The Secular Awakening & Truth in Politics

TRANSCRIPT FROM THIS 'DIRECT MESSAGE' WITH DAVE RUBIN:

Published on Ora TV on Sep 23rd, 2015:

I wanna do something different for our third show.We're going to get away from atheism and religion today to focus on another passion: politics. Real quick though, I should thank all of you that listened to last week's Direct Message and took it into action. You guys are calling out the bullshit artists on every social media platform like never before. As I said last week, when you guys are engaged, wecan focus on other things and not just have the same conversation over and over. I've really only been intimately involved in this conversation for a couple weeks -- Fighting the lies is not only exhausting, but has also affected some of my friendships.I really do think part of the plan of by these people is to tire out the good guys into giving up.Your part in this debate is beyond crucial.

But enough of that, let's talk politics! I was at the GOP Debate at the Regan Library last week. I've never been to one of these things and really had no idea what to expect. We had a booth in The Spin Room right alongside CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. The fact they call it The Spin Room really tells you all you need to know. This is where the campaign people and candidates go to spin their message. I went to the Truth Room next door but nobody was there. Weird, right?

We were able to snag surrogates from pretty much every candidate except for Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump because neither of them sent any reps to the floor. I even got to ask John Kasich a question about gay marriage and Scott Walker a question about money in politics. Come to think of it, maybe that's what caused him to drop out of the race this week...

What I realized by being on the inside of all this was is there are unspoken rules to how the game is played. I talked to Huckabee's campaign manager about gay marriage and she basically just danced around it. Had I pushed to the breaking point I probably would've never gotten her access to her again, and then word would travel fast that I'm someone they shouldn't talk to. So with that in mind, I tried my best to navigate all the interviews with some basic questions and then some deeper probing. I asked pretty much everyone about campaign finance and I really pushed on social issues.It was a big learning experience and we'll figure out how to engage with the candidates and representatives in an even more incisive way, beyond the spin and the soundbites.Hopefully as this show gets bigger and we go to more of the debates, candidates will realize that they can have a tough but honest discussion with me, whether we agree or not.We're plotting out our plan for the first Democratic debate in October right now, stay tuned for that.

So for today's show, we're going to jump into the political waters. I've got two comics I like and respect, Jimmy Dore and Felicia Michaels. I agree with them on some issues and disagree with them on others. What I know more than anything else though is that comedians have a way of holding themselves to a high standard of truth.Sure, we'll get things wrong, but the good ones have a fearless desire to say controversial things and let the chips fall where they may. As Billy Wilder said, "If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny, or they will kill you."

I guess you could say that comedians are guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, just like the Jedi. Well except comedians usually smoke a lot more weed.