John Gerardi Guest Hosts - The Generations of Politics

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For a certain generation, it was the Kennedy Time Camelot,
the assassination of President Kennedy, which formed a whole generation
of politicians and people active in politics. For another generation,
it was Reagan the Revolution, he started his aggressive anti communism.

(00:20):
For another generation, it was Barack Obama who started the
entire apparatus that would be known as the culture of
Woke that dominated American politics during the Biden years. And
I think we are living through the birth of a

(00:42):
new generation's political moment, book ended by one attempted assassination
and one actual assassination over the past year. This is
not Trevor Carey. This is John Girardi. I'm filling in
for Trevor today. Thanks to the whole gang at Power Talk,
Ryan Chris, et cetera for all of their hospitality if

(01:06):
you want to join in the show. Five five nine
two three zero forty two forty two. I am the
executive director at Right to Life of Central California RTLCC
dot org. You can go buy tickets for a Christmas
event coming up on Friday, December fifth. Also, I'm the
executive the development director for the Obria Medical Clinics of
Central California. Obria three six five dot org. Obria three

(01:28):
six five dot org. That is our pro life nonprofit,
Obgyn Clinics, serving lower income women in our community with
great care. All right, done all my commercials, Let's get
into the substance of it. Last night I had the
great privilege to speak at Fresno State for a little

(01:49):
memorial event that the Turning Point USA Chapter at Fresno
State was holding for Charlie Kirk. It was me, Diane Pierce,
the Clover City Council member, Gary Brettefeld, the president County Supervisor,
and David Tangipa, who we will have on the show
later on at around the start of the four o'clock hour,

(02:09):
so tune in for that. California State Assemblyman David Tangipa.
And I want to share with you guys sort of
the thoughts I shared with the group that night, And
given that it's on radio and I don't have to
wait for three other people to talk, maybe I'll go
a little further. So I think the main point I
want to talk about is I think that this is

(02:32):
a really historic moment for gen Z and I just
want to reiterate that every generation, or pretty much every
generation seems at least to get its political moment, some moment,
some rise of some politician of particular significance, whose politics

(02:53):
and whose charisma and whose agenda helps a certain generation
to find its political voice, find its political identity. Kennedy
was very much like that. His life ends, certainly his assassination.
I mean, it is kind of interesting to think how Kennedy.

(03:14):
I don't know how great of a president actually Kennedy
really truly was, but his assassination certainly sort of cemented
a certain kind of legacy for the rest of American history.
And Kennedy was this profoundly inspirational character for this whole
generation of American politicians, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Biden,

(03:41):
Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, That whole generation of guys and gals,
they all point back to Kennedy. Kennedy was their moment.
They were all either late teens or kind of collegy
aged when Kennedy was president. They all point to that time.

(04:02):
They all look to that time. They think of Camelot
and John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and maybe a little
less so Ted Kennedy as their inspiration. Reagan was another
such thing. Actually, it's kind of funny. I think I've
been joking about this. I think baby Boomer's kind of
got two different political moments, like that they had Kennedy
when they were twenty years old and they were dumb,

(04:23):
and then they had Reagan when they were like forty
something and they were actually paying taxes, and then had
another Oh wait a minute, Maybe we were wrong about
this because I think there was a lot of Kennedy
to Reagan crossover, but Reagan was another sort of inspirational moment.
And really, up until Trump, like every Republican politician was

(04:45):
constantly defining himself in reference to Reagan. Everyone was a
Reagan Republican. Everyone wanted to say they were a Reagan Republican,
just like my friend Ronald Reagan. Everyone talked about Reagan,
the nineteen ninety four Republicans who swept through the House
and said it or Reagan, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

(05:09):
I don't know how much Bill Clinton or George H. W.
Bush or George W. Bush really necessarily inspired a generation.
I don't know if Joe Biden inspired anybody other than
maybe his fellow octogenarians to show that even at an
advanced age, you can have a meaningful, active lifestyle even
be president of the United States. But Barack Obama was

(05:33):
definitely that that kind of generational inspiration. Sad to say,
but he was for my generation. Now, he did not
inspire me. There was never a moment, never a millisecond,
that old John Girardi bought into the snake oil sales

(05:56):
pitch of old Barry Oh. However, if you were in
college during the eight or twenty twelve elections, it was
a thing. And I was in I was in college
slash law school from two thousand and six through twenty thirteen.

(06:19):
I graduated law school so continuously through the start, the
rise and start of the Obama era and two Obama elections,
and I could see friends of mine who had been
otherwise conservative just get totally suckered into the kind of
hope and change attitudes that Obama was peddling. The fact
that he was young and he was charismatic, not like

(06:39):
that old fart John McCain or you know that skim
milk Mitt Romney. No, he was young and energetic and
hope and change and all this good stuff, and he
was something positive. Even though I think all of that
is so overstated. Like even right now, Obama's trying to
pitch this thing, well, he's sort of doing the kind

(07:00):
of Democrat thing to hearken to while there's too much
political violence in American politics on both sides? Is it
really on both sides? And kind of blaming President Trump
for you you didn't see this crazy political rhetoric coming
from my side when I was president, I don't know,
other than your vice president literally saying of Mitt Romney

(07:24):
that he wanted to put black people back in chains.
I don't know, maybe that was a little over the
top rhetoric wise.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
You think.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
That, you know the governor, a former governor of Massachusetts
was was wanting to put black people back in chains. Sure, Now,
the generational shift that the Obama era prompted was basically

(07:58):
taking the college liberalism that these young new Obama voters
were learning. These millennial millennials who are now by the way,
those of us who are millennials, were now in like
our mid to late thirties. I want to say mid thirties,
but I just turned thirty eight, and I don't think
that counts as mid anymore. I think I'm now officially
late thirties. Where all of the sort of speech taboos,

(08:22):
the cancelation sort of mindset. You say something wrong, you
get socially ostracized. You say something wrong, it's this sort
of unpardonable social sin you had. And those sorts of
speech codes, conduct codes, politically correct messaging that gets enforced
on you, which was very much alive on college campuses,
even on my like relatively more conservative campus of Notre Dame.

(08:45):
That was very much there, and it was drilled into millennials,
and they carried that forward into adult life, as you know,
and with this firm sense that they were on the
right side of history, that everything they believed that their

(09:08):
parents disagreed with them about, that their annoying boomer conservative
Republican parents who paid for their college were saying that
they were wrong, and we were on the right side
of history. And that's why Proposition eight would get overturned,
that's why gay marriage would get legalized by the Supreme Court,
because we're on the right side of history. Trump getting

(09:31):
elected in twenty sixteen was a massively rude disruption to
the right side of history marching on, especially given the
horrible timing of being around right when Anthony Kennedy wanted
to resign from the Supreme Court, and when Ruth Bader
Ginsburg decided to pass on from this mortal coil, all

(09:55):
of a sudden, the solid march of history towards the
right side of was a little arrested. Trump loses the
twenty twenty election and millennials come into power. It's funny
how the Biden administration got elected on this platform of moderation.

(10:16):
Moderate Democrat Joe Biden. Moderate Joe Biden, Moderate became Joe
Biden's temporary first name over the course of the Democratic primary,
I guess in contrast to Bernie. But what a lot
of observers were saying was, Okay, Biden is maybe more
moderate than some of these other options. But the problem

(10:38):
is that the talent pool he has to draw from
to actually staff his administration is all going to be
just a bunch of radical left wing millennial Jacobins ready
to throw anyone under the guillotine of cancelation. And that
is precisely what happened. Biden's administration staffed by a bunch

(11:01):
of millennials, a bunch of people in their thirties and
into their early forties who were Obama heights. They had
learned the lessons of Obama, carried on this march of
the right side of history to have all of the
socially approved by their college professor's opinions about every single

(11:22):
issue under the sun. And they weaponized that power maximally
all that time, throughout that timeframe. Really over the last
twelve years, this guy, Charlie Kirk was agitating, agitating, agitating, agitating,

(11:47):
and talking and talking and talking and talking and talking
and building and building and building and building and building.
He was building an organization that would become one of
the more dominant conservative nonprofits in all of politics. It
surpassed other kinds of sort of legacy institutions, turning point,

(12:10):
wound up surpassing other kinds of more legacy institutions like
Young Americans Foundation, which I think had kind of been
affiliated with, like William F. Buckley in the National Review.
Guys TPUSA kind of passed those guys by. And Charlie
was this prolific fundraiser who could get in a room
full of a bunch of millionaires, I'm pledging a million.
I'm gonna pledge a million. I'm gonna pledge a million.

(12:31):
I mean, he was this tremendous fundraiser who built up
this massive apparatus of all these student groups all over
the country and was becoming big enough and significant enough
radio show, podcast, nationwide conferences that he got Donald Trump
to headline that he became this massive player in the

(12:53):
twenty twenty four election cycle, to the point where that
and the Trump administration got some flack for it, where
the Trump the Trump campaign rather got some flack for
it that the Trump campaign was handing over some of
its get out the vote operations to Turning Point and
some people were like, geez, you sure you want to
give that to Charlie kirk Well seem to work.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Now.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I don't know if the shift is entirely because of
Charlie or Turning Point USA, but gen Z votes in
the twenty twenty four election with astonishing results, especially among
gen Z males, this massive right word shift. I think

(13:37):
it was a Winston Churchill quote that if you're twenty
and you're not a communist, you have no heart. If
you're twenty and you're still if you're forty and you're
still a communist, you have no brain, or something like that.
So to see a bunch of twenty year old dudes
all voting for Republicans was kind of astonishing. And I'll

(13:58):
bet you ninety whatever percent of those gen Z guys
all pulling the lever for Donald Trump had some form
of interaction with Charlie. Kirk directly indirectly watched a video
saw clip saw a turning point of end in college whatever.

(14:23):
He was in a sense really representative of even though
he was a bit older I think than this this
new youth movement for Trump. But he wasn't older by much.
He was only thirty one, so you know, he's kind
of still there peer. You know, he's probably only seven
eight years older than a lot of these first time
Trump voters. He was really representative of them. And in death,

(14:50):
I don't want to use the corny Obi wan kenoby line.
He's strike Midde'll be as strong. Every time I try
to imitate Alec Guinness as Obi wan Kenobi, my wife says,
I just sound like joh On Lenin. Actually it seems
to be my only British accent I can do is
just a John Lennon. Regardless, Kirk being assassinated has paradoxically

(15:13):
but maybe not unpredictably. I think resulted in Charlie having
a massively greater and more outsized influence than he would
have had otherwise. And I believe that it can be
the spur for again this generation to have its moment.

(15:35):
It's Kennedy Camelot assassination moment, It's Reagan moment, It's Obama moment.
I think over the last year between Trump's attempted assassination
will bullet one inch away from his skull to this assassination,
I think this could be a kind of defining moment for.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
This is the Tremor carry show on the Valley's Power.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
Talk Charlie Kirk's memorial, which will be broadcast live right
here on Power Talk ninety six seven and AM fourteen
hundred on Sunday at eleven a m. Pacific. You can
tune in to remember the life of Charlie Kirk.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
There we go.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
So, yeah, the big funeral for Charlie Kirk that's going
to be taking place. I think it's at the stadium
where the Arizona Cardinals play their football games. And President
Trump's going to be speaking, Vice President of Van's going
to be speaking. It's quite the lineup of speakers. As
I was saying in the last segment, I think Charlie
Kirk is kind of having his death and kind of

(16:39):
book ended between the attempted assassination of President Trump last
year and the assassination of Charlie Kirk this past week.
I think it could be a kind of generational moment
for gen Z and I think there are a couple
of directions in which they.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Could take this.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Really, what kind of conservatism are they going to take
out of this? It's up to them, It's not up
to me. I realized I went to the Charlie Kirk
event and one of the college kids from Turning Point,
USA was running it dominic if you're listening, good jump,
and he said, yeah, I'm nineteen years old, and I

(17:19):
realized I just turned thirty eight, So yeah, he's literally
half my age, this kid. So the kids who are
going to decide this are half my age. So I'm
not the one deciding this. They got to decide what
kind of conservatism they want to pull out of this,
and I think there are different options open to them.

(17:40):
There's the option of kind of the barstool sports route,
which is basically a lazy libertarianism. Yeah, let's drink beer,
and watch NASCAR and watch college football and hang out
with hot chicks and you know, make fun of transgender

(18:01):
stuff and make, you know, tell jokes. But I'll note,
you know, like Dave Portnoy, that of Barstool Sports, was
outraged that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Why
because well, he's a hedonist at heart. He likes legal abortion,
he likes legal pot, he likes legal you know, he

(18:23):
is a libertarian. If that's the kind of conservatism you
draw out of this, and I don't know how meaningful
this all is going to be, I would say, my hope,
my hope. I mean there's also like the incredibly lame
Nick Fuenta's route, which, by the way, I think one
of Charlie's greatest services was how he was blocking a

(18:45):
bit the rise of ultra right morons like Nick Fuentas,
who are you know, crazy anti Semitic conspiracy theory land.
I would hope that the kind of conservatism we draw
out of this is the kind that Arlie exemplified, not
only with what he would say, but how he led
his life. Charlie was married, Charlie had two kids. Charlie

(19:07):
was leading a pretty devalued Christian life. In fact, the
Bishop of Fresno, my friend Joseph Brennan, said he talked
with Charlie about a week before Charlie was killed. Charlie
came to Vicealia for Tilarry King's Resources for Life event
and had dinner with Bishop Brennan told him that he

(19:28):
was quote this close to converting to Catholicism. His wife
is a Catholic. My hope is that the kind of
conservatism you draw, if there's any young person listening to this,
that you draw from Kirk's life, would be one first
that's rooted in social conservatism, in a certain vision of
the dignity of human life, the reality of human biology

(19:51):
as man and woman, the reality of marriage as this
institution between a man and a woman, which is the
cornerstone of civil society. Charlie never wavered on social issues,
even when they were at their most unpopular, including their
most unpopular with the college kids he was talking with
all the time. It's easy to be, you know, anti

(20:15):
transgenderism right now. It was really hard to be anti
transgenderism six years ago when Charlie was anti transgenderism. It's
hard still to be pro life. It's hard still to
be anti gay marriage, and Charlie held the line on
all of those issues the whole time. And it wasn't
just political issues that he was on a certain side of.

(20:37):
It was the expression of the faith that was the
bedrock of how he lived out his life.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
This is the Trevor Carry Show on The Valley's Power.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Talk John Girardian feeling in for Trevor from three to
six and then the John Girardi Show six to seven.
We will talk about Charlie throughout the show, but I
do want to kind of break it up with some
other stories of interest. Among them the completely unnoticed by
anyone because other news is so completely dominated the headlines.

(21:10):
Kamala Harrah's Kamala Harris's I can't even remember her name,
that's how much in the rear view she is. Kamala
Harris's recent book that she published about her one hundred
and seven Day. It's called one hundred and seven Days.
It's about her presidential campaign. She's basically all these excerpts
are being released of her complaining about Joe Biden, which

(21:31):
is hilarious, Like maybe she could have complained about him,
you know, at any point in the four years prior
when he was actually president. It was kind of seen
now anyway.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
So you know what, let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Let's talk about it. I was planning on talking about
something else, but here I am. By the way, this
is John Girardi filling in for Trevor, Director of Rights
to Life Essential California RTLCC dot org also helped support
our Obria Medical Clinics or pro life nonprofit Obgyn Clinic
ob r I A three six five dot org. It's
the price you have to pay for listening to this
radio show is to give some money to help support

(22:02):
one of these things. Okay, that's the assignment. This radio
thing ain't free. Okay, just want to let you guys know,
all right, So big New York Times story out. These
excerpts from the book keep getting released. This is by
Katie Rogers, a White House reporter for The New York Times.

(22:24):
In one hundred and seven days, Kamala Harris lays out
her regrets in her book coming out next week. She
revisited her breakneck campaign, explaining her choices and outlining missteps
of hers and others. She hinted at a return to politics. Well, duh,
she has no other marketable skills. Of course, she's going

(22:44):
to go back to politics. By the way, I think
it's a major strategic mistake on her part not to
run for governor of California. She would just win it easily.
She'd have a job. You don't have to do much.
You know, it's easy anyway. The title of Kamala Harris's
new book, One hundred and seven Days, hits the reader

(23:06):
on the head with a central argument about why she
lost the presidential race to Donald Trump. I didn't have
enough time, she wrote. What is it about Kamala Harris
that makes you think, that makes anyone think that being
around her longer would make you like her more? No

(23:31):
one liked her for the time she was there. I
mean they soured on her. The American public soured on
her within a month. Within a month, it became clear
like she she came into the race, she had her bump,
the usual you know, post convention bump, whichevery presidential candidate

(23:53):
tends to get. People were excited. She was brat. It
was the summer of Bratt, Bratt summer whatever, Kamala Harris's
brat whatever. Everyone was excited about Tim Walls. They started
calling jd Vance weird, which was, oddly enough, the most
effective thing they did during the whole campaign was say

(24:15):
that Jade Vance is weird.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
He has a little weird.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Although, in fairness, literally anyone who decided is crazy enough
to decide to run for elected office and has that
crazy level of ambition is obviously weird. But set that aside.
I mean, it's not like people didn't know Donald Trump
was kind of a weird guy. Like it's part of
his appeal, honestly. So this is the central complaint, which

(24:42):
is just embedded in the title of a book, one
hundred and seven day, Oh if I had had more,
If only I had had more time, which I always
thought was a silly proposition. If you were someone that
people liked better, then it wouldn't have mattered that you
only had one hundred seven days. She does have some

(25:03):
really spicy anecdotes from the story this story that was
released today by The New York Times. These excerpts that
The New York Times is dribbling out. So one of
the things she talks about was her vice presidential selection,
in which she reveals that she would have picked Pete Boudhajij,

(25:27):
that he was really the best person in fact, but
she claims that she didn't think America could handle a
gay vice president when they were already having to deal
with the trauma of a black female with the shock
to the system of a black female presidential candidate, to

(25:51):
which if I repeate Boodhajich and I'm reading that, I'd
be furious. So you genuinely passed him up because he's gay.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
This is the thing they would accuse.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
A conservative of doing, like like, oh, you only didn't
hire him for this job because you're gay, because he's gay,
and you're an evil concern. She seems like saying it like, oh,
because America is not prepared. He astonishing.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
She then goes to throw Josh Shapiro under the bus
and releases this anecdote about how he was more interested
in doing things his way and that he had asked
about what kinds of art decoration he could bring into
the vice president's residence in case this was a something shoot,

(26:40):
which is like, what a gratuitous shot at Josh Shapiro.
What is the point of releasing that other than just
just to be braddy, which, by the way, seems like
a I don't know, that seems like just flat out
silly gossip. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Maybe he directly said to her. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
I'm not sure if she mentions, if she mentions it,
but maybe the real reason she didn't want Josh Shapiro
on the ticket. Sorry, I'm doing my Joe Biden whisper
here just to pretend to be subtle. Maybe it's because
he's Jewish and her bass is wildly antisemitic. She did
note the fact that she was a black woman and

(27:28):
married to a Jewish man because because Doug Emhoff is Jewish.
She did think that, like that that was a thing.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
She's like, she's very convinced, seemingly that the American public
is just completely full of biggots. We won't accept anybody
because of their YadA YadA YadA. All right, And then
she talks about Tim Walls, but then talks about how
frustrated she was with his performance during the vice presidential debate,
which again I'm just not understanding. What is the value

(27:59):
to her to burn all these bridges in this tell all,
what's the value to her to throwing Josh Shapiro under
the bus, throwing Pete Bootage under the bus, throwing Tim
Walls under the bus for being too nice and affable
towards JD. Vance. I mean, in fairness to her, I
did think JD. Vance like wiped the floor with Walls.

(28:20):
And I think if the media was not so dominated
by liberals, they would maybe admit that that was a
bid of a turning point in the election. I mean
it was, you know, Harris had been doing quite well, uh,
you know, after the convention and all that, and then
Vance and Walls come in and it seemed pretty clear

(28:41):
that Vance was far and away the stronger performer there,
and Walls just looked like it looked kind of like, ah,
what is it?

Speaker 2 (28:47):
He reminds me of who is it?

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's heroes, the fat German Officers.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
I know nothing.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
That's a reference that like, very few people are gonna
get pretty much my mom and no one under the
age of sixty. All right, there we go, John Girardi,
Man of the people. She goes on and on and on,
but that one of the big things she does. She
talks about Joe Biden, and she talks about how like

(29:19):
right before her debate with Trump, Biden calls her and says,
my brother heard that you were bad mouthing me, and
if you do that, I'm gonna pull all the support
we have for you out of Pennsylvania. And she's relaying,
I can't understand why he would have done that to
me right before my debate and make it all about himself,

(29:45):
to which I would respond, because he's a jerk and
he's senile. That's why what It's perfectly consistent with a grouch,
cranky old man who's kind of a jerk and kind
of senile. Something you knew and don't tell us. You

(30:08):
didn't know it for the prior four years straight. So
good job, Kamala Harris burning all of your bridges. I mean,
I don't know how she expects to run for president
again when she burned all three of the top three
contenders she had for the VP position. To tell, just

(30:30):
told Pete Boodagig flat out in this book, I would
you were the best person, but you were gay. Sorry,
tells Tim Wallas, he's an idiot for being two nice
to jd Vance, throws Josh Shapiro under the bus for
I don't know that you know, paints him as a
namby pamby boy for one of them This is.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
The Tremor Carry show on the Valleys our.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Talk David Tongepa joining us in studio, so stay tuned
for that at about four or five. I want to
direct your attention story out from my Twitter account Twitter
dot com slash john Girardi no excuse me, Twitter dot
com slash Fresno Johnny at Fresno Johnny on Twitter. That's
my Twitter handle. A really beautiful story published by the Angelous,

(31:13):
which is the it's like I think it's like the
online newspaper for the Catholic Archdiocese of la and any
of you Catholics listening to this will be interested. And
it's written by the bishop, excuse me, the brother of
our bishop here in Fresno, Robert Brennan, who's the brother
of Bishop Joseph Brennan, Bishop of the Dices of Fresno.

(31:34):
And it's a really interesting story about one about Charlie Kirk,
who apparently revealed to our bishop here in Fresno. Charlie
had visited Vicealia about a week before he died and
had met with Bishop Brennan and had told him that
he was close to becoming Catholic. I guess his wife

(31:55):
is Catholic. They had had their marriage blessed within the church,
they had to go in to Mass, and Bishop Brennan's
brother wrote this story kind of talking about his and
Bishop Brennan's dad, who was a big fan of John Wayne,
and how John Wayne had had this deathbed conversion to Catholicism,

(32:19):
and it was right around the time that Bishop Brennan's
father was also passing away, and sort of the comfort
and knowing that someone was drawing close to God towards
the end. Anyway, I really recommend it to you guys,
if you're Catholic, if you're not Catholic, it's kind of
a sweet story. Again. You can go to my Twitter
account to read through at twitter dot com slash Fresno

(32:40):
Johnny at Fresno Johnny and it's kind of a Again.
I sort of made this point earlier in the hour,
what is the legacy of conservatism that we want to
draw out of Charlie Kirk. I think that Charlie Kirk's
death is going to be part of this sort of

(33:01):
moment for gen Z conservatives to kind of find their
political voice and find their political identity, kind of like
how the Kennedy era gave identity to this whole generation
of politicians and people involved in politics. The Reagan era
gave identity and purpose to this whole generation of politicians.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
This assistant Trevor carry show monda valley's power dog,