Speaker 1: All right.
Let's go back to discord and hear from more people.
You can find the David Pacman show discord at David Pacman dot com slash discord.
Let's go to the node from India v node from India.
Welcome to the David Pacman show.
Speaker 2: Hello? David.
Can you.
Speaker 1: Hear me?
Yes, I can.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm doing well, thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay.
So I wanted to ask about, you know, the recent state visit by Prime Minister of India, Narendra
modi to the US.
Joe Biden invited him.
The interesting thing that I noticed is some of the members of Congress might go to this
address to Congress, right?
Yes.
So one of them was Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, I guess.
So my question is she she met with like the thing is she told that I you know, the Muslims
are discriminated in India and, you know, their rights are not respected and societies.
And so she boycotted it.
But my question is, she went to, you know, Duggee and met with the dragon and she went
to Pakistan and met with Imran Khan and other such people.
I mean, those people are not exactly known for, you know, respecting human rights and
religious freedom, right?
Yeah.
So this is the hypocrisy that I'm seeing from some progressive members of Congress.
What I want to hear their thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
So listen, I'm going to take your word for it on what Ilhan Omar said about anti-Muslim
discrimination in India.
Let's assume you're accurately representing it.
I'm unaware of what she said.
I think that this is it would not be unique to Ilhan Omar to play a little soft with some
of the authoritarian leaning folks that you're talking about, including Erdogan in Turkey,
while levying criticisms in similar circumstances about other leaders.
This wouldn't be unique to Ilhan Omar.
There are there is a contingent of the left that does this sort of thing.
Somehow they end up always going soft on, you know, whether it's Erdogan or Putin or
Maduro or Castro or whatever the case may be.
It's not it's not new.
I don't have anything in particular to add about it.
Often it's rooted in wanting to apply, not wanting to.
It often applies a different standard to the United States and allies versus other countries.
And I don't know that I have too much more to say, but I know that there are people in
my audience who, every time I mention the name Ilhan Omar, want me canceled.
But to be totally fair, Vinod, I didn't hear her make the comments that you're talking
about, but the double standard you're bringing up does not come as a shock to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
I mean, hearing from, you know, the discourse in the U.S.. It seems like, you know, if someone
is not knowledgeable of India and what's going on here, someone who hears the rhetoric that
these people, you know, espouse, they think that some sort of genocide is going on like
some sort of a muslim genocide is going on here, which is ridiculous.
You know, I mean, I'm not pro BJP or pro Modi or anything.
I mean, it's fine to criticize him.
That's okay.
But, you know, I see the parallel here because Ilhan Omar, you know, sometimes criticizes
Israel also.
So, you know, sometimes it is I feel like it is anti-Semitic.
So I think it is I can see the battle between here and there.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, let we we should really take these all individually.
I do think there is evidence of anti-Muslim discrimination in India.
It would be wrong of me to characterize it exactly, because it's something I've read
about a little bit.
And there are a number of different studies.
There's a Reuters report NBC News has written about it, about concerns about Muslim rights
in India.
I think it's perfectly fair and correct to have a concern about that.
You seem to be going more to the hypocrisy or double standard, and I think that's fair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I agree with you.
Thanks for David.
Thanks for.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
There is V node from India.
Great to hear from you.
Why don't we go next to.
How about Bobby from Southern California?
Bobby from Southern California.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hey, David.
How are you doing?
Well.
Okay, So I have a question for you.
How do we get back to talking about policies and things that matter to Americans, such
as affordable health care, education and housing?
How do we shift focus towards these major issues instead of manufactured issues related
to our caravans, CRT, LGBTQ, plus asylum seekers, indoctrination, etc.?
My take is that it just feels like moderates and right wingers are focusing on the wrong
problems that don't actually impact them on a day to day basis or create better outcomes
for their own livelihoods.
My perception is that Americans are willing to fight the wrong battles.
Focus on the wrong priorities, and continue to vote for politicians who often vote against
their best interests because they get reported to fight ideological battles so they can point
to possible answers.
Speaker 1: There's two paths.
Bobby And we've talked about this before.
The question is how can the left force policy back into the national discussion as the primary
issue?
Despite the right's insistence on ignoring policy, doing culture, war issues and that
sort of thing.
Two answers.
Okay.
One answer is the left needs to stop engaging on every single one of these cultural issues
and just talk about policy only.
And eventually the people of the country will realize, Wow, that's quite a contrast.
They will start paying attention to the culture war issues and they will pay attention to
the policy discussions of the left.
Sounds a little pie in the sky.
On the other side, there's the argument the left actually just needs to defeat the right
on all of these culture issues instead of sort of playing a little coy with the culture
issues and saying these are contrived and overblown.
Make the landscape one where you actually fight the right on those issues.
And then once we beat the right on those issues, then we can go back to policy.
I think the problem is the more engagement the right gets on these issues, the more they
will push.
And it's not actually going to be so simple to say we've done away with the culture stuff.
Now we can get back to policy.
I actually think that our guest earlier this week, Joe Berkowitz, made maybe the best point
on this.
The way to do it is expose how stupid these culture issues are.
And in the same breath, in the same conversations, get back to those important policy issues.
I don't believe it's a perfect solution.
I believe that to some degree the right is going to I mean, the culture issues, they
get headlines, they sound interesting, they sound titillating in different ways.
But I like that idea, which is to say, hey, guys, listen, every time you want to talk
about this, this school stuff, you just lie.
These things aren't going on.
It's a waste of time.
There's no cat litter boxes for students who identify as cats.
Librarians and teachers know what books kids should read.
Okay, now let's get back to figuring out how to make food more affordable and health care
more accessible.
I think that's some kind of in-between approach is probably the best.
Speaker 2: And do you believe that since 2016, when Trump was elected, that Americans are
more leaning towards listening to the other side of the aisle?
Or do we still have a lot of work to get there?
Speaker 1: A lot of work to get there.
A lot of work to get there.
Yeah.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 1: Bobby from SoCal, thank you for the call.
Thank you.
All right.
Kind of a sad reality, but it is what it is, you know.