The Rise of the Administrative State & How to Fight Back: Ned Ryun on American Leviathan

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to other people. With Robert Turnan and Erica Reddick.
I'm Jay Shepherd. I'll be co hosting the show today
with Erica, and we're pretty excited to bring on a
guest tonight, ned Ryan, because we are engaged in the
time in this country where a lot of people think
there's chaos, and there is chaos going on, and it's

(00:39):
about time. You know, We've had this underlying thread that's
been happening in this country and things are happening, and
they're happening at a fast rate. Right now. We're looking
at the tariffs and people are worried about their four
oh one k's, They're worried about how we are treated
in the rest of the world. They're wondering what's going

(00:59):
on going on with the government. The reality is it's
about time. We need to have change. We need disruptors.
We need to make a difference in this country, and
we need to make it now while we have an opportunity.
The presidency of Donald Trump is making a difference and
a lot of people are very, very worried about it.
But we're not worried. We have confidence because we know

(01:23):
it's time. We're due. And some of the people that
have been involved in this new administration are making a difference,
and they're making it fast. So I'm going to bring
Erica back on and then we'll talk about talk with
Ned Ryan, who has a new documentary out and the
follow up of his book.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, Yes, Jay, I am super excited to have Ned
Ryan on this evening. As I mentioned before the show,
I made sure to wear my reasons to Trust the
Government merch because watching his stuff just is a reminder
that there are no reasons to trust the government. Ladies
and gentlemen, American Leviathan book documentary.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yes, let me just introduce. Let me say a little
bit about Ned before we bring you on. You know,
America knows Ned as that very smart conservative guy who's
on Fox News regularly, and I think sometimes people forget
that there's more to him than just that commentator on
Fox News and ABC News and every other outlet that

(02:28):
wants a strong conservative voice that makes sense, and when
you hear him usually has a unique perspective that's right
in line with what we need to hear, and a
lot of people don't realize that. You know, he is
a former writer for President George W. Bush. He's written
several books, and he's also the founder and CEO of

(02:50):
American Majority and they're a training institute who are out
there identifying the next wave of liberty minded candidates. They've
training grassroots activists and community leaders. They are making a difference,
and they're making a difference in all fifty states. So,
without further ado, let's introduce Ned Ryan.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
All right, welcome Ned.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Hey, guys, great to be with you know, I appreciate
the opportunity to be on and talk about America Leviathan
the documentary and really what's going on?

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Jay?

Speaker 3 (03:26):
You're right, I think there have been a lot of
things going on for a very long time in DC,
and it was the great outsider, Donald J. Trump that
brought a lot of these things that were simmering below
the surface to the forefront because he rejected the premise.
And that to me, you know, I'd studied the progressives
a little bit over the years. It really was kind

(03:48):
of an epiphany back when MSNBC and CNN used to
have me on, which they don't anymore. But in the
heat of the Russian collusion hoax that spring and summer
of twenty seventeen, first of all, there were people I
think they were totally convinced that somehow Donald J. Trump
was a putin stooge. I think people knew for a

(04:08):
fact that it was a lie, that they were trying
to undermine Donald Trump because they realized he was an
existential threat to the status quo. But I was sitting
there going, this has nothing to do with anything about
any of this. It has nothing to do with Russian collusion.
And then we got to Ukrainian quid pro quo and
all these other things in the political lawfare. It has
everything to do with who decides. And Donald Trump showed

(04:32):
up in January of twenty seventeen, is the duly elected
president and essentially announced I'm the duly elected president. I'm
the one who decides a lot of domestic inform policy
and prominent DC the status quo. There the administrative state
with its allies in the press, and while they're not pressed,
they're propagandas Democrat party, and I would argue a lot

(04:52):
of establishment Republicans said, we don't think so, we don't
think you decide. And this to me is the essence
I've told Trump this. When you boil everything down to
what this is all about, it's about who decides does
the duly elected president of the United States or do
the unelected bureaucrats inside of the administrative state. And it
really is a clash of two very different governing philosophies

(05:14):
that are oil and water that have been in existence
in this country for over a century. Administrative state, massive
bureaucracy filled with unelected bureaucrats who, in progressive's mind, were
to do the real governing and the legislating. And a
constitution republic where all power flows from the people to
their duly elected representatives, who they make the stewards of
the power and the money given to them by the

(05:35):
people to actually form a government of buying for the
people that every day is supposed to actually advance and
protect the interests of the American people. And so everybody
and people have asked why didn't this happen earlier? Well,
because a lot of Republicans accepted the premise that the
administrative state was legitimate. And Donald Trump said, our rejected
promiss and that is his great sin to many many

(05:57):
of the people sitting in DC.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
One of the big points that needs to be pointed out.
And you know, our conservative we call ourselves Republicans, all
of those kind of things that the Republicans have been
part of this problem. I think when we look back
in twenty seventeen, we weren't aware of the deep state.
That that's a new term that was coined by Donald

(06:21):
Trump and others that came in to drain the swamp.
And I think there's so much more to it than that.
And what I'd like to do is just take a
quick break and show the trailer for your new documentary
that follows along with your book as a companion piece,
and we can just show that there's more to it
than what has happened now that it didn't happen overnight,

(06:43):
but it was the exposure that Donald Trump in his
administration brought to the forefront so that we could tackle
it and talk about it. So Ben, can you run
the trailer?

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Who is really running the US governments? Americans are rightly
questioning what is happen into our country? How was the duly
elected president of the United States targeted by the Department
of Justice and the FBI. How did the FBI and
Justice Department knowingly use a fabricated dossier to lie to
a federal court to secure four warrants in an abuse

(07:15):
of federal power, and why was no one at the FBI,
the DOJ, the courts, any federal agency or department ever
held accountable or suffer consequences for these illegal acts. The
targeting of President Donald J. Trump confirmed that there are
two competing forms of government operating in Washington, d C.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
The politics and the culture of Washington d C are
all antibetical to a healthy functioning American Republic.

Speaker 5 (07:52):
We are living in a scenario right now where the
people with power they think they know more than the
people that founded this country. They think that their job
is to impose their view on the.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Rest of us.

Speaker 6 (08:03):
I think that the three most dangerous words in Donald
Trump's vocabulary that the establishment heard was drain the swamp.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, d C.

Speaker 7 (08:16):
I'm in favor and wasn't supported. And I'm a friend
of Bobby Kennedy because he wants to break the back
of the status quo in this town, as does Tulsi
as this cash And I'm telling me, if this town
is now as nervous as it's ever.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
Been, alone must we didn't elect him, we didn't select him.

Speaker 8 (08:33):
Our democracy has become synonymous with an embrace of the
administrative state. Anything the administrative state is doing, anything that
the deep state is doing, is identified by the left
with our democracy. In fact, it is the enemy of
our constitutional republic. The political branches are not going to
drain the swamp.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Why the hell would the reptiles.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
Drain the swamp.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
It was the great outsider of Trump who brought this
administrative state into the light and to the surface, and
now the American people have the opportunity to take their
government back.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
I think loved that that quote. The politicians aren't going
to drain the swamp? Why would the reptiles? That is
like the best part of the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Mike Davis. You know, the great part is Mike da
Davis was not originally going to be in the documentary,
and there was another lawyer, a constitution lawyer I wanted
to talk to. It didn't work out. She was not available,
and so I emailed him that day of the recording, said, hey,
are you in DC? By chance? He goes, as a
matter of fact, I am, because he's actually based spends

(09:46):
half his time in Colorado. So I was like, hey, dude,
so if you could show up at CPI at three PM.
I'd love to take you about thirty or forty minutes
of your time to be a part of this new documentary.
He's like, sign me up. He wasn't even planning on
being it to that day, shows up and just he
did a phenomenal job. Mike was a rock star, Rachel Bouvard,

(10:06):
there were a lot of great people. I thought that
the most interesting part though, and what I really wanted
to do was talk to Senators and Congressmen Jim banks
Is in the documentary, Rick Scott, Marshall, Blackburn, Congressman Chip
Roy to have them really talk about how DC works,
because I think people learned the illusion, well, you know
the legislative branch legislates they actually do the real governing. No,

(10:29):
they don't, and they haven't done it in years, they
haven't done in decades. And to hear them say that
on camera to really, you know, I hope for a
moment of clarity for the American people, for them to describe,
this is how DC works. You know, Congress now pretty
much just sub delegates all of his true legislative authority
to the unelected bureaucrats and the Article two branch, which

(10:51):
I mean, Article one is supposed to legislate, and the
administrative state, which primarily pretty much resides in the Article
two branchs is where the unelected bureaucrats are. The legislat
branch goes, hey, we're going to do these four and
five thousand page bills. Nobody's gonna read them. I mean,
that's the crazy part. And then you realize, well, that's
really not the point. They're not really needing to read them.
They're just framing it out, and then they send it
over to these allected bureaucrats. Take the figure her statutes

(11:15):
and regulations are the ones that are really doing the
governing and legislating in this country. And so for them
to say that, to actually go, yeah, that's how it works.
I mean I kind of wrote about some of that
in my book, but I wanted them to say, hey,
here's the reality of how DC works. And it was.
It was great, I mean, and I hope people are
a little startled by it, because I think we've been
living under a bit of an illusion for way too long.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah. I think one of the quotes that I go
back to when Ronald Reagan moved to DC for the
first time and he moves in and Tip O'Neil meets
with him, and Tip O'Neil says, keep this in mind,
President Reagan. I was here when you got here, and
I will be here when you leave.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
And I think that was indicative of who really runs
this country. It's not not the way it should be,
you know. And when you mentioned Congress, I think of
Bill Belichick when he tells all his players, just through
your job.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yeah, yeah, Jay No, you hit on something that I
think I don't I don't want this. This may be
a little hyperbole, but I think one of the great
villains of the story of our US, of the US
government in the twentieth century is Congress. Congress has abdicated
its role. It has in many ways of its own volition,

(12:33):
created the administrative state, not only by sub delegating its
legislative authority to these unelected bureaucrats, but then blindly funding them.
I mean, this is this is the crazy part, and
it's in the documentary. I write about it a little
bit in the books, but there's definitely different angles here
where they they fund these bureaucrats who defy them on oversight,

(12:55):
who then do the statutes and regulations do the real governing.
So then these elected officials can go home and go
I can't believe that that that bureaucrat of the EPA
or the FDA did that. You have to send me
back to make sure this never happens again. And then
they come back to d C for another two years
or six years and blindly fund them go ahead and
advocate their legislative authority. And it's like, in many ways,

(13:18):
I mean, there's a lot, there's more to the story,
but in many ways, Congress is very much responsible. Yeah,
or the administrative state being what it is today.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Well, I would not only that, but you know, I'm
trying to remember the exact quote, but it was something like,
you know, uh, power, power will fight power, right the
different legislative branches. You know, they're not going to let
the other branch assume more power. And yet it wasn't
It's not even that the different branches were trying to

(13:49):
take more control. It was like they were trying to
give away control to other branches, like even you know,
from Congress to the executive branch through a lot of things.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
It's the idea of constitutional balance. I mean, so what
the founders wanted to do. First of all, it kind
of if you dial everything back to a very fundamental level.
Our founders had a correct view of human nature. They realized,
we're imperfect human beings in an imperfect world, given you know,
incredible rights by our creator, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

(14:23):
How do we actually solve this problem. We don't want
to have consolidated power in the hands of imperfect human beings.
Yet at the same time, our god given rights are
meant to be secured by government. So what do we do?
And so, faced with that conundrum, they said, We're going
to create a constitutional republic. We're going to create a
diffusion of powers, separation of powers. We're going to create
the machinery of the republic, which is, by the way,

(14:43):
the greatest defender of our rights. It's not the Bill
of rights, it's the machinery of the republic. In fact,
I pointed out my first book, Restoring Our Republic. You know,
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison were actually adamantly opposed to
a bill of rights. They did not want ton enumerate
a bill of rights because they thought there's no way
that you could actually have a bill of rights that
covers every right that every human being is endowed with

(15:04):
by their creator. The machinery of the Republic is by
far the most important protector of our rights. What do
I mean by that? When you have the diffusion of
power and it's not consolidated, it cannot become a threat
to your basic inherent rights. And so, in fact, Alexander
Hamlin and James Madison fought at the Constitutional Convention, George
Mason's like, well, I'm not signing the Constitution unless there's
an enumertive bill of rights. And then obviously in the

(15:26):
ratification battles between the federals and the anti federalists, the
federalists realize we're gonna have to concede something and then
you get your Bill of rights. But I just remind people,
the Bill of Rights is a wonderful you know, the
list of our rights. It's the machinery of the republic.
It's but it's just a paper, it's a parchment barrier.
The protector of our rights is the machinery. And guess

(15:48):
what progressives did. They destroyed it. That was the whole point,
the whole point of the progressive movement. You know, I
think Bradley Watson made this point, we just didn't have
time to actually include in the documentary. But he's like,
we have to have an honest conversation. Most of the
twentieth century has kind of been a lie about progressive intellectuals.
People have been given this vision that somehow progressive intellectuals

(16:10):
were just the warm, fuzzy They wanted better food quality,
they wanted suffrage for women, all of these wonderful, lovely things. No,
progressive intellectuals were openly antagonistic and hostile to the Constitution.
The whole point of the progressive movement in many ways
was to annihilate the moral and political authority of the Constitution,
to do away with separation of powers. Because they trusted

(16:32):
human nature. They were utopian status is how. I No,
they thought they could bring heaven to earth.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
But that's what I don't understand how in how anyone
in their right mind could think that that's even feasible.
All you have to do is look at the course
of human history to see that, like man cannot remake man,
we'd brutes and barbarians.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
So I view history as very much a line across
and that history is kind of the circular, Like we're
definitely advancing through time, and there's technology breakthroughs and everything,
but history seems to repeat itself. And the more time
more things change, the more things stay the same. Why
as that because human nature, human nature is not going
to elevate to a higher plane. But progressives believe history

(17:20):
is very much like this, that we're moving from the
irrational to the rational to reach the end of history
and the apotheosis of mankind, which is the deification of mankind.
And so their vision for government was, well, we actually
have to consolidate power, the legislative, executive, judicial, into the
administrative state, combined all these powers into the hands of

(17:41):
the unelected bureaucrats who, through applied science, will, through the
great and glorious state, lead us to a higher plane
and higher elevation, not only as human beings but society
and culture. No, it's you read these rights. No, no,
read this.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Is no I know, it's just so it's so not reality.
And this is you have to be living in an
alternate reality to believe that any of that is possible.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
So part, but part of that, Erica, is the fact
that they don't believe people like you and I have
the intellect, yes correct to even understand why they're doing
what they're doing that we are not well, we are
not capable of making decisions that are in our best interests.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, but even if you ask them and you talk
to them like and I say things like, well, you know,
how do you account for human nature being flawed? People
being flawed and you know, being selfish and self interested
even when they're trying to be kind, And they never
have an answer for that. They never have a solution

(18:50):
for how they're going to change human beings to prevent
corruption in this great new utopia they have planned.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
But that's why it's so important to them that they
are the ones making the decisions, because we can't make
those decisions because we are so flawed. They are less
flawed than us. And part of that is our belief
in God.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
Now this is so it's it's kind of interesting. So
our founders, obviously, you know, we're endowed by our creator,
a transcendent creator, with the unailenable rights that among these
are life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness. That to
secure these rights, governments are institute among men. That's that
is the basis for our constitutional rights based governments to
secure these rights governments are institute among men. That's why

(19:38):
you create a constitution republic with a separation of powers
to secure rights, take none of them away, advance those
natural inherent rights at the same time, don't trust human nature.
But progressives, of course, rejected all of that because they
do view us jay as really dirty little peasants that
somehow know that they really felt politics was a corrupting

(19:59):
influence and the only separation they believed in. And you
go back. I mean, this is the one thing I
learned at that bastion of conservative thought, University of Kansas.
My history teachers taught me the historical method, go back
and read the original writings for yourself. So you go
back and you read Woodrow Wilson, you read Herbert Crowley,
you read you know, Theodore Roosevelt, Frank Goodnow, John Burgess,

(20:22):
and you read those writings for yourselves. And they were deluded,
madmen who were in defiance of the ages and empirical
evidence that showed this is never going to work. And
they went ahead and did it anyway. But it did
come down to they thought there's no way that a
constitutional republic power flowing from the people, Those dirty little
peasants don't know what's best for them. Better to have

(20:43):
the educated elite, empowered with this incredible power lead them
to a higher elevation, to a greater future. But in
the end, that's why I say, you know, the subtitle
of the book and the documentary is birth of the
Administrative State and progressive authoritarianism, Because at some point, when
you give people absolute power, we as human beings often

(21:05):
do what we can, not what we should. And that's
where I think we're at right now.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
I think you're absolutely right, and I think, uh, usually
Erica is the one that talks about time for a break,
and I like that when we come back, I'd really
like to talk a little bit about Woodrow Wilson, yep,
and you know, the Princeton and and also important to
talk about Teddy Roosevelt because there's so many conservative Republicans
that look up to Teddy Roosevelt and believe that he

(21:33):
was this great American, you know, conservative that made a difference.
And I think you can set a lot of people straight.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
So Erica, Yes, And you know what, let's hear from
our sponsor, American Center for Education and Knowledge. Since we're
talking about all this progressive nonsense, we're gonna hear a
message about socialism.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
One of the things that in your your book and
in your documentary you talk about the four horsemen of
progressive Apocalypse. I just love that title. Maybe you can
expand upon that for us and let us know who
those horsemen are and why it's the apocalypse.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
So Woodrow Wilson is obviously the first one I discussed,
and most people are probably going to be familiar with.
Woodrow Wilson obviously came out of academia, then was governor
of New Jersey, then runs for president in nineteen twelve,
is in the White House for two terms. And that's
really his victory in nineteen twelve, I tell people, is
one of the most important presidential elections in our history

(22:35):
because of this massive pivot point, this turning away from
a constitutional republic and the establishment of an administrative state.
And you know, Jay, the one thing, and I close
out the documentary with this quote. You know, Woodrow Wilson
was in many ways the intellectual, one of the intellectual
godfathers of what they intended to do. And goes back

(22:57):
to what I said earlier that progressive intellectuals were deeply
hostile towards the Founders and their constitution. This is a
few years before he took the White House. He wrote,
we're not bound to adhere to the doctrines held by
the signers of the Declaration of Independence. We are as
free as they were to make or unmake governments. That's
what they set out to do. This is so this

(23:19):
to me, when I say the twentieth century has been
a one massive line cover up in many ways about
progressive intellectuals and what they wanted to achieve, that to
me encapsulates everything progressives wanted to do. They absolutely wanted
to unmake the constitutional republic. They were not shy about it.
They went out in a very intentional, systematic way set

(23:41):
up their administrative state separated out from any political accountability.
That I was making this point early. I'm not sure
I fully concluded that thought. But they didn't believe in
separation of powers. But they did believe in separating out
the administrative state and the bureaucrats from any political accountability,
any oversight. And so when people go look at this
and go what the heck is going on in DC

(24:03):
we have rule of the bureaucrat, They pretty much tell
off our duly elected representatives. They reject their oversight. That's
not a bug, that's a feature that was always intended.
And so I think people are having this startling moment
when they were like, well, we were taught if this
is still being taught now, but definitely older generations like
us were being taught, well, we're a constitutional republic, we

(24:25):
have the separation of powers, we have all these wonderful
things we have. That was founded back in seventeen eighty nine.
That's an illusion. The reality is progressives have actually won
over the last century, and then the question becomes, what
do we actually do to unmake this administrative state. So
I talked about Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Crowley was.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Also, sorry to interrupt, like also a vicious racist. A
lot of these people, Yes, we're really ugly.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Oh I don't really talk about that in the documentary,
but if you want to have some of their great
and I say that with deep arcasm quotes, I do
quote some of their things, their writings about this in
the book. They were racists. They were deeply bigoted. So
you look at the godfathers and the founders of the
progressive administrative state. Absolutely, I mean eugenics, all of these things,

(25:19):
the pseudoscience, which.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
Way, we're the plebes, right, so they can just kill
us or do whatever they want.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Because the whole philosophy was they believed that the state
was a living organism, right, and so the states should
subsume everything, corporations, individuals, and individual rights. But as a
living organism that subsumed everything, it could not have parasites.
Oh wow, No, they really believed that there were parasitical
elements inferior races, all of these things, and so they

(25:48):
believed in a lot of the race purity. Yeah, you
need to go back and read some of these rides.
I quote some of it. I didn't want to get
too distracted by some of it in the book, but
I wanted to allude to it because this idea of
applied science and making these bureaucrats incredibly powerful all of
the sudden again you know, we cannot, we should, and
we all of a sudden we start going sideways.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
You gotta trust the you gotta trust the science net.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
You gotta trust the science of fauci. You can see
a direct line from Margaret Sanger and science of eugenics
and all those people believed in it to Tony Fauci.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Oh that is so gross.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
No doubt about it, no doubt about it. All right,
So I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
No, go ahead, Jake, go ahead, Jay.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
You know, I think what we're looking at is this
elitists that look at those who they feel are less
are a drain on society, drain on what this country
should be and where it needs to be. And they
don't allow those those people, those people into their ring

(26:53):
of the elitists. So they don't.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
I want to close out one thought, because you know
I talked about Woodrow will and Herbert Crowley, Robert LaFollette
out of Wisconsin, and Theodore Roosevelt. So these are the
four horsemen of the progressive apocalypse. The three of three
of those four men that I just mentioned Republicans. So yeah,
the only the only one that's the Democrats, Woodrow Wilson.

(27:16):
If you're to go back and if you really want
to know where the UNI Party in DC began, the
really the beginnings of it, it was the beginning and
the advent of the progressive movement. It was really it
was a Republican I mean. The sad part is a
lot of the founders of the progressive movement were actually Republicans,
you know, but it was it was a Democrat and
Republican ideology that that spread over both of the major parties.

(27:39):
So that was one of the points I want to make.
But going back to Theodore Roosevelt, I just want to
make this point because Jay, you brought it up. Whatever
you thought about maybe the early part of Theodore Roosevelt's career,
I can assure you towards the end that Theodore Roosevelt
became a full throated champion of the administrative state, of
this bureaucratic authorn tarrianism. In fact, one of the speeches

(28:02):
he gave when he left the White House I'm never
running again. And then he decides he gets Herbert Crowley's book,
A Promise of American Life, and then he goes on
the speaking tour in Europe, and then he comes back,
goes I'm gonna run again. He starts to give these
speeches in which he calls into question the whole idea
of private property, all of the things that we believe
are foundational to a free society. And he becomes an

(28:23):
outspoken advocate for like we should call in the question
all of these things that our founders believed in in fact,
called into question a lot of the founder's beliefs and
wanted a more ethical approach to government. It's kind of
it is interesting how progressives cloaked a lot of their
arguments back in the day of we're just trying to
do this for the betterment of society. We just want

(28:43):
to see a more ethical approach to government. Well, what
you ended up putting in place is a massive, powerful, authoritarian,
bureaucratic state. That's why I call it Leviathan. By the way,
people think Leviathan, Oh, you're thinking the Old Testament sea
monster that yahweh defeats. Well, that's the first definition. The
second definite political state with a massive bureaucracy that tends
to be totalitarian. And that's kind of what we have

(29:04):
today in America.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
And you probably had to go to a real dictionary
printed at least twenty years ago to be able to
get that definition, because I know dictionary dot Com didn't
give you that.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
I think it's a there's an interesting leap. And we
talked about Republican influence. You know, Woodrow Wilson being the
president of Princeton, yep, and the intellectual of the Ivys
and all of that and then we get this little
break in between the slow down the progressiveness with Calvin
Coolidge coming into office, who happens to be over my shoulder. Yep,

(29:36):
so be nice if you have thoughts about him. And
then then we get back to the Stanford educated engineer
who called himself a Republican of Herbert Hoover, who you know,
started spending money, uh, started really moving the progressive movement
forward and never has to take any of the heat

(29:59):
for it. That's kind of what led into the FDR years.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah. Well, I described the progressive movement in America's three
major eras, and the first era is really Woodrow Wilson.
It kind of began in eighteen ninety five. It had
kind of been percolating around. You look at some of
Wilson's writing and the writings in the eighteen eighties. But
people would say the first wave of progressivism was really
eighteen ninety five to nineteen twenty, and the real, you know,

(30:25):
part of that was nineteen twelve to nineteen twenty, and
those are the Wilson was in office and the birth
of the administrative state. Then there was you're write, with Coolidge,
a little bit of slowing down Herber was, you know,
not exactly what he was cracked up to be. Then
you come to FDR on the in his New Deal
that was the second sledge hammer, really explosive growth of

(30:45):
the administrative state. There's a little bit of you know,
Eisenhower and all these guys that came after him slowing down,
and then you have Lbj's Great Society. Three massive sledge
hammer blows to a constitution republic in about a seventy
year period, well really about a sixty yeah, sixty to
seventy year period, and at that point just the everything

(31:06):
kind of is just pivoted around, and the American people
started looking to government for the solutions. Wasn't a necessary evil,
It was the giver of all good things, including our rights, Yes, exactly. Well,
so that's the other thing too. Progress is truly believe
that the state gives rights. They subsume everything, and they
will give back to corporations or individuals rights or property

(31:27):
as they think it and deem it beneficial to the state.
So they don't actually believe in natural, inherent, transcendent rights.
In fact, Frank good Now, who was really the founder
and built out the administrative law that UNDERGOS the administrative
state really felt that your rights came from society, not
from a transcendent creator. So whatever society deemed was a

(31:48):
benefit to society and gave you those were your rights.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
And that I mean that right there. That's the fundamental difference,
isn't it. Your rights either come from your creator or
they come from your crap. And those two things really
can't go together.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Well, they're oil and water. And that's why. Again, the
amazing part to me in doing the book and the
documentary is that we didn't see a total collapse of
freedom in this country decades ago. And I think it's
because the vestiges of American people still being you know,
thinking and believing in freedom and a costu republic as
it's being hollowed out by progressives. And then this was

(32:28):
all this was all simmering beneath the service I call
it regime change politics, that was being the progressive truly
meant to overthrow the constitute Republic and in many ways
hallowed out to where I think it's more of an illusion.
And then Trump showed up. And this to me is
a singular moment in American history. You know, it's kind
of one of those massive pivot points. I think, I

(32:51):
hope we look back. As you know, I said nineteen
twelve was an incredibly important presidential election that twenty twenty
four is just another massive pivot point in American history
where we channel Woodrow Wilson. And I mean that might
sound a little ironic, but I mean it. We're not
bound to it here. So the ideas and doctrines of
the progressis we're not bound to adhere to their administrative state.

(33:13):
We are as free as they were to make or
unmake governments. So we need to unmake the administrative state,
and we need to restore the republic. And the last
thing I'm going to say is I'm on my little
rank here. People need to understand that the swamp, the
foundation of the swamp, is the administrative state. You can't
drain the swamp unless you break the state. If you
break the state, you can drain the swamp. And once

(33:34):
you've done that, then you've got a shot at restoring
their public. So when we talk about draining the swamp,
you have to break the state. And this to me
why Elon Muskin Doge I think is one of the
most important reform movements we've seen in a very long time,
and it started out as waste fraud abuse. Right, we're
going to go try and make this more efficient. I
don't want the administrative state to be more efficient, just
to we're very clear on that point. I want to

(33:55):
be shattered into a million pieces. I think Elon and
his team are realizing this, like this interesting epiphany along
the way, these stories like yeah, waste for an abuse.
Wait a minute, we have ruled a bureaucraft. Wait what's
going on here? Wait? Do we have a slush fund
money laundering operation of the left that is essentially our
government where they're taking our taxpayer dollars to essentially use
them against us? What's going on? All of this waste,

(34:17):
fraud and abuse is the poisonous fruit of a poisonous treat.
You've got to break and shatter the administrative state if
you want long term reform and restoration of the republic.
They cannot coexist any longer.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
I think one of the things that you know, we
suffered for four years, but I think the fauci era
and the twenty twenty election to twenty twenty four was
necessary for us. Yep, we suffered through it, but it
exposed so much of everything that is wrong in Washington,
and I think we had to be ready for this now.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Yeah, no, I think you're right in many ways. Tony
Fauci is like the ultimate end of progressivism, a credential
It's a credential ideocracy. I really didn't know what he
was talking about. He just made up, Oh, well we
should be six feet apart. Oh no, this vaccine which
was never a vaccine. You got to take two and

(35:16):
then you got to take five boosters, and then you
should maybe take another vaccine and then that'll say, oh wait, no,
that actually doesn't prevent to spread. Like this is this
to me? I'm dead serious. This is a credentialed ideocracy
coming out of indoctrination centers, not free thinkers. They have
fallen in line with a certain creed and ideology, and
then they think they're going to dictate to the dirty

(35:37):
little peasants. I'm like, you're your credential ideocracy, Like, why
should we listen to you anymore? I think the the
Fauci incident I think exposed progressivism for what it is.
It's it's it's it does not have the answers it does,
is not based on absolutes. It's based on this idea,

(36:00):
idea that somehow finite human beings with finite minds, based
off a finite practice of scientism, somehow had ultimate solutions
for our country and our society. It does not. It
was weighed in the balance and found wanting.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, before we let you go, I would really like
to get your thoughts and opinions on the judiciary. And
I think, I think, I think there's some really important things.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Is there something going on with with judges or something
these days?

Speaker 1 (36:29):
There might be, And I think one of the really
interesting pieces of this, and you know, there's always we
talk about Trump being the right person at the right time,
and I think the appointment of Neil, excuse me, was
so important and so valuable. And if you look back
on his writings where he talks about those who are

(36:49):
making the rules and the regulations in this government, the bureaucracy,
that at some point all of this is going to
come down to the Supreme Court. It is, and we
are so thankful to have the appointments that were put
in place that are really going to make a difference.
But give us a little bit of your overview on
what's going on in the federal courts and you know,

(37:12):
judge hunting and those kind of things.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
So there's actually like three or four threads that you
just started there. I'm going to start with this one.
People have asked, what do you what do I think
Donald Trump should do to accelerate breaking apart the administrative state.
You know, I think Doje and Elon are now two
hundred and sixteen thousand federal employees that have been either
fired or bought out early. Donald Trump needs to accelerate that.

(37:37):
He needs to go out and just randomly fire another
one hundred or two hundred thousand. He's no for a reason.
Well yeah, I mean he can pick them randomly. But
the whole point being this, I'm the head of the
Article two executive branch. As the president, I can hire,
I should be able to hire and fire whoever I
want to inside the Article two branch, where again the
administrative state resides. The federal unions employees are going to

(38:00):
push back. There's going to be suing back and forth,
stays all this stuff. I think it will eventually, it
would eventually find its way to the Supreme Court. And
then the fundamental question has to be answered, does the
head of the Article two branch the President get to
hire and fire whoever he wants to. I think this
Supreme Court would side with him. And at that point,
Donald Trump becomes the demolition man of the administrative state.

(38:21):
He could fire hundreds of thousands, he could shut down
departments and agencies. I mean, that's where we need to go.
This is not about trimming around the edges anymore. Yeah,
taking a sledgehamer to this administrative state. Now for the president,
the article lower level Article three branches. Judges in the
Article three branch are absolutely overstepping their bounds and dictating

(38:45):
unconstitutionally to the head of the Article two branch what
they think his constitutional role is. This to me is
a bit of a crisis for the Article three branch
that can only be solved by the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, John Roberts, bringing this to the Supreme
Court and going, hey, we're going to put guardrails on
you lower level judges, because here's the real problem. What

(39:08):
if Donald Trump says, you're free to make those decisions
kind of channels, Andrew Jackson says, well, you're free to
make that decision, now feel free to enforce it, and
then ignores it. I mean that really undermines the Article
three legitimacy. Article three branches legitimacy, and I think for
the sake of the legitimacy of it, John Roberts actually
has to take this whole situation up and go, hey,

(39:30):
we're putting some pretty strong guardrails in. But I think
he lacks the moral and political course to actually do it.
So I think Congress is going to have to step
up again. We're also talking about a lack of moral
and political courage with most people in Congress. And actually,
instead of getting stuck in stupid votes over can we
vote proxy, actually start voting on Well, maybe we should

(39:53):
rain in these judges and not fund the lower courts anymore.
Maybe we should impeach some of them. So I think
we're in the costs crisis is not caused by Donald Trump.
What Donald Trump wants is a restoration of constitutional balance.
Article one doing what is supposed to be doing, Article two,
doing what it's supposed to be doing, Article three, and
for everybody to step up to the plate and actually

(40:14):
do what they're supposed to be doing. So he wants
a restoration of a representative government. I had this conversation
with him a few weeks ago and said, you know, really,
I think what your your great claim to fame will
be is that when it is all said and done,
if you are successful in this, is that you went
out and, through the political and moral courage that you have,

(40:36):
you actually restored representative government to this country by devolving
and deconstructing and breaking apart the administrative states, drowing the republic.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Okay, you I have a question. Jay is going to
get so irritated with me when I ask you this question.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Are you the first time I've been irritated with you?

Speaker 2 (40:56):
I know, I know I have a way about me.
Are you familiar with Convention of States?

Speaker 3 (41:03):
I am?

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Okay, So what do you Given everything that you've written
and your documentary and all of that stuff, what is
your take on Convention of States?

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Can I just say, just very politely, I'm not a
big fan of it?

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Okay, say why tell tell our audience why.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
I think I think it on corks a huge can
of worms. I mean, we go back to I mean,
I go back to John Francis Mercer, who is the
Constitutional Convention in that summer of seventeen eighty seven, and
you know, basically this is a paper there's a parchment barrier.
It's the men and women that we bring in who

(41:43):
actually essentially adhere to these ideas and these principles that
we are flaw human beings and the separation of power
and the machinery of the republic. You know, the men
and women who will do the business, that are the
ones that are going to construct this government and actually
enact these views and these principles. What we write down
is in many ways aspirational. Again going back to that
Bill of Rights, it's the men and women who actually

(42:04):
believe in limited government power, separation of power. So, yeah,
I have to tell you I am not the biggest
fan of Commission of the States.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah, I'm really happy you asked that question.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Answer.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I know, you know, I you know I I've heard
it both ways, and I've heard it argued well both ways.
But you know, to me, we cannot trust, you know,
the federal government to dismantle itself, right, And I didn't.
I didn't think there was a way. I didn't think
there was a politician with enough political courage as you
as you said, to actually start doing it.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
And now this is what I think Donald Trump, like,
look what he's wanting to do with the Department of Education.
He wants to shut it down. I think you should
go all the way and blow the building up. I'm
dead serious. Obviously, nobody in the building just were clear.
Anybody listening that one.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Thank you for the clarification.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
You too, You're out. He builds his garden of heroes.
It's symbolic that he's in the administrative state, but it's
it's they want to push money and power back to
the states. That's what Lenna McMahon and Donald Trump want
to do. And so so it goes back to your question, though,

(43:20):
I'm I'm kind of fixated right now on this idea
of gaining and retaining and maintaining political power in the
hands of the right people. We're not going to undo
the progressive you know, terrible experiment of one hundred years
and four years. This to me is how do you

(43:40):
actually bring in the right men and women into the
right political power to actually implement the ideals of the
founders of devolving power, of restoring the separation of powers
and constitutional balance and the idea of federalism again, because
I think that's also a fiction, but it's having the
right people in the right places with the political power,
because politics is policy. That's what I teach it. America Majority,

(44:03):
we have great ideas. Unless you have political power, all
you're doing is having great ideas that will never be implemented.
So how do you win political power? So this to
me is you have to have power, I think for
no less than twelve years to implement some of this
restoration and return to the founders of the ideals and federalism.
So that's my approach. I understand some of the commissions

(44:23):
state guys and where they're coming from. I think we
agree upon what we have now is absolutely not a republic.
It is not with the founders and visions, and I
would say they're coming from a bit of a different
angle than I am, but the whole point being a
restoration of the republic and a government of buying for
the people and representative government in this country. So kind

(44:46):
of I think we're all aiming for the same thing,
maybe coming from a little bit different angles.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Yep, Okay, I'll accept that. Okay, we have one.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
So now you're going to accept it from.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
That, I'll accept it from that. Correct, You're still wrong, day,
what do you think?

Speaker 3 (45:01):
No?

Speaker 2 (45:02):
No, No, I'm a supporter Jay thinks it's terrible. I'm
a supporter of Convention of States because you know, like
I said, until recently, I didn't think the government was
ever going to do anything. Okay, last question, last question.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I have a worry. First. Okay, I have a worry
before we ask the question. Oh well, let's ask the
question that may be my question.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Okay, So Robert, our illustrious host, Robert Turnin asked, given
that he's term limited, what can he really accomplish? Is
he going to be lame duck? What can he do?

Speaker 3 (45:41):
So, I mean, you bring up a really good question. Again,
it's the idea of maintaining and retaining political power. We
know that they are going to be probably about twenty
House districts that will decide the majority next year, and
if Republicans lose the majority, you can bank on Trump
probably JD getting in peace and not going to be
removed because I don't We're not losing the Senate, but
there's going to be all kinds of investigations. Everything is

(46:02):
going to go sideways. So this is the idea of
going back to the fundamentals. This is what I really do,
even though I love talking about the book and documentary.
You know, American Majority. American Majority action is fundamentals of
how do you actually do the right numbers to lead
to better numbers of voter registration, absentee ballot generation, ab
chase ev in industrial levels. I mean that that to

(46:23):
me is one of the things that I think we
did really successfully in twenty four. I think in twenty six,
we've got to figure out how do we solve the
conundrum of the Trump only voter. And it's not just
a few thousand for these bass lot and their mental,
low propensity voters. And I would argue, we've got to
figure out how to do a lot of absentee ballot
generation work on them to get them to request a

(46:44):
ballot to be on a permanent list, because we know
that eighty percent of those that do that will actually
become voters. So it kind of all of this ties together.
You cannot achieve the destruction and the devolving of the
administrative state without political power. You cannot achieve political power
without doing the fundamentals correctly. And I tell people all
the time, I love a good pull, right, I'm a

(47:06):
political junkie, But the real numbers that I care about
in a given state or given district is what are
the partisan registration numbers in regards to voter registration, and
then what is the absent tee ballot universe compared to
the other sides. Let me just give a quick example
and then I'll shut up. In Arizona, at the beginning
of twenty four, there are only fifteen thousand more Republicans
on the permanent absent tee ballot list in Arizona, and

(47:27):
I said, that's a problem, So we put money into
building out that list. By the time ballots dropped on
October ninth, it was up to eighty thousand, So we'd
added sixty five thousand Republican ballots into the ballot universe.
That made me feel good. I wasn't doing voter registration,
others were. After the twenty twenty elections, there were about
one hundred and twenty thousand more registered Republicans in Arizona.

(47:48):
By the time twenty twenty four came around, there were
over three hundred thousand more registered Republicans in Arizona. So
I tell people, if you really want to prep the
battlefield for being successful in a given election, you don't
start six months ahead of time. You start thinking about
How am I going to boot photo reg numbers? How
am I going to boost ballot universe numbers? And then
you put in place the teams to chase those ballots

(48:09):
home or push people to early vote. And this, to
me is something that Republicans have lost sight of and
I am trying to restore. Go back to the fundamentals
we have to hold onto political power because I think
people need to look at the feral, animalistic left and go,
dear God, those people should never come back to political power.

(48:29):
And I think you're seeing correlations between the left in
America today and what's taking place in South Africa. Like, guys,
there's correlations here those people, what they're doing in South Africa.
Do you think the progressive left would want to do
the exact same same thing here in America if they
had the power one hundred percent yep. It should never
ever come anywhere near real political power again. But they're

(48:52):
not going to go down without a fight, so we
better figure out how to make that happen. I'm done, no,
my rant.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
You know this is really good for me, and I'm
sure it is for our viewers and listeners. You know,
we get five minutes out of whack of ned Ryan
on Fox News if that, you know, on a regular basis,
but people need more. I think it's should be required
viewing the documentary. You know, people don't read as much
as they used to, so at the very least documentary,

(49:23):
watch the documentary. But also how do they get more
of you? I know you're on sub stack, I know
you're on you know, uh too much?

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Just sort of clear, right, So we don't want too much,
just want to want to leave them wanting more. So yeah,
American Majority, they can come. I'm on X at ned Ryan, which,
by the way, if people want to watch the documentary
and you're on X, it's the pended post on my profile,
which is n E d R y U in so

(49:54):
spell my name correctly at ned Ryan it'll be there.
If you're not on X, go to American Love Iathan
dot com and you can watch it for free. You
don't even have to sign up for the substack. Although
I'm trying to keep that dialogue going on, just how
we you know, keep the conversation going on, deconstructing and
evolving and dismantling the administrative state. So I'm kind of

(50:15):
thinking of doing some other things in the future. But
you know, four kids, America, Majority database software, a couple
of those, all this stuff. I'm maybe we'll do a
podcast in the future. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
I love it well, you guys. We also put a
link to the documentary right in the comments of this video,
so if you want to go watch it after, just
check out the comments.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Can we bring up video Ned's book?

Speaker 2 (50:42):
Yeah, there's the book. Get it on Amazon. Is there
a better place to buy it than Amazon?

Speaker 3 (50:48):
No? I tell people Amazon is great. You know, I'm
sorry that it's it's Amazon. You can get a Books
a Million, you can get a Barnes and Noble, Yeah,
thrift books, camera, there's multiple, But I always just go
to Amazon, snag a copy either you know, paperback or kindle.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
And get the Federalist papers while you're at it. That's
look at customers also bought. Isn't that funny? I love that.
Then got me the Federalist Papers a couple of years
ago for Christmas.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
You know. The other one I will think is the
first book I wrote is Restoring Our Republic, and it
really kind of touches on some of the themes I
barely touch on in American Lebathen, but it's really about
the founding of our constitution, republic and the formation and
the creation of the machinery of the republic. It's kind

(51:36):
of like just a big broadside pamphlets, you know, explanation
of how we actually go back and understand who we
are and how we restore the republic.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Very cool.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Well, this has been really good for me. You know,
a few years ago Ned and I get to work
on our project together.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
We did we didn't win, but you know.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
I think long term, all right, I think we really
made a difference though we I think we did.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
And you know, all's well that ends well, you know
we're referring to Harmeie Dylan running for the RNC chair,
and you know there's some dynamics. We start a little
bit late, wasn't as well funded, we ran into some
other issues. But you know, she's landed at the d
j's uh civil rights. She's head of that division, which

(52:24):
is going to be amazing. And Ron is no longer
the chair. So in some ways we were successful, Jay, like.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
I think that we were, and uh, at least we
held the moral high ground.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
We did. I just want to say highlights some weaknesses
and that administration of the r n C.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
We did. We took some real hits, at least I
know that I did internally. Yeah, but if you have
another project that you know you'd like, you know, some
guy you know put a little eye candy into your
your organization together, would love to would love to work
with you again. And this was a fantastic podcast. I'm

(53:03):
glad I have the opportunity to co host it with you,
and just so grateful that you came on.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
Yeah. No, I appreciate the opportunity and joy the conversation.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
Yes, thank you ned Ryan for coming on. Author of
American Leviathan, The Birth of the Administrative State and Progressive Authoritarianism,
followed up by an awesome documentary. You guys, check out
the link, go see it. If you have been watching
this long and you have gotten something out of it,
go ahead and leave a like on the video, share

(53:33):
it with somebody, subscribe on whatever platform you're watching. And
if you didn't like it, we thank you for hate watching.
So in either case, the algorithm loves it. All right,
you guys, one more time, we're going to watch the
trailer for American Leviathan, and then we are off for tonight.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
You guys, all right, who is really running the US governments?
Americans are rightly questioning happen to our country? How was
the duly elected president of the United States targeted by
the Department of Justice and the FBI. How did the
FBI and Justice Department knowingly use a fabricated dossier to
lie to a federal court to secure four warrants in

(54:14):
an abuse of federal power? And why was no one
at the FBI, the DOJ, the Court's, any federal agency
or department ever held accountable or suffer consequences for these
illegal acts. The targeting of President Donald J. Trump confirmed
that there are two competing forms of government operating in Washington,

(54:38):
d C.

Speaker 4 (54:43):
The politics and the culture of Washington, d C are
all antibetical to a healthy functioning American Republic.

Speaker 5 (54:52):
We are living in a scenario right now where the
people with power they think they know more than the
people that founded this country, and they think that their
job is to impose their view on the rest of us.

Speaker 6 (55:04):
I think that the three most dangerous words in Donald
Trump's vocabulary that the establishment heard was drain the swamp.

Speaker 3 (55:12):
It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, d C.
I'm in favor and wasn't supported.

Speaker 7 (55:18):
And I'm a friend of Bobby Kennedy because he wants
to break the back of the status quo in this town,
as does Tulsi, as this cash And I'm telling me,
if this town is now as nervous as it's ever.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
Been, alone must we didn't elect him, We didn't select him.

Speaker 8 (55:33):
Our democracy has become synonymous with an embrace of the
administrative state. Anything the administrative state is doing, anything that
the deep state is doing, is identified by the left
with our democracy. In fact, it is the enemy of
our constitutional republic. The political branches are not going to
drain the swamp. Why the hell would the reptiles drain

(55:55):
the swamp.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
It was the great outsider of Trump who brought this
administrative state eight into the light, into the surface. And
now the American people have the opportunity to take their
government back. H m hmm.

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