“Let's Work With TPUSA” - Heritage Foundation CEO REVEALS Charlie Kirk Alliance To Reach Gen Z
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Summary
In this episode, I sit down with Heritage Foundation President and CEO, Charlie Friedenfeld, to talk about his thoughts on the current state of the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL. We talk about the importance of having a balanced approach to government, and how important it is to have a balanced government.
Transcript
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in the NBA when they do the collective bargaining agreement. I don't know if you're a sports guy or
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not. I'm a huge sports fan. Okay, who do you like? Who are your teams? Well, Texas Longhorns,
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anything they play. Okay, good. Well, you guys got a good quarterback. My son wants to meet him. He's
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a great guy. Big fan of his. Yeah, that's what I hear from everybody. But so look at different
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teams, different sports, and think about it from the standpoint of which teams would you buy?
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I wouldn't touch the NBA today. I just don't trust what they're doing. But in sports, each sport is
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different. You got owner, fan, player, right? NBA became two-player friendly. When it became
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two-player friendly, the players owned it. All-Star game sucks. They've lost the dunk contest. People
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don't even watch. It's the first time I didn't watch an All-Star game. It's horrible. The regular
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season games suck. There is no defense. You know, they're averaging 120 points a game, which
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we're accustomed to 89 points, 95 points a game back in the 90s. You sound like a Knicks fan. Yeah,
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well, you know, Bows, Cavs, you know, although I'm a diehard Laker fan up until LeBron showed
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up. I was trying to trigger you. I'm a Celtics fan. Are you really? Okay, that's good. So
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Lakers-Knicks, I was there the last time we beat you guys in Game 7. Oh, come on now.
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Kobe, I was at the game. I took my passer, Dudley Rutherford. We had a great game. What
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a game. What a great game, yes. For us, you guys had a hard time that day, but you now have
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more than we do. We have one more chip than we do now. I was just growing to like you. Come
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on now. But when you think about these things, you know, and you watch how NFL does it, which
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NFL protects the small markets and you get a superstar, he's going to stay with you for 15,
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20 years. You're not going to lose him. You go to the NBA, God forbid you bitch and moan,
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trade him or else, you know, I'm going to go on social media. I think NBA, NFL has it figured out.
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I think MLB is doing okay, although they're allowing Dodgers to get a little bit too powerful.
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The bigger guys. To you, who is your number one? Okay. So you got player, owners, fan. Who
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is the number one customer to Heritage? The American people. The people are the number
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one. Donors or the people? No, the people. Now, some of the, but I say people, I really
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mean everyday Americans. People who are small business owners, blue collar workers, grandmas,
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whoever they are. Now, of course, several hundred thousand of them will also be
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donors to us, you know, for the most part, small donors, and we very much treasure them.
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So in no way am I being dismissive or ungrateful, obviously, but the reason Heritage has been so
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successful, the reason people call us, other people say this about us, we try not to get engaged in this,
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call us the most influential conservative think tank in the world is because we put the American
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people first. And so I'll tell you a story that underscores this. A few years ago,
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four years ago now, I was asked to come into a meeting of Republican senators to try to, by the
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conservative senators in the Republican conference, stop the end of your omnibus, which is just fancy
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Washington speak for spending more money that we don't have. And I went in and I said, I'm not here
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on behalf of my colleagues who are budget scholars, although I rely on their work. I'm not here on
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behalf of our board, although I'm grateful for their service. And I'm definitely not here on behalf of,
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you know, my importance, whatever that may be or not be. I'm here on behalf of Heritage members.
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And I have to speak on their behalf and say, you have to stop spending this money.
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That mindset that has allowed us to be influential because we then pair that with what I think is the
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policy brilliance of our colleagues. And then some, in some cases, policymakers who are willing to become
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What is the average age? That's what I'm searching, Brian.
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And what is the average age of a donor at Heritage right now?
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Is that pretty accurate with TPUSA as well or no?
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Probably not. I've talked to Charlie about that, although I forget what theirs is. And
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part of that is Heritage is one of the two or three largest membership-driven organizations.
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And because a lot of that is through snail mail, that donor base will skew older.
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Yeah, I'm curious. And the reason why I'm asking this question is the youth. So what are you doing
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to win over the youth? Because if you look at what's going on right now, so even with the topic of
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social media that we started off with, right, you'll see these guys going viral. And, you know,
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the Gaza situation, Palestine and Israel and genocide, we've all seen these debates on
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Piers Morgan. You've been on a couple of the debates, right, yourself. So how are you,
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what is your plan or Heritage's plan on hear them out, maybe speak to them, maybe see why they see
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the way they say the things they say? What is Heritage's plan with the youth?
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Two big things. And I appreciate the question, because I'm still a teacher at heart. And so
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while, you know, I'm probably not the best as a Gen Xer to be the messenger, I have a great passion
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for my colleagues who are engaged in that. But two big things. On the one hand, be us. Be authentic.
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What do we offer the conservative movement? What do we offer the United States of America? I think the
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best policies that are out there. And a lot of those policies have to do with issues that young
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Americans care deeply about, like affordability, like a much more restrained national security
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posture. But the second thing is, we've had to learn to adapt to the environment we're in. And so
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we have invested a lot in not just social media, but what I would say is to be present. And so even
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in my own speaking engagements, engagement with organizations around the country, we have a
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preference for those organizations that are working to reach the younger electorate. Why?
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Because we've pretty much figured out how to talk to people who are my age and older. And not that
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we'll always take that for granted, right? But we know how to do that. Let's go work with Turning
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Point. This is why Charlie and I became good friends. It's why we continue to collaborate with
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How do you guys collaborate? How does Heritage and the...
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A couple of ways. It'll sound a little simplistic, but it does speak to a larger trend. We try to do
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co-branded events. And so that we're trying to get our base and their base at the same event,
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although they're good at both of those. And the second thing is, I mentioned earlier in our
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conversation, this issues advocacy part of Heritage called Heritage Action. It's a 501c4. It can do more
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generally defined political things. We do some collaboration with Turning Point Action on some
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of those issue campaigns. And it's allowed us to take some of the tactics that they have used and
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perfected with younger Americans and integrate that into our own work.
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Who is the biggest spokesperson for Heritage that's in their 20s?
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Well, this... Emma Waters, which might be early 30s, but Emma Waters is in that category. And what's
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wonderful about Emma is that she's become, I think, the leading scholar on family policy,
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on right-minded ways, including policy and culture, to witness to family life, and the role that
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