Church and State - Politics with Political Analyst Jeff Crouere

Spokane Valley could become a sanctuary city of a different kind. Native Councilman Caleb Collier says that this proposal... I'm proposing that the city of Spokane Valley issue a proclamation stating that our city is a Second Amendment sanctuary. Welcome to the fire. Welcome to the fire. Today on Church and State, we'll be covering politics with a political analyst, Jeff Cruair. Hello, Christian patriots, and welcome to Church and State, where we drive morality and religion over tolerance and apathy. And I'm your host, Caleb Collier. Once again, your favorite far-right shock jock and the show that talks about politics and religion. Jesus Christ is our referee, so it's always nice and clean. Real quick, let's point you to the website, churchandstate.media. Number one, do a few things. Fill out this form for us. You'll get our newsletter. You'll bypass a lot of the censorship. and a personal phone call from yours truly. I actually just talked to a guy yesterday. 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These are companies that I personally use, that I support. know most of them. And if you use the promo code church and state, many of those, you get a discount on all of them. You help support us. And speaking of support, hit the donate button for us. Please keep us on the air. We're already part of NRB TV, Prepper Broadcasting Network, OBBM, Faith and Freedom Television, Your News, Newscasters, and National Syndication on AM FM radio. So we are really pushing forward with this message of truth and this message of Jesus and liberty. But we need your help, ladies and gentlemen. So any amount, even if it's five bucks a month, it helps us and we appreciate it. Lastly, if you want to get a hold of us, churchandstate1776 at proton.me. With that, let's go ahead and bring on our guest. I'm thrilled to bring on Jeff Cruer. He's a popular political analyst, columnist, and radio and television personality. He's been at it since 1999. My gosh, I was still in the Marine Corps back then. He's been the host of Ringside Politics, which is an award-winning radio program in New Orleans. And I mean, he really is just a guy that with everything going on politically right now is somebody that I want to talk to and I want you to listen to. Jeff, thank you for joining us on Church and State. Hey, Caleb. Thanks for having me. Yeah, a real pleasure, sir. You have... You've been in this quite a while. I mean, you've got a lot of wisdom. Let's put it that way. I won't comment on gray hairs or anything. You've got a lot of wisdom when it comes to politics. Well, yeah. I've really been in politics ever since I was a little kid. I mean, my parents sort of instilled in me an interest in it. I used to follow the conventions and then the political buttons. I collected them. I started volunteering when I was 12. Got involved with the Republican Club in high school, the debate club in high school, college Republicans, was president of the Young Republicans in New Orleans, executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party, ran for office against a far left guy, Mitch Landrieu, who later became lieutenant governor. But after I lost that position, I decided to not give up and keep involved in politics and You know, I didn't realize that New Orleans is a very liberal, very far left city. It's not easy for a Republican conservative. To win and wound up moving to the suburbs and now live in memory right outside of New Orleans, but still involved. I got involved with the radio in 1999. Now I'm president and general manager of the station. We have 20 different hosts and manage all of them as well as my own show. And we're the one free speech station. alternative in New Orleans. We've got like a Soros-owned station. We've got out-of-town broadcasters. We have local hosts. And we provide a free speech outlet. And there's a lot of censorship going on in the media, a lot of left-wing media around here. So we feel like we're a good alternative for the community. I absolutely love that. And the similarities between you and myself, I think the audience is already picking up on. I've also been involved in politics for a long time. I worked for the John Birch Society, TPUSA Faith. So I used to work for Charlie Kirk. And we're actually recording this on his anniversary, the death or the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But yeah, and then, you know, Media is so much fun, though, isn't it? I mean, as somebody that's been involved in politics, you've worked for different political orgs, you know, you've been a politician. Isn't just being a talk show host like the best? Well, it's a lot of fun. And I got into it because when I was with the Republican Party, the best part of the job, I hated the fundraising. I hated all the meetings, but I love the media work where I was able to promote the party, promote the mission. And then that led to an opportunity to start a show with a startup station. And, you know, I jumped at it because that's where my interests were and that's what I enjoyed the most. You know, that's why I studied in college and, you know, became just very interested in pursuing that and I've been doing it ever since. And, you know, I think I've had over 25,000 guests over the years on my program. And, you know, we've had over 100,000 callers. I mean, you know, the The numbers just continue to grow. So, yeah, that's the fun part of it, interacting with other people. Sure. Well, let me know if you're ever in the market for more content creators. Shameless plug right there. Let me let me ask you about the condition right now. We've got we've got a lot going on politically in this country. And you and I were talking a little bit off camera. We've got the convention going on right now in Dallas, Texas. And, you know, the pictures I saw, I saw not as big of a crowd as I would have expected. You know, the Republican Party, in my opinion, and I'd love your expertise on this, but I think there's some trouble here. When we're looking at 2026 and the midterms here, I see, I do see the potential for a blue wave to come at us. No, I agree. I agree. I mean, I keep hearing from the president that there's going to be a red wave, but I I see the potential for a blue wave. History shows that the party out of power gains about 26 House seats and about six Senate seats. That's the average, historical average. So if that happened in this midterm, the Democrats would take control of the House and the Senate. So I guess we would not get our $ 5, 000 dividend if that happens. So I think history is on their side. Normally, a party out of power, you have more energized people. Volunteers and voters and activists because they're out of power. They're they're they're thirsty to get back. It's sort of what happened on the Republican side during Obama. We had the Tea Party and I had the largest Tea Party group in Louisiana with the North Shore Tea Party. And, you know, we got infiltrated by, you know, these these establishment Republicans. And and that's the problem with so much these establishment rhino Republicans are just the problem with MAGA, the problem with the Republican Party, the problem with getting a conservative agenda through. That's why the grassroots arm is fired up, because they haven't delivered. I mean, they haven't done what they said they were. Going to do. We gave them power, and now we're spending more than the Democrats spent. We didn't do anything about election integrity. I mean, the president on his own has done some stuff through executive orders, but every one of those gets challenged in court. So that all gets tied up. So it's Congress that can get things done. because that's one of the branches of government, and they got the one big, beautiful bill. And that's it. And just in the first Trump term, we had tax cuts during the first years, two years, and nothing else. So the Republicans lost 40 seats because they didn't deliver for their base. I'm afraid that could happen again this time. Yeah, I think you're 100% hitting the mark on that one. I want to get into a lot of the issues that you were talking about here, but you brought up the $ 5, 000. And I got to talk about this because when I heard this, I literally slapped myself in the face. Like $ 5, 000 to every single adult in the United States. I mean, that's in the billions that we'd be. I think it's like 1.6 billion or trillion. Sorry, trillion. Yeah, 1.6 trillion, I think is the number I saw. Right. Where does that money come from? I mean, we're already dealing with inflation. You know, a lot of my audience does not like the Federal Reserve and printing the dollar with no backing whatsoever. And not to mention, I mean, we're supposed to be the Republican Party, supposed to be the party that's opposed to socialism, that looks to government as the problem, not the solution. What are your thoughts about this? We're the big spender party. I mean, we've spent more during Trump, too, than we did during Biden. I mean, Trump won, was the biggest spender of all time. Then Biden became the biggest spender of all time. Now we're on the path to easily exceed what Biden spent and You know, the debt is $ 41. 1 trillion. I mean, 18 years ago, it was $ 10 trillion. So we've quadrupled it in 18 years. And, you know, we. Spent $ 10 trillion overseas in the Cold War on terror with very mixed results and intrusions into our liberty and a lot of problems with what's been done in the last 25 years. $ 5 trillion on COVID relief. that I think there was a lot of mandates and government intrusion into our freedom and telling us what we could and could not do and lies to us about the vaccine and lies to us about ivermectin. And remdesivir and everything else. And then, of course, we've got now what we were promised, a Doge check. That never happened. We were promised a tariff rebate check. That never happened. So I would assume this is never going to happen. But it's sort of a way to gin up support. But, you know, we're spending $ 7. 5 trillion a year. We bring in $ 5. 5 trillion. So that's a $ 2 trillion gap. We're going to add to that another $ 1. 6 trillion that we're not going to offset with any tax cuts. So we're going to be running a $ 3. 6 trillion debt every year. I mean, the numbers don't work. I mean, it's... Hey, I'd love $ 5, 000. That's a lot I could do. A lot of home repairs, et cetera, I can make with $ 5, 000. But I just don't like the way it was done. It was sort of like a bribe. Sort of like a way to, you know, he said it could only happen if the Republicans take control. Of the House and the Senate. And, you know, I think a lot of conservatives, libertarians, fiscal hawks are probably going to be wondering, you know. Is this a good idea? So, yeah, I was... disappointed in that approach. I'm one that believes in fiscal conservatism. Yeah, I think you absolutely nailed it right there. It did feel like a bribe. When he was speaking, it felt dirty. And I did not like that. And I did not like seeing the amount of people behind him. Now, these are the true believers. They intentionally put them behind him. You know how it works. But they just start applauding immediately, like, yeah, we're going to get $ 5, 000 from the government. And nobody pauses to ask the question, is that a good idea? Where's that money come from? Now, with some of the other things you were talking about, you know, these empty promises, just kind of, I don't know, anger towards the Republican Party as a whole from, you know, maybe more of the independent, you know, the people that Donald Trump was able to tap in 2024. What are some of the other issues out there that you think is making the American public move away from the Republican Party? Well, I mean, I'll mention a few. Obviously, I think the strongest suit for the Republican Party is border security. That's where I think the president has succeeded the best by shutting down the border, by supporting deporting. People that are here illegally. Biden opened the border and we had tens of millions of people flooding here. We don't know how many. We don't have any terrorists. We don't have any agents of the Chinese government. We don't know. But he shut it down, and we're trying to deport people. And I personally think people that are here illegally should be deported. And I don't believe in birthright citizenship and some of these other crazy things that are going on. So I think that is their big positive. Doge, to me, was another good idea that could have really helped bring about you know, a balanced budget, but it only lasted a few months. And then, of course, it all collapsed. And, you know, we got a $ 2 trillion deficit every year. I think the anger is a few things. One, they didn't handle the Epstein files well at all. Two, I think the economy, they won't admit that there's an affordability crisis that people are suffering. They seem to gloss that over and say the economy is great, but it isn't for a lot of people. I mean, gasoline prices have gone up. Diesel prices have gone up. Grocery prices have gone up. Third, the war in Iran. I mean, one of the reasons that I started with President Trump the day he came down the escalator, you know, I heard it on my program. And then when he finished, I'm like, that's my guy. And people thought I was crazy. They're like, man, this guy's a lunatic. And I said, no, I like him. And I was sick of the war in Iran, sick of the war in Afghanistan, sick of the war in Iraq, sick of the war in Afghanistan. And he said, no more foreign wars. And now we're in one. And, you know, we're winning. I understand that their military has been decimated. But, I mean, the effect of the American people has been negative with these prices that are going up. And what are we doing? I mean, what are we doing over there? I mean, the focus should be America first. That's what we elected him to do. We spent $ 10 trillion on this war on terror. Imagine if that $ 10 trillion had been spent on our roads and bridges and our people and our country. I mean, how much better off we would be. We've got dilapidated cities. We've got all the problems that we have. So that's where I think a lot of the disconnect is. And he's still got a big part of the MAGA base, but I think some have drifted away, and I think those are some of the reasons why. I think your assessment is quite true. I got to tell you, what you just said is so refreshing. Here you are, you know, you're a conservative talk show host, you're a Republican, but you're willing to talk about these issues. And instead of trying to cover it up, instead of getting the marching orders or the talking points and just you know, the rhetoric of, well, I'm okay with paying a little bit more at the gas pump if it means Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons. You know, I hear every conservative influencer saying the exact same thing. I just got to give you props on this for at least, you know, you're willing to talk about this issue at hand. What matters to the American people instead of just regurgitating Republican talking points. Right. I mean, I'm sick of the Republican talking points because that's all we've been getting. We haven't been getting action. We're getting talking points for literally decades. From the Republicans. I mean, there have been a few examples of people that I think have been worthwhile. Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Trump during the first term. But I mean, mostly it's, you know, Democrat light. You know, mostly it's just the same sort of thing the Democrats do because these are politicians. They're looking after themselves. and not for the American people. But with Iran, I mean, this whole thing about nuclear weapons, I mean, supposedly last year, Operation Midnight Hammer, we obliterated their nuclear facilities. So if we obliterated their nuclear facilities, why did we have to go to war with them just a few months later? I mean, are we saying that they completely rebuilt their nuclear facilities? If not, just. Bomb them again, like we did with Operation Midnight Hammer. Why do we have to start a war? It just. always felt like Israel was sort of driving this and that we. Were sort of doing this to support them. And I understand they're an ally. But, I mean, I think, again, we need to put America first. And it just hasn't, to me, felt right from the very beginning, from that first day, February 28th. And he said it was just going to be a few weeks. And now we're in the seventh month. And then he said the other day it's not going to end until after the midterms. Yeah. It was reminiscent to me when he said that. It was only two weeks. I was like, you know, I'm having memories, flashbacks of when George W. Bush was on the aircraft carrier saying, the war is over, we won, right? And it was like, no, that went a lot longer. Well, that was a mission accomplished banner. Remember, he was, you know, touting the end, and that was sort of a massive disconnect and failure. And George W. Bush was the one that got us into this war on terror and started a war in Iraq that had nothing to do with 9-11. What are we doing there? Oh, weapons of mass destruction. Oh, by the way, there's no weapons of mass destruction. Not really. So who paid the price for those lies? And then Iraq was sort of a mixed bag, and we've still got problems in Iraq. And Afghanistan was a total defeat because the Taliban was there in the beginning. The Taliban is there now. And then we left all the military equipment. We left Bagram. That was a Biden failure, totally, the way he handled the withdrawal of those troops, losing 13 of our service members, giving them all this military equipment. So, I mean, we never do this nation building well at all. I mean, the first Gulf War seemed to be very surgical, quick, in and out. Done quickly. And Grenada, in and out, done. I mean, those sorts of things seem to work. But when you try to nation build, it's just a disaster. And I don't know what exactly our goal is in Iran. I mean, we've had all kinds of different goals. Is it regime change? What is the goal? Yeah. Is it an establishment of a World Bank? Could be. I'm just going to throw that out there. You brought up a really interesting point as you were talking there, and it's centered around the nation of Israel. Right now, what I see... within the Republican Party is kind of a civil war, to be quite honest. And I think it's centered around Israel. There is more of that old guard, you know, and more of that dispensationalist Christian that sees that we have to support Israel always. But there's a new group that has come in that is quite disillusioned and is very tired of being the war dog for Israel in the Middle East. Where do you see the party going with this infighting right now? Yeah, it's a big split. You do have your strong Israel supporters that I think probably are the vast majority in Congress and within the Republican Party leadership and in the Trump administration. Your voices of discontent with that have been moved out. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massey, Tucker Carlson. So they're sort of maybe they're going to start another. I don't know what they're going to do. Maybe they're going to start another party or I'm not sure what they're going to do. Joe Kent, he's now gone. I think Tulsi Gabbard had questions about what we were doing. She's gone. So a lot of the people that I really liked left. are gone. I mean, I like Chelsea Caverns. I mean, I thought she had a good viewpoint as far as reluctant to go into war. And, you know, here we are. So, yeah, I think that's a it's really led to a little bit of a splintering. And I think there are some people that don't like what has happened. And, you know, how much are we sending to Israel every year? Why are we sending any money to any country because we're $ 40 trillion in debt? How can we afford to send any money anywhere is my question. And, you know, again, America first should be the focus. I mean, Israel, let them take care of their problems. They're very wealthy. I think they can handle themselves. I'm in complete agreement with you on this. I'm so tired of the nation building. I'm so tired of getting dragged into endless wars for democracy. It falls flat. It's rather ridiculous in my mind. But I'm also tired when you're over on this side, when you're asking the questions about our involvement with Israel. I'm so tired of the accusation of anti-Semitism. And it reminds me, honestly, of the Democrats and how when, you know, if I said I... I was opposed to Black Lives Matter. Well, I was a racist. You know, if I said, you know, I don't think women should be serving in combat. I'm a sexist now. And the Republican Party is doing the same time, the same thing with us, except for they're saying, you know, you hate the Jews. And it's like, I don't hate the Jews. I just want America first policies. Right. Yeah. And I think there's a big difference. I mean, I think there are people that are anti-Semitic and we got to call them out. But there are. People that just want to focus on America and want our country to be first and foremost, not another country. And the whole thing about the Middle East, I mean, that has been obviously going on for so long. I mean, millennium. I don't know if we're going to solve it with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. I mean, I know they've been going over there trying to get this Gaza peace plan deal and But last time I checked, that hasn't been approved. There's all kinds of different problems with it. Israel, I don't think, likes it very much. And that's such a complicated, longstanding issue that has been going on over there. And I think we. Should– help everybody we can if there's a crisis, provide humanitarian aid. I just don't like to see us intervening because I don't think we. Bring about anything positive. And, you know, it's just, again, leading to division and, to me, involvement. We've lost so many of our best and brightest, our military in the Middle East. You know, I remember when, you know, the barracks was bombed in Beirut. And Reagan had a decision. He could either double down and send more troops and get more involved militarily in that region or he could pull out. And he decided to pull out. And I think that was the right decision. I would agree. You know, as a Marine veteran, you know, that was that was that's our history right there in the Marine Corps. has a special hatred for what occurred during the barracks bombing there. But you're right. I think it was the correct move to not kill more of our brave men and women, but to say, hey, you know, this may be the region that we're not supposed to be a part of. Let's let's exit this and let's focus elsewhere. I think that was a good call on Reagan's part. And I don't always agree with with Reagan and his policies and some of the things he did. But I think that was a correct move. And I tell you, I'm so tired of this nation building, again, that you were talking about, where we take out these dictators. And look, I'm no fan of dictators at all. I don't like tyrants. I don't like bullies. But we leave a power vacuum. And we see this over and over and over again. We see it in Iraq. You pointed it out. Afghanistan, Libya, Syria. It seems like everywhere we go, we take out the despot and then. Just lay the groundwork for anarchy and Al Qaeda and ISIS. And it's just an absolute boondoggle. Well, let's look at Libya. I mean, we got rid of Muammar Gaddafi and he was playing ball with the West and it got him killed. And, you know, he I think he had talked about starting his own currency. You know, he had made some, I guess, statements that were not allowed. And they got rid of him. And ever since then, what there's been, terrorism and chaos and division in Libya, they haven't had any kind of stable government. You had Benghazi, the whole attack there that happened a year after, that happened 9-11 of 2012, I think was the date, after Gaddafi got— they got rid of Gaddafi. Look at Syria. They got rid of Assad, no great guy, dictator. But now you've got a former al-Qaeda terrorist who is leading Syria, and we're supposed to be cozying up to that guy. And Christians are being killed, slaughtered in Syria. And where's the outrage for Christians being killed all over the world? Nigeria, other countries. Yeah, we seem to make a big mess of it. Assad is a great example right there. Yeah, a dictator, but he was secular. You know, he allowed religious freedom. In fact, they enjoyed a lot of different freedoms. And now, as you point out, Christians just getting mass slaughtered. It's yeah, I I tell you, here we are. We're on the program. We're solving all the world's problems right now. And what I mean by that is if we just exited, if we if we just focused on America, I think a lot of these problems go away. Well, you had the military industrial complex that Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address in 1960. And I think those warnings are still intact today. And, you know, there are a lot of people that don't want us to pull out, don't want us to, you know, ratchet down the military. We have a, you know, $ 1. 5 trillion budget request for the military now. So, you know, that seems to, you know, more involvement, more support. international adventurism. So yeah, I. Think we obviously need to have a military. We need to defend our country. We need to make sure Americans are safe. But I'm just wondering if all of this going on all over the world is actually making America safer or not. I think that's a very, very good question. We've got about a minute left before we have a hard break. I want to come back and I want to talk to you about more about the Western Hemisphere and our neighbors that we seem to not be playing very well with, because that has implications as well in this election and really just America's future. But let me bring up your website real quick for the audience. This is a really easy one, ladies and gentlemen, crewair.net. That's C-R-O-U-E-R-E. Chris is going to show it to us. There you go right there, crewair.net. And Jeff, this is where everybody can follow your work. Maybe in just like 15 seconds, just tell the audience why they should go there. Well, we do polls all the time. We're doing a poll right now about election integrity. We have links to all my social media and columns and videos and all the different things I'm doing. That's just a handy resource. People can go there. We've got our countdown clock to the midterm elections. I do an event in the area called Politics with a Punch. We have information about that. So it's all there at the website, crewair.net. All right, and we'll come back. We'll talk a lot more about the website when we come back. Hey, this is Caleb Collier with Church and State, and I want to tell you about Methylene Blue. For a long time now, you've seen the Maha people using methylene blue. I thought I'd give it a try. You know what? It helped me considerably, not only with mental clarity, but also with insomnia. Now, you got to be careful with methylene blue because the market is filled with counterfeit products. But Best 365 Labs is the greatest methylene blue on the market. I'm telling you, take this stuff, enjoy the benefits, and also have a little bit of fun when going to the bathroom. I need you to go to best365labs. com. and use that promo code churchandstate, you're going to get a discount. You'll also be helping to support Church and State and our pursuit of truth. And we are back, and thank you for staying with us. You're over at churchandstate.media. We're going to go right back to our guests, but real quick, I do got to plug one of our awesome affiliates, and I'm going to plug mark37. com. Why? Because honestly, these guys are my favorite. And yes, I do work for them as well, but I like privacy, ladies and gentlemen, you guys know that about me. I love the fourth amendment. I mean, I love all the bill of rights, but I really do love the fourth amendment. I want to be secure in my persons, in my papers, and I'm tired of our cell phones and our laptops spying on everything that we're doing. So if you're tired of this, if you're tired of the iPhone in your pocket, get yourself a ghost phone. Number one, it's cheaper than your iPhone and it's graphene OS, which means you're in charge of your own privacy. So I think it's a win-win for every single person out there, more affordable and and you're more private, go check out mark37. com. Use the promo code churchandstate. You're going to get a discount and you'll help support us as well. And one more time, just real quick, hit the donate button for us, ladies and gentlemen. I love conversations like the one we're having right now. They're important. And you're not hearing conversations like this in the mainstream news, or even a lot of the conservative news. So please, you like the show, hit the donate button. All right, with that, let's go back to our guest, Jeff Creweir. And we've been having a just a delightful conversation about the current state of the United States, what's going on geopolitically. But I wanted to turn the conversation to what's going on. I mean, in the Western Hemisphere. I mean, obviously, we went into Venezuela and kidnapped their president, which was not an act of war, ladies and gentlemen. That's not an act of war. Don't worry about it. If somebody kidnapped our president, that would not be an act of war. And then we just seem to be in a constant, I don't know, not a war, but a fight, a scuffle with our neighbors to the north, the Canadians. What do you make of this, Jeff? Well, there might be something going on in Cuba soon, and that could be the next sort of adventure. Obviously, I think questions need to be asked about all of this. But as far as our trade situation, I do think that the president is on to something and saying there's a lot to be said for free trade, but it's got to be fair. So if a country is unfairly saddling our products with high tariffs— if we're not getting access to their markets. But in return, they're getting access to our markets, and they don't pay anywhere near the tariffs here. And that seems to not be a level playing field. So I understand what he's trying to do here as far as trade. A lot of times, these tariffs are used as sort of a way to bring about a negotiation, a threat, and we don't actually implement them. There's a lot of confusion, though, because things are sort of announced, and then they're taken back. And then that's why he gets his nickname called Taco. You know, Trump always chickens out, which is somewhat unfair. But, you know, I can understand where people come from. And then, of course, you got the Supreme Court decision, which sort of limited part of what he could do. So he had to use another route for the tariffs. And then a lot of the promises about the tariffs haven't come true. And then, of course, we're going to be having a tariff rebate check that we're supposed to get. We're supposed to get a doge check, too, And none of those things happened. So, yeah, there's just been some confusion. I mean, I would think that our negotiators would be able to work something out that would be beneficial to both Canada and the United States. I would agree. I mean, we've certainly had numerous ones that have been put into play, and I haven't been a fan of them. The USMCA, for example, I was not a fan of, but it did go through. And I definitely understand trade wars and the policies that are being enacted. We're going to threaten you, you're going to threaten us, and we'll come to the table, we'll have that discussion, we'll come to a conclusion that's going to benefit all citizens. But what it does translate to is is higher prices for everything during the trade war. And that's what we're experiencing right now as Americans. And as we really started the conversation, the economy is rough. I know Trump's telling us that it's really, really good. The stock market's never been higher. We're making so much money, all this. But when people are going to the pump, when people are going to the grocery store, they're hurting. They're hurting fiercely. And I mean, I live in Washington state, which- Not only are we dealing with everything at the federal level, but the state is a wackadoo state. So they're taxing us for the climate change agenda. So, yeah, I mean, it really does hurt. And I see Americans just as unhappy all across the board. Yeah, there's definitely some discontent out there. No doubt about it. And the economy... James Carville was right back in 1992. It's the economy's stupid. It's always the economy. That's the number one issue. Remember George H.W. Bush. He won that first Gulf War. He had a 90 percent approval. Major Democrats didn't run in 1992 because George Bush was unbeatable. Yet 1992 comes along. And guess what? The number one issue is not the war. It's the economy. And he gets beaten by a guy named Slick Willie, Bill Clinton, because he was saying, I feel your pain. And he was like, yeah, I know you're going through a tough time. I'm going to talk to you about the economy. And he won. And, well, of course, Ross Perot siphoned off votes. And Ross Perot was actually right about NAFTA when he said that there was going to be a big sucking sound about all of our jobs. And money leaving. And, of course, that deal was terrible for the United States. And you look at our cities across the country where we've lost all this manufacturing and all these factories. So I think the president, when he talks about trying to rebuild our industries and our factories— he's touching something that is important because we've lost it. So I do think we need to focus on how do we build things in America again? Yeah, I would definitely agree. Now, I want to ask you as well about a third party. You know, I shared with you off camera that I'm libertarian. I actually refer to myself as a bibliotarian because I'm a Christian libertarian. But you bring up Ross Perot, who's a really interesting case study. And from Ross Perot, we get the Ron Paul revolution, which I was a big fan of. I love Ron Paul dearly. But from Ron Paul, we saw Bernie Sanders emerge. And what was curious to me was a lot of the people who supported Ron Paul moved over to the Bernie Sanders camp, which, I mean, talk about completely opposing ideas. And then we do have Trump. And Trump was an outsider. And I see that there's a hunger from the American people for an outsider. Now, granted, they were all working within the two-party system. But as we move beyond Trump and that hunger, that desire for somebody that's just not the typical politician, do you see a rise in third parties? Is that a possibility in America's future? It's so difficult. I wish there would be. I mean, I'm just a very disgruntled Republican. I'm hanging on to the Republican Party by a thread. The Libertarian Party, though, is just– they've never delivered. And Ross Perot was able to get success. I mean he got 19 percent of the vote in 1922 because he had a lot of his personal money that he put into it, and he was a media personality. If he hadn't gone off track with his daughter's wedding and dropped out for a while, he could have done even better. So ever since then, there have been people that have tried, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader. Others who have tried, just never been able to, you know, Jill Stein, the Green Party, various others just haven't been able to generate. A lot of support. Elon Musk had talked about a third party, you know, when he had his breakup with Donald Trump. And that didn't last. And now he's back to supporting the Republicans. It would take someone, I think, with a lot of money to be able to establish the infrastructure that a third party needs. But I think there's a hunger for something else. I really do. I think there are people that are just unhappy with what we're being presented because there's so much commonality between these politicians. And I mean, and they're serving what the lobbyists and the special interests and the deep state. I mean, they're not serving we the people. And I think more people are getting it. I mean, I hope so. So many are just so partisan and either Democrat or Republican, that they can't see through it. But I think more people are waking up. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, you take the state of the Democrat Party right now, and there's a civil war going on inside of that. You had the more fringe elements, the Communist Party USA and the Socialist Parties, and they got a small, small percentage of votes every single year. So they decided to go inside. And now you've got the rise of the DSA and And I got to tell you, I'm not a fan of the Democrat Party. So it is kind of interesting to watch the establishment Democrats who can't say boo about the DSA, but they're deeply troubled by what's going on in the party. Right. And they've been trying to ward off socialists ever since Bernie Sanders. I mean, they stole the 2016 nomination from him. They rigged it in 2020 to give it to Biden. So they've been, you know, trying to keep this socialist wing alive. out of power for a long time. And now I think it's really impossible because they've gotten out DSA nominees. You've got DSA members of Congress. Bernie is still at it, believe it or not. And he's still, I guess, the godfather of the DSA, even though he's not a Democrat. He's an independent. So, yeah, I think the Democrats, that's the one thing the Republicans have going for them is that they have more money. That's a plus. And you've got this big division within. The Democrat Party between the traditional, and I would call them far-left liberals. There's no Harry Truman anymore in the Democrat Party. There's no JFK in the Democrat Party. So the traditional far-left liberals like Dick Durbin, And then the super far left socialists, communists of the DSA. So that's the infighting going on. But there's no I guess you'd call John Fetterman maybe a moderate. He's the closest. Yeah. I don't think there's anyone else with him anymore. Yeah, I would agree. But I think my real fear here is as the Democrats go further, just full blown. We are socialists. No ifs, ands or buts about it. that the Republicans move more center, even left of center, and that the two-party system becomes that, the socialist versus fascist? I don't know. That's the accusation from the left. I mean, I would say that you can make a point that the Republicans have moved to the left because they have acquiesced with all this growth of government. I mean, you know, you don't have I mean, Reagan used to talk about, you know, a limited government. But I mean, now they're talking about giving away five thousand dollars per adult. So, I mean, you really have just degrees of liberalism and you have the super far left, the far left and now the center left. Maybe it would be how the Republicans would be characterized. You can't really call them liberals. conservative because if they're fiscally irresponsible, isn't that a major plank of being a conservative? And they believe in interventionism all over the world. Is that really conservative? It's not. I mean, there is an opportunity. You brought up the Libertarian Party, and I'm not a part of the Libertarian Party because they're a mess. And you got people, they're talking about the non-aggression principles, and then they're pro-abortion. Like, Hello, Disconnect here. So, you know, if there's an opportunity for the Libertarian Party, it's to actually go back to your roots and to truly be conservative, to truly be libertarian, to truly be about freedom instead of what's going on with the party right now. I'd like to see a real conservative party, like, you know, someone saying, hey, we want to actually espouse conservatism. which is, I guess, maybe part libertarian, part old school republicanism. I mean, we have the Constitution Party, which is a great party. It's a small party, but I mean, they are the true conservatives. Yeah. But they never have any money and they never have any recognition of who their candidates are. So It's all about the money and who can get out there to have candidates and to have. An infrastructure and an organization. It's just a monumental task. I mean, look at how much money is being spent between these two parties right now in this midterm. It's the most expensive midterm of all time. Yep. Now, I know you're on the clock. You've got to get going. So let's go to your website real quick just as we're closing out here. Um, so Chris, if you could bring that up, uh, crew air.net, we're going to show this one more time. And sir, I just want to give you, I know you got to exit here, but just, uh, once again, tell people to follow you, uh, what, what they can expect. Just plug yourself. Well, Caleb, thanks for having me. It's really been a great conversation and I think, uh, you're doing some wonderful things and, uh, I'm on board with you. We didn't get into some of these flat camera issues and data center issues and maybe for future broadcasts, but, um, Yeah, on the website, we just have links to all my social media. I'd love for people to join there. I'd love people to check out some of my columns. I've got a new video that's posted up there. So all the different things that people can check out at crewair.net. Excellent. Well, I really appreciate you coming on the show, sir. I'm going to go ahead and close this out. And I know you got to run, so feel free to do so. But I really appreciate your time here on Church and State. Thank you, Caleb. Appreciate it. Enjoy it. Thank you, sir. All right. All right, ladies and gentlemen, there you go. Fantastic individual. I really enjoyed the insight, the wisdom of my guest, Jeff Cruere. And I really want you to go to his website. Once again, that is cruere.net, C-R-O-U-E-R-E.net. Go check it out, because as you heard, this man has got his, I would say he's got his fingers on the pulse of what's going on, not just in America, but geopolitically as well. Church and State is brought to you in part by Colonial Life Spokane Independent Agents, Finders Insurance, and Mark37. com. I'm Caleb Collier. I was born for a storm. Welcome to the fire. Hey, this is Caleb Collier with Church and State. I'm here to tell you about Hunter's Blend Coffee. 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