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Transcript
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SPEAKER 2
Hi everyone!
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SPEAKER 4
I didn't know that was your reputation.
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SPEAKER 2
Well, and every now and then... So I do have a reputation for being very prim and proper. And so, like, election night of 2020, there was a reporter from The Atlantic who decided to watch the whole thing with me from my house. We were all on Zoom.

A Small-d Democratic Hero

Live from Phoenix

In this show before a live audience, Mona talks with Stephen Richer about standing up for reality, tangling with Kari Lake, and his political future.

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The Mona Charen Show is a weekly, one-on-one discussion that goes in depth on political and cultural topics. New shows drop Mondays. Find this show wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Add the show to your player of choice, here.

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Discussion about this video

I'm a Demcrat and I still think the US should be if not the, then in the community of nations, the EU, NATO that protect the world order and oppose Putin.

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I think that people like Steve really need to understand that the unregulated "free market" ends up here, in an oligarchy under an authoritarian where authoritarian systems start. It takes government to control the wealthy such that everyone is equal under the law, inherent individual rights are recognized, every is afforded equal opportunity and people grant their consent to and participate in their governance. It's fine to hold Republican values, but those values were twisted to become the lack of values that we see today, as in libertarianism's "selfishness is a virtue".

Republicans need to come to grips with what their doctrine wrought and reject or scale back those parts that got us here. Come on Steve, you can do this! After all, Nixon and the GOP with Democrats created the EPA and enacted the Endangered Species Act, I want you Republicans back then, not now.

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Thank you Stephen Richer for showing what’s in « a decent human being ».

The way so many people converted and caved in to a nasty bully (or at least kept mum on the side) brings to mind to a Frenchman how quite a few, even from the left, joined Maréchal Pétain’s government in 1940. Obviously Pétain was no Trump and circumstances were wildly different, in a country under foreign occupation after a humiliating military defeat. But then as now the most common behavior was to sit it out.

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Stephen Richer is a rock star.

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Another slam dunk interview. He was very pleasant and you asked great questions. Thank you.

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Wonderful conversation, and my goodness, he is a keeper! I hope he stays active in politics.

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Just a style note to share that I've recently adopted. Not that I've got a lick of sway!

Rather than the construction 'small-d democratic' or 'small-l liberal,' I'm now just using the word 'lowercase,' e.g., lowercase democratic, lowercase liberal.

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Stephen Richer is a courageous man.

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I also lost friends and relatives because I didn't support Trump.

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Immunity for Trump was a terrible decision.

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The decision was not immunity "for Trump". It was immunity for any president. The decision makes it harder for Trump to prosecute Biden, Obama, and especially Bush, which is clearly the scenario that was on the court's mind. Several of the conservative justices had worked in the Bush administration, and they were reacting to threats to prosecute Bush for "war crimes".

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Great interview and Roberts looked embarrassed. Disgusted with those that caved to Trump.

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◦ My Dad was a GI in WWIi. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge, he earned many combat ribbons, he fought side-by-side with many brave GIs.

◦ Dad loved Ike Eisenhower. Eisenhower was such an excellent leader in WWII, Dad wanted to follow Ike. Ike wanted to be a democrat but finally settled on the GOP.

◦ Instead of following Eisenhower, Dad became a Dem, a teamster. I have two sisters, it completely changed our lives. Dad was able to provide us with health care, we were able to attend college, buy clothes. We joined the middle class.

◦ I will always encourage people to organize, get together, provide help for each other. There is power in numbers. There are 300 million of us in the USA. There is an election coming in 2026. Dems, Repubs, Inds, come together. Help save our country from thugs and thieves.

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Loved Eisenhower

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Her names is Scary Fake.

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Great interview -- thanks to both of you!

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I think there is not enough applause for Republicans who have done the honourable thing. thank you

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Please do not misunderstand what I'm going to say, it is actually a positive in support of what you say although slightly tongue in cheek. It will be like the stories of "Righteous Christians", the phenomena of, after WWII and such an overwhelming national horror show in Germany and Eastern Europe, the stories that started coming out regarding those that helped shelter and save the persecuted minorities, mainly the Jews of Europe. On scale they were few but their contributions to humanity came in the same way, at some point, we will find stories of "Righteous Republicans" will surfacing.

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I thought this was one of Mona's most successful shows.

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