Episode 64: If You Want Real Change, Keep It Local

Andrew Roth
There are a lot of libertarian conservatives who, want to be left alone, live the American dream. So I’m very bullish on western United States for RF.

Michael Schaus
This is Free to Offend. I am your host, Michael Schaus. Federalism is incredibly important. I mean, I know that we all like to focus on what’s going on nationally. And we like to focus on President Joe Biden or President Donald Trump, or we like to focus on what’s going on in the US Senate or the US Congress. But the truth is most of what impacts your day to day life happens on the state level.

Just look at COVID. I mean, it wasn’t Donald Trump that shut down the economy. It wasn’t Joe Biden that shut down the economy. It was your governor. It was your state. It was your city. It was your local politicians that made most of the decisions that dramatically impacted your life.

And for that reason, I am very, very happy to welcome our next guest, because he certainly seems to get this. And I know that his organization really understands the impact of federalism and how we need to focus on what’s going on at the state level, not just what’s going on on the federal level.

So please welcome Andrew Roth. He is currently the president for the State Freedom Caucus Network. Gosh, for 18 years I think he’s been with the Club for Growth and the Club for Growth Foundation. Now he is leading the State Freedom Caucus Network, which is a great organization. Basically shorthand, this man has been fighting the good fight for a very long time. So Andrew, thank you so much for joining us.

Andrew Roth
Hey, thanks for having me.

Michael Schaus
First, I guess let’s start a little bit. Tell me about the State Freedom Caucus. I mean, we know the Freedom Caucus in Congress and you know, certain Republicans belong to it and what have you. On the state level, you guys decided to start doing this on the state level and create Freedom Caucuses in a variety of states? First question is why? And I guess the second question is, how’s it going?

Andrew Roth
Well, first of all, it is going great. We’re excited. And I’m happy to dive into the details and all the various things that we’re doing.

When I was at the Club for Growth and the Club for Growth Foundation, the last few years I was there, I had the opportunity to launch a project where we did state scorecards so we could see what was going on at the state level and see who the champions were, and who the bad guys were, frankly.

And in that process, I also had the opportunity to meet a lot of state lawmakers. And almost every single one of them to a person said that they wish they had something like the House Freedom Caucus in their own state legislature. And we started talking and we started figuring out why that hasn’t already happened. And it has in a few places like Nevada, but for the most part, there just aren’t, you know, 50 Freedom Caucuses in the 50 states.

And the reason why is because the establishment really does make things difficult for conservatives to operate at the state level. If you think about it, the establishment is operating at full capacity 365 days a year. The governor doesn’t, you know, stop being the governor when the legislative session ends. Conservatives, part time lawmakers, you know, they’re in the state capitol for the few months that they’re legislating. But other than that, it’s not a full time gig for them. They got to go back and clock into their nine to five job or go harvest, the, you know, back 40 or whatever. So they don’t focus on stuff as much as the establishment does. But all the agencies are open, the governor’s operating, all the lobbyists, they don’t take time off.

So conservatives really have things working against them. Where a freedom caucus could help is that it would provide that 365 days full support. State lawmakers typically don’t have staff and if they do have staff, you know, it’s provided to them by leadership, which means they they may actually have a mole in their office. So what we try to do is provide them with human support, you know, human resources. We want to provide them with communication support. We want to provide them with anything they need to help them advance the conservative agenda in their state. There’s a whole lot of other details that can go through but but to quickly answer your question that’s the the nuts and bolts of it.

Michael Schaus
Yeah, and it’s it’s a great point when you talk about the part time lawmakers because I love the fact that we have a part time legislature here in the state. You know, it’s I think there’s a lot of benefits to it. For example, you can’t have, you know, full time career politicians that this is all they do is muck around with your life. It’s nice that they only get, you know, a few months, every couple of years.

That being said, there’s a downside to it. And that downside is the fact that they don’t have, lawmakers just don’t have the resources. So as you point out the forces that are in the legislature are the forces like the state unions, and, you know, the school administrators when it comes to education, or what have you. These people that are already in government doing this stuff 365 days a year.

So from a policy perspective, that’s one of the reasons why when I looked at policy shops like Nevada Policy Research Institute or something like that, I always thought that they were kind of the backbone of the movements, because local matters. Most of our changes that impact us on the government level, happen on the state level. If you look at the shutdowns, for example, that was governors, and those were lawmakers. It wasn’t Donald Trump or Joe Biden necessarily.

So I’m glad to see that you guys are trying to make an attempt to here’s some infrastructure for conservatives and small government politicians. I imagine in some states, that’s going to be really difficult. Some states I think, are pretty natural fit for it, you already kind of have that culture in the legislature. I don’t know that Nevada still has that culture, at least not on a grand scale, because we’ve certainly been turning a little bit more blue. And I think that states like California, for example, and it just seems like a lost cause. You know, how’s it going trying to build this infrastructure in all these various states? Are you guys finding that it’s, in some states, it’s easier than expected? Or is it an uphill battle?

Andrew Roth
You’re exactly right. It’s different state by state. So just for background, we launched this entire effort last December 2021 in Atlanta. The Georgia Freedom Caucus was our first one. We then quickly launched in Mississippi, South Carolina, and then Nevada. And then after that, Illinois, South Dakota, and Arizona. So we have seven total right now. We plan to have about 10 to 15, 10 to 12, sorry, by the end of this year. And then we want to double that next year. So we’ll be in half the states by the time the end of 2023. And then ultimately, we’d like to be in all 50 states.

But to your point, you’re right. But it’s not what you think. Like in California, you’re exactly right. There’s no hope there for any time soon. But then in places like Tennessee and Alabama, we’re not having a lot of success there either. And the reason why is you really do need a core group of very dedicated conservative lawmakers to be your founding unit. And then hopefully, if you launch a Freedom Caucus, you start attracting attention from candidates, first time candidates, who want to run on the pledge of joining the Freedom Caucus and hopefully grow the numbers that way.

In South Carolina, they have been doing phenomenal there. They have 13 members, likely going to be up to 20 members very soon. In Arizona, they’re fantastic. They’re a third of the legislature could be after November. So we’ve got a lot of numbers. But each state is different. And, you know, we’ll save Vermont and California and Hawaii for the last ones. But I think we can pick up a lot of states in between.

And let me add blue states aren’t necessarily the worst ones. In some states, we found that the Democrats have been in charge for so long, they’ve gotten lazy. And, you know, if you can get five, six conservatives in there, you can muck things up really easily using procedures and just knowing how the rules of the chambers work. So I think we’re gonna have a lot of success in blue states that might revive the conservative movement in these states. And hopefully, Nevada is one of them.

Michael Schaus
Yeah, I mean, honestly, if you start making progress in Illinois, for example, that’s gonna give, you know, a lot of conservatives in other parts of the country a little bit of hope, because Illinois, you know, much like California. It has just kind of seemed lost. But, you know, I know folks from Illinois and, and it’s a very corrupt state, I’ll give them that. But it’s not a completely lost cause, so to speak.

Something I’m interested about, because you mentioned some kind of surprising states where you guys have had some trouble. And, you know, I think about the dynamic of like party politics. And I was recently visiting Utah. Utah is a very red state. But what’s interesting to me is it’s not the type of red you might expect in say, rural Nevada. And I think part of the reason why it’s because Republicans have such a stronghold there, they don’t even have to be, quote unquote, good Republicans or conservative Republicans to get elected.

So here’s a state, Utah, that’s super red. And yet they still don’t have reasonable school choice. They still have kind of messed up tax procedures and regulations or what have you. And I wonder if that’s been kind of a challenge for you guys, as you’re building this, this Freedom Caucus, you realize, in a lot of cases in the legislature, the people that are actually in the legislature, the good small government folks are a very small group, even of the Republican party, a party that you would expect to kind of champion what you’re doing.

Andrew Roth
Yeah, you’ve hit on what is arguably the biggest conceit that’s occurring at the state level, which is in very deep red states, the only way you’re going to win office is if you have an R next to your name. But that doesn’t mean you’re conservative. So there are very, very much it’s very true, that there are a lot of Democrats out there that are in office, but identify as a Republican. And what we want to do as we create these state Freedom Caucuses is exposed that.

The Freedom Caucuses will hopefully force very tough votes. And then, and this is the most important part, then be loud about it. So if there’s a big vote on a tax hike, or on abortion, or on critical race theory, or school choice, any of these big, you know, debates that we’re having now, if the Freedom Caucus is on one side of that debate, and there are a lot of Republicans on the other side, we want the conservative activists and the supporters of the Freedom Caucus to challenge those people and say, “Why did you vote like that?” And then also say, “Why aren’t you in the Freedom Caucus?”. And just put some pressure on these folks ultimately, so they either improve their voting record, or they get defeated in their reelection, or they retire. All three of those outcomes are fine with us.

Michael Schaus
You know, what do you say to the folks that that will argue in a lot of states and a lot of places within the states, you just can’t get conservative Republicans elected necessarily. So you kind of have to settle for some of those Democrats that are masquerading with an R in front of their name. You know, how do you respond to folks who say that that could be a real issue, and for example, a state like Nevada that’s turning blue? Could a more conservative Republican Party potentially lose more seats?

Andrew Roth
Yeah, Nevada is difficult. So let me come back to that. But, you know, in the deep red states, there’s no reason why a hardcore strongly constitutional conservative shouldn’t get elected in a majority of those districts. I mean, they’re just conservative district. You know, they went 80/20 for Trump, or 90/10.

In Nevada, obviously, things are a little bit different. Whether it’s blue, or purple, or, you know, I get the sense that Nevada may actually have a good year for Republicans. It really depends, you know, in the in the rural districts. I absolutely could tolerate a conservative, but maybe not in the more urban areas.

But let me say, the one thing that voters desperately want out of their elected officials is just authenticity and honesty. Tom Coburn from Oklahoma proved this in the Senate many years ago and there have been a few others out there since. But as long as you’re straightforward, and you don’t lie, which seems like a low bar for normal people, the voters will support you, even if they may disagree with you on issues from time to time. If they can look at you and go, “You know what, I don’t agree with that guy, but at least I trust him to be honest with me,” that carries a lot of weight with voters, especially in this day and age where our institutions are, are failing us left and right.

Michael Schaus
Well, and I always tell people, you know, pick your issues, too. Because you’ve got, you know, for example, school choice in the state is hugely popular, even within more urban areas. And you can be a conservative who might not normally be electable in a, say, blue district somewhere. But if you’re the only candidate saying, “Look, I want to give your kids better opportunities,” you can catch their attention, and you might actually get elected there because you’re hitting on the issues that those folks care about.

So with that in mind, what are some of the big issues that the Freedom Caucus is focusing on on the state level? I imagine each state’s going to be different, but you guys probably have a couple of big ones that you think, “Yeah, this pretty much every state that we’re in this is going to be an issue in the next year.”

Andrew Roth
Yeah, I mean, school choice is a once in a generation debate right now and conservatives absolutely have to seize on it. So that’s definitely an issue that all of our state Freedom Caucuses are working on. Arizona obviously just passed their universal school choice bill. But that doesn’t mean that the teachers union has given up and are going home. So they have to defend the successes that they achieved there, the Freedom Caucus does and conservatives.

But then we also know that there’s a lot of room to advance the ball on that issue in other states. South Carolina, they don’t have a lot of school choice, very deep red state, that should be a leading issue, and it will be.

ESG, (environmental, social and governance), if your listeners are aware of that, that’s a big thing. Not only does that impact, you know, having like diversity officers in higher education or in corporate settings, you’re made to feel that you’re racist, or, you know, all sorts of things. ESG and CRT (critical race theory), both of them combined, have really destroyed a lot of the institutions in our country. And so that’s going to be a big thing.

Energy is a big thing. And we’re witnessing that now on a global scale with what’s happening in the war in Ukraine and Europe. But it’s happening in the states. California is suffering blackouts. But it’s not just California. California went crazy far to the left, but other states thought that they were just being reasonable by transitioning to solar and wind. But even that’s been too radical. And so that’s going to be a big issue.

One last thing, which doesn’t get talked about enough, is just straight up cronyism. If a company wants to come into a state, they’ll shake down their elected leaders for subsidies and tax incentives. And politicians in the past have always said, “Yeah, this creates jobs. So it’s, you know, I’ll go to a ribbon cutting and handed out a big check, and everybody will love me.”

Well, we’re trying to change that we’re trying to make people aware that that’s not okay. It’s not okay to be giving tax dollars to a woke liberal corporation who is undermining your values, when they should just be making products and coming to your state only for for the right reasons, because you have a low tax environment or low regulation environment. They shouldn’t be coming there because they can hand out goodies and then undermine you and your family values.

Michael Schaus
Yeah, you know, we definitely know about that here in this state. I mean, Tesla, that was, excuse me, that was years ago was back in, I think 2015 or 2014, or something. They got basically a trillion dollar handout to build their Gigafactory in Northern Nevada. And I mean, it was massive. And the funny thing about it was later, a couple years later, Elon Musk said, “Yeah, we probably would have moved to Nevada no matter what, because thy had better taxes and everything else.” So you didn’t even need to hand out that money. And then of course, we’ve got the Raiders in Las Vegas, and that was, you know, $700 billion or something for a stadium that taxpayers are paying for.

And, you know, all these issues tend to overlap, because you look at Nevada, again, 2015, we passed a universal ESA program, basically what Arizona has, and that was ultimately taken away from us. You know, first, the court said we couldn’t fund it the way that we wanted to. And then, of course, once Republicans lost elections, Democrats came in and pulled it off the books at the behest of the teachers union. It was very, very frustrating.

And that, to me is one of the one of the potential, I don’t want to say roadblocks, but challenges that any limited government movement is going to have, whether that’s a think tank like Nevada Policy or its Freedom Caucus, or anybody that is interested in giving the infrastructure to the legislatures. The worry is not just winning. It’s keeping those wins. And we’ve seen that time and time again, where you’ll have, you know, here in Nevada, Republicans had a trifecta, they had the governor’s mansion, and both chambers back in 2015.

Andrew Roth
But then they raised taxes and did all sorts of liberal things.

Michael Schaus
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you know, I always remind people, it goes beyond just the election. Looking at this year with the red wave, you know, suppose that red wave potentially coming across the nation, are you feeling pretty optimistic about, I guess, just some of these policies in general?

I tend to look at things and I feel relatively optimistic on the national level because I think people are kind of embracing federalism again, and on the state issues, there are a lot of winning issues for the conservative side. I mean, school choice being some and rolling back some of the green energy things.

So how do you feel moving into this election season? Do you feel pretty optimistic about?

Andrew Roth
Well, the momentum is definitely on our side. But kind of like what happened with Republicans in Nevada, once they had seized the majority or had the power, they completely frittered it away. That’s what we want to not let happen in all of our states after November and in Congress, if Republicans are able to get the majority, at least in the house, maybe in the Senate. It really does depend on the policies you push after you gain the power. But you know, and then this is for my own self aggrandizement, but like, I really do think that our state Freedom Caucuses are going to change the way politics are played at the state level, because one thing that we really talk about over and over and over is, you need to force these debates at the state level, and be loud about it.

As you know, there is so much corruption that occurs at the state level. And I’m not just talking about the Illinois kind of corruption. I’m talking about the soft corruption that occurs on a daily basis, where lobbyists, elected officials and the executive branch are all in cahoots to push big government policies through. And somebody needs to put a check on that. And I think if we do that, and we do it loudly, I think we’re going to find that there’s a silent majority out there that’s going to back us up on it.

Michael Schaus
What is, in your opinion, going to be the biggest tool for for folks who are part of the Freedom Caucus? You know, you mentioned being loud, and like taking a stand and actually forcing some of these debates. And again, I go back to education savings accounts here in the state, you know, we had an opportunity after the court struck it down. The governor had an opportunity to call a special session and have the exact same people that passed the law the first time, you know, fix the funding, and he didn’t do it. And there just wasn’t, it was really, really upsetting from my perspective, as an activist, as somebody who was working for, you know, specific policy, it was upsetting to see all these politicians just kind of say, “Oh, well, we’ll see what happens in a couple of years.”

So my guess would be that would be the biggest tool that you have is just, hey, let’s force debates. Is that is that kind of your guys’s plan moving forward? Or is that going to be you know, just one tool in your toolkit?

Andrew Roth
So we kind of talked about this as the holy trinity of success when it comes to public policy. One corner of the triangle is the Freedom Caucus, the lawmakers themselves, the ones that are pushing the debate and making noise about it.

Another corner of the triangle is the activist community, the NPRI’s, the grassroots the supporters down there on the grounds. When the Freedom Caucus is fighting on the battlefield, they need to look back and see that there’s an army of support behind them. That’s what that is, the grassroots, the think tanks, the support from them, the angry moms and dads when it comes to school choice.

And then the third leg, which gets a lot of notoriety, but is very much needed, is just the financial support. So the donors, the the successful businesses that finally want to, now that they’ve, you know, been able to raise a family, save some money, and have defended, you know, have enjoyed the American experience of freedom, they need to help support the effort.

And so if you put those three things together, and you do it very, very loudly, I think you have a very high degree of success in every debate that you engage in.

Michael Schaus
Yeah, I really like thinking about those three, you know, those three pieces of it. When I look at the policy work that I’ve done over the years, one of the things I always remind people is you know, politics is only one part of it. Getting the quote unquote right people elected is only a small part of actually implementing change on the government level. And we saw that again 2015 when Republicans raise taxes.

But you’re absolutely right, that you need those three things to work in concert.

Andrew Roth
And do an audit of every state for those three things. Take California, for example. They’ve got plenty of money, plenty of donors, plenty of support there, but they don’t have lawmakers, Freedom Caucus type lawmakers. And while their grassroots support may be dormant or sleepy, they can be awoken. So California could be, you could advance the ball quite far if you just were able to elect about five or six really committed conservatives.

And if you look at, let’s say, Kansas, my home state. Not a lot of money, but you have some good lawmakers, and you have a grassroots that could be stirred to attention. But that’s where something like the State Freedom Caucus Network can come in because we can provide financial resources for a state that doesn’t necessarily have it.

And then once you get all three of those things spinning and advancing the ball, then it will generate attention, generate money, generate support.

So that’s what we’re trying to do, is go into each state and see where the deficiencies are and see if we can solve it.

Michael Schaus
Yeah, and I think, you know, some issues, some of that stuff’s coming together just kind of organically because of the hard work over the years. School choice being one of those. You know, you look at across the nation, school choice has been popping up just repeatedly again. In some places, you know, Arizona is fantastic, but also in some states in some jurisdictions where you wouldn’t really expect it.

And what I realized is that it’s because those three things accidentally or by design, are all coming together. There’s always been a lot of money behind school choice, people really pushing for, you know, that research and an activism and you know, the NPRI type of organizations have been talking about it for years. But right now, you also have, politicians have latched on to it, they realized, “Hey, this is a winning issue.” And thanks, mostly to COVID, you’ve got a lot of angry parents. You have that army of support. You’ve got all three things, again, by design or by accident that have come together. So it’s exciting.

Andrew Roth
Yeah, look at Florida. I mean, Florida’s got a ton of money. You’ve got a ton of activists and supporters and the conservative movement. I mean, Florida is so much more red than it was, if you’re my age, you remember when Al Gore and George Bush fought over Florida. Now, Florida is a firm red state. And you’ve got the lawmakers, especially in the governor’s mansion, who are willing to fight. And that’s why Florida is clearly the best state in the Union right now when it comes to limited government.

But then you’ve got states, you know, that are just so far gone, like, you know, Vermont where there’s not a lot of money, there’s not a lot of conservative activism, and there are no lawmakers there.

Our job at the State Freedom Caucus Network is just to try and advance the ball in each one of these states until ultimately, we’ve got all 50

Michael Schaus
Yeah, I feel like a state like Illinois, you’re probably lacking some of the lawmakers. But I know you’ve got an activist base in Illinois. I know that there’s some money out there.

Andrew Roth
Well, and truth be Illinois, a pretty conservative state if you didn’t have Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. I mean, the entire southern part of the state is firmly conservative. And you know, if you listen to the liberal press, they always kind of talk about downstate Republicans, you know, as these these, you know, these monsters. But there are a lot of good lawmakers and a lot of movement support in Illinois. We just need to change things in Chicago.

Michael Schaus
I feel like that’s, you know, that’s a narrative that is true throughout so much of the country right now. I mean, I come from Colorado, and Colorado was that way when I left, seven years ago, eight years ago, something like that. It was a fairly red state, you had a lot of, you know, deep red limited government. And even the outside of the Denver Metro area, some of the more quote unquote liberal areas were still very libertarian. They weren’t necessarily, you know, big spenders or anything like that, you know, you had really conservative kind of social liberals but but fiscally conservative folks throughout much of it.

And yet, Denver just runs everything. And Denver is run literally by some people who are self described socialists right now. And, we’re seeing that same thing play out here in Nevada right now, where you’ve got, you know, the Reno area and the Las Vegas area tend to be more blue, and they’re getting more and more blue, but the rest of the state is staunchly conservative or, or very libertarian.

And it’s, it’s always amazed me because Nevada has always struck me as a very libertarian state. And so it’s really sad to see, you know, kind of get tugged further and further to the left.

Andrew Roth
Let me let me make a point about that. There is something to be said about Western United States. I think a lot of our success in this first year or two is going to be in the western states. We are already have Nevada. We already have Arizona. I’m very confident that we’ll have Idaho, Colorado, Montana, and maybe Utah very, very soon. And I think it’s because of the things you identified, which is there are a lot of libertarian conservatives who, you know, want to be left alone, enjoy the outdoors, and just, you know, live the American dream. So I’m very bullish on the western United States for our efforts.

Michael Schaus
Yeah. And I think the whole culture in the western United States has for so long been very libertarian. And even throughout California, I noticed that tends to be, you know, you talk to the old hippie liberals and they’re really more libertarian. They just don’t want government to bother them.

And it’s interesting how the politics and what we started off this conversation with, talking about the government institutions and the government unions, you know, they are largely the ones responsible for turning California blue. It wasn’t a bunch of people saying, Hey, let’s start spending more money than we’re making.

Andrew Roth
And the university’s higher education,K through 12 those institutions are just filled with bureaucrats who have a very progressive liberal agenda. I’d have to look at a map, but if you just remove the 20 miles from the border the, those border states are pretty conservative. I know that’s for a fact in Washington and Oregon and in Death Valley along California. So we just gotta get those folks activated and excited and, and hopefully we can.

Michael Schaus
So if folks want to find out more about what the State Freedom Caucus is doing, where can they go

Andrew Roth
If you go to statefreedomcaucus.org, you can go to our website and see what we’re all about. We’ve got a video on there from several state lawmakers who kind of explain what we’re trying to do. We also have a map on there that shows where we currently have state freedom caucuses.

If you’re a state lawmaker and you want to set one up in your state, you can reach out to us through the website and we’ll start the discussion. Like I said, we’ve got 10 to 12 by the end of this. We’ll double that next year to be in half the states and then eventually all of them in about four or five states, or four or five years.

Michael Schaus
I love the idea, because again, you know, I think one of the best things that happened in the think tank world was when folks really started building them up on the state level, you know, 25, 30 years ago. And Ronald Reagan was talking about that. And you need the same thing in the political circles as well, if you’re gonna have that infrastructure for issues that we care about. So fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Andrew Roth
Thanks for having me. This was fun. I really appreciate it. And good luck to Nevada in the fall.

Michael Schaus
Yeah, well, you know, we definitely still have our work cut out for us, but again, I am pretty optimistic about it on the long term level.

Again, Andrew Roth, President of the State Freedom Caucus Network. You know, he makes a good point when he talks about the lawmakers and good policy and activists and how you need multiple things to come together in order to affect change. And that’s something that I really noticed years and years ago, what, eight years ago when I first showed up in Nevada and I first started doing work for Nevada Policy Research Institute.

As a think tank, Nevada Policy Research Institute is amazing and we definitely hit above our weight in this state. And we always have. I mean, ever since, ever since Judy Cresanta first created this organization, we’ve been far more powerful than really we ought to be given how many limited resources we have and limited people. And we’re one part of the multifaceted movement that you need in order to actually affect change in Nevada.

And we’re lucky in this state. We’re really lucky in this state. If you’re a conservative or you’re a libertarian or you don’t even like either one of those labels, you just want to be left alone and live your life, you’re really lucky. Because we already have a culture in Nevada that leans that way.

And I understand people are worried that that culture is changing because we’ve got so many people from out of state moving into this state, coming from blue states and bringing their politics with them, and I get it. I understand the worry. But part of the reason why so many people are coming here is because we are a state that lets you just kind of live your life.

So you already have that culture, that Western United States culture, in Nevada. It’s already here. We’re not like California where you’re so far gone, it’s depressing looking at the future. Here in Nevada, even when things are going bad, even when you’ve got quote unquote the wrong people in charge, you can look out at the landscape of the people that actually live and work throughout this state and you can say, “You know what? We’ve got some seriously great opportunities and we really do right now.”

And I’m not just talking about, oh yeah, the red wave or something. Even if the red wave doesn’t end up panning out at all in Nevada, and let’s say that Republicans do a horrible job campaigning and a lot of them end up losing, we’re still going to be looking forward optimistically in this state because of where we are culturally.

So we’re really lucky in Nevada. If you are part of the Liberty movement, if you’re part of the limited government movement, you’re lucky because we have something a lot of other states don’t have, and that is a pretty bright future no matter what happens at the ballot box. You know, you cannot say the same thing about California. I don’t even think you can say the same thing about my former home state, Colorado. But here in Nevada, you absolutely can.

But you know, this is one of the big reasons why you have to focus locally. You have to pay attention to your local elections. You have to pay attention to your local lawmakers. And quite frankly, you have gotta give support to your local organizations, whether that be the State Freedom Caucus or Nevada Policy Research Institute.

So go to Nevadapolicy.org, find out what exactly we’re doing, and get more involved. Also, go to Nevadapolicy.org/podcast and you will not only be able to sign up so that way you get all of our podcasts right in your inbox, but you can also send us ideas. If there are any guests you think that we ought to have on the program or any topics you think that we ought discuss, you can contact us through Nevadapolicy.org/podcast. Thank you so much for listening. This has been Free to Offend.

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 Free to Offend:
A podcast that radically defends free speech by regularly practicing it.

Produced by Nevada Policy Research Institute,
featuring Nevada Policy’s Michael Schaus.