The Rod and Greg Show: Election Fraud in the U.S.; Importance of Religion in Society

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's great to have you here. I noticed that you
are wearing green today. I made it like Hughes.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
You better Well, I'm gonna tell you I can trace
all all the Hughes family. They came right from from
Ireland and they went to Ellis Island and then down
to Pittsburgh and started working in the railroads. It's just
it's just what they did. So I I, uh, yes,
I have Irish heritage and I enjoy this holiday very much.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
What's the what's the saying that they say? Is it
called like Aaron Gobra go bray? What you know? You
asked me this before. I don't know what you're doing.
I don't know, Yes you do, I don't know. Do
you know what it means?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
No? Did you see?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Ireland is wonderful?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Did you see that Ireland you and e Ray this morning?

Speaker 4 (00:41):
No?

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Did you see it?

Speaker 5 (00:42):
No?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Did you see that T shirt today?

Speaker 6 (00:44):
Ray?

Speaker 1 (00:44):
He Ray didn't see it.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
You had to let's see. Oh where is it?

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I can't remember what it says now, darn it? Yeah yeah, yeah,
really good. It's it's it's so good. I can't I
can't remember it.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, yeah, it's so good. You can't remember by the way,
a couple of couple of interesting facts on Ireland. Do
you know that Ireland has the highest concentration of people
with green eyes?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
I you know what.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I heard that on Clay and the Clay Travis buck
Sexton shirt today.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
I did not know that.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
They also have the highest concentration of people with red hair.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
You know, I don't have I am what they call
black Irish. This is actually a thing. I have blue eyes.
I have blue eyes, but my hair is a very
dark brown. And they were described as black Irish in
Ireland because we didn't have fair fair hair like red hair,
but we are black Irish. By the way, the shirt
kiss me I'm white and violent.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
That is true.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Than you.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, that's no, that's my that's my That was with
the with the shamrocks.

Speaker 7 (01:46):
That was my.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
That's my shirt kiss me I'm white and violent. That's
that is a That's someone Irish to a t.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
So you're what do they call it? Dark Irish? Blacky
bla black Irish. Well, that hair you mentioned is dark
brown but rapidly earning gray. I just thought i'd bring
that up for you just on this makes you for clarifying,
by the way, it is beautiful here. I bet it's
beautiful in San Diego today as well.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
It is.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's actually unseasonably warm, like people, And I mean when
you're staying where I'm at and it's San Diego right now. Well,
if you get in inland, it's ninety degrees, which is crazy.
But if you go where the Tijuana toilet is in Coronado,
it's eighty five. That is sweltering, folks in Coronado, eighty
five is sweltering. That is a very very hot day

(02:30):
Coronado Island.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah. Well, we've got a lot to get today. A
busy Tuesday. By the way, it is Caucaus night around
the state tonight. I'll be checking out a little early. Great,
it's going to handle the last hour of the show
so I can get up to my Cockags meeting. But
I encourage people, Greg, and you and I are big
supporters of the caucas convention system. This is really grassroots
involvement in your community. And that's why everybody I think

(02:54):
needs to get out and get to their cocage nights. Greg,
It is that important, isn't it. I really believe in it.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
You've got to understand, folks that most countries in the
world do not want their citizens to participate on any
real high level of governance anyway. Then you get to
the United States, and there used to be across this
country the caucuses and conventions of every state that has
migrated away from it, so it's all primaries where money
tends to rule the day in terms of advertising. We

(03:22):
in Utah still have a caucus convention cycle, which will
only stay viable if it is well attended, if everyone
goes and does their bit. But the reason the trade
off to go tonight and be a part of your
Democrat or Republican caucus meeting is that you get to
be elected state delegates county delegates, and that gives you
the right and the responsibility to meet candidates and make

(03:43):
votes of conscience where you get to ask direct questions.
Wouldn't it be nice instead of seeing a flyer or
a yard sign to be able to ask someone seeking
your support a hard question. And that's what the caucaus
convention cycle does. But it really doesn't work if we
don't have strong participation. If it's left I have to
a certain few and nobody wants to get involved. You

(04:04):
get what you pay for. Ye, and you won't get
a very good process. You have to have I believe,
a lot of good citizens, and it's a refiner's fire.
Everybody doesn't see the world the same, or he wants
to get involved, or they have busy lives. But if
you take tonight and you go to your caucus meeting,
you will be at a precinct with your neighbors, people
that you will likely recognize from your street or from
your neighborhood, and you elect those that you'd like to

(04:27):
go and meet the candidates and make votes of conscience.
And I think it's a brilliant process.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, there's a very important speaking of the process, a
very important process going underway or underway right now, Greg.
In the US Senate, as they have now started talking
about the Save America Act. This is an act that
Utah sender Mike Lee has been working very hard on.
The President has its is fully behind this. He's even
threatening he's not going to sign any legislation if this

(04:53):
doesn't get through. And he also said yesterday Greg, he
will not endorse any Republican who votes against this. Here's
what what Mike Lee had to say about the update
on the Save Act today I'm.

Speaker 7 (05:03):
Thrilled to announce that just moments ago we won the
vote on the motion to proceed at the House passed
version of the Save America Act. We got fifty one
votes for it. Game on. We need to stay on
this thing now until it passes. We make those who
want a filibuster debate, make them speak.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
That was a yeah, that was a very important step
Greg to get it to the debate, and there was
a vote of fifty one to forty eight. Now a
lot of it and what's going to happen here? Does
the rest with Majority Leader John Thune. This is his
comments earlier today on the Save America Act.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Why is the filibuster more important than stopping illegals from voting?

Speaker 5 (05:45):
Well, look, I mean I think that there are many
ways in which you can stop illegals from voting. A
lot of states have some of those measures already in place,
but I do think the filibuster, or maybe more specifically,
the concept that the founders had for the United States
Senate was that there would be one body that was
majoritarian and one that wasn't, and so they divided power

(06:07):
in a way that enabled the United States Senate, which
we have six year terms, staggered terms, more of a
methodical way about going about solving the country's problems, and
generally in ways that ensure that there are bipartisan majorities
in which to accomplish that. So and frankly, I mean
I think most of I can't see speak for all

(06:29):
my colleagues, but a lot of our colleagues believe that
many of the things that Democrats want to do, and
when they tried to Newt the filibuster a couple of
years ago, we're all things that we don't want to
have our fingerprints on, whether that's adding DC and Puerto
Rico estates or expanding the Supreme Court. You can go
right down the laundry list of nationalizing elections. You can

(06:51):
go right down the laundry list of things that I
think there are a lot of myself and my colleagues
have great concerns about if the Democrats ever had that.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Power handed to them.

Speaker 5 (07:01):
So it's throughout history it's protective Republicans and conservative priorities
and principles a lot more often than it's protected democrats.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
You know, Greg, it is very important today and John
Thune said today we're going to keep talking. We want
to get the Democrats on the record where they stand
on many of the issues. Amendments added to this. Now,
it's going to be interesting to see what happens.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
The only part of that is we don't want to
be the ones that facilitate or to help the Democrats.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Let me just tell you this.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
They're doing it whether we have a talking filibuster for
the Save America Act or not. They are not looking
for the Republicans' permission to go and do away with
a filibuster. This idea that all we were going to
keep it, but boy, when you did that, boy, that
that changed everything. Now we're going to get rid of it.
That is that is a false premise. It is it's
it's not real. They have every intention of getting rid

(07:52):
of that filibuster if they ever take the majority. Not if,
but when they take it always pendulum always swings. If
you get this current crop of senators, Democrat senators in charge,
you are going to see that filibuster done away with.
Whether they voted on the Save America Act or not.
I think it's silly or naive, or I don't know
what to think that somehow this would give Republicans a

(08:15):
permission for Democrats to do worse. They're coming to do worse.
Get ready, Yeah, yeah, all right, more coming up. We've
got a lot to get to today. We'll talk more
about illegal voting in this country. That's coming up next
here on the Rodd and Greg Show. Attend your caucus
meetings tonight and if you go to either one of
the party websites, you can find out where it takes place.
All the meetings mostly I think, get underway at seven

(08:35):
o'clock tonight, so it's a good opportunity to do so. Now, Greg,
we were talking about the debate now underway on the
floor of the US Senate about the Save America Act.
Mike Lee has been the lead on this. Donald Trump
is fully behind it, and it's going to be interesting
to see how this all turns out. You know, I
thought this was assumed, but it seems to be news

(08:56):
today that the President Trump has said that he will
not endorse any yeah Republican senator who votes against the
Save America Act. He won't, which I kind of thought
was baked in the cake. I kind of thought that
was already going to happen, But apparently that's making news,
and so I think you'll see guys like Senator Cornyn
from Texas all of a sudden become converted to it all.

(09:18):
You'll see some others that you may see the light
because as much as people want to grouse about this president,
his endorsement is pretty important. It is to people's Republican
success in the primaries.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Well, joining us on our Newsmaker line to talk about
illegal voting in this country is Jay Christian Adams. He
is president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. Christian, you've
been looking at this, studying this for the last twenty years.
What is your organization found out about illegal voting in
this country?

Speaker 8 (09:48):
Well, the most interesting thing eagle aliens, meaning they're here
legally with a green card or something like it. They're
not illegal because illegal aliens like the sort of high right.
They don't go the voter registration office. The second thing
we found is that this is happening because of motor Voter,
the nineteen ninety three law that made it easier to

(10:10):
register in DMV offices. That's the primary culprit.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
So is it that the I discovered through the discussions
around the Act Save America Act that the real ID
isn't bulletproof, Meaning to your point, those that are in
the United States through illegal visa, will have can get
that real ID star on their ID, which is what

(10:36):
US citizens used to prove their citizenship. Is that one
of the big problems with with those that were overstaying
visas or here on illegal visa being able to vote illegally.

Speaker 8 (10:47):
Yeah, they get presented the opportunity to register to vote
over and over again. They get it at DMV, they
get it at festivals, they get it at the state fair,
they get it outside their grocery stores of people with clipboards,
and so it becomes normalized to them. A lot of
the people were finding who were foreigners on the voter

(11:08):
rolls thought they were allowed to do it because they
were offered it when they went to go get a
driver's license, they were offered it when they went to
a you know, county fair, and so they just don't
fully understand sometimes that it's not not legal.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
You've heard arguments on both sides as the Senate today
continues or begins debate on Let's Save Act. What do
you think of both sides of the argument? Do in
some cases are those on the right right and those
on the left right at the same time, I and
what have you found Christian.

Speaker 8 (11:39):
Well, the one thing we can start with is that
non citizens are voting. I know that the left likes
to say, oh, it doesn't happen, it's a myth. No,
I can give you the names of hundreds that we
have found over the years on the voter rolls that
are non citizens. On the other hand, there's there's you know,
are there are there a million? No? No, no, no,

(12:01):
there's not that many doing it. So is there a
plot to do it? Is there a conspiracy? Not really.
I wish it were, because that would be easier to
break up. But because it's so organic, because the system
has so many vulnerabilities, it's much more difficult to police
because it's more out of human behavior than it is

(12:23):
a conspiracy or a plot to get aliens voting.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
You know, years and years ago, when Florida was a
very much a swing state, the New York Times did
an investigation about absentee ballots, ballots that were being mailed
in from overseas by members of the military, and they
were seeing elections in Florida that were being won by
very narrow margins. And the New York Times back then
said that there is a problem with the chain of
custody and with the transparency of mail in ballots, And

(12:51):
they made this strong case and their problem was that
these military ballots were helping Republicans win some of these
highly contested races that came down to the down to
a handful of votes. They have abandoned that. My question is,
is the numbers that they were staring at the New
York Times way back then, because they weren't giant numbers

(13:12):
to your point, but are those the same kind of
numbers that could sway an election? Let's go down ballot.
Forget about the presidential races, but go down ballot. Are
we talking about non citizens voting? They could influence downticket
races right now as it stands today.

Speaker 8 (13:29):
Yeah, you should go to the Public inters Legal Foundation
website because we have a tied election database. That's a
public inters Legal dot org at tied election database and
how many are in the database over a thousand. We
have one thousand tied elections in just the last couple
of years. Wow, where one single vote can make a difference.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Wow. Wow. As you look at this, Christian, does the
Save Act address some of these issues? Is there more
that needs to be done? Less that needs to be done.
What have you seen over the years and what would
you see would maybe correct this or help prevent this
from happening, even if it's on a sports scale.

Speaker 8 (14:09):
Right, I mean, look, states should should try to come
up with state statutes in lieu of the SAVE Act
that allow them to check for citizenship. Arizona's done it.
Arizona has a bifurcated system where for state elections you
have to prove citizenship. That's the way to do it

(14:29):
is get your state legislators busy.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
So we did.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
Good news for us is that bill just it won't
be come a lot till July one, I believe, But
that did pass in our most recent just concluded legislative sessions,
so we'll have that bifurcated process in the.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
State of Utah.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
This vote happening in the Senate right now, I think
it's I think, I guess it's good that the Democrats
were putting them on the record opposing it, but it
is a bit of pageantry and that it would still
need sixty votes to pass. What are we going to
get out of this Save America Actor? Are we going
to get something good for the midterms? Is there enough
to persuade people to come across and vote for this.

(15:11):
I mean, what do you see happening that's good? With
the Save America Act being debated in the Senate.

Speaker 8 (15:18):
Yeah, you know, this has come up a couple of
times in the Senate and the House also, it's you know,
moved through different stages. I'm not a political prognosticator, but
from what I've read, it's going to come up a
couple of votes short, and I suppose that that will
go back to the states. Then it's sort of like
the founders intended to come up with state solutions to

(15:40):
this problem.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Isn't there a benefit though that at will least we're
talking about it Christian And isn't that important to just
simply be talking about it to begin with? Well, look,
you're right.

Speaker 8 (15:50):
For ten years or more public Intersligo foundations than documenting
the aliens in the voter on the voter roles. I'll
tell you where it all started. I was in Philadelphia
doing an investigation there, and I was in the city
election office and they had a box laying on the
floor that said non citizen voting records. And I said, wait,
what is that box? And they said, oh, that's the
records of non citizens voting. And I thought, my gosh,

(16:12):
it's real. It's not a jackalope. I mean, you know
what a jackalope is. Yes, Yes, and there was I
mean that was the first moment we had evidence of
it on.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Our Newsmaker line or any our Newsmaker line. Jay Christian Adams,
president of the Public Interests Legal Foundation, more coming up
on the Rotten Gregg Show.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
It is they have one member House of the House
of Representatives, member of Congress, and two US Senators. So
that gives you an idea of how small the state.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Well, there's something going on that's very strange up in
Wyoming when it comes to that state's politics and talking
about it and joining us right now, John Fleetwood a
staff for idea with the Federalists, John, what on earth
is going on up in Wyoming?

Speaker 9 (16:49):
Yes, So when you think of a state like Wyoming,
right you think it is this super right state. It
went for Donald Trump over forty points in the last
two presidential elections. It's dominated by our Republicans top to bottom.
And yet when you look at the legislature and a
lot of these so called Republicans that elected office, you
realize that the state of Wyoming not unlike many red

(17:10):
states in America. It's sort of a mirage. You look
at some of these actions that they've been taking in
the legislature, particularly these past few years, and it's not
exactly reflective of the conservative will of their voters. So
the way that it works in Wyoming is they have
an odd numbered years a traditional legislative session where you
can introduce normal bills and on various topics and things

(17:32):
like that. But in even numbered years they have budget
related sessions. And so in budget related sessions, it takes
two thirds majority to introduce any non budget related legislation
into the session for it to be considered. And you think, oh, well, Wyoming,
they only have like six Democrats in the House, two
democrats in the Senate. Must be super easy for Republicans

(17:53):
to get these priorities through. But that's not exactly the case.
So this most recent budget session, you had roughly half
a dozen election integrity bills that would have done things
like prohibit ballot drop boxes, which became popular in the
twenty twenty election, restricted ballot harvesting, widely supported policies among conservatives.
These bills died because you had a cabal of House

(18:16):
Republicans that sided with the Democrats in deciding to vote
against their introduction, and so those bills ultimately weren't considered.
So what's going on in Wyoming, I think is a
microcosm of what's playing out in so called red states
across America, where so called Republicans repeat the talking points
that we want to hear, but when it comes to
actually fulfilling the pledges that they made on the campaign trail,

(18:38):
they're not following through with that.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Now, Sean, we have had our general session in the
state of Utah is just concluded, and we have super
majorities in the House and Senate and a Republican governor.
Kind of the description that you shared about Wyoming, it's
a political profile. We had.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
The same thing happened.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
We saw bills that go to the Senate that would
have improved a chain of custody for election ballots, would
have just channa custy as well as transparency.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Those bills died. For the most part.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
What we found, what we observed is it wasn't the
Democrats had a stronger sway on the Republicans and our
legislative body. It was that the county clerks didn't really
want to go to the trouble of some of the
things that you listed in Wyoming, the people that would
be manning the boxes or the paper ballots or the
hand counting auditing of ballots. There seems to be a

(19:27):
bureaucratic pushback that's almost just bureaucratic without regard to political persuasion.
Do you see that as a trend outside of Utah
in a state like Wyoming, or people that are Democrats
just running as Republicans in Wyoming.

Speaker 9 (19:45):
So I think it's a combination of both. You mentioned
the kind of bureaucracy aspect of that, and I think
that that's really key because you know, when we talk
about the swamp, it's the elected officials, it's all of
these other various institutions that kind of co mingle into
this giant blob of corruption and impropriety. And I think

(20:06):
in Wyoming that's very evident. One of the things that
I reported in the article is this meeting that took
place earlier this year that was hosted by the Wyoming
Trial Lawyers Association, and the host of that meeting, at
one point he had kind of offered praise and you know, said, basically,
we're thinking of our friends in Minnesota, you know, kind
of referencing the anti ice demonstrations going on there.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
And he also noted.

Speaker 9 (20:30):
At one point the deadline by which voters in Wyoming
can change their party affiliation, and the reason that that's
so important, kind of tying it back into the elected
official aspect of it, is that in recent years, what
you've seen in Wyoming is this effort among kind of
the GOP Rhino establishment to encourage more Democrats, left leaning

(20:52):
independence to vote in the GOP primaries because in so
called reds basically to back establishment candidates. Because in states
like Wyoming that are super red super Republican, the primary
basically acts as the general election. Right Like, you have
a Democrat and Republican running in a super conservative district,
you basically know, barring some major scandal or anything, that

(21:14):
the Republican's going to win.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
So the primary is extremely important.

Speaker 9 (21:18):
And so ultimately the legislature passed a law in twenty
twenty three restricting this so called crossover voting, saying that
you have to change your party affiliation months before the
primary can take place. That came after Liz Cheney reportedly
encouraged Democrats to vote for her.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Didn't really work out. But that's kind of what you're.

Speaker 9 (21:37):
Seeing now in Wyoming as you see some of these
establishment GOP legislators and officials within the bureaucracy kinding of,
you know, giving a wink wink and a nod nod, saying, hey,
Democrats and independence, if you want to vote in the
primaries this summer, you're going to have to change your
party affiliation by May. And so that's what's going on
here in Wyoming, and I have no doubt that it's
probably happening in other red states across America.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Sean, let me ask you, we know a lot of
this cannot happen. These Rhinos cannot make this all happen
without party leadership or at least leadership in both their
House and the Senate. Where where did the leaders of
the party in the Senate and House stand on some
of the issues. They must be encouraging it or at
least supporting it. On the Rhinos who are trying to
make some changes or saying no to conservatives, are they right?

Speaker 9 (22:21):
So that's what's really interesting about Wyoming is that in
twenty twenty four, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus secured a majority
in the state House, so the House is actually pretty
good in terms of getting legislation through and making conservative
priorities a priority, and the Senate is presenting itself to
be more of the problem. And the reason that's interesting

(22:42):
is because you go back a few years and the
reverse was true. Before the Freedom Caucus had a governing
majority in the House, the House was the problem and
the Senate was genus the better of the two. But
now that the Freedom Caucus has gotten a majority, the
establishment in the Senate is really rearing its ugly head.
But I think that that shows that what you have
to have is political will and political capital, but you

(23:05):
have to have that sort of leadership that is driving
this agenda forward. So it's happening in the House thanks
to the Freedom Caucus. It's happening in places like Florida
because you have a governor like DeSantis who is pushing
those policies. But when you don't have that leadership, when
you don't have that unifying force that is driving conservative principles,
then the establishment is allowed to flounder. And that's what
you're seeing in the Wyoming Senate, and that's what you're

(23:27):
seeing in some of these other red states as well.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Interesting things Wyoming on our Newsmaker line that Sean fleet
Woody's with the federal LIS's talking about Wyoming, the rhinal
war versus conservatives. All right, Moore coming up on the
Rod and Greg Show. A couple of the interesting notes today.
Steve Moore had this story in his daily newsletter You
should sign up for it, called the Committee to Unleashed Prosperity.
But you know they talk about renewable energy, solar and

(23:52):
wind all the time, Greg, you know when they do
not talk about what water? Hydro Yeah, they never bring
because they don't like dams.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Well, you know, you know what's interesting about that is that, yeah,
you can, you can bring water anyway. I've seen some
really neat hydro electric plants in Switzerland and other places
that are just really really smart and anyway. So yeah,
there's there's something to it.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, it doesn't require billions of dollars of government subsidies.
It is power New York City. I didn't realize this.
It's it's electric power from where Niagara Falls. That makes
a lot of Naga falls. Yeah, Niagara Falls, I have, Yeah,
I have too long time ago. I was just a
little kid.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Yeah, me too. I went to this.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
There was a a Guinness Book of World Records museum,
and a and a and a really wax museum right
right there on the American side.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
I think it's I think it was an American side of Niagara.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Wants to go Niagara Falls. I have take it someday.
Get on one of the get those little brain coats
and go under the water.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
I actually had.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Actually I didn't go down there. I just just looked
from all it was still still massive. It's just I
think it's bigger than anyone even in It's aggressive.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
All right, more coming up. Our number two is on
its way. I think there's this this name keeps coming
to Guinness.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (25:07):
What is that? What I'm thinking about? Is that what
they're doing?

Speaker 3 (25:10):
I'd see. I think that's synonymous with milk in Ireland.
I think so. I think that's what you.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Little Irish whiskey mixed into that on a day like.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
I'm not I'm not I'm not judging. I'm not judging,
especially on Saint Patrick's Day. No judgment from here.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
No, no, we don't need any judgment. Just go out
and have a good time, but be safe. You know,
don't do something stupid and have fun and then get
behind the wheel. Kind of a stupid thing to do.
How are your buddy great to be with you here
on Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine, Canter s
I'm rod Arquette.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Citizen Greg Hugheses like you, hues that works today, wearing
your nice green sweatshirt.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Thank you to all decked out today? Wear another green
all right. A lot to talk about today.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
The Senate of course today debating the Safe Save uh
Save America Act, that is Mike Leaves bill on voting
and requiring people to approve their American citizens before they
vote in a federal election. My, what a unique idea
that happens to be right. And we've got other things
to talk about as well. Greg today about what's going
on in Iran. Wow, developments again overnight.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Yeah, you know this is again.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
If you watch the regime media, they'll say that we're
just barely hanging on by our fingernails. But it turns
out that Iran Supreme National Security Council has confirmed, probably regrettably,
that have confirmed the death of their top national security official.
He's not doing well anymore, folks. I think he's room temperature.

(26:38):
And even his son has, as they've described, joined the
ranks of martyrs, and so that means he's not doing
well either. And this is really cutting deep. This is
someone that's CNN because you know, they want Iran to
win this and I'm not kidding. It's sad to watch
how they cover this war or this engagement Iran. But
they recognized this gentleman that was killed as the face

(27:01):
of their of their of their defense, and of their
of their effort to repel the United States and that
and so they see him as a significant presence and
voice for Iran. And that voice and presence is now
no longer with us. And so again I think that
if you keep going down the chain of command and
you keep taking out these people that had leadership positions,

(27:24):
and we're exercising institutional memory knowledge, all of that four
and on behalf of that country, and that disappears and
has wiped out over the course of two weeks. It
does leave that country. Uh, I would argue in peril.
I don't know how you're supposed to just get someone
and next man up. It's not a it's not like
a football team, and you don't have draft picks next

(27:44):
man up. I think this really does cripple Iran's ability
to uh stage any kind of resistance to to the
United States and Israel in terms of this uh this effort.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Well, how would you like to be the next guy up? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:58):
I mean that's a straw ever seen one?

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yeah, you're the next guy up. And by the way,
you won't be the next guy up for very long
because when you become the guy lookout, because either Israel
or the US is going to get after you unless
you decide to sit down and let's start a conversation
about the future of this country. Hey, you know, I
just thought about that. How would you like to be
known as the next guy up?

Speaker 2 (28:19):
It's the shortest straw in the world. But you know,
of course CNN just can't tell you the bad news.
They got to say, well they got they'll tell you
something they think is bad news. But they say, but
you know what this is going to do, This, this
death is this is truly in their headline, it's.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
Going to prolong the war.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
How exactly would that be the care How do you
take someone you just touted as having you know, the
face and the true insider and someone that was, you know,
the public face and the of the regime and all that,
and now that he's gone, this could prolong the war. Yeah,
I think the leadership part actually plays a part of that,
and so I don't know that that's going to prolong anything.

(28:55):
If anything, I think it leaves them, you know, a
little compromise.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
I wonder how many leaders we need to take out
before someone says, okay, that's enough week, it's all yours man,
Let's sit down.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Let's when that straw gets so short you can't even
pick it up anymore.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
It's it's just can't get too short.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
You know.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah, you were mentioning just a second ago, Greg, about
how CNN and other legacy media in this country are
actually rooting for the Iranians to win. And it's really
a sad commentary. And that's why this article today, Greg
surprised so many people. It came from Al Jazeera, and
you're going, what al Jazeera is is own and run

(29:34):
by guitar or a cutter or guitar whatever you want
to call it, right, and it is a pro Erab newspaper.
But they had an article today and it's basically talking
about the victory that the US and is real are
having in this battle against Iran. It's amazing. And they
point out so many interesting things Greg that our media

(29:54):
refuses to recognize.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
And this is why, you know, hyperb this is not hyperbole.
You have a media that that is so deranged and
so anti Trump, and actually that spreads to the Republicans generally,
at least those that are not part of the swamp.
There's not one bit of good news. There's nothing that
that that happens that we should all collectively celebrate as
Americans and as we have done in the past, that

(30:20):
the regime media be at the New York Times, the
Washington Post, the CNN, NBC. You know, they all don't
just clutch their pearls and lament that we're seeing these
nash these victories and that we're seeing America's strength and
leadership in the world. And look, I I, you know
it's it to watch them report this and and to

(30:41):
try and cement fear is wrong. And again, if Al
Jazeera is telling you the truth before CNN and New
York Times can do it, there's a problem.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Well let me This column was written by an Arab
scholar okay, for Al Jazeera, and it is about as
accurate as can be. And let I want to share
Greg a few of the points that he made. First
of all, he says the campaign is successful because it
is downgrading Iran's regional power. You know, everybody used to
fear Iran in that part of the world. I don't
think they do anymore. He brought about the fact that

(31:12):
Iran's capabilities are being systematically targeted. They've hit the missile infrastructure,
command centers and key energy assets, and the attacks are
being described as precise and affective. He goes on to say,
you know, there's this narrative out there, Greg, well, you know,
and there's this story out there today that the only
reason Donald Trump got us into Iran is because he
was being pushed by the Israelis. Well, this guy argues,

(31:36):
it's not. They did not stumble into the war. He
said it was a strategic coordinated and is achieving its
objectives in this war. And then he talks about, you know,
their regional power, Iran's regional power doesn't exist anymore. Economic
and pressure is intensifying. The strategic goal is to reduce
influence without a full scale war, and he says, great,

(31:57):
that's exactly what is going on right now. They're reducing Iran.
Their influence in that part of the world, or really
a terror influence around the world is being taken care of.
It is being decimated, and you know, the media in
this country is not even recognizing what is taking place.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
You know. And the frustrating part is that we have
a president that's really been in the public eye for
forty plus years. Before he was ever ran for politics,
for president or was in politics, he was a He
was a business leader and someone that the media gravitated to.
He wrote a book Art of the Deal back in
the eighties. He's always been He's always been around. He's
always had political opinions, and those opinions have been expressed

(32:36):
on Oprah Winfrey show or Phil Donnohu show, some show
from you know forty years ago, and even you know sooner.
He has been so consistent and how he thinks Americas,
as the greatest and strongest superpower in the world, should
deal with the bullies and deal with countries like Iran.
His commentary even back forty years ago looks very similar

(32:58):
to his his intolerance to the kind of threats that
Iran could pose. He said back when they'd had taken
our hostages in seventy nine, that we should go in
and that we should really punish them for what they
did and get those hostages back. This is what I
wish people would would give this president. I think he's
deserved a lot more trust. He spent an election in

(33:21):
sixteen going after Jeb Bush, going after his brother George W.
Bush for the wars and the engagements in Afghanistan Iraq
and the prolonged fighting that was going on there. President
Trump questions whether the military industrial complex is there to
make money or to really protect America's interests, and he
has called that out over and over. Give the man

(33:42):
some time to absolutely defend this country from threats, seeing
that an Iran is growing, and understand that he has
no interest in forever wars, he has no interest in
nation building. Everybody just starts clutching pearls, even amongst Republicans, saying, oh,
here we go, here we go. It's like, we want
to discount the regime media. But the second we see

(34:03):
something that president do something and we don't really get
what's going on, they immediately embrace the negative narrative that
we scoff at all the time. Give the man some
time to cook.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Well byron Yorke at the Washington Examiner. I think does
a great job in analyzing everything. Raise this question today.
Why do so many people, about sixty five percent of
Americans right now think the administration has not clearly defined
what our war goals are? But then he points out,
destroy your Ron's ballistic missiles and production capacity basically done,
demolish Iron's army basically done. And Iron's ability to arm

(34:38):
proxies and spread havoc beyond its borders basically done. And
preventing Iron from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon working on
it right now. So have those objectives been met? And
why don't the American people understand that?

Speaker 2 (34:52):
I do?

Speaker 1 (34:53):
I macally hearing about it.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
I keep hearing about all these Republicans that are mad
at everything in it. But I see polls that show
it strong. Duke's missiles and terrorism, those are the three
things he's going after Iran, And on all three of
those fronts, nukes, missiles, and terrorism, they have they have
been static, They've been growing in influence. And if you
pose new situations in front of this president, he's not
going to run and hide. He's not going to look

(35:15):
at the status quo. He will act if he thinks
that's they're called upon and without apology. And I think
that's what you're seeing out as president right now.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
You're right, all right, We've got more to come. It
is the Rod and Greg Show with you on this
Tuesday afternoon. You were listening to Claim Buck earlier today
talking about this. I was as well. Apparently there is
a difference between Irish bagpipes and Scottish bagpipes.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
I heard this, Yeah, I did not who knew? I
did not know that they actually aren't called bagpipes. They
got a different Oh, they have a different name in
Ireland for them. You ever try and play a bagpipe?

Speaker 1 (35:45):
No, I haven't. I know a kid growing up who
is part of I think some Scottish or Irish bagpipe
company here in Utah, and he used to play it
pretty impressive.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
I always love him.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
When they come in the parades, they're always they always
marched in the parade.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
I always like it.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
It's always, yeah, lot of fun. The liberal media has
a brand new hero today, Greg. His name is amazing.
His name is Joe Kent, a top official within the
administration who announced he's resigning today for two reasons. First
of all, he feels that Iran is not an imminent

(36:21):
threat to the United States, and secondarily that Israel forced
Donald Trump to launch the attacks against Iran.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
Well, I'll just tell you this, Joe Ken can be
a lot of things, but a prognosticator of Trump being
tricked into or forced into doing something he doesn't want
to do, it doesn't carry a lot of water with me.
I don't think that's I don't think that's a that's
on brand for our president.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
I don't think he does it.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
I know it might sound popular to the Trump derangement
crowd that that would be the case, but it just
it just simply doesn't comport. And Tulcy Gabbert, who was
his boss, UH came out with a statement that absolutely
supports the President and his decision and confirming that as
he looked at the information, he saw eminent an imminent

(37:08):
threat to the United States, whether it be its bases
close bye Iran or wherever it maybe there was an
eminent threat of which he engaged and she lent her
full support and acknowledgment of that so that there was
no confusion or someone could take Joe Kent's resignation and
protest about the engagement in Iran and maybe splash her

(37:30):
with it. So I think that was an important statement
from her as well.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Yeah, well here's Joe Ghend who has not been to
apparently any of these intelligence briefings for about a year.
So that gives you an indication of where of what
Donald Trump thought of the guy. I think Trump was
starting to read him fairly accurately. Early said we don't
want this guy in here. And this is the same
guy Greg who what was in twenty twenty four, this
Joe Kent who basically said the Biden administration is allowing

(37:57):
the Iranians to build nuclear weapons and they posed a threat.
So apparently in twenty twenty four they posed a threat,
but in twenty twenty six, when Donald Trump goes after him,
they don't pose a threat, an imminent threat to the
United States or Israel.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
I don't imagine that.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Don't know what he's been smoking, but apparently, you know,
he changed his mind.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I think that if you see what the administration has
been doing, they've identified him potentially as a leak problem.
That way, I think he thought he was going to
be shown the door soon, and I think that he
found as a big of a splash to leave the
administration as possible. And remember these these regime, the regime
Metia are just such a bunch of phonies. When he

(38:41):
was being appointed to this position, they just could not
cry hard enough, loud enough and strongly oppose him having
anything to do with NSA and working for Tulsa, Gert Gabbert.
He they said he was a big problem, and he
had no credibility, and now he magically has all the
crebility in the world.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah, because what did he do.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
He said something that would be contradicting President Trump, So
that must make him a hero now, yeah, forget anything else,
they said.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, Well, and the media is very good at creating distructions.
This is a distraction, Greg to what happened last night.
We took out or israel I. Guess did took out
two Iranian leaders again last night. One considered maybe the
top guy now in Iran. They took him out last night.
Big story. But what is their attention today on Joe
Kent and the fact that he's a little mad at

(39:29):
Donald Trump? Called the media distraction?

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yep, it is, And like I said, I think he
was on the way out, So he just wanted to
take a splash ye on the way out.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
All right, We've got a lot more to come and
a lot more to say. On the Tuesday afternoon edition
of The Rod and Gregg Show on Utah's Talk Radio
one O five nine kN R S.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
I am in the People's Republic of California. But I
am in. I am in.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
I think this is what we call the resistance. Folks,
we got too great the Patriot. If you have a
radio station called the Patriot, can you imagine the good
people that are around here? You got we got One
of the stations is the Patriot. And then AM six
hundred ko g O is another news radio conservative radio
station here in the San Diego area. So I've got,

(40:13):
I've got good friends, I got I've got We're fortified.
We're here, We're behind enemy lines, but we're we're we're
fighting a good fight here. And they've been kind enough
to lend me a studio to broadcast the Run and
Greg Show from. So it's been a lot of fun.
I met some nice people and so here I am.
That means I'm not going to be a caucus night, No,
that's but I will be there because you're you're going

(40:33):
to allow that. You will allow me to leave a
little early today and I'll be able to get up
to my cocass meeting up there in Kysville and it
should be fun. I enjoyed the caucus process. I know
there are a lot of critics out there, Greg who say,
why do we have it when you can gather signatures,
But I still think it is very important to continue
the caucus convention system that we've had in this state
for a long time.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
One percent.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
And as I was looking at just to give you guys,
give you our smartest, the smartest listening audience in all
the land is the deats, which you probably already know.
But you could go to our state Republican Party's website
at utgop dot org and it's got the you know,
you can register for the caucus ahead of time, but
you can. It'll also send you to the precinct portal
if you just want to go to the precinct portal.

(41:17):
It's called that's what it's called Precinct Portal dot org.
And if you go to that address Precinctportal dot org,
it gives you an opportunity to register and it also
gives you a pre precinct locator and it'll show you
where just like in where I would be if I
were home, it would be in Cornercane High School, and
it gives me the room number and I can register

(41:39):
and head on in.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Same for me. I'm a meeting at Central Davis Middle
School or Junior High tonight and I'm in room one eleven.
So that's kind of nice.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
All Ry, I gotta tell you, well, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
There are a lot of people are critics out there,
and I know we've got a couple of callers and
talkback lines on this. Let's hear what they have to
say about cocas night we go to Battleful and hear
from Dave tonight on The Rodden Greg Show. Dave, how
are you thanks for join any of us tonight.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
I'm doing pretty good. I just wanted to pass on
kind of our families what we've run into with the
caucus system this last elections. My brother went to caucus
and for the very first time he became a delegate.

(42:24):
He had no intention, but people convinced him to do it,
and he took it very furiously good. He did all
of the research, interviewed the people, that wanted to get
on the ballot, looked at their voting records for the
people that were incumbents, and actually in front of me

(42:44):
confronted one of them. He is very angry with my
brother when he is done, because my brother said, you know,
you ran as a Democrat for many years and then
changed the Republican and god elected, and every time there's
a vote, you vote as a Democrat. You're not a Republican.

(43:08):
So how best to get on the get a Democrat
elected in a red state? Then to have a Democrat
run as on the Democrat ticket and have a Democrat
run on the Republican You're bound to w that's what's happening.

(43:31):
I can't help but wonder if that's what's happening in Wyoming.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
That could be as well. Yeah, could be good point.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
It's a great it's a great observation. And I wonder
about that in Wyoming too. We have Here's what I
could say, though, and I hear what you're saying, and
I've seen it myself, but I I really believe that
when you go down ballot, uh, the people that try
to hide are the people that really can't survive the
scrutiny of the convention, the caucus convention cycle when you
get to the smaller jurisdictions, that's where trying to be

(44:01):
a phony or trying to just avoid the caucus convention
cycle entirely and go straight for signatures has not rewarded
candidates very well. So if you're talking about state representative
or state Senate, if you just tried to say I'm
not even going to lower myself to talk to a
single delegate, what you lose out in that process and
what you don't gain as someone who goes through the
convention are precinct captains and every voting precinct. If you

(44:24):
thoughtfully and genuinely major case and you've got the support
of state delegates, county delegates, you have an infrastructure of
grassroots for the primary that that signature gatherer who probably
paid for those signatures doesn't have. And I have seen
that be rewarded, and so I do believe that when
you get the higher state wide races, it's tougher, But

(44:45):
I think that the caucus convention cycle, we don't want
to lose it. It's the worst system in the world
except for all the rest. So I say still go
and still the best system in the world of my
that's right.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
There are some critics out there, and I understand that.
All right, we've got some talkback comments. We'll get to
those coming up here on the Rod and Greg Show
on this Saint Patrick's Day. But I don't think I've
got a lick of Irish blood in me.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
Man.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
You should see, I did the DNA thing, which you know,
probably in hindsight, probably shouldn't have done it. But I
did the DNA thing, and I did the family history thing,
and at all points to Ireland, all of it.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Do you know which town?

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, there's a couple of Cork County County at Cork.
That's that's a big one. I got a lot of
I got a lot of relatives coming out of Cork County. Okay, Yeah,
there's a there's a few near the water.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah. And you say they came through Ellis Island.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Yes they did. Wow, yep.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
In fact, I'm not one of those heritage Americans. Did
you ever hear that term? Heritage Americans are people that
are proud that they're their ancestry were here, they predate
the Revolutionary War. And there's this argument, there's this idea
that their heritage Americans if they if they have ancestry,
the ancestry that goes back that far. Well, I didn't
go that back that far, minor in the eighteen hundreds

(45:59):
after you know, during the potato famine, and but I
feel as American as anyone else, so I don't I
don't buy into that.

Speaker 1 (46:05):
So would they have come over what eighteen eighty, eighteen
nineties or early nineties, I'd have to look.

Speaker 3 (46:10):
I think it's a little bit before that run that time,
it was around out time.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
All right, we're talking cocage night tonight. Greg's allowed me
to leave early. I've asked for his permission if I could,
and he said I could leave early tonight so I
could go to my Cocas meeting. So I'll be jetting
out of here in a few seconds. But speaking of
the caucas meeting, we are getting your comments today. We
had one of our great listeners leave this comment on
our talk back line.

Speaker 10 (46:33):
Hey, Ron and Greg, this is Craig from Utah County. Hey,
I appreciate the fact that you're selling the caucas meetings
tonight and I will attend. But it's so frustrating when
my caucus comes out and somebody's gathered signatures. Let's get
rid of that signature gathering bs.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Boy, I tell you what, Greg, I don't know about you,
but I would do away with that in a heartbeat
if we could.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Yeah, I hate we have We always had good I mean,
if you go back, you can look, and I think
we always had a good refiners fire. We had a
good process. I think that the not gathering signatures, we
didn't suffer as a state by way of our elected
officials anyway. I just I don't think I see nothing
but no upside there. But I see a lot of animosity,

(47:20):
and I think it does undermine a lot of people's
confidence in the process. When you do your level best,
you go to your caucus meeting, you get elected a
county or a state delegate, you do the work, and
then someone who is wealthy enough, if it's a larger
race to buy signatures somehow bypasses that kind of scrutiny
and then see success in the you know, in the primary.

(47:43):
It does leave a really bad taste in your mouth.
I get it, but I don't want to give up
our caucus convention cycle. In the meantime, I don't want
to go to the worst system and that's just a
straight primary.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Didn't this all start years ago when Bob Bennett got
tossed out? Is that when it really started. Everyone was
so shocked Bob Bennett kicked out of the Senate. Well,
we got a pretty good senator following Bob Bennett's house story.
I think his name is Mike Lee.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
And by the way, Bob Bennett god be the same
year that Richard Luger from Indiana did. He had been
a long time story. That's because they pad they let
Obamacare pass, they let medicine get socialized.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
This was tea party time, wasn't it right now?

Speaker 2 (48:21):
People had absolutely had it and it wasn't a Utah thing,
And it wasn't an indictment on our election process because
those long standing senators that allowed for Obamacare to pass,
there were a lot of Republicans frustrated with that, and
they did not return those candidates back to the US
Senate or to the House because of those votes. Those
votes came right before we had our caucus night, so

(48:42):
the timing was it was fresh on people's minds as
we went to our caucuses.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
Way back then.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
I remember, a long time ago, someone I really respect
over the years in this industry because you're always afraid
of change and change on a radio station, television station.
I have always thought change is good and we shouldn't
be afraid to change. Change is just fine if we
elect the right people. And I think it's very important.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. I think
you're right, and I think that again. I've been a delegate.
I've been a county delegate, state delegate, I've been a
candidate for office, and I believe it.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
I believe in this election cycle.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Well, I'm going to leave it up to you for
the final hour, so don't screw it up, all right.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
I will try so.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
All right, for our number three on the Rod and
Greg Show without Rod coming up next, stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
By way of introduction, let me just go right to
our guest who is joining us.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
It's Lauren Hall. She's a PhD.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
She's a professor of political science, Associate Dean of Academic
Affairs of College of Liberal Arts at the Rochester Institute
of Technology. Lauren, Welcome to the Rod and Greg Show,
minus Rod.

Speaker 11 (49:52):
Thank you, it's great to be here.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
You have a great article. Now I want to tell
our listeners. We are a conservative talk radio show and
we like Trump. But you write an article that I
think shares a perspective we don't hear very often. The
perspective is one that says that, hey, look there's a
lot of issues out there that people that vote for
Trump want addressed that Democrats are not addressing. And it

(50:14):
isn't You're not an apologist for President Trump, but you're
you're warning about specific issues that are being left unaddressed. Laura,
maybe share with our listeners, what are these issues that
you think democrats are ignoring it their own peril.

Speaker 11 (50:30):
Yeah. You know, some of the research that I do
is on healthcare policy, and one of the things that
I talk about a lot is what I call structural hobbling.
And that's sort of a semi fancy way of just
saying that we have stacks upon stacks of regulations. We
have federal regulations that interact state regulations that interact with
local regulations, and they prevent innovation. They prevent entrepreneurs from

(50:54):
serving their communities, They prevent a lot of people from
just doing the kinds of things that they would love
to do with their own lives. And so I think
that a lot of you know, That's what I start
the article with is the sort of recognition that we
actually do live in a world where people are constrained
in ways that are illegitimate, that people can't live the

(51:15):
kinds of lives that they want to do because government
activity has gotten out of hand in a lot of
different areas. So my focus is on healthcare, but you
could say the same thing about education. You could say
the same thing about a range of different sort of
industries where people are really really restricted from living the
kinds of lives and working the kinds of jobs that
they would like to work. So that was one major

(51:38):
point in the article.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Yeah, you know, and I think what you speak to
and I think this I saw this in twenty sixteen,
is that the every day the average Joe, average chain.
You talk really well, you speak about in your column
about the and you just articulate the challenges that every
day people are confronting. And you talk about these foundational
institutions and you say it's you know, structural hobbling. But

(52:01):
whether it's the elite that get away with anything they
want or a medical system that really isn't designed to
keep people healthy, I want to ask you this question.
I feel at some point, and I don't know when
it happened, it felt like big government and big business
kind of merged. I think it's one of the symptoms
you see in healthcare delivery, or you see in the
deep state or the elite that seem to have a

(52:24):
different double standard. Do you see that as well as
the big government and big business kind of merged into
one kind of effort and maybe at the expense of
everyday people.

Speaker 11 (52:34):
Yeah, I mean there's a lot lot of reasons for that.
One of the major ones is sort of over regulation
and a lot of industries, and what ends up happening
is that as regulations get more complex, the only people
who have the money and the lawyers can navigate those
regulations are corporations. So if you look at healthcare, for example,
there's a reason that care is dominated by major hospital associations,

(52:56):
major insurance companies, and it's because there's so much regulatory
compliance involved that they're the only ones that actually have
the ability to sort of navigate that regulatory system. We're
starting to see the same thing in tech. We definitely
see it in education with the crediting bodies and all
of the layers of education regulation that enter into the
into the educational sphere. So I think, you know, there's

(53:20):
too much government and a lot of corporate power to
go hand in hand. Add to that the fact that
we absolutely have a really powerful lobbying complex. A lot
of people in political science talk about the revolving door
where you have congress people who leave office and they
become lobbyists for major industries and so they wield influence

(53:41):
with their former colleagues. So none of this is none
of this is a surprise to people who study this.
What I think is surprising to me is how few
people are talking about this when we look at the
frustration and resentment that large, large percentages of the electorate has.
And I think institutions and I include academia, which is

(54:02):
where I work. I include academia and that group of institutions.
I think we have failed to really grapple with a
lot of the ways that we selled American voters in
a number of different ways.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
We're speaking with Lauren Hall, PhD, Professor at Rochester's Institute
of Technology. Let me ask you some of the things
that confront everyday Americans, which we make up most of
the population. So you have the elite. You have a
upper class, but the people that vote, by and large
are your everyday people, every day Americans. If you pay
for a gasoline at five dollars a gallon or some

(54:37):
large amount, just prohibitive amount, that really impacts how you
can get around, if costs are going up, inflation's high,
if your cost of living is a struggle, these are
kitchen table issues. I think one of the things that
people observe is depending on the party that's in power,
there's a different narrative attached to those same exact struggles

(54:58):
as a as a you know, political science professor, do
you see a disconnect between the narratives of say, affordability
if Biden's in office versus when Trump's in office. Do
you see because I think that's one of the things
that creates the cynicism with everyday Americans.

Speaker 10 (55:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (55:15):
Absolutely.

Speaker 11 (55:16):
I mean one of the things that we have that
we're facing right now is really heightened levels of toxic polarization.
And toxic polarization is when it's not just that people
have policy differences anymore, it's that people actually see each other,
the other side as the enemy. That people now think
about either Democrats or Republicans as sort of threats to democracy,
and there's a lot of research that shows this is

(55:37):
the case. And so once we're in that sort of
tribalistic mentality, it's really easy to justify our own parties'
actions while demonizing whatever the other party does. And so
the problem that with that, and there's a lot of
problems with that, but one of the problems with that
is that it makes it really really difficult to do
any kind of across the aisle bipartisan kinds of reform.

(56:00):
And so some of the things that I laid out
in my piece this week were areas that you could
get by part of him reform you could get. I mean,
we have the problem solvers Caucus in Congress. We have
a number of people who are willing to reach across
the aisle, but the incentive structures are so skewed right
now that it's really really hard for people to get
those kinds of conversations going. And the people who are

(56:21):
harmed are the average American, and so as we pushed
policies apart, it's really harmful for the average person.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
So, you know, it sounds like you're describing Senator John
Fetterman from Pennsylvania. To me, at least we've had a
we on our show have a fascination with Senator John
Fetterman because we can identify moments where we think he
can celebrate American victories, or there's things that he is
not tied or tethered to his party per se. But
if you look at his voting record, he has one
hundred percent voting record with AAFLCIO with planned parenthood. He

(56:51):
votes with schumor not over ninety percent of the time.
But the polling shows that Republicans, he has a high
approval rating amongst Republicans in Pennsylvania independent voters. But there's
also this argument that he has just offended the base,
the Democrat base so much in Pennsylvania it will be
very difficult for him to get the nomination in a
re election for Senate. It described to me, do you

(57:15):
see that? Is that real or is that perceived? Is
he more popular than we understand? I think he is
with the public, But what about the party apparatus and
the Democrat apparatus. Can he overcome and be enormy and
actually draw people to support him for a re election
or is it just is it too hyperpartisan?

Speaker 11 (57:34):
Well, I think part of what we face in the
electoral system in the United States is that we have
primary systems that really reward more extreme candidates. And the
research is actually a little bit unclear on this, but
at the very least, parties see primary voters as more
extreme and more partisan than the average American, and so
typically the kinds of candidates that get elected through or

(57:57):
that get selected via the primary system are hyper partisan candidates.
So they're the ones that really lean very far left
or very far right. And so that means that people
like Fetterman and other people who are willing to sort
of have complex opinions. And by the way, there's a
lot of really interesting research on a range of policies
from abortion to immigration to criminal justice reform that most

(58:19):
Americans actually have fairly moderate views or on those issues.
But what ends up happening is that the politician to
come in, their rhetoric pulls us apart, and so it
pulls into these extremes on the right and the left,
which makes it really hard to see the complex middle
where reform is actually possible. So I'm not sure you
know how Fetterman is doing sort of with the with

(58:39):
the Democratic Party machine. But there's a lot working against
candidates like him, particularly in the primary space.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Well, we get to a stage where we will speak
more of kitchen table issues than and beliefs in luxury
beliefs or luxury issues, And by that I mean there's
a lot you can get upset and work about, but
it might not impact your everyday life. There are a
lot of issues out there that impact your everyday life.
And are we going to ever get to that or

(59:08):
do you think we are there in some version?

Speaker 10 (59:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (59:13):
You know where I see the biggest hope is in
local and state politics right now. I think the national
discourse is because of this heightened level of toxic polarization.
It's very, very difficult to have these conversations in the media.
I mean, if you read any comment section, I'm sure
the comment reception on my article.

Speaker 8 (59:30):
Is terrible right now.

Speaker 11 (59:32):
But the places that you can have these conversations are
local and state politics, and that's where people come together
on concrete issues and they have to think about concrete problems.
There's a joke that, you know, potholes aren't partisans. You've
got to get together and figure out how to fill
potholes in your streets. You've got to make sure that
the people in your community have high quality education for
their kids. And so those are the kinds of spaces

(59:54):
that I think you do see these kitchen table conversations happening.
And the research is very clear that you have reduced
polarization at the local and state level too. So I'm
hopeful that if we can keep sort of democratic conversations
and if we can keep reaching out to each other
as neighbors, even neighbors that we disagree with on that
local and state level, will will survive what happens at

(01:00:17):
the national level. But that's where I see the majority
of the sort of hope when it comes to real reform,
because that's where we're having those conversations.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Lauren Hall, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Associate Dean of
Academic Affairs, the College of Liberal Arts in Rochester, Institute
of Technology, the article Trump voters getting bad information. Thank
you for joining us on the program. Fascinating discussion. I
think it's going to continue. I don't think this is
going away anytime soon. Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 11 (01:00:47):
Thank you. I had a great time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Thanks. Okay, folks, we're going to go to a break.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
When we come back, we're going to talk a little
bit about that, but we're also going to I got
to talk about this caucus one more time. We're going
to tell you, I know Rod's on his way to
his caucus meeting right now, probably listening to the show.
But I want to I want to jump into that
real quickly in the next segment. So you're so hang on,
you're listening to the Rodding greg Show on Utah's Talk
Radio one oh five nine. Okaynterus, I have to jump back.

(01:01:12):
I know, I know Rod's on his way to the
caucus meetings. I hope all of our listeners are going
to their caucus meetings tonight. But I have to just
this is actually gratuitous. This is my own this is
my own interest. I have to talk about these Caucaus meetings.
So Junior, my son, Gregory Holding Hughes Junior, he is
going to go to his caucus meetings, which are he's
registered to vote at our home. He lives up in

(01:01:33):
Utah State. He's a Utah State student. He's going to
graduate this spring. Just to make the commute from Logan
all the way to Draper. Anyway, I uh in us
talking about precinctportal dot org. If you don't know where
your caucus meeting is tonight, you can go to precinctportal
dot org and put in your address and it will

(01:01:54):
tell you exactly where to go. So in my precinct,
you go to Corner Canyon High School, you go leave
and tell you the room now s two eighteen and
you can attend. That's where if you live in my precinct,
you can attend your caucus meat. So I'm looking at
this because I want to be prepared for you, our
smartest listening audience and all the land. And one of
the things that they do now, if you register ahead

(01:02:15):
of time, if there are positions, whether it's a state
delegate or county delegate that you would like to run for,
you'd like to be considered for those positions. Usually a
precinct has two state delegates, maybe three county delegates, depending
on the size. You can put your name out there
ahead of time. One of the reasons this happened is
that the count my vote to people. With the signature gathering,

(01:02:36):
they tried to argue against caucus nights, saying, well, what
if you can't go that night, what if you wanted
to participate, but you work at nights and you're deprived
of the process. So there's a way to overcome that.
That's not by the way, there's real reasons, and good reasons.
Good reasons are, oh, what if someone can't be there.
The real reason is they don't like caucus Knight. That's
why the critics say things like that. But to overcome

(01:02:58):
the perception of that, you can actually file and make
it known that you would like to be considered for
certain elected positions like state delegate and county delegate. So
when I looked up on my caucus tonight, I looked
and there was a caucus candidate's list, and lo and behold,
I look and it says State Delegate Gregory Hughes, County

(01:03:19):
Delegate Gregory Hughes, I am not attending, Mike, I am in.
I am in the People's Republic of California. I am
you know here, I am not attending. I'm not. That's
why Rod can because I'm not. Gregory Hughes is actually
my son, Holden. He has because I guess his registration
says his full name. Whoever is listening, and I know
I have great neighbors who are listening when you go

(01:03:41):
to that caucus meeting, make sure they know that Greg
Hughes isn't being a pig at the trough. I'm out
here in California. I want everyone to vote for me
for county delegate, state delegate.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
I am not My.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Time has expired, my shelf life expired. I'm out of
the way. I've been all those things. I'm here to
let people go. But my son is racing from Logan.
Hopefully he'll get there. But I just want to clarify
Gregory Hughes is not running for state delegate or county
get delegate. I know our precinct is full of patriots
that will serve well. My son would like to do that.

(01:04:10):
So that's him. That's Junior that's in there. But if
you see that name, no it's not me. Sorry, I
know that's like I said, it was gratuitous. That's only
for me. But you know, I don't want all the
judging people in my neighborhood look at me. Think who's it.
Get a load of this huge guy. He wants to
run for everything. He doesn't even bother to show up.
You know, I could be misunderstood that way. Anyway, We

(01:04:32):
again I bring that up even in vain this or
even in the effort to say don't I know, we
don't like the signatures, but this is I think such
an important process and one that we can't let it
be attacked because people don't go or it's not well attended.
I think we do our bit, and I think if
we continue to do that, I think the people that

(01:04:53):
frankly got signatures signed into law. I thought that the
caucus convention cycle would have died off by now or
long ago. It does not, and it will not as
so long as we stay involved, and I think we
need to continue to do so. From the top of
the ticket all the way down to the bottom, it
really does make a difference.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
I believe.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Okay, folks, we'll come up to a break right now,
and we come back. We are going to have a
great discussion with Andrew Fowler. He is an editor of
Real Clear Religion. We're going to talk about George Washington
and his relationship with religion and his warnings to a
new nation about the relationship with religion. You're not going

(01:05:30):
to want to miss this discussion. It was a powerful one.
When we come back after the break, you're listening to
the Rod and Greg Show on Utah's Talk Radio one
oh five to nine. Kay an rs, folks, we got
a great discussion that we're going to have earlier today,
Rod and I were able to had a chance to
talk to Andrew Fowler. He is the editor of Real
Clear Religion. He has an article called George Washington's Warning

(01:05:51):
on Religion worth talking about, worth exploring. Andrew Fowler, welcome
to the program. Ask you this question, what was the
relationship between George Washington and religion and why was it
so important?

Speaker 6 (01:06:08):
Right? Well, thank you so much for having me. And
you know, there's the popular perception that you know, Washington
was private in his own religious convictions, and people say
he was skeptical of religious fanaticism. But in his farewell address,
he really called religion and religion and morality as indispensable

(01:06:28):
supports of the nation of the American Republic, and any
any attempt to subvert those things would be detrimental to
American society at large, because he says, you can't really
have a national morality without religious principle undergirding that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
And that's not just.

Speaker 6 (01:06:50):
Something that he's espoused. But as I say in the piece,
John Adams once said, our constitution was made was made
only for moral and religious people. And I think that call,
the Washington's call is bearing, is really significant today and
we should heed his his call.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
You know, there's a there's a there's an obvious it
is all about the spirituality and the spiritual length that
we have together as a people.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
That is the common denominator.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
But if you talk to somebody that is less inclined
to believe that, and you're looking at someone that's just
a social scientist, they would argue that these congregations bring
people of very vast different experiences, different socioeconomic status into
the pews together getting to know each other, creating greater empathy.
There's even a social science argument for going to church
and and and being around people you wouldn't normally be around.

Speaker 3 (01:07:45):
How that strengthens a community. So I see it. It's
almost like undeniable.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
But let me ask you, as we've seen the decline
of going to religious adherents, have we seen a turnaround
at all? I feel like after the Charlie Kirk assassnation,
we felt this religious revival. We heard from people like
Marc Rubo others speaking about issues of faith that you
hadn't heard before, have we are we seen it comeback
in this country?

Speaker 6 (01:08:10):
Well, I would say that we're seeing it come back
in one respect that it seems to be that religion
is being talked about more and the importance thereof in
American society. The data seems to be a little bit
mixed of you know, there was a Gallop survey that
found that religion was very important to less than half

(01:08:31):
of Americans. But on the blip side, there are some
there are some signs out there that ten z years
and young adults are returning to church. But again it's
who knows if that's going to be long lasting or
you know, a trend that goes on into the future.
But I think just the idea that you know, not

(01:08:52):
only President Trump, but other prominent figures are you know,
both Republican and Democrats seem to be talking about religion.
As you know what this is America actually needs religion
because you know, the bedrock of American society, or at
least our worldview. It was not just born out of

(01:09:13):
seventeen seventy six from Thomas Jefferson's pen that all men
are created equal, but this was distilled from hundreds and
hundreds of years of theological and political philosophy and fine tuning.
But where does that come from. It's most that idea
is from a Judeo Christian tradition, and.

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
To divorce.

Speaker 6 (01:09:36):
The American experiment from that mooring would would leave a
nation adrift. And you can see this in the sociological
data out there. As religion has declined, so has civil society.
And on the flip side, people have become more anxious,
more depressed, and increasingly polarized and some severe cases violent

(01:10:01):
against political adversaries. So you know, will will America? If
America gets religion, so to speak, will everything be hunky dory?
Not We're we're not angels, right, change, Madison would say.
But but a revival of religiosity, as I say, and

(01:10:24):
the piece could renew the civic bonds between us because
religion has been has been a binding force in American
and also the force and impulse to do so many
charitable works and also just to preserve freedom. To Topeville
talks about this that religion and liberty go hand in hand.

(01:10:47):
So yeah, I would say that, yes, that that American
religion is important to to revive and to see our
readers say like this is actually something that needs to
be addressed, is very encouraging.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
We're talking with Andrew Fowler. He is the editor of
Real Clear Religion, talking about George Washington's warning on religion. Andrew,
I remember the memorial service for Charlie Kirk several months
ago now, and I remarked to myself, I had never
heard that many politicians talk about their faith and their
belief in Christ and their belief in religion. How important
it is. Is this going to carry into the midterms?

(01:11:27):
Do you think I can't.

Speaker 6 (01:11:33):
I don't have a crystal.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
Ball that sounds like that sounds like sounds like.

Speaker 6 (01:11:39):
I'm not. I mean, we're kind of seeing it play
out in Texas, a little bit of people being attracted,
you know, to the Democratic candidates down there, right, Yeah,
and it's just so it's possible, but actually there are
some other polls that suggest that they'll less religiously inclined

(01:12:02):
or less cifically engaged. So even just for that perspective,
I think, as Washington says, you know, we need essentially,
we need a moral framework, and religiosity can't just disappear
from the public square. There needs to be a transcendent
set of principles, and again.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
What are those?

Speaker 6 (01:12:23):
Where does that come from? Where does all men created
equals come from? But that everyone has an inherent dignity
and where does and that's rooted in in the idea
that in the truth that God created all of us,
and that everyone has a soul that deserves to be loved,
that deserves to be respected. And to lose that or

(01:12:44):
to think that moral relativism is a good it's produced
bad fruit. I'll just say that it's just it's just yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
Andrew Fowler, editor of Real Clear Religion, talking about a
relationship between with George Washington and religion and this country
of ours. I think powerful words and a message. Okay, folks,
when we come back our final segment here on Saint
Patrick's Day on the Rodd and Greg Show, you want
to hang on, you're listening to Utah's Talk Radio one
oh five nine.

Speaker 3 (01:13:14):
Okay, n R S.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
If you're going, you're doing the right thing. If you
can't make it, think about it next year. But I
do think it's something that it's a pro it's an
election cycle. We don't want to give up. I mean,
if we if we're frustrated with the signature gathering, and
I am we don't want to give up the better
election cycle because of that. And I think the only
way anyone would ever get away with arguing to get
rid of it is if it's just simply not attendant.

(01:13:37):
If utons don't embrace it and decide it's not worth
their time, its low attendance would probably they would seize
on that. The signature gatherers and the elitists would seize
on that, those those circumstances and argue that it's time
has passed, which it hasn't. Hey, by the way, I
haven't mentioned this at all during the program, tweet about

(01:14:00):
it on my Citizen Hughes x page. But uh, and
this should be no surprise to anyone, because again you
are the smartest listening audience in all the land. But
the Rod and Greg Show has been nominated, uh for
a Best of Salt Late SLC award.

Speaker 10 (01:14:14):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I guess it was a nail byder last year. We
didn't win it last year, but it was a very
close race. And I just want you to imagine this.
Would you like to see e Ray, our dutiful producer
in a tuxedo? I just think it would be beautiful. I
think you'd look good in the tuxedo. I think he
should wear one. Well, if we win this puppy, we're
gonna we're gonna suit and boot him up, and he's

(01:14:37):
gonna be he's gonna be ready to show.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
We're gonna make e ray we take.

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
We're gonna take lots and lots of pictures of them too, folks.
So you want to vote, So if you go to
our X page at Rod and Greg Show, you will
see a q R.

Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
It's one of those little codes.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
You take your your picture on your phone and it'll
give you a website a link vote for us. Voting
did start today for this and it ends on April second.
So vote for the Rotten Greg Show as the smartest
listening audience and all the land, and it'll be a runaway.
We'll be like Team USA, We'll be like the hockey team,
We'll be like the baseball team. Right now, we'll just
win because that's what we do.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
We win.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
But anyway, again, want to give it a fighting a
puncher's chance. Want to make sure and thank those that
would nominate for nominating. Our program work against some heavy hitters.
There's some you know, it's all different. It's kinds of
uh what what what what do.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
You call it?

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
Era genres? What do you call it? Formats, different types
of radio stations. We're against it all, but we we
come one, come all. It's Rodd and Greg show versus everybody,
and we love it that way. So make sure you
go ahead and vote. Go to our our page again,
and also you can go to my at Citizen Hughes
page X, page two. I have a link to it
as well. Hey have you seen I love this? Have

(01:15:52):
you seen that there's a with with the announcement of
the ice Detention center that's going to be in Salt
Lake west of Salt Lake City. They've purchased a warehouse
for one hundred and forty five million dollars. Uh, there's
been there's you know, there's some consternation amongst the liberals
in Salt Lake City, its capital, and there are people

(01:16:13):
that are upset that this is going on. And sometimes
I wonder, and you must wonder too, is this just
paid protesters? Because you see a lot of those types too.
You get people that they make a living out of
this protest thing. But they are going way out there
out west to wherever this place is and it's it's
pretty far out west, and they're going to protest it. Well,

(01:16:34):
I think that's a good plan. I like it because
it's so remote, it's so far out there that I
don't know that any of us will really see it.
I think ninety nine percent of the population will never
even see the protest except for the media that may
go to cover it. But I also hear if any
of those protesters are listening, or if you know one,
maybe you want to pass the word. I think Desolation
Canyon is going to have a nice facility, So go there,

(01:16:58):
go right there, go fast. I think you need to
be there to protest a nice facility in Desolation Canyon
as well.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
It's in Utah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
Look it up in your map app and head there
as fast as you can. Anyway, I just thought it
was worthy of mention.

Speaker 3 (01:17:16):
Again.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
I think also the issue that we have with the
Save America Act going on right now, there's been some
talk that Soon says that we don't even have they
don't even have fifty one votes for the talking filibuster,
and I'm disappointed by that. They said this whole thing.
MAJORIY leader Ston says, the whole point of this prolonged

(01:17:39):
debate on the Save America Act is not to pass
the legislation, but to have the debate and maybe smoke
out the Democrats and why they don't want the Save
America Act. Remember, they already say it's illegal. You shouldn't
be able to vote if you're not a legal citizen
of this country, and so would it What would be
wrong with being just minimally redundant, saying again in law

(01:18:00):
what you can't do, which they say is not happening.
But I think there's something more at play here. I
think it's very disappointing that we don't have the political
will to see that bill pass when we have the
majority in the Senate. I think that may come back
to hanus. But thank you Center Lee for sponsoring it
and fighting the good fight. You never know it could
still happen. All right, folks, that's it for us today
on Saint Patrick's Day. Thank you for joining us. I

(01:18:23):
want you to look like any good Irish box or
want you to keep your hands up, your chin down,
your eyes forward, and always answer the bell. We'll see
you tomorrow at four o'clock

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