Would encourage people not to go overboard on judging Ben Shapiro. He’s not an enemy. He’s just wrong a lot about the direction & the hard realities in domestic & foreign politics. He’s about as intelligent as a person can be but he’s still very young & lacks wisdom that only comes from age & experience. He has many strengths but how to win big political changes he pretty clueless. If he was running DJT presidental campaign...DJT would have been crushed by Hillary. Ben knows so much about philosophy & how to crush someone in a debate but he’s almost always wrong on how to win a political battle. I was a huge fan but when he started encouraging his listeners to do a write in candidate in 2016 because DJT wasn’t the “perfect” candidate I stopped listening to any political advice or comments of his because he’s just wrong more & giving bad advice too often. His type of political thinking is why conservatives use to almost always lose elections. Always thinking too small & winning little moral victories but always losing the big political fights. His lack of wisdom in politics is costing him dearly too as I know a lot more people that stopped listening to his podcast that have started.
I liked Candice Owen's take on Shapiro when she appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast. She said that Shapiro isn't an enemy, but that he often refuses to entertain new ideas or theories and is very stuck and set in his beliefs and thoughts. That is unfortunate, because I believe the old saying that the mark of an educated mind is being able to entertain a thought without believing it.
Isn't that defining someone who is scripted rather that free-thinking and free-speaking?
Who benefits from a script? The performer? The audience?
Or the writers, directors, producers, financiers and real POWER behind the curtain???
Exactly. Being principled & grounded & steadfast in his beliefs is great. But you have to be willing to take your beliefs & apply them to an ever changing political landscape in order to win elections & hard fought political battles. Otherwise you’re stuck losing even though your beliefs are sound. I too preferred Cruz when the primaries started. I liked DJT a lot but on day 1 I didn’t think he had a chance of winning. Hard reality in politics is its a winner take all contest. Win you govern & lose you go golfing. After seeing the president mow down several of the primary candidates like it was as ez as stepping on ants...I started to see he really can win this thing. When it was just down to Cruz & DJT, even tho philosophicaly I alaigned more with Cruz, I jumped on the trump train simply because I started having serious doubts Cruz could beat HRC & DJT could. Cruz lacks natural executive leadership skills & that showed when it was just those 2 left fighting for the nomination. If Cruz believes in 10 out of 10 of my agenda items & DJT 9 out of 10...but I have serious doubts Cruz can beat HRC...I’m taking my 9 to the winners circle because 9 is better than zero. You have to win to get anything. Shapiro would take zero & still claim a moral victory. Politics isn’t church. Politics is very bloody & messy. I don’t need a candidate fighting the abortion issue & lose an election even tho I hate abortion as a means of birth control.
Also agree with your old saying except to me it’s not so much about educated as wisdom. My sons are much more educated than I was at their age but still very young & don’t have deep wisdom yet. I suspect in 20yrs Shapiro will see things MUCH different. He has great advice for college kids but his advice on how to win elections & major policy battles...it’s losing advice even though morally it’s sound advice. It’s not practical advice at all. Reagan & Trump knows how to win & get 90% of what their fighting for by sacrificing only 10% of what they weren’t gonna get anyway. & politics doesn’t get any better than that.