July 7, 2026 • 27 mins
America’s greatest strategic advantage may not begin with military power, but with national confidence, innovation, and economic resilience. Steve Yates explains the idea of “America Maxing,” why he believes it is essential to meeting the long-term challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China, and how stronger supply chains, reduced strategic dependence, and renewed American optimism fit into that vision.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Nation States with Yates. The news comes at
you fast, The world comes at you fast, whether you're
in the White House or in your house, we hear.
At Nation States with Yates seek to serve as your
personal national security advisor, helping you navigate all the mixed
signals that come through the news and the noise, hopefully
get some good mainstream clarity to the challenges facing our
(00:26):
nation state, but also some of the simple things that
we can do as average everyday Americans to interact in
our communities with our elected leaders, hopefully to make our
own nation state great, safe, good for our friends and
our families. These are simple things we aim to do
here at this program. I appreciate you joining every episode,
(00:47):
and the last month we got some very good news
about the number of downloads. We strongly encourage all of
you to like, subscribe, tell your friends. Let's build the audience,
build the community that's talking about Nation States right here
with Yates. Today, we're going to talk about a fun
topic teased it in the last episode, a concept called
(01:09):
America maxing. It's one of those new bits of jargon
that are out there. I've heard it jump from gaming
to social media into the word choices of the President
of the United States. But we're going to talk a
bit today about what this is America Maxing, at least
from my humbole point of view, and how it fits
in with our strategic competition with some of the greatest
(01:32):
challenges out there in the world to the American way
of life, first and foremost coming from the People's Republic
of China. So today, thank you for dialing in, joining in,
clicking in, whatever your preferred mode of engagement is with
the podcasting world. Thank you for joining Nation States with Yates.
And after a brief break, we're going to come back
(01:52):
for our deep dive into America Maxing, how America wins
the China challenge and helpfully makes the future brightest for
all of us. Back after the brain Welcome back to
the Nation States with Yates. Today we're going to talk
about America maxing. What does it mean, why is it
(02:15):
good for you? What are we really talking about here
with this slang that we take from social media and
the internet. Well, you've probably heard from previous episodes, and
maybe you've gone through the news a bit heard things
called malign influences, fancy pants way of saying some bad
influences that come from the People's Republic of China, things
(02:37):
that can hurt our families, hurt our economy, hurt our
national welfare, sometimes our own national security. There's a number
of ways that the People's Republic of China is challenging
American interests and our way of life. Talked about some
of those that are near and dear, whether it's loved
ones that are losing their jobs, loved ones that go
(02:57):
off to serve in our wonderful, beautiful military who face
the challenges that come after our nation in a defense
or national security way, but also in our streets when
we have things like fentanyl getting flooded into our zone,
and we have loved ones that are taken from us
in too high a number and really unacceptable kind of
threat to our way of life, Well, where's it all
(03:19):
coming from? These are the malign influences of the People's
Republic of China. Will shorten it a bit to just
say China. Just making clear that I at least love
a lot about the Chinese culture and tradition, spent the
early parts of my life studying it. Classical language, the history,
the culture, religion, all of those things. But the People's
(03:41):
Republic of China I consider to be a cancer on
the great Chinese civilization. And as sad as it might
be for the Chinese people, it's even more of a
challenge for us in the greatest nation known to mankind,
the United States of America. So what do we do
in the face of a challenge which, as again we
(04:01):
talked about in the trade episode and some of the others,
where the United States of America, together with many others,
invested a lot in making this challenge to our way
of life stronger. We basically created a problem, amplified the problem,
and now our government is coming back to us saying
(04:22):
we need to invest on precedent amounts in our defense,
that we need to engage in some significant regulatory reforms,
and we need to do some important things to reorder
the strategic industries of the United States in order to
be resilient or sustainable in a time of crisis. These
are weaknesses that the greatest nation had invested their lives
(04:43):
in making America insulated against. They lived through a great depression,
they lived through a world at war, and they spent
a lot of their careers making America great, making the
economy the envy of the world, and so why are
we now in twenty twenty six having to do some
these things. Well, there's more to that story, and we'll
get into it. But one of the things that I
(05:06):
like to point to as the first best thing that
we can do to put ourselves in our country in
a better position to overcome whatever challenges come our away
from anyone, but especially those unique to the China challenge,
is America maxing. So let's get right at what is
this America maxing crazy Yates is talking to you about today. Well,
(05:29):
there's the notion of maxing spelled with two x's in
case you want to spell it right with the kids.
Comes out of the gaming world, where, of course, lots
of our pop culture comes from people with a lot
of time on their hands. Maybe you're one of those
people that plays in the gaming world where you had
characters in some of these very in depth interactive games,
(05:50):
and your max out sort of the capabilities of these
characters in these games, things that became sort of larger
than life, became the very core focus of what you
were doing in that particular game. Well, it's crossed over
from the gaming world into social media. Things like Instagram
(06:11):
and TikTok, not that I watched too much TikTok, but
things that had to do with looks maxing, where there
are lots of people that were trying to modify by
filters and sometimes physically how they appeared in order to
look much prettier than they are in real life. Of
course we don't do that here, but there are people
(06:31):
that were getting into this heavy, kind of odd notion
of looks maxing. So we go from maxing characters and
games to maxing individuals or people actually becoming the characters
in social media, and then it slipped more broadly into
pop culture lingo things that had to do with sleep
(06:51):
maxing or money maxing or gym maxing. That's how the
maxing term comes into being into the inn ordinary, everyday
life of people and media and politics, and even the
President of the United States talking a little bit in
America's two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary of Independence about America
maxing in fact what he was doing with the UFC
(07:14):
fight on the South Lawn in Washington, d C. And
the massive, massive fireworks and flyover display there was in Washington,
d C. In many other cities in the United States
for the fourth of July. This two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of independence is legitimately what for the President's talking
about as America axing. But what I'm talking about with
(07:36):
America maxing is yes, all of that, but a little
bit more, and it directly relates to the things I
was opening with about the challenges that come from China.
You may have heard of some of these influences in
our politics. There's a politician or two that's had someone
who turns out to be a spy working as their
(07:57):
driver or as their staff in a caseasional elected leader
sadly having an amorous affair with one of these people
who is a compromising member of the Communist Party of
China's influence operations in the United States. Might have heard
of things in the education system, where there are large
(08:18):
numbers of people who come from the People's Republic of China.
Some of them might be perfectly fine, but among them
there are definitely people who are coming to the United
States not to just study what's great about America, to
get a leg up, to be able to compete in
a competitive private sector economy, maybe invent new things improve
(08:38):
the livelihoods of good and ordinary people around the world,
but really to keep an eye on others that are
from China, keep an eye on Americans who might be
developing the next great things to help America compete economically
or worse, try to get into the sensitive programs of
research and development in our country that are core to
our national security enterprise fundamental aim to keep America safe,
(09:03):
but by doing so also having the capability to keep
allies and friends safe. So you want to stand on
America's side, Come on into America the right way, get
a good education, and work with us on how to
make our way of life the safest, most prosperous way
to help advance humanity. These are great things. So these
malign influences come in many form. You may also have
(09:24):
heard of challenges in public health. There's this little thing
called COVID that was out there in the world, and
the response to it had a profound political, economic, and
national security impact. So with all of that, there's a
lot of reasons why people might think, well, shoot, this
challenge is really big. We've really dug our seat itself
(09:45):
deep in the soup with this one. How do we
possibly pull ourselves out of this web we've gotten caught
in and how do we find a new way to
organize and compete in a way that allows us to
avoid war. Of course, responsible, good meaning people should want
to avoid wars. But sometimes when you just want to
(10:07):
avoid something, you increase the odds of it happening because
the enemy that knows your fears plays on them and
it actually increases the likelihood of a conflict. So that's
the mess. But there's good news in this. We have
a way out of the mess. Now. We've got to
do some things that our government is talking about trying
to do, reforming the supply chains that help our defense
(10:31):
industrial complex get better at delivering things on time and
on budget, to deliver the things that apply the most
advanced technology, so that we're not winning the wars of
the past with the technology of the past, but we're
winning the wars of the future without even having to fight,
because we're using the bleeding edge technology so that our
(10:52):
soldiers don't bleed. That's I think the notion of how
we're getting ahead now and trying to reform some things.
What it really comes down to is trying to take
a great leap forward. To steal a word from the
People's Republic of China's own history to get our country
moving forward in the right direction. That's ultimately where the
(11:15):
comprehensive strategy that's being used against us interacts with the
best first step for what we can do about it.
What I mean by that in simplest terms is the
People's Republic of China, is led by the Communist Party,
begins first and foremost with political warfare. What they do
is they engage in campaigns that try to divide and conquer.
(11:37):
They also then control information in ways it gets people
to manage the words that they use. They might even
physically edit history so that when major events, say like
the nineteen eighty nine ten I'm In Square massacre, where
thousands upon thousands were at least injured, if not outright
killed by the military of China turned on its own people,
(12:00):
a whole generation of Chinese people are educated in a
system where that wasn't even talked about, and you don't
even really find it in China's controlled internet and media.
And so that's how they engage in political warfare and
controlled It begins with what they do on their own people,
but they do it internationally too. So one of the
(12:22):
things they do internationally is to try to talk about America.
Invest in groups in America that talk down America, accentuate
our divisions, try to make us less positive, less optimistic
about where our country is going. And the shortest version
of this is that China's rise is inevitable. They are
overtaking us in terms of leadership in the world, economically, militarily,
(12:47):
and so others are friends and allies. Maybe they ought
to jump on this bandwagon while the getting's good and
not wait until China's super strong and you have to
cut a more challenging deal. Forget about those Americans. They're
on the downward slide. They've got this crime ridden culture.
They are at war with themselves politically, they can't stop
(13:10):
fighting with each other about whether the president should be
in office. They've got their hands full, so to speak.
And so the leading edge of technology, the leading edge
of economic development, and the supporter of the rules based
international order of trade and security is now China. That's
(13:30):
the narrative they're trying to sell. Of course, I don't
believe that, and I don't think you at your dinner
table should believe it either. The United States of America
at this time of celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth
of our independence, ought to be very, very proud of
our history. China should be proud of its history, the
long history, the one that respected family and faith, the
(13:54):
one that had a deep culture literally written into its language,
with the different roles were in an extended family, not
the People's Republic of China that whittled the family down
to two generations of a one child policy, literally losing
the roles of ants and uncles and cousins almost entirely.
(14:15):
But it used to be that they would value aunts
and uncles that were older or younger than your parents
on your mom's side or your dad's side. They had
special words for that. No longer, this is the editing
that happens in comprehensive political warfare on their side, so
on America's side, what America Maxing translates into is really
(14:36):
flipping this script, not taking what the Communist Party of
China is trying to sell and what a lot of
the world is willing to believe that somehow America is
just one bad news cycle after another caught up in
terminal political conflict, but that America is actually the greatest
gift to mankind that our governments from time to time
(14:59):
may not be the best representative of our peoples in
whatever diversified opinions we've got among three hundred plus million
thriving Americans. But our economy is doing pretty well. Could
it do better? Yeah, we got to get out of
our own way. But that's a part of America maxing
when we are getting out of our own way, so
that we're investing in the things that will amplify productivity, creativity, individuality,
(15:26):
all the things that are part of the American experiment
that's unique in mankind. Now, remember, take a moment to
reflect while the world is thinking about at our two
hundred and fiftieth birthday, Well, our country is much older.
We have a pub in our neighborhood that's hundreds of
years older than America. Well, what's your pub done to
spread freedom around the world? This little idea experiment of
(15:47):
America has done more to make people wealthier, healthier, safer,
and more developed than any other experiment ever tried in mankind.
It's succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of any reasonable person
who's a student of history, which is full of conflict
and plagues, disappointments. Well, the rise of America has been
(16:13):
completely different. We've gone through our periods of turmoil, for sure.
We have grown from an infancy where we were an
idea and a small power than a medium power, to
then a superpower. Along the way, we've done things to
correct some things, some of the mistakes of the culture
(16:35):
that we inherited and moved into the modern era. I
think in ways that are elevating humanity more than is
warranted in sort of the doomerism that goes out in
pop culture. So when I talk about America acting, I'm
talking about this pride, the being proud of our origin story.
(16:56):
I'm talking about the pride of recognizing the greatness that
is being brought into our communities, our states, and our
country by ordinary Americans. Think of the kinds of things
that have been invented in the United States of America,
even just in recent times. We have one of the
most innovative inventors in the history of mankind, and Elon
(17:19):
Musk was an American citizen, and he's literally made rockets
that will take off and land themselves and can be
used again. We can actually have communications systems where we
can go almost anywhere in the world and communicate at
relatively low cost. In my own lifetime, I remember when
(17:41):
I wanted to make what was then called a long
distance phone call across the United States. You got charged
in minutes, and those minutes added way up, and sometimes
you could get in big trouble with mom and Dad
for talking on that long distance phone call for too long.
And if you wanted to call some of the far
flung parts of the United States of America, like Alaska
or Hawaii, will buckle up, Buttercup, that was going to
(18:04):
be an expensive big bill. Today you just have your
own handheld advice device and you're talking immediately to people
frankly in almost any part of the world at no
added cost to you. You can talk to almost everyone
in America. And now you can be safe going out
into the wild wilderness that still is America. Our national parks,
(18:27):
our big wide open spaces, some of the best, most
beautiful things to explore it America. You can go there,
communicate with one another, and keep up your way of life.
What an immense blessing this is to live in this
kind of an era. We've improved public health with invention
of lots of ways of being able to eradicate diseases,
(18:51):
but also to just improve general health. If we're wise
enough to choose to walk down that right path, we
now know more and an affordable cost, can get more,
to stay healthier and better, able to love and nurture
our families, to be creative and contribute to our communities,
and to be the best representation of what our creator
(19:13):
has given us for this life's journey that I think
is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And in America it remains
more beautiful than it's ever been, despite whatever you're seeing
in the news, whatever complaints we might have in politics.
So America maxing, be proud, America maxing, do everything we
(19:35):
can to get out of our own way to build more,
invest more, learn more, teach more, hold up our fellow
man more. But put ourselves with all that we have,
in the best possible position to compete, but also help
our neighbors in the world if they choose to behave
(19:57):
like neighbors with us, and if they don't choose to
be a neighbors with us. America Maxing means we're going
to have the best funded, best equipped, best trained military,
and we're also going to have the best companies, with
the protection of our government, the support of our people,
and the world's most powerful and wealthy stock market, to
(20:18):
allocate capital to those that are driving technology development, manufacturing
in the direction that helps the people of the United
States and our friends benefit first and foremost. That's America axing.
And the more we do this, the more we're proud
of ourselves, the more we produce for ourselves, the more
(20:39):
we educate ourselves, and the more we stay grounded in
the core principles and beliefs on which our country was founded.
The refining fires of history, of war, conflict, depression, famine,
all the things that we've overcome, these have refined this
American experiment in a way that truly makes it great,
(21:02):
something that we should we should treasure and protect. Now
all of that wrapping ourselves with flag is a beautiful
and good thing, but we still have work to do.
We've got to find ways to be less dependent on
other countries, especially those that seek to do us harm.
(21:24):
I have a few key areas that I would focus
on and how America maxing all the emotionalism I was
sharing fits into the core of what China strategy really is.
And China is just one example. This applies to things
we want to think about with other regions of the
world too. But the first step, as I say, and
get in overcoming the China challenge and for America winning,
(21:48):
is to revive and protect America. Unleash prosperity, innovation, energy abundance,
protect our homeland, stop funding a threat. Too often through history,
especially over reas and decades, we have transferred wealth, technology,
and opportunity to an adversary committed to using it against us.
We've got to stop that. It begins with stopping it.
(22:10):
So we've got to dial back the transfer of wealth, technology,
and opportunity to the People's Republic of China. We can
still have trade, we can still transfer some of these things,
but we've got to be prudent about this. We've got
to reduce dependence on a threat, as I was alluding to,
got to minimize our dependency on the People's Republic of
China for any strategic goods that are vital to our
(22:30):
national security and resilience in a time of crisis. This
is called strategic decoupling. We've talked about this in the
past and will again in the future. But if there's
something that's vital to us in a time of crisis.
Prudence would tell us, and you would tell us from
your own dinner table, it's what you do for your
own family. If you're going to be ready for what
may come, you're going to make sure that you're not
(22:52):
dependent on the very person, place, or thing that wants
to come and take away what you love. So we
need to reduce our dependence on a threat. Enhance the
independent and collaborative capabilities of our allies just makes sense
again thinking about your household. If you want to make
sure that your house is safe, your family is safe, well,
you want to make sure that your neighbors also are safe,
(23:15):
that they're on the right track. Because if you're standing
alone in your fortress and you're all well and good,
that's beautiful, congratulations, But how much better for you if
you're in a whole neighborhood or community, or city or
state or nation that is similarly well disposed. The better
we are at building out the independent capabilities of our
(23:35):
allies means that those who seek to do us harm
or take advantage of us have a much harder path
to getting to us to do it, and that we've
got many, many more options to make what we need
to do to protect ourselves easier and less risky. So
that's good, good common sense. All of those things are
(23:56):
what puts the United States of America in the best
possible position to compete with China and win, compete with
anyone and win really, but also to be able to
contain the malign influences that they're bringing our way until
the beautiful day when decisions made by another capital, especially Beijing,
don't have the ability to fundamentally threaten America's way of
(24:18):
life in a time of health crisis. They can't withhold
critical things that we need in a time of economic crisis.
They can't withhold critical inputs to our high technology or
our manufacturing supply chain that are vital to keep America
humming and safe, or are military from being able to
do what it needs to do. This is the core
(24:39):
logic behind this America maxing strategy that I like to
advocate for anything because we love America, but also specifically
for the China challenge. So I hope this deep dive
into this fun idea of America maxing has been interesting, intriguing,
maybe relevant to what you're thinking about in your your
(25:01):
life and if it comes up at the dinner table
and your church, social, at work, wherever spirit moves you,
you can hopefully feel a little bit more comfortable about
throwing around this lingo but having some meaning behind what
it is. Because it's actually really important for our national
(25:21):
leaders and our community leaders to be on the same
page with this idea of America maxing to help us
overcome the challenges that we face, but do it in
a right way, an honorable way, a way that makes
our next two hundred and fifty years even greater than
the last two hundred and fifty years were. So go America,
Go America Maxing, and please stick around after the break
(25:43):
and we'll have some parting thoughts. Welcome back to Nation
States with Yates. I hope you enjoyed today's conversation about
America Maxing being the best version of America. We can
be proud of our origin story, proud of our coomplishments
and contributions, proud of our strengths, while mindful of our shortcomings.
(26:05):
A country of makers, not takers. That's something to be
really really proud about. But it's also really important to
do so that we're ready in time of trouble. Or crisis,
maybe even so ready that it avoids said trouble or crisis.
That's the idea. I hope you understand it better like it.
Feel free to improve upon what we did in the
(26:26):
conversation today. If you like to reach out to the program,
please email Nation States Yates at gmail dot com. Want
to take a moment to thank all of you who
have downloaded episodes and have listened, shared, liked, subscribed. If
you're so inclined, please continue to do so, write a
favorable review on their platform of choice, and that really
(26:49):
really helps the program grow and develop. We're going to
come to you soon with some even a broader range
of ways to engage. We're going to have some written
material to share from time to time, some special interviews
and episodes in between podcast episodes, great things on the horizon.
Thanks to you for making Nation States with Yates a
(27:11):
part of your conversation and journey in your home, in
your life. Can't thank you enough. Now, our next episode,
we're going to jump into supply chains. Specifically sounds a
little bit wonky, but it's actually really important and understandable
for what's going on with America's national security, the health
(27:32):
and welfare of this beautiful nation state we call America,
So please stick around, Please continue to like, subscribe, and share,
and as always, please continue to come back to Nation
States with Yates to serve as your personal national security
advisor to understand this wild and holy world that's out there.
Take good care,
Welcome to Nation States with Yates. The news comes at
you fast, The world comes at you fast, whether you're
in the White House or in your house, we hear.
At Nation States with Yates seek to serve as your
personal national security advisor, helping you navigate all the mixed
signals that come through the news and the noise, hopefully
get some good mainstream clarity to the challenges facing our
(00:26):
nation state, but also some of the simple things that
we can do as average everyday Americans to interact in
our communities with our elected leaders, hopefully to make our
own nation state great, safe, good for our friends and
our families. These are simple things we aim to do
here at this program. I appreciate you joining every episode,
(00:47):
and the last month we got some very good news
about the number of downloads. We strongly encourage all of
you to like, subscribe, tell your friends. Let's build the audience,
build the community that's talking about Nation States right here
with Yates. Today, we're going to talk about a fun
topic teased it in the last episode, a concept called
(01:09):
America maxing. It's one of those new bits of jargon
that are out there. I've heard it jump from gaming
to social media into the word choices of the President
of the United States. But we're going to talk a
bit today about what this is America Maxing, at least
from my humbole point of view, and how it fits
in with our strategic competition with some of the greatest
(01:32):
challenges out there in the world to the American way
of life, first and foremost coming from the People's Republic
of China. So today, thank you for dialing in, joining in,
clicking in, whatever your preferred mode of engagement is with
the podcasting world. Thank you for joining Nation States with Yates.
And after a brief break, we're going to come back
(01:52):
for our deep dive into America Maxing, how America wins
the China challenge and helpfully makes the future brightest for
all of us. Back after the brain Welcome back to
the Nation States with Yates. Today we're going to talk
about America maxing. What does it mean, why is it
(02:15):
good for you? What are we really talking about here
with this slang that we take from social media and
the internet. Well, you've probably heard from previous episodes, and
maybe you've gone through the news a bit heard things
called malign influences, fancy pants way of saying some bad
influences that come from the People's Republic of China, things
(02:37):
that can hurt our families, hurt our economy, hurt our
national welfare, sometimes our own national security. There's a number
of ways that the People's Republic of China is challenging
American interests and our way of life. Talked about some
of those that are near and dear, whether it's loved
ones that are losing their jobs, loved ones that go
(02:57):
off to serve in our wonderful, beautiful military who face
the challenges that come after our nation in a defense
or national security way, but also in our streets when
we have things like fentanyl getting flooded into our zone,
and we have loved ones that are taken from us
in too high a number and really unacceptable kind of
threat to our way of life, Well, where's it all
(03:19):
coming from? These are the malign influences of the People's
Republic of China. Will shorten it a bit to just
say China. Just making clear that I at least love
a lot about the Chinese culture and tradition, spent the
early parts of my life studying it. Classical language, the history,
the culture, religion, all of those things. But the People's
(03:41):
Republic of China I consider to be a cancer on
the great Chinese civilization. And as sad as it might
be for the Chinese people, it's even more of a
challenge for us in the greatest nation known to mankind,
the United States of America. So what do we do
in the face of a challenge which, as again we
(04:01):
talked about in the trade episode and some of the others,
where the United States of America, together with many others,
invested a lot in making this challenge to our way
of life stronger. We basically created a problem, amplified the problem,
and now our government is coming back to us saying
(04:22):
we need to invest on precedent amounts in our defense,
that we need to engage in some significant regulatory reforms,
and we need to do some important things to reorder
the strategic industries of the United States in order to
be resilient or sustainable in a time of crisis. These
are weaknesses that the greatest nation had invested their lives
(04:43):
in making America insulated against. They lived through a great depression,
they lived through a world at war, and they spent
a lot of their careers making America great, making the
economy the envy of the world, and so why are
we now in twenty twenty six having to do some
these things. Well, there's more to that story, and we'll
get into it. But one of the things that I
(05:06):
like to point to as the first best thing that
we can do to put ourselves in our country in
a better position to overcome whatever challenges come our away
from anyone, but especially those unique to the China challenge,
is America maxing. So let's get right at what is
this America maxing crazy Yates is talking to you about today. Well,
(05:29):
there's the notion of maxing spelled with two x's in
case you want to spell it right with the kids.
Comes out of the gaming world, where, of course, lots
of our pop culture comes from people with a lot
of time on their hands. Maybe you're one of those
people that plays in the gaming world where you had
characters in some of these very in depth interactive games,
(05:50):
and your max out sort of the capabilities of these
characters in these games, things that became sort of larger
than life, became the very core focus of what you
were doing in that particular game. Well, it's crossed over
from the gaming world into social media. Things like Instagram
(06:11):
and TikTok, not that I watched too much TikTok, but
things that had to do with looks maxing, where there
are lots of people that were trying to modify by
filters and sometimes physically how they appeared in order to
look much prettier than they are in real life. Of
course we don't do that here, but there are people
(06:31):
that were getting into this heavy, kind of odd notion
of looks maxing. So we go from maxing characters and
games to maxing individuals or people actually becoming the characters
in social media, and then it slipped more broadly into
pop culture lingo things that had to do with sleep
(06:51):
maxing or money maxing or gym maxing. That's how the
maxing term comes into being into the inn ordinary, everyday
life of people and media and politics, and even the
President of the United States talking a little bit in
America's two hundred and fiftieth Anniversary of Independence about America
maxing in fact what he was doing with the UFC
(07:14):
fight on the South Lawn in Washington, d C. And
the massive, massive fireworks and flyover display there was in Washington,
d C. In many other cities in the United States
for the fourth of July. This two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of independence is legitimately what for the President's talking
about as America axing. But what I'm talking about with
(07:36):
America maxing is yes, all of that, but a little
bit more, and it directly relates to the things I
was opening with about the challenges that come from China.
You may have heard of some of these influences in
our politics. There's a politician or two that's had someone
who turns out to be a spy working as their
(07:57):
driver or as their staff in a caseasional elected leader
sadly having an amorous affair with one of these people
who is a compromising member of the Communist Party of
China's influence operations in the United States. Might have heard
of things in the education system, where there are large
(08:18):
numbers of people who come from the People's Republic of China.
Some of them might be perfectly fine, but among them
there are definitely people who are coming to the United
States not to just study what's great about America, to
get a leg up, to be able to compete in
a competitive private sector economy, maybe invent new things improve
(08:38):
the livelihoods of good and ordinary people around the world,
but really to keep an eye on others that are
from China, keep an eye on Americans who might be
developing the next great things to help America compete economically
or worse, try to get into the sensitive programs of
research and development in our country that are core to
our national security enterprise fundamental aim to keep America safe,
(09:03):
but by doing so also having the capability to keep
allies and friends safe. So you want to stand on
America's side, Come on into America the right way, get
a good education, and work with us on how to
make our way of life the safest, most prosperous way
to help advance humanity. These are great things. So these
malign influences come in many form. You may also have
(09:24):
heard of challenges in public health. There's this little thing
called COVID that was out there in the world, and
the response to it had a profound political, economic, and
national security impact. So with all of that, there's a
lot of reasons why people might think, well, shoot, this
challenge is really big. We've really dug our seat itself
(09:45):
deep in the soup with this one. How do we
possibly pull ourselves out of this web we've gotten caught
in and how do we find a new way to
organize and compete in a way that allows us to
avoid war. Of course, responsible, good meaning people should want
to avoid wars. But sometimes when you just want to
(10:07):
avoid something, you increase the odds of it happening because
the enemy that knows your fears plays on them and
it actually increases the likelihood of a conflict. So that's
the mess. But there's good news in this. We have
a way out of the mess. Now. We've got to
do some things that our government is talking about trying
to do, reforming the supply chains that help our defense
(10:31):
industrial complex get better at delivering things on time and
on budget, to deliver the things that apply the most
advanced technology, so that we're not winning the wars of
the past with the technology of the past, but we're
winning the wars of the future without even having to fight,
because we're using the bleeding edge technology so that our
(10:52):
soldiers don't bleed. That's I think the notion of how
we're getting ahead now and trying to reform some things.
What it really comes down to is trying to take
a great leap forward. To steal a word from the
People's Republic of China's own history to get our country
moving forward in the right direction. That's ultimately where the
(11:15):
comprehensive strategy that's being used against us interacts with the
best first step for what we can do about it.
What I mean by that in simplest terms is the
People's Republic of China, is led by the Communist Party,
begins first and foremost with political warfare. What they do
is they engage in campaigns that try to divide and conquer.
(11:37):
They also then control information in ways it gets people
to manage the words that they use. They might even
physically edit history so that when major events, say like
the nineteen eighty nine ten I'm In Square massacre, where
thousands upon thousands were at least injured, if not outright
killed by the military of China turned on its own people,
(12:00):
a whole generation of Chinese people are educated in a
system where that wasn't even talked about, and you don't
even really find it in China's controlled internet and media.
And so that's how they engage in political warfare and
controlled It begins with what they do on their own people,
but they do it internationally too. So one of the
(12:22):
things they do internationally is to try to talk about America.
Invest in groups in America that talk down America, accentuate
our divisions, try to make us less positive, less optimistic
about where our country is going. And the shortest version
of this is that China's rise is inevitable. They are
overtaking us in terms of leadership in the world, economically, militarily,
(12:47):
and so others are friends and allies. Maybe they ought
to jump on this bandwagon while the getting's good and
not wait until China's super strong and you have to
cut a more challenging deal. Forget about those Americans. They're
on the downward slide. They've got this crime ridden culture.
They are at war with themselves politically, they can't stop
(13:10):
fighting with each other about whether the president should be
in office. They've got their hands full, so to speak.
And so the leading edge of technology, the leading edge
of economic development, and the supporter of the rules based
international order of trade and security is now China. That's
(13:30):
the narrative they're trying to sell. Of course, I don't
believe that, and I don't think you at your dinner
table should believe it either. The United States of America
at this time of celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth
of our independence, ought to be very, very proud of
our history. China should be proud of its history, the
long history, the one that respected family and faith, the
(13:54):
one that had a deep culture literally written into its language,
with the different roles were in an extended family, not
the People's Republic of China that whittled the family down
to two generations of a one child policy, literally losing
the roles of ants and uncles and cousins almost entirely.
(14:15):
But it used to be that they would value aunts
and uncles that were older or younger than your parents
on your mom's side or your dad's side. They had
special words for that. No longer, this is the editing
that happens in comprehensive political warfare on their side, so
on America's side, what America Maxing translates into is really
(14:36):
flipping this script, not taking what the Communist Party of
China is trying to sell and what a lot of
the world is willing to believe that somehow America is
just one bad news cycle after another caught up in
terminal political conflict, but that America is actually the greatest
gift to mankind that our governments from time to time
(14:59):
may not be the best representative of our peoples in
whatever diversified opinions we've got among three hundred plus million
thriving Americans. But our economy is doing pretty well. Could
it do better? Yeah, we got to get out of
our own way. But that's a part of America maxing
when we are getting out of our own way, so
that we're investing in the things that will amplify productivity, creativity, individuality,
(15:26):
all the things that are part of the American experiment
that's unique in mankind. Now, remember, take a moment to
reflect while the world is thinking about at our two
hundred and fiftieth birthday, Well, our country is much older.
We have a pub in our neighborhood that's hundreds of
years older than America. Well, what's your pub done to
spread freedom around the world? This little idea experiment of
(15:47):
America has done more to make people wealthier, healthier, safer,
and more developed than any other experiment ever tried in mankind.
It's succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of any reasonable person
who's a student of history, which is full of conflict
and plagues, disappointments. Well, the rise of America has been
(16:13):
completely different. We've gone through our periods of turmoil, for sure.
We have grown from an infancy where we were an
idea and a small power than a medium power, to
then a superpower. Along the way, we've done things to
correct some things, some of the mistakes of the culture
(16:35):
that we inherited and moved into the modern era. I
think in ways that are elevating humanity more than is
warranted in sort of the doomerism that goes out in
pop culture. So when I talk about America acting, I'm
talking about this pride, the being proud of our origin story.
(16:56):
I'm talking about the pride of recognizing the greatness that
is being brought into our communities, our states, and our
country by ordinary Americans. Think of the kinds of things
that have been invented in the United States of America,
even just in recent times. We have one of the
most innovative inventors in the history of mankind, and Elon
(17:19):
Musk was an American citizen, and he's literally made rockets
that will take off and land themselves and can be
used again. We can actually have communications systems where we
can go almost anywhere in the world and communicate at
relatively low cost. In my own lifetime, I remember when
(17:41):
I wanted to make what was then called a long
distance phone call across the United States. You got charged
in minutes, and those minutes added way up, and sometimes
you could get in big trouble with mom and Dad
for talking on that long distance phone call for too long.
And if you wanted to call some of the far
flung parts of the United States of America, like Alaska
or Hawaii, will buckle up, Buttercup, that was going to
(18:04):
be an expensive big bill. Today you just have your
own handheld advice device and you're talking immediately to people
frankly in almost any part of the world at no
added cost to you. You can talk to almost everyone
in America. And now you can be safe going out
into the wild wilderness that still is America. Our national parks,
(18:27):
our big wide open spaces, some of the best, most
beautiful things to explore it America. You can go there,
communicate with one another, and keep up your way of life.
What an immense blessing this is to live in this
kind of an era. We've improved public health with invention
of lots of ways of being able to eradicate diseases,
(18:51):
but also to just improve general health. If we're wise
enough to choose to walk down that right path, we
now know more and an affordable cost, can get more,
to stay healthier and better, able to love and nurture
our families, to be creative and contribute to our communities,
and to be the best representation of what our creator
(19:13):
has given us for this life's journey that I think
is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And in America it remains
more beautiful than it's ever been, despite whatever you're seeing
in the news, whatever complaints we might have in politics.
So America maxing, be proud, America maxing, do everything we
(19:35):
can to get out of our own way to build more,
invest more, learn more, teach more, hold up our fellow
man more. But put ourselves with all that we have,
in the best possible position to compete, but also help
our neighbors in the world if they choose to behave
(19:57):
like neighbors with us, and if they don't choose to
be a neighbors with us. America Maxing means we're going
to have the best funded, best equipped, best trained military,
and we're also going to have the best companies, with
the protection of our government, the support of our people,
and the world's most powerful and wealthy stock market, to
(20:18):
allocate capital to those that are driving technology development, manufacturing
in the direction that helps the people of the United
States and our friends benefit first and foremost. That's America axing.
And the more we do this, the more we're proud
of ourselves, the more we produce for ourselves, the more
(20:39):
we educate ourselves, and the more we stay grounded in
the core principles and beliefs on which our country was founded.
The refining fires of history, of war, conflict, depression, famine,
all the things that we've overcome, these have refined this
American experiment in a way that truly makes it great,
(21:02):
something that we should we should treasure and protect. Now
all of that wrapping ourselves with flag is a beautiful
and good thing, but we still have work to do.
We've got to find ways to be less dependent on
other countries, especially those that seek to do us harm.
(21:24):
I have a few key areas that I would focus
on and how America maxing all the emotionalism I was
sharing fits into the core of what China strategy really is.
And China is just one example. This applies to things
we want to think about with other regions of the
world too. But the first step, as I say, and
get in overcoming the China challenge and for America winning,
(21:48):
is to revive and protect America. Unleash prosperity, innovation, energy abundance,
protect our homeland, stop funding a threat. Too often through history,
especially over reas and decades, we have transferred wealth, technology,
and opportunity to an adversary committed to using it against us.
We've got to stop that. It begins with stopping it.
(22:10):
So we've got to dial back the transfer of wealth, technology,
and opportunity to the People's Republic of China. We can
still have trade, we can still transfer some of these things,
but we've got to be prudent about this. We've got
to reduce dependence on a threat, as I was alluding to,
got to minimize our dependency on the People's Republic of
China for any strategic goods that are vital to our
(22:30):
national security and resilience in a time of crisis. This
is called strategic decoupling. We've talked about this in the
past and will again in the future. But if there's
something that's vital to us in a time of crisis.
Prudence would tell us, and you would tell us from
your own dinner table, it's what you do for your
own family. If you're going to be ready for what
may come, you're going to make sure that you're not
(22:52):
dependent on the very person, place, or thing that wants
to come and take away what you love. So we
need to reduce our dependence on a threat. Enhance the
independent and collaborative capabilities of our allies just makes sense
again thinking about your household. If you want to make
sure that your house is safe, your family is safe, well,
you want to make sure that your neighbors also are safe,
(23:15):
that they're on the right track. Because if you're standing
alone in your fortress and you're all well and good,
that's beautiful, congratulations, But how much better for you if
you're in a whole neighborhood or community, or city or
state or nation that is similarly well disposed. The better
we are at building out the independent capabilities of our
(23:35):
allies means that those who seek to do us harm
or take advantage of us have a much harder path
to getting to us to do it, and that we've
got many, many more options to make what we need
to do to protect ourselves easier and less risky. So
that's good, good common sense. All of those things are
(23:56):
what puts the United States of America in the best
possible position to compete with China and win, compete with
anyone and win really, but also to be able to
contain the malign influences that they're bringing our way until
the beautiful day when decisions made by another capital, especially Beijing,
don't have the ability to fundamentally threaten America's way of
(24:18):
life in a time of health crisis. They can't withhold
critical things that we need in a time of economic crisis.
They can't withhold critical inputs to our high technology or
our manufacturing supply chain that are vital to keep America
humming and safe, or are military from being able to
do what it needs to do. This is the core
(24:39):
logic behind this America maxing strategy that I like to
advocate for anything because we love America, but also specifically
for the China challenge. So I hope this deep dive
into this fun idea of America maxing has been interesting, intriguing,
maybe relevant to what you're thinking about in your your
(25:01):
life and if it comes up at the dinner table
and your church, social, at work, wherever spirit moves you,
you can hopefully feel a little bit more comfortable about
throwing around this lingo but having some meaning behind what
it is. Because it's actually really important for our national
(25:21):
leaders and our community leaders to be on the same
page with this idea of America maxing to help us
overcome the challenges that we face, but do it in
a right way, an honorable way, a way that makes
our next two hundred and fifty years even greater than
the last two hundred and fifty years were. So go America,
Go America Maxing, and please stick around after the break
(25:43):
and we'll have some parting thoughts. Welcome back to Nation
States with Yates. I hope you enjoyed today's conversation about
America Maxing being the best version of America. We can
be proud of our origin story, proud of our coomplishments
and contributions, proud of our strengths, while mindful of our shortcomings.
(26:05):
A country of makers, not takers. That's something to be
really really proud about. But it's also really important to
do so that we're ready in time of trouble. Or crisis,
maybe even so ready that it avoids said trouble or crisis.
That's the idea. I hope you understand it better like it.
Feel free to improve upon what we did in the
(26:26):
conversation today. If you like to reach out to the program,
please email Nation States Yates at gmail dot com. Want
to take a moment to thank all of you who
have downloaded episodes and have listened, shared, liked, subscribed. If
you're so inclined, please continue to do so, write a
favorable review on their platform of choice, and that really
(26:49):
really helps the program grow and develop. We're going to
come to you soon with some even a broader range
of ways to engage. We're going to have some written
material to share from time to time, some special interviews
and episodes in between podcast episodes, great things on the horizon.
Thanks to you for making Nation States with Yates a
(27:11):
part of your conversation and journey in your home, in
your life. Can't thank you enough. Now, our next episode,
we're going to jump into supply chains. Specifically sounds a
little bit wonky, but it's actually really important and understandable
for what's going on with America's national security, the health
(27:32):
and welfare of this beautiful nation state we call America,
So please stick around, Please continue to like, subscribe, and share,
and as always, please continue to come back to Nation
States with Yates to serve as your personal national security
advisor to understand this wild and holy world that's out there.
Take good care,
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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