Best of the Program | 1/14/19

Welcome to the podcast.

Today, we had a lot of stuff going on today on the show.

You can always watch it every day, by the way, if you're a subscriber to Blaze TV at blazetv.com slash Beck, use the promo code Beck.

You'll save some cash on that.

Not only get this show, but News and Why It Matters, Glenn's TV show, 5 p.m.

Eastern, and then like, I don't know, what, two dozen other shows?

Yeah, one of the shows,

you know, I don't mean to make it about me, but...

You're you.

So

one of the most watched shows we sent out last week to the subscribers was the show of What's Coming Next.

We had a three-part series

and it was highly, highly watched.

You can still watch that on what's coming in the next 12 to 18 months.

And that's kind of what we did a little bit in a different way on radio today.

We talked about what's coming in the next 18 months with the presidential election.

Who's running?

Who could possibly beat Donald Trump?

If everything stayed stable, That's going to be a hard feat for somebody, especially when, as Stu did on the podcast, talk about who the Democrats really are.

Yep.

And there's a really interesting poll on that of how the Democrat Party has changed in the exact ways you predicted as listeners.

It's actually happened.

We have the details on that.

And the fact challenge.

And also, I would ask you, if you were a listener of the program, to pray for my kids.

One of them is in the hospital for

testing for brain surgery, and the other one was in the hospital for we don't know what in children's hospital this weekend.

So please pray for my family here in the next couple of days and enjoy today's podcast.

You're listening to

the best of the Blenbeck program.

I want to talk to you a little bit about Home Title Lock.

Our sponsor, Home Title Lock, is something that both Stu and I have, and we all got it.

Pat has it too.

We all got it separately because we all kind of talked to this sponsor.

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This is something that I can't believe nobody is watching.

The title of your home, especially if you have parents who have paid off their home, there's a good chance somebody can go in and steal that.

It's really, really simple.

And only one company is watching those titles to make sure that you don't become a victim.

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This is the Glenn Beck program.

So they've been nibbling on some sponge cake and watching the sun bake, and it's been great for the Democrats in Puerto Rico until the cameras showed up.

And then when the camera showed up, it got ugly.

And I mean that in every possible way.

I don't know if you've seen the picture of the fat cats on the beach, but I'm going to say the same thing that I would say if I were on the beach.

I don't go to the beach because I know that cameras exist.

And I don't mean cameras like in the press.

I mean home cameras, my camera.

No pictures of me on the beach.

Nobody Nobody wants to see it.

May I say it's pretty much true for all political, you know, all politicians.

I don't want to see you in your swimsuit.

Chris Christie looked pretty hot on the Jersey Shore that time.

Yeah, right.

I'll say that.

But at least he was sitting down.

Oh, that's not a good look.

I mean, now he did have a shirt on.

Have you seen some of these guys standing up?

I mean, sitting down is the worst possible thing you can do as a fat man.

Have you seen Bob Menendez on the beach without a shirt?

I have not.

Okay.

Nor do I want to.

But you can imagine it.

And I'm sorry to make you do that.

I mean, I'm not making you do that, but once I say Bob Menendez without a shirt on the beach,

you can't get that picture out.

No.

Okay.

Did they clear the island of underaged girls before that?

That was the first thing that I thought of.

I thought, you know, him on the beach talking to a woman in a bikini is not flattering in any way whatsoever.

So the Democrats have

vacationed now at the seaside resort, and they went to a ridiculously overpriced version of Hamilton.

Tickets started at $10, went as high as $5,000.

Guess which one?

I don't think

Menendez and the rest of the Democrats had the $10 tickets.

They weren't in the rafters?

No,

they weren't.

No, they weren't.

So they were at the Hispanic Caucus Bold Pack

that said this year's winter retreat promises to be our most wildly attended with over 220 guests, including 39 members of Congress.

Oh,

great.

Golly.

So while people are struggling, people are struggling, and this president doesn't care.

They're on the beach in Puerto Rico, watching Hamilton.

By the way, there was also in attendance 109 different lobbyists.

R.J.

reynolds was there facebook was there comcast amazon pharma microsoft intel verizon and of course all the unions like the national educational association this is how everything that gets done that you see you sit back and you're like gosh why would they even do that that doesn't make any sense well it's because they probably were on there some fat guy was on the beach with a bikini clad model and he had six drinks not really a model either i didn't see the picture yeah that button didn't work out either for her.

All right, but then the congressman was five drinks in and maybe a little too friendly.

And someone took a picture, and like, it's all house of cards.

They threw Kevin Spacey out of there.

They should put him in Congress.

That would be a much better role.

He should actually go into the

real Washington and just take a role there.

He'd fit in perfectly.

I was going to say, do you think there's generally any difference?

I think he really, actually would fit in perfectly.

Yeah, he'd probably be really successful.

Yeah, he would be.

He's very convincing.

He can pull off the speeches a lot better than some dol Congresswoman.

Yeah.

I think he should try it.

And I don't think any of them would have a problem with him.

Oh, and then they could probably get Congress to pay for all the lawsuits, too.

This is his future career path right here.

This is the path for Kevin Space.

I think you're right.

I think you're right.

He already knows how to act like a politician.

No one obviously cares about opinions or policy anymore.

You just got to act like a politician and be able to handle those big moments when

you're stressed.

Well, he can do that.

That's his gig.

Has Spartacus announced yet his candidacy?

No.

That is weird.

Because there is

an argument to be made.

You need to get out there early.

If you're a, like, that's why they think Elizabeth Warren, Elizabeth Warren's goal was to, apparently to beat Bernie Sanders to announcing so she can be the main socialist candidate.

Do we still have the audio of her getting herself, I'm going to get me a

beer?

Do we, because that's just, it's just horrible.

Horrible.

She's actually worse than Hillary Clinton when it comes to delivery, which is really hard to say.

Oh, there's nobody.

There's nobody that could have beaten Hillary Clinton until Elizabeth Warren comes onto the stage.

Here's, do we have that video?

Okay, we're getting it.

It's just, we have to have that handy because it's just

so ridiculously bad.

Anyway, we had some other announcements that happened.

Yes, Tulsi Gabbard

running for president.

From Hawaii.

From Hawaii.

She is very left-wing, and in fact, kind of running in that area where she wants to kind of be to the left of Bernie Sanders.

She is every policy you can think of, you know, Ocasio-Cortez.

Think Ocasio-Cortez.

That's essentially who she is.

She was Ocasio-Cortez before Ocasio-Cortez was Ocasio-Cortez.

She was Ocasio-Cortez when Ocasio-Cortez was serving drinks at a Mexican restaurant in Union Square.

So, like three years ago.

No, well, not that long.

And so

she is having some issues because she's announced.

And, you know, of course, when you announce to run for president, people generally will look into your background, even apparently if you're a Democrat, which I didn't know.

I didn't know that happened on the left.

No.

I know they check

in case you want to do something important, like, you know, host the Oscars.

Then you have to know every tweet that has ever come out.

However,

running for president as a Democrat, I didn't know you had any background check, but they have looked into her background and discovered that she apparently had some very, very strong anti-LGBTQIA plus viewpoints.

That's not a joke, by the way.

What do you mean?

That she didn't have those viewpoints?

I'm trying to get all the viewpoints.

I know, I know, I know.

And I just want to point out that that's

not a joke.

Well, quilt bag is also not a joke.

I know.

And Quilt Bag 2 is not a joke.

I know.

Quilt Bag 2, Electric Boogaloo is a joke.

That's not actually true, but I feel like if we get ahead with Electric Boogaloo, we can get all the groups that are coming in the future just kind of fit into those letters.

All right.

So she has an anti-quilt bag, too, kind of stance.

She does.

She does.

She was, her father, I guess, was a big anti-gay marriage activist back in the day.

They, you know, tried to push through

an amendment to ban

gay marriage.

And I think they were successful even in Hawaii.

This shows how fast this has changed over the past 10 or 15 years.

But she worked, her father's group was promoting

gay conversion therapy, which is something you're not, I mean, this is not even a, like, again, like, forget what you think about that.

It's like, that is not a position you can have as a left-wing candidate in the Democrat Party, right?

Like,

ever.

Right.

And it's like, if, if, if Kevin Hart, for a nothing joke 10 years ago, can't host the Oscars, you're gonna, the Democrats are gonna

elect a congresswoman who was for gay conversion therapy in the 2000s, in the 2000s?

Like, there's just no way, I would think.

But she's trying to now back off of that.

Of course, she now says she totally disagrees with it.

And you should understand that she was won over to the viewpoint.

Basically, the same point Kevin Hart was making that no one gave him any benefit of the doubt for.

She's trying to make it.

He was doing it for a joke.

She, of course, was doing it for real.

She was an activist on the cause.

Yeah, I know, but she now wants to position herself as a vice presidential candidate, which would be great.

Diversity lives, I guess.

And that is a point to be made.

She doesn't even think she can be the president of the United States.

I think she thinks, can I be Bernie Sanders' VP?

Can I be, you know, let's say Bernie Sanders wins.

Tulsi Gabbard, could that be the VP?

That's the sort of thing she's looking for.

Hey, man, Clinton's looking for a running mate.

That's possible, too.

We can ask about that.

Same thing with Julian Castro, right?

Does anyone think you're going from the HUD secretary to the president of the United States?

I mean, look, crazier things have happened.

However.

Really?

Yeah.

Crazier things have happened.

However, does anybody believe Julian Castro is a dynamic enough personality to pull that one off?

No.

My guess is no.

So another person who's in there, like, if Elizabeth Warren were to win, Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro, maybe.

Joe Biden, maybe.

You know, like,

there's a certain amount of people.

There's three different categories here, I feel like.

You have the people who actually think they can win.

There are the people who are kind of going for a VP.

And then there's the people who are just trying to introduce themselves to you so that in the future they can run for something big.

And honestly, Gabbard and Castro are probably more in that third third category than even the second.

But it's going to be hard.

It's going to be an interesting road to see her try to explain that to Democrat activists all across the country.

Hey,

I know when you were like,

you know, like when your kids that are now 18, when they were 10, I was working really hard against gay marriage and for gay conversion therapy.

But believe me, I'm now a left-wing candidate.

That's going to be interesting.

Yeah, I'm not even a Democratic candidate.

Yeah.

I am a hardcore left-wing candidate.

That's going to be an interesting pitch.

This is, this is, we get down.

This is just, this is a buffet.

We have a two-year buffet of 20 Democrat candidates all trying to kill each other and move further to the left.

This is going to be a glorious buffet of candy.

Yeah.

Every single day, you're going to wake up with another one of these stories for the next two years.

Where things like them partying on the beach half-naked really well just like that small potatoes.

Have you heard who else is running?

This is the best of the Glen Beck program.

Pat Gray joins us on the Glen Beck program.

Pat, what is the

Stu and I can't come up with the right word.

When a state would take over something, it's not to nationalize something.

state eyes?

It's called statify.

Statify.

Okay, thank you very much.

statify.

I think they're going to statify power in California.

Have you heard

the biggest provider of electricity and

what is it, gas, power, and light in California has declared bankruptcy?

You watch.

PG ⁇ L?

Is it Pacific?

Yeah, I think it is.

Gas and electric?

Yeah, and they're going to statify it.

Are they, really?

No, that's my prediction.

That's your prediction.

They're going to statify it.

Okay.

I mean, is that not the perfect opportunity?

Yeah.

You might as well go for it while the Democrats are getting further and further to the left.

Right.

We have these candidates coming out.

Just take it.

I mean, now Casio-Cortez is like the celebrity of all celebrities for some reason, which, by the way, is the greatest thing that's ever happened to Republicans.

Hold on.

She's great.

I mean, that is the.

They're like, oh, you're afraid of her.

Are we?

Yeah.

You know what?

If we're so afraid, you should totally put her on TV more.

Totally.

It's a great idea.

Please, let's change the Constitution so she can run to president.

I'm afraid that for that.

Just a special exception for her.

And just for her and then tulsi gabbard like i mean is this this is really who the democrats are putting out well she's you know she's getting uh she's really getting some serious flack now because she announced over the weekend that she's in for the for running for president and so they as you guys mentioned a few minutes ago they've they checked into her past

and her past includes uh supporting and i'm not sure you guys said it was she was it was an anti-gay thing the only thing that i can find from her is kind of pro-traditional marriage stuff.

Okay.

But you can't be pro-traditional marriage.

No, but she was,

yeah,

her dad was, and she worked for, she was working for the organization.

So she was.

And she said some things in support of her mom, who was being attacked by gay activists.

So she sort of attacked people who were attacking her mom.

Is that outrageous?

How dare you?

What kind of horrific person are you?

But she cannot run if she is saying, hey, my parents have a different position than me, and they have a right to have a different position than I do on gay marriage, et cetera.

But can't run.

When 70% of your job as a Democrat is to call Republicans homophobic or racist or whatever for whatever comment, how can you do that when your mom and your dad, unless you're calling them, are you willing to call your mom and your dad homophobic?

Well, she can't, right?

I mean, she's not going to.

But she should, like, consistency would indicate that she should be able to call them homophobic.

Right.

Silly words.

Tricks are for kids.

And I used to be homophobic, too, I guess, is what she could say.

And she could say it was because she's only 37 now, I think.

So she was 19 years old when this came out.

Can you stop with all this?

You know what's so crazy is that we're talking about this, and I don't know if you've seen in Chechnya, there is a real issue with

the Russians in Chechnya rounding up and disappearing, torturing, and killing homosexuals.

And the LGBT organization

tweeted anything that's anti-gay?

Have they tweeted anything?

Okay, well, so.

I mean, this is what we should be talking about here in the United States.

If you want to talk about gay issues, that's what we should be talking about.

Not about this stupid thing in Hawaii.

Islamic State throwing them off of the top of buildings.

No, but this one is brand new now.

I mean, that's been going on for a while.

This charge now in Chechnya is new.

It's been going on for a while, but there's new evidence that has just come out.

That's stuff we never hear about either.

Never.

They don't seem to even care about any of that.

It's always the focus is always on somebody's tweet.

Yeah, I know.

And there's real things happening right now.

It shows that they never actually cared about it, right?

I mean,

they were all saying that, oh, it's a foundational part of my belief system that

gay marriage is wrong a few years ago and as soon as the polls cross the right way and now it's favored by the american people there everyone who doesn't believe as they do is immoral and homophobic and it's like none of these positions are actually their positions they're just saying whatever benefits them at the moment so i listened to um uh andrew heaton uh on friday and his uh podcast with this guy this author scientist that uh did a study on how we are not more polarized as a nation we think we are but we're actually not more polarized.

He said we're just better sorted.

And that's why you see the independents growing.

There are more independents than there are Democrats or Republicans.

So

it's just that we're more sorted.

And most people are not.

all 100, but they're just not ideologues that are like, I believe in everything that that Democrat says.

I believe in everything that Republican says.

They're not like that.

And what happens is when we get to the election, we're forced into one of these two things.

You know, it's either A or B, A or B, choose or I blow your head off.

And so Americans have to go that way.

But what's happened is it started in Congress to where

Congress became.

because of the districts, they became so radicalized.

And then the party said, you have to believe this or you're out.

And so it's really not changed.

What's changed is we're better sorted now.

The parties have ostracized everyone who disagrees with anything but the party line.

And so they've become extreme, but the American people have not.

Well, that's not true of the 30 Democrats that are going to be running for president in 2020 because you can go all the way from socialism clear to communism in that part.

The whole spectrum?

The whole spectrum.

Wow, that's pretty.

That's so hard.

That's wide open.

They got a big tank to get it.

That's one of the things that we're trying to do at the Blaze.

And one of the reasons why I was so disappointed that Gavin McInnes, who, by the way, is going to be on one of my podcasts.

Oh, really?

Coming up.

The man that you persecuted, hunted down, and tried to kill?

Nothing to do with it.

Exactly.

Well, I did try to kill him, but I didn't have him fired.

Anyway, that's one of the things that I am so proud of with the Blaze is you can go from somebody who is, you know, right on the edge of anarchy,

but still has conservative kind of principles.

Like libertarianism.

Libertarian,

you know, yeah, libertarian to the extreme.

Or you can go to the GOP guy that's like, no, I love Lindsey Graham.

You can go, and that is a a spectrum.

That is a spectrum.

And that is a spectrum that we have to keep together.

Because if we don't, then we're part of the extremist movement in the parties.

We have to be able to go, yeah, I disagree with that guy on this, but here are the big principles that we do agree on, and we can come together on it.

Yeah.

And I like hearing, you know, across that spectrum because it's where you get challenged, right?

Like, I don't get challenged by watching CNN and watching some crazy leftist come up and say something that I, you know, I know it's nowhere close to my value system.

But if I hear something from another conservative that has a different take on something, I find that to be much more interesting.

So proud of one of the researchers

on the economy that

is informing me now on some things.

And he wrote this morning and he said, hey, Glenn, you and I both believe depression is coming, not a recession, depression.

But here are the two best arguments against why this is not coming.

And, you know,

we were exchanging exchanging emails this morning that how important it is that when you really truly believe something, that you find, continually look, not for the confirmation bias stuff, but for the stuff that is constantly informing you on the other side, going, well, wait a minute, not so fast.

I'd like to give you the two best reasons that it's not coming.

That might be a little comforting.

We'll all win the lotteries, number one.

It wasn't, you learned and buy into it.

You're listening to the best of the Glen Beck program.

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Okay, so

one of the people that was at Congressman or Congressperson Rashida Talib's swearing-in ceremony and a private dinner with the entire family

was Abbas Hamida.

Abbas has said things like: Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, congratulate and celebrate the heroic operations carried out by Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, by the way.

Jewish groups whining about the removal of Hamas from the EU terrorist list.

Suck it up.

Netanyahu is comparing Hamas, a Palestinian national liberation movement, to ISIS.

Hello.

Happy birthday to the most honorable Arab Muslim leader in our lifetime, Nasrallah.

So

this guy is, you know,

kind of out there on the edge, and everybody's kicking up, you know, dust about it.

But is this really any surprise coming from the new Democratic Party?

The Democratic Party is about as far left as you can possibly get and out of step.

And

here's where,

and I really kind of want to focus on this this for a while.

The parties

have just become

organizations for people's pet projects.

So, in other words,

you might disagree with abortion and you don't want to fund Planned Parenthood.

Well, there's one organization that you can go to that's going to fight, they say, to stop it, and that is the Republican Party.

If you are for abortion all the way up until birth or beyond, you can go to the Democratic Party.

But that doesn't mean we're in lockstep with everything else.

Those are the edges of the party, but those are the only things the parties are talking about because they're super serving these hyper-political edges.

And

the edges that the Democrats have gone to, I think if the American Democrat, the voter in America, really would look at what their party has welcomed in and become, they would realize they are way out of step with them as voters.

Yeah, I mean, we've been saying for years and years and years and years, and I know the audience has felt this as well, that the Democratic Party has become more and more extreme, more and more liberal.

And all those times we've been saying that, we now know we were right because there are extensive studies on this now, and there's a new one out talking about the split between liberals, moderates, and conservatives within the Democratic Party.

And a lot of times we say, like, remember back, you know, in the Clinton days and Bill Clinton, meaning,

like, they were different.

Like, they were, they would make these arguments about, I mean, the era of small government is over.

That was something Bill Clinton said.

A Democratic president said the

big government, I say small,

the

era of big government is over.

So

looking back now to that era, back to 1994,

you see the split between liberals, conservatives, and moderates in the Democratic Party.

In 1994, it was 25% conservative.

25% of the Democratic Party considered themselves conservative Democrats.

48% considered themselves moderate Democrats.

And 25% considered themselves liberal Democrats.

Stop and think about that just for a second.

An equal percentage of Democrats consider themselves liberal as conservative.

Equal.

Back then was progressive.

Yeah.

So you know, progressive is what they meant back then by saying liberal.

So only 25% of the Democratic Party would have considered themselves a progressive.

Yeah, and you think about that.

That's the hardcore, right?

Those are the people who would say, yeah, you know what?

I'm all for government health care.

I'm all for, you know, the Bernie Sanders of the world.

Exactly.

The Bernie Sanders group.

So that was only 25% of the Democratic Party.

But there's 25% that

considered themselves to be conservative, right?

So that might be someone who is

Joe Lieberman, right?

Somebody who was a hawk on defense,

was a hawk on kind of spending for the Democrats.

Sometimes they'd be pro-life, even though they agreed with big programs and stuff.

There was a group there at one point, and that was, you know, a quarter of the party.

So those things have changed.

Okay.

How much?

So conservatives who were 25% of the Democratic Party now are 12%.

No way.

So more, and that's even hard to believe, right?

I mean, if you look at the Democrats, too, about 12% approve of Trump, right?

Like it's about that era area.

So there are some people who consider themselves Democrats, whether this is an old family sort of like brand that they had from back in the day, and they still consider themselves conservative.

No, is this in the party?

Wait, wait, wait.

Is this in the party?

Yes, these are the party.

This is the party.

This is not the voter.

These are the people in Washington.

No, this is everyone who's in the party.

So if you're a Democrat,

if you declare a Democrat, this is who you are.

So you're not an independent that leans Democrat, but a Democrat, a person who, and that's, you know,

I believe the chunk of the country.

So from 25 to 12, that's something to not just brush over.

You've cut the people who consider themselves conservative in the party more than in half.

Second is moderate.

Now, moderate was 48% of the party.

A full half of the party considered themselves to be moderate Democrats.

Today, it's only a third, from 48 to 33%.

Wow.

A significant drop.

Now, those two things would indicate to you that perhaps liberals have gone up.

And you're going to be surprised to hear that that's true.

Liberals, which were 25% of the party back in the mid-90s, are now 51%

of the party.

Wow.

More than half of the party now considers themselves to be liberal.

And now, obviously, to conservatives, probably every Democrat seems liberal to you.

But there's a different choice of saying

about yourself, right?

Like you're identifying, yeah, I'm out there, right?

I'm as far left as you can get.

You're saying, I am going for the universal health care.

I am going for all these giant programs and all the tax increases.

And this is a Casio-Cortez.

Half the party is now identifying themselves.

And it's interesting to see how that happens because it can happen two different ways.

One way is...

The liberal point is winning out among the Democratic people.

They're sitting there and they're looking, well, you know what?

We used to be, yeah, sure, we used used to be, we used to triangulate and we used to try to move to the middle and win voters, but I don't like that.

That didn't work.

We got to go more liberal.

That could be part of it, right?

The other part of it is, though, the voters who were conservative and who were moderate are leaving and are becoming independent.

Your 45%

is not on the Ocasio-Cortez.

45% of that party are not on that train.

They may be here and there on certain programs, et cetera, et cetera, but they don't consider themselves.

That's a huge number inside of the party.

And again, I think this goes to sorting, Stu.

This is why

the parties have become more extreme, but the American people haven't necessarily...

Well, no, I mean, this is the American people.

It is.

However, 45% are leaving the Democratic Party or would like another choice because they're not Ocasio-Cortez.

Right.

I think

the interesting thing to look at here, and we'll know this more as time goes on, are these people who, I think it's both.

I think people who were moderate Democrats before, and we're in the Democratic Party and been there for a long time, have decided we want essentially Bernie Sanders, but probably in a younger, more attractive package, right?

Like they're saying, you know what, I just don't want to deal with,

I don't believe this moderate thing works anymore.

And they become liberal.

And conservatives maybe have become moderate or liberal in that party.

The other thing, though, is people who were conservatives, it's no longer a place to stand.

If you are a conservative Democrat, how can you possibly belong to that organization anymore?

How can you possibly be surrounded by people like Ocasio-Cortez, people who like Tom Perez, who are saying, hey, Ocasio-Cortez is the future of our party.

And if you are pro-life, we want you out, right?

Like, so people are leaving and they're becoming moderates.

And they may still vote for Democrats, but they're becoming less and less attached to Democrats because what they see there is

a growing group of the furthest left

voters and people in control getting the absolute

grasp on the party.

And when it's 51% that are liberal, that's why you're seeing these candidates like

Tulsi Gabbard think that they can come out and be competitive.

So I want you to look at something for me.

I want to show you some numbers here and show the breakdown of Trump and the loss of Hillary, and see if you can actually make the case with numbers.

You're a numbers guy, but see how you can make this case.

This, I think, clarifies

a lot of the last election.

Just that poll, if you look at it and you make some

suppositions on what happened to the

Democratic voter, if that's who they are, it explains the last election without even going in to the Republican Party.

This is the best of the Glen Beck program.

And don't forget, rate us on iTunes.

Talking about the left and the right and how they've changed so much.

And part of this is, too, going into some of these kind of crazy policies that they do.

For example,

California now wants to tax water.

They want to actually tax your drinking water.

And this is sort of going on the same thing that we've seen this movement over the past few years about taxing soda.

It's a sin tax, right?

Soda is bad for you.

You shouldn't drink it.

In theory, of course, I totally disagree with that analysis, but it's very bad for you, and you shouldn't drink it.

So therefore, we're going to tax it.

Philadelphia did this.

The first academic study about this is out now.

And the results are pretty amazing.

First of all, in Philadelphia, people did not cut calories as a result of the tax on sweetened drinks.

They didn't shift their drinking to anything more healthy.

Instead, what they did is they got in their cars and they drove across the city line and they bought all their soda there.

And, of course, when you're buying all your soda there, you're also buying your groceries there.

So this is a boon to the

economies outside of the border.

We dealt with this when we were in Philadelphia.

There's a wage tax

in Philadelphia, but not in the surrounding communities.

So everyone, there's this one road called City Line Avenue, and everyone builds their businesses on the other side of City Line Avenue to avoid Philadelphia's stupid wage tax.

And the reason why it's called City Line, it's where the line of the city is.

I mean, the city officially ends in the center of that street.

And it is the most incredible thing.

It will show you the difference between free markets and

state-run, heavy-run, heavy tax.

Because you go down that street and you're driving around and you're looking to your right, which is surprisingly free market.

You're driving around the circle to your right and you're looking and you're seeing prosperity.

You look the other way into the city on your left and it is, it's just blight.

It's crazy.

It is crazy.

It's crazy.

It is the best example of what a big, progressive, high-tax city does to a community because it is literally in the center of the road.

It's blight and poverty and sacks Fifth Avenue on the other side.

Amazing.

We're going to get back into this Democratic-Republican thing here in a second, but just to give you the final take on this study.

A, we find no significant reduction in calorie and sugar intake.

This is what it's been sold on, right?

Like that it's going to help people not be as fat and not be as unhealthy.

The tax does not lead to a shift towards healthier products.

And most importantly, again, like the Democrats are the working man's people, right?

It affects low-income households more severely because they are, and it is also limited in its ability to raise revenue.

So obviously, people are avoiding the tax, so it's not raising revenue.

And the people hit hardest by it are the people who don't have the cars, who don't have the ability to go out of town to buy all their stuff.

So they get hit with a tax over and over and over and over again.

The poor people who can't leave.

If you're going to work on a bus.

If you're going to work on a bus, you're paying for the tax.

And unfortunately, you don't have the money to pay for the tax.

And so you just stop drinking soda, maybe,

or you just shift your funds someplace else and you have less money.

In fact, they actually showed that people did not switch.

They just wound up having to pay for it and had less money for other things.

Correct.

In fact, what they showed is there was a decrease in soda sales inside of Philadelphia.

However, the increase in soda sales and the surrounding communities actually made all of it back and more.

So overall, there was an increase in soda because people, you know, this is the thing.

Like, I want to avoid the soda tax.

I'm going to go load up while I'm out there.

So they bought more soda and they brought it back and drank more soda.

So if you really believe soda is so evil, you actually had people consuming more of it in your city.

I mean, it doesn't work on any level.

And yet they're still trying to pop this up all over the country.

I'm telling you, this is what we're going to have the problem with

basic minimum income.

Income.

Mincome.

It fails every single time it's tried.

And they keep trying it.

One of the first experiments was Richard Nixon, actually, here.

He tried it in the United States and it failed and they banned it.

They just did it in Finland.

They had this grand experiment touted by liberals and progressives all over the world.

I think they did it with Berkeley, too.

They did it, didn't they?

They started doing it in Berkeley.

Yeah, they started doing it.

I don't know.

I haven't seen the outcome on that one yet.

But Finland, I know, failed.

They canceled the program.

Canceled it.

I think it failed in California as well.

And they've just revamped it.

Oh, no, it's going to to work.

It doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

And I think that is

the next stage:

basic minimum income.

It's socialism.

This is the best of the Glen Beck program.

So, this next election is really important because if the economy goes down, Donald Trump's going to have a really hard time winning the election.

And unfortunately, somebody who will have an easy time winning the Democratic primary will be a socialist.

People will run towards socialistic properties and values if the economy is really, really hurting.

So, who are they going to run?

And

who's actually dangerous if they would win in the socialist front?

But also,

who could beat Trump if there is no economic disturbance?

That's the hard one.

And that's one of the issues with thinking of elections as a binary topic where there's just two people, and those are the only two people you could ever consider.

And it's a problem because it worked well, I think, for Trump in 2016, right?

Like, people who weren't necessarily thrilled about Trump saw Hillary Clinton and were like, eh, no.

However, the same thing might happen in 2020.

And this is the risk if things go poorly.

Because if there's only two choices and the economy were to collapse or something went wrong unforeseen, then you have people saying, well, I don't like Trump, so I'll go with that other person.

And that other person...

might be an actual socialist, but if they can hide it well enough from the American people to not turn them off, they become the only other place to go, the only other game in town.

The question is, now let's just take out the economy stuff.

Let's just leave that off the table.

Deal with that if that happens.

So let's say that Trump goes in as healthy as he is right now.

Things are the same.

Who do you run that is left enough?

for the left because 51% of Democrats now consider themselves left, liberal, progressive.

Who do you run that is left enough for all of the ones that are going to get out everybody and to vote,

but then can come back and be center enough for the rest of America?

Right.

And can I add a third thing you have to do?

Survive Donald Trump.

Yes.

Because if there are certain people

that don't have the personality type to be able to survive Donald Trump, I'll give you a great example, Elizabeth Warren.

Elizabeth Warren will get slaughtered.

Oh my God.

That'll be a duck.

Again,

if things, if Donald Trump is about where he is now, which is like low to mid-40s approval rating, he's kept his base.

He's kept Republicans on board.

He's got some independence.

He's not overly thrillingly popular, but he's got his base.

If we go into that next election,

as the primary shifts its, you know, kind of sifts its way out, then it's going to be one-on-one.

And Trump is going to be able to go after that other person person and do what he does best, right?

He's going to put pressure on them all the time.

They're going to have to answer.

He's going to rename them.

He's going to rename them.

He's going to go after them in every speech.

And there's a certain type of person.

Elizabeth Warren is this type of person that cannot handle it.

She can't seem authentic.

She can't fake it.

Hillary Clinton had the exact same problem.

You know, this is when Hillary was in the middle of this, and she's like, oh, you know what?

I know.

Pokemon go to the polls.

Like, that was her, like, this is how she dealt with it.

She's terrible.

And, you know what?

I'm going to get me um a beer is

has to be setting off alarm bells all over the Democratic Party because when he's coming after her with all these attacks and the way he's going to come after her and name her and and take every position she's had and make it into this big thing and the media is going to follow it that way.

All he has to do is say, me smoke him one pump too.

He says that's not going to be able to do that.

She's done.

She will not.

She will just shut down and become a robot.

And this one's already played out, right?

He did say those things.

He did say Pocahontas.

He did call her all that.

And what did she do?

She thought it was a good idea to do a DNA test to prove she was one 1,024th Native American.

That was her way of handling it.

She has no capability to deal with the pressure of Donald Trump.

Now, Joe Biden, on the other hand, is a guy who's been in these waters for a long time.

He's more, not policy-wise, but he's more Trump.

than your average politician.

He can insult you.

He can come back with snappy comebacks.

He's kind of likable end of the guy of the bar.

And

I say this with as much endearment as I possibly can.

When everybody said,

I like the guy down

the end of the bar.

Basically, that's somebody who's just saying crazy things, but you know, you're all thinking it.

You're all thinking it in the bar.

But he's just saying

he's got to out crazy, crazy.

We already have the guy at the end of the bar, and that's what people liked about Donald Trump, was he was just saying it.

He wasn't afraid of people like Elizabeth Warren who would say, How dare you?

Right.

Do you know that the number of Indians that died, and I am one of them, and how dare you even question?

They're sick of that.

They want somebody at the end of the bar who's like, shut up, Pocahontas.

Yes.

Okay.

That's what they want.

And I think this is the most basic hurdle to clear for any 2020 candidate.

You have to be, you know, who else can't do it?

Corey Booker.

Oh, my God.

Corey Booker.

I am Spartacus.

That guy cannot handle the pressure of Donald Trump.

I don't think that Betto can either.

I think Betto.

That one would be interesting.

I'm not sure on that one yet.

I'm not sure either, but

there's, I don't know, there's too much stagecraft in him.

Then again, I felt there was stagecraft in Obama, and it worked.

It worked.

It did work, although Obama never had to face Trump.

I mean,

Obama had a way about him that maybe he would have been able to deal with it in a different sort of fashion than I think Joe Biden would.

I mean, Joe Biden will just start, like, oh, that guy's a moron.

Don't even worry about it.

Like, that's the type of thing he'll say.

Yeah.

Obama, Obama, you got to have to put yourself back.

If Obama was a conservative and Obama running the first time, I mean, he was Mr.

Arugula.

I mean,

that's all that Donald Trump had to say.

Oh, yeah.

He would give him the Arugula guy and he's done.

It's one of the reasons I think talk show listeners like Donald Trump so much because a lot of times he sounds like a talk show host.

He sounds like a guy you'd listen to on conservative talk radio who's just like, oh, these people are a bunch of morons.

They're totally incompetent and they can't do anything.

Well, that's that's what that's what talk radio is.

Right.

A lot of times.

You can get a lot more depth than that, but I mean, that is basically like

what we're talking about here every day.

Average person, it's speaking the average person's language.

Yeah.

Taking a 5,000-page policy proposal and turning it into something that you don't want to hang yourself after listening to.

So I think that's a huge hurdle.

So that Biden is, and it's interesting, I think the audience, we've been kind of informally polling them over the past couple of weeks of who you think can pull that off.

A lot of people see Biden as the person who can do it.

I think so, too.

He can say, maybe, maybe.

Maybe.

I mean, nobody's done it yet.

No, but he can say to the left during the primary, I was with Barack Obama, man.

You know who I am.

I can do all these crazy things.

And he'll use the word man.

And he'll use the word man, which is what he does.

Right.

And he will go out there and say, look, I passed

healthcare.

We're going to go further on that.

He'll be able to convince them that he's left.

Then he'll be able to come back to the middle and at least attempt to get back that sort of Rust Belt vote that Hillary lost.

He'll be able to say, hey, I went to Katie's Diner.

That place has been closed for 30 years and it was great.

And I'm a blue-collar guy.

Everyone calls me middle-class Joe.

I'm not saying he's convincing on it, but he at least attempts it, where Hillary didn't even attempt it.

And he can actually go and sit with bikers

and be comfortable.

The bikers aren't comfortable, but he's comfortable.

I feel very weird.

You pointed this out in the famous picture of Joe Biden creepily like hugging and like somewhat me-tooing a biker woman who's sitting there.

There's another guy in the picture and his

face is like, oh my God, what am I looking at?

He's like pissed off.

But I had never noticed this before.

Because he looks offended.

Like, this is...

This is not right.

He's like thinking like he's almost like royalty.

He's like, how dare you do that?

And then you notice his name.

I don't remember it.

Troll.

Troll.

That's true.

He even

was troll.

He was president troll on his leather jacket.

It did say president, and underneath it said troll.

He pissed off president troll.

So it's that creepy.

But Joe Biden feels comfortable.

Remember, Hillary Clinton got out of her van.

She.

In a minivan.

Right.

Come on.

She was not.

That's not her.

So she went on her listening tour in a van,

trying to pretend she liked it.

She never embraced it.

She should have gone and said, I don't understand fair food, but I'm digging it.

I mean, it's not my scene, but I'm digging it.

She could not do that.

Instead, she was like, what?

I'm perfectly fine with, you know, deep-fried Snicker bars on a stick.

I make these for Bill all the time.

Shut up.

Inauthentic is what Hillary Clinton is.

Inauthentic is what Corey is.

Joe Biden is authentic.

Yeah, take politics out of it.

Biden is like the guy who like sold you

your forklift.

And he comes to the holiday parties and he's fun.

And you're like, he's a salesman, but I like the guy.

Right.

Take politics out of it.

That's kind of who the guy is.

And he's able to pull that persona off.

Corey Booker's not doing that.

Elizabeth Warren's not doing that.

You know, Betto, I think Betto comes off.

I mean, Beto essentially is the guy who ran against Frank Underwood in season four of House of Cards, where he's like, good-looking guy, and

he's live-streaming his dental appointments, and all of that

stagecraft.

He's essentially trying to replicate that campaign, which,

I mean, there's a lot that went on with that one, but didn't really work

for multiple reasons.

Point being, though,

if you can't clear the hurdle of surviving Trump, you can't beat Trump unless something dramatic happens with the economy or something.

Now, here's the problem.

As much as Joe Biden can say, hey, I'm the Barack Obama guy, Barack Obama came out this weekend and said, it's time for new blood.

Well, unless Joe's getting a transfusion,

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