The Trump Train Rolls Through Iowa

Plus: A listener asks the editors if there are any bad laws that might discourage people from having kids.

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The Trump Train Rolls Through Iowa

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman stare down the results of last night's Iowa caucuses, which saw former President Donald Trump notch a resounding win in his bid to return to the White House.

01:45—Iowa caucuses results and recap

33:52—Weekly Listener Question

41:02—The U.S. attacks on Houthis in Yemen

47:13—The latest on the bipartisan spending deal drama in Congress

49:58—This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"Trump Romps Through Iowa Caucuses, Calls for GOP to 'Come Together,'" by Eric Boehm

"The Comeback Kid," by Liz Wolfe

"Vivek Ramaswamy Leaves the Field," by Jesse Walker

"Chris Christie Tried To Break Trump's Hold on the GOP. It Didn't Work." by Eric Boehm

"Most Iowans Don't Care About the Caucuses. You Shouldn't Either." by Adam Sullivan

"The Case Against Trump: Donald Trump Is an Enemy of Freedom," by Matt Welch

"Joe Biden's $11 Trillion Plan To Bankrupt America," by Nick Gillespie

"U.S. Attacks Houthis in Yemen," by Liz Wolfe

"The War on Terror Zombie Army Has Assembled," by Matthew Petti

"Storks Don't Take Orders From the State," by Elizabeth Nolan Brown

"Are Car Seat Laws Driving Down America's Birthrate?" by Christian Britschgi

"Does Biden Need Congressional Authorization for His Strikes Against the Houthis?" by Ilya Somin

"MLK's Contested Yet Universal Blueprint for Freedom," by Matt Welch

"The Beekeeper Is a Pulpy, Enjoyable Action Movie About a Rigged System," by Peter Suderman

"11 Trillion Reasons To Fear Joe Biden's Presidency" by Nick Gillespie

"RFK Jr.: The Reason Interview," by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller

"Jeb Bush: What He Thinks of Trump, Biden, DeSantis, and 'Florida Man,'" by Nick Gillespie

"Vivek Ramaswamy: Why He's Running for President—and Against 'Woke Capitalism,'"  by Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller

"Baby Bust!" by Kerry Howley

"Can Governments Increase Birthrates? Should They?" by Nick Gillespie

"Child-proofing the World," by Nick Gillespie

"'American Fiction': The Great Awokening," by Kurt Loder

"Sharks Stuffed With Money," by Nick Gillespie

The Reason Speakeasy with David Stockman, January 22, 2024

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsors:

• LibertyCon International 2024
• The world would be a better, freer, and happier place if constitutional protections for private property were taken just a tad more seriously. That's according to our friends over at the Institute for Justice, who have just begun releasing a new season of their legal history podcast, Bound By Oath. Bound By Oath tells the story of how the Supreme Court has cleared the way for government officials to abuse property rights: to trespass on private land without a warrant, to restrict peaceful and productive uses of property, to seize and keep property without sufficient justification, and much more. Featuring interviews not only with scholars and litigators but also with the real-life people behind some of the Supreme Court's most momentous property rights decisions, the new season explores the history behind today's civil rights battles. So plug Bound By Oath into wherever you get your podcasts, and start with Episode 1.

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Nick Gillespie

• American Fiction

Peter Suderman

• The Beekeeper

Matt Welch

• Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art

---

Comments

[Chumby]

Biden supporters are the ones with a loco motive.

[Reshufflex]

And off the rails.

[Vernon Depner]

No way to slow down.

[Commenter_XY]

Heading for a train wreck

[Gaear Grimsrud]

On a crazy train.

[Chumby]

More Iowans decided to choo choo choose Trump than any of the others.

[Public Entelectual]

And just when the weather was getting interesting in Iowa

https://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2024/01/iowa-caucus-grows-climatically-raucus.html

[Don't look at me!]

Fake website

[Chumby]

Fake vvebsite?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

The weather in Iowa is never interesting. In fact weather isn't interesting. I cant quite explain it. It's always just been there.

[rbike]

Living in Iowa, this last week has certainly been interesting. Driving to work on snow covered interstates is interesting. I am not a disgraced president of a prestigious university who gets paid no matter what. I committed to being at work.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Yeah I'm a couple hundred miles east and I've been out every day. Actually had to show up for jury duty yesterday at 14 below. Just broke the zero mark this morning.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Not a cult.

https://twitter.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1746283704123838734

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I think you just got trolled, Jeffy.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Fuck Donald Trump

[Don't look at me!]

Lol. So original

[Ersatz]

ha! yeah... good luck making that a thing.

[Bill Falcon]

Why? The last quarter the DC crowd ran up $1T in new debt (funded by the fed's printing press of course), Corn Pop and his neocon Trotsky loving foreign policy elites just dumped $100B to a coke sniffing corrupt scum bag running a corrupt eastern European country because I guess Trotsky lost to Stalin and the czar did bad things 150 years ago. The FBI is targeting Catholics and parents and most of the Federal and State Govts along with the corporate press are pushing for sexually mutilating mentally ill kids cause...well let's not go there. TB is now the fastest growing disease in cities where illegal aliens are flowing in. Most of the world is getting wise to the scum bag globalists who run America these days and who can't want to bomb the shit out of them for the MIC and greater Israel.

The borders wide open, inflation out of control, crime (read the Chicago crime blotter and you will get sick to your stomach). Free speech under seige..JC...how bad was Trump actually? Mean tweets? I'll give you he screwed up covid by freaking out, putting Fauci in charge and printing trillions but maybe he learned his lesson. Biden? I know Reason is all about open borders, sexually mutilating little kids and porn in schools, and abortion so I guess Biden is their "man" or "woman" or "gender fluid"...

[Chumby]

The productive citizens just aren’t paying enough into a system that already abuses their output where they should welcome bigger brother with open arms lest government encourage them to do so should they not.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Because Trump is a horrible human being who should be kept far far away from the levers of power.

The abuses that you describe above, even when they are not wildly exaggerated, don't justify voting FOR Trump - they justify voting AGAINST Biden. And that is fair too. Don't vote for Biden either.

how bad was Trump actually? Mean tweets?

Umm, did you hear about this whole Jan. 6 thing that happened? Even if you don't believe that Trump directly 'incited an insurrection', he deliberately created the conditions to ensure something like that would happen. He would not hand over power gracefully, it finally came down to raw force - of the Capitol police and the National Guard dispersing the rioters - before the transfer of power could take place. And it was, ultimately, Trump's fault. If he had acted like an adult and not a sore loser crybaby, he would have conceded the election and there would not have been a riot on Jan. 6. He has authoritarian impulses that are dangerous and should not be rewarded with power.

[DesigNate]

“he deliberately created the conditions to ensure something like that would happen…”

I don’t feel like rehashing all the ways the average person might have thought something hinky went on without any influence from Trump. But I don’t see how you square him “deliberately” doing something with the fact that he offered Pelosi additional backup for the Capitol Police through the National Guard, showing that he was obviously worried things had gotten out of hand even before J6.

Regardless, the transfer of power happens on January 20th and he left the Oval Office of his own volition with nary a hint of violence or force.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

he offered Pelosi additional backup for the Capitol Police through the National Guard

The ONLY evidence for this claim are from Trump lackeys claiming after the fact that he did. No one has presented any tangible evidence that he did. The Secretary of Defense at the time claimed he never received any order. The DC National Guard head said he never received an order until things had already gotten out of hand. So I don’t take that conclusion as fact. Frankly I think it is a post-hoc attempt by the Trump lackeys to cover their own asses out of loyalty to Trump. Besides, if Trump was so convinced it was going to be just a peaceful protest, why would he call the National Guard ahead of time anyway?

Regardless, the transfer of power happens on January 20th and he left the Oval Office of his own volition with nary a hint of violence or force.

It took a riot before enough of his Congressional allies finally turned on him and told him to shut up already about the supposedly stolen election. It took real, physical violence before he finally let it go at least in trying to change the election results before Inauguration Day. That is my point.

And EVEN AFTER THE RIOT, there were still Congresscritters willing to vote against certification.

I am sorry, but it is not just Trump, but Team Red in general, that has given up on the idea of pluralism. If they win, then it's the proper result; if they lose, then the election was stolen. There is no scenario in their heads where the voters legitimately and affirmatively vote against them. They feel like they are entitled to rule because they and they alone represent Real America and are the Real Patriots who must Save The Republic from the Marxists and the Communists and the Radical Left 'Vermin' and because saving the Republic is so important, they will not let something like an election stand in their way. That is the current state of Team Red right now. It is scary and wrong and dangerous and they should not be enabled.

[Nobartium]

A listener asks the editors if there are any bad laws that might discourage people from having kids.

Since when does anyone who claims libertarianism as their faith care about birth rates?

[Vernon Depner]

Let's hear from some of the young women here about that. Oh...right.

[Commenter_XY]

Any thought of SCOTUS upholding CO or ME in their attempt to deny ballot access to Team R's candidate, POTUS Trump, just went out the window in the aftermath of his blowout victory in IA.

Pragmatically speaking, there is no way to tell a major political party and 70 million or so people that their candidate cannot be voted for on the ballot. That cannot happen.

[Nobartium]

Only because John Roberts is a moral coward, which fortunately works out here.

[rbike]

The only county Trump lost was Johnson county, home on my alma mater, the University of Iowa. Nikki Haley won, obviously because a boatload of the communist/Democrats voted for her.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

But there's trouble in Nikkiworld.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/16/haley-pressured-by-donors-to-beat-trump-in-new-hampshire-after-iowa-loss.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&par=sharebar
“I would still like to see her get somewhere, but the mountain she has to climb is enormous,” Andy Sabin, a New York businessman and Haley fundraiser, told CNBC. “As much as I like Haley, I don’t even know what Trump could do to stop himself right now.”
Sabin plans to help raise money for Trump if Haley doesn’t make it through the primary season, despite previously telling CNBC he wouldn’t give the former president “a f---ing nickel.”
“He may be the only choice I have,” said Sabin.

[Social Justice is neither]

Sabin always has Biden and team Groomer.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Reluctantly but strategically?

[Bill Falcon]

Greater Israel and the new Trotsky Zelinsky is likely top of mind

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So, while Trump was sitting in a courtroom in his NEW defamation trial, without a phone, his Truth Social account posts insults about E. Jean Carroll.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-defamation-trial-2666968942/

What a troll. What a child. I can't believe so many of you want to give this man-child power again.

[Don't look at me!]

Cry more.

[Nobartium]

Mean Tweets and cheap gas please.

[Chumby]

No new wars please.

[Diarrheality]

Nobody cares what you believe, fuckstick. You've decided to throw a tantrum because, like a child, you didn't get your way. Boo fucking hoo, you miserable loser.

[JesseAz]

I can't believe someone who calls himself libertarian thinks courts should be used to make free speech that causes zero damage millions.

But you do you.

Weird you care more about this than Biden again demonizing half the country as extremists. Using the state to go after political opponents.

Oh no. Mean words.

Shut up fatty.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Weird you care more about this than Biden again demonizing half the country as extremists.

This is what Biden said in his so-called "red speech":

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/09/01/remarks-by-president-bidenon-the-continued-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-nation/

Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.

Now, I want to be very clear — (applause) — very clear up front: Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology.

I know because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.

But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.

So no, he didn't declare half the country to be extremists. He said a lot of things that were incorrect, but that was not one of them.

Weird how you have to lie about what Biden said to make him sound just as bad as what Trump says as a direct quote from his own mouth.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Oh no. Mean words.

You mean like THESE "mean words"?

Biden again demonizing half the country as extremists

I mean, he didn't declare half the country to be extremists, but you think he did. Why do you care so much about these "mean words"?

[Azathoth!!]

I mean, he didn’t declare half the country to be extremists

Yes, he did.

Why do you think he's only referring to that one speech?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

And defamation is a real thing, Jesse, even to libertarians. To the extent that one's reputation can be monetized, damaging that reputation represents a real economic loss.

We know you are going to take the pro-Trump position no matter what because you are a Team Red shill. But the rest of the gallery shouldn't be fooled by such nonsense.

I don't know if Carroll's claim has merit. But she is entitled to have her day in court. Isn't that what you demand that everybody respect for Trump, who filed a whole bunch of bullshit lawsuits trying to overturn the 2020 election? Trump is entitled to his day in court, and so is E. Jean Carroll.

[JesseAz]

Man. Fat jeff say down for a triple stack reply.

Words mean more than actions to you. Why you always talk about losing weight and going on a diet and never actually go on that diet.

Shut up fatty.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Words mean more than actions to you.

I didn't say that. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I do think words are important though. Don't you? Oh wait yes you do, because you complained above about Biden's "mean words" declaring your team to be extremists (in your mind).

I think Jesse is just drunk again.

[Azathoth!!]

Actually, you com plained about Trump's "mean words", he made fun of you and pointed out that you don't care when your leftist buddies throw around mean words.

At that point you whined, and got made fun of again. And around and around.

[Bill Falcon]

What else do we have? I'd like old Ron Paul but that is not going to occur. Hell even RJF Jr before he bent the knee on Israel would have been my choice...seriously..corn pop is shot and we can't let the Nulands and Blinkins and Yellen's run America into wars and more debt...

[chemjeff radical individualist]

We have yet to see who the Libertarian candidate will be.

And there's no rule that says you must vote for either of the two geriatric shitbags.

[DesigNate]

The Libertarian candidate will either be a milquetoast "former" Republican or some nobody that even most small "l" libertarians have never heard of, but you will none-the-less hate because he's party of the Mises Caucus.

(If you haven't expressed disdain for the Mises Caucus, I apologize in advance.)

[chemjeff radical individualist]

When I cast a vote, I have to know that the candidate both meets some minimum standard of acceptability in character, and the candidate’s policies agree with mine to an acceptable degree.

So it has to be both – the candidate has to not be a shitbag, and has to have the right policies. Because we give power not to an abstract set of policies, but to a real human being who will use power in the future in ways that we now cannot predict, and we ought to know that the person has enough moral character to be able to use that power wisely.

So, Trump absolutely fails the first test – he cannot be trusted with power, he has demonstrated that he will use that power in ways that are harmful and destructive. (See: Jan. 6 and ‘stop the steal’ nonsense.) Biden passes the first test in my mind, but he fails the second test, too many of his policies are just wrong from my perspective.

So if the Libertarian candidate in my mind can pass both of these tests, then I am likely to vote for that person. Already by virtue of running on the Libertarian platform that candidate is likely to pass the second test. So it is about the first test. Is that candidate a decent human being or not?

If the LP nominates some shit-talking troll whose biggest claim to fame is ‘pwning the libs’ on Twitter, then no I will probably not vote for that person because I am not interested in having a troll as president. But if the LP nominates a serious person who is a decent human being, then I am inclined to vote for that person, even if that person comes from the Mises Caucus.

The problem is, IMO the Mises Caucus is more likely to produce the shit-talking troll rather than the serious person as a candidate.

[Commenter_XY]

Team L did 'Ok' with 'Jo'. 🙂

She was inexperienced, made a few mistakes. She did have the virtue of having a regular job (and therefore could relate to the typical American), not looking like a derelict, and could articulate her libertarian principles and not sound like an idiot.

Let's see what happens in May, at the convention.

[mad.casual]

A listener asks the editors if there are any bad laws that might discourage people from having kids.

Emma Camp presents herself as a libertarian defense of Buck v. Bell.

Seriously, how does this answer not go along the lines of “Let’s start with Article 1, Section 8 and go from there…”?

[JesseAz]

Thats the start and the end.

[mad.casual]

As indicated, why limit yourself? Buck v. Bell, Roe v. Wade, Bostock v. Clayton, The Department of Education Organization Act, The Reorganization Act of 1939...

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Vivek on the tube standing next to Trump in IA. Bringing down the house.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Wow. Trouble in the DC Circuit. Things starting to unravel?
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1747346945092313309.html
Holy sh*t: 4 judges on DC appellate court just delivered a scorching smack down of Special Counsel Jack Smith, Judge Beryl Howell, and Judge Florence Pan for search of Trump’s Twitter file.
“The Special Counsel’s approach obscured and bypassed any assertion of executive privilege and dodged the careful balance Congress struck in the Presidential Records Act.”

[chemjeff radical individualist]

OMG! You mean, the prosecutor is supposed to act like the prosecutor, and it's not the prosecutor's job to make the defense team's arguments for them? You don't say!

[Bill Falcon]

Honestly Jeff..the Republic is likely long gone in $35T in debt and endless wars and a Federal Govt captured by foreign lobbies and domestic grifters..need a shock to the system..maybe Trump 2 is it.

[Michael Ejercito]

https://twitter.com/AGAndrewBailey/status/1747450527749726679

[DesigNate]

If I understand that filing correctly, the FBI knew the laptop was legit in September of 2019!

[Michael Ejercito]

Yes.

Those 51 intelligence agents need a good dose of seppuku, for they are without honor.

[TJJ2000]

Wow.. Reason's TDS on full display.

Funny. I don't recall Hillarys #NotMyPresident mob making everyone at Reason say she should be disqualified. Ironically, Trump has done more for the Libertarian cause than anyone in the last century and all you hypocrites just can't help but join the witch-hunt gang and proclaim Biden a better Libertarian than Trump. Emotional idiocy at it's finest. Reason needs to exit D.C.

[Sevo]

Perhaps the adolescent, personality-focused, TDS-addled assholes will realize that adults tend to focus on actions and results.
May be asking too much of them.

[Mataratones]

"Trump is not a Republican in any meaningful sense...he's not for open borders." Is Nick Gillespie so delusional that he thinks open borders is supported by any significant number of Republicans??

[Nobartium]

The future citizens of Mexico North thank you for your shortsightedness.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Well just import substitutes. Hey we could call it The Great Replacement!

[Nobartium]

You should, since it's overwhelmingly likely that the successor state will share nothing in common with the present one.

There will be no rights, as you understand them.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Too late. Already replaced myself. I've passed my evil white cis genes on to 2 generations.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

If sounding nutty is the competition you're the hands down winner.

[Nobartium]

This is happening right now, across the pond in formerly Christian Europe.

Within the next 20 years (unless stopped) there will be Islamic states there.

[Social Justice is neither]

Against SQRLY that is some top notch insanity.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Muted the squirrel thing a long time ago but but squirrels and nuts yeah.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Does KAR stand for Kooky Ass Retard?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Yeah but my genes will outlive you. Yay!

[Bill Falcon]

According to the media the "Great Replacement Theory" is an anti-semitic trope. You have to give them credit for a straw man to smear folks against mass migration..I mean think about this for a second. Open borders will do what the left has cheered for decades..the minority status of "whites." And Jews are "white" right? So, it makes no sense. Drop the "white" and say Irish, Italian, and other European and Middle Eastern Christians will be a minority with expanded immigration. One could be for or against that politically (I'm all for immigration but based on skills not countries), but it has nothing to do with being Jewish..unless it is a bit of protesting too much and it about those darn European Christian "peasants" who did bad things back in the old country? And the desire to make them minorities? Or why would anyone believe anti-migration is an antisemitic position? Welcome thoughts but being against open borders is hardly antisemitic.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

One version of the "Great Replacement Theory" is that a secret cabal of International Jews is directing the flow of non-white migrants into "white" countries in order to conquer them and get rich or something. That is the antisemitic part.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Nah, it's just globalists who were indoctrinated in marxist universities to hate white people in general. Sort of like what Noel Ignatiev and Peggy McIntosh taught.

[mad.casual]

Again. There were previously Muslim, Turk, and Islamic states there during The Dark Ages.