1 00:00:04,925 --> 00:00:08,449 Welcome to The Hot Dish, comfort food for rural America. 2 00:00:08,449 --> 00:00:09,877 I'm Heidi Heitkamp. 3 00:00:09,877 --> 00:00:11,170 And I'm Joel Heitkamp. 4 00:00:11,170 --> 00:00:16,115 Today, we're joined by a very funny guy, the Liberal Redneck, Trae Crowder. 5 00:00:16,115 --> 00:00:17,746 You're all going to love this episode. 6 00:00:17,746 --> 00:00:21,069 Trae grew up in a small town in rural Tennessee. 7 00:00:21,069 --> 00:00:21,640 That's right. 8 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:22,941 Middle Tennessee. 9 00:00:22,941 --> 00:00:26,635 He's hugely popular on YouTube and Instagram. 10 00:00:26,635 --> 00:00:32,415 He co-hosts multiple podcasts, including "the Weekly Skews," "Putting on Airs" 11 00:00:32,415 --> 00:00:34,216 and "the WellRED Podcast." 12 00:00:34,216 --> 00:00:35,897 Trae has two books. 13 00:00:35,897 --> 00:00:36,458 That's right. 14 00:00:36,458 --> 00:00:45,465 "The Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin' Dixie Out of the Dark" and "Round Here and Over Yonder: a Front Porch Travel Guide by Two Progressive Hillbillies. 15 00:00:45,465 --> 00:00:47,067 (Yes, that's a thing.)" 16 00:00:47,067 --> 00:00:47,800 Trae, 17 00:00:47,947 --> 00:00:49,863 good to have you on The Hot Dish. 18 00:00:50,181 --> 00:00:55,581 Yeah, now, yeah, thanks for having me. 19 00:00:55,581 --> 00:01:02,061 Just anytime it's always the titles of those two books, I always have to laugh at them whenever someone else has to read them all. 20 00:01:02,061 --> 00:01:04,181 They are pretty, they are kind of ridiculous. 21 00:01:04,181 --> 00:01:05,481 I acknowledge that. 22 00:01:05,481 --> 00:01:14,581 I don't know if it's changed, but in my experience with publishing and I had two different publishers, they, they love like a like a subtitle, like a colon and a subtitle. 23 00:01:14,581 --> 00:01:14,941 I don't know. 24 00:01:14,941 --> 00:01:15,801 They just. 25 00:01:16,009 --> 00:01:19,816 It just felt like the titles just kept expanding for both of those. 26 00:01:19,816 --> 00:01:22,250 And I always feel kind of silly in retrospect. 27 00:01:22,250 --> 00:01:25,212 But anyway, yeah, glad to be here. 28 00:01:25,212 --> 00:01:35,272 Well, you know, I want to talk a little bit about the special election in Tennessee, part of the world that you're pretty familiar with, part of the country you're pretty familiar 29 00:01:35,272 --> 00:01:35,572 with. 30 00:01:35,572 --> 00:01:44,212 And I think there's been a lot of, you know, a nine point spread from a 20+, 22 to a +9, you know, pretty remarkable. 31 00:01:44,212 --> 00:01:52,332 But there's a lot of people who think that had we run a more moderate candidate, that would have narrowed substantially. 32 00:01:52,348 --> 00:02:03,358 um You know, when you look at the debate that's happening right now, because we know that uh more progressive candidates are really energizing a big part of the base, that's 33 00:02:03,358 --> 00:02:10,384 critically important if we're gonna win, but also we can't alienate those folks that we might wanna win back. 34 00:02:10,384 --> 00:02:15,089 You know, the old Tennessee kind of coalition when Al Gore used to win there. 35 00:02:15,089 --> 00:02:19,552 And so, um you know, what's your take on that special election Trae? 36 00:02:19,630 --> 00:02:20,620 I don't want to. 37 00:02:20,620 --> 00:02:20,801 Yeah. 38 00:02:20,801 --> 00:02:26,345 So first of all, I, I spend every Christmas in that district. 39 00:02:27,086 --> 00:02:30,098 that is true, but it's also like, I'm in a very particular part of it. 40 00:02:30,098 --> 00:02:32,330 That district is weird the way it's shaped. 41 00:02:32,330 --> 00:02:35,513 Like a lot of districts in this country doesn't really make any sense. 42 00:02:35,513 --> 00:02:44,409 You know, they split Nashville up into three and one third of it got put into this district, which also includes one of the most rural, one of the most red counties in 43 00:02:44,409 --> 00:02:45,338 Tennessee. 44 00:02:45,338 --> 00:02:48,291 I think it literally is the most red County in Tennessee. 45 00:02:48,291 --> 00:02:51,291 It's called Wayne County and that's where my wife is from. 46 00:02:51,291 --> 00:02:52,896 That's where my in-laws live. 47 00:02:52,896 --> 00:02:56,089 So I spend every Christmas in Wayne County specifically. 48 00:02:56,089 --> 00:03:02,736 That's important because Wayne County is not, it doesn't mean it's like the entire rest of that district. 49 00:03:02,736 --> 00:03:05,048 It's probably the redneck-iest part or whatever. 50 00:03:05,048 --> 00:03:07,410 And that's the part I'm most familiar with. 51 00:03:08,052 --> 00:03:08,952 but 52 00:03:09,146 --> 00:03:10,737 I don't want like fence it or whatever. 53 00:03:10,737 --> 00:03:12,218 I think it might be kind of a combination. 54 00:03:12,218 --> 00:03:21,153 I feel like I can make arguments in both directions for the question that you asked, because I think that, you know, you could argue that, uh, Aftyn's performance there, a lot 55 00:03:21,153 --> 00:03:34,191 of it had to do with, um, people getting energized or whatever, and, uh, coming out in response to a lot of the flack that was getting thrown her way. 56 00:03:34,191 --> 00:03:35,842 And if it was a more like, 57 00:03:35,846 --> 00:03:46,359 Traditional moderate candidate there might not have been as much of that. It might not have got as like heated and as much eyes on it and resources behind it in the first place uh it 58 00:03:46,359 --> 00:03:56,862 but also I think that as someone who goes to Wayne County all the time I think that if there had been a candidate who all of sudden they become aware there's a real shot at this 59 00:03:56,862 --> 00:04:04,624 you see what's going on all this mud flinging in this race and people start paying attention and then that candidate had been a like 60 00:04:05,656 --> 00:04:13,078 You know, like a white dude, a white straight white man, uh, who was talking about grocery prices and that type of thing. 61 00:04:13,078 --> 00:04:17,830 Then, you know, maybe more people in Wayne County specifically might've voted for them. 62 00:04:17,830 --> 00:04:30,244 So I think it's like a combination of the two, cause it's definitely a, like the rural parts of that County, which are most of it, you know, is, um, like not going to be crazy 63 00:04:30,244 --> 00:04:32,004 on board with a, 64 00:04:32,214 --> 00:04:34,736 opinionated progressive woman, probably. 65 00:04:34,736 --> 00:04:41,791 yeah, I, I can, you know, I feel like I said, I feel like I can sort of argue it in both directions. 66 00:04:41,791 --> 00:04:50,058 I think that it's hard to get people excited and energized for a more classic, moderate, democratic candidate these days. 67 00:04:50,058 --> 00:04:51,799 And so that makes things hard. 68 00:04:51,799 --> 00:04:58,822 But in some of these places, like Tennessee seven in particular, it's also a real tough road to hoe. 69 00:04:58,822 --> 00:05:00,593 for someone like Aftyn too. 70 00:05:00,593 --> 00:05:02,673 So I think, and I know it's like, so what does that mean? 71 00:05:02,673 --> 00:05:04,976 It's just a, you know, a no win proposition. 72 00:05:04,976 --> 00:05:05,807 I'm not saying that. 73 00:05:05,807 --> 00:05:10,901 I'm just saying it's like difficult, complex and nuanced in my opinion. 74 00:05:10,901 --> 00:05:15,840 You know, it just depends on the person and the circumstances, I think. 75 00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:26,363 Well, Trae, let me add this, though, you know, from the rural area, which is who we talked to here on The Hot Dish it's not always easy to find candidates and then to find 76 00:05:26,363 --> 00:05:37,807 candidates that are as aggressive and willing to go out and work like Aftyn I mean, you know, we can talk about whether or not she was too progressive, but we can't talk about 77 00:05:37,807 --> 00:05:40,108 whether or not she ran a tough race. 78 00:05:40,108 --> 00:05:41,728 That doesn't sell. 79 00:05:42,574 --> 00:05:43,304 Right. 80 00:05:43,304 --> 00:05:53,339 Well, even the her being radical from my perspective on it, I feel like she went out of her way to try to focus on like on the actual campaign trail and in actual appearances. 81 00:05:53,339 --> 00:06:02,393 And in that context, she went out of her way to focus on sort of meat and potatoes, kitchen table type stuff about like grocery prices and affordability and everything, which 82 00:06:02,393 --> 00:06:04,534 I think is smart. 83 00:06:04,534 --> 00:06:07,725 And that's like economically progressive. 84 00:06:07,725 --> 00:06:09,506 I know, but it's not. 85 00:06:09,776 --> 00:06:12,158 considered by most people to be like radical. 86 00:06:12,158 --> 00:06:21,305 And I feel like lot of the radical arguments came from, you know, things that they dug up and oppo of old like appearances and stuff where she's calling herself a radical or she's, 87 00:06:21,305 --> 00:06:25,098 you know, getting thrown out of an office and crying or this type of stuff. 88 00:06:25,098 --> 00:06:30,902 They just made her look like, you know, like a, like a, a loud shrill harpy or whatever. 89 00:06:30,902 --> 00:06:33,454 Again, a lot of it comes back to like misogyny and stuff. 90 00:06:33,454 --> 00:06:35,996 And that as someone who's from middle, I'm not from Nashville. 91 00:06:35,996 --> 00:06:41,579 But I also go to Nashville every year as a comedian and I grew up going to Nashville because I am from middle Tennessee. 92 00:06:42,220 --> 00:06:49,775 The whole thing that they went after for about how like this is a, you you're going to elect someone to represent Nashville who admittedly hates Nashville. 93 00:06:49,775 --> 00:06:58,970 The clips they played of her talking about how she hates, you know, Nashville, but everything she said about Nashville is stuff that any like legit native, not just to 94 00:06:58,970 --> 00:07:01,956 Nashville, but the area completely 100% 95 00:07:01,956 --> 00:07:02,717 agrees with. 96 00:07:02,717 --> 00:07:13,967 I literally had a clip from a podcast appearance I was on less than like two months ago that I posted where I made the exact, I said the exact same things that she said about 97 00:07:13,967 --> 00:07:14,341 Nashville. 98 00:07:14,341 --> 00:07:16,249 Cause it's not like hating Nashville. 99 00:07:16,249 --> 00:07:19,092 It's hating the stuff that's happened to Nashville recently. 100 00:07:19,092 --> 00:07:28,704 Cause it's made it worse to a lot of people that so it got, a lot of it got blown out of proportion and I don't think she's as radical as people made her out to be in my opinion. 101 00:07:28,704 --> 00:07:33,806 I want to make this point and I think, you know, I'm not just blowing smoke your direction. 102 00:07:33,866 --> 00:07:47,402 There are so many people now who are unabashedly talking like you, you know, come from places like we come from is saying, look, know, quit, quit demonizing our places, start 103 00:07:47,402 --> 00:07:53,184 talking about what we need to do for the rest of the country, but don't be afraid to be who you are. 104 00:07:53,184 --> 00:07:57,496 I just read a statement today that in Texas, 105 00:07:57,563 --> 00:08:02,978 We're competing everywhere, which hasn't happened in a long, long time. 106 00:08:02,978 --> 00:08:19,471 And I really credit, um to some degree, The Hot Dish, but also all of these people talking about what you can do, what can an individual do in this very, very difficult time. 107 00:08:19,471 --> 00:08:22,674 And one of the things that we're saying is you can run for office. 108 00:08:22,674 --> 00:08:24,895 And so we're seeing... 109 00:08:25,678 --> 00:08:27,780 record number of people stepping up. 110 00:08:27,780 --> 00:08:37,479 mean, Joel's point is it's hard to find people, but we're also now seeing a lot of candidates coming through the woodwork saying it's time to make my voice heard. 111 00:08:37,500 --> 00:08:45,753 What can we be doing that would be more helpful to those candidates kind of moving forward to help move hearts and minds? 112 00:08:45,753 --> 00:08:50,817 if I we you mean like people in like our position or like, you know, talk about these things. 113 00:08:50,817 --> 00:08:51,637 Yeah, right. 114 00:08:51,637 --> 00:08:58,572 I mean, I just try to like I mean, Aftyn did my political podcast the week before the election or whatever. 115 00:08:58,572 --> 00:09:01,048 And I just and I posted about her and that type of stuff. 116 00:09:01,048 --> 00:09:04,226 And now, I mean, again, I'm from Middle Tennessee and everything. 117 00:09:04,226 --> 00:09:07,068 So I was definitely paying more attention to that one specifically. 118 00:09:07,068 --> 00:09:12,062 But I try to, you know, just try to like help out. 119 00:09:12,062 --> 00:09:26,283 If I can, if it's a candidate that I like and align with, meaning like, you know, with whatever platform I have and that type of thing, I'm not sure how much more it depends. 120 00:09:26,283 --> 00:09:34,109 There's people with much bigger platforms that can reach further and everything, that's really, you know, beyond that, I'm not sure. 121 00:09:34,109 --> 00:09:37,866 Just try to support them and prop them up a little bit. 122 00:09:37,866 --> 00:09:49,247 So I want to ask this, it's probably a question for both of you, which is, OK, we talked about how you can find candidates, and hopefully there's ones that want to get out there 123 00:09:49,247 --> 00:09:51,189 and run an aggressive race, all of that. 124 00:09:51,189 --> 00:10:02,689 But part of what we do here on The Hot Dish and part of what others do when they have these conversations is really try to get rural America, farm country, all of that 125 00:10:02,689 --> 00:10:03,620 thinking, 126 00:10:03,649 --> 00:10:08,809 thinking about their future, thinking about who supports them and who doesn't. 127 00:10:08,809 --> 00:10:10,989 So I got to ask this. 128 00:10:10,989 --> 00:10:22,749 What happens when you get the sense that the Republican Party, in this case, President Trump, actually buy off the rural country? 129 00:10:22,749 --> 00:10:25,729 $12 billion is a lot of money. 130 00:10:25,949 --> 00:10:27,934 So, you know, 131 00:10:27,934 --> 00:10:36,856 Trae, I want to ask you, you know, I'm sitting out there on my talk show all the time making the argument that, hey, these tariffs aren't working. 132 00:10:36,856 --> 00:10:42,003 You know, all we're doing is sitting there losing uh market, losing market long term. 133 00:10:42,003 --> 00:10:46,778 And then the next thing you know, they hold a press conference, say we're Santa Claus, we're sending you money. 134 00:10:47,058 --> 00:10:47,688 Right. 135 00:10:47,688 --> 00:10:48,629 Yeah. 136 00:10:48,669 --> 00:10:56,433 Yeah, no, I know that's upsetting because it's like, think there was a certain percentage of people that even if he hadn't done that, no matter how bad things got for them as a 137 00:10:56,433 --> 00:11:04,858 direct result of decisions that he made, I think there was a certain percentage that still were just going to, you know, go along with it to their own detriment because they just 138 00:11:04,858 --> 00:11:06,439 got their heels dug too far in. 139 00:11:06,439 --> 00:11:10,931 But you had to hope that there was a large enough chunk, though, who could be swayed. 140 00:11:10,931 --> 00:11:16,886 And it seems like going back to the Aftyn thing and a lot of things people are pointing at that, like there's 141 00:11:16,886 --> 00:11:26,979 you know, maybe that's starting to happen with some of these like voting blocks or whatever that's our, it's finally, you know, things could be shifting because it's gotten, 142 00:11:26,979 --> 00:11:29,960 you know, clear enough at a certain point. 143 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:35,341 But when you think that they would have like been by his side, no matter what happened. 144 00:11:35,341 --> 00:11:43,104 And then the idea that, so then when he buys them off, basically, you pretty much know that that's probably going to work. 145 00:11:43,104 --> 00:11:44,264 I feel like. 146 00:11:44,282 --> 00:11:54,707 the one thing that I would say, Joel, is I don't know how the lady who's cooking the hot lunch at in a rural school is going to benefit from $12 billion. 147 00:11:54,707 --> 00:11:59,409 I don't know how the CNA at the local nursing home is going to benefit. 148 00:11:59,609 --> 00:12:08,973 And you know, and I know that at some point that the people in rural America watch this very closely and you get a lot of people calling. 149 00:12:08,973 --> 00:12:13,716 who are from rural America Joel, who don't like this, who think that it's unfair. 150 00:12:13,716 --> 00:12:26,223 And when the numbers come out and it shows that people who own land like Bessette and Bill Gates and those folks are people who are gonna be subsidized by this $12 billion. 151 00:12:26,223 --> 00:12:32,567 And it's gonna be some of the wealthiest people in rural America who are gonna be subsidized by the $12 billion. 152 00:12:32,567 --> 00:12:34,033 That doesn't trickle down. 153 00:12:34,033 --> 00:12:34,668 I mean, 154 00:12:34,668 --> 00:12:40,954 back in the day tray, our dad delivered bulk fuel and everybody bought their seed in town. 155 00:12:41,315 --> 00:12:43,957 They used the local implement dealership. 156 00:12:43,957 --> 00:12:46,089 They bought their fuel in town. 157 00:12:46,089 --> 00:12:49,803 And so that money trickled down into rural communities. 158 00:12:49,803 --> 00:12:51,154 Now they're buying in bulk. 159 00:12:51,154 --> 00:12:56,048 You see semis come in and basically fuel up a farm. 160 00:12:56,670 --> 00:12:59,402 So you aren't seeing the kind of... 161 00:12:59,402 --> 00:13:04,956 you know, kind of rural economic development that comes from that money. 162 00:13:04,956 --> 00:13:10,901 Um and so I'm really curious to see how it's going to be dispersed, Joel. 163 00:13:10,901 --> 00:13:21,184 And I'm really curious to see how many people are going to be getting a whole lot of money who otherwise uh have had some pretty good years. 164 00:13:21,184 --> 00:13:26,304 Well, one other thing and I'm going to throw this at you, Trae, that there's less farmers. 165 00:13:26,644 --> 00:13:29,744 mean, lost in all of this is there's less farmers. 166 00:13:29,744 --> 00:13:33,784 And so if you have less farmers, it's helping less people. 167 00:13:33,784 --> 00:13:44,064 Going back to what you said, Hyde, you know, you're sitting there and in the old days, you know, you had farmers farming 500, 600 acres where I'm from now, they're farming 5000 168 00:13:44,064 --> 00:13:44,624 acres. 169 00:13:44,624 --> 00:13:45,450 And so 170 00:13:45,450 --> 00:13:47,708 And that's an average farmer. 171 00:13:47,833 --> 00:13:57,410 And so you're sitting there, Trae where normally, yeah, okay, you can buy them off, but you're buying way less people off. 172 00:13:57,410 --> 00:13:57,790 Yeah. 173 00:13:57,790 --> 00:14:00,491 No, I mean, I'm hopeful that all that will matter. 174 00:14:00,491 --> 00:14:04,582 You meant you, you know, used the phrase earlier, like that's not going to trickle down or whatnot. 175 00:14:04,582 --> 00:14:13,178 But I feel like, you know, trickle down economics has been pretty boldly not working for most people for a very long time. 176 00:14:13,338 --> 00:14:16,160 And it just I'm just like jaded and cynical is all it is. 177 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:23,494 I see all these things like there's so many times, so many points over the years where I've been like, well, surely this will like matter. 178 00:14:23,494 --> 00:14:23,746 Right. 179 00:14:23,746 --> 00:14:24,234 Or they'll see. 180 00:14:24,234 --> 00:14:26,329 And it's just I'm not. 181 00:14:26,329 --> 00:14:28,829 saying I'm utterly bereft of hope. 182 00:14:28,829 --> 00:14:31,189 am hopeful right now that that can happen. 183 00:14:31,189 --> 00:14:37,029 just, guess I'm also, uh, you know, trying to temper expectations somewhat. 184 00:14:37,029 --> 00:14:46,069 Cause I just think it's like, I don't know what, strong propaganda is and some of the bubbles that people live in and all this stuff is insane as it might be that there, that, 185 00:14:46,069 --> 00:14:51,929 you know, there still will be people that will find a way to blame all of those hardships on. 186 00:14:52,057 --> 00:14:52,814 Yeah, I. 187 00:14:52,814 --> 00:14:59,280 Joe Biden or Barack Obama or whoever, know, like still like even no matter how long they've not been in power. 188 00:14:59,573 --> 00:15:00,263 So. 189 00:15:00,263 --> 00:15:05,136 the the interesting thing to me is what's happening in health care. 190 00:15:05,136 --> 00:15:16,794 I health care is going to have a lot bigger effect in rural America that the exchanges, a lot of people in rural America overuse the exchanges, especially in places that didn't 191 00:15:16,794 --> 00:15:21,057 expand the Medicaid, engage in Medicaid expansion. 192 00:15:21,057 --> 00:15:24,109 So those subsidies are critical. 193 00:15:24,121 --> 00:15:26,293 for those lower income folks. 194 00:15:26,293 --> 00:15:36,643 And the Republicans now have floated an idea that they're gonna do these basically HSAs, they're gonna do health savings accounts, put some money in there, and then have people 195 00:15:36,643 --> 00:15:38,434 have high deductibles. 196 00:15:38,515 --> 00:15:50,170 Every legitimate economist and healthcare expert who has studied this had said that's a formula for disaster because remember this. 197 00:15:50,170 --> 00:16:03,750 Over 50% of the people in this country could not afford a $500 hit to their budget, but they're going to give them a highly deductible plan at $2,000, $3,000. 198 00:16:03,810 --> 00:16:05,890 And they're going to be in medical debt. 199 00:16:05,890 --> 00:16:08,070 There's no doubt about it if something happens. 200 00:16:08,070 --> 00:16:17,470 And so I think healthcare is, if I were running in a rural district right now, I would really be talking about what's happening in healthcare. 201 00:16:18,073 --> 00:16:29,639 I mean, I completely agree using my hometown as an example, Solana, Tennessee, Clay County, the hospital there that was there my whole childhood and years before has like 202 00:16:29,639 --> 00:16:39,044 closed and reopened, I think three times in the past eight years or whatever, but has been closed for good now for, you know, quite some time. 203 00:16:39,044 --> 00:16:41,165 And then also this, you know, with the 204 00:16:41,219 --> 00:16:43,640 Big Beautiful Bill and some of the implications of that. 205 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:47,851 Like it's possible that like even like the nursing home could end up closing and stuff like that. 206 00:16:47,851 --> 00:16:51,592 And there's been no jobs or anything there for a while. 207 00:16:51,592 --> 00:16:57,113 Uh like absolutely just economic devastation in Clay County. 208 00:16:58,374 --> 00:17:03,855 Up until very recently, it had still just been like, you know, very much so white. 209 00:17:03,855 --> 00:17:06,186 It still is MAGA country, I'm sure. 210 00:17:06,186 --> 00:17:09,597 But like it was like hardcore. 211 00:17:09,908 --> 00:17:18,489 Maga country in spite of all that, which I was always like, you know, uh annoyed and confused by sort of, but, I don't even know how much this means. 212 00:17:18,489 --> 00:17:20,260 I might've told you all this the last time I was on there. 213 00:17:20,260 --> 00:17:21,800 So I'll try to do a shorter version of it. 214 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:25,671 But my uncle is like the co-chair of the clay county democratic party. 215 00:17:25,671 --> 00:17:31,472 And for years and years they had, was him and him, his co-chair, and then two other people. 216 00:17:31,472 --> 00:17:35,912 That was the clay county democratic party meetings, like for a long time. 217 00:17:35,912 --> 00:17:39,833 And he has told me it like recently, like their meetings it's. 218 00:17:39,833 --> 00:17:42,853 You know, it's like close to 40 people or something. 219 00:17:42,853 --> 00:17:49,633 So that's, mean, a 10 fold increase and it's only 40 people, but it's still like, surely that means something. 220 00:17:49,633 --> 00:17:51,153 And I was talking about Wayne County earlier. 221 00:17:51,153 --> 00:17:51,913 My wife is from it. 222 00:17:51,913 --> 00:17:59,853 That's the reddest County of Tennessee and in Aftyn's race, was like an almost seven point, you know, upward swing for the dim candidate from the last time there. 223 00:17:59,853 --> 00:18:03,921 And, uh, so it was still like, you know, 224 00:18:04,585 --> 00:18:10,848 much less than Republican candidate got, but it was much more than, you know, any Democrat usually gets there. 225 00:18:10,848 --> 00:18:12,248 it's like, so I feel like stuff like that. 226 00:18:12,248 --> 00:18:17,211 It's like, it seems like it means something, you know, hopefully like it does. 227 00:18:17,211 --> 00:18:23,654 I can buy the feeling that it's like, is the tide finally maybe starting to turn? 228 00:18:23,654 --> 00:18:31,305 Like people have finally been pushed too far and it's gotten harder and harder to like, uh, 229 00:18:31,305 --> 00:18:34,770 realistically blame it on anyone else at a certain point. 230 00:18:34,770 --> 00:18:39,962 So maybe that's finally starting to matter and to happen, but I guess we'll just have to see. 231 00:18:39,962 --> 00:18:49,897 Doing, speaking as somebody who recently went over to the Western part of Minnesota in the 7th District and spoke at a fundraiser over there. 232 00:18:49,897 --> 00:18:53,208 I walked in the room and I had done that before. 233 00:18:53,529 --> 00:18:57,450 I had walked in the room and there was over 300 people there this time. 234 00:18:57,811 --> 00:18:59,632 They had to order more pizza. 235 00:18:59,632 --> 00:19:02,529 They had to go find some chairs from the Legion Hall. 236 00:19:02,529 --> 00:19:04,630 Uh there's over 300 people there. 237 00:19:04,630 --> 00:19:13,575 Now that doesn't sound like a lot to everybody listening to The Hot Dish, but for them, it was and it was not the fact that they had a great keynote speaker. 238 00:19:13,575 --> 00:19:15,116 That was not it. 239 00:19:16,557 --> 00:19:24,441 The truth of the matter is these people, everybody there, some with money, some without, but everybody there gave some money. 240 00:19:24,851 --> 00:19:29,054 Some might have been 10 bucks, some might have been 20 bucks, some might have been a thousand. 241 00:19:29,054 --> 00:19:29,925 I don't know. 242 00:19:29,925 --> 00:19:32,887 I know they had a very, very successful fundraiser. 243 00:19:32,887 --> 00:19:41,634 They had two candidates running against each other for the opportunity to take on an incumbent in what has been a pretty red district. 244 00:19:41,634 --> 00:19:44,816 Uh there's an energy out there, you guys. 245 00:19:44,816 --> 00:19:46,017 There really is. 246 00:19:47,338 --> 00:19:52,361 So Trae, I want to kind of switch gears a little bit and talk about your style. 247 00:19:52,901 --> 00:20:01,646 Because I think one of the reasons why you have such a faithful following, one of the reasons why we wanted you on the podcast is you do two things. 248 00:20:01,766 --> 00:20:08,970 You speak common sense and you do it with a lot of humor and a little cussing and a little cussing. 249 00:20:10,091 --> 00:20:10,847 But, know, 250 00:20:10,847 --> 00:20:14,547 still can't figure out why we can't cuss on here more, but you go ahead. 251 00:20:14,547 --> 00:20:16,301 Yeah. 252 00:20:16,944 --> 00:20:17,717 Yeah. 253 00:20:17,717 --> 00:20:30,457 But I think I think that, you know, for so long, the Democrats have just been so afraid of political correctness or what to say and what not to say and who you're going to alienate. 254 00:20:30,457 --> 00:20:35,677 And I think the charm of what you're doing and a lot of other folks are doing is just let it rip. 255 00:20:35,677 --> 00:20:37,937 I mean, you know, this is the way I see it. 256 00:20:37,937 --> 00:20:39,077 You don't like it. 257 00:20:39,077 --> 00:20:40,077 Turn it off. 258 00:20:40,077 --> 00:20:41,877 But I'm going to tell you how I see it. 259 00:20:41,877 --> 00:20:43,877 How do we get more 260 00:20:43,947 --> 00:20:49,368 folks to, especially candidates to take that approach. 261 00:20:50,389 --> 00:20:57,552 I mean, don't know, you that, cause I don't know, I don't have any real like experience at all in like the world of politics. 262 00:20:57,552 --> 00:21:05,726 I don't know if these people, these candidates are like, in my head, I always assumed that they're going through these like, like media training and they have all these like 263 00:21:05,726 --> 00:21:08,567 consultants and campaign people and stuff, and they're coached on all this. 264 00:21:08,567 --> 00:21:17,121 And I don't know anything about it because I'm having firsthand experience with it, but I've suspected for a long time that a lot of that is pretty outdated, especially like on 265 00:21:17,121 --> 00:21:17,945 the Democrat 266 00:21:17,945 --> 00:21:18,505 side. 267 00:21:18,505 --> 00:21:26,045 I mean, there were reports of like in the Harris Walls campaign, you know, at one point, like when he first came on board and for a while there, it was like real energized and 268 00:21:26,045 --> 00:21:26,185 stuff. 269 00:21:26,185 --> 00:21:32,465 And then there were reports that like these teams were brought in that had worked on like, you know, old campaigns and talks. 270 00:21:32,465 --> 00:21:34,865 It's like walls have been calling them all weird. 271 00:21:34,865 --> 00:21:38,325 And he said like, he was, you know, told like advised, maybe don't do that. 272 00:21:38,325 --> 00:21:42,225 When that was like working great, you know, is what you were just saying, just like letting it rip. 273 00:21:42,225 --> 00:21:43,265 And he was doing that. 274 00:21:43,265 --> 00:21:44,925 And then he got reined in some. 275 00:21:44,925 --> 00:21:46,545 It's like, so I feel like there's, 276 00:21:46,549 --> 00:21:54,572 in the Democrat side especially, it seems like there's this sort of old power structure that's still there in terms of how it's all supposed to work. 277 00:21:54,572 --> 00:22:04,026 That's like, I think even if you get a candidate that's special, those people might coach out of them what makes them special. 278 00:22:04,026 --> 00:22:11,319 If they don't, you, you know, make it a point to be kind of a maverick or go in the other direction or something. 279 00:22:11,319 --> 00:22:15,781 But everything I just said, I've pulled out of my butt, you know, I said, I don't know, 280 00:22:16,721 --> 00:22:20,441 say something that means something, not blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 281 00:22:20,441 --> 00:22:26,301 I mean, when the people hear blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, they're like, what are you talking about? 282 00:22:26,301 --> 00:22:33,821 And, you know, the one lesson that we should all learn from Donald Trump is he may use word salad, but people think he's funny. 283 00:22:33,821 --> 00:22:40,661 People think he's engaging and they think that he is genuine in what he says, even though what he says is that shit crazy. 284 00:22:40,929 --> 00:22:41,849 Yeah, absolutely. 285 00:22:41,849 --> 00:22:51,374 That was like the first big thing when people like, when he first started being taken seriously as a thing, Donald Trump in 2016, that was like the main thing that was being 286 00:22:51,374 --> 00:22:53,535 said is like, well, he tells it like it is. 287 00:22:53,535 --> 00:22:55,472 That's, know, like, what does this appeal that he's having? 288 00:22:55,472 --> 00:22:57,597 Well, he tells it like it is and he's different. 289 00:22:57,597 --> 00:23:00,259 He's an outsider and that's all that stuff, you know? 290 00:23:00,259 --> 00:23:05,357 So, I mean, no, I definitely think that, uh, I fully agree that it would 291 00:23:05,357 --> 00:23:12,102 behoove candidates to take a page out of that book and be a little more authentic and like you say what they mean, stand their ground, all of that. 292 00:23:12,102 --> 00:23:23,001 Um, I'm just saying it's, feel like a lot of times when you watch politicians and candidates, it's, it's like when you see a lot of high level athletes, sometimes they give 293 00:23:23,001 --> 00:23:30,668 like, you just feel like the politician on them and everything like is so carefully worded and all this stuff. 294 00:23:30,668 --> 00:23:35,051 And it just feels like kind of artificial and manufactured and whatever it is that's 295 00:23:35,337 --> 00:23:45,440 making that happen or putting that in place, like that needs to go away, my opinion, or be replaced by something else, like a new paradigm or philosophy needs to take the place of 296 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,867 that behind the scenes in the world of like, you know, politics on the American left. 297 00:23:50,867 --> 00:23:55,930 a talk show host, let me give you an example of my approach and, you know, Republican area. 298 00:23:55,930 --> 00:23:59,191 And I've been able to stay number one for 20 some years. 299 00:23:59,852 --> 00:24:04,034 I know that my audience didn't like going to school. 300 00:24:04,134 --> 00:24:04,715 They didn't. 301 00:24:04,715 --> 00:24:05,705 They went to school. 302 00:24:05,705 --> 00:24:06,866 They had to go to school. 303 00:24:06,866 --> 00:24:10,658 They use school to get where they're at, but they didn't like going to school. 304 00:24:10,658 --> 00:24:17,545 And so why would you talk to them as though you're teaching them constantly, constantly? 305 00:24:17,545 --> 00:24:31,661 You know, and saying 20 words when two would do and Trae, that's why you're so popular is it isn't as though they're talking to a guy they could have a beer with and that matters. 306 00:24:33,185 --> 00:24:35,126 Yeah, no, I, yeah, I agree. 307 00:24:35,126 --> 00:24:40,810 I mean, I, you know, I, I appreciate you saying that about me, but, uh, but yeah, overall I agree. 308 00:24:40,810 --> 00:24:45,633 Um, but yeah, it turns, like you said, like how to fix it. 309 00:24:45,633 --> 00:24:57,000 Like, I just think that there's, uh, something needs to happen in the world of big Democrat or the TNC or whatever, whatever system it is, these candidates tend to come up 310 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:57,545 through. 311 00:24:57,545 --> 00:24:59,321 I think they're getting corrupt. 312 00:24:59,321 --> 00:25:02,061 did in that way along the way and that needs to stop. 313 00:25:02,061 --> 00:25:04,541 But I don't, you know, I don't know how to achieve that. 314 00:25:04,541 --> 00:25:06,673 I, nothing to do with it personally, but. 315 00:25:06,673 --> 00:25:10,193 think it's so interesting because people always talk about money. 316 00:25:10,193 --> 00:25:14,833 Kamala Harris spent a lot more money than, than Donald Trump did. 317 00:25:14,833 --> 00:25:15,733 A lot more. 318 00:25:15,733 --> 00:25:17,153 A lot a lot of money. 319 00:25:17,153 --> 00:25:19,593 And a lot of these Senate races, a lot of money. 320 00:25:19,593 --> 00:25:23,313 And it wasn't the lack of money that caused the problem. 321 00:25:23,313 --> 00:25:27,253 And so, you know, it was a lack of authenticity. 322 00:25:27,253 --> 00:25:29,033 It was a lack of an idea. 323 00:25:29,033 --> 00:25:35,031 It was a lack of the ability to actually sit down with people and say, hey, you got grocery problems? 324 00:25:35,031 --> 00:25:36,571 You got problems doing this. 325 00:25:36,571 --> 00:25:37,842 This is what we're going to do. 326 00:25:37,842 --> 00:25:39,642 Your health care is not affordable. 327 00:25:39,642 --> 00:25:42,413 You can't get mental health care for your kid. 328 00:25:42,413 --> 00:25:44,203 This is what we're going to do. 329 00:25:44,264 --> 00:25:47,624 And just be straight up and be honest about what you're going to do. 330 00:25:47,624 --> 00:25:59,038 And I think, I think that, you know, the one thing that influencers are doing, and I don't mean to, if that's insulting to you, I don't mean to insult you, but the one thing that 331 00:25:59,038 --> 00:26:02,689 people who are people are listening to that are people are entertained. 332 00:26:02,689 --> 00:26:04,619 Number one, they're entertaining. 333 00:26:05,452 --> 00:26:09,604 And number two, they talk truth and common sense. 334 00:26:09,724 --> 00:26:21,430 And if there is some kind of, number one, it's really hard to take somebody who is wonky and say, now be authentic. 335 00:26:21,651 --> 00:26:24,432 Yeah, now be like a real person. 336 00:26:24,432 --> 00:26:33,272 And so we need to let the real people of these districts, the real people of these states nominate their own candidates. 337 00:26:33,272 --> 00:26:33,823 Mm-hmm. 338 00:26:33,823 --> 00:26:38,545 quit interfering because they know what resonates and what works. 339 00:26:38,545 --> 00:26:41,788 And that's a problem too, is this top-down management. 340 00:26:41,788 --> 00:26:52,282 you got to go Trae, but one more thing that I want to throw out there as a talk show host, there's nothing better than a guest that you don't know what they're going to say. 341 00:26:52,362 --> 00:26:53,463 Nothing better. 342 00:26:53,463 --> 00:27:01,045 And I can tell you this uh with the Democratic and with the consulting and with everything that goes with it, you know what they're going to say. 343 00:27:01,195 --> 00:27:02,050 Right, yeah. 344 00:27:02,050 --> 00:27:04,384 The question, you know is what they're going to say. 345 00:27:04,384 --> 00:27:05,716 And it's boring as hell. 346 00:27:05,716 --> 00:27:08,259 So Trae, know you. 347 00:27:10,063 --> 00:27:11,526 Yeah, exactly. 348 00:27:11,526 --> 00:27:12,747 Trae, I know you got to go. 349 00:27:12,747 --> 00:27:14,340 You got 100 people pulling at you. 350 00:27:14,340 --> 00:27:16,552 But thanks for joining us on The Hot Dish. 351 00:27:16,609 --> 00:27:17,663 No, thanks for having me. 352 00:27:17,663 --> 00:27:18,476 I appreciate it. 353 00:27:18,476 --> 00:27:19,118 Yeah. 354 00:27:19,118 --> 00:27:20,929 Keep up doing what you're doing. 355 00:27:21,010 --> 00:27:31,304 More people, we need more people like you speaking truth to power and revealing why it is that we need to bring common sense back to public policy. 356 00:27:31,304 --> 00:27:32,443 You're a great guy. 357 00:27:32,443 --> 00:27:33,041 I appreciate it. 358 00:27:33,041 --> 00:27:35,255 I'll just say real quick before I go, check me out. 359 00:27:35,255 --> 00:27:44,072 If you don't already on the internet there, it's Trae Crowder, T-R-A-E Crowder on your preferred social media platform, but also TraeCrowder.com is where all my tour dates are. 360 00:27:44,072 --> 00:27:45,616 So come see me live. 361 00:27:45,616 --> 00:27:50,787 You know, as a justified fan, Crowder's kind of a famous name. 362 00:27:50,787 --> 00:27:52,037 No relation, right? 363 00:27:52,037 --> 00:27:52,688 Boyd, right? 364 00:27:52,688 --> 00:27:53,990 Yes, no, yeah, no. 365 00:27:53,990 --> 00:27:55,432 No, I'm big fan, too. 366 00:27:55,432 --> 00:27:56,223 Thank you, guys. 367 00:27:56,223 --> 00:27:57,174 Appreciate it. 368 00:27:57,174 --> 00:27:57,870 See you. 369 00:28:04,342 --> 00:28:15,437 So, Heidi, we've had conversations here on one country at length about rural America and what rural America thinks, does, how they operate, mostly the economy. 370 00:28:15,437 --> 00:28:18,828 That's an area that you know, you're very, very good at. 371 00:28:18,828 --> 00:28:25,112 So let me ask you this, can $12 billion buy out the hearts and souls of rural America? 372 00:28:25,112 --> 00:28:26,103 I don't think so. 373 00:28:26,103 --> 00:28:32,257 I think that, you know, Donald Trump has a distorted view of what rural America is. 374 00:28:32,257 --> 00:28:42,227 I, he does very well in rural America, let's not kid ourselves, but he thinks that it's all about agriculture and he doesn't realize that small mom and pop manufacturers who are part 375 00:28:42,227 --> 00:28:47,450 of an incredibly important supply chain, they're part of this too, and they're hurting really bad. 376 00:28:47,450 --> 00:28:50,403 I talked to someone who is very knowledgeable who said, 377 00:28:50,403 --> 00:28:54,957 that in the next 10 years, we may not have any mom and pop manufacturers anymore. 378 00:28:54,957 --> 00:28:59,400 And that is a tragedy because we need that resilience in the supply chain. 379 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,414 He doesn't understand how significant healthcare is to rural America. 380 00:29:03,414 --> 00:29:15,923 He keeps talking about, wants to put the money in the pocket of people who are getting healthcare, but that totally ignores, who are buying insurance, but that totally ignores 381 00:29:15,923 --> 00:29:16,825 the risk pool. 382 00:29:16,825 --> 00:29:20,106 You know, all of those people who are healthy are gonna do just fine. 383 00:29:20,106 --> 00:29:29,179 Those people who need to enter a risk pool, who may have preexisting conditions, their rates are gonna go much higher. 384 00:29:29,179 --> 00:29:42,212 you know, totally ignoring what's happening, both on the Medicaid side and on the um Obamacare enhanced subsidies is totally tone deaf about what is happening in rural 385 00:29:42,212 --> 00:29:42,973 America. 386 00:29:42,973 --> 00:29:44,654 And then you add on top of that, 387 00:29:44,654 --> 00:29:52,825 you know, a lot of people from, you know, probably downtown Chicago go to the Target or they go to their local grocery store and man, those prices are high. 388 00:29:52,825 --> 00:30:00,756 I want you to think that you have to pay, you know, $5, $10 round trip gas in your car to go buy those groceries. 389 00:30:00,756 --> 00:30:04,296 I mean, everything is really challenging. 390 00:30:04,296 --> 00:30:13,298 And when you look at home heating fuel, if we have a tough winter, cutting programs like LIHEAP, which helps people afford their, 391 00:30:13,298 --> 00:30:15,029 home heating fuels. 392 00:30:15,029 --> 00:30:21,009 mean, we, rural America uses public services at a higher rate. 393 00:30:21,009 --> 00:30:22,360 They're more elderly. 394 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:32,800 And, and he thinks that they are just these wealthy farmers who have been knocking on his door saying, you know, we need, we need relief for our row crops when they're farming, you 395 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:35,491 know, 10,000, 50,000 acres. 396 00:30:35,491 --> 00:30:38,131 You know, I, I just don't see it. 397 00:30:38,131 --> 00:30:41,182 And I don't see that money trickling down in the community. 398 00:30:41,182 --> 00:30:51,596 Yeah, the other thing I would add going back to what you said about health care is oftentimes with two income families, one being the farm or the ranch, the other one goes 399 00:30:51,596 --> 00:30:52,897 to town and works. 400 00:30:52,897 --> 00:30:56,879 And the reason they go to town and work is so that they can have health care. 401 00:30:57,119 --> 00:31:02,091 They're not as concerned about the wage is what they are about the health care because they know what that's going to cost. 402 00:31:02,091 --> 00:31:03,462 So let me add one more thing. 403 00:31:03,462 --> 00:31:07,555 And there aren't as many farmers, there aren't as many people doing that. 404 00:31:07,555 --> 00:31:08,635 And so 405 00:31:09,007 --> 00:31:13,871 the workers and finding workers has been a problem in rural America for quite a while. 406 00:31:13,871 --> 00:31:19,265 Now you add in the fact that the health care is going to be through the roof. 407 00:31:19,325 --> 00:31:22,528 Because those small businesses are using the exchange height. 408 00:31:22,528 --> 00:31:23,319 They are. 409 00:31:23,319 --> 00:31:29,194 Which means less employees or maybe as you pointed out, less businesses. 410 00:31:29,194 --> 00:31:40,467 Yeah, I mean, so so if you're a and you're an employer that is not required because of your size to basically provide health insurance, a lot of times, competition is tough for 411 00:31:40,467 --> 00:31:50,510 workers, you basically say, Hey, I will up your salary, and you can go out on the exchange and buy it now all of a sudden, that's two, three times more than what it was before. 412 00:31:50,510 --> 00:31:57,305 And, you know, the what what I keep asking is, how is this $12 billion going to help? 413 00:31:57,305 --> 00:32:01,107 The CNA in the nursing home who's living on minimum wage? 414 00:32:01,107 --> 00:32:03,528 How is it going to help the school cook? 415 00:32:03,528 --> 00:32:05,228 How is it going to help the school janitor? 416 00:32:05,228 --> 00:32:06,929 How is it going to help the school teacher? 417 00:32:06,929 --> 00:32:13,252 You know, many of which in rural America are underpaid and a lot of them qualify for government services. 418 00:32:13,252 --> 00:32:26,660 And so, you know, I think that the this idea that we're going to subsidize farmers and that's going to solve our problem in rural America, I think 419 00:32:26,660 --> 00:32:27,876 I think it's naive. 420 00:32:27,876 --> 00:32:30,918 Yeah, but the 12 billion is going to make the farmers feel better. 421 00:32:30,918 --> 00:32:44,494 And the 12 billion is going to make uh the bankers, the farmers that I don't know that will go all the way to the implement dealers, but they're going to use this. 422 00:32:44,494 --> 00:32:50,018 And I can tell you this as a talk show host, because they call in a lot and make this argument that he cares. 423 00:32:50,018 --> 00:32:51,499 This proves he cares. 424 00:32:51,499 --> 00:32:52,390 And you know what? 425 00:32:52,390 --> 00:32:59,204 The Chinese deal and the reason we're in trouble on soybeans with China is because of Joe Biden and his trade policies. 426 00:32:59,204 --> 00:33:04,126 I point out that the last trade agreement that we had with China, Donald Trump made. 427 00:33:04,126 --> 00:33:06,239 I point out that it's the tariffs. 428 00:33:06,239 --> 00:33:12,893 The tariffs are a huge part of the problem and that we're losing this market long term. 429 00:33:12,893 --> 00:33:18,917 That more investment by China is being made in Brazil and Argentina, for example. 430 00:33:18,917 --> 00:33:21,335 And a lot of them get it. 431 00:33:21,335 --> 00:33:23,009 But a lot of them don't. 432 00:33:23,009 --> 00:33:25,695 And I don't know how we turn that corner, Heidi. 433 00:33:25,695 --> 00:33:26,837 I really don't. 434 00:33:27,070 --> 00:33:34,689 I think that my question then I say, well, when Joe Biden was president, then you didn't sell any soybeans to China. 435 00:33:34,689 --> 00:33:35,870 Is that right? 436 00:33:36,411 --> 00:33:39,213 Yeah, yeah, you didn't sell any soybeans to China. 437 00:33:39,213 --> 00:33:43,387 So it's Joe Biden's fault because, you know, this has been going on a long time. 438 00:33:43,387 --> 00:33:47,121 This is the result of an ill-advised trade war. 439 00:33:47,121 --> 00:33:49,419 And I don't know if you saw Joel, 440 00:33:49,419 --> 00:33:59,704 the numbers, but China's not trading with us to the same level, but they have a trade surplus of billions of dollars because they're trading with the rest of the world. 441 00:33:59,704 --> 00:34:07,957 The United States of America is less than 3 % of Chinese exports to the United States, less than 3 % of Chinese GDP. 442 00:34:07,957 --> 00:34:13,798 And absolutely, absolutely missing the boat in terms of leverage there. 443 00:34:13,798 --> 00:34:16,610 And the Chinese are playing the long game and 444 00:34:16,610 --> 00:34:21,302 Donald Trump, it's like, you hurt my feelings, so I'm not gonna talk to you this week. 445 00:34:21,302 --> 00:34:23,012 There's no real plan here. 446 00:34:23,012 --> 00:34:33,799 know, Joel, the one, the other thing I wanna bring up is explain to me how anyone can justify bombing boats in the Caribbean. 447 00:34:33,799 --> 00:34:44,855 You know, I'm not gonna dispute whether they're running cocaine or not, but then turning around and pardoning somebody who was a drug kingpin 448 00:34:44,855 --> 00:34:46,446 in his own country. 449 00:34:46,446 --> 00:34:49,577 I mean, and he has pardoned a lot of drug dealers. 450 00:34:49,577 --> 00:34:55,437 And so, I mean, I just want to ask people what like, like, how do you explain that to me? 451 00:34:55,437 --> 00:35:03,388 How do you explain two guys, you know, floating on some flotsam in in the middle of the Caribbean, we're going to take them out. 452 00:35:03,388 --> 00:35:09,255 But by the way, you know, unlock the key of the jail to people who are actually peddling this stuff in our country. 453 00:35:09,255 --> 00:35:12,379 Well, I can explain it to you. 454 00:35:12,379 --> 00:35:16,583 There's a whole group of people out there who love the machoism. 455 00:35:16,583 --> 00:35:17,103 They do. 456 00:35:17,103 --> 00:35:18,305 They absolutely love it. 457 00:35:18,305 --> 00:35:21,187 Oh, man, look at how that, look at that. 458 00:35:21,187 --> 00:35:24,930 Oh, look at the technology we use. 459 00:35:24,991 --> 00:35:27,284 You know, that type of attitude. 460 00:35:27,284 --> 00:35:30,435 Now, what they don't want to do is show you the after. 461 00:35:30,435 --> 00:35:32,126 They don't want to show you the survivors. 462 00:35:32,126 --> 00:35:34,998 They don't want to show you all of that because now it becomes human. 463 00:35:34,998 --> 00:35:36,118 That could be you. 464 00:35:36,118 --> 00:35:43,715 You're no longer this vicious drug dealer as much as what you are this person that's struggling to stay alive. 465 00:35:43,715 --> 00:35:46,406 ah And it humanizes things a little bit. 466 00:35:46,406 --> 00:35:50,369 You know, I think it's I think it's really, really interesting. 467 00:35:50,369 --> 00:36:00,856 that you can be Pete Hegseth, you can be Donald Trump, you can go ahead and criticize reporters, call the women reporters piggy or ugly or whatever you want, uh and usually 468 00:36:00,856 --> 00:36:03,459 people of color and get by with that crap. 469 00:36:03,459 --> 00:36:11,087 But if people see somebody hanging on to a boat trying to live, and then America going back and blowing them up, that isn't going to sell, Heidi. 470 00:36:11,087 --> 00:36:12,588 That isn't going to sell. 471 00:36:12,883 --> 00:36:25,072 It's hard to imagine that it would, but I think we've all now looked at that first, the second strike and there's been a lot of attention. 472 00:36:25,072 --> 00:36:28,394 There's not enough attention to the first strike. 473 00:36:29,795 --> 00:36:35,570 And the only one who is really speaking eloquently about it is Rand Paul saying, we're not at war. 474 00:36:35,570 --> 00:36:37,522 I think George Will had the best line 475 00:36:37,522 --> 00:36:42,219 which is Pete Hegseth might be the only person guilty of a war crime when there was no war. 476 00:36:42,219 --> 00:36:45,875 Well, there's a lot of truth to that, you know, and thank God he said it. 477 00:36:45,875 --> 00:36:47,879 Hopefully more Americans will hear it. 478 00:36:47,879 --> 00:36:51,196 Uh I just think I just think personally. 479 00:36:51,196 --> 00:36:56,390 It's all about those guys that for the first time ever have a connection to politics. 480 00:36:56,390 --> 00:36:58,221 They stayed away from it. 481 00:36:58,362 --> 00:37:04,098 They thought leaders on both sides of the aisle, it kissed way too much, but we're too big a wimps. 482 00:37:04,098 --> 00:37:11,284 And all of a sudden they've got that guy that lives his life the way they live theirs, not caring about anybody else. 483 00:37:11,284 --> 00:37:19,942 Uh you know, they want they want it because of that, because they they hope he gets four wives, Heidi. 484 00:37:19,942 --> 00:37:22,434 So think about this, Joel, think about this. 485 00:37:22,434 --> 00:37:30,732 They accused the Democrats of being the nanny state, but we have a secretary of transportation that says, don't wear your jammies when you get on airplanes. 486 00:37:30,732 --> 00:37:33,445 Don't eat sugar, don't do this. 487 00:37:34,126 --> 00:37:38,392 They are the government of big government. 488 00:37:38,392 --> 00:37:40,838 And you know, it... 489 00:37:40,838 --> 00:37:48,248 That all the conservative people in the world, all of those people that we grew up with who say, I just want the government out of my business. 490 00:37:48,248 --> 00:37:52,451 That's the last thing that this government is doing, this administration is doing. 491 00:37:52,451 --> 00:37:59,632 I think Marjorie Taylor Greene told the truth when she said behind that closed door, all Republican Congress members laugh at him? 492 00:37:59,632 --> 00:38:08,635 Yeah, well, I mean, I was I was in the Senate during the first term and I mean, he he his favorabilities. 493 00:38:08,635 --> 00:38:11,326 I mean, if people are honest, are very, very low. 494 00:38:11,326 --> 00:38:21,211 There's only just a few people, probably including uh Congressman Senator Kramer and Tuberville and people like that who really respect him. 495 00:38:21,211 --> 00:38:25,092 think that there is a clear lack of respect for him. 496 00:38:25,092 --> 00:38:28,464 But I think he has been so successful. 497 00:38:28,464 --> 00:38:31,040 in imposing fear, fear of their jobs. 498 00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:36,329 And I'm like, why would you, why would you want the job if somebody can intimidate you like that? 499 00:38:36,329 --> 00:38:36,659 what? 500 00:38:36,659 --> 00:38:42,202 How did you grow up being that person that's so afraid of your own shadow that you're truly a chicken shit? 501 00:38:42,202 --> 00:38:43,903 I mean, I don't get it. 502 00:38:43,903 --> 00:38:54,031 I these that job wouldn't be that important to me that I'm going to kiss his butt hide, but apparently to a lot of them it is now for Christmas. 503 00:38:54,031 --> 00:38:54,892 Would you get me? 504 00:38:54,892 --> 00:39:01,186 Nothing, absolutely nothing, because you told me I could not, but I was expecting some deer sausage. 505 00:39:01,186 --> 00:39:03,097 Yeah, what's it worth? 506 00:39:03,097 --> 00:39:06,350 Yeah, because you know, nothing's free. 507 00:39:06,350 --> 00:39:10,081 I yeah, that's true. 508 00:39:10,081 --> 00:39:11,552 And you work really hard on that. 509 00:39:11,552 --> 00:39:20,099 Everybody you need to know that Heidi works on a calendar that keeps his huge family's birthdays and anniversaries and fun pictures and all of that on there. 510 00:39:20,099 --> 00:39:24,013 So okay, the answer then is deer sausage and pepper sticks. 511 00:39:24,013 --> 00:39:24,554 How's that? 512 00:39:24,554 --> 00:39:26,039 Just your sausage. 513 00:39:26,632 --> 00:39:27,952 You chicken. 514 00:39:28,374 --> 00:39:30,297 Alright, Merry Christmas everybody. 515 00:39:30,297 --> 00:39:31,066 Merry Christmas. 516 00:39:31,066 --> 00:39:32,397 You take care, Joel. 517 00:39:35,025 --> 00:39:43,799 Thanks for joining us today on The Hot Dish, brought to you by One Country Project, making sure the voices of the rest of us are heard in Washington, D.C. 518 00:39:43,799 --> 00:39:46,713 Learn more at onecountryproject.org. 519 00:39:46,713 --> 00:39:49,587 That's onecountryproject.org. 520 00:39:49,587 --> 00:39:53,222 Follow us on Substack, Facebook, and Bluesky. 521 00:39:53,222 --> 00:39:56,847 You can also find the One Country Project on YouTube. 522 00:39:56,847 --> 00:39:59,661 Be sure to like and subscribe to us there. 523 00:39:59,661 --> 00:40:04,375 We'll be back next week with more Hot Dish, comfort food for rural America.