do the russians trust their government
more than they trust america
does america trust our government more
than we trust uh uh you know the enemy
the people
where i'm going with this is like you
said when america was first founded it
was about the federalism with the lower
case f well you said a small f right
okay which means we made the decisions
for our lives and to each a zone go find
a way to make money we're not going to
get in your way we didn't really have
that much taxes back then it was you
know survival of the fittest go be
industrious create an economy create a
small business build something for your
family here's some land xyz today
the government is massive
so today
you know i can speak for myself and some
of the friends that i speak to it seems
like some people are more paranoid
and who they don't trust sometimes today
is the u.s government with their
decision-making process so there's an
element of paranoia today because
america is not what america was founded
on it's a different america today than
what it was before and this is left and
right
they both like a big government they
both like control they both want feel
they can make the right decision for us
where based on what you're saying the
founding fathers more
hey i think you can reason and your
ability to reason we trust you go figure
out a way to win for your family and
we're going to leave it up to you so
paranoia to me is also different for
different positions like as a general
the military i would hope our general is
somewhat paranoid for the frontline guys
i would hope they're a little bit
paranoid for folks who are working in
your world i hope you go to sleep at
night trying to think what putin's next
15 moves are
because if you're not i'm deeply
concerned so
the part i think about paranoid is more
proper preparation you know prevents
poor performance right we're overly
prepared against the enemy do you think
the concept of paranoia has changed
today with the people of america towards
the government versus the enemy or do
you think
yeah we should still go back to being
more optimistic because future does look
bright everything's gonna eventually
work itself out
okay
maybe we should use the word suspicious
you know for for some of these things uh
this idea of uh
of uh paranoia or suspicion of the of of
the government
i think the uh
i think part of the problem in our
society is that we're less suspicious or
less paranoid many of us than we should
be
you know
one of the principles of
of the founders one of the consensus
views that existed and this is right in
the
you know in the federalist papers and on
all the rest is is is the american
people are expected to be suspicious of
government that was part and that was
one of the things that made the american
character different
we believed in
rugged individualism and
self-sufficiency
we were supposed to be a nation of of
farmers and small shopkeepers
they understood the principle as thomas
jefferson said that government governs
best which governs the least okay the
behind that principle is the
understanding that
the increase of government power
inevitably erodes your freedom you
cannot have stronger and stronger
government and be free you know
because you're giving government more
and more control over your powerful and
therefore uh the founders expected
americans to be extremely suspicious of
government and indeed in the fountain in
those days before television and radio
one of the entertainments people had was
politics people would get together in
bars and taverns they would listen to
political speeches for hours they were
much more engaged i think than americans
are today we we think of ourselves as
more informed and more sophisticated
they were very
sophisticated and well-read uh those are
early americans and uh
and uh
and that's one of the reasons why they
you know that they they
they were suspicious of the growth of
government at any level you know whether
it was at the the village level or the
state level and especially at the
federal level and indeed uh the the
federalist papers
uh famous papers written by madison and
monroe uh you know and ham and alexander
hamilton were written to try to convince
in the aftermath of the american
revolution you know where we had just
thrown off a monarch
they were written to try to convince the
states you need to come together you
know in a federal government and will
have a centralized government in
washington to manage relations between
the states and to defend the country and
to manage foreign policy but don't worry
this government in washington isn't
going to become another tyranny because
the states didn't believe that there
were a lot of people called the
anti-federalists who didn't want that
they said we just fought a revolution to
get out from under monarchy so the whole
debate over the constitution and the
federalist papers showed how suspicious
people were of the growth of government
and uh and uh
and and that
basically
that that limited government you know
produced the america that we enjoy today
up until i guess until the progressive
era started changing things you
mentioned about taxes for example low
taxes you know people didn't
have to pay income taxes it was
unconstitutional to pay income taxes
until the progressives changed that i
think in 1910 or 1933 and they amended
yeah they amended the constitution and
that opened the floodgates because one
of the things the founders you know the
reason it was unconstitutional is they
they understood that if you gave
government access to people's income and
you could tax them uh i think the phrase
was government will eat out the
substance of the people and basically
that's that's that was what has happened
and led to the
the explosive growth of government today
people unfortunately i think are much
more trusting of government than they
were
throughout most of this country's
history now there are exceptions of
course people who
who are conservatives uh who you know
understand
the history of this country and the
principles on which it's founded uh tend
to be you know suspicious of government
and increasingly so because of the
greatly expanded power of government but
there is also half of america's family i
mean the you know the democrat party uh
you know people who actually want to
believe have socialism you know uh
really communism is what it is they call
it socialism and democratic socialism to
dress it up but it really comes down to
to full-blown communism in terms of what
the way they're behaving and and what
they're after and these people actually
think government is the answer to all
problems
uh and
they uh
they they want the government to take
care of them uh they want the government
to save them from climate change from uh
institutional racism uh from from all of
these fantasy threats that the
government tells them are real uh and uh
is the reason we should give more power
to government to save them and protect
them and uh and to and to protect them
also from people who disagree with them
you know because uh if you disagree with
them uh the idea of being able to have a
civilized debate and argument uh the con
rationalism requires you to respect
other people's point of view and concede
that they may be sincere and not evil
and uh and that you need to have a
conversation with them and convince them
to your point of view that is being
rapidly lost in our society by the by
the other side which has all the
earmarks of becoming a
an effect in a totalitarian movement
within our country and threatens uh
and not just threatens but frankly i
think we've already lost we're i don't
think we're a constitutional republic
today i think we're we're we're uh we're
a soft we're in the faces of soft
tyranny and and why do i say that you
know because uh i think for some years
we've uh we we haven't been a
constitutional republican the first year
of the trump administration uh not
president trump's fault but the democrat
party's fault when they brought the
the uh the false charges and and tried
to impeach the president you know for
being a uh uh you know for being a
manchurian candidate all of which has
been proven to be false that he was an
agent of russia and repeatedly abused
the intelligence agencies to try to
basically have a coup d'etat against a
legitimately elected american president
the point is that both political parties
have a true constitutional republic have
got to respect the constitution and and
the rule of law
and recognize the
legitimacy of the political power of the
other side when they win elections
fairly okay and that didn't happen
right from the beginning of the trump
administration
so you don't really have
we haven't really lived in a true
constitutional republic what we've been
undergoing is a civil war
you know between a nascent totalitarian
movement on one side
and the people who still believe in the
constitution on the other side and uh
and we're trying to i hope that that we
can get back to becoming a
constitutional republic again but there
are you know very profound
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problems in our strategic in our
civilizational culture and our politics
and and all the rest that have have
resulted in this and it's not going to
be easy to overcome
uh we may go the way of most uh free
systems i mean history is is not
populated mostly by free systems mostly
they are tyrannies and military
dictatorships and authoritarian type
systems because freedom is hard it's
hard to be a free people you know you
have to be actively engaged you have to
be
you have to be the kind of american the
founders had in mind you know someone
who was going to be always suspicious of
government always jealous of his of his
ability to manage himself it was a point
of pride among americans for example
you know throughout most of our history
not to take charity the idea of taking a
handout from your neighbor would be
disgraceful you know it was considered
a sign of manhood uh and uh and uh uh
and and uh and of good citizenship that
you should be able to take care of
yourself and your own family you know
and if you couldn't uh that was that was
a source of shame and and and that has
that very healthy instinct you know has
gone away to an attitude that people
feel the government owes them a living
you know uh but these are we that that's
a topic we could go on on an all
afternoon but yeah i think we're in
great trouble uh that way oh on the
other side
where the russians are concerned for
example if we're talking about that i
mean putin is more popular
right now i mean he's probably
more popular than he's ever been so if
you like this clip and you want to watch
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