A California Revolution?

00:00 - Speaker 1
Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.

00:09 - Speaker 2
Hey everybody, welcome to the Jack Hibbs Podcast. Today we are going to be absolutely blown away. Stay tuned. I think we've got some hope and it's coming to California. If it's coming to California, then it's coming to the other 49.

00:21 - Speaker 1
Stay tuned into the other 49. Stay tuned, leave us one of those five-star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.

00:55 - Speaker 2
Well, everybody, welcome to this special edition of our Real Life Podcast, and we are really excited to have with us someone that's not going to be a stranger to you.

01:05
If you've ever watched Fox TV, fox News, you have seen his program, you've seen him as he makes commentary and as he brings insight into what's going on in our world, in our nation, specifically in the political realm, cultural realm, and I'm talking about Steve Hilton.

01:22
It is awesome to have Steve Hilton with us and he's got some things that I wanted. It is awesome to have Steve Hilton with us and he's got some things that I wanted to share. You're going to want to know, and I think, by the time we're done, you're going to want to get out the word about what Steve Hilton is doing, because, if you know anything about me and about us, we're all about having our faith make a difference in the culture in which we live in, and, as Americans, we can do that because of the founding of this country, founded upon not only the belief of the Magna Carta, but it was the Magna Carta that inspired our pilgrim fathers to pen a two paraphrased document called the Mayflower Compact, which is really the birth certificate to this country. And so, steve, I'm just delighted to have you.

02:06 - Speaker 3
Oh, it's so great to see you.

02:07 - Speaker 2
I'm telling you I'm such a fan.

02:09 - Speaker 3
Likewise. It's just an honor. It really is. What you've built here and with everyone is just phenomenal. It's so exciting.

02:16 - Speaker 2
Well, I tell you, I think that we share a lot of things and people might find it interesting that. So wait a minute. Jack, you're from San Diego and Steve, with that accent, is from where. Where's your roots? Tell us about your background.

02:36 - Speaker 3
So the accent. People would say, well, he's from England, but here's the journey, and I think that idea of the journey is very much in my mind right now. My parents are actually Hungarian. Both my parents are from Hungary and I was born in the UK. So they made their journey. They started in Hungary in a communist regime. They left and in fact my stepfather, who's also Hungarian, had a very, very difficult journey, very difficult journey.

03:09
He was in a village on the west side of Hungary and they heard on the radio in 1956, the invasion by the Soviet Union, the Soviet invasion. The Russians are coming and they left. They ran they were 14 years old, with his brother and some friends from school, and they ran and they went to the border with Austria and they tried to get out and some of them died in the attempt and they ended up in a refugee. He and his brother were okay and a couple of friends Many of their friends died trying to escape and then they were in a refugee camp in Austria and ended up in England. So this journey and I'll explain why it matters- so much to me, Please just go, just go.

03:48
I feel very, very deep. I think about it very deeply because of the nature of that effort to get to freedom. And so there I was born in England, with all the opportunities that that brings, compared to my cousins, who I spent many vacations with when I was a kid. We'd go back to communist Hungary and we'd experience what that was like and see it. But then we get to go back home to England, and that's where I was raised. I had an enormous opportunities there, and then, 12 years ago, the journey as far as I'm concerned was complete, because we moved here to California with my family.

04:32 - Speaker 2
Wait, you moved to California.

04:34 - Speaker 3
We moved to California.

04:37 - Speaker 2
You intended to do that.

04:38 - Speaker 3
Exactly On purpose. It wasn't an accident and it's a very interesting thing because we came in 2012. And that was for it's actually connected to my wife's work. At the time we didn't know that we were going to stay, we didn't really have a strong feeling about that. We just had our second son had just been born and she was traveling and it was just complicated for our family. At the time I had a big job. By then I'd done all these things and ended up in the government in the UK. I was working in 10 Downing Street, I was senior advisor to the prime minister, so I had this big job in the government and our family was. You know, it was just tough with a young child in the family. So we decided, for our family's sake, let's stay together, move to California, to the Bay Area. And then, four years later, this is when I think the final step I think really you could say took place.

05:30
I remember going back to England. I'd written a book about the importance of. The book was called More Human Designing a World when People Come First, and the theme of the book was that everything in our world has become too big and bureaucratic and centralized and distant from the human scale and we need to put humanity back at the heart of everything we do. That was the argument in the book and it did very well the year before when it came out. And then they published a paperback and I did an update for the paperback and it was the same time as the Brexit debate was going on.

06:06 - Speaker 1
Do you remember? Brexit?

06:07 - Speaker 3
Of course 2016, the first sign of this populist revolution that then, of course, Donald Trump led here in America. But this was a few months before it was Brexit and the paperback of More Human came out in the UK and I did an update and, in a way, the EU, the European Union bureaucracy, was a perfect example of what I was arguing against. So I laid out in the paper, in the update, that I was in favor of Brexit and that I went back and did the book tour and campaigned for Brexit and that happened. But I remember so clearly this is the moment I wanted to really focus on in terms of this idea of the journey Landing at San Francisco airport after spending a couple of weeks away campaigning for Brexit, and I just remember the plane coming in and I just sat back and I said to my I thought to myself, oh, it's so great to be home, that's so interesting. Yeah, this is now home, Wow. And then I thought about that and reflected on it, and it was home not just in a literal sense, but in a spiritual sense, because it was clear to me that America meant something very special, that I felt at home in America in a way that more than I had ever done in the UK.

07:26
And then even California and we joke about it and what a disaster California is and we can get into that. But there's something special about California that I have found I really connect to the way I put it now is that I was in love with California even before we ever moved here and in fact love with California even before we ever moved here. And in fact, thinking back on all these steps, I recall an article in one of the political magazines in the UK when I was working for David Cameron when he's the prime minister, and it was about the kind of ideas that I was trying to, you know, bring to the policy argument in England and implement in the government and the article was titled California Dreaming and the theme was Steve Hilton, David Cameron's advisor, wants to make Britain more like California. So that was 12 years ago, more than that more like 15 years ago and you think to yourself and you think.

08:18
Well, I say this all the time and I'm on the road a lot in California. I say is there a policy advisor to any political leader anywhere in the world who would want to make their country?

08:28 - Speaker 1
more like.

08:28 - Speaker 3
California as it is now no, not good counsel. There's a lot we need to change, but the reason I bring that up is that I love this state so much, because to me, it of what should be the best of America. It used to be Exactly.

08:47 - Speaker 2
And that's sad to say that it used to be, because everything, as you've traveled up and down this state we're talking about this earlier before where the geography of this state, the sheer beauty, the resources, the where you and I could go to the desert today and then be back in Newport Beach tonight yes, you know, it's just remarkable. That said, everything that's wrong about California is man-made.

09:14 - Speaker 3
This is the crucial point, and that means we can turn it around and also think about the fact that it's happened relatively quickly, because actually you don't have to go back that far. Even when we moved here, you could see things were wrong. It's 2012, but not like you see today. That's happened quickly. It is totally man-made, and the thing I always say about this point is that of course, we need to turn things around in California, and that's what I'm working on now, that's my focus now. But it's not just for us, actually, it's not just for those of us who live here now. That's right.

09:50
And for our friends and our neighbors, or even for our children or our grandchildren. It's bigger than that, that's right, and this is what I really connect with California, because to me it's the physical beauty, but it's the spirit of California, that idea of optimism and energy and innovation and just a positive spirit about things. That's really what California is all about. And actually, in that sense, there's a quote that I came across and I say this at pretty much every event I do, so forgive me if people have seen me say this before, but it's at the heart of why this matters so much that we save California. I read it, I think, sometime last year, and here's the quote California means to America what America means to the world. I agree, and that is so profound because if we think as I know we do that America is the greatest nation on earth, the greatest nation that's ever existed, it's ever existed. What that means is that California should be the greatest expression of everything that's wonderful about America.

10:53 - Speaker 2
I'm old enough to have lived the years where that was in fact true, where people longed to come here. Yes, not just America. They landed in America to get to California. Exactly, there's a reason why there's a Northrop. There is the Tesla, the Gold Rush, the Apple, the Disneyland. Yes, the surfing. You know, surfing was born Right In Huntington Beach.

11:14 - Speaker 3
Huntington Beach Surf.

11:16 - Speaker 2
City.

11:16 - Speaker 3
Yeah, Surf City USA, I know it very well yeah.

11:18 - Speaker 2
It's absolutely epic and in fact it used to be where California produced even politicians that were reputable. Guys like Ronald Reagan was California governor. But what's interesting is the change to the negative has happened so quickly where I can hear Steve, my naysayers who, a lot of them are fellow pastors who say you shouldn't be talking about, should never talk about politics. As a pastor, I think that's absolutely ludicrous. When I read the Bible, it is a book about God, his government, kings and kingdoms, and God's the one that says that you need to elect good people to office so people can live at peace, Because when bad people rule, the people groan. That's what Proverbs 29, verse 2, says that when bad people are in power, people groan. When good people are in power, people rejoice. California is a perfect model of that. California used to be the destination for the person that would say I'm going to head west.

12:28 - Speaker 3
Yes, this is what I talk about the whole time. The California dream right. Other states you know, with the greatest respect, of course they don't have that right and we know what that is the California dream. We all feel it right. It's come here, it's follow your dreams, it's raise your family in a home of your own. In a beautiful neighborhood. Enjoy the in a single-family home. Now we're not allowed to say that that's apparently evil to have a single-family home.

12:54 - Speaker 2
Well then, we have to say it louder.

12:55 - Speaker 3
Of course, exactly, and a good job that can provide for your family in a safe neighborhood, with a decent education, and you enjoy everything that California has to offer and that's just been taken away from people. So the California dream is something, but we know what it is and we know that it's missing and we need to put it back. But the point about faith in all this, I think, is so important in the interaction with politics, because you know we were talking about this earlier. Of course, it's true that the fundamental things are human. You know that it's about us and how we are and how we operate in the world and how we relate to each other and our families. And particularly, I want to focus on that word, family, please because this is, you know, going back to my very early days with David Cameron, when I was with him when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and we really connect. You know we were good friends and we really connected on the fact that family is the central thing, and in fact, I remember writing these lines for him, but I mean he felt it too, so I mean it wasn't as if I was putting something into his thoughts that wasn't there already. We both shared this sentiment.

14:05
The line was family is the most important thing in my life and it should be the most important thing in our nation's life. So if we believe that and I certainly do, and I say it today because I mean it well, then if you look at what government does in terms of the framework that it puts out there through which people have to operate the, the idea that people come together as a couple to raise children in a stable and loving way, then if the politicians are actively assaulting that with bad policies, then of course we must get involved in that fight, because that's the way you get to what we want to see. With bad policies, then of course we must get involved in that fight. Yeah, because that's the way you get to what we want to see, which is a society that's founded on these strong human relationships.

15:15 - Speaker 2
You graciously use the word if. If the government wants to help us be a family, the truth is because you're being so kind. The truth is they have proven themselves to be both California and nationally. They've proven themselves to be actually the opposition to the family.

15:33
They have done everything and they're doing everything possible right now to destroy the family. Because when they tax us, I think I just read this recently that the California, the California gallon of gas, one gallon of gas in California is taxed something like 15 times before it reaches your tank, and that's seven taxes more than any other state. Yeah, and how does that affect people? It affects the mom that's trying to get to work.

16:05
And then all of these things that are taking place where and you know this better than I do, even though I was born here, you've studied this well California has the natural resources. People don't realize this. We have oil. We literally have unbelievable amounts of oil. We still have gold mines.

16:24 - Speaker 3
Guess where I'm going tomorrow? Bakersfield. So you go to Bakersfield.

16:28 - Speaker 2
Stick a straw in the ground and oil comes up.

16:30 - Speaker 3
Yeah, kern County, 70% of our oil and gas reserves are there. These are communities that, and what are they doing? They're crushing it, but the thing that drives me crazy about this is that they're not doing it in any way. Crazy about this is that they're not doing it in any way. It doesn't make sense, even in their own terms, because, as they're crushing our industries and the communities that support them here in California, it's not like we're not using oil and gas. No, what are we doing? We're importing it from Venezuela, ecuador, iran. It's insane.

17:03 - Speaker 2
We are funding to put that gallon in our tank. We're funding the very ones who want to see our demise.

17:09 - Speaker 3
It's insane. And on top of that again, even if let's give them everything that they're arguing about climate change and carbon dioxide, whatever, even on those terms, it doesn't make sense. Because how does that oil get here? Supertankers they are the most polluting forms of transportation in the world, by a mile, it's true, some people have said in fact, arnold Schwarzenegger, who I don't always see eye to eye with on everything Agreed, but he's a critic of this he told me that the 15 largest super tankers on earth that are traveling the oceans, many of them carrying oil around, produce more carbon emissions than all the cars on earth combined 15.

17:57 - Speaker 2
You can't doubt that, because we're not all that far from LA Harbor and they're parked out there right now, and when they fire those babies up, when they, when they turn those ships on, there is a plume of soot for hours that comes out of those engines.

18:10 - Speaker 3
It's called bunker fuel. Bunker fuel, the type of it's just insane, wow. So none of this makes sense. But here's what's cool.

18:16 - Speaker 2
Here's what's cool. It's not that you and I are beating up on all of of government. I'm going to say government, I'm going to avoid politics. I'll tell you why in a moment. As I said, I grew up when, in the day California used to be when was the last time you heard this?

18:34
Everybody? California used to be famous for smog Smog you can't breathe. You can't breathe. I went to elementary school, junior high, where we had PE, physical ed, we had sports, we had games canceled because of the smog alerts, the sky was yellow and it burned your throat. You could taste metal in your throat, but there were some emission controls established and put into place. And today you'll be hard pressed and it's been true for over 20 years now you'll be hard pressed to find smog in California, including Los Angeles. I mean, you would have to be here on a very, very foggy day. That holds it in. Somehow. Technology works for the betterment of people, can make things better, but technology in the wrong hands or the fake move of technology where we've got to do something, we have to save the environment. California is actually a fantastic example of how, over the last 30, 40 years, the environment has been saved.

19:42 - Speaker 3
Exactly, and I always say this every time I talk about this subject. I always say look, I am an environmentalist. Conservatives typically in my experience, by the way, know a lot more about nature and have a stronger connection to nature than a lot of the people on the left who are lecturing us the whole time about it. And so, you know, next week I'm going to be visiting with our family in National Park. You know so we love nature. That's the most incredible thing about California this beauty that's here that we get to enjoy. We get to enjoy it if we protect it and we look after it and we pass it on to the next generation. We understand that. So the idea that, objecting to the insanity of some I call it they go on about climate policy, it's extremism. It's climate extremism. It's extremism. It's climate extremism. It's not sensible. It doesn't even achieve the objectives that they claim for it and in the process, people are being hurt.

20:39 - Speaker 1
So to get back to where, we started.

20:41 - Speaker 3
If you look at actually the framework for family life in California, so much of it actually is negative because of this climate extremism. So I'll give you another really good example, an issue that I've spent a lot of time working on through my new organization, golden Together, which focuses on Golden Together.

20:58
Golden Together, which is all about ideas and policies to turn things around so we can go get back to that vision of the golden state and the California dream. So housing is a really good example. So we now have the highest housing costs in America and the lowest home ownership Insane In California, the home of the California dream. And what you're seeing is the impact of high housing costs on families, because it's making younger people say, well, look, I can't start a family because we can't afford to buy a home and it's a really direct factor in that decision.

21:36
And also families leaving and saying, well, I can't afford it here in California never be able to afford a home, so we're going to have to move somewhere else. And that breaks up a family, because then the grandparents aren't there with the children.

21:48 - Speaker 2
That's reality, oh, but Steve. But Steve, you know I'm a Christian and you're mixing politics with my Christian faith. Wait a minute. What? What you're talking about is a reality. And for so many Christians they say well, I'm not going to vote because that's a dirty world. That's why you should vote. You should vote to help clean it up.

22:10
You should vote for the right people not sit it out, because we've all learned that if you sit it out, then the crazies get elected. And so when you talk about climate or pollution, or homes or oil, you're all talking about issues that actually deal with morality. And you said well, how can that be morality? It's the welfare of the human.

22:31 - Speaker 3
Exactly right. And that the strength of our society. If you measure the strength of our society and the strength of our families and strong families across the generations. Then we are the current. I don't even want to use the word leadership. The people in charge in California are actively undermining that through these policies and that's not what they think they're doing. I don't want to ascribe that motive to them.

22:59 - Speaker 2
You're so nice.

23:00 - Speaker 3
They're not saying I want to destroy the family unit in California and that's why I'm pushing this climate extremism, but that is the effect of it and, by the way, it is not an accident. It is the direct result of the policies. So why is housing so expensive in California? It's not the weather. It's not some inevitable consequence. We have plenty of room. It's because of the regulation.

23:21
There's two things that are driving it. One there's this thing called CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, which is abused Horrible, the name sounds good. It is abused to block the kind of housing being built that we need. They want to force everyone into tiny apartments so they can live like in North Korea. It's terrible, not in California. No single family homes. We can't have the suburbs. They hate all that.

23:43
They hate the suburbs and so even that's where people want to live and raise a family and that's how they want to live and enjoy the weather and have a yard. No, can't have that. And so this is being abused in order to block that kind of housing from being built. And the people also who are abusing sequa to block housing and barely anyone knows this and I didn't know it till I really dug into it the unions, people don't see that connection. The unions file lawsuits to block housing developments in order to extract concessions from developers. That's right. And so that's a whole scam going on there. That's right.

24:17
And then the second part of it is just the enormous taxes that are levied in particular by Democrat-run places, where, in San Francisco, for example, recently they call it impact fees, where they put all these different taxes on to the construction of housing. In San Francisco it went as high as $300,000 per apartment unit if you add up all the taxes, and so no wonder it's so expensive. That means people are leaving, that means the families are broken up. Grandparents don't get to see their grandkids because now the family's in Texas or Arizona or wherever it may be, and young people who otherwise, if they, could see a path to buying a nice little starter home where they could have kids and raise them the way that they want. They would get together and they would come together as a family unit, and that's not happening. So it's completely connected to politics and actually.

25:08
I would say if we want to see that vision realized of a healthy, wholesome society centered around strong families, then we have to engage in this fight, because it's the politicians who are currently fighting against that. We've got to kick them out.

25:23 - Speaker 2
Yeah, you know. So allow me to say this I'm going to represent team faith. If you're Muslim, jew, christian, it doesn't matter. I'm team faith over here on this side. And let's say that you're on that side and you're representing California's government. Wouldn't it be refreshing?

25:40
It said that that I think it's going to have to be this way, but it would be at least refreshing for a a California political individual to say hey, muslims, jews, christians, we got a homeless problem right. Listen, we've got a homeless problem. You guys are all about faith, right? You're about doing this love thing. So how about, if we help you, how about you help the state out? How about each church in every zip code area started adopting so many homeless people? You got people in your churches that own businesses. Maybe we can get these people taught and rehabbed and put back in the culture, the church and when I say church, I'm going to put again Muslim, jew and Christian.

26:27
They're blabbing off about how great they are. Why don't we shut up and have the governor or have the state legislature say you know, you guys have been around here since Father Sarah showed up. Why don't you do something good? We want you to fix the homeless problem. My goodness, I think the homeless problem would be done in months if houses of faith stepped up. But so many pastors I know are waiting for the government to give them a thumbs up about something. Well, I can't do that unless the government. Well, what if there was a leadership that said faith's a big deal, especially in California? A lot of people don't realize, steve, that Father Sarah was establishing mission stations in California at the same time. No offense to your English side but we were fighting.

27:14 - Speaker 3
Let's be clear I'm an American, so we don't have to worry about that.

27:18 - Speaker 2
That's right. While we're fighting for our freedoms in 13 colonies, father Sarah was preaching the gospel to the natives in California. Education, morality helped them, they helped them. What's remarkable is if and I do believe that California has got enough good people and enough people with faith that if a good idea was brought forth, it would be done. When you and I head up north on the five freeway, for example, and we get in just north of Bakersfield, you start experiencing farmland. Yes, some of the most prolific farmland on earth.

27:55 - Speaker 3
I was there last week. I'm in the Central Valley often.

27:57 - Speaker 2
It's one of my favorite parts of the state, so then, you've seen those signs that say something like this the farmer has on his property it's not a sin to grow food.

28:04 - Speaker 3
I know it's so offensive to me.

28:12 - Speaker 2
I mean, there's a lot If I can just sort of unpack, some of that, please go, go, go. I'm loving this.

28:16 - Speaker 3
First of all, let's just make the big point in relation to faith and the institutions of faith that operate in our communities. So that actually gets to a really deep point about my political philosophy actually, which that book that I mentioned More Human captures and I make the argument in there, but it's really what I try to bring Every time I've operated in the area of politics or policy. I mean, I've done other things, I've started companies and including restaurants. That is not an easy business to be in.

28:48 - Speaker 1
No, there's no way to do a restaurant.

28:49 - Speaker 3
Exactly so I've done. You know, I started a tech company here. I've done different things, but when it comes to politics and policy, the central idea and I think this going right back to where we started, why I feel so proud to be an American and so at home here the central idea that really drives me is the decentralization of power, putting power in people's hands. The decentralization of power, putting power in people's hands. That, of course, is the American idea. That's what it was all about putting power in people's hands, taking it away from a despotic monarch and putting it in people's hands. Now, how does that connect to policymaking? I have always argued that that's what we should be doing in terms of how we solve problems Take the power and put it in the hands of individuals.

29:36
I wrote a mantra for our policy reform program back in the day in the UK government and it was this we need to decentralize power wherever. The default assumption should be that power should go directly to individuals where possible, that's right. If not individuals, then the neighborhood, that's right and the local community, and only then to government and only in the last resort to national government. So that kind of cascading idea of power going as low as possible. In the Catholic Church they call it subsidiarity, where you just defer to the lowest possible level. Now what we're seeing, so what that means, is that actually the agents of change in our society to advance the goals that we want to see are individuals and families and community and members of churches and faith organizations, not the government institutions. And even if it is the government institutions, it should be the local government, because that's really connected to people and therefore represents people.

30:38
What you're seeing in California it's actually across the country as well is the exact opposite is power being taken away from the individual, centralized, you see it, at the federal level, where you have the federal government, the Biden administration, taking power. That it should never be involved. I mean and I'm a strong, I mean there's all the different amendments that we like to focus on when we have our political conversations. The one that I don't think gets talked about enough, that I feel very strongly about, is the 10th Amendment that makes it clear that powers that are not specifically set out in the Constitution are this is the quote are reserved to the states, respectively or to the people Right. That's the 10th Amendment. It's broken every single day with this enormous sprawling federal government bureaucracy here in California.

31:24
You look what's been going on in recent years, exactly Power over schools and all these things being sucked up to Sacramento, taken away from local communities. It is completely outrageous. A further point when you say, well, let's get faith organizations, community organizations, involved in helping fight homelessness, they literally are going in the opposite direction. For example, when it comes to homelessness, they passed this law in 2016,. Housing first right. That's the idea, doesn't that sound?

31:51 - Speaker 2
great.

31:52 - Speaker 3
Exactly. Well, what does it actually mean in practice? This is the law in California. If you are an organization that wants to help the homeless problem, help homeless people directly, you are not allowed to receive state money from the state government in Sacramento. Receive state money from the state government in Sacramento if you require abstinence from drugs or alcohol as a condition of participation in the program. So, as we know, everyone can see that the driver of this chronic homelessness problem is drug and alcohol addiction. That's immoral politics, Right, and they've made it illegal to actually that's the way I put it they've actually made it illegal to solve the problem. So if you are and I've met people in Venice and California, Venice Beach a faith-based organization that works with homeless addicts to help them get clean so that they can get their lives back on track, they are not allowed to take a penny in state funding. They raise all their money philanthropically and so good for them.

32:53 - Speaker 2
Yeah, and that's fine.

32:54 - Speaker 3
But all the organizations that are getting the billions and dollars of our money. You just saw recently $24 billion. No idea where it went. Exactly, it went to organizations that, explicitly, are prevented by state law from getting people off drugs. It is an unbelievable contradiction of everything that we know in terms of common sense and decency. Okay, so how do we change that? We have to elect people who have a different view, a more human view, and this comes back to the politics. And can't bad laws be repealed or changed? Well, there's a number of ways. I mean, look, that's why we need I talk about it all the time we need a California revolution. We need a revolution in California. My show on Fox called the Next Revolution.

33:35
I would say the whole time let's make the next revolution the California revolution, and it's not going to be easy. But all these people that say it's impossible and that this is a far left democratic state forever, I think it's absolute rubbish. There's a real hunger for change, more now than ever, exactly, and people can see what a disaster it is when you have this one party rule, one party in control, for, like was it 20 years now. It's a disaster. So we have to fight for the change and fight to take that power and put it back in people's hands. You can't do it overnight. It's going to be quick. You've got the state legislature, but we need to elect people to statewide office who actually believe in common sense, practical solutions to these problems that are all about putting power in people's hands and solving problems and restoring the California dream that we all cherish so much. It's so awesome.

34:27 - Speaker 2
I would love to figure out how to encourage good people wherever they're at right. They're in business, or they're in the church, or they're in the, it doesn't matter. They're just good people, they're qualified, they're good people to run for office. There's so many people that view running for office as oh man, why would I subject my family to this? Why would I do that? And I understand that. But you know it wasn't a Reagan that said something to the effect that we're just one election away from losing our freedoms. Yeah, or it's just one generation away, our freedoms, or it's one just one generation away.

35:12
We're at the point now where I had a conversation with somebody who's an attorney. He said I'm, um, I, I live here, but I, I, I'll never get to get involved. And I said well, how much, how much do you love living here? Oh, I love it. And this particular person's got a mega million dollar home overlooking LA and the LA Hills, a name that people would know legally throughout the United States and he was telling me why he's not going to get involved. And I said well, how much do you like your house? Well, I love my house. I had this house built. Do you plan on moving. Why should I move?

35:43
And I said well, you know what? If things keep trending politically in California the way that they are, you're not going to own this house much longer. You're not going to have the freedom to go, do what you do. You are not going to everything you fought for and you've made this state, left as it is, is going to take it from you. And he actually paused and he said you know, I had not thought about that. I'm ashamed, I haven't thought about that and I just find it remarkable that so at my age, I'm almost 67. And so I've had kids and I've got grandkids. I remember when my kids, we had not yet had grandchildren. And I'm thinking. I was thinking okay, I have fought the fight and it's time for me to hang on my gloves and let the next generation fight, and that would be my kids.

36:32
And then you have grandkids, and then it's like gloves, come off the wall, back on because Interesting. Yeah, I found that to be shocking. I mean, I've actually experienced that where it's like, oh my gosh, I've got to get back in the fight. So you're never too old to fight. Yes, but I love the simple answer to what people think is a really big problem oh, why vote? It's all corrupt. Let's assume it's all corrupt. You still have a chance to vote. Oh, so how do you fix corrupt? Everybody goes and votes.

37:04 - Speaker 3
Exactly. Look, this is the thing. First of all, I'm all in for this fight. I mean I'm not there's no announcements today but I'm telling you that this is my commitment now. This because I feel incredibly strongly that I've had this amazing opportunity since we moved here to America and to this beautiful state of California. I've taught at Stanford University, I've done a tech startup. I had this incredible and unexpected-.

37:30 - Speaker 2
Not bad for an Oxford man.

37:31 - Speaker 3
I know exactly, I've done this incredible, very unexpected career in the media, which has been a great blessing, and so I feel like I've had all this and so I need to put it together to actually make something of that opportunity that I've been given. So, you know, stay tuned on that front. But, in terms of the politics, I think it's just really important for people to remember that we have the power. We have the power, they don't have the power. We can insist on the changes we want to see, and there's more of us than them. There's more people. I mean, I call it team sanity, right, there's more people on team sanity than there are on team crazy, which is who we have in charge right now. And actually the demoralization that seems to be going on, where you have this narrative being pushed constantly by the media, by Democrats, which is, oh, it's Democrat state, democrat state. Republicans can't win in California. They want us to think that, but Democrats have't win in California. They want us to think that.

38:33 - Speaker 2
But Democrats have been winning in California.

38:34 - Speaker 3
They have been. That's because the Republicans and I don't want to blame anyone in particular, but for whatever reason we haven't had that energy and the leadership to fight. Now, if you look at what's going on across the country, but also here in California, you see signs that I think absolutely point to an awakening and people saying, look, we've had enough of this. Even in San I live in the Bay Area in San Francisco just now you had an overwhelmingly Democrat city vote for policies on crime that you know if a Republican had put them forward two years ago would have been condemned, you know, as racist and whatever, for supporting the police, giving the police more power, et cetera. Right, you've got the.

39:17
You look at just now Gavin Newsom's ballot initiative, which was they assumed would sail through as his kind of flagship policy, his legacy. That was how it was all framed. There was no money spent against it huge because they couldn't raise the money. Huge amounts of money spent in favor of it. It barely squeaked by 50-50. Huntington Beach is a great example. It is. They've taken back power. That is a great example I always talk about. If you want to look at the California Revolution, what's happening in Huntington Beach, the revolution there I mean Tony Strickland who led that good friend of mine he's very much involved in my efforts now and that's you know.

39:57
There are signs everywhere. Another thing that's so important to bear in mind you look at our state. We're now the largest group in our state Latinos 40% and you see what I mean. I shared this number with you earlier. It's an amazing number. If you look at the Latino vote across the country and you go back to the last presidential election before Donald Trump came on the scene, so this is Romney Obama 2012. The New York Times Siena poll 2012. Latino vote Obama 72%, romney 23. Same poll, exact same poll about a month ago. Latino vote Biden 40,. Trump 46. We've gone from a 50-point Democrat lead to a 6-point Republican lead.

40:43
That is an absolute transformation that is, and so if we can capture even some of that energy for positive change among the Latino friends and neighbors we have here in California, we win.

40:56 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I love this, steve. The Bible says God says my people are perishing for a lack of vision. Isn't that a beautiful statement? Yes, yes, with what you're just saying. If a vision was given, people rally around direction when kids don't listen. This Dr James Dobson, like 50 years ago, did this study. He was a big wheel at USC School of Psychology and Pediatrics. They had a. They put a bunch of kids out in a big, big open field and these little kids all congregated together because they were afraid to wander out, because there were no fences. The kids didn't know there were fences, but they knew that there were no fences. They looked around and it was so vast that the little kids huddled together. The moment they came in with this psychological test. They put up fences and the kids came back the next day and they went all over the place, even some of them by themselves, kicking the ball, running, playing.

42:00 - Speaker 3
It's a wonderful story.

42:02 - Speaker 2
The fences structure vision. Vision gives you guidelines to where. You know if you're succeeding or not. You know if you're getting closer.

42:11
In this nation, we have removed the fences so nobody knows exactly where are we. And the fence I mean. People are going to yell at me for being a Christian nationalist, which I'm a Christian and I love my country. I think if you're German, you should love Germany. Crazy thought. But anyway, I think that if we were to reintroduce into our public school system a season of teaching the constitution, what is the bill of rights? By the way, does anybody know what the declaration of independence was all about? What are these things? What is this division of power, these three governmental agencies which were found in the book of Leviticus? John Locke literally cites scripture about the separation of powers. There's kids graduating from school. I got to tell you something to prove my point.

43:12
Lisa and I were on vacation. We were, we took a tour of the Supreme court in DC and you know, when you take a tour of the of the Supreme court, uh, it's with uh, a law student from some of the some local college. And if you've been to the Supreme court, just like in the state capitol, moses is represented. There is Moses. He's looking right at the chief justice, right straight down the middle of the 90s, right in the middle there, and it's Moses. And then all the lawgivers are reliefs on the wall. But it has. Well, we don't know what Moses looked like, but it's Moses' face and it says Moses. And I just thought for fun in the group I asked the guy hey, who's the guy in the middle? Yeah, it said Moses. He said, excuse me, what In the middle? Now, I don't know if he was blind, he didn't read, I don't know. But he said I'll get back to you before this tour is over to answer that question. He didn't know who that was Point being. It's not his fault.

44:21 - Speaker 3
The point being is we're raising up kids that know more about Madonna or Taylor Swift than they know about George Washington, I would say it's yes, yes and worse than that, to the extent that they are taught anything about America, it's negative. It's negative and it really is true. It's not an exaggeration. If you look at the curriculum, if you look at the details of what's being taught in public schools over the last few years, taught in public schools over the last few years. It is a nonstop diet of negative argument about America's history and of course we're not going to say everything's always positive. No, of course not Life's messy.

45:05
You don't ignore the positive, and actually I mean, for example, this idea that America is a racist country. It's just so offensive to me.

45:15 - Speaker 2
Who elects a black president?

45:17 - Speaker 3
And if you look, there's nowhere in the world where you would rather be someone of any race than America, if you want actual opportunity.

45:25 - Speaker 2
Nowhere in the world People want to break into this country.

45:27 - Speaker 3
It's ridiculous, but the constant diet now is colonialism and oppression and this and that, and it's just so dispiriting, literally dispirited. It takes away the spirit of optimism about what America can be, and so that's really important. And if you look again, going back to how we change this, in the end it's not going to happen unless we get in the fight to change it. So what does that mean? That means electing people on school boards who can influence what happens in the school. But that's not enough, because here in California look what happened you know this very well here in this community which is you try and do something at your school board that they don't like in Sacramento, what do they do?

46:10
They sue you and they try and pass a law to stop you from ever doing it again or anyone else doing it again at the local level. So there's no substitute for actually getting in the fight and getting people in positions of power at every level of state government who believe in the ideals of America and of California.

46:30 - Speaker 2
To underline and underscore what you just said. In the midst of that battle, this was the circumstances that caused Gavin Newsom to secretly deploy his Secretary of Education, tony Thurman, flew down here and showed up at the school board meeting and tried to declare the governor's wishes that parents should not be allowed to know what the kids are being taught. This is the children's rights that we must protect, and our school board crafted local you talk about the power of local government Our school board crafted the local verbiage of. We will not allow our children to be exposed to pornography of the mind in any way, shape or form, words or pictures. It's not going to happen. Newsom was so upset by that that he sends his thug down to stop and the citizens took the man outside and made national news. Yes, it's remarkable, but what you need to think about, friends, is why would an elected in what is supposed to be a republic form of government try to stifle the very will?

47:43
in this case of a local government, let alone the state of California.

47:46 - Speaker 3
Well, they do it the whole time. I mean, this is what's so laughable about their endless lectures about how they're the ones that are standing up for our democracy. Our democracy, that's all they say is democracy. But when they don't like the answer, they override it, try and overturn it. I mean, we talked about Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach just passed, the council led it and they put it on the ballot and the voters passed voter ID for elections in Huntington Beach. What happens next? They, almost the next day, from Sacramento, they sue them to overturn it. And, just like with the school, there is now a law going through the state legislature to bar any city or location in California, any entity, from requiring voter ID. So it's nothing to do. It's not our democracy that they care about, it is their power.

48:37
That's all they care about their power, by the way, to implement what is very clearly now a far left ideology. It is not just regular democratic politics that we were used to, maybe from the Clinton era where a bit more taxes a bit more regulation.

48:53
No, this is a far left ideology. They have the themes of it, incredibly destructive of our social fabric. The obsession with race and gender and climate extremism is so destructive of so many things, and they have nothing positive to say other than give us power and let us run your lives, and that is the opposite of what California should be all about.

49:17 - Speaker 2
You guys, everything Steve is saying right now. If you're saying, well, I disagree, I disagree. Well, isn't it interesting? Listen, everything that a community or this culture in America or in California tries to do, that's good. Okay, and I'll say it because Steve's timid, it's Democrat, it's Democrat, I'm not. Listen, I'm not all out on the Republican party there's some train wrecks on that as well. But 100% of the Democrat power brokers in Sacramento attacked Huntington Beach, trying to send a message to the rest of the cities of California. That's thuggery, that is bullying. Isn't it amazing? Who's going to say bullying's wrong? Oh, the Democrats are going to say bullying's wrong, but they're the ones that do it.

50:07 - Speaker 3
But there's so many examples I mean you shouldn't spend all the time on it, but you could just list them. For example, a ballot initiative that qualified for this year's ballot the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act. This was a ballot initiative. Howard Jarvis taxpayers Business Roundtable put it forward and got hundreds of thousands of signatures through the constitutional process to qualify for the ballot, of signatures through the constitutional process to qualify for the ballot. It would limit the ability of governments up and down the state, state and local to raise taxes in an unconstitutional manner. It's restoring the protections for taxpayers that had been there years ago. So guess what it qualifies for the ballot.

50:46
So the Sacramento Democrats try and take it off the ballot. They're suing. It's going before the Supreme Court. I don't think they're going to succeed. They try and take it off the ballot. They're suing. It's going before the Supreme Court. I don't think they're going to succeed. They try and take it off the ballot.

50:55
So you can't even have a say. I mean, the whole thing is just so extreme and what it really shows you is the arrogance of power. They are so arrogant, this assumption that they'll be in power forever, that they can do whatever they want and no one's going to complain and no one's going to stand up to them. I think those days are over. People are complaining, they are standing up to them, and I think we're going to win this California revolution, because you can't push people so far to the left and not have a reaction. And people are seeing it right across the board in their daily life, on every single area the education that's going on in their kids' schools, the crime, the crime, the safety, the homelessness, what they pay for their utilities, the gas prices, the rent, the house prices, you name it. There's nothing that's going well. It is all going in the wrong direction and at the heart of it is something that I think is very profoundly anti-Californian.

51:49 - Speaker 2
Absolutely.

51:49 - Speaker 3
Because the whole spirit of California is do your own thing, live your life, live how you want to live, come here to this amazing place and follow your dreams. And instead, of, these people are telling you no, you can't have this, you can't live in that kind of home, you can't drive that kind of car, you can't cook your meal on that kind of stove, no, no, no. That is not California, that is the opposite of California. That's why I think we're going to win this fight.

52:14 - Speaker 2
I so agree, and here's why I'm encouraged. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why, but when you get knocked down so much, so often, that eventually you either don't have the strength to get back up or you decide this is the last time I'm going to get knocked down.

52:34
And everybody knows this in a school yard where you go. And now I'm not endorsing this kind of counsel, but this is how I was raised. My dad taught us that there's going to be a bully Everywhere there's a bully. Um, there's going to be a bully everywhere there's a bully. And he said, the best thing to do regarding a bully is when you are, when he's a confirmed bully, um, taking everybody's lunch money and all this kind of stuff and pushing people around. You just got to walk right up without warning and punch him right in the mouth and he may turn around and beat the tar out of you, but he'll only do it once, yeah, and he will stop doing it for the entire rest of the year. Because, number one, somebody stood up when you stand up, and I think that's where California is right now.

53:24
California is starting to stand up. We have indicators of life again why there are bills being written. There are good things starting to trend. There's congressional races that in California flipped. In Washington DC, congress and Nancy Pelosi had to go home. That came from California. Local governments, school boards that whole national school board debate started in this city. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of good. So, steve, we got about two and a half minutes left. I want you to just go on or go for it.

53:59 - Speaker 3
Look, I thank you. I mean, look, first of all, thank you so much. It's great to be here. I love to be part of this. You know, I feel such a great connection with everything that we're talking about and I just want to say, look, we can do this right, we can do this I've got this is just the beginning for me. We started off talking about my journey, the journey home to California. I want to make California what it should be this vision of the most optimistic, positive, innovative, high energy place on earth right. That's what it needs to be again, where people can come here and live the life that they want to live and raise their families, do it affordably, in security and prosperity and in a in a way that spiritually nourishes them and their community. I think that is what this is all about, and I'm now committed to doing that, that I'm on the road the whole time. I'm traveling the state we're building and building. We're building a movement for change. The first part of it is this organization, Golden Together. People can check that out, Golden.

55:01 - Speaker 2
Together.

55:01 - Speaker 3
GoldenTogethercom that's really a policy-focused organization the ideas that will help restore the California dream. But that's just the first step. We're really getting going here because I think that it's just too important, as I said, it's too important for us here in California, for the country. We are not going to let California slide into this kind of swamp of negativity and failure. Right, that is not going to happen. And when people say I hear all the time when I sort of point out the things that are going wrong and you hear particularly from people in other states well, just get out, just leave. I would say why? Why should we leave? Right, why should we leave? Because they, the far left Democrats, have gone completely off the rails with this extremism and sent everything in the wrong direction? No, they're the ones that need to leave. They need to leave office and we need to help them on their way. That's what this is all about. That's how we save California, and if we save California, I firmly believe we help save America too.

56:02 - Speaker 2
There's no doubt about that, absolutely. That's why, listen, I'm inviting, I'm appealing to the logical Democrat. I'm inviting, I'm appealing to the logical Democrat. Maybe you've been brought up a Democrat and you you've always voted Democrat because your mom and dad, your grandma, grandpa. But it's time for you to think right now for yourself and to come on over Now. I'm not saying come on over to the Republican side, as I said, there's a lot of crazies in that camp also but my point is this there's, there's this there's one party that is for total, absolute control, and there's another party that wants to let you be free. One party is absolutely take from you and give to people who have not worked for it and call it a day. There are others who say listen in your prosperity and in your wealth, help us, help these and those that cannot be helped. Well, that's what state institutions are for. For you to start thinking. Or maybe you've been conditioned California is lost. Well, wait a minute, it wasn't always the case. So if we roll back the hands of time and start doing what worked, it'll work again, because truth never changes. And so we're living in a time, right now, everybody, where we need to get involved. You can't sit it out Exactly. And to prove the point, isn't it interesting Now Steve and I travel a lot when I hear people in other states say to me man, we need you guys in California to straighten it out, we need you guys to get it right in California.

57:37
Why do they say that? Because what happens in California is exported to other states. This is the state that sets the heartbeat of the nation and it's been under the control of people who want to control you. It would be better if this state was under your jurisdiction, so to speak, the voter, so that those who are sent to office do the will of the people. And I agree with Steve 100%. Ten noisy people make it feel like there's 10,000 noisy bad people, but it's that silent majority that's got to start speaking up and you say well, I don't have a voice. You have the ability to vote. Make sure you register to vote. Steve. Where can people find you? More and more, I mean, you mentioned. Is there other websites?

58:26 - Speaker 3
Yeah, well there's. I have a weekly show, the Steve Hilton Show. Watch it. It's a podcast. It's a podcast, it's great. We talk about California, we talk about national politics. That's very good. You can follow me on X at SteveHiltonX. You'll be hearing a lot more from me about California and how we win this fight, because I'm very, very confident we can. I'm excited, Thank you. It's going to be great. I love it Good to see you.

58:53 - Speaker 1
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