The Daily Signal - How to Get Young People to Reject Socialism

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

As the former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker learned firsthand how to confront cancel culture. In 2012, he became the first governor in American history to survive a recall election. His economic recovery plan and budget reforms ultimately proved more popular with voters. Now, as president of the Young America's Foundation, he's educating the next generation of conservatives how to fight back against the left—and win. Walker is also on quest to expand YAF's reach by engaging a larger number of young Americans on the issues that matter most. He's optimistic about the future and believes more young people will reject big-government socialism once they understand the consequences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, November 1st. I'm Rob Blewey. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, Rob interviews former Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, who is now president of the Young America's Foundation. They talk about educating the next generation of conservatives to defend American values. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about the ways you can celebrate National Adoption Month this November. But before we get to today's show, Rob and I want to do. tell you about one of our favorite Daily Signal resources. If you are looking for an easy and entertaining way to keep up with the news you care about, then you need to subscribe to the Daily Signal's YouTube channel. The channel offers interviews with policy experts on the most critical

issues and debates America is facing today, as well as short explainer videos that break down complex issues and documentaries that dive deep into the way's policy actually impacts people. Go ahead and subscribe to the Daily Signals, channel today, you can either search for the channel in your YouTube app or you can visit YouTube.com slash DailySignal. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by former Governor Scott Walker, who now leads the Young America's Foundation as his president.

Governor, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me on. Well, it's great to have you back at the Heritage Foundation. And, you know, we are focused here in Washington on some of the big challenges our country faces. Obviously, the last 18 months, we've endured this pandemic. We now have a new administration in Washington, which is pushing a lot of big government socialist programs. You have a perspective as leading a state, leading a state through some tumultuous times of your own coming out of the recession and having some big budget debates and encounters with unions there. And now you're

leading an organization that focuses on the future and educating young people about our great country. What is your outlook on our country right now as you interact with these? young Americans and hopefully give them a brighter future as to what the days of their head. Well, I'm an optimist, which might sound unusual for a conservative here in our nation's capital where we sit right now. But I'm an optimist for a couple different reasons. One, you mentioned my time as governor. I think back, you know, coming off the recession in 2008, 2009 going into 2010, like when

I ran for governor, the unemployment rate surpassed 9.2% in Wisconsin. We had over 133,000 people on work. We had all sorts of problems. I inherited a budget deficit of about $3.6 billion, which was for a mid-sized state, a pretty significant amount. The reason I'm optimistic is because I look at with positive conservative reforms, we were able to react to that in a great way. In fact, when I left for multiple years in a row, we had more people working than ever before in Wisconsin's history. Unemployment was well below 3%. We had budget surpluses every year in office.

And probably most importantly, we put in a... in place reforms that at both the state and the local level, the allowed our elected officials, the people we duly elect, to actually run the governments, to get rid of the union control. That meant that we could staff based on merit, we could pay based on performance, we could put the best and the brightest in the classroom and elsewhere. And that's really paid off, more than $13 billion worth of tax relief, major reforms, major savings. So I put that in context as saying it hasn't happened yet, but I think that will have a major

impact, particularly next year, what happens with the electorate, and a minimum, at least with the House. And then, I think, given time, much as we saw what happened in 2008, led to 2010 and beyond the positive reforms that came after those elections, I'm hopeful that 22 and 24 will lead down that path as well. The other part is with young people, you know, at Young America's Foundation. I just see not just our young people who are already motivated and involved, but when we go to college campuses and we give lectures.

What I found is that many people look at young people today and they say, oh, my gosh, what is wrong with them? And I say, no, no, no. What's wrong is that society, all of us collectively, haven't done enough to give a balanced perspective. And while on one hand that's frustrating because most polls then show that young people lean left, the positive side is, given some information, it's actually not hard to move them in the right direction. Well, Governor, I will say that, you know, as frustrated and as worried as people are today, I know that they're still have hope for the future. So I think a lot of them agree with your optimistic attitude. You are here at the Heritage Foundation today to talk about how we can effectively message to not only conservatives, but a lot of Americans who may not affiliate themselves directly with

the conservative movement or agree with that label. But really, I think deep down, probably agree with some of the issues that we work on. What advice would you like to share with our listeners about how you're doing that at the Young America's Foundation? One of the best things, and this is not only true with young people. I think it's true overall with people, but particularly young people is, you know, as conservatives, we have a tendency to think and talk with their head. The left thinks and talks with their heart. And we want to succeed. We need to think with our head, use our mind, but convey it in ways that come from the heart. And one of the most compelling things we encourage our young people to do at our conferences and even on their campuses

is go and seek out people who've come here from other countries, particularly people who've come from places like Venezuela or Cuba or some of the old Soviet republics. We've had on our campuses and at many of our conferences, people who fit that bill, whether they're very young or people who have several generations removed from having come here. But it's just so powerful because when someone talks to you about Venezuela country that just a decade and a half ago is one of the wealthiest in the hemisphere, now nine out of ten people in that country live in abject poverty. It affects so much so you can literally see that. I think the average Venezuela in the last few years has lost something like 20 pounds. just because of malnutrition. So you can literally physically see the impact of socialism on them.

Or you think of Cuba, we're up until last January, the minimum wage in Cuba was $17. Not per hour, not per day, not per week, but per month. Now it's going up since then. But think about that. Even with free health care, and we all know that free health care means lousy health care in Cuba, as we've seen in this pandemic, but health care and housing and transportation, I tell these kids, $17, even at that. How would you even pay for your iPhone, let alone anything else?

And so sharing not just the facts, but finding ways to communicate it either through stories or ideally through firsthand accounts of people have experienced either socialist countries or countries that warrants communists, really, really powerful. I'm glad you talked about stories. I mean, that was one of the impetus for us to create the Daily Signal was to take some of the policy issues and put a human face on them. And then as you mentioned authenticity. of the group you were speaking to, I think, is really important. And so finding those individuals who can talk about it directly in their own experiences, great ideas. Now, let me ask you this.

We have heard now for several years about through polling and other just anecdotal information that more and more young people are gravitating towards socialism. They're also turning away from free market capitalism, it seems. When you've looked at these issues, what do you find in the polling that you've done? Well, on the surface, it might appear that way, but it's interesting. We did a number of polls on this like others have done, but for example, one of the open-ended polls we did where we said, well, it defined socialism. The highest number of people, there was no clear majority, but the plurality at the top was not sure. Nearly 30% of the respondents of young people weren't even sure.

Get this, a whopping 10% said they thought it was being social, which is amazing because the next two highest groups were both at 11% where they actually gave pretty accurate descriptions. So about as many people just thought it was being social as anything else. Conversely, when we ask about free markets, very similar numbers. About 30% weren't certain, and they were kind of all over the map. So I go back to the good and the bad. The bad is we've got an education system in this country that largely has failed our students if they can't clearly define whether you're forward against it, what socialism is and what free market capitalism is at.

And that's one of the important things, too, is how do we define it? It's a big government socialism versus free market capitalism if you want to be clear about the parameters. Because then I think it gets back to the fairness issue. Once we explain what that is, then young people go, oh, well, I'm actually for free markets. I don't want the government intervening in this. I don't want them telling me what I can or can't do. And one of the other interesting telling points in whatever polls was we asked, do you think the federal government is using taxpayers money wisely? A mere 26% said yes, about half said no and about a quarter weren't certain.

So three quarters of them were either no or weren't sure, only slightly more than a quarter actually thought that they were using it right. So it is a telling issue that we need to go beyond just the superficial headlines that the media jumps over and realize that most young people either don't know or don't fully fully appreciate what socialism is. Yeah, it makes you also wonder if the left is maybe overplaying its hand here. Well, I think they are. Well, I think they are, but they have a willing accomplice in the media.

True. The media buys into this. I often say the left of the media largely indistinguishable, but they buy into it. And I think actually even worse with the media, it's not even just that they're liberal. I think some are, for sure, nationally. But I think worse than that, most media outlets are just lazy. They just, you know, that's why they love talking. about polls. They love talking about elections,

but what they really want to talk are easy, simple things. There's one or the other. It's why abortion and the death penalty get far more attention than what's actually in the $3.5 trillion spending spree because those are black and white issues. Things that are a little bit more gray that take a little bit more

nuance and understanding are largely difficult. And most anchors, most reporters, don't want to expose themselves to how little they actually know about these issues. Yeah. Well, and let's talk about issues just for a moment because I'm curious in your work at Young America's Foundation, what issues do you find are resonating most with college students these days? What are they interested in? Well, interesting enough, it sounds like

a process one, but the biggest thing is cancel culture. Students overwhelmingly, anywhere from center to right, maybe not the radical ones on the left, but center to right, understand and have largely experienced, whether it was a professor. And amazingly, we have in our tip line. Yaf.org, we have YF.org slash tips. You can actually get it. give us a tip, if you're a college student or anyone else for that matter. It is amazing how many times we'll get tips recorded or otherwise. We have professors saying, hey, you know, if you say you're pro-life, you're pro-gun, you're pro-trump, whatever it might be, you're going to flunk out of class.

I won't accept that. Well, that's a clear violation, you know, from not only free speech, but an academic freedom standpoint. So we see it in the classroom. We see it with fellow students. We see it when speakers come to campus where they, they either outright won't allow them, or I remember in the past, for example, the University of California, Berkeley, we were bringing in, helping to bring in Ben Shapiro. And the university didn't technically block him in the purest legal sense, but they put restrictions like he couldn't be there after three in the afternoon. They couldn't advertise. The students couldn't advertise for it.

And oh, by the way, they had to charge a security fee that was multiple times more than they charged any other group on campus. We fought that. We ultimately won in court, just like we'll fight it anywhere in the nation. But it is mind-boggling when you think about free speech, when you think about this is something the Constitution guarantees, but it should be the most revered on our college campuses. Yet that's where it's most at risk. And so cancel culture, free speech issues really are top of mind. Then after that, then they want to talk about freedom, things that allow them to live in a free and just society.

They're very interested in fairness. we shouldn't back away from that. You know, fairness and authenticity, I think, can really be on our side, but we've got to go, again, beyond the surface and really dig and explain what that means. Let's go back to cancel cultures for just a moment. If we have college students who are listening to this podcast or maybe parents or grandparents, what are the resources that Young America's Foundation can provide them? You mentioned the tip line. Can you talk about other things that you do to help them overcome some of the challenges they might endure? Well, individual students, whether you're a member or not, you can join as a member too at yf.org,

but whether you're a member, whether you're part of a chapter, or you're just a conservative student. A lot of times we'll work with other groups, college republicans, students for life, you name it. We'll work with others because it's not just, you don't just have to be a member to be of interest to us, as well as educators. I would add it's not just students, but there are a significant number of professors and teachers, not only conservative ones, but many who just want to be objective. And we will stand up and help and defend them. It's part of our long game plan to broaden out and reach to them as well as to more students. And we'll partner.

We don't do it alone. We have great allies like Alliance Defending Freedom that helps us when we go to court. We have other legal allies along the way. We'll work with any other group on campus. Again, we have a longstanding tradition, for example, with campus speeches with college Republican chapters. But if they come to us at yF.org, let us know. Again, even if you just want to do an anonymous tip, let us know about something happening or you want direct help, we'll take it on in a heartbeat.

Well, let's talk a little bit more about your leadership of Yath. Earlier this year, you made the transition to become the organization's president, taking over for Ron Robinson, who had led the organization for over four decades. We're really grateful to Ron for being a great partner here with us at Heritage Foundation. I know many of our Daily Signal listeners admire the work that you're doing for the exact reason I mentioned earlier. They have hope in the future. Why did you take the job?

Obviously, there are some people who think. think, you know, you should go back into public service and maybe run for another office. And how do you want to leave your mark on the organization? Well, I get asked about once a week if I'm ever going to run again. And you can tell I thought about this answer is I'm a quarter century younger than Joe Biden. So I got plenty of time. But for the foreseeable future at a minimum, I have a contract through 2025. I'm with Young America's Foundation, not only because Tonet and I, my wife and I have been

longtime supporters. We came to the ranch, the Reagan Ranch, which is one of the many things that Yef is involved with. We own and operate the ranch out in Santa Barbara. We came to visit it 10 years ago. It was perfect timing because we were in the midst of the right sandwich between the protests and the riots at our state capital and the recall election. It was a great reminder that as beloved as Ronald Reagan is today, rightfully so, back in the prime of his presidency, he was under attack quite frequently. And so it was very reassuring to see if you're doing the right thing, you're going to face attack, and it put us in the right mindset. So ever since then, Tannett and I have been huge supporters.

But when Ron Robinson has been there more than four decades, I mean, think about a tremendous legacy that he's built, great staff, great supporters, great students, great alumni, when he came to me a couple years ago after my two terms were up, and said, would you be interested? His goal was to retire at the end of, after the inauguration in 2021, which he did. He said, would you be interested? And I said, well, if you just want a caretaker, there's plenty of great talent within. But if you and your board are interested in someone who wants to dramatically increase both the number of students we reach and how much sooner we reach them, then I'm interested. And the board said, and Iran said, absolutely.

And so that's part of why earlier this year after I took the position, we initiated what's called the long game. Again, yaf.org slash long game, if people want to copy. The Long Game is really a 12-point action plan to reach, not just more, but to reach every campus so that we have an outlet to every student in the country. And to start younger is, you know, we're in high school and college right now. I want to go into middle school and even give parents of even elementary school parents some support. And that means building alliances. This is why we love working with the Heritage Foundation because even things like, for example, critical race theory, what I call government sanctioned racism. It's a good example.

A lot of parents. looking for information on that. Those are things we don't need to duplicate. We can work with young people and then partner with groups like Heritage to not recreate content, but actually disseminate some of the stuff that Heritage does with the students we're working with. I know that Heritage was honored earlier this year, as was Young America's Foundation, to have Vice President Mike Pence affiliate with both of our organizations to do some unique things. In our case, he writes a regular column for The Daily Signal and yours.

He's just launched recently a new podcast. He's back in the business of being on air. Can you tell us about that relationship and what it means to have the former vice president be part of your team? It's really special. First week of November he's going to be the University of Iowa. On Veterans Day, he'll be at Texas, A&M giving speeches. You're right, he's done functions.

He's done conferences. He was at the Reagan Ranch where his family had been about 16 years prior when they were kids. Now they're full-grown adults. But the podcast, I hope people will listen in. The first one he did was on 9-11, before we talked about authenticity and fairness. Boy, that's personified.

This is something that he's so good at. Before he was in Congress, Mike Pence was on the radio in Indiana, and it really has a knack for it. But more than talking, what you really can sense, and I think this is what draws particularly young people in, is he really takes the stories and lets them be the centerpiece, not himself. He really listens to what people are saying and talk about amazing stories. That first one, people should go back and listen to him,

had a young woman whose father died on 9-11. Both parents were from Poland. It's part of the reason why they knew the difference between communism and freedom, so passionate why she wanted to be connected as a podcast with the vice president. She is, as far as we can tell, with the last baby born after her father died in 9-11. So an unusual distinction now 20 years later. And then another young woman whose father was in the military, he left when she was born, And then after 9-11, he was drawn to be back in, and he unfortunately was killed in action in 2004, a few years after.

Both of those young women talked to the vice president as part of this podcast, told their stories, which I was in the studio with them. It was hard to keep your eyes from leaking all over the place. But really, really powerful, and he continues to do great interviews like that on the issues of the day. Well, I think it's a great podcast. We'll make sure that our listeners can find a link to it and encourage them to you. check it out. It's really fantastic that you're giving him the platform to be able to tell these stories. And as we know from his own columns at The Daily Signal, he's a great communicator. He is indeed. He is. Well, final question for you. I want to come full circle to where we started

10 years ago, some of my colleagues here at the Heritage Foundation traveled to Wisconsin, actually to your home to do an interview with you at the height of the budget debate that you were having and these protests that were going on in Madison. A year later, you faced a recall election. You were the first governor in American history to survive. And the only sane one. Looking back now, a decade later, what did those experiences teach you about political service and ultimately winning? Well, and in a way, they're actually very relatable to the students we work with at Young America's Foundation, because I tell them, you know, when they sent 100,000 protests.

remember, this wasn't for hours. This was for weeks, almost a month. They occupied our state capital. I often joke the Occupy Movement did not start on Wall Street. It started on my street in Madison, Wisconsin. But they were trying to intimidate us. They were trying to marginalize us. They were trying to minimize us.

Not just me and the death threats against me and my family against our administration, our lawmakers and others. And then the recall was the ultimate council culture, right? And so I tell our students that we work with, particularly in college campuses, I can relate. The scale may be different, but they're dealing with the same things. They're trying to make young people feel intimidated, marginalized as though they're all off on their own. One of the great things I hear at our conferences are young people who say, I had no idea. Other people think like I do.

You probably get that with a lot of the interns and fellows that are involved here at Heritage, many of whom we swap and hire and work with along the way. But it just was a great reminder why. reaching more people, connecting them with good, sound, conservative thought, and then not just the ideas, but then binding them together, that their strength and numbers. And that the left's, really their goal has been for decades, is to intimidate, to marginalize, to make us feel like we're out on a limb all by ourselves. And we realize, no, we're closer to the trunk than people think. And there's a lot more people deeply rooted with these strong, all-American traditional ideas. to that extent, I think the more we do that, the more we remind people of that, the better

offer are all going to be. You're certainly right. Well, if you want to learn more, again, it's Young America's Foundation. The website is yaf.org. Governor Scott Walker, thanks so much for joining us today. My pleasure. Great to be with you. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda.

In the agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first?

In response to my recent podcast interview with Michael Schellenberger about his new book, San Francisco, Why Progressives Ruins, cities, Judy Drinin writes, fabulous interview with a wise and knowledgeable man. I'm an 84-year-old woman who was married in 1960 in San Francisco and am broken-hearted at what has happened to that beautiful city by the bay. It is comforting to hear that there are people like Michael Schellenberger who are paying attention. And in response to Mary Margaret Ollahan's piece, Virginia school system deflex charges it

covered up rape of ninth grade girl by gender fluid boy, we received this letter from Wayne Baye of Mableton, Georgia. As a retired police supervisor and parent of five children, I am outraged to think that any school official would ignore and try to conceal such a horrific crime alleged to have been committed in a girl's room by a biological male wearing a skirt. I am also very angry that schools now permit their restrooms to be used on an individual student's gender identity. Our children's minds are being corrupted. by critical race theory and programs dealing with sexuality. Attorney General Merrick Garland has no business directing the FBI to police,

local school board meetings, and treating parents as domestic terrorists. If a school board member feels threatened, it is a problem for local law enforcement, not the FBI. Your letter could be featured on next week's show, so send us an email at Letters at DailySignal.com. The Heritage Foundation has a new website to combat critical race theory. CRT, as it's known, makes race the centerpiece of all aspects of American life. It categorizes individuals into groups of oppressors and victims. The idea is infiltrating everything from our politics and education to the workplace and even our military.

Heritage has pulled together the resources that you need to identify CRT in your community and the ways to fight it. We also have a legislation tracker so you can see what's happening in your state. Visit heritage.org slash CRT to learn more. Virginia, it's Monday again and you have a good news story to share with us. Over to you. Thanks so much, Rob. Well, we can certainly all agree that the best place for a child to be raised is in a loving family. That's why adoption and foster care plays such a critical role in America and across the globe. Kids need families. And with November being National Adoption Month, it's the perfect time to celebrate those families. But tragically, 1.5 million. children lost a parent or a caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many children in need of a safe and loving home. While there are more children in need of those safe homes, adoption and foster care are actually declining. But now for the good news, there is an organization called Lifeline Children's Services. Lifeline is the largest evangelical Christian

adoption agency in America, and their mission is to ensure every child is raised. in a safe and loving home. And during National Adoption Month, Lifeline is raising awareness about the need for more foster and adoptive families. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Herbie Newell,

the president of Lifeline Children's Services, to talk about the importance of National Adoption Month. The needs of vulnerable children and the needs of orphans and the needs of kids in foster care in the United States has exponentially grown

through this pandemic and through the crisis that we have. And so the needs of the church to get engaged, the needs of individuals to step out of their comfort zone and to care in a multitude of different ways for the orphan, the foster child and the vulnerable child is so paramount. And what we have seen is we've seen countries, there's not a single country in the world that has been immune from this global pandemic. And not just from the sickness or the effects of COVID-19, but also of all of the economic effects and the familial effects. And so we're seeing needs of children pop up in places. And we're seeing these needs that are extravagant, that are different, that are new. And what a great time for us just to pause in the midst of all the chaos and all the things that are going on.

And as a church to reflectively look upon ourselves and say, how can we be called? What can we do to care for the needs of the vulnerable children around us and around the world? And then really, even as a country, as a nation, with so much going on, How do we make sure that we're caring for the most vulnerable in our country? Newell says it is the perfect time to consider how we as Americans and conservatives can all be a part of loving children in need. When it comes to vulnerable children and vulnerable families, it's been a whole lot easier at times for us to give a handout. And I would just want to encourage the listeners and encourage especially those who come from a much more conservative mindset that this is the time and now is the time that we need to. to go alongside of vulnerable women, of vulnerable families and vulnerable children, and we need to

teach them how to fish. We need to teach them how to survive. We need to spend a part of our lives, our time, our talent, and our treasure to really help them. And so I hope with National Adoption Month, with this month of November, when we're really looking at the plight of the orphan, that we wouldn't just throw our money at it, but we would truly invest our lives in the lives of these children and families. To learn more, you can visit lifelinechild.org. Happy November and happy National Adoption Month. Virginia, thanks so much for sharing that story. We're going to leave it there for today.

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