The Candace Owens Show: Rep. Dan Crenshaw | Candace Owens Show

we're speeding her I'm gonna do a soft intro turn to you okay look at me all right ladies and gentlemen we are rolling in to another episode of the Candis Owens show and I am so honored to be sitting across from a congressman who I genuinely believe go back and watch my interviews and people ask me who do you think is going all the way who do you think could run for POTUS in 2024 I always say Dan Crenshaw welcome to the Candis Owen show it's great to be here I've finally got to do this yeah so here's my here's my thing I think you're the one that goes all the way here's why and I say you're the one as if there's like some weird competition going on but I think you have this ability to strike a balance between being a super authentic genuine person not sort of feeding to the far left or the far right and being really practical you have the experience but you also understand the important of culture and you don't stick your nose up to it and I find that a lot of people on the right tend to say oh or two we're too good for that you know we don't do this where you will explain things on your Instagram in a way that just makes sense for a generation that is seized by social media I didn't know this conversation was gonna start out with so many compliments I appreciate that we could just keep going this way yeah I appreciate that you know I don't think that's I don't think it's that conservatives especially my colleagues don't want to engage in cultural Wars it's just that this is an our generation thing they didn't have to back in the back in the 80s and 90s and even early 2000s those those there were culture wars back then but not to the extent that it is now and it has many fronts okay and I think the biggest front is whether America is inherently good or bad I mean that's a really fundamental question I didn't used to argue about that if you look like back to the Progressive Era under Woodrow Wilson and everything they believed in was really bad okay was it down with the Constitution state ISM you know completely centralized control of the economy all of that but there was also a really deep love for America it's like red white and blue and you better love America like that was the old progressivism and its really morphed into something else because they no longer have a use for it that's the difference okay and I think a lot of my I think a lot of older Republicans don't even realize they don't even understand why we're fighting that or why would they write it's ridiculous so you kind of dodged my implication here will you run for president of United Focus you can't you can't do this with me I stay in the game it's like I'll do it I did Joe Rogan who was asking me tough questions I'm like the the earpiece stopped working I can't understand I would have I have no I mean to answer a question I just have like no idea I'm focused on the you know my next election I'm not in a slam-dunk 20-point Republican district by any means like I got to work at this and you know and and I don't really cater to things I don't believe in either you know to your to your point like I know I don't I don't just throw out red meat talking points either but I will never agree with with leftist talking points just to make them like me better right and so you know I've got to work on this a lot can happen in politics it the the truth of moving up in politics is it's opportunistic like you have to you have to look for windows of opportunity see where the public is that they're the ones who decide at the end you know it's like people want you to do something that go ahead and do it but it's not clear that that will ever happen here's what I'll say this is something that you definitely do not prescribe to outrage culture and I think this is actually in you're right we are now playing the Crenshaw complement game but I'm done I'm gonna insult you the rest of the time here but you know yeah but you do you take a lot of times people are looking for that red meat looking for something to be upset about right and I thought it was so commendable and obviously this end up being sort of the thing that really put your name out there and I mean that as a compliment obviously that Saturday Night Live moment where you where you had a Pete something please don't kill me a Pete Davidson yeah who sort of said something that really wasn't that funny a lot of people in America were offended by a people that you know send their sons overseas and you you did this amazing thing and said you know what like let me come on the show and it was sort of this thing that both sides were able to laugh at and appreciate and it kind of quieted the noise about something that would have just been outraged outraged outraged yeah yeah well thought process there's a lot of fun you know outrage so I'm reading a book on outraged culture yeah yeah one's gonna be out maybe April here we are yeah we are is it the same I'll see you on the chart yeah reminds me of a self-help book like so I think it'll be very complimentary whatever well yours is coming out yeah that's right and I'm gonna buy it definitely and it's more of a self-help book but I want to answer your question first and so and then we can I'm happy to talk about my book and promote that and so the thing about Saturday Night Live and that entire thing was it was really a perfect storm and I wish we could replicate that moment more because it's not like it's the last time I was insulted really badly it's just that it's just that there was a there was a perfect storm of events right they showed they showed some sense of apology and I was allowing me to show grace and then allowing them to like invite me on right so imagine it a little bit differently right imagine they did what they did maybe they know they made a mistake with whatever it is watch they never know whether he misread it or whether that was scripted it's really hard to say it doesn't really matter the next day let's assume I do it a different way let's say let's say that I really hammered them on social media just go back at them how you hate veterans this is the left this is what they do they really hate us look at that how could they have invited me on why they couldn't have right because because because I would have created that that that line in the sand you know so I gave them that space and then they give me more space right and then you will and then you kind of allow yourselves to come together the problem is a lot of times is when people say bad things these days they don't apologize because there's not a lot of incentive to apologize this is part of outraged culture right it's like a it's like it's a wrong approach to the way we view shame right no we forgot what a proper sense of shame actually looks like and so we're like between these two extremes where where you either bow down to outraged culture like you know let's exam REO Lopez right like just like just got destroyed he said something totally reasonable and just it was like oh that's that right and then like the other extreme it's like Queen Cersei from Game of Thrones like no shame right like okay she just like kills everybody and like she's literally they're sending her through the streets and throwing vegetables she's like I don't care hate you guys right never apologize as you see that's an extreme example obviously we don't have Game of Thrones quite yet in this day and age but you see that a lot and on both sides where it's like I'm not even apologize right you know because there's no there's no benefit there's no benefit actually I think I find myself in that predicament sometimes too because if you miss speak and they say apologize or delete the tweet they're not actually saying for you to apologize delete the tweet because they want to have a conversation or not good okay well we should do that right they just wanted a proxy they wanted then say see I told you that and they can permanently brand you as something and that's exactly right so put people where I would normally be reasonable and say you know what I actually kind of misspoke there I wish I had phrased that tweet a little bit differently they don't give you that ability to sort of be a person right or to want to amend things because they're there they're just out to get you haha see we made you get on your knees for outrage culture so I it's funny because I see myself in that predicament and and what happened to you was a unique situation that I think we should all on the left and the right benefit from yeah oh absolutely that's actually an entire chapter in my book is like develop a sense of shame and like so in this this is the politics of ourselves and it's also the book is actually about how to be mentally tough you know and so that's why this one chapters like to be to to act properly in this life like you need to have a sense of shame you need to feel bad about the little things that happen you need to feel bad about leaving your tray of food at a fast-food restaurant when you when you when you know that there's actually no waiters there people do that there's a trash can go put it I mean really simple stuff like when you you know I mean you should feel bad it doesn't mean you're always perfect like we're all we're all not great people we're not perfect and I wouldn't claim that I am but I at least know what I'm supposed to feel bad about right and like I should feel bad if I overreact I should feel bad if I attack somebody on social media when I know really well that I would not talk to them that way in person right you know and I've made that mistake right and they're like and somebody come over this somebody called me out on it this was before I was even in politics I was like I felt terrible I should I was like you're right you know and I'm and I say that to people you wouldn't talk to me that way in person so what are you doing you know like like guys just everybody chill a little bit and learn how to speak to each other again there's like a sense of politeness that we've right and I think social media definitely makes it harder and easier and I talk about a lot of how it's impacting children even where it's just so easy to be mean and say things because you don't feel anything if you're not looking at somebody in the eye right if you can say Kansas the house Negro Candace is this and that all day online but would you have the stomach to say that to somebody's face right it's really the question we humanize them my own it's it's social medias become basically everybody in angry traffic right now because you know somebody cuts you off and you probably say some things well in your car because they can't hear you and then you drive up next to them and it's like a mom with like a screaming kid in the back yeah and you know and that's that's social media right you dehumanize each other social media is a lot of benefits to it there's a lot of amazing things it's done for our society and culture it has some real dangers to it um part of the danger is not being able to grow on social media and I always say I'm so happy that I was in high school just a twent when social media began right so I got into high school and Facebook had just started so I was kind of allowed to be a kid I was allowed to try out being a really crappy human being saying some things I regretted seeing someone's face scrunch up and then saying oh you know what I didn't like being means maybe I'm not gonna call you fat and run away right but nowadays they get to try out being me on the Internet and the Internet's forever right so now we can go back 70 years and say you said this on this day right and it's I think that's contributing to you know children that are saying if they have suicidal thoughts they feel like they actually aren't allowed to grow and part of growing is experimenting both with being a great person at being a bad person you're deciding who you want to be and we've kind of removed that social media sort of remove that so I think it's incredibly hard to be a kid this kid these days yeah it's it's also removed our communication abilities so so I guess I got Facebook around junior senior year of college and like I'm a millennial still but I'm like an elder millennial yeah and so yeah old gray I don't think I'm gray no no you're not great yet okay although I would mind a little bit it's like it's distinguishing you know because I'm not willing to wear my glasses a lot so there's great here would be nice but anyway what was I talking about so the it inhibits our communication ability like so I grew up in high school where like if I had a friend or a girl I liked I'd call them and then the parents answered and then you have to like talk to their parents do you like learn this sort of social interaction that are kids these days are not right because they have no need to call on a landline they don't think they may be most people don't even have landlines they have cell phones and then they text first and it's like a really unusual that anybody calls each other anymore and hell it's unusual that I even call anybody anymore but at least I did it for a while like I know how to have that conversation and I worry a lot about people not having that ability anymore and it just it's there's a lot of good science on this a lot of good psychological data that I'm just finishing up Jonathan Heights book on coddling of the American mind it's a really great read if you're trying to understand what Gen Z is going through right and and like what the changes in their brains are and it's significant and it's kind of dangerous and it's it's we should all be a little worried about it's not clear what to do about it except to you know try and help them grow up the way we did where we were eased into the social media world I don't know how to do that it's kind of to the parents it's hard and I say I've given a lot of thought to and I don't know either I genuinely I can't think of what the actual remedy is to get these people to be to be stand-up human beings and know how to be face to face human beings and I think that that's that's also one of the things that's a big I think draw for you so you come across as such a man you know I mean I've had to work out for you so cool like it's so cool it's a thing that looks like it's like this cool accessory and like everybody wants one now you know what I mean yeah oh my god the poor guy who makes this for me is he's getting destroyed is he yeah he's an amazing artist right does he does not just this is this is basic black one that he does but there's um I mean he does all these cool custom ones and I've showcased a few of those over over time but um like I advertised advertised where I got so many people would ask me like where do you get these patches from and I actually won't say the website right now because he slammed right he can't make any more wow he's just one guy is just the most amazing guy he's trying to make some more so if you're out there listening and you're wondering why your eyepatch hasn't come in please give him a break he's doing his best because Crenshaw somehow made eyepatch is cool yeah that coming it's uh it's completely overwhelmed now I mean so it was always exciting to be able to wear eye patches after I lost my I mean you know we make them we're the seals we make the best of things we have a saying it's called adapt and overcome and the combination of getting wear eye patches and cool glass eyes it kind of makes it all better it's almost like I don't even want my eye back my word eyepatch I get to wear whatever other eye it suits me that dates usually the Trident I and I think I've showcased that one quite a few times but it's like I've gold I have a few of them a few different colors the gold tridents in there the Trident is this the seal pin that we wear it's our symbol I've also got a quite a few other crazy what was that period like adjusting to losing your eye like I mean what it couldn't have just been like I mean you kind of you did go back into the military member watching you speak you actually did go back but there had to have been what was there some period where it was emotional and shocking and oh my goodness and and where do I go from here what was that low period was I think that that's something that people need to know because you kind of seem like kind of yeah there's a quite a few low period system yeah you're so you're tough so tough yeah I want to try yeah I don't know how my ability so cry when I think of my little puppies puppies make me cry I'm just kidding they make me happy they make me cry so the so here's how this happened like I I got blown up okay that sucked and I wasn't unconscious I remember the whole thing I was blind I didn't realize why I was blind so I assumed weren't unconscious no no I was I was knocked to the ground really fast so basically about the distance we're at right now my one of our Afghan interpreters Stefan my ad he got blown up lost all four limbs right away and he later died that blast hit me front full and so just my entire front side of my body is actually much worse from the head down than even my face my face lifts I have a one picture of it I mean it looks like I got hit with about three different shotguns to my face but I wasn't unconscious right so it was it was mostly a fragmentation blast like a fragmentation injured injury you know so it wasn't that could concussion her I definitely had some kind of traumatic brain injury but I don't I don't feel like I have symptoms of that too much seemed pretty sharp super sharp I love this is like you said we were gonna start insulting me but it just hasn't coming just you wait um and so I was able to actually get up and walk to the medevac helicopter from there but I couldn't see I just I just thought that I couldn't see because I had dirt in my eyes I honestly thought that it didn't make any sense and then when I woke up five days late cause they put me into a coma because I was really messed up I woke up five days later in Germany and again they told me like my right eye was gone probably wouldn't see out of my left eye but maybe I would and I just didn't believe that might be like okay so I will they're saying there's okay there's a chance that was there was literally the attitude it was it was delusional it was not real yes necessary it was necessary right it was like God gave me the strength to be delusional and in hindsight I think that's what happened I was I was hallucinating all I would see around me was because my optic nerves were still firing so I would see Afghanistan and I would see that for a week at least and then I would if I if I did fall asleep which was very rare I would wake up in that dream so I know I was awake but I would be seeing whatever I was dreaming about it was that I was literally in a nightmare optic nerves get hit sometimes made for some people I guess if your traumatic blind blindness like that your optic nerve is still trying to figure out what's going on and so you're just kind of it's just kind of like telling your brain something different like because your brain is trying to see I'm you know I don't think that's the scientific explanation but that's basically what yeah basically I had a minor in physics and did math once so and so that was the worst I mean because I also couldn't move very well my body you know again I walked away from the blast but but then I was but then the pain set in and then everything though the injuries actually set in and like couldn't move very well that was that was a really crappy time not gonna lie how long at least a few weeks to a month of just really bedridden kind of and then multiple surgeries just trying to bring back the sight seeing what happens and you were married at this time no no fiance yeah so um but yeah so Tara with me now me that you know she was she was by my side and it was no family coming in a lot of seals came in just to visit and and uh you know making appropriate jokes like this is let me give you an example the SEAL Teams like the day I got to the hospital from Afghanistan they're like so it's cool if we start making fun of you online for being like a dumb pirate right like yeah sure you you need that though right yeah yeah laughter is always the best medicine we have we have a really interesting sense of humor the team's I told the story to what I did the Washington press Club stand-up comedy thing which was the whole interesting thing in and of itself but one of the jokes I told to try and help people understand seal humor was like okay let me explain it this way I know a guy and he's got a tattoo on his side and it's memorial tattoo like in its rest in peace to his best friend his best friend is not dead that's really dark so that's really funny yeah people we deal with Wow and so it said that happened I was we had a miracle surgery to get the cataract removed and then and then my retina was pretty much it's called a d'amato macular degeneration so that was happening at another miracle surgery to stop that from happening eventually started to see more and more again and and then and so that was coming out of that recovery but then like you know the next dark period was like how do I get my career back right because I'm trying to get back to SEAL team 3 I'm trying to get back on on a real deployment like a combat deployment and eventually I just lost that bad like it just didn't happen I still went on deployment and more and very fulfilling deployments and warned of intelligence operations roles but that was hard and then and I suffered another kind of setback which was having to get out of the Navy you know the Navy finally realized I couldn't see that well I'm like you just can't deploy anymore right you're not supposed to be here but you know what that's the that's the path God sets you on and then you end up here right that's exactly right I never would have met Candace zones it was there you go exactly from afar very mysterious ways and so what I always find interesting is when you see people that you know give so much for their country you and your circumstance and I and you come back to this country and this country doesn't appreciate being this country and by the way I don't want to put words in your mouth my sense and my feeling is that the left is hostile towards America and and I mean that and burning the flag and and and talking about America like where this horrible racist xenophobic awful place to live when I think that America is one of the greatest nations on earth the greatest nation on earth what is that like for someone like you do you agree with that assessment do you think I'm being a little too harsh no no that that is the the fundamental line in the sand of the culture war right now there's a lot of different fronts to the many cultural wars that we have like you know the guns are one of them Riley there's no like people who like guns good that's part of it that's actually always been there though this is a new one this is and this is really a problematic like it really is and you need presidential candidates saying that America was founded on genocide and white supremacy and like we should just be ashamed of ourselves like any imperfection or sin that America has ever committed means that all of America must be indicted I said this is this is the new talking point here and you're almost wonder where this comes from and the way I analyze this is I think it's I think it's the the new up-and-coming kind of victimhood culture right the victim under hierarchies that we see so what does that result in well first it results in you just blaming somebody else maybe it's your parents maybe it's your boss somebody else for your misfortune but then that's not enough so you need to blame another group okay so now we get into identity politics right where you're like pitting different groups against each other well that's not enough you got to believe an institution so we start to tear down our institutions right like I mean the electoral college for instance like everything is bad it's all wrong you know we didn't we didn't we were wrong or founding fathers were misinformed it was a different time we shouldn't like that stuff anymore and then those institutions well they're part of America so then you start just indicted the entire country and what are the symbols that that that embody that country was the flag it's the national anthem it's the Pledge of Allegiance so you start attacking those things too you start attacking Christian values because we know that our country is founded on a judeo-christian history you know whether you believe in God or not it's just an undeniable fact like it's just how how our principles came to be so you start attacking all these things they're all emanates from that sort of that that victimhood oppressed oppressor ideology and I and I think that's where it comes from I I'm not sure how else to explain it you know how do you feel when it's you see the headlines are just they can no longer stand for the flat it's just I can't even stand the idea of the American flag I mean I'm sure you have the assessment that it's there right right I mean the it's it's you're right you really you really don't have to stand for the American flag but what is your assessment of that I mean it's just kind of just disgusts me a little bit you know I don't get mad about it i one of my thoughts too because I've tried to be positive one of my thoughts is that's a losing argument like like it's your average your average liberal and Democrat is still not okay with that you know they now I don't think I think they excuse it a little bit too much but they're still not that's still not who they are oh that's interesting you think that that's more of an extreme left thing where they don't have respect for the flag because I would actually if you had asked me I say that's the average liberal liberal assessment now because they've somehow tied that into police brutality and and into this idea of racism I mean I would say it's far-left burning the flag right yeah but not having no respect for the flag and thinking that it's heroic to kneel for the flag I would put that an average liberal assessment now it's hard it kind of depends what part of the country you're into actually so you know liberals in Texas are different from Connecticut New York too so and I meet a lot of them obviously I think I I think in your line of work you probably you tend to deal the extremes come at you right hard yeah and they come at me too but I also meet a lot of normal just regular Americans on the left and the right and so I have a little bit more hope and I kind of have to have more hope otherwise what are you doing yeah this is them we're really screwed and I just don't want to believe that frankly about a lot of Americans and I think I'm right at least I was almost from Houston so you know we still talk to each other in Houston liberals and conservatives still live together really normally and regularly you know I have some angry people at the town halls but not that angry like it's it's just it's nothing like it would be if I were if I were doing a town hall and middle of San Francisco I think so I have a little bit more hope but but again the problem is that your moderate your moderate liberal is still excusing it too much they're still rationalizing it too much like they'll say well you know that's just a fringe or it's just um it's uh they don't actually hate America they just want the best for America all right yeah is that what you say about your spouse like you don't like something about them you just want to fundamentally change them love is guys yeah I don't know no like we were throwing the baby out with the bathwater right like of course we have some imperfections of course we have to talk about our sins like but but it doesn't define us and so and this is the confusion that they have and what what moderate liberals don't realize is that they're being taken advantage of by this fringe left 100% by the leftist and like and it's also why I don't excuse my colleagues who are moderate liberals like if it was just me and these moderate Democrats in a room trying to figure out policy I think they're open to what I have to say but the problem is is that they're you know they're on there wearing blue jerseys and they're easily persuaded by the far left and that's because generally speaking of being a moderate Democrat these days you don't it's not clear what principles they actually abide by right they kind of go to Congress like I don't want to be pragmatic I want to work with people I want to do good things we're doing nice things for people okay well you're right I understand that we all do but like what are the foundational principles that you abide by when you're problem solving because that really matters and here's the thing when your principles are basically well I want to I want to I want to tackle injustice someone what tackle inequality well those are not really definable terms I mean we kind of know what they are but there's really no limits to those you can't really like put those in a problem-solving box where as or is wouldn't we solve a problem yes certain questions like more liberty less liberty limited government too much government local control Washington bureaucratic control dependency on government or more freedom from government and like self empowerment you know we ask really important questions I think as conservatives and that's that's a form of governance that's really important if you don't have that you're really it's really easy to convince you that these extremist policies and this extremist rhetoric it's the right way to do the good things that's correct so I think that's that's why like I don't I don't indict everybody every moderate with this sort of American hating nonsense but I also don't excuse them because like what they're doing or what they're believing or their lack of beliefs really is allowing that to occur and like I want to tell them like you know you're actually more on our side you know like let's let's let's let's box this off you know let's box off this extremism this American hating stuff and let's go back to having a normal conversation I think I think it's hard to have the courage to stand up even if you are a more moderate them right now it's hard when as you've mentioned the conversation has been seized and it's been so polarizing and so I have this theory that in terms of the socialism that's that seems to be breeding in this country I think that there are two types of socialists somebody who's evil or somebody who's stupid I don't think there's anything in between right you either know exactly what socialism is and you're trying to bring America towards it or you genuinely have no idea what socialism is and it just sounds good right so I actually have a chapter in my book on truth versus goodness right um it becomes very easy for people that believe in goodness to be sold socialism because it's just it sounds good I mean I'm why if I was sitting here I said everything should be free like a four-year-old asked a four-year-old how the world should be run everything they think everything is free right nice things they want to do nice things it feels good right and then and and then I think there's also another layer of the switches which is shame which you find a lot of people that come from wealthy families and didn't earn that wealth themselves it tend to be driven toward socialism because they feel guilty about their wealth now you can start to feel guilty but out your wealth if you didn't actually earn your wealth I think that's that's another element of it but but then you have these people who I am convinced I mentioned this to you earlier like is it possible that they don't know what socialism is and you get to Bernie Sanders like Bernie Sanders is if we're from aoc she's young I genuinely don't think she's a bad person I think that she is oh maybe a little dicted tube to the popularity of saying things that are crazy and wild and she's annoying about people insulting them a little giving all your friends the guns right have you been hurting your your new husband that was I was just weird actually I walk so I couldn't follow it she blocked me but she blocked me after I mimicked her her photo shoot at the border but I did I just follow that in the press and I went wait wait Dan Crenshaw stop being arbitrarily accused of just giving out guns to his wife with you I mean was Tony that's the addiction that's the element of like I'm addicted to just having a moment and she knows you're a good guy there's no question if she was hooked up to a lie detector test and somebody asked her do you think Dan Crenshaw is giving guns to his friends are abusing his wives she would have to say no I do not believe that it's just thinking think about that or to hit all the other things you said but the interesting thing about that is she's actually being tell actually consistent if you're gonna make an argument for universal background checks you have to assume that everybody's friends that they might transfer guns to are actually criminals you have to make that assumption if you're gonna so it actually what she actually did was exposed the the fault in the argument for universal background checks in that loam she did because she has to assume that my friends are bad people in order to make a good argument for universal background check that's exactly right she said she's a true socialist but I don't think she's a bet I know it sounds so weird to say I don't think she knows what socialism is bizarrely and so that that is that is backed up by the data too and so we've seen some polling where you ask a lot of people are you in favor of socialism and they'll say like overwhelmingly you know 57% yes then you also get a huge majority saying answering yes to the question do you want less government intervention in your life and then they say yes yeah you're like whoa okay so well this is interesting this is good news and bad news because so the good news is they want less government intervention in their lives so they're more aligned with us the bad news is is that they're using definitions in a freewheeling kind of way right you know and so like and this is this is this is what we have to figure out as conservatives and I'm slowly trying to figure this out it's like how how did these moderate liberals um you know these common default Democrats right like they don't super involved in politics they live in their life but they just kind of vote Democrat like you know it just makes him feel good so they do that and then they view their personal life is living a liberal lifestyle okay they have LGBT friends you know like it's it's not a big deal to them they understand why Republicans are against LGBT people even though I don't think we are at all especially our generation they were just not it's it's just not at all anyway but that's so but they define these terms differently than we do okay see we like I think of a progressive I think of like Woodrow Wilson progressivism and how that's and how that's transformed over time but it's a centralized economy down with the Constitution we hated the Constitution you know Woodrow Wilson was like was like an indicted journalist for speaking out against the government people forget about this stuff this is the heart of the of the progressive movement like it was a terrible president so that's what I think of right but then oh so but let me give you an example in Houston we do events at this place and I remember talking to ladies who worked there and we were just chatting knows who I am she knows my politics she doesn't hate me you know she was about our age I guess maybe even younger covered in tattoos and I was like oh cool tattoos she's like yeah well I'm very progressive so I like tattoos I was like what you know and it's so interesting like you connect progressivism to tattoos but I don't all right and so and so if you hear me bashing progressives you're gonna think I'm I'm yelling at you you're gonna think that I'm talking about you but I'm not right you know and so that's interesting like so here's the thing it's like if you're a young person and you like tattoos and and and and maybe you like smoking pot and maybe you have a lot of gay friends and you think that's fine and it is and you like to go backpacking through India and you'd like to do yoga with baby goats and all that we're like cool liberal stuff right like so yeah you're like I guess no maybe you're personally liberal but that doesn't necessarily mean you're politically left-leaning okay and that's the distinction we have to make so and because because they they think socialism can be like on social stuff I honestly really don't know how they define it sometimes it's the point is that everybody defines it differently right and we have to be cognizant of that because we don't want to alienate people when actually they agree with us on just on a lot more stuff than we realize that's my critique of the right when I say that the right doesn't embrace culture I've seen this over and over again when I first got into doing politics believe it or not rice first started making YouTube videos and I was taking satirical stabs and I was using humor when I was acting and it was my first video and I remember that one of the first people that wrote a hit piece about me it wasn't BuzzFeed it was a National Review it said this is a sort of theatrics that we should reject and we need to be serious need to be austere and you know this is obviously I'm not this one journalist wrote this right I'm not saying this is like the National reviews opinion but I just remember sitting there thinking really so it's being fun liberal it's being funny liberal and that's where people are getting these ideas from so we have to sort of work to reverse that it's okay we'd like people that are funny it's okay use humor deliver a point I thought what you like what you've done SNL was absolutely brilliant and it was it was good it was ripped I'm so brilliant but it was good for conservatives that shows we can be funny right and we don't take ourselves so seriously and there definitely needs to be more of a push for that but I want to hold you back to the question because I don't forget anything do you think when we are talking about older people that are talking about socialism that that bernie is a guy that's getting on stage and he's saying that stuff is he coming from a place of general of genuine goodness or is there something that's a little more nefarious going on yeah it's a little bit of both it's like I think he believes in his utopianism you know and he thinks that's ultimately good but I also think he's not stupid he's not stupid so I think he knows that there's a severe amount of pain that Americans would have to feel in order to get to this supposed utopianism now of course I don't think you ever get to that utopianism you must know that you would think that's there's no history of the utopianism right it's like that's and so this is the part where like we're not sure if he's really thought this out that well I mean you know it's hard to say without like really digging into him you know because now yeah I mean it's just because on one hand or like is he does he think he's talking about you know the Nordic countries and we can debunk that pretty quick because the things he's talking about the Nordic countries just don't do I mean they have a flatter tax system than we do people don't realize that they have a they have a you know less market regulations than we do they're considered by some to be a more free market economy than we are right they tax everybody at a higher rate then they redistribute that wealth they also have more homogeneous societies they just have different they have different issues to deal with and if anything they've moved away from their socialist policy so he must know that that's what I'm saying like it so it's an honest question and I'm not really given a good answer because I just I can't read the guy's mind I think he's thought through this a lot more and believes it a lot more than somebody like aoc he's just he's too he's too old not to know what socialism breeds right he somebody in his office right or in his multiple homes has researched socialism we know what it breeds but I think this is kind of the first time that he's been given so much power by saying these things and I think that we are human beings right and and that becomes the draw where it becomes even even with in the face of overwhelming evidence he says these things he brings it to America because he just loves that feeling of when he's in the room when people are cheering him on and those people tend to be younger and I do i I excused people that are really young and they're wearing these shirts for socialism because I know that it's very easy to sell socialism to people that have no real life experience they're free stuff exactly give me free stuff but when you get to someone that's a lot older like him I question his motives the question was you said it's a power I mean the motives are power and so the Marxism is inherently divisive like you're pitting socio-economic groups against each other that's that's the essence of Marxism right it's evolved since then and so the America it's like this kind of sort of socialist or as identitarian I think Dinesh D'Souza comes up with this term and I forget exactly what it is but it's like identitarian socialism or something so it's a comedy of Marxism and identity politics so you've moved those identity groups into into race and agender into all that and socio-economic and that's that's that's what they're doing but in the end it's just pitting groups against each other promising them power over each other that's that's the worst part of identity politics you're promising one group power over another operations yeah that's a good example even you know minimum wage like you're promising laborers power over their employers it's every you can almost you can almost put every policy into that category of like who's who's getting gaining power out of this you know like Alex de Tocqueville famous quote was the Republic ends when politicians realize they can bribe people with their own money that's basically what's happening right and I and I tell young people all the time I do not be bought off by false promises the easiest thing in the world for me as a politician is to is to just promise you stuff I'm gonna make you happier I'm gonna make your life better if you just elect if you just give me power I will make this happen for you this is this is a terrible promise to make all right because because the politician knows they can't do it and so what do you create I mean you create a bunch of people who are unhappy because they thought that there they were going to be happier because they elected their their candidate and then they weren't happier right their problems still persisted because the politician told them they would solve those problems in the end you have to solve your own problems that's just how it works I mean the government's exist to to make you make it make you able to solve your own problems like we have to create a stable structure where your rights are protected where your freedoms are protected but you have to thrive within that system I mean that's what America was built on you try to expand it too much beyond that like we run into really unstable territory and that's that's effectively the battle between the right and the left but worse than all that I mean you create a really unhappy divided people you could have resentful people the other thing that happens is you keep having to promise more stuff okay so this gets back to the conversation of how does a moderate liberal turn into a socialist well it always does eventually because a moderate liberal is always promising thinks I want to make you happier I just I really want in the end they're genuine right like they're well-intentioned I want to make your life better I'm just gonna do whatever stuff it takes they have more money than you I'll just I'll take some of that money out they don't need all that money he'll just give it to you I that's how the promise to start but then and and then that's how you get a progressive tax system and that's how you get a lot of the massive welfare state that we have but it's not enough because how are you gonna win the next election you got to promise more stuff that's how we get here right and that's that's what we're seeing right now is how they get from welfare to all-out reparations means the confiscation right I mean this it gets it's crazy and I talked about this obviously exclusively almost exclusively about black America because that is that is my focus you know being someone that came from nothing and sort of watching so many members of my family biked from that Apple of welfare and saying that their lives never got any better right and and I want to get people out of this trap of realizing that the the promising doesn't actually amount to anything in the end if you don't get up on your and stop believing in government and start believing in yourself and say you know I don't need the handouts I need opportunities I need hand ups right I need to know that there are jobs so I don't need to take welfare from you I need I need an economic system that actually works and it's such a struggle because and and particularly just kind of earring here into black America I just don't see what else can be promised now it's just like free money like forget that for anything else it's like reparations and I almost want to say let's go promise this is the natural progression like there's no choice - it is like it's a really dangerous stuff and I I said I would only on my worst enemies what I wish this state of mind where you are dependent on somebody else or you like you don't own your own destiny you know and I always wonder like why do you want me to remind you of how bad you have it is that what you want for me as a politician you want me to remind you of how bad things are is that will that make you happy I don't want to do that I don't think it's necessarily true like why would I do that and why would I wish that state of disempowerment on you you know personal we always talk about personal responsibility as conservatives and we should but we don't always delve into why that matters and here's why I mean it's because personal responsibility means you are in charge of your own destiny you're not personally responsible by definition you are waiting on somebody else to be responsible for you that is disempowerment that because you're waiting you know and you're and and if they if they're not responsible for you then you're gonna tell the politician that you want them to be responsible for you like why shouldn't they they have more stuff you know and so you know we get into this sort of coveting thy neighbor I mean this is you can always go back to the biblical standards to really understand like what is right and wrong and how we should live if we want to be happy but put that aside for a second it's just I think it's basic common sense like personal responsibility really matters and you're either empowered or you're disempowered and to be disempowered is to be I think depressed to to not have any control over your destiny and I just wouldn't wish that state of mind it relies upon a perpetual state of anger and misery to constantly be pointing the finger and looking at someone else to be mad at waiting for somebody to give you the orders of who you should be upset about because of your own situation and I and I know that because I've gone through those those pained existences for four years of my life I mean I did I I did I've gone through years where I was like it's it's external forces there's nothing internal that can help me it's because I started my life without money it's cuz my family didn't have any money my famine have any money because I'm a black American because I took a hundred thousand dollars out in student loans which is how I started my life so I've done that path of blaming external forces and let me tell you how much better if you say you know what actually I'm in the driver's seat of my life I kind of made some mistakes but I can fix this and if everyone could just get a sample of that a sample of how good it feels to actually be responsible for yourself and how quickly your life will change if you just change your mindset right I mean I this America would change tomorrow and if we didn't have these politicians that were that we're selling this like a drug you know it is a drug it really is blame somebody else it's not your fault you should have no shame no guilt everything is somebody else's fault America could be in a better circumstance and is today and not talking about which is something I want to get to the green New Deal oh yeah what are you doing with that let's talk about the green new deal because well first and foremost it is hilarious and I think that we have to take a moment to just appreciate because this is the best starting couch things so I'm gonna give this the best and they worked hard on the best things just so you know so please don't mock the farting cow it worked hard hey you know there's a saying we have in the military and it's like work smarter not harder give advice on the green New Deal hours and hours reading that tweet we worked hours and hours on that so many people should work a little a little bit more research yeah so it doesn't mean we don't need a response because the reality is is that liberals and conservatives alike they we actually all care about the environment and and most people believe in climate change and believe that mankind has something to do with that how much is scientifically debatable but but there there is some effect right and we all have an interest in reducing carbon emissions just having cleaner air cleaner oceans it's something we can get behind young people especially conservatives liberals alike they really want to hear that message okay but the but the question is how do we get there without destroying our economy so the green New Deal fundamentally destroys our economy and does a lot of other weird stuff too I mean it basically it's just a wish list of socialist utopia as was admitted by o'seas chief of staff but but fundamentally it's a it's a dogmatic approach to environmentalism which is solar and wind everything has to be solar and wind there can't be anything else including nuclear when you start banning nuclear like that's how you know they're not serious about climate change because I mean it's like what do you think like well if we can only find an energy source where it's like just a rock and if we sort of heat up that rock it just creates like basically energy for 25 years and doesn't emit any carbon emissions I wish we had that oh yeah we do hide it for like a long time but but you know but it makes environmentalists crazy for some reason are noble I think it's only reference point they have right which is strange because it's like we've used nuclear so much I mean jeez in the military we've put it on a submarine and it you know because you know well below sea level and goes to war and we're okay with having a nuclear actor on that so I mean obviously it can work and there's some really cool new technology innovations on miniaturizing it and just making it more plausible and feasible and cheaper for us to use so that's one part of it the point is is that our approach has to be a common-sense approach it has to be developing newer cleaner technology that helps our economy and also helps the world so this is the way I like to phrase it we want to focus on 100 percent of the problem you can only focus on a hundred percent of global emissions if you have technology that is exportable clean reliable and cheap if you want to just focus on 15% of the problem which is what the US emits as far as a global share of carbon emissions then yeah just oricon me destroy our economy and yeah you'll erase 15% of emissions and guess what you'll do nothing like you'll accomplish nothing like the the effects of climate change this is the other part of the conversation it's like they're they're baked into a large extent so we have to be talking about mitigation if sea levels are rising well the wonderful thing about that is that's not wonderful but we can predict it like it's not like the day after tomorrow as long as tsunamis are gonna wash like guys like we can we can deal with this let's not destroy our economy before and then also still have to deal with a bit like you know let's let's take a measured approach to this so you know it's thinking debate all day long how much humans have to do with climate change in the end it doesn't matter what does matter is the solutions we're proposing and what the effect of those solutions on the problem will actually be so that's something we can actually predict a little bit better okay and you buy their own data you know again you destroy the US economy and stop all emissions really minuscule effect China and India are by far the bigger polluters and they're continuing to be how do you stop that well for instance if you they're the do ii did some studies on this i think if you if you change it out China's coal burning plants with natural like US natural gas you'd reduce global emissions by like 40 percent oh that's interesting I don't know that natural gas is the reason our fracking oh my god they hate fracking right okay well how do you think how do you think the US is as decreased go boom our emissions about like 15 percent since the year 2000 natural gas a little bit of regulation here and there but but it's it's it's natural gas mostly because it's I think it emits maybe half a probably less than half of what just oil would admit if you're producing electricity so that's a big part of it and but you can even go beyond that like you can have carbon capture technology where you have a net zero emission so we actually of a power plant outside of Houston it's in it's in the port it's called a net power okay so they take in natural gas they they create electricity from it then they capture that carbon and then they power the plant with it so it is net zero emissions and it's a fossil fuel the thing is they just don't like fossil fuels right right that's automatic right let you say sonned wind like you're not interested yeah they love these like rare things you know what I mean really like you could sell that bottle of water that you're drinking if you just make it sound right the straws really you have them going but it's true and I think that they actually they lack any depth or understanding of the topics regarding fossil fuel they don't understand obviously the way that it affects the geopolitical game which is also as you said very very important to understanding our economy do you like do you like being a wallflower would you do not want to be that do you want to be run by russia and china i mean those are some basic questions to ask some of these environmentalists but what is the solution what is the answer for conservatives to the green you deal with as you said we can mock it all we want yeah but well it's investing in carbon capture technology like this III had a bill out we dropped a few weeks ago Senator Cornyn Texas senator put the same one through the Senate it's called the leading act it's just it repurposes some grant money in the Department of Energy to to give to pilot programs and investments in research and development and carbon capture technology for specifically natural gas so that's one first step there's a lot of other bills out there that look at nuclear right so it's an all above approach like our approach again our approach is one hundred percent of the problem their approach is 15 percent of the problem entrepreneurship to me is always the answer and I think I think we got we do we should have some money that's being given to the Elon Musk's of the world I mean that that's the way that it happens I mean he's thinking forward seeking of ways that we can change the game and if you if you if you've made it a challenge and you and you got a bunch of kids that are into that stuff kind of trying to figure out how to develop something that makes everybody happy would do a lot better than people just screaming at each other on opposite sides of the aisle in that's true the other thing we have to it's not just carbon emissions right like we as conservatives we let's talk about conservation that's always been a very conservative part of our platform right you know because it's just I mean we like nature like we can't pretend like we don't like nature and we want it all developed over that's just not true so let's talk about those things let's talk about how to have cleaner water let's talk about it how to have cleaner oceans let's talk about the overfishing problems that we have globally it's not really the United States doing that but Asian countries are let's focus on some tangible things that that we all agree on that we can behind to show people on the left that were not these people that are just like you know see a tree and want to burn it down which i think is kind of narrative that's out that we just we hate the environment it's bizarre then we just kind of let it happen don't spend any time in nature as a rule these sort of like these cities right you know you get these people from the Bronx telling us that they care more about the maybe that's why they're freaking out about it because because they don't see the beauty of America it's like you know they don't they'll go on these hunting trips you know where you're out in the wilderness for days at a time you should never see another human be nice it's like they don't realize it exists and I don't know maybe that's part of it in the end it's it's this strange obsession with solar and when they really like they really like the idea they love the idea of mining like these these rare earth minerals and you know which is the whole problem in ourselves and then clearing lots of land to put these solar panels on I mean so there's like there's real environmental problems with doing what they want to do and there's so it's also just impossible to create an energy grid with current technology based on what they want so that's the other so what's your goal goal yeah where's Dan crunch on ten years oh well we can't you're trying to bring us back to that first question are kind of the same I mean it's like to get into politics you need one of three things okay one is you need to be independently wealthy too you have to know people who are wealthy or three just have a really crazy window of opportunity so that was me I have the third thing window of opportunity to move forward it's still about windows of opportunity you know I don't think it's healthy mentally speaking to map out a political career it's it's it's probably detrimental to your health and it's not realistic and so you know I think somebody in my position they you know they'll generally look to to to pursue leadership in the house we move on to a Senate run maybe some people would run for governor I don't know you know it's it's it's any number of things but it really depends on where the winds are at that moment and we're I mean that's that's kind of stuff it's my honest answer I'm not messing with are you optimistic or pessimistic about the direction that America is treading into right now you can tell me you know no one's watching yeah I think a lot of people are watching [Laughter] I live with gosh it's a little bit of both you know it's a little bit of both uh policy-wise under this administration I'm optimistic but if it has a culture I'm very pessimistic right it's like it's like while you're writing your book that's why I'm writing my book is it's so important that we kind of get back on track with some really basic values that are good you know personal responsibility being among them politeness being among them like not being emotionally outraged over every single thing being among the mental toughness being among those like those are the cultural issues that I'm so worried about that I see is slipping away from us and when I see people just hating America just for the sake of argument basically I just like this sense of and gratitude for what we have it's like you know if there's if you want to define conservatism in many ways it's like gratitude gratitude for how we got here and like the principles that got us here the policies that got us here the form of governance that got us here there's some gratitude for that you know because because when we see it when we see that fence in the middle of the forest we don't just tear it down like we ask a question why is that fence there like why do we do things the way we do why is the Electoral College the way it is you know the left is like oh that's bad it's old it's bad you know I've got a better idea you didn't even look at the old ideas yet you didn't realize that you're not the first one to think of these things you know like let's have some humility and let's have some gratitude and I think that's that's those are good attributes of conservatism that we need to remember and sometimes I think we forget them a little bit too much but that's fundamentally what it means well look I'll say this I think America has a lot to learn from you I think I have a lot to learn from you maybe I won't yell so much on Twitter yes I will do brats let's get I'm gonna give you a copy doing this sophisticated what you're making a point yeah when we especially you and you probably mentor a lot of young activists you know how we got a help with them up we got up our level of sophistication we always have to be more sophisticated than the left right they get away with it we don't and and you know we've got to make the right arguments we have to think deeply about what those counter arguments are and like what we're saying and how we're acting like don't you know it's not just do the viral video for the sake of the viral video let's not do what the left does like let's still be cool and fun and interesting and funny you know to your point earlier about like about how you kind of got popular that that's all good and and I disagree with and I and I do see that from sort of the old guard of conservatives right like no no we should be serious and and and and well-spoken yes we should but we can combine these things we could combine the cool fun hip stuff with some serious sophistication and we do have a problem with some active it's only doing the the cool hip stuff that's just like fun and viral like I you know we should be careful about that we just help them with sophistication we're gonna be like unstoppable I totally agree well we wrap up every episode by allowing you to leave a video message for the world because every single person in the world watches the Candice Owen show every single person every single person as that is a truth I do yes is not exaggerating you're gonna look into that camera on you're gonna have a two-minute message two minutes you get you can go a little shorter but if you get close to two minutes the more Enterprise get set world I give you Dan Crenshaw all right conservatism I think means gratitude and humility and I would say this you're a young person you're watching the can is so ins show do not be bought off by the false promises of big government that's how our generation survives right that's how our generation makes our mark that's how we that's how we bring back those those foundational truths of freedom and limited government that made our country so great you know this idea that you are in control of your own destiny and that you can pursue your happiness as long as government gets out of your way I mean when you have an autobiography one day I'm totally gonna get a signed coppy but for now I have my cartoon that's a wrap thank you guys for watching the latest episode of the Candice Owens show I hope you guys enjoyed the conversation as much as I did as many of you guys already know Prager U is a 501c3 nonprofit organization which means we need your help to keep all of our content free to the public please consider making a tax-deductible donation today I would really appreciate your support