Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mark Levin, Vinnie my man, welcome back to this show,
the greatest orator of our time.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh wow, VINNI I do, I do?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I feel that you're very kind. I hold in my
hands on Power the latest book, Mark R. Levin.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My mother made me do that.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I can't wait to sink my teeth into this book.
Is it safe to say, Mark, a bit of a
departure as far as what you've written in the past.
I feel, as I've just flipped through it a little bit,
a little bit of a departure, I feel.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I think it is too. I decided to take on
a topic that it is really very important that's discussed
at a superficial level, if ever. And yet as I
started to dig into this, you know, it became clear
to me that powers at the center of everything. And
so we talk about liberty, we talk about tyranny, we
talk about Marxism and capitalism and all the rest. What
(00:53):
does it all mean? And it is about the distribution
of power, how it's distributed, whether it's central in the
hands of a masterminds and a ruling class of one
form or another, or whether it is sort of diversified
and spread out, and the differences between whether you live
(01:15):
in a free society or whether you don't. And really
that's what the Revolution was about. When you think about it,
it wasn't even about liberty. It was about who gets
to decide what, whether it's the key party that took place,
or they wanted representative government. You know, the French Revolution
that took place around the same time as the American
Revolution was about destroying the society. Our revolution was not
(01:37):
about that. It was about representative government. So when you
look at the Declaration and especially the Constitution, the division
of power, power, checking powers, Montesquieu taught the framers of
the Constitution, whereas Marxism is about the concentration of power,
about conformity, about the group thing rather than the individual.
(02:02):
All these things are very very important. I took this
subject and I broke it down into pieces negative power,
positive power, soft negative power, saw positive power. I applied
it to liberty and rights and language and thought control.
Because I think the left understands this. They understand power.
I don't think we do, and if we do, I
(02:24):
think we need to articulate it better. That's the point
of the book.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, I think there's a new power too that really
concerns me. And that's the power of the influencer. It
greatly alarms me. And I don't know if you tackle
it in the book the book Comes in Sight, you know,
one hundred and eighty two pages, which kind of surprised
me because I think you've got four hundred in you
on this particular subject. So that must have been a
(02:50):
decision of yours and we'll get into that, but would
you agree with me? Like it scares me that my
children are following influencers who they don't know what. God
bless them. If they're compelling speakers, like I said, you're
a great orator, and that is a skill set, but
they've got a power that is very dangerous and they're
(03:11):
wielding it and they've got fan bases and people are
buying what they're selling.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I share your concerned. Basically, it's anybody with a microphone
in a little box and then they self identify as
an influencer. It's a word I never heard before about
two three years ago. You know, me and talk radio,
I guess we're influencers, but we don't go around narcissistically
saying I'm an influencer. I'm an influencer either you are
or you aren't, and that's not why we live. You
(03:37):
and I that's not why we do what we do.
We express our views, we want to hear what our
callers have to say. Yes, we try and influence outcomes
in a very very positive way, but we're not quote
unquote influencers. And most of these people that you point out,
nobody even knows who the hell they are. So many
of them live on the Internet, which there's you know,
(03:58):
there's a few good people there, but it's it's mostly
pretty sleazy, to be perfectly honest with you, I agree,
And yeah, the self appointed influencers now they think they
created Maga, they think they created Trump where they really
hang on his coattails and then they undermine him and
stab him in the back. And a lot of them
are just very weird, perfectly honest about it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, and what's interesting about that too, and again Ron
with Mark R. Levin speaking about the new book on Power,
is Trump wielded social media to his benefit. Without social media,
I don't even know if he would have ever even
gotten into office. It helped him greatly, for better or worse.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I think the first time around that's true. I also
think the first time around, there weren't as many so
called influencers, and so for there was more of a
budding industry, even though it's been around a little while.
And I think the President used that as a way
to get around from a very corrupt democratic control, you know,
(05:01):
typical media. But now I think the poison of these
big media companies has poured into these so called independent platforms.
And I felt at the time, you know, this competition
would be fantastic. But more and more they sound alike.
So you get the hard left and these people on
(05:24):
the fringes on our side who tend to agree on
the same thing, and they tend to sound like Marxist,
they sound like Islamis. They don't sound like patriots, and
they put down the country and pretend that they're promoting
the country. They undermine are cops in our military. They
praise each other, they give headlines to each other, they
(05:46):
interview each other. It's a very it's just a very
strange thing. And I don't think it's conducive to advance
in the cause of liberty, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
No, let me ask you this, do you feel as
if you have power? Levin? I mean, would you say
I've got I've got power.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Now. It's funny. Uh. When I was a kid, my
favorite movie I watched was Paton still is my favorite movie.
And George c you know that's that speech at the beginning, Uh,
at the very end, he says, glory is fleeting. And
I thought about that as a kid. I've always thought
about Gloria is fleeting. I leave tomorrow, I pass away tomorrow,
(06:30):
and they want to know who replaces you. And so
I never sit around and think about what kind of
power I have. I never call myself a quote unquote influencer.
I do what I think is right. I say what
I believe. I try to provide information to people in
intriggering or maybe an entertaining way. But I don't sit
around thinking, whow do I have power? My wife will
(06:53):
tell you I don't do that. It's just not the
way I roll.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I assumed that this was going to be your answer too,
And that's what scares me.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
So.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Background to this explosion of social media influencers, people who
are are, you know, extolling the virtues of an AOC
and tearing down an RFK and they've got twenty twenty one,
twenty two year old. My instance, I've got a nineteen
year old who believes every you know, I've got to
be honest here, gorgeous female podcast are out there, liberal
(07:24):
podcast out there is right on the money, and their
answer would be different. They do. They might lie and
say no, I don't have any power, but they're on
a power trip. They think they do, and they act
as they act accordingly.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, the problem is they have no context and they
have very little experience, and it is a problem. There's
a problem right now. Even with adults. They have no context.
You know, people throwing around the term hitlo they don't
even understand where that loans. Or you have some people
relatively young who never experienced a NYE eleven. You have
(08:01):
young people saying, well, why shouldn't we try socialism? What's
wrong with it? Again? No perspective, certainly no perspective provided
in colleges and universities, in fact, the wrong perspective. But
the point of this book on power is to dig
into the culture, into society, to take this on and
to explain to people why it is important in their
(08:22):
own lives, their own liberty, and in the liberty of
the civil society that we win this war and we
take on the Mandamis and we can. It's a battle
over ideas. Ideas do matter, They make the difference. The
book took me longer to write because I kept it
very tight. It's mostly filled with my own thinking processes,
(08:44):
and I wanted it also to be very readable, very
accessible to everybody in our audiences.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So, as I said at the outset there coming in
at one hundred and eighty two pages, I suspected that
was a conscious decision of your life.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yes, yeah, people, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And it is. I can't it's a one day read,
two day read. Really, I can't wait to dig into it.
I just want to let you know. You said Patton
was your favorite movie as a kid. Mine was Stripes
with Bill Murray. I've gotta be honest, I say that comfortably.
I do. I mean there was there was a pro
America message in that movie, but it was also you know,
(09:23):
look it's a Bill Murray comedy at the end of
the day, and PJ sols FYI but great having you
back on. How are things going with Maman Glenn Beck
over there on the Blaze.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
He's doing great. Everybody's doing very well as far as
I know.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, yeah, I got together with Beck a couple of
times this past year, asked him the same question, you know,
about power and about social media influencers, and we had
a great, long, sprawling conversation about that right here in
New Haven. Remembering your comments last time you were on
the show, do you have any parting words about Hartford
or Connecticut? And you had some great observations about Connecticut
(09:58):
last time you were on.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, I have. I don't understand why why people call
it the nutmeg State? Can we upgrade that a little bit?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That was it same? You're revisiting the same theme that was.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Because even when I'm on my show, I said, what
is with the nutmeg state? You know, you know of
a state and you call it the walnut state or
another state you called the marshmaow, what is this nutmeg saying?
Do people eat a lot of nutmeg in Connecticut?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
No? No, we eat a lot of pizza. We are
the pizza capital of it. We've got signs up the
governor spent money on signs Mark Levin that say we
are the pizza capital of the country, the women's basketball
capital of the country, and the submarine capital of the country.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That's going well, there's truth to the submarine. There's truth
to basketball. In fact, there's truth to sports. Your your
colleges and universities do pretty well in sports.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
As for pizza, being a Philadelphia boy, you know you
need to have a fight on your hands with that one.
But nonetheless, there you go.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I love it, Mark Levin. I always appreciate you deeming
me worthy of your time, and I wish you the
best of luck on this new title, the greatest orator
of our time. Thank you so much for I'm.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
A good man.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Thank you, brother. All Right, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Talk to me.
Mark Levin, Vinnie my man, welcome back to this show,
the greatest orator of our time.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh wow, VINNI I do, I do?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I feel that you're very kind. I hold in my
hands on Power the latest book, Mark R. Levin.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My mother made me do that.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I can't wait to sink my teeth into this book.
Is it safe to say, Mark, a bit of a
departure as far as what you've written in the past.
I feel, as I've just flipped through it a little bit,
a little bit of a departure, I feel.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I think it is too. I decided to take on
a topic that it is really very important that's discussed
at a superficial level, if ever. And yet as I
started to dig into this, you know, it became clear
to me that powers at the center of everything. And
so we talk about liberty, we talk about tyranny, we
talk about Marxism and capitalism and all the rest. What
(00:53):
does it all mean? And it is about the distribution
of power, how it's distributed, whether it's central in the
hands of a masterminds and a ruling class of one
form or another, or whether it is sort of diversified
and spread out, and the differences between whether you live
(01:15):
in a free society or whether you don't. And really
that's what the Revolution was about. When you think about it,
it wasn't even about liberty. It was about who gets
to decide what, whether it's the key party that took place,
or they wanted representative government. You know, the French Revolution
that took place around the same time as the American
Revolution was about destroying the society. Our revolution was not
(01:37):
about that. It was about representative government. So when you
look at the Declaration and especially the Constitution, the division
of power, power, checking powers, Montesquieu taught the framers of
the Constitution, whereas Marxism is about the concentration of power,
about conformity, about the group thing rather than the individual.
(02:02):
All these things are very very important. I took this
subject and I broke it down into pieces negative power,
positive power, soft negative power, saw positive power. I applied
it to liberty and rights and language and thought control.
Because I think the left understands this. They understand power.
I don't think we do, and if we do, I
(02:24):
think we need to articulate it better. That's the point
of the book.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, I think there's a new power too that really
concerns me. And that's the power of the influencer. It
greatly alarms me. And I don't know if you tackle
it in the book the book Comes in Sight, you know,
one hundred and eighty two pages, which kind of surprised
me because I think you've got four hundred in you
on this particular subject. So that must have been a
(02:50):
decision of yours and we'll get into that, but would
you agree with me? Like it scares me that my
children are following influencers who they don't know what. God
bless them. If they're compelling speakers, like I said, you're
a great orator, and that is a skill set, but
they've got a power that is very dangerous and they're
(03:11):
wielding it and they've got fan bases and people are
buying what they're selling.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I share your concerned. Basically, it's anybody with a microphone
in a little box and then they self identify as
an influencer. It's a word I never heard before about
two three years ago. You know, me and talk radio,
I guess we're influencers, but we don't go around narcissistically
saying I'm an influencer. I'm an influencer either you are
or you aren't, and that's not why we live. You
(03:37):
and I that's not why we do what we do.
We express our views, we want to hear what our
callers have to say. Yes, we try and influence outcomes
in a very very positive way, but we're not quote
unquote influencers. And most of these people that you point out,
nobody even knows who the hell they are. So many
of them live on the Internet, which there's you know,
(03:58):
there's a few good people there, but it's it's mostly
pretty sleazy, to be perfectly honest with you, I agree,
And yeah, the self appointed influencers now they think they
created Maga, they think they created Trump where they really
hang on his coattails and then they undermine him and
stab him in the back. And a lot of them
are just very weird, perfectly honest about it.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, and what's interesting about that too, and again Ron
with Mark R. Levin speaking about the new book on Power,
is Trump wielded social media to his benefit. Without social media,
I don't even know if he would have ever even
gotten into office. It helped him greatly, for better or worse.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I think the first time around that's true. I also
think the first time around, there weren't as many so
called influencers, and so for there was more of a
budding industry, even though it's been around a little while.
And I think the President used that as a way
to get around from a very corrupt democratic control, you know,
(05:01):
typical media. But now I think the poison of these
big media companies has poured into these so called independent platforms.
And I felt at the time, you know, this competition
would be fantastic. But more and more they sound alike.
So you get the hard left and these people on
(05:24):
the fringes on our side who tend to agree on
the same thing, and they tend to sound like Marxist,
they sound like Islamis. They don't sound like patriots, and
they put down the country and pretend that they're promoting
the country. They undermine are cops in our military. They
praise each other, they give headlines to each other, they
(05:46):
interview each other. It's a very it's just a very
strange thing. And I don't think it's conducive to advance
in the cause of liberty, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
No, let me ask you this, do you feel as
if you have power? Levin? I mean, would you say
I've got I've got power.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Now. It's funny. Uh. When I was a kid, my
favorite movie I watched was Paton still is my favorite movie.
And George c you know that's that speech at the beginning, Uh,
at the very end, he says, glory is fleeting. And
I thought about that as a kid. I've always thought
about Gloria is fleeting. I leave tomorrow, I pass away tomorrow,
(06:30):
and they want to know who replaces you. And so
I never sit around and think about what kind of
power I have. I never call myself a quote unquote influencer.
I do what I think is right. I say what
I believe. I try to provide information to people in
intriggering or maybe an entertaining way. But I don't sit
around thinking, whow do I have power? My wife will
(06:53):
tell you I don't do that. It's just not the
way I roll.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I assumed that this was going to be your answer too,
And that's what scares me.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
So.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Background to this explosion of social media influencers, people who
are are, you know, extolling the virtues of an AOC
and tearing down an RFK and they've got twenty twenty one,
twenty two year old. My instance, I've got a nineteen
year old who believes every you know, I've got to
be honest here, gorgeous female podcast are out there, liberal
(07:24):
podcast out there is right on the money, and their
answer would be different. They do. They might lie and
say no, I don't have any power, but they're on
a power trip. They think they do, and they act
as they act accordingly.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Well, the problem is they have no context and they
have very little experience, and it is a problem. There's
a problem right now. Even with adults. They have no context.
You know, people throwing around the term hitlo they don't
even understand where that loans. Or you have some people
relatively young who never experienced a NYE eleven. You have
(08:01):
young people saying, well, why shouldn't we try socialism? What's
wrong with it? Again? No perspective, certainly no perspective provided
in colleges and universities, in fact, the wrong perspective. But
the point of this book on power is to dig
into the culture, into society, to take this on and
to explain to people why it is important in their
(08:22):
own lives, their own liberty, and in the liberty of
the civil society that we win this war and we
take on the Mandamis and we can. It's a battle
over ideas. Ideas do matter, They make the difference. The
book took me longer to write because I kept it
very tight. It's mostly filled with my own thinking processes,
(08:44):
and I wanted it also to be very readable, very
accessible to everybody in our audiences.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So, as I said at the outset there coming in
at one hundred and eighty two pages, I suspected that
was a conscious decision of your life.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yes, yeah, people, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And it is. I can't it's a one day read,
two day read. Really, I can't wait to dig into it.
I just want to let you know. You said Patton
was your favorite movie as a kid. Mine was Stripes
with Bill Murray. I've gotta be honest, I say that comfortably.
I do. I mean there was there was a pro
America message in that movie, but it was also you know,
(09:23):
look it's a Bill Murray comedy at the end of
the day, and PJ sols FYI but great having you
back on. How are things going with Maman Glenn Beck
over there on the Blaze.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
He's doing great. Everybody's doing very well as far as
I know.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, yeah, I got together with Beck a couple of
times this past year, asked him the same question, you know,
about power and about social media influencers, and we had
a great, long, sprawling conversation about that right here in
New Haven. Remembering your comments last time you were on
the show, do you have any parting words about Hartford
or Connecticut? And you had some great observations about Connecticut
(09:58):
last time you were on.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, I have. I don't understand why why people call
it the nutmeg State? Can we upgrade that a little bit?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
That was it same? You're revisiting the same theme that was.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Because even when I'm on my show, I said, what
is with the nutmeg state? You know, you know of
a state and you call it the walnut state or
another state you called the marshmaow, what is this nutmeg saying?
Do people eat a lot of nutmeg in Connecticut?
Speaker 1 (10:26):
No? No, we eat a lot of pizza. We are
the pizza capital of it. We've got signs up the
governor spent money on signs Mark Levin that say we
are the pizza capital of the country, the women's basketball
capital of the country, and the submarine capital of the country.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
That's going well, there's truth to the submarine. There's truth
to basketball. In fact, there's truth to sports. Your your
colleges and universities do pretty well in sports.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
As for pizza, being a Philadelphia boy, you know you
need to have a fight on your hands with that one.
But nonetheless, there you go.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I love it, Mark Levin. I always appreciate you deeming
me worthy of your time, and I wish you the
best of luck on this new title, the greatest orator
of our time. Thank you so much for I'm.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
A good man.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Thank you, brother. All Right, God bless you.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Talk to me.
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