Ep. 1841 - Dems Now Arguing JD Vance Is ＊Worse＊ Than Hitler
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
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Summary
In this episode, we take a look at the "Hitler Paradox" and how the media and the Democratic Party rehabilitated Hitler, and then rehabilitated Donald Trump, and now they want to make him even worse than Hitler.
Transcript
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That's what the Democrats and the media have told us for 10 years.
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It's not possible to be worse than Hitler, and Donald Trump could not possibly be more bad.
00:00:49.980
That's what they told us even after an assassin almost killed Trump twice.
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Except now, as the Democrats look ahead to 2028, many of them, prominent Democrats, are turning their sights on J.D. Vance.
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And that is why they are falling into what I call the Hitler paradox.
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Democrats, bereft of good issues to argue on, they're on the losing side of basically every major issue,
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they need to resort to the most hyperbolic rhetoric possible to scare people out of voting for the more attractive candidate.
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But when the next Republican hits the scene, J.D. Vance, when Hitler's time is through, they have to argue that the next guy is even worse.
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But it is not possible in the imagination to be worse than Hitler.
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If there were someone worse than Hitler, then Trump would cease to be the worst person in the world,
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thereby making it less bad to be worse than Trump, thereby making Vance look better.
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If they say he's worse, they make him look better.
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If Democrats argue that Vance is better than Trump, then the Democrats make Vance look better than he does today.
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But by arguing that Vance is worse than Trump, the Democrats inadvertently rehabilitate the images of Trump and J.D. Vance and weirdly also Hitler.
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I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:02:44.120
You know, I'm still on the road. I'm in central Germany, or central Europe, I should say, traveling around Germany, other places.
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And as you can tell, I've taken on some of the local Sprezzatura.
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I have a friend here who said I didn't look sufficiently posh and European.
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So anyway, I think the tie is a little bit loud, but people seem to like it.
00:03:02.700
So I'm still on the road. I'll be back next week. I'm looking forward to it.
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In the meantime, I have a friend stopping by today to give us a look into a very, very hot political seat.
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This guy, a little bit of a blast from the past with maybe a little look into the Republican future.
00:03:17.480
Maybe we'll talk about some Eyes Wide Shut parties. I don't know.
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Because Jen Psaki, this is not just some random Democrat.
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This was the spokesperson for Joe Biden and the only competent one that he had.
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This is the voice of the White House under the most recent Democrat president
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I think the little Manchurian candidate, J.D. Vance,
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I always wonder what's going on in the mind of his wife.
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And that he's willing to do anything to get there.
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And that your whole iteration you just outlined.
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And he's young and ambitious and agile in the sense that he is a chameleon
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who makes himself into whatever he thinks the audience wants to hear from him.
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Now, what's also true, though, is J.D. Vance is not.
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But I don't know that he can take the whole movement with him.
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So yeah, he's got to, I mean, everything going on right now,
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and I think we have to be very clear-eyed about this,
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is about trying to manipulate the public around elections.
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Some of you sweet little darlings out there who do not remember the Bush administration.
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It's hard to imagine now because now Bush hangs out with Michelle Obama.
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And Bush is looked to as that halcyon golden era when lovable Republicans who are normal,
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who are good, when you go, I could talk to this Republican.
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And George H.W. Bush wasn't around all that later.
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And so this time around, some people really believed that Trump was Hitler.
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And it's not even to say you have to like Trump.
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But it is pathetic that people would still fall for that.
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It's the most important election of our lifetime.
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This was not just some op-eds calling Trump Hitler.
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They said that he posed an existential threat to democracy.
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This was the we're super duper serious this time.
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And already you're getting the former White House spokesman saying, yeah, but J.D. is worse.
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If J.D. is worse, then you lied to us about Trump.
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In as much as not even Hitler is really Hitler, you know, in as much as in the popular conception,
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Hitler is the actual physical instantiation, the incarnation of absolute evil, which Christians
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You know, we believe that God is the incarnation of good and then all evil is a privation of
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It means if they actually go out and say Vance is worse than Trump, they're saying we lied
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Now, speaking of Nazis, really disturbing video coming out of a campus that a TPUSA chapter
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Hey Nazis, can you set up somewhere where I can avoid you easily?
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If you haven't been paying attention the last month, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
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The Democrats, the liberals, the left broadly, minimized and excused and even celebrated the
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And they make light of the murder or they celebrate the murder.
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We could either bury our heads in the sand and say, we just need to free marketplace of
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We're just going to exchange ideas graciously even harder.
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And I think most reasonable Republicans and conservatives and fair-minded independents know
00:10:37.260
So what needs to happen here is people need to identify this young woman.
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They need to confirm who she is through the relevant authorities.
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If this is a state-run school, ideally in a red state, that might be a little bit easier
00:11:01.420
to do that, to put some pressure from the right-minded legislators and governors.
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She needs to be prevented from gaining employment in most places.
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If she studies anything, she cannot be hired to be a nurse or a teacher or this or that
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If she doesn't want to do it, if it's not sincere, then she needs to repent like a three-year-old
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toddler who is having a temper tantrum, who beat up his brother, who has to say sorry
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And if daddy makes him say it enough, maybe he'll start to really believe it.
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But she needs to lose a lot of her status and her access in society.
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And it needs to be done all the right way and all through the relevant authorities.
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And if she wants to come back into society, she needs to repent and she needs to grovel.
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That girl has no business at a university whatsoever.
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Universities are for civilized people to be perfected in their education.
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And as far as I'm concerned, if I were running a company, if I were running a public institution, I would not want her anywhere near it.
00:12:33.200
They need to have a proper fear of transgressing the right taboos and limits in society.
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And then maybe eventually they'll sincerely change their minds.
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But I don't care if it's sincere in the first part.
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And as far as I'm concerned, the consequences will continue until the behavior improves.
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Now, speaking of viral videos of bad behavior, people are crashing out because they're about to lose their EBT cards.
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They're going to lose EBT cards if the government continues to be shut down.
00:13:05.800
The government shutdown, which is not being blamed on the Republicans for the first time ever in my lifetime.
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The Republicans have no real ability to stop it.
00:14:30.260
The Republicans offered a continuing resolution to keep funding the government.
00:14:33.620
According to the Biden budget, according to prior spending levels, the things that the Democrats had already previously voted for,
00:14:39.340
Democrats are saying, no, we want all sorts of other stuff like funding health care for illegals and other things.
00:14:44.460
And the Republicans said, we're not, it's crazy, we're not doing that.
00:14:47.440
The people gave us the White House and the House and the Congress, or sorry, the Senate, and we already, because of the presidential elections, had the Supreme Court.
00:14:56.700
We're not giving into your ridiculous demands when you have no political mojo.
00:15:02.580
And then you guys are going to get blamed for it.
00:15:06.820
I said, I don't think the Republicans are going to get blamed.
00:15:08.840
I know that's always happened in the past, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say, the situation is different now.
00:15:13.660
And you know how much I hate to say I told you so, I was totally right.
00:15:17.160
So now we're starting finally to see some real concrete consequences from the shutdown.
00:15:24.300
One of which is SNAP benefits, EBT, food stamps, might be put on delay.
00:15:30.140
Here's one, just a little taste of the commentary going around TikTok.
00:15:34.860
I say if they don't give food stamps next month, we all just say it and rob the grocery store and tell them to make me a groom.
00:15:48.540
I think some of them are probably real and might actually be threats because people do rob stores a fair bit, especially in the cities, especially people who don't vote for Donald Trump, let's say.
00:16:00.140
And so there's this kind of lawlessness that's tolerated by Democrat mayors and governors.
00:16:04.680
And the way the libs always justify it is they say, well, the reason that the people are robbing the stores is because they lack the material resources that they need.
00:16:18.060
They need to go steal a loaf of bread to feed their families, which could be licit.
00:16:22.800
If you need a loaf of bread to feed your families, it could be licit to steal that loaf of bread.
00:16:32.900
It would not be licit to go rob cosmetic products from CVS.
00:16:37.600
It would not be licit to go rob a liquor store.
00:16:40.760
And so I'm a little bit skeptical of the whole point that these people are robbing because they just, they can't feed their families.
00:16:50.100
Frankly, I'm not so sure they have intact families.
00:16:57.260
But it's very important, not just because we're making fun of people.
00:17:00.600
And you actually don't want to really make light of EBT and food stamps and things.
00:17:03.860
Because some people really do rely on those things, and I know the libertarians might get angry at me for saying this,
00:17:08.900
but I think it is important to have a social safety net in a society ideally governed in a manner of subsidiarity
00:17:14.320
that does not crowd out the church, that does not have accidental secondhand effects.
00:17:17.820
But in principle, yes, a society should look after the poor.
00:17:21.840
The poor will always be with you, and you need to care for them.
00:17:24.680
You don't want to accidentally create people in bad behaviors that make them more poor over time.
00:17:37.440
But people don't rob the store because they lack money.
00:17:41.820
There are very, very virtuous, very, very poor people.
00:17:45.620
And there are very, very vicious, very, very rich people.
00:17:49.080
And the connection between virtue and material wealth is far from direct.
00:17:58.280
Here's a good example of how I know this is the case.
00:18:03.500
Our birth rate continues to plummet, and it's just a disaster.
00:18:06.620
We haven't had an above replacement birth rate in 50 years or so, and there's no end in sight to the problem.
00:18:12.900
Well, some people say the reason that the birth rate has plummeted is because people don't have enough money anymore.
00:18:19.900
If only we had a policy that would give people more money, then we could have more children.
00:18:25.680
But the contrary example to that is we live in the richest society ever in the history of the world.
00:18:36.380
Your person that you pluck off the street at random is richer today in America than anyone has ever been ever for all of human history.
00:18:50.280
Look, I wish that there were just like some policy that we could institute that would dramatically tick up the birth rate.
00:18:56.380
There's some evidence that if you provide certain subsidies and tax breaks that maybe people will have marginally more children.
00:19:03.400
Maybe, kind of, if you like completely flood the zone.
00:19:08.580
You know what does get people to have more kids?
00:19:14.420
Christianity, orthodox forms of Christianity, more traditional forms of Protestantism, Catholicism practiced in a serious way, Orthodox Judaism, Mormonism.
00:19:25.920
These traditions that take their doctrine seriously and that are open to life.
00:19:32.400
That makes you have kids, regardless of how much money you have.
00:19:34.700
These guys, I bet, regardless of whether they get their EBT money, I don't think that will affect whether or not they rob the store.
00:19:45.360
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So the guy, Luigi, the left-wing, one of the left-wing terrorists, as we have to specify now, but one of the recent left-wing terrorists who murdered the UnitedHealthcare CEO, apparently, allegedly, reportedly, because he had this kind of ideological axe to grind about wealth inequality or the health care system or whatever, murdered this poor guy, this father and this husband.
00:21:14.340
And now it's coming out that Luigi, according to a report by the New York Post, was beaten up by seven ladyboys in Thailand shortly before he allegedly committed this murder.
00:21:27.620
For those of you who are wondering what a ladyboy is, I remember I heard about this because a buddy of mine went to visit Thailand.
00:21:35.340
I don't know, we were in our early 20s or something.
00:21:37.320
And he told me, yeah, I didn't go, but he came back and he said, yeah, the ladyboys are crazy, man.
00:21:45.420
He said, oh, they're like boys who dress up like girls and in some cases get the surgery, you know, the transgender surgery and they're hookers.
00:22:00.200
I don't, I guess, I guess now, even though American liberals are encouraging this, you know, in elementary schools and stuff, you don't really see that as a widespread phenomenon.
00:22:13.060
It would appear from the evidence that those who are thirsting over Luigi, they're not his type.
00:22:21.020
In any case, what's the actual practical relevance of this tabloid news story?
00:22:25.220
The practical relevance, especially for you, is a reminder that sexual sins are really, really bad.
00:22:35.780
You know, I sometimes say it's always the ones you most expect.
00:22:37.980
You look at the disproportionate violence that appears to come from the transgender identifying community.
00:22:45.360
You notice that Ed Gein, this trans serial killer, was the inspiration for some of the most prominent horror movies ever.
00:22:52.160
Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and a number of others.
00:22:55.620
There is a rejoinder to this from especially more liberal Christians.
00:23:00.840
And they'll say, we just want you to know that sexual sins are not the worst sins.
00:23:06.160
You guys need to stop focusing on sexual sins so much.
00:23:09.600
You're the image of the traditional Catholic who's just focused on, you know, all manner of sexual sins.
00:23:18.380
My main man, Dante, you know, greatest poet ever, right, describes the divine comedy and hell.
00:23:25.340
And he doesn't put the sexual sinners in the lowest pits of hell.
00:23:36.160
But sexual sins probably are the ones you should be most concerned about.
00:23:43.500
But there is a reason that people have focused on them.
00:23:46.200
Because I think they're the most pervasive sins.
00:23:48.720
I believe there have been some kind of mystical apparitions in which Our Lady has observed that the sexual sins are the ones that ensnare this huge number of people into hell.
00:24:05.940
You can fall into pride and wrath and gluttony.
00:24:20.740
It just happens to be the case that when people fall into, like, weird sexual sin, a lot of other sins tend to follow.
00:24:29.280
Because you remember, oh, was it a week or so ago?
00:24:31.120
There was that study that came out of the UK that said that non-binary identity is in freefall among young people.
00:24:38.820
And some had concluded from that that trans identity was also in freefall among young people.
00:24:44.960
But it was unclear, actually, from that study whether or not that was true.
00:24:48.440
People could make that inference, but it wasn't really backed up by the numbers.
00:24:54.880
The cooperative election study shows that trans identity is in freefall among young people.
00:25:04.140
2021, you see the non-binary identity there and the transgender identity.
00:25:17.920
This is post, you know, year two of the year of R. Floyd.
00:25:21.600
This is reaching peak wokeness, which is around 2022, 2023.
00:25:28.120
In 2023, non-binary ticks up a little bit, but it was still trailing trans identity in 2022.
00:25:35.840
But trans starts to go down, down, down, down, down.
00:25:40.720
Which means that, you know how much I hate to say I told you so, but I went on the Jubilee show.
00:25:46.860
I said, I think this identity is a social contagion.
00:25:53.300
This was supposed to be an inborn, immutable characteristic.
00:25:56.260
That's what we were told about the LGBTQ, LMNOP.
00:26:01.280
We were told it was all immutable characteristics.
00:26:05.660
If you ever try to change it, it's conversion therapy.
00:26:12.980
Is it because the trans-identifying young people are being forced back into the closet?
00:26:21.440
You're talking about it's in our civil rights laws now.
00:26:25.080
This is socially acceptable just about as it's ever been in all of history.
00:26:31.500
So you have to then turn from your one thesis, which was the innate, unchangeable, that thesis,
00:26:39.620
born this way thesis, to maybe human beings are mimetic creatures.
00:26:43.320
And we actually emulate each other's behaviors and even desires.
00:26:48.440
And maybe, if that's the case, maybe we can actually do things to discourage those kinds
00:26:57.980
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My favorite comment yesterday is from YouTube Kathy, who says, imagine believing that words
00:28:14.040
such as man can never become a woman is violence, but then actively promoting to shoot people
00:28:20.220
Yeah, I can imagine that because for the left, they look at us and they say that our speech
00:28:29.000
But then they look at themselves and they say their violence is speech.
00:28:33.680
Okay, very excited right now to bring on my friend, former congressman, maybe future
00:28:38.680
congressman, going to give us a look at the midterms, Madison Cawthorn.
00:28:42.920
The midterms will be upon us before we know it.
00:28:46.000
A lot of the political calculations are out the window now.
00:28:48.520
Typically, the party in the White House loses the midterm elections, but the Democrats are
00:28:52.160
openly embracing political violence and they've lost the popular vote for the first time in
00:28:59.720
A lot of Republicans getting into the fray, which means that the Republican candidates
00:29:05.060
at least think there's a good chance we do well in the midterms.
00:29:07.660
One of those candidates, don't call it a comeback, is Madison Cawthorn, who was the youngest member
00:29:16.200
He previously served in North Carolina's 11th district, if I'm not mistaken.
00:29:20.340
And now he is looking to replace Byron Donalds in his seat in Florida when Byron runs for governor
00:29:37.100
I was going to say, not only are you a great patriot, but also you have a great, great taste
00:29:43.680
So Madison, your race in particular is very, very interesting.
00:29:47.320
You got some of the most attention of anyone in your class.
00:29:50.500
Obviously, you know, very talented politician to manage to get yourself elected as the youngest
00:29:58.360
A lot of people in Washington really didn't like you very much.
00:30:08.060
Some people are going to say it's weird to switch states.
00:30:10.420
I actually don't really think it's all that weird because in the Federalist Papers, Alexander
00:30:15.020
Hamilton and our other framers envisioned that we'd have a more national kind of country
00:30:19.980
And really, what matters more today, just as a fact of politics, is party allegiance rather
00:30:25.080
than, you know, this district or that district.
00:30:31.300
What challenges do you think you're going to face in the race?
00:30:35.280
Well, you know, I think if I was someone that just kind of parachuted in right at the
00:30:38.400
last minute when I realized that Byron was going to run for governor, I'd be facing
00:30:42.400
But, you know, I've lived in the district for four years.
00:30:46.120
I know a lot of great connections all around Southwest Florida.
00:30:51.340
You know, I remember right when I moved back down there, I was hit by Hurricane Ian about
00:30:57.480
And so I always tell everyone I got baptized as a Floridian, you know, just getting to
00:31:00.740
see how all the community came together, start helping one another.
00:31:09.380
So then the question that's going to be on a lot of voters' minds, I'm sure, is, all
00:31:12.320
right, well, you lost last time and you're going to run again this time.
00:31:18.560
You know, did you take any lessons away from it?
00:31:21.960
Have you changed your views or your behavior in some way?
00:31:25.400
What's the difference between Madison 1.0 and Madison 2.0?
00:31:29.840
Well, Michael, I'll tell you, I think the biggest thing, and I hesitate to ever call myself wise,
00:31:34.860
but I will tell you that I've gained a lot of shrewdness.
00:31:39.900
And, you know, when you're 24 years old, I hold almost all the exact same beliefs and
00:31:43.520
convictions that I held when I was first elected.
00:31:46.240
But now I've gotten more of maturity and more of a sense of how to fight those battles rather
00:31:50.800
than just going in like a bull in a china shop.
00:31:52.960
It's more so, you know, how can we actually move the needle in essence to be able to help
00:31:56.800
the American people? You know, we are facing a lot of damaging situations in our country right
00:32:00.980
now. And if we start electing people who are just going to go there and get led around like
00:32:04.240
puppies by the leadership on both sides of the aisle, then we're going to face exactly the same
00:32:08.880
status quo we faced for the last six decades. And that's not something that we can afford right
00:32:12.600
now, especially with the temperature that's going on inside of our country. We need people who are
00:32:15.860
going to go there, who are going to have the backbone to stand up fiercely, but also have the
00:32:19.320
shrewdness to be able to actually accomplish their objectives.
00:32:21.900
Yeah, I know. I think that's an important point on shrewdness because I can't help but notice
00:32:25.440
a lot of the personal attacks on you came out after you called out some bad behavior in Washington,
00:32:31.420
D.C. You said a lot of people in our government, they do kind of weird, freaky stuff that's sometimes
00:32:37.060
illegal and generally disreputable. And then I noticed all these personal attacks started coming
00:32:42.160
out on you. I wonder if there's a connection between those two things. So, okay, let's look into
00:32:46.860
this race. Obviously, it's a different year than the last time you were in Congress. Different issues
00:32:52.280
are rising to the fore. A different calculation. What are the Republicans in the midterms going to
00:32:58.960
be running on? You know, you talked to Republicans across the country in 2024. They were running on the
00:33:03.900
kitchen table issues, but transgenderism, transing the kids was a big issue, you know, protecting girl
00:33:09.600
sports or whatever. That was just a big issue that viscerally hit people. What are the issues you're
00:33:14.960
running on now? You know, I'll tell you, I think that now that we have President Trump in the White
00:33:20.680
House in Washington, D.C., I think we're seeing a lot of those national issues start being handled in
00:33:24.920
a timely manner, which I'm very thankful of. But right now, I think just as a whole, as the
00:33:29.760
conservative movement, we need to take a step back and say, why are the policies that our country
00:33:34.120
is pushing forward not helping the next generation? Why can people that are around my age not be able to
00:33:39.180
afford a home? Why is insurance so out of control? Why is our infrastructure so outdated and has not been
00:33:44.440
actually tackled in a way that makes sense for everyday Americans? And so right now, I'm thinking
00:33:48.900
about ways to diversify the economy in southwest Florida. I'm thinking about ways to make sure that
00:33:52.860
people can get into the home ownership game. And also because it's not just because owning a home
00:33:57.540
is cool and it's a great investment. It's more so that owning a home is something that is paramount to
00:34:02.720
the American idea. It's something that is so crucial for people to be able to own private property
00:34:08.720
rights. Because in this country, you know, your house is your castle. You are the royalty in this
00:34:13.660
nation. You are supposed to lead. You look at the first three words of the preamble of the
00:34:16.500
constitution. You know, it's we the people. We the people are the ones who are supposed to be
00:34:19.680
steering the ship. And I think there's been such a movement by the left for the last several decades
00:34:23.540
to try and encourage people to have children later and later, to abort their children so they don't
00:34:27.700
have to have them, and not to own homes, to be a renter society. And I think that gives a much
00:34:32.220
long, a much more long-term political game plan. Because if you don't actually own the dirt that
00:34:37.200
you're living on, you don't care about the status of the nation. If you don't have any vested interest in
00:34:41.160
the next generation, you don't care about, you know, the financial outcome of the country in
00:34:44.720
the next 30 years. And then you're just going to, of course, say, vote. Give me me, me, me, me,
00:34:48.360
whatever I can take from others is going to be better in the long term, because I don't actually
00:34:52.300
care about what happens in the future. And so I think we need to start attacking that. And even if
00:34:55.800
we have to go outside of the normal conservative doctrine to be able to make homeownership affordable
00:35:00.820
for people, I think that is the way we should be doing things. And what do you mean by that?
00:35:04.500
Because this is really interesting to me. When I was growing up, there were three bullet points on
00:35:09.160
the back of a napkin on conservative economic policy. And if you ever questioned any of them,
00:35:13.640
you know, any of the great doctors of the Church of Libertarianism, you know,
00:35:17.300
St. Milton Friedman or something, on anything, you were cast into the outer darkness.
00:35:22.520
In recent years, there's been, I think, a kind of reduction in the influence of that hardcore
00:35:28.740
laissez-faire economic mindset. And not an abandonment of that exactly, but just a recognition
00:35:35.300
that we don't want to put the cart before the horse. You know, we're not a political community
00:35:38.360
serving an economic market, but rather we have economic markets to serve our political
00:35:44.140
community. So what kind of policies are you talking about here to make homeownership more
00:35:50.280
So, you know, I think what people consider is what we do want with, like, laissez-faire economic
00:35:55.040
policy is, I think, actually the way to go, especially if we're talking about overseas trade
00:35:59.100
and here in America. But unfortunately, for the last four to five decades, we have not been
00:36:03.460
having that. We've been having things that are just completely attacked and the federal
00:36:08.160
government has become so far involved that we really don't have any free markets anymore.
00:36:12.660
You look at the cost of insurance in the state of Florida. There is literal regulations all
00:36:17.060
across this country that make insurance prices, whether it's health care or home insurance,
00:36:20.720
go through the roof. And it's because they stifle the ability for people to have competition.
00:36:24.840
I'm all for a free market with actual free competition. But when you have overseas multinational
00:36:29.840
conglomerates, buying up single family homes, obviously we're pointing the finger mainly
00:36:33.620
at Blackstone and Blackrock here. Obviously, that's going to make the ability for a single
00:36:38.880
mother with three kids who lost her husband in a forever war that we shouldn't have been
00:36:42.960
fighting in the first place, ability to be able to buy a home going to be impossible.
00:36:46.880
When those children deserve to be raised, you know, an American cul-de-sac where they get
00:36:50.540
to go to prom, they go on vacation a couple of times a year, they get to have a great life.
00:36:54.560
And so anything that we can do to encourage more competition in the marketplace, to bring prices
00:36:58.620
down for everyday Americans, to make it so that we don't have such runaway inflation,
00:37:02.400
whether that means going back to the gold standard or whether that means putting very,
00:37:06.180
very strict dampeners on the amount of economic easing that the Federal Reserve is allowed to do.
00:37:11.020
All of those things will net positives for the American people having more buying power with
00:37:15.100
their dollars and for being able to be into the housing market.
00:37:19.440
Okay. Now, before I let you go, it's a red district you're looking at. So if you, you know,
00:37:24.260
if you get the nomination, you're good. That's great. You don't need to worry about that.
00:37:27.400
The makeup of the Congress generally a little less clear where there are swing districts or
00:37:32.720
gettable districts, maybe for the Dems and for the Republicans. So if past is precedent,
00:37:38.260
Republicans are going to face a tough year because it's the first midterm after the big
00:37:41.920
presidential election. We are supposed to lose the house and we've got a razor thin majority as it
00:37:47.140
stands. So all of history, all things being equal says we should lose the house. Republicans should
00:37:52.680
lose seats. But all things are not equal. We're in a very, very strange moment. Republicans have a
00:37:57.960
unified government right now. The Democrats are celebrating, you know, murdering Republicans
00:38:01.980
and, you know, open borders and rioting in the streets. And they're just on the wrong side of
00:38:08.040
like every single 80-20 issue almost. So I'm open to the possibility that things shift. But if you
00:38:14.860
had to be a brutal, cold-blooded political analyst right now, put your race aside,
00:38:21.780
do the Republicans gain seats or lose seats in the midterms?
00:38:25.600
I think we gain seats. You know, the left has been playing without rules for so long in our economic,
00:38:30.520
our political process, whether you look at the way that they're gerrymandering districts, the way
00:38:34.580
they're trying to subvert people's actual voice to be able to select their own representatives.
00:38:38.540
That's no longer the game that's being played. You know, for so long, for the last, you know,
00:38:41.800
again, I know I've said this probably three times now, for the last six decades, Republicans' entire
00:38:46.040
dogma and mantra was, hey, don't rock the boat too much. We don't want to rock the boat. We don't
00:38:50.020
want to upset the apple cart. My entire mantra is that the boat is sinking. We need to fight right
00:38:54.500
now like we're about to lose the republic because we absolutely are. And so I completely applaud what
00:38:59.660
the GOP is doing, trying to redraw districts all around the country to make it more competitive
00:39:04.020
for Republicans to be able to hold the majority, because this is what the Democrats have been doing
00:39:07.280
for so long. And you ask yourself, well, that doesn't sound fair. Is that really right?
00:39:10.980
These people have absolutely no values. Their only value is the gaining of power. And once they gain
00:39:16.960
power, they're willing to use force. We saw this all through 2020 and the COVID, watching how they
00:39:22.020
used force to perpetuate and make sure that people abided by whatever they were saying their values
00:39:27.560
were at the time. But if you look, I mean, if you ask yourself, who is legitimately the leader of the
00:39:32.020
Democratic Party? Is it AOC? Is it Chuck Schumer? They're both marching on this ridiculous death cult,
00:39:37.760
trying to make sure that we can have a shutdown government while the Republicans are
00:39:40.960
bringing world peace, sowing economic change that's going to change the face of America
00:39:45.700
for decades to come. We are the party with a plan. We are the party who is a big tent party.
00:39:50.740
We don't say that, hey, you have to be completely ideologically aligned with us or else you have
00:39:54.820
no place in this party. No, we welcome people from different ideological backgrounds. I mean,
00:39:58.800
the thing that I love about the right is we can have open debate without having to shoot somebody,
00:40:03.100
or we can have open debate without saying, no, you're actually not a Democrat. You have to go to the
00:40:06.180
other side. And I hesitate to paint with a broad brush saying Democrats are all evil. I think
00:40:11.320
people that were JFK Democrats in the mid-90s who are now starting to, they're kind of out of touch
00:40:16.600
with what's going on in America today. I view them very differently than what's going on with leftists
00:40:21.160
in this country. The leftists in this country hate everything that America stands for. They hate the
00:40:25.180
direction our country's going in. And they will do anything so long as it gets Trump, even if it hurts
00:40:30.080
Americans. Yeah, well, I think you're right. I mean, those JFK Democrats, I don't know.
00:40:34.920
I think the last one of them, you know, went away long ago. The battle lines are pretty clear. And
00:40:40.260
I'm sympathetic to your point. You say, who's the leader of the Democrat party? Because I remember
00:40:44.580
the Democrats tried to pull this thing 10, 15 years ago. They said, Rush Limbaugh is the de facto
00:40:49.500
leader of the Republican party. And that, look, Rush was awesome. Would that he was the leader of the
00:40:54.860
Republican party. But, you know, there was a kind of a gap between the base and the GOP at that point.
00:40:59.060
And I thought it was a disingenuous kind of attack. Today, though, if we say AOC is the leader of the
00:41:06.280
Democrat party, I would just ask the Democrats, well, give me an alternative. Who do you think
00:41:11.620
is the leader of the party? I'm saying AOC sincerely, but do you have an alternative?
00:41:16.220
Gavin Newsom? Like, not really. Maybe that's probably just as bad. Schumer? I don't think anyone
00:41:21.240
really thinks it's Schumer, kind of. And that's also no. So I don't know. I like, give me,
00:41:24.840
give me the answer. But I agree. The leadership all the way on down among the Democrats right now
00:41:30.680
is just deeply unpopular. They picked those positions. They made themselves captive to their
00:41:35.400
base. And they might upend precedent and give Republican seats in the midterms. Okay. Madison,
00:41:40.160
where can people go to check out more of your campaign? You can go to my website at
00:41:44.540
madisoncawthorne.com or follow me on any social media at Madison Cawthorne. You know, Michael,
00:41:49.340
I got to say, I'm such a big fan of your show, everything that you guys do. Thank you so much for all
00:41:53.580
the cigars that you and I have gotten to smoke over the time. So you're just a big hero in the
00:41:56.620
conservative movement. And I really appreciate everything you do. Well, I appreciate, as I
00:42:00.020
told you all, it's very kind of you to say, Madison. And I said, you can judge a lot about a man by his
00:42:05.420
taste in cigars. You know, it's a real symbol of wisdom and judgment. And Michael, I'll go even
00:42:11.220
further. I think that American smoking cigars can actually save our Republic. And I am not being
00:42:16.520
facetious when I say this, because what's the one thing that's so unique about a cigar is it locks you
00:42:21.500
into a 20 to 30 minute conversation? Yes. And I think almost every American, regardless of what
00:42:26.320
political side you walk on, I think we all have about 10 to 15 minutes of pre-recorded messaging
00:42:31.460
that's just been ingrained into our minds by whatever media we consume. But once people have
00:42:36.360
to start doing actual critical thinking, you get to realize that most people just want what's best
00:42:41.360
for the country. And they get all bought in, especially on the left, they get bought into these
00:42:44.880
emotional pleas that make them want to hate our country and hate the way that our society and hate
00:42:49.260
our lineage. But in reality, America is the greatest uplifter of Americans in all in all
00:42:54.180
of history. If people have an actual conversation where they're not relying on these hard line
00:42:58.140
talking points that's been told by them by some talking head on CNN, then genuinely they'll
00:43:01.900
realize, well, yeah, I do want more of my money in my pocket. And you're right. I don't want to send
00:43:05.900
money overseas for no pointless reason. And you're right. I don't want our sons and daughters to go
00:43:09.780
die overseas. And that is the way I think we're going to save a country. It's by getting more cigars
00:43:13.720
in more people's hands. I couldn't possibly agree more. They're also cigars are very lowercase
00:43:18.580
Democratic. You know, they're very, they're a social equalizer. You get blue collar, white
00:43:23.840
collar, all sorts of backgrounds. People come together. Good conversation. Very wise statement.
00:43:29.360
Okay. So go to Madison's website. Madison, excellent to see you as always.
00:43:33.720
Great to see you, Michael. Have a great one, brother.
00:43:35.740
Good to see all of you. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show. See you next time.
00:43:48.580
Matt, say something that'll get us canceled. If you really want me to.
00:43:53.840
Friendly fire is back. Should we ever do this again? No. No safe zones. Do not unify around
00:44:00.300
your crazies. I don't want your olive branch. Screw you. It's absolutely despicable. Nothing
00:44:04.860
off limits. You will get to sound off on whether or not black people are disabled as the Supreme
00:44:11.160
Court reliable. Huge announcements. Brand new, massive, incredible series. The Pendragon cycle.
00:44:18.480
Ambitious and big and beautiful. And this is the thing that sets us apart. More revelations on the
00:44:25.300
way. I just want to make one more point here and then you can say whatever you want. I'm not going
00:44:27.840
to play that game with you. What makes you a conservative? No, I don't think that's right.
00:44:31.260
Well, I mean, hold on. I just want to say I agree with that. I totally disagree with it. I have to say
00:44:36.300
that Friendly Fire, October 29th, 7 p.m. Eastern. The Friendly Fire should stop across the board.
00:44:42.940
You mean the show. Not just that you mean the show.