Crom Carmichael: ‘Republicans Need to Learn How to Use Government to Further an Agenda for All Americans’

Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss two articles from The Wall Street Journal and came to the conclusion that Republicans need to learn how to make better use of the government in helping their constituents.

Leahy: Joining us in studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. Crom, good morning.

Carmichael: Good morning, Michael.

Leahy: Well, kind of an interesting weekend. President Trump went down to CPAC and gave a fiery speech that was quickly then censored by YouTube. What a shock. What a shock. (Chuckles)

Carmichael: It really is amazing that if it’s Trump is just censored automatically.

Leahy: Brazen. Brazen violations.

Carmichael: He sued. And we’ll find out what the courts say and whether or not a private company can on one hand make claims of being just a platform and on the other hand, not act in the same way that they claim to be acting. We’ll just see.

Leahy: We will see.

Carmichael: I would describe it as false advertising. And then we’ll just see whether or not that’s allowed.

Leahy: Big news for the Star News Network. As we’ve got eight state-based news sites, we are launching the mobile-friendly Star News Network website this week.

That’ll be up. We’re working with a couple of tag lines for it. The Star News Network.

So a couple of ones that we’re kicking around are ‘journalism you can trust.’ ‘Trustworthy journalism.’ ‘Real journalism.’

Carmichael: I like the first one better than the second one.

Leahy: Journalism you can trust?

Carmichael: I like it more than the second one. You gave two very quick ones. Journalism you can trust sounds better than what was the second one?

Leahy: Trustworthy journalism?

Carmichael: I like that one.

Leahy: I like the first one.

Carmichael: I like the first one better.

Leahy: You know, we’ve got to make a decision about which one we’re going to go with right now. That’s kind of the leading one, ‘journalism you can trust.’

But we’re still kicking it around. We’ll find out later this week what we stick with. It’ll be on all of our sites. I’m going up to Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, right after the show.

We’re going to jump in the car running out to the airport. And we’re going to be interviewing reporters up in Madison. That’ll be our ninth state. And looking forward to that.

Carmichael: Good.

Leahy: Wisconsin in the summer sounds good.

Carmichael: Better than the winter.

Leahy: Better than the winter. And then next week, our own Laura Baigert will be going out to the Trump rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

And that will be our second report from the Star News Network wire service. We’ve got about 10 news outlets picking it up around the country.

By September the first we think we’ll probably have, you know, we’ll be up to 25, maybe 50. We’ll just keep going.

Carmichael: Well, good.

Leahy: So we’ve been busy. I know you’ve been busy reading.

Carmichael: Yes.

Leahy: What’s on your agenda today?

Carmichael: There are two articles in The Wall Street Journal and one is kind of interesting. If you read the political section of The Wall Street Journal it generally leans left, but it almost always misses the main story.

In the opinion section, I would say that it is mostly logical. Mostly. But it too oftentimes misses the main point. But in this one, this is a story titled, President Biden’s Executive Order Opens New Front in Battle with Big Tech.

And it talks about how President Biden has passed an executive order, telling the agencies like the FTC to adopt tougher policies to rein in the power of large tech platforms.

Nothing could be further from the truth as to the purpose of it. And I’m not trying to disparage the reporters. The people who write in the political section are probably generally young, and they’re not able to kind of see-through what the real agenda is.

Because you were touching on it with the person you were interviewing. And that is what Biden calls the whole of government.

And that’s a quote. The whole of government is a term. The whole government approach to equity. And what this is, combining this with the other story this is Joe Biden’s 20th-century trustbuster.

This is where Biden has modeled his spending agenda. Well, it says that he’s going to be using the administration to make sure the Big Tech companies can’t acquire other companies.

And it’s a whole bunch of stuff of supposedly using the federal government as a trustbuster and to go after platform companies, broadband companies, and all these other things. And that’s not what this is about.

Leahy: Not at all. I had the same reaction. This is the typical Democratic ploy. They call something one thing when it’s really going to accomplish exactly the opposite.

Carmichael: Yes. I’m quoting. ‘As the White House detailed it’s, Executive Order one Democrat FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said in a tweet ‘So excited about by POTUS’s executive order on the competition.

It is an ambiguous agenda that will help our markets work better and create a more equitable economy for all people. Especially workers, marginalized communities, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.’

Now, all that means is it’s just like this COVID relief bill. This will be highly targeted at particular political interest groups. The money will be made by those who are well connected with the government (i.e.very similar to the Communist Chinese Party.)

And the use of it will be essentially to threaten Big Tech companies. Not to cause them to change anything, just to threaten them to support their ideology.

Leahy: Exactly.

Carmichael: That’s all it will be. If you don’t do as I tell you. Now, let me mention that during the Obama years, the way that banking regulators if a bank wanted to open up a new branch, it had to get permission from the federal government. If a bank wanted to close the branch, it had to get permission.

If a bank wanted to make an acquisition, it had to get permission. It was so bad during the Obama years, especially his second term, that the banks just simply didn’t open or close branches.

Especially community banks. They didn’t open or close branches because the federal government would come in and force them to make loans that they knew would never be repaid.

And so it essentially forced them to. And then later, you had the banking crisis. So this is the same type of thing. This will be government.

Here’s what’s interesting, Michael, and that is, this game can be played by both parties. But as we have discussed in the past, the Republican Party does not seem to respond in kind.

So let me give you an example of how this game should be played, in my opinion, by Republicans. If Republicans were to be in charge of the House and the Senate and the presidency after 2024, Republicans ought to set up a foundation, maybe even have some stick figures drawn in art. (Leahy chuckles) 

Leahy: I’m with you.

Carmichael: I’m not joking at all here, but to be more explicit and just say if we’re not saying that you will get what you want, but you will be heard.

But you must make a contribution to this foundation. And this foundation will be designed explicitly to set up charter schools in our inner cities where the government-run school systems have failed.

Period. And that if you want to be heard, we’re not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions or millions. With Big Tech we’re talking billions.

And you would raise 50 billion dollars over a period of three or four years, and you would then build out charter schools. Then the second thing is an executive order requiring all government unions to split their contributions based on the voting in presidential elections within their own states.

Leahy: That would be equitable Crom. (Laughs)

Carmichael: That’s what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, is if you’re a government union and your state went 52-48 one way or the other, doesn’t matter.

52 percent of the contributions would go to the party that had 52 percent and 48 percent go the other because these are government employees.

The union dues are paid for by the taxpayers. That’s how they’re done. Republicans need to learn how to use government to further an agenda for all Americans.

That’s what they need to learn how to do. Democrats, on the other hand, try to use the government to help just their constituents.

Leahy: I see the phone is ringing. It’s Mitch McConnell. He’s ready to take your advice.

Carmichael: Ready to take my call.

Leahy: We’ll do that in the break. (Laughter)

Listen to the full second hour here:

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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.