On Thursday’s Mark Levin Show, Democrats are not just the only concern, radio/TV hosts, podcasters and journalists are part of a larger issue. It is unacceptable that many of these hosts, who promote left-wing agendas or toxic conservative, lack a true understanding of the conservative movement, its principles, and its history. William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review because he recognized the importance of quality journalism, a value that seems to have diminished in today’s media landscape. Buckley identified the toxic elements within the conservative party and took extraordinary measures to combat that toxicity and the radical left. Buckley had a profound realization, one that resonates with us today: the destructive influence being wielded to spread hatred and undermine our faith and nation through our media and publications. Buckley was Catholic, and he did everything to reject the antisemitism that is growing in our nation. He said that we had to stop it, because it has a way of metastasizing into something dangerous and rejects all forms of antisemitism as a result. In addition, a terrorist attack at a UK synagogue in Manchester killed two people and injured many was devastating. The antisemitism continues to grow as it is being fueled by radical people in power and other countries. Qatar is trying to turn our own people against us by taking over our schools, funding and supporting Hamas and other terrorist front groups. This is a serious problem, and it is not just affecting our country, it is affecting other nations as well. This is what fuels these attacks, and it is disgusting and sick. Finally, Jack Ciattarelli calls in to discuss his race for NJ Governor against radical Mikie Sherrill.
Photo by Eduardo Comesaña
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Rough transcription of Hour 1
Segment 1
Hello, America. Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. There’s a lot to get to, including the government shutdown farce, which we will get to, including the murders that took place in suburban Manchester, England. But before we do. I have been noticing something that I want to bring to your attention. You know, folks, when you read Karl Marx, so you read some of the others of his ilk, Rousseau or Hegel. But don’t worry about that. I’m just saying when you read them. They act like they’re starting the world all over again. That whatever came before is bad and whatever came before is irrelevant. There’s nothing to learn from it. When you watch the Marxists and the Islamists in the streets. They don’t even know history anyway. Know American history. They don’t care. They’re hard core ideologues. The world begins today. It could be a 33 year old Marxist Islamist, Jew hater, American hater who’s running for mayor. He knows everything. Everything. It could be a TV host or even a radio host. They spend more time on the Internet. More time talking in their own little circles than they do actually informing and educating themselves. But I’ve noticed this problem is not just on the radical left. I’m seeing this problem among podcasters. TV host. And some radio hosts. They believe the world begins with them, and the world begins today. That they’re the only ones who who figured out that the left is bad and how to fight the left. Now, this is really asinine. We stand on the shoulders of the people who came before us. All of a sudden our history is wiped out, including the history of the conservative movement. Let me tell a little story. Let me tell you why some of our conservative forefathers are a lot braver, a lot smarter. And some who beat their chests and pat the back of their heads today on TV and radio. Most of you’ve heard of William F Buckley Jr. He was eccentric. He was an intellectual. A scholar. He had his little facial tics and so forth. But he founded modern day conservatives. And modern day conservatism brought us to this day with Donald Trump. The conservative movement, not the Republican Party. The conservative movement. The conservative movement has always had different factions. Always. There was never one. One. Faction. That everybody unified behind. There were general principles and beliefs. That people unified behind. They were libertarians, Paleo conservatives. Neo conservatives. Traditional conservatives. Religious conservatives. Fiscal conservatives, social conservatives. They all pulled together under Ronald Reagan. And Ronald Reagan owed a lot. Of his progress. Of his success. Two, among others. William of Buckley Jr of National Review. They were close friends. And Buckley was a close adviser. And yet, I should tell you, in 1976, Buckley backed Ford. Against Reagan for a variety of reasons, none of which were philosophical. He was wrong about that, as we’re all wrong about a lot of things. But the birth of the Barry Goldwater movement. Which was the early. The early rise of this new conservatism, this new conservative movement. Again, Buckley and his cohorts were very much involved in that. Crucially important for laying the foundation for Reagan. Reagan laying the foundation for Trump. This is understandable. This is. A very important sequence, a sequence of events. And yet some people in radio and TV who’ve never been involved really in the conservative movement have no idea what the hell they’re talking about. In fact, some of them. Some of them. In 2016. We’re not just backing other candidates other than Trump. They were trashing the hell out of Trump. And said they could never back him. Now they carry the flag. Bill Buckley was a very brave man. A very principled man. I didn’t know much. But I knew of him. Had an enormous impact on me at the age of 13 and 14. There were people who came before me. People who came before Rush. People came before Charlie. Very, very important. People who fought the good fight and fought a well. Buckley and Rush were very good friends. David Horowitz, who also went to college campuses, who also went to events with the audiences, were highly hostile, who came out of the Communist movement, the Black Panthers. Build a tremendously important organization. Tremendously important books. Had a great amount of influence on my generation and the generation before me. Crucially important people. Who are not to be dismissed. Everything didn’t begin today. But Buckley did something that the vast majority of modern day MAGA, modern day conservatives. In and out of the media don’t have the guts to do. They don’t have what it takes. You see, Buckley did more than found. National Review. Crucially important magazine. He did more than that. Buckley did more than found the modern conservative movement, which led to so much, including eventually the election of Donald Trump. Indeed. Make America Great Again was Ronald Reagan’s campaign slogan in 1984 85. Peace through strength was Reagan’s foreign policy slogan when he ran. For president the first time in 1976 and again in 1980. This is a good thing. Edmund Burke talks about it. Now one generation is linked to the next. This didn’t just happen. MAGA. And yet, Donald Trump is a historic, iconic, unique figure. Who’s carried off things and been able to do the things I don’t think anybody else could do. But my focus isn’t on that. Because everybody knows how. Tremendous. I think he is. My focus is on an attitude out of ignorance. Of some people in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties. You think that they. Have discovered the world. There. Almost nothing came before them. William F Buckley Jr. Was watching. And seeing. Something that troubled him a great deal. A great deal. Buckley was a a faithful Catholic, a traditional Catholic, a believing Catholic. But he saw something was watching something was reading, something that began to appear in his own pages of National Review. My columnists and back then. Radio. Was getting big and a rush. There wasn’t a Fox News. There was the counter-culture, the independent media platforms that were mostly. Based on magazines and columns and that sort of the the predecessor to podcasting and sofa. He was very troubled by what he was saying. Very troubled by what he was hearing because he knew his history. He knew what it could lead to. He knew that it would poison and destroy the conservative movement and the effort to create a workable. Powerful conservative movement to counter the left. The New Deal. The 1960s. Radicals and rioters. The new left. He understood. That this poison. Within the conservative movement. Would destroy it and destroy any chance. Of success and defeating the Democrats and the left and defeating the Republican establishment. What did he see? In fact, it was so bad. That he committed entire edition of his of his magazine from cover to cover to address this issue. And then he went and he wrote a book about it. By the way, he created Firing Line, the first true debate program where he, too, wanted to take on people who disagreed with him. And he did Firing line. He took on people who disagreed with him. It was a debate show. Of his values and beliefs versus. Other scholars, writers, producers. The first of its kind. Firing line now went on for over two decades. Hugely successful. He invented that genre. What was it that he saw? That compelled him to take action. We’re going to take a short break and I’m going to explain it to you. We’ll be right back.
Segment 2
The riots that took place in the 1960s were every bit as bad as the riots that took place in the 2020, except worse in more cities. The violence was unbelievable. Yet these communist new left front groups. It was terrible. Yet assassinations. John Kennedy. Robert Kennedy. Martin Luther King. Again, these were horrific times. Horrific times. I’m very troubled by the dismissal again, like Marxism of what came before us here as conservatives as MAGA make America Great again. Again, a phrase that Reagan used and so forth. And you look at the Reagan numbers, Reagan. Broke the back of the Democrat Party. Hold on the unions. He was endorsed by the Teamsters Union not once, but twice. The forgotten man. That whole. That whole issue, that whole area. Again, Reagan broke the back of the Democrat Party. He got nearly 60% of the vote. One over 500 Electoral College votes. You don’t do that by just winning the patricians and so forth. And yet I talk to people who even dismiss Reagan. Big deal. Greatest tax cuts in American history. Massive economic growth that actually he grew the economy right into the Clinton administration. That’s two presidencies away. Defeated the Soviet Union, pushed communism out of our hemisphere and out of northern Africa. Massively rebuild our military brought respect back to the country after after Carter. He’s a nobody. Bill Buckley’s a nobody. Goldwater’s a nobody. David Horowitz. How about Milton Friedman? Him, too. Oh, yeah, yeah. Those are days gone by. The Bible is filled with days gone by. So what? So. There’s too many people, not just young people, some middle aged people who think like Marxists, who dismiss what’s come before. There’s good things that have come before, great things that have come before, horrific things that have come before. But the world doesn’t begin today. The world won’t begin with a next generation who might think they’re smarter than this generation. So what is it that Bill Buckley did? That modern day conservatives. Podcasters, radio hosts, TV hosts don’t have the balls to do today. What is it? I’m not trying to play games. I have to explain it. It’s a short segment. There is the break when I come back. At length. I’ll deal with it. We’ll be right back.
Segment 3
But Bill Buckley did as he took on anti-Semitism. Among certain leading conservative authors, as well as at least one on the left, Gore Vidal. He took on Pat Buchanan, he took on Joseph. So Brennan, who was a widely read and popular scholar and columnist, and he took on Gore Vidal. And he talked about this evil of anti-Semitism in America. It was the early 1990s. He analyzed what they had said and what they were saying. And he said there’s no getting around it. That these are anti-Semitic statements time and time again. He said. As for conservatives, we have to reject this. As a faithful, traditional Catholic, he said, We have to reject this. It will destroy what we believe in. It will destroy our mission. What we’re trying to do. And he pointed out that this sort of thing has a way of metastasizing. Taking on a life of its own. And he condemned it. Earlier, he had attacked the John Birch Society for, among other things, anti-Semitism as well as other issues. At one point, the head of the John Birch Society was Charles Koch’s father. Now, he started the Quincy Institute with George Soros. Yes. Antisemitism he decided would disqualify. People from being in his magazine. He also pointed out, as we point out today, that a lot of his camouflaged in asking questions were just asking questions. Sound familiar? Sound familiar? He also pointed out that the attacks on Israel. In many ways or another way to camouflage the attacks on Jews. Some of the bizarre over the top and outrageous. Charges against Israel are really the charges against Jews writ large. Sound familiar? So he committed an entire. Magazine. It’s a bi monthly magazine to the issue. He broke it down. He said, I have to conclude that yes, Buchanan is an anti-Semite. That’s what he concluded. And yes, and he is to a sovereign was a columnist for his magazine who we’ve known for decades. You also knew Pat for decades. Now. The difference between Bill Buckley then. And conservatives. Whether it’s MAGA or some other type of conservative. He had the courage to speak out. He had the courage to name names. Some people I see patting themselves on the back. They had their chests about how brave they are. I’m brave at all. You see the rampant anti-Semitism that’s growing. You see some fantastic Christian pastors who are speaking out against this, like John Hagee and many others. You see the rabbis speaking out against this. But where’s the Bill Buckley today? Who is it? Really the only person? Well, there’s a few, but primarily who goes behind this microphone and calls a spade a spade is me. There’s a few others. The typical reaction among conservatives. Or pseudo conservatives or former conservatives. Is to make excuses. Is to sit silently and acquiesce. To play the lineup. We’re only asking questions or to try bizarrely to split hairs. Well, he’s a very good friend. You know, that doesn’t mean I have to agree with everything. How many of you are very good friends with racist bigots, Jew haters? But because you’re good friends, you know, you split hairs. Well, that’s that’s what they say. But they’re still good friends. We’re good friends. That is appalling. Unconscionable. So before some of these reprobates and miscreants. Start trashing so many of these great, great heroes who came before them. They need to look in the mirror because they can’t hold a candle to these people. I see people now. He’ll brag about who they are and what they say, how important they are. We said this and we said that they were never involved in the Tea Party movement. They were never involved in convention of states. In fact, they’ve never been involved in anything. They have been an activist for anything even more than that. They’ve never done anything. Except advance their own careers. They’ve never done anything. I watched these people as little as possible, but from time to time. They’re pathetic. Them fought for anything except themselves. Now they’re on college campuses. Now they’re having tours. Now they’re telling us what to think. Now they’re telling us who’s good and who isn’t. Now they’re telling us, forget the past, forget these guys from the past. They didn’t know what they were doing. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They sound like Marxist. And more and more. They’re more Marxist than they are. Americans and what they say in support. That’s the truth. You know, the other night I said to you. The way the younger generation, with many wonderful exceptions, I mean, we’ve an all volunteer military. Those are young people who are going overseas and defending us. Those are many young people, not all, but many young people who are police and ice and so forth. So I’m excluding the obvious situations, but we have a lot of people in this country, younger people. Who are spoiled. Some of vote from under me. It’s just too tough to live in New York. Is that how you folks grew up? It’s just too tough. So we have to elect a communist Islamist. It’s just too tough. And I want freebies. It’s just too tough. So somebody else should pay for my student loans. It’s just too tough. So I should be able to have free transportation and free food. It’s just too tough. So I expect somebody else, the government, to steal money from someone, raise their taxes in order that I might live better. Is that is that the answer? Is that how you were raised? It’s certainly not how I was raised. That’s the great thing about freedom capitalism. If you’re not happy with your life, do something about it. Don’t blame everybody else. Don’t put down everybody else. Don’t destroy the system. The appeal of Marxism in the left is this. Promises. Promises that are impossible, impracticable that will never be fulfilled. But it is the promises versus reality. I’ve thought about this and I wrote about it in on power. I will promise you freebies. I will promise you free transportation, free food equality. And that’s the other word. They take that word and they bastard us. What does equality mean? Equality doesn’t mean everything is fair. And everything is. Equal in the sense of material goods and so forth. You know what that is? That’s not good. Maria. If you if you judge fairness by equality, then equality in impoverishment. Equality in dungeons. Yeah. You’ve accomplished your equality. But that’s not what’s meant by quality. So you have reality. Dealing with unreality. No matter how many people have to suffer, be impoverished or die. 100 million. We need more examples, apparently. It just never has been tried. As I wrote in a married topia, this is a typical retort. It’s never really been tried. If it’s your position of these people. I’m talking about that. You’re so smart. That the world begins today. Then gone are Socrates and Aristotle. Gone are Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Gone is the greatest generation. So now you can play footsie with the with the Hitler rights and trash Churchill. Gone. You could start to flirt with Sharia law and reject our Constitution. This is what you’re hearing from some of these podcasters. Buckley stood up to them. I stand up to them. A relative handful of other stand up to them and that’s it. Today. That’s it. Today. How many MAGA that is conservative politicians have stood up to. Tucker Carlson. Can you count them on one hand, Mr. Producer? That’s about it, right? How many? How many have condemned him? Or owns. How many? Our Kelly. Now, there are different gradations in degrees of this. Don’t get me wrong. But it is a cabal. It’s a relatively small circle, but it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I don’t want to hear anymore. That Milton Friedman Freeman Doesn’t matter. The Bill Buckley Doesn’t matter. The go water doesn’t matter. The Ronald Reagan doesn’t matter. They’re all greatness exists today. Especially among broadcasters who don’t have an ounce of dignity or courage to speak out and stand up. Not all, but too damn many. I’ll be right back.
Segment 4
Fact is, Jews can’t survive without the help of Christians, not worldwide. It’s the truth. I’ll state the truth. Now what Israel proved is. These are warriors. And they will fight for their lives no more 1930s and forties, and they will fight to the bitter end. And they will win. More than they will lose the worldwide your United States. That’s the truth. That’s why people like Bill Buckley. Stood up. That’s why people like Pastor John Hagee stands up and so many others. That’s why. Zuhdi Jasser. A Muslim. He stands up. Is it too much to ask conservatives and media to stand up? Is it? The Gates Stone Institute is a fantastic institute on international policy. I’ve come to know these people. They really are great and they have an author there. Khalid Abu Met. He’s a an Arab Muslim. And he tends to report from Judea and Samaria and Gaza. In other parts of the world as well. He’s he’s written widely. A journalist and a scholar. And he wrote a piece today. Qatar must apologize for supporting Islamist terrorist groups. Something we’ve been talking about here. I’ve been saying they owe us an apology for 911. They owe the Israelis an apology for October 7th. If anyone needs to apologize. He says it is Qatar, which has long been financing, hosting and advocating for Hamas and other Islamist terror groups such as the Islamic State, ISIS and al Qaeda. Qatar, in fact, needs to apologize not only to Israel but to several Arab countries affected by the Gulf state support. Press Lamis Terror Groups. Doug Lamborn in 2015 pointed out Qatar is now known as the world’s safe haven for terrorist groups and militia leaders. Evidence suggests Qatar has directly armed or financed multiple Islamist groups in the region, undermining U.S. objectives and pivotal countries such as Libya, Egypt, Syria, by pushing those places toward violent extremism. Qatar is not and never was an impartial mediator in the Hamas Israel War, a longtime sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic terrorist groups. Qatar’s main goal is to ensure that Hamas, possibly under a different guise, continues to play a key role in the Palestinian arena. People who contend that Qatar might change thanks to the potential incentives of the Abraham Accords, appear afflicted with the same illusions as those who fantasize that the Palestinian Authority will reform. And sadly, the self-interested statements from French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. These are all leftist, by the way, have encouraged the terrorists and their sponsors their renewed hope that they finally might be able to get rid of Israel after all. In its perennial role as both the arsonist and the firefighter is with the Taliban in Afghanistan. There’s every reason to assume, unless someone emphatically stops them, that Qatar will set about surreptitiously criminally creating a Hamas. The sequel. The minute the weather improves, Prime Minister Netanyahu has reportedly apologized. He did. And he said he regrets to Qatari counterparts. If anyone needs to apologize, it’s Qatar, which has been financing and hosting and advocating for Hamas and these other Islamic groups for decades. There’s a point I made and I posted about earlier today. And when are they going to apologize to the 911 families? When are they going to apologize to the October seven families? When are they going to apologize to our troops, many of whom died and many of whom were horrifically injured in Afghanistan when they backed the Taliban? I’ll be right back.
