The Charlie Kirk Show - What Did The Founders Think About Immigration?

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:00.000 Charlie Kirk here, live from the Bitcoin.com studio.

00:00:04.000 Dr. Slack joins us.

00:00:05.000 We ask the question, is diversity a founding American value?

00:00:08.000 Also, Steve Hilton joins the show.

00:00:10.000 He's running for governor of California.

00:00:11.000 I've endorsed him, and we hear his case.

00:00:13.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:15.000 Get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com.

00:00:18.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:00:20.000 You can become a member today, members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:23.000 That is members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:25.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:26.000 Here we...

00:00:26.000 Go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:28.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:30.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:34.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:37.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:38.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:39.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:41.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:00:47.000 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.

00:00:56.000 That's why we are here.

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00:01:16.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.

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00:01:20.000 Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:25.000 We now turn our gaze from the imperial capital to the west coast.

00:01:29.000 I have made an endorsement in the California governor's race, and honestly, it's the least I could do.

00:01:33.000 This man was always so good to me, and he was so generous and so kind and so magnanimous.

00:01:40.000 He had me on his program on Fox News, so thoughtful and smart, and gave me a platform.

00:01:44.000 That I'll never forget.

00:01:46.000 And beyond that, I agree with him completely on what he wants to do for California.

00:01:49.000 And I just love his spirit, his spunk, his wit, his charm.

00:01:52.000 And it's Steve Hilton, who is hopefully going to be the next governor of the great state of California.

00:01:57.000 Well, the once great that we want to make golden again.

00:02:01.000 Mikey and my team knows that every time I land in California, which is quite often, I'll be there next week quite a lot, I say the same thing.

00:02:08.000 I say, it is a catastrophe.

00:02:11.000 It is a tragedy what they did to this place.

00:02:14.000 What they did to California is one of the greatest acts of self and deliberative destruction in American history.

00:02:24.000 California is a gift from God, objectively.

00:02:27.000 It is beautiful.

00:02:28.000 It's serene.

00:02:29.000 Only in California can you wake up to a sunset surfing, go hiking with your family afternoon, and end the day skiing.

00:02:35.000 And if you really want to, you could drive ATVs on the dunes throughout California.

00:02:40.000 The biodiversity...

00:02:42.000 From Yosemite National Park, from Orange County to Santa Barbara to the Bay Area to the Redwoods, there really isn't a place quite like California.

00:02:52.000 And I joke around with my team.

00:02:54.000 I say, if California was like as liberal as, I don't know, if it was like Nevada, if it was as liberal as like a moderate liberal state, I would live in California.

00:03:04.000 It's that beautiful.

00:03:05.000 It's that remarkable.

00:03:07.000 The quality of life used to be something, but it is increasingly out of touch, out of reach.

00:03:12.000 And Steve Hilton is aiming to make that American dream and more importantly, that California dream accessible again.

00:03:19.000 Steve, great to see you.

00:03:20.000 Congratulations on your launch.

00:03:22.000 Steve, tell us all about it.

00:03:23.000 Thank you, Matt.

00:03:24.000 It's so great to be with you.

00:03:26.000 We are on the road, fighting to save California.

00:03:28.000 We're just driving from San Francisco, where we were yesterday.

00:03:34.000 Dealing with all those horrendous issues, the complete collapse of civilization that you see on the streets of San Francisco.

00:03:41.000 We're now on the road to Fresno in the Central Valley, our amazing agricultural heartland.

00:03:47.000 But first, Charlie, I just want to say thank you so much for being part of our amazing event in Huntington Beach on Tuesday.

00:03:53.000 I wish you'd been there to hear the gasp of excitement when we didn't tell people you'd be joining us.

00:03:58.000 We just played your wonderful video and the crowd was so excited, as was I. And I really, really appreciate your friendship over the years and your support of me in this effort.

00:04:10.000 Because it actually means, I say this the whole time, California is too important to let it slide further into stagnation and decline.

00:04:18.000 It's too important for America.

00:04:19.000 Never mind everyone who lives here in California. 1.00

00:04:21.000 We've got to turn things around.

00:04:23.000 We've got to end this 15 years of Democrat one-party rule and go in a new direction.

00:04:28.000 So Steve, tell us the agenda that you presented of exactly your plan to make California golden again.

00:04:35.000 So it's got to focus on those positive, practical things that are common sense.

00:04:41.000 That term that President Trump uses the whole time, it's exactly right. 0.87

00:04:44.000 We've had so much ideology over these past years.

00:04:47.000 That's what's driven all this extremism and ended with those terrible results that we all know.

00:04:52.000 So we've just got to think about those basic things.

00:04:55.000 It's a simple story of the California dream.

00:04:58.000 A good job where you make enough to raise your family in a home of your own, a safe neighborhood with a good school so your kids have a better life than you.

00:05:06.000 That is the ladder of opportunity.

00:05:08.000 Every rung on that has been smashed by Democrat policy.

00:05:11.000 We've got to rebuild it.

00:05:13.000 We've got to allow people to actually live in California.

00:05:16.000 So many families I speak to are young people wanting to have families.

00:05:19.000 So there's no way we can do that in California.

00:05:21.000 It's so tough.

00:05:22.000 To live, to just avoid the basics.

00:05:25.000 So the number one thing I want to do, the quickest thing we can do to directly put more money in people's pockets is take working people and working families out of state income tax because it's insane the level of taxation in California.

00:05:39.000 You add it all up, we have the highest taxes in the country.

00:05:41.000 So the first part of my plan is to take anyone earning $100,000 or less, which is not a big salary.

00:05:47.000 California, considering how expensive everything is, won't pay state income tax.

00:05:51.000 Right now, they're paying 9.3% state income tax.

00:05:54.000 Even if you're earning $70,000, it's insane.

00:05:57.000 Secondly, we've got to make it easier to start and run a business in California.

00:06:01.000 I've run businesses both here in America.

00:06:04.000 I've started companies in England.

00:06:06.000 It's so difficult.

00:06:07.000 We're just an endless, insane bureaucracy.

00:06:10.000 It's coming out of state government.

00:06:12.000 We've got to cut it right back.

00:06:13.000 And allow people to just follow their treatments, and especially small businesses.

00:06:17.000 They're being absolutely out by Democrat regulations and insanity from state government in Sacramento.

00:06:24.000 Homes. We have the highest housing costs in America.

00:06:28.000 The number one reason for that is we're just not allowed to build homes anywhere where people want to live.

00:06:34.000 That dream of a single-family home.

00:06:36.000 We can raise your kids, the yard, we can enjoy the weather.

00:06:40.000 The Democrats are ideologically against that.

00:06:43.000 They want everyone to live in apartments, density, in the middle of cities.

00:06:47.000 That's not the California dream.

00:06:49.000 So we've got to remove those restrictions, get rid of the complexity and all the building codes, make it easier and cheaper to build the homes we want.

00:06:56.000 And finally, I talk about great kids.

00:06:58.000 In the broader sense, of course, the school system has to be improved.

00:07:02.000 We have like barely half the kids in our public schools can meet basic state standards in English.

00:07:08.000 For math, it's 33%.

00:07:09.000 Those numbers should be 100%.

00:07:12.000 And the way we do that is to get more transparency so that we can reward good teachers and remove bad ones.

00:07:19.000 And so we've got to have a grade for every school, a grade for every teacher, so that parents can see what's going on.

00:07:24.000 Then you give them the power to make the changes.

00:07:27.000 That's just the start of it.

00:07:28.000 These are common sense things.

00:07:30.000 Wide agreement.

00:07:31.000 This is not controversial.

00:07:32.000 It's not ideological.

00:07:34.000 I mean, I agree with every single word you just said, Steve.

00:07:36.000 And you're right.

00:07:37.000 This is not controversial.

00:07:38.000 And I don't know if you heard what I said earlier, but it's a tragedy and a crime against the country what the Democrat cabal have done to California.

00:07:45.000 It is a gift from the heavens.

00:07:47.000 If you guys have not spent extensive time in California, you'll know exactly what I mean.

00:07:52.000 There is no state as beautiful as...

00:07:54.000 I mean, Alaska's close, but it's a separate issue.

00:07:56.000 I mean, California is its own place amongst the beautiful areas on Earth, really.

00:08:04.000 So, Steve, about a minute and a half remaining...

00:08:07.000 Would you argue that decline has been a choice, that California made a choice through its political leaders?

00:08:14.000 Talk about how decline is a choice and therefore the reversal of decline is equally a choice.

00:08:20.000 Absolutely nailed it.

00:08:21.000 These are man-made problems, or to be specific, Democrat-made problems. 0.72

00:08:26.000 These are policy choices that have given us all these insane costs.

00:08:30.000 There was a time when we had the most affordable homes in the country.

00:08:34.000 In California, we would build, build, build.

00:08:36.000 That's when the California dream, that suburban life we will imagine is the American dream.

00:08:40.000 That used to happen.

00:08:41.000 We had the most fantastic building and engineering projects in the world.

00:08:45.000 We're literally about to drive past one of them, San Luis Reservoir, just here in...

00:08:50.000 Just close to the Bay Area, built in the 1960s.

00:08:54.000 We built the State Water Project to collect the melted snow melt from the Sierras and get it to Los Angeles and the dry parts of Southern California and the Central Valley.

00:09:05.000 We did that a generation or more, two generations ago.

00:09:09.000 We stopped being able to have that ambition and hustle, and that's what we need to get back to.

00:09:14.000 It's all possible and doable if we have the right mindset, the right ambition, and get rid of this far-left ideology that's ruined this beautiful state.

00:09:23.000 That's how we make California golden.

00:09:25.000 weekend.

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00:10:14.000 Music

00:10:16.000 All right, Steve, you're going to hear this question 10 times a day and 11 times on Sunday.

00:10:21.000 The three words, can you win?

00:10:25.000 So the version of it that I was expecting, how the hell can you win?

00:10:30.000 There you go.

00:10:31.000 Deep blue state, as it's described.

00:10:33.000 Well, here's the plan, and I just want to be really clear with you and with everyone, Charlie.

00:10:37.000 That's why I'm doing this.

00:10:39.000 To be the governor.

00:10:40.000 Not to run a good campaign, or to get everyone excited, or to help.

00:10:44.000 People, down ballot.

00:10:46.000 I want to do all those things because I think that we can build a real movement for change in California.

00:10:51.000 But as you know, I've worked inside of a government back in the day in the UK, senior advisor to a prime minister.

00:10:57.000 I know how government works.

00:10:58.000 I can't wait to actually be the head of the executive branch of California so we can actually change things.

00:11:04.000 That's why I'm doing it.

00:11:05.000 So the first point is that California is already...

00:11:08.000 Much more of a Republican state than people think.

00:11:12.000 The average share of the vote in California for Republicans, even in the last 20 years or so, where there hasn't been the kind of energy we're seeing today, it's over 40%.

00:11:21.000 That's more than a lot of people think.

00:11:23.000 But in the last year or so, you're seeing real energy and change.

00:11:27.000 And I think it's part of the Trump factor that's sweeping the nation.

00:11:31.000 So you look at the last election in California.

00:11:34.000 You've had 10 counties flip.

00:11:36.000 From blue to red in California, including where I'm heading today, Fresno County.

00:11:41.000 It's the fifth biggest city in the state.

00:11:43.000 These aren't just tiny little rural areas.

00:11:45.000 Ten counties, Democrats and Republicans.

00:11:48.000 Then you see what happened on the statewide ballot initiatives.

00:11:51.000 In a way, last November, Republicans won in California without anyone realizing it.

00:11:57.000 The measure of Prop 36 to make crime illegal, again, after Kamala Harris's ridiculous Prop 47 that legalized theft up to $950 today, the notorious one, that was overturned by 70% majority across the state, but also measures to stop a big tax increase,

00:12:14.000 to stop rent control, to stop the minimum wage rising.

00:12:18.000 Those all passed.

00:12:20.000 The Republican position won on those issues.

00:12:24.000 Really, we've got to look at Huntington Beach.

00:12:26.000 That's why I chose that as the location for my launch event.

00:12:30.000 Four years ago, Huntington Beach, iconic city, the biggest city in Orange County, was run by Democrats, 6-1.

00:12:37.000 And then 2022, a group of very energetic Republicans took over.

00:12:42.000 They won 4-3, did a good job.

00:12:45.000 They removed homeless encampments.

00:12:47.000 They implemented common-sense conservative policy.

00:12:49.000 They prosecuted crime.

00:12:51.000 They took the nonsense out of the school libraries.

00:12:54.000 Just last November, they won 7-0.

00:12:57.000 So you have a place that went from 6-1 Democrat to 7-0 Republican in four years.

00:13:01.000 The best bit, Charlie, two weeks ago, Huntington Beach was rated best-run city in California.

00:13:08.000 So it's a great story there.

00:13:10.000 Common sense, Republican ideas.

00:13:13.000 You've got to have that fighting spirit.

00:13:14.000 You've got to have clear, simple ideas that can give people hope.

00:13:18.000 I think everyone understands you need change in California, but they haven't had that sense of, this really could happen, so I should get engaged.

00:13:25.000 That's the whole point of my campaign.

00:13:27.000 Say, look, here are the things we can do to make your life better.

00:13:32.000 Steve, I love that answer.

00:13:35.000 So what is your plan?

00:13:37.000 You're going to be going up and down the state, raising money.

00:13:39.000 And what is the timeline?

00:13:41.000 Give our audience a little window into your campaign for the daunting task of winning the governor's race in California.

00:13:48.000 It's taunting, but it's exciting.

00:13:49.000 I mean, I've already been working on this for a long time.

00:13:51.000 I said, I'm a policy organisation, so we've got them.

00:13:53.000 It's called Golden Together.

00:13:54.000 It's got these plans there.

00:13:56.000 But you can see my plan at stevehiltonforgovernor.com.

00:13:59.000 F-O-R-S-E-V-O-V-O-V-O-V-O-V-O-V-O-N-R.com.

00:14:02.000 And you've got a whole set of very simple ideas, as we've been discussing.

00:14:05.000 I'm going to be a high-energy, high-profile campaign in this state.

00:14:10.000 For too long, I think we haven't taken the fight to the Democrats.

00:14:13.000 They do not have a leg to stand on.

00:14:16.000 When it comes to the results, everything's been a total disaster.

00:14:19.000 I cannot wait to take them on.

00:14:20.000 I'm going everywhere in the state.

00:14:22.000 Day one was Orange County in the evening.

00:14:24.000 We were in Los Angeles.

00:14:25.000 Yesterday, San Francisco.

00:14:27.000 Today, Fresno.

00:14:28.000 Tomorrow, Sacramento.

00:14:30.000 Next week, up in Napa and Sonoma.

00:14:32.000 There's a whole farming industry there that's being crushed by Democrats every day.

00:14:36.000 I'm going to be telling the story of how we can change things for the better.

00:14:40.000 We're going to be putting it all out, live streaming our events at a policy forum in San Francisco yesterday where we asked questions from the crowd on every single issue.

00:14:50.000 And so this is going to be a very visible, high-energy campaign.

00:14:53.000 And I hope people follow the best way to follow the campaign.

00:14:56.000 Follow me on social media at Steve Hilton X. See you on the road.

00:14:59.000 Very good.

00:15:00.000 Steve, thank you so much.

00:15:02.000 Talk to you soon.

00:15:02.000 God bless you.

00:15:03.000 And make California golden again.

00:15:05.000 Thank you.

00:15:05.000 Thank you, Charlie.

00:15:06.000 See you soon.

00:15:34.000 That our students face every single day on college campuses.

00:15:37.000 Of course, the media will not cover this.

00:15:39.000 They are the violent ones.

00:15:40.000 So pray for your Turning Point USA chapter leader.

00:15:43.000 Get to know them.

00:15:44.000 Shepherd them.

00:15:44.000 because they're on the front lines literally taking punches for our republic.

00:15:48.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

00:15:52.000 Brand new year, brand new opportunities to change the world for the better.

00:15:55.000 It's easier than you might think.

00:15:57.000 You can save babies by providing ultrasounds with pre-born.

00:16:00.000 Together with the Sanctity of Human Life Month, we're going to save 35,000 babies to show the world that not only do we believe life is precious, but we're going to do something about it.

00:16:09.000 Your gift to pre-born will give a girl the truth about what's happening in her body, 0.58

00:16:12.000 What better way to start this new year than to join us to save babies?

00:16:19.000 And $28 a month will save a baby a month all year long.

00:16:23.000 A $15,000 gift will provide a complete ultrasound machine that will save thousands of babies for years and years to come.

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00:16:36.000 Start this new year by being a hero for life.

00:16:38.000 Call 833-850-2229 or click on the preborn banner at charliekirk.com.

00:16:43.000 That is charliekirk.com and click on the preborn banner.

00:16:47.000 I'm a donor.

00:16:48.000 You should be too.

00:16:53.000 Phenomenal guest here.

00:16:53.000 I've taken some of his online course at Hillsdale College.

00:16:56.000 That is charlieforhillsdale.com.

00:16:57.000 It's Dr. Kevin Slack.

00:16:59.000 His book is War on the American Republic, How Liberalism Became Despotism.

00:17:03.000 Dr. Slack, welcome to the program.

00:17:06.000 I want to talk to you mostly about this idea of immigration and the founding fathers.

00:17:11.000 I want to ask you, what were...

00:17:13.000 The American founders view on immigration.

00:17:16.000 How did they incorporate that into law? 0.63

00:17:18.000 Because if you were to ask just a regular person, they'd say one thing.

00:17:21.000 We are a nation of immigrants.

00:17:23.000 Everyone should be welcome.

00:17:24.000 And that's what the founders believe.

00:17:26.000 Was that the founders view on immigration?

00:17:28.000 Please educate our audience.

00:17:30.000 Take as much time as you please.

00:17:31.000 No, you know, and some of the founding fathers.

00:17:33.000 Benjamin Franklin was probably the first to write about immigration.

00:17:36.000 He does this in 1751 in his observations.

00:17:40.000 His real concern was that he had tried to form, this was an extra-legal militia.

00:17:45.000 It was a military association because the Pennsylvania Quakers in the assembly wouldn't raise money for defense.

00:17:51.000 And so he appeals to all of these different ethnicities in Pennsylvania to unite for the defense of life, liberty, and property.

00:17:57.000 It was a veritable social contract.

00:18:00.000 It was extra legal, and the idea was that they would protect themselves, all these different groups, the middling artisans of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, against threats from the French and pirates in the Delaware as well as on the frontier.

00:18:12.000 And what he saw was that many of the Germans who had come over, they'd migrated and massed to the colonies, had not participated in this effort, even though he tried to woo them into it.

00:18:22.000 And so in 1751, he'd made this effort in 1747.

00:18:26.000 In 1751, he starts railing against the German immigrants.

00:18:29.000 And he says, why are we bringing in all of these German migrants? 1.00

00:18:33.000 He says, rather, what's going to happen?

00:18:35.000 They don't learn our language. 0.95

00:18:36.000 They don't have our habits.

00:18:37.000 They don't appreciate our laws.

00:18:39.000 And that instead of anglifying them, they're going to Germanize us. 0.98

00:18:43.000 And so he stresses this idea of assimilation.

00:18:46.000 Now, he would change his views on the Germans and the Scotch-Iris over time.

00:18:50.000 But one thing that he stressed, and this was adopted by the other founders, somebody like Thomas Jefferson as well, was the idea of unity.

00:18:58.000 How is it that affection binds the people together to command the kind of sacrifices that are necessary to preserve a...

00:19:05.000 People. So when we talk about a people, we say Americans.

00:19:07.000 It means we're presupposing that that entity exists and that it has something in common.

00:19:12.000 And that meant that the foremost, if you read Franklin or Thomas Jefferson, what they really look to is to try to get your own citizens.

00:19:20.000 To have more kids.

00:19:21.000 So that was immigration awareness number one, was we actually don't want to bring in lots and lots of immigrants because of certain threats that they pose, although we do admit immigrants. 1.00

00:19:33.000 But it wasn't a nation of immigrants.

00:19:35.000 That's a much later teaching that I think you can trace to the 1920s.

00:19:40.000 The idea of a nation of immigrants really takes off in the 1950s.

00:19:44.000 Thomas Jefferson and Franklin, they both really questioned whether we should bring over many of the old world European immigrants.

00:19:51.000 And so I think that's a second point.

00:19:53.000 First, you have the idea of a common mind.

00:19:55.000 What binds us together as a people?

00:19:56.000 And the second was the kind of character.

00:19:59.000 What are the manners and the habits of the people that are coming over?

00:20:02.000 And what kind of institutions will they endorse if they're allowed to vote in our political system?

00:20:07.000 Is it the case that they're going to bring over some of the bad policies and habits that they had left and that they had fled from?

00:20:14.000 So that was the second major important point.

00:20:17.000 It's also the case that if we're going to be honest, the founders' warning to us would be that diversity undermines unity.

00:20:24.000 And that's why if you get to the first Naturalization Act of 1790, and this is just truth, it may offend us today, but the founders said only free whites could become citizens.

00:20:35.000 And the reason for that wasn't just you have ideas of inequality, natural inequality.

00:20:41.000 But even Franklin in the 1760s, he looks, he goes, he visits the Negro school and he says, well, I've changed my mind about these black children. 0.99

00:20:49.000 It seems like they can learn just like white children. 0.99

00:20:52.000 But even then, he says, I hope that will discourage migration.

00:20:56.000 And the reason that Franklin and Jefferson, Jefferson as well, took this position and notes on the state of Virginia, was they didn't think you could have Republican freedoms.

00:21:04.000 If you had a population that was torn apart by faction.

00:21:08.000 And so this becomes, of course, this guides immigration policy, who can become a citizen all the way until the 14th Amendment and the New Naturalization Act of 1870.

00:21:21.000 And that's when white Americans say, particularly the radical Republicans, they could see that the attempt on the part of the Southerners was to reintroduce slavery through a loophole in the 13th Amendment.

00:21:32.000 And so in the 14th Amendment, they recognized natural-born citizenship for the freedmen, as well as they changed naturalization policy.

00:21:42.000 And so you have whites and blacks can become citizens.

00:21:45.000 This did not include other races.

00:21:47.000 This did not include Asians.

00:21:50.000 For purposes of migration, nor did it include Indians.

00:21:54.000 That status would change for Indians under public law in the 1920s.

00:22:00.000 What and why?

00:22:01.000 Why did they do this?

00:22:02.000 Well, I think it was those three basic points.

00:22:05.000 One was, how do you have a common mind?

00:22:07.000 The idea of a common citizenry, so you have a country for its citizens.

00:22:12.000 Second, how do we bring over immigrants who are going to share some of our common values?

00:22:17.000 This is one of the reasons why the Labors did not want a large number of Chinese immigrants at the end of the 19th century.

00:22:23.000 They were very much afraid that they would bring over a kind of paternalistic view of the ends of government.

00:22:28.000 There's also why many of the Irish pose such a problem. 1.00

00:22:31.000 You know, 75% of the Germans, they migrated off to the countryside, but about 75% of the Irish settled down in major cities.

00:22:38.000 And the claim was that they brought much of their paternalistic view of government that focused on patronage.

00:22:45.000 And of course, every time...

00:22:46.000 You have mass migration.

00:22:47.000 It increases crime.

00:22:49.000 It also increases the entitlements program or the welfare programs of the localities and the states and, of course, today the federal government.

00:22:57.000 And so from 1880 to 1920, we do see a change.

00:23:01.000 We see the admittance of new groups.

00:23:04.000 And I think that for us, and we can look at the last two waves of immigration, this poses a kind of challenge, and that is...

00:23:12.000 In the founding period, they thought diversity undermined the kind of order necessary for Republican freedoms.

00:23:18.000 We have a diverse regime, right?

00:23:20.000 That's what we know.

00:23:21.000 And I think the challenge to us is, how do we maintain this sense of unity so that we can protect those Republican freedoms and freedom under the law?

00:23:29.000 And so I can go to the last two waves in law.

00:23:32.000 You have 1880 to 1920.

00:23:34.000 These were largely...

00:23:36.000 Southeastern Europeans.

00:23:38.000 And that created all kinds of problems.

00:23:40.000 The attempt to assimilate them into the body politic.

00:23:44.000 It was also the case that they introduced new institutions to try to manage the migrants.

00:23:49.000 What we look at is the family courts today.

00:23:51.000 If you read Roscoe Pound, this was the dean of Harvard Law, he's writing about the family courts.

00:23:57.000 And he says these are introduced to manage all of these Southeastern Europeans who are coming over here who don't know our ways. 1.00

00:24:03.000 And so in the family court, you don't have due process rights.

00:24:06.000 You have maxims of equity that guide all the rulings of the judge.

00:24:11.000 If you don't follow them, you're in contempt of court.

00:24:13.000 So what happened after the 1920s was two laws passed, 1921 and 1924, and they introduced a national origins quota, and this would have basically froze out those who could migrate to the United States.

00:24:26.000 Seventy percent of all migrants would come from just three countries, northwestern European countries.

00:24:31.000 But the real effect of that immigration law of 1924...

00:24:36.000 Was it stopped immigration generally.

00:24:40.000 So the percentage of foreign born in 1920 was about 14%.

00:24:44.000 When you get to 1960, it's about 4 or 5%.

00:24:47.000 And what that meant was all Americans just had more kids.

00:24:51.000 Americans of all different races because there was a prioritization on those who were natural born citizens.

00:24:57.000 The 1965 Immigration Act, as we all know, changed much of that.

00:25:01.000 And one of the great dangers that it introduced was this.

00:25:05.000 At every period of mass migration, whether you talk about the Irish in the 1840s or the migrations from southeastern Europe, 1880 to 1920, that you had a period of assimilation that followed these waves.

00:25:18.000 What's happened since 1965 is an ever-increasing number of migrants, and it poses that great threat to us that I think the founders warned about, and that is how do we maintain some kind of a unified... 1.00

00:25:29.000 Yeah, go ahead.

00:25:31.000 No, no, no, please.

00:25:32.000 That was phenomenal.

00:25:33.000 I want to make sure it's very clear.

00:25:35.000 Was diversity a stated value of the American founders?

00:25:39.000 Because we're told that diversity is our strength.

00:25:41.000 Was that a founding value of America?

00:25:45.000 No, in the terms that we use it today.

00:25:47.000 What kind of diversity was valuable?

00:25:49.000 Well, if you read Madison in Federalist 10, he talks about diversity of talents and property.

00:25:53.000 Yeah, that's valuable.

00:25:55.000 But if you get to the end of Federalist 10, he warns about a lack of any common sense of the whole.

00:26:00.000 And so there's a mean that has to be achieved.

00:26:03.000 And then obviously, again, the founders did not think we could have a racially diverse body politic that would also secure Republican freedoms.

00:26:12.000 And that's why in the Naturalization Act, again, one of the first acts passed by Congress in 1790, only free whites could become citizens. 0.76

00:26:19.000 They were afraid.

00:26:20.000 And this is why, you know, James Madison was president of the American Colonization Society.

00:26:25.000 So anytime, you know, I have an establishment Republican, they look at me and they say, well, Madison loved diversity.

00:26:30.000 And you say, he was president of an organization whose end was to ship blacks back to Africa.

00:26:37.000 That's the kind of diversity the American founders thought possible with regard to race.

00:26:41.000 Now, again, we don't agree with that anymore, but I think it remains a challenge to us.

00:26:46.000 And who was around in 2020 that didn't see this appeal to tribalism flare back up?

00:26:52.000 And I think this is where Trump has been excellent in trying to appeal to the things that unify us as Americans.

00:26:56.000 The American family is great again.

00:27:00.000 At least we're getting there.

00:27:01.000 So what are you doing this Easter to celebrate with your family?

00:27:04.000 Our good friends at Angel Studios, I love Angel Studios, remember Sound of Freedom, have an incredible movie coming out this Easter called The King of Kings, an animated story of the life of Jesus, featuring an all-star cast including Oscar Isaac, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman,

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00:27:31.000 I have a special offer for Charlie Kirk fans only so you can take your entire family.

00:27:36.000 Become a premium member in the Angel Studios Guild, a membership that puts you in the driver's seat to help Angel choose which movies is greenlit and it releases.

00:27:45.000 You'll get two free tickets to see King of Kings, and you'll actually get two tickets to every single theatrical release from Angel Studios moving forward.

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00:28:01.000 And parents like you have created a movement to take back our culture from Hollywood.

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00:28:12.000 Check out King of Kings in theaters this Easter and join the Angel Guild today, angel.com slash Kirk.

00:28:20.000 Dr. Slack continues with us.

00:28:22.000 The book is War on the American Republic and also CharlieForHillsdale.com.

00:28:25.000 That is CharlieForHillsdale.com.

00:28:27.000 I need to ask about the 14th Amendment.

00:28:29.000 Do you believe the intent of the 14th Amendment was to apply to the children of illegal aliens?

00:28:35.000 Do you believe that was the original intent?

00:28:38.000 And how should we think about it in a modern context?

00:28:41.000 No. I think it's kind of absurd that those who...

00:28:47.000 Wrote, ratified the 14th Amendment, would have thought that it applied to the children of illegals, even when the Supreme Court weighed in to establish those who were born on U.S. soil were U.S. citizens, that it was for a migrant worker who was here legally.

00:29:03.000 So, no, I don't think it applies.

00:29:05.000 Obviously, in the 14th Amendment, you've got that clause that talks about those who are not subject to a foreign jurisdiction.

00:29:11.000 And all those who are illegal immigrants would apply.

00:29:14.000 that they would be classified under that clause.

00:29:18.000 So the Supreme Court's never ruled on that.

00:29:20.000 We can see a case like Plyler v.

00:29:21.000 Doe, they've talked about certain rights of the children of illegal immigrants to education in the United States, but Supreme Court's never actually ruled on that question, whether birthright citizenship applies to those who are here illegally.

00:29:34.000 Not legally, those who are here to work, 1.00

00:29:36.000 Very good.

00:29:38.000 And so, going back to this idea of the founders and their intent on immigration, It seems as if we are just constantly flooded.

00:29:47.000 With this idea that we must allow in the entire world and the entire planet, you said something noteworthy to me, which is faction.

00:29:55.000 It seems as if we are suffering under great faction here in this country.

00:29:59.000 In fact, it seems as if we are a nation of strangers, not a nation of neighbors, that we all have different origin stories, sometimes different languages, and we are ships passing in the night.

00:30:08.000 Talk more about the founders' caution around faction and connect it to some of the things that we're experiencing today in 2025.

00:30:16.000 Well, you know, Madison, he defines faction in Federalist 10. He says any time that there is an individual or a group whose ends would deprive other citizens of their rights, that's a faction.

00:30:27.000 So he's in favor of interest groups.

00:30:29.000 But the real caution that I think the founders give us with regard to faction of ethnicity, race, those kinds of things, is you begin to see yourself as a member of a certain insular tribe.

00:30:40.000 That's why they're cautious about some of these religious groups.

00:30:43.000 You know, Roman Catholics, Jews, they were less than, you know, maybe a percent of the population. 1.00

00:30:48.000 So Federalist II talks about all the things that would unite a people, and that would be a common language, common customs, common religion, common ethnicity, migrating from the same parts of Europe.

00:30:58.000 So that was their idea as to what would help root a people, that would help to maintain the affection that would preserve the common and the common good.

00:31:06.000 I think what we've seen, and this is particularly since, and we see really two movements of this.

00:31:11.000 The first one begins in the That's where you have certain thinkers who begin to argue that they ought to be able to maintain their group identity as well as be citizens of the United States.

00:31:26.000 The argument there is that America is nothing but an idea.

00:31:30.000 That really begins, as best as I can tell, in the 1920s.

00:31:34.000 And so you have Elaine Locke talking about the new Negro and blacks being able to retain their own identity. 0.92

00:31:41.000 You have the same thing for Jews in the 1920s talking about how all these groups, they ought not to have to assimilate, but rather...

00:31:49.000 America is just a mere idea.

00:31:52.000 It has no common ethical principles, and of course they extend that to religion and all these other things.

00:31:57.000 The danger with that is, and that kind of mentality, is that once you begin to import more and more groups, they keep their tribal identities, and there's no longer a pressure to assimilate.

00:32:08.000 And by the time you get to the late 60s...

00:32:10.000 Then the problem is, is that in the interpretation of what, you know, the 64th Civil Rights Act, whether you agree with it in relation to the government, federal government to private business or not, that what had been a colorblind act, at least in its intentions, was interpreted in a very lawless way to begin to recognize different groups.

00:32:31.000 And you have to understand, this is why the founders revolted, that they revolted against the British Empire because...

00:32:37.000 In the British Empire, you were accorded certain privileges and duties, not based upon equal citizenship, but based upon your overlapping assigned group identities.

00:32:45.000 And that's what we see beginning to happen in the 1970s through the EEOC, Title VI and Title VII, as well as even in Title IX, that in a very lawless way, we begin to manage and balance these different groups that only have their own interests in mind.

00:33:01.000 You can see this, by the way, with some of the insular minorities who, when they talk about...

00:33:06.000 Donald Trump will say something like, well, what have you done for my people?

00:33:10.000 I think that's the dangerous part, is you only think about the good of your people.

00:33:14.000 Dr. Slack, we'll have you on again soon.

00:33:16.000 Thank you so much.

00:33:17.000 Check out the book, Very, Very Important, War on the American Republic.

00:33:21.000 Thank you so much, Dr. Slack.

00:33:22.000 Thank you.

00:33:23.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:33:24.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - April 25, 2025

What Did The Founders Think About Immigration?

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