Bottle Episode

David took the internet by storm last night when he joined a Clubhouse session called ...

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David took the internet by storm last night when he joined a Clubhouse session called “David French, Based or Cringe?” As David puts it in today’s pod, “There’s kind of a subculture where people really hate me!” Joined by a very special guest on today’s episode, David and Sarah chat about nominal damages, the constitutionality of H.R. 1’s effort to federalize elections, and the increasing number of state laws that are aiming to ban critical race theory from being taught in K-12 classrooms.

Show Notes:

–H.R. 1, also known as the “For the People Act.”

-“The New War on Woke” by Jeffrey Sachs in ArcDigital.

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  1. Caleb Ellingson

    Hey, random question, but could anyone link the twitter account of the person who created the club house room? I'm having a conversation about "anarcho-monarchism" and thought I remembered it being mentioned in the bio of whoever headed that room up.

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  2. carpenter

    Maybe I'll read everybody's feedback. Mine is that this was among the best hours I've ever spent listening to friends figuring out our current predicament. Thanks to all three of you.

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    Gib C

    Excellent podcast. Loved the special guest, and I am sure his opinions are correct and more thought out than many of the liberal ideas out there. And some of the conservative ideas also.
    Banning ideas from the public square has always rankled me, as people seem to forget they may not be in charge forever as was shown in ending the filibuster for judicial nominees. So banning critical race theory does not seem like a good idea, ensuring if it is taught there is appropriate material that is different and shows how it is not as easy saying that is the reason for everything being the way it is, seems more appropriate. As using its precepts as a foil to the other view of history could spark interesting discussion. Pointing out people feel differently today than then, and will feel differently tomorrow than today.

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    JohnF

    You guys were way too hard on yourselves! This was definitely an episode worth listening to!

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    JR

    "Needs more Brisket!"

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  6. Noah Largent

    Sarah: No reason to call this a "Bottle Episode"! I look forward to Advisory Opinions twice a week and this episode was one of my favorites from the last few weeks. In fact I MARVEL at your ability to multitask. Had you not let us know that you had the Brisket with you (granted I heard him few times, and as a parent, I loved it) I never would have guessed. Point being that although you may felt like you where off your game - it was another great episode!

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    S.Scholl

    Looking through H.R. 1 text, it doesn't appear to me that the bill expands the powers of the FEC beyond campaign finance oversight and regulation, which is very different than election administration. Election administration has no federal oversight beyond the DOJ. Although the Election Assistance Commission does provide assistance has the ability to set some technical standards that states often also adopt as their own. Seems hyper specific, but I just want to raise that some of the federal control issues that David raised aren't remotely possible without a true deviation from the FEC's current congressional authority--and the EAC would have some grumblings about that. Perhaps I misunderstood David's concern around how money could be spent in elections and that would further erode free and fair elections.

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    Ben Connelly

    I liked this Bottle Episode! I thought it was great! I’m honestly surprised you both didn’t think it was good even if you had less time to prepare. Seriously it was very enjoyable.

    I really appreciated hearing about David’s encounter in Clubhouse. As a not-very-online-person, I wasn’t aware of it (I don’t have clubhouse or most other social media). David, you handled it well. You are one of the few people in this world who most reminds me of C.S. Lewis’s New Men from Mere Christianity. I have a lot of respect for you and consider you one of the few public figures who embodies true Christian grace. I certainly would have gone in to that clubhouse call swinging and probably would have challenged a few people in there to fistfights by the end. That you could remain endlessly patient is impressive.

    To Sarah’s point right at the end: I completely agree - I have to be physically doing something when listening to anything or “watching” a video. I cannot just sitting (or stand, lie down etc.) and not moving and consuming a podcast or a video or music.

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  9. Mathew A

    First, let me state I agree with the general principle that we should be very careful what power you give to government, and you shouldn’t give power to government you wouldn’t want your enemy to have. Who holds the power can change quickly.

    That being said, I think it’s entirely reasonable that public schools (and universities to a lesser extent) should have a large say in what gets taught. To put it another way, this is public education funded by tax dollars. There should control there. So a state should be entirely within its rights to stop teachers from teaching white supremacy, or the woke version of it, that white people are the root of all evil. To put it another way, why should our tax dollars pay for teachers to teach students to hate America, that capitalism is evil etc.


    Moreover, I would assert that failure to take back our education system would almost ensure that a woke-socialist ideology would become dominate in our society. After all that’s the point of what they are doing, indoctrinate kids before they know better.


    As for HR1, I’m not sure why you are so unconcerned by the efforts to make election fraud easier to occur. I agree that Trump’s election fraud lies were false. But that doesn’t mean we should be making it easier for fraud to occur. If anything we should be taking every step to assure those Trump voters that fraud won’t occur in the future. Requiring in person voting with ID seems like a reasonable compromise to me to ensure faith in our elections.

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    1. Laura P

      These issues are hard when we have a society that can’t agree on facts, much less values. I remember when state and local school boards wanted to suppress the teaching of evolution. I always felt sorry for those kids who were going to graduate into a world that runs on science. You may believe with your whole heart and mind that God said, “Let there be light.” Doesn’t mean that you ignore or deny the science that brought you the light bulb.

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  10. Michael York

    Re: the "bottle podcast". If one watched (as I did, back in the day) Johnny Carson on a nightly basis, one could discern that he, like all humans, had "10" nights and "less than 10" nights. His greatness was that his "less than 10" nights were still very good. They only suffered by comparison with his "10" nights. In other words, his worst was still better than almost anyone else's best. The same goes for Ms. Isgur and Mr. French. I am a self-confessed fan boy. That said, I nonetheless think today's episode sounded a *lot* better to the listeners than it did to the speakers. I never listen to AO without learning something, usually a lot of things. Today was not an exception. And I never, ever listen to AO without experiencing the pleasure of hearing two extremely smart, extremely charming people discuss things insightfully and very knowledgably, but also politely, respectfully, even affectionately. What a privilege! Thank you so much for what you do!

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