Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1351 ｜ We Need This Wake-Up Call Before the Midterms ｜ Kevin Roberts

00:00:00.560 After Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the right almost immediately fractured.

00:00:05.240 Now we have all these different factions and it's hard to know what the future is of conservatism.

00:00:10.280 What is the future of America?

00:00:12.480 Do the midterms even matter?

00:00:14.820 Today we've got the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, to give us the lay of the land,

00:00:19.960 give us some action steps, and to help us know what's next and how we can get involved.

00:00:25.880 You're going to love this episode and be so encouraged and educated by it.

00:00:30.300 This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:33.080 Go to GoodRanchers.com.

00:00:34.240 Use code Allie at checkout.

00:00:35.260 That's GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.

00:00:46.720 Kevin Roberts, thanks so much for joining me.

00:00:48.820 I really appreciate it.

00:00:50.140 It is a pleasure.

00:00:51.320 You know that all of us at Heritage think the world of you.

00:00:53.580 Thanks for what you do.

00:00:54.140 Well, likewise.

00:00:54.640 The feeling is mutual.

00:00:55.880 So I thought there's no better person to ask about the current state of conservatism.

00:01:00.340 And to me, it is not really a simple question, especially post-Charlie's assassination.

00:01:07.560 There's just a lot of, I don't know, growing pains, dissensions, fractures going on.

00:01:12.700 So what is your lay of the land from your vantage point?

00:01:16.600 Lay of the land in sort of two big ways.

00:01:19.540 number one is a lot, maybe most of those pain points, fissures, come from the conservative

00:01:26.820 movement growing. And so one thing that's a silver lining to what is some very frustrating

00:01:31.840 and unseemly commentary, especially online, is that it's because it's growing. And therefore,

00:01:38.820 and you know, I'm going to look at this as a historian, when any ideological movement grows,

00:01:43.980 that the proverbial problem of a big tent becomes really difficult. But the second thing that I

00:01:48.740 would say, to tell you something that you and your audience know well, is that this is aggravated by

00:01:53.460 social media. Not everyone on social media, but the fact that we can fire off something without

00:01:59.360 fully thinking about it then just inflames those tensions. And so the upshot for me, for us at

00:02:05.940 Heritage, because our ethos is not just to add and multiply to make the movement bigger, but to make

00:02:11.300 it more cohesive, is to try to appeal to those principles, those concepts that cohere almost

00:02:18.700 everyone, we might have some differences of opinion on how we get there. For example,

00:02:22.740 Heritage's family policy paper. We happen to think it's really bright, right? Otherwise,

00:02:26.880 we wouldn't have published it. There are some friends in the movement who don't love the idea,

00:02:30.960 but we credit them for how they've gone about the discourse of that, right?

00:02:34.460 And what is Heritage's position on that?

00:02:36.460 Our position is, being conservative, not libertarian, that there is a role for government

00:02:40.680 to help spur greater marriage and birth rates. And there are some policy specifics there that

00:02:46.120 would cost us some money. That's the bottom line, right? And that's the rub, but a very friendly

00:02:50.620 rub between us and some thoughtful friends on the right. And I use that example to offer a hopeful

00:02:56.800 example of how it's still possible for us as a conservative family to have productive conversations,

00:03:02.300 not for the sake of destroying each other, but for the sake of saying, as these friends on the

00:03:07.840 right have said, we credit Heritage for starting this conversation. I think my colleagues are owed

00:03:12.920 that credit. But we want to refine some of these proposals this way. Those are the conversations

00:03:18.500 we need to have about real policy substance that affects everyday Americans. And that might be the

00:03:24.280 sort of rule of thumb, that we talk about real things rather than just sort of ephemeral things

00:03:29.620 that are easy to opine about. Yeah. There was this back and forth, speaking of social media,

00:03:34.580 between Matt Walsh and Nick Fuentes. And I wouldn't typically quote Nick Fuentes, but I actually think

00:03:39.820 his position here is representative of what some people think so it's kind of worth noting

00:03:43.600 that matt argued that if we're going to have a dividing line on what's considered the right

00:03:49.020 that he believes as i do it should be that those who believe in natural marriage are willing to

00:03:54.500 fight for it who believe in the cohesion of the family and who fight for the unborn that those

00:04:00.080 are essential allies that we can disagree on some other things or how to go about protecting those

00:04:05.400 things. But those are the core issues. And Nick Fuentes replied, no, it has to be America first

00:04:11.240 versus Israel first. And again, I think that that is actually representative of what some people on

00:04:18.320 the right think. So what do you make of that back and forth? Yeah, on the on the substance of the

00:04:23.960 ideas, I've learned not to talk about personalities, right? On the substance of the ideas, the idea

00:04:29.960 that we're going to define conservative conservatism primarily by our belief in the

00:04:34.760 family being the most important institution is correct.

00:04:37.960 That's always been the case for conservatives.

00:04:39.900 Obviously, we can expand the movement

00:04:41.880 to cover some other policy objectives,

00:04:44.300 but this increasingly popular criticism

00:04:47.960 of the state of Israel on the right

00:04:50.260 is something that's problematic.

00:04:51.760 And it's problematic on a couple of levels.

00:04:53.880 First of all, let me be sure that people understand

00:04:56.240 we can distinguish between political Zionism,

00:04:58.400 which is our fervent belief in the state of Israel's

00:05:00.880 right to exist, right?

00:05:02.360 and theological Zionism,

00:05:03.840 which is not adhered to by every Christian.

00:05:06.300 And that's okay, certainly at Heritage,

00:05:07.840 that's what we believe.

00:05:09.380 But on the right, particularly among young men

00:05:11.740 who follow certain podcasters,

00:05:13.880 there is this desire to create this division

00:05:16.380 between what might be America first

00:05:18.520 and what might be a smart foreign policy

00:05:21.480 regarding other countries.

00:05:23.240 On the facts of the matter,

00:05:24.920 just to delve into this in one more level of detail,

00:05:28.820 Israel as a state is a model ally for the United States.

00:05:32.300 It's a stronger military ally than Great Britain has been.

00:05:35.460 It can at least field an army, which would be questionable, unfortunately, about the

00:05:39.240 British.

00:05:40.120 We think we have an emerging, equally strong ally in the Far East, in Japan, and in a lot

00:05:45.080 of ways, Japan, in similar ways, could be equally effective in the Far East as Israel

00:05:50.440 is in the Mideast.

00:05:51.460 The reason that I say all of this detail is focusing on the substance of the matter allows

00:05:57.780 us to see the certain questions whether it's the family whether it's israel whether it's other

00:06:03.220 questions in the movement with a lot more clarity rather than just using it as a trope which i'm

00:06:08.340 afraid sometimes that it is ultimately how do we get past this we talk about the substance and we

00:06:15.700 welcome the debate as long as as the debate is within the confines of of acceptable conversation

00:06:21.780 right and what we're trying to do at heritage is have those family conversations rather than say

00:06:27.300 oh, what you're seeing online, people don't really believe. No, some of them do believe it.

00:06:31.680 And it's very important that we engage with them so that we can, as we would like to do at Heritage,

00:06:36.080 convince them of the right policy proposals.

00:06:38.540 And when you're talking about the limits of acceptable conversation, I think what you're

00:06:42.420 saying, but correct me if I'm wrong. Okay, yes, we can talk about some policy disagreements that

00:06:47.120 we might have. Or maybe you're someone who believes that we give too much support to

00:06:52.180 countries in general. Or maybe you have some questions about the alliance that we have with

00:06:55.920 Israel or other nations. The conversations that are no longer productive are those that are like,

00:07:02.080 well, all Jewish people are responsible for X, Y, Z, or Jews run the world, or the Zionist lobby 0.80

00:07:07.420 has disproportionate power and is persuading all of these podcasters and politicians. Is that kind 0.95

00:07:13.580 of how you're distinguishing between productive, acceptable conversation and then the conversations

00:07:18.180 that kind of devolve into conspiracy, et cetera? It is. And that's probably the easiest way to

00:07:23.540 describe that red line, facts or even theories versus conspiracy theories. And it can be very

00:07:30.940 difficult to figure out what someone's motives are. But when people online are saying that Donald

00:07:37.400 Trump, of all people, was provoked into this current conflict with Iran because of Israel,

00:07:45.200 that's just absurd on its face, if for no other reason than knowing how Donald Trump operates,

00:07:49.520 right? It doesn't mean that we can't have a conversation about the future of America's

00:07:55.500 alliances with other countries, about the wisdom of certain policies of the Israeli government.

00:08:01.620 But having those conversations, which are legitimate conversations, actually is a way

00:08:06.880 of giving oxygen to the kinds of discourse we need to be engaged in on the facts and even some

00:08:12.680 of the well-informed theories, rather than giving oxygen to the conspiracy theories.

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00:09:28.040 slash Allie. I saw this poll that said that among Gen Z, 75% consider themselves pro-Palestine,

00:09:40.860 and then the 25% consider themselves anti-Israel.

00:09:44.780 Obviously, as you were saying earlier,

00:09:46.460 all of us want to multiply conservative ideas

00:09:49.760 and we want more people to vote for the policies

00:09:51.860 that we support.

00:09:53.540 How do we go about on what seems like

00:09:55.320 such a polarizing issue?

00:09:56.680 It does almost seem like the polarizing issue right now.

00:09:59.540 How do we go about bringing people in

00:10:02.420 when the Republican Party is largely pro-Israel

00:10:05.260 and the younger voters seem to be completely opposed?

00:10:08.980 It is very difficult.

00:10:10.440 I want to acknowledge that up front, but we at Heritage think we have at least one part of the solution, and that is to continue to advocate for and implement what is commonly now referred to as a realist foreign policy, which is to say, as Donald Trump, more than anyone else taught us, especially in his first term, that the United States will always have the most lethal, efficient military, hopefully used more sparingly.

00:10:37.000 When it is used, it needs to be proper.

00:10:39.300 It needs to be time-limited.

00:10:40.380 We can avoid ground troops in particular because of the greater likelihood of loss of life for our servicemen and women.

00:10:46.080 We do so. 0.90

00:10:46.740 I think that as we sit here, Ali Beth, if the Iran conflict comes to a close pretty soon, and I think that it will,

00:10:54.660 and friends of the president on the right are reassured that we're continuing on this trajectory of a more realist foreign policy,

00:11:02.660 frankly more restrained that that is going to give us a touchstone to bring some people

00:11:08.240 back on the right into the fold and to appeal perhaps not to the far left but to the center

00:11:14.400 left of people who understand that this is a proper constitutional restrained use of american

00:11:19.460 power that might be a sales pitch to them that we can deliver but it starts once again with

00:11:24.500 implementing good policy and i think that's what we have to do conversely if i may if god forbid

00:11:31.040 for a lot of reasons, it's November and we're still active in Iran, that's going to be a very

00:11:36.000 difficult thing to do because we will have lost on the political right one of the most popular

00:11:41.240 newer ideas that I have seen in my half decade now here in Washington, D.C. leading heritage,

00:11:47.460 which is that America will remain strong, but it's going to be a lot more restrained in the

00:11:52.400 use of that military power. That's a popular idea, period. It's particularly popular, as you

00:11:57.440 know with younger men and women right and that is another divide that i see that a lot of the

00:12:04.100 older republicans a lot of the baby boomers obviously president trump himself and people

00:12:08.140 around him are like yes peace through strength this is something that we have to do they've

00:12:12.660 talked about the timeline why it had to be right now but then of course you have another side who

00:12:17.680 says this is completely unnecessary it's going to start world war three we are threatening the

00:12:22.160 lives of our own kids and grandkids and i think it can be really hard for the average conservative

00:12:27.860 You've got two sides with people that you trust, both saying what kind of sounds like

00:12:32.280 reasonable, smart things, and you just don't know what to think.

00:12:36.520 And so how should we navigate that?

00:12:39.140 How do we know who to listen to?

00:12:41.020 Well, for the thoughtful voices who have been voices of constructive critique of the

00:12:48.180 president's involvement in Iran, and I say they're thoughtful because they're not engaged

00:12:52.460 in conspiracy theory.

00:12:53.420 They're just saying they're offering a rational hypothesis, which is that if we're there too long, this series of events could happen.

00:13:01.580 I happen to think that's a correct diagnosis, which is why at Heritage we have done two things.

00:13:06.240 First of all, tell the president and his administration they have done, I think, a flawless job in executing this campaign.

00:13:14.360 Flawless. It's been a perfect military campaign.

00:13:18.780 Having said that, they will continue to see diminished popular support for this the longer

00:13:23.820 the war goes. Because while, of course, I think the president is correct about a clear and present

00:13:29.620 danger to the United States for only 47 years, you know, by this former regime, we also understand 0.94

00:13:35.340 in the United States, we have some other problems we have to fix. The country generally trusts

00:13:40.260 President Trump on the economy. We have the midterms coming up. There's a reality that has

00:13:45.200 to be confronted there. And so I think, to sum up here, as long as this war is a war of weeks,

00:13:51.780 rather than a war of months, or God forbid, years, that those people who've offered the

00:13:56.700 constructive critiques of no more forever wars, and they're right about that, are people who are

00:14:01.640 going to be back in the fold, at least politically, with the President's Coalition. And it gives us

00:14:06.480 the opportunity when we get to 2027 and beyond, to continue to build what I think is a very

00:14:12.840 a durable, long-lasting majority political coalition around the mindset that when the

00:14:19.860 United States must be involved internationally, militarily, on behalf of its people, it'll be

00:14:25.680 quick, it'll be lethal, it'll be total, but it will be just a period of weeks. Our technology

00:14:31.640 will allow us to do that. The post-script that I have to observe, I would be remiss if I didn't,

00:14:36.460 is that if you don't do this, the Chinese take a lesson from it, which is that the United States 0.98

00:14:42.640 is incapable of having a quick military conflict, that the Iranians will have succeeded in drawing

00:14:48.060 down to the point of real concern, America's munitions. Our index of military strength at

00:14:54.480 Heritage, for example, shows that we are incapable, unfortunately, tragically, of fighting two full

00:15:00.340 scale wars at the same time. Always difficult, but we've done that a couple of times. We can't do that

00:15:05.960 right now if China decides to act up towards Taiwan. That's yet another reason that some of

00:15:10.860 The thoughtful voices, not the conspiracy voices,

00:15:13.140 the thoughtful voices on the right

00:15:14.500 are encouraging the president to wind this down.

00:15:17.620 And what makes you feel optimistic

00:15:18.920 that it will end in a matter of weeks or months and not years?

00:15:24.240 Well, two things.

00:15:25.100 Number one, I believe it when I, I mean it when I say it.

00:15:29.120 I think the president's earned that trust.

00:15:30.860 He has been exceptional across the board,

00:15:34.300 especially regarding national security and foreign policy.

00:15:36.880 But the second is, maybe for someone who doesn't believe that as fervently as I do, the president's a pragmatist, and he understands competing goods. 0.84

00:15:46.620 He understands that it is a good to denude the evil regime of Iran of its military power. 0.85

00:15:53.180 It is a good to eliminate from the chessboard in the Middle East Iran's military nuclear program. 0.94

00:15:59.400 It's also a good to pay attention to the American economy, which has, I think it's ready to just

00:16:04.880 take off and have a Trump boom, but it's being held back by the oil prices that are generated, 0.66

00:16:10.260 of course, from Iran. And it's also really important for Americans to see this president,

00:16:14.540 who was elected in large part because of his focus on the domestic agenda, to be back focused

00:16:19.200 on the domestic agenda. I know that my friend, President Trump, doesn't like to hear that

00:16:24.760 observation right now, because he rightly wants to see this war to a conclusion, and I applaud him

00:16:29.540 for that. But over the next weeks, it's going to be really important that he does so.

00:16:34.480 Right. Do you think concern over the war is something that is largely felt by independents

00:16:41.380 and conservatives? Or do I just feel like that because I'm seeing commentators, fellow podcasters

00:16:47.680 really, really press Trump on this? And I think it has to do with Israel. It has to do, I think,

00:16:54.660 with Charlie being gone somewhat, because Charlie was always the one to kind of help us understand

00:16:59.940 what Trump is thinking and why. But then also, I think it has to do with this war, and some people

00:17:06.500 feel betrayed. I mean, how representative do you think that is of the voters?

00:17:11.980 I think it's very representative. I mean, it may be a touch more vocal because of the nature of

00:17:17.080 podcasting, right? But I think one of the geniuses of how Heritage was founded is that while we're

00:17:24.820 headquartered in Washington, D.C., we're supported by normies, by everyday Americans. And I'm often

00:17:31.380 asked the question, you know, how can you, Kevin, or your colleagues stay normal and not be out of

00:17:36.480 touch like everyone else in Washington? Well, because of the people we hang out with, right?

00:17:40.380 And so I know what I hear from you and other very thoughtful podcasters who are certainly

00:17:45.100 supportive of the president, but offering some constructive critiques about the Iran conflict

00:17:49.820 is representative of what people are saying. In fact, I'm just going to drill down a little bit

00:17:54.020 more if I may. The most common thing that I hear if I'm out in the Shenandoah on the weekend or

00:18:00.620 on heritage business visiting with everyday Americans is, and these are from dyed-in-the-wool

00:18:05.380 MAGA supporters, like Trump is the end-all be-all. They support the president. They certainly support

00:18:10.660 our servicemen and servicewomen. They are willing to support the Iran conflict, provided it's time

00:18:16.100 limited. But they say in the very next breath, what about grocery prices? What about gas prices?

00:18:23.460 And what I would want the president to understand is when they're airing those questions, they're

00:18:28.580 not airing questions questioning his leadership or his authority. They're wondering when he's

00:18:34.260 going to be able to get back to turning his attention to that because they trust him on it. 0.91

00:18:38.320 And I think that's really what, if it's the end of the summer and we're still in Iran, that's going to be a real problem, not just for the president, but for conservative policymakers in Washington is trust by the base on focusing on what they were elected to do, which is to be focused on the domestic agenda. 0.59

00:18:56.780 Right now, the president can do both, but I think the clock is ticking.

00:19:01.060 Yeah, and it can be hard, especially when an American is struggling to see the importance of engaging in a foreign conflict.

00:19:08.900 It's not that there's not the capacity to understand, but all of us are like this.

00:19:12.760 When there's a pressing issue right in front of us, we can't think about the thing that is far away or in the future or something.

00:19:18.560 And so I think people want to feel the relief.

00:19:20.960 They hear the news that good things are happening economically, that good things are happening in the Justice Department or good things are happening at the border.

00:19:27.980 but they want to be able to see it and feel it in their own communities and i think some do but they

00:19:34.020 really want to feel it you know they want to feel that relief i did i'm glad you put it that way

00:19:39.060 because what i hear from a lot of trump supporters is they want to see the grocery and gas prices

00:19:46.760 come down to the level the president says they're going to right and it isn't just for their own

00:19:51.480 benefit we all want that right it's that they want this president to succeed yeah and so the reason

00:19:56.280 I can sit here as a not just professional, but also personal supporter of the president

00:20:01.040 is because I believe so much in his agenda. He's succeeded in closing the border,

00:20:06.140 zero border crossings, zero border crossings of the Southern border.

00:20:09.440 I think most people don't even realize that.

00:20:10.600 In the last few months. I know. And I just got back from a preliminary briefing from

00:20:15.800 some senior economic advisors in Congress. I think the second quarter economic data

00:20:20.340 is going to be very good, especially if the Iran conflict comes to a conclusion this April,

00:20:26.020 which means the third quarter will be great.

00:20:28.260 I want that for Americans, left to right.

00:20:31.340 But it also will have the political benefit of the midterms.

00:20:33.860 And the reason I say that,

00:20:35.200 even though I'm more interested in ideas and policy,

00:20:37.220 is because if we want good policies to be implemented,

00:20:39.880 the elections have to go well.

00:20:41.460 There is no doubt in my mind

00:20:43.360 that the president is considering all of this.

00:20:46.380 He's got not just a CEO profile,

00:20:49.000 which means that he can handle a lot of information at once.

00:20:51.940 He's a brilliant guy.

00:20:53.400 And I think he's going to get this one right.

00:20:54.800 I just think he's probably now down to a couple of weeks to do so.

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00:22:01.520 code Allie. What do you think, expounding upon that, that Trump has done really well so far,

00:22:13.180 and what is maybe one thing, maybe two things that you would really like to see him focus on

00:22:18.660 in the next two and a half years.

00:22:20.200 He has, in terms of specific policy,

00:22:23.760 and then I'll talk about attitude for the country,

00:22:26.300 he has gotten an A-plus on border enforcement.

00:22:30.900 And, you know, you would like to think

00:22:32.020 every president would do that,

00:22:33.160 but we now live in an era where there's this seesaw effect

00:22:36.380 between the left and the right on that, A-plus on that.

00:22:39.220 And mass deportation, so zero crossings,

00:22:41.240 but mass deportations, I think some people are like,

00:22:43.640 when are we going to see that?

00:22:44.660 Is that still happening after the huge kerfuffle

00:22:46.800 in Minneapolis?

00:22:47.500 I think that it will. That was certainly a PR problem. The administration let the left take advantage of them. And that administration of all administrations should know better. But it happened. Having said that, there is a lot of political support, including heritages, behind revitalizing the mass remigration, the mass deportations.

00:23:09.240 I think that has to happen, not just as a matter of justice, but also as a matter of

00:23:14.440 political trust to make sure that this movement includes that.

00:23:17.960 So A-plus on southern border enforcement.

00:23:20.800 Interior enforcement has been choppier, but in fairness to the administration, that's

00:23:25.740 because of the plethora of sanctuaries, cities, counties, and states.

00:23:29.000 So what we're trying to do at Heritage in this coalition on deportations is to provide

00:23:33.520 the political air cover for the administration to ramp back up on that.

00:23:36.680 The administration has also done a good job on fiscal policy. This is something that is not President Trump's passion. He's someone who is more willing, I think, as a pragmatist to spend money than to cut. He's not a fiscal hawk.

00:23:53.560 The one big, beautiful bill, imperfect, it's a reconciliation bill, by definition it is,

00:23:58.980 actually is, I think, by the end of the second quarter, as I mentioned, going to directly

00:24:02.580 result in what we will probably come to know as a Trump boom.

00:24:05.820 So it's a little bit of a preliminary grade on the economy, but I think he's done well

00:24:09.340 there.

00:24:09.760 What could be better?

00:24:11.300 I'll be honest with you.

00:24:12.440 I think that while the president convinced me and us at Heritage over the last several

00:24:17.400 years that we were mistaken about being too soft on China, we thought that, like I think

00:24:22.940 most Americans, we were going to succeed in turning China into America, that we had to be

00:24:27.020 much more hawkish. The administration's been a little uneven in its implementation of that

00:24:33.120 hawkish China stance. On the tariffs, for example, China, even though it should be target number one,

00:24:40.640 gets some preferential treatment, which my colleagues and I believe should come to an end.

00:24:46.300 We believe that China continues to get the better of the United States when it comes to

00:24:51.440 some intellectual property, especially chips.

00:24:54.400 The administration's trying and we applaud them for that.

00:24:57.760 We just think that they ought to exert

00:24:59.820 even more political capital on that,

00:25:01.700 not just because it's right,

00:25:03.100 not just because it's good and just,

00:25:05.000 but because it's also politically popular.

00:25:06.660 This is something that's a bipartisan issue

00:25:09.400 in terms of support.

00:25:11.100 And then I would also encourage the president

00:25:15.040 when it comes to immigration to come back to that

00:25:18.400 to really double down on the importance of assimilation,

00:25:24.020 the importance of wanting to be an American

00:25:26.720 beyond getting the certificate

00:25:28.040 that you're an American citizen,

00:25:29.700 and to embrace what many of us have argued for decades,

00:25:32.920 which is that the best way to be a pro-immigration country

00:25:36.920 is to have laws that require immigrants to assimilate.

00:25:41.200 English should be the official language. 1.00

00:25:42.760 We should have these mass deportations. 1.00

00:25:44.420 You should break the back of these sanctuary cities,

00:25:47.400 counties and states. If that's something that needs to wait until January because of midterm

00:25:51.560 considerations, that's fine. It just needs to happen, not just because it's good, but also

00:25:56.660 because we will, in this movement, strain credulity with our base if we don't deliver on that.

00:26:02.300 Americans want their country back. And I can think of no president, certainly in modern history,

00:26:07.820 who better embodies the desire to do that than Donald Trump.

00:26:11.620 Yeah. And that's a top issue for me. Of course, I'm a big culture war girl. The things that I

00:26:16.840 see is creation order issues abortion gender marriage those are going to be top but other 0.87

00:26:21.280 than that crime immigration and like i'm just the suburban mom but those are the things i really see

00:26:27.260 affecting my community and it's not just it's not only illegal immigration and this is where i think

00:26:32.600 the conversation has shifted on the right in a good way i just don't know the solution for it

00:26:38.660 is that people are saying yes illegal immigration number one but also it doesn't seem like our

00:26:43.980 legal immigration is really prioritizing American interests and when people see their communities

00:26:50.640 the neighborhoods that they grew up in completely shift and when people see churches turning into 0.98

00:26:56.660 mosques I think most Americans are uncomfortable saying it but there's simply something unsettling

00:27:02.580 about it and I don't know that many voters know how to articulate what our goal is or what we want

00:27:10.220 but something just doesn't seem just, and I haven't heard a whole lot of politicians be able

00:27:14.780 to say there's a solution for that. So what do you think about it? Well, I will say, and not just

00:27:19.460 for me, but from all of us at Heritage, I'm not uncomfortable saying it. It's a travesty. We

00:27:24.220 ought not have this plethora of mosques being built anywhere. We ought not tolerate at any 1.00

00:27:29.380 level of government what is at least the partial implementation of Sharia law, and I'm not holding

00:27:35.540 President Trump responsible for that. I actually think he's going to get onto that issue, but I

00:27:38.960 want to encourage him there. I think that what we've learned now that we have closed the southern

00:27:44.280 border, you know, almost a small political miracle, if you will, is that we can move on to the next

00:27:49.260 order of questions. And that is, what does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be a

00:27:53.060 citizen? And not just in a legal sense, but in a social and cultural sense to be part of your

00:27:58.260 neighborhood, your community, right? Well, at the very least, it means you ought to speak English,

00:28:02.960 and English ought to be our official language. It also means that while, of course, we will honor

00:28:07.940 religious liberty, that there ought to be certain restrictions against not just religions, but

00:28:14.740 particular political implementations of religions. I'm talking about Islamism and some of the head 0.96

00:28:21.940 coverings that are political statements more than they are honoring religious traditions.

00:28:26.860 We have to understand that this country was based on principles that came from Jerusalem,

00:28:32.420 Athens, Rome, London, and Philadelphia. We are both Judeo and Christian in our founding. That

00:28:40.160 doesn't mean that there isn't room for other people, but it does mean that it's possible

00:28:44.140 in a country that is so generous toward immigrants that we might have too many people

00:28:49.580 from the wrong places. You know my Christian faith, I believe, as it is demanded of me 0.99

00:28:55.820 because of my faith, that every human person is equal in the eyes of God.

00:29:00.100 a nation state can believe that and also because it believes it say that legal immigration should

00:29:08.240 be so restricted as to be able to perpetuate the best parts of that society right we at heritage

00:29:14.260 look forward to having that conversation and what i would say to especially friends on the right

00:29:19.040 who who just deny that this is a thing that that train has left the station and the future of this

00:29:25.960 movement, if it's going to be successful, we'll be engaging these questions and offering thoughtful

00:29:31.500 policy solutions about them. It really does start right now in this administration.

00:29:35.900 Yeah, you can't really any longer tell people, oh no, it's no different. This is still the country

00:29:41.040 that you grew up in in the 90s and the early 2000s. Look, I have eyes. And the suburb, the

00:29:45.920 neighborhood that I grew up in, it's not the same. And I'm not saying all the people are bad. I'm

00:29:51.640 just saying do i have a right as an american to say this is actually not my culture and if i wanted

00:29:57.940 to live there i would move there if i wanted to live in the middle east i would move in the middle

00:30:01.200 east but i want to live in america and i want these people to share my values and i am so glad

00:30:07.620 you're not uncomfortable saying that too many politicians are and too many people are but it's

00:30:12.560 true and we would never fault someone from zimbabwe or from china to say i love chinese

00:30:18.040 culture. I love Zimbabwean culture. I want to maintain that. I want to push that forward. I

00:30:22.680 love our values. And yet when it comes to America and Americans saying that, it's immediately

00:30:27.400 castigated. It's immediately condemned as bigotry. So I'm glad that you see a taste for that

00:30:33.440 in Washington, hopefully. I certainly see a taste for it among, as you said, the normie

00:30:38.560 Americans. They don't know how to put words to it, but they look around and they're like,

00:30:42.080 this is not right. That's right. And not because they're dumb, obviously. And that's obviously

00:30:46.440 not what you're suggesting. It's that they're looking to leaders, policy leaders, to help them

00:30:50.940 put words to it because they're looking for solutions. It would be like me as a Roman Catholic

00:30:54.820 showing up in Saudi Arabia or some other Islamic country and walking around with my rosary and

00:31:00.120 my wife deciding she's going to walk around as an American. We would never do that, right? Because 0.95

00:31:04.160 we respect the traditions of the country that we have decided to visit. We have tens of millions

00:31:09.900 of Americans, however, who've decided to do that as if this country did not have a very specific

00:31:15.280 founding by a very specific people in a very specific place. This is a country not just based

00:31:21.140 on ideas or a creed, but it's based on a culture. A culture, not just admittedly, but to celebrate,

00:31:27.200 made up of many different cultures, people of different backgrounds, the most diverse civil

00:31:31.400 society in history. But we're so audacious in the United States that for 250 years we've said

00:31:37.480 we're still going to be one. Anything that violates that ethos is unacceptable, and we have

00:31:43.340 to become more comfortable to say it. And there's got to be a buy-in. There's just got to be a buy-in

00:31:47.460 for that. Yes, religious liberty. Yes, all of that. But the people coming here, the people who

00:31:53.380 live here, you got to buy into that or else none of this works. It's not cohesive. It's that simple.

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00:32:54.280 first order. GoodRanchers.com, code Allie. Okay, I want to talk a little bit more about

00:33:03.500 the things that we care about, not only as conservatives, but as social conservatives.

00:33:08.100 So Heritage launched a special report naming marriage as the focal point of an American resurgence.

00:33:14.140 Can you tell us why that is?

00:33:16.700 Why is marriage so important if we're talking about America reaching her glory days again?

00:33:21.860 Marriage is the most important because it is the farthest upstream factor from all the things we've just been discussing.

00:33:29.980 I won't bore you and your audience with the hundred steps of the connection between the decline of marriage and what we were just talking about.

00:33:35.560 You can tell us some of the steps. It's fascinating.

00:33:37.560 But we'll stick to the main focus, which is to tell you something, you know, marriage rates have declined.

00:33:44.340 And that has been a problem for 50 years in the United States.

00:33:47.420 But what has aggravated that is a very serious and steady decline in birth rates. 0.53

00:33:52.300 And so the reason that this is important, which is not to be pedantic, is that without marriage and births of Native-born Americans, regardless of their ethnic background, you're simply not going to perpetuate the society. 0.92

00:34:04.120 You're going to have to rely on immigration. 0.94

00:34:06.060 So actually, it's just two steps. 0.87

00:34:08.080 But the second thing is even more important.

00:34:10.720 Where do we get our sense of values?

00:34:14.060 Where do we get our sense of gratitude for our faith, for our country, for our neighbors,

00:34:20.300 even if we disagree with them politically, from the family that we grow up in?

00:34:24.420 What we're saying, not saying at Heritage, is that everyone needs to have the perfect family.

00:34:28.640 We're saying that for too long, policymakers, especially in Washington, have not only ignored

00:34:34.160 this. They've actually contributed to the problem. There are scores of disincentives in federal

00:34:40.740 safety net programs, federal welfare programs toward marriage. At the very least, we need to 1.00

00:34:45.420 reverse those. But what we're positing at Heritage is that the time has come because the birth rate

00:34:49.920 has gotten so low, so far below replacement, that we might need to incentivize marriage in the way

00:34:56.280 other countries have done. Hungary has had mixed results. Israel actually has had the best results

00:35:01.740 and seeing in that investment of the public's money

00:35:05.180 and incentivizing marriage and births,

00:35:07.380 at least a slight increase in the rates of both.

00:35:10.700 That's what we need to do in this country.

00:35:12.480 I actually think if we can do that,

00:35:14.100 although it will take a couple of generations

00:35:16.160 to see the full benefit,

00:35:17.720 that you're going to see some of these other problems dissipate,

00:35:20.480 whether they be immigration or for that matter, education.

00:35:23.600 Can you give me an example of a policy

00:35:25.440 that could incentivize marriage?

00:35:27.520 Sure.

00:35:28.240 We love the idea of the Trump accounts

00:35:30.380 and people with young children probably love them right now too

00:35:34.040 because they're being implemented now.

00:35:35.540 So our scholars took that idea of a Trump account,

00:35:38.180 which puts $1,000 in the account of a young American under 18,

00:35:42.340 and we said let's plus that up to $2,500 for each of a married couple,

00:35:48.580 so $5,000 by the end of their 20s if they're married and have children.

00:35:52.840 There's that.

00:35:54.120 Very modest.

00:35:55.120 We understand this is not $500,000, but it's a start.

00:35:58.520 The second thing that we advocate for in this paper is an expansion of the adoption tax credit, which is about $17,000 to help subsidize adoptions.

00:36:08.360 Why do we as Americans subsidize adoptions?

00:36:10.600 Because they're good.

00:36:12.300 They're good for everyone involved.

00:36:14.240 And so if that's the case for adoptions, then implicit in that law is that we honor births in this country.

00:36:22.100 So we thought, well, if we're going to honor adoptions, which are outstanding, how about we honor natural births if they're possible for that married couple?

00:36:30.120 And so each birth would have that tax credit with a 25% bonus for people who have three or more children.

00:36:36.420 This is not just aggressive.

00:36:38.600 It's audacious.

00:36:39.320 We believe that these policies have to be audacious if you're going to have a chance at turning the corner and not becoming a nation either of half the population by 2100 or a population of immigrants. 0.99

00:36:53.480 Nothing against them as people, but you're going to lose this country as it has been if that's the path that we continue to be on. 0.99

00:36:59.860 Yeah, wow. I think that more people than I believe five or 10 years ago are talking not only about marriage and birth and having more children. This is certainly a change to me, even from like my parents' generation, where it was just kind of, I don't know, it was just taken for granted that everyone would have one or two kids. But now, at least in my circles, we're talking about, okay, should we have one more? Like, let's add to the birth rate.

00:37:24.420 Yes, let us contribute to this. But also, people are talking about the definition of marriage more than they were. I think five years ago, I felt like it was me and like three other people who were like, hey, this still matters. And we should still be talking about Obergefell. But it kind of felt like Republicans just left us on the field when it came to the definition of marriage, which matters if you care about children's rights and all the things that we're talking about.

00:37:48.760 And so what really is the state of that battle?

00:37:53.080 Is that just something that we have to surrender forever?

00:37:55.820 Oh, I don't think so.

00:37:56.600 I mean, we have an inheritance.

00:37:57.900 We acknowledge the legal reality, right, both as an employer and just an institution of

00:38:04.280 civil society.

00:38:04.980 But that doesn't require us to stop fighting for what's right.

00:38:09.420 And what's right is that marriage, very simply, is between a man and a woman, period.

00:38:14.760 And so we're going to always fight for that eternal truth.

00:38:19.420 No man, no woman has the ability to change that definition in its reality.

00:38:24.860 Obviously, our Supreme Court and some policymakers think otherwise.

00:38:28.740 We're going to continue working on that.

00:38:31.320 Does that mean that we're going to work on that instead of working on other issues?

00:38:35.580 No.

00:38:36.020 At Heritage, we work on every policy issue.

00:38:38.140 So we're working on all of these channels.

00:38:39.600 I will just make this observation that in 1973 and 74 and 1979, people had a similar conversation, which is, gosh, do we just have to accept Roe v. Wade?

00:38:50.900 And the answer was no.

00:38:52.000 It took 50 years.

00:38:53.160 And even after it was overturned, we have more abortions annually than we've ever had because of the nature of the radical left.

00:39:01.980 It's a great lesson, the question of Obergefell.

00:39:05.020 It's a great lesson that if we ever have a chance of redefining marriage to its proper

00:39:10.620 definition of being between a man and a woman, that's going to be a matter of hearts and

00:39:14.480 minds.

00:39:15.060 It's going to be so far upstream of politics and policymaking that policymakers in D.C.

00:39:21.180 will see that to be an easy decision.

00:39:23.540 That's where we need to be engaged in our work.

00:39:25.460 And that's why it's so important for us in public policy to be talking about the most

00:39:31.220 important institution in public policy, in civil society, and that's the family.

00:39:36.640 Yeah. There have been a lot of changes over the past several months at a lot of conservative

00:39:41.300 institutions, but that includes heritage. I think some of those changes have been-

00:39:45.560 I've seen some of those.

00:39:46.260 Yeah. I don't know if you've heard about this, but there were some resignations and some

00:39:50.020 difficult conversations that were being had, it seems like both privately and also publicly.

00:39:55.240 So what is the state of heritage right now? What are some challenges that y'all are facing and

00:40:00.000 how are y'all overcoming those? Sure. We are 100% aligned. So we're a staff of 300-some people,

00:40:07.320 and we love everyone who's ever worked at Heritage a long time ago or recently, and

00:40:12.000 they know that that's true. We respect them as persons. And yet, because at Heritage we have

00:40:17.540 this famous policy called the One Voice Policy, which means we speak with one voice, that we're

00:40:23.100 not going to go ask donors for money to advocate for one piece of legislation that contradicts

00:40:28.380 another. We obviously, because we want to see our policies come to life, have to have one voice.

00:40:33.180 Not everyone likes that. And you know what? That's okay. But that means you shouldn't be at Heritage

00:40:37.540 because at Heritage, we operate with one voice. And that one voice happens to be very representative

00:40:43.300 of normal Americans because we're not funded by anyone on K Street. Less than one and a half

00:40:50.060 percent of our donations annually come from corporations. Nothing against corporations,

00:40:54.240 but some of the big ones, especially in this town,

00:40:56.880 like to have you as a puppeteer.

00:40:58.640 That's not our game.

00:41:00.100 At Heritage, I can tell you,

00:41:01.320 after being in the news for the last six months,

00:41:03.160 I can report to you, not only honestly, but exuberantly,

00:41:06.820 that we're all very aligned.

00:41:08.700 We have tremendous momentum.

00:41:10.620 We understand the challenges in the movement

00:41:13.100 right in front of us

00:41:14.060 because we, being representative of the people,

00:41:16.220 we feel them, but we see great opportunities ahead.

00:41:19.560 We think that if we're focused on, we,

00:41:22.020 not just at Heritage, but the movement,

00:41:23.220 on the future of the family, on the future of the dignity of work and free enterprise,

00:41:29.060 on national security, on American heritage and citizenship. And we just talk about those four

00:41:34.700 things, research those four things incessantly, that that is going to be the framework, not just

00:41:40.100 for our own work, not just for the conservative movement, but maybe for the next three or four

00:41:45.780 presidents. Because those are common sense ideas. Those are the words that normal Americans are

00:41:53.200 looking for. And so it's our job at Heritage more than anyone else's to bring that to life.

00:41:57.400 You can probably tell I'm very excited about this. The future is very bright,

00:42:01.680 even with the challenges that we've talked about.

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00:43:20.240 This is just out of my personal curiosity because I love to learn from leaders.

00:43:25.840 There's a pastor who says that leadership is a commitment to being misunderstood.

00:43:31.500 When you are a leader, there's going to be people that misrepresent and misunderstand

00:43:35.240 you.

00:43:36.200 Is there one thing in some of the hardship and the difficulty over the past six months

00:43:40.960 that you learned as a leader?

00:43:42.700 I learned a lot of things. I happen to agree with that pastor. I think that that's true. And I learned early on in a previous leadership stop at a small Catholic college that you can't repeat things enough for people to understand. And that's on you, right? I'm not blaming colleagues or anything.

00:44:00.060 I've noticed that too. I learned that in Washington, D.C., tenacity prevails over nonsense as long as you're willing to have it and as long as it's rooted in what's right.

00:44:22.960 And I can speak on behalf of all of my colleagues, I think in particular our executive team, our senior management, we knew in spite of all of the press coverage, most of which was nonsense, some of it self-inflicted, I've spoken about that, that we were going to see it through.

00:44:41.360 Not because we were Heritage pat ourselves on the back, but because everyone who walks into that building is virtuous.

00:44:48.220 Everyone who walks into that building is committed to what we're doing.

00:44:51.260 And we were just going to be so zealously focused on the work ahead that we would render nonsense, absurd, well-paid distraction by people in the city, everything that was being said.

00:45:04.600 And so the greatest compliment that Heritage got over the last six months

00:45:09.180 came from a friend of ours, and he mentioned this to me Friday night.

00:45:13.140 We were just explaining to him and a few hundred donors all of these plans.

00:45:18.240 And he said, you know, Kevin, this is a guy who was a CEO of a major company.

00:45:22.740 He had been through a lot of battles, and he was looking for leadership lessons.

00:45:27.180 He said the most impressive thing about Heritage is that during all of that,

00:45:31.900 every rank and file employee must have been busting his or her tail because for y'all to

00:45:38.120 be talking about all of these plans shows that you weren't distracted. And so for the people who

00:45:44.380 didn't understand because I didn't speak clearly enough, that's on me. But for the handful of

00:45:51.000 people who have perpetuated the nonsense, that's on them because they're not only wasting their

00:45:57.720 and their donors' money, they're standing in the way of doing the everyday Americans' work.

00:46:03.560 And Heritage has proven itself not only to be durable, but to be tenacious. And I guarantee

00:46:10.140 you we're going to win. Okay. Can you tell me about the American Opportunity Agenda that

00:46:15.760 Heritage is working on? This is one of those exciting plans, right? It is. It's one of the

00:46:20.060 things that excites me as I sit here. One of the things, another leadership lesson that I learned

00:46:24.360 along the way, is to package things. What I mean by that is, as an academic, maybe evidenced by

00:46:32.480 this very conversation, I like to get into detailed explanations, but in this town for

00:46:37.420 political consumption, we on the right have to do a better job of messaging. We need to tell better

00:46:42.460 stories. You're excellent at putting a human face on things. At Heritage, what we've decided to do

00:46:47.440 with the American Opportunity Agenda is package all of the ideas we have for policymakers in DC

00:46:55.280 and at the state level to go sell to the American people. If I had a magic wand as we sat here,

00:47:01.020 I think I would use it this way. I would say every conservative running for office in the

00:47:06.140 midterms would endorse the American Opportunity Agenda. It's sort of like 94's contract with

00:47:11.760 America, but even more substantive in policy. And the reason I can say that is this isn't purely

00:47:16.900 heritage idea. This comes from other conservative groups all across this town, because heritage

00:47:21.900 loves to work in coalitions. It's economic freedom and prosperity, the four cornerstones

00:47:27.360 that I mentioned, family, national security, work, free enterprise. Also, what it means to be an

00:47:32.420 American, American heritage. We happen to know that this is a popular agenda because we focus

00:47:37.780 group and pull these things all the time. But the political consultant class in D.C. hates this idea

00:47:43.440 because it's simpler it's less expensive and they don't want their client to be beholden to a

00:47:51.060 conservative agenda so part of our challenge is to be able to sell it to members of congress

00:47:55.620 and to the consultant class but ultimately it's going to be the agenda because the conservative

00:48:00.920 movement writ large has not just heritage but many groups has succeeded in getting upstream

00:48:05.660 of members of congress and i say that very respectfully that whenever we have another

00:48:11.260 conservative Congress. I happen to think that will still be next year. But let's say it's 29 or 31 or

00:48:16.080 33. This is going to be the agenda. We have to be talking about the things that everyday Americans

00:48:21.740 care about, but to do so in a way that generates a political majority. You know, there's a sentiment

00:48:28.440 out there right now that it's like the midterms don't really matter. Who cares about the midterms?

00:48:33.020 We don't like President Trump anymore. There's like, you know, you call it like a black pill.

00:48:37.580 There's a lot of people who are just super pessimistic.

00:48:40.340 They think basically the right and the left, Republicans and Democrats are the same.

00:48:44.620 Is that true that the midterms really are inconsequential?

00:48:47.780 Oh, gosh, absolutely not.

00:48:49.140 I know why people are saying that, but you probably know I'm the least likely person

00:48:52.980 to be black billed.

00:48:54.300 I'm with the vice president.

00:48:55.440 Let's let's not go down that road.

00:48:56.780 I acknowledge why people say that.

00:48:58.620 But let me paint a picture of what happens if good people stay home and don't vote or

00:49:03.860 and don't encourage their friends to vote.

00:49:05.920 The left comes into power.

00:49:07.060 they run the house and within a month so by february of 2027 the president's impeached and

00:49:14.060 let's just say you're a conservative you voted for trump three times and you're disappointed

00:49:18.620 because of iran i disagree with that but let's just say that you are you don't want him impeached

00:49:23.780 because then that goes to the senate probably still republican and we've wasted a year

00:49:28.840 and we've wasted a year when we need to be implementing the american opportunity agenda

00:49:33.900 or whatever policy issue you're disappointed hasn't happened.

00:49:38.400 Now, am I going to sit here with a straight face

00:49:41.800 and defend the status quo of Washington, D.C.?

00:49:45.140 No, but what I can say to maybe white pill

00:49:47.880 this conversation a little bit

00:49:49.220 is that just in the short time that I've been working in D.C.,

00:49:53.260 I have seen the percentage of conservatives

00:49:56.200 in the Republican conference in the House

00:49:57.980 and the Senate dramatically increase.

00:50:00.140 That's a way of saying that we need the midterms desperately

00:50:03.260 so that we can continue this trajectory.

00:50:05.680 And I think that if that happens,

00:50:08.460 if the trajectory continues to be good,

00:50:11.360 we have a couple of big opportunities

00:50:13.700 to implement good policy.

00:50:15.340 And what we're trying to do at Heritage 0.98

00:50:16.740 for people who are feeling black-pilled 0.99

00:50:18.240 is to say, there's a plan.

00:50:20.560 Not everyone has signed on to the plan,

00:50:22.400 but if the midterms go well,

00:50:24.340 they will almost have to accept the plan.

00:50:26.780 I saw that James Carville,

00:50:29.040 if people don't know,

00:50:29.720 he's a Democratic strategist

00:50:31.200 and he spoke at Politicon, and he gave some of his own recommendations to the left if they take

00:50:38.140 power in November. He said, this is what they should do, and they shouldn't talk about it,

00:50:42.860 they should just do it, because the left actually is kind of good at messaging strategy. He said,

00:50:47.700 grant statehood to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico so that the left can unlock four extra seats

00:50:52.520 in the Senate, pack the U.S. Supreme Court from nine justices to 13, reopen the U.S.-Mexico border, 0.55

00:50:58.220 and grant mass amnesty to every single alien

00:51:00.540 currently inside of the United States.

00:51:02.740 His advice, don't run on it.

00:51:04.440 Don't talk about it.

00:51:05.480 Just do it.

00:51:06.980 And they will.

00:51:07.860 I mean, we were just one Joe Manchin vote away,

00:51:11.380 maybe a Senator Sinema vote away

00:51:13.280 from a couple of those things happening.

00:51:15.140 So that's not a crazy man's theory, 0.97

00:51:17.620 although he is a crazy man. 0.54

00:51:19.100 The second thing is, 0.98

00:51:20.200 look at what Governor Spanberger's done in Virginia.

00:51:23.800 She ran as a moderate.

00:51:25.180 She did exactly what Carville suggested.

00:51:27.120 She ran as a moderate.

00:51:27.820 Now, many of us knew better. 1.00

00:51:29.860 And she's governed not just on the left, but on the far, far left in a state that's truly a purple state.

00:51:36.080 And what's going to happen is that actually I think people on the right will overcome being blackpilled because of what Carville said, because of the reality in Virginia.

00:51:45.720 Because I think Trump, once he brings Iran to a conclusion, will remind people, even if they're a little disappointed in him, of why staying on this policy trajectory is the most important.

00:51:57.820 but it's already the spring

00:51:59.080 and people start forming these opinions

00:52:01.740 in fairly permanent ways by the summer.

00:52:04.000 So this crowd has a lot of work to do,

00:52:06.340 which is why Heritage is being very aggressive about it.

00:52:13.060 Last sponsor for the day is Alliance Defending Freedom.

00:52:15.900 America is celebrating 250 years of freedom this year

00:52:19.380 and Alliance Defending Freedom

00:52:21.200 is asking you to join them in prayer

00:52:23.000 just for five days this year.

00:52:24.460 If you go to joinadf.com slash Allie,

00:52:26.560 sign the commitment to sign up to pray i'm going to be praying along with them praying that god

00:52:32.400 would bring our nation to repentance that we would humble ourselves that we would pray to him that

00:52:38.240 we would seek wisdom that christians would be bold courageous and clear and that the lord would

00:52:43.240 just give us the mercy and the guidance that we desperately need especially our nation's leaders

00:52:48.860 no matter what side of the aisle they're on adf works not only in america but all around the world

00:52:54.520 to protect religious liberty, free speech rights, to protect the sanctity of life, and to protect

00:53:00.420 the rights of women and girls. And so just join them in prayer. Go to joinadf.com slash Allie

00:53:05.000 or text Allie to 838-84848. That's joinadf.com slash Allie or text Allie to 838-4848.

00:53:18.460 Messaging is so important. If I could wave my magic wand, there's a lot of things that I would

00:53:22.960 change but one of them would certainly be to like get a good publicist for republicans and just

00:53:29.880 yeah we have we have a little bit of a hard time telling our own stories and representing in a

00:53:36.720 human way why conservative policy is actually better for your kids and your grandkids and your

00:53:41.480 neighbors and the poor and all of these people that you really care about the progressive policies

00:53:45.960 aren't actually the ones that are helping they're hurting those groups and yeah heritage is doing a

00:53:51.520 lot to change that messaging. And that really makes me happy. That's one of my biggest peeves

00:53:56.660 with politics is that some of the best people have the worst messaging and we need help with it.

00:54:00.840 No, it's so true. I was just doing a guest lecture for some students in the Northeast and

00:54:05.360 they said, Dr. Roberts, why don't you like the term think tank? It's what you run. I said,

00:54:11.080 we are that, but we don't like that phrase at Heritage because it's so passive and it denies

00:54:15.760 all of these things we're doing upstream, right? Which is to help form public opinion.

00:54:19.720 Yeah, that is so true. Okay, give us one last call. The normal American mom is listening. She's like, okay, I can't vote until November. What do I do right now to help make my community better and help push some of these values that we're talking about?

00:54:34.500 Well, I'll be abusive and say two things because it's the spring. 0.95

00:54:37.440 Depending on the state where that mom is, the state legislature might still be in session, 1.00

00:54:41.620 and no doubt there could be some good work there.

00:54:43.720 If you need some help there, check us out at heritageaction.com.

00:54:47.180 But the second thing is start as local as you can.

00:54:51.960 For my wife, it was the Homeowners Association.

00:54:54.460 I mean, we're talking the local of locals.

00:54:55.940 Why?

00:54:56.220 Because it prevented them assessing ridiculous amounts of money and probably going woke. 0.91

00:55:01.060 It sounds silly to say unless you've existed in an HOA. 0.99

00:55:04.500 But for a lot of suburban moms, think about just attending a school board meeting or a city council meeting or a county commission meeting. 0.85

00:55:13.220 Even if your kids don't go to public school. 0.91

00:55:14.620 Oh, absolutely.

00:55:15.420 It's even more powerful if they don't, because you're saying I care so deeply, not just as a taxpayer, but as a fellow American for other people's kids.

00:55:23.280 This ought to be the affection we have for one another.

00:55:25.500 Yeah.

00:55:26.020 But I will often hear, well, I'm too busy.

00:55:29.060 Oh, I'll never understand what they're saying.

00:55:31.400 Hogwash.

00:55:31.840 you're an american mom living in the suburbs you can do this if you need some guidance on how to do

00:55:37.000 that we're happy to help there are plenty of groups that are this is the point just show up

00:55:41.860 somewhere where elected officials are meeting and your mere presence your mere presence especially

00:55:47.980 if it's sustained and you have a few friends who go with you will change their behavior this is

00:55:53.020 still america blackpilling is a sin that's my message despair is a sin and we are called in

00:55:59.940 jeremiah 29 11 to seek the welfare of the city in which we've been placed the jewish exiles were

00:56:04.700 called to that christians are exiles in this world and that doesn't always look how it looks in

00:56:09.640 america if you are a christian in china if you're a christian in lebanon that looks different but

00:56:13.760 we have the privilege of living here where we do have the freedom to exercise our voice and to

00:56:18.580 exercise our vote and to make better the community in which god has providentially placed us

00:56:23.980 heritageaction.com right can give some action steps help you connect to your local legislator

00:56:28.840 my dad is always talking about get involved locally it's not just dc that matters

00:56:33.080 and y'all are so good at helping us do that so thank you so much my pleasure thank you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 22, 2026

Ep 1351 ｜ We Need This Wake-Up Call Before the Midterms ｜ Kevin Roberts

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