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Sept. 19, 2017 - The Michael Knowles Show
46:35
Ep. 29 - Love In The Time Of MAGA ft. Roaming Millennial

Roaming Millennial joins Michael in-studio to talk love in the age of Trump. Then, Erielle Davidson joins the Panel of Deplorables to discuss revived Obamacare repeal, North Korean's Rocket Man burning out his fuse out there alone, and why teenagers aren't having sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll anymore. Sad! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Roaming Millennial joins in-studio to talk love in the age of Trump.
Then, Ariel Davidson and Amanda Prestigiacomo join the panel of deplorables to discuss revived Obamacare repeal, North Korea's rocket man burning his fuse out there alone, and why teenagers aren't having sex, drugs, and rock and roll anymore.
Sad.
Now, before we begin here, I would just like to address something once and for all.
People have been insinuating that the only reason that I do this show is so that I can bring on beautiful women and talk to them every single day.
And obviously, nothing could be further from the truth.
Before we begin roaming, can I get you a glass of Malbec?
I would love that.
Thank you.
That is great.
And, fellas, it seems a little bright in here to do an interview, so...
Yeah, that's a lot better.
That is much better.
Yay!
So let's just dig right into this interview.
Roaming, what's your sign?
I'm a Cancer.
You're kidding.
Yeah.
That is such a coincidence.
I also have an astrological sign.
Oh my gosh, no way.
It's so crazy.
Cheers.
Mmm.
Mmm, wow.
Wow.
So, what is your favorite color, M&M? Why don't we both say our favorite colors on the count of three?
Okay, that sounds fine.
One, two, three.
Red.
Amazing.
It's just like something's happening here or something like that.
Yeah, definitely.
So how's your fiance?
We're joined today by roaming Millennial.
Roaming, thank you for being here.
This is, Roaming's been with us from the beginning.
One of the first people on the panel of Deplorables.
I think I might have been not on your first show, but one of them.
You were, yeah, at least on the second show.
Yeah.
Second or third.
And, you know, you bring up my fiancé, obviously.
That's true, I'm getting married to sweet little Lisa next year.
But...
The rapture is happening.
The rapture is coming on Monday, according to Christian numerologists.
So if we're going to start the doomsday right-wing apocalyptic polygamous cult, now would be the time to do it.
Speaking of sometime polygamous organizations, you went to BYU. That's right.
I am not Mormon, but I went to pretty much the biggest Mormon university.
But you're not Mormon, so I'm curious about your religious views, and I'm also curious about why you chose BYU, why you chose a Mormon school.
So I'm born-again Christian.
I chose BYU because I studied Middle East Studies and Arabic as my minor, and BYU actually has an amazing language program.
So I went there to study Arabic.
And, you know, I got a scholarship there.
I was very lucky.
It's a good school academically, but it is a Mormon school, and not being Mormon, there were definitely challenges.
Yeah, definitely.
What sort of challenges?
Well, everyone's Mormon.
They all super want you to convert to Mormonism.
You have to take Mormon religion classes while you're there, regardless of whether you're Mormon or not.
So I pretty much have, in essence, a minor in Mormonism.
But, you know, if you go to a UK public school, you have to take Islam classes, so it certainly makes just as much sense.
Exactly.
The state religion, of course.
Yeah, and just socially, there were things that, you know, Mormons are, I have a lot of Mormon friends, but there are some things that's like, yeah, they are a little different, especially the ones in Utah.
Do you find, because I haven't seen you talking about religion a lot, but we like to talk about religion in the show.
Do you, first of all, what is your religious view?
So like I said, born-again Christian.
It's actually funny, I don't really talk about religion on my channel, just because I have a pretty wide variety of watchers.
A lot of people who listen to me are actually very liberal or maybe more libertarian than I am.
So religion isn't something that's come up, but I think more and more I'm starting to see how, I guess, my religious views kind of...
I mean, they're not determining for my political views, but they definitely kind of go together.
They influence one another and things like that.
There's a foundation that's formed by that.
So what are your religious views?
Let's break the news here.
You don't talk about it on your channel.
We've got to get some views.
Yeah, well, I mean, I definitely believe in God, and I think the idea behind Christianity, a lot of people who aren't Christians or aren't very familiar...
With Christianity and how it's practiced, it isn't the idea that you be a Christian and it's all about being perfect, but it's the idea that there is forgiveness for sin.
And I think the idea behind sin and just knowing who I am as a person and all my own flaws, that's kind of what made me attracted to Christianity in the first place.
Because if you look at all the world religions, they all try to offer, I guess, a form of self-help or self-improvement.
But Christianity is really the only one that says, Yeah, you're never going to be perfect, but here's what you can do about it.
So you said it goes hand-in-hand with your politics.
I have two questions on that.
One, how does your religion influence your politics and maybe vice versa?
And also, do conservatives have to be Christian or Jewish or religious?
Is there room for atheists in the conservative movement?
Well, for me, it's funny because I grew up in a kind of Easter, Christmas Catholic household.
I think we all did, yeah.
Yeah, gotta love those two holidays and only those.
Christmas Eve is good, too, because you get all the fish.
Right, that's kind of like a second one.
But yeah, when I was younger, I mean, I've never been liberal.
I've always been pretty conservative just of how my parents brought me up.
So, you know, it's not like if I were to be an atheist, I'd be this pink-haired, overweight feminist, right?
I mean, it's not there, but...
I think since I kind of started exploring Christianity more from a philosophical and theological standpoint, I've come to see more that there are two realms.
And I'm libertarian in my view of government, but I think very much so that just because we are permitted to do something by government, that doesn't mean we should.
And so I think that's why religion and having these moral questions is so important.
And I think from a moral standpoint, what I think of as right and wrong, Politically and even in my own life, that's where I guess my faith really plays into it.
And do you think that's where the millennial generation and the younger generation are?
This kind of libertarian relation to Christianity?
Or is it something different?
Are they the nuns?
Are they really atheists?
Or are they just reaching for something that they weren't raised up with?
I think they're reaching for something.
I think that's why libertarianism, more so than conservatism, is being popular.
Because if you look at libertarianism, pretty much a lot of conservatives embrace small government principles.
But I guess what I see as the big difference with them and libertarians, like the small government conservatives, is the fact that small government conservatives still will be very much against things like drug use.
You know, and libertarians...
Well, not personally, just for the law.
Right, just for the law.
I'm sure they're all, you know, Buckley used to smoke pot on his yacht, according to vicious, unsubstantiated rumors.
That are totally not true.
Probably not true.
But yeah, and I think that's one of the biggest differences.
And I think when we're looking at this younger generation who is more conservative leaning than any since, what is it, the 60s or something like that.
I think they're on their way there, right?
They see the dangers of large government.
But I think where we need to do better as conservatives is teaching them like, yeah, government should be out of our lives, but we should still kind of restrain ourselves.
And here's why.
Here's why this is not morally good for us to do, even if no government is going to be telling us not to do it.
So do you think, I mean, you would call yourself sometimes a libertarian, sometimes a conservative.
I would say conservatarian.
I would never just say, even when I talk about libertarianism, I say like, oh, I lean libertarian because when I think libertarian, I just think, you know, Gary Johnson and lizard people, no roads, smoking pot.
I don't know.
That's my...
You're obviously, you're talking about the theorem of the reptilians.
You're questioning that settled science?
No, I'm sorry.
Okay, all right.
Maybe we'll get to that later with the panel.
But there does seem to me sometimes that libertarianism is a cop-out a little bit, and I think it's why college kids lean that way, is because you can say, look, man, yeah, I want lower taxes, but I'm not one of those big, bad conservatives.
Do you think that libertarianism is a step on the road to being more of a mainstream conservative?
Or is it really its own category? - I think it can be a step on the road toward mainstream conservatism.
As long as we, you know, if you have that foundation where you don't have, or at least the state doesn't have the right to interfere with lies, you know, there's...
No good to be had from wealth redistribution, things like that.
That is on a step, I mean, a step on the road to conservatism, but I think the extra thing that needs to happen is that you have to be asking yourselves these moral questions, like, all right, well, if the state isn't there to tell us what to do, does that mean we just do whatever, live this crazy ANCAP life?
Or are, you know, are we still operating on the assumption that there are things that are right and wrong in our lives?
And if so, what are they?
How do we know what should guide us in that?
And I think that's where church comes in.
And Dennis Prager talks about this a lot, and I think It's such a true point.
Small government only really works under, I guess, the guide of these, I guess, religions and faiths that kind of keep us in check because the government isn't there to do that.
You need a big God to have a small government.
Exactly.
That's what you're saying.
Yeah, I think that's totally right.
It does remind me that the libertinism of PGR Works essay, where the title of the essay is, I think, I might be misquoting it, How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drinks.
Poetry.
That is poetry.
And that does kind of embody that libertarian mindset.
I think the only reason I would oppose legalizing marijuana is because of all the people who want to legalize marijuana.
Just to spite them.
I feel that way too.
Have you encountered these people?
Yes.
That's all they care about.
Yeah, I mean, there was a bit where I was getting my immigration together where I was going to the courthouse a lot.
I went like three times.
And every time I went, there was this guy trying to get us to sign petitions to legalize marijuana.
It's like, A... You clearly already do it, so no worries there.
And B, is this really something you want to center your entire life around?
This was the same guy.
Yeah, same guy.
Same guy.
All times.
Absolutely.
It's like the most important thing.
Forget about national security.
Forget about tax reform.
Forget about health care.
It's just legalizing pot.
Now, so libertarianism might be on the road to conservatism.
There is this thing that is not on the road of any of those things.
It's an alternative.
And you've gotten in trouble with these guys.
It's the alternative right.
You have talked to them.
You've talked to Spencer.
I have personally talked to Richard Spencer.
I've interviewed other alt-righty type people on the show.
Do we talk about them too much?
There are like 500 of these people, right?
I mean, if you ask Hillary Clinton, there's 66 million of these people.
But there are.
Anyone who's not Bernie Sanders is to the right of Sanders.
Yeah, if you're to the right of Sanders, you're on the alt-right.
But in reality, how many of these people are there, 500 or something?
Yeah, they're a group that is extremely vocal on the internet.
Like, screechingly vocal.
But in real life, I think you're right.
They do make up a very, very tiny portion of the population.
They're not this major political movement that the left tries to make them out to be.
They're not the reason why Trump won.
But at the same time, I kind of get what you're saying, right?
We don't want to build them up or give them more attention than is due, but...
With the way the alt-right term is being thrown around, I do think it is important for conservatives or anyone who's not alt-right but being labeled alt-right to say, hey, by the way, this isn't us.
This is what these guys think, and this is why we don't agree with them.
I'm amazed that the left, I mean, this is what they do, right?
They've done this forever.
They say there are three racists in the country, and so we're going to paint the whole Republican Party as racist.
But with the alt-right, at least those guys are honest.
The 500 people, they say it's alt-right.
It doesn't mean very right.
It means an alternative to conservatism, an alternative version of things.
So I guess you're right.
You do have to point out why they're wrong.
Their ideas are...
They're illogical.
They're easily reputed.
They're very emotional.
And people ask me why I'm not alt-right.
I'm not alt-right for the same reason I'm not a feminist or Black Lives Matter advocate, right?
Because they're emotional arguments based on identitarianism.
And I have a lot more things to be proud of and committed to than the color of my skin, right?
Yeah, it's nothing.
I don't feel that I've accomplished very much for that.
You also have this other issue with the alt-right, which is that You are not all white.
Yes, but I am complicit in the white genocide.
You are.
You are the white genocide.
Yeah.
Roaming?
How dare you?
Yeah, I mean, and I feel bad for, you know, they're clearly upset about this, but, you know, here I am planning to, I guess, have all these mixed-race children, so I guess...
It's really...
Oops.
You know what I think, though?
I think we need to amend...
They have this slogan, which is the 14 words, we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.
We just add a hyphen in there and say white Asian children.
Right.
And then you're good.
Then you can fit in there.
We would get along totally fine if only that were changed.
And you get a ton of flack from these guys on YouTube.
Oh, yeah.
Because it is pretty strange.
You only started doing this a year and a half ago, and now you're like the biggest thing on YouTube.
It's bad, but yeah.
But you grew so fast, you get a gazillion views.
What is it about you?
Why do people watch you?
That's something that I've asked myself a bunch, right?
Because, you know, I kind of watch my videos and these are kind of niche subjects, right?
I mean, things that I think are interesting.
By the way, feel free to actually drink the wine.
I'm taking the gag as a license to drink during the show.
It seems great.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
I think part of it is that people are looking right now for someone who isn't afraid to be called all these names and just express themselves.
So that's why when you see anyone who's not afraid to do that, Ben Shapiro is a great example of that.
People are kind of interested.
I think I saw him earlier.
I don't know.
I saw him somewhere.
Maybe it was a dream.
But yeah, so people are drawn to that, and then hopefully they look at my channel and see someone who—I really do care about these issues, and I see myself as sort of an activist for conservative small government principles, and I hope that my videos are informative.
You know, I'm sure a lot of people will say I'm only popular because I am a girl.
You know what?
I'm not going to say that has nothing to do with it.
I'm hoping that's not the only reason why people watch me.
Are you saying that if I identify as a girl that I'll finally get as many views as you do?
That is how that works.
We're doing it right now.
I am a woman.
I am a beautiful woman.
You identify as Angelina Jolie.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, at least my cousin Beyonce.
Yeah.
So on that point, they say it's just because you're a girl.
And it is true.
Pretty girls do very well on YouTube, particularly in the conservative movement.
They do very well on Fox News and on television stations.
But that's fine.
It seems to me use any tool at your disposal to talk about true ideas.
The left always gets conservative women wrong.
They don't understand conservative women.
Because they think that conservative women are supposed to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and never leave and never utter a word.
But you don't do that.
When I think of conservative women like Margaret Thatcher, Phyllis Schlafly, you, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingram, on and on and on.
I love that I'm included with Margaret Thatcher.
With Phyllis Schlafly.
Oh, Margaret Thatcher, yes.
Yeah, just like Rowan Millennial, Margaret Thatcher, just equally same level, same amount of accomplishment.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I don't know.
I haven't seen Margaret Thatcher put out a YouTube video probably ever.
Right.
She's really slacking.
Absolutely.
But those are pretty tough ladies.
Those are tough cookies.
You're an outspoken, fierce defender of your ideas.
Yeah.
Why do they get women wrong?
And you know what?
I get people on the left attacking me for that reason all the time.
Oh, if you're so for family values, why are you not, you know, pumping out children and stuff like that?
And by the way, I'm 23.
I think I have enough time to do both.
Well, Monday is actually the apocalypse, so we better hurry up on it.
Yep.
So, yeah, but I think the reason why there are a lot of these conservative women who are so outspoken is that I think, you know, in terms of gender roles, I think conservatives in general embrace the idea that, you know, men and women are different in some ways, you know, and they're complementary.
And so as someone who is a woman and conservative, I feel like...
I kind of care about these issues in a maternal way.
And so, you know, I can't speak for any other conservative female commentator, but I do kind of see it as a, I don't know, not a way of mothering everybody and trying to tell you what to do.
But I feel like you know if you really do care and you care what kind of world your children are gonna be brought up in If you kind of if you care about your community and your church Then these are things you'll want to speak up about it and conservative women in general I think embrace that and you know just because you want to have a family and that you you know You're feminine doesn't mean you have to be like what the alt-right thinks of as a woman You know this hashtag trad life where you're actually are barefoot in the kitchen, right?
Well Well, they seem to be, in every way, the alt-right seems to be cartoonish.
But they do.
They talk about the trad life.
And they do appear to have cartoonish views of everything, including gender roles.
But obviously, we know as conservatives, I always think there are like three levels to this.
There's the liberal level, which is completely wrong.
And then, you know, that says gender roles, they don't exist whatsoever.
They're completely meaningless.
Men and women are exactly the same.
But if you're a man in a woman's body, then somehow you know, even though they're the same.
Then there's the next order, which is the conservative view.
And that view is men and women are different.
They're rigid.
These are the, like, ah, women, you know.
And then there's the higher level.
There's the highest level of conservatism, which is like...
Ah, women.
You know, it's an appreciation and it's a playing around with rules that are meant to be broken and understanding that we live as real people with real living ideas.
And the way I see gender roles is that, look, I'm a woman and even as I'm starting to get older, I'm starting to realize that my priorities in life are like where I see myself in the next five years.
Next five days.
Yeah.
The apocalypse is, I don't know how I can convince you of this roaming.
You're right.
It's happening on Monday.
I'll have to fly back to L.A. if it is happening.
And by the way, in the Death Cult, we are going to make them wear the Handmaid's Tale costumes.
So yeah, I noticed you were trying on other costumes at Steve Crowder's show last week.
This isn't going to be like an Arabian princess.
I was so jealous, Crowder.
That was a great bit, though.
This is changing the subject just slightly, but you did this great bit on Crowder's show, and you sang, and you have a great voice.
Thank you.
Everyone goes on everybody's shows.
So you go on the Crowder show, you go on my show, we'll go on an Interclavin show, whatever.
We are dominating the internet as conservatives.
Conservatives are killing it on YouTube and Twitter.
That's where we live.
Why is that?
What is happening now?
Is it just a new version of something that's always been around?
Or is this a real moment of cultural lift for the right?
I think right now what we're seeing is a backlash to the leftism that's been pushed down people's throats.
And so I think, honestly, love Trump or hate Trump, I think he's kind of the embodiment of that, right?
I don't think Trump won because he's this policy savant or because he's the people's savior.
I think it's because people...
Are really upset with the establishment right now and the way things are going, especially when we look at leftism and how this leftist globalist, I guess, point of view, where that's gotten them.
And I think the popularity of your show, Daily Wire, in general, I think that's kind of reflective of that.
And what I'm hoping is that I'm not sure that everyone who is watching these conservative videos is a conservative themselves.
I'm hoping that they kind of watch it And take away what the core message of constitutional conservatism is, Judeo-Christian values and stuff like that.
But at the very least, because of this backlash, it's getting more attention to what I think are some important issues.
I don't think everyone who's watching it right now, like I said, is a conservative themselves, but I'm hoping it's at least a step in the right direction, right?
Step one is make people interested in watching your show, right?
Yeah.
And why would someone who's not a conservative watch this show or watch your channel or watch any crowd or Ben or Drew?
It seems to me it's because they've never heard these ideas before.
These ideas are shut out of their curricula in high school, in college.
They're told it's a thought crime.
You're not allowed to discuss them.
And so when a smart girl talks about it on YouTube, you'll watch it.
Right, and I think the fact that the left is always calling people like you and me Nazis, white supremacists, stuff like that.
I mean, at the very least, people are going to be interested, right?
Like, oh, really?
Are these modern-day Nazis?
Are they actually in league with Richard Spencer and, you know, all those Charles people?
And at the very least, it makes them interested.
And then I think when they watch our stuff and then see, oh, wait, that's not you, I think it kind of...
Trigger something and I'm like, oh, well, you know, if this wasn't true, what I've heard about conservatives without actually seeing them, like, what else have I been told?
That's based on these leftist stereotypes and not actually reflective of conservatives.
That's true.
And it's very hard to convince someone to read Russell Kirk or Edmund Burke or these kind of dense guys.
But it's easy enough to get someone to watch a YouTube video.
Right.
And that's the way in.
Before we cut to the panel of deplorables, we have to have the Roaming Millennial lightning round.
Okay.
I have arranged the most important questions.
Some are dichotomies.
Some are just regular questions.
I want the first answer that comes to your mind.
Don't think it out.
Just let it come right out.
And this, I think, will give us a portrait of who Roaming Millennial is.
Favorite YouTuber?
Sargon of a Cod.
What about me?
I guess I'm not really a YouTuber.
You're a YouTuber adjacent.
Favorite novel.
I'm a YouTuber adjacent.
Favorite novel.
See, that's really, really hard for me.
She's stalling.
Part of me is day-by-day Armageddon, a zombie novel.
The other part of me is I really like Pride and Prejudice.
I pass.
Too many.
All the books.
Pride and Prejudice.
I believe that.
I could see that a mile away.
Favorite movie?
I want to say something profound and intellectual-seeming, but honestly, Lord of the Rings, the second one.
You know, I walked out of that movie.
I was so bored in the woods.
We'll talk about it later.
4chan or Reddit?
Reddit.
Spencer Clavin or Richard Spencer?
Richard Spencer because I want to convince him of the beauties of race mixing.
A noble thing that I don't want to think about.
Holy Koran, Duran Duran.
Duran Duran.
Alt-right, alt-wrong.
Alt-wrong.
My country right or wrong, my country when right.
My country when right.
William F. Buckley, William F. Cuckley.
William F. Cuckley, always.
You're just going right for it.
Very courageous political views.
Favorite color?
Blue.
Minus two.
What a coincidence.
We have so much in common.
Celebrity crush?
Bear Grylls.
Great.
Senator crush?
Senator...
That's a hard one.
Rand Paul, maybe?
Rand Paul?
Mike Lee, perhaps?
Yeah, Mike Lee's a hottie.
Rand Paul?
I feel like he's got a good heart.
Wow.
Orange crush or grape crush?
Orange crush.
No, the correct answer was grape.
Favorite philosopher?
Um, Smith in terms of government, Aquinas in terms of, I guess, nature of man type thing.
Be still, my beating heart.
Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.
If you've never read any Smith and no one has, keep that in mind.
I feel like everyone reads Smith.
That's kind of the intro.
Everyone says they read Smith.
How many people on Earth have ever read The Wealth of Nations?
They've read about it, but how many people have actually read The Wealth of Nations?
I feel like any, you know, like 100-level Western philosophy or intro to government class, you have to read it.
Well, at Yale, the only mandated classes are oppression and gender studies.
Of course.
So that would be, I guess that's what you missed.
No, not to rape class?
Yeah, now that's going to replace the whole curricula.
Weirdest thing a YouTube commenter has ever said or asked of you?
There are quite a few questions about my feet.
About your feet?
Yeah.
Like, I'll be on a live stream and there will be a sizable amount of people asking me to show them my feet.
Does this come out of your political discussions that you've been?
Is this maybe an esoteric...
Well, yeah, maybe that's just it.
Occam's razor.
Well, that is pretty...
I never get those questions.
I mean, part of me is like, oh, well, it could be worse.
The other part of me is kind of like, maybe it is that much worse.
I'm just not seeing it.
Yeah, that's true.
It seems innocent on the surface.
Maybe a really deep political question underneath.
Maybe just kind of weird.
How much covfefe would a woodchuck cuck if a woodchuck could cuck covfefe?
A bigly amount.
Bigly.
Absolutely right.
She nailed it.
Absolutely right.
We have got to say goodbye to YouTube and Facebook.
Now I know.
You want to stick around.
We have Ariel Davidson coming up.
I think we lost Amanda, so it's just me, Ariel, and Romy Millennial.
We're going to have an intimate conversation.
Close discussion about all of these great things that are going on.
Donald Trump's incredible speech at the UN, among others.
But if you want to watch it, you have got to go to DailyWire.com.
DailyWire.com right now.
It's $10 a month, $100 a year.
You get me.
You get the Andrew Klavan show.
You get the Ben Shapiro show.
Forget about all that.
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We'll be right back.
We'll be right back.
And for that, we cut to our senior zombie correspondent, Bob Hope.
Live here?
Yes.
Well, maybe you know what a zombie is.
When a person dies and is buried, it seems there are certain voodoo priests who have the power to bring him back to life.
How horrible.
It's worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own.
You see them sometimes...
Walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring.
You mean like Democrats?
It is like Democrats.
It is like the opposite of Democrats because Obamacare repeal is back from the dead.
What a grave robber.
Miracle of miracles.
Lindsey Graham, Lindsey Graham, who expected that, may be repealing Obamacare.
The Graham-Cassidy bill may do it before the September 30th deadline because the Senate's parliamentarian informed the Budget Committee that the Senate only has until September 30th to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority to discuss We bring on our panelist, Ariel Davidson.
Ariel, is this going to happen?
I hope it does.
I mean, I think this is the GOP's chance to really shine.
They've been, for lack of a better word, deplorable in that category when it comes to repealing Obamacare.
I think the whole Dreamer situation has been a tremendous distraction, for lack of a better word, for Congress.
And so I would like to see this happen.
I'd like to see A repeal of the employer and individual mandate.
I think imposing a per capita cap on Medicaid will be a tough sell, but I think there are a lot of parts of this bill that could be extremely successful.
National Review had a great article about this that came out at least a few days ago.
It talked about how this is a great win for federalism, and I couldn't agree more.
Now, Roaming, is this random?
Is this just a totally random thing, or is this the 4-D chess that we've been hearing about?
Oh, gotta love that 40 chess.
I'm not sure.
Honestly, I support Trump overall in general.
Not crazy about everything he does, but the whole situation with the Dreamer and all the conversations that was, you know, Nancy Pelosi apparently convinced him that Dreamers are amazing and that they should be welcome.
And he was tweeting some very curious things about them that kind of smelled like amnesty, at least to people like me.
I'm not going to go so far as to say that this is a way of, I don't know, maybe the GOP trying to say like, oh, by the way, we are still in some ways conservative, like at least a little bit.
I hope it works out.
It would be great if they could do it with a simple majority.
I don't know if people like John McCain are going to let him.
But 40 chess match...
I'm not sure.
You know, sometimes where things just go so bad that it kind of, from afar, looks all right.
I think this might just be what the GOP has been doing lately.
That it can't get any worse.
Yeah.
We were hearing for so long, Trump is going to do it.
He's going to do it on day one.
Wasn't able to do it on day one.
Then six months in, he wasn't able to repeal Obamacare because of people like John McCain.
And he was—I mean, we react so— Quickly to Donald Trump.
We react in such a huge way, such an outsized way.
But I wonder, it took Barack Obama 18 months to pass the Affordable Care Act.
It's much harder to repeal an entitlement than to pass one.
So maybe we'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
We were told a couple months ago that Obamacare repeal was completely dead.
It was never going to happen.
Now it looks like there's a chance that this thing will come back to life.
Ariel, should we give Donald Trump more time, more of the benefit of the doubt, or has his time run up?
I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt here, and I'll tell you why.
I think that one of the most successful things you can do in your first term as a president is to really pick two or three issues that you're going to focus on.
You know, Trump ran very hard on immigration.
It looks like he's not totally winning on that frontier right now, for lack of a better verb.
But I think his ability to focus on healthcare now will be a crucial turning point or at least an inflection point in his presidency and will really show whether he can focus his agenda on that.
Focus on that and focus on tax reform because those are kind of going to go hand in hand, especially with looking at sort of what those on the left end of the spectrum are coming up with in order to fund their Medicare for All plans.
I don't know if you caught Bernie Sanders' idea of Hiking taxes up to 52% to pay for his health care plan.
Bernie Sanders wants more taxes?
Well, apparently, when he's breaking news, Bernie Sanders wants to raise taxes because of these brand new ideas like socialism.
You know those brand new 200-year-old ideas like socialism?
That have worked amazingly.
Yeah, like all the youths like Bernie Sanders.
Right.
Well, so I hope that it works.
I hope that Trump is able to get this done and really show that he can focus his agenda in order to accomplish things.
It's not like Trump has a lack of ideas.
There's plenty of good points and plenty of good friends for him to fight battles on.
I just hope that he chooses his battles wisely.
And this is one definitely worth choosing.
So I hope he's able to focus himself on it and get it done.
Very good ideas and the best words.
And he is using those best words in his first appearance at the United Nations.
Donald Trump made it to the UN and he did not disappoint.
Some of the quotes are, the Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions.
Quote, major portions of the world are in conflict and some, in fact, are going to hell.
In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch.
And then he addressed North Korea.
No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea.
It is responsible for the starvation deaths of millions of North Koreans and for the imprisonment, torture, killing, and oppression of countless more.
We were all witness to the regime's deadly abuse When an innocent American college student, Otto Warmbier, was returned to America only to die a few days later.
No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles.
The United States has great strength and patience.
But if it is forced to defend itself for its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.
Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.
You can't help but love the guy.
You can't help but look at him and just...
Rocket Man is on a suicide mission.
He was doing so well.
He was doing so well.
And then he did better.
He was doing so well and then he was doing so much better.
You know, obviously it had the Trump aspects to it.
He said that he didn't want war but he would totally destroy North Korea and the entire country.
And he obviously called Kim Jong-un Rocket Man.
But he also made some interesting points that do have signals for American policy changes.
He said that America does not seek to impose its will on any nation, but rather will shine as a beacon for the rest of the world, which is hearkening back to a traditional idea of America, that we don't go gallivanting around the world, but rather the Statue of Liberty is looking out, casting its light on the rest of the world from America.
Ariel, did he make the right call in using this kind of language?
Was this the right message, or was it bellicose and irresponsible?
You know, I think it was the right message.
I think it was on point.
I think you have liberals shaking in their boots over it.
It's sort of an interesting selective memory that those on the left seem to have.
They're being hypercritical at this point, when in reality we've had everyone from Obama and Clinton, President Clinton, who have threatened To destroy North Korea in some capacity.
So this is not unusual language.
You know, it's starting to, it's not even starting to.
It's just more evidence for me that it's not necessarily what Trump says.
That could be wrong for the left.
It's just that Trump is saying it.
So I think you have to take a lot of their criticisms with a grain of salt and recognize that, you know, they're doing sort of ad hominem attacks on Trump.
And, you know, I think he was right in line here.
I think that it's his We're no longer going to be this nation that's somewhat of a pushover.
We're not going to tolerate these threats coming from North Korea any longer.
We're going to be responsive.
If you want to restore American hegemony, you need to think about restoring our image.
On the global stage.
So he's trying to do that.
He's trying to reassert ourselves as a superpower.
So I thought his message was on point.
But to restore that image, to restore that credibility, you have to back up your talk with action.
Roman, is it, to borrow a phrase from President Trump, all talk and no action?
Or is he willing to back this up?
And is he willing to push toward regime change in North Korea or to forcing them to abandon their weapons program?
I feel like every time I'm on the show, you're always asking me if we should, you know, in some capacity, use military action against North Korea.
I'm sensing a theme here.
It's because you're our half-Asian correspondent.
Right.
So we obviously have to bring in the Far Eastern issues with you, and we're as bloodthirsty as any other show on the Internet.
Right, of course.
Do we have to go to war?
You know what?
North Korea is something I wasn't in support of through wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
One of the few things I disagree with Ben Shapiro about.
But when it comes to North Korea, the thing is we're not dealing with a rational actor, right?
There's no information asymmetries that we could correct where it's like, oh, you know, we're actually willing to do this and, you know, therefore bluffing about these weapons of mass destruction isn't going to help you.
This is a very different situation.
Kim Jong-un and The North Korean regime in general has shown itself to be extremely aggressive to the United States, not very willing to compromise, enter negotiations on good faith.
And so if there was ever a reason, I've said this before, if there was ever a reason for military action, it would be I see this as someone who doesn't want war, doesn't hope for war, but increasingly I'm not seeing any alternative routes.
And I think Trump is smart to be trying to put this pressure on China because right now, I mean, North Korea is a stone basket case economically, right?
They can't feed their own people.
So the fact that we do still have places like China that are doing trade with them, I think, is really artificially propping them up.
And if they didn't have that extra trade financing, perhaps they wouldn't be able to We're good to go.
I think it was, you know, seeing economic isolation, which is something we see constantly or frequently with sanctions, as a way of, you know, let's go through the process of economically isolating this country in order to correct their behavior.
Will it work?
I don't know.
This is one of those situations in which, you know, the North Korean economy is so fragile because it's completely state-run and, you know, most of the, I don't know what percentage of the country, but a large fraction of the country is enslaved through the government.
So it's very tough to say, sort of predict how the economy will do in North Korea in response to being economically isolated.
But if that is the route we go, I see this sort of a method of, you know, let's try these other methods before we escalate the situation to military action.
So I do think it was a good call on Trump's part.
And I'm hopeful that this is sort of the nudge and the push that will get things done without having to escalate the situation further.
Because as Ro Ming pointed out, North Korea is an unpredictable, irrational actor despite what Keith Ellison might tell you that Kim Jong-un is a responsible leader.
I don't know if you recall that video, that quote that Keith Ellison had where he said, You know, the leader of North Korea was being more responsible than Donald Trump.
I mean, it's just absurdity.
We just need to send Dennis Rodman over there.
Ambassador Rodman, that is.
Ambassador Rodman.
To North Korea.
I think he's offered, actually.
He should.
He did a much better job than Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, that is for sure, with Barack Obama's strategic patience policy.
I think Dennis Rodman's dying his hair and playing basketball policy is at least as effective.
Can't be less.
It can't possibly be less effective.
But we need to talk about something much more important than a potential nuclear holocaust.
And perhaps more dire, when it comes to sex, dating, and drinking, 18 is the new 15 for American teens.
That's a headline out today.
There's a study out that shows in 1991, the majority of teens in high school, 54%, were having sex.
Another rather high percent were drinking, going out, doing drugs, had a job.
By 2015, that number had fallen to 41%.
Those poor kids.
Ariel, what does this say about these youths these days?
I think there's two things maybe going on.
I saw a good phrase being tossed around on Twitter, the extension of adolescence.
So we just have children or teenagers.
Not really engaging in teenager behavior until later on.
You know, millennials being sort of, or the next generation after us being sort of the coddled generation.
I mean, we are as well.
But this idea that parents are just coddling.
I don't know what makes you think that we're a coddled generation, Ariel.
Yeah, I know.
I just have to take another sip of my mouth back while I do my job.
So there's that going on.
I think there's this level of coddling that's taking place, which is actually stunting the maturation of teenagers in general.
But I think there's also an economic argument to be made here that's maybe a little more covert.
You're starting to see the minimum wage rising in major cities.
San Francisco, they're planning on raising it to $15.
When you do that, you actually cut out a large part of part-time workers.
And so what a company will do is they'll lay off a ton of their low-skilled workers and just hire two or three medium-skilled, high-skilled workers to replace all those part-time workers.
Or they'll automate, like McDonald's has done in cities around the country.
Or they'll do automation.
So it doesn't surprise me that the teenage employment rate is so low.
I think it has a lot to do with the job market in general and how we're starting to see automation is replacing these jobs because companies don't want to pay increasingly higher minimum wages.
ages.
So I'm a huge proponent of, you know, avoiding this minimum wage craze across the country because I think what it ends up doing is hurting job prospects for younger kids.
That is a real insight because we always hear that when you raise the minimum wage, that hurts low-skilled workers, that hits ethnic minority or disenfranchised people.
But it certainly hurts 15 and 16-year-olds.
Those are going to be the first workers to go because they just aren't worth $15 an hour.
Absolutely.
And the CBO actually put this out in their report, I think, in 2014.
They talked, you know, this is one of their warnings is that companies will do this.
They will fire low-wage workers and a bunch of them and replace them with just a few medium-skilled or higher-skilled workers.
So we're starting to see the impact of that now with higher youth unemployment.
Roaming, another theory on this that some social scientists are positing is that because teenagers are using their cell phones all the time, they're not going out to talk to their friends.
They're going home and they're texting or they're posting photos, so they might appear to be more risque or more scandalous, but they're actually behaving in the manner that they're portraying at a much lower rate.
Do you think the cell phone is what's killing the rebellious nature of teenagers?
Well, I do think that because we have social media and television shows that are, I'm sorry, but edging closer and closer to actual softcore porn by the day, it seems like a lot of the mystery behind these behaviors, partying, drinking, sex, drugs, it's actually being lifted.
And so I would disagree with a lot of people that drinking later and having sex later means a delayed maturation.
I don't think there's anything necessarily more mature about having sex when you're 15 rather than 18 or the same thing with drinking.
And so, I mean, I personally see it as a good thing, and I don't think it necessarily means you're staying a child for longer.
It just means you're choosing not to engage in these behaviors, which, you know, honestly, when you're 15, 16, 17, 18, you don't need to be doing.
And, you know, there is this kind of mystery behind it, like, oh, this is what all the adults are doing.
This is dangerous.
This is fun.
Maybe I can do it.
And, you know, with social media, the Internet, I think more and more...
People are saying, like, eh, it's not that exciting, it's not that glamorous.
If I'm not ready to do these things or if I don't want to do these things, there's nothing pushing me to do it.
I can, you know, stay at home with my friends, you know, on, I don't know what the latest messaging app is for children, but yeah, I could just do that.
There's no reason why I need to be out late at night doing, I guess, mischievous things.
Roman, you're just so virtuous.
I sometimes wonder when I have these all-female panels of deplorables, I don't really worry that a perspective is missing.
But I bet on this issue, if we had a couple guys on here, they might take a slightly different point of view, but probably yours is the more correct and virtuous one.
Ariel, you brought up this interesting point that this is just a process of delayed maturation.
So it isn't just about teens going out late and drinking.
It's about a delay across age groups.
Right.
So they're becoming adults later, too.
Right.
So I mean, this is what I would say is the same study also posited that there's a large fraction of high schoolers have never been on a first date.
So I'm not even talking about, you know, sexual activity.
That's a personal choice.
I'm talking about kids actually forming relationships with other kids.
And this could be a symptom of, you know, our texting culture, our social media culture, where you don't actually have to have a face-to-face conversation with someone.
And so I think there's actually this strange sort of social ineptitude that's unfolding with the younger generation.
You know, I say this as someone who has a younger sister who's a sophomore in high school.
You know, I see it within that generation that a lot of their communication takes place over electronics as opposed to face-to-face.
Let's carry this forward and look at the average marrying age, which seems to be increasingly hiking.
It seems that people are putting off relationships in general.
There seems to be less of a necessity for it, if we want to use the word necessity.
So, yeah, you know, I'm not saying here I'm advocating that sexual activity is a sign of maturation, but I think that...
You heard it here.
Ariel Davidson says that sexual activity is a sign of maturation.
I'm sorry, go on.
Fifteen, you're right.
Fifteen, yeah.
That's going to be Romy's new slogan.
I'm sorry, go on here.
No, I just think that going on, you know, your first date, that is sort of, you know, a crucial or pinnacle moment of your high school career, perhaps, if it happens for you then.
And to see that rate declining so rapidly makes me wonder, you know, the propensity of younger kids to actually form real relationships with their peers.
So, I think it's a little bit alarming from that standpoint.
I'm curious to see What the marriage rates look like in 10 to 15 years, what the average marrying age will be then.
That point does make me a little skeptical today of people who get married very young at 20 or 22.
That was common in the past, but in the past it was also common for 15 year olds to work and 16 year olds to have a job and to do things that adults do.
But at this point, if adolescents and teenagers and young adults Or having their maturity pushed back so much, then it seems crazy to say you're not old enough to have done anything that adults do.
Be financially secure, have a job, do all of the other things that adults like to do, but you are ready to make one of the most important decisions of your life.
There are clearly side effects of this that raise difficult questions for an aging population, population that puts off having kids.
And we don't have that much time, guys, because as I keep reminding you, Monday.
The world is ending on Monday.
That will be the rapture, so maybe we'll be able to fit it all in by then.
But if not, we'll at least get two more shows in the meantime.
Ariel, thank you for being here.
Roaming, thank you for coming on the show.
And for that, it was just something really magical about that little line in the beginning.
Cheers to your health.
Thank you.
And thank you.
We'll be back tomorrow.
This is the Michael Knowles Show.
I'm Michael Knowles.
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