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- [00:10]
A
It is that time of year once again where the beautiful freedom lovers of this great land descend on Las Vegas. It is time for Freedom Fest. It is July, it is hot. The, the political rhetoric is heating up, but not as much as the longing for freedom in every form. And that's why we go to Freedom Fest. That's why we gather and we talk and we share ideas and we argue a little bit. And it is, it is a very poignant and important time to put everything else aside so like minded liberty lovers can really share ideas, take stock in where we are since we last met last year and hopefully gain some new perspective and a frigging game plan going forward so freedom can finally triumph in every way imaginable and necessary. Spike Cohen joins me now. He is a Freedom Fest ambassador. He is the founder of youf Are the Power. He is fighting the power in every way possible, not only as a public enemy fan, but as someone who sees the injustices that are foisted upon innocent families throughout our judicial system. And he fights to reunite families and he does incredible work. Spike is going to be at Freedom Fest. He is always a Freedom Fest. And Spike Cohen is here. Spike, welcome back to Kennedy Saves the World. So what are you looking forward to in Vegas?
- [01:50]
B
Gosh, I don't even know where to start. First of all, finally getting to see you again. That will be always our kind of our annual meetup. That'll be nice. I am looking forward to the, the, the temperate 110°, whether it's a dry heat. I'm looking forward to that. I, I'll tell you what, so obviously I can give the whole spiel about Freedom Fest and how incredible it is. And there's people coming from all over the world, liberty lovers from all over, you know, huge names. Kelsey Grammer, Rand Paul, Dean.
- [02:23]
A
Dean Cain. Superman is going to be there.
- [02:26]
B
Superman. Yes, Dean. Superman is going to be there and he's going to read, I think the Declaration of independence on the 250 year anniversary of when it was publicly read. There's all this incredible stuff, but if I'm being, and this is a very selfish answer, if I'm being honest, the thing I'm personally most excited about is this year my organization, you are the Power, is going to have our own room. We're calling it the you are the Power Action center, where we're going to do exactly what you were just talking about, actually having a game plan. It is great to come to these events and talk about freedom and make network with people and make plans and Everything else, we're not going to wait till we get home to do that. We're actually going to onboard people there to get started for fighting for liberty now.
- [03:05]
A
And the thing that I love about your organization and what you do, and I feel like this is always been your role in this movement is giving people practical, actionable things that they can not just think about. Because, you know, thinking about things is important. It really is like coming to your own conclusions about your own personal political philosophy. That's a very important thing. But there are a lot of people who've done that for a lot of years and now they want action. They want to be a part of the solution that involves more than just talking and chin stroking. And I'm really happy that people get to go to you and they get to hear about some of the things that are happening in their communities that they have no idea. I mean, the stories that you are involved in, that you talk about, that you share are, you know, in some cases they're tragic. In some cases they're mind blowing. And they are happening in communities across the country. And that's why as people come from all over the country to Freedom Fest at Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas, they can hear about some of these stories because so much of what you talk about feels paralyzing. But that's the amazing thing about your organization. And you can actually tell people no, like, don't get mad. Don't insult people. That doesn't do any good. Here's where we need you. Here's what's happening in your community. Here's what's happening over here in Georgia. And that's a place you can help.
- [04:42]
B
Yeah. And we have results to back it up. So in the past three years alone, we have processed over a thousand cases. That's everything from helping wrongfully accused parents to get their children back after they've been wrongly accused of child abuse. That's people that were facing losing their homes or their farms or small businesses to eminent domain. And we were able to get the government to back off and give them, not take their homes from them. We've been able to stop bad legislation that would have in one case, put children in foster in juvenile detention indefinitely without any accusation of a crime. You know, the thing we debated doing to suspected members of Al Qaeda 25 years ago, that's what the state of Tennessee was debating doing to their own children and grandchildren. And, and we ended up stepping in and putting an end to that. We stopped a public works project that would have destroyed an entire rural county in Arkansas from being done. And so, you know, a. Let me ask you this, Kennedy. So we've taken on over a thousand cases. What would you say would be a good success rate? Like, if I said we won X percent of the cases we took on during that time, what would you say would be a number to say that we were, like, very successful?
- [05:54]
A
I mean, realistically, I would say 30%.
- [05:57]
B
30%? Yeah. Some people say 30, some people say 50. We've lost once.
- [06:01]
A
Oh, are you serious?
- [06:03]
B
We've lost one time. We have had a roughly 99.9% success rate.
- [06:08]
A
That is unbelievable. And. And what is this secret that you're doing that that other organizations, other people, other freedom fighters have not done in the past? What have you. What have you stumbled upon? What have you realized? What has been the. The driving force behind that success rate?
- [06:26]
B
So, first of all, just knowing the clown that I am, I have to attribute most of it, if not all of it, to God. Because anyone who knows me knows the fact that I'm behind anything successful, much less that successful. It's clearly supernatural that it's happening. But I will say in terms of,
- [06:38]
A
like, you're a good Lutheran, I'll tell you that.
- [06:40]
B
Well, and you can trust me because I am a Lutheran.
- [06:43]
A
That's right.
- [06:43]
B
But the. But I would say in terms of strategy, I think the biggest thing, it's probably twofold. One is that instead of just raising awareness, which is an important, important aspect of what we do, when we find out about these causes, we put them out on social media. But we don't just put it out there or maybe, you know, mention the social media handles of the officials doing it. We do that, too. But the biggest thing we do is we give people a link they can go to on our website where with a couple clicks of a button or presses of their finger on their phone, they just sent out emails to all of the officials involved and they're able to tell other people about it so they can do the same. And we've been able to have this swarm effect of getting thousands, in some cases tens of thousands of people to contact a bunch of officials, sometimes local officials, who are not used to getting contacted by anyone, much less thousands of people. And we see them often immediately backing off. And if that doesn't work, we just keep doing it over and over again and escalating until they finally back off and do the right thing. The second part is that I think it's our overall approach. I think in this space of fighting for freedom, we tend to think of things as principle policy. And then people, we start with the principles that we hold, you know, non aggression, limited government and those types of things. We apply that to a given policy and how it should look. And then from there, obviously it's going to help people. That's almost like basically a foregone conclusion. The problem is we're not normal. Normal people think people, then maybe policy and then possibly one day principle, but really they're just thinking people. They talk and think about people. That's why demagoguery works so well for them. And so what we do is instead of saying, oh, there's this, this law that leads to lots of parents losing their children, or there's this bill that could pass that could cause this to happen, we focus on the people that are affected and the people that are doing it to them and then give people an opportunity to put an end to it. And from there we then go into the policies behind it and how we can put an end to it and the principle behind that.
- [08:39]
A
That's amazing. I mean, it's really. Because so often we just rely on antiquated systems and hope for the best. You know, there's a lot of hoping for the best. And you know, oftentimes when people put stories out there, it just makes you mad, but there's really nothing you can do about it. So, you know, sometimes people take action solely by themselves because they're really mad. And then they end up calling some government official and threatening them and threatening to do horrible things and, and that never ends well, you know, because then you, you have someone who has a little bit of power and they're like, oh, I'm going to double down on the power I have and I'm actually going to make an inconvenience truth for some family a permanent reality. And that's, that's brutal.
- [09:35]
B
It is. And in fact, that actually speaks to a third thing that. I'm glad you brought it up. I think part of the reason we've been so successful and this is somewhat counterintuitive to a lot of people that have done activism, we're like downright nice to the officials that we're targeting. We actually give a template of wording that people can use so, so that they, if they don't have their own words or if their words wouldn't necessarily be that helpful in that moment, all they have to do is add their name at the bottom and press send and they've sent it. And in our, in the, the, the wording we use in our content and the way that we reach out to these people, both publicly and privately, we treat them like human beings who have done something really foolish and stupid or are threatening to do so, and they more than likely think they're doing the right thing and we're going to let them know that they're not. And again, that might sound like a pipe dream we've lost once. Yeah, it does work. And it makes it so that if nothing else, the officials can't try to turn around and call us, you know, dangerous rabble rousers when we're like, like saying hi and please and God bless you.
- [10:35]
A
I think your rabble rousery is, it's quite sane, quite positive, and I'm proud of you for that.
- [10:42]
B
Sane, rousing really is.
- [10:43]
A
I mean, there is some rabble to it, but that's out of necessity. That is, that is the urgency of the human moment in which we find ourselves. Are you, are you and Senator Rand Paul friends?
- [10:57]
B
No. Well, we've met.
- [10:59]
A
Is he, is he your favorite senator
- [11:02]
B
without a, without any peer? Absolutely, yes.
- [11:06]
A
What about Mike Lee?
- [11:09]
B
I agree with Mike Lee more often than I don't, I would say, but I mean, you know, I'm a libertarian. I would say definitely Rand Paul is probably the most libertarian senator. And even though that is kind of like, you know what, slug has the highest vertical leap, I would say he actually has a pretty decent one. Like as, as, as politicians go, he's actually pretty solid. The fact that he made it all the way to U.S. senator and still has the level of principles he does, I actually have a lot of respect for that.
- [11:37]
A
Yeah. Because you have to be comfortable making people kind of mad if you're going to be effective. And so many politicians don't want to do that. They don't want to make people mad and they also don't want people mad at them, you know, which speaks to being decent and kind to those in power who actually, you know, if they were given a positive nudge, if, if they do it in the right direction, it makes everyone's lives better. But when, when someone is automatically on the defensive, like you have just created another layer of work for yourself and your team.
- [12:17]
B
Yeah. And it's especially difficult what he's having to do, I would say, because when your party's in charge, that's when all the compromise and the graft and everything happens. Whereas, you know, it's when you're out of power that you get to, you know, be fully principal and you're a deficit hawk and everyone's on the same page. And it's when the push comes to shove and the campaign promises give way to. Okay, now you're in charge. Now what? It's the people who go, well, I said I was going to do this and so I'm going to do this. Even though we actually won that. I definitely have a tremendous amount of respect for him for that.
- [12:53]
A
Yeah, I like that as well. Don't go anywhere more. Kennedy saves the world right after this.
- [13:00]
B
Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at foxnewswineshop.com with code FNRADIO 2020. Discount. Excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31, 2026. Must be 21 or older to order. Please drink responsibly.
- [13:14]
A
Who would you like to see run for president?
- [13:17]
B
Gosh.
- [13:19]
A
And that can be a two parter. Like, like, who would you like to see run for president? Maybe that person is you, who maybe for a party that's not going to win or. Who would you like to see run for president? Who actually has a shot?
- [13:32]
B
Well, definitely not it for me. I, I'm very happy where I am if I run it for the hills. But I would say I, I'm interested in the idea of Thomas Massie running. I, I would be interested to see that. I will say that there's, there's a few people. Thomas Massey is probably the first one to come to mind. Justin Amash would be another one now.
- [13:54]
A
No, no, not anymore. Nope. Massie. Yes. All for him. Like high fiving. I think he is fantastic and brave and well spoken and bold and he cares about people and he's always been good to his constituents, who will soon be his former constituents. Who else?
- [14:18]
B
I like justin moss.
- [14:25]
A
I think people like the idea of Justin Amash.
- [14:28]
B
Well, I'm friends with Justin, so that, that might be coloring my. Coloring my perception, but he, he struck me as a very principal member of Congress when he was in there. And he was in there for what, 10, 11 years, something like that. And so I would say those are kind of the two that come.
- [14:45]
A
Okay, so. So Justin Amash was a congressman. He was very effective. Like, that was a wonderful Justin Amash era. And then he got out and he was like, this sucks. Congress sucks. You have more power in your pinky finger than I do as a congressman. Everything blows. Republicans blow, Democrats blow. Trump blows. Everything sucks. Then he gets out and it's like, oh, you must be very happy now. He's like, no, not really. I want to go back. I'm going to run for Senate. Are you going to win? I don't know. I'm not really going to try hard and people should probably just vote for me. Then he doesn't win. And then it's like, what do you want to do now? I want to be speaker of the House. It's like, oh, yeah, that's probably going to happen. That's, that's very, very pragmatic.
- [15:30]
B
So you're not on board the homage?
- [15:32]
A
No, no.
- [15:33]
B
Okay, now, fair enough, fair enough.
- [15:35]
A
Well, like I said, you at least have to try. You know, it's like, I'm the smartest person in the room is what dooms libertarians. It is not enough, not in this country, not in this moment. You have to try. And it's, it's like trying to get a teenage boy to brush his teeth. It's like if you want to kiss grues, you have to practice a little personal hygiene.
- [16:00]
B
That would be helpful at a few libertarian conventions to let them know that. And I've, I've been to more than a few, so I can say that, I will say. And it drives home a point that we were talking about before. You can have all the head knowledge in the world. At some point you're having to apply it, or the head knowledge is just that and you're even really, you might be sharing it, but if you're not changing people's actions, then at best they've maybe adopted, you know, an idea, but hasn't really changed anything. And that was coming out of the campaign where, I mean, you want to talk about doing Nothing. We got 1%. We did a lot, but it resulted in us getting 1% and coming out of that. I thought, you know what? If I've ever put putting anything anywhere near that much effort into anything again, I want to see some actual results. And that's.
- [16:45]
A
You want to see the 99.9%. I don't blame you. I would never run for office. And maybe for the reasons you just laid out. It sounds horrible. Like the process of, of running and putting your life into it and putting your spouse through all of that, exhausting your personal resources, knowing you're going to lose. It's like, go write books. Go, go stand on a stump in Washington Square park and scream into a bullhorn. That would have more of an impact. You know, I just, it depends, like, what are you trying to do? Like, what are you, what, Honestly, what are you trying to do? And you know, a lot of People, I would say most people who want to run for president are out of their minds. Like they, they are, they are narcissists and, you know, people who have like a somewhat decent shot at viability.
- [17:43]
B
Yeah. When I ran for the vice presidential nomination in 2020, I didn't think for a second I was actually going to get. I was just trying to make a point about, like, how we could communicate ideas. And apparently I did a good job because they gave it to me.
- [17:54]
A
And then I was like, okay, I guess Libertarian vice presidential nominee ever again.
- [18:02]
B
Not the highest bar, but thank you. I did what I could. But coming out of that, it's useful if you're, if you're trying to grow a third party, it's useful to run for these offices, even the ones that you know you're not going to win. For me personally, I needed to see some tangible results, especially after, on the campaign trail, I met person after person after person whose lives were being destroyed, usually at the local and state level. And I thought, here I am running for a federal office that I am not going to win. And everyone already knows that. And there are people that need our help right now and we have the ideas and the means by which to actually help them. And so, you know, sounded like a crazy idea at the time. 99.9% success rate.
- [18:40]
A
No, but you, you have been the very best at it. How do you feel about ranked choice voting?
- [18:46]
B
I am a fan of anything. I Not sure if ranked choice is the best. I'm a fan of anything that allows people to, to break free from the first past. The post system and the, the false dichotomies that come with that. Because if the only. If there's five people running for a race and you and I are the two that are the most likely to win, but no one really likes. There are too many people that don't actually like us and actually find us both detestable, but we have the best odds of winning. They're going to have to do that whole hold your nose and vote for the lesser evil and all that gets stripped away if you allow some kind of plural voting where someone goes, okay, this is my first pick, this is my second pick, and this is my third pick. So that you can kind of hedge your bet with the lesser evil while still voting for who and what you actually want. Plural voting is a version where you don't actually rank them, but you just say any of these would be fine. And the other good thing about that is that, you know, the first past the post System encourages negative campaigning.
- [19:47]
A
Yes.
- [19:47]
B
I don't have to say I'm good. I have to convince them you're like this much more detestable than me, and then I'm good. Whereas plural voting is like, no, I gotta actually build a consensus here. I gotta be one of the people that they pick. So it just, I think for a variety of reasons, I'm not sure if ranked choice is the best. I really haven't done the due diligence to say this is my preferred one. But honestly, in the spirit of plural voting, I support any of the forms of plural voting.
- [20:10]
A
I like it. I like ranked choice voting. I always have. And I went to a seminar on it a couple months ago and I was very impressed with what I heard. And it was one of those things, I guess it might be confirmation bias. Like, I already liked it, but then hearing more about it made me like it even more. Yeah, I guess that's how I feel about, like ancient Greek philosophy.
- [20:31]
B
Yeah, well, and, and figuring out how to parlay that back into what we were talking about. But like ancient Greek philosophy, ranked choice voting doesn't force you to pick lesser evils.
- [20:42]
A
Yes. And I appreciate that. You know, it's like for years I've been like, Spock, you gotta run for president. I love what you're doing now. And the more I hear about it, the more I like it. I'm excited for your action center at Freedom Fest. Will we get to meet some of the families that you have helped?
- [21:03]
B
I don't believe any of the families are going to be there, but my, but the bulk of my team is going to be there. My second in command, Ryan Ralston is going to be there. My media and events guy, Brian Lambreck's going to be there. There's going to be quite a few of the actual, of our core team there. We would like to have events in the future where we have the families come out and tell their story. We want to make sure. I mean, a lot of these families, they got their kids back.
- [21:26]
A
They just want, they're probably traumatized. I don't blame them. I don't blame them at all.
- [21:31]
B
You know, we're, we're not, we're not trying to get people to, to fetch and step in front of people, but I would like to, for those who are willing to do that, we would like to in the future have events where people can tell their story. And then we can also talk about the fact that. And we'll be doing this at Freedom Fest. Yes. We've reunited all these different families. We're still fighting to reunite the Patterson family. We're still fighting to reunite this family and that family. Yes, we stopped these people from losing their homes to eminent domain, but we're still fighting to stop the Mid States Corridor Project in, in. In Indiana, where we're still fighting for the. The Marin Valley Mobile Country Club to be able to keep their homes in California. So to be able to say we've won on these things, and here's this exact same thing happening again. And let's go win on this, too.
- [22:12]
A
Yes. From family separation to eminent domain. You heard all of it from Spike Cohen. Come see us at Freedom Fest. It's so good to talk to you, Spike, and thank you for all you do. I will see you in Vegas.
- [22:25]
B
I can't wait to see you.
- [22:26]
A
All right, come on down. You can buy a ticket day out. We don't mind. Caesars Forum. All right. This has been Kennedy Saves the World along with Spike Cohen. I'm Kennedy. Listen. Ad free With a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime. Members can listen to this show ad free on the Amazon music app. Oh, go ahead and leave me a review while you're there. I'd love to hear what you have to say. You've been listening to Kennedy Saves the World on the Fox News Podcast Network.