The Ben Shapiro Show - Ep. 256 - What Do Conservatives Stand For?

After President Trump's incredible press conference on Thursday, a war broke out between people on the left and in the media and those on the right. People on the Left insisted Trump had savaged the media unjustifiably, and lied repeatedly, and twisted innocent questions into attacks on the questioners. Jake Tapper of CNN said it was unhinged, it was wild. Rush Limbaugh said, You get caught up in the moment. But this was one of the most effective press conferences I've ever seen. Naturally, the left accused the right of being in a bubble. And the right responded, This is why Trump won. Here s the truth: Both sides are now at an impasse. According to Quinnipiac polling, Trump enjoys an 84% approval rating from Republicans and those who lean Republican, but a 3% favorable rating among Democrats. And we are less than a month in. That s because everybody is now seeing the news through the prism of revenge. That s not because of Trump, it s because we are now in a "bubble" and nobody is even reading what the other side has to say. Nobody on either side acknowledges there may be truth to the other party s claims of the other because nobody's even reading the other's claims. It's revenge politics at its finest. And that desire for revenge is reinforced by social media, which encourages you to interact with people who think like you. And if we believe that those in power are merely a vehicle for taking out the truth, then we become a tool for tyranny. And yet, if we don't know whom to believe or don't believe in the truth then we run the risk of tyranny, then the government becomes merely a "light disinfectant." But if we can't just be a disinfectant, we become merely a window on the truth? but if truth goes out the window, then, then goes to be the window? But if the truth is supposed to be just a window? But, then what's the best disinfectant? ? What does the government become out on the window or is it merely a disinfectant ? or just a check out the glass? or a out of the window ? What they say they say out there? in order to be disinfectant is the window that goes out on a window that s just a check on the sunlight? Or is it ?

00:00:00.000 After President Trump's incredible press conference on Thursday, a war broke out between people on the left and in the media, and people on the right.

00:00:06.000 People on the left and in the media insisted Trump had savaged the media unjustifiably, and lied repeatedly, and refused to answer easy questions, and twisted innocent questions into attacks on the questioners.

00:00:15.000 Jake Tapper of CNN said it was unhinged, it was wild, it was an airing of grievances, it was festivus.

00:00:20.000 Those on the right chortled gleefully as Trump savaged the press.

00:00:23.000 We were glad to watch Trump take the air out of the media's overhyped Flynn hot air balloon.

00:00:27.000 We were excited to watch Trump redirect from the media's controversy of the day approach back toward his policy victories.

00:00:32.000 Most of all, we were ecstatic to watch Trump baffle the media with his concoction of vicious deserved attacks on the left.

00:00:38.000 Rush Limbaugh said, you get caught up in the moment, but this was one of the most effective press conferences I've ever seen.

00:00:42.000 Naturally, those on the left accused those on the right of being in a bubble.

00:00:45.000 How could they watch that nutty press conference and come away happy?

00:00:48.000 And those on the right responded, this is why Trump won.

00:00:51.000 Here's the truth.

00:00:52.000 Both sides are now in a bubble.

00:00:53.000 Right now, Trump enjoys an 84% approval rating from Republicans and those who lean Republican, according to Pew Research.

00:00:59.000 He gets just 8% approval from Democrats and those who lean that way.

00:01:02.000 By contrast, at this point in their presidencies, Ronald Reagan had a 39% approval rating among Democrats.

00:01:08.000 George H.W.

00:01:09.000 had a 46% approval rating among Democrats.

00:01:12.000 Obama had a 37% approval rating from Republicans.

00:01:15.000 This is the most polarized electorate in modern American history.

00:01:18.000 Quinnipiac actually makes the polarization even more stark.

00:01:21.000 According to their polling, Trump has a 91% favorable rating among Republicans, but a 3% favorable rating among Democrats, and we are less than a month in.

00:01:30.000 That's because everybody is now seeing the news through the prism of revenge.

00:01:33.000 That's not because of Trump.

00:01:34.000 This has been brewing for years.

00:01:35.000 Those on the right have railed correctly for decades at the overwhelming leftist bias in the media.

00:01:40.000 When Trump shouts fake news, we resonate.

00:01:43.000 We've been saying the same thing forever.

00:01:44.000 Normally, this would probably be healthy.

00:01:46.000 The media have it coming.

00:01:47.000 Each time members of the media complain about Trump's attacks on the press, Republicans and conservatives laugh hysterically.

00:01:52.000 We've been the targets of media bias as long as we can remember.

00:01:55.000 There's something innately satisfying about watching Trump become the avatar of our rage.

00:01:59.000 Meanwhile, those on the left stand agape as the right guffaws at Trump's fibs.

00:02:03.000 Don't they understand Trump isn't answering important questions?

00:02:05.000 Don't they get that Trump clearly knows little about policy and half of what he does know isn't so?

00:02:10.000 We're now at an impasse.

00:02:11.000 The right conflates Trump's fibs with his media slams, and then we excuse both.

00:02:15.000 And the left conflates Trump's media slams with his fibs, and dismisses all concerns about the media.

00:02:20.000 Everybody is so excited to see somebody on the other side of the political aisle get slapped, nobody seems to care much about what's true and what's false anymore.

00:02:27.000 It's revenge politics at its finest.

00:02:29.000 And that desire for revenge is reinforced by social media, which encourages you to interact with people who think like you.

00:02:35.000 Social media algorithms dictate if you enjoy a right-wing outlet, you'll probably like other right-wing outlets.

00:02:40.000 The same holds true on the left.

00:02:41.000 Thus, everybody on the left believes Donald Trump has troubling ties with Russia.

00:02:45.000 Everybody on the right believes Donald Trump is a pure victim of the deep state in the press.

00:02:49.000 Nobody on either side acknowledges there may be truth to the claims of the other because nobody's even reading what the other side has to say.

00:02:55.000 This is actually a problem.

00:02:57.000 It's a problem for two specific reasons.

00:02:59.000 First, the social fabric requires we be able to discuss issues of the day with one another rationally.

00:03:04.000 And that requires sharing a common set of facts, rather than everybody bringing their own facts to the party.

00:03:09.000 We can argue over the conclusions to be drawn from that set of facts.

00:03:12.000 We may not agree, or we may agree.

00:03:14.000 But if we can't agree on facts, we can't just... then we end up just standing in our respective corners, screaming at each other.

00:03:20.000 Second, if we never know whom to believe, or worse yet, if we believe that those in power, when they agree with us politically are right, no matter whether what they say is right or wrong or true or false, we run the risk of actual tyranny.

00:03:31.000 Truth was supposed to be the check on government.

00:03:33.000 Sunlight was supposed to be the best disinfectant.

00:03:36.000 But if truth goes out the window, then government becomes merely a machine for retaliation.

00:03:39.000 Elections just become a vehicle for taking out your ire on your enemies.

00:03:42.000 This isn't a new problem.

00:03:44.000 George Washington experienced the problem of partisanship early on in the history of the republic.

00:03:48.000 He talked about its risks in his farewell address.

00:03:50.000 It's pretty prescient stuff.

00:03:51.000 Here's what he said, quote.

00:03:53.000 Let me now take a more comprehensive view and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

00:04:00.000 The alternate dominion of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.

00:04:12.000 But this leads at length to a more formal

00:04:14.000 Formal and permanent despotism.

00:04:16.000 The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.

00:04:23.000 And sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.

00:04:33.000 It serves always to distract the public councils, enfeeble the public administration.

00:04:37.000 It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasional riot and insurrection.

00:04:45.000 It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.

00:04:52.000 Thus, the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

00:04:57.000 Washington recommended we all take a step back and fight against the spirit of party.

00:05:01.000 He said, quote, So, here's a mild proposal.

00:05:14.000 Everybody should call balls and strikes.

00:05:16.000 The media should be hit when they propagate fake news, and their bias should be exposed routinely.

00:05:20.000 The left and media should acknowledge the problem of media bias isn't illusory.

00:05:23.000 Trump should be hit when he lies, too.

00:05:25.000 The right should acknowledge that truth isn't secondary to political power.

00:05:28.000 This may not please those whose first priority is the victory of their party on either side, but it should make for a better country, a place where facts and truth still actually matter.

00:05:36.000 One final note for people on both sides who think that truth will never defeat lies, that if you unilaterally disarm by calling balls and strikes, you're helping the enemy.

00:05:44.000 If we truly believe truth no longer holds sway, we might as well end this great experiment of Republican government.

00:05:50.000 The argument against truth is an argument against consent, against representation, against democracy itself.

00:05:56.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:05:56.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:06:01.000 All right, lots to get to.

00:06:02.000 President Trump has been very, very busy since we last spoke.

00:06:05.000 We spoke last on Thursday morning before that massive press conference, so we still have to go through that because that's still making waves.

00:06:10.000 We'll talk a little bit about some of the policy proposals that are being tried out.

00:06:14.000 But first, we have to say thank you to our advertisers over at texture.com.

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00:07:27.000 This is what I was just discussing a minute ago.

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00:07:36.000 You go there right now use promo code Ben so that they know that we sent you get access to those 200 magazines plus all the back issues it really is a phenomenal phenomenal app and again you can use it on your on your phone or on your tablet as well okay so lots happened over the weekend and I want to start with Donald Trump's press conference so there was a lot here that was good and there was a lot here that was bad so

00:07:58.000 It was interesting.

00:07:59.000 I gave a grade to Donald Trump at the end of last week.

00:08:01.000 I do this every week now, and I gave him a grade of C- last week because it started off with the Flynn debacle, and then he had the Netanyahu meeting, which was great, and then he had this press conference, which was all over the place.

00:08:11.000 What I said in that piece about how to grade Trump is that one of the problems with grading Trump is you end up with one grade.

00:08:17.000 Trump is actually a series of grades, right?

00:08:19.000 Trump is A or he's F. There's not a lot in between.

00:08:21.000 He's got really high highs and he's got really low lows, and you saw it all in that press conference on Thursday.

00:08:26.000 So the right was picking out the highs, and they were very excited about those highs, and the left was picking out the lows, and they were very happy about those lows.

00:08:33.000 There really wasn't much in between, and the question is which side are Americans going to take, or is it all just going to become part of the background noise, which is what I actually think.

00:08:41.000 I think a lot of this is going to become part of the background noise.

00:08:44.000 There's a broader message I have here for the right that I want to discuss in just a second, but we'll start off with a little bit of Good Trump, Bad Trump, because it was epic Good Trump, Bad Trump.

00:08:52.000 It was ultimate Good Trump, Bad Trump.

00:08:55.000 Good Trump, Bad Trump, which one will we get today?

00:09:01.000 So he started off, did President Trump, with some good Trump.

00:09:04.000 And that was slapping the media.

00:09:05.000 Because the truth is, the media are wildly biased.

00:09:07.000 Now, I would always prefer that if you're going to attack the media, you do it on the basis of them lying, not on the basis of them doing things you don't like.

00:09:15.000 You shouldn't attack people just because they're doing something you don't like.

00:09:17.000 You should do it because they're lying, not telling the truth, saying something that's false.

00:09:21.000 I'm perfectly fine with slapping the media.

00:09:23.000 I do it on a regular basis.

00:09:24.000 Watch me.

00:09:24.000 Anytime I go on any network, the chances that I'm slapping the media are about 117%.

00:09:30.000 But, it's always based on what did the media do today, not just based on, well, those darn media people, they're just terrible. 0.98

00:09:37.000 And Donald Trump, you know, finished off this press conference, by the way, with a tweet in which he basically called the media the enemy. 0.98

00:09:43.000 Here's the tweet from Donald Trump.

00:09:46.000 He said, the fake news media, Failing New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, CNN is not my enemy.

00:09:51.000 It is the enemy of the American people. 0.71

00:09:54.000 That's not good, Trump.

00:09:55.000 The part that's good, Trump, is the part where he actually slaps the media for doing what they're doing.

00:09:59.000 The reason this isn't good, Trump, is because the president of the United States should just, as a matter of course, not be calling broad swaths of the American public the enemy of the American people.

00:10:07.000 It's dangerous language.

00:10:08.000 It suggests that, I mean, unless he's going to prosecute them.

00:10:12.000 Like, Barack Obama actually treated the media

00:10:13.000 Who are adversarial to him as members of the enemy.

00:10:16.000 He actually prosecuted them.

00:10:17.000 Trump hasn't suggested he's doing that yet, but once you start saying things like the press is the enemy of the American people, you're suggesting that every time the press attacks Donald Trump, they're attacking the American people, and that isn't true.

00:10:27.000 Again, conflation of something false with something I don't like is a dangerous business.

00:10:32.000 And that's particularly dangerous when you conflate your own interests with those of the American people.

00:10:36.000 When, as president, you say, an attack on me is an attack on all Americans, that's ugly stuff.

00:10:40.000 Okay?

00:10:41.000 That's not the way that it works.

00:10:42.000 Woodrow Wilson used to think this way.

00:10:43.000 He used to think that the president was sort of the great embodiment of the American people.

00:10:47.000 That's not what the president is.

00:10:48.000 The president is a constitutionally elected officer with specific duties.

00:10:52.000 If you attack the president, that doesn't mean you're attacking the American people.

00:10:55.000 Sometimes, if that were true, then we were all guilty of treason going after Barack Obama.

00:10:59.000 Okay?

00:10:59.000 Barack Obama was wrong a lot.

00:11:01.000 I don't like this business where the president is the representative of all the American people.

00:11:04.000 You attack him, you're attacking Americans. 1.00

00:11:06.000 It's a bunch of crap. 1.00

00:11:07.000 If you want to say that they're the enemy of the American people because they're lying, then you have to actually point out the lies. 1.00

00:11:11.000 So, here is the good Trump.

00:11:12.000 Okay, that was a little bit of the bad Trump.

00:11:13.000 Here's the good Trump.

00:11:14.000 Trump starts off by attacking the media, and here's what he has to say.

00:11:18.000 Unfortunately, much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles, in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests

00:11:29.000 And for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system.

00:11:36.000 The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people.

00:11:46.000 Tremendous disservice.

00:11:47.000 We have to talk about it to find out what's going on.

00:11:50.000 Because the press, honestly, is out of control.

00:11:52.000 The level of dishonesty is out of control.

00:11:54.000 And I think there's a lot of truth to that.

00:11:56.000 I think that the press have been jumping on every bad headline.

00:11:58.000 I proposed a rule last week that every headline, you didn't have to wait 24 hours to find out whether it's true or not, because there's such a race to be first, and there's also such a race to slap Trump, to get Trump, that a lot of what's coming out of the press is false.

00:12:10.000 So this is good Trump, and it's fair for him to say all of this.

00:12:12.000 It's also fair for him to say that he inherited a not-wonderful situation.

00:12:16.000 Now, here's what I like about this.

00:12:18.000 It's honest.

00:12:18.000 Here's what I don't like about it.

00:12:20.000 It's the sort of stuff that Obama used to say about Bush all the time.

00:12:22.000 I'll be okay with it for a month.

00:12:24.000 If in three years, Donald Trump is still saying what a terrible situation he inherited, that's not gonna wash.

00:12:29.000 At a certain point, you have to start being president.

00:12:30.000 Here's Trump talking about the mess he inherited.

00:12:33.000 To be honest, I inherited a mess.

00:12:38.000 It's a mess.

00:12:41.000 At home and abroad.

00:12:43.000 A mess.

00:12:46.000 Okay, so that's true.

00:12:48.000 But again, he's gonna have to stop doing that at a certain point.

00:12:51.000 Okay, then we get to some of the bad Trump, unfortunately.

00:12:54.000 And the bad Trump is just confusion.

00:12:57.000 Okay, so the bad Trump is confusion and misinformation.

00:12:59.000 And again, this is where I think that it's important that we note something about what people on both sides are doing, and it's not good.

00:13:07.000 And that is,

00:13:08.000 Most politics, and I've said this for literally years, you can look back at my speeches, I've been saying this for probably ten years.

00:13:13.000 Most politics is driven by the negative.

00:13:15.000 Most politics is driven by, here's what I don't like, right?

00:13:18.000 It's driven by, as I would say on this show, stuff I hate.

00:13:21.000 Right?

00:13:21.000 Most politics is driven by, here's something I don't like.

00:13:23.000 So when Trump slaps the media, people on the right cheer, yeah, that's great!

00:13:27.000 And it is, it's good.

00:13:29.000 But at a certain point, you're going to have to determine whether you stand for more than just stuff that you stand against.

00:13:34.000 And the danger of falling into the trap of, I'm only going to support politicians because the politicians are breaking things I don't like, is that they may be breaking things you do like also.

00:13:44.000 It's possible they're breaking things you do like also.

00:13:46.000 Like one of the things that I like is truth.

00:13:48.000 I'm just a big fan.

00:13:48.000 I like facts, I like truth.

00:13:50.000 I'm not a big fan of fibs.

00:13:51.000 And so when Donald Trump says stuff like this about the size of his electoral margin, this is 11-D,

00:13:58.000 You know, people on the right sort of overlooked this.

00:14:00.000 They said it was no big deal.

00:14:01.000 I don't think it's a huge deal, but I think it is indicative of the fact that the right buys into Trump because he slaps the media, and they ignore some of the stuff that he says that isn't true.

00:14:08.000 And I don't see why that should have to be the case.

00:14:10.000 Why can't you enjoy him slapping the media when he's telling the truth?

00:14:12.000 It doesn't seem to me like these two ideas should be in conflict.

00:14:15.000 Here's what he had to say.

00:14:26.000 Well, I'm talking about Republican.

00:14:27.000 Yeah.

00:14:33.000 Yeah.

00:14:36.000 Well, no, I was told I was given that information.

00:14:38.000 I don't know.

00:14:38.000 I was just given we had a very, very big margin.

00:14:42.000 Okay, I was just given that information.

00:14:43.000 That doesn't wash. 1.00

00:14:44.000 You're the President of the United States.

00:14:45.000 For God's sake, you have the greatest information-gathering superpower in the history of man on your side, and you can't come up with, like, a simple answer for this?

00:14:52.000 That doesn't wash. 1.00

00:14:53.000 People on the right sort of shrugged it off and laughed.

00:14:56.000 Okay, fine.

00:14:57.000 It's not a big deal.

00:14:58.000 I get it.

00:14:59.000 I don't think it's a big deal either.

00:15:00.000 But when there's a constant stream of this sort of stuff, it's a problem.

00:15:03.000 And Donald Trump makes

00:15:05.000 This is

00:15:22.000 I think so.

00:15:37.000 Yeah, yeah.

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00:16:29.000 Okay, so,

00:16:30.000 What I'm saying about Trump here, and I think this is true not just of Trump, I think this is true for all Republicans everywhere, the conservative movement in many cases has become so about opposing the left, which is great.

00:16:40.000 I'm opposed to the left.

00:16:41.000 There's no one who fights harder against the left than I do.

00:16:44.000 It's become so much about opposing the left that sometimes we're willing to ignore sins on our own side in order to do that.

00:16:49.000 And I think that that's a mistake because one of the things that makes you a right-winger as opposed to a left-winger is the idea that truth is not relative.

00:16:55.000 Truth is not malleable.

00:16:56.000 Truth is not something that you can just shift aside for your own political benefit or for the benefit of the collective.

00:17:01.000 And when you start shifting it aside for the benefit of the collective, you're no longer on the right anymore.

00:17:06.000 So when Donald Trump says things like this, here's Donald Trump talking about the leaks, this is nonsensical stuff and the right should not be defending it.

00:17:12.000 The leaks are real.

00:17:14.000 You know what they said, you saw it.

00:17:16.000 And the leaks are absolutely real.

00:17:17.000 The news is fake, because so much of the news is fake.

00:17:22.000 Well, okay, so the question was, you said the news is fake, but the leaks are real, and then he says, that's right.

00:17:27.000 Okay, if they're repeating, if they're just repeating the leaks, and you say the leaks are real, the news can't be fake, obviously.

00:17:32.000 Now, I think what he's saying here, what he's trying to say, is that the narrative they draw from the news is fake.

00:17:36.000 That's fine.

00:17:37.000 But he should be more specific in how he goes about this because otherwise he's just undermining the notion of truth altogether.

00:17:43.000 And he says this kind of stuff throughout the press conference, right?

00:17:45.000 There was one point where he was talking about the travel ban.

00:17:47.000 And here's what he said about the travel ban.

00:17:48.000 No one in their right mind believes this.

00:17:50.000 Let me tell you about the travel ban.

00:17:51.000 Wait, wait, wait.

00:17:53.000 I know who you are.

00:17:53.000 Just wait.

00:17:54.000 Let me tell you about the travel ban.

00:17:56.000 We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban.

00:18:01.000 Okay, so this is a perfect embodiment of what the right likes about Trump, and also what the right should not like about Trump. 0.94

00:18:08.000 So, he says, wait, I know who you are, shut up, basically.

00:18:11.000 And the right goes, yeah, that's awesome! 0.97

00:18:13.000 The media's been pissing all over Republican presidents for years!

00:18:16.000 I mean, George W. Bush just hid in his cubbyhole, and Republicans for years have been so afraid of the media, and here's a guy who isn't afraid of the media, and that's great.

00:18:23.000 It would be spectacular, okay?

00:18:25.000 I would be able to sit here in all happiness, just being super happy about that, except for the fact to be saying things that aren't true, okay?

00:18:32.000 So two things can be true at once.

00:18:33.000 It's great the media is getting slapped.

00:18:35.000 The media should be slapped over truth.

00:18:37.000 They should not be slapped over lies, okay?

00:18:39.000 They shouldn't be slapped over things that are being said that are just false.

00:18:42.000 And this is the point I'm making about bubbles.

00:18:44.000 It's really important.

00:18:46.000 Think of news like geometry.

00:18:48.000 If you're trying to determine the truth,

00:18:50.000 There's a right-wing line and there's a left-wing line, and they are not parallel.

00:18:53.000 Okay?

00:18:53.000 They do cross at a certain point.

00:18:55.000 The point at which they cross is the point of fact.

00:18:57.000 Okay?

00:18:58.000 This is why it's important for you to actually look at outlets from both sides, because if one side says a fact and the other side says a fact, that's the point where they're gonna meet.

00:19:04.000 They're gonna totally diverge when it comes to the narratives they draw from the fact, but the point at which they meet is the factual point, and that's what you need to know.

00:19:12.000 Okay?

00:19:12.000 Then you can make your own decisions.

00:19:13.000 But you need to actually garner facts, not just follow the guy who's slapping the media.

00:19:17.000 Because, yeah, it's fun to slap the media. 0.87

00:19:19.000 Yeah, it's fun to slap the left. 0.95

00:19:21.000 That's great. 0.78

00:19:22.000 But this is a point I've been making for a long time, okay, about provoking the left, being a provocateur, about slapping the left.

00:19:29.000 If you're gonna do these things, the point here is to tell the truth, and if the left takes offense, that's their problem.

00:19:34.000 The point here is not just to offend the left.

00:19:36.000 If your definition of conservatism is it makes the left angry, lots of things make the left angry, including some things that ought to make the left angry.

00:19:44.000 Okay, and it is not your job just to make the left angry or to celebrate when the left gets angry.

00:19:48.000 You have to determine, are they angry for a good reason or a bad reason?

00:19:51.000 You have to determine, are they angry because you spoke facts, or are they angry because you lied?

00:19:56.000 Because pretending that everybody on the left is just an inhuman monster and that none of them have any capacity for reason at all, and that they're all just making things up a hundred percent of the time, that's not a recipe for politics, it's not a recipe for having a rational conversation.

00:20:07.000 So all I'm advocating here is that we all take a step back here, and that we look in the mirror, and that we say to ourselves, okay, what's true and what's false?

00:20:14.000 We look in the mirror and we say, okay, are we excited because Trump is opposing the left, or are we excited because the left opposes Trump?

00:20:21.000 And there is a difference.

00:20:22.000 There is a difference, okay?

00:20:23.000 Are we excited because Trump is opposing the left, or are we excited because the left opposes Trump?

00:20:28.000 Because people use this as shorthand.

00:20:30.000 Okay, the left opposes Trump.

00:20:30.000 That must mean he's doing something right.

00:20:32.000 Not always.

00:20:33.000 Not always.

00:20:33.000 A lot of the time that's true.

00:20:35.000 A lot of the time that is true.

00:20:36.000 But sometimes it's not.

00:20:38.000 And that's true for everyone in the right-wing movement.

00:20:40.000 Just because the left opposes you, in the right, that doesn't necessarily mean that the left is wrong.

00:20:46.000 The left is sometimes correct about things they oppose.

00:20:49.000 They're not wrong 100% of the time about everything.

00:20:51.000 They're wrong on principles.

00:20:52.000 But they're not necessarily wrong when it comes to, we oppose this person because he did X.

00:20:58.000 And so it's important for you, as a conservative, to say, do I support this person because of what they stand for?

00:21:02.000 Because they stand for standing against the left?

00:21:04.000 Or do I support this person because they're eliciting a response from the left?

00:21:07.000 The easiest thing in the world is to elicit a response from snowflakes.

00:21:10.000 The question is, how are you doing it?

00:21:12.000 And is it a good thing?

00:21:12.000 Are you speaking truth, and that's what's ticking off the left?

00:21:15.000 Or, is the left just ticked off at you, and now your entire side goes, oh, well, if the left's ticked off at you, then you must be doing something right.

00:21:21.000 You get in real dangerous territory when you start saying, just because somebody ticks off the left, that means they're a good person or an ally.

00:21:28.000 That's a mistake.

00:21:29.000 It's a big mistake. 0.85

00:21:31.000 Okay, so just to finish up on this Trump press conference, he said a couple of things that were, I think, silly about the media.

00:21:37.000 There's one point where he said about the media,

00:21:39.000 That it was the fake reporting that was making it difficult for him to make a deal with Russia.

00:21:44.000 Okay, he's the President of the United States.

00:21:45.000 If he wanted to make a deal with Russia, he'd make a deal with Russia. 0.62

00:21:48.000 And most of the American people would probably be happy if he took nuclear war off the table.

00:21:52.000 I have to put this in Good Trump just because it is so typically Trumpian, and I love this quote so much.

00:21:57.000 He was talking about the chances of a nuclear war with Russia, and it was wonderful. 1.00

00:22:03.000 You can't help but admire this language.

00:22:05.000 11G.

00:22:05.000 I can tell you one thing about a briefing that we're allowed to say because anybody that ever read the most basic book can say it.

00:22:13.000 Nuclear holocaust would be like no other. 0.96

00:22:17.000 Fact check?

00:22:18.000 True.

00:22:20.000 Nuclear holocaust would be like no other. 0.96

00:22:22.000 Fact check true.

00:22:23.000 Okay, so we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to break there.

00:22:25.000 If you want to watch the rest, we have a lot more coming up that we're gonna be discussing.

00:22:27.000 Stuff I like, stuff I hate.

00:22:29.000 You go to dailywire.com and check it out over there.

00:22:32.000 $8 a month will buy you a subscription to dailywire.com or you can get an annual subscription at dailywire.com right now.

00:22:38.000 If you do that, then you get a free copy of the Arroyo DVD, which is a fictional movie about what's happening on our southern border.

00:22:44.000 Really excellent sort of action western flick, modern action western flick about what's happening on the southern border.

00:22:48.000 Go to dailywire.com and check it out.

00:22:50.000 We are the largest conservative podcast in the nation.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 22, 2017

Ep. 256 - What Do Conservatives Stand For?

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