Anarchy v. Totalitarian: The new right-left scale?

February 26, 2013

Writer

This morning on radio, Glenn talked about the importance of defining the real right and left in American politics. It might seem simplest to think of the right and left as Republicans and Democrats, but, as it turns out, the best right-left scale does not necessarily have anything to do with party lines.

“People think that, you know, the left is the Democrat and the right is the Republican. That's not true. Everything is upside down and that's just a lie,” Glenn said. “When you look at the real scale... On one side is anarchy and the other side is totalitarianism.”

When you look at this scale in terms of television coverage it becomes clear that whether you are watching Fox News or MSNBC, all of these networks are covering the same group of people. For example, people like John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Bill Clinton, and Chris Christie are accepted by all sides because, as Glenn put it, they are “an extremist on one end or the other… they go from one side to another.”

The fact that these men have a tendency of casting such a large net when it comes to what policies they choose to support, it becomes difficult to determine where they fall not on a right-left spectrum but on an anarchy-totalitarian scale.

“You know, we sat here at the chalkboard yesterday, Pat and I,” Glenn said. “I'm like, where does Chris Christie go? Where does he fit? Forget about left and right. Who does he fit with? I contend he fits with Bloomberg, Sunstein, Al Gore, and Newt Gingrich.”

Pat, on the other hand, had a slightly different interpretation of Christie. “He’s got some redeeming qualities and his redeeming qualities are really redeeming,” Pat said. “You know, look at the way we cheered for him at the beginning before we found out just how moderate he really is. But the things on which he's good, he is exceptional.”

On the chalkboard Glenn used on last night’s 5PM show, Christie was placed next to Newt Gingrich on scale. “I think Chris Christie does do some really good things and I think Newt Gingrich does as well,” Glenn said. “But the bottom line is: overall they see themselves as a bit too progressive in their vision of what government should do.”

Based on chalkboard, the establishment of the Republican and Democratic parties are all muddled in about the same place, but the most important people, the people Glenn feels could be the future of the GOP, are on a different chalkboard all together.

“We should actually be down in the other scale, past the edge of the Republican Party. And I put the edge of the Republican Party with Rubio and Paul Ryan,” Glenn said. “Those guys are accepted into the tent of the Republicans but not all the time. They could, they might be good on freedom, you know, but they could easily be sucked in the other way, don't you think?”

With Rubio and Ryan on the fringe of the establishment GOP, it will take people who fall to the right of them to actually affect any sort of change. “Then you move down the scale and you have Ted Cruz and Rand Paul… Then after that you have Ron Paul. I don't really put Ron there, but I put his supporters there… And then, then you have Penn Jillette. I know he's not political at all, but he's the guy who I think is at the edge of that line of, ‘No, I'm a libertarian and I don't care what happens" but he's still reasonable. He still knows there has to be some sort of a framework to be able to hold things together… He's not an anarchist.”

If the GOP’s comfort zone does not extend past Rubio and Ryan, as Glenn suggests, the race for 2016 is going to be a tough challenge.

“I think all these people, you know, you've got the, you know, the McConnell and the Boehner and the McCain and the Lindsey Graham and the Chris Christie. I've written those guys off. Written those guys off. We have 18 months before the political machine starts again. And if you really want to have a place at the table, I'm telling you now that Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, Paul Ryan and Rubio will either be destroyed by the machine in the next four years or sucked into the machine, one of the two,” Glenn said. “In the next 18 months, maybe even 12 months, we have to populate that area between Paul Ryan and Penn Jillette with people who we think will really stand, will buck the system and they don't care.”

“You know, Ted Cruz said there needs to be a third party. I think there does. We have to have a new party,” he concluded. “I would love to be able to use the structure and the framework of what they've already established, but what they've already established is garbage. It doesn't stand for anything. So I think we should start taking phone calls, I think we should start to these politicians.”

Trump's education secretary has BIG plans for the DoE

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

Our education system is broken, and the Department of Education is a massive failure. But that all ends now.

It's no secret that America's school system is seriously lacking in many ways. President Trump pointed out that despite our massive spending per pupil, we are behind most of the developed world in most metrics. Our scores continue to plummet while our student debt and spending skyrocket—it's utterly unacceptable performance and America's students deserve better.

That's where Linda McMahon, Trump's pick for Secretary of Education comes in.

The former WWE CEO and leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration during Trump's first term, McMahon laid out her harsh criticisms of the DoE during a confirmation hearing on the 13th and revealed her promising plans to turn things around. McMahon described the public education system as "in decline" and promised that under her authority, the DoE would be reoriented towards student success.

Here are the top three changes to the Department of Education:

1. Dismantling the Department of Education

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

From the beginning Trump's orders for McMahon were clear: oversee the end of the Department of Education.

During her Thursday hearing, McMahon clarified what dismantling the DoE would entail. As Democrats have repeatedly pointed out, Trump does not have the authority to destroy the DoE without Congressional consent, as an act of Congress created it. That is why Trump and McMahon's plan is to start by shutting down programs that can be stopped by executive action, then approach Congress with a plan to dismantle the Department for good. The executive orders have already begun to take effect, and once McMahon is confirmed she will author a plan for Congress to close the Department.

McMahon also promised that the end of the Department of Education does not mean an end to all the programs currently undertaken by the doomed department. Programs that are deemed beneficial will be transferred (along with their funding) to departments that are more suited to the task. The example given by McMahon was IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding, which instead of being cut would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services.

2. School Choice

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc / Contributor | Getty Images

In a huge win for parents across the country, McMahon pledged her support for School Choice. School Choice is the idea of allowing parents to enroll their student in any school of their choice, including religious schools and private schools. It would also mean that part or all of the funding that would have gone to a relocated child would follow them and continue to pay for their education.

This gives parents the ability to remove their children from failing schools and seek a better education for them elsewhere. A growing body of evidence suggests that the way we run our schools isn't working, and it is time to try something new. School Choice opens up education to the free market and will allow for competition.

Our children deserve better than what we can currently offer them.

3. COVID and DEI

SAVO PRELEVIC / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump's government-wide crackdown on DEI will ironically serve to increase inclusion in many American schools.

McMahon said as much during her Senate hearing: “It was put in place ostensibly for more diversity, for equity and inclusion. And I think what we’re seeing is, it is having an opposite effect. We are getting back to more segregating of our schools instead of having more inclusion in our schools.” She also spoke in support of Title IX, and the push to remove biological males from women's and girl's sports. In the same vein, McMahon pledged to push back against the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, which many Universities have failed to adequately address.

On Friday, February 14th, President Trump signed an executive order barring any school or university with COVID-19 vaccine mandates from receiving federal money. This only applies to the COVID-19 vaccine, and other vaccine mandates are still standing.

POLL: What DARK government secrets will Trump uncover?

Mark Wilson / Staff | Getty Images

Will the dark secrets of the Deep State finally see the light of day? Or will they slip back into darkness, as they have many times before?

The Trump administration is gearing up to fulfill one of Trump's most anticipated campaign promises: to make the contents of the JFK files, along with other Deep State secrets, available to the public. Kash Patel, who has promised to publicize the highly anticipated files, is expected to be confirmed next week as Trump's director of the FBI. Moreover, the House Oversight Committee created a new task force headed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called "Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets," which is tasked with investigating and declassifying information on the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, UFOs, the Epstein list, COVID's origins, and 9/11. This all comes after the FBI found 2,400 "new" records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy following Trump's executive order to release the files.

Glenn discussed this topic with the cast of the Patrick Bet David podcast. Glenn expressed his confidence in Trump's radical transparency—on the condition that Kash Patel is confirmed. The cast was not as optimistic, expressing some doubt about whether Trump will actually unveil all that he has promised. But what do you think? What files are likely to see the light of day? And what files will continue to linger in the dark? Let us know in the poll below

Do you think the JFK, RFK, and MLK files will be unveiled?

Do you think the 9/11 files will be unveiled?

Do you think the COVID files will be unveiled?

Do you think the UFO files will be unveiled?

Do you think the Epstein list will be unveiled?

Transgender opera in Colombia? 10 SHOCKING ways USAID spent your tax dollars.

MANDEL NGAN / Contributor | Getty Images

The government has been doing what with our tax money!?

Under the determined eye of Elon Musk, DOGE has rooted out the corruption that permeates USAID, and it turns out that it's worse than we thought. Glenn recently read a list of atrocious causes that were funded by USAID, and the list was as long as it was shocking.

Since the January consumer index report was published today, one thing is clear: eggs are bearing the brunt of inflation. That's why we illustrated the extent of USAID's wasteful spending of YOUR taxpayer dollars by comparing it to the price of eggs. How many eggs could the American people have bought with their tax dollars that were given to a "transgender opera" in Colombia or indoctrinating Sri Lankans with woke gender ideology? The truth will shock you:

1. A “transgender opera” in Colombia

USAID spent $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia. That's over 135,000 eggs.

2. Sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala

$2 million was spent funding sex changes along with whatever "LGBT activism" means. That equates to over 5.7 million eggs!

3. Teaching Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid binary-gendered language

USAID forked over $7.9 million to combat the "gender binary" in Sri Lankan journalism. That could have bought nearly 23 million eggs.

4. Tourism in Egypt

$6 million (or just over 17 million eggs) was spent to fund tourism in Egypt. If only someone had thought to build some impressive landmarks...

5. A new "Sesame Street" show in Iraq

USAID spent $20 million to create a new Sesame Street show in Iraq. That's just short of 58 million eggs...

6. Helping the BBC value the diversity of Libyan society

$2.1 million was sent to the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) to help them value the diversity of Libyan society (whatever that means). That could have bought over 6 million eggs.

7. Meals for a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda

$10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group. That comes up to be just shy of 29 million eggs.

8. Promoting inclusion in Vietnam

A combined $19.3 million was sent to two separate inclusion groups in Vietnam inclusion groups in Vietnam (why where they separated? Not very inclusive of them). That's over 55 million eggs.

9. Promoting DEI in Serbia's workplaces

USAID sent $1.5 million (4.3 million eggs) to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”

10. Funding EcoHealth Alliance, tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology's "bat research"

EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs that funded the Wuhan lab's bat virus research, received $5 million from USAID, which is equivalent to 14.5 million eggs.

The bottom line...

So, how much damage was done?

In total, approximately $73.8 million was wasted on the items on this list. That comes out to be 213 million eggs. Keep in mind that these are just the items on this list, there are many, many more that DOGE has uncovered and will uncover in the coming days. Case in point: that's a lot of eggs.

POLL: Should Trump stop producing pennies?

SAUL LOEB / Contributor, Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

On Sunday, February 9th, President Trump ordered the U.S. Mint to halt the production of pennies. It costs the mint three cents to produce every penny, which Trump deemed wasteful. However, critics argue that axing the pennies will be compensated by ramping up nickel production, which costs 13 cents per coin.

In other news, President Trump promised on Truth Social that he would be reversing a Biden-era policy that mandated the use of paper straws throughout the federal government. From potentially slashing entire agencies to saying farewell to pennies and paper straws, Trump is hounding after wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.

But what do you think? Was Trump right to put an end to pennies? And should plastic straws make a comeback? Let us know in the poll below:

Glenn's Show Prep