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[00:00:00] Happy President's Day everybody. So, a [00:00:02] couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of [00:00:04] receiving an award from City Journal, [00:00:05] which is a a publication of the [00:00:07] Manhattan Institute. We have their [00:00:08] guests on our program all the time. They [00:00:10] have an amazing number of truly [00:00:12] wonderful and talented people. The [00:00:14] speech that I gave there, I think that [00:00:15] it is worth the listen because it speaks [00:00:17] to where we are in our politics right [00:00:19] now and the optimism we ought to have [00:00:20] about America going forward. Here's what [00:00:22] it sounded like. [00:00:24] >> Well, first of all, thank you all for [00:00:26] coming to my bar mitzvah. [00:00:31] It's obviously an honor to be introduced [00:00:33] by Douglas Murray and uh also a [00:00:35] challenge because having to speak after [00:00:38] Douglas Murray is always a challenge. I [00:00:40] don't have the maleifluous voice and his [00:00:42] pacing is so much more soothing than my [00:00:44] own. [00:00:46] I I want to thank obviously City [00:00:48] Journal, perhaps the finest intellectual [00:00:50] publication in all of America. [00:00:58] I of course also want to thank Manhattan [00:01:00] Institute which is a spectacular think [00:01:02] tank to which I myself and becoming a [00:01:05] donor because of its important mission. [00:01:07] It's a deeply deeply important [00:01:09] institution in American life and given [00:01:11] all of the chaos that is now emerging in [00:01:13] the think tank world. A significantly [00:01:15] more important institution than it ever [00:01:18] was. I think that it's going to grow by [00:01:19] leaps and bounds and certainly should. [00:01:27] I also want to thank a bunch of my [00:01:29] DailyW colleagues who came in from [00:01:31] Frozen, Tennessee. I'm pretty sure that [00:01:33] this was just an excuse for them not to [00:01:34] be in Tennessee, but I want to thank [00:01:37] particularly my business partner Caleb [00:01:39] Robinson, co-ce well now CEO of the [00:01:42] Daily Wire. You know, he's been there [00:01:44] the whole time building this alongside [00:01:46] me. [00:01:48] And there are so many other people from [00:01:49] Daily Wire here. That's wonderful. My [00:01:51] father also I want to thank because [00:01:52] without him I wouldn't be here [00:01:59] and that's just factually true. There's [00:02:01] In any case [00:02:04] I've been a longtime city Journal and [00:02:05] Manhattan Institute fan because it is [00:02:08] incredibly thoughtprovoking and because [00:02:09] of its wellressearched investigations [00:02:11] and because of its courage in saying [00:02:13] that which must be said. But there's [00:02:15] something else that I think makes City [00:02:17] Journal and Manhattan Institute unique. [00:02:19] their optimism. I'm an enormous fan of [00:02:22] both of these institutions because of [00:02:24] their unfl flagging and unwavering [00:02:26] optimism about the country. That [00:02:28] optimism shines through in their [00:02:30] particular focus, solving concrete [00:02:32] problems. To solve problems requires a [00:02:35] few presuppositions. First, that we live [00:02:38] in a system in which problems can be [00:02:40] solved. There are lots of systems where [00:02:41] you can't actually solve problems. [00:02:43] Second, that problems can be attributed [00:02:45] to discoverable and cognizable causes. [00:02:48] And third, that curing such problems is [00:02:51] not some sort of ceifian nihilistic [00:02:53] task, but a life-improving and [00:02:55] lifeaffirming one. Unfortunately, we now [00:02:58] live in a time when solving problems has [00:03:00] become p. [00:03:02] Both the left and now large segments of [00:03:04] the right, call them the horseshoe right [00:03:06] or the woke right, are no longer [00:03:08] interested in solving concrete problems. [00:03:10] Instead, both are fascinated with the [00:03:12] idea of a simple magical pill that will [00:03:15] wipe away all problems all at once. And [00:03:18] that's because both the left and the [00:03:20] swath of the right have decided that our [00:03:22] problems are unsolvable. Both have [00:03:25] decided that our system is fundamentally [00:03:27] flawed. Both have decided that our [00:03:30] problems are systemic and diffuse. Both [00:03:33] have decided that curing problems is not [00:03:35] merely a fool's errand, but [00:03:37] counterproductive because solutions tend [00:03:39] to uphold the very systems they despise. [00:03:42] And make no mistake, the left and the [00:03:44] horseshoe right despise America. truly [00:03:47] despise it. They despise the ideas of [00:03:49] the founding. They despise the nature of [00:03:51] our history. They despise what America [00:03:53] is today. To the left, the founding [00:03:56] represents a preservation of dark [00:03:58] systems of power and exploitation. To [00:04:00] the horseshoe right, the founding [00:04:02] represents the shattering of the common [00:04:04] good preserved by a vast paternalistic [00:04:06] power. To the left, American history [00:04:09] represents an unbroken chain of sins [00:04:12] springing from our original sins. [00:04:14] capitalism, religious intolerance, [00:04:16] racism. To the horseshoe right, American [00:04:20] history represents fragmentation, a [00:04:22] shift toward radical godlessness, [00:04:24] imperialistic overreach. To the left, [00:04:26] America today represents inhumity, [00:04:29] brutality to the weakest at home, and [00:04:31] even more brutality to those abroad. to [00:04:34] the horseshoe right. America today [00:04:36] represents collapse dedicated to selling [00:04:38] out its own citizens while spreading a [00:04:40] peculiar ugly form of godlessness [00:04:43] abroad. And the solution according to [00:04:46] both the left and the horseshoe right is [00:04:48] power centralization of power. Not the [00:04:51] sort of power sufficient to solve [00:04:53] problems which is to say the sorts of [00:04:55] power that the founders actually [00:04:57] envisioned. You know power divided [00:04:59] between branches and between levels of [00:05:01] polity. a different sort of power. A [00:05:04] power that is unbridled and unchecked. [00:05:06] That's the power sufficient to overthrow [00:05:09] everything. When we launched the Daily [00:05:11] Wire, we had all the usual [00:05:12] uncertainties. What if nobody listens or [00:05:14] people don't care what we have to say? [00:05:15] Well, we're glad we took the risk. 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[00:06:24] That's shopify.com/appiro. [00:06:28] The left seeks a collectivist utopia in [00:06:30] which freedom from consequence is [00:06:32] guaranteed. The horseshoe right sees a [00:06:34] revantist pre-enlightenment blood and [00:06:36] soil tyranny. Both the left and the [00:06:39] horseshoe right will hold hands to [00:06:41] achieve their common aim, tearing down [00:06:42] the system they see as fundamentally [00:06:44] evil. As Tucker Carlson and Shank [00:06:47] Weaguer recently agreed, quote, "The [00:06:48] people rigging the rules are the ones [00:06:50] with all the wealth and the power up [00:06:52] top." Their disagreements, they agreed, [00:06:54] had to be put aside in favor of [00:06:56] revolution. [00:06:57] Now, I'm not arguing that because of all [00:07:00] this, we're on the verge of some sort of [00:07:01] totalitarian takeover. Totalitarian [00:07:04] takeovers require preparation. They [00:07:06] require groundwork. They require time. [00:07:09] No, we are in phase one of that attempt. [00:07:12] the conversion the convergence of the [00:07:15] left and the horseshoe right on behalf [00:07:17] of a centralized power promising utopia [00:07:20] and invariably coming up short. A [00:07:22] government in the words of Zoran Mandani [00:07:24] that can replace the rigidity of rugged [00:07:26] individualism with the warmth of [00:07:27] collectivism. [00:07:29] A government in the words of Adrien [00:07:30] Vermule that will enjoy a capacious [00:07:33] scope of public discretion to promote [00:07:35] the common good. In democracy in [00:07:37] America, Alexis Dtoqueville famously [00:07:39] wrote of the latitudinous condition that [00:07:42] could arise in such a situation. He [00:07:44] described what he called quote an [00:07:45] innumerable multitude of men, all equal [00:07:48] and alike, incessantly endeavoring to [00:07:50] procure the petty and poulry pleasures [00:07:52] with which they glut their lives. That [00:07:54] multitude, he said, would be governed by [00:07:57] an immense and toutelary power which [00:07:59] takes upon itself alone to secure their [00:08:01] gratifications and to watch over their [00:08:03] fate. The people, he said, in such a [00:08:06] condition would be reduced to [00:08:08] enervation. Quote, the will of man is [00:08:10] not shattered, but softened, bent, [00:08:13] guided. Men are seldom forced by it to [00:08:15] act, but they are constantly restrained [00:08:17] from acting. Such a power does not [00:08:19] destroy, but it prevents existence. It [00:08:21] does not tyrannize, but it compresses, [00:08:23] enervates, extinguishes, and stupifies a [00:08:25] people till each nation is reduced to be [00:08:28] nothing better than a flock of timid and [00:08:30] industrious animals of which the [00:08:31] government is the shepherd. [00:08:33] This hits a little too close to home. [00:08:36] Like a lot too close to home. A people [00:08:40] that has lost hope. A people that has [00:08:42] retreated from the fractious, risky [00:08:45] individualism [00:08:46] that America was all about to the [00:08:49] comfort of centralized power. A people [00:08:51] that has surrendered its autonomy and [00:08:53] the mistaken belief that autonomy was [00:08:56] always an illusion. But that's just the [00:08:58] first step. Because once people are made [00:09:00] subject, once they begin to believe that [00:09:02] their choices are not actually their [00:09:03] own, that broad powerful conspiratorial [00:09:06] systems are to blame for their [00:09:07] individual problems, then they are ripe [00:09:10] for something far worse than that state [00:09:11] of innovation. They are ripe for [00:09:13] tyranny. [00:09:15] Innervation eventually gives way to [00:09:17] frustration and then to rage as soft [00:09:19] desperatism fails to achieve utopia. [00:09:22] Then people are left with a stark [00:09:23] choice. a reversion to freedom or the [00:09:27] embrace of autocracy. [00:09:29] Unless unless we fight back, unless we [00:09:33] work to rekindle in the hearts of our [00:09:35] fellow Americans bravery and optimism, [00:09:38] as the Manhattan Institute, City [00:09:40] Journal, and Daily Wire do day in and [00:09:42] day out, we must encourage conservatives [00:09:45] and all Americans to embrace what it [00:09:46] means to be an American once again. What [00:09:49] it means to actually dream the American [00:09:51] dream. The American dream is not a dream [00:09:54] of a Marxist commune or a feudal estate. [00:09:57] It's not the dream of a tutillary power [00:09:59] presiding over a vast redistributive [00:10:01] scheme or the dream of a self-appointed [00:10:04] moral elite coercing us all into their [00:10:06] quasi integralist vision of a common [00:10:08] good. [00:10:09] It is the dream of a free and ethical [00:10:12] people crossing oceans and mountains to [00:10:14] build better lives for themselves, [00:10:15] carving communities from wilderness, [00:10:18] trading with and giving to one another, [00:10:19] and most of all, making better lives for [00:10:21] their children. The American dream is [00:10:24] the dream that my great great [00:10:25] grandparents had and that all of our [00:10:27] ancestors had to solve the problems of [00:10:30] life using the liberty and virtue and [00:10:32] determination granted to us by our [00:10:34] creator in the freest most prosperous [00:10:36] governmental system ever crafted by [00:10:39] human minds. [00:10:41] That dream is with us still. [00:10:49] That dream has not been stolen by a [00:10:51] shadowy elite. It is there for all of us [00:10:54] for the taking. So we must rekindle that [00:10:57] spirit, the spirit of our founders and [00:10:59] our forefathers in our own hearts and in [00:11:01] the hearts of our children before it's [00:11:03] too late. With the help of God and with [00:11:05] the truthful optimism of institutions [00:11:07] like Manhattan Institute and City [00:11:08] Journal, we will. Thank you so much. [00:11:14] So, that was a speech I gave at the City [00:11:16] Journal dinner a couple of weeks ago. [00:11:18] We'll be back here with more on the [00:11:19] show, on the actual news tomorrow. Hope [00:11:21] you have a wonderful President's Day [00:11:22] weekend and we'll see you then.