Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 494 | Will the Real Right Please Stand Up? | Guest: Blake Masters

Episode Date: September 23, 2021

Today we're interviewing Blake Masters, a candidate for one of Arizona's two U.S. Senate seats. Masters is part of a new wave of Republicans running for office around the country who are promising to actually push back against the left, unlike many establishment Republicans who are in office currently. We discuss what made him decide to run, as well as his stance on several issues like vaccine mandates, Big Tech censorship, the threat of China, and abortion. --- Today's Sponsors: Carly Jean Los Angeles does the clothes hunting for you & provide clothes that are effortlessly, easy, and flattering on any shape, size, age, or season. Their team handles Instagram DMs all day, every day, so ask all your questions about sizing, fit, or even how to build a capsule for your specific lifestyle. Visit CarlyJeanLosAngeles.com & use the promo code 'ALLIE' to save 20% off anything in their online store! Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider & they have plans to fit any budget, plus their 100% US-based customer support team provides exceptional customer support. Go to PatriotMobile.com/ALLIE to get free activation with the offer code 'ALLIE'! Alliance Defending Freedom has been standing up for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, freedom of speech, marriage, & parental rights in America's highest courts for the last 27 years. Go to ADFLegal.org/ALLIE & join the growing number of Americans pledging their support for freedom & liberty! --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys, welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone is having a great day and week. Today we've got a special guest for you. We've got Blake Masters who is running for Senate in Arizona.

He's a really interesting guy. I remember seeing his campaign video a few months ago. And it just struck me that, okay, this new crop of conservatives coming up and running for office, they seem different than the conservatives of years past in a really good way. Their message seems to really get to the heart of the working class and the concerns that average Americans have. And so I'm really excited to kind of see this new generation of conservatives. And I'm excited for you to hear from him and hear his message and what his goals are in. running for office and then when he gets there, what he promises to actually do for the people of Arizona. Before we start that conversation, I want to ask you guys if you could please one subscribe

to YouTube. If you haven't already, that would really help me out. Also, if you love this podcast, please leave a five-star review on Apple. You don't even have to leave a long message or anything like that. But that really helps us. It helps more people see the show and know what the show is about. So if you love Relatable, if you could leave a five-star review, just tell us a little bit about why you love the show. That would mean a whole lot to us. Thank you, you guys, so much for listening. We're almost to 500 episodes, which is super hard to believe that we have been here for this long.

It'll almost be four years. It'll be four years at the beginning of next year. And it's just been such a privilege to be able to do Relatable. So if you could just let us know why you love the show, I would be so grateful. All right. Without further ado, here is Blake Mous. Blake, thank you so much for joining us. For those who may not be familiar with you and your campaign, can you tell us who you are and what you do? Sure. Thank you, Allie, for having me on.

My name is Blake Masters, and I'm running for the United States Senate in Arizona. I grew up in Arizona, and I spent the first part of my career after going to Stanford and Stanford Law School in Silicon Valley. And so I run Teal Capital. This is Peter Teal's investment management company. And moved back to Arizona a few years ago. You know, I had this front row view to watching Arizona lose two Senate seats. And I think that's just crazy. So I'm tossing my hat in the ring and I'm going to win this seat back. And what made you decide to run?

I know you said that you were frustrated with Arizona losing two Senate seats, but a lot of people are probably frustrated and don't make the decision to enter into the ring themselves. But you've made that decision. So why? It just feels like the most important thing I could be doing right now. You know, I look around. and to me it's getting harder and harder to recognize this country. And I grew up right there in Tucson, Arizona, 30 years ago.

And so much has changed and so quickly. And I worry that if we don't get a new generation of leaders in there that actually know what to do, we're just going to see this great country slip away. You know, I'm raising three boys. They're seven, five, and one year old. And I think in some sense they'll be fine. I've had a successful business career, but they're on track to grow up in a country that just doesn't work. I think that's alarming, and it feels like just super important to go in and try to write the ship.

It does seem like there is a new generation of conservatives coming up that maybe think a little bit differently than their predecessors. I think one example of this has been the reaction to Biden's vaccine mandates, or maybe just vaccine mandates. in general, whereas I think the typical conservative response has been to say, you know, I am against these vaccine mandates because I don't think the government should be telling businesses what to do. But then there's been kind of a new, a different conservative response that has said, actually, I'm going to tell businesses that they cannot discriminate against people because of their vaccination status and they can't mandate vaccine. So where do you land on that?

Yeah, I think the Biden mandate is crazy. And I think if anything, we should be doing just the opposite. We should be prohibiting companies of any real size from requiring vaccination. And I think conservatives, or at least the new generation here that we're talking about, we are waking up to this. I like markets. But at a certain point, when businesses become so big, they absolutely can threaten people's liberty just like the government. You know, at a certain point, Facebook has so much power that it's more powerful than most governments.

And, of course, at a certain point, they're not even private companies anymore. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. we ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos.

If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. If these big companies want to act like publishers instead of platforms, fine. We should treat them like publishers. But I think that only goes like two or three percent as far as. we need to go. I do think these companies passed a certain point, but Facebook and Twitter and Google, they're there. They're common carriers. And so they can't discriminate against you and I

any more than the phone company can discriminate against you or I. You know, they can't block certain content that they don't like. And then I do think we probably need to use antitrust enforcement and break some of these companies up. They're just too big and too powerful. When I see Hunter Biden story, you know, getting ripped off the internet by Facebook the week before an election. It's like, how is that a fair and free election? Right. That's just crazy, and they should not have the power to do that. So if they're going to act like that, fine. Maybe Facebook shouldn't be allowed to have Facebook and WhatsApp and Instagram and this whole ecosystem and efficiently sort of money data to use against American citizens. I think we've got to clean

all that up. So you're arguing that they right now are acting as publishers, but they're getting the immunity of a platform. But at the same time, so something that I worry about, because I've really kind of looked at both sides of this debate. They still need to have the power. These social media companies still need to have the power to kick off content that is actually truly harmful. Like you want them to be able to kick off pornography and especially like child exploitation and true abuse and doxing and things like that. And so people on the other side of the debate would argue, well, if you repeal Section 230 and you treat them just as publishers, they become liable for everything, and they're either going to hypercensor because they don't want to be

liable for everything, or if you treat them as platforms, then they're not going to be able to have the power to kick off actual offensive, harmful, violent content. So what is, what's the balance there? I think it's, if it's illegal content, you know, if it's like child sex material or something horrible like that or even just actual incitement to violence, if it's illegal, you can kick it off. But if it's someone saying, like, I support President Trump or, you know, I'm pro-life. I don't care what you say about it. And you get kicked off for, like, that political content. I think that crosses a line.

So where's the line? It's hard to say, but these companies are so far from it right now. I think they just wantonly send conservatives who become too powerful. Yeah. And they don't like that. Yeah. And obviously, there have been attempts to try to kind of create competitors. There was parlor, and then they ended up getting taken down.

by... It's so disingenuous. It's like, if you don't like it, go build your own Google. Go build your own Facebook, which I think is ridiculous and it doesn't understand the sort of realistic monopoly network effects that these companies have. But then it's like, okay, fine, I'll go build parlor. So some people go do that. And then you see them get deplatformed by AWS and Apple allegedly because of hate speech, but in practice, I think we can feel that that's just partisan deplatforming. So you can't even build your own alternatives. They won't let you. Right, right. I... took this New York Times, this New York Times quiz that everyone was taking, which I'm sure they were

just mining our data in all of that. But everyone was taking this quiz that was telling them, you know, where they land on the different political quadrants. There's a lot of people in this upper right corner who are socially conservative and who are also economically conservative. And then there's obviously some in the other quadrants. But where there was the least amount of people is this quadrant that is socially liberal and economically conservative. And yet, that quadrant seems to represent the mindset of a lot of people in Washington and certainly a lot of DC think tanks. And so it actually seems like the majority of conservatives, even though they're very socially conservative, they're pretty economically conservative, we don't have a whole lot of

outright representation. We don't have a lot of people that are out there fighting our culture. in the same way that you've got Democratic politicians fighting the culture wars of the left. Why do you think that is and do you think that it can change? I think it just is because that's been the Republican Party, you know. I think Ronald Reagan did his job in the 80s, but then no one updated. Everyone kept saying the same stuff through the 90s, through the odds. It was just Paul Ryanism. You know, Paul Ryan thought, gee, what Americans really want is, you know, more immigration and

less health care. And no, it's just the opposite. People actually don't want, you know, mass immigration, but we do want a health care system that works. And the Republicans have been failing to deliver that for the longest time. I think the left has failed to deliver it. And Obamacare is a disaster and prices are really high. But, no, people are center, center right on economics. And I think this country is still very socially conservative.

You know, we don't want drag queen story hour. We don't want critical race theory in our school. 60 or 70 percent of people are right. We see this stuff. And they think this is crazy. And if we train a whole generation of people to think this way, we will just lose the country. So I think it's just been too easy for Republicans like Paul Ryan, sort of Chamber of Commerce, business interest types, to just focus only on economics.

You focus only on tax cuts. It's like, yeah, I like tax cuts. But if your whole political program for 20 years is nothing but tax cuts, meanwhile, the left is just, you know, assaulting everything. They're just taking over all the institutions. You're not going to have a country anymore. And I think that's what this new generation of Republican leadership, you know, that I'm trying to be a part of. I think that's what we see crystal clearly. And I think most people agree with us.

Something that we talk a lot about on this podcast is the threat of China, how it's much bigger than a lot of people realize. And certainly we don't consider on a daily basis because it seems too far off for us to really think about how it could be affecting our family. But if you look at the policies of not just Democrats, but a lot of neoconservatives, but certainly the Biden administration, they seem to be. constantly playing into the hand of the CCP at the expense of the United States. What's your take on that? And what would be your plan once you made it to Congress to kind of push back on what we're seeing, the weakening of America to strengthen the CCP? Yeah, I think for 30 years, again, since the end of the Cold War, politicians left and right have been asleep at the wheel on China. You know, I think as recently as 2014, Joe Biden was like,

come on, man. You know, China's never going to get it. And said, what are you talking about? He did more than anyone to enable the rise of China. It was this naive lie. We helped them industrialize. Oh, they'll just become more like us, a sort of Western liberal democracy. Now, we helped them industrialize, and we actually became more like them, you know, some ossified sort of centrally controlled oligarchy.

And I think that's horrible. Trump, when Trump won in 2016, he came along and he reset the entire conversation on China, I think, in a really healthy way. And we just have to pick up that torch and run with it because China is the number one geopolitical threat. You know, the left still wants to just talk about Russia, Russia, Russia, and Putin. It's like, no, ma'am, China is the threat. China's playing the long game.

They've been eating our lunch for a long time. I thought the Trump economic policies were great. You know, slap China with tariffs because there's no free trade with China. There's no level playing field. If we think we have a level playing field, it just means we're getting totally owned. And so push back on China economically. don't let them advance militarily. You know, we're already in the soft, cold war with China.

But when they look at the weakness in Biden's Afghanistan debacle, it's like they're just salivating over Taiwan. They see this weak president. Why would they not move on Taiwan right now? This is really dangerous. And I think that, again, the new generation of leadership just sees this so clearly. Yeah. We're just giving the keys away to China.

It is crazy. Well, China actually said that after the whole Afghanistan disaster. they put a statement out that said anyone in Taiwan who is thinking that America is going to save them. And I'm pretty sure the statement said when there is a war, not even if there is a war, just realized the United States is not going to come help you. And I think that's the signal certainly that we are, that we are giving to our allies, that the United States is not to be trusted. And I don't actually think, I mean, not to ascribe the most nefarious motivations to this administration, but it's getting harder and harder not to do that. I don't think that this administration really cares. I think that it is,

you know, a sequel of the Obama administration that really believed ideologically that American strength is bad, that relying on American resources, that building up America in any way socially, politically or economically is actually bad for the world and that America needs to be taken down a notch in a variety of ways in order to even the playing field and whatever. I don't even know what the ultimate goal is. But it just seems it seems purposeful at this point. And I hate to say the administration is malicious, but I don't know. It seems that way in some ways. At a certain point, it's like it's interesting, it's interesting dinner table conversation

to say, is this intentional? Is this not? Is this conspiracy? No, but it doesn't matter whether it's whether they mean to do it or whether it's just incompetence or those can get into the same thing, right? But when you believe in this globalist project, when you don't believe that your job as commander in chief is to look up for Americans first. Right? They get offended at this America first tagline.

Why would you, that's a, that's a tell right there because obviously your job in the American government is to look after Americans first. It doesn't mean like, you know, screw over the rest of the world, but it means like we've got a job to do, which is make our country great and even greater in the future. No, they don't believe that. They believe in this globalist project where everybody is, you know, the same thing and everybody's equal. And, you know, there's no difference between a Bangladeshi citizen and the American citizen. And it's like, that's a really dangerous perspective for your leaders to have. Yeah. you will have a fallout country.

So whether it's intentional or not, I don't know, but I agree that if you wanted to ruin America, you would basically exactly implement all the virus policies. Open borders. Now, cancel pipelines here, approve them in Russia. You see the gas crisis. Like, we're not energy independent. Weak on China, weak in Afghanistan. It's crazy.

It really is. You know, this is a Christian podcast. So most people are saying are Christians. And I've noticed that there is certainly something within evangelical. that has started to kind of rise up over the past few years. This idea that America first is bigoted, that it's wrong, that we shouldn't make America a priority because that somehow is saying that Americans are better than the rest of the world when that's not true at all.

But I kind of see the lights turn on a little bit whenever I say, well, if you have a mayor, like let's start small. If you have a mayor of a city who says, you know what, Tulsa is my priority. I love the people of Tulsa. I think this is the best city in the world. I'm going to prioritize the people of Tulsa before. I'm going to prioritize the people of Oklahoma City or the people of Phoenix or whatever it is. That would make him.

Yes, that would make him a good leader, right? You wouldn't think. You would not elect a mayor who said, you know what? I hate Tulsa. I think Tulsa is awful. And actually, I am going to prioritize the people of Atlanta first. You would say, well, no, I'm not going to elect you. Well, the same is true if you're talking about a company.

The same is true if you're talking about a state, if you're talking about a country, it's not, as you said, let's grow over the rest of the world. Everyone else is awful and only our people are good and innately better than everyone else. It's just saying, look, I've got a job as an elected official here. I'm going to put the priorities of my country first, right? That's right. That's right. And when you make that analogy, it just highlights how crazy this Biden administration is.

Yeah. Like, anyway, almost at a loss for words, right? So bad. But just look at how they treated President Trump. Like here's a guy who just actually really loved his country. You know, for 50 years, median wages had stagnated. For the first time in the Trump administration, median wages for actual working class people are up. And they hate that.

They just hate that. Yeah. So this is the future. It's like, do we want a globalist project where, like, nothing works or do we want a country that actually works and we can govern in a common-sensical way? It really is that stark. And so much of what's happening right now with draconian COVID-Pol, policy, with his foreign policy, even things like cutting the keystone pipeline, it almost seems like the intention is to hurt the middle class and to hurt the working class, certainly.

Okay, one issue that we talk about a lot that I just want to get your thoughts on before we close this out is abortion. I am very outspoken in the way of being pro-life. Most of the people I would guess listening to this podcast are very pro-life. This is a very important issue for a lot of people. I would guess for a lot of people that would be voting for you too. So what's your stance on abortion and pro-life legislation, kind of like the legislation that came out of Texas recently. Yeah, I'm unapologetically pro-life. I think that's just obviously the correct position. It's so important. I think Roe v. Wade needs to be repealed yesterday. I think it's a horrible decision. It's horrible jurisprudentially. You know, they just invented some right to privacy out of thin air

and then said somehow that covers abortion. So I think just on the legal mirror, it's a horrible decision. Of course, horrible policy too and just responsible for killing, you know, hundreds and thousands of babies a year. So got to get rid of that. I think the federal government has a role to play here. I think that Congress should have a debate and, you know, pick a certain point and say, no, we're going to recognize right here federal personhood. And, you know, past that, absolutely no abortions. Maybe they leave some amount of states below that. I think that's a workable compromise we could get to in the next two or three years if we get a report.

Republican House and Senate and presidency in 2024. But you know, I'm in favor basically of, yeah, Texas's law and states that want to protect life. I think that's super important. Yeah. Well, that's good. I know people- Yeah, you see, Ali, how the abortion thing has turned into this religious totem for the left,

right? In the 90s, they promised they just wanted abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. And now it's like you have activists. wearing their shirts, you know, with the tally marks on how many abortions they've had. And this is the cultural thrust of it. It's a religious sacrifice to these people. I think it's demonic. And I think we've got to put a stop to it. Yeah, it absolutely is, unfortunately. And there's a lot of people who have been deluded into thinking, no one's pro abortion. It's really, you know, you can be personally pro-life, politically pro-choice. At the end of the day, you really do see that the pro-abortion

lobby. There is, I agree, something demonic about it certainly, but it's also just at such a tangible cost of human life. And there are things that we can do to, I think, promote a culture of life and to make America a better place to raise kids. But that doesn't mean that we can't also try to save lives in the womb at the same time. It doesn't have to be either or. And that's unfortunately the false choice people make. The left hits us, the left hits us with this hypocrisy argument, right? They say, oh, Republicans only care about young life when it's in the womb. And once the baby's born, they don't care. And it's like, no, I care about it. before birth and after.

Right. So to your point, we do need to focus more on like, how do we make America the best place to raise children? How do we help people in working class? And how do we help single moms? How do we help them make it work? I think Republicans need to talk a lot more about that. Yeah.

But as you said, it goes together. It's like we also need to support young mothers, young children before they're born. Yeah. Because they're still human beings. And we can debate the different ways to do that. That doesn't always mean policy. I mean, the pro-life years that I know, they all are even. spend all of their time and money and energy voluntarily to helping families in crisis. But it could

also be policy. I'm definitely not saying that it's not. But like you said, it's both and. It's both and. All right. To close this out, you know, a lot of people, I'm sure you are too. We are very disillusioned with politicians in general, certainly over the past year and a half. But that includes Republicans. I'm very much a conservative. I've never voted for a Democrat. I will probably vote for Republicans, at least for the foreseeable future. And yet, I have become a little bit cynical when it comes to any politician, Republican or Democrat, that they're actually going to do what they say that they're going to do. And that when they get to Washington, even though, you know, I know it's a whole big bureaucratic mess and one person can't necessarily

do everything, I understand that. But it does seem like, you know, when people actually get into office, they kind of just say, okay, I have my, I have my power. That's what I want. I don't really care about what I promised on the campaign trail. Make your pitch to us that you aren't going to be like the conservative Republican politicians of the past, that you're going to at least try to get the things done that you say that you are. Yep. It's a great question. I've felt the same disillusionment that you do, right? That's kind of like why I'm running.

To me, power is uninteresting unless you can actually do something with it. And I see so many problems in our country. The idea of doing all the hard work and it's crazy, it's grueling. You know, I have to spend all this time away from my family. But the idea of going through this just to win and then be in office and somehow coast and somehow then all of a sudden ignore all the problems or not want to actually use that pulpit and use that power. That's crazy to me. You know, I do think, yeah, one person can't just turn the ship around like that, but I think one person can do a lot more than we think. And so I look forward to getting in and taking that proverbial machete and clearing a lot of brush out.

And anything that I try to do and can't do, right, I will take that flashlight and shine it on a lot of. all the reasons why the bureaucracy and the stagnation and the corruption. To me, the idea of just going and being in D.C. forever for 45 years like Joe Biden, that's crazy. I want to go in. I want to spend a few years there and do as much as I can. Because if I don't do that, I think if other people don't do that, if we don't support the people trying to do that, we're literally going to lose this country to the far left progressive wing. And it's going to look a lot more like Brazil in 10 years than the America we know and love. So that's what motivates me.

Yeah, you have highlighted a big problem. husband and I talk about that a lot. A big problem with people in Washington and really just government around the world, people who want power for the sake of power. And I think saying people don't under, like I don't understand that. I don't understand the appeal of just having power just to have it. Right. If you're not going to actually do something good with it. But unfortunately, you have a lot of sociopathic people that run this country who really do just want power for the sake of power. What, yes, exactly. You get to go to the Met Gala and express your fashion choices and get in with the end crowd. To me, that seems disgusting and just not worth it.

Right, right. Well, thank you so much. How can they support you? Do you have a website they can go to to learn more? Absolutely. You can go to blakemasters.com. Read about my platform. Donate if you can. Every dollar helps. And yeah, thank you so much for having me, Alley. This is fun. Awesome. Thank you so much, Blake. Great. Thank you. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God. humanity and reality itself.

On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this Steve Day show right here on Blaze TV or

listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.