‘How Can We Get Along?’ - Politicon Panel w/ Charlie Kirk, Bakari Sellers & Roaming Millennial

is the perfect venue to have a panel discussion on how the f are we going to get along in this country and starting here at Politico so we've got a great roster of panelists today I want you to give a big political welcome to all of our panels just bring them out [Applause] all right so some quick introductions here first of all to my four right we host a secular talk on The Young Turks Network it is the last we have Safari sellers who is a former state representative in South Carolina now a CNN contributor to his left we have the roaming millennial aka watershed and she is the host of building millennial uncensored on YouTube and then to my left we have my candles place of the Michael Miller show on y're and to his left we know Charlie Parra founder so just to frame this discussion for a second year we obviously live in very polarized times today our political rhetoric is as divisive as it's been probably in our lifetimes and just to put a finer point on the level polarization today studies have shown that the levels of partisanship partisan polarization in Congress are at the widest they have been since the end of Reconstruction and you only have to look to the headlines in this country to see just how divided this country is and I think in my view that partisanship has really metastasized into tribalism today so I hope with the panel we can talk about you know how we do bridge the political divide in a media environment where it's very difficult to do it and I think all the panelists here are on the cutting edge of new media and so it's really going to be on the folks here to figure out how we can create a more constructive political dialogue and so I actually want to start with Bakari because you had transitioned from a governance role having served in the state legislature of South Carolina you are the nominee for lieutenant governor and was a 2014 2014 and so you are in the business of trying to form legislation and work with both Democrats and Republicans in the legislature and then you transition to a commentating role at CNN and a number of other platforms so tell us more about that transition that process and the change in incentives that you found in terms of the type of political dialogue that would that would work well first thank you for the question thank you all for being here I was very young when I ran for office and so I know we have some people in here on the left and the far left I know we have some people in here on the right and the far right but I firmly believe that we are not the generation of tomorrow with a generation of now and so I encourage everyone here when I was 21 years old I announced my race for office I ran against somebody who was 82 years old and had been in office for 26 years and on June 13 2006 I became the youngest black elected official in the United States and the youngest state legislator the reason that I was able to do that is because regardless of how someone looked regardless of where someone came from whether zip code I always gave people the benefit of their humanity and I think if we start there if we meet people where they are and then we can find initiatives that all of us can agree on to have Charlie to my left and to have my good friends and The Young Turks to the to my right I can honestly say that if we were to put forth an idea like making sure that we take redistricting which is the reason that we're so polarized today out of the hands of elected officials and made them independent independent commissions statewide and I can actually get these two to agree on that and push it in state legislatures around matter so but it but it takes those type of bold steps it takes people not getting caught up in petty differences and it also takes people understanding the practical reality of where we are in this country I tell people we made a lot of progress but we still have yet a ways to go yeah well just to pick up on that issue of gerrymandering and ordinance of our generation a lot of people don't realize this but in the state of Ohio this year I run a nonpartisan organization called the Millennial Action project we work with young elected officials across the aisle and it was the young lawmakers in Ohio who pushed a bipartisan plan to put in place for additional inform in Ohio to get rid of partisan gerrymandering and it passed with wide bipartisan support the voters approved it with 75% of the vote and I think that just underscores the opportunity our generation has to transcend from the old divide so than holding our country back and since you called Oh out Charlie on it move over to Charlie here you've been working on college campuses across the country what's the sense that you're picking up from college students today in terms of the type of rhetoric that they're looking for when I go to college campuses for example I hear so many young people who say I'm so tired of the partisanship I'm so tired of all the gridlock and I'm curious if you hear a similar thing and out folks and turning-point are responding yeah I I agree at that I think the good news politically about our generations I think we agree generally on the problem to do a lot of different perspectives on how we would go about solving them the broad-based consensus amongst college students and Millennials is that we have a government that does not represent our generation that is run by trial lawyers lobbyists well people around a 90-mile proximity of Washington DC our argument has a conservative libertarians is well if that government has been bought and is corrupt why on earth would want to make that government bigger stronger sent more money that very same government and that's obviously where my progressive French friends would disagree so the the broad-based question here over the last 3040 years is why has the wealth power money and influence concentrated around our nation's capital what do they create well they create nothing they create access to power I mean the wealthiest counties in America used to be around in Detroit Michigan in Chicago Illinois in Philadelphia Pennsylvania now 810 wealthiest counties in America around Washington DC where you're literally rewarded of how close you are to the power center and for us to get away from that I think there's there are some solutions that I would actually tend to agree with it would be very fair map so on and so forth but I think our generation is looking for a series of policies and ideas that will I think address in a not necessarily that turn bipartisan because it almost lends itself to that both Republicans and Democrats are the answer I would say the Pope in some way it's bigger than partisan issues in some ways and I look if you follow my what I say closely I think that until the Republican Party's honest with ourselves with the failures of our own party over the last 3040 years such as george w bush was a big spending liberal that betrayed all of our principles time and time again we're not going to be able to actually appropriate solutions that will increase freedom and shrink government and put the same government that's bought by these corrupt lobbyists and in Snyder's back to people yeah that's a great point and Charlie on it now go over to Kyle here because you made the point about this widening gap between you know Washington DC and the rest of the country not only in terms of power but also in terms of now income and I've heard this divided America reframed particularly after the 2016 election it's not so much between the left versus right it's really kinda halves in the have-nots I know this is an issue that you know you've talked about what can we do to bridge that sort of divide well I want to just take a step back real quick and say I actually surprisingly agree with a lot of what Charlie Couric said and he made a point to bring up you know the size of government and how perhaps we have some large disagreements on that well I actually want to reach out and say maybe there are many areas where we totally agree on the size of government so when it comes to for example you know warrantless NSA spying if you tell me hey man listen I hate the government I don't want an intervening life in my life in that realm well I say you're goddamn right and let's work together to try to get rid of [Applause] oh good so I'm happy to do that and there's other areas too like you know the drug war for example that's giant government and it really make those bars to say like there's a lot of agreement between what I would call the populist left and the libertarian right so Rand Paul for example is relatively consistent in an anti-war stance and of course if you're pro war you are appropriate government by definition because right so if you're anti-war are means war - we can agree on that wonderful or the horrible thing yes okay so now we just both lose our careers because we agreed on something we've got that principle that man the only point where I disagree is I don't think george w bush was a liberal i think he was a war monger and a neoconservative and [Applause] context to it Medicare Part D borrowing a three dollar we're having this wonderful kumbaya moment so I hate to ruin it by government ended cigarette work but but he did he did grow the size of government tremendously he created human agencies departmental I'm security of which you put more under a traditional left-wing you know well it's what were the priorities when he grew government and when you spend seven trillion dollars on the war in Iraq that's what is projected to be by 2050 three that's not a left-wing priority it was the left who stands Bernie Sanders who voted against all right I'm gonna bring Lauren here so we were talking before this panel about the incentives involved in having an online TV show and I personally struggle with the incentives on social media generally including YouTube because the most inflammatory rhetoric gets the most views the most retweets you know the most you know followers and so I'm curious from your perspective having you know run a very successful online show how do you have a constructive conversation when the incentives seem to be pushing you in the opposite direction why aren't we talking more about the big issues here places where genocide and starvation why don't these fake news headlines getting so much and she gave the very same answers that's what people are attracted to and it doesn't matter whether we publish the other stories or not it's not what's getting shared and as an independent creator you're you're very aware of that fact you know we can spend weeks researching a video about something like political philosophy or the public school system and it'll get a fraction of the views that some you know rect feminists ownage videos okay and it's kind of frustrating but at the same time I'm trying to look at it in a way that at least people are getting involved to these issues and you know my hope is if they see something that's maybe a little bit sensationalized and radicalize not that I agree with doing anything purposely provocative just to upset people but you know maybe then they'll stick around for a little bit of the deeper conversation maybe then they'll start to realize all right well why is that happening and hopefully at the very least it can lead to a deeper conversation it's not going to be everybody some some people just like me I guess the outrage machine but there are a lot of people who are going to stick around maybe for the deeper conversation right and Michael you have an online show as well to see more about the incentives that you've seen from your experience well what I find is that people reward authenticity audiences reward authenticity you cannot pretend to be something you're not audiences are not going to turn up and that's why I hate to break up our kumbaya feelings here I love the polarization I love it I love the partisanship I spent a long time researching in a book that I wrote called reasons to vote for Democrats quite thorough by the way I read the I love it I'd want a choice not an echo I don't want mealy-mouthed Mumbai I don't want any of that I want to know when I'm voting who I'm voting for in the 1930s and 40s one of the major complaints political scientists was that the parties were indistinguishable youths you have on issues anything ranging from life to taxes to death to whatever people having unclear points of view now I know all of those issues on the size of government on the role of government socialism on life on marriage on death on everything I know where the parties stand I that that's the country that I want to live it it gives me a choice not an echo the conservative movement was founded in this how do we get along I have a simple answer we win and you lose and that might seem a little water that might seem a little part but there is much to quote Ronald Reagan st. different there is no choice between freedom and slavery these are not morally equivalent when when one party has elected leaders saying that we should go to Republicans homes where their children's sleep we should physically mob around them though there is not a moral equivalent to some harsh rhetoric from a little old me on my internship those are not the same thing I'm glad that there is a difference now and that's that is mine maybe that'll be the sequel to my to my bestseller all the reasons to all the reasons to vote for Democrats part two we win you lose so I wouldn't just pick up on that real fast okay it was just one second so hold you I think in a democracy meeting choices yes that's right and no choice you might say well said but I think the issue that we're trying to pick up on here is not that having diverse views is bad but a zero-sum politics in which one side wins at the expense of the other side and that's the only way that we frame issues that one side win and not at the expense of the other side on the question of the life we've been talking about Roe versus Wade a lot because of their nomination of Bret cabin on the question of life how does one side win without the other side Liz you're talking about protecting the life of an unborn baby or snuffing out the life of an unborn baby I don't see a compromising I don't see a conciliation on that issue I agree that the question of life is probably simply shows that I mean estimate they have smart to bridge that no it's a [ __ ] talking point because of the fact that what we're doing is we're what we're doing is we're finding the piper sensationalize metrics by which to measure how we vote for people but what we're talking about is how do we improve individuals lives and yes you're gonna have individuals like like Tim Kaine for example who abides by his belief who was very very much pro-life who is a Democrat but he votes in a manner that's reflective of his pro life Tim Kaine is for election Tim I support legal oh boy I guess but first of all that's what I dislike summarily that's literally what I just said I said but you votes his constituency in Virginia but what I'm trying to do is move the conversation beyond this conversation of life because that's where we get bogged down well that's actually tuple into actually four that's actually my point to you is that listen we can talk about if we want to just sit here and we want to have a discussion that goes nowhere we can talk about what we can talk about issues of life where we probably will disagree we can talk about issues of race where we probably will disagree but let's actually talk about something stuff in the tip that we can bomb probably find common ground on health care in this country how do you make sure the kids I just want to say that so produ process which unfortunately as a man so so visible and let's get through let's just cut through a few points give us life yeah there's no due process here against keep up guys you guys try your for do class sizes for American citizens [Applause] all right guys I'm gonna step I'm here I'm here the Sigma Convention productions themselves I'm gonna step in here it's gonna be easy if you walk right into the trap like that so [Applause] apparently I didn't want to do or even say no I'm enjoying the calm okay at this moment I'm having my Charlie Curtin okay so on and so on and go back to the conciliation I'm gonna go back to the car here because I think about you if you want to jump in i we don't want a man's playing everything and this applies to most issues it is very easy to see it as black and white but even that's what i canta mean we have a pro-life vs. pro-choice but doesn't even fully encapsulate the range of political views for as people you're certainly right and there are some issues when it comes to specifically abortion that we can talk about we can talk about how do we make sure that if people won't have a adoption that that is easy and available for them how do we make sure that people are aware of different contraceptive methods so we don't have the unplanned pregnancies in the first place [Applause] I think that's a constructive way to look at the situation and I mean abortion if there ever was one people would think it's black and white so I'm gonna do this for this moment let's go guys on cable news you said when Kanye West enter the Oval Office is what black people don't read few regrets not what I said what did you say well this actually if we want to go back and not mean the take said this is what happens when black people don't that's not what I said what did you say actually said that this is a discussion in my major issue with Kanye West is that he would tends to make anti intellectualism cool and what I said is yes this is what happens when black oh that's not what I said I'll that's what the transcript actually I said Charlie be one you ask me questions while I says he regret oh no I don't regret anything Charlie so this is the point so I said that's not what I said if you want to know what I said I'm attempting to tell you I said that I have a problem with Kanye West because he attempts to make anti intellectualism cool I say there many people who want to talk about criminal justice reform oh not seen Kanye West to the White House to do that I said Kanye West is what happens when Negroes don't read you know what that is that is in fact you didn't say I said Kanye West is what happened when Negroes don't read what I've done that's not what you come up to my what what what what is kanye west and i won't even allow it here b-but if you send me in a conversation on civility you go on cable news and say that you're trying to be discrete reconciliation we all get a go into the home and you want to see you then and you bash the successful men has to towards the way or make America great [Applause] so personally I love when we paying indignation that's like the cutest thing ever that but much fun upon a more I admit but a much more specific note first of all it's factually accurate because Kanye West is literally a quoted non-reader he doesn't believe in the diamond okay school so that bothers me but if we're gonna have a conversation about criminal justice reform I actually want somebody who is articulate on the issue of making sure that we ban for-profit prisons I want somebody who wants to get into poor vegetable marijuana I want somebody who's going to actually go and talk about being rehabbed in social programs in prisons so when people get out we don't have high rates of recidivism I want somebody who can actually talk about issues that are near and dear to my heart and so why would we want to Fang this and say oh my god you said white people can't read what I did was I directly quoted Chris Rock making a point about anti intellectualism because I'm sick and tired of individuals who want to get in this discussion but do not have the depth to have it but I stand on the shoulders of Walter Scott while unarmed to be an african-american Sandra bland the list goes on and on and on again so it's cool if you want to be indignant right this pool if you want to have a I got the party cellars because oh my god you should get Kanye tonight what happens when Negroes don't read I stand on that today and tomorrow Charlie Charlie is the offender politics that's destructive you guys are trying to get a Twitter moment right now and say some really good points and unfortunately we are living in a society that is celebrity obsessed and people like Kanye West are who we're turning to for political ideas it's not great but here we are he is someone who is obviously not some sort of political mastermind or philosopher kingpins but at the end of the day at least he was trying to raise awareness about issues like prison reform I would love it if there was someone or anything really to was like prison for a month but that's not what I appreciate I appreciate that effort right I appreciate the effort of a Kim Kardashian going and get getting one person out I appreciate Kanye West being able to say the word prison reform that's not what I'm talking about that I'm talking about being able to go to the White House to represent people who look like me okay and not only that but speak to them back but no no no but that's I wish that was the case like that's what that's what we I wish it was the case that Kanye West can go and sit in the Oval Office and having 15-minute rambling dialogue with the President of the United States and just speak for himself that's not the point he does not he speaks for so many people who look like me who are brown or black they were persecuted who were put upon and so when we have that moment where somebody goes out there it embarrasses us because that everyone else wants to play in identity politics and say that one black man's control [Applause] we appreciate that however that rhetoric is that it doesn't meet the test of reality that's not only Point and listen if you want to have a conversation if dr. Trump wants to have a conversation about criminal justice reform he can go out and talk to Michelle Alexander he can talk to Jordan Edwards mother or Lucy Mac who's Lucy my bad he can swap the Sandra Bland's parents he can talk to people who actually went through this but pardoning one individual or granting clemency will be accurate so one individual is not reformed and all I'm simply saying is if you want to try fine if you do not sit here and tell me you don't end your hype and you can do everything all justice because you gonna bring in Michael here because criminal justice reform is an interesting area up left to right alignment right now you've seen the Koch brothers for example get very active in trying to Rand Paul and Rand Paul to try and reduce the prison population and reduce mandatory minimum sentences for regardless is very much involved in this so am I going to get your response to that do you agree with some of those voices like Northwest and the Koch brothers who who want to reduce the huge budget line item that's one of our Corrections facilities that's created I think we should put more criminals in prison I see no reason but there was this wonderful headline in the New York Times a number of years ago by Fox Butterfield it said prisons keep filling and despite the crime rate falling as though there were at some correlation between putting criminals in prison the crime rate falling down are there certain instances where there's abuse absolutely should we reform that absolutely I am all for putting criminals in prison there are a lot of talking points on this issue I think a lot of them are frivolous particularly when it comes to the war on drugs so I'm happy to talk about it but probably that will lead us nowhere on the question of is this country too harsh on its criminals or not I think we're not harsh enough I want a nice safe country and this has been a big win for president Trump you know we're talking about bridging divides making people together on certain issues when you the beccaria talk about Kanye West not representing people who have your skin covered certainly you've seen the polls that show the president from supporting black voters and Hispanic voters why is that because clearly people are feeling more represented by this administration people are coming together I think what you're seeing right now with the hysteria with the attacking Republicans in restaurants is the last gasps of people who thought that it was theirs they deserved power Democrats deserved it Hillary Clinton deserved to win the election and it was wrongly taken away from her I think it's absurd and I'm very pleased that we're speaking frankly it because on the question of criminal justice reform more broadly when President Trump speaks about law and order speaks about people not crossing our border illegally using our resources illegally deporting criminals who are in violation of the law his pole never shook for the movie even among Democrats even Democrats don't want blanket amnesty I think law and order is a big winner I think our country is better off for it and you keep [Applause] if you actually care deeply about law and order and I'd like for you to fall for the breakup of the us-saudi alliance because we keep giving them we give over a hundred billion dollars in wonderful and also moves on another point you said we should put more criminals in jail I agree that the fraudsters on Wall Street should all be in jail criminals behind bars even if they work on Wall Street I have no look Wall Street often votes Democrat so I've got no political allegiance I find this to be a huge distraction from the Democrats you're alluding and I supposed to the killing and the extrajudicial killing of chamalla shoddy by the Saudi government Jamal Kashani was a radical Islamist one of his main criticisms of Saudi Arabia region is can we just stop that neglect in the main recipe so law and order this is why this is my ex finally finish I'm not because this is why I am because this is why so when we get to a point where we have these like really [ __ ] sensationalized talking points we begin to lose people right and people clap and then chant and they scream and this this gentleman was a Washington Post editorial report and if you want to talk about something he did in the eighties so be it how to talk with me that's fine but my point is that like he was he was killed in an extrajudicial killing in a consulate I mean let's at least allow him to rest and allow and allow and allow an investigation ahead of I didn't but I think that and I think not only point in stopping you and saying that we have to cut this [ __ ] out is because the audience and people deserve better dialogue than that right it's part of this dialogue is Liza sensationalize talking point what we can actually be talking about issues that that maybe maybe we leave this room somebody will say oh I'm thinking differently about this other than simply saying that oh my god this was a Muslim sympathizer who just got killed I want to point out though bring up the topic you can my friend over here brought up the topic and I'm happy to answer it and this happens you was on the Left you talked about the us-saudi alliance on the Left this always happens the left brings up of a talking point as an attack on the right the right responds and then they say this is something or Michael and I might have some disagreement we disagree one of them fails the fund their unethical or probably illegal war in Yemen across the world which is hot men centers of radical Islam and entirely terror cell to end up being Isis terrorists and and so I think the us-saudi relationship has gone way out of bounds and they never paid a price for what they did at 9/11 they never paid a price for the worst attacks domestic attacks since 9/11 I sense the harbor on American soil in the last 100 years so this is something we could agree agreed to show you actually read Michael that there's probably a little more coverage on this then would be usual that that's just despite despite the point but I think that's I'm lighting a draw Saudi Arabia has been lying to us we've been funding them we've been given the arms we love them whatever they want and we have yet to only allow the 9/11 victims families to sue the sovereign welcome to Saudi Arabia bankrupt that country make them pay those families what they do you know we're here talking about some of the headlines the fact is still if you go beneath the headlines we live in a very broken political system and I want to get to some of those incentives primarily because we don't give them enough airtime to be honest it's often not as sexy I think it's very important and so actually I do want to bring in Bukhari for a second because because he worked on the Obama campaign in 2008 and I think the last time there was an interest in trying to transcend that divide was that campaign and Obama's famous words in 2004 or was that word there's not a liberal America there's not a conservative America there's the United States of America and then at the end of his presidency vice news to this great documentary called a house divided and they asked him well what happened to that and he said well that can work up so I'll did it I'm thinking like hold on that was kind of the premise of why you know why he ran and why he got elected so I don't want to talk too much about like Oh Republicans were obstructionists in Congress or Obama did this or not that I want to get one layer deeper there and ask you know what are the process issues that caused that mission to fail so spectacularly during his presidency well I mean I think that even from even our discussion yesterday amongst my friends on the Left we have a tension about those policies and issues and so it's pretty good if we don't maybe be caught up there Vidal to where you want to go I began this earlier today by saying that in this country we've made a lot of progress but we have a we have to do stuff yet a ways to go and one of the one of the issues that I give Donald Trump credit for in somewhat of a backhanded way that we are now actually having a discussion about robustly as the issue of race it's an issue in this country that we never dealt with it's one that we've never that we've never truly had any substance of conversation about and people think that people think that we are very far removed I remind people often you know my father was shot I stopped under state troopers in February 8th 1968 protesting a bowling alley they denied his bond in Houston on death row my sister was born without her father my family we had to literally live on on welfare for a period of time because of the simple fact that my father had a felony on his record simply from being an activist right but this isn't something that happened in history books 100 years ago this is one generation and so I think a lot of the reaction that we had tiny-g seacoast wrote a great piece in the Atlantic called the first white president and talking about Donald Trump to me ain't that many of the many people in this country have and so I think that we're dealing weak we are dealing with the reconciliation that I believe the year is 2040 to correct me if I'm wrong but 2040 to when this will be a majority minority country and what we're dealing with now a lot of what we're dealing with is the Browning of America and we're going to have we're gonna have some uncomfortability and people are going to have issues and I think that played out during the presidency of Barack Obama but even more is playing out now Hillary Clinton's president we wouldn't be having conversations like this but because Donald Trump is we're having these very profound discussions and so that's a part of the reason that I believe we had those hiccups yeah right all right we have some questions here we won't have time to get to everyone but we hope to get a few aye and can I just say one more thing there needs to be a question mark at the end of the question and please keep it relatively quick so we can get to as many people as possible so this questions mainly for Charlie and Kyle how would you guys feel about the Libertarian Party of the Green Party sort of pooling their resources okay so I think it depends on on the issue in question because there are areas where they're gonna find agreement between greens and libertarians when we were talking about foreign policy in the drug war there's total agreement there so Michael thing has been in this you know the whole point of this panel is how will we get along my answer to that is very simple when we do agree we do get along and we can work together on those issues and I have no problem doing that but where we don't agree let's argue let's debate let's have that disagreement and that's what democracy is then sometimes it's messy and we're gonna be at each other's throats metaphorically and other times it's you know great and we can agree like we just did on Saudi Arabia so I think when you go when your issues based and policy driven I think that you'll find that there are many areas where you can agree and work together and then when there's not when you have areas of disagreement okay just debate and that's what made the best argument win me being or the civil libertarian I wasn't suggesting a green party on the planetary party that not totally disagree on a lot of things yeah at least half the stuff but I would say that and I'm gonna tell you a lot of issues traditionally conservative on other ones but the best thing that's happened the last eight years they're seeing libertarians finally admit that this libertarian party idea has to be within the republican party you see Rand Paul you see Thomas nasty Justin Amash and you see conversations at either the top level Republican leadership are talking more like libertarians on issues which is a great thing talking about disdain for government power and government overreach all those sort of things are very positive developments and that's happened since the Tea Party movement but again I think that there's there's things that we can agree on and obviously things will fundamentally disagree on it civil libertarian issues I think there's a good starting point it is definitely all right hi when we see numbers like Democratic separate senators representing 35 million more Americans but are in their minority in the house then the fact Democrats represent 1.37 million more people Republicans have 33 more seats and 33 million more people voted for Hillary or Trump as president you see to agree that this creature this dystrophy shouldn't be politicized can we cover you and other conservatives to reform a system that supports them so yes but I'll take a little exception of what you said first on the premise the premise of what you said though is operating under the idea that we are a democracy we are not a democracy in America nor should we ever become a director we are a constitutional republic is a democratic process to put our representatives in power and there's a big difference to the democracy as as worn in the Federalist Papers would have lent itself to the tearing of the majority decentralization of power and states rights is essential to a republic remember that the states created the federal government the federal government did not create the states and so the diffusion of power to give states such as Wyoming and Montana North to South Dakota representation is critical that works for both parties to remember it's Democrats that get like 12 votes in Hawaii and Rhode Island and small states so it's not a purely partisan thing the final thing that saves us I think it's very dangerous to go to for example a direct national vote because you'll see candidates do nothing though from the cities like Miami to Los Angeles San Francisco Seattle and concentrate on heavily urban issues and forget mill of America which essentially everywhere between and now so we have our first disagreement where a constitutional republic but we're also literally a representative democracy so obviously democracy is a very important part of our system and I think we should absolutely abolish the Electoral College because you have to do mental gymnastics to come to the conclusion that you know the people that should be in power are the ones who've got fewer votes I think anything that would argue on the opposite side of that is honestly laughing I actually disagree with South Carolina I think the electoral colleges like dope right because else would you not I mean what candidate would come campaign in South Carolina if all you had to do would go to New York and LA a lot of my friends a lot of my friends on the left after this election that Hillary won in the popular vote however you want to couch it unlike the Electoral College first of all you can't name a better system one and two we were just chanting it in 2008 a skinny black [Applause] principal said I actually think I go beyond that I would actually say in this country on the top you know most important 5 or 10 issues I think every year our entire country to go to the polls and vote on the 5 or 10 most important issues so for example you know one of those was ending the Iraq war I think this could be in a much better position if people got to directly vote on should we legalize marijuana should we end the Iraq war but marijuana you aren't able to directly vote for your state legislature and that is like essentially direct cost there's no like that 12 college for your state legislature where a lot of things like drugs are related to as they ship it to the states but the bigger idea this is coming from Canadian is that it's States who elect the president not individual people so I think the whole balance with the states being semi sovereign entities they're able to like sort of have the I guess lab experiments of smaller issues I think I think that isn't it so if you told me well then let's compromise and find a middle ground and let's have more of a direct democracy on specific issues in the individual states California has okay next question this is your summers you said you don't stand on the shoulders of people who don't read that's not what I said I'm pretty sure do you really believe that these like Sims II Listed we're avid readers yes more looser tables next question you want me to be happy to answer do I believe that young black men while unarmed until actually read the answer to the question is yes they actually read because it's not it's not a big deal to see a black kid read a book so I don't want to answer the question next [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] at times and we disagreed with another time there were points of agreement and you know one of the other points I was going to make during the course of the panel is that I I said that a lot of Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric was stuff that I agree with like for example when you would bash in after at every rally and he said okay this is destroying you know working people in this country and we need to to fix it and we need to stop doing these terrible trade deals and I think that the way you bridge that divide is by again being issues driven because when your issue is driven you will find points of agreement where as opposed to if you're just a partisan tack you're going to just be a partisan hat and even if you contradict yourself on an issue you'll say I don't care I agree with the Republicans on the Republican that makes no sense - let's do it - yeah so since this is supposed to be how do we get along my question is for affirmative action mm-hmm what's your opinion on that because I as a white male applied for a job in a predominantly black neighborhood the end they have stipulations they have owned they have to hire so many black people versus minority whatever the graphics are does that fair so first first I think we need to back up and actually just deal with facts the number one group of individuals that benefit from affirmative action in this country are actually white women so that's that's actually first and that's the first thing that I would that I would tell you I think that for a long period time I I often tell people that I can't make you dance but you know I do think it's necessary that everybody had access to the dance floor and when you're talking about you know when you're talking about legacy enrollment and you're talking about higher education you're talking about jobs what affirmative action is done we simply allow individuals who otherwise would not have had the opportunity the opportunity to compete but the largest group of individuals in this country who have taken advantage of affirmative action programs are not blacks or not Hispanics but they're actually like - do you think that there is a time when after all the great games that has made that we should get rid of them now there are these suits against Harvard Yale for discriminating against Asian students is there a time at which we should face affirmative action and when do you see that happening is there a time they answer would be probably yes we do ask you that happening I'm not sure the sort of white woman so I think the issue with the permit of action and now I'm someone who I very much believe in meritocracy but even though I don't support the idea of affirmative action I think the people who do are addressing a real problem which is that there is a big the lack of representation among certain groups in positions of power and higher education I think we need to be focusing more on why that is and I think that goes back to let's let's talk about public schools in neighborhoods where they just simply don't have the funds of where the high school reputation murder rate is extremely low let's talk about trying to bring skills into these communities about you know instead of just throwing everyone in prison let's talk about treatment core grounds for things like that and I think if we begin to address the problem from that issue then definitely debate about affirmative action might not be as you you actually hit the nail on the head because you're talking about a holistic approach and I think that a lot of times we piece people want to ask you how do you feel about affirmative action well primitive action is a is is what some people is what is a remedy to a to a large problem but it's only part of that and so I think that we have to less you said we have to look at you know the fact that african-american kids have had less access to them four-year-old kindergarten programs they're more likely to go to school hungry they're more likely to have issues that did lead to pre-existing or not pre-existing everybody won't sell a pre-existing but preventable disease is like it's like prenatal nutrition is correct so I mean that's I agree with you said affirmative action to remedy it's also a punishment against Asian American students that do quite well it's racism against a burger has a different I know this might be a surprise that you hit me with some new news so tell yes sir the Ivy League has a different grading scale for an asian-american student versus a black student versus a white student it is harder to get into the Ivy League schools as an asian-american student than any other race or box that you check that is pure and simple racism that have different levels or more for different races and the remedy is the punishment against an entire American population that is about eight to ten percent based on the census data that's above the amount we'll find out that happens to be the richest group in America Asian Americans are the richest group by race in America and they weren't in the 1940s yet over the last 70 or 80 years they did the three things you need to do to stay out of poverty America as the great Ben Shapiro talks about every single day a graduate high school get a job and get married before you have kids they've done those things over the last sixty years and now we're punishing them and the college admissions process wither so we need to be specific though because it actually depends on which group of Asians you're talking about because typically when they came from the lower-income nations they stayed lower income whereas when they came from richer families so for example Vietnamese immigrants are actually more poor than Chinese immigrants so I think it's a very specific basically a generalization like oh you know basically they just have family values and theaters achiara's a Bob Dylan you know it's a say they say the same for everything you say for example immigrants from South Africa or consider african-americans they tend to be richer than African Americans that have been in America 450 years of all teenager so you have used the aggregate of the data that's wrong and in the advocate the asian asian americans are the richest group in america per race and affirmative action heavily punishes this this portion of american population and as higher tested by regulation race i think that the resolve to that to that dream is i think that because i wasn't aware of that but i think that if you're talking about the Harvard's and the Yale's and you're talking about Ivy League institutions then the answer is not to throw out affirmative action the answer is to reform the programs right and maybe equalizers grading systems and the reasons I say it's not the reasons that reasons I'm saying that you should throw a lot of form of actions because there was just a recent study that came out that said that if you take an african-american today and you equalize is equalize his wealth or his income potential and earning potential with his white counterparts had taken 222 years to equal the amount of wealth that they have right and so you're looking at you're looking at a group of individuals who have been disenfranchised in this country for a very long period of time and so affirmative action to her point it's just it's just one slither of a larger holistic approach that we have to take but I don't know political play some very curious experience on this what do you think of a class-based affirmative action says no IIIi don't believe it's government's role to solve any sort of inequities freedom [Applause] guys let's get to the next question hi this is a question for mr. Kirk isn't it hypocritical for you to produce single about Candace Owens and [ __ ] all over Taylor Swift so how the [ __ ] are we supposed to get along you mean Kanye West but yeah thank you for your you know a lot of what he's talking about him you know I'm gonna give him more about it to the doubt and his own question than he probably deserves but um so I gave Kanye West a lot of praise in an assignment Aeneas Lee bash Taylor Swift of which I stand by completely soaked let me give a short answer is I don't want to monopolize the panel on this first and foremost Kanye West did not demonize Hillary Clinton did not demonize the Democrats even said I'm not Hillary and Taylor Swift post that he wrote that she wrote on her Instagram of which I highly doubt she actually wrote and I got a lot of blowback for that but that's okay probably written by a democratic political consultant she said Marcia Blackburn is anti-woman Marcia Blackburn is this she went out of her way to attack the Democrat where Kanye West messages not all black people have you Democrats that's what the first thing you said when he entered the Oval Office two distinctly different political Amell okay well first of all I like I did you think I'd be defending Taylor Swift well I like the reason she said she's an T woman is because she voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act so it's fair to categorize that okay also chances over eight bills that went after domestic abuse perpetrator so on and so forth so to say that Marshall Blackburn a woman is anti women table a group against their broader interests right but again but just say Marshall black courtesan side woman when her whole track record the whole life is about female empowerment in the good ol boys network of the Republican run party of Tennessee I think is disingenuous for Taylor Swift and shows that she obviously doesn't have an understanding from Marshall blackness 20-plus years in public search if you vote against the violence against women why would you support reports to the death penalty when prison technology has advanced to the point where we can protect the citizenry from dangerous criminals without putting them to death perhaps we can and perhaps we can my view on the death penalty is in you were talking about a Catholic question is in keeping with two millennia of Catholic theology although there is now some question about that raised by the present Vicar of Christ on earth but we another time and place on that there are there are different reasons to use punishment you you can use punishment to be rehabilitated you can use punishment to be punitive you can use punishment to protect the public from the criminal all of which I think are perfectly illicit the obviously throughout Scripture st. Paul writes about how civil authority has the right to come down on people and many doctors in the church or many people from the principal patristic era also wrote about that's okay why should we do it it's because justice is very important and there were there are bad incentives that go down the line when you stop punishing people for heinous crimes it's very easy to sit here and say oh I opposed the death penalty for all cases what about some awful terrorist who kills 3,000 people one sunny morning what about somebody who commits awful crimes rape murder why wouldn't we attack those people why wouldn't we punish those people I don't really see the argument obviously we should protect human life but people can compromise their their own rights and if you commit a heinous crime that would leave society better off without you I don't see any reason not to punish that and my final point is that there is a medicinal benefit to capital punishment which is to quote dr. Johnson hanging concentrates the minds depend upon it sir when you know you're to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates your mind wonderfully so I think there's a spiritual and a medicinal benefit to it and I highly recommend the Catholics around the world embrace addiction and I am a I'm a conservative against the death penalty I'm gonna give you the conservative reason why I'm against the death penalty first and foremost I think it's wrong the amount of people that we have brought to the death penalty chair thank you our issues introduce miss Christie ironically it's actually more expensive it's actually more expensive than life in prison because of the appeal because of the amount of legal you arguing around how long it takes to actually get someone to the best that palliative care it's almost 10 times more expensive the third thing I say is this if I'm against government power domestically for the rights of American citizens and it might it's different obviously for foreign nationals then I think that we should be consistent in protecting the life of the unborn even the life of the people that have done totally horrific elite heinous crimes that obviously given 50 life sentences no chance to bail you never a lot of it the light of day but I think we as conservatives need to be consistent in how we say well we should be protecting the life of all people no matter how difficult it might be saying yes we want to see that person perish that's where our principles take the most amount of you know focus the left puts on the death penalty and say oh we should not execute them then they turn a blind eye on the feelings for people in the womb that's the other thing I think that's a little hypocritical so I don't think I will say I'm consistent from the womb to the tomb I'm pro-life I think that's a nuanced conversation we can have when it comes to that issue but my final point is very quick I think the people who are pro-life should go even beyond being consistent to your extent and argue against the bombing of beech-trees that we're currently doing right now personally I just want to thank over panelists this has been a lively conversation and I think I'll just close with two points first on the topic of political divisions this was a topic that the founders very much warned us of and I would look to what George Washington said in his farewell address he said in these times of extreme partisanship our country becomes vulnerable to for encroachment influence in and creates fertile ground for authoritarian tendencies and I think these political divisions we have in our country is really the challenge of our time and it's not to say that we all need to agree all the time but we need to have better arguments we have better conversations and that's why I'm grateful for our panelists here and the last thing I'll say that it makes me optimistic is when you look at the millennial demographic right now if you look at the data we tend to a much more issue focus than party focus and if we can have more of a dialogue around that we might have Republicans future so thank you all very much and thank you receiving

Channel: Secular Talk

Views: 127,719

Keywords: news, politics, election, 2016, Kyle kulinski, Charlie kirk, Roaming millennial, Bakari sellers, How, Are, We, Going, To, Get, Along

Id: Z0PpTp6n5o4

Length: 59min 31sec (3571 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 22 2018