00:00 A lot of leaders are struggling. They're not sure what to tell their flock.
00:06 They're uncertain of their own words. It doesn't feel stable to them.
00:11 What's your best advice to them? They're vital.
00:15 How can you help your enemies?
00:17 Contemplate that. You have political enemies. How could you speak to them?
00:21 How could you extend some sympathy out to them?
00:24 Figure out how you can talk to them because they're half your country in particular,
00:29 but increasingly every Western country.
00:30 The Democrats, you need to think about that disaffected Republican.
00:35 What can you say to invite him along? You've already got the people you've got.
00:39 And I know you have to pander to them in some sense.
00:42 That's the wrong word. And you should never pander, and certainly not to extremists.
00:46 But you should be thinking about the people you're not reaching.
00:50 They're your citizens, too.
00:52 You know, I was on Bill Maher's show at one point,
00:55 and he had a bunch of liberal people there.
00:59 You know, and I think of myself politically essentially as a classical liberal,
01:03 but in any case,
01:05 it was after the show. I want you to say that again because I think most
01:08 viewers think that you're
01:10 a conservative.
01:11 Well, conservatives tend to be more concerned about the preservation of tradition,
01:16 and liberals, classic liberals, tend to be more concerned with the,
01:20 what would you say, the sovereignty of the individual.
01:22 And they both have their point, believe me, they have their point.
01:25 But I tend more towards the sovereignty of the individual, so I'm more of a classical liberal.
01:30 So you're on the show, but you're not the most leftist person on the show.
01:33 No, no, and I'm certainly not the most political person on the show,
01:36 and Maher has me there, despite the fact that he thinks I'm a conservative,
01:40 and in some ways I am.
01:42 You know, and after the show,
01:44 the liberal types were all sort of
01:46 self-congratulatory, patting themselves on the back for being liberal types,
01:49 making cracks about Trump and about the stupidity of the people who voted for Trump.
01:55 And I was listening to that, and I thought,
01:57 I'm going to throw a little bomb in here just out of curiosity.
02:01 These people you're talking about,
02:04 they're half your country.
02:05 Pretty much, you guys are split exactly down the middle. It's half and half, right?
02:09 It's been like that for like 30 years?
02:11 That's right.
02:12 Right, right. So it's half your country.
02:15 They're your neighbors, they're the people down the street, they're in your family.
02:18 What exactly do you propose to do with these miscreants?
02:23 You have to live with them.
02:27 Silence.
02:29 Because I got under the conversation.
02:33 It's like, they're all bad, are they, those people?
02:37 You know, I am more liberal in my temperament.
02:39 I actually like conservatives better generally.
02:43 They're less arrogant in their intellectual pretensions.
02:47 You know, and so like a good, solid, hardworking, conservative, truck driving type,
02:54 fisherman, someone like that.
02:57 I like those people.
02:58 They're not deplorables.
03:00 So that's, I really do think there's a meditative exercise.
03:02 It's like, you think those are your enemies and that they're wrong.
03:05 It's like, but they're your people.
03:07 It's up to you to talk to them.
03:09 Are we not, are political leaders not expecting enough from the citizens voting for them?
03:14 Definitely not.
03:15 They, you know, and that's because they turn themselves over to handlers all the time and
03:19 craft their image.
03:20 What should they be saying?
03:21 What's the message that you think would work?
03:23 They should just tell the truth and they should use YouTube.
03:28 They should just talk to people.
03:30 No script.
03:31 They should just talk or maybe have someone that they trust ask them questions and they
03:35 should just tell them what they think.
03:37 Unvarnished.
03:38 Assume your audience is intelligent.
03:39 They're way more intelligent than you think.
03:41 I never simplify anything I'm saying.
03:43 I try to say it as clearly as possible.
03:46 You know, I try to make it detailed and practical, but I assume the audience is along for the
03:51 ride and they are.
03:52 And it's so fun in a strange way.
03:57 The YouTube comments, you know, apart from the odd person who really hates me, and it
04:01 doesn't happen very often, all the YouTube comments are positive.
04:05 YouTube comments, they're positive.
04:08 It's like, hmm, what the hell?
04:10 Rex Murphy, one of Canada's great journalists, a profound man, poetic, unbelievably literate,
04:16 deep, humble, no pretension in Rex Murphy, which is quite something because he's quite
04:21 something.
04:23 He came on, we did this talk, discussion.
04:26 He talked about the influence of poetry on his education.
04:29 It's, you know, an abstract conversation about an abstruse topic that hypothetically
04:35 is all that intellectual artsy-fartsy, claptrap poetry, who the hell needs that?
04:41 The audience response was overwhelmingly positive because he opened it up.
04:46 He said, "I love this," and he meant it.
04:48 "Look, this is what it's done.
04:49 It taught me to speak."
04:51 And everyone knows Rex Murphy can speak.
04:53 His commentaries on our national broadcaster's news kept that news service alive in the ratings
05:00 for years after it had invalidated itself on ideological grounds, and they hated him.
05:06 And he was the greatest thing they ever produced.
05:10 So don't underestimate.
05:12 Why would you lead people you despise?
05:16 And what exactly is it that you're leading?
05:18 And you better listen to them, too, because they know what the problems are.
05:21 One of the best politicians I ever talked with was this man named Preston Manning, who
05:26 started a political party in Canada.
05:27 He was a pretty conservative character in the truest sense and came from a very long
05:31 political lineage.
05:33 His father had been premier of Alberta.
05:36 When he started his political party, he'd go out and make a speech, but he really liked
05:39 the Q&As, and that's where he derived all his platforms, from listening to people.
05:43 And he could listen, and he did.
05:45 So he was a leader.
05:46 He went and listened to everyone.
05:48 What's your problem exactly?
05:50 Because that's the issue.
05:52 A leader identifies the problems.
05:56 Not the solutions, necessarily.
05:58 But he goes out and surveys.
06:00 What's your problem?
06:01 What's your problem?
06:02 What's your problem?
06:03 What's your problem?
06:04 And listens.
06:05 What's your problem?
06:06 Okay, now let's rank order these problems.
06:09 That's hard, because we've got to make priorities.
06:12 So and then, okay, let's start talking about solutions.
06:15 Well who should we have to discuss that?
06:17 Well, liberals and conservatives, because the liberals will be visionary and the conservatives
06:21 will say, "How do you know your stupid visions are accurate?"
06:24 Do you find, because I do, I'll admit this, that oftentimes as we identify the problems,
06:30 we believe that there is a government solution that's out there somewhere?
06:35 Yeah, wouldn't that be nice?
06:37 And I've wondered if political leaders should be saying once in a while, "That's an issue
06:42 that you're going to be able to deal with better than we can deal with."
06:44 Yeah.
06:45 You know, maybe there's one or two things we can do to sort of grease the wheels, but
06:48 don't think it's coming from us, because if you can't--
06:51 Or even don't think you want it coming from us, because look at all the power we would
06:54 have to cede to ourselves if we decided to solve that problem.
06:57 Yes, and conservatives are good at that too, saying, "No, no, there's limits here.
07:01 The government shouldn't overreach its purview, because then it doesn't serve you, it, you
07:05 know, tyrannizes you instead."
07:08 Where that line is, we don't know, and a shift, so that's why we have to talk, because the
07:13 line keeps moving.
07:14 We're on the back of a snake, and it keeps twisting around.
07:16 Where's the snake?
07:17 Well, it was over here yesterday, but now it's over there.
07:20 And so that's why we have to talk, and talk truthfully.
07:23 But the new-- I'm hoping the new politician, just jump over the old media and use this
07:29 new technology.
07:30 It's like, just talk to the people that you're serving.
07:33 I love talking to you, Gordon Peterson.
07:35 Thank you.
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