In a stirring and candid conversation, John Rush and his guest Andy Pate take on the pressing issues of the day on Rush to Reason. At the heart of this discussion is a deep dive into why certain political narratives resonate with voters, peeling back layers to uncover factors beyond just economic concerns that gain political traction. They examine masculinity under threat, immigration, and how these themes may be changing voter allegiances in unprecedented ways. Against the backdrop of recent elections, John and Andy articulate how the spending power of individuals and societal attitudes towards wokeness intersect with voting
SPEAKER 15 :
This is Rush to Reason. You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush. My advice to you is to do what your parents did! Get a job, Turk! You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 09 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 15 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Myself, Andy Pate, Charlie Grimes. We’ll talk about some of the cabinet, you know, some of the picks, the appointments that are being, I mean, none of these, of course, are official until we get a little further down the road, but they’re as good as done. Right, and they’re awesome. These will be done. Now, we’ll go through some of these. I don’t have all of them, and some of you may have even had some things that have come up since we’ve been on air that I’ve not been able to follow in the last few hours because Trump is rattling these things out left and right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, he was ready to go.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, but before we get into that, can I ask you something? Sure. Sure. Why did we win so well? Why did we win so big? And here’s what I mean. A lot of people think, well, it’s just the economy, the economy, right? Because that’s the number one polled reason. But was that the biggest differentiating factor?
SPEAKER 03 :
um what i what i mean is this was that the change agent of an issue or was it something else well i think i would say it’s not the economy anytime your wallet is affected you start to wake up true but then on top of that when you and we talked about this even leading into the election when you’re in this case i’ll talk about male voters because i don’t think it matters whether you’re young old white black asian hispanic doesn’t make any difference i mean the reality is male if if you’ve got male genitalia you are the enemy of the left period right makes makes no difference what your nationality or anything else is or your age by the way but now now we’ll say this if you’re a middle-aged white guy you’re even one step up the ladder of hate from the left so i hate all men But especially white men in general. And here’s what I think happened is not only, Andy, was there a little bit of a wake up call on, you know, maybe I should pay a little more attention to politics. Man, I don’t have in my wallet what I once had when Donald Trump was president.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know I don’t follow politics, but… But the general suckiness has me waking up a little.
SPEAKER 03 :
Things are definitely different. And then I’ve got, you know, my… My wife and my girlfriend and these women that I’m around that are just constantly talking about this Kamala thing and what’s going on there and telling me I’ve got to vote for them or they might withhold sex from me and on and on we go. And I’m not exaggerating what I’m saying, by the way. Right. Because it’s happening now. So the reality is these guys are waking up thinking, oh, geez. I don’t have as much in my wallet. I’m hated by one political party. In fact, all I hear about is how I shouldn’t be who I am. I’m toxic. I need to apologize for who I am. I’m toxic. I’m just a, sorry for the language here, but I’m just a bastard of an individual. I need to apologize for everything I’ve ever done in life because I’m the lowest of low. And then all of a sudden Trump comes along. who’s a big MMA guy, and he’s a man’s man. He’s an alpha male, and he’s like, I’m going to put money back in your pocket like I once did when I was president past. And if you want that back, vote for me. And these guys are thinking, hallelujah, I’m in.
SPEAKER 05 :
May I jump in? Sure. Okay. I think that’s one of the ones I was going to bring up. So you got ahead of me on that. Way to go. When people say in the exit polls it was the economy, the economy, that’s why I voted it was because of the economy, that’s a loaded answer, all right? First of all, you’ll have a lot of people who voted for Kamala who say it’s because of the economy. Because why? She’s going to give them all kinds of things. She’s going to redistribute wealth. To them. She’s going to rob other people on their behalf. So actually a lot of the people who said economy voted both ways. Right. And that’s true in most elections. But if you go back to 2022, what was the number one issue? Everybody said the economy. They say it every time. But what was the number one issue that made a difference that moved people from one side to the other side and gave the Democrats their blue wave in 2022? It was abortion.
SPEAKER 03 :
Part of it and also just the whole wokeness. Yeah, but it was abortion. Oh, you’re talking 2022. Yes, 2022. Absolutely. Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER 1 :
2022.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Even though the economy is the one that people would say is the number one reason, it was abortion. Abortion was the X factor.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s why there was a blue wave in 2022.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. Abortion was the X factor. Let’s put it that way. The X factor. Okay. Now, in 2024, what was the X factor? Well, I think there were a few, and I think the economy was not the major one.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s the primer is all it is.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. It’s the primer, but it’s not the paint.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Number one, immigration.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s part of it as well, because a lot of it we talked about in the first hour with Jordan Goodman.
SPEAKER 05 :
This was the year of lashing out at over 10 million in the last few years, just being allowed to flood across our borders. People had never seen anything like it. Number two, the war on manhood. In 2022, it was seen as the war on women. OK, because of abortion. Right. And that’s why the abortion backlash this year was seen as the war on men. And another one that I think is a partner of that is the transgendered issue.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s a war on men as well, in a way.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. It is a war on men, but it’s also a war on femininity and masculinity. Transgenderism. I think was a huge vote getter for the right in this election. Huge. I think people are really understating because why it made the left weird because people will look at, they’ll look at gay people and say, okay, there are people who just want to do something different with their bodies, whatever, live your life. But transgenders, they look and say, wait a minute. These are people who think they’re in the wrong body and they’re lit with, and they are literally okay with cutting parts off.
SPEAKER 03 :
of underage kids’ bodies. And then you add the kid factor into that to where we’re not going to push that same ideology into a 10-year-old. Right. Or younger.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and they want to hide from their parents that they’re pushing this ideology on their kids, and their kids are getting puberty blockers, and they’re cutting things off, and so forth.
SPEAKER 03 :
And then the pronoun thing, yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, and then the whole pronouns. When Trump put out the ad, you know, she’s for they, them, I’m for you, That ad, that was the ad of the cycle. Okay. And so when I think about, yeah, the economy woke people up, it was the primary primer, sorry, but the paint, the X factors were immigration. And the war on men, transgenderism, I’m going to throw one more out there, crime. Look at all the Soros DAs that got kicked to the curb. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
They’re tired of it.
SPEAKER 05 :
And this was in places like L.A., folks.
SPEAKER 03 :
They want people held accountable for a change.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. America woke up and realized something. They realized the left is lawless. And this is why they have a wide open border, because there are no laws. And every time she came out, Kamala came out and said, well, they would ask her, what about the wide open border? What about this? And she would say, well, first, we have a broken immigration system. Everybody across America was looking at her and saying this. No, we don’t. We have laws you don’t enforce. Okay. OK, we have laws. You don’t enforce any of it. And then you say it’s broken.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Have you tried enforcing it?
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I think it was a perfect storm. It was a perfect storm. We come back and talk about this even before we get into some of the cabinet picks. It was a perfect storm for Republicans to capitalize on, which Donald Trump and a lot of Republicans in a lot of states did. Because keep in mind, folks, this isn’t just about the presidency. We had we now have full control of the House, full control of the Senate. Rarely does this ever happen. Donald Trump needs to really, and his team, need to really capitalize on that. We’ll talk about some of that as soon as we come back. But reality is, it wasn’t just Donald Trump. It was the whole perfect storm of what everything Andy just said, just the whole wokeness of the left was completely rejected this time around. And by the way, for all of you that love Donald Trump, and I do as well, that would have happened no matter whether he was running or… Ramazwami was running. It wouldn’t have mattered.
SPEAKER 05 :
Before we go to break, let me prove it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Am I right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, yeah. Let me prove it with movies. I’ve been saying it for the last couple years. Go woke, go broke. The more woke the movies were, with a couple of exceptions, obviously, you’ve got Barbie and you had Deadpool and Wolverine. But outside of those, overwhelmingly, the more woke the movies, the less money they make.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, the more it tanked.
SPEAKER 05 :
And the Democrats did not see that coming.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, we’ll talk more because they choose to ignore some of those things because they’re smarter than we are. Andy, I had a text message along those lines earlier today that I’ll share with you guys in a moment as well. Flesh Law is next. 303-806-8886. Whether it’s criminal or civil, you need representation, give Kevin a call today. 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
All right, before we get to the cabinet positions, by the way, thanks for all the text messages. I get a lot of those in, and I appreciate that greatly. One message I got earlier, which I should have explained, should have even opened up, but we had Jordan on, and we had a lot of things that we did in turn. But I had one message earlier that came from somebody on the left, which is fine. I get messages from all sorts of different people, middle, left, right, et cetera. Oh, we love it. And it’s great. Yeah, I appreciate that. Although this message basically said, am I going to explain to all of my Rush to Reason listeners that you guys all, and myself included, are a part of the illiterates that voted for Donald Trump, because basically that’s what we’re now being labeled. Maybe I am because I can’t talk, but we’re illiterate. We don’t know what to vote for or how to vote, so we are now in the post-literacy cycle of America because basically we’re all dumb.
SPEAKER 05 :
I see.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s what I was told today. Now, really quick, I responded with, I was nice, Andy, but I responded with, you know, as a guy that barely got out of high school, I probably fit that description very well. On the same token, I’ve been somewhat successful. I’ve run some great businesses. I try to teach other people how to be successful and how to build value in what they own and be successful themselves. And at the end of the day, frankly, I don’t want to be called one of you. So if being called literate puts me in your camp, I’m sorry, count me out.
SPEAKER 05 :
John, you don’t have a college degree and I do, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Let me tell you something. As one who has a college degree, it is not worth anywhere near what real world experience is worth. That’s simply the way it is. And, you know, I look at somebody like that and I would like to ask them this. Where is it best to get knowledge? Because when you’re talking about literacy or intellect or ignorance and all these kinds of things, words you want to throw around, what you’re really talking about is acquiring knowledge. Where’s the best place to acquire knowledge, John? Is it in a place of pure bias? like the education system and colleges? Or is it in the free market where you have a war of ideas, a free marketplace of ideas?
SPEAKER 03 :
You should learn by the real world. And I’ve said this before. I’m not against education, Andy. No, I’m not. In fact, I sent all of my kids who went to the Marines, I sent them all to college, and even he came back after the Marines and got some education there. You know, some formal education, so I’m not against formal education, but I think far too many people put their whole stake in well-being into that education versus real-world experience, and you cannot replace one for the other.
SPEAKER 05 :
No.
SPEAKER 03 :
You have to learn real-world experience, Andy.
SPEAKER 05 :
Look, I know it took you years of your life. It took me years of my life, but ultimately it’s a piece of paper, John. Ultimately it’s a piece of paper. What matters is how good are you at the job? Do you show up on time? Do you come up with good ideas? Do you help make your company more productive and more effective and more profitable? Can you do that? Can you serve more people with less resources? Can you do that?
SPEAKER 03 :
So here I got a text message that came in. There are many reasons Kamala lost. what you’re stating was characterized as misogyny. The Democrats should have not run a woman. The country is not ready. I disagree with that, by the way. I don’t agree with that. Not true. I don’t think that the majority of men that voted against Kamala Harris and or voted for Trump, you can say it however you want. There’s probably some that voted for Trump. There’s probably some that voted against her. There was a lot of people on the left, by the way, that didn’t vote for Kamala, but actually voted against Trump. So you could say the same for both sides. But I think if you run the right woman, Keep in mind, all these men love a woman, most of them, I’m guessing. I mean, that’s just the nature of men is to love the opposite sex. It’s what we do. We’re attracted that way. God made us that way, Andy. It’s very apparent. I mean, I don’t have to really get into great details.
SPEAKER 05 :
Speaking of my wife, they’re hot.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I don’t have to get into details. Thank you. We are very motivated along those lines. So if you were to run the right female candidate for president, would that female win? Yes. The problem isn’t that they ran a woman. The problem is the woman that they ran. And by the way, I do believe this. I’ll give the left a little bit of grace here. They were duped back in 2020 by her. They thought she was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. They would help win the ticket back in 2020. She was a woman of color. You know, they thought she was intelligent. She would add value to the ticket. She would add value to the office. And you saw this happen. Literally, folks, I’m not exaggerating when I say this. The minute Joe and her were inaugurated and placed into office. They put her out on tour to do a few things. And it wasn’t but three to six months later that they realized, oh, my word. She was incompetent. We really screwed up on this one. We have now got to keep her out of the press, out from in front of people, because the reality is she is lowering the IQ of everybody that listens to her by just listening to her.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. She was incompetent. Let me bring up two problems with that thought. The idea that, well, she lost because she’s a woman. America’s not ready for that. Folks, first of all, anyone who deals in polling and consulting with candidates will tell you, just being a woman adds about three points right away. Being a man is a disadvantage right out of the gate. Correct.
SPEAKER 03 :
Especially a white man.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, in winning elections. Right. Okay. So that is simply false. And number two, the Democrats started all their problems back in 2020 before they even chose Joe Biden when they didn’t choose Tulsi Gabbard. True.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 05 :
If they had chosen Tulsi Gabbard back then.
SPEAKER 03 :
They would be a different outcome today.
SPEAKER 05 :
They would have had a landslide in 2020 and another one this year.
SPEAKER 03 :
Agree. You’re 100% correct, Andy. John and Cheyenne, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
So here’s a hypothetical. If Nikki wins the primary and she was our candidate, both you guys would vote for her, no problem, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 06 :
Sure. Of course. There’s a lot of women that are sharp that are not… Kamala Harris, she is not what you’d call the sharpest knife in the drawer.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, John, really quick here before you race on back to Nikki. Nikki was polling in a polling that would pit either Trump or Nikki against the Democrat candidate. Nikki was polling eight to 10 points higher than Trump. Right. Nikki would have won a sweeping landslide even greater than the one we just saw. Now, it wouldn’t have the same aspects of it. There would be people who would not vote for Nikki who did vote for Trump. But we would have made enormous inroads in other ways.
SPEAKER 03 :
You would have seen even California be less blue than what it was in this election, John.
SPEAKER 06 :
We would have won Virginia, for instance.
SPEAKER 05 :
Correct. We would have won New Hampshire.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct. Yeah, I believe that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. I would say those two states, maybe Maine was pretty close, too.
SPEAKER 03 :
And really quick, just for everybody out there saying, well, that means you hate Trump. No, no, no. I’m happy with the outcome. Trump will govern well. I’ve said that many, many, many times. All we’re saying is, could you have ran a woman and won this election? Yes, you could have.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Trump is much closer to my views than Nikki Haley.
SPEAKER 03 :
He’s much more like me than Mickey. Absolutely, yeah, because she’s a warmonger and I’m not.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, she likes war too much. Yeah, I don’t. No, no, but she would have won, yeah, massively. Smashing Lansing.
SPEAKER 03 :
And really quick too, John, you and Andy are both here. Here’s the other thing that the Democrats tend to not look at because they’re high and mighty and they don’t think anybody else has a brain. Even the last two candidates they’ve won, or they’ve ran, I should say, outside of Joe Biden. So they ran Hillary, keep in mind, and they ran Kamala. Yeah. who, by the way, both of those ladies exude the B factor. I’m sorry, I don’t have no other way to say it.
SPEAKER 05 :
They’re very disliked by those around them. Correct.
SPEAKER 03 :
They are. And they make all the men around them feel low. You’re not going to win elections without the male vote, guys. Period.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, they’re the kind of woman that you would avoid.
SPEAKER 03 :
You wouldn’t even date them, John. You would be like, you put the finger cross up in front of them and like, yeah, get out of my life.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, in Kamala’s case, a lot of women didn’t enjoy working for her.
SPEAKER 03 :
They didn’t like her either. Well, she had a 90 some percent turnover of staff. Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
And Hillary Clinton burned every bridge behind her.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yes. And, you know… Well, again, I go back to what I said a moment ago. She had that factor, and Kamala Harris has it as well. In fact, a lot of… Sorry to stereotype, but are there very many liberal women that don’t?
SPEAKER 06 :
No. This could go back to what we were talking about yesterday, John, with the 4B women that are shaving their heads.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
I don’t know if I told you, but most of those women are what we used to call in my military days, two baggers or coyote ugly.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know what I mean by that, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
I do. And again, I’m trying to be as nice as I can. But on the same token, you’ve got to look at this in a realistic way. And the left won’t because the way that they look at me right now and even what I’m talking is I’m just a male white chauvinist pig and I have no idea what I’m talking about. Actually, though, I do know what I’m talking about because the stereotypical female liberal is Kamala and or Hillary and or both of them put together.
SPEAKER 06 :
Or AOC or… I go down the list.
SPEAKER 03 :
Go down the list. Maxine Waters, who came out recently, you know, really nailing Donald Trump here lately. I mean, that’s a female Democrat that turns off men.
SPEAKER 05 :
Even Michelle Obama… Who, by the way, would have beaten us. Michelle Obama can at least appeal to a much wider range of voters. She can’t. But even Michelle Obama has a real aggressive nature to her that is off-putting.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is. She’s not Tulsi. These last several months in what she’s done, if she would have acted like that on the campaign trail, she’s beatable.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, she is. But Tulsi Gabbard, when I say, oh my gosh, she’d be unbeatable, folks, I’m not saying that now because she’s a Republican. I’ve said that all along about Tulsi.
SPEAKER 03 :
We both have said that.
SPEAKER 05 :
It wouldn’t matter which party Tulsi’s in. She’s likable. She’s highly intelligent. She’s obviously attractive. But that’s actually a lesser factor. She’s powerful. She would have beat us with either party.
SPEAKER 06 :
Because… Our party candidate, Trump, who I think is going to govern greatly. Oh, yeah. Not a great candidate. He had too much baggage. We got lucky that Biden had to drop out. If there was a full primary.
SPEAKER 05 :
John, you dropped out. We lost you. If they had a primary and chose Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, does Trump win? I’m not sure. I don’t think so. I think there were so many factors in his favor he might have anyway, but he may not have.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, okay, you’re back.
SPEAKER 03 :
Go ahead, John.
SPEAKER 06 :
I was going to say, November 2023, Biden said, I can’t run. Or they went and said, you can’t run. and they would have had a wide-open primary, I think we would be having RFK Jr. as president-elect today.
SPEAKER 16 :
Could be.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think of all the Democrats, he would have done the best.
SPEAKER 05 :
I don’t think there’s any way the Democrat Party would have nominated him.
SPEAKER 03 :
He wouldn’t have allowed him to move forward. There’s no way because of… He’s too much against them.
SPEAKER 05 :
Because of COVID. You’ve got to keep in mind, during COVID, the Democrat Party spent two years in tyranny over America and loved every moment of it. There’s no way they would have supported him because that would be admitting what they did to us for two years was wrong.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, I will agree with you, John, if they could have gotten through that process and he could have won the primary, yes, I believe you’re correct. But I don’t think that would have happened.
SPEAKER 06 :
So what’s the bench? I know it’s not even 2025, but looking at the bench on the Democrat side for 28, what do you got? You got Newsom, you got Jared, you got Richard Whitmer, you got Shapiro.
SPEAKER 05 :
I would say Shapiro, Polis, and what’s his name from Kentucky, the governor of Kentucky, are their three strongest.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, okay. Oh, I can’t remember his name off the top of my head.
SPEAKER 05 :
Beshears. Beshears, yeah. I would say that’s their three strongest.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t think Newsom, just because of how bad he got tore up by DeSantis already. I think he’s probably out, John.
SPEAKER 05 :
DeSantis snuffed out his light.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think he’ll be governor, and then whatever he does after that, I think he’s going to ride off into the sunset.
SPEAKER 06 :
John, one last question on the text of you being illiterate. Did you copy it into Word and run a spell check to see if Mr. Calling You Illiterate used proper grammar?
SPEAKER 03 :
I did not. I guess I could have, but I’ll be the first to admit when you’re text messaging, sometimes things don’t get spelled correctly, and I’ll even have some missteps here and there because you’re trying to do it as much as you can. Oh, yeah. I will also tell everybody I’ve been very upfront about this. English, spelling, grammar, all of that, that was not my best subject in high school. If it wasn’t for Charlie being back here helping me with a lot of different things that we do, yeah, you guys would know how dumb I really am.
SPEAKER 06 :
But the reason why is if you’re going to call someone illiterate, you should make sure your grammar and spelling is perfect when you do it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Very true. I mean, and again, John, those things don’t bother me. I think maybe this person thought that was going to bother me somehow. Actually, I mean, that’s the world that I’ve always been in. I mean, I was a redneck auto technician for umpteen jillion years. Those things aren’t hurting my feelings.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, it’s like me. Oh, you just… Work for a utility so you don’t know what you’re doing. Your dad got you that job or something.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. I mean, John, I’ve heard it all over the years, so none of that bothers me. I’ve got pretty thick skin.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, me either. I mean, find something good. But when they call people like us who maybe didn’t go to college illiterate, maybe we didn’t go to college, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to read and, you know, read a book on a case.
SPEAKER 03 :
That one, John, I can do with the best of them.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, you know, they say if you don’t have that degree behind you, that you’re not as smart. I worked for a woman who was a VP back in the day, and she said, well, if you don’t have a college degree, I’m not even going to consider you for a promotion. And you’re like, okay, but your 15 years of experience don’t matter to people like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Which, by the way, I think, as a side note, this is a whole other topic. I could probably do a whole other show on here. Maybe we will in the near future. I think given what you just saw happen last week, some of what you just said, John, is going to change in the marketplace.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, I hope so, because how many, John, you did it, how many of you guys that didn’t go to college, maybe went in the military and then went to WyoTech or Avotech, or maybe just learned in the military diesel mechanics, were better employees than somebody that went to college? Most.
SPEAKER 03 :
Most.
SPEAKER 06 :
Most.
SPEAKER 05 :
John, really quick here. Grammar and writing are my thing, okay? And I’m the one who would be correcting people. Let me tell you this really quick. In all my years in business, I dealt with a lot of people who had college degrees, and almost all of them would come to me for help in writing things. Okay?
SPEAKER 06 :
There are certain people that I know that never went to college that are brilliant writers just because they had that Their brain worked that way, I guess.
SPEAKER 03 :
I married one of them. They have that knack, yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I don’t have that knack. You ask me to do math, you ask me to do science, I’m okay. You ask me to work with my hands, I’m okay. You ask me to start doing English, and I’m like, I better have a computer with spell check.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank God for Bill Gates. Yes. In that particular realm. Yes. Thanks, John. Have a great night. Appreciate you very much. I guess all of us illiterates will run together. Again, those things don’t bother me. It’s like, you know, Andy, the way I always look at it and why even politicians that we interview and so on, you know, I don’t get too excited about anybody that we interview. There’s times where Charlie will be like, do you know who we’re interviewing today? And I’m like, I don’t know. Who are we interviewing today? Well, that’s so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so. And I’m like, oh, I didn’t know that. I mean, Andy, I just kind of look at everybody as we all put our pants on, you know, one leg at a time. And at the end of the day, I can pretty much rub elbows with anyone and hold our own when it’s all said and done.
SPEAKER 05 :
I agree, although I will say this about college degrees today. It’s very disappointing how uneducated people are coming out of college. And I don’t say that because they disagree with me politically. I’m talking about their grammar, their spelling. I’m talking about their ability to construct a sentence. I’m talking about their ability to manage a project. They’re not getting their money’s worth, John.
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SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Myself, Andy Pate. Trump just announced Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head the Department of Government Efficiency. It will slash excess regulations and cut wasteful expenditures. So, by the way, for all of you out there listening that said both of those guys, Elon and Vivek both were Trojan horses, are you eating your words yet?
SPEAKER 05 :
Let me tell you something. Those two love each other. It’s a bromance. They’re going to have so much fun doing that together. They’re both brilliant. What a great choice.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dan and Blackhawk, go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
So there’s a couple things that I read today. I read an article today that the transgender issue is what swung the swing states. Because the women were tired of boys playing in their daughters’ sports. I can’t argue that.
SPEAKER 03 :
It made a big impact. Makes total sense. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
It did. And Kamala wouldn’t…
SPEAKER 03 :
back down on our transgender and so keep in mind Dan when you’re a Marxist like she is you can’t you have your marching orders from above transgenderism is very much part of the Marxist movement because when you can make basically the electorate insane which essentially is what you’re doing you can have more control over them and that’s all by design so she can’t back down from that that’s part of the Marxist marching orders
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and that was back in 2019 she started that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct. And again, that’s all just like, and I explained this a little bit in this last election, fortunately we shot down the mountain lion issue here in Colorado, but all of those things, that included, are a part of the Marxist movement. Those aren’t anti-hunters. Those are Marxists that want to make wildlife more prominent and make you not want to go into the wilderness so you stay in the city.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, the three S’s.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 07 :
So, anyway, the other part about literacy, of course, I’m more in line with you with the numbers, guys, because I am a certified pain in the you-know-what.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re the guys I love, actually, Dan. I know I’m a little weird, but I love you guys.
SPEAKER 07 :
But when I went to college, I graduated from high school, and I went to community college. I didn’t incur any debt during college, by the way. even though it was cheaper back when I went to college, I had to take… I never took the SAT or the ACT. I didn’t do any of those because I knew I was going to score horrible on them. I got to college, and I couldn’t even take freshman English. I had to take remedial English in order to learn how to construct sentences and make complete sentences. And I was upset at my high school, not that I graduated from… But I was like, how did I get through high school without knowing how to properly construct a sentence? Like a complete sentence. I didn’t know the difference between a noun and a verb. I didn’t know about prepositional phrases. So I was pretty upset. And this was back in the early 80s, by the way. And they pushed me through. I’m like, why didn’t… And the remedial English class that I took… In college, I’m like, why didn’t they offer this during high school? I would have taken it because my composition, I always got, you know how they do composition and grammar? I’d get like an A over a D, a B over an F, and my instructors would tell me, you’re in complete sentence. Well, explain to me what that is. I don’t know what happened. I think what happened is we moved when I was in third and fourth grade And I think I lost a little bit in that. I also lost in the math. But by the time I got to seventh grade, I was completing all my homework in math. I was a grade behind in math. But I was getting all my homework done prior to class ending. So they said, do you want to test out? And I’m like, sure, I’ll test out. So I tested out, and then I went into algebra class. quarter behind. I was one quarter behind.
SPEAKER 16 :
Gotcha.
SPEAKER 07 :
So I struggled for a while, but then finally it clicked. But the thing that gets me is the school system didn’t educate me like I should have been educated when it came to English and writing. And I’m wondering, it’s probably only gotten worse.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s only gotten worse, Dan. No, the test scores, the things I talked about, even with our guest we had on yesterday, very much would say what you’re talking about has done nothing but been worse. Since the Department of Education was put into place back in the late 70s, it’s done nothing but gone downhill.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. And then just, I don’t know if you talked about the cabinet appointments, but it looks like RFK is going to be over… Health and Human Services, HHS.
SPEAKER 03 :
Say that again.
SPEAKER 05 :
Who’s that? Health and Human Services, RFK.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, RFK is what I heard. I hadn’t heard that.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s great. I hadn’t heard that either. I would be surprised if he is, but could be.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, he talked about the vaccine. I don’t even call it a vaccine. It’s a shot. And then he also talked about fluoride being in toothpaste, which is an industrial product. I can’t think of the word right now. Waste. It’s industrial waste. We’re putting it in toothpaste, and we’re putting it in our drinking water because it’s supposed to, quote, unquote, help your teeth. But it’s a waste. So there’s other ways of doing that. And then he talked about the, like, Froot Loops in the United States have 18 ingredients, and it has three. Right. I don’t know if he’ll go for HHS, but that would be awesome if he could do something along that line.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dan, before I let you go, Charlie’s asking me, what are the three S’s you mentioned earlier?
SPEAKER 07 :
S’s?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 07 :
Shoot, shovel, shut up.
SPEAKER 03 :
Uh-huh. There you go.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
Dan, appreciate you, man. Have a good one. Thank you very much for that. Yeah, and I have not been able to verify on RFK Jr. I think there’s a lot of people with bated breath trying to figure out exactly what’s his role going to be in all of that. So really quick, we’ve got some time here, Andy.
SPEAKER 05 :
We know his influence will be very high.
SPEAKER 03 :
His influence is going to be there no matter what, just don’t know where.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. I just don’t know about the exact role.
SPEAKER 03 :
So here’s what we know so far. And some of this may have even changed and come out since we came on air. Might be more is where I’m going with this. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State. Awesome. Great pick. Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Defense, which I, by the way, predicted. No, she is not. She’s not? That’s what he said today. He did? Yeah. That’s what Trump sent out earlier today. Verify that while I’m going on.
SPEAKER 05 :
Nope. The Secretary of Defense is Pete Hegseth.
SPEAKER 03 :
Then what’s Tulsi?
SPEAKER 05 :
At least I believe.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know that Tulsi’s been— That’s what I saw earlier today from—that was a tweet that—or not a tweet, but whatever that Trump does.
SPEAKER 05 :
Pete Hegseth from Fox News is going to be the Secretary of Defense.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. New York Post put out, because I’m reading it, that Tulsi Gabbard is. So which one is correct?
SPEAKER 05 :
I don’t know.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ll have to find out. That one is up in the air, it sounds like, folks. So we’ll keep going then, because we don’t know for sure. Okay. Kristi Noem, head of Homeland Security. Good. I think that one, again. She’ll do fine. By the way, everybody, none of these are, like, set in stone because he’s not president yet and will have to be before these things get all taken care of. And some of these, do they not require confirmation in the Senate?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, they do. I believe. Yeah, but I really thought she would be over the interior. So that was kind of interesting.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mike Walsh, National Security Advisor. Good. Representatives Lee Zeldin will be EPA. Excellent. We already talked about Tom Homan. And Elise Stefanik will be United Nations Ambassador. And then I did hear later this afternoon that Mike Huckabee will be the Ambassador to Israel. Brilliant. Which, by the way, that’s a great fit also. Oh, yeah. So, again, if there’s others that have come up, and we’ll double-check some of these, like Tulsi Gabbard, by the way, because, again, some of these just get flying around the Internet, if you would, or the Twittersphere, even though it’s not called Twitter anymore. And we’ve got to verify all of these. And as I always say, until he’s inaugurated and then these confirmations are done and so on, Some of these could even change between now and then, but I think these are the things that he’s thinking he wants to get done as he becomes president. Right. Which, by the way, he’s, what, Andy, two months ahead of where he was the last time around? Oh, it’s fantastic. At least. And he’s also driving the left crazy. Oh, they hate all of these.
SPEAKER 05 :
I know.
SPEAKER 03 :
None of these that I’ve mentioned do they like.
SPEAKER 05 :
Tom Homan is the one that— Oh, they hate that one the most. That’s the one that terrifies them the most, and it’s the one that thrills me the most.
SPEAKER 03 :
Actually, that and probably Rubio. Oh, Rubio. They don’t want him as Secretary of State either, do they? No. Because he won’t run around the whole world apologizing for us.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, Rubio is the most brilliant foreign policy speaker in Washington.
SPEAKER 03 :
Period. End of story. Even Kristi Noem being head of Homeland Security, they don’t like that one either.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, they don’t. They hate it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
But they hate her. But with Rubio, the brilliance of that is Rubio is kind of a tweener. The people who like Nikki Haley don’t hate Rubio because he’s right in between being interventionist, non-interventionist. He doesn’t go either way. Now, he’ll totally back Trump’s policies, and happily so. Right. Okay. He wants us out of Ukraine, too. I do.
SPEAKER 03 :
Badly.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he knows he is so skillful. He’s amazing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you’ve already seen within the last week some of these things already come to the table as far as Hamas and Russia and so on. So this stuff will, by the way, get handled before January 20th anyways, Andy.
SPEAKER 05 :
Give me 20 seconds before we go to break. Sometimes I’ll tune in and listen to your show on the weekend when you talk cars. That is Rubio talking foreign policy. Just off the top of his head, everything in the world, brilliant. He knows everything.
SPEAKER 03 :
If he’s in that world like I am with cars, it’s the only show of the week I don’t have to prep for. No, not at all. I just come on air and talk. I don’t have to prep for anything. You’re a machine. I’m already doing it almost daily anyways, and it’s all off the top of my head. And I’ve done it for so long, it’s just easy. That’s the way he is with foreign policy.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. All right. It looks like we verified Tulsi will not be the Secretary of Defense. There were some rumors around that this morning. And, again, that’s where you’ve got to be careful with some of these things because they’re not always locked in. Pete, what’s his last name? Hegseth. He will be instead. Now, here’s a question. Since that’s most likely the direction, what does Tulsi end up doing? I don’t know. What’s your thoughts?
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. I really don’t know. I really don’t.
SPEAKER 03 :
What’s she good at?
SPEAKER 05 :
Her best things are really foreign policy. You know, I don’t think she could have been over the military, though, because she is such an anti-warmonger. She calls anybody who’s an interventionist a warmonger. She throws it around too freely.
SPEAKER 03 :
She’s farther that way than I am.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, she is.
SPEAKER 03 :
She would never go to war for anything outside of our borders.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. She’s too far. Yeah, she’s too far that way. And there are some times where you have to intervene and do things necessary to keep the peace, if you would.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. But Tulsi is somebody who absolutely hates the deep state. Yeah. But we’ve already got a couple of people who are going to go after that. I’m not sure. There are so many. She’s good at everything. She’s good at everything. Maybe Secretary of the Interior. I’m not sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I thought about that. I would not have put Stefanik in the United Nations. I would have actually put Tulsi there.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because she can handle her own among all those folks very easily.
SPEAKER 05 :
Both Gabbard and Stefanik are brilliant speakers and brilliant debaters. Which, by the way, they would have been great going against each other for president.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m so glad. I’m not disappointed in Stefanik. And by the way, folks, as we all know, Andy, there’s hundreds of other positions where you can start looking at where does she fit in to all of these things. And I don’t know.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, somehow she’s got to be prominent. Look, she might be our candidate in 2028. She’ll be in the top five.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m fine with that, by the way. Oh, so am I. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, you’re going to have her. You’re going to have Vance. You’re going to have DeSantis.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re going to have the governor, Youngkin. Personally, I would love to see Vance and her as a ticket. I would, too. I think you do that. It’s pretty much sewn up in 28.
SPEAKER 05 :
Honestly, I think that will be the ticket. I think that’s the odds-on favorite ticket.
SPEAKER 03 :
Meaning you’re going to have to put her in a position that keeps her prominent in front of people if that’s the direction you’re headed.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, you are.
SPEAKER 03 :
Which is, again, no offense, even you and Ambassador, it doesn’t really put you front and center.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, it doesn’t.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re kind of in the backfield, if you would. You’re over there. Yeah, you’re not really here all the time. You need a U.S. job that you can be in front of the camera with quite often.
SPEAKER 05 :
And another one who’s going to be prominent, the fifth one, would be Rubio. And so, I mean, that’s your big five, really, and they’re all great. Don’t forget Youngkin. Do not forget Youngkin. True. True. But Tulsi, you’re right. You want her prominent because she means so much.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think so. Moving forward as a party, I think she does. I just don’t know where they’re going to put her. She brings a lot of that middle-of-the-road voter over to your side very easily.
SPEAKER 05 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 03 :
Without doing much of anything other than just putting her name on the ticket. John, where would you put her? I don’t know. I don’t know. You know what? We can come back and we’ll talk a little bit more about this again, you know, even Friday or next Tuesday. I’m not sure. By then we may know, but I don’t know. I’d have to think through this a little more. I don’t know, Andy. All right. All of you out there, have a good night. Be safe. This is Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
Tariffs, Truckers, and Tragedy: Politics Meets the Road