Latest / Brian Thomas / AFP - Husted v Brown race
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: 55KRC, the talk station. 729, coming up at 730. 55KRC,
- 0:04Speaker 1: the talk station.
- 0:06Speaker 2: It's Wednesday.
- 0:06Speaker 1: It's time for that week. We get AFP, Americans for Prosperity.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Donovan O'Neill. Donovan O'Neill happens to be the state director
- 0:13Speaker 1: for AFP Action in Ohio, but also he's behind BuckeyeBlueprint.com
- 0:16Speaker 1: along with the rest of the folks at AFP.
- 0:18Speaker 2: And here I am.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Welcome back. Donovan O'Neill staring at Buckeye Blueprint and the agenda.
- 0:22Speaker 1: And who could argue with anything on the list, including
- 0:25Speaker 1: something I've been on a tear on all day long,
- 0:27Speaker 1: education opportunity and the great ideas that the more conservative
- 0:30Speaker 1: side of the ledger has for education rather than teachers'
- 0:33Speaker 1: unions and public schools that are grade-inflating and passing children
- 0:37Speaker 1: who don't understand the subject matter of any given grade level.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Welcome back, Donovan.
- 0:42Speaker 2: Brian, good to be with you, and I love the
- 0:43Speaker 2: Buckeye blueprint. It's our way to get a bolder, better
- 0:45Speaker 2: Buckeye State for all Ohioans.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Yeah, economic freedom, education opportunity, energy abundance. I mean, who
- 0:51Speaker 1: could argue with any of these platforms unless you, of course,
- 0:54Speaker 1: believe that our mere existence is killing the planet. We
- 0:56Speaker 1: need to eradicate all things related to carbon production. I
- 1:00Speaker 1: am so over that, and I think, Donovan, in that
- 1:02Speaker 1: particular area, more people are coming over to my side
- 1:05Speaker 1: of the equation. I can only pray that that's the case.
- 1:09Speaker 2: Well, I think that's right. Yeah, I mean, it is
- 1:11Speaker 2: no surprise there are people who oppose those things, right?
- 1:13Speaker 2: When it comes to education, like you were talking about,
- 1:16Speaker 2: one of the most vocal groups in opposition. Well, there's
- 1:18Speaker 2: two groups in opposition really here, the teachers unions and
- 1:23Speaker 2: the local governments, the administrators who operate and thrive off
- 1:30Speaker 2: of the existing status quo. It's not the teachers, it's
- 1:33Speaker 2: not the parents, and it's certainly, we know, not the
- 1:35Speaker 2: kids who will want to be in a good educational environment.
- 1:39Speaker 2: It's those two institutions that push back against empowering families
- 1:44Speaker 2: with educational opportunity and giving teachers freedom and empowering them
- 1:49Speaker 2: to do what's best.
- 1:50Speaker 1: And you just, I mean, you pointed it out, maybe
- 1:52Speaker 1: not as hard as it needs to be hit, you know,
- 1:53Speaker 1: hit it with a sledgehammer. They aren't advocating for children
- 1:57Speaker 1: and children's education. They're advocating to keep or improve their
- 2:00Speaker 1: own personal working conditions. And bottom line, what is the
- 2:04Speaker 1: argument in favor of maintaining public schools? If you can
- 2:07Speaker 1: demonstrate that they have failed our children in terms of
- 2:09Speaker 1: scoring and testing, and kids going into college and flunking
- 2:13Speaker 1: out or walking away from it because they can't handle
- 2:15Speaker 1: the material in college. Come on, counter that with something solid.
- 2:18Speaker 1: I don't hear anything but, you know, teachers' unions and
- 2:21Speaker 1: their personal interest in all this, which is terrible.
- 2:25Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. And what's even worse, right, Brian, is where
- 2:28Speaker 2: you have Republicans, so-called conservatives, who tout these things. Not
- 2:33Speaker 2: necessarily where we need to go this morning, right? But
- 2:35Speaker 2: it isn't a problem that is exclusive to our friends
- 2:39Speaker 2: in the Democrat socialist wing of this country. It's something
- 2:44Speaker 2: that permeates into all politics. parts of politics. That's why
- 2:48Speaker 2: we need to remain firm and pushing back and staying
- 2:50Speaker 2: focused on the North Star, empowering families and teachers to
- 2:54Speaker 2: make the decisions that are best for our kids, primarily families,
- 2:58Speaker 2: but then freeing the teachers to be able to do
- 3:00Speaker 2: what they do best and why they got into that
- 3:01Speaker 2: career field from the beginning. And it wasn't necessarily for,
- 3:05Speaker 2: you know, having a strong union that stops the teachers
- 3:12Speaker 2: at every corner.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Well, and have a greater say in the curriculum, too.
- 3:16Speaker 1: And I understand if someone out there has a religious
- 3:18Speaker 1: background and they want to send a kid to a
- 3:20Speaker 1: school that will literally teach and support their religion, then
- 3:24Speaker 1: they have that option. But let's say you're just looking
- 3:27Speaker 1: for a school choice that doesn't involve teaching woke ideology.
- 3:30Speaker 1: You're talking about matters of sexual natures with K through
- 3:34Speaker 1: 6th grade kids that just wants to go back to
- 3:37Speaker 1: core reading, writing, and arithmetic kind of knowledge that is
- 3:40Speaker 1: really going to serve the child in the future. You
- 3:42Speaker 1: need to have an escape mechanism from your children being
- 3:45Speaker 1: in an indoctrination camp. And that's what I believe public
- 3:49Speaker 1: schools have turned into. It's an indoctrination camp.
- 3:52Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's one of the best ways to solve
- 3:54Speaker 2: those problems, right? If you create that, if you have
- 3:56Speaker 2: that market where, you know, folks can take their kid
- 3:58Speaker 2: to the school that best meets their children's needs. I
- 4:00Speaker 2: always joke with lawmakers in Columbus, you know, if you
- 4:03Speaker 2: want to send your kid to the woke school of
- 4:05Speaker 2: liberal indoctrination, you should have that choice. I'm not sending
- 4:10Speaker 2: my kids there. But, you know, The idea of school
- 4:13Speaker 2: choice is that parents and families should be able to
- 4:15Speaker 2: get their kid in the education that best meets that
- 4:17Speaker 2: child's needs. I agree with you, Brian. I think we
- 4:19Speaker 2: need more of a focus on some of those core tenets,
- 4:22Speaker 2: what education is all about, reading, writing, arithmetic at large.
- 4:26Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, the parent knows
- 4:27Speaker 2: best what's going to unlock that child's potential, and that's
- 4:30Speaker 2: what we need lawmakers driving towards.
- 4:32Speaker 1: No question about it. So, you know, who could argue
- 4:37Speaker 1: with choice? I mean, look, if you build it, they
- 4:38Speaker 1: will come, Donovan and Neil. If you allow choice... People
- 4:42Speaker 1: will make the choice to pull their kids and put
- 4:45Speaker 1: them in a different school that that family has determined
- 4:47Speaker 1: is in their best interest. I know this works, and
- 4:50Speaker 1: I know it's a pent-up demand for it because if
- 4:52Speaker 1: you look at the number of parents who've opted, when
- 4:54Speaker 1: they get the idea of choice, when they've opted to
- 4:56Speaker 1: choose something other than public education, they go for it
- 5:00Speaker 1: in large numbers.
- 5:02Speaker 2: Yeah, well, part of the challenge here, too, is just
- 5:05Speaker 2: getting people to think differently about that, right? Because for
- 5:08Speaker 2: a long part of history, most of parents and adults
- 5:12Speaker 2: with school-age kids these days didn't know about those opportunities.
- 5:15Speaker 2: I was a weird kid, Brian. I'm a weird kid now,
- 5:17Speaker 2: but I was a weird kid then, too, when I
- 5:19Speaker 2: was homeschooled. My family, it was a rare thing to do, right?
- 5:23Speaker 2: But now it's more in vogue. It's more popular. There's
- 5:25Speaker 2: more options and resources. And so as we move into
- 5:28Speaker 2: this space and make education opportunity available to more families,
- 5:31Speaker 2: We're going to see a multitude of opportunities and education
- 5:35Speaker 2: systems develop in places where, you know, maybe choice wasn't
- 5:38Speaker 2: an option, right? The only choice you had was a
- 5:40Speaker 2: bus or walking to school. You'll now have some more options.
- 5:43Speaker 2: This is a good thing for Ohioans and the country
- 5:46Speaker 2: at large.
- 5:46Speaker 1: Competition is always a good thing, isn't it, Donovan?
- 5:50Speaker 2: You know, we argue that point, but, you know, some
- 5:53Speaker 2: folks need to be shown the light a little more
- 5:55Speaker 2: than others, I think, on that point. Well.
- 5:57Speaker 1: And in terms of homeschooling, I have some dear friends
- 6:00Speaker 1: of ours, my wife and I are some friends at
- 6:02Speaker 1: Liberal Close. They have two toddler-age kids. They're homeschooling them,
- 6:06Speaker 1: but they're tapping into the growing amount of resources that
- 6:09Speaker 1: exist in the world, multiple different families sharing responsibilities for education,
- 6:14Speaker 1: tapping into the resources that are readily available for anybody
- 6:16Speaker 1: who looks for them. It's a growing movement, and I
- 6:19Speaker 1: certainly understand why more and more people are gravitating toward it. Gee,
- 6:22Speaker 1: I wonder which side of the free education or education
- 6:26Speaker 1: A choice in education, John Husted and Sherrod Brown are.
- 6:29Speaker 1: We'll talk about the Husted-Brown race with Donovan O'Neill after
- 6:32Speaker 1: I mention my, well, favorite gun store. The Talk Station. 740-55-KRC,
- 6:39Speaker 1: The Talk Station. It's Americans for Prosperity time here on
- 6:41Speaker 1: the 55-KRC Morning Show. Every Wednesday we get the benefit
- 6:44Speaker 1: of Donovan O'Neill, State Director for AFP Action in Ohio,
- 6:47Speaker 1: talking about what's going on in Ohio. helping people get
- 6:50Speaker 1: motivated to help out AFP and help out ourselves by
- 6:53Speaker 1: knocking on doors and convincing people that there's a choice.
- 6:56Speaker 1: And Don Roneal, I've been relying on this Bill O'Reilly
- 7:00Speaker 1: quote because he's going to be on the program tomorrow
- 7:02Speaker 1: to talk about his new book, Confronting America. But he
- 7:05Speaker 1: was being interviewed the other day about the book. He said,
- 7:07Speaker 1: this election, you're not voting for a person. You're voting
- 7:11Speaker 1: for a radical party on one side, DSA, that wants
- 7:15Speaker 1: to change everything in this country, contrasting it with Republican side,
- 7:18Speaker 1: which is a more traditional party that's not enthusiastic about, well,
- 7:21Speaker 1: undermining the Constitution, but is open to some kind of change.
- 7:25Speaker 1: That's really what's at stake here. And I know a
- 7:28Speaker 1: lot of people, this has really been a problem for me,
- 7:30Speaker 1: most notably in the governor race, that people have some
- 7:32Speaker 1: kind of problem with Vivek Ramaswamy. It's not that they
- 7:35Speaker 1: think Amy Acton is a better candidate, in fact, reject
- 7:37Speaker 1: her completely. But in the next breath, we'll say, well,
- 7:40Speaker 1: I'm not voting for Vivek Ramaswamy because of what? Some
- 7:42Speaker 1: meme that tells you he's an evil person or something?
- 7:45Speaker 1: You know, step back from that and look at who's
- 7:47Speaker 1: got a better record, who's been a demonstrably successful person
- 7:50Speaker 1: navigating the challenges we have in Ohio and understands where
- 7:53Speaker 1: the problems are, or Amy lockdown acting, who won't even
- 7:56Speaker 1: get in front of a camera or have a debate
- 7:58Speaker 1: with her opponent. Donovan?
- 8:00Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think O'Reilly's right once again. He's
- 8:04Speaker 2: always been. But I think in particular, and it's what
- 8:08Speaker 2: we're seeing play out on the doors across the state,
- 8:11Speaker 2: we've knocked over 600,000 people. since the spring just on
- 8:15Speaker 2: this U.S. Senate race. And one of the biggest shifts
- 8:18Speaker 2: that I've seen across the state and what folks are
- 8:23Speaker 2: talking about at the doors is this rise of the
- 8:25Speaker 2: Democrat socialism within the Democrat Party. The actual embracing of
- 8:30Speaker 2: ideas or, in other cases, absolute silence, calling out their colleagues,
- 8:34Speaker 2: When there's talk about abolishing ICE or abolishing the Senate
- 8:39Speaker 2: or the radical kinds of policies that they are embracing
- 8:44Speaker 2: from New York to Michigan to the West Coast, it's
- 8:49Speaker 2: a problem. And voters are recognizing that less about the
- 8:53Speaker 2: person and what direction is our nation going to go
- 8:57Speaker 2: based on who we elect this November.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Well, and I don't know, I haven't seen any, well,
- 9:02Speaker 1: at least I can't recall any specific quotes or pronouncements
- 9:04Speaker 1: from Sherrod Brown. A lot of these DSA supporting folks'
- 9:09Speaker 1: comments that they've made in the past, you know, coming
- 9:12Speaker 1: out out loud in favor of things like abolishing the police,
- 9:15Speaker 1: getting rid of ICE, open borders, and now they're walking
- 9:18Speaker 1: away from them. Do you get a sense that the
- 9:20Speaker 1: left has realized that they are facing a challenge because
- 9:23Speaker 1: they have moved so far left and that The idea
- 9:26Speaker 1: that we vote for a Democrat if we do, that
- 9:28Speaker 1: that person is going to embrace this radical left-wing woke ideology,
- 9:32Speaker 1: even though they will have been on record not endorsing it.
- 9:36Speaker 1: I just worry about that because the Democrats seem to
- 9:38Speaker 1: have a well-oiled machine in terms of collectively joining together
- 9:41Speaker 1: in spite of the cross-party differences they have. I mean,
- 9:44Speaker 1: a vote for a Democrat is a vote for this
- 9:46Speaker 1: DSA nonsense from my perspective.
- 9:49Speaker 2: Well, and I think in our case here in Ohio
- 9:51Speaker 2: with Sherrod Brown, there's not a difference in opinion here.
- 9:54Speaker 2: I mean Sherrod Brown over his career has mastered the
- 9:58Speaker 2: art of being a political chameleon. right? Say one thing
- 10:00Speaker 2: in Ohio, do a completely different thing in DC. And
- 10:03Speaker 2: so while, yeah, you know, you can go on and
- 10:06Speaker 2: go view some news interviews that he's done this year
- 10:09Speaker 2: where he's talking about, you know, ending tariffs, deporting illegal,
- 10:13Speaker 2: you know, criminal immigrants, you know, It's entirely different, Brian,
- 10:18Speaker 2: and you and I know this, than his record actually
- 10:20Speaker 2: in Washington, D.C. He votes nearly 100 percent of the time,
- 10:24Speaker 2: 98 percent of the time with his party. There you are.
- 10:33Speaker 2: And he will vote 100 percent of the time with them.
- 10:37Speaker 2: It's just a fact. We have 30 years of history here,
- 10:40Speaker 2: 50 if you go back to his whole career in politics.
- 10:44Speaker 2: Sherrod Brown will vote with the Democrats. The Democrat Party
- 10:46Speaker 2: has been taken over by the Democrat socialists. And he
- 10:50Speaker 2: will support these things as he has before. He may
- 10:52Speaker 2: not say it on the campaign trail, but it's what
- 10:55Speaker 2: he will do when elected.
- 10:56Speaker 1: Yeah. Judge him by his record. Not what he's telling
- 11:01Speaker 1: you now. It's convenient to deny your prior voting record
- 11:05Speaker 1: or what your prior statements are, but you can't walk
- 11:08Speaker 1: away from a vote. You can tell people all day
- 11:10Speaker 1: long that you're not part of the DSA, but there
- 11:12Speaker 1: you are. You're voting 100% or almost 100% with the Democrats.
- 11:16Speaker 1: That's what you're going to get. That's what people need
- 11:18Speaker 1: to understand. That's why it's more about not the person.
- 11:21Speaker 1: It's which party you're voting for because that's the direction
- 11:24Speaker 1: the left is going. It's undeniable.
- 11:28Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, one of the things we– I've heard in
- 11:30Speaker 2: talking because we go out and we're not just talking
- 11:32Speaker 2: to friendlies. We're talking to real swing voters, people who
- 11:34Speaker 2: are trying to make a decision about who they're going
- 11:36Speaker 2: to vote for when that opportunity presents itself. One of
- 11:39Speaker 2: the arguments I hear is, hey, we– people like a
- 11:41Speaker 2: divided government. They go back to the Clinton era. President,
- 11:44Speaker 2: Republicans and Congress thing, right? And I say, well, it's
- 11:47Speaker 2: good when government doesn't work. I generally agree with that, Brian.
- 11:49Speaker 2: I don't want government passing new laws. That costs me
- 11:52Speaker 2: money and creates new rules and regulations. But even in
- 11:55Speaker 2: that divided government situation, one of the things we point
- 11:58Speaker 2: out is there's a lot Congress can do to override
- 12:02Speaker 2: the president, create that chaos situation. And again, are we
- 12:05Speaker 2: going to– do we really want to give a platform–
- 12:08Speaker 2: to this rise of socialism in our country. Sherrod Brown
- 12:11Speaker 2: will be a yes vote 100% of the time for
- 12:14Speaker 2: the Green Energy New Deal, abolishing ICE, abolishing police, and
- 12:18Speaker 2: radically transforming our country, not in a way that is
- 12:22Speaker 2: for the better, by the way.
- 12:23Speaker 1: Without a doubt. In the door-knocking campaign, since you've knocked
- 12:27Speaker 1: on 600,000-plus doors with AFP, what are you hearing from
- 12:30Speaker 1: the voters? Because what worries me, and we've got ourselves
- 12:32Speaker 1: in a real jam with this war in the Middle
- 12:34Speaker 1: East and Obviously, it's impacted gasoline prices reported locally, gas
- 12:38Speaker 1: prices in the state of Ohio about $ 4. 59 a gallon.
- 12:41Speaker 1: Pretty crazy. And it's obviously having an inflationary effect. I
- 12:45Speaker 1: just keep going back to, yeah, this is what we're
- 12:47Speaker 1: living with, but this is what the Democrats told you
- 12:49Speaker 1: they were going to do to you via regulation. At
- 12:52Speaker 1: least you can point to the war and the supply
- 12:54Speaker 1: chain problems, which I observe will disappear whenever the war
- 12:57Speaker 1: is over and hope to God that happens tomorrow. But
- 13:00Speaker 1: it's not intentional. These are market fluctuations that any presidency
- 13:04Speaker 1: might find itself stuck with. But if you vote for
- 13:08Speaker 1: the Democrats, you're voting, again, for the green agenda, more
- 13:11Speaker 1: expensive electricity, right when the demand for electricity is going
- 13:15Speaker 1: through the roof. It's just a recipe for further disaster.
- 13:18Speaker 1: So would you just, like, vote your emotion now? Damn it,
- 13:22Speaker 1: I'm so tired of paying almost five bucks a gallon.
- 13:25Speaker 1: There's no way in hell I'm going to vote for
- 13:26Speaker 1: these evil Republicans. They're the ones that put it in
- 13:28Speaker 1: this mess. That's just so short-sighted. I just can't believe
- 13:31Speaker 1: anybody would take that opinion.
- 13:34Speaker 2: Well, the reality on the doors, what we're hearing from
- 13:36Speaker 2: voters on the doors is very similar to what we
- 13:38Speaker 2: were hearing two years ago. It's the economy. It's fuel prices.
- 13:41Speaker 2: It's people paying more and feeling like they're getting less.
- 13:45Speaker 2: And so the argument we make here in Ohio, right,
- 13:47Speaker 2: other states may have a reason for change, but here
- 13:49Speaker 2: in Ohio, the option is going backwards to Sherrod Brown,
- 13:53Speaker 2: a guy who supported the policies that put us in
- 13:56Speaker 2: this situation, right, Green Energy New Deal, you know, voted
- 14:00Speaker 2: for environmental policies from the 19, you know, going back
- 14:04Speaker 2: to the 1970s where we had, you know, that pushed
- 14:07Speaker 2: jobs out of this state, or going forward with a
- 14:10Speaker 2: fresh voice in John Husted, right, someone who's been there
- 14:13Speaker 2: for the last 18 months, right? Voting on the right
- 14:15Speaker 2: things to modernize our regulatory regime, voting to keep taxes low,
- 14:20Speaker 2: voting to get government spending under control, right? We can
- 14:23Speaker 2: go forward with John Huston and begin to get ourselves
- 14:26Speaker 2: out of the situation we've been in for the last–
- 14:29Speaker 2: the dysfunction. Or you can vote for Sherrod Brown, go backwards,
- 14:33Speaker 2: and give the DSA one more vote in Washington, D.C.
- 14:36Speaker 2: to transform our country. I'm going to vote for John Husted.
- 14:39Speaker 2: I'm going to vote forward and make sure that we
- 14:41Speaker 2: continue to do the work it takes to get this
- 14:43Speaker 2: country back on track again after decades of D.C. dysfunction
- 14:46Speaker 2: that Sherrod Brown emboldened and empowered through his votes in Washington. Excellent.
- 14:52Speaker 1: I appreciate that summary. And real quick, before we part company,
- 14:55Speaker 1: Donovan Neal from AFP, what are you hearing about the voters'
- 14:58Speaker 1: reaction to Amy Acton just basically running a Biden campaign
- 15:01Speaker 1: from her basement? Any concern about that? Are people aware
- 15:05Speaker 1: of her and whether or not, I mean, they're with
- 15:07Speaker 1: her or not on the issues, but the fact that
- 15:09Speaker 1: she's just literally hiding, is that something that's coming through
- 15:11Speaker 1: in the door knocking?
- 15:13Speaker 2: You know, I don't hear a lot about Amy on
- 15:15Speaker 2: the doors, actually. And I think that's a testament to
- 15:17Speaker 2: her campaign. She's not being seen. She's not being heard.
- 15:20Speaker 2: I'll point to crowds and audiences we see around the state.
- 15:23Speaker 2: look at the videos share um the take from slum
- 15:26Speaker 2: he has large crowds gathering anywhere he goes amy acton
- 15:30Speaker 2: can assemble a couple dozen people to me that you
- 15:33Speaker 2: know the polls say one thing but we actually see
- 15:35Speaker 2: on the ground and feel uh is way different um
- 15:38Speaker 2: and i think that bodes well for november and the.
- 15:40Speaker 1: Governor's race i appreciate the optimistic comments and i'm uh
- 15:43Speaker 1: i'm happy about that donald neal americans for prosperity what
- 15:46Speaker 1: do you want my listeners to.
- 15:46Speaker 2: Do today We need you to go to AFPaction.com. Voters
- 15:50Speaker 2: are going to cast their first ballots in 19 days.
- 15:53Speaker 2: Go to AFPaction.com. Sign up to take action. Our team
- 15:56Speaker 2: will reach out to you. We'll get you plugged in.
- 15:58Speaker 2: Let's make a difference. We've got 48 days to go
- 15:59Speaker 2: until Election Day, 19 days until people cast their first ballots.
- 16:03Speaker 2: We need to get in the fight and make this happen.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Every little bit counts. Don McNeil, thanks for the work
- 16:08Speaker 1: that you do throughout the week and year in the
- 16:09Speaker 1: name of sanity here in the state of Ohio. I
- 16:11Speaker 1: hope my listeners will join in the fun and help out.
- 16:15Speaker 1: as we fast approach November. We'll talk next week. Donovan,
- 16:17Speaker 1: have a wonderful week between now and then.