The Wrighter’s Block Episode 77 – Bill Redpath Gets Wrighter’s Block

DISCLOSURE

FULL TRANSCRIPT TEXT

[Music]
0:49
so [Music]
1:29
[Music]
1:53
[Music]
2:02
[Music] don’t bother swimming at it to save me i
2:08
will only drag you down i’ll try to use your body as a life raft cause if
2:13
there’s room enough for one there must be [Music]
2:23
turns blue [Music]
2:49
news [Music]
3:02
[Applause] [Music]
3:18
[Music]
3:30
myself it’s a standard the lengths i’ll go
3:36
to convince the whole damn world i don’t need anybody’s head
3:50
yes everybody it is me matt wright coming to you actually live this week on
3:56
muddy waters media welcome to the writer’s block thank you all so much
4:01
for spending a thursday evening with me because as we all know there are a ton
4:07
of things that you could be doing on a thursday evening and i am truly honored that you would choose to spin them here
4:14
with me uh again thank you all so much uh first and foremost allow me to thank
4:19
the wonderful the fantastic the brilliant justin for the cava i am drinking on
4:26
today’s episode uh thank you very much justin to you and to all of the people watching i say bulavanaka
4:36
thank you so much to um to the narcissist cookbook for allowing me to use his music at the beginning and
4:41
the end of every single episode of the writer’s block uh if you want to check him out you can find him on all of your
4:48
favorite uh music streaming apps and uh yeah check him out he’s got a lot of good stuff i’m a huge fan and he’s a
4:55
super nice guy uh so be sure to look up the narcissist cookbook now before i get to my guest and i’ve
5:02
tried to have a show with this guest like four times in a row um at four weeks in a row and because i was having
5:10
so many issues we never were able to make it work but now finally everything is working or at
5:17
least it was right before the show and if we get this one off without a hitch it’ll be the first time in so long
5:23
that muddied waters media puts out a show without an audio issue that i will be so ecstatic uh but i’m excited to
5:29
have them on but before we get there let’s pay some bills first and foremost
5:37
mud water oops i forgot to resize these things uh mud water i don’t even know what i’m resizing
5:42
right now and it’s not that uh mud water is the official coffee alternative of muddied waters
5:50
media uh if you wake up in the morning and you say hey you know what i hate myself because i drink too much coffee
5:56
uh you and i probably aren’t that close to friends because i drink way too much coffee but if you’re one of those people
6:03
and you say you know what i want i want something that has less caffeine and tastes worse well i’ve got something
6:10
for you i’ve got mud water it’s a coffee alternative made with masala chai cacao mushrooms
6:15
turmeric sea salt cinnamon and that is it and that tastes exactly how you think
6:20
that combination of one two three four six of those six ingredients is gonna taste
6:28
uh it tastes like a wet foot so add honey just add honey to it trust
6:35
me it is worth it to add the honey spring the extra bucks get local honey and you can help fight off allergies uh
6:42
mud water if you want to make the swish today head on over to muddy waters of freedom.com
6:47
mud and you too can be one of the many people jumping off the coffee bandwagon
6:54
the gravy king the libertarian party waffle house caucus the fastest growing waffle
7:01
related caucus in the entire universe and uh the second largest caucus in the
7:07
libertarian party except we aren’t really a caucus because we don’t do anything we do
7:13
we share memes it started out as a as a group to share donkey pictures and
7:20
waffle pictures and somehow evolved into the waffle house caucus so
7:27
if you want to become a member of the waffle house caucus just head on over to facebook search waffle house libertarian party waffle house caucus and uh sign up
7:33
and that that’s all you have to do if you want to become a voting member which makes absolutely no sense because we don’t
7:39
vote head on over to the store where you can buy a libertarian party
7:45
waffle house caucus shirt and or button joe soloski joe soloski is running for
7:51
governor of pennsylvania uh and he is a true liberty minded individual who is
7:57
running for governor uh out of all of the candidates that i know of running for governor in pennsylvania
8:04
he is the one that i would pick so if you live in the pennsylvania region of these united states and you want to make
8:11
pennsylvania mightier than the sword of tyranny uh vote for joe soloski he is
8:16
the key to pennsylvania’s success now no matter where you are on the
8:22
internet whether you are on youtube whether you are on facebook twitter float
8:29
wherever else this is streaming i don’t even know all the streaming sites anymore uh all you need to do
8:35
that i am asking you to do how you can help us out the most is hit the like button the thumbs up button the heart
8:41
butt react whatever it is on whatever social media site you are looking at right now hit that button and then
8:48
hit the share just share this out let everybody in the world know about muddied waters media let everybody in
8:54
the world know about my guest let everybody know that there are alternatives out there for them they are
9:01
not going to be stuck with uh just the rs and the d’s for the rest of their life
9:07
uh so and after you do that after you do that head on over to anchor dot fm slash
9:15
muddied waters and hit the subscribe button and for the low low price of two
9:21
caffeinated beverages from an overpriced coffee shop a month you too
9:27
could become one of the muddied militia one of them i’m not saying that one uh one of the
9:34
muddy militia muddied musketeers muddied whatever we’re calling them these days
9:39
uh and be and get uh all sorts of cool stuff you get a
9:45
discounts at the store you get discounts at stitches and glitches and defy the power you get discounts um
9:51
on so many other things you get access to short films that i have written uh you get access to other things that i
9:57
have worked on you get access to exclusive spiked speeches uh some like you just get so much stuff that i can’t
10:03
even go into all of it right now so head on over to anchor dot fm slash muddied waters subscribe and become a member
10:11
today so now allow me to finally bring on and thank
10:19
i’m forever grateful that he has been so patient while i’ve been trying to make all of this work um but allow me to
10:28
finally bring on the two-term chair of the libertarian uh
10:33
national committee mr bill redpath matt oh look it’s good to be with you
10:40
finally finally finally i totally forgot to change your name on here though and you are not
10:45
andrew heaton so we’re just gonna do that really quick i am in some countries i’ll tell you that yeah
10:53
so before we get into everything you and i actually have a weird connection
10:58
um you first ran for the house of representatives in northern virginia uh
11:06
against a man named frank wolf that’s right when i was
11:12
a young bright-eyed chipper young buck uh who had hope for this world uh
11:20
i gave a speech uh and frank wolfe was the undercard speaker i was i
11:26
was the i was the uh headline speaker of this event and
11:32
when i walked up there i’m 17 years old and i’m probably about the same height but i’m skinnier and like i’m skinnier
11:38
and i look probably 14 and i went up there and i gave the speech making all of these adults just
11:44
cackle with laughter but i opened the speech by saying i’d like to thank my
11:50
undercard speaker congressman wolf don’t worry sir one day you’ll reach my ranks
11:57
and he died laughing so after the speech was over and we’d done everything he came up to me and he
12:03
said you know and i don’t know how old he was at the time because in my mind
12:09
frank wolfe from the time that i knew who frank wolfe was up until the time
12:15
that uh he passed away i believe right no no i uh i’m pretty sure i’m pretty
12:20
sure he’s still alive yeah well i was pretty certain he was about 80 when i met him so
12:26
[Laughter] but i just assumed he was and he came up to me and he said
12:32
you know i don’t ever want to lose my seat but if i do i want it to be to you and i said
12:38
thank you sir i appreciate that i hope i never have to take your seat from you and uh
12:45
then um that was it and then i called him one time when i got arrested and i
12:50
said hey can you get me out of this he never said that to me having me
12:56
taking his uh place in the u.s house of representatives that that is unique to you
13:01
that it’s something that yeah i don’t think he said that to many people yeah i mean he was in there for 34 34
13:08
years i think i think he was elected in 1980 and then he did not run for re-election in 2014.
13:15
okay yeah i so this was like in 97 96 97
13:22
96 yeah somewhere around there and uh he and i that was when i was still
13:28
very young and very uh stuck in my
13:34
uh my gop ways that had been inundated on me since i was a young child so i was
13:40
very much a conservative republican and he was like yeah you should definitely take my seat and i was like thanks i
13:46
appreciate that so
13:51
um let’s let’s actually start there uh what year did what year did you run for
13:57
uh congress against frank but that wasn’t my first year first time running for office that was
14:04
actually in 93 but when i ran for uh us house of representatives for the first time which was against frank
14:10
wolfo’s 2010. okay so first time he ran was 1993 was that
14:15
still in virginia or was that before virginia that was in virginia yeah i lived in virginia from 85 to 2019 but that was
14:23
for virginia house of delegates okay and then uh after that in 98 i ran in a
14:28
special election for virginia senate i was a libertarian candidate for governor in 2001 in virginia which was quite an
14:36
experience uh then u.s senate in 2008 and i can really pick the years to run
14:43
for to run for office uh but uh uh and then u.s house in 2010 and 2014. then i
14:49
moved to illinois in 2019 i was a candidate for u.s house of representatives in illinois in 2020 and
14:54
now i am the u.s senate nominee for the libertarian party in illinois in 2022.
15:01
and and that is really the real reason we are bringing you on today is because we
15:06
want to talk about that but you have one of the most storied careers
15:12
for for somebody in the libertarian party which is some of this stuff is absolutely amazing
15:18
you’ve been the two-term chair of the libertarian of libertarian national you’ve been a three-time treasurer for
15:25
the lnc you’ve been on the lnc for 21 plus years does that have you held an office or
15:32
have you just been a member well i was an officer when i was chair
15:37
or treasurer i was i don’t think i’ve ever been a regional rep all the other times
15:43
i think i was elected as an at-large representative uh to the national committee it was in two segments
15:50
uh four years from labor day 89 to labor day 93 and then i had about a 17-year
15:56
run from 2003 to 2020.
16:01
yeah and that is absolutely unbelievable um and you’ve been an eight-time candidate for
16:06
public office which we’re going to go over a little bit we’re going to go over that a little bit in a little bit um
16:13
but one of the things that you are massively well known for uh and one of the things that every single person
16:20
um absolutely sings your praises about and i have to give you all of the credit
16:26
in the world for it uh is how great you are with lp ballot access
16:34
well thanks it’s um it’s a passion of mine and uh i
16:39
uh i i just it’s so important i mean to be a political party you’ve got to get on the
16:45
ballot or at least to be a visible political party and it’s just something that i have pers i’m personally good at
16:52
if i may say myself i’m i’m a good petitioner uh and um i i but it’s it’s
16:57
so important to to get on the ballot and i think you know the libertarian party
17:03
we’re not the r’s and d’s you know i can’t really say we’re a major party in the in the united states but clearly
17:09
we’re we’re the number one minor party in the united states and and that means something i mean it it doesn’t lead to a
17:16
lot of high level elected offices but if you look at the vote totals i mean
17:21
you look at joe jorgensen and spike cohen and their vote totals in uh in 2020 and i think they got
17:29
81 more than all of the other other candidates combined that is you take the
17:35
green party and the constitution party and this party and that party the working families party you add all of
17:41
their vote totals for president up and uh jorgensen and cohen got uh 81 more
17:47
than all of their votes combined and then you look at u.s senate uh u.s u.s
17:53
house and then the offices where we are elected at the local level you add it all up and the it’s really the longevity
17:59
you know they talk about minor parties it’s been said that minor parties are are like bees i think they sting and die
18:06
but that’s not the case with the libertarian party and the reason is is that we are an ideological political
18:12
party you know where we don’t latch on to uh a ross perot who’s here for an
18:17
election or two and then and then retires from politics and the reform party quickly fades away uh we’re we’re
18:24
not we’re not you know we’re certainly not tied to donald trump that’s for sure
18:30
and it it’s it’s it’s good that’s the reason that the libertarian party lasts as long
18:36
uh has lasted as long as it has over 50 years and it’s going to last a
18:42
long time into the future um and and it’s it’s really because of the the fact that we are wedded to ideas
18:49
and not personalities so let me ask you a question this is something that people have asked me multiple times in the past and uh i
18:56
don’t honestly have a good answer for him so i’d like to get your thought on it um you’ve been with the party when
19:02
did you join the libertarian party april 30 1984
19:08
according to lphq okay uh so longer than me um
19:14
but uh so in your time in your time with the libertarian party you’ve seen a
19:20
number of libertarian candidates um obviously just going backwards you had joe
19:26
jorgensen spike cohen you had um johnson weld yeah johnson gray you had
19:33
uh bill barr i don’t remember bill parr’s vp
19:40
yes and wayne allen root um and then um oh i am blanking on that guy’s name that
19:46
ran in 2096. uh 2004 michael badnarick
19:53
okay who michael bad narc was the presidential nominee in 2004. in 2000
19:59
that’s right yeah i’d skip that one um and then 2000 was um harry brown harry
20:05
brown and in 1996 right so we have seen where you’ve had republican
20:13
governors come over and run uh republican governors or republican uh senators come over and run as
20:19
libertarians and then we’ve seen homegrown libertarians run
20:24
which one do you think is better well i i do think that there is
20:31
something to be said for uh disaffected republican politicians who
20:37
are interested in the libertarian party i think it’s a good thing for the libertarian party that that
20:42
republicans who are dissatisfied with the republican party and there are no doubt a lot of them uh and i think there
20:50
are going to be more going forward but i think it is a positive thing for the
20:55
libertarian party that they are interested in us if if we didn’t have ballot access if we didn’t have
21:02
uh the the the the depth and the breadth of the um
21:08
uh the the the political will that we show and and uh and the motivation that
21:14
we show constantly uh they they wouldn’t be interested in us so i think that’s a
21:19
good thing i’m not i’m certainly uh uh oh certainly i’m perfectly okay with people who’ve
21:25
been in the libertarian party a long time but the problem is we because of
21:30
the our election system and ballot access laws it’s tough to develop a bench so to speak to a seed to the
21:38
presidential nomination it just you know we only have had one libertarian
21:44
congressman uh libertarian party congressman in our entire history that was justin amash he was not elected as a
21:49
libertarian he became a libertarian during his last term so the fact that
21:54
that it that our election system and ballot access laws make it so difficult
22:00
to elect people to state legislatures and the u.s congress um it it makes it
22:06
tougher to develop people who will be seen by the public you know we we can’t just look upon
22:12
we can’t just look inwardly in evaluating candidates i think we have to make a judgment as to how the
22:18
general public including non-libertarians and small-libertarians are going to view our candidates and
22:26
that has to be considered i think in our nomination processes and yeah and i would agree back when um
22:32
gary johnson ran in 12 and then again in 16 that was one of the things that a lot of people were
22:38
bringing up was you know why why are we going with another republican uh why can’t we put in a libertarian because uh
22:47
bob barr bob barr left a sour taste in a lot of libertarians mounts
22:52
um and i voted for bob barr he was the first libertarian that i voted for um
22:58
and because i looked at i looked at obama and i was like i don’t i don’t want this guy
23:05
and then i grew up in a very conservative household that my entire life
23:10
i have been told john mccain was terrible and he was they’re like
23:16
he’s just a democrat pretending like that he was the first person i heard referred to as a rhino
23:22
um and they’re like he’s terrible he needs to be out of office and then he wins the uh nomination in 2008 and everybody was
23:30
like well we got to vote for john mccain he’s going to be the future he’s what we need and i was like this is the guy that
23:38
eight years ago you were saying he’s terrible he needs to leave the party he may as well just be a democrat and now
23:43
you’re saying we need to vote for him but you said that you would never vote for him so i’m gonna look at this other
23:50
guy and i started looking in the bar and i said i like some of these ideas and i hate these other two so i’m gonna vote
23:55
this way um yeah but well i know i think bob i’m i’m
24:00
sorry for google no pretty go ahead yeah but whatever i think i think people sometimes don’t recognize the
24:08
the sacrifices that that people potentially do make do make and
24:13
potentially make and do make to come over to the libertarian party from a
24:18
major party i mean there’s going to be uh uh ostracism involved in in in with a
24:24
lot of those people that they’re going to experience uh you know i think bob barr was a changed
24:30
man from who he was previously i mean i i i came to like like bob barr i as a
24:36
candidate and personally in in 2008 and i i think he i i at one time i didn’t
24:42
care much at all for the bob barr that the person he was you know maybe eight to ten years earlier but i do think he
24:49
he he was a changed individual and as a part of that he decided to seek the libertarian party nomination so i uh i
24:57
i think that that um it’s a sacrifice to to be a candidate at any level for the
25:02
libertarian party but particularly people who who came up in the tradition and in the in the
25:08
two-party tradition of this nation which i don’t care for at all that’s why i’m involved in the llp i’m really involved
25:15
in the lp not just because i’m a libertarian but i’m also
25:20
totally disgusted with the two-party system it needs to change people deserve
25:26
more effective choices at the ballot box uh and i think there’s there’s a book published a couple of years ago by lee
25:33
drutman called the the two-party doom loop and i think that that is absolutely
25:38
the case in this nation it it’s i’m involved in the lp uh to uh to to to bring about
25:45
uh political change in this nation that really goes beyond just libertarianism
25:51
and uh that is one of the goals that uh i know many of the people watching and many of the people who are going to be listening
25:58
to the song anchor dot fm or their favorite podcasting app later uh are they feel the same way uh we didn’t get
26:05
in most of us did not get into the libertarian party thinking it was going to be an easy ride we got into the
26:11
libertarian party because we saw the two-party system we see the corruption we see everything that’s wrong with it
26:17
and we sit there and we go we need to change this and we need to change this and there’s this
26:24
party that just wants us to be free that just wants us to be able to live our lives without having to deal with the
26:32
government oversight on every little thing that we do uh that’s not gonna take 30 of our income that’s not going
26:38
to put all these burdensome regulations on us so that way when we try to
26:44
start a business or you know whatever we’re going to be held back uh you know
26:49
i don’t need to have a license to braid hair you know and
26:55
they see that and then they go okay we know this is going to be a difficult road this is not going to be easy
27:01
however i believe in this and this is what i’m going to do i still think there are a
27:06
handful of people that join up in the libertarian party because they think
27:11
i can be a big fish in this small pond um but
27:16
i think those people mainly will filter themselves out and swim back to the republicans or the democrats
27:23
yeah i um i i’m lp through and through i mean it’s it’s
27:29
i like i said i i think that some of those people maybe don’t object they’re
27:34
attracted to us um for certain reasons but at the end of the day they’re comfortable enough and
27:41
accepting enough of the two-party system that they’re willing to go back with me if i were to say okay i’m done with the
27:48
libertarian party i’m going with the republican party uh i i one of the reasons i i don’t do
27:54
that aside from all of the uh incredible flaws of the republican party
28:00
that are that are obvious uh it it would it would be me implying or saying
28:06
essentially that the two-party system is okay when i don’t think it is right so i’m i’m not going to surrender and just
28:12
throw my lot in with the lesser of two evils i gave up on that whole concept about 40 years ago right and
28:19
that was one of the things when i first switched over to the libertarian party uh because i i was originally a
28:25
non-affiliate i was a non-affiliated party and
28:34
i mean in terms of party registration yeah you were an independent independent or unaffiliated something like that yeah
28:41
in florida they have a weird thing and in tennessee i was unaffiliated in florida it was
28:46
uh no party affiliate mpa no party affiliation i had to think about what
28:51
because i the nap kept falling in my head and i was mixing those up
28:57
don’t have dyslexia with that situation going on right uh but yeah so i was no party affiliate
29:03
and when i switched over to be a libertarian i was saying you know we need to make this third party stronger because we
29:09
want more people to join and uh they a lot of people are saying you can you
29:14
can’t do that you’re not going to be able to bring them up you have to change a party from the inside and my response
29:20
always was i’ve seen people attempt to do it they just become part of the party and part of the problem
29:27
they don’t ever make any real change in the party um and outside of like your outliers like
29:34
your ron paul he made some change and rand is kind of trying thomas massey is
29:40
doing okay but outside of those people you don’t really see it so much so that justin mash left
29:46
uh just a match left to become a member of the libertarian party so i think that
29:53
focusing on growing the libertarian party is the quickest way to reach
30:00
uh to get liberty in in america in our lifetimes
30:05
well i i agree with that and i would also say that to make the libertarian party more effective i think we need to
30:13
support uh electoral reform in this nation that is uh you know uh things like uh rank
30:19
choice voting uh and uh i know some people i know some people like approval
30:25
voting and i think approval voting is certainly better than the plurality voting we have i don’t think it’s going
30:31
to be widely adopted it it’s generally a in in our society but rank
30:36
choice voting is making great strides but we really need to go beyond that
30:41
into some form of proportional representation for legislatures uh that would make uh libertarian party
30:48
candidates uh far more electable than what they have historically been ranked
30:53
choice voting is a is certainly a step in the right direction toward that i don’t think that
31:00
that we will see a lot of electoral victories just through ranked choice voting but if we had some if we had
31:05
multi-member districts for state legislatures and for the u.s house of representatives uh and and uh with with
31:12
like i said multi-member districts uh and and using rank choice voting for that we would see libertarian candidates
31:19
on a widespread basis i think being elected to the u.s house and to state legislatures
31:25
yeah i would i would have to agree uh what
31:30
brian brian lambrecht who you know and i know really well um he just put something in the comments what did you
31:37
run for in 2020 u.s house of representatives in the
31:42
sixth congressional district here in illinois which uh yeah in 2020 that’s
31:47
that’s what it was really i mean it was one of the few good things that happened
31:52
due to covid because that came about illinois has horrible ballot access laws and you can read
31:59
about how horrible they are at my uh website uh redpathforusssenate.com
32:06
and uh but in any event usually in my congressional district it would take 16
32:13
000 signatures well in 2020 it would have taken 16 000 signatures
32:18
to get on the ballot for u.s house of representatives and that’s absolutely ridiculous in virginia it’s 1 000 valid
32:25
signatures to get on the ballot for u.s house of representatives uh but they’re at the libertarian party and the green
32:31
party due to the shelter in place order uh issued here in illinois back in 2020
32:37
as a overreaction to covid right basically made it illegal to go out and
32:44
petition it was my understanding and uh so uh the libertarian party and green
32:49
party sued the state of illinois uh and um uh several of our candidates were put
32:55
on the ballot automatically uh any any candidate any any office for which we
33:01
were on or the green party were on in 2018 or 2016 we were put automatically on the ballot with no signatures in 2020
33:08
everybody else which included me their signature uh requirement got cut to 10
33:13
of normal so 16 000 became 1600 that was doable and i thought with uh if i’m ever
33:20
going to get on the ballot for u.s house of representatives in illinois i better do it now yeah this is this is the year
33:27
this is the it’s now or never right for us house of representatives barring uh some sort of
33:32
change to the ballot access laws in this state and so i and brian lambrecht and a mutual
33:39
friend of ours preston nelson who ran in an adjacent congressional district uh worked hard and a few and other people
33:46
as well but the bulk of it was the three of us got the signatures i needed to to get on the ballot but then there’s this
33:52
horrific challenge process in illinois i turned in 3 100 signatures or 1600 valid
33:59
and i had more than enough but i uh i think there were republican operatives who uh
34:07
tried to use this challenge process to to kick me off the ballot and i persevered it was it was it was kind of
34:13
ridiculous frankly the whole effort they went through but and and they they they took it to court they i can’t tell you
34:19
what all they did but um eventually i persevered and made the ballot
34:24
so what what brought my attention to uh your race in 2020 was that the bass
34:30
player for nirvana krista
34:39
i have only read that on the back of my cd covers i had no idea how to say it
34:45
nova select uh he and he he endorsed you in 2020.
34:51
yes yes i served on the board of fair vote uh which is an electoral reform organization i talk about the
34:58
libertarian party and electoral reform that i think is necessary to make us more viable in the electoral process in
35:05
the united states but i met chris um uh back i can’t remember what he was chair for
35:13
was it nine years or 11 years something like that so i met him about uh
35:18
no wait a minute it’s even i’m thinking here it was it was probably more like 15 years ago uh but um
35:26
at first i have to say at first i i didn’t really uh recognize his importance uh in the
35:33
history of music uh but uh and and uh but i came to know him but uh he you
35:40
know he he is a he’s a tremendous fellow you would never know really i mean the way he comports himself um he’s very
35:47
friendly and uh uh humble and a great guy to know and um
35:53
and but i served on the board a fair vote with him for about a decade and a half i think
35:59
and uh he’s no longer in the board i’m no longer on the board but we still are in touch and uh he donated to my
36:05
campaign in uh in 2020 and endorsed me and um i really appreciate it no that’s that
36:12
that’s amazing um i i grew up loving nirvana and uh now
36:17
that when i saw that come across the feed i said wait what uh
36:24
that would be like my dad seeing that uh paul mccartney endorsed somebody he’d be like wait what
36:31
yeah well you know it’s interesting paul mccartney um worked with eric um played with nirvana
36:37
a few years ago you know they won a grammy uh cut me some slack was the best record of the year for the grammys but
36:43
that goes back about uh uh that was about six or seven years ago
36:49
maybe something like that yeah yeah but we actually had to postpone a fair
36:54
vote board meeting uh because uh chris couldn’t make it because he had to be at the grammys in
36:59
la that week but i guess i guess it’s a good reason to postpone
37:04
14 your chair is going to win a grammy with paul mccartney that’s not a bad reason
37:09
postpone a board meeting i guess right so let’s talk about let’s talk about your senate race a little bit you are
37:15
currently running for senate in the state of illinois um famous for wanting
37:20
freedoms actually from what i understand about illinois is that outside of chicago
37:26
it’s not as authoritarian as everybody makes it out to be
37:32
i could be wrong i i i suppose that’s so i mean certainly uh
37:38
uh there’s you know it’s a lot of states have these schisms including the one i moved from virginia
37:44
right um that’s why i left george allen pardon that’s why i left okay i mean
37:50
it’s it’s like in virginia fairfax county has about 1 8 of the population of the entire state right
37:59
and there are people who in fact george allen when he was a u.s senator i think
38:04
got into trouble frankly uh because you know uh he said this isn’t one he got in
38:09
trouble over but it sort of started where he said well welcome to the real virginia downstate
38:14
downstate somewhere yeah and so i think he
38:21
i’m not sure it was in richmond but it was i think it was southwestern virginia more rural virginia okay and and so
38:28
uh but but every state not every state but a lot of states have this you know urban area uh versus rural area uh
38:36
schism and uh but it is i think particularly intense in illinois uh
38:42
where there are various moves afoot to basically break illinois up into
38:49
at least two states i i don’t really think that
38:54
at least in the foreseeable future that movement has political legs but uh illinois is uh
39:01
i i don’t know about the authoritarianism i mean the the the taxes are the taxes are high basically
39:08
all over the state right uh and uh and i think higher certainly higher certainly
39:13
in chicago than than any place else but chicago or i mean illinois is um
39:19
it’s hurting economically i mean the population is falling uh that uh i think
39:25
87 out of 102 counties suffered a population loss from 2010 to 2020 then i
39:31
just read i think where 81 of the 102 counties lost population from 2020 to
39:37
2021 and there is a uh exodus from this state that is uh
39:44
frankly if anything occurring worse outside the chicago area than it is in
39:49
the chicago area and uh and and it doesn’t seem to have any end in sight
39:57
and so what was the uh what was the genesis for you deciding to
40:03
run for senate this year in illinois was it the taxes was it the lockdowns was it
40:08
was it none of the above was it just sort of the fact that you’ve
40:14
that you’ve kind of always had the passion for liberty and you want to get the message out there or was there an
40:19
impetus this time i at first was going to run for governor
40:24
but we had a candidate for governor who only wanted to run for governor and that’s scott schluter and he and john
40:30
phillips who’s currently on the lnc form a ticket and it is a ticket unlike in virginia where and some other states
40:36
were governor and lieutenant governor is not a ticket it is a ticket here and so uh and we frankly we had a shortage of
40:43
candidates this year and i wanted we ultimately put together a full slate of uh seven candidates including uh uh
40:52
us senate and the governor ticket so that’s three we have secretary of state uh attorney general uh treasurer and
40:59
comptroller so basically we needed candidates i was able and willing to do it and so that’s that’s why i did it i
41:05
mean i thought i i want i want the libertarian party to show up in as many elections as possible up and down the
41:13
ticket both for offices that we uh don’t stand a great chance of winning and
41:18
offices that we do stand a great chance of winning i think it’s important to show up with libertarian candidates
41:24
wherever possible yeah absolutely i think the running candidates and
41:30
for the libertarian party running candidates in every race available is exceptionally important um
41:37
i unders i understand a lot of people a lot of people especially those joining
41:43
the party kind of get that they get that rush right around election season and it’s like we have a chance to
41:48
win uh the presidency and i’m like no you don’t you really don’t um that’s just not gonna happen you’re not gonna
41:55
win a state yet but maybe one day soon um but they also they’ll get it for governor they’ll get it for attorney
42:01
general they’ll get it for lieutenant governor whatever um but the importance of running the
42:08
president the governor all of those is because you’re trying to get
42:13
the city councils the mayors the uh county commissioners those people elected as
42:19
well and we’re seeing that growth which is great across the nation more and more
42:24
libertarians are being elected nationwide and it is amazing to see that growth
42:30
from the party at the local level because that’s where it has to start because you have to prove you can do it
42:36
locally and then people will start getting elected to your state senate or your state houses or whatever
42:42
however you have it designed in your state um all the way up to to the senate
42:48
and to the house and i just got to jump out here on a limb here and say that i really hope that uh you
42:55
are the first libertarian elected to the senate uh big big fan of that idea
43:01
i would be able and willing to serve going back to washington d.c
43:07
you know lived in the dc metro area for 34 years but believe me i there is absolutely no doubt i would absolutely
43:14
be willing to serve in the u.s senate for at least six years no question about it and you would know your way around the metro it hasn’t changed all that
43:21
much that’s right yeah exactly if it’s still running by the time you get back there but you know i mean
43:26
exactly but it it’s well there are two reasons i mean first of all uh it there’s winning the election but a big
43:33
win for us would be just getting five percent for governor or one of the other statewide offices that would lead us
43:39
that would give us ballot access in future elections with having to do greatly reduced petitioning
43:46
yeah so that would be again uh but even even though a lot of these offices frankly aren’t winnable for libertarian
43:52
party candidates our record proves that i’d certainly like them to be but it’s important that we speak out on the great
43:58
issues of the day i mean i’m all for running for lower level offices and and trying to win those offices but the
44:05
farther you go down in government the more managerial government becomes by necessity i mean it you know who’s going
44:12
to pick up the roadkill and and a lot of other things that are are important
44:17
issues to people’s everyday quality of life but at the same time you don’t have
44:22
the opportunity to speak out on the great issues of the day uh which uh i
44:27
think libertarians should do that’s that’s really uh a big part of the reason for the
44:34
existence of the libertarian party is to speak out speak truth to power so to speak uh because really i mean the other
44:42
political minor political parties aren’t in great shape relative to us and there are certain things that if if they’re
44:48
gonna happen in in like i said speaking truth to power to the republicans and the democrats only the libertarian party
44:54
is going to do it and so um that’s that that’s important as well as well as winning elections at
45:00
lower level and i think i think a lot of times people look at candidates at the higher level races and they say i like
45:07
that candidate i’m you know they’re afraid and the whole wasted vote syndrome right they’re
45:12
afraid to vote for that candidate but then they’ll vote libertarian down ticket so to speak and i i uh i don’t
45:19
mean to besmirch the importance of those offices but we’ll call it that that’s generally what they’re called but i think there is an effect of of of
45:26
candidates for lower level offices getting votes uh if if people like the libertarian
45:33
candidates who are running for the uh the higher level offices so we we have a question from uh the
45:39
audience uh i’m not even gonna attempt this guy’s last name his first name is alex though uh alexander he says what are bill’s top
45:46
three issues now i don’t know if he’s wondering if uh like libertarian issues like ballot access
45:52
would be what he’s referring to or if he’s talking more on the federal level but
45:57
just give me your top three issues overall and what you would be pushing for the most uh should you be elected
46:04
well i i would say first of all overall government spending uh that government has to uh
46:10
there is so much in the federal government that can be done away with including the department of education
46:16
the department of housing and urban development uh i uh uh they’re on my website i have a list of uh of of uh
46:25
it’s actually from chris edwards at the cato institute of government uh spending that can be reduced uh and it goes
46:33
over one trillion dollars per year and then concluding the defense budget at 800 some billion dollars now being
46:40
proposed by the biden administration that’s way too great so overall uh reducing government spending
46:46
certainly entitlements have to be addressed i support the cato institute’s 6.2 percent plan for social security i
46:53
think it’s the best plan to to get us from here to there in terms
46:58
excuse me in terms of social security reform the most important thing is to allow younger people to be able to take
47:05
their 6.2 fica contribution and invest it in private
47:10
accounts uh that are inheritable uh that that is not allowed under the current
47:16
system the dirty secret of social security frankly is that there are no personal property rights in social
47:21
security and that particularly hurts the poor and minorities who tend to live
47:27
shorter lives and then don’t receive social security and don’t have something then that they can pass on to their
47:32
heirs obviously medicare has to be addressed in terms of changing the system uh and and i think
47:40
giving dollars to patients as opposed to directly paying for services that’s really i mean
47:45
it it it’s really a crying shame that that the medicare entitlement situation is not in talked about more we’re only
47:52
four years away from the medicare trust fund quote unquote uh becoming exhausted
47:57
after which uh right now it would look like payments to medical providers would be cut by nine percent uh which is uh
48:05
not gonna go over well uh in in the medical community that’s that’s for sure um
48:10
and uh uh and i would say uh you know the the social issues as well there’s an old um
48:17
there’s an old saying uh so old that nobody says nobody uses it anymore the people join the libertarian party
48:23
because of of two issues not the same two issues they’re two issues and with
48:28
me it was social security and the drug war i really joined the libertarian party because i i knew social security
48:34
was a horrible system for young people and also the drug war uh was uh being fueled back in
48:41
the early 80s by ronald reagan and the republican party and he wanted to throw
48:47
uh people i knew in jail which i thought was a travesty and that’s when i said forget it can’t do this two-party thing
48:53
can’t do the republican party forget it i’m done and and all that so
48:59
certainly the uh the drug war uh is is is a huge issue as well and and other uh
49:05
social issues that um where we we we need to maximize uh have freedoms that that uh uh
49:13
historically have not been granted to the american people um i absolutely agree with all that the
49:19
drug war is one of the big issues that i have uh i am
49:24
seven and a half years sober now uh haven’t had a drop of alcohol in that long and haven’t had uh any narcotics
49:31
and not quite that long uh but uh but it’s one of it’s one of those things
49:38
where even though i don’t do it and it’s because i know that i can’t contain my i can’t control
49:44
myself i will continue going and i will uh end up right back where i was if
49:51
smoking cigarettes is a good way that i describe this i haven’t had a cigarette in 11 years but anybody who watches the
49:57
show regularly knows how often i vape if i were to smoke a cigarette
50:03
i know that in a week’s time i’d be up to a pack a day or more if i were to open a beer
50:10
and drink it i know within a week’s time to two weeks time i’d be back up to a case plus a day
50:17
um but because i can’t handle it doesn’t mean that other people shouldn’t be allowed to do it uh and that’s the same
50:24
thing that the same issues that i’ve had with other things in my life with you know uh with weed with cocaine with
50:30
other things that i’m not willing to admit that i’ve done on the air um and it’s stuff that i know that if i
50:37
were to ever do it again i would be right back where i was and that’s not where i want to be but that doesn’t mean
50:42
other people shouldn’t be allowed to do those things so yeah
50:49
please i’m sorry no i was just kidding i mean all that as as a criminal act is absolutely insane harry brown god bless
50:58
him he would always refer to it and i i think of harry brown frequently because i i frequently call
51:04
uh the war on drugs the insane war on drugs which is always what harry brown called it and i absolutely
51:11
salute him and remember him and love him for doing that because he’s he’s calling it as it is right there that’s for sure
51:19
excuse me one other issue frankly is uh is tax reform uh i support the uh
51:25
unfortunately in the foreseeable future we’re going to have to have some level of taxation uh i think the best way to
51:31
go is through the hall rabushka flat tax we need people we need
51:36
as a society to encourage people to work save and invest that’s what we need to
51:42
do as a part of the tax code stop the social engineering uh and and and
51:48
we we want to collect uh the the the taxes that are
51:54
we unfortunately have to collect the taxes that are necessary to run a minimal much smaller
52:00
government than than what we currently have but but i do think it’s important to uh not tax capital gains
52:08
this plan i mean it’s just the first thing government should do is
52:13
make sure a catastrophe doesn’t happen that’s the number one that’s what they’re supposed to do
52:19
that’s the number one uh duty of of people elected to public office is to make sure a catastrophe doesn’t happen
52:26
and and to reject bad ideas among them uh just about everything that comes out
52:32
of the biden administration with respect to economics is a bad idea but this idea of taxing
52:38
uh unrealized capital gains is is crazy and i have worked since 1985 doing business
52:46
valuation work in media and telecommunications and it is just amazing and
52:51
then and the the doing valuation work can be uh difficult of course it’s subjective i
52:58
mean everybody’s got an opinion and and and a lot of people you know they either depending on the situation they want a
53:03
high value or a low value but there’s a lot of work it is amazing that that members of
53:09
congress never stop to think what is the administrative cost of of
53:16
my legislation or my ideas going to be aside from the the actual
53:23
taxation how difficult is it going to be how expensive how complicated is it going to be to administer this tax and
53:29
that seems to never enter elizabeth warren’s mind uh or anyone in uh in the
53:35
biden administration right now and it’s amazing i appreciate the fact that you think elizabeth warren or anybody in the
53:41
bad administration has a mind that they could enter well they obviously do
53:47
they’re constantly baking baking up bad ideas well i doubt that’s why i don’t think they really have a mind i think they’re
53:53
just gonna like let’s just throw this out and see what sticks uh we got a couple of questions from people in the
53:58
audience um tony mackin one of our wonderful subscribers uh she wanted to know
54:04
uh what your opinion on term limits are for people in the senate in the house uh
54:10
i am of two minds of this i see both sides of this argument so what where are your thoughts on this
54:17
i uh i would support term limits i think that it’s not the real issue i i i don’t
54:24
think it’s as good as going to a system with uh uh a multi-member districts uh whereby uh
54:32
we get many more people running i mean right now we have such an uncompetitive democracy particularly in illinois just
54:39
to give you an example uh 2014. well go let’s go to virginia first
54:44
which you uh hail from i mean there in in within the past at this point i’m
54:50
going to say and within the past 10 or 15 years uh in the virginia house of delegates you
54:56
have 100 single member districts for the virginia house of delegates in the
55:01
recent past within the past 10 to 15 years there was one year where 62 of the 100 seats had
55:08
only one candidate on the ballot and another year 63 out of 100 seats had
55:14
only one candidate on the ballot not one challenger one candidate and the thing is is this is never talked about in the
55:21
media they’ll say oh well there’s a hot you know house of delegates race uh in
55:27
district 37 in northern virginia and they’ll talk about the few races with the very few races where there is
55:33
actually an interesting election going on but then totally ignore the bigger story of of the uh almost a
55:40
supermajority of the legislature the house of delegates just walking back in here in illinois in 2014
55:47
19 of the 59 seats of the illinois senate were up for election that year 12 of the 19 seats had only
55:55
one candidate on the ballot and the other seven had two candidates on the ballot of course
56:00
r’s and d’s and those seven no minor party candidates who couldn’t make it due to the horrendous ballot access laws
56:06
right because you needed 16 000 signatures yeah yeah and and so it’s so i would say
56:13
this that if you had multi-member districts and reasonable ballot access laws that that didn’t keep everybody
56:20
except the r’s and d’s off the ballot you’d have more candidates running people would have more effective choices
56:26
you’d have more ideas being discussed during election season for people to
56:31
consider and i think that is a far more effective electoral reform than term limits would be okay and uh alex uh had
56:39
a question and asked if you would be i think i know the answer to this question uh would you be in favor of abolishing
56:46
the dea yeah i mean i was like i i feel like
56:52
i feel like it’s a no-brainer yeah i think that no i think that they ought to we ought to end the
56:58
federal war on drugs just like the feds ended prohibition with the uh
57:05
uh passing of what was it the 21st amendment i think was 18 and 21 18 was bad 21 was good i think i think uh but
57:12
yeah and i think so there was there’s a chain there was and i think still is a chain of liquor stores in indianapolis called
57:19
21st amendment liquors so that has to be that has to be repeal of prohibition that can’t be the institution yeah that
57:26
would that wouldn’t be the first one that would be a marketing mistake by them i guess but uh in any event um but
57:33
i think we ought to tr let the states address the issues as to what they think is
57:39
is uh appropriate and that’s the importance of federalism that’s the importance of allowing and it’s the old
57:46
phrase 50 laboratories of democracy but that’s the that’s the good thing about
57:51
mankind advances through trial and error and that’s what can happen with the
57:56
states in this nation if the federal government allows them to do it so um and yes absolutely like get rid of
58:04
the dea we don’t need it let the states decide like let florida figure out which ones they want to allow here and let
58:10
them have their own enforcement agency for the ones they don’t allow here um and then let the people of florida fight
58:17
it there you don’t have to worry about the people of oregon fighting for
58:23
legalization of everything uh fighting for legalization of everything here in florida here in florida you can worry
58:29
about fighting for the legalization of the things that need that we believe should be legal i think it should be everything
58:34
but i know that’s an uphill battle right now uh yeah well no i think i i think that i
58:40
think the dividing line as to what is illegal or illegal ought to be the pharmacological nature of the drug and
58:47
if there is a drug that by its very nature say causes people to be
58:53
violent uh then then that drug should be prohibited
59:00
uh but but otherwise uh and i really don’t know of any drug that causes that uh you know uh that that
59:07
would cause people sort of by definition to to uh behave that way we
59:13
we certainly can’t have people you know taking a certain drug and then chopping up half the neighborhood you know something like that but other than that
59:20
it it’s uh it seems to me that that everything should be legal unless unless a drug causes that so even even in that
59:27
case my my thought is every drug should be legal and taking the drug shouldn’t be illegal but if you are on the drug
59:34
whatever you do on the drug you are criminally liable for so if oh for sure if you go out i don’t think
59:41
and people get mad at me about this a lot i don’t think that drinking and driving should be illegal um i think
59:48
that .08 is a ridiculous number uh and that it’s called fundraising um but if you
59:56
were to crash into somebody’s house crash into somebody’s car kill people you should be punished as though you oh
1:00:02
that you committed homicide or you know that you did property damage you should be convicted for that the drinking and
1:00:08
driving not so much if you’re uh on cocaine we’ll say cocaine if you’re
1:00:14
on cocaine and or heroin will be better for this that’ll make slightly more sense if you’re a heroin addict and then
1:00:20
you go and you steal a bunch of stuff from somebody you shouldn’t be punished for the heroin you should be punished for the
1:00:25
stealing of stuff because you’re actually taking stuff of other people’s um
1:00:31
that’s my personal opinion so even if there’s a drug out there that causes you to be violent um
1:00:38
it is up to you to take the drug so the drug may not be illegal but if you do something violent on it you’re going to
1:00:44
get punished to the greatest extent for doing it right well yeah you can’t use the excuse
1:00:51
oh the drugs made me do it you took the drugs right i will say that you know driving under the influence uh should be
1:00:59
uh illegal but i do think it’s arguable uh what is the proper
1:01:04
uh uh level let’s say of of blood con alcohol content in blood uh that i agree the
1:01:11
0.08 and and it was 0.1 yeah and i
1:01:17
and and there’s a movement to make it 0.05 going on in the united states make it 0.05 exactly i think utah
1:01:23
maybe utah has adopted that and i find that you know i
1:01:29
that that seems i think uh i think i think dc
1:01:35
has a zero tolerance policy so if you blow a 0.01 you’re getting a dui
1:01:42
um i i did not know that i uh i think that’s i think that so and
1:01:50
i could be completely wrong that that’s a real thing uh because the person that i know that i heard this from was
1:01:57
telling me about somebody else and that guy’s an aggressive arrogant
1:02:03
what’s the right word for this on the air um a-hole i don’t know is is the best thing
1:02:08
i can come up with uh and i could see him being upset about being pulled over and
1:02:15
then the cop being like okay well if you’re coming at me like this i’m just gonna arrest you because
1:02:20
you’re just being this way um but from what i understand yeah dc is a zero
1:02:25
tolerance so if you have he had from the story that i heard and i never researched any of this because i didn’t
1:02:32
care that much um if you have like a glass of wine two hours later
1:02:37
you could still get a dui that that strikes me is completely ridiculous and
1:02:43
and moreover i think people i it’s the way individuals react to it or sort of
1:02:48
their their mental state or their mindset when they drive i mean people react to
1:02:54
liquor in in in different ways yeah uh but uh but i think that that
1:03:00
i would like to know is have any state legislators actually you know they could take them
1:03:05
to a track somewhere off the street and and have have any state legislature
1:03:11
legislators actually tried drinking to certain levels and then get in the car and actually seeing
1:03:18
what it’s like i i’m not aware of that and i think they ought to do that frankly before those
1:03:24
who are not t totalers uh ought to go do that and and actually experience this
1:03:30
themselves different levels of uh alcohol content in the blood before they
1:03:36
begin passing legislation that is going to criminalize people when i was in um
1:03:41
when i was in tennessee that was when i was that might have been when i was drinking
1:03:47
the most i was living in nashville um but i got to know a lot of cops really well uh because
1:03:54
they all came into one of the restaurants i worked at and one of them told me because he would always see me and i was always drinking on my shift
1:04:01
off my shift i was always drinking and he was he said we’re running a new
1:04:07
program where uh if you come in if you come in on a day off um
1:04:14
with a couple of your friends we will pay for you all to get drunk at the station and then we want to see how you
1:04:20
would do in field sobriety tests and stuff like that and then we’ll pay you for your time and i went
1:04:26
so you’re gonna buy our alcohol and then pay us for our time and we just
1:04:32
have to get field training and how to get through a field sobriety test and he said yes and
1:04:38
i went yeah we are in we are all in we i can get like six people right now
1:04:43
and so we did and it was a good time well i i find that story hard to believe
1:04:49
because i didn’t think anybody in nashville drank
1:04:55
i i don’t think anybody in nashville doesn’t drink oh okay all right
1:05:02
from my experience there everybody drinks in nashville um it’s okay if you say so
1:05:08
so before i let before i let you go uh first of all i want to say this has been fantastic i loved having you on but um
1:05:16
on i want to allow you the chance to announce uh that there is an event
1:05:21
on april 18th uh can you tell us about it
1:05:26
yes there’s going to be a bill red path for u.s senate fundraiser
1:05:32
it’s actually going to be called revenue for red path and at you know just jesse unruh which i’m dating myself here
1:05:40
uh i think he was a republican operative in california years ago he’s now deceased but he he’s the person who said
1:05:46
money is the mother’s milk of politics that uh is saying is attributed to him and uh uh
1:05:53
he’s he’s unfortunately right about that it takes it takes money to run a political campaign that’s absolutely
1:05:58
true but we’re going to have a uh uh a it is it is monday april 18
1:06:06
and i’m not sure exactly how people can access this i’m i i’m not to the best of
1:06:12
my knowledge no to the best of my knowledge it will be streamed live here at muddy
1:06:19
waters media oh okay and we will be sharing it out from there um
1:06:25
this is this is the information i have on this event is that it is a fundraiser the revenue for red path i’m very
1:06:32
excited about it’s april 18th it’s gonna be starting at eight o’clock eastern i believe uh that is correct
1:06:39
that evening yep and it’s going to be hosted by yours truly and the 2020 libertarian
1:06:46
party vice presidential candidate nominee vice presidential nominee spike cohen we will be hosting this event um i
1:06:54
understand that there’s going to be a ton of guests uh i don’t have a list of anybody that’s going to be there yet so
1:07:01
can you tell us a little bit about who’s going to be there and what yeah i call it i have not well i hope brian
1:07:07
lambrick isn’t listening now because i’ve i’ve called i know he was in the comments earlier i have an idea all
1:07:13
right this is i’m just springing this i’m just springing this idea uh to call this the the roster of guests
1:07:20
a murderer’s row of guests who won’t violate the nap
1:07:27
i’m a red sox fan and yankees uh yankees references don’t fly over well
1:07:33
but i’m going to accept it because it’s your events all right i’m sorry i didn’t know you
1:07:38
were a red sox fan uh at least i mean many of the people watching aren’t going to know murderers wrote whatever from
1:07:45
the 1920s right uh 20s or 30s 20s or 30s yeah it was like in the 20s
1:07:50
or 30s but the new york yankees had a such a fearsome lineup and batting that
1:07:57
they called the their their lineup that was uh mickey mantle and um
1:08:05
back then mickey mantle was at the end of it no wasn’t he at the end of it i don’t think
1:08:11
he was a part of it at all he was way too young for that i think it was babe ruth lou gehrig
1:08:17
oh i was thinking lou gehrig i don’t know why i said man it was
1:08:22
and a whole bunch of other guys i should be able to tell you off the top of my head but due to a brain freeze i can’t i get
1:08:28
it but in any event but a a a murderer’s row of guests who will not violate the non-aggression principle uh
1:08:36
presidential candidate 2020 joe jorgensen she’s going to be on uh
1:08:41
former national chair mark hinkle you talk about people who go back i joined in 1984 i’m a youngin compared
1:08:47
to mark henkel uh he goes back almost to the get-go
1:08:53
back in the 1970s uh mary rework will be on uh jim terney will be on
1:08:58
uh laura ebke will be on uh the uh the former uh nebraska legislator turned lp
1:09:06
uh member uh my fiance the beloved julie fox will be on from illinois a whole
1:09:12
bunch of illinois people jim lark my oldest friend probably in the libertarian party met jim in 1986
1:09:20
at a marshall fritz advocates for government uh seminar in bethesda maryland uh going
1:09:28
back going boy it’s going back and uh lex green uh who’s uh my webmaster
1:09:34
and um anyway so that’s that’s the and more to come i’m i’m uh
1:09:41
i’m still casting i’m still casting uh a uh uh my uh fl fishing fly whatchamacallit
1:09:50
and [Laughter] i you know i i may not have a few more
1:09:55
people here um get get them voluntarily or not involved in this right
1:10:03
you’re casting the net but the net’s just gotten much smaller now and of course brian lambrecht will be there
1:10:08
needless to say and uh uh and and a lot of fellow uh illinois libertarians as as
1:10:17
well so we’re we’re um we’re still looking for um uh people to to to be a part of this
1:10:25
uh and we’re looking forward to it i yeah i’m i’ve been looking forward to
1:10:30
it since uh brian brought it to us i’m very excited to do it and uh
1:10:35
thank you thanks to you and spike for doing it no absolutely it is our pleasure uh it is absolutely our
1:10:41
pleasure um so if people have the urge to give before then of course it if they have
1:10:47
the urge it’s okay to wait until the 18th uh but uh my website is redpath for us
1:10:53
senate.com i was just going up to grab the grab the link so i could put that in
1:11:01
is is is where to go for all sorts of good stuff so everybody out there uh
1:11:07
go to redpathforusscent.com redpath for us senate dot com a lot of
1:11:14
people in the comments are saying have larry sharp um so if you want to reach out to him if you want to have him on
1:11:19
it’s up to you uh yeah yeah yeah of course yes as a matter of fact i was with that that might be
1:11:24
feasible okay we’ll see look there you go but
1:11:30
an inspiration like that is is is something that will not be ignored right uh so there
1:11:37
you go joe and alex he said he was going to look into it um thank you all so uh thank you bill for
1:11:44
being on everybody go to redpath for us senate.com give to bill let’s get him
1:11:50
into the senate we need somebody like him in the senate badly um
1:11:55
and then tune in on april 18th live right here on muddy waters media where
1:12:01
you will uh be able to watch spike and myself post a night that’s going to be very
1:12:07
much like the libertarian oscars except it’s online so i doubt anybody’s getting
1:12:12
punched in the face over a joke but if somebody does i guarantee it’s me
1:12:19
um um bill thank you so much uh for coming
1:12:25
on do you want to pitch anything else before you go i the floor is yours whatever you want to say
1:12:30
i would just say this if there’s anything else right now i just want to pitch uh libertarian party and ballot
1:12:36
access uh the the libertarian national committee and ballot access lp.org slash
1:12:42
ballot access we’ve got a petition drive in alabama i went down did a week of volunteer petitioning down there six
1:12:49
calendar days to be exact at 588 sigs back in
1:12:54
january that’s almost done we have petition drives coming up in new york
1:12:59
and illinois of course and massachusetts and uh we really we
1:13:06
right now we really need funds to make uh ballot access uh the greatest success
1:13:12
uh it can be in 2022. so lp.org ballot access if you have a some
1:13:19
spare dollars to give toward that believe me it will be used uh to put libertarians on the ballot and hopefully
1:13:25
into elected office beautiful and if anybody knows about this is you uh you are a champion when it comes to
1:13:32
ballot access uh again everybody and i everybody that i have ever talked to in the libertarian party that is involved
1:13:39
in ballot access in any way shape or form recognizes you as
1:13:45
one of the foremost authorities in how to get it done um and
1:13:51
to that i say thank you um bill thank you again so much for coming
1:13:57
on we wish you all the luck in your campaign we here at muddy waters are supporting you and we are looking
1:14:03
forward to the 18th unbelievably just unbelievably um miami
1:14:10
yeah we are definitely looking forward to it if you need anything please do not hesitate to reach out we will always be
1:14:15
here for you um thank you matt no problem uh
1:14:20
joe joe hanouch wants to know how do i get people to sign my petitions i i’m gonna give him this one last
1:14:27
question because it’s a good one actually i’m sorry the question is how
1:14:32
how do i get people how to get people to sign my petitions
1:14:38
well here’s my pitch i mean it’s whatever works as long as you are not misrepresenting anything whatever works
1:14:45
to get these signatures um my pitch if i’m if i’m out there say
1:14:50
when i was down in alabama in uh in january some somebody would walk up and i’d say excuse me sir or ma’am could
1:14:58
you sign a petition to allow the libertarian party to return to the ballot in alabama it’s not an
1:15:03
endorsement it’s not saying you’ll vote for us but we need the signatures of over 51 000 registered voters in the
1:15:09
state just to get on the ballot and give people a choice now i and could you sign our petition
1:15:14
please and that’s it now that some people think that’s a little wordy and a little too much information so whatever
1:15:21
works some people just say i’m trying to get a friend on the ballot uh and um and and give a much simpler message but i
1:15:28
i i’m not afraid to say libertarian party i always say libertarian party in my pitch
1:15:33
i don’t think it’s a negative i think it’s a it’s a positive to let people know about the libertarian party and i
1:15:39
also like to communicate in the pitch the difficulty i say we need 51 000
1:15:44
signatures in alabama to get on the ballot it’s 25 000 in illinois it may be
1:15:50
fewer signatures for your particular race but i would just say when it comes to getting signatures just let them know
1:15:56
it’s not an endorsement and it’s you know it’s not saying that they’re not committing to vote for you this is just
1:16:02
to give people a choice at the ballot box and uh and and it’s in my pitch is
1:16:07
kind of educational as well because i like to tell people things try to tell people things they didn’t previously
1:16:12
know and particularly when i can convey the difficulty of the ballot access laws
1:16:18
in this nation people more often than not are are shocked they have no idea
1:16:24
that it’s so difficult to get on the ballot in a nation that is ostensibly the beacon of democracy for the rest of the
1:16:30
world so that’s what i would say but i was it it just comes down to your personal
1:16:37
style i was once petitioning for ron paul back in massachusetts in 1988
1:16:43
and i was in front of a grocery store excuse me and there was another petitioner there and his pitch was
1:16:50
there’s one of these trash cans sitting outside with the top you know those trash cans that have a top but there’s a
1:16:57
near the top there’s a hole in the side right the that you put you stick the trash in and you drop it but above that
1:17:04
there is a top and those make lovely desks by the way those kind of trash cans and and you see he said the
1:17:10
petition set the clipboard right on top of that thing people would be pushed their grocery cart out of the grocery
1:17:16
store and he would stand there and say to the person as they approached he would say hey if you signed this
1:17:22
and and that was his pitch basically was that he would ask he said hey have you signed this and and
1:17:28
it worked for him it did i was totally astounded and and so it it ultimately it
1:17:35
it’s whatever works for you to get the signature without misrepresenting anything is what’s right for you
1:17:42
beautiful thank you so much i look forward to seeing you on the 18th if you’re not absolutely overwhelmed yeah
1:17:47
if you need anything at all please reach out thank you so much thanks man
1:17:56
all right everybody thank you so much for tuning in how great was that how great is bill uh
1:18:02
i i have talked to him numerous times as we have been uh attempting to make this
1:18:07
show work and i am uh elated that we have finally gotten a chance to
1:18:13
to make it work and that i got him on uh because he is a fountain of information and he
1:18:21
is uh just an amazing person all around uh be sure if you want to help out
1:18:27
redpathforussenit.com uh you can go you can donate there um or
1:18:33
on april 18th live right here on muddied waters me spike cohen bill redpath a
1:18:39
bunch of other people that he named that i can’t remember off the top of my head because i didn’t write them down um are
1:18:45
all going to be here and we are going to have just a great
1:18:51
night we are going to have so much fun so be sure to tune in for that
1:18:57
um again thank you all so much for tuning in i humbled every time uh but
1:19:05
that’s basically it tomorrow we have two two episodes
1:19:11
of mr america the bearded truth with jason lyon he’s going to be kicking the day off at 2 p.m eastern with superfan
1:19:18
sarah anderegg um that would be the love of my life and my fiance my future bride
1:19:26
with him at 2 p.m eastern and then at 6 eastern he has mr libertarian in chief
1:19:32
himself todd hagopian is going to be on um is going to be on
1:19:38
so be sure to tune in tomorrow for that then i know spike is in uh texas i think
1:19:43
he’s in dallas i don’t know it’s hard to keep up with his schedule but i think he’s in dallas then next tuesday tune
1:19:50
back in right here at muddy waters media where spike cohen and
1:19:56
myself will be parsing through the week’s events like the sweet
1:20:02
summer something or others that we are um it
1:20:07
does not look like there is an episode of [Music]
1:20:14
my fellow americans next week i could be wrong but if there isn’t one
1:20:19
you have wednesday off and then next thursday is the muddied zoom
1:20:26
uh where all of our subscribers get to join together on a zoom call with me
1:20:32
spike maybe jason uh maybe jason maybe the eskimo libertarian maybe others like
1:20:39
we we never know who’s going to show up to this event but it’s always a good time if you want to be a part of that
1:20:45
event all you have to do is head on over to anchor dot fm slash muddied waters slash
1:20:52
subscribe to become a member today and you will get a notification you will get
1:20:59
an email uh next week with the link so you can join that zoom
1:21:05
so again thank you all for tuning in before i go
1:21:10
your fun fact of the week is david broderick is the only sitting senator to
1:21:16
die in a duel uh and this actually occurred because of in
1:21:21
party fighting uh led to broderick being challenged on his anti-slavery values he
1:21:29
fired early he fired prematurely and gentlemen we all know what happens when you fire prematurely uh and his opponent
1:21:35
shot him in the chest and he died three days later fun fact of the week david broderick
1:21:41
only sitting senator to die in a duel thank you all so much for tuning in and
1:21:46
remember no matter if you’re white if you’re black if you’re hispanic if you’re
1:21:52
skinny if you’re fed if you’re straight if you’re gay friends if you’re
1:21:57
whatever else at the end of the day it’s night
1:22:08
i [Music]
1:22:29
[Music]
1:22:37
try to use your body as a life raft cause if there’s room enough for one there must be
1:22:43
[Music]
1:23:16
i will be relieved
1:23:21
[Music]
1:23:28
[Applause] [Music]
1:23:44
to save me i will only drag [Music]
1:24:00
so [Music]
1:24:05
i don’t need anybody’s [Music]