952: Why Are Latino Voters Backing Tougher Immigration Laws?

Brian Nichols  0:00  
Instead of focusing on winning arguments, we're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, hey there, folks. Brian Nichols here on another fun filled episode of The Brian Nichols Show. I am, as always, your humble folks joining you from our lovely cardi miracle Studios here in sunny Eastern Indiana. The Brian Nichols Show is powered by our phenomenal sponsors like amp America. Get the news you need to know without the corporate media bias or fluff over at amp america.com Also, The Brian Nichols Show is powered by our awesome studio sponsor, cardio miracle folks. If you're looking for the best heart health supplement in the world that'll help lower your blood pressure, help that resting heart rate, while also improving that pump in the gym, stick around. We're gonna talk about more of that later in today's episode, but first for today's conversation, we are digging into all things illegal immigration and why the narrative we're seeing from the corporate media might not actually reflect what boots on the ground are feeling, specifically from those folks who are really targeted in those articles and those news pieces the Latino community. So let's go ahead and dig into that. And I can't do that conversation all by myself, so joining us today from young voices. Cruz Garcia, welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. How you doing, man? I'm doing

Speaker 1  1:20  
good. Thank you for having me on here. I'm excited to have this conversation. Likewise,

Brian Nichols  1:25  
cruise, likewise. And by the way, elephant in the room, peek behind the curtain for folks who are joining and playing along the home game. You're three hours behind me. So we're recording here today, 1130 on a Saturday, 830 bright and early over on the west coast. So thanks for waking up and jumping on the show today. But cruise, let's go ahead and before we dig into your article that you wrote over at Real Clear Politics. And that article is why, while Trump deports undocumented immigrants, Latino voters are optimistic. There's a lot to unpack there. But Cruz, before we dig into that, do us a favor. Introduce yourself here to The Brian Nichols Show audience. And also, let's dig into why the topic of immigration is one that you've chosen to plant your flag on from a policy perspective,

Speaker 1  2:04  
yeah. Well, as you said, I'm out here in Los Angeles. I found myself out here after because I attended the Pepperdine School of Public Policy after attending the University of Michigan, I studied political science there, and it was there that I kind of had my academic awakening. I found that my professors were just really out of touch what so called marginalized groups were actually experiencing. So I always wanted to be challenged in that way. I wanted to be exposed to an environment that cultivated free speech and dialog, and that's what I found at Pepperdine. I really got an experience of, you know, two, two contrasting academic environments. And from there, I've always been fascinated with boots on the ground research, seeing what's really going on in in the inner city. And I've been able to contribute to different think tanks on research. While I don't do research full time for political think tanks, I am full time a policy analyst for a cannabis company out here in Los Angeles. So that's how I found my sustainability living in such an expensive city. There

Brian Nichols  3:18  
you go. Well, well, let's really quickly just pivot a little bit to something you just you said there, your intro boots on the ground right? And this is where I think a lot of this dialog, it really does split right, because you have the folks who are in there, in the the the ivory towers, right, almost at ebony towers, the ivory towers, you know, they're professors in academia, or they're, they're in some think tank, or they're in some some bureaucracy at the federal government, where they're really isolated from seeing what's happening, to use your expression in a boots on the ground perspective, versus the folks who are actually out in, you know, in the world, living and breathing this, this, you know, issue from a policy prescription standpoint, but also seeing the cultural ramifications, the crime, you know, the criminal ramifications, I mean all that and more that. Really, if you, you don't live in that world, you don't get to see it, right? It turns into a headline on the evening news. So it's very interesting that you're taking this, this really close look, because it's something that you're you're living, breathing, seeing every single day, and this is actually something that's impacted your family. And I know in the article over at Real Clear Politics, you outline this a little bit with the story about your grandfather. So let's set the stage today. You know, who is the Garcia family and maybe how this conversation impacted you and your family in your world, very, very personally.

Speaker 1  4:41  
Yeah. So, you know, I was five years old when my grandfather was deported, and he's actually a losano by my Garcia side is quite different, but they they both shows tell stories of the plight of immigrants during the 80s, and my grandfather, he. He it was the economy during his upbringing was tough, and him not having the legal status, he found himself, you know, succumbing to the vices of low income environment. He got into narcotics. I believe I grew up understanding that it was mainly marijuana. I learned that when I was about in middle school. But I'm not certain with all of his offenses, but what I do know is that he was targeted a lot. He was a babysitter for most of for most of my since I could remember when I was like three years old, babysitting me often, but it was always we had to be on the lookout when going to the park, when going to certain areas. And I thought, you know my mom, you know, her being a young mother, always told me, Oh, it's because of his immigration status. You know, they're just, you know, it's racial profiling. So I was really, you know, brought up in this with this perspective that because I'm brown, that I'm going to be racially targeted by La Miga, and that's in the article I say that, you know, me and my little cousins, we, we kind of turned it into a game, and would play tag or hide and seek, and, you know, call ourselves La Migra, and, you know, it's like, like, the boogeyman or, you know, so, you know, I definitely grew up with, you know, that notion in my head. But as I got older, and I'm actually writing another article about, you know, public schools and during the Obama administration, but it was when I was saying, a sophomore in high school, I really began to understand the, you know, the environment that I was in, and the lack of law and order that was around it, and how that was the prevailing concern that I was beginning to develop. You know, it was during the time where, when the Trayvon Martin situation was going on and people were rethinking how to look at the police, and I remember thinking like, man, like, you know, my grandma, she lives in the hood, as you would say, and I want, you know, a police presence there, just in case something does happen. So you know, when you live in those environments, you you see the concerns of, you know, community members that are often not heard because they don't fit, you know, the mainstream narrative,

Brian Nichols  7:07  
yep. Well, by the way, I mean, I lived in Philadelphia for about seven years, and I mean, some of the areas we lived in borderline classify as the hood, right? And like, you're, you're spot on, man, because I didn't like playing that game. Is this gunshots or fireworks? And I also knew for a fact that as Philadelphia was a sanctuary city and a sanctuary city, that there was a lot of folks who were seeking refuge in Philadelphia, both good people, but also bad people, right? And I guess there is this. I'm gonna call it a progressive left wing liberal bias that it it paints this picture that anybody who is of a minority status, be they Black, Latino, whatever it may be that they they deserve the benefit of the doubt that even if they are considered, you know, maybe a potentially dangerous criminal, well, maybe it's because of their circumstances where they grew up, and we just need to Give them a chance. We need to change our systems. We need to change our policies to help embrace them and help give them a better life. I watched that narrative firsthand in Philadelphia crash and burn, right? Because it's not so much what you as a com or as a country rather can give to these people, but rather what you're going to be able to do to help protect your already law abiding tax paying citizens of the country or of the city or the locality. And you do see that when the government, the powers that be, prioritize non citizens at the expense of the taxpayers, of the voters, of the citizens themselves, it does breed some very negative unintended consequences which talk about unintended consequences. You think this narrative of, well, you know, Trump administration, they're coming in, they're gonna start enforcing immigration law, how about that? And they're gonna say, Hey, you're a sanctuary city. Well, sorry, that's a violation of the approach of federalism, the Supremacy Clause, right? So we're just gonna go, we're gonna start doing our jobs, and to see like, oh, man, I think that would really piss off the Latino community. And yet, and yet, this is the part that blows me away. 2024 Pew Research poll found 45% of Latinos expressed confidence in Trump's approach to immigration, compared to the 39% who supported Biden's policy. I mean, that's a six point swing versus the Pro and against, right? So that speaks to that, even though these policies were aimed at almost like, like pacifying, this is this preconceived notion that if we just make it easier for folks to live here, be it legally or illegally, that folks will like us more, but it actually the exact opposite. So I'm curious, Cruz, like, what has been your experience there? Do you see this in the Latino community, where lots of folks are saying, listen, we're actually supporting this, this Trump approach. And if so, what's their what's their argument, what's their perspective?

Speaker 1  9:52  
Yeah, and that's something that really motivates my research. And I'll preface by saying that Latinos are a heterogeneous, you know, ethnic race. Racial group, like all racial groups, they comprise multiple ethnicities, and there's so many subcultures and groups that you know, differentiate them. But when you look at data and when you put them into those social categories, it does show that Latinos are becoming representative of the general, you know, voter who cares about the economy, about public safety, about education. So Latinos, in that way, have really assimilated to, you know, value those things that say a typical American would value. And I would go as far to say, you know, you pointed out the poll from Pew there's also, you know, this past election, we see counties that have never Latino majority, counties that have never voted red before, vote red for the first time. And you know, to emphasize that these are counties that are impacted by immigration. You have star County and Maverick County in Texas that are along the southern border, and you have Riverside County and San Bernardino County out here in Los Angeles. So, and, you know, I'm in Los Angeles, and, you know, the political culture is very motivated by the Latino civil rights movement, but you're seeing like that, that culture valued, but also an unders, an understanding for the necessity of, you know, evidence based reasons for policy solution. You know, having increased police presence. You know, buffer zones, you know, making sure that there's distances from encampments, you know, to schools. You know, those are Latinos and immigrant communities that are pushing, you know, those policies and that are showing up to student, sorry, city council meetings, and, you know, talking before Council and expressing themselves. I saw a part of my job, you know, is for my cannabis company is watching city council meetings. And, you know, I don't want to say the city, but one of the cities that I was watching, it was just like, you know, it was such a traditional, you know, conservative Latino community. And I'm not saying I'm, you know, the supporter of, you know, conservative communities. I'm pretty libertarian myself, but you know, the community was so conservative, and the council members were so receptive to what they were hearing. So I just, you know, really think, you know, communities like that need to be remain intact, because they have something you know, so great to offer,

Brian Nichols  12:22  
yeah, well, and listen from a from a messaging standpoint, right? It does have so much more of an impact when you see the folks who are, I mean, in this case, really primarily impacted by by policy or the lack thereof, right, the ones who are actually voicing concerns versus and this is what we've seen here in America. Anytime the whites engage in a conversation about immigration policy, right? It's always like, Oh, well, if you're not in favor of a more, you know, inclusive immigration policy, you must be racist, right? And this just really takes the wind out of those sales. It turns it much more into a conversation about this specific policy and the aftermath of these policies, both positives and negatives, versus just, you know, superficially painting that anybody who challenges the narrative is a racist right. And this is where I think a lot of folks, especially on the more we'll just say the conservative right, the the moderate right. I think that the more common sense approach to politics, really took a stance this past election cycle, like they looked at the discrepancy between the Trump administration, what they were going to be promoting, and the potential Kamala Harris administration, and the contrast was quite clear, right? Like lots of folks looked at that and said, Sorry, no, we watched for the past four years as what millions of folks poured over the southern border. Border, both Latinos and non Latinos, right? It's folks coming from all over the world, Chinese immigrants, Haitian immigrants, folks from from the like the African countries. Like, what are we doing here? And this is where so many folks are to say, time out. I'm not a bad person for asking questions. I'm not a bad person for noticing that literally millions of people have flooded over our borders and now are taking over our large cities in America and also living here, in many cases, at the expense of the taxpayer. Meanwhile, my roads are crumbling, my bridges are crumbling. Are literally falling down, if you're talking about the Francis Scott Key Bridge over in Maryland, right? We're watching as our airplanes are crashing into each other in the sky or trying to land and falling apart or flipping over on runways. We're watching all these issues take place, and we're told, sorry, we don't have the money, sorry, we can't help you here, right? And I know for the average person, they hear that and they say, and ear maps for the kids at home, they say, That's bullshit. Sorry. I'm calling it out for what it is. You can't keep gas lighting me, telling me that the sky is green when I'm looking at it. Saying, No, it's blue. And this is why so many folks, I think across the board, crews, both you know, the folks in the you know, the larger voting public, both Republicans and Democrats, started to coalesce on this. 82 Issue. But surprisingly, a lot of the folks who I think there was this preconceived notion that, well, if you're a Latino, you're not going to be in favor of reforming immigration policy. And yet, the exact opposite is what we're seeing here, come come to fruition today.

Speaker 1  15:14  
Oh, completely. You know, it reminds me of a moment that I had at the University of Michigan. It was my freshman year, and we were reading Michelle Alexander's New Jim Crow. I was, you know, pretty young at the time, and I don't remember, you know, the entirety of of the book, but I do remember having a conversation where the I just realized how gas lit, you know, the University of Michigan made me feel. And I, you know, and, and I bring it up because, I mean, I do have, you know, good mentors that I've had, friends that I've made at the University of Michigan, but, my goodness, it's like, you know, it the white people there, you know, it's a progressive environment, and they really do gaslight minorities into, you know, just restricting their like, their ability to think critically on topics like that, like we were reading the New Jim Crow, and there was a section where they were trying to pin the elders of a community as snitches, because they would do like neighborhood watches. I remember the conversation, and I don't remember the specific part in the book, but I remember talking in the class about how, you know the elders of, you know, minority communities, you know, when they develop relationships with police, that it's like a force of, like, a like, a sense of like, you know, like being an Uncle Tom or, you know, being a sellout when and to me, that was just like around a class full of white students, and they're having me believe that, you know, community leaders that are connected with police are supposed to be these, you know, the, you know, enemy of me. So, you know, it's instant like gaslighting like that, from the academic standpoint, that cultivates a group of young people you know, who go out into the workforce, who, see, you know, who have those social cues to deflect from, you know, having critical conversations, or looking at something, you know, with pragmatic research back behind it, because they've been cultivated in a society as such. So I'm excited with, you know, I'm a critical of Trump, but I'm always, I can, you know, definitely acknowledge, you know, the good things that he's doing, and one of them is the revitalization of merit in society. And to me, and what's important to me is in academia, because we can have these conversations. We can get into the nitty gritty about what law and order looks like and how it should be implemented. You know, it's also interesting, because I'm also concerned with, you know, my, you know, with being lumped in together with, you know, violent criminals. I think one of the another good thing that Trump is doing is that he's saying, He's talking to the Latino community. He named the wildlife center off of after Jocelyn, new day, you know, so and which is so beautiful to me. I mean, you have wildlife growing in your memory, like that's, you know, to me, just amazing. And the fact that Trump can distinguish, you know, what pro family Latino communities are compared to, you know, foreign actors that, you know, there's speculation that they've been planted here. You know that distinguishment is important to the Latino community, and the fact that he does that, you know, we want to, we want to be at, you know, the table when it comes to issues like this, because we understand and we see, you know, narrow based policies from, you know, the progressive standpoint that are supposed that are intended to help Latino communities and black communities, they often have negative impacts. And it's important for, you know, individuals from those communities to point it out and to not be afraid, to be to have a platform and say, you know, your talk looks nice, but in actuality, Yo, you know, the erosion of standards, you know, from the Obama administration, that is, you know, the ramifications are so strong in for young, for black and Latino youth because of that. So it's policies like that that are intended to help, you know, you know, a narrow base of constituents that end up, you know, hurting, you know, all Americans, and we, and I would never want to be a part of, you know, a policy that it's like, it's like, oh, it's to help you, but, you know, we're going to, instead, you know, drag a whole bunch of people down. Because, you know, this is a experimental policy that, you know, that sounds good. So, and we,

Brian Nichols  19:21  
by the way, I mean, interrupt Chris, but like, this is why we've seen over the past few years, right? The narrative of what we've been promoted by the left crumble, and then the real life consequences of those narratives actually coming to fruition. You look at Lake and Riley, right? The thing was Georgia University, I think she was a junior or something like that, when she was out going for a run, gets attacked by an illegal immigrant from, I think Venezuela it was, and gets violently beaten and murdered by this immigrant. And that narrative right of, well, that's an exception to the rule. No anybody who has a functioning cerebral cortex can look at that and say, No, I don't. Care if she's a white kid, a black kid, a Latino kid, that could be my kid, right? And this shouldn't be happening. And it turns into things like the lake and Riley act, where all of a sudden you have a very large base of folks who are are pushing their their their representatives, to say, Enough, right? I don't, I don't want to watch as Americans are being sacrificed at the support of quite literal illegal aliens who are coming to our country and then violating our laws, right? And I always hear this, this narrative from folks who are much more in the open borders camp of like, well, illegal immigrants commit less, less crime than your average person. And I'm like, they shouldn't be here in the first place. Like, it's like, you have, you know, a guy come over to your house. He's, you know, he's good buddy of yours, and he's hanging out, and then just one of his friends just comes in and starts trashing the place. It's like, Hold on, I invited my friend in, not his friend, and now his friends here destroying my place. Sorry. I should be able, as the landlord or the homeowner, to say no and to call that out for what it is, not to be gaslit, to say you're a bad person for not letting this guy come in because it's cold outside. He needs to be inside today because it's a chilly day and and then what he's going to destroy my home? No. And that is, I mean, it's a very gross analogy, but like when you fast forward to where we are today, we're seeing that take place right now, that is the narrative, or at least the mindset behind a lot of folks more on that open borders camp. So when you look at things like the lake and Riley act, you know, Cruz, I'm curious, do you think that that is a step towards sanity, like, do you think that we're starting to come out of this, this gas lit idealistic mentality from the progressives and the leftists and the open border folks who, you know, they want to sing Kumbaya and one global, you know, social order, and actually going back towards an idea that, hey, I'm an American, I have national pride. We're building it on meritocracy and shared values. And, hey, we we have rules, and if you don't like those rules, don't come here is, are we getting back more towards that mentality? What do you see?

Speaker 1  22:00  
Yeah, and I definitely think we are getting back to, back towards that mentality. I think with, you know, social media, with Elon Musk allowing such a free platform where, you know, there's transparency of what goes on in the community, you're definitely having constituents seeing and experiencing, you know, the strife of mass immigration, and majority of them being men, 20 to 30 years old. With, you know, speculation of past crimes. We know how these, you know, these rogue countries, you know, act when it comes to, you know what they do with their criminals. But you know, I also mentioned, you know, like Lake and Riley Joshua Newbery, you know, she was a Latina who was killed in Texas by an illegal immigrant. And these stories are important, you know, because I growing up around, you know, illegal immigrants and my family being Latino and being in a Latino community, you know, it raises the spectacle of, like, unsolved cases, of of, you know, a different judicial process because of the illegal status. It's much harder to investigate crimes when somebody is undocumented. I mean, you know, honestly, like, just last week, my little cousin toriano was killed in a homicide. And his investigation. Well, thank you. His investigation is still pending. We don't know who the perpetrator is. And, you know, really quick my cousin Vicky, Talia, Selena and Juan. You know, I love you guys. And you know, it's so unfortunate that his young life was taken so quick, because he was such an amazing person, so in situations like that that, you know it, it's a crisis. You know. It really does feel like a crisis for the inner city community when you have, you know, a distressed environment already, but compliment that with weak immigration laws that brings Unsafe people who encourage crime. You know, in the community, the inner city already has a severe problem with unsolved cases with, you know, black and brown victims of homicide and you know abuse, you know, you know, going completely unsolved. So there's this idea that you know that it only matters when it's the white perpetrator, but when you're in a situation where the perpetrator is the same skin color as you it doesn't, it doesn't matter at all, you know. So I think people it's much harder to gaslight. It's much harder for politicians to have propagandistic messages. So and and, you know it, I think, you know, the left is going to have to do is really go into their toolkit with coming up with good arguments. I mean, you see Gavin Newsom, he's doing a podcast, and he's, you know, acting like he is, you know, center. But overall, I mean, with, you know, social media and with this like, you know, you know, freedom of, you know, in. Information coming from so many different avenues. You know, it's going to be harder for politicians to, you know, use the same tactics that they used on black and Latino communities. Because, you know, we're pretty savvy when it comes to social media and keeping up with the news. So Cruz,

Brian Nichols  25:16  
we're going to end towards the the tail end of the conversation here. But you did mention something that really it. It sparked something. I want have your opinion, you know, or at least your sales pitch outlined here, because you mentioned you're libertarian, or at least libertarian leading right. And we see, you know, David Smith and Alex narasha from The Cato Institute, they're gonna be having a debate here in the next few weeks on the idea of a more open borders mentality from a libertarian perspective, and a more, we'll say closed national border perspective from Dave Smith. And I see this a lot. I'm a libertarian, and I see it in all the libertarian groups. This is a civil war that's still taking place. Open borders versus not so much. Closed borders, just a common sense approach to borders. And I see a lot of the folks in the more open borders camp. I mean, they will, they will go back to the books, they will go back to the philosophy. They'll go back to the principles, and they just lead with that, and they don't really apply it to the real world, at least that's my perspective. But to those folks in the more libertarian open border camp, make the sale right, like make the pitch to them. Why are they missing some stuff here? And from your true again, boots on the ground perspective help them see things that they are not seeing.

Speaker 1  26:25  
Yeah, so I mean all this to say I'm not an immigration expert. I do write, write about it from the outsider perspective, and I know that there's even talk about, you know, black water in, you know, coming up with an immigration budget. Or, I don't necessarily know how that would work out, you know, enforcing immigration from the private sector, but what I will say is that, you know, when it comes to immigration, there is a really big security concern involved. And I know, you know, I'm not for a police state. I'm not for, you know, ice to just come in and raid communities. That's not what I'm for for at all. I'm for local solution based, you know, conversations and so I would all that to say is, you know, when it comes to the free free markets, we need to recognize that it's not the same immigration wave as it was when my grandparents came during the 60s and 70s, and what the Bucha administration was trying to during during the early 2000s This is a different wave of immigrants. Majority of them are men. They're not families. They those coming from the southern border, there's a relaxed rule of law. They don't have the same ambition that. And this isn't to say all of them, but certainly with what has been, you know, researched and from that, you know, it's not women and children like it was years before. So I think in this situation, it would be a matter of prioritizing safety, seeing what the local communities want to do, and give it more, you know, allow states to work with, you know, ICE Immigration, as opposed to just, you know, having this like, you know, draconian immigration enforcement. And I would also say, you know, I know it's only Trump's second, second month in office, but he hasn't deported that many immigrants. He they're really to me, they're doing a lot of the groundwork as the same seeing like, let's root out the ones that are really bad. Let's root out the ones that are causing all the problems in the community that you know. Let's work with local authorities and see which the areas that have gotten the most complaints from residents that have, you know, had, you know, speculations. I mean, if you just go to a Chicago City Council meeting, I mean, you can just, you know, see what they're saying. But overall, it has, there has to be a law and order approach to illegal immigration. And then once you know there's something, there's some reform going on, we can start talking about, okay, we you know, what do we need in terms of labor, high skilled labor, low skilled because the conversation involves so many different aspects of the economy and and I don't have enough information on it, but you know, I'm also Hearing from the conservative side too, that it's like, it's like, No, those are American jobs. And, you know, I, I don't know enough about it, but I just know that there's a really big security concern that needs to be addressed.

Brian Nichols  29:33  
And listen like, this is where I have been battling my my good friends on the libertarian side for quite a while, which, by the way, I am a libertarian, so I put that out there first. But like we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time and not get drunk on our own, our own. I guess policy prescriptions here, right? Because it is one thing for us to sit together in our little groups and talk about how great things could be if everybody. Living by libertarian principles and values and philosophies like, yeah, the world would be a lot better of a place if everybody lived by the mentality of, don't hurt people and don't take their stuff, but, but that's not reality, right? That's not how real life works. There are absolutely good people who are going to abide and live by those rules. But guess what? For every one of those folks, there is going to be somebody out there who says, Oh, well, I'm going to go out and hurt people and take their stuff. And we have to be able to acknowledge that, like we have the ideal we want to enforce, or at least promote, the ideas of don't hurt people and don't take their stuff, but we have to be able to then have means to stop the folks who are going to hurt people and take their stuff. That's not me being unprincipled, that's me applying our ideas to the real world and just elephant in the room. Libertarians, if your ideas can't actually, like, stand in the real world and actually convince people and show value, then your ideas are goofball. This is the stuff we talk about with our silly friends in the left who are in the communist camp right. Like, well, if everybody lived by our communist standards? Well, they won't right, because I'm not going to share half of everything I earn to the rest of the society, because communal justice like, no, none of that stuff. Stop it like and that's where libertarians, I think more often, have lost the mark. And by the way, this is why, for the past six years, I've been trying to teach libertarians how to sell their ideas in a common sense way that meets people where they're at on the issues they care about, not through Hey, this book is really great. Read this book, and you'll understand why that doesn't sell. That just annoys people, that pushes people away. So the fact that we are having a very real and, yes, sometimes tough conversation about very real issues that are impacting very real people, that's that's important, and that's exactly how if libertarians want to win, they are going to win. Now I'm going to, for my final thought today, I'm going to maybe do a little bit of a poke at somebody in the libertarian movement, because I have a little spat on Twitter. You know, Twitter? Karen Ann harlows, I think she's the secretary of the Libertarian party or something. She used to be, I don't remember what her title is. She told me winning is not a strategy. And I just, I kind of sit back and I laugh because I'm saying, listen, Karen Ann, because she was arguing that libertarians need to be libertarian, like big L, Libertarians need to be philosophical, 100% pure libertarians. They live by the bylaws. And like Karen Ann, that's not a sales strategy that that's you having a social club and setting rules for people to get in and and I said, Good luck winning. She's well, winning is not a strategy. It's like, well, then what are we doing? Are we are we playing, playing politics, right? Are we being goofballs in our own little goofball groups and trying to argue about who's the most pure goofball? If that's the case, fine, go do that. But just understand that I'm out. Lots of other folks who are more common sense, like realistic libertarians, are going to be out. And by the way, the larger public who's not libertarian, or at least do not identify as a libertarian, they're going to look at you as a goofball and not even pay attention like we libertarians are going to pay attention because it's our name, right? We're libertarians, but the other folks out there in the real world, they're going to shut down. They're going to say, this is goofball. You're completely ignoring what's actually happening right now in pursuit of pushing your perfect ideology, perfecting your perfect pushing your perfect values, and that does not sell. So to folks like Karen Ann, sure, go live by your bylaws. I'll go live in the real world cruise. That's my final thoughts for today. What do you have for us on your end as we wrap things

Speaker 1  33:15  
up? Yeah, I completely agree with you. You know, I do identify as a libertarian, I'm not, you know the and Randy and faithful libertarian that you know some people you know are, and I have gotten heat for it, but I mean, I think that's the cool thing about being a libertarian, is that, you know, you can be an advocate of small government and still question, you know, a lot of things that go on the policy world. You know, I'm a free speech absolutist, and you know, I, my mind is constantly changing, and you know, but one thing that I'm going to be truthful to is, you know, the investigation of truth. And I do think that libertarians, they have that about them, and I hope it remains that way, and that, you know, people are accepting to the group, and that, you know, people don't get pushed out. But it was wonderful being able to talk about this is a great conversation. I'm actually motivated to write more after this conversation, so you did your job and love it. Awesome,

Brian Nichols  34:10  
man. Well, how about this? We want folks to go ahead and read whatever you're inspired today to go and write in the future. So where can folks go ahead, reach out to you, follow you on social media if they want to see what's coming next from Cruz Garcia, and where can they go ahead and check out this article that we're talking about today.

Speaker 1  34:26  
Yeah. So my article is on Real Clear Politics. Latin voters are optimistic about Trump's approach to immigration, and they can follow my sub or subscribe to my sub stack. It's at Cruz Garcia the enlightened. Love it awesome.

Brian Nichols  34:41  
And folks, we'll make sure we include those links in the show notes. And by the way, Cruz is joining us today from the amazing team over at young voices. I have been a big fan of young voices for many a year now. Our good buddy Caleb Fran still fighting the good fight, bringing young conservative and libertarian writers to the table, getting. Them on platforms that millions of folks have access to, like Real Clear Politics. So it is really cool to see the younger generation, which, by the way, helped us win here in this past election cycle. Mind you. So the fact that the younger generation is active, they are writing, they are getting involved, and dare I say, We're winning. So with that being said, cruise, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you to the amazing team at young voices. And with that being said, Folks, if you got some value from today's episode, do me a favor. Go ahead and give today's episode a share when you do. Tag yours truly at B Nichols liberty, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, wherever it is you spend time for social medias, or if you're watching this on your favorite video platform, like YouTube, Rumble or on Twitter or on Facebook, do me a favor. Head down below into the comments. Let us know your thoughts. Do you agree with the cruises perspective and yours truly here on The Brian Nichols Show, or are you much more in the open borders camp? Go ahead. Have the battle down in the comments. Let us know your thoughts. And of course, if you are in fact, going ahead and following us over the video platforms, hit that subscribe button as well. So it was a single time we have a brand new episode, go live. And of course, The Brian Nichols Show is a podcast, so you can go ahead and find it on all your audio podcast platforms, like Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, music and anywhere you get your podcast. I like podcast attic. I know other folks. They like their own different podcasting tools. Whoever it is, you can go ahead and find The Brian Nichols Show. But with that being said, we're gonna go ahead and put a pin in today's conversation cruise. This has been an absolutely fantastic chat, and thank you folks for joining us today with that being said, Brian Nichols, signing off here on The Brian Nichols Show for cruise. Garcia, we'll see you next time. Bye.

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