Latest / Brian Thomas / Rome - From Republic to Dictatorship - Big Picture with Jack Atherton

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Rome - From Republic to Dictatorship - Big Picture with Jack Atherton · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: 706 here at 55KRC Talk Station. Staying to the obvious,
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  Speaker 1: it's Wednesday. And I hope staying to the obvious to
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  Speaker 1: my regular listeners. Anyway, it is that time of week
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  Speaker 1: where we are blessed by the brilliance of Jack Atherton
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  Speaker 1: with some commentary. We like to call it the big
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  Speaker 1: picture with Jack Atherton. Jack, welcome back, my friend. It's
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  Speaker 1: always a distinct pleasure to have you on the 55KRC
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  Speaker 1: Morning Show.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, pal. Early voting in Ohio begins in
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  Speaker 2: less than a week.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, sir.
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  Speaker 2: On Tuesday, October 6th. In Minnesota... No surprise, they have
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  Speaker 2: been voting since September 18th, or even sooner at polling
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  Speaker 2: places like the Lerien Center. During the 250th anniversary of
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  Speaker 2: our democratic republic, this election should be a time for celebration,
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  Speaker 2: and it still can be, so long as we remember
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  Speaker 2: how easily republics can collapse into big government totalitarian states.
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  Speaker 2: Even people who care about history roll their eyes if
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  Speaker 2: you cite the most famous example of collapse, so famous
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  Speaker 2: that it's become a cliche. The rise, decline, and fall
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  Speaker 2: of the Roman Empire. But do you know how that
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  Speaker 2: really happened? With collapse staring us in the face, it's
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  Speaker 2: worth taking a closer look. Rome did not begin as
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  Speaker 2: an empire. For 500 years before that, Rome was a republic.
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  Speaker 2: governed not by emperors, but by laws. Then, in the
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  Speaker 2: century just before the birth of Christ, immensely rich men
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  Speaker 2: began buying up politicians, prosecutors, judges, and generals. Does this
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  Speaker 2: sound familiar.
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  Speaker 1: George and Alex Soros? It does have a familiar ring, Jack.
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  Speaker 1: Go on.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe this does, too. I don't know if they had
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  Speaker 2: hair gel back then, but two Roman plutocrats, rich guys,
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  Speaker 2: backed a young guy as glamorous as Gavin Newsom, Julius Caesar.
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  Speaker 2: Caesar used their money to buy the support of poor
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  Speaker 2: Romans by offering free food and entertainment, bread and circuses. Then,
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  Speaker 2: years later, after screwing around with Cleopatra, the man who
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  Speaker 2: would be king got knifed 23 times by his rivals.
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  Speaker 2: The ensuing civil war gave Rome its first emperor, Caesar Augustus.
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  Speaker 2: At its height, the Roman Empire extended from the Atlantic
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  Speaker 2: Ocean all the way to modern-day Turkey. It ruled the
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  Speaker 2: Western world for another 500 years, which you're thinking is
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  Speaker 2: a pretty good run, so why talk about decline? After all,
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  Speaker 2: to the bitter end, Rome continued to innovate just like
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  Speaker 2: we do, in their case, building previously undreamed-of roads, viaducts,
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  Speaker 2: weapons of war, That took what President Trump would call
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  Speaker 2: super intelligence for engineers. But Rome, even at its height,
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  Speaker 2: did not seek to educate ordinary people. The empire was
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  Speaker 2: content to have what we'd call political bosses, kind of
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  Speaker 2: like the mayors of America's big cities. These bosses ruled
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  Speaker 2: their own territories and kept their own people stuck in
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  Speaker 2: the mud. Education died out in Rome the way it's
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  Speaker 2: died out in Chicago, Baltimore. Did you know that in
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  Speaker 2: New York City, they have just done away with the
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  Speaker 2: New York Regents exam, which since 1865 had been a
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  Speaker 2: basic requirement for high school graduation. Now, each New York
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  Speaker 2: school district controlled by the teacher unions can push kids
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  Speaker 2: out the door by defining their own level of proficiency
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  Speaker 2: or lack thereof. The politicians make a deal. You pretend
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  Speaker 2: to teach children We'll pretend they're literate. Then we'll give
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  Speaker 2: our illiterate residents welfare. The teachers get fat pensions, and
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  Speaker 2: everybody will vote for us, including illegals. Yes, folks, it's
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  Speaker 2: legal for illegals to vote in New York local elections.
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  Speaker 2: And Brian, here's yet another parallel with the Roman Empire.
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  Speaker 2: Most children of the rich became spoiled brats. As wealth increased,
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  Speaker 2: so did corruption. decadence, sloth. Rome's elites had foreigners clean
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  Speaker 2: their homes, be their servants, even man their armies. Romans
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  Speaker 2: called the foreigners barbarians until the barbarians seized the empire
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  Speaker 2: for themselves. With the collapse of Rome in 476 AD,
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  Speaker 2: Europe descended into chaos, the Dark Ages. Lords lorded it
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  Speaker 2: over serfs until the re-emergence of free trade. Yes, Capitalism
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  Speaker 2: created a middle class in cities. This should have led
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  Speaker 2: to all kinds of other freedom, but a combination of
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  Speaker 2: divine right monarchies and religious wars squelched freedom. That's why
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  Speaker 2: about a hundred indomitable men and women began creating the
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  Speaker 2: greatest force for freedom, progress, and goodness in the history
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  Speaker 2: of the world. These Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.
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  Speaker 2: Since then, more than 100 million people have left Europe
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  Speaker 2: and every other continent that's habitable. They've come for freedom
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  Speaker 2: to worship, to work, to care for themselves and their families,
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  Speaker 2: and to pursue their own idea of happiness, the American idea.
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  Speaker 2: America was the land of opportunity, but not yet handouts.
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  Speaker 2: So immigrants went to school to learn English, American history, civics.
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  Speaker 2: That let them assimilate and seize opportunities. Thanks to these immigrants,
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  Speaker 2: the Free City College of New York boasted more Nobel
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  Speaker 2: Prize winners than any Ivy League school. They were not
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  Speaker 2: DEI graduates. Rigorous public schools had taught them to compete until,
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  Speaker 2: and this is the key, most universities turned against America. Marxists,
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  Speaker 2: since the end of World War I, and in a
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  Speaker 2: tidal wave since the end of World War II, have
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  Speaker 2: dominated education, culture, and politics of the Democrat Party, which
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  Speaker 2: used to champion American workers, but now demands cradle-to-grave welfare
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  Speaker 2: and medical benefits, even for those who are fit but
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  Speaker 2: refuse to work or care for a dependent or just
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  Speaker 2: go to school. Democrats teach our kids that America was
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  Speaker 2: built not by pilgrims and pioneers, entrepreneurs and patriots, but
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  Speaker 2: by slave owners, forgetting that most every country in the
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  Speaker 2: world once had slaves of every nationality, and 167 still do,
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  Speaker 2: including human trafficking, child trafficking. Democrats forget also that America,
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  Speaker 2: alone among nations, fought a civil war 160 years ago
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  Speaker 2: not to install a Caesar but to free slaves. Belatedly,
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  Speaker 2: Congress and the Supreme Court also outlawed discrimination. And yet,
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  Speaker 2: in the eyes of Democrats, America is still teeming with
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  Speaker 2: victims more and more every year based on race, creed,
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  Speaker 2: sexual orientation, even illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are victims. Any
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  Speaker 2: category that will buy them votes shades again of Julius Caesar.
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  Speaker 2: Rome finally fell when a foreign mercenary overthrew the last emperor,
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  Speaker 2: soon after its gleaming capital city became a cow pasture.
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  Speaker 2: So I'll keep warning till the cows come home. If
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  Speaker 2: Democrats retake Congress in 2026 and then the White House
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  Speaker 2: two years from now, they promise that Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
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  Speaker 2: will become states The U.S. Supreme Court will be packed.
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  Speaker 2: The Senate will be dissolved. We'll see the return of
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  Speaker 2: Joe Biden's disinformation governance board, meaning the end of free speech.
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  Speaker 2: And then, as the Romans said in Latin, seeks finatur,
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  Speaker 2: meaning that's all, folks. That's who, Brian?
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  Speaker 1: No question about it, Jack. I didn't write my wheelhouse
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  Speaker 1: this morning, as well as every other day you talk. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you have to add to the list of
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  Speaker 1: democratic socialist objectives to eliminate the concept of school choice.
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  Speaker 1: So you won't have places like the Cincinnati Classical Academy
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  Speaker 1: to go and become informed and educated and learn critical
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  Speaker 1: thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are absolutely the antithesis of
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  Speaker 1: what socialists want because their objectives can never be achieved.
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  Speaker 1: They never have. And I'll go back to the point
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  Speaker 1: I made earlier and have made so many times. Which
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  Speaker 1: direction do people flow in terms of the flow of
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  Speaker 1: humanity when a country goes socialist? they leave East Berlin,
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  Speaker 1: West Berlin, communist. No one, he wanted to stay in
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  Speaker 1: East Berlin. They tried to get out under, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the penalty of death for trying. It's how do people
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  Speaker 1: lose sight of that? Jack, I don't know. We've got
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  Speaker 1: so many illustrations of this across history. Plus add on
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  Speaker 1: top of that, the million, literally millions of people who've
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  Speaker 1: died under the hands of communist dictators like Stalin and others.
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  Speaker 1: You got to purge the people who critically think, or
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  Speaker 1: we're going to have, or we're not going to be
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  Speaker 1: able to keep our communism in place. It, It's just, again,
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  Speaker 1: maybe this is all a failure of the education system.
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  Speaker 1: These are all kinds of things that you and I
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  Speaker 1: were both taught every day, regularly in school, but it's
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  Speaker 1: not there anymore.
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  Speaker 2: The more you know history, the more you... can see
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  Speaker 2: what may be coming, a return to the historic norm
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  Speaker 2: of top-down government. Life will go on. I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to be so alarmist that you think we're all going
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  Speaker 2: to die, like the people who are talking about AI
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  Speaker 2: or superintelligence. Life will go on even if Democrats turn
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  Speaker 2: America upside into a one-party socialist state, just as life
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  Speaker 2: went on after the collapse of the Roman Republic. You
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  Speaker 2: just had to live under murderous lunatic emperors like Caligula
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  Speaker 2: and Nero. The United States has always been an experiment
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  Speaker 2: in constitutional limited government. The norm throughout the ages has
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  Speaker 2: been big government of tribal leaders, theocrats, kings, dictators. America, uniquely,
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  Speaker 2: was a blank state, a blank slate, I mean, back
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  Speaker 2: in the 17th century. It attracted settlers who were imperfect,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes damnably imperfect. Puritans burned witches, Southerners held slaves, yet
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  Speaker 2: their descendants steadily expanded individual rights and responsibilities secured by
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  Speaker 2: limited constitutional government, the American idea. That is what is
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  Speaker 2: at stake in 2026, and 2028. And that's why you've
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  Speaker 2: got to hold your nose and vote for Republicans.
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  Speaker 1: Jack, I didn't put an exclamation point on it and
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  Speaker 1: a necessary and worthy one. Brilliant. As always, Jack, I
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  Speaker 1: can't thank you enough for the work you do in
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  Speaker 1: preparing for the segment and sharing it with us. And
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  Speaker 1: you're who can argue with the historical reality of what
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  Speaker 1: you say. It's right there for all to see. We
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  Speaker 1: just need to pay attention to it so we don't
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  Speaker 1: make the mistakes of the past. Jack, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: my friend, best of health and love you and your
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  Speaker 1: better half. We'll do this again next Wednesday, my friend.
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  Speaker 1: I look forward to that already.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Brian.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Jack. It's 718 right now, 55K or CD
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  Speaker 1: Talk Station. Who's coming up?