnoxious, and he says things that are brutal to minorities, and he alienates people, he can't do outreach.
00:08:36.000That's what they think of Donald Trump.
00:08:38.000But these same people hate Ted Cruz because they're not really conservative.
00:09:22.000Hey, we've heard this about the Trump supporters.
00:09:23.000The Trump supporters are people who've been thrown out of work in the Rust Belt, they were working in manufacturing, they can no longer work in manufacturing, and so they've been hurt, and so they want help, and the new Republican Party has to help these people.
00:10:38.000Also, conservatism is a philosophy, it's not a race.
00:10:41.000This is why I object so strongly to the sort of white nationalist bent of some of the Trump support that we've been talking about, and they're louder than they are deep.
00:10:50.000There's a few of them, but they're very noisy.
00:10:52.000But they do represent a real phenomenon.
00:10:55.000The Republican Party should not be catering to any of this, okay?
00:10:59.000And we'll get to Trump and his positions on the economy in a second, but it's important to note the establishment sides with Trump on a lot of policy.
00:11:06.000They want back George W. Bush's compassionate conservatism.
00:11:10.000A big government conservatism that helps the little guy.
00:11:17.000The fact is that this is why the establishment is so reviled by conservatives, because we feel that they actually represent the opposite of what they say they're going to represent.
00:11:25.000So, the fact is that, you know, Mitt Romney, for example, you know, when he says there's no establishment, of course there's an establishment.
00:11:32.000Here's Mitt Romney trying to explain away the establishment on Sunday.
00:11:36.000How about the argument, and again we heard this from Rush, this is the establishment basically trying to maintain control of a guy and push back a guy that they wouldn't be able to control.
00:11:49.000Well, you can't control Ted Cruz, for instance.
00:11:51.000No one has suggested you could do that.
00:11:53.000And Marco Rubio, everybody tried to stop Marco Rubio from going against a sitting Republican governor in Florida.
00:12:25.000Nobody's saying that there's a Wizard of Oz.
00:12:27.000Nobody's saying there's this grand conspiracy among the establishment.
00:12:29.000What we're saying is there are a bunch of like-minded people who believe like-minded things and what they believe in is a bigger government conservatism.
00:12:35.000Romney was their favorite in 2012 because he created Romneycare.
00:12:39.000Not in spite of Romneycare, because of Romneycare.
00:12:42.000John McCain was their favorite in 2008 because of campaign finance reform.
00:12:46.000Not in spite of campaign finance reform, because of it.
00:12:49.000George W. Bush they liked a lot in 2000 because he was talking about bigger government, not in spite of the fact that he was talking about bigger government.
00:12:56.000There doesn't have to be a conspiracy, a bunch of people in a smoke-filled room trying to coordinate in order for there to be a group of like-minded people who actually have a major impact on politics.
00:16:14.000If your family members were sending you emails from Obama.com, now imagine how ticked they'll be when you send them an email from Reagan.com.
00:16:22.000So share President Reagan's name with every email you send, and you know that you're not going to be scanned or shared with third parties.
00:16:27.000Go to ReaganPrivacy.com right now, secure your personal private email address, and you get two free bonus months at ReaganPrivacy.com.
00:16:36.000Okay, so the establishment, right, so we've got the establishment on the one side, and the establishment, these are big government conservatives.
00:16:42.000On the other side, because they've catered to Democrats for so long, and surrendered for so long, and said that the Democrats are really not bad people, they're just misguided, you know, they really don't have bad intentions, when they're anti-nationalist, there's nothing really wrong with that.
00:16:57.000When they say these sorts of things, the anti-establishment goes, wait, what the hell?
00:17:52.000Yeah, you've been very adamant about that when you've been on with me down in Florida, Coach Ditka, how you really disdain for Barack Obama.
00:18:00.000And I always thought in my lifetime Jimmy Carter, late 1970s, was the worst.
00:18:04.000I think Barack Obama's eclipsed Jimmy Carter.
00:18:06.000So you're telling me, Mike, in your long stay on this planet, even a Dallas Cowboy, when Kennedy was assassinated, I think around that time, that Barack Obama is the worst president of your lifetime?
00:18:49.000Busts of his own head to campaign headquarters all over the United States, which is just creepy.
00:18:53.000It's not a very good looking bust either, but in any case.
00:18:56.000The idea for the anti-establishment is Trump is a leader, he'll bust things up, he'll come in, he'll just take a bat and break everything and it'll be great.
00:19:26.000And I want to give you that opportunity to explain to people because no one ever asks you that.
00:19:32.000Sure, I mean, I'd like to do that, and in so many ways.
00:19:34.000But at the same time, I don't like labels necessarily, because a label doesn't mean very much.
00:19:38.000But when it comes to being conservative, I happen to be conservative.
00:19:41.000I'm very, very strong on energy independence, as you know, and I think that's the most conservative position, and I have the most conservative position on that.
00:19:50.000I'm very, very so-called conservative on the military.
00:20:18.000So Trump says he's conservative, and then he names three issues, and on one of them, he's not conservative, right?
00:20:23.000When it comes to free trade, he's not conservative.
00:20:25.000Okay, the conservative position on free trade is that you should be in favor of free trade unless there's a human rights component here, like Ronald Reagan, for example.
00:21:52.000And you're going to go back and you're going to remember your vote tomorrow.
00:21:55.000And you're going to say in a couple of years from now and long after that, that that was one of the great votes you've ever cast for anything.
00:22:04.000And I just want to thank you, Mississippi.
00:22:36.000The dispossessed, the people who have lost their jobs thanks to the shifting economy away from manufacturing and toward the information sector.
00:22:43.000And Trump has talked about it a lot too.
00:22:45.000And the solution is presumably to stop free trade, to stop free trade.
00:22:49.000And here, and Donald Trump calls this conservative.
00:24:44.000Let's say, for example, that we decided that we were just going to take a tax on all of us who are consumers and give a welfare payment to farmers.
00:24:52.000Right, if you're a farmer, we're gonna give you a welfare payment.
00:24:54.000You're a farmer in Idaho, you grow potatoes, you're having a rough time, so we're gonna tax all of us $10 a year, and we're gonna just give it to the farmers in Idaho.
00:25:39.000Okay, it's no different, no different, than the government taking your money and handing it to some person in the inner city, or handing it to some poor person in West Virginia, or handing it to a farmer.
00:25:49.000When the government gets involved in the economy for purposes of sending your money elsewhere, this is called redistributionism.
00:25:55.000By the way, the idea that China is just making a boon off of their trade with us, it's nonsense.
00:26:00.000Okay, China has had two fiscal collapses in the last six months.
00:26:04.000China is attempting desperately not to devalue its currency anymore, because if they devalue their currency anymore, their economy collapses.
00:26:26.000Well, that's what happens when you devalue the currency.
00:26:29.000Because all the government does is it prints another $100,000, so your money is worth half of what it used to be worth.
00:26:34.000So you can't buy as much stuff with it.
00:26:35.000Now, on the flip side, what it means is that everything that you're making is now worth half of what it was, so it's cheaper to export things, right?
00:28:22.000If I have $100,000 but I live on a desert island, my money is worthless.
00:28:26.000If I have $100,000 and I can buy lots of cool stuff, that's good.
00:28:30.000If I have $100,000 and I can shop at any place on earth through the internet, that's even better.
00:28:35.000Because now my money is worth more stuff.
00:28:38.000Free trade has made America incredibly powerful.
00:28:41.000It wasn't tariffs that made America powerful.
00:28:43.000It's free trade that's made America powerful because we out-compete other people in making great, expensive products.
00:28:49.000And again, think about it in terms of your own family.
00:28:51.000Would you prefer that your child was getting subsidized to work in the coal mines, or would you prefer that your kid were working in IT?
00:29:00.000That your kid were working in Silicon Valley?
00:29:03.000The answer is, you'd prefer your kid working in Silicon Valley, would you not?
00:29:06.000The same is true for the entire American economy.
00:29:08.000We can either tax the people in Silicon Valley in order to pay for the people working in the coal mines, or we can understand that there are certain industries in America that are too expensive to run in America, and we can shift our focus over to jobs that are more cutting-edge, that are higher-end.
00:29:23.000That's what's happened to the American economy, and the unemployment rate has basically stayed the same.
00:29:27.000So the idea that there are millions and millions of people putting out of work by technology, yes, this doesn't help the individual who's put out of work.
00:29:34.000But on a global economic scale, forget global, on an American economic scale, Americans are better off with free trade.
00:29:40.000Americans are much worse off with tariffs.
00:29:41.000There's never been a country in history that had high tariffs that ended up succeeding because of the high tariffs.
00:29:46.000There's never been a country in history that succeeded
00:29:49.000By devaluing its currency, by inflating its currency.
00:30:08.000So that's sort of the story with free trade.
00:30:10.000Has nothing to do... Being anti-free trade is not a conservative principle.
00:30:13.000Okay, so we have one group, the establishment folks.
00:30:16.000We have a second group, the anti-establishment folks.
00:30:19.000And then we have a third group, and these are the conservatives.
00:30:22.000And the problem is the conservatives are split.
00:30:23.000Because the conservatives know Trump isn't conservative.
00:30:26.000They also know the establishment isn't conservative.
00:30:29.000They don't like Trump's agenda, but they also don't like the establishment's agenda, so they're kind of caught in the center.
00:30:35.000And you can hear that from, for example, Rush Limbaugh, who's a real leader in the conservative movement.
00:30:39.000Here's what Rush had to say about Mitt Romney attacking Donald Trump.
00:30:43.000Let's talk about that, because there is a lot of commentary, and some of it coming from conservatives, who say that the Republican Party is in danger of tearing itself apart.
00:30:53.000We've seen splits many times before over political philosophy, but that's not what's happening this time.
00:30:59.000This is the establishment, the elite of the party, versus the grassroots base.
00:31:17.000This is... When I hear Governor Romney in his speech last week talk about how the Republican Party must stand for legitimate conservative values, they don't.
00:31:31.000You look at these primaries so far, do you realize they don't like Cruz either, Chris?
00:31:37.000In fact, maybe they dislike Cruz more than Trump.
00:31:40.000But Cruz and Trump are the only guys who don't want anything.
00:31:43.000The establishment candidates in this race cannot get noticed.
00:31:48.000The Republican primary voters, whether they're closed primaries or open, are voting for anybody but candidates attached to the Republican establishment.
00:32:19.000I really dislike Trump, and I'll get to that in a second.
00:32:22.000But, I also really dislike the establishment.
00:32:25.000So we're being torn apart because the establishment created the anti-establishment, and the anti-establishment, instead of being conservative, actually reflects the politics of the establishment, they're just ruder about it.
00:32:35.000And they hate the people in the establishment.
00:32:38.000More left-leaning groups, the anti-establishment and the establishment, the populist anti-establishment and the establishment, tearing at each other, and the conservatives caught in the middle and really have nothing to do with either so much.
00:32:50.000They hate the establishment, but they also dislike the anti-establishment that's gone full populist.
00:33:55.000If I don't vote for Trump, it's not a vote for Hillary.
00:33:57.000It's not even a statement I think Hillary would be a better president than Trump.
00:34:00.000I think Trump probably would be a better president than Hillary because it's hard to imagine somebody being worse than Hillary except President Obama.
00:34:07.000But my top priority is not defeating Hillary Clinton.
00:34:11.000It's preserving conservatism for the future.
00:34:14.000I don't think Trump's going to save the country.
00:34:15.000I don't think he's even going to reverse the process.
00:34:17.000I think Trump is just going to walk toward the cliff slightly slower than Hillary Clinton.
00:34:36.000All the Trump supporters out there, they say, it's not our fault, the ones who stayed home, it's not our fault Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama.
00:34:42.000We stayed home because we didn't like Romney.
00:35:03.000If you want to vote Donald Trump the nominee, that's your problem, but I don't have to be complicit in it and I'm not going to be forced through blackmail into supporting a candidate who I find to be disreputable.
00:35:13.000Okay, so a couple of quick notes and then things I like and things I hate.
00:35:31.000They'd already said the same thing about Ben Carson.
00:35:33.000Here's them doing this report yesterday about the Rubio campaign.
00:35:36.000Rubio, Alex Conant is the Communications Director for Senator Rubio, who's with us as well.
00:35:42.000Alex, thanks very much for joining us.
00:35:45.000Let's talk a little bit about what Jamie Gangel has been reporting, what you're hearing, that Rubio himself, very, very bullish, wants to stay in this race, but some advisors may be wondering if he can't win in Florida, maybe it's best to get out before March 15th.
00:36:01.000Uh, Wolf, Jamie's report was utter nonsense.
00:36:05.000She did not contact the campaign prior to coming on the show last hour and reporting that.
00:37:48.000What I meant by that is that in African-American communities, you have people who are living in desperation, often being abused,
00:37:58.000Okay, and there he is playing the bongos, Bernie Sanders.
00:38:07.000This guy is, I mean, he's even undermining his own socialist case on national TV to say black people suffer more than white people and white people don't know what it's like to be impoverished.
00:38:16.000I don't know what that has to do with racial profiling.
00:38:56.000But what about you, when you're typing an email?
00:38:58.000No, the State Department decides what is, and let me go a step further here.
00:39:03.000I will reiterate, because it's a fact, nothing I sent or received was marked classified.
00:39:09.000Now, what happens when you ask, or when you are asked to make information public, is that it's reviewed, and different agencies come in with their opinions.
00:39:20.000As you know, just recently, Colin Powell's emails were retroactively classified from more than 10 years ago.
00:41:29.000It's such a dishonest argument by the left.
00:41:31.000Oh, this is big government now trying to get into the woman's womb.
00:41:33.000No, it turns out we don't care about her appendix or her rectum or any other part of her.
00:41:37.000The only thing that we care about is the baby living in there.
00:41:40.000Okay, last night I was sitting around, my wife is about, I think she's 26 weeks pregnant, now I think her due date is the end of May.
00:41:46.000I know her due date is the end of May, it's May 25th.
00:41:48.000And we were sitting on the couch, and she'd eaten something spicy, and that means that the baby starts jumping.
00:41:54.000And if you've ever felt a baby kick in the womb, don't tell me that a woman has the right to define whether that's a life or not.
00:42:02.000That's the same thing as slavery, the idea that white people got to define whether black people were a life or not, depending on whether you were in Mississippi or Massachusetts.
00:42:11.000And when Bernie Sanders does this routine, well, good-hearted people can disagree.
00:42:14.000No, good-hearted people cannot disagree.
00:42:16.000When that baby is kicking in the womb, don't you dare tell me that's not a human being worthy of protection.
00:42:21.000But this is how extreme Democrats are.
00:42:23.000This is how extreme Democrats are, and they get away with it.
00:42:25.000So while the Republicans are busy slugging it out, I'd much rather spend my time on this show, going after Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, who are deeply corrupt and believe evil things about the way the world works.
00:42:36.000Unfortunately, we first have to decide who we're going to go up against them with.
00:42:42.000Okay, time for some things I like and some things that I hate.
00:45:07.000I think romance is an important thing.
00:45:09.000And by the way, this is a very sexy scene, okay?
00:45:11.000This is a sexy movie, it's a sexy scene, and I want to juxtapose that with the vulgarity, with the vulgarity of today's modern sexiness, okay?
00:45:18.000So Kim Kardashian decided that she was gonna do a naked picture of herself the other day, and this is supposed to be sexy.
00:47:05.000It has to do with the actual act of sex more, presumably, than what Leslie Caron is doing.
00:47:09.000Sex looks a lot more like what Beyonce's doing on the stage there, thrusting her legs open and closed, than it does like Leslie Caron dancing romantically with Gene Kelly.
00:47:17.000But when it has to do with romance and love, there's no question.
00:47:20.000That what is more sensual is the first.
00:47:23.000And by the way, if you're talking about your wife getting in the mood, there's no question that American in Paris is gonna do it better than a Beyonce concert.
00:47:29.000The fact is that what romance has become now, romance has been dumbed down because there's a spiritual side.
00:47:34.000I thought Drew made a great point about this on his podcast several weeks ago.
00:47:37.000He said rape is a spiritual crime, right?
00:47:39.000Because the fact is the act of rape is the same thing as the act of sex.
00:47:44.000It's just there's consent that's missing.
00:47:45.000So it's a violation of the woman's soul.
00:47:50.000Well, that assumes that there is a will and a soul and a consenting side, and that means that there's a spiritual connection that should be made prior or during the act of sex that has something to do with it.
00:48:02.000This is why I believe in virginity until marriage.
00:48:03.000This is why I was a virgin until marriage.
00:48:05.000It's something I wanted to share with the person, not only that I love, but that I'd already made a lifetime commitment to.
00:48:11.000And this is why I think that romance is so important, particularly in the context of marriage and leading up to marriage.
00:48:17.000Because once you lose the spiritual connection that has to do with sex, you may as well go get a prostitute.
00:48:21.000I mean, and that's essentially what our culture has become, and it really is gross.
00:49:55.000Abrams wants to diversify Star Wars by adding a gay character for no reason, because sexuality is not at the center of the Star Wars universe.
00:50:04.000It's not something that's deeply important.
00:50:06.000In fact, last time they tried sexuality, a dude made out with his sister and it was all awkward.
00:50:10.000So, sexuality has never been at the apex of the Star Wars universe.
00:50:15.000However, now we've decided that we have to have transgenders and gays.
00:50:19.000I mean, first of all, I think we can just call Jar Jar Binks all of those things and be done, right?
00:50:22.000I mean, then we just can skip all the rest of it.
00:51:43.000And if you want to ruin Star Wars, just turn it into, Darth Vader secretly had a thing for the Emperor, and they used to electrify each other at night.
00:52:02.000Okay, so she randomly decided Dumbledore was gay, and no one was- Oh, and everybody was like,
00:52:08.000What, what does that have to do, like, what was going on in the shed with Harry?
00:52:11.000It was just, it just made things weird for no reason.
00:52:13.000Like, you wanna make a character gay, make a character gay.
00:52:15.000But don't take iconic old characters and then make them gay for no apparent reason other than you're being politically correct.
00:52:21.000It's silly, and it's ridiculous, and it's, and it's just, it's just dumb all the way through.
00:52:26.000Well, I'm sure we'll talk more about such things tomorrow.
00:52:29.000We'll also talk about the results of today's primaries.
00:52:32.000There's always more to talk about because the world will keep spinning until Donald Trump carves it into the shape of his face and puts it on your mantle.