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Digital Social Hour
The Truth About Social Media's Role in Election Outcomes 2024 | Luke Beasley DSH #942
01:04:54
Discover the shocking truth about how social media platforms shape election outcomes in 2024! 🗳️ We're diving into a candid discussion about the complex relationship between tech giants and democracy, exploring everything from platform ownership to content moderation. From Elon Musk's influence on X to the role of traditional media, we're breaking down the real impact of social networks on voter behavior.
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- [00:01]
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- [01:10]
Luke Beasley
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- [02:05]
Host
That's why I think it's important on my show to have on the other side so I'm not just seeing one opinion the whole time. All right, guys, we got Luke Beasley on today. Post election man, how you feeling?
- [02:18]
Luke Beasley
Not as great as I was feeling before, to be honest. Yeah, I don't know what I believed I've said before. I have a hard time deciphering between optimism and my actual prediction. I definitely knew Trump could win. I don't think I was expecting the electoral beating right handed.
- [02:37]
Host
It was landslide, right? He won by like 100 votes. Yeah, I didn't even. I didn't expect that. I thought it'd be way closer. I thought some of the swing states would go her way.
- [02:45]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [02:46]
Host
And he won every single one, I believe.
- [02:47]
Luke Beasley
Yep. All seven, which is crazy. Crazy.
- [02:50]
Host
But you get in these. These bubbles when you're on social media. Right. When like. Like I log into Twitter and it's just all conservative stuff. So that's why I think it's important on my show to have on the other side, so I'm not just seeing one opinion the whole time.
- [03:03]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah. And I was really proud of how at large you have your crazies always. But at large, how the Democratic coalition has responded, because we really do believe in standby. The fact that Trump is threatening our democracy, is violating so many of our most basic American principles. But still, you saw Biden at the White House with Trump able to acknowledge democracy has to come first. And we're not going to do what MAGA did last time and lie about the election for four years, try to overturn it and all those sorts of things.
- [03:34]
Host
Yeah. It was cool to see that video of Biden and Trump together. They seemed like they were on better terms.
- [03:39]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. I think Biden was just being the bigger man.
- [03:42]
Host
You think so?
- [03:42]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. That imagery is not something Trump ever gave to Biden. If you remember. Right. When Trump lost the election, from that point to when he left begrudgingly on January 20, 2021, he was working in allegedly illegal ways, like the fraudulent slate of electors scheme to keep himself in power. And he was telling his followers, I'm not leaving office. It's not going to happen. And so to see Biden do what Trump could never is just another example of why we shouldn't have elected Trump.
- [04:11]
Host
I mean, I will agree that. Yeah, I don't remember him with that transition, doing the same thing to Biden.
- [04:17]
Luke Beasley
No. I think Trump committed one of the greatest crimes against our democracy in American history.
- [04:23]
Host
You talking about the J6 incident?
- [04:25]
Luke Beasley
A lot of people zero it down to that. That was sort of the culmination of weeks of him trying to overturn the election. So one thing that not enough people know about, but is critical is, you know how him and Pence had that falling out.
- [04:37]
Host
Yeah.
- [04:37]
Luke Beasley
That was over Trump wanting to get Pence to. Instead of certifying, which is just the procedural role, the vice President was to engage in the actual lawful electors, he was trying to get Pence to just take other random Republicans saying, we're the lawful electors. From the swing states. And we say Trump won, which would have been a coup. Luckily, Pence said, I'm not doing that. And then Trump's followers chanted, hang Mike Pence. And to the day Trump left office, he was pretending like there was a chance he was gonna stay in office beyond January 20th. That's how you completely collapse your democracy. So, again, going back to why I'm proud of my movement is even in the face of someone who his own former chief of staff described as a fascist, is victorious. We still preserve a democracy.
- [05:19]
Host
Yeah. I will say Mark Cuban congratulated him. I like that. Seeing that obviously he was very pro. Kamala. Um, you guys lost some subscribers when it happened, right? I saw Pac man talk about this.
- [05:30]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. I'm happy we made. We sounded the alarms. I'm happy we very quickly said, guys, if your reaction to this election result is detaching, that's how we get more results like this. So please stay engaged, however hopeless you can feel. But it did get a little bit overblown, because within days, we started seeing.
- [05:52]
Host
You got it back. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. He's still challenging that 2020 election, it seems like.
- [05:57]
Luke Beasley
You know, which I don't understand how anyone sees past that by itself, because any other issue, if you care about reproductive rights or the economy or crime, the way we address any of those issues is through our democratic process. We choose people who we think have the best ideas. And Trump says, no, I'm not going to engage thoughtfully in that process. I'm going to say that local officials should find votes for me when I lose elections. And the fact that we rewarded him for that behavior. Now the federal cases are being dropped. The one election interference. One has to be dropped because Trump's becoming president, and we're rewarding him for attacking the foundation of our democracy, which, again, we can get into why I think he won and why people get distracted from that.
- [06:37]
Advertiser
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- [07:46]
Luke Beasley
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- [07:48]
Host
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- [07:52]
Luke Beasley
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- [07:54]
Host
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- [07:55]
Luke Beasley
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- [07:57]
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- [08:02]
Host
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- [08:07]
Luke Beasley
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- [08:20]
Host
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- [09:21]
Luke Beasley
That we're allowing him to be rewarded for such behavior.
- [09:24]
Host
Yeah, it's been a while and he's, he's, he was fighting that for years and nothing ever, ever happened. Right.
- [09:30]
Luke Beasley
Dozens and dozens of didn't have evidence.
- [09:32]
Host
To prove, yeah, there was 81 million votes for Biden that election. So I do see people on X right now saying like, where did the 15 million votes go? Have you seen stuff like that?
- [09:41]
Luke Beasley
Well, a big backlash election to Trump's pandemic handling it makes sense. There was more of a movement to elect the opposition then. But then once Biden Harris were in power. Now, those pandemic issues that actually they were handling really well. But across the Western world, we've seen voters want to punish the incumbent parties for the handling of the pandemic. And just because it's hard to square in your brain that you could feel all this economic pain, it's very real. But then also say it's being handled well by the party in power, which it definitely was. If you compare the data on how we've handled this to other countries, how we've handled it compared to the projections, how Biden handled it compared to Trump. But people wanted to blame Biden Harris for that. And so there wasn't the same energy behind the Democratic coalition as there was behind Trump this morning.
- [10:29]
Host
Right. I saw a lot of people blaming them, but. And they weren't really responding. I think that was an issue.
- [10:34]
Luke Beasley
Blaming them on.
- [10:35]
Host
On the economy, like the gas, the groceries and all that.
- [10:38]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, it's. It's a tough one to discuss. It's easier for me because I'm not running for an office. So I can be a little bit more blunt. People's feelings were wrong about who they were blaming. The facts don't align with saying Biden Harris handled the pandemic conditions poorly. But that's not what Kamala Harris can't sit in an interview and say, well, you all are just wrong. So, ha, ha, she has to sympathize. So she was trying to walk this line of saying, you know, if you look at the metrics, we're actually doing things pretty well. But I understand there's a lot to be done and I have new ideas compared to Biden. So we're going to do even more than the pretty successful presidency that Biden's had. That message just didn't land because it's not as simple as they did it.
- [11:17]
Host
Right. Do you think she should have went on Rogan? Do you think that was a mistake?
- [11:20]
Luke Beasley
Yes, absolutely.
- [11:21]
Host
I like that.
- [11:22]
Luke Beasley
That wouldn't have made the difference, but she should have for sure.
- [11:24]
Host
Okay. Some people. No, go on.
- [11:26]
Luke Beasley
Just a part of a broader issue with Democrats. They, some of them are getting better, but they don't go. They don't meet people where they are enough. And the facts favor. The facts favored Harris 100x. She had the facts on her side here, unfortunately. The vibes, the economic vibes and vibes about other things like crime, when it's down, but people believe it's up. The vibes favored Trump. And so the only way you can shift people's vibes is not releasing studies on the effective handling of this, that or the other thing, or papers about how crime has been plummeting at a pretty historic rate. You have to tap into people's feelings and connect with them. And the only way you can do that is if you're showing up everywhere. And while I thought Trump's appearances on Rogan and on Logan Paul and Andrew Schultz and all these different people's podcasts, from my perspective, he was all disoriented and had a hard time communicating still. He was showing up and he was doing a lot of those things in places that, that people are not just your own base, but new voters who could, you could turn out. So that was a huge mistake for sure.
- [12:30]
Host
He was showing up and also being a human, humanizing with people.
- [12:34]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. Best that he can.
- [12:36]
Host
Like sometimes politicians give these political answers, which I understand they have to do. Right. They got to put on an appearance. But these days I feel like people want that authentic feel. They want to see who they actually are.
- [12:45]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. And I think sometimes we overstate how much Trump was connecting with people. I think a lot of this was, whoever the Republican was, was going to benefit from the vibes, the anti incumbent vibes, along with other things. But again, I have a hard time believing the. I know the fear mongering works that Trump was doing, but it's not like he was nailing those interviews himself.
- [13:06]
Host
Yeah, I could Unbroken. He did seem a little all over the place. I'll admit that. I watched that episode.
- [13:11]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [13:11]
Host
But I really think the conservatives have like taken over alternative media, like the podcast space specifically. And YouTube. A lot of YouTube.
- [13:19]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, there's a lot of Ford Profit simple offers flexible financing solutions for all kinds of businesses, whether you're an electrician or run an organic farm, because we know that your business demands financing that works when you need it. Like when your landscaping company lands a new account. Wherever you see your business headed. Ford Pro Fin simple can help you pursue it with financing solutions. Today, get started@fordpro.com financing, you know, left of center voices such as myself, you talk to David Pakman, Brian Tyler Cohen and others, and we're building a pretty big block of sort of of an audience. But I think there's more of a direct relationship between right wing media and right wing leaders and then politicians who reinforce the messaging and show up and bolster the platforms of those people. Whereas we largely get ignored by the Democratic establishment, for example, and Democratic politicians, and they're still stuck in this headspace. Where mainstream media is the end all, be all. And so I think a lot needs to change between now and the next election. One of, one of the major things, it won't have to do with how we brand and how we adjust. Some of it will just be the structural stuff. Like I'm saying, no longer will people be blaming Biden Harris for these pandemic conditions, but you also have to adjust where you can. And one of the things is we got to invest more in alternative media, like you said.
- [14:46]
Host
Absolutely. You got to adapt because traditional media numbers are dwindling year by year. Yeah, I just saw something where I think it was MSNBC is really struggling, one of the biggest networks.
- [14:54]
Luke Beasley
You know, a lot of post election discontent among those viewers.
- [14:58]
Host
Yeah, you said something earlier. Crime is down. People think it's up. What is. What is that based off of?
- [15:04]
Luke Beasley
What is the disconnect or what's like.
- [15:07]
Host
Where those, where do you get those numbers from? Where the. The crime rates were down, you said under Kamala and Biden.
- [15:11]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. The FBI crime stats sort of really always used to.
- [15:14]
Host
Was that compared to Trump's presidency or what was that compared to?
- [15:17]
Luke Beasley
So crime now is down to pre pandemic, pre pandemic levels or even lower. And like homicide rates have gotten extremely low. And so people feel less safe, but they're actually, by many metrics, safer than they've been even going back before the Trump administration. But what happened was during the pandemic, I'd of course say Trump exacerbated the economic crisis, the public health crisis, the crime crisis, all by his lack of a serious and coherent response to the pandemic, something that even his own medical professionals have later spoken out against, saying that we could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives if he took this thing more seriously, more early. But even so, you had this end of Trump administration crime spike. Biden Harris inherited that. Right. So we had higher unemployment than when Trump came into office. That's what they had to inherit because of pandemic conditions and his handling. You had this public health thing that handle. And then crime was up. What was super infuriating was then immediately conservative voices jumped in saying, the crime stuff is the problem of Biden Harris. They created this even though it predated them. Same thing with all these economic problems. And then as much as Fox News in sort of the 2021, 2022 period liked to fearmonger about crime because it was up during that pandemic period, they never turned around and went, wow, it's so spectacular that it rapidly plummeted back to pre pandemic levels. And a lot of that is very, again, structural, systemic. It was going to happen as we got the pandemic under control. It's why Trump should have taken getting the pandemic under control more seriously. But you do have to point to the record federal investments in public safety and law enforcement that happened under Biden Harris as well. And they actually have, like passing the gun safety bill and some other things taken active steps that can be contributing to these solid numbers. So this among so many other issues, is one that if we're just talking about data, you have this really strong case for why Democrat should have been given another term in power. But it doesn't align with how a lot of people feel. And I think a lot of that is more complicated than what I'm about to say. But some of it comes down to the right wing media echo chamber is really effective.
- [17:28]
Host
Yeah. Because you said earlier the facts favored Harris in this election, so you just wanted her to be more vocal about the facts. Basically.
- [17:34]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. And she definitely was flawed, but she ran a pretty solid campaign given that she had to throw it all together in just a few months. But I don't know if the best messenger could have convinced people we could have moved the needle and I'm sure there's some scenario where we could have won. But seeing the overwhelming results makes me feel like it has to be something a little bit more. I keep coming back to this term, but structural.
- [17:59]
Host
Yeah. Do you think she was the right fit?
- [18:03]
Luke Beasley
Yes, in the sense that it would have been a. There was so little time between when Biden decided he wasn't going to run anymore and the election that it made sense he'd go, all right, I'm the one who the voters chose, but the ticket's Biden, Harris. And so I'm going to go ahead and hand it off to my vp. She wasn't crowned, though. People act like there were some powerful group that got to select her. Biden just threw out the endorsement. Some people thought it was just sort of slight, the Democratic establishment saying, fine, but I'm gonna pick my person. But however it went, she went, oh, there's a mosquitoes attacking me, and won over the delegates, which. That's how the law or the process works within these party infrastructures, and ended up becoming the nominee. And given that she was the vp, that was the smoothest way to make it happen in a few months. I do think so.
- [18:55]
Host
I have heard from conservatives that it wasn't Biden's Choice to, to drop out or whatever. Like she kind of over there was an overthrow. Right. Have you heard that?
- [19:03]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, I've heard that. I definitely in the lead up to the election didn't care about talking about that because it was sort of she's the candidate now and she needed to win over Trump for sure.
- [19:13]
Host
Yeah.
- [19:13]
Luke Beasley
And I didn't see this. Oh it's so anti Democratic when Biden was going to be the nominee. But he has every right to say I'm not going to accept the nomination and thus it's up in the air. So then again the procedures say that the delegates are just going to have to decide. And so Kamala started calling delegates and won the the supportive enough to become the nominee. So that wasn't sort of the coup that Trump would always describe it as. But did Pelosi or others strong arm Biden? I don't know. We won't ever know what those private conversations were. I think Biden just came to terms with how bad polling looked. There was a report that we just recently learned of that said Biden got some polling map that said he would have gotten mopped like even worse than Harris really just an absolute historic landslide was in the works. And so I think it was less so him being strong armed because he could have charged through regardless of what people were saying. He had the delegates support but he realized my whole legacy is going to be holding on to power and losing it and potentially losing our democracy for it. Now unfortunately Harris ended up losing too.
- [20:25]
Host
How have you felt about some of Trump's recent hires? It's November 15th today, so he hasn't made all of them. You don't feel good about any of them?
- [20:32]
Luke Beasley
Oh no. I mean. Oh well. Okay, good. Let's see. With yes, I feel good based on my expectations. For example, Marco Rubio is not the most extreme person he could have chosen for Secretary of State but for Attorney General Matt Gaetz, if that ends up working out, I can't think of a worse person there. Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. Frightening.
- [20:57]
Host
Why don't you like her there?
- [20:58]
Luke Beasley
She has a long history of foreign policy views and Russian aligned views that freak me out a lot.
- [21:06]
Host
Interesting. She's a former Democrat, right?
- [21:09]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. She was always a strange one though.
- [21:11]
Host
Did you have those views when she was a Democrat though?
- [21:14]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, I never liked.
- [21:15]
Host
Never liked her.
- [21:16]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [21:16]
Host
Okay, that's respect. If you had that view while she was still a Democrat.
- [21:20]
Luke Beasley
Thank you. I also wasn't doing political commentary when she was like running for President. For example. So I don't have any. I never actually talked about her. Got it online. But I remember even I was just keeping up with that. I didn't find her. I don't like accusing people of grifting. I like to believe even people that I find outrageously wrong or just wrong, genuinely.
- [21:40]
Host
Yeah.
- [21:40]
Luke Beasley
She does stink of grift, though.
- [21:43]
Host
Yeah. My hope is, is just if you're a political content creator, you try to stay as objective as possible, you know what I mean? Because I think some people bring a little too many emotions involved and then sways their bias in one way.
- [21:55]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. You know, it's in this environment. My goal, because my show is an opinion show, I'm sharing my opinion, is to make sure that it facts come first. I demonstrate the facts properly and as objectively as I can and then follow it with opinions.
- [22:12]
Host
Got it.
- [22:12]
Luke Beasley
Because what's happening in our current political environment is people. It's less so that the. It's less so that sort of the Trumpism effect is convincing people that Trump is right on everything, but more so convincing people that it's impossible to discern what factor is. And so a lot of people really are fine with the conclusion of, I don't know. We all sort of live in our own echo chambers. We all have our own version of the facts. Who really knows? Even though there are actual facts, we can know what is true. And sometimes things are verifiably false, often when they come out of Trump's mouth. And so making sure we don't lose sight of that even as we all throw our opinions onto the facts, is super important.
- [22:51]
Host
Well, it's hard to find facts these days. So many false information everywhere. It's like, where do you. Where are you finding these? You know?
- [22:57]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. And I think I stand by with any of my criticisms of left wing media. Doesn't take away from the fact that I think right now we're in a really wonky environment, unbalanced environment, where, for example, there's no people will dispute this. But taking as objective of a look as I can at it, there's no equivalent of Fox News on the left. Fox News goes further in their propaganda for Republicans than an msnbc, for example, would ever go for Democrats. A good example of that is you haven't ever seen MSNBC have to pay $787.5 million for lying about an election so brazenly that even with our really strict laws around free speech, a defamation case was so threatening to Fox News. So with that being said, I think the MAGA echo chambers worse. But one thing I've been voicing a lot as we are a little bit distressed right now is as a left of center media environment to not then just start trying to mirror MAGA and to still value facts and try to not descend in just the same exact bubble.
- [24:05]
Host
I'll push back on that a little bit because I think there are outlets that show Trump in a very negative manner.
- [24:11]
Luke Beasley
I think some people, I've seen people who have taken him out of context and so that. But I think if you were to accurately report on him, you would have a very negative perception of him. To my previous point, just super objectively find me an example of a president who loses an election in the United States and then tries to illegally keep himself in power. And the only thing standing in between him and holding onto power illegally is his vice president going no and then being outcasted from the party for it. That is not a matter of oh, you're just so biased. That's just do you have a basic respect for democracy and the the both sides ism of every issue makes it to where you can have a panel where some people go, oh no, well that's not that significant. No one really cares about that. Well, we should. And the facts point to a really dangerous man. And mainstream media, for example, a lot of people think that your liberal legacy media is too liberal. And I understand that they, a lot of the voices on those networks have a liberal bias, but actually a cnn, for example, bends over backwards to prove they're not biased by creating this artificial neutrality, which isn't really what we're seeking. Objectivity is good, but neutrality is a little silly because some issues aren't neutral.
- [25:27]
Host
Right.
- [25:27]
Luke Beasley
And they end up both sides in issues that aren't both sides able, like Harris versus Trump's respect for our democracy. I don't know if you know this, but Trump called for the termination of the Constitution on Truth Social. I heard about that and that's something that I bring up incessantly because that's not really excusable. It's online. He hasn't deleted that post and people look past it. How do you vote for someone who's going to take an oath to the Constitution when they've said, because I think the election was stolen. I think we should terminate all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution. That's just not a matter of are you liberal or conservative? It's do you agree that our system of government is something that should be preserved? And I thought conservatives abided by that but they've sort of abandoned it. Mm.
- [26:09]
Host
Yeah, yeah. I think he could have handled that incident better. But the art, they were writing negative stuff about him way before that. You know what I mean?
- [26:15]
Luke Beasley
Like when he said grand by the p word.
- [26:17]
Host
Yeah, I mean that, that was the first one I remember, but there was a lot.
- [26:22]
Luke Beasley
Well, how would you tell a story about that in a non negative way?
- [26:28]
Host
Well, not that specific moment. I mean that's hard to defend. But just in general, like I think they've done analysis on what percentage articles are negative versus positive and yeah, I've seen that.
- [26:39]
Luke Beasley
I'm sure I've seen the graphic you're talking about. I remember Elon Musk posted a graphic and it was legacy media outlets. Harris, I think it was 88% positive. Trump, 80 whatever, something high 80s or 90% negative. And I don't know what, what are the 10% of positive. I don't know how they're finding 10% positive stories for Trump. But I will say no one ever includes in that calculus that if you go over to a much more influential, influential network than any of the legacy media outlets, Fox News, Fox News has a bigger reach than ABC or NBC or CNN, MSNBC. And no one ever does their analysis which is 100% negative for Harrison.
- [27:21]
Host
Do you think so?
- [27:22]
Luke Beasley
It's 100 near. Yeah.
- [27:24]
Host
She did go on Fox News. I thought that was an interesting choice for her.
- [27:27]
Luke Beasley
She did. What do you think? I thought she did pretty well.
- [27:29]
Host
I thought she did horrible, dude.
- [27:30]
Luke Beasley
Really?
- [27:31]
Host
You thought she did pretty well? What sense.
- [27:33]
Luke Beasley
Because I've, I've been willing to admit interviews for a lot of her vice presidency were her weak point and she would just come off sort of unprepared or uncomfortable and then would just revert to talking points there. She really held her ground. And I thought that a big criticism of her was what I was saying that can she be commander Chief if she's not comfortable to go into the ring with difficult interviewers? And I thought she dispel with that talking point because while of course there are going to be negative moments since it was a Fox News interview and they prepped it perfectly to try to get her on everything. She really had good responses to the border stuff, to the trans thing, to the economic questions. And I thought it showed her ability in off the script moments to handle oppositional interviews.
- [28:21]
Host
It was brave of her, I'll say that. I thought the interviewer could have been better. I thought he was cutting her off a lot. Yeah, I didn't like that that's just like, I don't know, common courtesy.
- [28:29]
Luke Beasley
Did you SNL skit?
- [28:31]
Host
No, I actually didn't.
- [28:32]
Luke Beasley
It was really funny.
- [28:32]
Host
They were just cutting her off the SNL skit. Yeah, I thought he could have done better, but no, I thought she. I don't know, didn't they?
- [28:38]
Luke Beasley
Why would you find negative about it? I'm curious.
- [28:40]
Host
Well, did they end it early? I think I remember it was cut early or something.
- [28:45]
Luke Beasley
I don't remember.
- [28:46]
Host
It was supposed to be longer and her team cut it. Maybe so, but no, I just thought like was just like we said earlier, I want to see the real side of you. She was giving these answers that clearly were rehearsed, which is fine, but elaborate on that a little bit more. You know what I mean? Just felt like copy paste maybe.
- [29:07]
Luke Beasley
I think we hold her to such a different standard than Trump. Some of this feels less relevant now that he's won because the comparison between the two of them is less relevant. But she'll go in, she'll get asked a question about a subject, and even if it's a prepared talking point, she addresses generally the subject. And then Trump gets asked any question. He just starts saying they're coming from jails, they're coming from insane asylums, and repeats like five talking points. Whenever we are prepping for the show each day, whenever the campaign was going on, he would do all these different events. We'd be playing it out loud while we're working on other stuff. And, you know, any question he's asked, I could throw out three different phrases that he's going to go to and he would go to one of them. And often they're just him meandering and doing what he calls the weave, which is really just rambling, I think. We never criticize, not we never. But folks who criticize Harris for not comprehensively enough or succinctly enough addressing certain questions. Never put that on Trump when it's difficult to find an example of him just directly and concisely answering questions.
- [30:12]
Host
Yeah, There are no examples I remember of him just clearly like talking about policies, for example. So I'll give you that for sure.
- [30:19]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. And when he does, like the viral tariff moment I know you referenced earlier, the they, they convey a true lack of understanding about the policies he's talking about, which is what frightens me that Americans are so willing to vote for him when every time he's asked about policy, if he really does give it a. Give it a go, it's like a child talking about policy.
- [30:40]
Host
Well, hopefully he could just make the right hires, you know.
- [30:43]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, yeah. Which he's not doing.
- [30:45]
Host
You don't think Elon and Vivek were a good thing with Doge?
- [30:50]
Luke Beasley
We'll have to see what they do. But the whole Elon Trump alliance is giving me some major concern.
- [30:58]
Host
What concerns?
- [31:01]
Luke Beasley
I think Elon, as he's shown it in some of his. Some of his past business ventures, can get unrealistic with what he believes possible. And I'm worried he's going to end up doing a goal of his, which is cutting trillions and trillions out of the budget, which I also would like us to be more fiscally responsible, which Democrats have a better history with that than Republicans do in terms of the debt, but not do so in a childlike way where we end up tanking the economy.
- [31:30]
Host
But wouldn't cutting these agencies that are inefficient help the economy?
- [31:34]
Luke Beasley
Well, a lot of the agencies, I don't know which ones, they're planning on just completely throwing out the window. I know. I've heard, like the Department of Education to just go completely while there's inefficiencies and there's issues and improvements. Again, it's this. I've always said that Republicans are a lot better at bumper sticker politics. Things that fit nicely onto a bumper sticker and are simple and you can get your head around it real quickly, whereas Democrats will spend too much time addressing the nuances. And it just misses people completely. And so it does sound nice. Let's just. These agencies are not working perfectly for us. Let's just throw them in the garbage can altogether, missing what the actual utilities are that they serve, even if not as effectively as we'd like.
- [32:14]
Host
I'm a fan of the Department of Education. Getting rid of it. How do you feel about that one?
- [32:17]
Luke Beasley
No, I don't think we should.
- [32:18]
Host
You don't think so, why?
- [32:19]
Luke Beasley
To go in the other direction, we need to add more.
- [32:21]
Host
You went to public school, right?
- [32:23]
Luke Beasley
Effort into public schools? Yeah.
- [32:24]
Host
You went to public school, though?
- [32:25]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [32:26]
Host
And you. What was your experience? You felt like it was a good experience?
- [32:28]
Luke Beasley
I went to a really good public school, so I'm. I'll be transparent about that. I don't think it's representative of most public schools, but I had a great experience.
- [32:36]
Host
Okay. I had a pretty lackluster experience, I'd say. And I feel like most people would agree with that.
- [32:41]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. So the solution is to provide less.
- [32:44]
Host
Hard to go back towards state powers for schools. That's what Trump wants.
- [32:48]
Luke Beasley
Well, then I'm worried about the red states who have such worse education. Often, like when you have these poorly run red states that would rather pass things on like trans issues or something than do anything to improve education. When you completely give up any federal support or federal initiatives to improve their education, it's just going to go even more on the dumps.
- [33:09]
Host
So you don't want states to have more power. You want the federal regulation to have more power than the states.
- [33:14]
Luke Beasley
Depends on the issue. But on education across the board, we need to be raising the bar. And so I think a federal approach, while education is mostly left of the states and I see the, the benefits to that. We definitely need to nationally raise the standard and be more educationally effective.
- [33:32]
Host
I just feel like there's better things we could be teaching the kids that are coming up, man.
- [33:37]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. How do you mean?
- [33:39]
Host
Just like. Well, you went to a good school, so I don't know what you were learning, but a lot of the stuff I learned, I'm not using all gender theory. They didn't teach that when I was in school. But no, I just like, I don't know, a revamp or at least teach some stuff that makes sense, like how to pay taxes, how to run a business, stuff like that.
- [33:55]
Luke Beasley
No, I'm with you on that.
- [33:56]
Host
I'm not asking for like crazy changes.
- [33:58]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, I thought of that too. I don't know how you would do this. That's probably more on a, on a state, by state or even locality.
- [34:05]
Host
There we go.
- [34:06]
Luke Beasley
For, I'm saying, to realistically implement some of the things you're talking about. But to be clear, abolishing the Department of Education doesn't create good state governments to do the things we're talking about.
- [34:18]
Host
Fair.
- [34:18]
Luke Beasley
I'm saying if realistically I wanted to try out some of the changes. Yeah. Probably I'd have a better chance lobbying my local school district or whatever. But I've really been baffled. Even the school that I went to on the time we'll spend on certain things and super high mathematics and I didn't know a lot of the basics of finances and stuff out of high school.
- [34:39]
Host
No, I didn't learn how to pay taxes. Yeah, my first tax bill, I was like, well, what is this?
- [34:43]
Luke Beasley
Totally.
- [34:43]
Host
You know what I mean? And then I knew how to do pre calc. When am I going to use pre calc?
- [34:47]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, Again, I don't know how that connects to gutting educational funding and stuff.
- [34:53]
Host
Well, the Department of Education, don't they provide the academic agenda for these teachers to teach?
- [34:58]
Luke Beasley
I guess, sort of. But I think the types of changes you're talking about would come of more heightened interest in improving federal level or not. Again, the federal government moves a little slow on these things. And my worry is sometimes I'll hear these interesting prescriptions to social or economic issues or whatever it might be, and the solution is to make it even less possible to achieve those. Like, let's just completely privatize education.
- [35:29]
Host
Hmm, Fair enough. Where are you on the reproductive rights movement? Where do you stand on that?
- [35:34]
Luke Beasley
Very pro reproductive rights.
- [35:35]
Host
You're pro and Trump wants to give that power to the state, that decision, right?
- [35:40]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, that's his position. Now. He's flipped around on it, but he's been super destructive with the justice he got in the Supreme Court. I did think that, I don't know what role it played, but I thought it was going to lead Harris to victory. Not because that's the top issue for everyone, but because there really was this midterm phenomenon right after the overturning of Roe v. Wade where people were, excuse me, really upset with that and they correctly blamed the Republican Party for it. Since then, again, the memory can get abstracted pretty quickly for a lot of people. And all of a sudden I've talked to people who blame Biden for it because he was president when it happened, or they, you know, very confused. I heard one lady who said she voted for Trump because Trump says he's not going to sign national abortion ban and that's good because she believes in reproductive rights. I think people get a little disoriented on these things. But yeah, I think Trump should have been electorally punished. The Republican Party needs to be because this has been a decades long project to overturn Roe v. Wade. And then we need to do more work within the Democratic Party to make sure when we have unified control of the House, Senate and White House again, we actually enshrine reproductive rights in the federal law because that's a justifiable bit of outrage from people who are pro reproductive rights, but not that motivated to support Democrats because they feel like they already failed them. Not protecting that before.
- [37:03]
Host
Kamala, how do you think she handled the. The border stuff? That was a huge issue this election, right? The immigrants.
- [37:09]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. Kamala.
- [37:11]
Host
Kamala, we're going to get Pacman corrected me on this already.
- [37:15]
Luke Beasley
We're fast. The elections still can't get it. But yeah, I think she handled it the best that she could. Meaning politically, obviously in the policy. They should have started more actively and publicly and aggressively implementing or trying to policy on the issue they did. I'll admit they did. Slow walk now, right When Biden came into office, he proposed an immigration reform package, and Republicans were like, nah. So I do put a lot of blame on Republicans. And then it became even more clear when they shot down that border security bill that was just everything they'd want. It was crafted by a Republican senator. It became clear, oh, this is just an issue you like to fear monger about. It's not really that you want to solve it. And federal legislation like that border security bill that Harris supported would have made a more systemic effort to address this longstanding issue as opposed to just what an executive can do. So it definitely is something Republicans shouldn't be getting all this political advantage from because of their record on it. And they never wanted to engage with the Biden administration. But I understand why people were upset by it and the issues that are present. Again, just add a few caveats. Shouldn't justify the insane dehumanization or the poisoning of the blood rhetoric from Trump and this crazy stuff. Separate from that, though, I do think Harris immediately took a better approach than Biden, which was not shying away from that issue and going after Republicans for it. And Trump gave her the perfect way to do it, which is the border security bill and him calling our Republicans saying, don't pass anything on the border because I want to run on it.
- [38:48]
Host
So that was true, because I heard that. So he was calling people, telling them not to pass any bills.
- [38:53]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. And the defense, you know, if some people in your audience might be thinking, no, Sean, point out that it was a bad bill. A lot of people are misinformed what the bill was like. For example, when certain border crosses, thresholds are hit, then an emergency power is given to the president where they can restrict the asylum process like no president has had the power to do. So then Trump took that and said, oh, they're allowing in completely freely that number of people, which wasn't what it said. A lot of people believe that's why it was a bad bill or numerous other completely distorted things about it. It actually was a very conservative bill, too conservative for a lot of Democrats. But I was happy with that because we need to show people we're taking the issue seriously. Yes. We also want to promote and support and push back against the demonization of lawful immigration. And right now, the insane fear mongering about undocumented immigration is actually now widening to just immigration generally. And, you know, some Republicans talking about taking away birthright citizenship. And. And so we have to do two things Again, but nuance is really difficult in politics and Trump's just really basic and historically sourced fear mongering about people impacts people more viscerally, unfortunately.
- [40:14]
Host
Yeah.
- [40:15]
Luke Beasley
But again, Harris, she was going to be hurt on the issue. It looks like it actually didn't hurt her. And she made a lot of inroads. The exit poles showed that people trusted her. I think it was like in the 40s of percentage, which is pretty good. It was like 40 something to 52 maybe, and 55 for Trump. That's a much smaller gap than it was before and than it was with Biden. So clearly her rhetoric made a difference in her taking the issue seriously. I think the economy was the big, big thing though.
- [40:41]
Host
Yeah, I think she could have addressed that more. I will say on the border stuff. A lot of the fear I was seeing with that was these people would get in and some of them would be able to vote. And I remember I had Harry Sisson on the show and I asked him like before the election, like, are these illegal immigrants going to be able to vote? And he said no. And then you see this chart where all these states have no voter ID and there's like 10 states. Did you see that chart?
- [41:03]
Luke Beasley
There are no voter ID states. Yeah, but I mean, you have to identify yourself to get registered. And you go.
- [41:08]
Host
And then when you say identify, what is, what is that process though?
- [41:12]
Luke Beasley
When you register to vote, you have to put some, one of your identifiers in, so license down.
- [41:17]
Host
So if you came here illegally, would you be able to vote then?
- [41:19]
Luke Beasley
You wouldn't be able to vote.
- [41:20]
Host
You wouldn't be able to.
- [41:21]
Luke Beasley
Which is why every single time this is studied, the reason that I, I understand actually why people on the. Not even voter id, but I guess it's like physical photo ID as they want to take it a step further in some of the red states. The reason is because they're actually. I wasn't even familiar with this, honestly, because my experience is right when I turned 16, I got my driver's license. So if I ever need id, that's the easiest thing ever. It's always in my pocket. A lot of people actually don't have any physical photo ID. Surprisingly, I think it's like 10% of the US population. And so if you're going to put this impediment where now they have to figure out and spend money to go, is it worth the hoop you're having them jump through for the security that it's implementing? And what you see is it actually is not preventing the type of fraud that people think that it would. We don't have that type of fraud in any notable way. And every single time this is studied, it's essentially 0% fraud. And so why induce more inconvenience when we should want people to exercise the right to vote if the elections are secure? And again, all evidence points to the fact they are interesting.
- [42:28]
Host
Zero percent, near zero.
- [42:30]
Luke Beasley
It's like point something, you know, okay.
- [42:31]
Host
Well, I'm actually impressed with that. That's true. I got to look into that.
- [42:34]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, we have really, really good, secure elections. There's still issues, but this is what show infuriating about what Trump did. And again, we have to care. Facts matter. Just because Trump repeats something over and over doesn't make it anywhere true. He had the chance. He brought dozens of court cases. They all got slapped down silly. Rudy Giuliani laughed out of court over and over. Then you had all these recounts audit. You had a forensic audit back in 2020 by the right wing group. It was like called something, can't remember the name, but right wing group that got access to the Maricopa county count. And they also determined the Biden win was legitimate. Every single time. You have Trump's own investigators. Ken Block was a guy who Trump's campaign was paying to try to find fraud. He's been speaking out, saying, no, he's lying, not widespread voter fraud. And so at some point, you just have to acknowledge that he's been lying. And that is such a destructive lie because y'all will never know how it feels to be on this side where we have a more significant dedication to our democracy. So we're not going to do that.
- [43:40]
Host
Yeah.
- [43:41]
Luke Beasley
Even though it is kind of mind boggling. Just as an example, Elon Musk bought Twitter. Something I've been saying on the show is imagine if George Soros, you know, how the rights really concerned with George Soros sometimes on things George Soros has nothing to do with. But if George Soros purchased Twitter, the reports were coming out that Soros was helping to censor stories that were bad for Harris. And then Soros started spending a million dollars a day in a way that some election experts think was illegal to get people on this petition so that the Trump campaign could, you know, or the America PAC could target them for voter outreach stuff. And if Soros were doing that and he had a platform leveraging it for Harris, that would be the biggest right wing justification to say, see, oh, it's stolen. But then Elon Musk does it. No one cares. There's A recent video of Elon Musk raising his hand when someone said, we need a Soros of the right. So they have sort of these conspiracies that then justify their own bad acts that we were never engaging in. And even with all of the things about this election that were mind boggling and a landslide when Trump's a historically unpopular figure and all of it we still respect enough because there's no evidence of outcome determinative fraud to say it's absolutely legitimate. And Biden has the character to bring Trump to the White House. And Harris concedes clearly, unequivocally. And Republicans just sort of go, all right, cool, Yay. We're gonna benefit from their dedication to our democracy. We're gonna accept the smooth transition of power, but we're not gonna rethink at all our tax on democracy over the last few years.
- [45:16]
Host
Yeah, Elon bought Twitter and yeah, he was conservative the past few years, but I would say previous social media platforms have always been under Democratic leadership and Google is one of the biggest donors to the Democrats, so.
- [45:28]
Luke Beasley
Well, I'm not saying don't. I mean, people have the ability to donate to candidates that they support if they're rich. But I'm saying you've never had someone purchase a platform and then overtly say, I'm wanting to get this person elected and here's what I'm going to do. I'm using my platform and the enhanced reach I have because I own this platform to do anything I can to help get Trump elected. And Elon Musk just absurdly acting like if Harris wins, there's not going to be any more elections.
- [45:54]
Host
Yeah, yeah, he did strongly advocate for Trump. I'll agree with that. Yeah, I haven't seen like the owner, I haven't seen Mark Zuckerberg, I guess, strongly backing it.
- [46:02]
Luke Beasley
But again, I'm not saying that's proof of, of anything illegitimate about the elect. I mean, unless the Pennsylvania million dollars a day thing was breaking voter laws, then he can be held accountable. But I'm not saying this was proof that anything was wrong about Trump winning other than me not wanting it to happen. My point is that they use much weaker arguments than the one I just made to justify the lies about Democratic wins. And the other thing is, a big thing that I've been hearing from Republicans is you have to now admit we must be right about some stuff. You know, look at the 70+ million people who voted for Trump. See the left, now it's time for you to admit you're wrong about These things. But whenever we get 81 million votes, it's, oh, that's impossible. It's stolen. And they don't do any introspection. So, again, there's all these double standards that are infuriating. I always want to engage in introspection. I always want to try to figure out where I can be, you know, sympathetic and figure out where people are coming from. But it gets. My fuse is getting shorter.
- [47:00]
Host
I feel that. Do you personally use X? I know Don Lemon just announced he's leaving. Do you still use it?
- [47:05]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, I do. I'll keep using it.
- [47:06]
Host
Okay. I do like that they don't censor you on X.
- [47:10]
Luke Beasley
They censor some people, but, yeah.
- [47:12]
Host
Oh, they do, yeah.
- [47:13]
Luke Beasley
The story about the. I'm blank on the particular one, but there was one that I think it was Rolling Stone article broke about the Musk campaign coordinating with Trump to censor a particular story. That was disadvantageous. But all platforms are going to have, you know, their terms of service, and they have the right to enforce them. They're companies. You're signing up to use their platform. So they can do that, and then we can take issue with what their policies are and how they're enforcing them. Fine. I don't love when people equate that with governmental censorship, which is the real free speech thing. But I understand the magnitude of. Of these platforms now. And so in the court of public opinion, we need to hold people accountable for unjust terms of service or whatever. But, yeah, I know conservatives like X more now.
- [47:57]
Host
I mean, you saw Trump get banned almost everywhere on social media. Remember that? I do Facebook, Instagram, I think YouTube even. And Twitter at the time. Right, Twitter at the time.
- [48:07]
Luke Beasley
So, yeah, that was a tough one.
- [48:09]
Host
What'd you think of that whole, I guess, incident?
- [48:11]
Luke Beasley
I understand, again, these private platforms going, wait, did we just give a platform to someone who incited an insurrection? Is it our responsibility to not allow that? But I also get how tenuous that can get and how you got to be really mindful of when you're taking especially someone that relevant and notable off of a platform. But Trump did violate their terms of service over and over and over again.
- [48:38]
Host
So I've had a few videos get deleted. Has that happened to you before on YouTube or anywhere?
- [48:42]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. And again, sometimes I wonder what it's like to do what I see a lot of other especially MAGA influencers do, framing it as an attack against them. You know, the deep state social media.
- [48:55]
Host
I actually did get a deep state video taken down, ironically enough.
- [48:58]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. But when it happens to me. I'm just like, all right, well, yeah, I get it.
- [49:03]
Host
A few of mine were, like, just topics that you couldn't talk about at the time. You know, it wasn't even me. It was the guest saying it.
- [49:08]
Luke Beasley
So, yeah, that. That bothers me because I've been debating people and the video will get, oh, whatever. Is it demonetized or. One time I got a YouTube strike because I was covering a QAnon person and being like, that's crazy. But they thought I was damn espousing the Q natanza, and that was a bummer.
- [49:26]
Host
Have you debated Nick Fuentes yet?
- [49:28]
Luke Beasley
No, I probably won it.
- [49:29]
Host
Too extreme for you? Yeah, he wanted to come on the show. I kind of.
- [49:32]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [49:33]
Host
Even for me, like, I have on everyone but that one. I don't know.
- [49:36]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, I actually struggle with that because, like, we just had a Trump supporter on. That's pretty fringe. Who was it but Isabella Moody?
- [49:45]
Host
I don't know that one, but.
- [49:47]
Luke Beasley
So I don't. I don't know where the line is, honestly. My thing is, as long as I'm pushing back against it, I don't have a principle against debating Nick Fuentes. Just sometimes I think you have to be mindful of. Are they. Are they benefiting way more from the exchange than your audiences or than people out hearing the debate? Are. Is it valuable to argue basic tenets of, like, is racism bad or something? Whatever Nick Fuentes would want to debate. Is that a valuable discussion? I don't know.
- [50:24]
Host
Yeah, it's tough. We'll leave those discussions on X. Yeah. Would you ever do those Jubilee one on 25s? Oh, you've seen those?
- [50:31]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. Yeah, those are cool. Yeah, that'd be cool.
- [50:32]
Host
I watched Destiny. Charlie Kirk. What do you think of Charlie Kirk?
- [50:35]
Luke Beasley
Actually, he's terrible.
- [50:37]
Host
You don't like him? Why?
- [50:39]
Luke Beasley
Because he's really dishonest and I think he misleads people. Professionally.
- [50:44]
Host
Dishonest in what sense, though?
- [50:46]
Luke Beasley
Like, I keep going back to the election thing because it's one of the most black and white issues. He was. He's perfectly fine convincing people of whatever Trump wants him to. And I think anyone who jumped on board that should be, like, we shouldn't forget that because of how consequential it is. And again, maybe this feels less relevant to someone who didn't, who was on, like, the beneficial end of that, since we're never going to do it back to you and, like, have our democracy collapse, but it's really, really destructive. And you've seen in, you know, history it is a part of the authoritarian project to convince people that elections aren't fair unless your side wins. So it's really dangerous.
- [51:28]
Host
Really? So that's happened in history. I haven't looked into that. That's interesting.
- [51:32]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, yeah. And I don't understand. I honestly, like, for example, Trump also said the government should come down hard on MSNBC in a truth social post and called, you know, media outlets criminals. And now he's suing cbs.
- [51:47]
Host
Yep.
- [51:47]
Luke Beasley
And there's a few of these phrases. Determination of the Constitution. One, the government should come down hard. The act of trying to assemble illegal electors. That I don't see how people just go, okay, cool. If he had gotten his way, would have gotten a second term, even though he lost. That's not democracy. That would have been just our democracy collapsing. But because it didn't happen, barely, because a few people who won't be there this time said, we won't do it, I'm going to pretend like that never happened.
- [52:15]
Host
Are you going to go to the inauguration? I know you've been to some Trump rallies.
- [52:20]
Luke Beasley
We. I guess, yeah. We'll be in D.C. still, so be.
- [52:23]
Host
Good content for you, right?
- [52:24]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. Talk to people.
- [52:26]
Host
You were at the rally. He got shot at, right?
- [52:28]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [52:28]
Host
That's crazy. So you heard everything.
- [52:30]
Luke Beasley
Wow, it was wild. Yeah. Really scary.
- [52:33]
Host
That is nuts. What are the chances of that? Do you go to a bunch of rallies? Normally?
- [52:37]
Luke Beasley
We've stopped recently just because everything else. Well, I even mean, like the final lead up to the election. It was just more. I enjoyed more just covering the rally from afar on the channel, and that was getting a lot of interest and stuff, so that was fine. But for a long time, we went to so many that statistically it makes sense that I was there.
- [52:57]
Host
How are you going to pivot your content now that it's. Now the election's over?
- [53:00]
Luke Beasley
I guess, you know, it's probably not going to change a ton. I was thinking we had prepared more for Vice President Harris winning. And what I was really excited for was doing a show that wasn't so oppositional, you know, and getting to dive more into the nuances of. All right, which Democrat, like whenever Biden, his first two years had the House and Senate, a lot of the discussion right when I started my show was about what are like Manchin and cinema doing to block the really good items in his agenda that I was excited about. And those discussions, they're not going to generate the same views, but I was totally ready for that. But now that Trump has won, while I hope he's not bad. We already have early signs that he's going to be about how I warned people he would be. So it is going to be a lot of the same type of content I've been doing, which is, here's what Trump is up to, here's what the MAGA allies of his are up to, here's why I'm against it, and then a big thing in terms of the only I'm always doing this, but to call it a pivot, I guess, is fair. I want to direct people more toward what my type of left of center politics are, because we divide our political discussions into right and left. And that's so oversimplified. I mean, tons of people on the right you'd think are terrible. Tons of people on the left, I think are terrible. And so I want to get better at establishing for people very clearly what it is that I think makes the movement. I want to be a part of itself, like, what characterizes it and what distinguishes it. Of course, it's clear what distinguishes it from maga, but what distinguishes it from sort of your right smack dab in the center, and you're further left than me. And how we can then mobilize those people who agree with my views to. To implement change. A big goal of mine is to not just talk about politics. And we're working right now to figure out how on the ground, we can actually engage in. In voter outreach efforts and mobilize my audience to do so, so that at least next time, however the election goes, we don't feel like there were things that we could have been doing more.
- [55:07]
Host
I like that. Yeah, Left, first right is way too oversimplified.
- [55:10]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [55:10]
Host
Where would you put yourself on. On a chart of, like, far left, far right?
- [55:14]
Luke Beasley
Like, it's tough because it depends on what we're talking about.
- [55:19]
Host
Okay.
- [55:19]
Luke Beasley
For example, some people would characterize universal healthcare as far left, even though every industrialized country has it. I don't find that as super far left. But then you also have the spectrum of how. Where you are on, like, cultural issues. And. And so I would say that in a really oversimplified way, I'm probably like, center far left's over here. And then I'm like, just left the center.
- [55:46]
Host
Okay. So in between center and far left.
- [55:49]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [55:49]
Host
So that's where I am on the right. I just took a test, actually.
- [55:52]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [55:52]
Host
This really cool test. We'll put it in the description, but I didn't vote this election, actually.
- [55:58]
Luke Beasley
Wow, that's crazy.
- [55:59]
Host
I've never Voted.
- [56:00]
Luke Beasley
Oh, yeah.
- [56:03]
Host
Crazy, right?
- [56:04]
Luke Beasley
That's crazy.
- [56:04]
Host
Why?
- [56:05]
Luke Beasley
Why?
- [56:06]
Host
This time around, I wanted to, but Nevada, you had to, like, go to a specific spot. Even with the mail ins, you had to go to specific spots. So I was just. Honestly, I was lazy.
- [56:18]
Luke Beasley
You would have voted for Trump?
- [56:19]
Host
I would have.
- [56:20]
Luke Beasley
Wow. That's crazy.
- [56:21]
Host
You think that's crazy?
- [56:22]
Luke Beasley
Sean, Sean, Sean, Sean, Sean.
- [56:24]
Host
Why do you think that's crazy? I grew up Democrat. I grew up in New Jersey. My parents voted for Obama.
- [56:30]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. They're so disappointed in you.
- [56:33]
Host
No, she. I don't want to put my mom on the spot, but, like, you know.
- [56:37]
Luke Beasley
No, I. I find it crazy because, again, I don't. This is my point, too. There are some people who, if you're not exactly where they are, you're terrible. Right. You're the enemy. That's not how I think. There are a lot of people. You sort of saw sort of the Liz Cheney, Vice President Harris alliance that demonstrated politics is about disagreeing on policy. That's fine. It's totally fine. When it gets to the foundational stuff, it's not a matter of are we just ideologically different and we can totally still engage in our democratic process because the foundation is our democratic process. And so Trump threatening that, as I keep coming back to, is inexcusable. And I wish more people who were committed to our constitutional process would value that more and say, okay, however I feel about Harris's proposal on the enhanced child tax credit or building more housing or whatever, I. I still understand that she's the only one who hasn't called for the termination of the Constitution.
- [57:34]
Host
Fair enough. But can you agree that the left is not what it used to be from when we were growing up? That has changed always.
- [57:39]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, there's been a bunch of shifts.
- [57:40]
Host
Because I feel like I haven't changed that much since I was a kid.
- [57:44]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. But I think a lot of what you define the left as doesn't represent the people in power. Like, this is something a lot of people get confused about. Online engagement sells and so on. Both the right and the left, a lot of times, extremism is overrepresented. So then how do we know? Okay, well, we could just both be straw manning each other constantly. Well, I say look to people who actually have their hands on power, because then you see who's relevant with our political discourse and who represents enough people that they were able to be voted into power. And so what you see when you do that comparison is Biden, for example, governed in some ways pretty progressively. But I would Say in a way that a lot of people find common sense if they dove into the policy of it. I don't think most people have an issue with his infrastructure bill. If you combine his infrastructure bill and his inflation reduction act, it's adding zero net to the, to the deficit. You have all these initiatives to both boost energy production while also pushing forward the green energy initiatives, but not doing so in a way that will jolt us where obviously producing record oil still under Biden and the crime plummet as a product of certain investments and the macro trends, of course, the PACT act, veterans benefits, you know, like his governance hasn't been super controversial, but Fox News would just collapse if they admitted that. So they have to stimulate a lot of things about, oh, this random tiktoker who, you know, said this about some trans issue. That's what Biden's up to today when it doesn't actually represent it. And so you would say, well, how do you know that's not the same thing going on in the right. And in a sense it is. Like, if anyone has ever said all Republicans are Nazis, they're probably consumed by unrepresentative extremist examples.
- [59:29]
Host
Right.
- [59:30]
Luke Beasley
Because all Republicans obviously aren't. Very small percentage would be. But the person in the highest position of power is the extremist that I'm talking about. Or Marjorie Taylor Greene is the extremist that I'm talking about. And so right now there, there's an extremism problem on both sides, but extremism is making it disproportionately into positions of power in the Republican Party compared to the Democratic Party.
- [59:53]
Host
Yeah, they did place a lot of spotlight on the trans issues this election. I noticed, especially in Cali. Right. There was some bill passed there with trans kids in school or. I don't know.
- [60:02]
Luke Beasley
Yeah, it's a big one. It's a provocative one for people. I would. I don't like invalidating people's feelings in general, even though I do it a lot, but even though they're wrong about the economy and wrong about crime. But I would warn them that that's definitely one that's blown out of proportion. Like, people are convinced that that's a more relevant issue to their life than things that are so much more relevant, like structural economic things and Democratic things. But on it, I think also that's another one Democrats should have better messaging on. Again, the nuance makes it a more complicated bumper sticker. But we can both respect people's rights and love people and support people's identities while Also not being perceived as too extreme on issues like the trans sports issue.
- [60:50]
Host
Yeah. I never let politics get in the way of business for me.
- [60:53]
Luke Beasley
Okay.
- [60:54]
Host
I send a lot of business to liberals, to Democrats. It doesn't matter to me. Do you let it affect your business?
- [61:01]
Luke Beasley
My business is politics. Let me see. Do you mean, like, would you. Don't go to a.
- [61:06]
Host
Would you enter a business partnership if someone was a conservative?
- [61:09]
Luke Beasley
50.
- [61:09]
Host
50 partnership.
- [61:10]
Luke Beasley
Oh, it totally depends on, like, what it is.
- [61:13]
Host
Okay.
- [61:13]
Luke Beasley
If they wanted to help with our show. No.
- [61:17]
Host
Okay. So if it relates to your political business, then no.
- [61:19]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. Because one of the things that makes, you know, we have the guys that work for the show in the room with us. And one of the things that makes it so worthwhile as we all believe in what we're working on.
- [61:29]
Host
Okay.
- [61:29]
Luke Beasley
The mission really fuels us because, like the lead up to election, it was the wee hours of the morning to the wee hours of the morning, just right.
- [61:37]
Host
You're with them all day.
- [61:38]
Luke Beasley
It was brutal. And what makes that doable is really believing that this is worthwhile and that it matters. So if I had someone who is managing the business stuff but didn't believe in the mission of it, I think it would make it less worthwhile for them and me as well. But then on a lot of things, like, I have a lot of conservative. I grew up in Texas, so a lot of conservatives in my family, and that doesn't at all get in the way of our family relationship.
- [62:05]
Host
Oh, nice.
- [62:05]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [62:05]
Host
So no arguments at the Thanksgiving dinner table?
- [62:08]
Luke Beasley
No. And. Well, some arguments, but no. Since I started doing this as a job, people really avoid talking because, you know, most people are just sort of going through their life. They have a few things that are on their mind, but if they bring it up, I'm going to be. I have all these things that I've been thinking about all day that I want to barf at you. So they've. They bring it up less. But I've gotten better, too, at not showing that in people's faces unless they want it to be. But I also. It's interesting, like, when I. The first type of content that I got into doing was going to Trump rallies and interviewing people. And then even with the interviews I've done with Trump supporters, like in studios and stuff, I really find a lot of their views just reprehensible. But I also see that it's not a product of them, you know, being evil or something. So it's interesting. I wish people could see and I. We shown this sometimes, but how we'll be debating. And it's not that there's like a genuine to non genuine switch going on with the cameras, but it's just once you're no longer talking about politics, then I'm walking to them, you know, out of the studio, and it's just super.
- [63:05]
Host
And you're from.
- [63:05]
Luke Beasley
There's like a really pleasant person, you know, how you and I would be. And I. I hope more people can. Can do that. But I see why on certain issues it feels like a line that can't be crossed.
- [63:20]
Host
You know, I see that. No, Ben Shapiro has the same view. I saw him on George Shanko's podcast and he was saying how within his media company, he. They have to share a certain view. That's why he asked Candace Owens.
- [63:31]
Luke Beasley
Yeah.
- [63:31]
Host
So I could see that.
- [63:33]
Luke Beasley
Yeah. And it really does because otherwise the, the daily work can just. I don't want it to feel like just a 9 to 5, you know, it feeling like a mission and a passion makes it all the nine to five feeling is gone.
- [63:49]
Host
Yeah, I could totally understand that. Well, Luke, it's been cool, man. I can't wait to do a part two with you one day. Where can people find you, Luke Bees?
- [63:54]
Luke Beasley
On YouTube.
- [63:55]
Host
We'll link it below.
- [63:56]
Luke Beasley
Explicit podcast listeners. Not explicit, but specifically just podcast listeners. We also have all that as a podcast.
- [64:02]
Host
I'm arranged some debates for you too. Yeah, I'll get Sneako if you want.
- [64:06]
Luke Beasley
That'll be awesome.
- [64:07]
Host
All right, guys, check your stuff out below.
- [64:09]
Luke Beasley
Peace.