Left Wing | Michael Patrick Leahy

Clint Brewer and Mayor Andy Ogles Analyze How Left and Right Are Finding Common Ground

Live from Music Row Tuesday 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 all-star panelist Clint Brewer and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in studio to ponder how the left and right are beginning to find similarities as liberal policies prove too radical.

Leahy: In studio, Clint Brewer, the original all-star panelist, and Andy Ogles mayor of Maury County. That’s an interesting interview we just had with Naomi Wolf.

Ogles: I’ve never met her. And I’m sure Clint, we were talking offline that she was an advisor to Gore.

Leahy: In 2000.

Ogles: She was banned by Twitter. I’d love to meet her and shake her hand. It’s like a badge of honor. (Leahy laughs) Like, holy cow. We may not agree on a lot of issues, but kudos to her for having an opinion that kind of cuts across the grain.

Now, I will say trying to be objective is that I look at my friends on the left and how fervently they will defend the Constitution when it fits their narrative, and when they want to change policy, they’re more than willing to attack the Constitution and to label a breathing document and to throw it out the freaking window.

Brewer: The Bill of Rights is not an a la cart menu. You don’t get to pick and choose what you like.

Leahy: I think I’ll cite the Constitution on this argument and forget it on the other argument.

Brewer: Well, honestly, whenever I hear somebody in a public debate or to say I’m a strict Constitutionalist, I’m immediately suspicious of that person because I’m sure there’s something in there that they don’t want to uphold.

And that happens on both sides of the aisle. But the mayor’s point is well taken. These issues do cut across the grain. You look at her past stance on abortion and now talking about medical freedom, they don’t entirely reconcile.

Ogles: It’s like a game show. I’ll take the Second Amendment for 100, please. (Leahy laughs) It doesn’t work that way. It’s all one document. And, you know, and I would argue that there is no First Amendment without the Second Amendment. They go together, they go hand in hand.

Leahy: That’s interesting because, you know, during my week off, I did some reading on English kings, the Plantagenets after William the Conqueror, and then the Tutors and The War of Roses.

Brewer: Some light vacation reading, Mike?

Leahy: Well, for me, it’s light reading. It’s fun.

But what’s interesting about that is back to your point, you don’t have a First Amendment without a Second Amendment, you know, the right to bear arms. And throughout history, it’s always been about who has the power. Who has the military force?

And if the person wielding that military force is evil or corrupt, it’s bad news if they have superior forces. And if you look at that 500 year period of English history, sometimes the winner was a good King and sometimes not a good King. It’s what we have here right now in the world today.

Brewer: I don’t know that you can preserve democracy like what America attempts to do. You’re in and you’re out without having an armed citizenry.

Leahy: You’ve got to have an armed citizenry. No question about it.

Brewer: The government, whether it’s a party on the left or the party on the right, it has to know that people have the right to defend their homes and defend themselves. And I think it changes the way they do things over the decades.

Ogles: Our government operates at the consent of the governed, but there are folks on the left, especially that have forgotten that notion. I love the Constitution. I love our republic will defend the republic.

But at the same token, for those that are trying to divide this country, they need to understand something and that is the majority of the Fortune 500 corporations are now in the South and the Midwest.

The South and the Midwest don’t need the Northeast. We don’t need California. They can go to hell. We can do this without them. Now, I’m not advocating for any kind of sedition or anything like that.

But what I’m saying is we have an economic might here, and it’s time for the conservative state to stand together.

Leahy: I will tell you many California refugees who have arrived here in Tennessee will tell you California already is hell. (Laughter) That’s why they’re leaving, right?

Brewer: Yeah, of course, but now they’re going into all the hot chicken places and asking for gluten-free hot chicken. (Laughter)

Leahy: Did you just make that up or is that a thing?

Brewer: I imagine it’s happening somewhere.

Leahy: It probably is because this is one of the challenges, right? Tennessee is thriving because it is a bastion of freedom or aspires to be a bastion of freedom. We’ve got no state income tax.

And now one of the challenges is as all of these Californians come in, and it’s mostly Californians, at least here in Middle Tennessee, there are some from Illinois and New York and Connecticut you hear this complaint? Well, that’s not how we do it in California. (Whispers) Go back to California.

Brewer: I know I was in contact with a family through other circumstances, not related to work or professional pursuits, but they said, well, we haven’t left our home since March. I mean, the guidelines there.

I just think it’s open some people’s eyes up to the fact that there is a different way to live and you can come to states like Tennessee and enjoy it. Speaking of opening people’s eyes up. It’s very interesting to have a conversation with Naomi.

I never thought that Naomi Wolf would be a frequent guest on The Tennessee Star Report because, of course, she was, you know, Al Gore, whatever advisor. I don’t know what she advised him on. Maybe on how to dress or something like that.

Ogles: Did she also help invent the Internet?

Brewer: I was hoping to get a play-by-play on how the Internet was created. I do think it’s fascinating. I think it just shows that the pandemic has created some issues socially and from a governance standpoint that I think the mayor used the phrase off the air that they sort of cut across the grain. It’s like the streams are crossing.

Leahy: I think that’s right. It is. And when we have Naomi Wolf on, you see, that happening to a degree but not fully because there are some elements of I don’t know what you might call it. Left-wing theology that she finds hard to abandon, perhaps.

Brewer: I think ideology. I wouldn’t call it theology. You wouldn’t call theology?

Brewer: No. It suggests maybe it involves the divine.

Leahy: I think it’s their view. I use the word theology to describe their adherence to it. The fact to the contrary, that’s sort of funny and obviously reasoning.

Ogles: They’re very polarized right now. You have those on the left and those on the right. And I think most people would peg me on the right and she’s probably somewhere on the left. But this whole idea of medical freedom and the liberties and the shutdown, etcetera, those people that are, in the ‘middle’, those people that self identify as independence, they’re shifting right I think.

And this is just my personal opinion for this next cycle. And so you see, in Texas, we’re winning a county. A Republican Mayor in a blue county on the border of Texas.

Leahy: McAllen, Texas.

Ogles: Hidalgo County. Hillary won it by 40 points. And suddenly they now have a GOP Mayor. What? And so I think that’s the canary in the coal mine that some of these issues, whether it’s immigration reform or medical freedom or shutdowns, you could see not just in Tennessee, in Texas, but in Pennsylvania and across the country this red wave hit the country. I think you could see a sweep in the U.S. House.

Brewer: No, I think you’re right, mayor. The midterms are always dangerous for the party that just won the presidency. So already, historically, you’ve got a pretty big risk involved.

And President Biden came out I think it was last week and said, everybody wants us to move so fast on this progressive agenda, but our margins are pretty thin in both Houses. For his faults, he’s a realist when it comes to legislation. And I think he understands the challenges he’s up against.

Leahy: When he’s couchant.

Brewer: Yes, when he’s couchant. I think they’re doing a really good job of that White House of staying on message at least and having a lot of message discipline, which Biden is not known for.

Leahy: Apparently, part of that message discipline was not acknowledging D-Day.

Brewer: That wasn’t particularly good.

Leahy: So they missed that one. That is their message, though I suppose.

Ogles: Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s what you don’t say. That’s deafening. When you see this administration not honoring those who served in such a monumental moment in history, not just for the U.S., but for Europe and the Pacific, that says a lot about this administration.

Leahy: Yes. And none of it good.

Listen to the full third hour here:

– – –

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.

100,000 Strong: Davidson County Metro Councilmember At-Large Steve Glover on Waking up to the Conservative Voice

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 Metro Nashville’s City Council Member-at-Large Steve Glover to the newsmakers line capital spending plan and the fiscal insanity of the left-wing majority council members.

Leahy: On our newsmaker line the voice of sanity in Nashville, Metro Councilmember At-Large, Steve Glover. Good morning, Steve.

Glover: Good morning. That would depend upon which side you’re talking to. We certainly would want common sense and sanity must rule. On the other side, they define it as insanity.

Leahy: Let me just step back a little bit. And so there you are. There 40 members of the national Metro Council. Five Metro council members at large. You’re one of those five. 35 from districts with 40 members. It looks like typically the vote on this half-billion-dollar capital spending plan was 30 in favor of it seven against it. So you got at least 30 in my view a kind of lunatic left-wingers on the Metro Council. How do you show up every day for those meetings and listen to them talk and rant? How do you do it, Steve?

Glover: Well, let me put it to you this way. We are 100,000 plus strong in Davidson County and at some point, we’re going to wake up and realize that. And realize that, we actually have a voice. I just keep forging ahead because I’m blessed enough that the people of Nashville elected me and I’m going to do my job. I’m going to represent the people who want to protect the sanctity of our financial base in Nashville.

Even though it’s eroded on a daily basis. I’m going to continue to fight that because that’s what I said I would do. And I’m going to be a man of my word. I will continue doing that. And so that’s how I get up every day. And that’s how I go fight. Now, the new message is we are 100,000 plus strong and we better wake up and realize it. And we better start doing with the others that are much smaller than we are have been doing in Nashville and that’s to start demanding, demanding answers.

Leahy: I like the fight in your voice Steve because I think we need it. Let me ask you this question. Why 30 of the 40 members of the Metro Council vote for this outrageous spending bill on the 500 million dollar Capital spending plan? About those 30 people. My perception is that they are that’s kind of the rise of what I would call the apparatus-like class.

That is people who very few of them have small businesses. Most of them have some kind of government-related work and they’ve all bought into this left-wing ideology. They’re not open-minded at all and they lack common sense. But that’s just my view. What am I missing? Why are we electing people like that to the Metro Council?

Glover: Well, because most people don’t think local elections are important. I think if you bore down on it, I think there might be three of us that are actually fully self-employed on the council. I believe two of those are Republicans. One of them is a very moderate Democrat which I have a great relationship. Let me just say. Often we both are very similar because we understand the bottom line. And who you vote for for president, that’s your choice. Certainly, I didn’t like the way you described it in the last segment I believe how that worked exactly.

But, you know people need to understand the local elections we’re going to hit you a lot harder than the feds will because what we do every day affects your life every day. And I preach it and I’m going to be preaching it for the next two and a half years. You better wake up. you better understand. Because if you don’t the Nashville that so many of us love is dwindling rapidly, but it will be completely gone unless we wake up and start demanding that we have a responsible government.

Cunningham: Steve, this is Ben. What do you think is a realistic upside for Republicans if Republicans really get to work? And I want to emphasize you one countywide. You got elected countywide.

Glover: With almost 40 percent of the vote. With almost 40 percent of the vote.

Cunningham: Right. If Republicans get to work in Davidson County? What is a realistic upside out of those 40 seats?

Glover: I think that if we concentrate it properly and if we look at the conservative moderate libertarian base, then what you’re looking at is somewhere between 12 and 15 seats. That’s enough to make a difference Ben. As you are well aware. You’re pretty familiar with Metro Council. If you’ve got 12 to 15 seats, that’s a big enough voice to make a big difference.

Leahy: Well, the thing is we look at this and it looks like the next election for city council is a little over two years from now in August of 2023. We’ve got a long haul in the next two years. How frustrating is it to actually say things that make common sense and when the vast majority of your colleagues on the Metro Council, my words not yours, have no common sense?

Glover: Well, let me explain it to you this way. It’s a lot easier for me to do what my convictions are because I can go to sleep at night and I can lay my head on the pillow and I can know I’ve done everything I can for the taxpayers of Nashville and represented the people who elected me. It’s a lot easier for me to do that than to conform to something I absolutely do not agree with.

I do not believe in and feel like the taxpayers are the ones who ultimately are the losers there. So how hard is it for me? Believe it or not, it’s not that challenging because I’m that convicted to the people who elected me. And I told them I would go do and I’m doing what I said I would do.

Leahy: You represent the entire County.

Glover: Yes.

Leahy: When you go out in public and you talk to people, do you get a different rep reception from them than when you make a very good common sense point in Nashville Metro Council?

Glover: It’s actually kind of amazing the number of places I go. And I’m all over the place. I mean I try to be out as much as possible. I’m all over the place from Bellevue to Hermitage to Goodlettsville, Joelton, and all over the Brentwood area. And everything almost in between except for the downtown core. I mean, that’s a little far left and they don’t tend to like me very much there.

But the majority of the places I go, the reception’s unbelievable because there are a lot of Nashvillians that are extremely common sensed and fiscally conservative. No matter who you voted for President that’s your choice. But there are fiscal-conscious individuals that want to make sure that their children and their grandchildren have a city to grow up in along with a country. Ben, I think you said it earlier.

Tennessee is doing a phenomenal job. Our pension. Our Reserve fund may not be quite as high as you’d like to see but look at Nashville. Our reserve funds are just now getting up above five-six percent again because we tax people 34 to 37 percent. Our government has been irresponsible for multiple multiple multiple decades on the spending and it’s gotten worse over the last decade and a half.

And so now, I’m hoping people are waking up. and the one reason I preach the 100,000 strong is because in the last election our mayor was elected with less than a hundred thousand people. If we 100,000 get out and we vote and we work and we work diligently, we can make a major difference in Nashville and we can start turning the ship and right the course.

Leahy: Steve, on another topic that is of concern to many many people in Nashville and many business people, I saw a news report where Broadway and downtown Nashville was jumping pretty good this weekend. Lots of people coming in. The Fifth and Broadway development is opened up and that hopefully will be a shot in the arm to Downtown Nashville. When do you expect things to be back to normal?

Glover: Well, it should have gotten back to normal I believe by the first of June. It really should have Ben. by all indicators that that was the right time to do it. Some decisions were made whether I agree with them or not. The decisions have been made and it is what it is. And certainly, by the Fourth of July, we have to be demanding there were wide open for business.

Other states are doing it now and other counties around us are doing it. The only County that’s suffering financially right now is still Davidson County on sales tax because our people never stop shopping. They were going to other counties. So by July 4th, if we’re not opened up full blast, we better start screaming to the top of our lungs.

Listen to the full third hour here:

– – –

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.