Charlie Kirk on Why the Machine is Weaker, Homeschool Revolution, and Life After Trump

[00:00] thankfully critical parts of the machine

[00:01] are falling apart which gives me hope i

[00:03] mean cnn is basically a democrat super

[00:06] pac that no one watches

[00:08] facebook is cratering which is really

[00:11] really interesting to see rumble which

[00:13] you and i really care about is ascending

[00:15] so there are certain trends right now

[00:17] that kind of go into maybe the machine

[00:19] isn't as strong as it once was

[00:22] americans trust in government as an

[00:24] all-time low americans trust in

[00:25] corporations are at all time low you're

[00:27] starting to see people care more about

[00:29] local than national trends which is

[00:31] really really important so i think i

[00:33] think the machine is way weaker than it

[00:35] was even a year ago

[00:44] dave rubin and joining me today is the

[00:45] host of the charlie kirk show the

[00:48] founder of turning point usa and the

[00:51] author of the maga doctrine the only

[00:54] ideas that will win the future

[00:56] charlie old friend welcome back to the

[00:58] reuben report

[00:59] dave you're a good friend honored to be

[01:01] here thank you for having me we've done

[01:03] this a couple times and i thought how

[01:04] can i approach this interview in a way

[01:06] that's a little different than uh what

[01:08] we've done before so i thought we'd

[01:10] start off give me your top 10 reasons

[01:13] you love joe biden

[01:16] top 10 reasons i love joe biden that's

[01:18] um

[01:19] you know i will say he's actually made

[01:21] me prioritize things in life that matter

[01:23] not to say politics don't matter yeah

[01:26] but it's been such a dumpster fire you

[01:28] have to kind of look outside of all the

[01:30] madness

[01:31] and you're like okay what really matters

[01:33] in life right like what exactly gives

[01:35] you purpose and meaning because

[01:37] obviously

[01:38] the things that you know we used to i

[01:41] used to look at the presidency as

[01:42] something i revere and i guess i still

[01:44] do and i love my country but he's been

[01:46] so awful it's like okay there's a couple

[01:48] things i can control in my life like

[01:49] family and relationships friendships uh

[01:52] career and i'm gonna focus on those

[01:54] things and it's kind of the one of the

[01:56] few things i want to thank joe biden for

[01:58] is he has reinforced at least for me

[02:01] things that i control and things i

[02:02] cannot control unfortunately i can't

[02:04] control the southern border i can talk

[02:06] about it it's wide open and it's a total

[02:07] disaster but uh besides that i'm not i'm

[02:10] not sure uh sure what else i would put

[02:12] on that list dave

[02:13] i thought maybe you could come up with

[02:14] three i thought maybe there were going

[02:16] to be three but i'll i'll accept that

[02:18] but for a guy like you yeah go ahead

[02:21] well i mean i guess if you want to kind

[02:22] of do the whole like

[02:24] you know glass half full thing and the

[02:26] perpetual optimus thing and the best

[02:28] thing about being surrounded is you can

[02:29] shoot in any direction thing

[02:31] which is

[02:32] basically look i do think that

[02:35] there's been unintended consequences of

[02:37] what this regime has been trying to

[02:38] implement which is the rise of the

[02:40] citizen and

[02:41] try who you were gonna get there that

[02:43] was one of the three i had in there

[02:45] right and like the the homeschooling

[02:47] revolution and people really caring

[02:49] about their country again and there is a

[02:52] window there's an opportunity there's a

[02:53] chance there's a sliver i i don't think

[02:56] it's by any chance certain that this

[02:58] backfires on them so dramatically that

[03:01] it could be a political realignment the

[03:03] likes of which our generation

[03:05] we haven't seen in 30 or 40 years

[03:07] do you believe in the machine enough to

[03:09] believe that something like that could

[03:10] happen because that's the direction i

[03:12] thought you were going to go because

[03:13] it's like everything is so bad

[03:15] everything is so upside down even for

[03:17] guys like us who expected this thing to

[03:19] be bad it's worse than most of us could

[03:22] have imagined but do you think the

[03:23] machine will allow like just in the last

[03:25] couple days watching the narrative on

[03:28] kovid shift like

[03:30] do you think it'll allow what should

[03:32] happen to happen that the voice of the

[03:34] people will actually be heard

[03:36] well thankfully between the media and

[03:38] the whole thing that's what i'm talking

[03:39] yeah well no for sure of course yeah

[03:41] thankfully critical parts of the machine

[03:42] are falling apart which gives me hope i

[03:44] mean cnn is basically a democrat super

[03:47] pac that no one watches

[03:49] facebook is cratering which is really

[03:52] really interesting to see rumble who

[03:54] which you and i really care about is

[03:56] ascending so there are certain trends

[03:58] right now that kind of go into maybe the

[04:01] machine isn't as strong as it once was

[04:03] americans trust in government as an

[04:05] all-time low americans trust in

[04:07] corporations are at all time low you're

[04:09] starting to see people care more about

[04:11] local than national trends which is

[04:13] really really important so i think that

[04:15] i think the machine is way weaker than

[04:17] it was even a year ago and let alone

[04:19] five years ago i think that there is

[04:21] kind of like a natural law component to

[04:23] this where if you try to build a

[04:25] multi-trillion dollar

[04:29] i should say it prob the laws of gravity

[04:31] are probably going to push back against

[04:33] you at some point there will be leaks in

[04:34] dissension civil war fracturing and

[04:37] you're seeing a lot of that not just

[04:39] within the democrat party but within a

[04:40] lot of the superstructures that you and

[04:42] i believe the actual power

[04:44] is vested in so look i could have a

[04:47] cynical take where i'm like you know

[04:48] what these people always have power the

[04:50] infrastructure is impenetrable but i'm

[04:52] not so sure of that i think i think that

[04:54] there is a revival to challenge all

[04:57] these institutions and dave you've

[04:59] played a really important part in this

[05:00] which is those of us that love freedom

[05:02] and love the constitution as the

[05:04] greatest political document ever we're

[05:05] building our own infrastructure we're

[05:07] building our own machine

[05:08] and that's been a really exciting trend

[05:11] i think the regime is really surprised

[05:13] by it i think they're shocked quite

[05:14] honestly that we've been able to kind of

[05:16] stand up

[05:17] a youtube competitor a payment

[05:18] processing competitor a patreon

[05:20] competitor like locals

[05:22] so quickly you're starting to see a

[05:23] higher education competitor of

[05:25] university of austin and all of a sudden

[05:27] this kind of

[05:28] this

[05:29] this

[05:30] monopoly they had on these certain goods

[05:33] and services and credentialing

[05:34] institutions is being challenged in a

[05:36] very serious way but they're still

[05:38] they're still way more powerful than us

[05:40] there's no doubt

[05:41] but i'm optimistic that there might be

[05:43] some legitimate fault lines that are

[05:45] going to materialize in in their demise

[05:48] that would be a slightly better great

[05:51] reset than the great reset that they've

[05:53] been telling us about but i'm curious

[05:55] for you

[05:56] look i i know you i know you off camera

[05:58] too at this point but i don't know that

[05:59] i've ever fully asked you this before

[06:02] like you know you were so obviously a

[06:04] close uh associate and and through

[06:06] turning point in the trump's campaign

[06:08] and you wrote the book the mega doctrine

[06:10] the whole thing to go from that and you

[06:12] know i would go to turning point the

[06:13] night that i met trump at mar-a-lago we

[06:16] were at dinner that very night there and

[06:18] it was after an event you put together

[06:20] and all that stuff and i say that

[06:21] because you were so associated with that

[06:24] now he's not empowered i just wonder for

[06:25] you personally

[06:26] like what did the last year show i'm not

[06:29] talking about the political part of my

[06:31] guy's not in power anymore but just like

[06:32] the other you were part of something

[06:34] that was fun and cool at least from our

[06:36] perspective and now you ain't in it or

[06:38] you know the thing exists but like it's

[06:40] not in power anymore so like what is

[06:42] that just personally for you like

[06:44] well first it was really demoralizing

[06:45] not from like an access standpoint or

[06:47] like the fact you could call the

[06:48] president like whatever it was just kind

[06:50] of demoralizing for the country right i

[06:52] mean especially the month of january

[06:54] we're like okay

[06:55] you know at new year's i remember

[06:56] thinking all right okay biden's gonna be

[06:58] president at the very least we can win

[07:00] these senate races in georgia

[07:02] you know we can have a check and balance

[07:04] separation of powers

[07:06] and then january 5th happened like okay

[07:08] we lost that and then january 6 happened

[07:10] which was a catastrophe right uh for a

[07:13] variety of different reasons and so it

[07:15] was a demoralizing couple weeks in 2021

[07:18] and our team at turning point usa which

[07:20] has always been educationally focused

[07:22] and our team at the charlie kirk show

[07:23] which has obviously been very aligned

[07:25] with the trump doctrine and his

[07:26] worldview

[07:27] what do we stand for and we really went

[07:29] to work you know i traveled 330 days uh

[07:32] in the year of 2021 and went to campuses

[07:35] and churches and

[07:36] we didn't talk a lot about trump

[07:38] honestly we didn't talk about biden

[07:39] either more than anything else we talked

[07:41] about what it meant to be an american

[07:42] and what we stood for and why we stood

[07:44] for it and it was definitely this moment

[07:47] where

[07:48] i also had to kind of reintroduce myself

[07:50] to a lot of people that just kind of

[07:52] knew me as oh you're the guy that

[07:53] defends trump right and it was i think

[07:56] very well received in a lot of different

[07:58] ways and i also think it forced

[08:00] our team and our show to go a level

[08:03] deeper i spent more time in 2021 of

[08:05] reading deep books and spending time in

[08:08] very complex philosophy and really

[08:10] challenging my ideas and why i believe

[08:11] it and where does it come from because

[08:13] it wasn't just kind of like okay the

[08:15] left is out of their mind we have to

[08:17] defend the president we have because

[08:19] he's doing a really good job

[08:20] and you can kind of get really used to

[08:21] that right um but then all of a sudden

[08:23] when he's displaced from power there's a

[08:25] lot of people that are saying okay do we

[08:27] want to go back to like the liz cheney

[08:29] kind of way of doing things or why do we

[08:31] want you know borders to be controlled

[08:34] and so you have to kind of come come

[08:35] from that with an approach that is

[08:37] philosophically based and rooted in

[08:39] natural rights doctrine and also in

[08:41] timeless ideas while also respecting the

[08:43] fruits of the enlightenment all these

[08:44] really important things

[08:46] and so i think that we've been i think

[08:48] we're better because of it honestly i

[08:50] think our show's more interesting i

[08:51] think our organization is stronger i

[08:54] think we're reaching more people um and

[08:57] you know i'm not to say not to say that

[08:58] i'm thankful i mean the country's in

[08:59] horrible shape but i think we i think we

[09:02] were able to use what was an adversarial

[09:06] situation or a set of circumstances to

[09:08] our advantage if you're looking for more

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