December 10, 2025 • 40 mins
The Liberal Redneck, Trae Crowder, joins Heidi and Joel Heitkamp to discuss his journey from rural Tennessee to internet fame. You will learn about Trae's unique perspective on blending humor with serious topics, discussing the impact of growing up rural on political views.
Join us on The Hot Dish every week, where we serve up hearty conversations that resonate with every corner of the country.
The Hot Dish is brought to you by the One Country Project, making sure the voices of the rest of us are heard in Washington. To learn more, visit onecountryproject.org or find us at One Country Project Substack.
- (00:11) - - Trae Crowder introduces himself and his background.
- (14:12) - - Heidi, Joel, and Trae discuss the special election in Tennessee.
- (23:45) - - Heidi and Trae talk about the impact of $12 billion on rural schools.
- (33:00) - - Trae Crowder discusses his unique style to political speech.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcome to The Hot Dish, comfort food for rural America.
I'm Heidi Heitkamp.
And I'm Joel Heitkamp.
Today, we're joined by a very funny guy, the Liberal Redneck, Trae Crowder.
You're all going to love this episode.
Trae grew up in a small town in rural Tennessee.
That's right.
Middle Tennessee.
He's hugely popular on YouTube and Instagram.
(00:26):
He co-hosts multiple podcasts, including "the Weekly Skews," "Putting on Airs"
and "the WellRED Podcast."
Trae has two books.
That's right.
"The Liberal Redneck Manifesto (00:36):
Draggin' Dixie Out of the Dark" and "Round Here and Over Yonder: a Front Porch Travel Guide by Two Progressive Hillbillies.
(Yes, that's a thing.)"
Trae,
good to have you on The Hot Dish.
Yeah, now, yeah, thanks for having me.
Just anytime it's always the titles of those two books, I always have to laugh at themwhenever someone else has to read them all.
(01:02):
They are pretty, they are kind of ridiculous.
I acknowledge that.
I don't know if it's changed, but in my experience with publishing and I had two differentpublishers, they, they love like a like a subtitle, like a colon and a subtitle.
I don't know.
They just.
It just felt like the titles just kept expanding for both of those.
And I always feel kind of silly in retrospect.
(01:22):
But anyway, yeah, glad to be here.
Well, you know, I want to talk a little bit about the special election in Tennessee, partof the world that you're pretty familiar with, part of the country you're pretty familiar
with.
And I think there's been a lot of, you know, a nine point spread from a 20+, 22 to a+9, you know, pretty remarkable.
(01:44):
But there's a lot of people who think that had we run a more moderate candidate, thatwould have narrowed substantially.
um You know, when you look at the debate that's happening right now, because we know thatuh more progressive candidates are really energizing a big part of the base, that's
critically important if we're gonna win, but also we can't alienate those folks that wemight wanna win back.
(02:10):
You know, the old Tennessee kind of coalition when Al Gore used to win there.
And so, um you know, what's your take on that special election Trae?
I don't want to.
Yeah.
So first of all, I, I spend every Christmas in that district.
that is true, but it's also like, I'm in a very particular part of it.
That district is weird the way it's shaped.
(02:32):
Like a lot of districts in this country doesn't really make any sense.
You know, they split Nashville up into three and one third of it got put into thisdistrict, which also includes one of the most rural, one of the most red counties in
Tennessee.
I think it literally is the most red County in Tennessee.
It's called Wayne County and that's where my wife is from.
That's where my in-laws live.
(02:52):
So I spend every Christmas in Wayne County specifically.
That's important because Wayne County is not, it doesn't mean it's like the entire rest ofthat district.
It's probably the redneck-iest part or whatever.
And that's the part I'm most familiar with.
but
I don't want like fence it or whatever.
I think it might be kind of a combination.
I feel like I can make arguments in both directions for the question that you asked,because I think that, you know, you could argue that, uh, Aftyn's performance there, a lot
(03:21):
of it had to do with, um, people getting energized or whatever, and, uh, coming out inresponse to a lot of the flack that was getting thrown her way.
And if it was a more like,
Traditional moderate candidate there might not have been as much of that. It might not havegot as like heated and as much eyes on it and resources behind it in the first place uh it
(03:46):
but also I think that as someone who goes to Wayne County all the time I think that ifthere had been a candidate who all of sudden they become aware there's a real shot at this
you see what's going on all this mud flinging in this race and people start payingattention and then that candidate had been a like
You know, like a white dude, a white straight white man, uh, who was talking about groceryprices and that type of thing.
(04:13):
Then, you know, maybe more people in Wayne County specifically might've voted for them.
So I think it's like a combination of the two, cause it's definitely a, like the ruralparts of that County, which are most of it, you know, is, um, like not going to be crazy
on board with a,
opinionated progressive woman, probably.
(04:34):
yeah, I, I can, you know, I feel like I said, I feel like I can sort of argue it in bothdirections.
I think that it's hard to get people excited and energized for a more classic, moderate,democratic candidate these days.
And so that makes things hard.
But in some of these places, like Tennessee seven in particular, it's also a real toughroad to hoe.
(04:58):
for someone like Aftyn too.
So I think, and I know it's like, so what does that mean?
It's just a, you know, a no win proposition.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying it's like difficult, complex and nuanced in my opinion.
You know, it just depends on the person and the circumstances, I think.
Well, Trae, let me add this, though, you know, from the rural area, which is who we talkedto here on The Hot Dish it's not always easy to find candidates and then to find
(05:26):
candidates that are as aggressive and willing to go out and work like Aftyn I mean, youknow, we can talk about whether or not she was too progressive, but we can't talk about
whether or not she ran a tough race.
That doesn't sell.
Right.
Well, even the her being radical from my perspective on it, I feel like she went out ofher way to try to focus on like on the actual campaign trail and in actual appearances.
(05:53):
And in that context, she went out of her way to focus on sort of meat and potatoes,kitchen table type stuff about like grocery prices and affordability and everything, which
I think is smart.
And that's like economically progressive.
I know, but it's not.
considered by most people to be like radical.
And I feel like lot of the radical arguments came from, you know, things that they dug upand oppo of old like appearances and stuff where she's calling herself a radical or she's,
(06:21):
you know, getting thrown out of an office and crying or this type of stuff.
They just made her look like, you know, like a, like a, a loud shrill harpy or whatever.
Again, a lot of it comes back to like misogyny and stuff.
And that as someone who's from middle, I'm not from Nashville.
But I also go to Nashville every year as a comedian and I grew up going to Nashvillebecause I am from middle Tennessee.
(06:42):
The whole thing that they went after for about how like this is a, you you're going toelect someone to represent Nashville who admittedly hates Nashville.
The clips they played of her talking about how she hates, you know, Nashville, buteverything she said about Nashville is stuff that any like legit native, not just to
Nashville, but the area completely 100%
agrees with.
(07:02):
I literally had a clip from a podcast appearance I was on less than like two months ago thatI posted where I made the exact, I said the exact same things that she said about
Nashville.
Cause it's not like hating Nashville.
It's hating the stuff that's happened to Nashville recently.
Cause it's made it worse to a lot of people that so it got, a lot of it got blown out ofproportion and I don't think she's as radical as people made her out to be in my opinion.
(07:28):
I want to make this point and I think, you know, I'm not just blowing smoke yourdirection.
There are so many people now who are unabashedly talking like you, you know, come fromplaces like we come from is saying, look, know, quit, quit demonizing our places, start
talking about what we need to do for the rest of the country, but don't be afraid to bewho you are.
(07:53):
I just read a statement today that in Texas,
We're competing everywhere, which hasn't happened in a long, long time.
And I really credit, um to some degree, The Hot Dish, but also all of these people talkingabout what you can do, what can an individual do in this very, very difficult time.
(08:19):
And one of the things that we're saying is you can run for office.
And so we're seeing...
record number of people stepping up.
mean, Joel's point is it's hard to find people, but we're also now seeing a lot ofcandidates coming through the woodwork saying it's time to make my voice heard.
What can we be doing that would be more helpful to those candidates kind of moving forwardto help move hearts and minds?
(08:45):
if I we you mean like people in like our position or like, you know, talk about thesethings.
Yeah, right.
I mean, I just try to like I mean, Aftyn did my political podcast the week before theelection or whatever.
And I just and I posted about her and that type of stuff.
And now, I mean, again, I'm from Middle Tennessee and everything.
So I was definitely paying more attention to that one specifically.
(09:07):
But I try to, you know, just try to like help out.
If I can, if it's a candidate that I like and align with, meaning like, you know, withwhatever platform I have and that type of thing, I'm not sure how much more it depends.
There's people with much bigger platforms that can reach further and everything, that'sreally, you know, beyond that, I'm not sure.
(09:34):
Just try to support them and prop them up a little bit.
So I want to ask this, it's probably a question for both of you, which is, OK, we talkedabout how you can find candidates, and hopefully there's ones that want to get out there
and run an aggressive race, all of that.
But part of what we do here on The Hot Dish and part of what others do when they havethese conversations is really try to get rural America, farm country, all of that
(10:02):
thinking,
thinking about their future, thinking about who supports them and who doesn't.
So I got to ask this.
What happens when you get the sense that the Republican Party, in this case, PresidentTrump, actually buy off the rural country?
(10:22):
$12 billion is a lot of money.
So, you know,
Trae, I want to ask you, you know, I'm sitting out there on my talk show all the timemaking the argument that, hey, these tariffs aren't working.
You know, all we're doing is sitting there losing uh market, losing market long term.
And then the next thing you know, they hold a press conference, say we're Santa Claus,we're sending you money.
(10:47):
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I know that's upsetting because it's like, think there was a certain percentageof people that even if he hadn't done that, no matter how bad things got for them as a
direct result of decisions that he made, I think there was a certain percentage that stillwere just going to, you know, go along with it to their own detriment because they just
got their heels dug too far in.
But you had to hope that there was a large enough chunk, though, who could be swayed.
(11:10):
And it seems like going back to the Aftyn thing and a lot of things people are pointing atthat, like there's
you know, maybe that's starting to happen with some of these like voting blocks orwhatever that's our, it's finally, you know, things could be shifting because it's gotten,
you know, clear enough at a certain point.
But when you think that they would have like been by his side, no matter what happened.
(11:35):
And then the idea that, so then when he buys them off, basically, you pretty much knowthat that's probably going to work.
I feel like.
the one thing that I would say, Joel, is I don't know how the lady who's cooking the hotlunch at in a rural school is going to benefit from $12 billion.
I don't know how the CNA at the local nursing home is going to benefit.
(11:59):
And you know, and I know that at some point that the people in rural America watch thisvery closely and you get a lot of people calling.
who are from rural America Joel, who don't like this, who think that it's unfair.
And when the numbers come out and it shows that people who own land like Bessette and BillGates and those folks are people who are gonna be subsidized by this $12 billion.
(12:26):
And it's gonna be some of the wealthiest people in rural America who are gonna besubsidized by the $12 billion.
That doesn't trickle down.
I mean,
back in the day tray, our dad delivered bulk fuel and everybody bought their seed in town.
They used the local implement dealership.
They bought their fuel in town.
And so that money trickled down into rural communities.
(12:49):
Now they're buying in bulk.
You see semis come in and basically fuel up a farm.
So you aren't seeing the kind of...
you know, kind of rural economic development that comes from that money.
Um and so I'm really curious to see how it's going to be dispersed, Joel.
(13:10):
And I'm really curious to see how many people are going to be getting a whole lot of moneywho otherwise uh have had some pretty good years.
Well, one other thing and I'm going to throw this at you, Trae, that there's less farmers.
mean, lost in all of this is there's less farmers.
And so if you have less farmers, it's helping less people.
(13:33):
Going back to what you said, Hyde, you know, you're sitting there and in the old days, youknow, you had farmers farming 500, 600 acres where I'm from now, they're farming 5000
acres.
And so
And that's an average farmer.
And so you're sitting there, Trae where normally, yeah, okay, you can buy them off, butyou're buying way less people off.
(13:57):
Yeah.
No, I mean, I'm hopeful that all that will matter.
You meant you, you know, used the phrase earlier, like that's not going to trickle down orwhatnot.
But I feel like, you know, trickle down economics has been pretty boldly not working formost people for a very long time.
And it just I'm just like jaded and cynical is all it is.
I see all these things like there's so many times, so many points over the years whereI've been like, well, surely this will like matter.
(14:23):
Right.
Or they'll see.
And it's just I'm not.
saying I'm utterly bereft of hope.
am hopeful right now that that can happen.
just, guess I'm also, uh, you know, trying to temper expectations somewhat.
Cause I just think it's like, I don't know what, strong propaganda is and some of thebubbles that people live in and all this stuff is insane as it might be that there, that,
(14:46):
you know, there still will be people that will find a way to blame all of those hardshipson.
Yeah, I.
Joe Biden or Barack Obama or whoever, know, like still like even no matter how longthey've not been in power.
So.
the the interesting thing to me is what's happening in health care.
I health care is going to have a lot bigger effect in rural America that the exchanges, alot of people in rural America overuse the exchanges, especially in places that didn't
(15:16):
expand the Medicaid, engage in Medicaid expansion.
So those subsidies are critical.
for those lower income folks.
And the Republicans now have floated an idea that they're gonna do these basically HSAs,they're gonna do health savings accounts, put some money in there, and then have people
have high deductibles.
(15:38):
Every legitimate economist and healthcare expert who has studied this had said that's aformula for disaster because remember this.
Over 50% of the people in this country could not afford a $500 hit to their budget, butthey're going to give them a highly deductible plan at $2,000, $3,000.
(16:03):
And they're going to be in medical debt.
There's no doubt about it if something happens.
And so I think healthcare is, if I were running in a rural district right now, I wouldreally be talking about what's happening in healthcare.
I mean, I completely agree using my hometown as an example, Solana, Tennessee, ClayCounty, the hospital there that was there my whole childhood and years before has like
(16:29):
closed and reopened, I think three times in the past eight years or whatever, but has beenclosed for good now for, you know, quite some time.
And then also this, you know, with the
Big Beautiful Bill and some of the implications of that.
Like it's possible that like even like the nursing home could end up closing and stufflike that.
And there's been no jobs or anything there for a while.
(16:51):
Uh like absolutely just economic devastation in Clay County.
Up until very recently, it had still just been like, you know, very much so white.
It still is MAGA country, I'm sure.
But like it was like hardcore.
Maga country in spite of all that, which I was always like, you know, uh annoyed andconfused by sort of, but, I don't even know how much this means.
(17:18):
I might've told you all this the last time I was on there.
So I'll try to do a shorter version of it.
But my uncle is like the co-chair of the clay county democratic party.
And for years and years they had, was him and him, his co-chair, and then two otherpeople.
That was the clay county democratic party meetings, like for a long time.
And he has told me it like recently, like their meetings it's.
(17:39):
You know, it's like close to 40 people or something.
So that's, mean, a 10 fold increase and it's only 40 people, but it's still like, surelythat means something.
And I was talking about Wayne County earlier.
My wife is from it.
That's the reddest County of Tennessee and in Aftyn's race, was like an almost sevenpoint, you know, upward swing for the dim candidate from the last time there.
(17:59):
And, uh, so it was still like, you know,
much less than Republican candidate got, but it was much more than, you know, any Democratusually gets there.
it's like, so I feel like stuff like that.
It's like, it seems like it means something, you know, hopefully like it does.
I can buy the feeling that it's like, is the tide finally maybe starting to turn?
(18:23):
Like people have finally been pushed too far and it's gotten harder and harder to like,uh,
realistically blame it on anyone else at a certain point.
So maybe that's finally starting to matter and to happen, but I guess we'll just have tosee.
Doing, speaking as somebody who recently went over to the Western part of Minnesota in the7th District and spoke at a fundraiser over there.
(18:49):
I walked in the room and I had done that before.
I had walked in the room and there was over 300 people there this time.
They had to order more pizza.
They had to go find some chairs from the Legion Hall.
Uh there's over 300 people there.
Now that doesn't sound like a lot to everybody listening to The Hot Dish, but for them, itwas and it was not the fact that they had a great keynote speaker.
(19:13):
That was not it.
The truth of the matter is these people, everybody there, some with money, some without,but everybody there gave some money.
Some might have been 10 bucks, some might have been 20 bucks, some might have been athousand.
I don't know.
I know they had a very, very successful fundraiser.
They had two candidates running against each other for the opportunity to take on anincumbent in what has been a pretty red district.
(19:41):
Uh there's an energy out there, you guys.
There really is.
So Trae, I want to kind of switch gears a little bit and talk about your style.
Because I think one of the reasons why you have such a faithful following, one of thereasons why we wanted you on the podcast is you do two things.
(20:01):
You speak common sense and you do it with a lot of humor and a little cussing and a littlecussing.
But, know,
still can't figure out why we can't cuss on here more, but you go ahead.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think I think that, you know, for so long, the Democrats have just been so afraid ofpolitical correctness or what to say and what not to say and who you're going to alienate.
(20:30):
And I think the charm of what you're doing and a lot of other folks are doing is just letit rip.
I mean, you know, this is the way I see it.
You don't like it.
Turn it off.
But I'm going to tell you how I see it.
How do we get more
folks to, especially candidates to take that approach.
I mean, don't know, you that, cause I don't know, I don't have any real like experience atall in like the world of politics.
(20:57):
I don't know if these people, these candidates are like, in my head, I always assumed thatthey're going through these like, like media training and they have all these like
consultants and campaign people and stuff, and they're coached on all this.
And I don't know anything about it because I'm having firsthand experience with it, butI've suspected for a long time that a lot of that is pretty outdated, especially like on
the Democrat
(21:17):
side.
I mean, there were reports of like in the Harris Walls campaign, you know, at one point,like when he first came on board and for a while there, it was like real energized and
stuff.
And then there were reports that like these teams were brought in that had worked on like,you know, old campaigns and talks.
It's like walls have been calling them all weird.
And he said like, he was, you know, told like advised, maybe don't do that.
(21:38):
When that was like working great, you know, is what you were just saying, just likeletting it rip.
And he was doing that.
And then he got reined in some.
It's like, so I feel like there's,
in the Democrat side especially, it seems like there's this sort of old power structurethat's still there in terms of how it's all supposed to work.
That's like, I think even if you get a candidate that's special, those people might coachout of them what makes them special.
(22:04):
If they don't, you, you know, make it a point to be kind of a maverick or go in the otherdirection or something.
But everything I just said, I've pulled out of my butt, you know, I said, I don't know,
say something that means something, not blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I mean, when the people hear blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, they're like, what are you talking about?
(22:26):
And, you know, the one lesson that we should all learn from Donald Trump is he may useword salad, but people think he's funny.
People think he's engaging and they think that he is genuine in what he says, even thoughwhat he says is that shit crazy.
Yeah, absolutely.
That was like the first big thing when people like, when he first started being takenseriously as a thing, Donald Trump in 2016, that was like the main thing that was being
(22:51):
said is like, well, he tells it like it is.
That's, know, like, what does this appeal that he's having?
Well, he tells it like it is and he's different.
He's an outsider and that's all that stuff, you know?
So, I mean, no, I definitely think that, uh, I fully agree that it would
behoove candidates to take a page out of that book and be a little more authentic and likeyou say what they mean, stand their ground, all of that.
(23:12):
Um, I'm just saying it's, feel like a lot of times when you watch politicians andcandidates, it's, it's like when you see a lot of high level athletes, sometimes they give
like, you just feel like the politician on them and everything like is so carefully wordedand all this stuff.
And it just feels like kind of artificial and manufactured and whatever it is that's
(23:35):
making that happen or putting that in place, like that needs to go away, my opinion, or bereplaced by something else, like a new paradigm or philosophy needs to take the place of
that behind the scenes in the world of like, you know, politics on the American left.
a talk show host, let me give you an example of my approach and, you know, Republicanarea.
(23:55):
And I've been able to stay number one for 20 some years.
I know that my audience didn't like going to school.
They didn't.
They went to school.
They had to go to school.
They use school to get where they're at, but they didn't like going to school.
And so why would you talk to them as though you're teaching them constantly, constantly?
(24:17):
You know, and saying 20 words when two would do and Trae, that's why you're so popular isit isn't as though they're talking to a guy they could have a beer with and that matters.
Yeah, no, I, yeah, I agree.
I mean, I, you know, I, I appreciate you saying that about me, but, uh, but yeah, overall Iagree.
(24:40):
Um, but yeah, it turns, like you said, like how to fix it.
Like, I just think that there's, uh, something needs to happen in the world of bigDemocrat or the TNC or whatever, whatever system it is, these candidates tend to come up
through.
I think they're getting corrupt.
did in that way along the way and that needs to stop.
(25:02):
But I don't, you know, I don't know how to achieve that.
I, nothing to do with it personally, but.
think it's so interesting because people always talk about money.
Kamala Harris spent a lot more money than, than Donald Trump did.
A lot more.
A lot a lot of money.
And a lot of these Senate races, a lot of money.
And it wasn't the lack of money that caused the problem.
(25:23):
And so, you know, it was a lack of authenticity.
It was a lack of an idea.
It was a lack of the ability to actually sit down with people and say, hey, you gotgrocery problems?
You got problems doing this.
This is what we're going to do.
Your health care is not affordable.
You can't get mental health care for your kid.
This is what we're going to do.
(25:44):
And just be straight up and be honest about what you're going to do.
And I think, I think that, you know, the one thing that influencers are doing, and I don'tmean to, if that's insulting to you, I don't mean to insult you, but the one thing that
people who are people are listening to that are people are entertained.
Number one, they're entertaining.
(26:05):
And number two, they talk truth and common sense.
And if there is some kind of, number one, it's really hard to take somebody who is wonkyand say, now be authentic.
Yeah, now be like a real person.
And so we need to let the real people of these districts, the real people of these statesnominate their own candidates.
(26:33):
Mm-hmm.
quit interfering because they know what resonates and what works.
And that's a problem too, is this top-down management.
you got to go Trae, but one more thing that I want to throw out there as a talk show host,there's nothing better than a guest that you don't know what they're going to say.
Nothing better.
(26:53):
And I can tell you this uh with the Democratic and with the consulting and with everythingthat goes with it, you know what they're going to say.
Right, yeah.
The question, you know is what they're going to say.
And it's boring as hell.
So Trae, know you.
Yeah, exactly.
Trae, I know you got to go.
You got 100 people pulling at you.
(27:14):
But thanks for joining us on The Hot Dish.
No, thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Keep up doing what you're doing.
More people, we need more people like you speaking truth to power and revealing why it isthat we need to bring common sense back to public policy.
You're a great guy.
I appreciate it.
I'll just say real quick before I go, check me out.
(27:35):
If you don't already on the internet there, it's Trae Crowder, T-R-A-E Crowder on yourpreferred social media platform, but also TraeCrowder.com is where all my tour dates are.
So come see me live.
You know, as a justified fan, Crowder's kind of a famous name.
No relation, right?
Boyd, right?
Yes, no, yeah, no.
No, I'm big fan, too.
(27:55):
Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
See you.
So, Heidi, we've had conversations here on one country at length about rural America andwhat rural America thinks, does, how they operate, mostly the economy.
(28:15):
That's an area that you know, you're very, very good at.
So let me ask you this, can $12 billion buy out the hearts and souls of rural America?
I don't think so.
I think that, you know, Donald Trump has a distorted view of what rural America is.
I, he does very well in rural America, let's not kid ourselves, but he thinks that it's allabout agriculture and he doesn't realize that small mom and pop manufacturers who are part
(28:42):
of an incredibly important supply chain, they're part of this too, and they're hurtingreally bad.
I talked to someone who is very knowledgeable who said,
that in the next 10 years, we may not have any mom and pop manufacturers anymore.
And that is a tragedy because we need that resilience in the supply chain.
He doesn't understand how significant healthcare is to rural America.
(29:03):
He keeps talking about, wants to put the money in the pocket of people who are gettinghealthcare, but that totally ignores, who are buying insurance, but that totally ignores
the risk pool.
You know, all of those people who are healthy are gonna do just fine.
Those people who need to enter a risk pool, who may have preexisting conditions, theirrates are gonna go much higher.
(29:29):
you know, totally ignoring what's happening, both on the Medicaid side and on the umObamacare enhanced subsidies is totally tone deaf about what is happening in rural
America.
And then you add on top of that,
you know, a lot of people from, you know, probably downtown Chicago go to the Target orthey go to their local grocery store and man, those prices are high.
(29:52):
I want you to think that you have to pay, you know, $5, $10 round trip gas in your car togo buy those groceries.
I mean, everything is really challenging.
And when you look at home heating fuel, if we have a tough winter, cutting programs likeLIHEAP, which helps people afford their,
(30:13):
home heating fuels.
mean, we, rural America uses public services at a higher rate.
They're more elderly.
And, and he thinks that they are just these wealthy farmers who have been knocking on hisdoor saying, you know, we need, we need relief for our row crops when they're farming, you
know, 10,000, 50,000 acres.
(30:35):
You know, I, I just don't see it.
And I don't see that money trickling down in the community.
Yeah, the other thing I would add going back to what you said about health care isoftentimes with two income families, one being the farm or the ranch, the other one goes
to town and works.
And the reason they go to town and work is so that they can have health care.
(30:57):
They're not as concerned about the wage is what they are about the health care becausethey know what that's going to cost.
So let me add one more thing.
And there aren't as many farmers, there aren't as many people doing that.
And so
the workers and finding workers has been a problem in rural America for quite a while.
Now you add in the fact that the health care is going to be through the roof.
(31:19):
Because those small businesses are using the exchange height.
They are.
Which means less employees or maybe as you pointed out, less businesses.
Yeah, I mean, so so if you're a and you're an employer that is not required because ofyour size to basically provide health insurance, a lot of times, competition is tough for
(31:40):
workers, you basically say, Hey, I will up your salary, and you can go out on the exchangeand buy it now all of a sudden, that's two, three times more than what it was before.
And, you know, the what what I keep asking is, how is this $12 billion going to help?
The CNA in the nursing home who's living on minimum wage?
(32:01):
How is it going to help the school cook?
How is it going to help the school janitor?
How is it going to help the school teacher?
You know, many of which in rural America are underpaid and a lot of them qualify forgovernment services.
And so, you know, I think that the this idea that we're going to subsidize farmers andthat's going to solve our problem in rural America, I think
(32:26):
I think it's naive.
Yeah, but the 12 billion is going to make the farmers feel better.
And the 12 billion is going to make uh the bankers, the farmers that I don't know thatwill go all the way to the implement dealers, but they're going to use this.
And I can tell you this as a talk show host, because they call in a lot and make thisargument that he cares.
(32:50):
This proves he cares.
And you know what?
The Chinese deal and the reason we're in trouble on soybeans with China is because of JoeBiden and his trade policies.
I point out that the last trade agreement that we had with China, Donald Trump made.
I point out that it's the tariffs.
The tariffs are a huge part of the problem and that we're losing this market long term.
(33:12):
That more investment by China is being made in Brazil and Argentina, for example.
And a lot of them get it.
But a lot of them don't.
And I don't know how we turn that corner, Heidi.
I really don't.
I think that my question then I say, well, when Joe Biden was president, then you didn'tsell any soybeans to China.
(33:34):
Is that right?
Yeah, yeah, you didn't sell any soybeans to China.
So it's Joe Biden's fault because, you know, this has been going on a long time.
This is the result of an ill-advised trade war.
And I don't know if you saw Joel,
the numbers, but China's not trading with us to the same level, but they have a tradesurplus of billions of dollars because they're trading with the rest of the world.
(33:59):
The United States of America is less than 3 % of Chinese exports to the United States,less than 3 % of Chinese GDP.
And absolutely, absolutely missing the boat in terms of leverage there.
And the Chinese are playing the long game and
Donald Trump, it's like, you hurt my feelings, so I'm not gonna talk to you this week.
(34:21):
There's no real plan here.
know, Joel, the one, the other thing I wanna bring up is explain to me how anyone canjustify bombing boats in the Caribbean.
You know, I'm not gonna dispute whether they're running cocaine or not, but then turningaround and pardoning somebody who was a drug kingpin
(34:44):
in his own country.
I mean, and he has pardoned a lot of drug dealers.
And so, I mean, I just want to ask people what like, like, how do you explain that to me?
How do you explain two guys, you know, floating on some flotsam in in the middle of theCaribbean, we're going to take them out.
But by the way, you know, unlock the key of the jail to people who are actually peddlingthis stuff in our country.
(35:09):
Well, I can explain it to you.
There's a whole group of people out there who love the machoism.
They do.
They absolutely love it.
Oh, man, look at how that, look at that.
Oh, look at the technology we use.
You know, that type of attitude.
Now, what they don't want to do is show you the after.
(35:30):
They don't want to show you the survivors.
They don't want to show you all of that because now it becomes human.
That could be you.
You're no longer this vicious drug dealer as much as what you are this person that'sstruggling to stay alive.
ah And it humanizes things a little bit.
You know, I think it's I think it's really, really interesting.
that you can be Pete Hegseth, you can be Donald Trump, you can go ahead and criticizereporters, call the women reporters piggy or ugly or whatever you want, uh and usually
(36:00):
people of color and get by with that crap.
But if people see somebody hanging on to a boat trying to live, and then America goingback and blowing them up, that isn't going to sell, Heidi.
That isn't going to sell.
It's hard to imagine that it would, but I think we've all now looked at that first, thesecond strike and there's been a lot of attention.
(36:25):
There's not enough attention to the first strike.
And the only one who is really speaking eloquently about it is Rand Paul saying, we're notat war.
I think George Will had the best line
which is Pete Hegseth might be the only person guilty of a war crime when there was no war.
Well, there's a lot of truth to that, you know, and thank God he said it.
(36:45):
Hopefully more Americans will hear it.
Uh I just think I just think personally.
It's all about those guys that for the first time ever have a connection to politics.
They stayed away from it.
They thought leaders on both sides of the aisle, it kissed way too much, but we're too biga wimps.
And all of a sudden they've got that guy that lives his life the way they live theirs, notcaring about anybody else.
(37:11):
Uh you know, they want they want it because of that, because they they hope he gets fourwives, Heidi.
So think about this, Joel, think about this.
They accused the Democrats of being the nanny state, but we have a secretary oftransportation that says, don't wear your jammies when you get on airplanes.
Don't eat sugar, don't do this.
(37:34):
They are the government of big government.
And you know, it...
That all the conservative people in the world, all of those people that we grew up withwho say, I just want the government out of my business.
That's the last thing that this government is doing, this administration is doing.
I think Marjorie Taylor Greene told the truth when she said behind that closed door, allRepublican Congress members laugh at him?
(37:59):
Yeah, well, I mean, I was I was in the Senate during the first term and I mean, he he hisfavorabilities.
I mean, if people are honest, are very, very low.
There's only just a few people, probably including uh Congressman Senator Kramer andTuberville and people like that who really respect him.
(38:21):
think that there is a clear lack of respect for him.
But I think he has been so successful.
in imposing fear, fear of their jobs.
And I'm like, why would you, why would you want the job if somebody can intimidate youlike that?
what?
How did you grow up being that person that's so afraid of your own shadow that you'retruly a chicken shit?
(38:42):
I mean, I don't get it.
I these that job wouldn't be that important to me that I'm going to kiss his butt hide,but apparently to a lot of them it is now for Christmas.
Would you get me?
Nothing, absolutely nothing, because you told me I could not, but I was expecting somedeer sausage.
Yeah, what's it worth?
(39:03):
Yeah, because you know, nothing's free.
I yeah, that's true.
And you work really hard on that.
Everybody you need to know that Heidi works on a calendar that keeps his huge family'sbirthdays and anniversaries and fun pictures and all of that on there.
So okay, the answer then is deer sausage and pepper sticks.
(39:24):
How's that?
Just your sausage.
You chicken.
Alright, Merry Christmas everybody.
Merry Christmas.
You take care, Joel.
Thanks for joining us today on The Hot Dish, brought to you by One Country Project, makingsure the voices of the rest of us are heard in Washington, D.C.
Learn more at onecountryproject.org.
(39:46):
That's onecountryproject.org.
Follow us on Substack, Facebook, and Bluesky.
You can also find the One Country Project on YouTube.
Be sure to like and subscribe to us there.
We'll be back next week with more Hot Dish, comfort food for rural America.
Welcome to The Hot Dish, comfort food for rural America.
I'm Heidi Heitkamp.
And I'm Joel Heitkamp.
Today, we're joined by a very funny guy, the Liberal Redneck, Trae Crowder.
You're all going to love this episode.
Trae grew up in a small town in rural Tennessee.
That's right.
Middle Tennessee.
He's hugely popular on YouTube and Instagram.
(00:26):
He co-hosts multiple podcasts, including "the Weekly Skews," "Putting on Airs"
and "the WellRED Podcast."
Trae has two books.
That's right.
"The Liberal Redneck Manifesto (00:36):
Draggin' Dixie Out of the Dark" and "Round Here and Over Yonder: a Front Porch Travel Guide by Two Progressive Hillbillies.
(Yes, that's a thing.)"
Trae,
good to have you on The Hot Dish.
Yeah, now, yeah, thanks for having me.
Just anytime it's always the titles of those two books, I always have to laugh at themwhenever someone else has to read them all.
(01:02):
They are pretty, they are kind of ridiculous.
I acknowledge that.
I don't know if it's changed, but in my experience with publishing and I had two differentpublishers, they, they love like a like a subtitle, like a colon and a subtitle.
I don't know.
They just.
It just felt like the titles just kept expanding for both of those.
And I always feel kind of silly in retrospect.
(01:22):
But anyway, yeah, glad to be here.
Well, you know, I want to talk a little bit about the special election in Tennessee, partof the world that you're pretty familiar with, part of the country you're pretty familiar
with.
And I think there's been a lot of, you know, a nine point spread from a 20+, 22 to a+9, you know, pretty remarkable.
(01:44):
But there's a lot of people who think that had we run a more moderate candidate, thatwould have narrowed substantially.
um You know, when you look at the debate that's happening right now, because we know thatuh more progressive candidates are really energizing a big part of the base, that's
critically important if we're gonna win, but also we can't alienate those folks that wemight wanna win back.
(02:10):
You know, the old Tennessee kind of coalition when Al Gore used to win there.
And so, um you know, what's your take on that special election Trae?
I don't want to.
Yeah.
So first of all, I, I spend every Christmas in that district.
that is true, but it's also like, I'm in a very particular part of it.
That district is weird the way it's shaped.
(02:32):
Like a lot of districts in this country doesn't really make any sense.
You know, they split Nashville up into three and one third of it got put into thisdistrict, which also includes one of the most rural, one of the most red counties in
Tennessee.
I think it literally is the most red County in Tennessee.
It's called Wayne County and that's where my wife is from.
That's where my in-laws live.
(02:52):
So I spend every Christmas in Wayne County specifically.
That's important because Wayne County is not, it doesn't mean it's like the entire rest ofthat district.
It's probably the redneck-iest part or whatever.
And that's the part I'm most familiar with.
but
I don't want like fence it or whatever.
I think it might be kind of a combination.
I feel like I can make arguments in both directions for the question that you asked,because I think that, you know, you could argue that, uh, Aftyn's performance there, a lot
(03:21):
of it had to do with, um, people getting energized or whatever, and, uh, coming out inresponse to a lot of the flack that was getting thrown her way.
And if it was a more like,
Traditional moderate candidate there might not have been as much of that. It might not havegot as like heated and as much eyes on it and resources behind it in the first place uh it
(03:46):
but also I think that as someone who goes to Wayne County all the time I think that ifthere had been a candidate who all of sudden they become aware there's a real shot at this
you see what's going on all this mud flinging in this race and people start payingattention and then that candidate had been a like
You know, like a white dude, a white straight white man, uh, who was talking about groceryprices and that type of thing.
(04:13):
Then, you know, maybe more people in Wayne County specifically might've voted for them.
So I think it's like a combination of the two, cause it's definitely a, like the ruralparts of that County, which are most of it, you know, is, um, like not going to be crazy
on board with a,
opinionated progressive woman, probably.
(04:34):
yeah, I, I can, you know, I feel like I said, I feel like I can sort of argue it in bothdirections.
I think that it's hard to get people excited and energized for a more classic, moderate,democratic candidate these days.
And so that makes things hard.
But in some of these places, like Tennessee seven in particular, it's also a real toughroad to hoe.
(04:58):
for someone like Aftyn too.
So I think, and I know it's like, so what does that mean?
It's just a, you know, a no win proposition.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying it's like difficult, complex and nuanced in my opinion.
You know, it just depends on the person and the circumstances, I think.
Well, Trae, let me add this, though, you know, from the rural area, which is who we talkedto here on The Hot Dish it's not always easy to find candidates and then to find
(05:26):
candidates that are as aggressive and willing to go out and work like Aftyn I mean, youknow, we can talk about whether or not she was too progressive, but we can't talk about
whether or not she ran a tough race.
That doesn't sell.
Right.
Well, even the her being radical from my perspective on it, I feel like she went out ofher way to try to focus on like on the actual campaign trail and in actual appearances.
(05:53):
And in that context, she went out of her way to focus on sort of meat and potatoes,kitchen table type stuff about like grocery prices and affordability and everything, which
I think is smart.
And that's like economically progressive.
I know, but it's not.
considered by most people to be like radical.
And I feel like lot of the radical arguments came from, you know, things that they dug upand oppo of old like appearances and stuff where she's calling herself a radical or she's,
(06:21):
you know, getting thrown out of an office and crying or this type of stuff.
They just made her look like, you know, like a, like a, a loud shrill harpy or whatever.
Again, a lot of it comes back to like misogyny and stuff.
And that as someone who's from middle, I'm not from Nashville.
But I also go to Nashville every year as a comedian and I grew up going to Nashvillebecause I am from middle Tennessee.
(06:42):
The whole thing that they went after for about how like this is a, you you're going toelect someone to represent Nashville who admittedly hates Nashville.
The clips they played of her talking about how she hates, you know, Nashville, buteverything she said about Nashville is stuff that any like legit native, not just to
Nashville, but the area completely 100%
agrees with.
(07:02):
I literally had a clip from a podcast appearance I was on less than like two months ago thatI posted where I made the exact, I said the exact same things that she said about
Nashville.
Cause it's not like hating Nashville.
It's hating the stuff that's happened to Nashville recently.
Cause it's made it worse to a lot of people that so it got, a lot of it got blown out ofproportion and I don't think she's as radical as people made her out to be in my opinion.
(07:28):
I want to make this point and I think, you know, I'm not just blowing smoke yourdirection.
There are so many people now who are unabashedly talking like you, you know, come fromplaces like we come from is saying, look, know, quit, quit demonizing our places, start
talking about what we need to do for the rest of the country, but don't be afraid to bewho you are.
(07:53):
I just read a statement today that in Texas,
We're competing everywhere, which hasn't happened in a long, long time.
And I really credit, um to some degree, The Hot Dish, but also all of these people talkingabout what you can do, what can an individual do in this very, very difficult time.
(08:19):
And one of the things that we're saying is you can run for office.
And so we're seeing...
record number of people stepping up.
mean, Joel's point is it's hard to find people, but we're also now seeing a lot ofcandidates coming through the woodwork saying it's time to make my voice heard.
What can we be doing that would be more helpful to those candidates kind of moving forwardto help move hearts and minds?
(08:45):
if I we you mean like people in like our position or like, you know, talk about thesethings.
Yeah, right.
I mean, I just try to like I mean, Aftyn did my political podcast the week before theelection or whatever.
And I just and I posted about her and that type of stuff.
And now, I mean, again, I'm from Middle Tennessee and everything.
So I was definitely paying more attention to that one specifically.
(09:07):
But I try to, you know, just try to like help out.
If I can, if it's a candidate that I like and align with, meaning like, you know, withwhatever platform I have and that type of thing, I'm not sure how much more it depends.
There's people with much bigger platforms that can reach further and everything, that'sreally, you know, beyond that, I'm not sure.
(09:34):
Just try to support them and prop them up a little bit.
So I want to ask this, it's probably a question for both of you, which is, OK, we talkedabout how you can find candidates, and hopefully there's ones that want to get out there
and run an aggressive race, all of that.
But part of what we do here on The Hot Dish and part of what others do when they havethese conversations is really try to get rural America, farm country, all of that
(10:02):
thinking,
thinking about their future, thinking about who supports them and who doesn't.
So I got to ask this.
What happens when you get the sense that the Republican Party, in this case, PresidentTrump, actually buy off the rural country?
(10:22):
$12 billion is a lot of money.
So, you know,
Trae, I want to ask you, you know, I'm sitting out there on my talk show all the timemaking the argument that, hey, these tariffs aren't working.
You know, all we're doing is sitting there losing uh market, losing market long term.
And then the next thing you know, they hold a press conference, say we're Santa Claus,we're sending you money.
(10:47):
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I know that's upsetting because it's like, think there was a certain percentageof people that even if he hadn't done that, no matter how bad things got for them as a
direct result of decisions that he made, I think there was a certain percentage that stillwere just going to, you know, go along with it to their own detriment because they just
got their heels dug too far in.
But you had to hope that there was a large enough chunk, though, who could be swayed.
(11:10):
And it seems like going back to the Aftyn thing and a lot of things people are pointing atthat, like there's
you know, maybe that's starting to happen with some of these like voting blocks orwhatever that's our, it's finally, you know, things could be shifting because it's gotten,
you know, clear enough at a certain point.
But when you think that they would have like been by his side, no matter what happened.
(11:35):
And then the idea that, so then when he buys them off, basically, you pretty much knowthat that's probably going to work.
I feel like.
the one thing that I would say, Joel, is I don't know how the lady who's cooking the hotlunch at in a rural school is going to benefit from $12 billion.
I don't know how the CNA at the local nursing home is going to benefit.
(11:59):
And you know, and I know that at some point that the people in rural America watch thisvery closely and you get a lot of people calling.
who are from rural America Joel, who don't like this, who think that it's unfair.
And when the numbers come out and it shows that people who own land like Bessette and BillGates and those folks are people who are gonna be subsidized by this $12 billion.
(12:26):
And it's gonna be some of the wealthiest people in rural America who are gonna besubsidized by the $12 billion.
That doesn't trickle down.
I mean,
back in the day tray, our dad delivered bulk fuel and everybody bought their seed in town.
They used the local implement dealership.
They bought their fuel in town.
And so that money trickled down into rural communities.
(12:49):
Now they're buying in bulk.
You see semis come in and basically fuel up a farm.
So you aren't seeing the kind of...
you know, kind of rural economic development that comes from that money.
Um and so I'm really curious to see how it's going to be dispersed, Joel.
(13:10):
And I'm really curious to see how many people are going to be getting a whole lot of moneywho otherwise uh have had some pretty good years.
Well, one other thing and I'm going to throw this at you, Trae, that there's less farmers.
mean, lost in all of this is there's less farmers.
And so if you have less farmers, it's helping less people.
(13:33):
Going back to what you said, Hyde, you know, you're sitting there and in the old days, youknow, you had farmers farming 500, 600 acres where I'm from now, they're farming 5000
acres.
And so
And that's an average farmer.
And so you're sitting there, Trae where normally, yeah, okay, you can buy them off, butyou're buying way less people off.
(13:57):
Yeah.
No, I mean, I'm hopeful that all that will matter.
You meant you, you know, used the phrase earlier, like that's not going to trickle down orwhatnot.
But I feel like, you know, trickle down economics has been pretty boldly not working formost people for a very long time.
And it just I'm just like jaded and cynical is all it is.
I see all these things like there's so many times, so many points over the years whereI've been like, well, surely this will like matter.
(14:23):
Right.
Or they'll see.
And it's just I'm not.
saying I'm utterly bereft of hope.
am hopeful right now that that can happen.
just, guess I'm also, uh, you know, trying to temper expectations somewhat.
Cause I just think it's like, I don't know what, strong propaganda is and some of thebubbles that people live in and all this stuff is insane as it might be that there, that,
(14:46):
you know, there still will be people that will find a way to blame all of those hardshipson.
Yeah, I.
Joe Biden or Barack Obama or whoever, know, like still like even no matter how longthey've not been in power.
So.
the the interesting thing to me is what's happening in health care.
I health care is going to have a lot bigger effect in rural America that the exchanges, alot of people in rural America overuse the exchanges, especially in places that didn't
(15:16):
expand the Medicaid, engage in Medicaid expansion.
So those subsidies are critical.
for those lower income folks.
And the Republicans now have floated an idea that they're gonna do these basically HSAs,they're gonna do health savings accounts, put some money in there, and then have people
have high deductibles.
(15:38):
Every legitimate economist and healthcare expert who has studied this had said that's aformula for disaster because remember this.
Over 50% of the people in this country could not afford a $500 hit to their budget, butthey're going to give them a highly deductible plan at $2,000, $3,000.
(16:03):
And they're going to be in medical debt.
There's no doubt about it if something happens.
And so I think healthcare is, if I were running in a rural district right now, I wouldreally be talking about what's happening in healthcare.
I mean, I completely agree using my hometown as an example, Solana, Tennessee, ClayCounty, the hospital there that was there my whole childhood and years before has like
(16:29):
closed and reopened, I think three times in the past eight years or whatever, but has beenclosed for good now for, you know, quite some time.
And then also this, you know, with the
Big Beautiful Bill and some of the implications of that.
Like it's possible that like even like the nursing home could end up closing and stufflike that.
And there's been no jobs or anything there for a while.
(16:51):
Uh like absolutely just economic devastation in Clay County.
Up until very recently, it had still just been like, you know, very much so white.
It still is MAGA country, I'm sure.
But like it was like hardcore.
Maga country in spite of all that, which I was always like, you know, uh annoyed andconfused by sort of, but, I don't even know how much this means.
(17:18):
I might've told you all this the last time I was on there.
So I'll try to do a shorter version of it.
But my uncle is like the co-chair of the clay county democratic party.
And for years and years they had, was him and him, his co-chair, and then two otherpeople.
That was the clay county democratic party meetings, like for a long time.
And he has told me it like recently, like their meetings it's.
(17:39):
You know, it's like close to 40 people or something.
So that's, mean, a 10 fold increase and it's only 40 people, but it's still like, surelythat means something.
And I was talking about Wayne County earlier.
My wife is from it.
That's the reddest County of Tennessee and in Aftyn's race, was like an almost sevenpoint, you know, upward swing for the dim candidate from the last time there.
(17:59):
And, uh, so it was still like, you know,
much less than Republican candidate got, but it was much more than, you know, any Democratusually gets there.
it's like, so I feel like stuff like that.
It's like, it seems like it means something, you know, hopefully like it does.
I can buy the feeling that it's like, is the tide finally maybe starting to turn?
(18:23):
Like people have finally been pushed too far and it's gotten harder and harder to like,uh,
realistically blame it on anyone else at a certain point.
So maybe that's finally starting to matter and to happen, but I guess we'll just have tosee.
Doing, speaking as somebody who recently went over to the Western part of Minnesota in the7th District and spoke at a fundraiser over there.
(18:49):
I walked in the room and I had done that before.
I had walked in the room and there was over 300 people there this time.
They had to order more pizza.
They had to go find some chairs from the Legion Hall.
Uh there's over 300 people there.
Now that doesn't sound like a lot to everybody listening to The Hot Dish, but for them, itwas and it was not the fact that they had a great keynote speaker.
(19:13):
That was not it.
The truth of the matter is these people, everybody there, some with money, some without,but everybody there gave some money.
Some might have been 10 bucks, some might have been 20 bucks, some might have been athousand.
I don't know.
I know they had a very, very successful fundraiser.
They had two candidates running against each other for the opportunity to take on anincumbent in what has been a pretty red district.
(19:41):
Uh there's an energy out there, you guys.
There really is.
So Trae, I want to kind of switch gears a little bit and talk about your style.
Because I think one of the reasons why you have such a faithful following, one of thereasons why we wanted you on the podcast is you do two things.
(20:01):
You speak common sense and you do it with a lot of humor and a little cussing and a littlecussing.
But, know,
still can't figure out why we can't cuss on here more, but you go ahead.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think I think that, you know, for so long, the Democrats have just been so afraid ofpolitical correctness or what to say and what not to say and who you're going to alienate.
(20:30):
And I think the charm of what you're doing and a lot of other folks are doing is just letit rip.
I mean, you know, this is the way I see it.
You don't like it.
Turn it off.
But I'm going to tell you how I see it.
How do we get more
folks to, especially candidates to take that approach.
I mean, don't know, you that, cause I don't know, I don't have any real like experience atall in like the world of politics.
(20:57):
I don't know if these people, these candidates are like, in my head, I always assumed thatthey're going through these like, like media training and they have all these like
consultants and campaign people and stuff, and they're coached on all this.
And I don't know anything about it because I'm having firsthand experience with it, butI've suspected for a long time that a lot of that is pretty outdated, especially like on
the Democrat
(21:17):
side.
I mean, there were reports of like in the Harris Walls campaign, you know, at one point,like when he first came on board and for a while there, it was like real energized and
stuff.
And then there were reports that like these teams were brought in that had worked on like,you know, old campaigns and talks.
It's like walls have been calling them all weird.
And he said like, he was, you know, told like advised, maybe don't do that.
(21:38):
When that was like working great, you know, is what you were just saying, just likeletting it rip.
And he was doing that.
And then he got reined in some.
It's like, so I feel like there's,
in the Democrat side especially, it seems like there's this sort of old power structurethat's still there in terms of how it's all supposed to work.
That's like, I think even if you get a candidate that's special, those people might coachout of them what makes them special.
(22:04):
If they don't, you, you know, make it a point to be kind of a maverick or go in the otherdirection or something.
But everything I just said, I've pulled out of my butt, you know, I said, I don't know,
say something that means something, not blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I mean, when the people hear blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, they're like, what are you talking about?
(22:26):
And, you know, the one lesson that we should all learn from Donald Trump is he may useword salad, but people think he's funny.
People think he's engaging and they think that he is genuine in what he says, even thoughwhat he says is that shit crazy.
Yeah, absolutely.
That was like the first big thing when people like, when he first started being takenseriously as a thing, Donald Trump in 2016, that was like the main thing that was being
(22:51):
said is like, well, he tells it like it is.
That's, know, like, what does this appeal that he's having?
Well, he tells it like it is and he's different.
He's an outsider and that's all that stuff, you know?
So, I mean, no, I definitely think that, uh, I fully agree that it would
behoove candidates to take a page out of that book and be a little more authentic and likeyou say what they mean, stand their ground, all of that.
(23:12):
Um, I'm just saying it's, feel like a lot of times when you watch politicians andcandidates, it's, it's like when you see a lot of high level athletes, sometimes they give
like, you just feel like the politician on them and everything like is so carefully wordedand all this stuff.
And it just feels like kind of artificial and manufactured and whatever it is that's
(23:35):
making that happen or putting that in place, like that needs to go away, my opinion, or bereplaced by something else, like a new paradigm or philosophy needs to take the place of
that behind the scenes in the world of like, you know, politics on the American left.
a talk show host, let me give you an example of my approach and, you know, Republicanarea.
(23:55):
And I've been able to stay number one for 20 some years.
I know that my audience didn't like going to school.
They didn't.
They went to school.
They had to go to school.
They use school to get where they're at, but they didn't like going to school.
And so why would you talk to them as though you're teaching them constantly, constantly?
(24:17):
You know, and saying 20 words when two would do and Trae, that's why you're so popular isit isn't as though they're talking to a guy they could have a beer with and that matters.
Yeah, no, I, yeah, I agree.
I mean, I, you know, I, I appreciate you saying that about me, but, uh, but yeah, overall Iagree.
(24:40):
Um, but yeah, it turns, like you said, like how to fix it.
Like, I just think that there's, uh, something needs to happen in the world of bigDemocrat or the TNC or whatever, whatever system it is, these candidates tend to come up
through.
I think they're getting corrupt.
did in that way along the way and that needs to stop.
(25:02):
But I don't, you know, I don't know how to achieve that.
I, nothing to do with it personally, but.
think it's so interesting because people always talk about money.
Kamala Harris spent a lot more money than, than Donald Trump did.
A lot more.
A lot a lot of money.
And a lot of these Senate races, a lot of money.
And it wasn't the lack of money that caused the problem.
(25:23):
And so, you know, it was a lack of authenticity.
It was a lack of an idea.
It was a lack of the ability to actually sit down with people and say, hey, you gotgrocery problems?
You got problems doing this.
This is what we're going to do.
Your health care is not affordable.
You can't get mental health care for your kid.
This is what we're going to do.
(25:44):
And just be straight up and be honest about what you're going to do.
And I think, I think that, you know, the one thing that influencers are doing, and I don'tmean to, if that's insulting to you, I don't mean to insult you, but the one thing that
people who are people are listening to that are people are entertained.
Number one, they're entertaining.
(26:05):
And number two, they talk truth and common sense.
And if there is some kind of, number one, it's really hard to take somebody who is wonkyand say, now be authentic.
Yeah, now be like a real person.
And so we need to let the real people of these districts, the real people of these statesnominate their own candidates.
(26:33):
Mm-hmm.
quit interfering because they know what resonates and what works.
And that's a problem too, is this top-down management.
you got to go Trae, but one more thing that I want to throw out there as a talk show host,there's nothing better than a guest that you don't know what they're going to say.
Nothing better.
(26:53):
And I can tell you this uh with the Democratic and with the consulting and with everythingthat goes with it, you know what they're going to say.
Right, yeah.
The question, you know is what they're going to say.
And it's boring as hell.
So Trae, know you.
Yeah, exactly.
Trae, I know you got to go.
You got 100 people pulling at you.
(27:14):
But thanks for joining us on The Hot Dish.
No, thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Keep up doing what you're doing.
More people, we need more people like you speaking truth to power and revealing why it isthat we need to bring common sense back to public policy.
You're a great guy.
I appreciate it.
I'll just say real quick before I go, check me out.
(27:35):
If you don't already on the internet there, it's Trae Crowder, T-R-A-E Crowder on yourpreferred social media platform, but also TraeCrowder.com is where all my tour dates are.
So come see me live.
You know, as a justified fan, Crowder's kind of a famous name.
No relation, right?
Boyd, right?
Yes, no, yeah, no.
No, I'm big fan, too.
(27:55):
Thank you, guys.
Appreciate it.
See you.
So, Heidi, we've had conversations here on one country at length about rural America andwhat rural America thinks, does, how they operate, mostly the economy.
(28:15):
That's an area that you know, you're very, very good at.
So let me ask you this, can $12 billion buy out the hearts and souls of rural America?
I don't think so.
I think that, you know, Donald Trump has a distorted view of what rural America is.
I, he does very well in rural America, let's not kid ourselves, but he thinks that it's allabout agriculture and he doesn't realize that small mom and pop manufacturers who are part
(28:42):
of an incredibly important supply chain, they're part of this too, and they're hurtingreally bad.
I talked to someone who is very knowledgeable who said,
that in the next 10 years, we may not have any mom and pop manufacturers anymore.
And that is a tragedy because we need that resilience in the supply chain.
He doesn't understand how significant healthcare is to rural America.
(29:03):
He keeps talking about, wants to put the money in the pocket of people who are gettinghealthcare, but that totally ignores, who are buying insurance, but that totally ignores
the risk pool.
You know, all of those people who are healthy are gonna do just fine.
Those people who need to enter a risk pool, who may have preexisting conditions, theirrates are gonna go much higher.
(29:29):
you know, totally ignoring what's happening, both on the Medicaid side and on the umObamacare enhanced subsidies is totally tone deaf about what is happening in rural
America.
And then you add on top of that,
you know, a lot of people from, you know, probably downtown Chicago go to the Target orthey go to their local grocery store and man, those prices are high.
(29:52):
I want you to think that you have to pay, you know, $5, $10 round trip gas in your car togo buy those groceries.
I mean, everything is really challenging.
And when you look at home heating fuel, if we have a tough winter, cutting programs likeLIHEAP, which helps people afford their,
(30:13):
home heating fuels.
mean, we, rural America uses public services at a higher rate.
They're more elderly.
And, and he thinks that they are just these wealthy farmers who have been knocking on hisdoor saying, you know, we need, we need relief for our row crops when they're farming, you
know, 10,000, 50,000 acres.
(30:35):
You know, I, I just don't see it.
And I don't see that money trickling down in the community.
Yeah, the other thing I would add going back to what you said about health care isoftentimes with two income families, one being the farm or the ranch, the other one goes
to town and works.
And the reason they go to town and work is so that they can have health care.
(30:57):
They're not as concerned about the wage is what they are about the health care becausethey know what that's going to cost.
So let me add one more thing.
And there aren't as many farmers, there aren't as many people doing that.
And so
the workers and finding workers has been a problem in rural America for quite a while.
Now you add in the fact that the health care is going to be through the roof.
(31:19):
Because those small businesses are using the exchange height.
They are.
Which means less employees or maybe as you pointed out, less businesses.
Yeah, I mean, so so if you're a and you're an employer that is not required because ofyour size to basically provide health insurance, a lot of times, competition is tough for
(31:40):
workers, you basically say, Hey, I will up your salary, and you can go out on the exchangeand buy it now all of a sudden, that's two, three times more than what it was before.
And, you know, the what what I keep asking is, how is this $12 billion going to help?
The CNA in the nursing home who's living on minimum wage?
(32:01):
How is it going to help the school cook?
How is it going to help the school janitor?
How is it going to help the school teacher?
You know, many of which in rural America are underpaid and a lot of them qualify forgovernment services.
And so, you know, I think that the this idea that we're going to subsidize farmers andthat's going to solve our problem in rural America, I think
(32:26):
I think it's naive.
Yeah, but the 12 billion is going to make the farmers feel better.
And the 12 billion is going to make uh the bankers, the farmers that I don't know thatwill go all the way to the implement dealers, but they're going to use this.
And I can tell you this as a talk show host, because they call in a lot and make thisargument that he cares.
(32:50):
This proves he cares.
And you know what?
The Chinese deal and the reason we're in trouble on soybeans with China is because of JoeBiden and his trade policies.
I point out that the last trade agreement that we had with China, Donald Trump made.
I point out that it's the tariffs.
The tariffs are a huge part of the problem and that we're losing this market long term.
(33:12):
That more investment by China is being made in Brazil and Argentina, for example.
And a lot of them get it.
But a lot of them don't.
And I don't know how we turn that corner, Heidi.
I really don't.
I think that my question then I say, well, when Joe Biden was president, then you didn'tsell any soybeans to China.
(33:34):
Is that right?
Yeah, yeah, you didn't sell any soybeans to China.
So it's Joe Biden's fault because, you know, this has been going on a long time.
This is the result of an ill-advised trade war.
And I don't know if you saw Joel,
the numbers, but China's not trading with us to the same level, but they have a tradesurplus of billions of dollars because they're trading with the rest of the world.
(33:59):
The United States of America is less than 3 % of Chinese exports to the United States,less than 3 % of Chinese GDP.
And absolutely, absolutely missing the boat in terms of leverage there.
And the Chinese are playing the long game and
Donald Trump, it's like, you hurt my feelings, so I'm not gonna talk to you this week.
(34:21):
There's no real plan here.
know, Joel, the one, the other thing I wanna bring up is explain to me how anyone canjustify bombing boats in the Caribbean.
You know, I'm not gonna dispute whether they're running cocaine or not, but then turningaround and pardoning somebody who was a drug kingpin
(34:44):
in his own country.
I mean, and he has pardoned a lot of drug dealers.
And so, I mean, I just want to ask people what like, like, how do you explain that to me?
How do you explain two guys, you know, floating on some flotsam in in the middle of theCaribbean, we're going to take them out.
But by the way, you know, unlock the key of the jail to people who are actually peddlingthis stuff in our country.
(35:09):
Well, I can explain it to you.
There's a whole group of people out there who love the machoism.
They do.
They absolutely love it.
Oh, man, look at how that, look at that.
Oh, look at the technology we use.
You know, that type of attitude.
Now, what they don't want to do is show you the after.
(35:30):
They don't want to show you the survivors.
They don't want to show you all of that because now it becomes human.
That could be you.
You're no longer this vicious drug dealer as much as what you are this person that'sstruggling to stay alive.
ah And it humanizes things a little bit.
You know, I think it's I think it's really, really interesting.
that you can be Pete Hegseth, you can be Donald Trump, you can go ahead and criticizereporters, call the women reporters piggy or ugly or whatever you want, uh and usually
(36:00):
people of color and get by with that crap.
But if people see somebody hanging on to a boat trying to live, and then America goingback and blowing them up, that isn't going to sell, Heidi.
That isn't going to sell.
It's hard to imagine that it would, but I think we've all now looked at that first, thesecond strike and there's been a lot of attention.
(36:25):
There's not enough attention to the first strike.
And the only one who is really speaking eloquently about it is Rand Paul saying, we're notat war.
I think George Will had the best line
which is Pete Hegseth might be the only person guilty of a war crime when there was no war.
Well, there's a lot of truth to that, you know, and thank God he said it.
(36:45):
Hopefully more Americans will hear it.
Uh I just think I just think personally.
It's all about those guys that for the first time ever have a connection to politics.
They stayed away from it.
They thought leaders on both sides of the aisle, it kissed way too much, but we're too biga wimps.
And all of a sudden they've got that guy that lives his life the way they live theirs, notcaring about anybody else.
(37:11):
Uh you know, they want they want it because of that, because they they hope he gets fourwives, Heidi.
So think about this, Joel, think about this.
They accused the Democrats of being the nanny state, but we have a secretary oftransportation that says, don't wear your jammies when you get on airplanes.
Don't eat sugar, don't do this.
(37:34):
They are the government of big government.
And you know, it...
That all the conservative people in the world, all of those people that we grew up withwho say, I just want the government out of my business.
That's the last thing that this government is doing, this administration is doing.
I think Marjorie Taylor Greene told the truth when she said behind that closed door, allRepublican Congress members laugh at him?
(37:59):
Yeah, well, I mean, I was I was in the Senate during the first term and I mean, he he hisfavorabilities.
I mean, if people are honest, are very, very low.
There's only just a few people, probably including uh Congressman Senator Kramer andTuberville and people like that who really respect him.
(38:21):
think that there is a clear lack of respect for him.
But I think he has been so successful.
in imposing fear, fear of their jobs.
And I'm like, why would you, why would you want the job if somebody can intimidate youlike that?
what?
How did you grow up being that person that's so afraid of your own shadow that you'retruly a chicken shit?
(38:42):
I mean, I don't get it.
I these that job wouldn't be that important to me that I'm going to kiss his butt hide,but apparently to a lot of them it is now for Christmas.
Would you get me?
Nothing, absolutely nothing, because you told me I could not, but I was expecting somedeer sausage.
Yeah, what's it worth?
(39:03):
Yeah, because you know, nothing's free.
I yeah, that's true.
And you work really hard on that.
Everybody you need to know that Heidi works on a calendar that keeps his huge family'sbirthdays and anniversaries and fun pictures and all of that on there.
So okay, the answer then is deer sausage and pepper sticks.
(39:24):
How's that?
Just your sausage.
You chicken.
Alright, Merry Christmas everybody.
Merry Christmas.
You take care, Joel.
Thanks for joining us today on The Hot Dish, brought to you by One Country Project, makingsure the voices of the rest of us are heard in Washington, D.C.
Learn more at onecountryproject.org.
(39:46):
That's onecountryproject.org.
Follow us on Substack, Facebook, and Bluesky.
You can also find the One Country Project on YouTube.
Be sure to like and subscribe to us there.
We'll be back next week with more Hot Dish, comfort food for rural America.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.