The Ben Shapiro Show - Are You Proud To Be An American? | Ep. 1527

00:00:00.000 A new Gallup poll shows fewer Americans than ever are proud to be American, the celebrity world shows its ugliest side while pushing abortion, and a mass shooting rocks Highland Park in Chicago.

00:00:08.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:09.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

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00:00:25.000 Slash Ben, I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day weekend.

00:00:27.000 We'll get to all the news in just one second.

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00:01:34.000 Well, July 4th is normally a time when we come together as a country and we celebrate the things that we have in common.

00:01:39.000 Unfortunately, it seems like these days we have less and less in common.

00:01:42.000 And this raises the question in the United States of exactly what are we?

00:01:46.000 So if you go all the way back to the founding of the country, this was a serious question.

00:01:49.000 What exactly was the United States?

00:01:51.000 Inherent in the title United States is the idea that there are separate polities inside the United States with very different views about what happiness looks like and what life should look like and what Government should be constructed like we were the United States.

00:02:02.000 There were a bunch of states.

00:02:04.000 These preceded the federal government.

00:02:05.000 The federal government was an outgrowth of those states.

00:02:08.000 And this has always been a struggle in American life because literally at the time that the Declaration of Independence was being created, the Articles of Confederacy, the original Articles of Confederacy was also being discussed.

00:02:18.000 What exactly would that look like?

00:02:20.000 How exactly were Americans supposed to come together?

00:02:23.000 If you had said in, say, 1777, what is the most important document that's happening right now?

00:02:29.000 Presumably it would be all of the legislation coming out from the Second Continental Congress.

00:02:34.000 It would be things like, how do we form up in a confederacy?

00:02:36.000 It would not have been the Declaration of Independence.

00:02:38.000 The reason we celebrate the Declaration of Independence is because it is supposed to Signal that these are the things that we all share.

00:02:45.000 California and Florida, New York and Texas.

00:02:47.000 These are the things that we all share.

00:02:48.000 And over time, as the United States' federal government has grown more and more powerful, and as the states have lost more and more power to the federal government, as that has happened, that should have required more unity at the national level.

00:02:59.000 Unfortunately, what has happened in the United States is that the states have retained their independent characters.

00:03:05.000 That is a good thing.

00:03:06.000 But the federal government has moved further and further away from the states.

00:03:09.000 It's moved further and further away from the citizens.

00:03:12.000 And so ironically, as the federal government has used more and more compulsion, as it's grown, as its tentacles have now entered every area of American life, Americans feel less secure.

00:03:22.000 They feel less unified by the federal government.

00:03:25.000 And it's very easy to celebrate together on July 4th when we agree to disagree on most things.

00:03:29.000 And there are a few core ideas that we come together.

00:03:32.000 Over when it comes to the national government.

00:03:35.000 Then you can celebrate July 4th when the thing that actually unifies us is the statements of the Declaration of Independence.

00:03:39.000 You can say these are the things that we all have in common at the very least.

00:03:42.000 But over time as the federal government gains more and more power and as it has less and less tolerance for people living different choices of life in places like Florida and California and New York and Texas.

00:03:53.000 As that happens, there's more and more disunity and we stop looking like an actual national government and we start looking again like the original United States, a sort of confederacy of states that have some common interests with regard to say tariff policy or foreign policy.

00:04:07.000 We start to look a lot more like the EU, Greece and the UK.

00:04:10.000 Why are they in the same body politic?

00:04:11.000 And the answer is they sort of are and they sort of aren't.

00:04:14.000 Why exactly are we supposed to believe that France has the same interests as Germany all across the line?

00:04:18.000 They don't.

00:04:19.000 So why are we supposed to believe that Florida and, say, Massachusetts have the same exact unity of vision?

00:04:27.000 Now again, the Declaration was supposed to spell out that unity of vision.

00:04:30.000 The United States was supposed to be a different place.

00:04:31.000 The idea was that to prevent conflict on the continent itself, you had to have some sort of federal government that was going to prevent that conflict and also to bring us together.

00:04:40.000 This is described fully in the Federalist Papers.

00:04:42.000 Alexander Hamilton talks about the idea that over time there'd be more and more allegiance that would be placed to the national government as opposed to, say, the state government.

00:04:50.000 And the very least, that our unity in the national body politic would trump whatever conflicts we had between the states.

00:04:56.000 But now it seems that that is all coming apart because the common vision for the United States has been actively attacked by one side of the political aisle over the course of the last 50 years.

00:05:04.000 And now the country seems to be coming apart at the seams.

00:05:08.000 And you can see it in nearly every issue.

00:05:10.000 You can see it in the way that issues themselves are described.

00:05:13.000 So, for example, there's a fascinating article today in the Associated Press talking about this horrific shooting in Highland Park.

00:05:21.000 It's a mass shooting in Highland Park at an Independence Day parade.

00:05:25.000 And we'll get to a lot more coverage of that a little bit later, because first of all, I think that it's rather suspicious.

00:05:29.000 The media only seem to care when a bunch of white people get shot in Highland Park, as opposed to when a bunch of black people get shot every single weekend in the south side of Chicago.

00:05:35.000 If you want to talk about endemic racism in the media, that would be it. 0.81

00:05:38.000 The fact that there are 30 people get shot every weekend in Chicago and the media do not give one good damn about that.

00:05:43.000 But then there's a mass shooting, a bunch of white people in Highland Park.

00:05:46.000 That suggests that there's a bit of a double standard as to just how much the media care about the deaths of people of minority status in the United States.

00:05:54.000 That is worth noting here.

00:05:55.000 That is not to downplay what happened in Highland Park.

00:05:56.000 It's to say we should be using the same kind of coverage when it comes to mass shootings that happen literally every weekend in the rest of the city of Chicago.

00:06:02.000 But put that aside for just a second.

00:06:04.000 This article in the Associated Press, I think, spells out the conflicts that have now broken out across the country.

00:06:10.000 And the reason that I'm mentioning this is because really the events of the weekend, in a wide variety of ways, should theoretically unify the country.

00:06:18.000 When there is an evil person, a person who appears to have serious mental issues.

00:06:25.000 I mean, there's just no way to describe the shooter in this Highland Park scenario without saying that. 0.99

00:06:28.000 This person looks like a crazy person.

00:06:31.000 When you see that, instead of the country coming together to mourn and to try to find solutions and to try and talk with one another, instead we immediately revert to who do we blame? 0.97

00:06:40.000 Who on the other side is to blame for all of this?

00:06:42.000 There's no way to have unity over issues like that when you can't even identify common threat without seeing your neighbor in it.

00:06:48.000 That's a real problem in the United States because the common principles that held together the polity have been completely fraying.

00:06:54.000 We have very little in common anymore, but I'll tell you one thing that we probably all have in common, and that is, we need a great night's sleep.

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00:08:10.000 So here's what the Associated Press says, and it really is telling.

00:08:12.000 Quote, a shooting that left at least six people dead at an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb rattled Monday celebrations across the United States and further rocked a country.

00:08:20.000 Already a wash in turmoil over high court rulings on abortion and guns, as well as hearings on the January 6th insurrection.

00:08:26.000 So you're saying to yourself, wait a second, what does a mass shooting have to do with the rest of these things?

00:08:30.000 And the answer is that every single thing in American life has now broken down along political lines.

00:08:35.000 All of it.

00:08:35.000 Where you shop.

00:08:36.000 How you view movies.

00:08:38.000 Whether you live in a blue state or a red state, mass shootings, everything now breaks down along these political lines because all common interest seems to be gone.

00:08:47.000 It seems like the things that unified us at the federal level, again, those principles laid down by the founders that were supposed to be the chief areas of unity for all of us nationally, those seem to be completely exploding.

00:08:57.000 And the reason they're completely exploding is because, frankly, they've been under assault for five decades in the United States.

00:09:01.000 We've now reached the apex of that moment when every single issue that we discuss is supposed to be a guise for power relationships.

00:09:09.000 It's a serious problem.

00:09:11.000 The latest mass shooting, says the AP, came as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold us together.

00:09:17.000 Well, I mean, honestly, this should be an easy one, right?

00:09:20.000 What exactly?

00:09:22.000 Fine cause?

00:09:23.000 How about the fact that the United States is the most powerful force in world history?

00:09:26.000 How about the fact the United States is still the most powerful country on planet Earth?

00:09:29.000 By a long shot, China does not compare.

00:09:31.000 How about the fact that the United States is still the world driver of the economy?

00:09:36.000 That the United States' values with regard to, say, free speech and freedom of religion are still the envy of the world?

00:09:42.000 How about the fact that the United States has historically freed more people than any other country in the history of the world?

00:09:48.000 How about the fact that the Declaration of Independence spells out timeless principles that virtually every other Western country has now imitated?

00:09:54.000 Aren't those reasons to celebrate?

00:09:55.000 And the answer, for the Associated Press, is apparently no.

00:09:58.000 Because we have domestic problems and those domestic problems can be laid at the feet of those principles.

00:10:03.000 That the conflicts that we're seeing are all up at the top of the iceberg.

00:10:06.000 Conflicts over gun control or abortion or even January 6th.

00:10:09.000 Those are all at the top of the iceberg.

00:10:11.000 What undergirds a lot of this is a feeling that you cannot trust your neighbor because they don't believe the same things that you believe and the things that you are supposed to believe together.

00:10:20.000 Say, for example, the values of equality before law.

00:10:24.000 The value of virtue via Judeo-Christian tradition.

00:10:28.000 These values have gone away.

00:10:29.000 And so you cannot trust your neighbor.

00:10:31.000 Because your neighbor is not trustworthy.

00:10:32.000 From the right, because your neighbor doesn't actually believe any of those things anymore.

00:10:36.000 And from the left, because your neighbor does believe those things and those things are actively bad.

00:10:41.000 And so no wonder it feels like things are coming apart and why every flashpoint looks like a symptom of a graver disease.

00:10:48.000 You know, I have three kids.

00:10:50.000 When they have a boo-boo, the first thing that you try to figure out is whether this is a symptom of a deeper malady or whether the boo-boo is just a pinprick.

00:10:57.000 When you have kids, when a kid scrapes and they fall and they scrape their knee, you grab a band-aid, you slap it on, you put some antiseptic on there, you put some neosporin, you put a band-aid, you're done.

00:11:07.000 But, sometimes your kid has a malady that runs a little deeper.

00:11:11.000 And right now it feels like every wound in the body politic in the United States runs a little deeper.

00:11:16.000 Because maybe instead, we're not treating these things as scratches and cuts and bruises that are endemic to living in a very chaotic democracy.

00:11:25.000 And I'm not talking about acts of evil, right?

00:11:27.000 But even acts of evil didn't go to the heart of the United States in our national character.

00:11:32.000 But now it seems like every single thing that happens goes to the heart of the United States and its national character, which is to say how you view your neighbors.

00:11:41.000 So, this is all reflected in the polling data.

00:11:45.000 And the Associated Press is not wrong when they say that it feels like things are coming apart.

00:11:48.000 But the whole point is, it shouldn't feel like that.

00:11:49.000 It should feel like we still have some unifying principles.

00:11:51.000 The declaration was supposed to be about that.

00:11:54.000 The polling data shows that fewer Americans than ever are extremely proud to be American.

00:11:58.000 This is according to Gallup.

00:12:00.000 38% of U.S.

00:12:00.000 adults say they are extremely proud to be American.

00:12:03.000 That is the lowest in Gallup's trend that began in 2001.

00:12:04.000 65% of U.S.

00:12:04.000 adults express pride in the nation overall.

00:12:09.000 I don't know how you can't be proud to be American.

00:12:11.000 This country is unbelievable.

00:12:13.000 This country is God's gift to planet Earth, this country.

00:12:16.000 Anybody who pretends otherwise, frankly, should leave.

00:12:19.000 I mean, there's a reason that people are clamoring to get in and have spent centuries clamoring to get in.

00:12:24.000 There's a reason why the United States is still the world leader.

00:12:26.000 It's still the moral beacon for the planet Earth.

00:12:30.000 I'm proud to be American. 0.98

00:12:30.000 I think the president stinks. 0.98

00:12:31.000 I think the Congress stinks. 0.99

00:12:34.000 Until five seconds ago, I thought the Supreme Court stink.

00:12:37.000 None of that has to do with the fundamental principles of the United States, which are inherently good.

00:12:42.000 So here's what it shows.

00:12:43.000 It shows only 38% of Americans say they're extremely proud to be American.

00:12:49.000 And then there's another few percentage, up to 65, who believe they are extremely or very proud to be American.

00:12:55.000 Then there's some who are like moderately proud to be American or whatever.

00:12:58.000 Now what you see is that the numbers have declined.

00:13:00.000 And this is really astonishing.

00:13:01.000 The partisan split here.

00:13:03.000 So here's the partisan split.

00:13:08.000 26% of Democrats say that they are proud to be American.

00:13:12.000 It was at its low ebb, by the way, in 2019, when only 22% of Democrats said they were extremely proud to be American.

00:13:19.000 Among Republicans, 58% say that they are extremely proud to be American.

00:13:24.000 Now, overall, this is the lowest point for Republicans in the history of the poll.

00:13:28.000 Not a great shock, because Democrats control all of the branches of government at this point.

00:13:31.000 But, even when Democrats control the government, Republicans are still more than twice as proud, twice as extremely proud of the country as Democrats.

00:13:40.000 Independents, only 34% say they're extremely proud of the country, right now.

00:13:45.000 So, Republicans, again, by and large, what Republicans believe, what conservatives believe, is that the country is worth being proud about.

00:13:55.000 Democrats historically actually have not believed by a majority that the country is worth being extremely proud of since like 2015.

00:14:07.000 That partisan split is very telling because what that says is that conservatives and Republicans inherently what they believe is that the Declaration of Independence is good.

00:14:13.000 The founding principles are good.

00:14:15.000 American history is overall good.

00:14:16.000 Yes, it has blemishes.

00:14:17.000 Yes, it has dark points.

00:14:18.000 But it is the story of America attempting to fulfill her founding principles.

00:14:21.000 All of that is good and worth being extremely proud of.

00:14:23.000 And what Democrats believe is that America is only worth being proud of when it is undergoing fundamental change.

00:14:29.000 And that is a serious split that goes to deeper values.

00:14:35.000 One of the things that's kind of fascinating here is the split between people who are college graduates and not college graduates.

00:14:39.000 41% of not college graduates in the United States say they're extremely proud.

00:14:43.000 Another 28% say they are very proud.

00:14:46.000 So that means overall, some 69% of not college graduated Americans say they are extremely or very proud to be American.

00:14:54.000 Of the college graduates, Only about 33% say they're extremely proud.

00:14:59.000 Another 26% say they are very proud to be American.

00:15:04.000 So these partisan splits are, again, reflective of deeper ideological rifts.

00:15:08.000 So Americans feel we have less and less in common at the top level.

00:15:10.000 Maybe the only thing that we have in common at this point is that nobody thinks that the Fed has anything under control because these experts, you know, real experts out there, these are the ones who said that everything would be fine.

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00:15:22.000 They weren't blowing out the dollar or anything like that.

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00:16:27.000 So when Joe Biden says, on July 4th, he's never more optimistic about America than he is today, the question is, based on what?

00:16:34.000 Based on what are the unifying principles?

00:16:36.000 See, this is the thing.

00:16:37.000 Let's say that you have one group of Americans who are generally not as proud to be American.

00:16:41.000 We will call them Democrats because that is what they are under the polling data.

00:16:45.000 Wouldn't you have to speak to those people about why it's important to be proud of America?

00:16:48.000 I mean, you're a Democratic president.

00:16:50.000 Shouldn't you talk to your own party about why they should be proud of America?

00:16:54.000 If you're a Republican, conversely, shouldn't you talk to your own party about the flaws in America?

00:16:59.000 But we don't do that.

00:17:00.000 That doesn't happen too often.

00:17:02.000 There's never any sort of fulsome explanation that should be bipartisan as to what is good about America and what America needs to change.

00:17:08.000 And that's because, again, the consensus is broken down.

00:17:10.000 There used to be a consensus about what made America great.

00:17:13.000 This is true in the 80s.

00:17:13.000 It's true in the 90s.

00:17:14.000 It's true in the early 2000s.

00:17:16.000 It's not been true, really, since about 2010, 2011.

00:17:19.000 There is no consensus as to America being a good country with flaws.

00:17:25.000 And so why should we be surprised that an emissary from the past like Joe Biden is still speaking this language, but it's falling upon deaf ears?

00:17:31.000 Here's President Biden talking about unity.

00:17:34.000 All of you are reminders that we're a great nation because we're a good people.

00:17:40.000 It's because of you I've never been more optimistic about America than I am today.

00:17:47.000 An optimism that digs deep, never gives up.

00:17:52.000 That's America.

00:17:53.000 That's America.

00:17:57.000 Okay, but what does he mean by any of that?

00:17:59.000 What are the founding principles of America that are worth standing for?

00:18:01.000 So, Joe Biden gives this speech and he says the United States should choose unity.

00:18:06.000 Here he is trying to explain why we should choose unity.

00:18:08.000 I know many Americans look around today and see a divided country and are deeply worried about that fact.

00:18:17.000 I understand, but I believe we're more united than we are divided.

00:18:23.000 Even more, I believe it's a choice we make And I believe it's within our power to choose unity and unity of purpose.

00:18:33.000 But here's the problem.

00:18:33.000 That sounds great, except it can't be platitudinous.

00:18:35.000 You have to explain what exactly we hold in common.

00:18:38.000 What exactly do we hold in common?

00:18:39.000 Well, fortunately, we have a document that says exactly what we are supposed to hold in common.

00:18:44.000 We had a whole celebration of it over the weekend.

00:18:48.000 That Declaration of Independence says specifically what exactly we are supposed to hold in common.

00:18:55.000 They say that the causes that impel them to the separation, these are truths to be held self-evident, that all men are created equal by rights, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government

00:19:19.000 Laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them, shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.

00:19:28.000 Right?

00:19:28.000 Those would be the common principles, would they not?

00:19:31.000 Those would be the things that we hold in common.

00:19:34.000 And that would have to be backed by a polity that lives in virtue, as John Adams suggested.

00:19:40.000 The Constitution, the Declaration, written for a people of morality and virtue, by which he meant Judeo-Christian tradition.

00:19:47.000 It does not mean you have to be a Jew or a Christian in order to live in this country.

00:19:51.000 It does not mean that you have to be a believing Jew or a Christian in order to live out those principles.

00:19:54.000 But the principles of virtue that have been handed down over the course of millennia culminating in the creation of the United States and then further moving on to the abolition of slavery and equal treatment according to race, etc.

00:20:08.000 All of that is the outgrowth of a several thousand year tradition in which we are just links in a chain.

00:20:13.000 These are the things that we held in common.

00:20:15.000 These are the things that matter.

00:20:16.000 But as I say, one of the reasons the country is coming apart is because we can't even celebrate that.

00:20:20.000 What exactly are we supposed to celebrate on July 4th?

00:20:22.000 That's the question.

00:20:24.000 And the reason we have to ask the question is because there's a whole group of people who believe that we shouldn't celebrate July 4th based on any of that.

00:20:30.000 So for example, Paul Waldman has a piece of the Washington Post.

00:20:33.000 This came out on July 4th, quote, this July 4th, let's declare our independence from the founding fathers.

00:20:40.000 246 years ago, Americans did something extraordinary.

00:20:43.000 Declaring their independence from a colonial rule enforced from a great distance with the cruel and arbitrary hand of oppression, now it's time for us to declare our own independence from founding father fetishism.

00:20:52.000 We need to liberate ourselves from the toxic belief that those men were perfect in all things, vessels of sacred wisdom that must bind our society today, no matter how much damage it might cause.

00:21:01.000 As we've seen recently, the American right has found in the framers an extraordinarily effective tool with which they can roll back social progress and undermine our democracy.

00:21:10.000 It may have found its most ridiculous manifestation in the Tea Party movement that emerged when Barack Obama was president, when people started prancing around in tricorn hats, and every Republican was supposed to have a favorite founding father.

00:21:20.000 But today, it has gone from an affectation to a weapon, and a brutally effective one.

00:21:25.000 See, it's the founding principles that are tearing apart the country, says Paul Waldman.

00:21:28.000 We saw it in the recent Supreme Court decision that supercharged the legal philosophy of originalism on abortion and guns.

00:21:33.000 At the Supreme Court.

00:21:35.000 The Constitution of the United States.

00:21:36.000 These are things that tear apart the country.

00:21:38.000 The founding principles of the United States.

00:21:40.000 You know, that we should make laws about guns in the states. 0.95

00:21:43.000 You know, things like abortion law was not regulated by the federal government in 1789 or thereafter, and was left to the states all the way up until Roe vs. Wade.

00:21:52.000 The America of 1789 becomes a prison that conservative justices can lock us all in whenever it suits them, says Paul Waldman of the Washington Post.

00:22:02.000 The outcome is always the ones Republicans seek.

00:22:04.000 Anyone who disagrees, who shows how absurd the right's historical analysis is, even on its own terms, simply isn't respecting the divine will of the framers.

00:22:12.000 So, throw out the Constitution.

00:22:14.000 Throw out the Declaration of Independence.

00:22:16.000 None of these things are worthy of emulation.

00:22:19.000 None of them can bind us.

00:22:20.000 Over at ESPN, similar thing.

00:22:21.000 There's a piece on the front page of ESPN on July 4th by Howard Bryant, an ESPN senior writer, titled, Baseball, Barbecue, and Losing Freedom this Fourth of July.

00:22:30.000 And by freedom, they don't mean the things guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence.

00:22:34.000 They don't mean the very complex worldview espoused by Thomas Jefferson or John Adams, who were in conflict with one another fairly often, and they literally ran for president against one another.

00:22:44.000 They don't mean any of that.

00:22:45.000 What they mean by freedom is my freedom to do whatever I want and your freedom not to do whatever you want.

00:22:52.000 The left has decided fundamental principles that were supposed to unify us actually divide us.

00:22:57.000 They're actually bad.

00:22:58.000 They need to be undermined.

00:23:00.000 And then you wonder why the country feels like it's falling apart on July 4th?

00:23:04.000 Our fundamental principles are no longer held in common.

00:23:06.000 It's just a question of whether I get to control you or whether you get to control me, at least according to the left.

00:23:11.000 But there's one thing we are all in control of, and that is how light moves through your home.

00:23:15.000 So the simple fact of the matter is if you want your home to look better, you need more light in your home.

00:23:19.000 And you know what makes a huge difference?

00:23:20.000 Your window coverings.

00:23:21.000 I know you haven't thought of that in a while, but the simple fact is that you haven't replaced those things in years and years and years.

00:23:25.000 It's really affecting how your home looks.

00:23:27.000 You want your home to feel airier and lighter?

00:23:29.000 Well, that's why you need a better pair of window coverings.

00:23:32.000 This is why you need Blinds.com.

00:23:35.000 There's no showroom and no retail markups.

00:23:36.000 No matter how many you order, installation is just one low cost.

00:23:39.000 Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings with over 40,000 five-star reviews.

00:23:45.000 There's no stress when you shop on Blinds.com because everything they sell is covered by their perfect fit and 100% satisfaction guarantee.

00:23:51.000 If you're like me and you need some help, well, Blinds.com.

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00:23:55.000 They have experts available to help choose the style and color that's right for you.

00:23:58.000 Save up to 50% site-wide at Blinds.com during their 4th of July sale, now through July 5th only.

00:24:03.000 That's like today.

00:24:03.000 That's up to 50% off at Blinds.com, so you need to go do it today.

00:24:07.000 When you check out online, don't forget to tell them you heard about Blinds.com from The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:24:11.000 Rules and restrictions may apply.

00:24:12.000 Plus, You can pay overtime with PayPal credit at blinds.com.

00:24:15.000 PayPal credit is subject to credit approval.

00:24:16.000 Visit blinds.com slash PayPal for details.

00:24:20.000 So, to take that ESPN columnist, for example, again, Howard Bryant writing for ESPN.

00:24:24.000 He says, He says, last month, Major League Baseball and its partners again released Independence Day-themed baseball hats that each of the 30 teams will wear.

00:24:32.000 This year's version features a flush of stars across the front, against a blue and white backdrop offset with a shaggy shock of red.

00:24:39.000 The Toronto Blue Jays, located in a country that doesn't celebrate American independence, were also issued the caps.

00:24:44.000 Next is USA-themed socks, the marketing, the freedom-inspired spikes, gloves, wristbands, the inevitable pains to the armed forces.

00:24:49.000 By now, we're all numb to the spectacle.

00:24:52.000 At least publicly, the emphasis on the 4th of July shifted from family to symbols years ago.

00:24:56.000 September 11th did that.

00:24:59.000 Two decades of paid patriotism has made it ever harder to censor the 4th on reconnecting with their favorite aunts and uncles.

00:25:05.000 Grilling, baseball, fireworks, first replaced by symbols and now by a country tearing itself completely apart.

00:25:10.000 July 4th, 2022 falls in the midst of devastation.

00:25:13.000 Devastation, folks.

00:25:15.000 It is Independence Day in America with independence under recurrent and relentless assault.

00:25:19.000 From Miranda rights to the environment to the separation of church and state to guns.

00:25:23.000 So many guns.

00:25:24.000 People are reeling.

00:25:25.000 The U.S.

00:25:26.000 Supreme Court has run a chainsaw through what two generations of Americans had known to be the legal baselines of their lives.

00:25:30.000 Notice that.

00:25:31.000 Two generations of Americans.

00:25:32.000 Because it was in the 1960s and 70s that the American left completely rewrote the American bargain, utterly and completely, from the Supreme Court through the legislature to LBJ.

00:25:41.000 They completely rewrote the bargain of the Declaration of Independence.

00:25:43.000 And now they're angry that people actually are reading the Declaration of Independence.

00:25:47.000 Because all the things that were supposed to unify us actually divide us.

00:25:51.000 This is a columnist for ESPN, right?

00:25:53.000 You talk about why all the unity in American life is gone.

00:25:55.000 This sport is now a front and center issue.

00:25:59.000 You can't watch a sporting event with an American flag flying without hearing a lecture from ESPN about how American principles are bad.

00:26:05.000 You cannot go to a movie made by mainstream Hollywood with the one exception of Top Gun, which is why it's doing unbelievable business, without hearing Hollywood lecture you on why America is bad and why progressive politics are good.

00:26:18.000 You cannot go to the store without seeing the American flag replaced by other flags.

00:26:22.000 We had an entire month of this last month.

00:26:24.000 You'll get one day of the American flag up for Independence Day.

00:26:26.000 We'll get an entire month of the gay pride, pride, progress flag over a Target. 0.65

00:26:30.000 And it's very important that Judeo-Christian traditionalism be thrown out completely. 0.79

00:26:34.000 And if you oppose that, if you think Judeo-Christian traditionalism is a good thing and that it provides the virtuous basis for a free government, this means that you are the divisive one in the United States of America.

00:26:45.000 It is an amazing thing.

00:26:48.000 And again, this is the pattern in American life.

00:26:51.000 Joe Biden laments America coming apart because he's part of a movement that has torn America apart.

00:26:55.000 That would be why, guys.

00:26:57.000 Because all of the things that we used to... Freedom of speech is now seen by the hardcore left as a guise for power, which is why they're in favor of things like hate speech laws.

00:27:05.000 It's why they suggest there has to be heavy regulation on what you can say and do via big tech.

00:27:10.000 It is the left that believes that freedom of religion should be ground under the, you should not, as a coach of a football team and a high school, you should not be allowed to say an independent prayer on the 50-yard line that is according to three justices on the United States Supreme Court.

00:27:22.000 15 years ago, I probably would have been a majority of the Supreme Court.

00:27:26.000 It's, it's, there's a reason why NPR, National Public Radio, funded by you, On July 4th, they announced they were breaking with tradition.

00:27:35.000 Instead of a reading of the Declaration of Independence, NPR examines what equality means and has meant in the document.

00:27:40.000 Important segment about our past and future, according to Leila Fadel, the host of Morning Edition and Up First.

00:27:46.000 You can't even read the Declaration of Independence on NPR, national public radio.

00:27:50.000 You can't even do it anymore.

00:27:52.000 And these conflicts of vision become front and center when you have the conflict that you see, for example, between California and Florida.

00:27:58.000 Now, as I say, When the country was founded, there were pretty significant disagreements on massive issues, like the biggest being slavery.

00:28:04.000 Massive, massive disagreement, which actually culminated in a huge debate at the Declaration of Independence Convention.

00:28:10.000 There was a portion of the original Declaration of Independence.

00:28:12.000 Thomas Jefferson wrote this in.

00:28:14.000 He was a slaveholder at the time and remained so until the end of his life.

00:28:17.000 Thomas Jefferson is one of the most shaded and difficult figures in American history.

00:28:22.000 Thomas Jefferson had a line in the Declaration of Independence.

00:28:25.000 It's titled, The He Has Waged Cruel War Line, and it was about how George and the British government had effectuated slavery in the American colonies.

00:28:34.000 He has waged cruel war on a people from a faraway land, right?

00:28:38.000 It was in the Declaration, and the Southern states insisted it be struck in order for there to actually be a full-scale alliance between the states for purposes of resisting the British government.

00:28:47.000 So that was present at the founding.

00:28:50.000 But there were other principles that were at least held in common, and then would be increasingly expanded to more and more human beings over time, which was the vision of people like John Adams, who was from the North, where slavery was not, in fact, a thing.

00:29:03.000 But now, when you have the states ripping on one another, they are ripping on one another about fundamental basic principles.

00:29:09.000 I mean, you have California saying to Florida that boys are girls and girls are boys.

00:29:13.000 It's hard to get much more fundamental than that.

00:29:15.000 So now Gavin Newsom, who desperately wants to replace Joe Biden atop the 2024 Democratic ticket should Joe Biden keel over and actually not be alive anymore.

00:29:22.000 I mean, that is clearly his plan.

00:29:24.000 That's the only reason why Gavin Newsom is running ads in Florida.

00:29:28.000 So I thought I had escaped this when I came from California to Florida.

00:29:32.000 I thought I'd escaped this guy.

00:29:33.000 I literally took my company and we moved it to Tennessee. 1.00

00:29:35.000 And I and my family moved to Florida to escape the rule of morons like this. 1.00

00:29:41.000 The androgynous Ken doll that is Gavin Newsom. 0.99

00:29:44.000 So he started running July 4th ads in Florida, urging people to come back to California, which is hilarious because we all ran away from you.

00:29:53.000 But his vision of freedom.

00:29:55.000 We are now on a fundamentally different level in the United States about what freedom constitutes.

00:29:59.000 Here is Gavin Newsom.

00:30:01.000 It's Independence Day, so let's talk about what's going on in America.

00:30:05.000 Freedom?

00:30:05.000 It's under attack in your state.

00:30:07.000 Republican leaders?

00:30:08.000 They're banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors.

00:30:15.000 I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight, or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.

00:30:21.000 Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love.

00:30:26.000 Don't let them take your freedom.

00:30:29.000 Okay.

00:30:31.000 I just came from that state.

00:30:32.000 Let me just say that Freedom in California, the ones that he's talking about, he shows a giant picture of the beach.

00:30:36.000 They shut down the beaches during all of COVID.

00:30:39.000 I was there.

00:30:40.000 I remember.

00:30:40.000 You couldn't take your kids to the beach.

00:30:42.000 Meanwhile, it was Rhonda Sands who was getting ripped up and down for keeping the beaches in Jacksonville open during COVID in June of 2020. 1.00

00:30:50.000 Gavin Newsom says that they're banning books.

00:30:52.000 You know how many books are banned in California?

00:30:54.000 They ban tons of books.

00:30:55.000 Except the books they ban in California are things like To Kill a Mockingbird.

00:30:58.000 And in Florida, they just say that we don't want syllabi that include trans theory to small children.

00:31:05.000 His vision of liberty is, is what?

00:31:10.000 Abortion on demand and marry whomever you please? 1.00

00:31:13.000 That is his vision of liberty over there.

00:31:15.000 And in Florida, by the way, it turns out same-sex marriage is legal because it has been legal across the country, thanks to the Supreme Court in Obergefell.

00:31:22.000 All we're saying is, in Florida, don't cram that down on kids until the age of 8 in public schools.

00:31:27.000 And Gavin Newsom's like, that's a violation of freedom?

00:31:29.000 I promise you, people are living free in Florida, much freer than in Gavin Newsom's world.

00:31:34.000 And by the way, generally more in line with virtuous values of raising children than in places like California.

00:31:41.000 The freedom to trans your kids is what Gavin Newsom is talking about in California.

00:31:46.000 And these are fundamental conflicts.

00:31:48.000 How do you celebrate a country that has... What are we supposed to believe Gavin Newsom and Rhonda Sanchez have in common?

00:31:55.000 And if the answer is nothing, then there's only one solution to that, which is that the original vision of the country, the United States, is going to come apart.

00:32:01.000 You'll end up with this sort of Articles of Confederation.

00:32:04.000 Again, we will be an agglomeration of states with a wide variety of policies, and we share very few things, fewer even than we did at the beginning of the republic.

00:32:11.000 Very, very, very few things.

00:32:13.000 And those things will be like foreign policy and tariffs, just so we don't go to war with one another.

00:32:18.000 That seems like the direction the country is going, and so the transition Over time that Alexander Hamilton foretold in the Federalist Papers from a group of people who believed in allegiance to their states foremost to a group of people who over time would feel serious allegiance to both their states and the federal government now it's beginning to recede again and people are beginning to believe in themselves as states as opposed to members of the body politic that is the United States because you just don't have enough in common with people who live in the country at large.

00:32:43.000 Again, exacerbated by the vision of freedom that so many people on the left seem to have, which runs directly counter.

00:32:48.000 That Paul Waldman column is really telling that.

00:32:50.000 That Washington Post column cited earlier.

00:32:52.000 Because in that one, he basically says, you know, it turns out that the right wing, they keep mirroring these principles from 1789 and 1776.

00:32:57.000 And those are really old.

00:32:59.000 Yes, those were the ones.

00:33:01.000 Those were the ones that used to unify us, gang.

00:33:03.000 Those were the ones that we all, you know, actually had a declaration about and celebrated every year.

00:33:07.000 Those were the ones that we actually became part of a constitutional body politic over.

00:33:11.000 And you don't like those.

00:33:12.000 We get it.

00:33:14.000 And this is why there's so many people on the left who feel the necessity, at least they're honest.

00:33:18.000 I'll give them this.

00:33:19.000 At least they're honest.

00:33:20.000 At least they recognize that in order for their left-wing agenda to prevail, the founding era notions of both virtue and liberty have to die or change radically.

00:33:31.000 Which is presumably why you have Jessica Chastain, who I believe lives in New York and is 45 years old, flipping off America on July 4th.

00:33:41.000 Right, this very attractive and extraordinarily wealthy actress. 1.00

00:33:46.000 She is flipping off America on July 4th. 0.96

00:33:48.000 Quote, happy Independence Day from me and my reproductive rights. 0.88

00:33:52.000 Oh, you mean abortion?

00:33:53.000 So you live in a state where abortion is available on demand forever.

00:33:58.000 And you are flipping off America because people in Florida want a 15-week ban on abortion and people in Texas do not want abortion at all?

00:34:07.000 This is why you're flipping off America?

00:34:08.000 Maybe you don't understand how any of this works.

00:34:10.000 Maybe we don't have anything in common because you believe that what you want ought to rule over the entire country on every single issue.

00:34:18.000 And you don't even want to use constitutional auspices to do it.

00:34:20.000 You just want a bunch of judges to do it for you.

00:34:24.000 You have Samantha Bee doing the same thing.

00:34:27.000 The celebrity left's attachment to abortion is so extraordinary.

00:34:30.000 I don't know what I have in common with people like Samantha Bee anymore.

00:34:33.000 I don't know what I have in common with people like Mark Hamill.

00:34:35.000 What are we supposed to have in common as Americans?

00:34:37.000 It's a serious question because if we have very little in common as Americans, even an allegiance to the system by which we govern differently, then how does the country survive?

00:34:47.000 Here is Samantha- Remember that time Samantha Bee was supposed to be funny?

00:34:50.000 I don't- I don't know who thought that was a thing.

00:34:52.000 Samantha Bee, the least funny human being on planet Earth, less funny than colon cancer, Samantha Bee. 0.90

00:34:57.000 Here she is, trying to explain that she is going to raise hell by which she is going to make- She means she will make a show that has a viewership that amounts to her immediate family and three hangers-on who get drunk with her at cocktail parties afterward. 0.57

00:35:11.000 I can't describe how painful it is to be here now in a place where the Supreme Court has the power to erase 50 years of constitutional law.

00:35:19.000 Make no mistake, this is not where it ends.

00:35:21.000 Conservatives will not rest until they have come for all of our rights.

00:35:24.000 Everything we have fought for could be lost unless we take it back.

00:35:28.000 It's not just about voting in November.

00:35:31.000 It's about doing everything in our power to protect and help vulnerable people access abortion across state lines.

00:35:37.000 And we have to raise hell in our cities, in Washington, in every restaurant Justice Alito eats at for the rest of his life.

00:35:45.000 Because if Republicans have made our lives hell, it's time to return the favor.

00:35:51.000 Okay, so her life is hell because she lives in New York City and is extremely wealthy for being the least funny human being on planet Earth. 1.00

00:35:56.000 It's like running gun battle between bubonic plague and Samantha Bee for least funny thing on planet Earth. 0.74

00:36:03.000 Like Ebola is more funny than Samantha Bee by a long shot.

00:36:07.000 Put aside her lack of humor, the fact that she is whining about living in the United States where she is unbelievably free.

00:36:13.000 And where even the freedoms, which by the way, are not anywhere written into the constitution of the United States or into the moral code of the West, by the way.

00:36:21.000 It's hysterical that the things that they consider the most core freedoms, the core freedoms for the left are things like contraceptive availability for people who are not married, abortion on demand, and same sex marriage.

00:36:31.000 You know, things that have not historically been written into the virtue code of the West.

00:36:35.000 You can make the case for any of them or all of them, but to pretend that they have any sort of history or tradition in the West, Older than about five minutes ago, historically speaking, is ridiculous.

00:36:44.000 But these are the core freedoms, not freedom of speech, not freedom of religion, not freedom to bear arms.

00:36:48.000 All of those things are bad.

00:36:49.000 If the Supreme Court says that you get those things, then that's terrible.

00:36:55.000 So this is a conflict of visions, a deep conflict of visions.

00:36:58.000 Again, it takes the ugliest form because when it comes to abortion, the left just loses its mind.

00:37:02.000 So you had Mark Hamill over the weekend.

00:37:05.000 Tweeting out, so there are a bunch of people who have been tweeting out that they'll adopt other people's kids.

00:37:10.000 Like if you decide to bring your child to term rather than killing it in the womb, we'll adopt your kid. 0.99

00:37:13.000 That seems like a pretty nice thing, isn't it?

00:37:16.000 We'll adopt your baby.

00:37:16.000 Isn't that a nice thing?

00:37:17.000 If somebody says, you know what, instead of you killing that baby in the womb, you'd prefer that that baby have a wonderful life.

00:37:22.000 We will adopt your children.

00:37:23.000 Isn't that like a beautiful thing?

00:37:25.000 Mark Hamill thinks it's a terrible thing.

00:37:26.000 Because according to the left, abortion is sacrosanct.

00:37:28.000 It is virtuous.

00:37:29.000 It is good.

00:37:30.000 Anything that undermines it, including the virtue of other people, is bad.

00:37:32.000 So Mark Hamill tweeted out a picture of himself.

00:37:35.000 He played the Joker in the animated series of Batman.

00:37:37.000 It's a picture of the Joker and Harley Quinn with the caption, We will adopt your baby.

00:37:42.000 He's a serious thinker, Mark Hamill.

00:37:44.000 By the way, he became famous playing Luke Skywalker.

00:37:46.000 Who was?

00:37:46.000 Wait for it.

00:37:47.000 Adopted.

00:37:48.000 So that's all good stuff there from Mark Hamill.

00:37:51.000 The celebrity class hates Judeo-Christian virtues so much that they're now attacking people who adopt babies.

00:37:58.000 That's how far they've gone.

00:37:59.000 So what do we have in common?

00:38:01.000 What exactly are the things we have in common?

00:38:02.000 And you can see how this breaks down, how everything breaks down when it comes to those blemishes and wounds on the body politic that crop up from time to time and are immediately politicized.

00:38:10.000 Well, it feels like the country is breaking down, but here's the thing.

00:38:12.000 You cannot allow your car to break down right now, because the truth is your used car is probably worth more than your house at this point in time, thanks to Joe Biden's supply chain crisis and his bad economy.

00:38:22.000 Well, with the ever-increasing numbers of car makes and models, it's now impossible to stock all the parts you need in a traditional chain storefront.

00:38:27.000 Why endure the often pointless or seemingly intimidating questions about the specifications of your vehicle, only to have the counterman order the parts on his computer anyway?

00:38:34.000 Well, you also have a computer and you also have access to the internet, which means you have rockauto.com at home and in your pocket.

00:38:41.000 Why would you choose to spend 30%, 50%, 100% more for the exact same auto parts at a chain store or new car dealership?

00:38:47.000 Rockauto.com is a family business serving auto parts customers online for 20 years.

00:38:51.000 Go to rockauto.com, shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers.

00:38:54.000 They have everything from engine control modules and brake parts to tail lamps, motor oil, even new carpet.

00:38:58.000 Whether it's for a classic or daily driver, get everything you need in a few easy clicks delivered directly to your door.

00:39:03.000 The rockautor.com catalog, it's unique, it's remarkably easy to navigate.

00:39:06.000 You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brands, specifications, and prices you prefer.

00:39:11.000 Best of all, prices at rockautor.com, they're reliably low, they are the same for professionals and do-it-yourselfers.

00:39:15.000 So, head on over to rockautor.com right now, see all the parts available for your car or truck, and preserve some of your most important property.

00:39:21.000 Write Shapiro in their how-did-you-hear-about-us box so they know that I sent you.

00:39:24.000 Alrighty folks, it has been an enormous few weeks for The Daily Wire and America.

00:39:28.000 Last Wednesday, we had our biggest live event of the year backstage live at the Ryman.

00:39:32.000 We celebrated the launch of our expanded streaming service Daily Wire Plus and the addition of Dr. Jordan Peterson, the preeminent intellectual philosopher of our time.

00:39:40.000 Jordan is fiercely independent.

00:39:42.000 He's come out of the gate fighting with the scathing criticism of the Twitter apparatchiks who just suspended his account for saying the true fact that Ellen Page is Elliot Page and they're the same person.

00:39:52.000 You're not allowed to mention that Elliot Page was super duper duper male, like absolutely just as male as I am.

00:39:57.000 Elliot Page used to be a woman named Ellen Page. 1.00

00:39:59.000 You're not allowed to mention that or they ban you from Twitter.

00:40:01.000 Jordan tweeted out the unsayable.

00:40:03.000 He got banned from Twitter, and now he's speaking out about it.

00:40:06.000 Then over the weekend, we celebrated the fierce independence of a country founded on principles we know are worth fighting for.

00:40:10.000 It feels like a watershed moment for The Daily Wire because it is.

00:40:13.000 More of you than ever are getting behind the mission and signed up to be members in June, and there's never been a better time to join.

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00:41:29.000 So, the fact is that because we hold nothing in common, it now seems as though every blemish on the body politic, every wound is not just a scratch or a scrape on an underlying healthy body.

00:41:45.000 Instead, they're all symptomatic of something that can kill us, which is an underlying conflict.

00:41:49.000 So, for example, there shouldn't be anything in America more unifying than the grief we all feel and share when a crazy person, when a person who clearly is mentally ill, seriously mentally ill, murders innocent people.

00:42:00.000 Like, that is one where that should be pretty unifying, right?

00:42:03.000 We should be all on the same page about this.

00:42:04.000 Evil people are evil.

00:42:06.000 People doing evil things is bad.

00:42:08.000 We all agree on that.

00:42:09.000 Instead, now every time there's a mass shooting, we first determine the politics of the mass shooting, and then we determine how we feel about the mass shooting.

00:42:16.000 So, according to the media, if it's a mass shooting in downtown Chicago on the South Side like every single weekend, we don't even cover it because that's not news.

00:42:23.000 Because to cover it, especially if it includes black people, and really only if it includes black people, because this is how the media treat it, to cover it would sustain bad notions about race in the United States.

00:42:33.000 We won't even cover it.

00:42:33.000 We'll just pretend that it never happened.

00:42:35.000 It's not newsworthy.

00:42:36.000 If, however, white people get shot in Highland Park in Chicago, the news media will cover that because that's indicative, of course, of a graver American evil, which is, of course, the presence of guns. 0.52

00:42:45.000 You can't have that conversation about the South Side of Chicago, you can't have that conversation about Highland Park.

00:42:49.000 Because every single wound on the body politic has to immediately polarize, immediately.

00:42:54.000 So, this example from Chicago is just an amazing example.

00:42:58.000 So, here on this show, because we actually still believe in unity over things like evil people are evil and we shouldn't give them the time of day, we don't mention the names of mass shooters.

00:43:06.000 The entire media not only mentions the names of mass shooters, we show their faces.

00:43:10.000 Every other media outlet I know of, every other major media outlet I know of, reports the names, the agendas, the manifestos, everything they can about these mass shooters, which of course drives other mass shooters to want to get famous and then do it again.

00:43:20.000 And then the media, why is this happening?

00:43:22.000 Must be the guns.

00:43:23.000 Well, maybe you guys ought to take a look in the mirror sometime.

00:43:25.000 We are so meticulous about this that if I accidentally mention the name of a mass shooter from 10 years ago on this program, my editors will go back and cut it at my behest.

00:43:34.000 If we can, if it's not live, right?

00:43:35.000 This is a thing that we do here at the company because we are very careful about this stuff.

00:43:39.000 So I report to you only the things that I think are necessary for you to understand the story.

00:43:43.000 I don't think the name of these mass shooters is a thing that is necessary to understand the story.

00:43:47.000 I don't want them to be famous.

00:43:48.000 I want them to be obscure and rotten hell where they belong as a general rule. 0.99

00:43:53.000 So, in this particular case, the person who is responsible for this horrible mass shooting in Highland Park that killed six people and wounded 38 others, This person is obviously an insane person. 0.96

00:44:04.000 The reason I say obviously an insane person is because I know that we're not allowed to say this, but if you act like an insane person in society, we can generally assume you're an insane person.

00:44:11.000 Call it the insane person rule.

00:44:12.000 To pretend that this person is not a crazy person is to ignore the evidence of your own eyes. 0.96

00:44:17.000 This person posted evidence on social media of how crazy he is.

00:44:23.000 Here is, for example, we're going to show you an extremely creepy video of this person.

00:44:28.000 Hey, this is a creepy video of this person simulating a mass shooting in a school. 0.98

00:44:33.000 This is an insane person. 0.98

00:44:35.000 I don't know. 0.81

00:44:36.000 There's no better catch all term for this.

00:44:38.000 I don't know what form of mental illness the person suffers from.

00:44:40.000 This is not a sane and normal human being.

00:44:42.000 I know we also shy away from the word normal in today's society.

00:44:45.000 Normal meaning statistically normal.

00:44:46.000 This is not a statistically normal human being.

00:44:48.000 There is a normal.

00:44:49.000 This person is not it. 0.96

00:44:51.000 Which means that any attempt to politicize this is ridiculous.

00:44:54.000 But here is a video of this person that we're supposed to ignore on behalf of the idea that this person was a Trump supporter.

00:45:00.000 This is something I tried to pitch last night.

00:45:02.000 I don't like this sort of stuff at all.

00:45:03.000 Again, I don't blame Bernie Sanders when a Bernie Sanders supporting crazy person shoots up Congress people at a baseball game.

00:45:09.000 I don't blame Barack Obama when a Black Lives Matter supporting crazy person shoots up Dallas police officers. 0.90

00:45:15.000 And I don't blame Donald Trump when a crazy The person who believes that they're a Donald Trump fan goes and does math. 0.82

00:45:21.000 But in this case, there's not even evidence that the person was super political in any way.

00:45:25.000 The person apparently had postings from the left.

00:45:27.000 The person apparently had postings from the right.

00:45:28.000 But it doesn't matter. 0.98

00:45:29.000 The person's crazy.

00:45:30.000 Okay, so here is the actual video of the person. 0.99

00:45:32.000 is a crazy person. 0.66

00:45:33.000 Is a person reaching into a bag for a gun. 0.99

00:45:42.000 Okay?

00:45:42.000 And then walking through and simulating with joker laughter A mass shooting.

00:45:49.000 And simulating getting shot by the cops.

00:45:49.000 At a school.

00:45:55.000 Hey, it's EXTREMELY creepy stuff.

00:45:58.000 That hysterical laughter, if you can see this person standing in a classroom.

00:46:01.000 Dropping bullets on the floor.

00:46:03.000 Or looks like bullets.

00:46:08.000 Walking- I mean, it's like a full-built set.

00:46:12.000 Standing in front of an American flag.

00:46:14.000 Okay, it's- it's ex- This is creepy stuff. 0.98

00:46:19.000 This is a crazy person. 0.96

00:46:20.000 This is an insane person who wants attention. 0.99

00:46:23.000 And the media will give him as much attention as he could possibly want.

00:46:25.000 They'll mention his name over and over. 0.98

00:46:26.000 They'll plaster his face, which is a crazy person. 0.69

00:46:28.000 I'm going to say it again. 1.00

00:46:29.000 This person is mentally ill. 1.00

00:46:31.000 It is obvious this person is mentally ill. 1.00

00:46:32.000 To pretend otherwise is ridiculous. 1.00

00:46:34.000 There must have been red flags galore.

00:46:36.000 So the big failure here, if we're going to talk about bipartisan failure, where are the people around this person reporting them to the police?

00:46:42.000 Apparently, this person was known to the police.

00:46:44.000 We now know that.

00:46:45.000 This person performed as a rapper and whose recent music videos included depictions of mass murder.

00:46:51.000 This person's most recent video posted to YouTube showed him in the aftermath of a school shooting.

00:46:55.000 It ended with this person draping himself in an American flag.

00:46:58.000 Another music video showed a cartoon depiction of a man wearing a shirt with his YouTube channel's logo on it, holding a long gun, being shot by the police.

00:47:07.000 This is, um, not a shock when people like this do evil and terrible things.

00:47:14.000 Apparently, the father had described this person as having emotional issues.

00:47:21.000 Apparently, he used to, like, ride up and down the block on a motorized scooter playing extremely loud music for attention.

00:47:27.000 And again, WGN is reporting this person was known to police.

00:47:30.000 So, immediately, immediately, this breaks down into the person was a Trump supporter.

00:47:34.000 The evidence that this person was a Trump supporter, supposedly, is that this person took a video of themselves at some sort of Trump rally.

00:47:41.000 And at the Trump rally, the person is wearing a Where's Waldo outfit. 0.76

00:47:44.000 So, is the person just a troll or a joker? 0.87

00:47:47.000 It seems so. 0.88

00:47:49.000 Because this is what crazy online people do.

00:47:51.000 They're wearing a Where's Waldo outfit and so the entire left went Trump supporter. 0.98

00:47:55.000 Well that means that Trump's bad and the right is bad and therefore we can blame our neighbor for the evil of an insane person.

00:48:02.000 That's a symptom of a country that's breaking down when your first move is how do I blame my fellow American for this sort of stuff.

00:48:07.000 And again, every one of these stories breaks down this way.

00:48:09.000 So this is why, for the left, this immediately breaks down into talk over gun control.

00:48:13.000 Because on gun control, you can blame your neighbor for something that your neighbor had nothing to do with.

00:48:17.000 This is why the left will say things like, the NRA is to blame for mass shootings.

00:48:20.000 Or your neighbor, who is a law-abiding citizen, who owns a long gun, is responsible for a school shooting.

00:48:25.000 So Joe Biden immediately released a statement, of course, calling for more gun control because he has a hammer in search of a nail when it comes to gun control.

00:48:32.000 The statement says, Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.

00:48:38.000 As always, we are grateful for the first responders and law enforcement on the scene.

00:48:42.000 I recently signed the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation in almost 30 years into law, which includes actions that will save lives.

00:48:48.000 But there's much more work to do, and I'm not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence. 0.97

00:48:51.000 Again, he only releases statements like this when a bunch of white people get shot, or unless a white supremacist shoots a bunch of black people. 0.65

00:48:57.000 That is the only time that Joe Biden ever sounds off on issues like this. 0.98

00:48:59.000 Meanwhile, the Illinois governor, J.B.

00:49:00.000 Pritzker, he says it's time to talk gun control, because it's always time to talk gun control.

00:49:04.000 Is it a day ending in Y?

00:49:05.000 Time to talk gun control. 0.95

00:49:05.000 Let's do it. 0.95

00:49:07.000 I'm furious that children and their families have been traumatized.

00:49:13.000 I'm furious that this is happening in communities all across Illinois and America.

00:49:19.000 I'm furious because it does not have to be this way.

00:49:22.000 And yet we as a nation, well, we continue to allow this to happen.

00:49:29.000 While we celebrate the 4th of July just once a year, mass shootings have become our weekly Yes, weekly American tradition.

00:49:40.000 There are going to be people who say that today is not the day.

00:49:44.000 That now is not the time to talk about guns.

00:49:48.000 I'm telling you, there is no better day and no better time than right here and right now.

00:49:56.000 Really, there's no better day and no better time to talk about it than like immediately while the bodies are still in the streets.

00:50:02.000 That's that's like the very best time of all the times to talk about this sort of stuff is the time to talk about guns.

00:50:07.000 By the way, Illinois has extraordinarily heavy gun control laws.

00:50:09.000 Chicago has extremely, extremely heavy gun control laws.

00:50:12.000 Tammy Duckworth, the senator from Illinois, she's doing the same thing. 0.99

00:50:14.000 She is talking about how we have to get rid of assault weapons.

00:50:18.000 I was just on the phone with Senator Durbin who is driving here as quickly as he possibly can to come to Highland Park and he also sends his condolences and his thoughts and you know he and I recently in the Senate last month proved that bipartisan compromise on gun safety is possible.

00:50:39.000 Today, we have seen that we can't just stop there.

00:50:43.000 We have to do more to keep our communities safe.

00:50:45.000 We have to get rid of assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and so many other additional common-sense reforms that wide majorities of Americans are crying out for.

00:50:56.000 It's always a blemish on the body politic, graver cancer in the body politic.

00:51:03.000 Gun rights are bad. 1.00

00:51:05.000 State differentiation on the basis of gun rights are bad.

00:51:08.000 Remember, she's a federal official.

00:51:09.000 She's a senator. 0.99

00:51:10.000 Elise Pritzker is a governor.

00:51:11.000 She's a senator. 0.99

00:51:12.000 She doesn't make domestic Illinois law. 0.99

00:51:15.000 She's a federal senator. 0.97

00:51:17.000 The same left will call for the Supreme Court.

00:51:19.000 The Supreme Court is very bad.

00:51:20.000 It doesn't matter.

00:51:20.000 There's a right to keep and bear arms in the Constitution of the United States, which was designed to prevent the federal government from getting involved in these issues.

00:51:27.000 The left wants the federal government.

00:51:28.000 Joe Biden wants to be involved in these issues.

00:51:30.000 That is no longer a principle that we hold in common.

00:51:33.000 And other stories are supposed to be just completely ignored.

00:51:36.000 So, for example, this is a massive national news story.

00:51:39.000 A significantly less national news story is that two police officers were shot on July 4th at the Ben Franklin Parkway.

00:51:45.000 According to WPVI, two police officers on security detail were wounded during a shooting at Fourth of July festivities in Philadelphia on Monday night.

00:51:53.000 The shooting happened just after 9.45 p.m.

00:51:55.000 as the fireworks display was still underway.

00:51:58.000 Apparently the gunfire erupted from a location in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but behind the main stage on Eakins Oval.

00:52:06.000 Again, this is not going to be a national news story in the same sort of way as the mass shooting.

00:52:11.000 Number one, not as much death, but number two, when police officers are shot by criminals, it's not nearly as much of a national story.

00:52:18.000 Because every single thing is supposed to be an indictment of precisely the values that we were supposed to hold in common.

00:52:23.000 The Second Amendment was a value we used to hold in common.

00:52:25.000 At the very least, even if you were pro-gun control, you would suggest that this was not the Supreme Court's business.

00:52:29.000 This was a state-by-state issue.

00:52:31.000 And there was, in fact, a right to keep and bear arms that was guaranteed in the Second Amendment to the Constitution that was fundamental, including in the states.

00:52:39.000 None of this was particularly controversial five minutes ago.

00:52:41.000 Now it's really, really controversial.

00:52:44.000 And this is true for every issue.

00:52:46.000 All these things that aren't unified. 0.99

00:52:47.000 Crazy people shoot people. 0.82

00:52:48.000 That's bad. 0.98

00:52:49.000 Here's another one. 0.89

00:52:50.000 If you pull a gun on a police officer and you shoot at a police officer and then you get shot, that would be on you. 0.80

00:52:55.000 Right?

00:52:55.000 That was a pretty universally held value in the United States.

00:52:57.000 No longer.

00:52:58.000 Now we have to decide based on the race of the suspect and the race of the people who shot the suspect, whether or not this was indicative of graver American racism, which is what was happening, for example, in Akron over the weekend.

00:53:08.000 So a state of emergency was declared in Akron, Ohio.

00:53:13.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, a curfew started at 9 p.m.

00:53:17.000 on July 4th after protesters damaged property amid protests over the fatal police shooting of a 25-year-old black man.

00:53:24.000 The protests came after the release on Sunday of body cam videos that appear to show multiple police officers firing dozens of times at Jalyn Walker, who was unarmed.

00:53:31.000 Akron Police Chief Stephen Maillet said a lot of rounds were fired and investigators are trying to determine exactly how many.

00:53:37.000 So, the mayor said he issued curfew after protesters broke windows in downtown Akron and caused significant property damage.

00:53:45.000 Now, the way that this is described by the media, right, this is the Wall Street Journal.

00:53:48.000 Now, I should note here that the, quote-unquote, objective news side of the Wall Street Journal is actually to the left of the New York Times, by available data.

00:53:55.000 It's the editorial page that's different.

00:53:56.000 But, according to the Wall Street Journal, a medical examiner's report found at least 60 wounds to Walker's body.

00:54:01.000 Chief Mylett said Sunday, it was unclear how many of those wounds account for bullet entry and exit wounds, All eight officers who fired their guns were placed on paid administrative leave.

00:54:11.000 So what exactly happened?

00:54:13.000 Well, um, they have it on video.

00:54:15.000 They have it on video exactly what happened.

00:54:18.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, buried low down in this story, the June 27th incident started, according to the police, when Walker fled an attempting stop for an undisclosed traffic and equipment violation.

00:54:27.000 Video shows an officer reporting Mr. Walker's silver Buick sped away from police.

00:54:31.000 A few minutes later, the officer reported a suspected gunshot coming from the driver's side window of Walker's car.

00:54:37.000 Then his car slowed down.

00:54:39.000 He exited from the passenger seat wearing a ski mask.

00:54:43.000 Several officers chased him on foot.

00:54:44.000 One officer tried to subdue him with a taser stun gun before eight officers fired dozens of shots in about eight seconds.

00:54:48.000 Okay, so what exactly happened here?

00:54:52.000 He was unarmed when he was shot, but there was a gun and loaded mag found on the driver's seat of the vehicle and a spent shell casing found near the scene where the initial gunshot was fired.

00:55:00.000 So this guy was driving away from the cops.

00:55:02.000 He shot at the cops.

00:55:03.000 He stopped his car.

00:55:04.000 He ran away.

00:55:05.000 They have every reason to assume he's still armed and dangerous.

00:55:07.000 So if he reaches into his waistband or reaches down toward his waistband, of course they're going to shoot him.

00:55:12.000 This used to be a fairly fundamentally held idea in the United States, that if you shoot at a cop and then they have reason to believe you have a weapon on you and they shoot you, that one's on you.

00:55:21.000 But instead, we have full-scale riots in Akron that require a curfew on July 4th for it.

00:55:28.000 And then you have commentators on MSNBC doing what they do, talking about systemic American racism.

00:55:33.000 There are so many different things about the situation that don't make sense.

00:55:36.000 One of them being that if they believed that he posed a deadly threat, or they believed that he was capable of posing a deadly threat, then that undercuts the notion of them using the tasers to begin with.

00:55:46.000 They used the tasers, they missed with the tasers, and then it was when they decided To actually use their firearms as a means of trying to subdue the suspect.

00:55:54.000 In addition to that, the notion that one man, who ultimately was actually unarmed, posed a dangerous threat to any one of those eight not only armed but also bodily armored officers is absolutely absurd.

00:56:09.000 He posed no threat to them.

00:56:10.000 So he'd only shot a gun at them.

00:56:11.000 And they had reason to believe that he had a gun because there was one in his car with the spent shell casing on the street where he shot the gun.

00:56:17.000 But we're supposed to believe that he posed no threat.

00:56:20.000 Because again, every wound in the body politic is indicative of a deeper cancer.

00:56:24.000 And the deeper cancer here is systemic American racism.

00:56:24.000 That's the basic idea.

00:56:27.000 When the Supreme Court says that you now have the right as a state to regulate abortion, that is a deeper wound on the body politic because the cancer is the American Judeo-Christian ideal and that has to be fought.

00:56:36.000 It's really bad.

00:56:37.000 So you wonder why there is this vast gap in pride in America?

00:56:40.000 Maybe it's because a lot of people are actually proud of the founding principles of the country.

00:56:43.000 Left, right, and center.

00:56:44.000 And then, there's a rather large segment of the country that is not proud of those founding principles, and believe that those founding principles need to go away.

00:56:51.000 And that's why Mitt Romney has a piece today, over at the Atlantic, talking about the lack of American unity.

00:56:56.000 And it's so surface.

00:56:58.000 Now, I've defended Senator Romney multiple times.

00:57:00.000 I voted for Senator Romney in 2012.

00:57:02.000 I think that the 2012 election may have turned the country dramatically in the wrong direction for at least a decade.

00:57:07.000 I think it was the most important election of my lifetime, 2012.

00:57:09.000 More than 2016 even, more than 2020 in many ways.

00:57:12.000 I think that the 2012 election in which Barack Obama basically polarized the country along racial lines in order to win re-election and then got away with it.

00:57:19.000 I think that was a dramatic moment in American history and you can see the inflection point in race relations in the United States by polling data around 2011, 2012, 2013.

00:57:25.000 Okay, but put all that aside.

00:57:29.000 Mitt Romney's very surface approach to politics, which seems to be if we're nice to everybody, then we'll all come back together, as opposed to what are the fundamental principles we hold in common?

00:57:38.000 This is why the Republic is in real trouble here.

00:57:42.000 Because if you cannot state the foundational principles we're supposed to hold in common, how do you fight for them exactly?

00:57:48.000 So here's what Mitt Romney writes in the Atlantic, and it's getting all sorts of traffic today because he's mean to Trump. 0.81

00:57:52.000 And of course, anytime a Republican says bad things about Trump, that means that they're a good Republican, at least for the moment, or until they run for president when we decide that they are evil, terrible people who forcibly cut the hair of gay kids and strap dogs to the top of their car and might want to put y'all back in chains, as Joe Biden once said about Mitt Romney.

00:58:06.000 Here's what Mitt Romney writes in the Atlanta quote, even as we watch the reservoirs and lakes of the West go dry, we keep watering our lawns, soaking our golf courses and growing water thirsty crops.

00:58:15.000 Wait, this is this is the one this is where the, as inflation mounts and the national debt balloons, progressive politicians vote for every more spending.

00:58:22.000 As the ice caps melt and record temperatures make the evening news, we figure that buying a Prius and recycling the boxes from our daily Amazon deliveries will suffice.

00:58:30.000 When TV news outlets broadcast video after video of people illegally crossing the nation's southern border, many of us change the channel.

00:58:36.000 And when a renowned conservative former federal appellate judge testifies we are already in a war for our democracy and that January 6th was a genuine constitutional crisis, mag a loyalist snicker that he speaks slowly and celebrate that most people aren't watching.

00:58:47.000 What accounts for the blithe dismissal of potentially cataclysmic threats?

00:58:52.000 The left thinks the right is at fault for ignoring climate change and the attacks on our political system.

00:58:55.000 The right thinks the left is the problem for ignoring illegal immigration and the national debt.

00:58:59.000 But wishful thinking happens across the political spectrum.

00:59:01.000 More and more, we are a nation in denial, says Mitt Romney.

00:59:05.000 I have witnessed time and again, in myself and in others, a powerful impulse to believe what we hope to be the case.

00:59:10.000 We don't need to cut back on watering because the drought is part of a cycle that will reverse.

00:59:13.000 With economic growth, the debt will take care of itself.

00:59:15.000 January 6th was a false flag operation.

00:59:18.000 A classic example of denial, says Mitt Romney, comes from Donald Trump.

00:59:20.000 I won in a landslide.

00:59:22.000 Perhaps this is a branch of the same delusion that leads people to feed money into slot machines.

00:59:25.000 Because I really want to win, I believe that I will win.

00:59:29.000 When entire countries fail to confront serious challenges, it doesn't end well, says Mitt Romney.

00:59:33.000 During the past half century, we Americans have lived in a very forgiving time.

00:59:36.000 Seeing the world through rose-colored glasses had limited consequences.

00:59:39.000 The climate was stable.

00:59:40.000 Our economy dwarfed the competition.

00:59:42.000 Democracy was on the rise.

00:59:43.000 Our military strength made the U.S.

00:59:44.000 the sole global hyperpower.

00:59:46.000 Today, every one of those things has changed.

00:59:48.000 If we continue to ignore the real threats we face, America will suffer serious consequences.

00:59:52.000 What clears the scales from the eyes of the nation?

00:59:54.000 Pearl Harbor did.

00:59:55.000 9-11 did.

00:59:56.000 A crisis can shake the public consciousness, but a crisis may come too late for a course correction that can prevent tragedy.

01:00:01.000 The only cure for wishful thinking is leadership, says Mitt Romney.

01:00:07.000 And then he cites, as examples of leadership, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Lake Wallace, Martin Luther King Jr., and Vladimir Zelensky.

01:00:14.000 And then he says this, President Joe Biden is a genuinely good man, but he has yet been unable to break through our national malady of denial, deceit and distrust.

01:00:22.000 A return of Donald Trump would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable. 0.93

01:00:25.000 So first of all, just a point here, Joe Biden literally said that Mitt Romney wanted to enslave black people.

01:00:29.000 So he seems like a very nice person, a very good man, a genuinely good man.

01:00:33.000 And the idea that Trump is what renders America's national sickness incurable?

01:00:38.000 Trump is?

01:00:39.000 It seems like the national sickness goes deeper than Trump.

01:00:41.000 Again, he wants to play here on the surface.

01:00:42.000 That is not where this battle is going on.

01:00:46.000 Too often, Washington demonstrates the maxim that for evil to thrive only requires good men to do nothing.

01:00:50.000 I hope for a president who can rise above the din to unite us behind the truth.

01:00:53.000 Several contenders with experience and smarts stand in the wings.

01:00:57.000 We intently watch to see if they also possess the requisite character and ability to bring the nation together in confronting our common reality.

01:01:03.000 While we wait, leadership must come from fathers and mothers, teachers and nurses, priests and rabbis, businessmen and businesswomen, journalists and pundits.

01:01:09.000 That will require us all to rise above ourselves, above our grievances and resentments, and grasp the mantle of leadership our country so badly needs.

01:01:15.000 I'm not sure I've read a more platitudinous column in my life.

01:01:18.000 This is from Mitt Romney.

01:01:19.000 What are the centralizing principles around which we are supposed to gather?

01:01:22.000 Can you name them?

01:01:23.000 Can you explain what the left and right hold in common anymore?

01:01:26.000 And if not, how do they come together again?

01:01:29.000 Mitt Romney has no answers for that, because here is the reality.

01:01:32.000 The polarization in our country is not about just issues like abortion.

01:01:35.000 It is not about just issues like uncontrol.

01:01:37.000 It is about the very vision of what the country is, whether the promises of the Declaration and the Constitution are correct, whether the basic idea of localism before statism before federalism is right.

01:01:46.000 It is about the idea of checks and balances that prevent the government from being overweening on the federal level, but the ability to form communities of like interest with your friends and neighbors.

01:01:55.000 Those are the questions on the table.

01:01:58.000 And the question is to whether California can agree to that when Florida is still in the nation or whether Texas can agree to that when New York is still, that's going to decide whether the United States returns to an Articles of Confederation model or whether we are actually a United States.

01:02:12.000 The simple fact of the matter is.

01:02:14.000 That the only way to celebrate July 4th is if we actually think July 4th is a good, if a body politic that includes all of these things is a good thing.

01:02:22.000 And there's open question right now in the United States as to whether that is the case.

01:02:25.000 And there's one side much more than another, by polling data and by reality, that believes that it is not such a good thing.

01:02:30.000 That the fundamental principles upon which the country were founded are deeply flawed and need to be completely revamped or destroyed entirely.

01:02:35.000 Until that ideological question is answered, America will continue to fray.

01:02:40.000 All right, we'll be back here later today with additional content.

01:02:42.000 In the meantime, go check out the Michael Molls show that's available right now.

01:02:45.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

01:02:45.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

01:02:46.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Bradford Carrington, Executive Producer Jeremy Boren, Supervising Producer Mathis Glover, Production Manager Pavel Wydowski, Associate Producer Savannah Dominguez-Morris, Editor Adam Ciewiec, Audio Mixer Mike Coromina, Hair and Makeup Artist in Wardrobe Fabiola Cristina, Production Coordinator Jessica Kranz.

01:03:11.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

01:03:13.000 Copyright Daily Wire 2022.

01:03:15.000 Joe Biden solves the energy crisis by yelling at gas stations.

01:03:19.000 A White House economic advisor defends the liberal world order.

01:03:24.000 And the Toronto police search for a missing woman with a goatee.

The Ben Shapiro Show - July 05, 2022

Are You Proud To Be An American? | Ep. 1527

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