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The Charlie Kirk Show
Ask Charlie Anything 48: GOP Chances in 2022? Who the Heck is William Blackstone? Charlie's Reading List and More
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Hey everybody, Happy Monday on this ask me anything episode. We dive into was America really founded as a Christian country? What am I supposed to do to be able to push back against all this liberal nonsense? And also what is going on with education in our country? We unpack that and so much more. I take your questions. You emailed me freedomarliekirk.com if you want to get involved with Turning Point USA, you should go to tpusa.com tpusa.com do something, tell. Get involved for the future of our country, especially if you're a student or a young person. It's tpusa.com if you like this program and you enjoy listening to what we talk about every day, please go to charliekirk.com support and it's Monday. We're up early making sure you guys have the content that you need to be able to live patriotic and full lives. Buckle up everybody. Here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the white. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point usa. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. 49% of Americans say their top New Year's resolution is to save money in the next year or. Well, let's check that box right now. When your Family switches to PeopleTalk from AT&T Verizon or T Mobile, you could save over $800 a year. That's real money every single month right back in your pocket. And you don't have to sacrifice coverage. PearTalk is on the same network as one of the big carriers, but they charge you half. That's right. No gimmicks, no fluff added to your bills. Which is why peertalk is the top rated wireless company by consumer affairs right now. Get unlimited Talk, text and 2 gigs of data for just 20 bucks a month. And if you go over on data usage, they don't charge you for it. Is grab your mobile phone, dial £250 and say Charlie Kirk. When you do, you'll save 50% off your first month. Again, dial £250 and just say Charlie Kirk. It's the secret password. PureTalk is simply smarter wireless. Hey everybody, Happy Monday. Hope you Had a wonderful weekend and I hope you listened to the last couple episodes of the Charlie Kirk show. We had Dr. Keith Rose on yesterday. We had some very important episodes in the last couple days with Senator Rand Paul, unpacking the Gamestop saga and so much more. And every Monday we like to give you a Ask Me Anything episode where I take your questions directly. When you email us your questions freedomarliekirk.com while showing us you're subscribed to the Charlie Kirk show podcast, you get in the running to be selected and if I select you, you get a signed copy of the MAGA Doctrine. So all these questions have been selected by you and we love kicking off the week this way. And this episode is exclusive. In fact, all Ask Me Anything episodes are only on our podcast channels. Sometimes we'll put them on YouTube, but they're almost always on our podcast feeds. So if you're on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please make sure you're subscribed and maybe get a friend of yours to subscribe as well. Okay, let's dive right into it. Gary from New Mexico. Hey Charlie, a lot of my teachers say America was not free, founded on Christian principles. How do I refute that? Thanks so much. Well, congratulations Gary. You win a signed copy of the MAGA Doctrine. Well, first of all, it's a statement of fact that America was founded by Bible believing Christians with a philosophy that was directly inspired from the Bible, with a vast majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence being regular church going Christians. If you read the Declaration of Independence, it mentions God four times and it says explicitly that we get our rights and our existence from God and that we must obey the laws of nature and nature's God. But anytime anyone brings this up, put them on defense, respectfully of course, and just ask the question, hey, what do you think of William Blackstone? They might say, I don't think much of William Blackstone. Why? Well, William Blackstone, who of course was born in 1723 and passed away in 1780, he was an English jurist, he was a politician, and he is one of the most influential figures that basically founded what we know today as common law. All the founders knew their Blackstone. All the founders were inspired by his writings and some of his most famous quotes we still use to this day. William Blackstone was an unapologetic Christian and derived the truth that he talked about from the truth of the Bible. He really started to theorize this idea of original law with God's law being at the very top. William Blackstone argued that we cannot challenge the sovereign, the ultimate sovereign being almighty God. He believed that there were really four areas of common law. He was very much inspired by Aquinas, but as Aquinas was, of course, one of the early church fathers, Blackstone argued that all revelation that matters in creating laws are revelations from Scripture. I cannot emphasize enough William Blackstone's critical nature to America's founding. He believed and wrote extensively that God was inseparable to any form of a functioning governmental system. Now, mind you, William Blackstone, he was a defender of the British monarchy. And of course, we took great exception with the British monarchy. But William Blackstone was really onto something when it came to using the laws of nature and nature's God to create a civil society. Blackstone, of course, knew his classics. He studied Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in great detail. He was the first professor ever to create a course on common law. Now, common law versus statutory law gave judges more leeway. Blackstone re emphasized the idea of common law being necessary for civil society to endure and to flourish. Now, Blackstone and Montesquieu alongside John Locke were three of the most critical philosophers behind the American founding. Montesquieu, of course, being a French judge. We did an entire episode on Montesquieu a couple weeks ago. John Locke, one of the three social contract theorists, Jean Jacques Rousseau being the other, Thomas Hobbes who wrote the Leviathan, and of course, John Locke. John Locke recognized that our rights come from God, not from government. John Locke also wrote extensively about tolerance and what it means to be tolerant. But most importantly, without John Locke, you do not get Thomas Jefferson. William Blackstone re emphasized the presumption of innocence for the accused. Now, there's a lot of mechanics that came before Blackstone, such as the idea of lawyers, the idea of cross examination of witnesses, the introduction of evidence. But most importantly, William Blackstone argued that every single person that comes before the court of law must be given a presumption that that person is innocent until proven guilty by their peers. One of the most famous quotes of William Blackstone which our entire system of government, which our entire system of law, and with it our entire system of government is built around as quote, it is better that 10 guilty escape than one innocent suffer. Now, he drew inspiration from this quote from Abraham. When Abraham asks God where, he said, God, should we consume the righteous with the wicked? And God says, no, I will spare the righteous and I will condemn the wicked. The idea that you should not have a justice system that tries to punish many, to make sure that all of the Guilty are accused. Instead, Blackstone said that one innocent person must not suffer. If that means that 10 people that are guilty suffer alongside them, the system must be difficult to convict. The system must inherently protect those natural rights. And that's not to say the system must act as if people are not doing wrong. Instead, freedom for that one innocent person must be cherished more than the penalty for 10 guilty people. Blackstone really argued of common law versus statutory law. He loved the Bible. He believed that the Bible was the blueprint for all functioning societies. These terms of self evident law and the laws of nature we all get from William Blackstone. Now properly understood, the Declaration of Independence, which was written by Thomas Jefferson, was a court filing. That's right. If understood in its proper context and its proper timing, the Declaration of Independence was nothing more than a legal brief submitted not so respectfully to the King of England, saying, we want to separate. Grant us our own independence. Now, as we mentioned in a previous episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, Thomas Jefferson, in the original draft of the United States Declaration of Independence, in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, actually condemned slavery and blamed King George for bringing slavery to the colonies. Now that never made it in the final draft for very specific reasons, one of them being they did not want to divide the colonies or Britain would divide the colonies for them. But just to throw away all of the founding documents saying that they were pro slavery bigots, it's actually a lot more complicated and nuanced than that. Blackstone drew great inspiration from Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton, of course, who discovered the the laws of physics as we know them to this day. Aristotle and da Vinci understood the laws of physics, but Sir Isaac Newton articulated them in a way that no one had before. Of course, the three laws of physics as we know them to today is that first, an object will not change its motion until a force acts upon it. An object at rest will stay at rest. The force of an object is equal to a mass times acceleration. Force equals mass times acceleration. And the third law is when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and of opposite direction. Plainly said, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. Blackstone was fascinated by the laws of physics. And he believed that if you can understand the laws of physics, you can also understand the laws of human beings. And that's what scripture is for. Blackstone was not right about everything. He thought that kings could do no wrong. Now, he thought kings could be illogical. He did defend the divine right of kings, something that is directly condemned by James Madison in the writing of the United States Constitution. Where Blackstone was wrong on that, he was right on the idea of looking to Scripture for inspiration. He argued that property, liberty, health and humanity must never be violated under any set of circumstances by the sovereign. Now, mind you, King George was violating a lot of that. But the Founding Fathers saw his writings and drew that as inspiration to actually implement them in real form. But the most important legacy of William Blackstone in America, and with that, with Western civilization and the entire world, was the First Amendment. The right to assemble, the right to speak, the right to pursue your own religious conscience as you see fit. William Blackstone was the inspiration for the First Amendment, for freedom of speech, for dialogue. The Founding Fathers were playing around with this, and he said, the liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state. But this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications and not in the freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every free man has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public. To forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press. But if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity. Now, he would actually be in favor of changing libel laws, as I am today. But the essence of this quote is that everyone must have the freedom to speak publicly as they see fit. The Founding Fathers saw this, they understood this, they saw the biblical and scriptural basis for this, and they implemented it in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Anyone who says America was not founded on Christian ideas, on Christian thinkers, on Christianity or the Bible, they got to get through William Blackstone, not to mention Jonathan Edwards, not to mention Whitfield and the First Great Awakening, not to mention the pastors who formed and founded the philosophical and religious backing for America. All of that is something that the people who say that must grapple with. Where Jonathan Edwards gave his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, that argued that there must need for a revival in our land. The First Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening. The First Great Awakening came right before America's founding. The Black Robe Regiment. But the person that really wrote at a philosophical level, with the diction, the sophistication, the historical knowledge that the Founding Fathers respected, because the Founding Fathers were very well read. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, a little bit less George Washington was a man of action, but he was still very well read. But Thomas Jefferson especially, and James Madison, they pored over the writings of William Blackstone, they understood that the Bible must be a blueprint. They're not going to try to start a theocracy or a dominionist type government instead of. They knew a pluralistic society founding on the teachings of the Bible was the only moral way to govern. Now, mind you, they did not want a democracy. A lot of people say we must have a democracy, an Athenian democracy. Well, that's how they killed Socrates. Socrates who taught Plato, Plato who taught Aristotle. Socrates was killed by mob rule by the majority. Instead, a constitutional republic respecting the writings and the teachings of the Bible, the truths that the Bible tells, the protection of the innocent, the rights of the accused, the cross examination of witnesses, all of that comes from Scripture. That a constitutional republic where certain things cannot be voted away by just the simple up or down vote. Now, things can be amended, things can be changed, but it takes a very long, long, overwhelming process. For example, the abolition of slavery. It's a good thing that we had the ability to amend our original founding documents, but it wouldn't just, it couldn't just be done by a 51 vote, 51 person vote. It took getting states involved, it took building coalitions. And I'm glad the founding fathers gave us the capacity to amend our Constitution. But at the same token, if There was a 51 person vote in the Senate that said, you know what, we're going to get rid of the First Amendment, can't happen. It would take a coalition of states. It would take interpretation of courts. That's the difference between a republic and a democracy. And so great question. I appreciate it. You win a signed copy of the MAGA doctrine. I could go at length on this topic and I've done a lot of scholarship and a lot of study and I appreciate the question and thank you for it. Freedomarliekirk.com Next question here. Hey, Charlie, are you aware that three Republican senators won't be running in 2022? It looks like you guys have a lot of work to do to win back the majority as Democrats see an opportunity. Another question. Is it more important that we flip the Senate than the House? Steve? So, yes, let's talk about 2022. It seems like it's a far way away, but candidates are already starting to launch their candidacies and starting to think about running. So there's a couple states that are in play that will determine the future of the United States Senate. Let's start with the Senate. There is currently a 5050 tie in the United States Senate and it benefits the Democrats because the Vice President of the United States can break that tie. So coming up in 2022, three Republicans are retiring. Senator Richard Burr from North Carolina, Senator Rob Portman from Ohio, and Senator Pat TOOMEY. Those are three states that President Trump won in 2016 that will be up. We are not sure if Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin will be retiring or whether he will be running again. North Carolina, Ohio And Pennsylvania are three critical Senate races for Mitch McConnell to at least keep some of the races close so that he can become Senate Majority Leader. In Iowa, Senator Chuck Grassley is deciding whether or not to run again. There's a open Senate race coming in Missouri, in Kansas and Oklahoma, in Arkansas, Louisiana, those should be safe Republican seats. And there are two races happening in North Dakota and South Dakota, also safe Republican seats. There's a race happening in Idaho and Utah, both of which should be comfortable Republican races. In addition, there's a state. There's a race happening in South Carolina, again comfortably Republican. Now going to where Republicans can pick up some ground. There is a race happening in Arizona and, and Georgia. Those two races will be top tier races for Senate Republicans. In particular, Senator Mark Kelly and Senator Raphael Warnock will be top focuses for the Republicans to win back the Senate majority. So in order for Republicans to win the majority, here's their game plan. They have to hold all the comfortable Republican races, such as Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida. If Marco Rubio runs again, he should be just fine. And then they have to hold the three that they already have, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, which will be difficult. And then flip at least one, flip one Democrat to a Republican. There's also a Senate race happening in New Hampshire. It's just becoming an increasingly tough state to win in. But you can flip Arizona or you flip Georgia, and Then Senator Mitch McConnell becomes Senate Majority Leader. It all is based on a couple things. Whether or not the House of Representatives and the Senate and President Joe Biden pass HR1, which is House Resolution 1, which changes voting as we know it in our country. And it is also dependent on whether or not there is a wave election. It depends on whether or not that this election is won, that that we usually see in midterms, where the opposing party stands to pick up massive seats, where there is a backlash against the incumbent party that seems to do things too radical or out of the mainstream of the party. So Arizona and Georgia are two critical states. Now. None of this matters if we do not change the way we do elections in our country. We have to change the way we do elections and the way that we count Ballots and the way we register voters and the way we have signature verification, it is critical that. That we make serious and significant reforms in the way we actually do elections in our country. And so that's a little bit of a snapshot in 2022. But to answer your question, what's more important than the Senate, the House? It's critical we get the House back. Nancy Pelosi has been speaker for far too long. She reassumed the speakership in 2018. We have to take back the House of Representatives. We have to get a new speaker of the House. Things are looking good for that. House races trended in the Republican direction in 2020. A lot of Democrats are retiring. There's new maps coming up. States like Arizona and Texas and Florida are gaining seats. Republicans tend to do very, very well in congressional races, especially in the heartland of our country and in the Sun Belt. I think Republicans are poised to take back the House of representatives in 2022. Ideally, we take back the House alongside taking back the Senate. We'll be in a good position coming into 2024, but get engaged, get involved. Run for your precinct committee positions. Get involved in your state party. It's already coming up 2022. We cannot be taken by surprise. It is more important than ever that we assume this position of leadership in our party and that we are ready to field grassroots candidates, conservative candidates, to take back our positions of leadership in 2022. Next question here. Hey, Charlie, love what you're doing and your team. Thank you. You've been an inspiration. Couple things. Now that I'm no longer doing any social media, can you tell me great ways of getting good factual news? Also, I plan on purchasing the Tale of Two Cities after hearing your shows last week. I too, plan on getting a copy of, quote, Reflections on the Existence of God to further my appreciation of knowledge of our God. Awesome. Can you please suggest to me other great reads for someone who loves our country and really only become political since Trump? God bless you, man, and keep up the great work. Thank you. Well, Adam out of Dallas, Fort Worth, thank you. You win a signed copy of my book, the Maga Doctrine. There's a couple books I'd recommend. I'd recommend Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, the last great Roman emperor, who, of course, had a little bit of a troublesome son, Commodus. But Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a phenomenal piece of literature for anyone that has to deal in the position of leadership and with a lot of adversity. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a tremendous read. I'd also recommend for people that are maybe trying to find whether or not they believe in Jesus Christ or they believe in the Bible. The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel is a terrific book. I also recommend the Book that Built yout World by Vishal Mangdalwadi. I have recommended this book many times before on this podcast and it is a terrific book. And in addition, I encourage all of you that might want to get just big ideas but synthesize them easier. Go to thinker.org it's T H I N K R.org, you can go to thinker.org Charlie. You guys can understand big ideas very quickly. So for example, there's books@thinker.org that would take you weeks to read, but actually you'll be able to understand them and digest them a lot easier. And so let's just go to some of the examples here@thinker.org, and you actually go to thinker.org books and by the way you spell it T H I n k r.org One of those here@thinker.org is cynical theories by James Lindsay. We've had him on our podcast before and we got some great response there. At Cynical Theories, it talks about what critical race theory is in postmodernism is and how to deconstruct it. Where does our new woke language actually come from, and why is it so harmful to actual progress in the realm of social justice? The social justice movement that dominates the thinking of contemporary society didn't always exist. Rather, it originated in the 1960s French academia through an intellectual movement called postmodernism, a way of thinking about reality that disregards objective truth and meaning. Later, in the 1980s and 90s, postmodern thought produced critical race theory or critical theory, which supplies the current social justice movement with a majority of its ideas. Liberal thinkers such as Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay illustrate the rise of social justice movements in culture and the academy, advocating for a return to true liberalism as a means to question reality without forsaking objectivity. For example, critical race theory does not believe in math, they don't believe in science, they don't believe in objectivity, they don't believe in freedom of speech, they don't believe in the individual, they do not believe in Western society, they don't believe in tolerance. Instead, they only believe in power struggles. At thinker.org you'll be able to really understand these ideas in a short period of time, such as postmodernism has a radical skepticism which denies our ability to know anything. But culture creates truth. It also talks about postmodernists needed to change, so it's decided the world needed to change too. With the help of some ridiculous theory in this book, you'll be able to unpack what critical theory really is and how critical theory unravels discourses to prove that language creates identity. It talks about how identity determines the capacity for power and for knowledge. But identity politics wants to turn this on its head. And it also talks about, in this book, you can't prove social justice scholarship, but you can't argue with it either. At the core of liberalism is a desire to question, empathize and repair. Small L liberalism, classical liberalism, not leftism that we critiqued so much on this program. So check out thinker.org, it's one of the books Cynical Theories by James Lindsay, friend of ours who's done an amazing job for our country and he's a previous episode of the Charlie Kirk Show. Check it out. And so that's the best way I can answer that question when you ask for a book recommendation. Okay, next question. With all the new Illinois education corruption, at what point will the government try to ban homeschooling? I ask this as a proud homeschooler. Thanks for everything you do, Luke. Luke, thank you for listening. You get a signed copy of the MAGA Doctrine and if anyone is listening from Illinois, I'd love to hear from you. Email me freedomarliekirk.com and I would love to see a Turning Point USA chapter in District 214. And just by the way, anyone listening to this, please get involved with Turning Point USA. TPUSA.com TPUSA.com, start a chapter. Get involved. TPUSA.com Getinvolved is actually the best place to do that. Okay, yes, they are going to try to ban homeschooling soon. This is their next big project. Be ready for it. Beware of it. Look, the left, they have done everything they possibly can to, to control education in our country, to even control it through parochial or Christian or Catholic education. Now they want to control homeschooling. They are going to put through edicts and measures in California and other states, you heard it here first. To try and control what you can teach your child in your home. Of course it's unconstitutional. Of course it's immoral and it should be illegal. But this is coming to schools very soon. And we did a video about all the nonsense happening in the Illinois education system I encourage you guys to check it out on our YouTube channel, type in Charlie Kirk and just subscribe to our YouTube channel, which always helps us. But we went into great detail in this where in the new Illinois bill it will be required for you to teach critical race theory, mobilize students for social activism. For example, a class might mandatory by Illinois law might have to go to a gun protest or an environmental protest. That's where your tax dollars are going in Illinois and that's where it's going to be happening all across the country very, very soon. So to answer your question, yes, homeschooling is on the chopping block. And if you're homeschooling your kids in a blue state, just watch the legislation happening in your state because it might happen very, very soon where they might make it illegal for you to teach your child. Another question from Illinois. Boy, we have thousands and thousands of emails from people in Illinois. I love it. Hello Charlie, thank you for sharing your video. I'm currently a teacher in Illinois at St. Vincent DePaul School and we do teach the Common Core standards. Thankfully, I'm able to teach and send my three boys to Catholic schools. I choose this because of the indoctrination going on in public school system. My question for you is this. Will the Catholic schools have to follow the so called curriculum since we follow Common Core? Yes, you will. I will be sharing this information with my principal so I can get an answer. I'll let you know. Thanks for all you do. Theresa Joseph or Tressa Joseph, conservative mother and teacher. I believe you will. I believe that these standards will be state standards for any school that is accredited by the Illinois State Board of Education, which most of the private religious schools have to be as well. I'll look into that. But I'm 99% sure that most of these pieces of legislation also hit private schools. Another question here. Hey Charlie, I want to start a Turning Point USA group. I'm a little bit scared and nervous given how hard it is to be a conservative in my high school. What are your thoughts? Thanks so much, Isaac from Virginia. Well, I encourage you to do that. You can go to tpusa.com getinvolved and start a chapter today. It's the best thing you can possibly do. But look, people are gonna come after you no matter what. The most fulfilling thing you could do in your life is to assume responsibility for truth. You will receive backlash. You will receive some condemnation. Some people might get very angry at you and they'll call you bad names. You'll become a tougher person and that adversity will make you into a better prepared human being to endure the suffering of life. Look, we all know that life is full of suffering. The real question is, what are you going to do to make yourself stronger to be able to live a fulfilled life? Now, looking to the Scriptures and looking to the Bible, we are told not to play the victim, not to blame other people, but to pick up our suffering. You see, schools are supposed to make you stronger, not train you to remove all the difficult stuff around you. How do I make myself better prepared to endure the inevitable suffering that I will encounter? How do you overcome the difficulty of life? Find something that matters. Find something worthy of being responsible for. By the way, you will then have difficulty. People will lie about you, they'll slander you, they'll libel you. But then you're able to put yourself together, be thankful for your circumstances around you, and then you say what actually matters in the world? Do I want to just be someone that goes along with all my classmates around the black square tile and the spitting on Trump supporters and Christians, or do I want to pursue what I know is true in the world? Do I want to pursue something that is worthwhile? Do I want to pursue something that is rooted in the moral construct that built the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world? That is a journey worth embarking on. And yes, if you start a Turning Point USA group, you will receive backlash. Yes, if you start a Turning Point USA group, people will call you bad names but you'll become stronger and tougher and you'll meet friends for a lifetime and you will become a better person because of it. So I encourage you to do that. Tpusa.com getinvolved and if you guys want to get involved in a chapter and you're having any issues at all getting in touch with your local staff member. We have over 60 full time staff members at Turning Point USA just in our field program. You know how to reach me. Freedomarliekirk.com thank you guys so much for listening. If you want to support us, please do so@charliekirk.com support it is late on Sunday evening right before our livestream. We're doing this and I do it because I know how much it means to a lot of you and thank you for supporting us@charliekirk.com support every day. I am live from 12 to 2 Eastern on our YouTube channel. You can find us on rumble rumble.com r u m ble.com we are on many, many radio stations across the country, from AM560, the answer to the local station in Phoenix, Arizona, starting at 12:00 Eastern on most stations. But it scatters around every day. You guys can find us on radio, on podcasting, as you well know. So thank you guys for getting behind us. It means a lot. God bless you. Talk to you soon.