Part Of The Problem - American Identity

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Dave Smith brings you the latest in politics! On this episode of Part Of The Problem, Dave and Robbie "the Fire" Bernstein discuss Sarah Huckabee Sanders' controversial PSA, Abdul El-Sayed speaking in an interview about his interpretation of "American identity", and more.Support Our Sponsors:Kalshi - https://kalshi.com/r/DaveSmithBodyBrain - Go to BodyBrainCoffee.com, use code DAVE20 for 20% off your first orderSheath - https://sheathunderwear.com use promo code PROBLEMPart Of The Problem is available for early pre-release at https://partoftheproblem.com as well as an exclusive episode on Thursday!PORCH TOUR DATES HERE:https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/porch-tour-2026-4836968Find Run Your Mouth here:YouTube - http://youtube.com/@RunYourMouthiTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/run-your-mouth-podcast/id1211469807Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4ka50RAKTxFTxbtyPP8AHmFollow the show on social media:X:http://x.com/ComicDaveSmithhttp://x.com/RobbieTheFireInstagram:http://instagram.com/theproblemdavesmithhttp://instagram.com/robbiethefire#libertarian See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What's up? What's up, everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I apologize for the late start today. That was 100% my fault. Rob and Natalie are off the hook. Rob has been doing nothing but the right things. So this late start is, in fact, he managed to get himself inside today. That's how seriously Rob has been taking preparation for today's show.

How are you doing, sir? Where you at? Where are you at now? I am well by Lake Tao for another day. and then I'm headed to Salt Lake City for Porch Store. Go to Porch Store.com. After that, got a bunch of gigs in Texas, and then I'm back in Chicago area.

So porchdoor.com. Come porch, everybody. Very nice, and I can't wait to come meet up with you for a leg of this tour this weekend. We will both be out in Salt Lake City, Friday and Saturday, and then in Las Vegas on Sunday. Socomcdivsmith.com for those tickets. Really looking forward to the shows, fellas and ladies.

Well, there's not that many ladies who listen and most of them are. No, there are. No, it's a, I saw, I think I saw one of the demographic breakdowns of our audience that was, I forget what it was like whether, I can't remember this was like Twitter or YouTube or Spotify or whatever, but I saw one that was like an 80-20 breakdown and I swear to God, I went, ah, all right, look at that. Look at that. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's better. Anyway, okay, so there's a few things that I wanted, um, to talk. about today that were on my mind that we hadn't gotten to and it's just been one of those things where you know there's a lot of stuff that's on our minds and I wanted to have the discussion with

orin about libertarianism and some of these topics and then I wanted to talk about the Gaza images yesterday but we we hadn't commented on this um Sarah Huckabee Sanders ad and I wanted to talk about this with you a bit Rob it's kind of on um I think a similar kind of theme as the University of Texas stuff that we were talking about last week. And I do think this is a very important subject in a lot of ways because this is, I think, a comment on what this country is going to look like going forward and what the issues and grievances and frankly what the in. and outgroups are who's fighting with who and about what.

And I would, I guess, preface this by saying, Rob, this does just on the face of it, right? Like just the topic of Sarah Huckabee Sanders running this kind of, really kind of cheesy ad to begin with. This on its face almost seems like a topic that would be, frankly, not the type of topic that we cover on this show. Just kind of a side of the type of thing that Ben Shapiro would have fun trying to make viral. clips out of, but not the type of thing we would touch. It would just kind of be like a silly issue. But I really do think much like the UT thing, the reason why I think this is worth talking about is because the second you see this, you're like, oh, no, dude, this is like, this is an indication of something. This is an indication. It's like the thing I always bring up in 2012 when Newt Gingrich

launched against that king guy at CNN against how corrupt the corporate media was. And it got like a five-minute standing ovation. That's like a moment where you go, oh, look, dude, look, how angry the Republican base is with CNN. Okay, four years later, they nominated and elected Donald Trump. You know, like it's, okay, that's what this seems like to me. I don't know, how do you feel about it, Rob? Because, man, people are angry about this ad. But you're muted.

I guess I didn't catch just how much backlash there was to it, but it was clearly a stupid ad. I mean, it wasn't produced very well. And what I'm guessing without seeing the criticism, what I'm guessing, are gravitating to is that I think it would be fair to criticize the government spending and social programs within this country. And I think that that would be a very important talking point from conservatives to take on is that, hey, your goods and services can be better met by the free market. And this is actually keeping people down and making things more expensive. And I even think that you can go a step further and go, I don't know if we're helping the people that we're actually giving some

these benefits to because perhaps we're keeping them from working, we're incentivizing single families. There's a lot of very good conservative talking points that we haven't really heard over the last 10 years, but certainly valuable conversations. But if you want to focus that the biggest problem of scamming the system and not working when someone could be working towards 20-year-old white men, the statistics are probably not in line with you of that those are the people who are abusing the system. and should be working harder in life.

It seems like you've probably picked the wrong target in terms of trying to express where that problem might lie. Well, that is, I think, for sure. And this is why this is interesting. There's a lot of different elements to this. And one thing I would just add in there, which I think, you know, Rob was getting at, but that there's probably almost no one

within the, you know, within the industry of like shows that talk about politics like this, in terms of, like, popular shows, there may not be anybody who opposes welfare about as much as me and you do. Like, we're really against this stuff and for lots of reasons. So it's kind of, just to be clear with that in the backdrop, we're talking about a campaign ad that's going after welfare, and we are two people who oppose welfare, like much more than Sarah Huckabee Sanders does,

let's just say. And so, you know, if she saw the type of cuts that we would make to welfare, or she would be worried about it. But at the same time, you can look at this and understand that their running campaign ads are about speaking to the race that you're running in. There's always a context that they exist in. And I also would venture to disagree or I would venture to guess that the point that you just made, Rob, about how there would be lots of very good, like, conservative or

libertarian arguments that you should hear all types of brilliant conservative economists making about this. I don't think those arguments would have gotten her the reaction that she's gotten. I think there's other elements involved. So without further, let's play the ad. And then we can kind of break down several interesting elements of this. Yeah. Oh, you want some of this? Come on.

Me and Brown, Brad has turned relaxing into a full-time profession. But you, you actually work hard. You pay taxes to cover welfare for guys like Brad who just choose not to work. Wow. That's why I launched a welfare to work requirement. Almost there. Now, more Arkansases are working than ever before. Even Brad.

All right. So, um, hmm. Where do we start with this? So, number one, right, you're not just taken on welfare, let's say. And I do think that particularly right now, Rob, and I say this is someone who is substantially more against welfare than Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, I think number one, the first problem you have with this ad before you get into, say, like, the racial component of it are things that are going to really make some people upset.

But the first issue you have here is that even as the most hardcore libertarian person that you know out there on this, the idea that at this moment in time, any politician or political candidate or a political candidate who was attached to this president's previous administration or whatever, for you to make the target of your ad these lazy Americans on welfare, you know, for you to make. the target of your ad that is already just, I don't know, dude, politically speaking, like, it's not even, and I understand she threw the thing in there at the end about how it's good for him too or whatever, but it's just already like, look at this lazy bum sitting on the couch. Now, if you're going, in politics, Rob, in politics, if you're going to do that, I'm not saying you never can. I'm saying you just know you're, you're

playing with fire here now. You're going after a demographic of the American people. It's like, okay. Now, I'm sorry, but even as a libertarian, to be going after, the demographic that you're going after to be American people who are on welfare. And by the way, I say this thing, there are some American people who are on welfare who are absolutely despicable and should not be on welfare and are gaming the system. And they are, it is so fucked up. They're like, actually completely able-bodied people who are collecting a welfare check anyway. I have like very, very low levels of respect for people like that. That being said, for a politician to be going after that guy, it just reeks of cowardice.

Like immediately already. It's like, Rob, every billionaire in this country is on some type of welfare in this goddamn corrupt system we live on. Big farm is on welfare. Big banks are on welfare. You know, every goddamn university is on welfare. Israel is on welfare. NATO is on welfare. You know what I'm saying? Dude, there's like welfare queens all over the place. And who did you pick an American in his living room with the courage you have to go after that? You know, my God. So it's already, it's already cowardice to just be going after the person before you even get to the demographic that she made the person. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Cal She. Cal She. Cal. She.com. Everybody's talking about it. It's the prediction market where you can bet on the outcome of just about anything. And of course, for me, I'm obsessed with politics. So that's what I'm always focused on. But it's interesting because you can see where people are putting their market. We were just the other day on the show looking at the predictions for the midterms. And man, it is not looking good for the Republicans. If only, there was someone who could have been predicting this for the entire last year and a half. Well, now you can be predicting things at calshy.com slash R slash Dave Smith. That's our link.

Go check that out. Calshe.com slash R slash Dave Smith. We're going to be keeping our eyes on where the action is on the midterms. And of course, you can go through all the individual races as well to really look at who's going to get what. There's a lot of big ones coming up. Go have some fun. Go check it out.

We'll be watching with you. Calshe.com slash R slash Dave Smith. Let's get back into the show. I guess it's cowardice on two levels. Firstly, is if this person theoretically exists, the 20-year-old. able-bodied male who has decided I want to sit at home and play video games all day and eat cheese doodles I will point out fuck you ozempic people are recently thin and now we're trashing fat people just a total total aside but you know you didn't know I get your point

no it's a real it's a no but isn't there like there's a market flaw in there that fat people were serving by like the problem is you're going to get fat anyway go ahead continue keep cooking but if that were true well what has happened in our economy that this kid has given up Have you made it impossible to get a house? As the job market becomes so horrific for 20-year-old males that they've given up? So I would think, firstly, you could have had a more inspiring message of, and it's not supported by the numbers. But if you could theoretically say, hey, we've got a problem that our young working men in Arkansas aren't working, and I've got to fix the system here and make sure that there's opportunity for them because we can't have these people on welfare,

they might have more of a message there. But the true cowardice is that if you want to criticize all the entitlement programs that are taking place in this country and that we're going bankrupt for them, I think you could talk about illegal immigrants coming into the country. I think you could talk about fraud that exists in the system. I think you could talk about the corporate welfare that you were talking about. Or you could talk about the minority groups that are probably in much higher statistical numbers actually abusing the system. But when you're doing this, you're clearly don't want to take on any of those other groups of people. and you probably also, so you have a fake target, and it's also, politically speaking, why are we going after the 20-year-old white kid?

Oh, yeah, completely, dude. Well, look, man, there's so much. By the way, on that list of people on welfare, and thank you for saying that, because I should have added them to old people, dude. The entire generation of old people are on welfare. You're going after the young people, the young people, for the most part, they have to take money out of their door-dash job to pay, What do you think it is when they tax you Social Security and Medicare and all that stuff?

That's old people on welfare. And I don't care if they have them mind fucked to believe that, no, I paid into this system and now I'm collecting out of this system. That's just an idea you have in your head. That is demonstrably not true. What actually happened is you gave the federal government of the United States of America money 40 years ago. They spent it immediately.

on nonsense, the entire thing that you gave them all over those years has all been wasted and gone and then borrowed against and then borrowed against more and then printed the currency to devalue the money that we owed back. That money is gone. You paid sucker. You got robbed in the past. That is nothing by someone else has nothing to do with what's going on right now. Right now, they're robbing young people to pay for the welfare that is the Medicare and Social Security for old people. That's what that's what they're doing. People who have a much higher net worth, by the way, than these young people. So there's that point right there.

But then, Rob, the demographic of young white men. I think about who they're going after here. The demographic of disenfranchised sitting in the basement, young white men. First of all, by the way, if we're talking about welfare, it is like the most unlikely demographic to be on welfare. You have to go to like married Asian women who take violin lessons before you get to a group who is less likely to be on, to pay on. dependent on the state. Like, that's just not who's dependent on the state. They may be dependent on

their parents too often, but the white young men aren't dependent. Okay, now, I'm just saying, black men say, are much more likely to be on welfare. But why wouldn't there be a black guy in this commercial? And we all know the answer to that, because Sarah Huckabee Sanders would never dare. She would never dare. You know, um, this, there was an interesting, oh, man, he's getting so ripped apart on this, but he deserves to. But that Joel Berry guy, he just had the, you know, sometimes, no, it doesn't even matter what he says, but he just said it the perfect way, because he's always trying to defend Trump and Israel and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whoever the establishment is. And he goes, no, no, no, guys, the reason they make it a white

kid is because then it's, then you're not making it a racial issue. You know, if you make it a black guy, now you're making it a racial issue and now everyone's going to fight about race. but if you make it a white guy, then it's just, it's not about race anymore. Now it's just about welfare or something along the lines. That was the point he was making. And it's like, Jesus, dude. So like, that's the expectation. And like maybe this has been my point largely, you know, about the whole thing.

So this topic isn't about, you know, it's the same way that like racial, the topic about immigration isn't about immigration. It's about mass migration. These are different things. It's about demographic replacement. It's not about whether we should have people. coming in and out. Like there's a bit, like we always had Chinese people here my entire life. I've eaten Chinese food my entire life. There's been Chinese people here. That's a different

conversation. Should they be allowed to be here is a different conversation than should we make the country majority Chinese? That is just a different conversation. But anyway, in like within these dynamics here, you're not, you're not willing to go after the people who are actually likely to be on welfare. Essentially, it's very woke of them. 100, it's completely woke. No, but look, again, I'm sorry, I just want to put a button on this. To the Joel Berry point, maybe, perhaps it was reasonable if the country was 90% white,

which it was through its entire history, and if it was always going to be 90% white, and whites were always going to be the majority, and then there's 10% of minority here, maybe it is reasonable to say white people, you should treat yourself as the absence of anything. and you know, it's not taking a shot at you if we just make it a white guy, even though it would be more likely to make it a black guy. But when the country is a majority minority country and 37% of Texas is non-Hispanic white, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know, dude. And then these young, it's like how many shots are these young white men just expected to take? That's Joel Barry's message.

Just take another punch in the stomach because no one else is strong enough to take it or something like that. Yeah, I mean, it's just very woke to go instead of what the statistical ring. realities of this situation might be, let's be more politically correct and falsify reality and making it a criticism of white people so that we're not actually offending others. Yeah, and you know, I see some people, and I even see some of the, I don't even know how to exactly how to characterize them, but I see some people who are going, oh, so this is, people are being snowflakes about this, kind of the usual cast of characters. It's kind of I don't even know how to say.

Both the guys I saw doing it happened to be gay dudes, but it was like gay, you know, like kind of political commentators. And they're like, oh, you're a bunch of snowflakes now because you're upset that they're going after. Oh, was the guy white? Oh, since when is it all about race or something? You know, you're being the woke one essentially is what they're saying. You're the one who's making this all about race and you're the one who's being a snowflake. And it's just like, again, you would never say if they, those same people,

you're just cowards. You could pretend you're not, but go pretend somewhere else. If they had made it a black kid in a do-rack, and black people had gotten upset about that, you wouldn't be saying that, even though that demographic is more likely to be on welfare. You wouldn't be saying, get over it, you snowflake. See, the rule is here that, like, minorities are allowed to have these grievances,

and white people are not. That's always been the rule. Now, I'm just saying, to be clear, I always thought that rule was bullshit, and I've been public about that for as long as anyone's known me. But also, it just becomes so much more absurd when we've had this experiment in mass migration, and we're now a truly multiracial, multicultural society. It's like, look, the Republican Party, this is just the reality of it, is supported by white people. This is a fact.

I don't know if it makes anyone uncomfortable, but the Democrats are the party of the multiracial party and the Republicans are the white party. Now, when the Republicans can do a little bit better on the edges and not lose by so much with the minorities, then that helps them a little bit. But that's the reality. And why on earth the party that white people all vote for should have to take being trashed by their own people, like on their own side? I'm sorry, dude, if you're going to make this a demographic, like Rob, this is politics. It's political malpractice. If you're going to, if Hillary Clinton's going to make an ad that's targeting the American people. She's going to damn well make sure they have red maga hats on.

So every Hillary Clinton voter who sees that knows, I'm telling you the bad guy is the other side, the people who don't vote for me, okay? I'm not saying that's good or noble or accurate. I'm just saying like, that's how you do politics. You don't make it a person who might be the one who would vote for you. unless there's state's so old that you're rallying up all the old people actually vote to go damn these kids are getting into the cookie jar and i need all those cookies well well that's well look i mean that is what she's doing rob that's you know no that is what she's doing and she is playing by the

joll berry rules because those are the rules to the boomers because the boomers just have to close their eyes and pretend that they didn't give the whole country away you know so like the boomers have to Anyway, they have the attitude that's like for them, yeah, don't make it a black guy. That would make them kind of uncomfortable. We're not trying to be racist. Boomers like to feel good about themselves while they back genocide. You know, like that's they got to feel good about themselves while they support the worst thing in the world. So like, like, no, they want to feel good.

They actually, this is why the outrage is coming from the young people. But like, they actually. And look, I'm not saying this is true about every boomer, but this really does characterize all of them. they'd rather demonize the people who look like their own grandchildren so they don't have to feel racist about themselves and it's really fucking disturbing man um and people can say that that's racism but i'm sorry i think like somebody that i'm racist or whatever but like somebody preferring to demonize their own you know i never thought about it this way until i had kids um like before before you have kids, I always rejected the kind of like, you know, listen, by the way, I should preface,

I understand some people don't consider Jews white and then other people do consider Jews white. So whatever you consider us, I don't care. That's fine. But I always rejected the woke shit way before I was a popular podcaster and way before I was even around people who identified Jews as anything other than white. And I was always like, yeah, I'm not going to apologize for myself. Fuck you. Like, if I have an opinion, I'm not going to be like, there's a straight white.

heteroman who's cisgender. I just want to first apologize for that, but I would like to say my opinion. Like, fuck you, I'm a man. If I have an opinion, I'll tell you what I fucking think. And the first opinion is all that's fucking gay and retarded. But once you have kids, it's like, dude, demonizing my own, right? They'd be demonizing my kids. How could I ever choose to do that?

Anyway, the point, Rob, the bigger point, the reason why I opened the show with this today is that this might even work for her in this election. it's still boomers voting. But I'm saying like big picture America going forward, whether for better or for worse, this is going to be the new reality, Rob, a majority minority country where white people are a grievance group to. And I don't think that's great, man. I really just don't.

I just don't think this is good. And I'm to be very, very clear, I am not at all blaming white people for this. I think they have been pushed to almost like what else can you do here? Your only choice is to either just be a punching bag or say we're going to be a grievance group too. I think it's a terrible thing that we've been pushed into this situation. But going forward, it's like, I don't know. Like if you're going to be the majority and it's going to be your country, I think you can take being a punching bag a little bit.

If you're not, I think you've got to say, we're not going to vote for people who are demonizing us. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is, of course, body brain coffee, the brainchild of Lewis J. Gomez, the great Louis J. Gomez. Well, if you may know, testosterone levels have been declining for decades, as a people were more stressed, we sleep like shit, we sit around all day, and none of that is helping. And that's part of the reason why I started drinking body brain coffee. Body Brain is real premium freeze-dried Colombian coffee packed with functional ingredients that have been linked to testosterone support, stress management, focus, and brain function. You've got Tungat Ali, Aschua Ganda, two ingredients that have been studied for their potential to support healthy testosterone levels, stress and performance.

L-theonine, which works alongside the caffeine for smooth, focused energy. I can tell you this, I've been drinking body brain for months now. For like six months, I have one cup every day. I feel great. It really does make a difference, and I highly recommend it. It's a delicious cup of coffee. It's going to make you feel better. It's a natural way to boost your testosterone. Plus, you support this show and you support the great Louis J. Gomez in his business venture, which really, he's the reason this show exists to begin with, so make sure you do that. Bodybraincoffee.com. That is the website, bodybraincoffee.com, and the promo is Dave 20 for 20% off your entire order. Please go there.

bodybrain coffee.com promo code Dave 20 for 20% off. All right. Let's get back into the show. Great. We turned whites into complainers too. Excellent. Well fucking done. You know, anyway.

By the way, so I was thinking about that. And then I was also thinking about this other clip. And I think, again, as I said before, you know, it's partly because Donald Trump has so taken his eye off of his domestic agenda that we have. haven't had any. It's crazy that Donald Trump's, that back in 2016, there wasn't a national conversation and realignment over the issue of immigration and demographics and all this stuff. And we just kind of put it off and then let Biden open the border and make the problem 10 times worse. So there was, you know, this issue of like American identity and a drastic change

in America and what it means to be an American. And this is going to be very important. in determining the country that we all live in going forward. No disrespect to our listeners overseas. I know we do have some. This was a clip. I was looking for this during the Oren McIntyre. I wanted to play this for him when I was interviewing him, but I didn't have it.

But this is from a few days ago. Ezra Klein interviewed Abdul El-Said, the Senate candidate out there in Michigan. I have not paid a ton of attention to El Saeed. I know, you know, peripherally, I've seen a little bit of him. But it does seem, Rob, at this point, that I think he's someone to pay attention to. Like, he is, I think him and Mamdani and they're kind of the two big stars right now out of this DSA class. I don't know.

Have you seen any of his stuff? I think we just recently played a clip and I've just seen more of him on social and more of his name in the media and well here is Ezra Klein who I would I would describe Ezra Klein's politics as you know pretty progressive establishment

here he is sitting down with El Saeed and they they discussed well I'll say this before Natalie even just as you pull this tweet up please because I was just maniacally cackling about this before the show started. But if you pull this tweet up, and God damn, maybe it's just my age, and maybe there is something here that you think is me being prejudiced or something like that. But I don't think so.

But the, literally the sentence of the tweet, I just love this. Oh, shout out to Mario. He's the one who posted. I forgot it was his tweet. But he just says, Abdul El-Said put the American identity into words. And just like reading that sentence, Abdul El-Said put the American identity into words. Like, I don't know, man. I do think there is something pretty crazy about that. It's pretty crazy. I just don't, I just, I don't know, man.

Now, I'm not saying like, he's not American. He can't have a comment on the American identity or something like that. But it kind of is something to like be, even if you want to say that the identity of a team or or or if you, even if you want to say there's a team who brings in new players, you know, and gets bigger and bigger. For the newest player to be the one speaking on the identity of the team seems kind of bad form to me in principle. Yeah, well, I think that's particularly horrifying if the guy is a Democratic socialist. And so he's transforming the American. He's not for the record.

He claims not to be a socialist for the record, but just to say. All right. Well, shows what I know. No, I thought so at first, too, until I heard him say no, because he is, like, lumped in with that batch of guys. Well, I guess I'll have to dig up his political views and see how he's lying about his interest in democratic socialism. We got to, he gets into his take on Medicare for a little bit. We could play that. But let's do the American identity.

I guess it's more Medicare, hence making him a Democratic socialist. Rob, are you, you're telling me you didn't cheat. How did you? How did you possibly know it was more Medicare? All right, hold that thought for the end of the show. That was crazy, dude. That's like your buddy at the beginning of Sixth Sense going, I bet he's dead the whole time. He's pretty fucking great.

How'd you know? Yes, more, Rob. That is his recommendation. But no, he's, actually, it's quite funny how he gets into it. Let's do the identity one first, though. Here he is on the American identity. Americans, I'm curious what it means to you. This is a country where there is no ethnic identity.

There's no religious identity. There is just a national identity. and I didn't appreciate it as much. Just pause it already. Just pause it already, dude. And do you not get, listen, again, do you not get my point? Like, look, if shit, like, let's just say some hypothetical, this country really falls apart. Things get so bad here that I feel like I got to grab my family and flee and I'm able to get a few things together and Japan is willing to take me.

And I go into Japan and then Japan lets me in, you know? and then I literally like, they even, they give me citizenship. They allow me and my family to live there. I thrive there. I'm doing really well. My family is doing really well. And then I turn around and I go, all right, I'm running for office. And let me tell you first of all about Japan.

And let me tell you something. There is, the best thing about Japan, just to say the absolute best thing about Japan is that they let me in. That's the best thing. best thing is their openness to other people coming in. There's no such thing as really even being Japan. There's no identity. There's no culture.

There's no anything. The best thing about him is that I could come here and be just as Japanese as anybody else. Like, dude, do you not see where the optics of, like, even if you think this is correct on principle, do you not go, man, I am coming over to a dinner party and just farting in the dining room right now? Is there no sense of which you're like, this is just like, ugh? I mean, look, dude. Now, he's going to get into a point about why he's really arguing that America,

he's actually arguing here that there's no other identity to American, to being American, other than the national identity. There is nothing else to it. And again, let's go to his argument here. But that to me is, I don't know, that's a wild thing to say to a nation as a very new arrival. like I just I don't know that is like that is a really really crazy thing and look essentially my point's going to be this we can play some more of what are you saying I'm not saying again I'm not saying that they're the the comparison to Japan I'm using an extreme to paint a picture obviously

we do not have the same type of like ethnic net and national identity that Japan has but I'm just use but we don't have nothing it's not correct that we have nothing that's also not correct And so I'm just using that to paint a picture that it is, while it's not quite as crazy as it would be for me to do that in Japan, it is still pretty crazy for him to do that here. Any thoughts you have on that, Rob? I'm somewhat comfortable with speaking to that there's a national identity. But to me, part of that national identity is no free shit. It's if you want to work hard here, you can earn a better life for yourself. That was the national identity.

That's the America that I grew up with is that, you know, a nation of immigrants. and there's freedom here. And if you want to work hard and take the chance of being here, you can make a better life for yourself or for your family. But anything in line with, hey, we need more social benefits or the American identity is that we have to take care of everybody and we have to include minorities and we've got to make sure that there's social benefits for them.

Well, then I don't know what national identity you're speaking of. Please don't speak for the American collective identity if it includes socialism. Well, listen, there is, again, the history of the United States of America is the history of a nation. America is a very unique nation in a lot of ways. In a lot of ways, America is a very unique nation. And it's very unique in how rich it became. It's very unique in how powerful it became, both economically and militarily.

It's very unique in the freedoms that were enshrined into its founding documents. and it's very unique in the radical openness it had toward immigration and radical demographic change. There's kind of just no question about that. Like there were like major waves of immigration in America. There were also major periods of pauses on immigration, which the open borders activists don't like to talk about, but that's part of it too. But okay, so all of these things are true, but that doesn't still mean that there's a nation here or at least at some point there was.

And so in other words, like Daryl Cooper was talking about this on a Tom Wood Show the other day. I thought he made a good point about like this, right? So this is me like kind of, in my own words, borrowing from what I got from his point, but maybe adding some to it. But like, let's just say hypothetically, right, you're like a real heritage American or whatever they would call that.

Me and you are not. But let's say your family goes back to the Mayflower or whatever and you've just been in this. bit. Do you? Yeah, I'm like a fourth or fifth generation, I think. I don't know. Oh, I don't know why I just, I don't know why I just thought you were, but we came over, uh, we got a pretty good run here. Oh, were you? So you were like a real early, yeah. I mean, I knew, uh, I knew one of my great, my great grandmother and she was American and she had immigrated, but I had other great grates that were here. So I got to be like fourth. Oh, I didn't actually, I did not know that about you, Rob.

Well, look at that. Well, guys, well, I think we're going to have to, we're going to have to switch spots on podcast bro i don't realize you go back further than me um but like okay so if you do if you let's say you went all the way back let's say you were like or let's say like you were like the descendant of like thomas jefferson or george washington or something one of the white ones uh and let's say uh well like doesn't it just right look on the face of it it kind of makes sense that if someone were to say to you like well what's great about this country what do you love about america what is it to be America and you're going to be like, well, like the founding tradition and the people and the liberties that are enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the this or and maybe even some things that

we don't like as much and we won the world wars and we did or whatever. But like there's like an American identity there. There is a thing that people think of as American. There is a reason, you know, the example I gave the other day was like when Vivek Ramoswami is talking about all that tiger mom shit. And there's like, you know, they got the people who like, um, There's the Asian moms who like your kid will be in violin practice and then we'll be in in doing this and then we'll be reading more and maybe for fun on the weekends we'll read nonfiction but they're not they're not hanging out with other people and they're going to be on high on rolls. I don't raise my kids like that at all even though I value their intellectual development because

like I'm American. We kind of do things different. We do have a cult you can't say we have nothing. There's a culture here. There's a okay for that person who was the heritage American goes all the way back. You could see where they're more likely for that to be the story of America. Whereas Abdul al-Said, his story is more like, what's so awesome about America? That they let everybody in. Like, you know, like, and I'm not saying that's not understandable, because for his family, that's what's awesome about the country. But they let everybody in and they have welfare and they have affirmative action

and they make sure that it's really easy for the brown guy with a weird name to race right up to the top of the line and cut through all these white people who have been here for all these years. Of course, you like that about the country. And of course, they like that about the country. like your interests are just diametrically opposed in some ways. The question becomes who should get their way. And I say it's the people who are here. Like, I don't know.

This is not crazy. This is the, this is common sense. It's obvious once you let your mind just entertain this opinion. Also, isn't the history of letting people in, uh, almost suckers that we were putting to work? Like, yeah, go ahead. Usually.

Go make your way out west. Enjoy. Yeah. Show up to New York. We'll shove you in a factory. Well, however you want to, I think you might be. a little bit unfairly characterizing that as manipulative or making them suckers. I mean, the fact is that, right, at the very beginning, like, I don't know, Rob, like around the time of the Louisiana

purchase or something like that, we need more people. We got this whole big frontier. We got to go explore this whole big frontier around the time of the industrial revolutions. We have these huge factories and we need jobs. We need more people for these jobs. Like, yes, there was a time where for other circumstantial situational-ish reasons, it made sense for major influxes of people. That is different than living in a gigantic welfare state following the Joe Biden years. Like, you know, it's just a different situation. But anyway, but just back to the idea that, like, there is no American identity. I just, I don't know, man.

Like, particularly, I think that people more the liberal or left half of America, America, I don't think fully recognize how much the American identity means to the whole right half of America. They actually believe there is an American identity and they care very much about that. All right. Let's keep playing. Until I went to grad school in the UK where I'd meet third generation like Pakistani kids. And I'd be like, you're British.

They're like, I'm not British. I'm Pakistani. I was like, I guess, but you're British. like you have a British citizenship. Like, yes, I'm a citizen of the United Kingdom, but I'm not British. They're British. I'm Pakistani.

And the amazing thing about America is that we not only have the civics that enable us to become fully and foundationally American, but we also have a culture of that, where, yes, there are some people who want to define America as being smaller then, that it can't include certain groups of people, whoever the out group is that they want to point to. but we are constantly in this process of negotiating a bigger America. So essentially, he says, we're constantly in this process of negotiating a bigger America.

It's okay. I mean, I don't necessarily even completely agree with that, but like implied in negotiating is what? Someone doesn't want it. Yeah, that there's someone else there and that we're going to compromise and be reasonable. And that there'll be some type, you know what I'm saying? We're not, no one's going to get everything they want, but we will all get some of what we want. not you guys lose everything that's not negotiating that's conquest um now again let's just like to take the logic here right because obviously the logic of what he just said is is flawed if you really

examine it he starts off with the claim a very like wild claim that america has no other identity than national identity no religious identity no ethnic identity no racial identity nothing nothing just national identity and what's the proof of that i didn't really realized that till I went to Britain and realized they have a much stricter cultural or ethnic identity. Okay, well, just because that was stricter doesn't mean we have nothing. And yes, it is much easier. And maybe even you could argue the difference is that it is possible to become an American where it's not possible to become a Brit if you're an Indian Hindu or something like that.

But that doesn't mean we have nothing. And dude, like, are you telling me, Rob that like, and again, this almost seems. seems to be the claim that like if you just went to Haiti and gave them the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they're America now. There is no difference. Like it's like, you know what I'm saying? Obviously, no, there would be different. That would be a different country. It wouldn't be exactly the same. And I got to say this, I know we're a couple of Jews here, but to say there's no religious identity when the country has been 90 plus percent Christian for its entire history, like, that does not make any sense at all, dude.

You can't say that that is entirely, like, listen, if you want to say this hasn't been like a Christian nation through the legislative process or something like that or that the government is secular, okay. But to say that there's absolutely no Christian identity to America or that there's no, but by the way, not white, white and black identity to America. Like, you're just telling me, like you, if you just saw a roof, if you just saw a, if you just saw like an NBA game between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and whoever. And then I just showed you a court of a bunch of Japanese people.

It's all basketball. There's no, it's all America. It's all the same. There's no difference here. Like, I'm sorry, no. It is apt. This is like if I were to say to you, Rob, you, you ever watch the movie, white men can't jump?

Not a full, but very familiar with it. You're familiar with it? That has nothing to do with white and black culture. Nothing. Dude, it's just basketball or something like that. What? No, it's not. I mean, obviously, there's an element of basketball culture to it.

There's an element of black culture. There's an element of white. I don't know. I just think it's crazy for new arrivals to say the best thing about America is that you never had the America before I got here. That's the best thing about us. That's the best thing about us. The best thing about us is all that stuff doesn't

exist at all. This is, again, to his next point here, this is not, yes, it is true that the American identity and the American experience and the American story is different. And yes, a Chinese person can come to America and become an American. Okay? Like, this is how I view it. Yes. A China, that's been the deal the entire time, Rob. Literally, that's been the deal the entire time. Since I was a fucking kid, the Chinese, I mean, I don't know if you know who had. citizenship or who didn't have citizenship, but the kid of the guy who ran the Chinese restaurant was as much an American citizen as I was or whatever. Like, yes, that is the deal, right? But that is a separate conversation from if we imported a billion Chinese, are we still America?

And I would answer the second question is no. The answer to the second question is no. If we import a billion Chinese people to America, so now it's like the, you know, the overwhelming majority is Chinese. They don't all become Americans. We all become a form of Chinese. I don't want to be Chinese. And that's the perfect gap on that point. Exactly.

Here, let's go back to the clip. Is there some more of this one? And so America, to me, is the notion that we can come together around our differences to build something that's greater than the sum of its parts. because we believe in the process by which we do that thing. So I just pause it again. I mean, like America is a notion.

That's it. We're a notion. We're the notion that you could do stuff. Like, no, dude, America is the middle part of North America. We are what's between Mexico and Canada.

And then we claim Alaska and Hawaii in a couple other little islands. Like, we're a place. We're a place. There's a people who lived here. It happened over the last 200 years. There's a history. there's a culture. There is art and science and innovations. Like there's a real people here.

We're not a notion. How do you get to come into a country? Be a person whose father still speaks with a thick accent, like a first generation, and then tell everybody else. You're a notion, by the way. I guess I have a slightly different perspective, which is I don't totally disagree with this guy, but the process that he describes where he goes, we're all supposed to be the sum greater than the parts through a process. And that process. is supposed to be free market capitalism. Well, that's true, too. Well, look, man, I don't think that's out of line with what I'm saying.

Look, to the extent that America has a culture that we really recognize as American, you know, people are age, if we're talking about like whatever we think of as like the 80s and 90s and the aughts and the teens and, you know, what America has been like throughout our life, that was largely built off of, first off, off a period of time of very restricted immigration to the point that, you know, there was a period in time where kind of everyone had to kind of meld together and people's identities didn't become so much with their like local ethnic enclaves, their little neighborhood, you know, like if you, if you go to the 1930s and you go to downtown, you know, Manhattan or something like that, the Italians and the Irish and the

Jews and I mean, their identity is going to be so rooted in those different ethnic groups. But over a period of time without mass migration, it could come where their kids and their grandkids are all really kind of Americans or something like that. But during that time, if there was, my argument is that there was a culture, there was a people, there was a tradition. The fact that it was a tradition of about 10% black people who were brought against their will from Africa and then later technically freed, but still quasi, enslaved and then later ultimately freed and that on top of that and a small percentage of the heritage Americans and a mix of European immigrants coming over. Okay, that's a lot more complicated

than just French. But that doesn't mean it's nothing. It's what I just said. It's a mix of the 10% descendants of the African people who are enslaved and the 90% majority who may are a European mix, mostly Christians, different, you know, from all of christians. Okay, that still has a characteristic to it. That's something. That's what we knew is America. And yes, Rob, the cultural deal in America was always, at least rhetorically, was supposed to be what?

Liberty. That was obviously always what the cultural thing that we were rallying around was the idea of free markets, free people. You can do what you like. You can believe what you like. and the government shouldn't be allowed to stop you from that. But at the same time, the government shouldn't be, you know, forcing me to subsidize you and all that shit. Yeah, that was always deeply embedded in America.

It was so deeply embedded, man, that we used to just say it's a free country as like a saying when I was a kid. Like, it would be like, can I sit there and you go, it's free country? Like, that was just who we were. Don't tell me that didn't fucking exist. Let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show. Have you ever been watching the part of the problem podcast and thought to yourself, man, I have got to wear the same underwear as Dave. I've just got to get in whatever boxer briefs he's wearing. I know you have.

You all do. Well, if you want to, you now can at sheath.com. Sheath underwear, the underwear of legends, longtime sponsor of this program. So if you love the show, you really should support them. And I will tell you, I stand by this product. They are an amazing pair of boxer briefs. I love them. They're the only ones I wear.

They're great. I've had them for years at this point, and they all hold up great. So I highly recommend them. Sheaf.com, use the promo code problem. That'll get you 20% off your entire order. And then you just get to exist in the world knowing that you're wearing the same underwear as me, man. And that's worth its weight in gold or something. But seriously, the underwear is very good.

Sheath.com, promo code problem for 20% off. All right, let's get back into the show. I think when you whitewash over the not socialist aspect to go, go, hey, we're all just supposed to be a collective identity and come, you know, anyone should be allowed to come here and everyone should be occluded. You're just, I don't know, you're just preaching socialism. That's the root of what you're saying is that this is supposed to be inclusive of everybody and that everyone's supposed to be granted the opportunity of the free benefits of the state. Yes, and that's not American to me. That's right. That's right.

And there is something where like that it also creates, you know, as as Daryl was saying the other day, it creates like this type of kind of like permanent revolution that the political class very much likes. And there's a reason for that, you know, kind of like constant changing and constant upheaval. All right. Let's keep playing. Egypt in like 20 years. And he still has an accent. He still looks the way he looks.

and you watch him watch the lions on Sunday. And you're like, that's a full-blooded American. So that's, so there you go. So he goes, he's, he's talking about his father. You know, maybe if we could clean that up for post a little bit more to get that like point, because that really is something there that he essentially says that, you know, my father speaks in a thick accent and he wasn't bored. Yeah, let's just play it.

I think probably just like the last 20 seconds even. And so America to me is the notion that we can come together around our differences to build something that's greater than the sum of its parts because we believe in the process by which we do that thing. It's funny. You know, my dad, I don't think he's been to Egypt in like 20 years. And he still has an accent. He still looks the way he looks.

And you watch him watch the lions on Sunday. And you're like, that's a full-blooded American. I mean, look, man. I just, I don't know what to say, Rob. I just find that, I think that shit is like really, I think that's wrong. I think there's something wrong about him saying that and having this attitude. It is so self-serving and awfully convenient to look around to America, to this country, America. I'm sorry, I was born here, and I love it here.

And like, I, to say that somebody born in Egypt with a thick Egyptian, accent. There is no difference between that and America. And, well, isn't that, that's kind of convenient when that's your dad. But like, no, Rob, I do think to most people in America, we would say that, like, I don't know if we would say it exactly like that guy in Britain told them, like, you could never be an American because you're from there or you're, but like, no, like, is that as American as apple pie? No, like, we have a saying that's a thing said, as American as apple pie. We don't say as American as a guy with a thick Egyptian accent watching the Lions game. That hasn't been a popular slogan here.

And I don't like, I don't know. I just don't think that's right. I don't think that should be the attitude. Also, Rob, everybody around Abdul El-Said brags about how well-spoken he is. They brag about the fact that he doesn't speak with an accent. Isn't there something a little strange about all this? Pick a lane, people. their accents make you less American or not?

Well, look, I mean, I just think, like, it's a, I think it'd be one thing. This is just my position. I think somebody like Abdul El-Said, I'm not even saying he can't run for anything or he can't, you know, I'm just saying, wouldn't it be more like appropriate when asked about this for him to like say that like, even if he were, like, at least recognize the self-interest in that where he goes like, well, look, obviously one of my favorite things about America is that they were willing to take my family in and that my father, who's got a thick accent, can still watch the Lions game and still gets treated great in this country and doesn't face discrimination under the law, doesn't face prejudice, isn't mistreated. You know, people like us have been totally incorporated into America. And we love that and we're really grateful to the people who made up this country for that.

Why is that crazy to say, real people made the country? You can pretend that it was just a notion or it was just an idea. Nope, it was people who lived and breathed with organs and thoughts and dreams and goals. They were made of matter and particles. Like they were real. They existed. They built the country that's here for you and your dad to come here. How about a little bit of gratitude rather than saying they never existed?

They were just a notion. And in fact, the thing we're talking about America, that is my dad watching the Lions game. That is wrong and not true. And I'm sorry, but like, if everything fell apart for me and me and my family had to go to Japan and they would have us there, I'd be, I'd have gratitude to the people who built that society. I'd appreciate them. I'd learn their language and I'd adjust to their customs. And I wouldn't say that me having broken Japanese as every bit as Japanese as you're speaking it fluently. That to me just seems like an incredible, it's like being incredibly rude to a house guest is like the, you know, you got invited over.

then we're very rude to them. I just don't, I don't appreciate that. All right. Do you want to do, we got a little bit of time. You want to do is Medicare take, Rob? You might enjoy this one because you did. You had that prediction earlier, so let's see. I saw the video.

All right. Here, let's go to El Saeed and his, he's got some really creative, new ideas about, about universal health care and how we get there. Let's see. the nature of the debate has changed so much because the nature of private health insurance has become so porous and so frustrating for so many. If we can't, then the steps, even if you were to say we passed Medicare for all on, you know, in January of 2029, where would we go from here?

Well, the steps would kind of be the same because you're not going to, there's no light switch in the White House that like turns on Medicare for all. So you would make Medicare whole because right now, Medicare is extremely porous. You talk to seniors and they're like, well, there's all these different parts, and it doesn't cover vision, dental, and hearing, and in. And a lot of them are Medicare Advantage plans. And that whole situation. Which are these private plans. And they like them. I mean, that's, that would be hard to take away. I mean, the whole, the whole gambit on Medicare advantages, is we give you some things on the front. So we, we, we lobby to keep Medicare porous. So then we can

offer you, quote unquote, advantages like vision dental and hearing, which normal Medicare doesn't offer. So you'd basically show up all the parts. You would include a full robust part D. You would have vision, dental, and hearing. It would go to zero copay deductible premium. At this point, if you offered that as traditional Medicare, just pause it. Once again. Everybody, so just to be clear, Rob, all he said so far is give them more. It's literally all he said. It's like this ridiculous language to just say like it's very porous. We're going to make it not as porous. So more coverage.

Okay. So more benefits. Okay. Like this, again, I just don't, it's even in a conversation just amongst two lefties. You just don't even see how crazy.

I just want to look this up real quick here. Is how according, hold on according to the AI on Google, whatever that is, Rob. I don't know if that's. That's not the best one. But okay, so I was just looking up the unfunded liabilities that currently exist in Medicare.

They came up with $60 trillion. That's the number that they're giving. I'm not going to die on the hill of whether that number is exactly right. And if you want to go research that or whatever, but the number they came up with was $60 trillion, way, way bigger than the national debt, which sits at a measly $40 trillion. So there's $60 trillion of commitment. that we've already made.

So essentially what unfunded liabilities mean, Rob is how would you say it? It's a commitment that we don't have the money for, right? Not a good way. We've said we're going to do it, but we don't have the money for it. So it's a you owe the money that hasn't been funded yet. So in other words, we've promised all these people, once you get 65, you get this amount of coverage. But we've already promised $60 trillion worth that we don't have. And we don't know how we're going to come up with that.

And here's their answer. Have it cover everything. Up that number way up. number way up. Vision, dental, more, more, more, less porous, more coverage. Like, oh, well, geez, I don't realize why anyone ever thought of that. Have it cover everything. This is his collective American identity, is that everything should be socialized and provided to you by the state. Well, we don't have any economic identity at all, I suppose, right? Like, there's nothing to, America is no more capitalist or communist.

We don't even associate it with one of those because that I guess would be a different identity other than just the national one. But, okay, so yeah, so this is the plan that you've come up with. We're in a nation in a debt spiral. Let's add a whole lot more to it. Here, let's keep playing.

More details. Somebody would jump from advantage, would turn your head. That's number one. Then you start extending it to more people. Did you get his point there? That would take advantage of more free. No, no, no, no.

He's saying jump. No, no, no. That's not what he's saying. I mean, that is what he's saying. But that's not what he means. He's saying advantage the private supplemental insurance. So they're going, hey, there's all these people who really love their private insurance because they have this insurance and they don't want that to be outlawed.

And that's what you're going to do is you're going to outlaw that. So how do you get away? Because this is, Rob, you know, this is the big. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care, you can keep. your health care. This is the thing that actually makes, they pretend universal health care is popular, because when you say, do you like Medicare for all? People say yes, most of the time. But as soon as you go, do you support Medicare for all if we have to eliminate all private health care, meaning you lose

your health care, then it becomes unpopular. But it doesn't work unless you eliminate all private health care. How can you have private health care if you're going to do a universal health care system, right? So they have to eliminate it. So the question there is, oh, what do you do about this? So his answer is, we just give you so many benefits that everyone wants the benefits that the government program gives you. Wow. Rocket scientists. Thank God, our Americanism was so open to incorporate these Egyptian geniuses in that we could never have figured this out. They have the government give so much welfare that nobody else even wants the other option. Has that ever worked out, by the way? Has anyone ever, have rich people ever wanted the government option ever, anywhere, ever of anything? All those billionaires who love send.

But that's what he's got. Spend more. Here, let's play the very end. At this point, if you offer that as traditional Medicare, the speed with which everybody would jump from advantage would turn your head. That's number one. Then you start extending it to more people. I think kids are obvious, right?

Children, thank God. But wait, there's more. more welfare more coverage more stuff here's the how do you solve the problem of 60 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities rob you make it 80 trillion well then you might ask how do you solve that problem you make it 100 trillion you just keep promising more services that we know we can't possibly pay for is actually the answer here and this is supposed to be taken seriously sure sounds like a democratic socialist to me really what is the mean what it by the way it is a fair question rob like what is the meaningful difference

because they never define what any of this means um all right here i'm sorry is there a little bit more he's because now we bring it to kids too uncommonly healthy and if they're not healthy they're very sick and so extending it to children is obvious extending it downward right from 65 eligibility age to 60 and then down into the 50s 40s. That's kind of what needs to happen, right? All of that articulates better Medicare for more people. What I'm articulating is great Medicare for everyone. Yeah, okay.

So, again, just until you got to get into any of this, is the one question that destroys all of this. How are you going to pay for any of it? Like, there's no, again, it's, I don't know how to express how juvenile, on how infantile any of this is, Rob. Just go like, we have a piece of property, let's say, and we're just discussing building projects. And you go, all right, I'm thinking like, you know, whatever, 25, 100 square foot house right

here, blah, blah, blah. And I go, palace. Let's do a palace. And you go, oh, we don't have money for that. We only have money for the, how are you going to do that? Bigger palace on top of the palace, flying palace on top of that. Like, what does any of this mean? How are you going to pay for any of this?

Listen, okay, Medicare currently covers everybody 65 and up in America, right? And you have to pay taxes for Medicare every week. How much higher up do those taxes have to go to cover everybody 40 and up and all children? Give me a number. What's your figure here? Oh, you know what their figure is here? Rob, they just don't even pretend to have one. They just don't even discuss it.

Doesn't even come up like it's an issue. Why would this be better? by their own logic, why wouldn't it just be better for me to just say, no, right now, Medicare for everybody. What do you mean lower it to 50? Lower it to zero, zero through 1,000. Medicare, why would you not do that? This is, I don't even understand why his pitch here is we should do it just because what,

we can sucker people into it slower. This is, I'm sorry, man, but this type of, like, economic, uh, economic ignorance mixed with, like, just hatred of America is not for me. I'm out. Anyway, anything else, Rob, remind people where the shows are. Check out the Run Your Mouth podcast. And, of course,

porch tour is coming up in Salt Lake City and around the Texas area. Go to portc store.com. After that, I got a Midwest run, Chicago, and a bunch of places. Go check it out. Hell yeah, Salt Lake City and Vegas. We'll see you this weekend.

Catch there. Peace.