The Charlie Kirk Show - Nobody is Free and Nothing Works: How Biden's America is Like the Soviet Union

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, debate prep with Sean Spicer.

00:00:02.000 And then also Helen Andrews joins the program to talk, are we turning into a Soviet country?

00:00:07.000 Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:09.000 Subscribe to our podcast and get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com and become a member, members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:16.000 Buckle up everybody, here we go.

00:00:18.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:19.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:21.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:25.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:28.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:29.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:30.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:32.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:00:39.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:00:48.000 That's why we are here.

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00:01:17.000 Joining us now is a great American patriot.

00:01:19.000 I've known him for quite some time.

00:01:20.000 He's a great man, Sean Spicer, and he has a very important new movie he wants to share with you on Salem Now, that is SalemNow.com.

00:01:29.000 Sean, welcome to the program.

00:01:30.000 Tell us about your movie, then we'll play the trailer.

00:01:32.000 Always great to see you, Charlie.

00:01:33.000 Thanks.

00:01:34.000 It's called Trump's Front Row Joes. 0.62

00:01:36.000 We spend about two years following The Front Row Joes, the people who are the backbone of the MAGA movement, who are at every rally.

00:01:43.000 We wanted to understand why they followed Donald Trump, what made them unique, what made them love Donald Trump.

00:01:49.000 We sat down with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, asked him about the movement.

00:01:52.000 And we finally put it together and launched this movie, Front Row Joes. 0.76

00:01:56.000 It's available, as you said, at Salem now, but it's the first inside look at the movement.

00:02:01.000 And Charlie, I've been doing elections for 30 years.

00:02:04.000 I know I don't look it.

00:02:05.000 It's a moisturizer.

00:02:06.000 Anyway.

00:02:07.000 This is the greatest political movement of all time.

00:02:10.000 And I know you can attest to that.

00:02:12.000 And I felt like if we didn't document this, that we would never understand for history who these people were.

00:02:20.000 And whether it was Steve Bannon or Donald Trump, they keep referring to it.

00:02:23.000 It's like a rock band or the Deadheads who follow the Grateful Dead.

00:02:28.000 And I've never seen anything like it.

00:02:29.000 You can have enthusiasm for a candidate, but the movement that Donald Trump started is truly historic.

00:02:36.000 I totally agree, and I want to play the trailer here.

00:02:40.000 We've never seen anything like it in American history.

00:02:41.000 You know this in politics, Sean.

00:02:43.000 When you run a political campaign, you're worried if people are going to show up.

00:02:50.000 Trump has a different problem.

00:02:51.000 He's worried if the venue will be able to fit all of his supporters.

00:02:55.000 It's a phenomenon the likes of which we've never seen, and it has taken a life of its own.

00:02:59.000 I want to play 93.

00:03:01.000 It's beautifully cut.

00:03:01.000 Again, it's SalemNow.com.

00:03:03.000 That is SalemNow.com.

00:03:05.000 Our wonderful partners here.

00:03:07.000 I love Salem and the Salem Radio Network, Salem News Channel.

00:03:10.000 So let's play Cut 93.

00:03:12.000 You have Donald Trump.

00:03:13.000 You have Steve Bannon.

00:03:13.000 You have Marjorie Taylor Greene.

00:03:15.000 This is a phenomenon.

00:03:16.000 I want to get into the psychology of who are the front row Joes. 1.00

00:03:20.000 I've met them a couple times.

00:03:22.000 They will show up days ahead of time.

00:03:24.000 We'll get into all that.

00:03:24.000 But first, let's get the trailer here.

00:03:26.000 Cut 93.

00:03:27.000 From the backbone of the greatest political movement ever, the front row Joes, the foundation of the Trump faith. 0.99

00:03:35.000 Who are they?

00:03:36.000 You had to love the United States of America and you had to love Mr. Donald Trump and support Mr. Donald Trump's reelection.

00:03:44.000 And where do they go next?

00:03:46.000 For the first time ever, a behind-the-scenes look into the energy that's changing the world, with Stephen K. Bannon, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Donald J. Trump.

00:03:56.000 They're incredible people.

00:03:58.000 And the Front Row Joes are, you know, in a certain way, I guess they're very successful people. 0.97

00:04:04.000 USA!

00:04:05.000 USA!

00:04:06.000 Friendships I've made over the years with the Front Row Joes, probably the best part of it. 1.00

00:04:11.000 Go to frontrowjoes.movie to experience the movement.

00:04:16.000 So, it's SalemNow.com.

00:04:24.000 Sean, tell us, how did they get the name?

00:04:27.000 Who are they?

00:04:27.000 How many?

00:04:28.000 And what does it mean to be a front row Joe?

00:04:30.000 One second.

00:04:31.000 I want to make a point, or hit on something that you just said, because earlier you said something, and I think your audience probably gets this, but for most candidates, when they want to have a rally, they'll spend money.

00:04:42.000 They'll send out flyers.

00:04:44.000 They'll do digital ads.

00:04:45.000 And hope to get enough people, right?

00:04:48.000 They'll be like, can we sit, can we offer pizza or we got a band playing or whatever.

00:04:52.000 Trump literally sends a tweet out and they have to hope that they have enough capacity.

00:04:57.000 And that really, the point that you made is so important to understanding this movement because the folks on the left and the media dismiss it.

00:05:06.000 And so we sought out these guys, the men and women who make up the Front Row Joes, Start going to events and, and the, the ranks grow. 0.98

00:05:16.000 They meet each other.

00:05:17.000 Uh, they hang out with each other.

00:05:19.000 One, one event in the, in the movie, we go to a rally in Pennsylvania and it's pouring rain for days, not the day off for the days.

00:05:27.000 And they're there three, four, five days early sleeping in their car, putting on plastic bags over their head, isn't in there under their shoes.

00:05:35.000 So they can stomp through the mud.

00:05:36.000 I mean, when you watch this.

00:05:38.000 It's amazing.

00:05:39.000 I wouldn't have gotten out of my car.

00:05:40.000 I mean, let's be honest. 0.92

00:05:41.000 I'm a wuss about that.

00:05:42.000 These guys are there four days early helping to set up. 0.98

00:05:45.000 They treat this like, as Bannon said in that trailer, like deadheads.

00:05:49.000 They'll go there early and they grow in ranks as people start to meet them.

00:05:55.000 They're the people that will show up early because they want to be in the front row.

00:05:58.000 Somebody will say to them, gosh, I'd love to do this.

00:06:00.000 And they say, well, join us.

00:06:01.000 And so then they'll come to the next one.

00:06:03.000 There's one scene in there where a woman sets up a boat parade in Stewart, Florida.

00:06:08.000 It's not like there's membership.

00:06:09.000 all of them and they end up getting a boat, chartering a boat for 172 people.

00:06:13.000 It's not like there's membership.

00:06:17.000 If you want to be a front row Joe, there's a Facebook page.

00:06:20.000 You can go.

00:06:21.000 There's no requirement.

00:06:22.000 There's no membership card.

00:06:24.000 You just show up and you start going.

00:06:26.000 I mean, some of these people have been to 50, 60, 70, 80 rallies.

00:06:29.000 One guy in the documentary tells us how much he spent over $50,000 a year going to them.

00:06:35.000 They just love Trump and what he's doing, and they will go to rally after rally after rally.

00:06:40.000 These are our neighbors, the people that are in the pew next to us at church on Sunday, the people in the businesses that we shop at.

00:06:49.000 It is amazing, young, old, black, white, and you see it all in the documentary.

00:06:55.000 I love it.

00:06:56.000 It's SalemNow.com.

00:06:57.000 That is SalemNow.com.

00:06:59.000 Now, Sean, changing gears here about the debate here tonight.

00:07:03.000 What are your first impressions here?

00:07:06.000 Who do you think has the most to lose tonight?

00:07:08.000 That is the question of the day.

00:07:10.000 There's no question that that's Joe Biden.

00:07:13.000 Donald Trump, everybody knows Trump, right?

00:07:15.000 And I keep saying, which Trump is going to show up?

00:07:16.000 It doesn't matter.

00:07:18.000 The guy's going to show up.

00:07:19.000 He's going to come out.

00:07:20.000 I think he'll say some stuff.

00:07:21.000 And then if he gets attacked, he'll do what he does every time.

00:07:23.000 He'll fight back.

00:07:24.000 He'll punch back.

00:07:26.000 It's Joe Biden that has a lot to lose.

00:07:28.000 Everybody knows Trump.

00:07:30.000 They have an expectation of what's going to happen tonight with Biden.

00:07:33.000 Everybody's trying to figure out which Joe Biden shows up.

00:07:36.000 After five, six days at Camp David, I got to imagine that a well-rested Joe Biden shows up.

00:07:42.000 I think Joe Biden's going to do fine tonight.

00:07:44.000 It's not that hard to stand in the place for 90 minutes.

00:07:48.000 And recite some talking points.

00:07:50.000 If he screws up, he has a lot to lose.

00:07:52.000 I just don't, I don't have real high expectations for tonight, Charlie.

00:07:56.000 I think to me, I'm going to be watching the moderators.

00:07:59.000 I'm going to be watching what CNN does to bring up issues, to go after Trump, to silence Trump.

00:08:05.000 I think that's where I'm going to be more fascinated.

00:08:08.000 Maybe that's just because of my background, but I don't really think the needle's going to move that much tonight either, unless something catastrophic happens.

00:08:15.000 I think that this is going to reinforce what everyone thinks and supports about Trump and the Biden people will get what they want unless Trump hands, which is very possible, a couple of zingers in there.

00:08:26.000 But the people that are going to move the needle tonight are the people that are, you know, have already, they know both candidates and they're looking for a policy prescription on something.

00:08:37.000 I just don't think that there's a lot of room.

00:08:40.000 This is the first inning in a nine inning game that ends in November and we're in June.

00:08:45.000 You're going to have a VP pick, a convention, and a ton of get out the vote efforts.

00:08:50.000 I know Turning Point's extremely involved in that effort as well.

00:08:54.000 But people aren't going to wake up after one debate tomorrow morning and say, you know what?

00:08:59.000 I've changed my mind.

00:09:00.000 Maybe a smidge.

00:09:01.000 But this is just this.

00:09:03.000 I mean, this might even be the first inning.

00:09:04.000 This might be batting practice of the first game.

00:09:07.000 So we need to keep tonight's debate in context.

00:09:11.000 I don't expect a lot to change unless there's that moment that everyone goes, holy smokes, we didn't see that coming.

00:09:21.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

00:09:22.000 A movement to change how we elect our president is growing, led by radical left-wing activists who don't think their side should ever have to lose the presidency again.

00:09:32.000 It seeks to do away with the Electoral College as devised by the framers of our Constitution.

00:09:36.000 Today, 18 states have signed on to overhaul how presidents are elected.

00:09:41.000 That's why my friends at Hillsdale College are conducting a national survey on presidential selection.

00:09:46.000 Hearing directly from informed patriots like you is critical.

00:09:49.000 So please take their national survey on presidential selection today at charlieforhillsdale.com.

00:09:55.000 I'm a huge fan of Hillsdale College.

00:09:57.000 Their students are at the top and they're receiving the best educational available today.

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00:10:06.000 I've taken so many of their online courses.

00:10:08.000 I plan to complete them all.

00:10:09.000 Sean, because of the new Mike rules, there will not be a lot of interrupting.

00:10:12.000 Let's go to Cut15.

00:10:13.000 critical issue of presidential selection, which will help Hillsdale and its future work

00:10:17.000 defending liberty.

00:10:18.000 Visit charlieforhillsdale.com to start your national survey on presidential selection,

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00:10:23.000 Sean, because of the new Mike rules, there will not be a lot of interrupting.

00:10:32.000 Let's go to cut 15. 0.94

00:10:33.000 This is back from the debate in 2020.

00:10:35.000 You should go out and vote.

00:10:38.000 You're in voting now.

00:10:39.000 Vote and let your senators know how strongly you feel.

00:10:41.000 Are you going to pack the board?

00:10:43.000 Vote now.

00:10:43.000 Are you going to pack the board?

00:10:44.000 Make sure you, in fact, let people know you're a senator.

00:10:47.000 He doesn't want to answer the question.

00:10:48.000 I'm not going to answer the question.

00:10:49.000 Why won't you answer that question? 0.65

00:10:50.000 Because the question is... You want to put a lot of new Supreme Court justices, radical left... Will you shut up, man?

00:10:55.000 Listen, who is on your list, Joe?

00:10:59.000 Gentlemen, I think we have ended this segment.

00:11:04.000 We're going to move on to the second segment.

00:11:06.000 That was really a productive segment, wasn't it?

00:11:10.000 Keep yapping, man.

00:11:11.000 The people understand you.

00:11:14.000 47 years, you've done nothing.

00:11:15.000 So Sean, there will be no, the interrupting will not be like it was last time.

00:11:19.000 Your thought, your reaction.

00:11:20.000 Remember Trump had COVID during that debate last time.

00:11:22.000 People forget that.

00:11:24.000 And so Some people say it'll help Biden.

00:11:26.000 Other people say it'll help Trump.

00:11:27.000 Your thoughts, Sean.

00:11:29.000 So first of all, I want to know what the over-under is that Trump just doesn't walk over to Biden's podium and start speaking from that mic.

00:11:37.000 He's always got something up his sleeve.

00:11:38.000 Trust me.

00:11:39.000 The thing about Trump, and he did this the other day when he invited the head of the Teamsters to the convention.

00:11:44.000 Trump always, he gets the showmanship better than anybody.

00:11:48.000 Trust me, remember Bannon brought the Clinton accusers to the first debate last time or to the St.

00:11:55.000 Louis debate.

00:11:56.000 There's always something going on and I don't know what it is now, but I think tomorrow morning we're going to wake up and go, I did not see that curveball coming.

00:12:04.000 That being said, I will tell you that I think it still benefits Trump because one, Biden's going to react to whatever he's saying.

00:12:12.000 We might not be able to hear it, but Biden will be.

00:12:16.000 Number two, It's not just the verbal that it's, it's those facial expressions.

00:12:22.000 It's the hand gestures that Trump so masterfully uses that those also have an impact.

00:12:28.000 And so we'll still see a split screen and we'll know that Trump is reacting and he understands the full spectrum of tools, right?

00:12:36.000 So it's verbal, it's visual.

00:12:38.000 And I think at the end of the day, it all benefits Trump because he knows how to use it better.

00:12:43.000 And frankly, that's never been Biden's thing.

00:12:46.000 I still think tomorrow morning, when you think back through history, Nixon, Kennedy, Reagan going after Mondale about age, Kitty Dukakis, the question about Kitty Dukakis that Bernard Shaw offered to Michael Dukakis about rape.

00:13:01.000 There's no question tomorrow we're going to be talking about some clip.

00:13:04.000 And my guess is that that clip will be Donald Trump going after Joe Biden in some way.

00:13:09.000 I think you're right there, Sean.

00:13:12.000 So let me ask you this.

00:13:14.000 If it's a tie, I think it's a win for Trump.

00:13:17.000 Biden needs to win 75-25 for this to move the polls.

00:13:21.000 Is that right?

00:13:23.000 100%.

00:13:24.000 Right.

00:13:24.000 And I would just caution people, when you see the CNN flash poll tonight, don't believe it.

00:13:31.000 It doesn't, that won't, the flash poll, look, the one thing I will tell people, Charlie, I've been doing this a long time, is that this tonight is like watching a game.

00:13:40.000 First of all, it's an away game for Donald Trump.

00:13:42.000 I mean, he's playing at CNN headquarters with two CNN hosts.

00:13:48.000 I mean, so this is a total away game.

00:13:49.000 That being said, if you're a fan of a team, like I'm a Patriots fan,

00:13:54.000 I can at least acknowledge begrudgingly that the Jets have a good game once in a while.

00:13:58.000 That doesn't mean I'm a Jets fan.

00:14:00.000 That doesn't mean I want them to win.

00:14:01.000 And so how they do tonight doesn't necessarily change the trajectory of the race.

00:14:07.000 Even if there's a good moment, objectively, as a Trump supporter,

00:14:10.000 you could say, oh, that was a good answer by Biden That doesn't change it.

00:14:13.000 I think overall, net net, if Trump does what you were saying a moment ago and comes out in the way that I think a lot of us want him to, which is to focus on the record, which is unbelievably compelling and heads and shoulders in every aspect above where Biden's is now, he wins all the time.

00:14:30.000 And he just needs to remind people of that.

00:14:33.000 So I think that the, The deck, quote unquote, might be stacked against Trump, but the issues and the playing field are stacked against Biden.

00:14:43.000 So he's gotten all these advantages logistically, that being Biden, but you can only do so much of that, right?

00:14:51.000 And that's why I'm thinking, I think even though all of these things favor Joe Biden, at the end of the day, if the only two things you can say, he's going to say three things tonight, and probably in this order.

00:15:01.000 Convicted felon, abortion, and democracy under attack.

00:15:04.000 That's all he has.

00:15:05.000 He can't talk about immigration or open borders.

00:15:07.000 He can't talk about the economy.

00:15:09.000 He can't talk about the world being safer.

00:15:11.000 So he's going to say those three things over and over again.

00:15:14.000 Convicted felon, abortion, or reproductive rights.

00:15:17.000 And democracy is under attack.

00:15:18.000 That's right.

00:15:19.000 That's well said, Sean.

00:15:20.000 And if Trump can navigate those with just some whimsy, Some smile.

00:15:25.000 Don't take the tax too seriously.

00:15:26.000 They're not resonating right now in the polling.

00:15:28.000 They're not resonating in the body of politics.

00:15:30.000 So don't let them resonate with you.

00:15:32.000 It's okay to shrug your shoulders and say, look, that's all you got.

00:15:34.000 Honestly, we're going to, you know, people are going to be richer.

00:15:37.000 We're going to bring our country back.

00:15:38.000 And Joe, that's your thing.

00:15:39.000 Then you can't talk about real record.

00:15:40.000 Just kind of let it slide.

00:15:42.000 Just be slippery.

00:15:45.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

00:15:46.000 Can't pay the IRS.

00:15:47.000 Haven't filed in a while.

00:15:49.000 Receiving threatening letters.

00:15:50.000 Yeah, it's about to get even worse.

00:15:53.000 The IRS is hiring an army of agents targeting hard-working Americans just like you.

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00:16:49.000 You have no idea how Soviet we really are.

00:16:51.000 I saw this article and I immediately told my team, get Helen on the program. 0.98

00:16:54.000 Helen Andrews joins us now.

00:16:56.000 Helen, tell us about your latest piece.

00:16:58.000 Thanks a lot, Charlie.

00:17:01.000 I think a lot of Americans don't think of the collapse of civilizations as something that could happen to them.

00:17:06.000 You hear collapse of civilizations and you think that's something that happens to the Roman Empire or the French monarchy.

00:17:12.000 We forget that we saw the collapse of an entire civilization within the lifetimes of people now living, within my lifetime.

00:17:19.000 And that was the collapse of the Soviet Union.

00:17:21.000 So I was delighted to see the eminent historian, Neil Ferguson, write a brief, somewhat cheeky column, wondering whether America today is in the same position that Soviet Union was in 1989.

00:17:34.000 And I absolutely knew I had to chime in and support that comparison because I think it's spot on.

00:17:39.000 The essence of being in a late Soviet state is that nobody's free and nothing works.

00:17:44.000 And I think both halves of that equation apply to America today.

00:17:48.000 Nobody is free and nothing works.

00:17:52.000 Tell us more.

00:17:52.000 That is a brilliant distillation of the madness that we are living through right now.

00:17:58.000 Tell us more.

00:17:59.000 Well, I don't think I need to convince anyone listening about the nobody's free part.

00:18:03.000 When you have a regime that's trying to put the main opposition candidate in jail on trumped up charges, that's pretty transparently unfree.

00:18:11.000 And I also don't think I need to tell anyone here that you can't trust what you read in the New York Times today any more than the average Soviet citizen could trust what they read in Pravda.

00:18:20.000 But when it comes to the nothing works side, I think that's actually some place where Neil Ferguson, the great historian, underplayed his argument a little bit.

00:18:28.000 He drew the comparison between America today and the Soviet Union then by looking at the size of government, that our deficits are on track to be 5% of GDP.

00:18:38.000 That's certainly bad, but that doesn't get to the heart of the problem.

00:18:42.000 People forget that what killed the Soviet Union wasn't big government.

00:18:47.000 Obviously, they did have a big government, but the bigger problem was that they were a command economy.

00:18:53.000 All of the incentives in their economic system were oriented towards greater production, And none of the incentives were towards greater efficiency.

00:19:00.000 Another aspect of the Soviet Union was that they were bizarrely a net food importer.

00:19:06.000 Which, if you think about it, is one of the strangest things imaginable.

00:19:09.000 Russia has some of the most fruitful farmland on the planet, and yet they were importing their food.

00:19:14.000 And that's because they forgot that it's actually really important to be able to feed your own citizens from your own land.

00:19:21.000 When I look at that aspect of the Soviet collapse and then I look at America today, it makes me think of de-industrialization.

00:19:29.000 We've forgotten as a country that you actually can't have an economy based on services and advertising and finance.

00:19:36.000 It really matters to be able to make stuff in your own country.

00:19:40.000 Uh, we instead think that the industries of the future are going to be things like higher ed or healthcare, which are two of the most dysfunctional and least capitalist parts of our modern so-called capitalist system.

00:19:54.000 So when healthcare is one sixth of our economy and no aspect of how people get paid in the healthcare system makes any sense at all, or is connected to any kind of market mechanism that looks to me.

00:20:05.000 Like a society where the economy is just fundamentally not working in the way that the Soviet economy was.

00:20:13.000 Yeah, and so this is a very important point.

00:20:16.000 You would know this better than I would.

00:20:18.000 Would the 1% of the 1% in late Soviet times, did they think things were going well?

00:20:26.000 Because that is really the interesting phenomenon.

00:20:29.000 The richer you are and the more cloistered you are, the better you think things are going.

00:20:33.000 Was that the case also in late-stage Soviet Union?

00:20:37.000 Absolutely.

00:20:38.000 I was a little bit annoyed to read some of the responses to the column that I wrote.

00:20:41.000 Somebody said, how can we be in a state of collapse?

00:20:44.000 I just ordered dulce de leche ice cream on DoorDash, right to my door.

00:20:48.000 And I thought, well, okay, I'm sure it's great for you that you can do that, but that doesn't mean things are going well as a country.

00:20:54.000 In the Soviet Union, you're absolutely right.

00:20:56.000 The privileged people led lives of great privilege, so it was easy for them not to notice how badly things were going.

00:21:02.000 The other thing that camouflaged how badly things were going in the Soviet Union is that prior to the 1980s, the record of the Soviet Union in improving the standard of living was actually pretty okay.

00:21:15.000 A lot more Soviet citizens owned televisions, they owned cars, they had more disposable income to spend on food.

00:21:21.000 If you were a Russian citizen who had lived through, say, World War II, And then compared that to your life in the 60s and 70s, you would have thought the socialist system is actually doing pretty okay by me.

00:21:33.000 And so the Soviet leaders used that to kind of pressure people.

00:21:38.000 into thinking the system was doing better than it was.

00:21:40.000 They said, don't you remember all the good things we've done for you?

00:21:44.000 Isn't your life today so much better than it was back in the bad old days of the siege of Leningrad or whatever when you were starving?

00:21:51.000 And I see our leaders doing a little bit of that today.

00:21:54.000 They say, aren't you grateful for everything capitalism has given you?

00:21:57.000 And I think, well, yes, I think America's economy has done great things, but that doesn't change the fact that the record of governance of our leaders since at least 2000 has been very poor.

00:22:08.000 Well, it's also, what are we thankful for?

00:22:11.000 We're thankful for, we're drawing down an inheritance that this current ruling class had no, had nothing to do with.

00:22:17.000 We're drawing down the inheritance of probably 50 or 60 years or even hundreds of years removed.

00:22:22.000 And it really makes you wonder without abundant natural resources, And us being the global reserve currency status, how we can keep this up.

00:22:29.000 That is a theory that I have is that we have, we have it so well in the West that the woke is only possible.

00:22:37.000 And again, this is a filler term.

00:22:38.000 I know that people don't like it, but I use it just as a cutesy filler term.

00:22:42.000 It's only possible when you're able to have a economy configured the way we have.

00:22:48.000 And so you say nobody is free and nothing works.

00:22:52.000 Is there ever a breaking point where, when things really stop working, we're going to decide to reverse course?

00:22:58.000 Or do you think this is just the beginning of a slow-motion collapse?

00:23:04.000 I think we absolutely will reach a breaking point the same way the Soviets did. 0.99

00:23:08.000 And the only question is whether that'll be a breaking point in a good direction or in a bad direction.

00:23:13.000 One of the more obvious parallels between us today and the Soviet Union then is that our leaders are really old.

00:23:19.000 We all know the jokes about Brezhnev and Chernenko and Andropov falling asleep in the middle of meetings.

00:23:24.000 There was a stretch of decades there when everybody who ran the Soviet Union seemed to be aged about 93.

00:23:30.000 Well, you look at the White House today and Congress today and you think our leaders are getting pretty old too.

00:23:36.000 And one of the reasons why gerontocracies develop in political systems is because the older generation is clinging to power and they don't trust what the younger generation is going to do with it.

00:23:48.000 In the Soviet case, it was because most of the younger generation was just too cynical.

00:23:52.000 They saw what socialism was producing, and they just didn't believe in it anymore, somewhat naturally, since it wasn't working.

00:23:59.000 So the older generation resisted handing off power to them.

00:24:02.000 I think there are similar pathologies here in the United States.

00:24:05.000 And once we finally reach the point when generational turnover is unavoidable, when the older generation of congressional leaders have to hand off to somebody younger, I think that might be the breaking point.

00:24:18.000 No, I see Helen. 0.94

00:24:21.000 These people are so craven. 0.93

00:24:23.000 I could see Mitch McConnell uploading his consciousness to some form. 0.97

00:24:28.000 No, I'm not kidding.

00:24:28.000 Some form of chat GPT or Elon Musk's thing.

00:24:32.000 And it's just a box and it's just Mitch McConnell serving in perpetuity for the next hundred years.

00:24:38.000 I mean, these people will never give up power.

00:24:39.000 They're going to try to fight death.

00:24:40.000 That's what they do every single day.

00:24:42.000 And this ties with your other book.

00:24:45.000 Which I think is important.

00:24:46.000 Boomers, which is a fan favorite of our audience, which we always receive nasty emails about.

00:24:51.000 But is there, so I was just at an event in Sun Valley, and it was amazing.

00:24:56.000 And there was a lot of anxiety from the audience, more than I thought, about the direction of the country.

00:25:01.000 But some, not all, some would take me aside and they'd say, Charlie, the bombast and the idea that America is The Soviet Union is an exaggeration.

00:25:15.000 It's hyperbole.

00:25:16.000 Do you find that the older you are, the less willing you are to acknowledge this?

00:25:20.000 And if so, why?

00:25:22.000 That's the number one reason why boomers are the way they are. 1.00

00:25:26.000 When you think about everything that comes to your mind, when you hear the term boomers, It's because they inherited a civilization that was prosperous and cohesive and almost the best civilization that has ever, you know, existed on the planet, certainly in the top five.

00:25:41.000 And they thought that that was the natural order of things.

00:25:44.000 They thought it would always be that way.

00:25:47.000 And so they lacked an understanding of how badly things can go, how you need to really avoid making mistakes in order to prevent your civilization from going off course.

00:25:57.000 One of the criticisms or the pushbacks against the Soviet comparison that I hear most often from boomers is The Soviets had to build walls to keep people in, whereas we in the United States, we need to build a wall to keep people out.

00:26:13.000 There are tons and tons of people who want to come here.

00:26:15.000 And that certainly wasn't true of Moscow in 1985.

00:26:19.000 And I hear that and I think, I know why that line makes sense to you.

00:26:24.000 But the fact that millions of people are flooding into our country and our leaders are doing nothing to prevent it actually doesn't make me feel better. 0.99

00:26:34.000 about the state of our civilization or the trajectory it's on.

00:26:37.000 Did you come up with that, nothing works and no one is free and nothing works?

00:26:41.000 Or is that a Helen Andrews original?

00:26:43.000 That is.

00:26:44.000 Well, I am going to give you credit because I think it is brilliant.

00:26:48.000 Nobody is free and nothing works.

00:26:50.000 And just as an example, why does it take a decade to build a new lane and a highway now?

00:26:56.000 I mean, ever since I've moved decades, a little bit of exaggeration, but not really.

00:27:00.000 Ever since I've moved here in Arizona, These numbskulls have been trying to add a lane to one of these highways. 1.00

00:27:06.000 And I tell you, it has been perpetually under construction.

00:27:10.000 And Ryan and Blake know exactly what I'm talking about here.

00:27:12.000 It's as if you move in and it's just the decade of slow motion building.

00:27:17.000 We are not a serious country.

00:27:18.000 That's right.

00:27:18.000 Blake says this.

00:27:19.000 He says, the road outside Turning Point has been getting work done since I moved here.

00:27:23.000 I'm telling you, but at least you guys can get your ice cream and a pride flag in six hours or less.

00:27:30.000 Brought to you by DoorDash.

00:27:34.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

00:27:35.000 Did you know that 80% of adults take supplements to feel our best, right?

00:27:40.000 Well, one thing your dog can't do without you is improve their diet or health to feel their best.

00:27:46.000 That is why I believe Rough Greens could dramatically help your best friend by adding what is missing to their diet like you do.

00:27:54.000 Rough Greens is helping thousands and thousands of dogs feel better and live longer, including my dog, Mr. Briggs, who loves it.

00:28:03.000 Naturopathic Dr. Dennis Black, who created Rough Greens, is also an Airborne Ranger and Green Beret.

00:28:07.000 An amazing background.

00:28:09.000 He loves dogs and is on a mission to help as many as he can.

00:28:13.000 Dog food is dead and Rough Greens supplements your dog's food with existing vitamins and minerals.

00:28:19.000 So Helen, let's talk about this continually culturally.

00:28:22.000 Of all the groups, and again, I'm not here to boomer bash.

00:28:24.000 There's a lot of great boomers out there.

00:28:26.000 So fetch your free Jumpstart Trial bag.

00:28:29.000 Just cover shipping.

00:28:30.000 Don't change your dog's food.

00:28:31.000 Just go to roughgreens.com slash Kirk.

00:28:33.000 R-U-F-F greens.com slash Kirk.

00:28:38.000 So Helen, let's talk about this continually culturally.

00:28:42.000 Of all the groups, and again, I'm not here to boomer bash.

00:28:44.000 There's a lot of great boomers out there.

00:28:46.000 There's great people in every generation.

00:28:47.000 However, I want you to talk about your book here.

00:28:51.000 Donald Trump, just talking politically, because he represents cultural trends, is doing better with younger voters, better with Black voters, better with Hispanic voters.

00:28:58.000 I was just with Scott Rasmussen, who backed me up on this.

00:29:00.000 The only demographic where Joe Biden is doing better than his 2020 numbers, substantially, is with boomers.

00:29:07.000 Why is that, Helen Andrews?

00:29:09.000 I think because boomers have been running the country almost for as long as they've been alive, and they've set up the system to favor themselves. 1.00

00:29:19.000 So a lot of boomers look at America and they say, America's already great because it's going great for them.

00:29:25.000 They have all the houses and they're in all of the positions of power.

00:29:28.000 So because the system is set up to favor them, they don't feel like America needs revolutionary, really pressing, dramatic change.

00:29:35.000 When for everybody else who's living in the world the boomers made, the need for dramatic change, Trump change, is pretty obvious.

00:29:44.000 Yeah, and so is there a reluctance, essentially, towards revolutionary change in that generation?

00:29:53.000 Or at least, things are actually going pretty well.

00:29:56.000 Oh, they were very much into revolutionary change back in the day, back before they were the ones in charge.

00:30:01.000 That's why I interrupt.

00:30:02.000 So help me understand.

00:30:03.000 So why is it like, I mean, they were, if it feels good, do it, you know, turn over the tables.

00:30:08.000 But now it's like, we don't want any changes whatsoever.

00:30:12.000 Help me understand.

00:30:13.000 It's not something that happened since 2016.

00:30:16.000 It's something that's been going on since 1980.

00:30:19.000 Think about what you call to mind when you hear the 60s.

00:30:23.000 And then think about what you call to mind when you hear the Reagan era.

00:30:26.000 You think of them as being opposites.

00:30:28.000 The 60s were liberal.

00:30:29.000 The 80s were conservative.

00:30:30.000 The 60s were anti-capitalist hippie.

00:30:33.000 The 80s were all about money and Wall Street.

00:30:36.000 Actually, in both cases, the people who gave those decades their defining spirit were exactly the same people.

00:30:43.000 They were the boomers. 0.98

00:30:45.000 They were teenagers or in their 20s during the hippie era.

00:30:50.000 And so they did the things that young people like to do.

00:30:52.000 They did drugs and slept around and listened to music.

00:30:55.000 And then when they got a little older, they thought, I need to make money.

00:30:58.000 I need to get mine.

00:31:00.000 And once you realize that those were the same people, it starts to come into focus that actually the philosophy of both of those eras isn't so different.

00:31:09.000 It's still very individualistic.

00:31:12.000 It's very self-centered.

00:31:13.000 It's very, Unwilling to make any kind of sacrifice or engage in any self-discipline.

00:31:19.000 So the 60s and the 80s are really two sides of the same coin.

00:31:22.000 So now you just need to apply that same principle to where the boomers are now, which is nearing retirement. 0.94

00:31:29.000 It's the same case.

00:31:30.000 They want things to be nice and easy for themselves.

00:31:32.000 And they've been the largest demographic, which means the largest voting block, the largest block of consumers, which means that advertisers and companies want to attract boomer customers because there are more of them than there are of anybody else.

00:31:46.000 So they've really been flattered and coddled by the political system, the economic system, so they don't have any reason to want to take into account the way other people might see things.

00:31:57.000 So, Helen, what is your response to some of the audience members that say, we are the greatest generation, we've sacrificed so much as boomers, and you who are not boomers are not allowed to criticize us?

00:32:09.000 I say, look at the civilization that you've handed off.

00:32:13.000 All of the institutions that were intact when they were handed over to the boomers are now broken and in need of repair. 1.00

00:32:21.000 Our political system is one that no voters trust anymore.

00:32:26.000 Trust in our political institution has collapsed.

00:32:28.000 Nobody trusts the economy anymore.

00:32:30.000 The churches are in decline now that the liberals of the Boomer generation have gone in and monkeyed with mainline Protestantism, which is in a state of total demographic collapse.

00:32:41.000 So just look at what's happened to the Episcopal Church or the Methodists and you can see what a generation of Boomer leadership leads you with. 0.96

00:32:49.000 Is what you're handing off to your children better than what you inherited from your parents?

00:32:53.000 That's the questions the boomers really need to look into the mirror and answer. 0.99

00:32:57.000 Helen Andrews, excellent work.

00:32:59.000 Thank you so much.

00:33:02.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:33:03.000 Email us as always freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:33:06.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - June 28, 2024

Nobody is Free and Nothing Works: How Biden's America is Like the Soviet Union

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