Welcome back to our
discussion of Tea Party,
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sort of an English convention
and the Boston Tea Party.
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Got things started here
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but we know this
in the United States
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it's become very common to talk
about the Tea Party Movement
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within the Republican Party.
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You know, it's a very
conservative movement.
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It's a very
inflexible dogmatic faction.
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Do they have
religious view points?
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Is this tied up at all
to the religious right,
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do you think?
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In fact, the Pew survey
on religion and public life
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just a year and half ago said
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that the Tea
Party is when surveyed,
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when people of the Tea
Party who supported them
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or surveyed when asked
what is your ultimate goal,
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is it tax reform,
is it less government,
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or is it prayer
in public schools?
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And they said
prayer in public schools.
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The Tea Party has been co-opted
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by the Christian
right in America,
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they're both southern based,
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they both have
come out of the south,
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they both have pretty
much harmonious goals.
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Now, I realize
that the Tea Party did
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started independently
from the Christian right,
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I understand that--
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But they have
merged in a practical way.
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Their original
purpose was to reduce taxes,
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to limit the federal government
and its rapid growth and size.
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Okay, that was
their two big things
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they've always hammered away
especially the Koch Brothers
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who is their
financial support out of Texas.
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However that has-- in many
ways at the initial stages,
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the Democratic
Party lean to the left
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and has stayed to the far left
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especially with the
emergence of President Obama
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whose foreign policy
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and international
religious freedom policy,
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I've criticized on
this very set with you
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in past programs.
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So the Democratic Party however
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has supported
secularism run a muck,
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such as gay marriage rights,
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and other things
viewed as immoral
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and which I think are immoral.
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And to me that
creates a backlash
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because in the end
what I see happening
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is the Democratic
Party being forced
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especially once the Supreme
Court rules on gay marriage
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and it's inevitable they
are gonna rule in favor of it,
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that issue is out of the way.
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The Republican Party
it said in newspapers
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especially recently
in a Wall Street journal
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saying that once the gay
marriage really comes down,
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they won't have the
monkey on their back, it's done.
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They don't have to
address that as the key issue.
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They can focus back on economics
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and foreign policy.
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So it will force the Democratic
Party to be sustainable,
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to move to the center
and even to the center right
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in order to remain
viable in politics.
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And to me that's very
suggestive of something.
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It's suggestive
that that in the end
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we're gonna find--
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I know this may shock you.
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We're gonna find more in common
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between the two
parties than sets them apart.
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And how so you say?
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Because I think
democrats will back pedal,
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they will fall all of themselves
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to try to prove
how moral and righteous
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and just as righteous and
moral as the religious right
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that sustains
the Republican Party.
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That's already started and
in some ways that should be
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because I hear many
democrats point out correctly
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that why should
the Republican Party
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so to be characterized
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as the party of
religious morality and so on
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because that isn't so really.
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There are many
deeply convicted Christians
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that are the
democrats and so yes,
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they are trying to
sort of reclaim that ground.
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And I do think you are right
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even though we have
a democratic president.
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The US is in a rope would swing,
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there's no question.
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And external threats
and internal economic things
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and so on will
only increase that.
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Oh, no, this is an
extreme rightward swing.
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Yes and it's been gradual
but it's been coming about--
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Yes, but in total it's extreme.
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Right, and what the
Democratic Party leans on
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is the interfaith
left to sustain them
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and that interfaith left
is growing bigger and bigger.
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In fact, survey
after survey shows
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that the interfaith
political and religious left
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is getting nearly as strong as
the Christian right in America.
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The Christian right in America
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has about a 29 to
35 percent influence
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in terms of electoral power
within the Republican Party,
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the interfaith
left which is growing
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is about 30 percent
within the Republican Party.
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And just a few years ago
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when John Kerry was
running for president,
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it was only 6 percent.
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And so what you see is a more
of an internationalist movement
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the interfaith left movement
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that moves towards this
sense of ecumenical unity
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which plays right into the hands
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of Pope John or Pope Francis I,
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who seeks to restore
the legacy of John Paul II
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and the ecumenical movement
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as a means towards
securing world peace.
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I've seen the
shift and I don't know
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whether part of the answer
can be found in Jerry Falwell
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and D. James Kennedy
and others that died,
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the leadership disappeared
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or whether it's a
sociological shift.
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It's a more touchy
feely sort of a Christianity
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that's rising up and now seeking
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some political influence.
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But it has shifted from the old
religious right moral majority
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to a more liberal
religious coalition.
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I think the whole
gay marriage issues,
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even though there seems to be
threats in the south that are--
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that we're gonna resist
the Supreme Court's ruling
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and we're gonna break
off in the United States
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and become the
southern United States.
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I heard threats from all
over the south about that.
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I've read newspapers
with people making that claim
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and it's ridiculous.
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Once gay
marriage becomes the law,
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they will adopt and they
will move on to other issues.
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And those issues will be
focused on morality for sure
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but I think we are gonna see
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as more of a focus
on Israel by the right
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and more of a focus on
ecumenical unity on the left
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and eventually the two
merge and see the same way.
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I believe that
just as the Sadducees
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who were the
priestly order of Israel
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during the time of Christ
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and the Pharisees
during the time of Christ
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find common cause
to get rid of Christ
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because of His popularity.
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I see the same thing
happen in United States.
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I think more crises are
gonna emerge in this country
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that from outside threats--
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It's a fairly safe assumption.
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From outside threats
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whether be ISIS
or terrorist attacks
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that continually spark
unity within this country,
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false unity mind you
but unity nevertheless,
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just as Sadducees and
Pharisees got together
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to crucify Christ.
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They will find someone
and something to blame.
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Yeah.
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Well, they need to
because they don't really--
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I mean, there's such a
complex series of issues
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facing the world and
this country in particular,
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there is no easy answers,
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there is no way out
of it so a scapegoat.
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Whether it's
calculatedly a scapegoat,
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I don't think so
but convenient group
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or movement to sort of say
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well, this is frustrating
as we do better but for this.
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You are right.
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I think the Tea
Party is going to meld
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into the background
of the Republican Party.
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There will be a
transform Republican Party--
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Oh, I think they are already
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moving into
mainstream republicanism.
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Well, yes, they
have been very successful
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but fewer Tea Party
candidates ran for office
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in this last
congressional election.
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The Republican moderate
its search again once again
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trying to mainstream the party.
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The Tea Party will still
be very influential obviously
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and have remade the
party so it's really no longer,
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really no longer
the party of Lincoln
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but nevertheless they
will be a forgotten source.
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They will be less
and less of a factor
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and it will be viewed
as one Republican Party.
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No, they moved the party
basically to occupy the ground
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that they came in under.
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And I think the
Democrats will do the same.
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If Hillary Clinton
runs for president,
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I believe that
she like her husband
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will try to move
the party to the center
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unlike Elizabeth
Warren if she were candidate
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would be a populous
left us all the way.
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So I think, Linc,
what you are seeing
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is a hard shift to the center
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and right by the
Democratic Party more and more.
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Yes, there will
be scandals about
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Hillary Clinton, her
emails and everything else
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but the bottom-line is
what we will see in my opinion,
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I'm not a prophet
I just believe that
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all the shifts
are taking place now.
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Your pundits, your
journalists, your experts
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and political science are
all seeing this right now.
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It's all taking
place as we speak.
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You kept to the
bottom-line that we are heading
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toward the period of greater
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civil and religious
liberty or contraction?
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You know, there is a
possibility for revolution.
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There is always that
possibility even civil war.
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I just don't think
it's going to happen.
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I think if the
gridlock continues
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between a Tea Party
led Republican Party
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which I don't think
will continue for very long.
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I think is
precipitated by a president
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that they very much
dislike and some would say
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that it's prejudice and
their opposition has to do
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with bigotry
towards the black president.
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I don't believe that.
Well, I think it's a component.
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I think it explains that all.
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I think it's based on the issues
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and I don't, you know, I
really don't want to label
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the Republican
Party that way at all.
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I'm a republican
but I'm just telling you
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that the way I
seen things happening
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is if yes, if there is gridlock,
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it does tend to
lead towards instability,
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panic by the
people and they tend
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to always blame the government,
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the federal government.
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And so therefore it
leads to revolution.
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What kind of
revolution I don't know.
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If it's a
constitutional revolution
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that would be huge.
00:09:54.70\00:09:56.01
But I don't think a
constitutional revolution
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will necessarily
come out of all this.
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What I think will happen
is that the Republican Party
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will out of necessity moderate
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and I think when I
say moderate not by much,
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they will have the
upper hand for the most part,
00:10:08.81\00:10:10.56
at least congressionally
and in the Supreme Court.
00:10:10.59\00:10:14.64
I think if Hillary
Clinton becomes president,
00:10:14.67\00:10:16.83
I think she will be
a very weak president
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just as Obama has been.
00:10:19.37\00:10:21.00
Well, you know, obviously like
Christians throughout the ages,
00:10:21.03\00:10:25.15
we pray for the
success of the government.
00:10:25.18\00:10:27.51
We pray that it
can protect good laws
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and that it not prove to
be an enemy of true faith.
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But these are dangerous
times for the United States.
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For the whole world, this is
a great period of instability
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and the great problems facing
the US are almost insolvable.
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Economic problems,
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franking it seems to
been a last minute lifeline
00:10:45.42\00:10:49.09
but in reality there
is ecological degradation,
00:10:49.12\00:10:52.43
there's climate imbalance,
more tornados, more droughts,
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dust bowls is on the rise again.
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These are huge threats.
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It will actually jumpstart
the instability in quite
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probably unique directions.
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I actually think the best days
00:11:08.36\00:11:09.52
of United
States are still ahead.
00:11:09.55\00:11:10.67
Well, it could be.
00:11:10.70\00:11:12.38
I don't believe that
we're at that point yet,
00:11:12.41\00:11:15.21
but I see all the earmarks of it
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clearly even prophetically
00:11:19.12\00:11:20.73
but when that
happens we don't know.
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This is the time as
the Chinese philosophers
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I think used to say,
dangerous opportunity.
00:11:28.22\00:11:30.37
Yes. Dangerous opportunity.
00:11:30.40\00:11:32.91
I think what we
see with the Tea Party
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was pretty much inevitable
with what happened in 1980
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and the
revolutionary shift of the south
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to the Republican Party
00:11:42.32\00:11:43.61
but also see an
equally unequal shift
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on the Democratic side
with secularism run a muck
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and then having to back
track to become more centered.
00:11:49.37\00:11:54.38
I remember when I was
much younger first reading.
00:11:54.41\00:11:57.71
Through the Looking
Glass or Alice in Wonderland
00:11:57.74\00:12:00.74
and being taken
with the Tea Party
00:12:00.77\00:12:03.89
and the Mad
Hatter and White Rabbit,
00:12:03.92\00:12:06.66
and it portrayed a rather
dysfunctional gathering of
00:12:06.69\00:12:10.12
some very disparate elements,
00:12:10.15\00:12:12.65
animals and creatures
that didn't seem real.
00:12:12.68\00:12:16.09
But when I look
at US politics today,
00:12:16.12\00:12:18.23
I'm starting to think
00:12:18.26\00:12:19.58
that we are down in
the same rabbit hole
00:12:19.61\00:12:22.14
and that surreal
things are possible.
00:12:22.17\00:12:25.11
The Tea Party is a
very real phenomenon
00:12:25.14\00:12:28.71
but some of the
things that it represents
00:12:28.74\00:12:30.96
while historically
they can say nativistant
00:12:30.99\00:12:34.94
and just so exaggerated
that they are almost laughable.
00:12:34.97\00:12:37.92
When you talk about
religious tendencies
00:12:37.95\00:12:40.75
and the religious agenda
you must take it very seriously
00:12:40.78\00:12:44.63
and as in now discussion
we brought out some elements
00:12:44.66\00:12:47.75
could even be parallel to
what we see in the Islamic world
00:12:47.78\00:12:51.54
with the move towards Sharia law
00:12:51.57\00:12:53.69
and an
extremist religious vision
00:12:53.72\00:12:56.41
that comes up with
its own internal logic
00:12:56.44\00:12:59.42
but externally seems
bizarre and surrealistic.
00:12:59.45\00:13:03.51
For Liberty
Insider, I'm Lincoln Steed.
00:13:03.54\00:13:07.16