2017)

Engaging today's political economy
with truth and reason

Bereans VLOG (9/15/2017)

16 Sep 2017

Mark Caleb Smith

The VLOG is back!

Coming next? Podcast.

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Katrina B says:

September 16, 2017 at 4:35 pm

I think Trump’s immigration talk now is definitely different from his campaign rhetoric, but I never expected him to stand by his rhetoric. He doesn’t really have much of a history of doing that. He does need to work with both sides and I hope they can work out a good solution without caving on everything.
Jeff Haymond says:

September 17, 2017 at 6:17 am

We ended the discussion on Title IX and today I read a masterpiece by David French over on NR on this; here is a snippet
“Universities do everything wrong. Everything. They combine lies about the nature and morality of sexual relationships with an enthusiastically permissive attitude toward party culture, and then they adjudicate the resulting painful confusion through incompetent, unconstitutional kangaroo courts. Oh, and they often act with condescending arrogance toward moral systems that elevate sex to its rightful, sacred place — in the union of man and wife. It’s a pitiful display. Truly.”

Well worth a read.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/451426/college-campus-sexual-assault-crisis-alcohol-root-cause-sex-spiritual-meaning
Anonymous says:

September 18, 2017 at 7:40 am

Time for a call in component gentlemen!
Nathan D. says:

September 18, 2017 at 10:29 am

With DACA, I think there is a general misunderstanding, and in some cases intentional distortion by Democrats, of exactly what Trump supporters, and Trump himself, were/are after as it concerns immigration. They want to make it all about racism and bigotry, but really, all that the majority of Trump supporters want is for the law to be enforced.

Now, on DACA specifically, there was one factor that I don’t think was mentioned in terms of the current state of affairs and that was a number of State attorneys general have an active lawsuit pending against DACA. As Dr. Clauson mentioned, there are serious constitutional questions about DACA and if it goes before the court, chances are it could be ruled unconstitutional.

So, really, what Trump has done is preempt that pending court case by creating this six month window to get something done. Most Trump supporters, as Haymond mentioned (87%) are fine with helping these people as long as the border is secure and the laws are enforced.

On the other discussions, I agree with Dr. Wheeler that unfortunately we are on the road to single payer, and on the topic of why Hillary lost, I think all four of you had good answers. All of the above on that one.
Matthew Beal says:

September 18, 2017 at 12:24 pm

There is an analogy to be drawn on Trump’s willingness to go work with Democrats on the immigration reform. There’s no doubt that some strategy could be at work here, but I think a reasonable analogy (although unfortunate in name) is that Trump is similar to a druggie. Unfortunate to say it that way, I realize, but the analogy holds some merit. In The Art of the Deal, Trump told us that he gets a “kick” out of making deals. It’s what drives him, much in the same way that a druggie is driven to get “hits” of some drug. If the druggie stops getting his supply of hits from one dealer, he can easily go find it somewhere else. He may prefer one dealer to another, but at the end of the day, a hit is a hit. Likewise, I think Trump wants to get his “kicks” from Republicans (we’ve seen heavy conservative influence, mostly behind the scenes), but he’s willing to go get a “kick” from the Democrats if he can’t get it from the Republicans. Of course, he’ll gladly go back to the Republicans, but they’ll have to offer a good deal (or maybe just a deal) to get him back.
Carter Miedema says:

September 23, 2017 at 10:38 am

Dr. Wheeler, you brought up that both parties are far too fragmented to unify truly under one party agenda. Dr. Clauson also mentioned that there were growing divisions. However, Dr. Smith said that the elites and leaders are still quite unified. Do any of you believe that the growing divisions among the party ranks will lead to a reforminig of the parties in any way? It is unlikely that the party names will die, but do you forsee any changes to the party platforms or the loyalties of rank and file politicians?
Jacob R. says:

September 23, 2017 at 11:09 am

It’s fascinating how one political character can affect both parties so much. One would think that President Trump would just affect the Republican party that he is a part of, but he is also having a tremendous affect on the Democratic party too. The fact that you guys were saying that he is causing the Democratic party to go even further left is really interesting. No wonder that there is so much division between the parties.
Tyler Jantzi says:

September 23, 2017 at 11:46 pm

I agree with Dr. Haymond, it shouldn’t be about who he works with whether it be Democrats or Republicans but it should be about what is the right thing to do and not about what his party backs. I also think that it is hard for Trump to negotiate with others in the political world because the political world is not business where people what the most efficient and most productive thing instead in the political world people care about being reelected causing many politicians to do things to “help” the population such as government hand outs which are neither efficient or productive.
Carlie Poole says:

September 24, 2017 at 2:15 pm

I find it interesting that Hillary Clinton has already published a book about the election so soon after the event took place. Also, the idea that her book tour is actually hurting the Democratic party and its future candidates, as well as showing how fragmented the party currently is.
Ben H. says:

September 25, 2017 at 5:49 pm

Congrats on the VLOG upgrade. One more time, though, I’d invite you to notice how much the Bereans’ lack of diversity stands out and resonates within this format.

And consider, for example, how cringeworthy it can get when four middle-aged white guys narrate campus sexual assault as either a) a question of legal rights for the accused or b) an inevitable consequence of loose morals. If you look between those two dismissive extremes, you might notice an estimated 21% of female undergraduates, whose lived experience as victims of sexual assault seems curiously outside your consideration.
Anonymous says:

September 29, 2017 at 10:34 am

I agree that Hillary is hurting the Democrats, and I’ll thank her for that.
I find Trump’s immigration to be lackluster. The wall is taking too long to be successful, and the immigration reform doesn’t seem to be coming as was expected.
SG says:

October 3, 2017 at 2:18 pm

While this Vlog stated some very interesting opinions about the (not-so) recent elections, some parts of the video were hard to listen or relate to because of the obvious bias. I hope that in future Vlogs, there will be a more balanced and future-minded focus about how to understand politics.
Michael O. says:

October 5, 2017 at 7:40 pm

I personally am very dissapointed with Trump’s presidency for the very reasons that you gentlemen have brought up. He promised so many things during his election run. He assured the American people that he would get Obamacare repealed and that he would pass a better more beneficial healthcare plan. Trump calls himself the “Great Negotiator”, and yet where is the proof? If by negotiating he actually deceiving then he would be correct. I voted for the man he promised to be, not the one he has been so far during his time in office. Very disappointed.