Best of the Program | 8/20/18

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Hello, it's Du, along with Mr.

Glenn Beck.

And today, the podcast has a lot of really interesting things, including the way we've changed in a very short amount of time, how

things just from a few years ago are now completely accepted by the other side, and everybody's switched, and it's really hard to understand.

I used to be a woman.

Right.

I think Glenn used to be a woman.

A very attractive woman.

Thank you.

If I might say that.

And we go into also the alternative spellings

discovered by Al Sharpton of Aretha Franklin songs.

Oh, it's.

It is.

Oh my gosh.

It is so good.

It is so good.

You like this.

We also talked to a Democrat, Gian Carlos Sopo, who is a guy who...

It's hard to even imagine he is a Democrat because he's saying things about democratic socialism that normal Democrats are supposed to say.

He's also saying it about the press and the cover-up of the violence of Antifa.

I said to him maybe three times, you're not a Democrat.

You're not a Democrat.

But he believes that there are a lot of Democrats in the country that just need the courage to speak out.

And he's trying to provide the beach head to say, yes, you have to say it or you're going to lose your party entirely to crazy radicals.

We also go to Venezuela, not literally, unfortunately, but we talked to someone who was just there and had to deal with just being able to find find food.

They were there for two weeks, they lost 14 pounds.

Was there a part of you that thought you were going to be a little bit more damaged?

There was a part of me that went, that's not a bad diet.

Yeah.

Because I feel like, and I know this isn't true, but I feel like I could do anything for a couple of weeks.

In reality, a couple of minutes go by and then I get another sandwich.

But in my head, I could do it for a couple of weeks.

Yeah, she said it was horrible.

And she said she got calls from Venezuela last night.

They knew she was going to be on this program, and they said, please tell America this about this.

Yep, uh, and we'll talk about what's going on with the Catholic Church as well, which is interesting and turning into something we're not a little bit different than we've heard so far.

And we're gonna cover that in detail tomorrow.

But we had quite an interesting conversation with phone calls today, callers from around the country that are Catholic and just don't know what to think.

All on the podcast.

You're listening to

the best of the Blenbeck program.

It's Monday, August 20th.

It's amazing how much is just coming down.

How the walls of everything are, whoo, it's almost like a prediction I made about 15 years ago.

How everything that you thought was so solid is just coming down.

You know, the education system, the Hollywood system, the entertainment, television, media, news, politicians, courts, police,

neighbors, I mean, everything.

Is your opinion solid on anything?

Is your opinion what your opinion was on anything

10, 15 years ago?

On anything?

Well, yes, of course.

But there have been changes.

There have been changes.

I've certainly lost faith.

in

any aspect of government to do anything correct.

Correct.

I didn't have a of that.

No, I never had that.

But I had some.

Yeah, I had some.

Yeah.

There was definitely a change in

that level of trust.

I believed in the judicial system.

Nope.

I mean, you know, I still think it's pretty good if you compare it to anything else,

any other judicial system around the world.

But, you know, it's definitely, there's been hesitations there.

I definitely believe that.

I used to believe that, for the most part, justice is done.

And I'm not sure anymore.

I have gone through it and I've seen the underbelly and how politics plays a role and what the government can and can't do or can and won't do.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

Yeah, there's more abuse of it than I think I would have

expected back in those days.

And the same thing, I think, applies to issues of war and privacy, those sorts of things that we've, I think, both moved towards the libertarian way a little bit more.

I mean, I was listening to

the 2000s on CNN.

I happened to be on the screen.

Oh, you're the one watching CNN?

I don't know that anyone is.

But I was flipping through the channels, and it was on the 2000s, and they're talking about the rock of the 2000s.

And

they're giving examples, and they give Cold Play, and then Nickelback.

And their basic concept was that The Rock of the 2000s

was terrible.

Cold Play was catchy.

Nickelback had a lot of fans, but they meant nothing.

Rock's supposed to have this message.

And then

they said the one example from the 2000s is Green Day because they were taking on the establishment.

They stood up

and they took a stand

and they pushed back against the man.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah, and Pearl Jam.

Noel.

Yeah.

That's more of the 90s.

I mean, they were in the 2000s.

And so was Green Day from the 90s.

Right.

American Idiot was their big example.

If you remember this, it was a big deal at the time.

Sure.

And they started, you know, they do do the typical thing where they have people commentating on it, and then they go back to clips of the song and they bounce back and forth.

And I'm listening, and I haven't listened to that song in years.

And I remember at the time it being sort of annoying.

I mean, you know, American idiot, it's so easy, right?

But you go back and look at the lyrics to this song, and it's every, it's the exact opposite.

These sites have completely changed.

Oh, give me, give me the lyrics.

So what, what is their complaint there?

Don't want to be an American idiot.

Do you want to be a nation under the new media, right?

The media is controlling the agenda, they say, throughout.

It's all about that.

Now, of course, it would be the right saying that now, right?

The media is influencing people the wrong way.

Right.

They also go into, can you hear the sound of hysteria?

It's the age of paranoia.

Well, what side is making the handmaid's tale right now?

It's not the right.

It's not even that they're making the handmaids' tale.

They're crazy and saying, look at the parallels.

Exactly.

There's no parallels, right?

I mean, think about, you know, we have Alyssa Milano out in a protest this weekend in the Handmaid's Tale outfit saying, I think it says, never Kavanaugh, never Gilead.

Gilead's the fake country that sprouts up in Handmaid's Tale.

That we're going to wind up, you know, subjugating women and all these terrible, terrible things.

Combine that with climate hysteria.

Who is the paranoia?

Where's the paranoia coming from?

It's certainly not the right.

So we're talking about the Green Day Day American Idiot was a stance against the machine.

The machine at the time, as the left saw it, was evil George W.

Bush and evil,

the evil media supporting the Iraq war in their mind, right?

So here, now we're on the other side of this.

Who's creating the paranoia?

Clearly, the left.

The media is clearly

doing this,

controlling the conversation in ways that the right is not uncomfortable with.

And then the president, who's a Republican, has the same view of the Iraq war as as they did in the song.

They both thought.

So they actually got the view on that war that they wanted in office, and they're still constantly complaining about it.

I mean, these things change so fast.

This is the exact flip of what we're talking about now.

And it was this big monumental thing back in the day.

It was an important piece of art, according.

to CNN.

So, you know, I have a couple of things from this weekend that are kind of similar to this.

I went to see Crazy Rich Asians.

Have you seen that yet?

I did not.

Okay.

Big movie, though.

Number one.

Really good.

Really, really good.

First movie with an all or mostly Asian cast in 25 years.

Yeah, it's since the Joy Luck Club.

It's really good

and funny and fun and yada, yada, yada.

But basically, it's a little bit of the great Gatsby scenes where it's just,

I mean,

it's the most accurate movie title I've ever.

It's Crazy Rich Asians.

Okay.

I really thought there was irony in the title, but

they're crazy rich.

Crazy rich.

Okay.

And

it takes place in Singapore.

And it's about a guy who basically is,

you know, he's like a Prince Harry kind of character from Singapore.

He's not actually royalty, but wildly famous, the most famous bachelor in Singapore,

you know, good looking, wildly, wildly wealthy.

I think their grandfather, you know, bought it when it was just like a cricket club and bought all the land, you know, in Singapore and then built Singapore.

So they're that rich.

And he's educated in Oxford.

He moves over to the United States.

He doesn't really want that lifestyle and doesn't want to be known as that.

So he never tells this girl he's dating.

Now, this girl he's dating is Chinese, and she's an immigrant to America.

Her mother fled China

from a bad situation, comes over to the United States, works two jobs.

I mean, is the idyllic American immigrant and works hard.

And now her daughter is teaching game theory at like Columbia University, okay?

So, um,

so now what happens is they go over to Asia.

Mom and the family do not want an American Chinese.

She's not Chinese, she's American.

Okay, oh, so bigotry and racism?

Okay, all right, interesting.

Yeah, um, you know, we we've got to stop America and redistribution of wealth and and uh oh my gosh, our conspicuous consumption is horrible.

Don't worry about us, gang.

Don't worry about us.

Uh, Capitalism is alive and well in other parts of the world.

And the conspicuous consumption, it makes us look tame.

It makes us look tame.

And what are you going to do?

So we go communists, then what happens to them?

I mean,

it's, I mean,

we actually are starting to head into a place where you probably need to redistribute some of that wealth over to the United States.

Well, yeah.

That's interesting because

there are certain cultures in which it's okay to

aspire to being incredibly wealthy.

Our politicians all come up in front of you and say, we all aspire to be middle class.

And it's like, well, there's nothing wrong with being middle class.

It's great life in America.

It's one of the greatest, it's certainly the greatest middle class life in human history in the United States.

But still, that's not necessarily what you aspire to.

Right.

You aspire to, you know, to do even better if you can, make life easier if you can.

It's not a downplay against the middle class, but you look at, you know, watch, wait until Joe Biden starts this campaign.

Middle-class Joe, as everyone has called him since he was born, middle-class Joe.

Now, there's no record of anyone calling him that other than himself.

Right.

However, that is what he's going to hit constantly.

Sure.

And it's going to be this situation where he is going to tell everyone.

I don't want to aspire to a middle-class guy who got rich by going to Congress.

Yeah.

Terrible.

I mean, that's a terrible example.

Look, I've been rich.

I've been poor.

I've been happy both times.

I've been happy both times.

And sad both times.

And sad both times.

And periods of sadness as well.

I mean, it's just, it's like, it's, it's, that's, that's an illusion.

All of that is an illusion.

Yes, it makes your life easier, makes some of the tension at home kind of go down, which is really nice.

But that's the only real benefit out of it.

Well, that and private air travel.

That is the only

real advantages to being rich.

I tweeted last night and people were like, oh my gosh, Glenn, you're going to get pulled off the air for saying that.

This is crazy.

I am not going to apologize for my privilege because I don't have privilege.

What do you mean, privilege?

My ancestors came here with nothing.

For over 100 years, they have had nothing.

I'm the first successful one in the family.

My great-great-great-grandfather was killed in Andersonville, the concentration camp, the notorious concentration camp of the Confederacy.

He was fighting for the Union.

My great, great, great, great uncle was also put, I mean, they were losers.

They just, I mean,

they joined the army and they fought for about four weeks and they were thrown into a POW camp.

My great, great, great grandfather died, and his brother never recovered from Andersonville.

Well, they were fighting to stop slavery.

Yeah, I know you're joking by saying they're losers.

That's an incredible story.

No, it's an incredible story.

No, I know.

I know.

I mean, I know you're dying.

No, it's just like, you know, yeah, it's just like, you know,

it would be a back that would like, I'm going to sign up next day.

You're in a camp.

Okay.

Wow, we made a difference.

So,

so, you know, no, nobody in my family, but every single member of my family has fought for a better life for their children.

Now, why would I apologize for my father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather all working so their children could have a better life?

That better life that they worked for is my so-called privilege.

It's an insult.

to apologize for what my ancestors did so I could have the opportunity.

Are you going to apologize for doing what you're doing so your children will have a better opportunity?

Yeah, how would that feel to you?

Oh, my God.

My kids later on in life were like, I'm so sorry for my dad.

My dad did.

Oh, my dad did.

You're killing yourself to do that for your son or your daughter.

Right.

And they're going to apologize for what you did later on?

No.

That would be disagreeing.

No, they can apologize for my mistakes.

Sure.

They can absolutely be ashamed of me for my mistakes, but for working hard so their life was better, so they had opportunities that I didn't have, don't you dare apologize.

It is an insult to your ancestors.

One of the best tributes I heard all weekend, you know, to Aretha Franklin had to come from Al Sharpton.

He is just, do we have that audio by any chance, Sarah?

It's Al Sharpton.

and his memorial message.

We're talking about female canines.

You know what they say about payback?

It's a real.

Well, you, I'm sure you know the word I'm thinking of.

So, in the words of my late friend Aretha Franklin, show some R-E-S-P-I-C-T.

Some respect.

You get a black woman and a beagle confused.

Remember this.

I got you.

Whoa.

That is the single worst delivery of a line, first of all, at the beginning of that, where he tries to,

you know, fake you out that he's going to say the B word.

And then R-E-S-P-I-C-T.

And how do you?

Respect.

Have a little respect.

Respect.

It's not a thing.

Oh, yes.

Yes, it is.

Al Sharpton, he's got you covered.

If you are suffering from respect.

He's got you covered.

Hi, it's Glenn.

If you're a subscriber to the podcast, can you do us a favor and rate us on iTunes?

If you're not a subscriber, become one today and listen on your own time.

You can subscribe on iTunes.

Thanks.

Addicted to outrage.

Yes, we have another addiction to outrage segment for you.

It's there's nothing better than this.

Really,

you know, just getting up in the morning and just saying, you know, what can I be pissed off about?

I had a good weekend, you know, enjoyed my family and yada, yada.

Now I got to get back into, I got to get into back into what really matters and let's talk some politics and what can I possibly be outraged I've got I've got something that's going to really push you over the top it's Alceie Hastings he is in Florida he's giving a speech and violence breaks out here it is he said do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe

and no one held their hand so Ari answered for us he says a crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Potomac River and can't swim.

And he says, and a catastrophe is anybody saves his.

That's violent speech.

That was a death threat to the president.

I mean, I could do everything that the press does to the right.

We know that there's a double standard, right?

But if you want to fix, if you want to fix today,

if you really want to be outraged, because we are addicted to outrage, hit the jingle.

Addicted to outrage.

You really want to

further your addiction, let's be pissed off about that.

And we can be so easily.

And justifiably.

Justifiably.

Because you're right.

The standard that would be held against a conservative making a joke about a Democratic president,

and we saw it happen during the Obama administration over and over again.

They acted as if they were legitimate real threats.

Oh, yeah.

They acted as if they

target a district.

I'm going to target a district.

Everybody knew what that was.

Everybody knew.

They faked outrage and tried to make it into something that it wasn't.

So now we have a choice.

And one is satisfying.

It really is.

One is satisfying.

One is

because it sets off all the good chemicals in your body is

being

outraged by it.

I'm angry because

look at the double standard.

Look at the double standard.

They would never do that uh to give us the benefit of the doubt why should I give them

because if I I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt I haven't changed my behavior and the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results so I'm going to get angry about it and I'm going to I'm going to be outraged and I'm going to express my outrage and that feels good it does doesn't it oh it feels fantastic it does get you get your your motor running your juices flowing yep You know, you feel like you're doing something.

Maybe even you can get to a point where this particular representative would be punished in some way.

Maybe he loses his job.

There's a real goal to get to is maybe he loses his job and they replace him with another Democrat.

That's too.

I mean, they've been doing this to us for years.

We're just starting to make progress on this.

We're just starting to get people

being held responsible and they're getting kicked out.

Yeah, I mean, that's if that's your goal, right?

Then you have something there.

It's interesting because I think we have become, as conservatives, experts in pointing out the double standard to the point where you used to stop us from saying it on the air.

You know, like when Pat was here, we would talk about this.

We'd be like, this is a complete double standard.

And you'd say, all right, we know it's double standard.

All right, let's move on.

And it's true.

We are experts at identifying that, but there is an additional step.

Now you have two standards.

Well, hold on.

Let's go there.

You got a double standard.

That's it.

Now you have two standards in front of you.

Double, right?

Two standards.

Now you have to choose which one you want.

The outrage one.

The outrage one.

The one that makes you feel good one.

Well, I want the outrage one.

Does it make you feel good in anything other than the very short term?

Nope.

I guess is my question.

Nope.

It doesn't seem to make anyone feel good.

Nope.

Everyone's applying the standard all the time, and they get more and more pissed off all the time.

And everybody says, I can't read it anymore.

I can't look at it anymore.

And what do we do?

As soon as you have the opportunity to apply it, you go for it.

And I think that that's the wrong way to go.

I mean, look, choose the standard that you think the world should have.

You know,

you're right.

Like, sometimes you're living in a world where you don't get what you want.

But are you acting in the way that you believe is the right way?

Or are you acting in a way that you believe is improper?

And I think constantly, because we feel and correctly feel, by the way, that we've been victims of a double standard over a very long period of time, we justify behavior we wouldn't normally justify because we feel like, well, we've been wrong, so therefore we can do wrong.

And that's not a good way of going through life.

So where is this, where is this,

where is this anger coming from?

Where is this willingness to

become

that which we gaze upon, become that which we despise,

become the monster in trying to kill the monster?

Where does that come from?

What is the root of that motivation?

You think, you know, I have a theory.

I'd love to hear it.

We all feel judged.

We all are insecure

and we all feel judged.

Somebody is judging me and they're judging me harshly.

They're judging me

improperly

and unfairly.

And

the

left and the right, I think, feel this way.

You know, the guy from QueerEye,

what was his name, Jonathan Veness, he came out and he said, hey, we've got to stop saying that everybody who voted for Donald Trump was a racist.

They're not.

Just like, as he says, everyone on the left isn't evil.

He's right.

He's absolutely right.

But that's what everybody's feeling.

We're being shoved into these corners and we're being told we're enemies.

One side is evil.

One One side is racist.

And

people on both sides feel like they're judged.

Even when we get together, we still feel judged because somebody

is trying to change your mind.

We're not comfortable anymore just being friends.

How many friends do you have that really disagree with you politically?

Have you lost any friends or family?

Ask yourself why.

Is it because you tried to change their mind or they tried to change your mind?

And so you're arguing about it and you have no place to go.

And that's become your relationship.

You're judging them.

They're judging you.

You're right.

They're wrong.

They're right.

You're wrong.

And so there's absolutely no place to go except away from each other or to gather

for battle.

I was singing this weekend.

The serenity prayer

is what we really need a healthy dose of.

You know,

the addicted to outrage, I've said this for years, that I think this audience would be the audience that can turn this around, save the nation in the end.

And when

America decides to do a 12-step program when they decide to admit that they have a problem, not that others have a problem, that we have a problem,

we'll be taking our first step towards recovery and being the people that we are.

The serenity prayer,

every alcoholic knows it.

God, give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.

What can't be changed?

What can't be changed?

I can't change other people.

I can't change them.

I can, however, allow them to change me.

I don't want that.

I saw a story this weekend where they were trying once again, trying to change history, trying to take more statues down.

You can't change history.

History is there.

Let it change you.

Learn from it.

Learn the good things from history and learn from the bad things in history so you don't do it again.

But I can't force you to change.

I can't force you to learn from history.

You have to.

How many times have you heard of a friend or a loved one who's an alcoholic and has been in rehab 10 times?

They just can't change.

Well, because they don't want to.

You have to hit a place to where you want to change.

And that's really hard.

It's really hard.

Because it requires you to just focus on you and nothing else.

And while we are egomaniacs, we're self-loathing egomaniacs.

So nobody really wants to do look if you really start to look into yourself and you really start to say, I, maybe I have a problem here.

Maybe I'm, maybe I'm causing some of my own stress.

And, you know, I don't need to be outraged by all of this because I'm not going to change that person who I love, like, was friends with, I'm co-workers with.

I'm not going to change them.

They believe what they believe.

Instead, I'm just going to love them.

It's really hard.

I'm just going to love them.

I'm going to serve them.

I'm going to be helpful.

I'm going to be kind.

I'm going to be the opposite that they are.

Not to change them.

Not to change them.

Just to stand guard

against them changing you.

If they agreed with you, if they had your same political stance,

if they were kind to you, would you be kind back?

So they're not kind to you.

They do bad things to you.

So what's changed?

You.

You've allowed them to change you.

Give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.

The courage to change the things which should be changed.

And the wisdom to know one from another.

That's how we receive serenity.

I can change these things.

And the biggest thing I can change is me.

So I can change these things.

I cannot change people.

Number one problem.

I cannot change people.

Anybody who thinks that you're going to change Twitter, oh, we're going to change Alex Jones.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

Not unless he wants to.

You're going to change Donald Trump?

You're not going to change Donald Trump.

What are you doing?

The press thinks they're going to change him?

You're not going to change him.

You're not going to get him to admit anything.

You're not going to get him to change his ways or see the light or anything else.

If he decides,

you know, I don't like my life right now.

And I think he loves his life.

I don't like my life right now.

I've got to change.

Then he'll change.

But the press,

and really

90% of this country has allowed one man

to change them fundamentally.

Think of that

One man

has changed people's positions

Their viewpoint not on a basis not based on facts or an argument Just because of the fight

one man has changed probably 90%

of the American people fundamentally at the core they've changed

I don't think that's something to be proud of.

You can't change people, but people can certainly change you

if you allow them to.

This

is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

Jean-Carlos Sopo is a

public affairs director on Latin America, and he's a Democrat.

And he was on with us

last week, I think, or two weeks ago.

And I had him on because he's taking a very strong stand against Democratic socialism.

And we don't necessarily agree on policies.

He's a Democrat.

But he is trying to alert America, and especially the Democrats,

how bad democratic socialists are, what it really means.

It's not, you know, some Norwegian, I have some Ludevisk and maybe some free health care and everything will be great.

It's not that.

This is not the Swedish or Danish healthcare system or system.

They don't have that.

He reached out.

We had him on last time because he had reached out to

some people over, I think,

in Denmark, some economists, and said, hey, I just want you to see what the Democratic Socialists are saying here and want here.

Is this what you have?

11 out of 12 said, no.

That's really radical.

And he's warning about the danger.

And he's taking a beating from the left.

And he's taking a beating from

many Democrats as well.

Gian Carlos Sopo is with us now.

I want to make sure I get this right.

Is it Gian Carlo or is it Gian Carlo?

Either one works.

It's like the same name as the baseball player.

He knows nothing about Jean-Carlo Stanton.

No, no,

no, no.

He has absolutely no idea.

So Jean-Carlo.

Okay.

So

there was a new

Gallup poll out,

and it shows that

Democrats now have a more positive view of socialism than capitalism.

And

what does that say to you?

You know what it says to me is that I think most people have no earthly idea what socialism is because that same poll also showed that 92% of Americans support small businesses, 86% have a positive view of entrepreneurs, and 79% of Americans said that they support the free enterprise system.

So what that means to me is that most Americans, when you ask them about socialism, they are, like you said earlier, they have some fairy tale-like concoction in their mind of Scandinavia, when in reality, that's not what socialism is.

That's not what the democratic socialists of America are proposing.

And I believe that this level of disinformation is dangerous to the American people because I strongly believe that there is a significant constituency.

I think, let me just be clear.

I think the vast majority of Democrats, if you just speak to them on a real level, they just want better access to health care and things like that.

But there is a small but growing minority that wants to go much farther than what they have in, say, Denmark.

They would would like to actually socialize the economy.

They want to abolish private ownership of enterprise.

I think that's dangerous, and

it looks absolutely nothing like the kind of system that they have in Scandinavia.

I checked with a dozen Norwegian economists, 11 of which said, no, these views are fringe, including by our standards.

I mean,

the Scandinavian countries, in some cases, are more free than we are at this point.

I mean,

the capitalist system, they just take more in taxes and then give more out, but the actual business is not regulated like it is here.

Yeah, it's probably easier to start a business in Copenhagen than in California now.

That's crazy.

Yeah, I mean, those countries are incredibly free, even by conservative estimates and conservative rankings and libertarian rankings.

Countries like Denmark performing incredibly well.

According to the World Bank,

you know, Denmark and Norway and Sweden are some of the freest economies in the world and easiest places to start a business.

Some of them even outrank the United States.

And not only those countries, but also we're talking about Canada and the UK as well.

So I think there is a

very

tremendous misconception in the United States as to what democratic socialism is and what it is not.

The words might be phonetically similar, but social democracy and democratic socialism are not the same thing they're like distant cousins that at one point were uh much closer aligned but i but after world war ii they started uh moving in different directions and particularly at the height of the cold war where the social democrats said this is not what we want and we want to move in a different direction so do you see do you see anybody i mean i i follow you uh now on uh twitter and i see the beating you're i see the beating that you're taking um and you know i understand that i mean you're taking on your own you're taking on your own party.

Do you see anybody really standing up?

I mean, look at Cuomo last week.

He was only doing that because he's in the race for his life and he had to come out and say, hey, I'm socialist too.

Do you see anybody standing against the Democratic socialists in the Democratic Party really taking a principled

American constitutional stand?

I think what most Democrats whom I speak with and whom

I pay attention to, they kind of like trying to weather out the storm.

And then you have a small group that I believe is trying to utilize this momentum as an opportunity to increase their power.

And I think that's dangerous.

I remember, well, I didn't see it personally, obviously, but President Kennedy's inaugural address where he warns developing countries around the world not to ride the back of the tiger or else they're going to end up inside.

And I believe that if we continue fueling this rise of democratic socialism, the Democratic Party is going to go from being what's historically been a center-left party with maybe a socialist wing to being a socialist party

with a centrist wing.

I believe that's dangerous for the country, and it's moving in the

wrong direction.

You don't think that that's already happened?

I mean, you know, watching,

I think the last 12 years have been

pretty remarkable on how far left the Democrats have moved.

Yeah, I think on some issues, I believe, for example, this rise of

intersectional identity politics, I think, is dangerous.

I believe in

that this knee-jerk reaction to thinking that

the first solution to any problem is to say, well, let's get the federal government involved.

I think

that's not a wise decision.

So I think in some regards, yes.

In some regards, in other ways, I think

more like on social policies,

you know, and on some economic policies, they've moved more to the left.

On others, they've kind of stayed where they've been historically.

What I'm worried about is the silence.

And I think more people need to speak up about this.

I believe it's important.

There is, like I said, I think there's a massive disinformation campaign underway.

And there are members of the press who are complicit in this, who are issuing these phony explanations of what democratic

socialism is.

Of course, they always leave out the part about nationalizing businesses and turning small companies into co-ops.

I mean, Glenn, imagine if you had to turn your business into a co-op.

You wouldn't survive.

It's not how most businesses should be designed or can function that way.

So I think more people need to speak up about this.

And I'm I welcome the beating.

I think

it's entertaining sometimes, but it's nothing compared to what people in places like Venezuela are going through on a daily basis who have to live under this system, which is absolutely terrible.

And, you know, it's funny, I was this weekend.

I went to Disney with my wife.

According, you know, what's bizarre is that, you know, she comes from a socialist country.

She goes to a place like Disney and she's in heaven.

She thinks it's amazing.

I know you're a big fan of Walt Disney, too.

And I saw your Prague or You video.

When you take a democratic socialist to Disney, their first reaction is to start hurling accusations of racism and inequality and so forth.

I mean, I don't understand in what version of the universe these people live in,

but it's in, you cannot give them an inch.

That's what I'm absolutely convinced of.

And I believe it's shameful that

the party of Kennedy, the party of Truman, I mean,

how did we go from being the party of Jack Kennedy and Frank Sinatra to being the party of Bernie Sanders and some guy now who's going out there saying that America has never been a great country?

I think that's absolutely shameful.

This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

And don't forget, rate us on iTunes.

Mariana Gonsted,

she's a woman who has all kinds of titles behind her name and

is a very accomplished woman.

But we'll get to that in a second.

I first want you to hear her just as somebody who grew up in Venezuela and whose family is in Venezuela.

She was there in May of this year, and we wanted to get her on the phone to talk to us about it.

Mariana, how are you?

Fine.

Thanks for having me, Glenn.

You bet.

So tell me about your trip to Venezuela.

Yes.

Well, I grew up in Venezuela and

I was there until I finished my law degree and I worked for the Supreme Court before Chavez started

this new regime.

So I haven't really lived in Venezuela since 1998 when he won elections.

But I have been working with all Latin America and countries.

And

I went in May

because there was going to be a national election on May 18th.

And the elections were not going to be recognized.

And my father was in a critical condition.

So, but when I was first there in December, I have to go there because my father couldn't even find mirror lags and I have to fly there with two bags like of mirror and protein shakes.

My father ended up in the hospital because of the lack of medicines basically.

So you

go ahead.

Venezuela used to be a rich,

and it still is.

That's the most, the fascinating part about all this is that I think Venezuela is like Apple.

It's a country with extraordinary resources that have not been, that are still there.

It's just Apple was a government that doesn't allow the people to participate and it's very unstable.

But

I grew up in a country where we have

everybody in like, I mean, most Venezuelans used to be able to travel to Florida.

And there was a saying saying, like, it is so cheap, give me two.

We were used to have, like, the

luxury brands that I have not even seen in the United States.

Venezuelans were used to luxury, like, they were used to

like, have the best shampoo brands in the world, and now there is not even, if they, there is not even like bar soaps or anything.

And there was not even water.

I couldn't even shower

when I was there.

You basically have to, I showered twice in 14 days.

I lost, I ate like from a load of bread in

14 days, and I ended up losing 14 pounds.

People are now starving.

I talked

to one of my friends last night, and he was in tears.

Basically said, If you're going to say something, make sure the audience in the United States knows that this oil-rich country is starving.

Families are eating out of

the garbage can.

This is unbearable.

What happened?

How did the country

go from a country very much like the United States, very, very wealthy, to a country now that literally they have eaten the animals in the zoo?

Yes.

Well, I have to tell you this.

I grew up with a mother that told us that we were fish of a tank and if she if my parents stopped feeding us we would perish

and whenever we

drove by the poor neighborhoods that used to be 80% of the population or approximately that percentage and now it's even more

she actually told us that they were fish of the ocean and that the fish of the ocean knew how to survive if they were not fed.

So I grew up with a deep admiration for the poor.

They were able to figure it out.

When I was at Harvard, I realized that at the business school, they were trying to teach like creativity, like teamwork.

And at the same time, I was conducting clinical projects on participation in Venezuela.

And I saw how the leaders of these low-income communities have developed all these skills that you have to develop when you lack resources.

And yet, they were not allowed to participate.

They were invisible.

So it is very, it's a very volatile situation when you have the majorities, the majorities, even during the 40 years of democracy in Venezuela, were disenfranchised.

That is not sustainable.

I remember every time we were going to the university, I studied with my brother-in-law.

And when we were going to the university, like you have to drive through like a lot of like poor neighborhoods.

And I said to him over and over again every morning, this only needs one leader, one leader to mobilize this massive social injustice.

And sure enough, in my second year or third year of Los Co, Chavez attacked the presidential palace with a tank.

Nobody knew who he was and he became a hero.

And he became a hero because of the silent majority, the ones that had been excluded and the very poor.

correct yes and the and the economic measures that were taken at that time with an increase of the gasoline.

So is so and is is this something that seems to I mean it happens a lot in Latin America and I and I don't understand why maybe you can explain it.

Sure.

The

the

up until recently the United States, the presidency has not been you know a regal thing and we haven't looked to a strong man who could just tell them all to sit down and shut up.

And we're becoming more and more like that.

That seems to be very Latin America, where they look for a hero

just to come in and solve the problems.

Is this accurate at all?

Correct.

Yes.

Like I have been working for the past 20 years with other countries in the regions precisely to try to address this mindset that always look for like a savior, like

this called a caudillo, like a strong man that is supposed to like help them and liberate them.

Like, so in the past, it was Simon Bolivar.

And

right now, well, like recently it was Chavez.

And it's so much to the point that Chavez is dead and Venezuelans still scream, Chavez is alive.

So they don't see him, they don't see him any differently than Sean Penn in Hollywood.

They don't see him as the beginning of the problem.

Yeah, no.

And

to be complete honest, my main concern with Venezuela is not even what's going on right now.

And not just Venezuela, the entire region, is that the Chavez regime has called their regime a participatory and protagonistic democracy.

And

in which like one person is the one that makes the decisions, that actually breathes corruption, abuse, and massive exclusion.

It's It's like having a solo instrument playing.

The world has not seen what Latin America could look like when every person is allowed to participate, including the fish of the ocean, so that we would move.

So, right now, Venice Latin America has moved historically from a solo instrument leader to massive revolutions.

So, all the instruments playing at the same time, producing noise.

It is about time to have a very different type of leadership, a participatory leader that really like the maestro of an orchestra is able to not just play like a solo instrument, but be the conductor of the orchestra and allow every instrument to participate so that we can move from noise to music.

The world is not going in that direction.

I mean,

nobody is headed in that direction.

Well, actually,

Glenn, we did,

you are absolutely right.

And that is the very reason why I became a law professor in the United States.

I used to represent 11,000 students in Venezuela.

So if I was there right now, I would have been killed or incarcerated.

And

I thought and I saw how participation could be done.

And

when if you have the channels and you develop the skill to participate, and we did it in Brazil.

So I became became a law professor to be able to prove to the world that it could be done.

And in Brazil, like you can, anyone can go and Google it.

We actually

were given an opportunity at St.

Thomas to, with two experts in civil procedure, they were

going to pass a law.

And they decided that they wanted to be more participatory.

And

we selected leaders, well Brazilians selected leaders from seven sectors of society from business leaders low-income community leaders the legal field the judicial sector the non-profit sector and they built consensus

three times first per sector and then at a national level regarding what was the the preferred option to resolve their disputes.

And it was very interesting because it took like six months to train the the mediators and then the mediators trained the leaders and then the structures were put into place.

And

the main difference was how

they were given a seat at the table, but they were also trained in how to participate rather than just persuade others.

Basically, the main difference on participation is that the final agreement has to have the flavor of all stakeholders and it is possible.

I mean, I didn't invent this.

This is basic

consensus building from MIT, Lariso's kind, and it has been done.

And it's called collaborative governance.

When citizens can participate at the local level, we did it at the national level just to prove it could be done.

And in Brazil, that is the fifth largest country in the world.

So

if the stakeholders, if the leaders learn the skills and the structures are created,

well, it's called Building the Latin America that we want

in SSRN, and anybody can

access it.

It's free, it's online, and they can see what we have done.

The mediators in Brazil are still there, they are alive, and they could lead.

I trained them, we worked together, and just to demonstrate that it could be done.

But

you need to have representative democracies, and this will supplement the representative democracy so that right now, as you said, Latin America looks at heroes, right?

And

when they look at

heroes, they basically gave them like a

blank check, you know, so that they can do whatever with their mandate.

Well, this is like a way to supplement representative democracies with consensus building so that when they have the mandate, they have like an organized civic society that would limit the political power.

Mariana, let me take you back here to Venezuela.

You lost 14 pounds.

You don't recognize some people that you even grew up with because they've lost so much weight.

Do you have friends that have gone to prison for their political stance?

Yeah, well, I mean, I haven't, I don't live there since like 1998, but I do have, I do, I do know like

Venezuelan students and members actually of the of the National Assembly, like most recently, like there were like two brothers like that were incarcerated.

And one of them was actually a member of Congress and was incarcerated for giving a speech that I would have given.

So you can basically not speak up or you are in jail.

And they are like two legislative bodies right now, two Supreme Courts.

There is a Supreme Court that actually is operating from Colombia, and they,

and no news.

I mean, the most desperate part about all these, Glenn, is that none of this is covered in the media.

You know, it's like there is a Venezuelan Supreme Court that is operating in Colombia, and they sentence the Venezuelan government to 18 years and three months.

And we don't hear about that here.

You know, that is unheard of?

The best of the Glenn Beck program.

I'm going to go take Steve in New York, who's been holding for a while on the topic of the Catholic Church and what's happening

with the church and the massive scandal in Pennsylvania.

Hello, Steve.

Hey, good morning, Glenn.

How are you?

I'm good.

Well, um, I'm a lifelong Catholic, and I've seen this a long time.

I've been exposed to this for a long time, and um

my heart is broken, but I've despaired even further because I don't s I haven't seen them addressing one of the worst problems in the Catholic Church, and that's the specific incidence of homosexual pedophilia.

This is, of course, a very politically incorrect topic to bring up.

I was going to say, I saw a lot of people saying that there is no such thing as homosexual pedophilia, but I mean, I think there is.

They were abusing, in some cases, a small number

of girls were abused, but the vast majority was boys.

Now, maybe that's just access, or

you know, I don't know.

I mean, you're sick either way, so it doesn't matter.

But

the problem here is

there's some real sickness in the

in the way the the priests, I I don't know, are selected or live or what.

The the culture is obviously very, very bad.

Well, I am so glad that you mentioned that because that's really what I want to talk about.

Uh there's an excellent book on this subject written by Michael Rose called Goodbye Good Men.

And he is it's a very, very

knowledgeable and and deeply researched book.

And I read it years ago.

He talks about how this is not just haphazard.

This was a very deliberate movement within, you know, among the leaders of the Catholic Church.

They deliberately recruited

people who are sympathetic to this

lifestyle.

So, Steve,

as a Catholic, I mean, I'm not a Catholic, but

as a former former Catholic,

I would want to see the Pope get on a plane and clean that thing out from top to bottom and make a huge deal out of this.

This is the second time, and I don't see that happening.

Do you?

No, I don't.

And

that's the real heartbreaker of all of this is I don't see any

attempt to address

what is the problem.

I mean, the problem is not,

you know what the Catholic Church refers to this as sexual immaturity, for instance.

But they will not call it by its name.

It has a name.

Its name is, you know, it's perversion and homosexual pedophilia.

That's what we've got.

Steve, thank you very much.

We'll be watching it.

And as you watch it, make sure you call up and give us an update.

Irma, Irma, North Carolina.

Hi, Glenn.

It's an honor.

Thank you.

True honor.

Thank you.

Glenn, I'm also a lifelong Catholic like Steve,

and in trying to distill all of this and incorporate it into

my faith and my everyday life.

You know, there's anger and there's shame and there's just

to use your word, outrage.

And I'm not addicted to it, but in this case, it applies.

Power corrupts when you get right down to it.

There's a story on page 14 of our diocesan newspaper.

And although it's way in the back, I mean, it's pretty, pretty thorough, but it includes information that I was unaware of.

The abuse of Catholic sisters,

the abuse of students.

I mean, it just goes on and on.

That's bad.

And fairly disgusting.

Nobody's talking about term limits for the hierarchy in the church.

And I think we need to do that.

And I think that...

Would you be for changing the way that allowing priests to be married?

I think we need psychologists and psychiatrists to

help us dissect what's happened and understand what's happened to see if that's a problem.

I mean, you know, when I think of,

well, you talked about humility a week ago, and the person that came to mind is my own husband.

You know, I couldn't imagine being married to somebody who has this kind of propensity.

So I don't know how that can be the solution, but I don't know enough about it to say, you know, yay or nay.

But I would certainly be interested in hearing what other people think the solution is.

I know the church is talking about panels that include lay people and

other members that are not priests who who work within the church and I think that's all fine and good but I think you know like Steve said we have to understand why this is happening before we can get to a to a solution but you know there's an analogy to be made here with with our own government it's the church is big

and

it might be it might be beneficial to move people around more.

Parish priests are transferred from

a parish parish to another.

But that was part of actually the deal.

They were, you know,

that was what happened in the 90s, and they just made it worse here.

Right, shut it worse.

However, however,

it would leave,

it would

when it's when it's less concentrated,

and as our awareness increases, it's just a good, it's a good example of how perception is not reality all the time.

And I think that as lay people, as the people within the church become more conscious of what's going on and

victims or people who feel that they might be becoming a victim are encouraged to speak out, then

they would not, I think the power would not be so deep-seated.

But I do think that this,

I don't understand enough about being a bishop to say whether or not it would be applicable, but you know, maybe they need a term limit.

Okay, Irma, thank you so much for your phone call.

I appreciate it.

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