Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan deciding not to launch a GOP challenge to President Trump in 2020. They also examine Jim’s research into the staggering amount of corruption non-profit groups on the right are committing in the name of supposedly helping conservative candidates. Finally, Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper slams socialism and takes on a chorus of boos at the Democratic convention in California.
Listen to “Why Isn’t Maduro Leaving Venezuela?” on Spreaker.
President Trump is applying stiff sanctions against Venezuela and demanding that Nicholas Maduro give up power, but Maduro isn’t leaving and the tough U.S. stance may actually be helping China, Russia, and Iran gain a foothold in the Americas.
The Trump administration wants to see Maduro go in favor of Juan Guaido, but instead of folding under the pressure of U.S.-led diplomacy, Maduro is now cozying up to some of our greatest adversaries.
American Foreign Policy Council Senior Fellow Larry Haas, a former Clinton administration official, says the U.S. demand for Maduro to go is futile and that Trump doesn’t have other leverage – much like President Obama’s demand for Bashar al-Assad to give up power in Syria back in 2013.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Haas explain why he believes the Trump administration is weakening its position on Venezuela through actions taken on other issues. He also explain what policy positions might be more effective and why China, Russia, and Iran are so interested in helping Maduro.
Listen to “Bravo DeSantis, Dems & Illegal Voters, Millennials & Socialism” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America enthusiastically cheer the first two months of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and point out that good things can happen when a leader hits the ground running on the things they promised to do. They also wince as just six House Democrats agree that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be voting. And they wonder if millennials are really far to the left or whether they embrace labels they don’t quite understand as 73 percent favor the government instituting universal health care but 79 percent want to keep private insurance.
Listen to “Dems Defend Infanticide, Maduro Detains Media, Sanders Can’t Quit Socialism” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America lament the Democratic derailing of the Born Alive Act that would have required doctors to provide care for babies who survive failed abortions. They also defend Univison’s Jorge Ramos as he is detained in Venezuela after confronting Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro over his violent and corrupt record. And they are frustrated by Bernie Sanders offering very weak criticism of the Maduro regime while he often passionately condemns American business.
Listen to “Why the Green New Deal is Really Red” on Spreaker.
Socialism is re-entering the national debate and Cold War scholar Dr. Paul Kengor sees the ideas and policies that fueled the spread of communism returning, this time disguised as the green agenda.
Proposals like the Green New Deal call for a significant transformation of American society in order to combat climate change. In his State of the Union address, President Trump criticized such ideas, saying, “America will never be a socialist country.” Since then, he makes ridiculing socialism a major part of his campaign messaging, and many allies echo his words of condemnation.
Dr. Kengor is a professor of political science at Grove City College. He has written a number of books including “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries have Manipulated Progressives for a Century” and “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Communism”.
Dr. Kengor argues that the Democratic green agenda is socialistic, and, whether they admit to it or not, their desire for more big government control is their driving passion.
“That’s where their hearts are. That’s when you really saw their motivations, what drives them, their broader thinking about this.”, said Dr. Kengor
Kengor sees an old ideology at the root of these policies.
“Three of their four planks are about things like the Economic Bill of Rights, abolishing the electoral college; things that are political, economic, ideological much more than they are environmental. This is, sort of, classic leftist, progressive, socialistic, economic socialism more than it is green environmentalism.”
Dr. Kengor believes this is a time tested strategy of the far left.
“Many of those old reds went green”, he explains. After the fall the Soviet Empire, many communist and social politicians in Russia and Eastern Europe joined environmentalist parties. Their attraction to environmentalism, Dr. Kengor says, comes from their desire for power.
“For the old communists and socialists, what the environmental movement allows them to do is control and regulate and limit people and resources.”
Kengor contends the cause of environmentalism is especially attractive to socialists because of nature’s inability to object.
“Among other things, the beauty of it for them is that the trees and frogs and rocks and birds can’t tell them to go take a hike.”, Dr. Kengor says. “So it’s sort of the perfect silent constituency for the far-left.”
Kengor is encouraged by the overwhelming negative response the New Green Deal received, and believes Mitch McConnell’s call for a vote was brilliant. He thinks the legislation is clearly ridiculous, and welcomes the opportunity to see where Democrats stand on the issue.
“All of which makes me wonder, if maybe Elizabeth Warren’s old pal Ed Markey from Massachusetts didn’t pull a sabotage on the young Ocasio-Cortez. This really ought to be a career killer for her”, says Dr. Kengor.
Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Dr. Kengor’s critique of socialism, why he thinks the Left’s environmentalism is simply a vehicle for increasing state authority, and what he thinks the proper response to proposals like the Green New Deal should be.
By Christian Whittle
Listen to “House Chairman Eliot Engel Question’s White House Strategy in Venezuela” on Spreaker.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel is speaking out on the crisis in Venezuela and the Trump administration’s response. Engel blames President Nicholas Maduro for the chaos there but warned against military intervention. Engel instead highlighted the plight of refugees, calling on the US to accept more Venezuelan’s into the country to relieve the humanitarian crisis. Radio America’s Christian Whittle reports.
Listen to “Green New Deal: What Would Our Future Be Like?” on Spreaker.
Progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are embracing a “Green New Deal,” aimed at saving the planet from the effects of climate change, but what does the plan really call for, is it realistic, and what would be the impact on the U.S. if we pursue it?
To begin, the Green New Deal calls for and to fossil fuels and cars that use them by 2030.
Power the Future Executive Director Daniel Turner says that’s where it starts but it gives the government power over many different areas of our lives.
“They call it the Green New Deal and it’s sort of under this guise of caring about the environment. But the Green New Deal also talks about things like a guaranteed living wage for all Americans, a guaranteed job for all Americans, free education, free health care.
“This is what the left does a lot. They take something like the earth and say everyone wants a clean earth. We want a clean earth. We want clean air and clean water, as do I. But then they sneak in all these other provisions that have nothing to do with green.
“It sounds like the New Deal of FDR. It is just an over-encroachment of government in the lives of Americans. That’s why they try to hide some of those other details,” said Turner.
Listen to the full podcast as Turner explains why it is literally impossible to abandon fossil fuels by 2030, what would happen to our country and our economy if we could, and what the cost of all this would be on taxpayers.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud the Trump administration for rolling back the burdensome EPA clean power plant regulations and giving the states more flexibility in how they deal with emissions. They also unload on CNN and other media outlets for reporting on tearful reunions among family members living in North and South Korea after nearly 70 years, blaming the separation on the Korean War rather than a brutally repressive communist regime in North Korea. And they shake their heads as President Trump takes to Twitter and muses about pulling security clearances based on what former national security officials say about him on cable television.
Listen to “Why the Left is Lurching Towards Socialism” on Spreaker.
A new Gallup poll shows a majority of Democrats are favorable towards socialism and their opinion of capitalism is quickly souring, a trend that one respected expert chalks up to the political rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders and a full century of education steering America’s youth to appreciate a system that has failed everywhere it’s been tried.
In the survey, 57 percent of Democrats and Americans who lean to the political left have a favorable view toward socialism. That is largely unchanged since 2016 and only five points higher than in 2010.
However, only 47 percent of Democrats have a favorable view towards capitalism. Fifty-six percent of Democrats endorsed capitalism in 2016.
In contrast, 71 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents approve of capitalism. Just 16 percent are favorable towards socialism.
Not only are Democrats willing to back socialism in opinion polls, they are making political stars out of figures like Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
So how did socialism become so popular just one generation after the fall of the Iron Curtain? Heritage Foundation Distinguished Fellow Lee Edwards says this supposedly sudden shift is really decades in the making.
“This is really the result of about one century of progressive politics in education, going all the way back to Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt through President Franklin D. Roosevelt to [Lyndon B. Johnson], culminating with Mr. Obama and his Obamacare.
“All of those are marks of socialism and progressive belief that the government knows better than the average American what to do with his life,” said Edwards, who is also chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
Edwards points out that socialism has failed everywhere it’s been tried, from the Soviet Union to China to Cuba, and resulted in mass repression or even mass murder by the tens of millions.
Still, he says the allure of getting something for nothing is very strong.
“They think it’s a free lunch. Remember our friend Milton Friedman used to say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But those people, young millennials particularly, think they can get not only a free lunch and a free breakfast, a free dinner, free education, and maybe a job guaranteed,” said Edwards.
He says young people trying to navigate adulthood are especially susceptible.
“Democrats, particularly, young Democrats, particularly millennials looking for answers to life are saying, ‘Gee, socialism sounds wonderful. Let’s try that.’ Then some of these victories have come along like the lady up in New York City and people say that is the future.
“What they don’t realize of course is that socialism has never worked. It’s failed in every single country where it’s been tried in the last one hundred years,” said Edwards, adding that young progressives people love the benefits of capitalism without even realizing it.
“I have to wonder if these millennials would be willing to give up their iPhones. I don’t think so, but that is what would happen if you take socialism to its logical outcomes,” said Edwards.
Socialists push back against the argument that socialism is a universal failure, often pointing to Scandinavian countries as success stories. Edwards says there’s just one problem with that assertion.
“Denmark and Sweden, which are always held up as examples by the socialists in this country are not socialist. Yes, they have high taxes, but both of them are on the record as saying, ‘We believe in private ownership of major industries and we are not socialist.’ Recently, the prime minister of Denmark said that here in Washington, D.C.,” said Edwards.
Criticizing the fundamentals of the American system is now mainstream among liberals. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., drew strong condemnation Wednesday for dismissing the notion of American greatness.
“We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great. We have not reached greatness,” said Cuomo, arguing that greatness cannot be achieved until more equality is achieved on behalf of women.
Edwards was floored.
“That is all too predictable, because a socialist is not a patriot. He is not for the country in which he lives. He’s an internationalist, so he is not for private property. He is for the government dictating or circumscribing what people are going to be allowed to do with their own property.
“Mr. Cuomo ought to be ashamed of himself. It was his father who fought for this country and was a patriot and was proud of it. His forebears came from Italy and they made their way here. Why? Because they thought America was great,” said Edwards.
The challenge for Edwards and his allies is to combat the messages of socialism throughout our culture. He says education got us into this mess and it is the only way to turn the tide back towards freedom. He says it’s not hard to punch holes in the case for socialism.
“It does sound good until you begin to pick it apart and until you begin asking questions like who’s going to pay for it and what are you going to have to give up to get all of this wonderful free stuff.
“It seems to us at Heritage that it’s a matter of education and of setting the record straight about the absolute, abject failure of socialism for a century and more,” said Edwards.
Edwards says conservatives also need to do a better job of proclaiming the virtues of capitalism and free enterprise, but he believes there are already some signs of improvement.
“I see some encouraging signs of teaching high school teachers what socialism is all about, taking that message back and then educating our young people.
“We have to do it. We can’t let this thing slip and slide until we find ourselves in the murky socialist depths,” said Edwards.
Listen to “Dems Embrace Socialism, Boot Wants Dems in Control, Vox Calls Revolution A ‘Mistake'” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are more than happy to run against a Democratic Party that is now embracing socialism, and they worry that young people don’t understand socialism or its history. They shake their heads at “conservative” Max Boot, who wrote for the Washington Post that he wants Democrats to win control of Congress in the midterm elections. And they take aim at Vox for it’s absurd column suggesting the American Revolution was a “monumental mistake.”