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April 16, 2019 - The Michael Knowles Show
44:57
Ep. 332 - Notre Dame Isn’t A Museum—It’s A Church

The façade of Notre Dame remains, but the heart of the 800-year-old cathedral has been turned to ash. Is there any more fitting metaphor for the state of Western Civilization? We analyze appearance versus reality from Paris to the 2020 presidential primaries. Date: 04-16-2019 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The facade of Notre Dame remains, but the heart of the 800-year-old cathedral has been turned to ash.
Is there any more fitting metaphor for the state of Western civilization?
We will analyze the difference between appearance and reality, from Paris all the way to the 2020 presidential primaries.
I'm Michael Knowles and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
A brutal news cycle yesterday watching the Cathedral of Notre Dame burning, the spire falling.
A brutal news cycle yesterday watching the Cathedral of Notre Dame burning, the spire falling.
There are some silver linings here.
Some of it has been saved.
But the broader takeaway is not even just about this priceless cathedral, this defining aspect of the West.
It's a broader cultural problem.
We'll get to it in a second.
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So back to the West Burning.
The cathedral at Notre Dame caught fire yesterday.
We don't know what caused it.
We don't know what is going to happen now, how they're going to rebuild, what that could even mean about rebuilding.
Ilhan Omar, U.S. freshman congresswoman, tweeted out something that so typifies our culture.
I'm actually not...
I'm not going after her because she's defending terrorists this time.
I'm not going after her because she's downplaying terrorist attacks.
I'm not going after her because unfortunately her response to the burning of Notre Dame It exemplifies our culture.
It shows you just what's wrong with a culture that would let Notre Dame burn.
She said, quote,"...art and architecture have a unique ability to help us connect across our differences and bring people together in important ways, thinking of the people of Paris and praying for every first responder trying to save this wonder." Okay, so she's saying we're thinking of these people in Paris.
Do you notice what word was missing?
Cathedral.
Art and architecture have a unique ability to help us connect across our differences.
Sure, is she referring to that painting on the wall behind me, that abstract modern catastrophe?
No.
She's talking about a cathedral, but she won't say the word cathedral.
It's just art and architecture.
Thinking of the people of Paris, art and architecture, that's all it is.
No, it's more than that.
It has meaning.
And if you don't think it has meaning, that's the rot in the culture.
The rot in now the ruins of Notre Dame.
Is a symbol of the rot in this Western culture.
Now, how did it start?
We don't know how it started.
Officials are apparently ruling out terrorism and arson.
This was suggested it might be an act of terrorism or arson.
And yet the mainstream media are refusing to even entertain that possibility.
Yesterday, Shepard Smith on Fox News shut a guy down within seconds of even raising the possibility.
So, of course, you will hear the story about the...
The political correctness will tell you that it's probably an accident.
Sir, sir, sir.
We're not going to speculate here of the cause of something which we don't know.
If you have observations or you know something, we would love to hear it.
No, I'm just telling you something.
We need to be ready.
No, sir.
We're not doing that here.
Not now.
Not on my watch.
No, no, no, no.
La, la, la, la, la.
We can't possibly ask why this happened.
La, la, la, la, la.
Now, why does he bring up the possibility that this was arson or terror?
Because there's been a spate of desecrations at churches and cathedrals all throughout France, just in the last weeks.
There have been statues smashed, tabernacles knocked down.
The tabernacle, for those who don't know, is the box that houses the blessed sacrament, the Eucharist, the communion.
All of these things, the Eucharist has been desecrated, crosses have been torn down.
Just last Sunday, at the church of Saint-Sulpice, it was set on fire.
That is not as old as Notre Dame, obviously, but it's a very old church.
It dates back to the 17th century.
Last month, At the church of Saint Nicholas in Oui, France, the statue of the Virgin Mary was smashed.
In February, the altar cloth was burned and crosses and statues of saints were smashed.
At Saint-Alain Cathedral in France, at the church of Notre Dame des Enfants that was looted, A cross at that church was smeared with human excrement.
Obviously, something is going on at these churches.
Something is motivating these attacks.
Something is causing people to set churches on fire and desecrate sacraments and statues and altars.
But no, no, no, we can't discuss that.
Also, why would someone raise the possibility that this was arson or terror?
Because of the timing.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame burned down on the first day of Holy Week.
Holy Week is what begins the time as you lead into Good Friday and to Easter Sunday.
And on that Monday, the Cathedral of Notre Dame burns down.
So I don't think it's so awful that people are raising questions.
But, as that gentleman said before Shepard Smith cut him off, It's not politically correct to raise that question.
Now, the authorities are saying it doesn't seem as though it was arson, doesn't seem as though it was terror.
Okay.
I sure would like to know what did cause it.
Now, on the bright side, there is a silver lining here.
A lot of relics, a lot of artwork was saved from within the cathedral.
I mean, there were priceless artifacts in Notre Dame.
There's a relic.
The crown of thorns that was placed on Christ's head was in Notre Dame.
And Father Jean-Marc Fournier, who's the chaplain of the Paris Fire Brigade, he ran into the burning cathedral to save that relic, to save the crown of thorns, and to save the blessed sacrament.
So to save the Eucharist, the body of Christ, he runs in to save it.
There is another relic, a nail from the true cross, the cross on which Christ was crucified, that was saved.
Unfortunately, part of the Crown of Thorns, a piece of it, was stored in the spire that is believed to have been destroyed when that spire burned down.
And, although the facade remains apparently structurally intact, the roof completely burned down.
The frame of that roof, which dates back to the 12th century, 800-year-old roof, over 800 years old, Destroyed.
This oak that dates back upwards of a thousand years.
Destroyed.
And what does Macron say?
The leader of France, he says they will rebuild.
I hope so.
That would be nice.
Other conservatives, other Christians, other people in France have called for it to be rebuilt.
That would be nice.
It would be wonderful to be able to rebuild Notre Dame.
But you can't.
You can do something.
You can try to restore parts of it.
You can try to Somehow move forward.
But you can't rebuild it, exactly.
First of all, any attempt to rebuild it will take decades.
The cathedral took over a century to build.
And it won't be the same.
It just won't be the same.
This is the sad thing.
We don't want to acknowledge this in our culture because we think we can replace everything.
You break your computer.
Oh, you can replace that.
You drop your iPhone.
You get a new iPhone.
Oh, we can replace this.
We'll rebuild the house.
We'll rebuild this.
You can't rebuild Notre Dame.
Why can't you rebuild Notre Dame?
One, we don't really even know how that roof was built.
There is so much technical knowledge that has been lost over the centuries.
This is hard for us to imagine because we think we're modern and we know everything, and everyone before us was an idiot.
We don't know how to build that roof.
We don't know exactly what they did.
Technical knowledge can be lost.
But moreover, it took so long to build that.
It took so much commitment.
It took such a strength of the Catholic Church.
It took such a unity between the Church and the state.
To build Notre Dame.
Those don't exist anymore.
Western Christendom is such a shadow of its former self, you can't rebuild Notre Dame.
This burning is in many ways a symbol of the decay of the faith throughout Europe.
Hilaire Belloc, the writer, once said a famous line, got him in trouble, it was controversial, he said, the faith is Europe, and Europe is the faith.
He's referring to the Catholic faith, Western Christendom.
That is what defines Europe.
When that cracks, what is Europe?
What is left?
Then Notre Dame is not a cathedral, it's a museum.
To listen to people talk about Notre Dame yesterday, to listen to pundits talk about it, it was as though they were talking about a museum.
It was as though they were talking like Ilhan Omar.
Art and architecture.
Oh no, it's such a loss of art and architecture.
It is.
But the art and architecture means something.
It's not just a museum.
It's a cathedral.
It is animated by a living faith.
And if that faith disappears from Europe, then you just have ruins.
You had ruins before it burned to the ground.
How can you rebuild that?
And if it isn't real, by the way, why would you rebuild it?
We'll get to that much harder question in a second.
Then we'll get to facades and reality throughout the presidential primary.
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So to hear people talk about it, from Ilhan Omar to other commentators, it is as though Notre Dame is more a museum than a cathedral.
Oh, the Catholic faith has been dying in France and Europe for so long.
The cathedral itself is a relic of a bygone age that is no longer animated by a true faith.
Actually, all of those relics inside the cathedral The crown of thorns, the nail from the true cross, so many others.
Those are kind of fun little historical oddities.
Obviously, it's not the crown of thorns.
Obviously, it's not a nail from the true cross.
Obviously, it was just gullible, foolish people who thought it was that.
But nevertheless, they're historical curiosities.
They're part of our history.
And therefore, it's a shame if we lose them.
We should preserve them.
Because...
Not because of their intrinsic value.
Not because of their faith.
Not because of the faith of Europe.
If Notre Dame isn't real, if it isn't about a true faith, if it isn't about Our Lady, Notre Dame means Our Lady, if it isn't about the faith that defined and created Europe, why would we rebuild it?
It won't be the original thing.
If you want the historical value, that's gone.
That's burned down.
If it's because you want to look at the facades of Notre Dame, okay, you already have the facades.
You can go look at them.
If it isn't real, what are you doing?
Are you building Disneyland?
Well, we don't believe in this, you know, we don't believe in this anymore, but we'll rebuild it because it's a part of France.
Is that it?
It's just part of our national history.
But the history part is gone.
If it's not real, there's no reason to rebuild.
And there's no motivation to rebuild.
You're creating a husk.
You're creating a grotesquerie.
You're creating a zombie.
Now, if the faith is not dead...
It's never dead.
It ebbs and it flows and there are periods of faithlessness, but it's never dead.
If you build it because you believe that it's real, because it's all real, that would be one of the greatest opportunities for the West, certainly in my lifetime and in recent history, to say, we will not allow this to happen.
We will not allow Not just a building to burn down, but the animating force of our civilization.
We will not allow that to burn down.
We will rebuild.
Because Holy Week isn't just about the crucifixion and death.
Holy Week ends happily and joyfully.
Holy Week is about the resurrection.
If we can say that, then...
The future of Europe is bright.
The future of our civilization is bright.
The future of us individually is bright.
Can we do that?
I'm not so sure.
This reminds me of another trend.
I just saw this the other day in the San Francisco Gate.
It was a headline.
The funeral, as we know it, is becoming a relic just in time for a death boom.
The funeral is becoming a relic.
What is replacing it?
Something called celebration of life ceremonies.
Here's how the article begins.
Dana West knows how to throw a fabulous memorial shindig.
She hired L.A. celebration of life planner Allison Bossert.
Yes, those now exist.
To create what West dubbed Memorial Palooza for her father Howard in 2016, a few months after his death.
At Howard's remembrance, there was a crowd of more than 300 people at Sony Picture Studios.
A hot dog cart from the famed L.A. stand Pink's.
Gift bags, the hit being a baseball cap, inscribed with, Life's not fair, get over it.
A favorite Howardism.
A constellation of speakers, with Jerry Seinfeld as the closer.
Howard was his personal manager.
And Bobka, a tribute to a favorite Seinfeld episode.
My dad never followed the rules, says West 56, a Bay Area clinical psychologist.
So why would his memorial service?
This is the ridiculous consequence of materialism.
This is the ridiculous consequence of atheism.
The frivolous consequence.
And it's so ironic.
Is there anything more depressing than a celebration of life ceremony?
What are you celebrating?
This reminds me of people who, if they're going to go on vacation or if they're going to go on a holiday or something, they insist on being really, really happy.
They say, we're going to be happy.
Nothing's going to stop us from being happy.
And they're gritting their teeth.
And you just think, the lady doth protest too much, me thinks.
Isn't that so?
She, I don't know.
You don't seem that happy.
The idea here is no one here gets out alive.
Life is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
We just turn and take a dirt nap, go right down, become worm food.
And so, rather than focus on that sadness, that grief that we cannot face, we are no longer socially mature enough to face that.
We're going to pretend to have a happy time.
We're going to have hot dogs and Jerry Seinfeld.
We're going to have gift bags with sardonic expressions on them.
Life's not fair.
Get over it.
We're going to call it a memorialpalooza instead of a funeral.
Now, what is a funeral?
Funeral, typically, a little more sober, a little more somber, a little more serious.
There's more gravity to it.
Why?
Because a life has ended.
And that's a sad thing.
Christ himself...
When he goes to visit Lazarus, who he is about to resurrect from the dead, who he is about to bring back to life, his dead friend, when he goes and sees that his friend is dead, he weeps.
Even Christ, even the creator of the universe, weeps.
Death is a sad thing.
To pretend that it's not is absurd.
It's a fantasy.
You're trying to convince yourself of something that isn't true because you can't face a harsh reality.
This is what we do in our culture all the time now.
Inconvenient realities we brush away.
We say they aren't true.
I'm a man who wants to be a woman.
Well, I'm not really a man.
It isn't true.
I'm someone who's pregnant, but I don't want to have a baby.
Okay, I'm not really pregnant.
That's not really a person.
I'm going to get rid of that.
That's what we do now.
We want to avoid inconvenient realities because we don't have the cultural and ultimately religious apparatus to deal with them.
A funeral is a celebration of life ceremony in the truest sense because of the hope of the resurrection.
Funerals are filled with grief.
We are sad to lose our friends.
Death is awful.
We are so sad.
And yet, there is hope.
Hope of the resurrection.
Hope of heaven.
Hope of the life of the world to come.
And that gives you something to celebrate.
What on earth do you celebrate at a celebration of life?
The meaninglessness of our existence?
The utter tragedy that we are born and we have passions and we accomplish things and we have loves and joys and really they all turn out for naught.
It was all just an illusion.
Whoops!
And we're going to meet the same fate.
Haha!
Isn't that awful?
I'll have another hot dog.
It's not a celebration.
It's a false celebration.
You're pretending it's a celebration.
It's actually despair.
But we don't have that apparatus anymore.
We don't have that moral, cultural, religious sophistication.
To say, yes, there is grief.
And that grief is real.
And it is covering a profound joy.
Now we just have a frivolous fake happiness.
Ha ha ha.
And by the way, if the grief is a little too much, you'll just take a happy pill.
You'll just take some antidepressant drug, as do so many Americans.
Prescriptions of those drugs skyrocketing.
Over-prescriptions skyrocketing.
And okay, we'll be happy.
We'll be happy, happy.
Ha ha.
We'll rebuild Notre Dame.
I hope we can.
But we're not going to be able to rebuild it if we don't understand what animates life.
You're not going to be able to celebrate life if you don't understand what life is.
What life is geared toward.
What life means.
What death means.
What resurrection means.
Profound mysteries to contemplate, especially during Holy Week.
Especially when a world historic event has just happened.
The burning down of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
Will we look those realities directly in the face?
Will we confront them directly?
Or will we look away and pretend?
Say, no, we'll build another museum.
No, we'll celebrate life.
Pass me another hot dog.
What will we do?
We think that we're avoiding something difficult.
We think that we're setting ourselves up for happiness when we ignore these profound questions and these profound mysteries.
We're not.
When you look at death, when you look at what built the cathedral, not just the hands, not just the wood, not just the stones and the glass, but what built it, what built it spiritually, It reminds me of that C.S. Lewis quote.
If you look for truth, you might find comfort in the end.
But if you look for comfort, you'll find neither truth nor comfort.
Only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
Will we be a culture of ultimate despair, or will we have hope?
Look to the ashes of Notre Dame.
See if you can see resurrection.
We have got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube.
We've got a lot more to get to, particularly on how the facade relates to reality in these 2020 presidential primaries and the new primary opponent against Donald Trump.
Ooh, I'm sure he's shaking.
But first, you've got to go to dailywire.com.
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Go to dailywire.com.
We'll be right back with a lot more.
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The questions of facade and reality are not just about the faith of Europe.
They're not just about life and death.
They do apply even to politics in 2020.
Because right now, President Trump has instituted a brilliant idea.
Who knows if it'll actually become policy, but it's a great idea to get Democrats on the defensive on a major campaign issue.
President Trump has announced plans to ship illegal aliens who enter this country to sanctuary cities.
It's so simple.
Why didn't we think of it before?
Democrats should be thrilled with this plan, right?
They love illegal aliens.
They love sanctuary cities.
They say, come, please give us your poor, your huddled masses.
Come here to our cities.
We want you, right?
Not so much.
Here's Cory Booker speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
Do you think this is an empty threat by the president, though, to talk about bussing people from the border into these sanctuary cities?
He likes to create friction sometimes to jumpstart, he says, a Congress that's not acting.
You say friction.
I say he's trying to pit Americans against each other and make us less safe because what you're seeing now...
So you take the threat seriously?
I take this.
He is injecting fear into our country.
And so if he was looking to solve a problem, he wouldn't be doing things to divide this country against itself.
Beware of anybody that's trying to tell you to be afraid in the strongest country in the world, as opposed to showing our strength and our courage by pulling people together to find common sense solutions to solve this problem.
So first of all, Cory Booker is telling us Never trust anyone who tells you to be afraid.
Meanwhile, he's telling us that Donald Trump is making us all unsafe and he's destroying the country and he's dividing the country.
Oh, hold on a second here.
By the transitive property, I think that means I can't trust Cory Booker.
Right.
He also, though, says that bringing all of these illegal aliens to sanctuary cities will make us less safe.
Why would it make us less safe?
I thought illegal aliens never commit any crimes.
Right.
No, illegal aliens, they're the most law-abiding citizens in the entire world.
Because they're not citizens.
They're future citizens if Cory Booker gets his way.
How could it make us less safe if you're just shipping in all these super safe people?
And if you are a city that's offering sanctuary, shouldn't you welcome them?
No.
What the left wants is the appearance.
But not the reality.
They want the appearance of opening their arms to illegal aliens, but they don't want the reality of illegal aliens.
No, no, no.
That would be inconvenient.
And that would probably hurt them with their voters as well.
well.
Nancy Pelosi saying exactly the same thing.
We just ran a story saying that the White House put pressure on ICE to try to release undocumented migrants into Democratic districts, including yours, as sort of a political retribution during the shutdown standoff.
Can you comment on that?
I don't know anything about it, but again, it's just another notion that is unworthy of the presidency of the United States and disrespectful of the challenges that we face as a country, as a people, to address who we are.
a nation of immigrants.
Right, Nancy, we're a nation of immigrants.
So, cities that are offering sanctuary to all of those illegal aliens that you're encouraging to come into the country, that seems like a wonderful idea.
Doesn't?
No.
What she says is that it's a notion unworthy of the President of the United States.
Why on earth is it unworthy?
I mean, obviously most of what she's saying is just total gobbledygook, saying, "And blah, blah, blah, and this is who we are, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," talking out of both sides of her mouth.
But she wants the appearance of encouraging all these illegal aliens to come here.
She doesn't want to deal with them.
And then, the best of all, forget Booker, forget Pelosi.
I will never forget where I was and what I was doing the moment that Cher became a Republican.
She tweeted this a couple days ago.
With random capitalization and strange spelling and just like all of the other share tweets.
Quote, I understand helping struggling immigrants, but my city, Los Angeles, isn't taking care of its own.
What about the 50,000 plus American citizens who live on the streets?
What about the people who live below the poverty line and are hungry?
If my state can't take care of its own, many are vets, how can it take care of more?
Did President Trump write that tweet for her?
Great point, Sherry.
You're absolutely right.
So then why does your side of the aisle encourage people to pour across the country illegally?
This idea of President Trump, I don't know if he's actually going to do it.
I hope he does.
So far we're seeing policy by tweet, so you never know if that's actually going to be implemented.
This is a brilliant idea and it's so simple.
This is actually the road to victory in 2020.
At every turn, you have to make the left deal not just in the appearance of the thing, but with the reality of the thing.
We say this all the time.
Left-wingers like the appearance, they don't like the reality.
They like decaf coffee.
They like vegan bacon.
They like all of those things.
They want the niceties, the facade.
They don't want the essence.
We have got to make Democrats deal with the essence of their terrible policies.
It's a brilliant idea.
Will the left deal with consequences?
We'll see.
One of those is the left has been calling for Donald Trump's tax returns now for years.
Why?
I don't know.
Who cares what is in the tax returns?
So this is now coming back to bite the Democrats.
Bernie Sanders, who's been running for president nonstop since 2015, has only released...
A one-page or two-page summary of one year of his taxes?
So now, finally, he's got to release his taxes.
And we found out why he didn't want to do it before.
Because it turns out that Bernie Sanders, who is constantly saying that millionaires aren't paying enough, they're not giving their fair share, they're not helping people out.
Bernie Sanders, who's really generous when it comes to your money, Bernie Sanders, who knows how to spend your money like no other, turns out he barely gives anything to charity.
He has only once, barely, given more than 4% of his income to charity.
Twice he's given a little more than 3%.
Twice he's given about 2.5%.
And five times he's given less than 2% of his income to charity.
He's so generous when it comes to other people's money.
He wants the appearance of being this generous, charitable person.
Everything will be free.
We're going to give everything away for free.
He doesn't want the reality of forking over his own money.
No, no, no.
He's going to fork over your money.
Now, this is a good line.
We'll be able to hit him with it.
I don't think it's going to really affect his standing in the Democrat primaries.
And, by the way, he is currently at the top of the heap.
I still don't think he's going to go all the way, but he is now running a different campaign than he was running before.
Bernie Sanders is now running to win.
He's not running an ideological, pure campaign.
He's not running a campaign to send a message to change the Democrat Party.
Bernie Sanders is now running to win.
How do we know that?
Because he went on Fox News.
He went out to reach a lot of those voters who used to like Bernie, then they liked Trump, maybe now they'll like Bernie again.
Not the latte-sipping liberal Los Angeles people, Former Democrats who have now gone over to Republicans that he wants to win back.
He goes and he does this town hall, and President Trump was unhappy about this.
The whole affair went relatively well, and it especially went well for one of Bernie Sanders' key policies, Medicare for All.
Look at how they respond to Bernie's proposal of Medicare for All.
I want to ask the audience a question, if you could raise your hand here.
A show of hands of how many people get their insurance from work, private insurance, right now?
How many get it from private insurance?
Okay.
Now, of those, how many are willing to transition to what the senator says, a government-run system?
That's a lot of people.
Now, this isn't exactly scientific.
We don't know who stacked that event.
We don't know if it was all just Bernie fans who came out to watch it.
The Bernie fans are pretty intense, and they do often show up for him, so I don't know.
It could be that.
Regardless, Medicare for All is another one of these examples where when you say to people, hey, do you want Medicare for All?
It polls very well.
People really like the idea.
When you explain to them that it costs money, when you explain to them that they'll have to pay, they'll probably lose their doctor, they'll do all of these things, then, all of a sudden, people hate it.
Then, all of a sudden, people don't like it so much.
Now, that is the interjection of reality into that debate.
We cannot let them get away with this.
Just as President Trump's idea to drop off illegal aliens in sanctuary cities is politically brilliant, the term Medicare for All has proved politically quite brilliant.
I thought the downside was it seems so decayed.
It seems so, makes you feel like I'm a strapping 20-year-old, and yet I'm going to get this program that's meant for 70-year-olds.
I don't want Medicare.
I want to be a young, strapping guy.
Nevertheless, it pulls very well because the Medicare program pulls well.
It's also dishonest.
It is not Medicare for All.
Medicare is government-funded health care.
But it's not government-run health care.
It's not single-payer health care.
Medicare for All is socialist health care.
Medicare for All is government-run health care that you have to fund.
Good luck coming up with that money.
Now, Bernie Sanders is going to have a lot of success running.
This is why every Democrat is running on Medicare for All.
So what we have to constantly do is say, look at the cost.
Look at which doctor you're going to lose.
Did you like Obamacare?
Obamacare is nothing compared to Medicare for All.
Look at this.
Look at how it'll affect this part of the economy.
Look, it'll be a takeover of a sixth of the US economy.
It'll take away your ability to control life and death decisions.
It will look like some of these awful cases we've seen in the UK where parents are not allowed to save their baby.
The hospital says, we own your baby.
The government says, that baby's ours.
You don't have any say over it.
That's how we're going to argue it.
This is true on other issues, too.
This is true on guns.
Kamala Harris just came out.
She said, I'm a gun owner.
Guns for me, but not for thee.
still defends gun confiscation policies.
How do you see gun policy or how that views it's evolved?
I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason that a lot of people do, for personal safety.
I was a career prosecutor.
And in terms of gun policy, though, I think that for too long, and still today, we are being offered a false choice, which suggests you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's guns away.
It's a false choice, and I believe it's a false choice that is born out of a lack of courage.
From leaders who must recognize and agree that there are some practical solutions to what is a clear problem in our country.
And part of the practical solution is to agree that we need smart gun safety laws, which include universal background checks, which include a renewal of the assault weapons ban.
Period.
It's a false choice.
It's a false choice.
Look, I'm going to keep my gun and then I'm going to take away everyone else's guns.
It's a false choice.
Everyone's going to get everything.
We're going to be everything to everybody.
Don't worry.
Everything's going to be great.
No.
You don't get the appearance of defending our civil liberties in the Second Amendment.
Meanwhile, you're taking away our guns.
Listen to what she says.
I have a gun.
Yeah.
But we're going to take away assault weapons.
What's an assault weapon?
Talk about appearance versus reality.
They classify assault weapons based strictly on the appearance of the gun.
And they create a false impression that this gun is some fully automatic machine gun.
When it's not, you pull the trigger once and one bullet comes out.
We have to get rid of assault weapons.
Assault weapons are one of the most popular guns in America.
The AR-15 is one of the most popular guns in America.
For a reason.
It's a good gun.
It's cheap.
Effective.
No, no.
Guns for me, but not for thee.
We have to point to the reality.
We'll say, okay, if Kamala Harris's policies go into effect, then one of the most popular guns in America is gone.
Presumably it's going to be confiscated from you.
She said, we can't have these AR-15s walking around on the streets.
First of all, I don't know if you've ever known this.
I don't know if you've ever seen a gun.
Guns don't sprout legs and start walking around on the street.
They don't randomly shoot people either.
Actually, the way that guns move around and shoot people is that individuals buy them and have them and scheme and plan and then shoot people with them.
Criminals do that.
The guns don't do them themselves.
So she says, look, we're going to take away one of the most popular guns in America, but I support the Second Amendment.
No.
No, you don't.
And you know what else we've got to point out?
Even if she took away all of those guns, it would not reduce gun homicides by any statistically significant number.
Very, very, very few people each year are killed by AR-15s, or assault weapons, or rifles of any kind for that matter.
Don't let them get away with this false appearance.
And then, we could not finish a discussion of 2020 without the biggest news.
The race is totally being shaken up.
President Trump has a Republican primary challenger.
Oh my gosh, who's it going to be?
Is it Ted Cruz?
Is it Marco Rubio?
No, it's Bill Weld.
Bill Weld, who I guess was governor of some state like 30 years ago or something.
And he's kind of a Democrat.
Here is Bill Weld's big campaign announcement.
Massachusetts, 1990.
A state near bankruptcy.
Corrupt, democratic machine.
They called it Taxachusetts.
One-party rule.
No Republican governor for 20 years.
One man had the courage to stand up and fight.
A crime fighter appointed U.S. attorney by Ronald Reagan.
Bill Weld ran for governor on his record.
Top Boston City officials retire.
They claim accidents.
U.S. Attorney Bill Weld investigates.
The claims?
Fraudulent.
Weld prosecutes.
Gets fraud convictions.
Jail.
Millions saved in taxes.
Now Bill Weld runs for governor.
His platform?
What it's always been.
Guts.
Integrity.
Independence.
They said it couldn't be done.
No Republican could win.
Bill Weld beat the odds.
Historic victory.
Bill Weld cut taxes 21 times.
He balanced the budget.
Reformed welfare.
Oh, it's so cringy.
Obviously, I don't think President Trump is shaking in his Oval Office at the fear of Bill Weld running in the GOP primary.
This campaign announcement is terrible for a great many reasons.
In its form and its function, it just reminds people that Bill Weld is a has-been.
It just reminds people that this guy hasn't done anything in like 30 years, that he's from an older era, that he's not connected to modern and relevant politics.
Not just in the way that they're talking about his career.
He was appointed by Ronald Reagan.
How old is he?
He was governor in, like, 1990 or something.
Okay?
Not just that, even in the form of the commercial.
It just feels like a commercial from 2002.
Feels like a commercial before the internet really existed.
It just feels so dated.
Because he's a dated candidate.
But I bring it up not just to make fun of Bill Weld, but to point out that even his platform, even his ideological moorings are dated.
They're dated.
And we're not going to win this way anymore.
This entire campaign announcement could be boiled down to three words.
I cut taxes!
Hi, I'm Bill Weld.
I cut taxes.
Yeah, my entire political career, basically, I cut taxes.
Isn't that great?
I cut taxes?
Yeah, sure, I like low taxes as much as the next guy.
I certainly enjoy low taxes.
Don't get me wrong.
Politics is a lot more than cutting taxes.
Conservative thought is a lot more than cutting taxes.
Imagine...
Thinking that you can stir men's souls by saying, I cut taxes not just 17 times, but 21 times.
And if you elect me, I'll cut taxes a 22nd time.
I'm Bill Weld.
I cut taxes.
Imagine, is that going to stir men's souls?
Or are images of the burning Cathedral of Notre Dame?
What moves you more?
Are you moved by saving $400 on your taxes in 2022?
Or are you moved by more than economic matters?
Winston Churchill said, when great forces are on the move in the world, we know that we're spirits, not animals.
The destiny of man is not measured by material computations.
It's not just about the taxes.
It's not just even about the politics.
It's about the culture.
It's about our traditions.
It's about what makes a nation a nation.
What binds us to our neighbors?
What binds us to our communities?
What binds us to our history?
What binds us to our God?
Those questions will dominate.
Moral discourse will dominate the 2020 election.
We're not talking about reforming welfare or some wonky program or cutting taxes.
We're talking about fundamental questions.
What is a nation?
What is sovereignty?
Who are illegal aliens?
What is open borders?
Who are my countrymen?
What is my country?
What is my country based on?
Why do our national monuments matter?
Why does the cathedral at Notre Dame matter?
Because it has expensive artwork inside it?
Or because it is a place in which we worship our creator, the God who made us and who loves us?
What is our civilization?
The faith is Europe.
Europe is the faith.
That was true.
Is that true?
Is that true anymore?
What is the West?
What is the United States?
It's a lot more than cutting taxes.
Alright, come on out to Texas A&M tonight.
We're going to have a great show with Drew.
We're going to have a great discussion.
Hopefully no one tries to throw chemicals on me or anything like that this time.
In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.
This is The Michael Knowles Show.
See you soon.
The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Rebecca Dobkowitz and directed by Mike Joyner.
Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.
Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.
Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.
And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.
Edited by Danny D'Amico.
Audio is mixed by Dylan Case.
Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.
And our production assistant is Nick Sheehan.
The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production.
Copyright Daily Wire 2019.
Today on the Ben Shapiro Show, Notre Dame burns, Bernie Sanders heads over to Fox News, and Nancy Pelosi struggles with the fresh faces.
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