Will Cain Country - Andrew Yang & Vivek Ramaswamy: The Democrats Leadership Crisis & What It Really Means To Be An American 

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

Story #1: Will sits down with Founder & Co-chair of the Forward Party & 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate, Andrew Yang to discuss the crisis of leadership and lack of direction within the current Democrat party, and whether, in a country where the political alignment is radically realigning, a third party is really possible. Story #2: An update on The Friends Of The Will Cain Show March Madness challenge. Plus, a look at how NIL has forever changed scholarships and college rosters.  Story #3: The full conversation with 2026 Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy on his run for Governor of Ohio and what it means to be an American.  Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail] Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One, Bernie Sanders and AOC conduct a massive populist rally. Is it AstroTurf? Or is it a grassroots response, the future perhaps, the response from Democrats on how to realign themselves in the modern American political landscape? We're going to break it down with Andrew Yang. two NCAA brackets just went through their first weekend who's in first where did i land in the friends of the will cane show league plus a breakdown on how you get onto a roster in college athletics three set down conversation with gubernatorial candidate for the state of ohio of eight grandma swami It is the Will Kane show streaming live at Fox News.com on the Fox News YouTube channel and the Fox News Facebook page. Terrestrial radio, some three dozen markets across to this great United States of America, but always available by subscribing at Apple or on Spotify.

We've got a big show for you today with big guests, including Vivek Ramoswamy and Andrew Yang. But we just came off of a big weekend of NCAA basketball. go through where we all stand today the boys in new york are here young establishment james tinfoil pat and two days dan we'll get an update on where we stand after the first weekend of march madness and i am fascinated i sent you guys an article this morning that i want to dive into about what's happening to college sports in terms of how easy or how hard is it for you to get on to a roster men's soccer men's baseball, women's soccer, women's rowing. We just had an NCAA ruling, not some month or two ago, that set roster limits but

required scholarships for anyone on an NCAA program. And most suggest this is going to contract the ability to play sports in college. But the University of Texas just added 200 new scholarships at a cost of 9.2.000. million dollars i want to break down what that means i want to figure out what it means for your kid or for you and your prospects of playing sports in college i had a bachelor weekend fellas watched a lot of basketball but um i did something else and it's really one of my favorite pastimes so last week when i traveled to california there was no Wi-Fi on my way back to texas so i had to figure out something to watch there was no live tv no movies no nothing and so i got on to my

iPad and I'm like, well, what do I have downloaded? And I have one thing downloaded. And it was the movie Napoleon, which I'd kind of watched a little bit, but hadn't dedicated myself to. And so I rewatched Napoleon, which isn't a very good movie starring Joaquin Phoenix, but it did the trick. It did what I love to do, which has sent me down the rabbit hole. And it sent me down a rabbit hole for a good three days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, mornings, wake up, make a cup of coffee and just see where the internet takes me, see if I can get to the body. them. And I used a combination of Wikipedia and the AI chatbot perplexity, which I really enjoy perplexity. But I just want to tell you where my rabbit hole went. I started with Napoleon and Napoleonic Wars. From there, I went to the French Revolution. I ended up reading about Rousseau and his philosophy of the social contract. From there, I went to Voltaire. I needed to bolster up the counterargument, so I read a little bit on Nietzsche and the Ubermensch, the future of the Superman. And then I realized, I want to get a broader scope of history. So I started reading about the royal families of Europe, the Habsburgs, the bourbons, the people that were defeated essentially

by Napoleon. Because starting in about the late 1700s, the 1790s, you see a massive revolution in humanity. We moved from a monarchical system into the age of revolution. And it didn't just happen in France. Obviously, it happened here in the United States and across the world. So I started reading about Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and James Monroe and their views on Rousseau and their views on how you organize a society. It's impossible to overstate how disruptive this moment in history was for the way we'd organized societies for thousands of years. So from then I started reading about the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. I wanted to get in then to the Holy Roman Empire. That led me to Constantine. It led me to Charlemagne. It led me to Charlemagne.

And then I started reading about the Anglo-Saxons and who they are and how they- This is by Sunday morning. I got pretty far, but I wanted to get to the Anglo-Saxons and ultimately led me to the Scottish-Irish, immigrated to the United States, and ultimately down here to Texas. But here's the thing. It wasn't just random clicking because the whole thing was contextualized a little bit through the prism of Donald Trump. I was trying to make sense of our moment in history, which I do truly think is if not equally

revolutionary to the late 1700s, early 1800s, is a revolutionary moment in history. And here's my consensus, and here's my thought at the end of all this, and we'll have much more time to dive in and go deeper. But my thought is this. For 50 years, a little more, since the end of World War II, we've seen the structure of humanity through the prism, I think, of a late stage managerial decline. It's had its high points. But by the time we arrive in the 2020s. What we are is we're ESPN after George Bidenheimer. We're Apple with Tim Cook. We're not in the age of Steve Jobs. We're not innovative anymore.

We're bureaucratic and managing decline. And I take inspiration. While others might take fear, and I fear they're looking at this through like a 30 year window, with the acts of Donald Trump and the vision of Elon Musk, I think it's the type of visionary you need in this moment. Otherwise, you just go the way of Gannett newspapers. You just go the way of a managed decline. You have to reinvent yourself.

The hardest thing to do is to reinvent yourself at the top. Now, I'm not talking about doing away with constitutional order. I'm not talking about doing the genius of the founding fathers, but I am talking about stepping away from the bureaucratic management that I think has basically been in place since Eisenhower. From

Eisenhower, through Kennedy, through Ford, through Clinton, through Obama and on to Biden I think we have been looking at a series of Tim Cooks and it's time to reimagine

how we see our future now I don't know what that has to do with the Habsburgs but that's how I got there and that's how I ended up reading about Oliver Cromwell all right we'll be doing more of that

here on the Wilcane show but I think it's the perfect jumping off point to get into story number one Andrew Yang is the founder of the Forward Party. It's a new party looking to impress its vision on the future of America. He's also the founder of Venture for America. He's a former president for candidate as a Democrat, and he's written forward notes on the future of our democracy.

Andrew, great to have you on the program today. Thanks for having me, Will. I had St. John's going all the way, so my bracket got busted pretty early. My Cinderella's petered out in the round of 32. If they'd made Sweet 16, I think I would win, and that was Colorado State and St. Mary's. But I still have Florida as my national champion. So there's a small sliver of hope for me. Andrew, I think I take it you were listening.

You jump in on March Madness. You know, you're a big thinker, okay? Far be it for me to require or to assume you and I have much agreement or disagreement. I know you think, I'm just curious what you think about what I just had to say about our moment in history and thinking about it. My thing lately, Andrew, is I think we have to think about leadership and the future of America in much broader context than the way we have for most of your in my lifetime. I think that our ideological framework has been limited by a vision of America post-World War II, bureaucratic, institutional, protection,

meaning protecting those institutions and those norms, when what we're doing, and you've been an entrepreneur as well, Andrews, I think we've fallen into managed decline. And we need to have a more revolutionary and innovative approach that we saw, I think, not just in the 1700s during the age of revolution, but also in the early 1900s in America in the industrial revolution. I think this is the moment we're in,

and we need a visionary leader. Will, I agree with you on the broad strokes of the fact that we've become overly bureaucratic, and I think a lot of Americans are fed up. I think it's one reason why we saw the results in this past November's election. But I am a serial entrepreneur. I ran a small private company, and the leaders I'm thinking about are the leaders in small towns and medium-sized towns who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families, perhaps by starting a business.

And to me, whether that person can access a real opportunity and then maybe hire some people, maybe actually be able to afford a better life for themselves and their family, that to me is the test. Certainly, to the extent that government has been impeding that sort of thing, that's a very bad thing. But the top visionaries that make the news and AI and whatnot, you have to know that what they're going to do is they're going to build very, very valuable enterprise. enterprises that are actually going to make it harder for that small business person in that town or community. And exhibit A for this is Amazon. Jeff Bezos, obviously, world class entrepreneur, you know, billionaire many times over, now launching or trying to launch rockets to Mars via Blue Origin. But Amazon has made it a lot harder to start a hardware store, to start

like, you know, flower store. I don't know if they sell flowers. But you guys know what I mean. Like, you've seen like an Amazonification of the economy. And so we can lodge Jeff Bezos. And I'm someone who, you know, appreciates entrepreneurs at every level. But the fact is that that might have pushed some opportunities further away. And what most Americans want is to be able to lead in their own lives. They want to be able to take control of their own destiny and make a better life for themselves and their family. If we can make that happen, then we're going to win.

If we're not, then, you know, you'll see more distress and anger. I totally agree with that, Andrew. I actually loved that vision of America. And I love it for a couple of reasons. You know, as I was reading this weekend in my rabbit hole, I've always liked Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson. And I was asking myself, okay, Jefferson took a lot of inspiration from Rousseau, who I'm not a big fan of Rousseau, the philosopher from France. But Jefferson had this citizen farmer vision of America. He was sort of an agriculturist.

He saw a small town. He was also, by the way, a hypocrite in a contradiction. because he was an elite and a plantation owner but that doesn't matter hypocrisy is among the least of our sins um i liked that vision from jefferson but i found myself also andrew thinking about the great man theory that history is driven forward by great men and and i and i struggle with this because i love the common man appreciation and honor of jefferson and i was i was trying to reconcile these two theories right i do think history is driven forward by people i think we're being driven forward by musk right now i think we're in the midst of the presence of a great man that doesn't mean i agree with

him on everything that doesn't mean i think he's the coolest guy and what doesn't matter that none of that matters i think we're in the presence of a great man driving us forward in many ways and so i was thinking about this andrew i was like well how do you create a society that allows for both the great man to drive you forward and honoring and enabling the common man at the at the small town level i love small towns and i was thinking about this andrew that's the only way you can innovate because i totally agree with you it's because you got to run a thousand experiments 950 fail 50 do okay five succeed that's how it works in anything right and so that's why you need little entrepreneurs all across america doing things most will fail some will succeed and the next great man emerges and so

i was just kind of i don't know thinking about this hamilton and jefferson and that tension and that's what we're talking about, that tension of how you enable the common man, how you unleash him and make him free, and then how you give license to the great man to continue to build forward. I happen to think that's what Trump and Musk are striking a good court on right now, Andrew. I do think that there is a federalist approach to it, decentralized, but also let those who are truly innovating put engines behind them and move us forward. I agree that Elon objectively is an awesome innovator. He's advanced our ability to explore space. He's advanced EVs. And I think one reason why he is where he is today is because the Biden administration didn't give him his just due, that he very much, you know, objectively deserved. I will say that I feel like he's miscast right now. This is my personal opinion. I think that he is great. at solving problems that have held us back in terms of rockets to the moon and Mars and being

able to launch satellites. But taking that same lens to federal bureaucracy, to me, it's just the wrong fit. You know, it's like if I were tasked with a similar mission, I would say, look, there is a lot of waste in this government. And so what we're going to do is we're going to figure out what agency X is supposed to do. I used X by accident there. But what agency X is supposed to do with it, see if we can deliver on that mission more cost effectively using technology, finding the best people within that agency. And instead, he's regarded various agencies as cost centers. And he's picked on the weakest kids in the cell block. You know, he's picked on like USAID and like, you know, like the consumer financial protection bureau, I mean, if you're going to examine the real cost centers in American life, we all know what they are. It's the militaries and entitlements. And everything else is essentially, you know, a little bit of theater, in my opinion, if you're trying to make a real dent in the inefficiencies. And you would, by the way, scale this over a period of months and years because it's not, now it could

So part of this is that Elon is like a man in a hurry. And so he's showing up and being like, hey, Bing, bang, boom. Let's like, you know, like, do what I can do as quickly as I can do it. And he might be pressed to do that by the political realities. It's like, look, if I stick this in legislation, then maybe this takes place over an extended period of time. And then it doesn't get done. But I think that someone like Elon should be building rockets to Mars. And he's the best in the world at that. And in his mind, what has happened is that, look, you have this encroaching federal bureaucracy that would make my mission impossible. So now I'm going to break the bureaucracy. And, you know, to me, most Americans are ill served by like one extreme of the other.

It's like, what are most Americans? Do I think bureaucracy has gone over on? Yes. But like, you know, do I think it needs to be reined in? Yes. Do I think there's like a moderate way to do it, yes? Let me make a counter argument on two fronts. Well, I'll make the less important one first. which is why I start with USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau versus going for the true cost centers at entitlements in the military. Well, I think the answer is in part. Well, one is a political reality. Those are the hardest to cut, and that's the truth.

And the second is that it's not just a cost-cutting measure enterprise, it's also a bureaucratic enterprise. So you're trying to do away with the bureaucracy that is, permanent and entrenched regardless of who is president. So there's a cost-cutting mechanism to it, but there's also the bureaucratic mechanism to it. And so I think they're attacking much of the bureaucratic mechanism, regardless of how big of an impact it has on cost-cutting. And it does have an impact, a positive impact on cost-cutting. So there's two goals in mind. But the other part is on his use of time and his manner with the speed and the way he's doing it. He went into X,

he cut 90% of the workforce. Everybody, the stock plummets, everybody laments it, and then within a matter of, what was it, six months to a year, it rebounds, you know. And I think that's how he operates, and one could argue in reverse of what you said, it's actually maybe the only way to do it with is something as bloated isn't even the right word.

It's as entrenched as government bureaucracy. You're going to have to be dramatic. You can't managerly tweak it on the margin, you've got to come in with a butcher knife, not a scalpel, and get going. And maybe it goes the same path as it did with X. You know, the big distinction between X and the federal government will, is that when you fire a bunch of people from X, you know, they go out and get other jobs in Silicon Valley or wherever they were.

If you start axing a large number of federal employees, I mean that those people are, it's going to be harder for them to, find like a new landing zone, particularly if a lot of them are in the same geographies. I was talking to the senator from Alaska. And Alaska, it turns out, I have a lot of federal employees. So, you know, like the problem is that. But what does it say about those jobs, Andrew? Doesn't that say something about those jobs? It is true. You know, it's like, look, I'm I'm someone who thinks that there's excess headcount. It's just that, uh, it's just that, uh, If you go in quick, I think there's going to be a lot of pain and disruption to a point

that it's going to really hurt various families and communities. And that's the distinction between what's happening in X and the federal government is X's mission is to, you know, deliver a social media platform. And if someone's not useful for that, then, you know, like, then tough luck. The federal government's goal, in my opinion, is much broader. It's like, hey, let's make all lots of things. But is it a jobs program? For lots of people.

But is it not, and it's one of those things it's a jobs program? It's not a jobs program, but its goal should be to try and make sure that communities aren't left in the lurch. And they are, you know, I mean, if you were to take the most direct example that pops to my mind, it's like, look, you go to a military town and the military base, that's essentially, you know, like a government-run economy. and you know you can argue back and forth as to like hey like you know does that military base belong there are there there soldiers there like i happen to think that if you were to go and say none of you are are now needed you're all gone as town's gone that your economy's gone like that seems to me to be needlessly harsh and cruel um and that's something that i think is happening in miniature in areas around the country and it's not as stark as that military base example i just

used but it's the equivalent but okay and this can transition to a different topic i want to talk to you about because i want to talk about AI you are offering a position that certainly is attached to empathy and you could also argue to some extent more than just empathy it's strategic you can't all of a sudden lay off all these federal government employees without having some negative effect on your economy and perhaps even your society all of a sudden you have these unemployed people that can't get rehired. Okay, legitimate points. But if you don't, what becomes of those jobs and our government over time? It decays to uselessness. And the point is, if they can't get other jobs based upon their skills and experience, maybe they would already arrive at that place of uselessness.

And as an economy at large, we're all going to be grappling with this, right, with AI. Like, it is going to make a lot of jobs useless. So the question is, is do we retain those jobs not to disrupt so that we avoid disruption of society in some way? Or do we require everybody? There's no requiring it. It's just like it's the law of nature. It's like, hey, we didn't make a jobs program for the people that made, you know, buggy whip makers.

You know, when everything was horse and buggy, there was a job and there was an industry for the buggy whip. Everybody made the hit the horses. Well, when we moved to the car, those dudes didn't have jobs anymore. And if they could transition, they transitioned. The point is, it is survival of the fittest in some point. If you create a society in the government that is protecting people against getting fit, what does that look like over the long haul? Well, I'm going to use the example I used on the trail when I was running for president.

Driving a truck is the number one job in more than half the country, maybe 28, 29 states. It's the fourth most common job in the economy writ large. Let's say I invent a way that trucks can drive themselves, AI. And by the way, this is not speculative. I mean, people are working very hard on this because it's going to save billions and billions of dollars. I want people to imagine what you do with hundreds of thousands of newly laid off truckers, average age 49, about a quarter of them are ex-military. And so we're looking at unprecedented situations.

I just talked to the head of a major consumer company who said, replacing 2,000 customer service workers with AI. This is all now coming to roost. And this isn't like a character evaluation. You could be a great customer service rep and a great truck driver or a bad one. It doesn't matter. You know, like when the technology comes. So in my view, it should be government's role to try and help manage this transition in a way that does not involve mass

distress, dislocation, uh, and eventual, uh, disintegration. How? And in my view, where job protection, we're somewhere in that process. But how? Well, you know, are you talking about job protection? Oh, what I'm talking about is trying to transition towards, uh, better opportunities that, that have some growth, better geographies, uh, you know, like we should be, um, paying people to move in some cases, you know, it's like that, like if there aren't opportunities in a particular town or industry at this point. But we should be thinking much bigger. I mean, in my mind, we should be trying to build more human-centered economic models

because if we insist on holding ourselves up, Will, as competitors to the machines, we're going to lose. I mean, these machines double in capacity every seven months. When's the last time you doubled in capacity in seven months is when you were three years old? Like that time you did? I mean, shoot, I'm now 50 years old. Like, you know, I'm, like you said before, managing decline. So.

Okay, hold on. It seems like one of two things you could do. You can outlaw the application of technology in a certain industry. You could say, we're not going to allow AI-driven cars, trucks. We're going to protect the trucking industry. Okay. You could do that. You could outlaw it.

That's sort of like the best. real world example i can think of that is the state of new jersey who requires you to have your gas pumped by a guy at the gas station you can't pump your own gas right every other state obviously we all moved away from that like in the 90s i mean when i was a kid i'm roughly your age when i was a kid you'd pull up to a service station you could pick full service or self-service right well now everything's self-service except for new jersey that only has full service so you could do that you could outlaw it technological innovation in certain industries. And I guess under that theory, like we'd still have guys making, you know, like buggy whips

somewhere, and I don't know where they'd sell them, but they'd be making them today, you know. Or you do what you offered up on the campaign trail, which is you offer like a universal basic income when you get laid off, you're guaranteed some level of income. But I do worry about that as well because it keeps people from having to move forward, you know. The dream of Karl Marx was that we would all live a life of some level of leisure, guaranteed leisure and guaranteed needs covered. The problem with that, beyond the bureaucratic and Soviet Politburo, but as a philosophy was, it doesn't inspire innovation. It doesn't inspire people moving forward. So I'm just trying to think how you go about this transition you described in a real-world

application. Yeah, I mean, I'd argue it enables you to move forward, Will. It's like, you know, you have a little bit of a transitional fund and then you start thinking, okay, like, what am I going to do? Maybe I do something that helps my community in various ways. Maybe you and I pool together and we start a business together. How much UBI were you thinking about? So what I was proposing was a thousand dollars a month for every American, which is, you know, either not a lot or just enough, depending upon... Andrew, don't you think... You know how in England, every election,

every election in England for parliament is basically a referendum on who's going to cover more for health care? Like, it really is. Like, all they care about is, you know, and it's logical. That's how it goes. When the government covers all the health care, the politician that wins is the one that's promising to cover the most.

Don't you think every election in America would turn into, well, I'm going to offer $2,000 a month for UBI? Like, it would turn into that. that type of commodity for every future election? Well, you know the tough part, Will, is we're actually already entering that zone. It's just not very clear or direct because there are a lot of government resources going to subsidize different people, different industries, different stakeholders, while the average Americans looking up saying, like, where the heck am I in this?

It's one reason why we're getting so angry. At least then we can have an honest conversation. And by the way, AI is going to create trillions of dollars worth. the value. And right now it is not going to go to the average American. It's going to get hoovered up by the shareholders of a few mega tech companies. And that's not ideal. You know, if you have trillions of dollars in new value and you can actually help the truckers, help the customer service reps, help the former federal employees perhaps, then you have a chance. And then you can actually, and this is one reason why I like talking to you will, is that then you can start

contemplating the big questions, which is what is leadership in that community supposed to be? Like what are we supposed to be building? And for the average person, because look, I'm someone who loves again, like the famous entrepreneurs, but like that's not going to put food on the table or create like a path of purpose and fulfillment for that person in Indiana, that person in Michigan or Wisconsin or Arkansas or wherever. And that's to me, I mean, that's who I was running for. It's like I wanted the, uh, that small town person to have a chance. Right. Yeah, I mean, we share that in, in, you know, like intellectually, everything leads me towards the survival of the fittest. Uh, that's the true path forward for an economy. But emotionally, I mean,

I'm from a small town, Texas. I want to ensure that all of those people have lives. not just of means like that's why ubi isn't really the answer for me but of purpose they need to have lives of fulfillment and purpose and i do think that traditionally fulfillment and purpose has been found in two things a job and faith family with so add family to that so those three things provide people purpose um and i think i mean there's there's people saying we're going to have robots in five years like literally walk around our house multiple plural two or three robots each In that world, I think we're going to have to get, they're definitely, I mean, they're already in our warehouses. And by the way, I'm with you on all accounts, Will. I love jobs. I love faith. I love

family. And let's try and provide that to as many people as possible. But we, I'm also a numbers and data guy. And if we are going to have new technologies that are going to hoover up a ton of the value in our economy, it's going to be very, very difficult and dramatic for a lot of people. I want to ask you for a minute. I know you're not a Democrat anymore. You're a third party way guy. Let me let's talk this out loud together for a minute. Here's the thing about third parties. So first of all, I think for half a century we've been taught to see politics exclusively through a lens that is at least right now not applicable. That's left, right, conservative, liberal, that is Republican Democrat.

What I mean by that is Donald Trump has scrambled that playing board. I don't care what mainstream narratives are, alt-right, this, that. It's nonsense. It's complete crap. Because he's picked and choose issues from across the political spectrum. Like when I was growing up, tariffs were a Democrat thing. War-divishness, that was a Democrat thing, okay? That's him now, right?

and that's just two there's i mean there's a dozen of these issues that don't make sense through the the ideological spectrum we were taught throughout our lives so i think he has scrambled it and i think that because he has that's why democrats are so lost right now and and they're so incoherent in their response the only unifying thing they have is anti muskism anti-trumpism that's all they have right now as sort of a guiding light and so here you are with a third party and i think you have to be asking yourself the same question that aOC and bernie sanders are asking themselves today like who are we and how do we fit in this new dynamic with this new playing board all shuffled up more than anti-trump you have to find who you are more than being

anti-trump and i think that's a difficult thing that democrats have not answered and i don't know how you're answering that like by the way you can share some ideas with him you can go i i'm this but i'm also this but you got to start answering these things that you are and forget the name Donald Trump. I agree with you completely. I think it's one reason why the Democrats are in the wilderness. I'm someone who doesn't think that the two-party system is working and that we need a new moderate approach. And one of the examples I'd use is that the left might say men are the problem and then the right might say men are infallible. you know like we're somewhere in the middle are they thinking like you know when neither neither are one

of those two but forward is pragmatic it's data driven it's solutions oriented it's dignity dynamism and democracy or we think that people deserve more choices and i see what bernie and arocy are doing in terms of rousing the people there's a lot of anti-musk and anti-trump sentiment to me the critical failing was the democratic party not having a primary and just January 24 and having this disastrous Biden rerun that ended in him dropping out hurriedly. And then, by the way, there was an opportunity for a mini primary even when Kamala was anointed, but Biden short-circuited that. And one of my frustrations with someone like Bernie or AOC, I have two frustrations.

Number one, where were you in January of 24 where there could have been a real competition? I mean, they were backing Biden at the time because it seemed like the movie. even though it was objectively, a very, very dumb plan. And number two, their path right now seems to be to try and convert the Democratic Party more to their liking, which I think is a misdirected approach because, number one, the Democratic Party has a very, very staunch moderate wing, like AOC's already feuding with John Fetterman, and so trying to convert the party, I don't think will work. But number two, the Democrats will have zero path to retake the Senate as currently constituted

within this two-party system. They just lost Senate seats in Ohio and West Virginia, which they will never get back, that their map is bad for them in 26, bad for 28. So if you have a vision of actually trying to solve. By the way, then there's redistricting in 2032, which makes it even worse for them because of the population shifts. They could win those three blue wall states and still lose the electoral. So like the two-party system and the Democrats.

democratic theory of change just doesn't add up in terms of the math. And what you actually need is you need a positive, pragmatic, third-party option that starts creating more choices in the American system. And so that's what we're working on at Ford. My co-chair is Christy Todd Whitman, who is the very popular, moderate governor of New Jersey for quite some time. And what I would say to folks like Bernie and AOC is, one, where were you when there was actually a primary to be held? And And number two, like, what would you address to the people saying, look, like, the two-party system is not going to enable the changes that you're championing? Well, one last thing with you. So you know the difficulty of a third party. It just, it's the American system is basically at this point predicated on two parties. But when I'm forwarding to you is for the first time in maybe 50 to 70 years, these two parties are open for redefinition. Donald Trump just redefined the Republican Party, right?

He just redefined it. There is no doubt about that. Will it survive Donald Trump is a great question debate to be had, right? Or will it revert to a Romney-esque Bush vision of the Republican Party? And that's a great debate to have. But because he's redefined republicanism, Democrats are lost and in the wilderness, and they're open to redefining what they stand for now. Why don't you play in that sandbox?

Like, why do you have to start a new thing that is historically very, very, difficult to pull off. If you at one time saw yourself as a Democrat, why don't you get back over there and redefine what it means to be a Democrat? That is one approach. Well, an approach I obviously took in 2020. And I've concluded the same thing that Mike Duggan, the two-term mayor of Detroit, is concluded when he's talking to Michigan voters saying, look, the future is not either the Democratic Party, the Republican Party. It's the 50% and rising proportion of Americans who say that they're independents and that neither party is clicking for them. And Mike just turned in his Democratic Party badge and said, look, I'm running for governor of Michigan as an

independent. I think Mike Duggan is the future. I think that Rick Caruso might do the same thing in California. Ford has 47 elected officials around the country that are aligning with us right now. And then we have a couple of other figures, by the way, waiting in the wings, I can't share an hour, but I'd love to. And so there are different approaches. Like if someone were to say, look, I'm going to convert the Democratic Party into my vision, depending upon who the person was, I would say, good luck. But we think that there is a huge opportunity we had among the 65% of Americans who don't think the two-party system is working or represents them. And that's where the forward party is. And we are growing every day.

all right andrew yang i always enjoy talking to you we're capable of hitting some of those deeper issues like you suggested and i appreciate that um all right stay in touch andrew thank you thanks will it's a pleasure all right there you goes andrew yang uh entrepreneur founder and co-chair of the forward party um and the author of forward notes on the future of our democracy okay let's take a quick break when we come back um let's just get an update here on where we stand on our NCAA brackets. And I do want to share the scholarship thing. I actually think this is a massive, massive story that nobody's talking about when we

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I'm texting with a buddy who's super into rowing, fellas. He got into it during COVID. You guys know I do my rowing challenge every year, right? Which I didn't, I didn't this year, by the way. What happened? I went on IR. You know,

I didn't train well enough. You pull a lap. I am soft. Okay, so here's what happened. Going into it, I was like, I got to get in shape. But I waited too late. So I did squats and dead lifts one day. and then the next day I'm like oh no my back and my back was wrong it was off and I tried to row

and I was super scared about my back so that knocked me out of the first two weeks by the time my back started feeling better I rode once and then I got sick y'all remember when I was sick coughing up everywhere so now I was out for basically a month of it and I never got back in but my friend that started this thing um his daughter and him got into it during COVID when everybody was stuck at home and they got a rowing machine. And then his daughter was really good at it, and he got into it. And there's a reason I'm bringing this up right now. Two days, I didn't send you this image, but I put it up on my Twitter feed.

It's really fascinating. So, you know, a few months ago, was it federal courts in the NCAA ruled in the NCAA followed suit? Every athlete on a Division I roster has to be on scholarship. So in essence, this puts an end. men to walk-ons and i think it puts an end to partial scholarships so everybody's like wow that's a huge explosion in scholarships right um because for example let's take one sport um men's golf has four and a half scholarships well how many guys are on a golf roster it's probably like a dozen right so or maybe a little little less than a dozen so you're like wow that's that's that's four to five new

scholarships but then what you heard was the response to this because universities can't afford all these scholarships is to cut down roster size so i know soccer men soccer has a roster size of like i think it's 25 to 30 and they only had 10 scholarships so you're like well that's 15 new scholarships for every program well the response is well no that's not going to happen they're all going to cut down roster size because they can't afford to give all these scholarships And that's what parents out there are talking about. Also, by the way, the transfer portal is killing high school recruiting outside of football. It's just really hard to come in as a freshman and get a scholarship.

So, in that context, I read this article this morning about the University of Texas, and it apparently is blowing away other schools, like schools are really concerned. We know Texas has a lot of money. Texas is adding 200 new scholarships at a cost. this is what's going to cost them, $9 million a year. And this is what it looks like, since people pay attention to men's sports, baseball goes from 11.7 scholarships to 25 at Texas.

Basketball goes from just 13 to 15. Golf goes from 4.5 to 8, okay, and that's men scholarships, basically. Women, because now you still have the Title IX requirements, right? and football eats up so much, so you have to have an equivalent number of women's scholarships. I'm going to give you some of the biggest winners. At UT.

Women's indoor, outdoor track goes from 18 to 45. So, you know, throw the shot put, throw the discus, run. Women's swimming goes from 14 to 30. Damn. Women's softball, 12 to 25. Women's soccer, 14 to 28. But get this. Women's rowing goes from 12.

No, 20. They had 20, which is shocking. That's a lot. They go to 68. 68 women's rowing scholarships. How many rowers are there? It's a big thing in Rye. It's a big northeastern sport.

Yeah, Connecticut, too. Because parents think they can get their kids to an Ivy League by doing that. Well, this suggests... My friend, by the way, who's a Northeastern, is he says his daughter's looking at te at texas because of it like she's she's a chance to getting a scholarship astronomical yeah

and by the way a good school that's hard to get into like it's like my son is looking at schools he just visited georgia auburn and tennessee it's really hard to get into texas if you're from texas um from wow you try old mess is it a lot cheaper in state texas oh yeah but there's a rule it's an affirmative action

workaround that if you're in the top 6% of your class, you have automatic entry into Texas. Wow. So that makes everyone else if you're not in the top 6% it's almost impossible to get in. Damn. So

this is fascinating to me that Texas is doing this. I want to see what other colleges... Like does Texas just win the Directors Cup from here on out? You know the Directors' Cup? Yeah. You know what that is? The Rohing Championship? No, the Director's Cup is basically It's usually Texas or Stanford to win it

Everything, yeah, everything Most national champions across all sports And it's usually Stanford and Texas That are mostly up there But I mean It's going to be fascinating to see Okay, well, put your girl into rowing That's the way to go

I don't know if other colleges will follow suit Or if Texas will just dominate women's rowing From here on out or how that works Oh, to answer your question, Dan there is single, double, and then a boat with, I believe, five. Is it five? Four rowers and a... What do they call the front guy?

What do you call the guy at the front? Coxman. Yeah, I forget what you call. Coxman, yeah. Yeah. You get a scholarship for being a coxman. How great is that? You don't even row.

You just yell. James does that for free. What's up, tinfoil? So are there... Are there a... a lot of men's rowers? Like, is there, there's 68? Yeah. Mins rowers? Well, Texas, Texas doesn't have men's rowing, so it's not on the list.

So I thought, you know, like, you know, tit for tat with Title IX, it just seems like a lot of, I don't know, I just didn't think there's a lot of, you know, people asking for women's rowing. Well, according to this chart, it's by Jeff Ketchum, who reports at orangebloods.com. There's three extra women's programs that don't exist on the men's side for Texas. So that's rowing, soccer, and volleyball. Yeah, there's no men's soccer. There's no men soccer in the SEC, and there's no men soccer in the Big 12. Yeah.

Men soccer is packed whatever they are now. Big East. Big Ten and ACC. ACC, and then smaller schools are good. So, ACC is kind of the best soccer conference from my, like, North Carolina, Clemson, SMU. Golf is, in my... Golf is SEC big, right? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Well, golf is everywhere. But, I mean, like, the best players come out of, like, Texas and those kinds of schools, Florida. I think it's pretty well spread out. You think so? Oklahoma State's been good golf. Pepperdine, actually, good at. golf putting guys on the tour um golf is pretty spread out but yeah texas has a lot yeah um okay so i don't know

i want to dive deeper patrick i want to get a guest that helps me figure out the future of of collegiate sports i think it's fascinating you guys don't have kids or patrick does but you know this but every parent thinks they're raising division one athletes they just every parent thinks they are hell yeah so let's get let's get a picture of what this actually is all about Yeah, that's so true. All right. So quick NCAA bracket update. I was dominating three of the four days.

Here we go. Here's the forecast for the group. So that's who's Adam Michael? I disagree with this whole forecast. That's Adam Klotz. Adam Klotz. Has the best chance to win at 25.5%. Todd Pyro has 15% chance to win.

James Laverty, 11.4% chance to win. comfortably smugged 9.7 and then to get down to Patrick That's not you, Patrick Who is that? Coach's bracket? What coach is that? Coach Tuberville. Oh, that makes sense.

He picked Auburn. 7.7. Sam from the TV show, 6.1%. He's got Bamal. Alabama. John Ashbrook. Let's get down to tinfoil down here, 3.6. I'm right there.

Is that me in 4.3? that's you have 4.3% chance to win and then I'm all the way down here 0.2% chance to win bad bracket, bad bracket so for three of the four days I was number one or number two with Adam Klutz and I had both the most points

and I was up there and most projected points but I got killed yesterday St. Mary's losing Alabama and that heartbreaker with Colorado State because I had, and they're a 12 seed. I don't know how this thing has scored, James. I know it's ESPN, you put it together. You know, I should have gotten big points had Colorado State won that game.

Yeah. They lost on a buzzer beater. I would think I would have gotten a bunch of points, right? It's points per round. In the round of 64, it's 10 points, 32, it's 20, 16, it's 40, 80 in the elite 8, and so on. Yukon got jobs. But aren't you compensated? Nope.

Like, oh, well, that's stupid. Had I known that going in, I would just play chalk. That's always been the rule, though. Yeah. Well, the ones I used to do, that is never happened. There was one I used to do that I liked. There's points. There's one I liked, did like this.

Point. So in the first round, it multiplied the round by the seed. So if you picked a 12 or 5 in the first round, you got 12 points of the 5-1, you got 5 points of the 5-1, right? But in the second round, if the 12 kept winning, you got 24. points. Third round, you know, you'd get 36 points. So it rewards you for getting the right Cinderella's. I had no idea.

That's how we scored it. Yeah, no, this is the standard ESPN, what we're doing. It's just that point system. So seeding doesn't matter. No. Not really. Not in terms of. So there's no incentive.

Yeah, yeah. No, you just got to pick the right teams. Oh. Well, that's, now I'm way down on our thing. I didn't know that's how it was scored. Yeah. It's in the rulebook. Oh, yeah, everybody reads that.

So essentially, if Florida wins, you have a 62.5% chance to win. Do I beat John Ashbrook? If Florida wins? Because he has Florida too, right? You do. He has a 25.2% chance to win if Florida wins at this moment. If Auburn wins, Todd Piro wins. Comfortably smug, if Duke wins the tournament, comfortably smug, has 43.9% chance to win.

okay I think that's wrong And then of course if Houston wins Adam Klott's wins Exactly I actually think Houston has a good shot

They look really good They did I need Houston to lose But so does Florida And so does Duke I don't think Auburn's gonna win at all No

No That's our update We'll keep you up to date On how the NCAA Tournament March Madness Bracket goes For the Friends of the Wilcane Show league

All right coming up I sat down With Vivek Gramswamy a deep, good conversation over American identity and the American dream. Who are we as Americans? How do you become an American? That's coming up next on The Will Cain Show. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the Trey Gowdy podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday as I

focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. What does it mean to be an American? How do you become an American? It's the Will Kane show streaming live at Fox News.com on the Fox News YouTube channel on the Fox News Facebook page. Vivekerman Swami and I've been having a debate. Offline text on the phone. about that what is what does it mean assimilation culture how do you become an american who are we as americans we finally got a chance to sit down together and have that conversation face to face and i'm excited now to share that with you here is our conversation with vivake ramaswami vivake it's great to see you man thank you for doing this we've been trying to get together

for quite some time it worked out we're both in new york and i'm excited to be able to sit down with you for a while and talk thank you man it's good to be here yeah why are you always running for Yeah, well, what are you doing? No, President of the United States, governor of Ohio. That's right. You're very accomplished, educationally, and in business. Why are you so driven to serve in public office? I've lived the American dream, man.

I think that's something that I'm grateful for to this country, and I'm entering a phase of my life last few years after I had kids. I know I need to give back to this country. I know I've got to do my part to pass that on to our kids and their generation. I did it first by running for U.S. President. for U.S. President. I felt like we were in the middle of an identity crisis as a country. And the reason I supported President Trump when I exited the race is he's now reviving our conviction in America. And that's a great thing. But if he's successful, and I think he's

going to be successful, that means a lot of those programs in Washington, D.C., from education to health care, to a lot more than that, are getting kicked back down to the states and to the people where they belong. And I do see a little bit of a leadership vacuum there, both in my home state and nationally for strong governors who are going to be able to catch that ball. President Trump's thrown the pass. Somebody's got to catch it at the state level to really move on to the next phase of saving our country. And I realized also when I ran for president, a lot of the issues that I was most passionate

about, thinking about education reform in the country, for example, that wasn't going to happen even at the federal level, even by a U.S. president. It's going to have to be driven by states in our model of federalism in America. So when I look myself in the mirror, said, how am I going to use it? use my business background, my executive skill set to help serve the country in the biggest possible way. We're running for governor of Ohio is the next natural step. And I think we're going to be successful and hopefully turning this state around to be a leading state in the country. You mentioned strong leaders. Do you have a model as someone that you've looked to who's been a good

governor? You know, look, I don't look at one particular person I want to imitate. In a certain sense, obviously states like Texas, you know, your home state in Florida have been wildly successful that attracting new people into the state rather than out. So I think there are lessons to learn from each of those states. I think there's lessons to learn of things not to do in states like New York and California, where people have been fleeing. But the way I want to lead Ohio isn't by imitating Texas or Florida. It's by being the best version of Ohio itself. One of things that's true about Ohio that isn't true about Texas or Florida is you could go to most places in Texas or Florida and draw a 200-mile radius around a given point, and you'd have a good

cross-section of Texas or Florida. You go to the center of Ohio or really any part of Ohio. You draw a 200-mile radius right there. You've got a cross-section of the country. We've got great diverse perspectives, experiences, thoughts. And so I think conservative leadership is important. We've got to be a zero-income tax state. We've got to slash and burn a lot of the regulatory overreach, red tape, and bureaucracy. And I think Texas and Florida set a great example for that. But the way I'm going to lead Ohio, I hope back to greatness, back to a state that Ohio was in the first industrial revolution, the leading state, the economic powerhouse at the heart of the country, isn't by imitating anybody else, but by reviving our own roots,

which in some ways is actually the heart of America's roots itself in leading an economic revolution, a second industrial revolution centered in the heart of the country, centered in Ohio, I hope, under my leadership. When you and I first started trying to get together to have this conversation, which quite honestly is months in the making, it was centered around this idea of national identity. You've already brought up this concept of national identity. I want to set that aside and we'll come back to that. Sure. Just one moment. I want to talk to you about the identity of Ohio. Sure. If you asked me about Texas, I could very well define the identity of what it means to be a Texan. In a lot of ways, I think it is sort of the undistilled version of

what it is to be an American. It's high risk tolerance. It's entrepreneurialism. It's wildcatting. It's building empires. What does it mean? What is the identity of someone from Ohio? So the character of Ohio at our core is a combination of two attributes. I would say it's a combination of humility and ambition. And those two things usually don't go together. You would think of those things as being in tension with one another. That's Ohio at our best. If you look at our heritage, we were the state of Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, the state of great astronauts who went to the outer frontiers of outer space, the state of the Wright brothers. Even in the 50s, six of the top 15 wealthiest cities in America were actually in Ohio. Ohio. Toledo was the glass capital. Akron was the rubber capital. Youngstown in Cleveland were jointly the steel capitals of the world. My hometown of Cincinnati was a consumer products capital known worldwide as the Queen City. Dayton was a computing power engine for the Industrial Revolution. We were the state where a bunch of Baptists before even the constitutional convention showed up and set up the Northwest Ordinance for religious liberty. Even before

there was a U.S. Constitution, the Constitution came a couple of years later, building on the foundations of that Northwest Ordinance. So it's a state built on a pioneering ambition. But I think what's a little bit different, even from the character of today's economic leading cities in New York or Silicon Valley, is to combine that ambition with the sense of humility as well. People who don't take themselves overly seriously as individuals, even as they take what they do incredibly seriously. And in some ways, I think that in ways that overlap with Texas represents the heart of what America is at our best. That combination of humility, groundedness as individuals, while still being ambitious in what we can achieve.

I'm not saying that's exactly Ohio right now, but that is our character of our heritage of who we have been. And that's where I want to lead us back to as a state. Do you think, you know, you have certainly been someone that I think most Americans can point to as living out the modern American dream. You are a child of immigrants. You grew up middle class. You went to Ivy League colleges. You are incredibly accomplished. You're successful. You're wealthy. Does what about your background and your life experience and your identity put you in touch with what you just described for me about Ohio? Well, the thing I actually just mentioned you about Ohio is there's a diverse range of perspectives and experiences across the state. It's a beautiful thing,

more so than even other successful states. In some ways, I've had a diversity of experiences in my own life as well. My parents came to this country with nothing, ended up in Cincinnati, Ohio. My dad faced down layoffs at the GE plant. Now GE's expanding. Well, back in the 90s under Jack Welch's tenure, there were a lot of layoffs at the very plant where my dad worked. I went to public schools through eighth grade, not always the best public schools in the area. I went to a Jesuit high school, St. X High School in Cincinnati, as a lone Hindu student at that high school for high school. Great experience there. then went to Harvard for college, then Yale for law school, then founded successful businesses in places like New York City, and then back into the Midwest.

So I've had that full arc of the American dream. And in some ways, that's exactly Ohio at its core is diverse experiences at every stage of the way. So I want to relate to every American and every Ohioan understanding that I've had a great path that I'm proud of. I don't apologize for it. I think capitalism is the greatest system known to man to lift us up from poverty. but I also recognize that my path can't be the only path either. And what I want to do in Ohio is you brought up the word of the American dream. It's funny that we don't talk about that, even in America, as much anymore as we should.

To me, the American dream isn't just about green pieces of paper will. That can be a side effect of it. It's about revival of conviction in our purpose. It's about a country where every kid can be a hero. We're all mortal, right? We're only here for a short amount of time. I think we have an innate human impulse. All of us do. You do. I do. Everyone watching this does. In some ways, to be a hero in their own life.

And that can be as a president. It can be as a governor. It can be as a CEO. It can be as a nurse. It can be as a police officer, a volunteer. It can be as a father, a loving wife. But what America is at our best is we provide that structure, that scaffold for every kid to grow up to be the hero they want to be and embrace all of those paths as equally good, equally well regarded and honor. as the other. And I think Ohio, in some ways, is a state that is best positioned to be the epicenter of reviving that version of the American dream, not just the one centered on green pieces of paper. I want to ask you about religion. You brought up being Hindu. Yeah. You also mentioned Ohio being the birthplace of the Baptist Convention, one of the big fights for religious liberty in its past. I noticed on your feed on X, you made a point of reposting someone from Ohio, I believe his name is Aaron Bear. Yeah, actually, that's right. Yep. And he is a,

Christian and I believe he's also top Christian leader in the state actually involved in politics as well and he endorsed you yeah and you made a point of of what he had to say acknowledging that you're not Christian but he sees you as the right leader for Ohio well look I want people to know who I am and what I stand for and so my faith is important to me I believe there's one true God but I'm of the Hindu faith which is different than the Christian faith which I was educated in in my time at St. X High School and beyond but we share the same value set that the country was founded on. The Ten Commandments were never new to me,

even the first time I read them in ninth grade in scripture's class. It didn't feel like the first time I was reading them because that was the value set that I was raised in, believe in one God, that he has a set of rules that you got to follow, don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't covet. Those were familiar to me. And I think that in the founding of our country, what you see is even the likes of Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, They weren't traditional Christians either. They were deists, but they respected the religious liberty of every person to practice their own faith and recognize the importance of faith and the foundation of America, that we are one nation under God.

You think about those Baptists who I credit with the heritage and founding of not only the Northwest Territory, but Ohio, it's in some ways a full circle that the religious liberty they fought for made possible here a little over two centuries later that a guy like me can go on to lead that very state. that's an embodiment of what America is actually all about. And so I do think we live in an era over the last few decades where there's been an assault on religious liberty, I think particularly on Christianity, on the receiving end of a lot of that secularist brunt. And I think it's important to stand against that assault on faith and religion. And I want to lead Ohio to be a place where persons of every faith, whatever their faith may be,

can actually practice with religious liberty against these postmodern secular religions. You know, you could pick wokeism or transgenderism or whatever it is, that have in many ways been hostile to traditional religion itself. All right. I want to pick up national identity. Sure. You spoke about this at the MSG rally. It was back, the MSG rally was back in November, early November. Yeah, it was like late October, early November, yeah.

And you said this then about the idea of national identity. Sure. We're in the middle of a national identity crisis. Faith in God, patriotism, hard work, family. These things have disappeared only be replaced by wokeism and transgenderism, climatism, COVIDism, depression, anxiety, fentanyl, suicide. These are symptoms of a deeper void of purpose and meaning in our country. And right now we need to step up and fill that void with our own vision.

Answer, what does it mean to be an American? So, Vivek, I mentioned you and I've been trying to get together for this conversation for this conversation for what seems like a couple of months. And we've spoken offline together on several occasions. And this has been the topic of our ongoing conversation. National identity. What does it mean then to be an American? This is the question of our time.

We're a geographically expansive country with people of diverse religious backgrounds and ethnicities. I think it's worth occasionally stepping back and honestly asking the question. Is there actually something that binds us together across these diverse attributes? Do we actually believe that exists? I actually do. I think it is an ethos, a creed that was codified in the Declaration of Independence, actualized in the U.S. Constitution, but it's not just the formalities of history, even in today, the basic idea that no matter who you are or where your parents came from or what your skin color is, that you get ahead in this country with your own hard work and commitment and dedication,

and that you're free to speak your mind at every step of the way, a nation that recognizes that every one of us has our own unique God-given gift and that it's different and distinct from every other person in the world, but that we are the nation on God's Green Earth where you get to realize the maximum of those God-given gifts without anybody, not a government, not a bureaucracy standing in your way. That's the set of ideals that makes America itself. And that's different than pretty much every nation in human history. And I think that that's a beautiful thing. And there's some controversial layers to that if we're able to go beneath the layers of what makes America different than those other countries. But to me, that's what makes America itself is that we're

bound together by those set of human ideals. More of the Will Cain Show, right after this. Fox News Audio presents Unsolved with James Patterson. Every crime tells a story, but some stories are left unfinished. Somebody knows. Real cases, real people. Listen and follow now at Fox Truecrime.com. Following Fox's initial donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, our generous viewers have answered the call to action across all Fox platforms and have helped raise $6.5 million. Visit go.fox forward slash TX flood relief to support relief and rebuilding efforts.

And that takes us back to what is the identity of America. And I believe there are a piece, this is a people and this is a place. And there is a culture that binds us that has to be fought for to your point. But that culture is rooted in our history. It's rooted in our story. And that culture has to be more than just hard work and more than just a creed. That we have to understand the culture we're all a part of here. We're fish swimming in water.

I think I fully, you know, I've talked about this. I fully agree with you that Biden's wrong to say America's just an idea. Of course, America is not just an idea. But America, what makes America distinctive versus other countries around the world is that we're still bound together by that set of ideals. That's what makes America unique from other countries, even though, of course, there's obviously the physical space and the people who comprise our country that makes it. make our country who we are as well.

And a culture. In a culture, absolutely. But the thing that's different about America versus other countries, you can go, you or I could go to France and live there. We would never be a Frenchman. We could go to Germany. We would never be a German.

Italy and we'd never be an Italian. Japan and we'd never be Japanese. We could go to China or Indian. We'd never be Chinese or Indian, actually. But we could both be here or people from every one of those countries could come here and still be an American. I love that.

And we have to acknowledge that reality. I think that's an incredible point. So distinctive and unique to America. And so when there's discussion around culture, let's actually have the conversation about what is, what entails that culture? Because I don't have, right, because the intellectual lazy of just saying culture, what is that culture? Because the question is the fake. You're right. Well, I can move to Italy.

I can never become Italian. You'll never be an Italian. Neither will I. And you'll never be a German or Japanese or Chinese either. And neither will lie. But your parents can move to America and become Americans. Or your grandparents or your great grandparents or whatever it was. So what's the process then?

How do you become American? And see, that's where I take a view that, you know, I have some, some. Views that, let's just say, ignite some pushback on the right and left. I think that every high school senior who graduates from high school right here should have to pass as a condition for graduation from high school, the same civics test required of every legal immigrant to this country. Because you can't love a country unless you really know the first thing about that country to start with. So should we require a foreigner who comes to this country to speak English, speak it fluently, know about the history of the country, know about our Constitution, know about our founding, know how many branches of government there are?

You're darn right, we should. I don't think you should be a foreigner able to come to this country if you can't assimilate into that culture grounded in those ideals. But we also have to retain and preserve a culture to assimilate into. And we're not heading the right direction, Will, if our own kids, 85% of kids who graduate from high school can't answer those same questions that we do demand of somebody who's coming from a foreign country here either. So I want to revive that culture that is the American culture, but in some ways that we've lost. And to those to those friends who we have healthy

dialogue, part of embedded in the idea of making America great again is a recognition that we have for some amount of time lost our way as a country, especially over the course of the last four years. When we talked earlier, you played that clip, wokeism. transgenderism, climatism, COVIDism, you name it, we have substituted that true American culture, which I do think is grounded in a culture of self-determination, in a culture of freedom of speech, in an open marketplace of ideas. Those are ideals that are distinctively American that made America great. We've replaced those with these new fallen ideals. And so to everybody around this country, who shares my view, that we've gone too much to a

participation trophy culture rather than a championship trophy culture. And you think that's a divorce from what was originally the ideal of American culture. I think the essence of Americas were founded on exceptionalism. You think about China's old culture under Mao. They had a victimhood culture. Part of what's happened is their victimhood culture over the last number of decades has come all the way here to become a victimhood culture in America. While our culture of excellence in some ways has leapt oceans to lift up other countries like China

where kids on average, let's just talk for hard facts on this for a second. A kid in China right now is four years ahead of a kid in the United States. That means a seventh grader here is performing at an equivalent standard to a third grader in China. That's our top adversary. I'm sorry, that doesn't work for us here, Will. I'm not going to stand by and idly watch that. Now, I don't want to just be a commentator on this. I want to lead Ohio in a way that sets an example for the rest of the country to say,

we're going to give our kids that world-class education. In every domain, math, reading, writing, physical. education, civic education, financial literacy, you name it. But I do think that we have to, as we do, any great nation in the times of its history and its evolution, has to, at times, say, we're going to wake up and rise to the challenge ahead of us. We did it in the Sputnik moment last time around. Deep Seek, or you can pick your favorite example that might be a Sputnik moment of our era today. I do think that we have to reawaken that distinctively American spirit that lifted us up. That is what is embedded in the idea.

of making, we don't have to make America great again if America was already perfect. And I think we should have the humility to admit that. But for me, it comes from a place of deep love for that country that allowed me to live that American dream. And as a leader, we wouldn't be doing our part if we just told everybody that everything's already honky-dory. We don't have a thing to fix. Far from it. We recognize that at the ballot box last November, but we have to embrace that. And I do believe that that's part of the character of America, is that we pursue excellence without apologizing for. What I like about what you've laid out is, first of all, we have to start with an acknowledgement of an existing American culture. And that's not an

easy thing to do. Many people reject the idea that there is an American culture, whether or not they believe because that we are a nation of immigrants or because they believe it's a melting pot. Somewhere in the process, our rhetoric seems to suggest, what are we in America? We don't have a culture. Of course we do. And we've had one throughout our history. You've acknowledged that. You also acknowledged, in order to become American, you have to assimilate to that culture. Absolutely. So the only thing I have to do. ever thought when I saw what you posted is that you went a bit so excellence is part of that American identity there is no doubt it is but I don't think it I think distinctively American

but I think we have to be careful not to limit the American idea what would you what would you add to it real quick because actually it's a discussion so first of all the reason you don't limit it to excellence in achievement is because we're not a corporation of course not we're a nation of people we're not simply looking to achieve the bottom line we're not simply looking to turn out the best workers. And as I said, it has to be in service of something greater. And the American dream isn't just about green pieces of paper. I've been an advocate for years. It's about the idea that every person has an opportunity to realize their own unique potential and that they're respected as such. You think about even some of my policies for Ohio, whether

somebody wants to become a plumber or a mechanic or a welder or a builder, I don't call these professions the trades, right? Some people say, we need more people in the trades. I don't call them the trades. I call them professions because that's what they actually are. And so when we think about this culture to say the amount of respect you command isn't tied to what you scored on a given test, isn't tied to what you achieved in your bank account. And in some ways, that's a trap you could fall into, especially in places like New York City, which is a different culture than a place like Ohio. That being said, part of what made America great is the ambition for every person to discover that potential in himself or herself and to go on and have the gum,

and the pride and the ambition combined with the humility to go realize that while respecting somebody else's path to that same dream, while respecting your right to be able to express yourself along that journey while respecting my right to do the same, and at our best in our American culture, to still get together at the dinner table at the end of it and hash it out. And so I love this discussion. What I would love to hear are other, let's create an actual tapestry mosaic of what that culture entails. We're not going to, we're not going to move the ball forward by just saying that we have a culture. Let's define what that culture is so we know what we're actually aspiring

to. And that's part of what I'm going to do. I think that we can bring this conversation for the circle. When I meet people Vivek who have moved to the United States from elsewhere, I have friends who have moved from Italy. I have friends who have moved from England. And the big thing that sticks out about this country to them is in part what you're laying out. You can be whoever you want to be. You're not limited by class. You're not limited by your parents' accomplishments. You're not limited by your race. You're not limited by any of the superficial things that societies and civilizations build upon one another, but you are completely free. Yes.

What I believe is distinctly American is to be brave and to be emboldened. It's to push west. It's to take risks. It's to drill holes in the ground. It's to stake your fortune. And it is to fail. And it is to do all of that in service of and with your values and your morals, your religion to take this conversation in full circle, in mind that you sort of. serve a greater purpose than your own personal gratification. Amen. Amen, brother. And I think that that is

what I would say is distinct about our country that were grounded on those ideals, a vision of what's possible for our own human potential, a sense of purpose, the idea that you're not just going through the motions as a two-legged, higher mammal doing what your iPhone told you to do on a given day. That's not America. America is a vision of what's possible for you, a vision for what that place can be, that too is what makes America great. And so I think we're speaking the same language right there. But what I don't want to do is slip in lazily when some people just talk about a culture that's based on. You talk about our geographic space. That's great. We started with 13 colonies. Then we had the Northwest Ordinance. We had the Louisiana purchase and we went out

west. Then we had Alaska, Hawaii, and stay tuned for who knows what's next, right? That's a beautiful thing and that's part of America. But it's not just the geographic space. It's the ideals and the people who embody those ideals in our country, that's really what makes America distinctive compared to every other nation in the course of human history. And I think we have to work to keep that alive. I think we have kids growing up in a generation of social media, internet usage, and addiction to platforms that train them to think in a different way, that have caused that idea of American exceptionalism to in some ways dim out a little bit.

I want to bring that back. I want to bring back that conviction in what made America great. And we've got to do so with pride and without apology. And I've seen you say take the cell phones out of schools, based teacher pay on merit. Absolutely. The point being, not only are you servicing the American Dream, which I do agree, I think you and I are on the same page and share a similar vision,

but you want to bring that back to Ohio, which has a unique version to take this conversation full circle of the American Dream. And it should be. It should be different than the vision in Massachusetts or California or Texas. I'd love to see how you bring that to Ohio. I appreciate it. If I had to sum it up in one way, I would say I want Ohio to be the state where the American dream is your birthright, where a world-class education is your birthright, where success in your own way is your birthright. Freedom was our heritage, and to some part of our

conversation, I believe excellence is our destiny. And that's what sums up, what makes Ohio great, what makes America great. And that's how I'm hoping to lead our statement. I always enjoy talking to you. I know it's going to go deep. And it's always a challenge. It's fun. Thank you, Vivek. Best of love to you, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. But for us today, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Vivek Ramoswamy. Make sure you remember to download, subscribe to our podcast at Spotify or Apple. We'll see you same time, same place again, right here at Fox News Facebook and Fox News YouTube. See you next time.

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