Ep. 851 – Castro Wins the Debate mocks Democrats’ chaos—Bernie Sanders defending Castro’s literacy program while ignoring his human rights record, Biden’s stumbles, and Warren’s debunked claims—as Clavin argues Trump’s outsider appeal could exploit their failures. A listener questions China’s prosperity under communism, dismissed as unsustainable without freedom, while Walsh’s Church of Cowards critiques weak American faith. The episode ties Sanders’ populism to Trump’s base, warns against Kendi’s forced anti-racism, and frames morality as absolute, not relative, before teasing leftist "creepy sex" controversies. [Automatically generated summary]
The administration is projecting an upbeat attitude of confidence about the coronavirus, saying they have extensive measures in place and they feel absolutely certain some people will survive.
Chief medical officer Dr. Fiddlede Haplis says the government has already purchased several face masks and bottles of Purel to defend against the virus if it should somehow seep into any place where there's somebody important.
Dr. Haplis says it is possible that things may get worse, and if they do, he hopes someone will send the news to his underground bunker.
However, in a statement released through an iron tube that poked out of the earth and then quickly withdrew again, Dr. Haplis says he does not believe that things will get as bad as they did in that movie where they peeled Gwyneth Paltrow's face off.
Though if people think that would help, they can give it a try.
So far, the virus has had its widest spread in China, where the communist government has instituted the usual party policy of arresting anyone who talks about it and spraying people in the face with something toxic and horrible, then forcing people to remain in their homes until they die, then report to the local party headquarters for burial.
In Italy, the spread of the disease has caused officials to consider forming a government, but they can't see why they should change their way of life now.
On Wall Street, investors reacted to news of the virus in their usual calm and collected manner, selling off massive amounts of anything with the letter C in it or that would otherwise remind them of the word corona, and investing heavily in Kleenex and hooded black robes suitable for roaming through the empty streets while ringing a bell and chanting, bring out your dead.
Other investors simply wolfed down the doughnuts in the break room, then threw themselves out the nearest window.
However, in Washington, the Trump administration continues to insist that everything is under control, except, of course, Trump.
Trigger warning, I'm Andrew Clavin, and this is the Andrew Clavin Show.
I'm the hunky-dunky, life is tickety-boom.
Birds are winging, also singing, hunky-dunkity-boo.
Ship-shaped hipsy-topsy, the world is a bitty-zing.
It's a wonderful day, hoorah, hooray!
It makes me want to sing!
Oh, hurrah, hooray!
Oh, hooray, hoorah!
A column yesterday by the expert election observer Henry Olson, we've had him on the show, he's absolutely great and always has the smartest insights into what's going on during an election, Olson pointed out that what he calls establishment Democrats don't fully understand Bernie Sanders.
He says, this is what he wrote.
He quote, wrote, quote, they're still thinking politics is between left and right.
Sanders, like Trump, understands that the new politics emerging worldwide is more about ins versus outs, unquote.
Olson says the more the establishment attacks Sanders as extreme or unelectable, the more his people like him, because that just confirms his outsider status, which is what it is they like about him.
Olson writes, quote, the establishment is, by definition, a collection of insiders.
They benefit from the current system and favor only incremental change, not revolution.
It's not hard to see why many voters want radical change.
Economically, globalization has benefited the global poor and the developed world's rich and skilled, but it has not significantly helped people in the middle and has hurt many in the lower middle class.
You've heard me talk about this too.
And globalization, of course, is not just the export of low-level jobs from rich nations to poor foreigners.
It's also the unrestricted influx of poor foreigners into rich nations.
And you remember, both the left and the right were doing absolutely nothing about that.
Now, Trump has genuinely shut a lot of that down.
Nobody's covering it very much.
The New York Times did an article about it, but Trump has shut that down.
He was listening to them.
It's not just an economic problem when poor foreigners are coming in unrestricted into rich countries.
It can also be a social problem when the incoming people have no gratitude or patriotism or recognizable morality or are otherwise like Ilhan Omar.
This means that Bernie's rise may actually hide an opportunity for us conservatives.
I haven't heard anybody else say this, but it's true.
I've said repeatedly that the Never Trumpers failed to ask themselves about the legitimate reasons why Trump was sent to the White House.
What were his supporters saying?
They just don't ask themselves.
Now, we conservatives would be wise to start listening to non-insane Bernie voters.
Instead of laughing off their concerns about health care and inequality or shrugging them off, we should start addressing those complaints with detailed free market solutions and restraints on the crony capitalism and globalization that has restricted social mobility and decimated communities.
Europe is one thing.
America is not supposed to be a country of ins and outs.
It's supposed to be a country of haves and could haves if they put their minds to it.
That system has stagnated.
Conservatives And Bernie Voters00:15:25
It's gummed up and it's broken down.
And if we don't fix it wisely, Bernie or someone like him may fix it foolishly and destroy the country in the process.
Large masses of voters are by nature inarticulate, but that doesn't mean they're not saying something.
If the Trumpian ins want to stay in, they should start listening to the better wisdom of the Bernie outs.
All right, we're going to talk about the debate, the crazy, wild debate, and we're going to talk about the reaction to the debate.
And we've got the mailbag.
So all your problems, say goodbye to them.
Just say, shake their hands, show them to the door, say goodbye.
All your problems are about to be solved.
But first, let's talk about meat, meat.
We want to talk about Fairway because the thing, I've told you this before, but the reason I want you to get Fairway and subscribe to Fairway and get meat from Fairway is because if you do that, they send me samples.
I don't care that much about you.
We've never met.
I don't know who you are.
But the important thing is that I'm getting meat.
And if you go to Fairway, they will say, God, this guy is really selling our product.
Let's send him some more meat.
And I love Fairway meat.
In fact, we were going to have a counter.
We may build a counter to see how many times I mention the word meat when I'm doing Fairway meat market commercials.
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This week, my listeners can get the Heartland package valued at $230, but they can get it for just $99.99.
That's $100 plus shipping when entering Clavin at checkout.
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That's more than 50% off, the best meat in America, plus free shipping.
That's fairwaymeatmarket.com, promo code Clavin, and look for the Heartland package.
Again, fairwaymeatmarket.com, promo code Clavin.
Look for the Heartland package and figure out how to spell Clavin.
Because that's who I want them to send the meat to.
You for yours.
Tune in to our Super Tuesday backstage show, March 3rd.
It's going to be a big one.
We're going to hang in all evening and talk about what is going on.
We'll weep, we'll laugh.
Probably not, but we'll talk about it.
Mailbag coming up, as I said.
So there's an old saying in politics.
Let's talk about the debate.
An old saying in politics.
You can't beat someone with no one.
And that was what the debate was about last night.
Okay.
The debate was about the fact that Bernie Sanders represents the outs.
He's talking to the people who feel that they've been hard done by, and they don't have anyone to go up against him.
Let's just take a look at what happened because it was a melee.
The moderators completely lost control over it.
So let's just take a look at cut 12, what it looked like at its worst of America, instead of a bunch of broken promises that sound good on bumper stickers.
Mr. Steyer, Mr. Steyer, I think we're talking about Mr. Steyer.
Look, first of all, let me come.
I think she was talking about my plan, not yours.
I think we were talking about math, and it doesn't take two hours to do the math.
Let's talk about math.
Look at Metro.
Okay, so here's the math.
No, here's the math.
Can I respond to that?
Senator Sanders, you're allowed to respond and we would like to ask you to do it.
Senator Sanders.
Moderator.
Is it my turn?
This helps a lot, thank you.
This helps a lot, doesn't it?
It says Joe Biden.
That's the only thing he says.
Here is Trump's tweet.
Crazy, chaotic Democrat debate last night.
Fake news said Biden did well, even though he said half of our population was shot to death.
That's true.
I'll play that later.
Would be over for most.
That would be the end of it for most people.
He's saying Minnie Mike was weak and unsteady, but helped greatly by his many commercials, which are not supposed to be allowed during a debate.
Pocahontas was mean and undisciplined, mostly aiming at crazy Bernie and Minnie Mike.
They don't know how to handle her, but I know she's a chalker, he says.
I think he must mean choker, unless he's some Yiddish word that I don't know.
Steyer was a disaster who, along with Minnie, are setting records in dollars per vote.
Just give me an opponent.
He's got it.
He has got it.
Bernie is in the lead because there is a substantial number of people who are disaffected from what's going on and nobody's listening to them in the mainstream.
But he's also in the lead because they don't have anyone to oppose him.
And that's what the debate was about last night.
It was about the fact that they, you know, people say, well, if they would just, if they would just clear the middle lane, if they would just do this, if they would just do that.
Who?
Who?
Biden is so old he can't put an English sentence together.
You know, Bloomberg has really screwed himself.
Warren's plans don't work.
They don't have anybody to stand as someone who just steps out and can stand up to Bernie Sanders.
You're darkfaced pony soldier.
I am not.
It's true.
It's not that the country has gone socialist.
It is that he is the only person who understands that he is speaking for those people who feel left out.
All right.
So let's take a look at the debate.
Let's take a closer look at the actual, what was going on.
You know, Margaret Brennan, I think is her name, CBS.
You know, they had Gail King, big-time Democrat donor, moderator, and they had Nora O'Donnell, big-time Democrat supporter.
Margaret Brennan, one day at CBS, somebody at CBS is going, wait a minute, there's someone doing journalism on our television station.
And they're going to get Margaret Brennan.
She is the only person who she asked tough questions of everybody.
I want to start deep in the debate where she finally got around.
Somebody finally, I mean, if Brennan hadn't been there, nobody would have done this, I don't think, finally got around to asking Bernie about the fact that he has sucked up to every communist tyrant in the world and has now been caught praising Castro, not caught, but he did it on 60 Minutes, praising Castro, this murderous tyrant for his literacy program when he's going into a, you know, there's a swing state, Florida, where a lot of those people know exactly who Castro is and aren't impressed.
This is cut number 20.
You've praised the Chinese Communist Party for lifting more people out of extreme poverty than any other country.
You also have a track record of expressing sympathy for socialist governments in Cuba and in Nicaragua.
Can Americans trust that a Democratic socialist president will not give authoritarians a free pass?
I have opposed authoritarianism all over the world, and I was really amazed at what Mayor Bloomberg just said a moment ago.
He said that the Chinese government is responsive to the Politburo.
But who the hell is the Politburo responsive to?
Who elects the Politburo?
You got a real dictatorship there?
Of course you have a dictatorship in Cuba.
What I said is what Barack Obama said in terms of Cuba, that Cuba made progress on education.
Yes, I think.
Really?
Really?
Literally, there's no empirical bed.
Literacy program is bad.
It's possible we added that music, although it's also possible that that band just follows them around.
Fidel Castro won the debate because of his great, great literacy problem.
His great literacy program.
I mean, I was sitting there going, I'll vote for Castro.
This is wonderful, wonderful Castro.
And when he turned, what's amazing, I think Bernie actually has a mental problem.
I seriously do.
I mean, I know everybody on the left calls Trump a sociopath.
I think Bernie has a serious mental deficiency.
Crazy Bernie.
He's a crazy dude.
He's a crazy dude because when the audience booed at his praising this guy who put people up against the wall and shot them, and he said, what?
Teaching people to read is bad?
You know, yesterday I was comparing this to a woman, and I've heard women say this.
They'll say, well, you know, my husband gives me a nice house and he helps me with my schooling and gives me a car.
He does beat the crap out of me every couple of months.
And you think like, no, there's no list of pros and cons where that con doesn't erase all the pros.
Other places have good reading programs.
Ecuador, we talked about this yesterday, raised the level of their reading.
Cuba already had a lot of people reading.
If you are a tyrant, it does not matter if you teach people to read.
It doesn't matter if you give them free health care.
Freedom comes first.
And the fact that he's stunned when people booed that really tells you that there's something wrong with the guy.
Plus, when he talks about America, this is cut 21.
Occasionally, it might be a good idea to be honest about American foreign policy.
And that includes the fact that America has overthrown governments all over the world, in Chile, in Guatemala, in Iran.
And when dictatorships, whether it is the Chinese or the Cubans, do something good, you acknowledge that.
But you don't have trade love letters in them.
You don't have to write love letters, but he has been writing love letters to them.
And the way he talks about America is he sees all the bad stuff.
And by the way, not every government we've overthrown didn't need to be overthrown.
That's occasionally overthrowing a government is a perfectly legitimate geopolitical move, okay?
So that's the first thing.
But he only sees the bad in America and only sees too much of the good.
When forced to, when forced to, he will talk about the authoritarianism in communist governments when forced to, but that is not what he is doing.
You know, when I was a much younger man, I knew a communist and she went over, she married a communist and they went over and lived in the Soviet Union.
And he came over to visit a friend of mine.
And we were sitting at this lovely picnic and a beautiful lawn and all this.
And her husband was explaining to me, you know, we have jazz in the Soviet Union.
People talk about it as if, and I'm sitting there looking at him going, jazz?
You know, we have jazz and every other kind of music and music that people don't like.
We have music that the government wouldn't want to allow.
We have everything because we're free.
Who cares if you have jazz?
Who cares if you have, really, in some sense, who cares if you have even the necessary things of life if you are a slave?
If they put you, if tomorrow they offer to feed you, clothe you, give you free health care, but you'd be in prison.
Would you take the deal?
No, no, of course not, because you have human dignity, because you're an American, because you understand that freedom comes first.
The logic, the logic that the guy is using is the logic of tyranny.
It is the logic of tyranny.
What do you mean I'm stepping on his throat?
At least I'm giving him money.
And a lot of times conservatives will say, well, socialism doesn't work.
Some socialism can work.
I mean, some little pieces of socialism can work, but it's not about whether it works.
It's about the fact that it's wrong.
Why is it, why, if somebody makes a lot of money, is any of that money yours?
Why is any of that money yours?
You're just stealing it.
And all they do, all they did was bribe people.
Basically, we're going to give you this, we're going to give you that.
And Warren is just running for vice president at this point.
I mean, play cut six.
She's just saying, basically, I'd be a good foil for Bernie.
So look, the way I see this is that Bernie is winning right now because the Democratic Party is a progressive party and progressive ideas are popular ideas, even if there are a lot of people on this stage who don't want to say so.
You know, but Bernie and I agree on a lot of things, but I think I would make a better president than Bernie.
And the reason for that is that getting a progressive agenda enacted is going to be really hard.
And it's going to take someone who digs into the details to make it happen.
Look at her cheekbones.
Remember I told you Amy Klobuchar and Pete Budijej were going to fade away.
I told you in that last debate, they just looked like small and nothing.
I think that's just continuing here, even though Klobuchar is like this little voice of reason.
It's cut number 11.
The math does not add up.
In fact, just on 60 minutes this weekend, he said he wasn't going to rattle through the nickels and the dimes.
Well, let me tell you how many nickels and dimes we're talking about.
Nearly $60 trillion.
Do you know how much that is for all of his programs?
That is three times the American economy, not the federal government, the entire American economy.
Now, the reason that doesn't resonate, right, is because of what Henry Olson said.
It was also, there was also an article in The Examiner saying by Timothy Carney saying, here's someone everything needs to understand.
As Sanders emerges as the clear Democratic frontrunner, his supporters are not all or even mostly ideologically on the left.
That's because voters are not mostly ideological.
It's hard to remember, especially in this policy-heavy, ideologically-laden world of Washington.
But if we're to understand Sanders, we need to think outside the paradigm of left-center-right.
Sanders' appeal is a populist one, much like President Trump.
And that's why Klobuchar doesn't, it doesn't matter when Klobuchar says this money, you can't spend this money.
It's too much money.
It's three times the budget.
What are we talking about?
It's nuts because people don't care if it's nuts.
All they know is they have this feeling that they've been left out.
And that's why they are just as much open.
Not all of them, obviously, but some of them, an important number of them, are just as much open to voting for Donald Trump as they are for voting for Bernie Sanders because they just want to know that they're going to be included.
All this time when people were committing suicide, when people were taking drugs, when the life expectancy of Americans was dropping, even the right was not paying attention to this.
They were saying, well, you know, if your society collapses, you should move.
Isn't that what America is all about?
As if politics were pure ideas.
Politics is about ideas, but the ideas are about people.
If the ideas don't work on the level of the people, the ideas are no good.
Bernie gets this.
Trump get it.
They know who they're talking to.
They know they're talking to people who have been left behind by a system that the elites, that serve the elites and the elites just loved.
Let us talk about Ring.
You know, I live in a nice neighborhood.
I really do.
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Wherever you are, there's crime.
There's always going to be crime.
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You know, it's just something you want that keeps your house safe.
It means that you can be on the alert.
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If he does not know that, if he does not know that, call the police.
Abortion Euphemisms Debate00:09:35
You know, again, the visceral hatred from Bernie for it's for freedom.
It's for the West.
That's what it's for.
And it comes out in anti-Semitism.
This is true a lot.
I mean, some of our, I mean, this has been true back into the 19th, 18th century.
Some of our basic ideals come through Jesus from the Jews.
And I think that a lot of the hatred about the Jews is the hatred of these ideas that have really made the West great, but they've made it great against some of our natural instincts.
The thing about love your enemy, the thing about treating the poor fairly, the thing about taking care of the weakest, respecting the weakest.
These are all ideas that come to us through Jesus, but because Jesus was a Jew, they come to us from the Jews, and they hate Israel.
They hate Israel because it represents that freedom.
The freedom represents the little guy.
The little guy represents the thing that they don't like, which is the face of God in each and every one of us.
Here's Bernie, number 24, going after Israel.
But listen to what he says.
I am very proud of being Jewish.
I actually lived in Israel for some months.
But what I happen to believe is that right now, sadly, tragically, in Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country.
And I happen to believe, I happen to believe that what our foreign policy in the Mideast should be about is absolutely protecting the independence and security of Israel.
But you cannot ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people.
We have got to have a policy that reaches out to the Palestinians and the Americans.
And in answer to your question, that will come within the context of bringing nations together in the Mideast.
It's just interesting.
And I like the fact that he has that band following him around.
I think it's a good idea.
I think it really gives him a little bit more, it's more inspiring.
But again, again, the same question comes up in my mind is if Netanyahu is the evildoer of the Middle East, what's he think about all the other leaders?
What's he think about the fact that you get killed for converting in some of the other countries?
About the fact that you couldn't build a cathedral, which you can in Israel, about the fact that Muslims don't have the same rights that Muslims have in Israel.
What does he think of all that?
I mean, it's always, why is it always the West?
It is the West.
There's this natural animus he has toward the West and that the far left has toward the West.
And the thing about it is, I don't think that that is true of a lot of his voters.
And that's why I think they're there for the taking.
They could be there for the taking.
So let's take a look at the press reaction, then get back to some of the hilarious parts of the debate.
Chris Matthews had the funniest reaction.
You know, they interview all the candidates afterwards.
He couldn't, no matter who he was talking to, he couldn't stop talking about how much he hates Bernie.
I grew up with Castro as a kid.
We all rooted for him until he started executing every one of his enemies by firing squad, allying himself with the Soviet Union, and at one point aiming medium-range nuclear weapons at every one of our major cities short of Seattle.
We began to think, maybe he's not our friend.
There are real issues in this campaign, and one of them you talked about tonight, the nature of the healthcare system.
All Democrats struggle for some kind of universal health care system.
But we also struggle for freedom.
Yes, it's part of our culture.
But what's democratic socialism?
I would think Democratic would mean you have an option not to do it.
There'd be a free society option.
Democratic, it doesn't seem Democratic if you must go with the only health care system available to you.
It's federal government run.
And if you don't like it, you're stuck.
You said something that jumped out of me.
And I don't like numbers on TV.
It's the worst medium for it.
But you said something really smart.
You said this guy's total social package of spending is $60 trillion, which is three times the United States economy, not the government.
Three times the entire thing.
Chris Matthews is going to vote for Trump.
Chris Matthews is talking to Steyer.
He's talking to Amy Klopetro.
They can't get him a word in because suddenly he's going, I was wrong all these years.
I didn't mean the socialism.
That's not what I wanted at all.
Not the healthcare.
Forget the healthcare.
He's going to vote for Trump.
I'm telling you, this is an actual opportunity for the good guys.
MSNBC is selling their hearts out for Joe Biden.
This is like different guys talking on MSNBC, starting with Eugene Robinson from the Post.
Biden probably had his best debate.
He was not just forceful, but he was substantive.
He is strong in every debate on foreign policy, I thought.
And they spent a long time on foreign policy.
It was a good night for him to have a good night.
Exactly.
Bernie Sanders did not seem to me to be quite at the top of his game tonight.
He just seemed a little bit off.
Maybe that was subdued for Bernie Sanders a little bit.
Biden had a great night because he looked presidential.
He didn't bring up the coronavirus first.
That was Mike Bloomer.
Crops for him for bringing up the thing that keeps me up at night these days.
But the fact that he took it and he ran with it, he talked about the Ebola virus, even though it's not the same thing.
But he talked about what he would do as president when he's dealing with issues such as these.
So for Biden, it wasn't just the foreign policy.
It was also the presidentialism that he brought with it.
It was the energy.
So Biden up here in terms of energy, Sanders down here.
Yeah, you know, you know, I think when I think Joe Biden, I think energy.
Let's hear Joe Biden talking about what he thinks is a problem with gun violence in America.
There's cut 14.
I passed the Brady bill with waiting periods.
I led that fight.
But my friend, am I right, and others have, in fact, also given to the gun manufacturers absolute immunity.
Imagine if I stood here and said, we give immunity to drug companies.
We give immunity to tobacco companies.
That has caused carnage on our streets.
150 million people have been killed since 2007 when Bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability.
More than all the wars, including Vietnam, from that point on.
You're a lion dogface pony soldier.
150 million people, that's half the population.
It's God, they're gone.
Have you noticed?
It's like the rapture.
Have you noticed you come home and half the people are gone?
I mean, this is the guy that MSNBC said, please, please, he can win.
Please, he's presidential, please.
It's sad.
The other is Liz Warren.
In terms of being a presidential candidate, I think she clearly sees the numbers are there.
She's circling the drain.
She had one of the ugliest moments of the debate, I thought.
She's going after Bloomberg because Bloomberg said untoward things, accused of saying untoward things to some of his female employees.
And she retells this debunked story about how she got fired for being pregnant, which we now know is just not true.
Here she's a cut eight.
This is personal for me.
When I was 21 years old, I got my first job as a special education teacher.
I loved that job.
And by the end of the first year, I was visibly pregnant.
The principal wished me luck and gave my job to someone else.
Pregnancy discrimination, you bet.
But I was 21 years old.
I didn't have a union to protect me.
I didn't have any federal law on my side.
So I packed up my stuff and I went home.
At least I didn't have a boss who said to me, kill it.
The way that Mayor Bloomberg said that would have said to one of his pregnant employees.
Pocahontas is not happy.
No, wait a minute.
Hold on a second.
You know, yesterday, Democratic senators blocked a Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act again in the Senate, right?
This is if the baby is born alive from an abortion, there are penalties for not giving it health care.
Ben Sasse was near tears as he was railing at them about this.
Listen, here's Ben Sasse.
And what's actually happening is the senior senator from Illinois is wanting to obscure the debate because he wants to use euphemisms about choice so that you don't have to admit to the American public that what's actually happening in the floor today is probably that like last year, 44 Democrats are going to filibuster an anti-infanticide bill.
There's nothing in the bill that's about abortion.
Nothing.
It's about infanticide.
That's the actual legislation.
And you got 44 people over there who want to hide from it and talking euphemisms about abortion because they don't want to defend the indefensible because you can't defend the indefensible.
We're talking about killing babies that are born.
That's the actual legislation we're voting on today in the Senate.
That's what the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act is.
Is it okay in the eyes of the United States Senate for us to say, well, you can't actively kill the little baby.
You can't take a pillow and put it over her face and smother her to death, but you can back away and kill her that way.
You know, Bernie, Amy, and Elizabeth Warren were not there, but they voted against this bill the last time in February.
So what's their logic on this?
What's her logic when she's yelling that Bloomberg shouldn't say kill it?
Why not?
Why not?
She says kill it.
Why shouldn't he say that he said it out loud?
Is that he revealed the logic?
This is why, this is why I think that there's a chance for conservatives in this election to win big if we play it right.
Because, okay, a lot of people feel on the out.
Faith and Morals00:15:07
A lot of people have lost, had lost jobs, and a lot of people felt that nobody's listening to them.
But at least what we're saying makes sense.
Trump may be outrageous, but his programs make sense.
What Bernie is saying makes no sense.
What Warren is saying makes no sense.
And the rest of them have got absolutely nothing.
This is a big chance for us.
Hey, we have an exciting new offer coming up that you will not want to miss.
On Saturday, February 29th, it's leap day, which only happens once every four years.
So come and check out my channel then because you will find out what a tremendous offer we have on that day.
And while you are thinking about what you want to purchase, the Daily Wire's own Matt Walsh has a new book out called Church of Cowards, A Wake-Up Call to Complacent Christians.
Christians in other countries are still being martyred for the faith, but how many American Christians are willing to lay down their smartphones, let alone their lives, for their faith.
Walsh breaks down the problems found in modern American Christianity.
Ben Shapiro said of this book that Americans are going to church less often than ever before.
Walsh explains why that trend must be reversed if America is to save itself and its founding principles.
This rousing call to the real adventure of a living faith is a wake-up call to complacent Christians and a rallying cry for anyone dissatisfied with a lukewarm faith.
Pick it up on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble today.
We should have Walsh on to talk about this.
All right, the mailbag is coming up.
Come over to dailywire.com and subscribe so you can get your problems solved next week, although many of them may be solved right this minute.
Mailbag!
Yeah!
No, no fair playing the communist anthem while I'm reading the mailbag.
From Michael, dear master of the metaverse, in a valiant effort to survive a recent clavenless weekend, I had to resort to listening to Ben Shapiro and Michael Knowles' podcast.
I'm so sorry.
Ben responded to a mailbag question about the difference between socialism and communism.
My question is: if China is a communist country, why do so many Chinese citizens have the money necessary to travel the world, drive Tesla, and purchase iPhones?
Simple answer.
China has allowed, it's an experiment, and it's a very dangerous experiment, but it's interesting.
China has allowed the free market to thrive without letting the people become free.
They are an experiment on whether you can have free market policies but not have free people.
I don't believe you can.
I believe that China is heading for a fall.
I believe all the fear about China rising up, although China will rise up and will be powerful one day, I believe it is premature because I think, here's the thing, they have a free market, but if you go in and complain and say, I think you can do this better, you could end up dead.
That's the free market in China.
Ultimately, you have to be able to do things that annoy the government.
You have to be able to have ideas that annoy the government.
You have to be able to say things out loud that annoy the government.
And that's where creativity comes from.
Creativity comes from people that the church doesn't like sometimes.
It comes from people that the government doesn't like.
If everybody gets a chance to speak, the best ideas will rise.
They're always saying they want to stop hate speech or we should knock people off YouTube and we should knock people off Twitter.
I think that that gives them more power.
If you let everybody be free, if you let everybody speak, if you let everybody say what they have to say, I think the good ideas will rise.
And I think that translates into good capitalism.
I think capitalism with an iron hand will not work.
But it's worked so far.
It has gotten them out of the sloth that they were in and made their lives much better than they were.
But will it continue?
That's the experiment.
I don't know.
But the reason that they're thriving is because they've gotten rid of all the communism part except for the oppression.
They're letting their markets work.
So that's why they have the money that they have.
From Travis, hello, Andrew.
My English class is unfortunately reading How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi.
Kendi states that the opposite of racist is not racist, but anti-racist, a term he uses to refer to those who speak or act in ways that advance racial equity in society.
Do you believe that one must act in such a manner to not be racist?
No, I don't.
In fact, in fact, I believe that I happen to believe, I believe that not being racist has to be part of a bigger philosophy.
Why shouldn't you be racist?
What's the problem with being racist?
I never understand this on the left.
The left basically says there is no objective morality.
One culture is as good as another.
Why are you always attacking Islam?
Why do you think that Islam is as good a religion as Christianity?
Isn't that bigoted?
Isn't it racist to attack somebody else's religion?
They have no set of values.
So why is racism bad?
Why is racism bad?
Well, I know why it's bad to me.
It's bad to me because man is made in the image of God.
I know this to be the case.
I know that man is made in the image of God, and therefore each person is made in the image of God.
And it doesn't say in the Bible, hey, you know, it's only these guys who look like you who are made in the image of God.
It's everybody.
And that's why I believe I should not be racist.
It doesn't say that I have to work so that everything is fair for everybody.
It just says I have to treat everybody with love.
I have to treat everybody as if they were the image of God.
That's a tall order, but it's something that makes your life better when you try and do it.
It is something you work toward.
It's not for Ibram X. Kendi to tell me what my philosophy should look like because he doesn't share my philosophy.
He just knows that for some reason he doesn't like being racist, maybe because it affects him.
It's too bad.
Too bad.
I believe in not being racist because I believe it's an offense against the image of God and I will behave that way as much as I am able, right?
As much as I am able, I will behave that way.
what my feelings might be on any given moment, on any given day, what they may be at any given moment, how I might react to something.
It's nobody's business.
All I can do is act in accordance with my philosophy, which is that man has made me the image of God.
I don't know what Kenny's philosophy is, except maybe he doesn't like it when people are mean to him.
All right.
This is a letter I want to read.
This fellow has written to me many times, but his letters also reflect a lot of letters that I get, a lot of kind of letters that I get, and I want to address something in it that's important, I think.
He says, the truth is, this is from Keith.
Over the years, you have been one of the few people I view as being sound of mind.
I have been a broken mess for years with plenty of doubts about God and myself sprinkled along, perhaps broken my entire life.
Part of me says that constantly reaching out towards you every few months is not the best idea.
You're a busy man doing the Lord's work.
I'm just a mess who's wasted too much of my life.
Your faith is radiant, and I long so desperately for that radiance to be within me.
He says, is there any way I can speak to you?
And folks, I can't do that.
I simply can't.
I can't answer questions even like this outside the mailbag.
He says, I'm scared of everything all the time.
This coronavirus has sent me into overload.
I feel death coming.
It's consumed me.
I think I'm damned to hell, even when I know that Jesus died to save me from that.
And I'm plagued by doubts and stress that I haven't seen in my life till now.
My resting heart rate the last few weeks has been staying near the hundreds.
My family doesn't understand.
My friends don't understand.
The people at church don't understand.
And I know God understands, but I feel too selfish or stupid to understand his love.
And I feel trapped and stuck.
I can't even tell if my doubts are from belief or unbelief.
I would love your guidance, eternally grateful for everything.
You are a blessing into the world.
Thank you for everything you do from Keith.
So Keith, and a lot of people who write to me like this, who say, my family doesn't understand, my friends don't understand, the people at church don't understand.
A metaphor, all right?
Let's say you broke your foot.
You're coming down the stairs, you take a wrong step, you break your foot.
And you say, you know, I brought this to my family, and they couldn't do anything about it.
My foot is still broken.
I brought it to my friends, and they couldn't do anything about it.
My foot is still broken.
The people at church, my pastor, I brought it to him.
My foot is still broken.
They haven't fixed my foot.
So now I'm coming to you, Clavin, to fix my foot, you know, because I know that you really are a smart guy and you're a good guy and I want you to fix my foot.
What's the problem with that logic, right?
We have people who fix feet.
They're called doctors.
If you break your foot, you take your foot to the doctor.
The problem that you're describing, Keith, is a disorder.
It's a mental disorder.
The coronavirus may be a problem, you know, or it may not.
Right now, it's not a big problem.
You know, you've got to keep an eye on things.
I understand that.
But if you are overblown, totally consumed with worry over the coronavirus right now, you have an anxiety disorder, right?
You have a disorder in your mind.
Just like a broken foot, if you said, well, I brought my broken foot to God and God didn't fix my broken foot.
No, God is saying go to a doctor to fix your broken foot, all right?
You have a disorder in your mind.
You have an anxiety disorder in your mind.
You need to go to people who deal with that.
You need to go to a doctor who is trained in dealing with that.
And you start out by getting a psychological assessment from a psychologist.
I did this when I was young, when I had a problem with my mind, because that problem, just like a broken foot, is not going to be solved by God.
It's not going to be solved by your pastor.
It's not going to be solved by your family.
It's going to be solved by a doctor who's trained to fix broken feet.
One of the things about a mental disorder is that it keeps you away from God, like mine did.
It keeps you away from God because it keeps you away from understanding him.
You can tell, I've read your letters before, and I can hear that you understand that you're not getting God right.
You know God loves you.
You know he forgives you.
You know he's not sending you to hell.
You know, he's on your side, but you can't reach him because you have a disorder.
Your foot is broken, and all you can think about is your broken foot.
You have a mental break.
You have a disorder in your mind.
You need to go to somebody who can help you with that.
If you go to a psychologist, a psychologist will do an assessment.
Maybe some medication is going to be necessary.
I don't know.
I'm not a doctor.
But you'll go to somebody who is trained to deal with this disorder.
You are not seeing the world as the world is because something is broken.
Maybe you suffered a trauma.
Maybe you suffered abuse.
I don't know where it comes from.
But you have got to get that fixed.
The people you've listed and me, we all want to help you.
We all love you.
We all want you to do well.
But that's not the place you go.
If something is broken, you go to the specialist who fixes it.
This is a mental disorder.
You need to get it fixed with somebody who trains to do that.
All right.
So I hope that helps.
And I hope you do it.
And I hope you write back and tell us how it went.
And, you know, that maybe you can fix this.
You know, I think you can fix it.
I mean, there are really talented people who deal with this all the time.
All right.
From Golda.
Dear Mr. Claven, what is the difference between love and infatuation?
How can I tell if he's the one?
Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.
You know, I get this.
This is another question I get very often.
Six months.
Give it six months.
You know, this is the thing.
Infatuation is something that courses through your body.
It is a wonderful start to any relationship, a good relationship or a relationship that is not going to go the distance, but you may have felt this great passion to begin with.
It lasts about six months.
And as you get to the end of the six months, you start to say, you know, I really, really like this guy.
And he really, we have a lot in common.
And we laugh and we don't fight all the time.
And we're happy a lot of the time.
And we can talk things out.
And he respects me.
And I respect him.
And, you know, he can support himself.
And those are the things that come into your mind after about six months.
You've got to give it time to settle.
You don't have to make a commitment.
You don't have to accept a ring.
You don't have to get married.
Just give it a little time, about six months.
We'll get you where you need to go.
All right.
From Raden, Mr. How Dare You?
I often mark your podcast locations at important things you say so that I can jot them down in my journal later.
I was listening again to a section of your mailbag on July 3rd, 2019, where you were talking about how when you put forward values and morals without God being involved in that discussion, you will recognize that people will keep asking why, why, why?
Yeah, I call this the toddler test until you are essentially backed into a corner without any reasons.
You called it to the toddler test.
He mentions this.
Can you expound on this, please?
I mainly ask because people do want reasons to believe in morals that go beyond God said so or because God made it that way.
I believe in God and you have helped me understand that not only did he create the universe, but also the moral order, which I never connected before, so thank you.
But how could I defend myself and my values without always reverting back to God?
All right.
Two separate questions.
One question is you understand that in order for the moral universe to exist, there has to be an ultimate good.
That ultimate good has to be conscious, that ultimate good, because without, it has to have free will, because without consciousness and free will, there is no good or evil, good or evil or a question of consciousness and free will decisions that you make.
But when you're arguing with someone who does not believe in God, the question is, the question on the table is, do you have to have that argument first?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Sometimes what people are saying just does not make it most of the time.
What people are saying, if it's immoral, doesn't make any sense.
So like when we were talking about the guy saying there shouldn't be racism, you know, you can use the toddler test on him.
Say, why not?
Why shouldn't there be racism?
You know, do you believe in God?
Well, if you believe in God, then a whole other set of issues come in.
Which God do you believe in?
Do you believe in the Christian God?
Because if you believe in that God, he has some things to say that you may not like very much.
Do you believe in those things too?
Those are arguments that you can get into with people.
But the essential question, the essential question that I sometimes ask people when I'm arguing with them is if you landed on a planet of Nazis where everybody was a Nazi, everybody was a racist, everybody was a torturer, everybody was, would they be wrong?
If all the people were Nazis, would they be wrong?
If everybody agreed, would they be wrong?
If even the slaves, if even the people being tortured agreed with the Nazis, said, yes, you have the right to torture and kill me because that's Nazism is true, would Nazism be wrong?
Most people, most people know, they know that yes, the Nazis would be wrong.
And that raises a question, where does that morality come from?
So listen, you don't have to get in an argument about God every time you argue morality.
Most morality works.
Most morality prevents suffering.
Most of the time, you can explain to them logically in their own world why they should believe what you're talking about.
However, however, with a friend, it might be interesting to sometimes explore this question.
Do they believe that morality is relative?
And if so, why should we embrace one set of morals over another?
Because a lot of the people who believe that morality is relative follow that out by saying, that's why you shouldn't attack other cultures.
And my question is, is morality is relative, and I feel like attacking other cultures.
Why shouldn't I?
The reason is, because it might be wrong, you know, and if it's wrong, then morality isn't relative.
Nothing they say about this actually makes sense internally.
So in other words, it really depends on the conversation.
Some moral questions, especially if you're dealing with a moral question with somebody who doesn't believe, you should try very hard to convince them of the moral answer on non-religious grounds.
But you should always know that your morals are backed up by a faith in an ultimate moral good, and you can make that a separate question if you feel that that's appropriate.
Eternal Connection Examined00:01:30
I got to stop, but I'll be back tomorrow.
I'm Andrew Clavin.
This is The Andrew Klavan Show.
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Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro Show, the Matt Walsh Show, and the Michael Knoll Show.
Thanks for listening.
The Andrew Clavin Show is produced by Robert Sterling and directed by Mike Joyner.
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Technical producer, Austin Stevens.
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Edited by Adam Sayabitz.
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Animations are by Cynthia Angulo.
Production assistants, McKenna Waters and Ryan Love.
The Andrew Clavin Show is a Daily Wire production.
Copyright Daily Wire 2020.
Everybody loses last night's presidential debate, so Bernie remains on top.
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