Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.
During the third hour, Carmichael discussed the rule of law and pondered whether or not the United States would become a nation of men or a nation of laws. Later on in the segment he took a call from a listener named Karen who discussed her upcoming travel to communist California and gave a precise definition to his coined term Demo-Nazi.
Leahy: In the studio with me the original all-star panelists Crom Carmichael. Crom, we’re talking about the craziness of California and the authoritarian nature of the governor there and some pushback going on among some of the county sheriffs.
Carmichael: Yes. It really kind of brought more broadly speaking Michael what we’re talking about for this whole show has been the rule of law. Are we going to be a nation of laws or it could be a nation of men or people? Because the rule of law requires people to follow the law including government officials. Now in California what you have is you have to and by the way, the same thing is true here in Davidson County except for the difference.
The sheriff of Davidson County runs the jails. Davidson County and Nashville are all the same geographically. They’re all part of the same governmental entity. But in California what you have is for example, is the city of Los Angeles is much smaller than the county. And so the sheriff of the county covers areas of the county that are not covered by the Los Angeles Police Department because the Los Angeles Police Department only covers the city.
So he has allowed jurisdiction where he actually acts as the police force in places of Los Angeles County that are not part of the city. And so I hope I didn’t confuse everybody. But the sheriff is elected. So the question is who does the sheriff report to? and to me the answer is obvious. The sheriff reports to the voters. The sheriff doesn’t report to the governor. The sheriff certainly doesn’t report to the mayor.
Leahy: The mayor of the city. It has nothing to do with him.
Carmichael: He has nothing to do with the parts outside of the city. And so now you have other sheriffs in California who are refusing to enforce the governor’s orders and they’re doing for these reasons.
Leahy: The orders are Draconian.
Carmichael: They are Draconian and Newsom is not himself living by the orders.
Leahy: Yeah, he went to a restaurant.
Carmichael: Three things. He dined out when he said nobody can dine out. He did. Then he has a winery that he has kept open even though he’s told people to close their businesses.
Leahy: He owns a winery?
Carmichael: Yes. He has kept it open and he has told other people they must shut their businesses. And the third is he sends his children to private schools, but he has kept the public schools, what I call the government-run schools, he’s kept them shut down. So other children who are going to government-run schools, their education is being stunted by this governor who is sending his own children to private schools where they are doing in-class learning.
And so what I’m saying is that the sheriffs, if they did what the governor told them to do and then the voters held the sheriffs accountable because the voters were angry with the sheriffs then the sheriff would not be doing what his constituents or her constituents want. And so you have this battle brewing.
And then you have all these bureaucrats at the state level who are all Democrats. I’m by the way not all the sheriffs are Democrats or Republicans, I think you run for Sheriff and it’s not partisan. But all of the government employees that are appointed and they are all Democrats because they’re appointed by Democrats. So they’re trying to find ways to attack the sheriffs for doing what their constituents want.
Leahy: Of course they are. The deep state Crom I think really has overwhelmed the California state government which is one of the reasons why and this is a very interesting trend here, we have Craig Huey and several others all these people moving from California to Tennessee. We want every conservative who lives in California that wants to start a business or bring a business to Tennessee, we want them to come here. But if you’re a liberal…
Carmichael: We want you to stay in California.
Leahy: But if you are a liberal and you’re considering moving to Tennessee, and of course, it’s a free country you can do whatever you want. But my advice would be to keep your liberal values in California and don’t destroy Tennessee the way you’ve destroyed California.
Carmichael: Well, and there’s a reason that makes sense. And that is we want to see it to be the petri dish of freedom. We don’t want our petri dish here…
Leahy: Contaminated.
Carmichael: Where freedom comes first to be contaminated so that we can compare. This is the beauty of having 50 states where the state gets to set the laws the people get to live under laws that they are willing to live under. Because if you live in Tennessee and you get so upset by the laws of Tennessee there other states that you can move to where you can find laws that you like.
Leahy: So respectfully, I’m going to suggest we change that word from a petri dish to a laboratory of democracy.
Carmichael: Ohhh.
Leahy: Okay, you remember that phrase Justice Brandeis used it also in 1918 to describe the concept of parallelism.
Carmichael: Do I get to call myself a scientist in the laboratory?
Leahy: We are going to be folks and we want our listeners to know that we are going to be scientists in the laboratory of democracy. And be the one shining light in all of the United States in my view, or the leading light is the state of Tennessee. Every one of our listeners should be proud to be Tennesseans because we are the leading in my view, laboratory of democracy, A. B, but in addition to that, I think everybody in America who doesn’t live in Tennessee and who’s a conservative wants to move to Tennessee.
Carmichael: Well, we do have a lot of people who are moving to all areas of, Tennessee. But middle Tennessee in particular.
Leahy: In particular. Karen in Nashville says she is going to go on a foreign mission to California next week and I think she wants some advice on how to prepare for that difficult journey. Karen, welcome to the Tennessee Star Report.
Caller Karen: Oh, thanks. I don’t want any advice but I am going to a communist country. If you go to the LAX website you have to sign a form and fill out your information that you understand that you have to be quarantined for 14 days and blah blah blah. And as far as I’m concerned the way I read it. Yes, I understand the rules. And I’m going to leave it at that.
Leahy: Okay. So now the rule says if you’re coming from any other state…
Karen: Or country.
Leahy: Or country and you arrive in California, you must self-quarantine for 14 days according to the rule. Now, was that a law or was that a dictate from Governor Gavin Newsom?
Karen: I have no idea. But if you don’t fill out the form and they catch you it is a $500. fine. But if it’s not a law, can they put signs on things that aren’t laws?
Leahy: Yes. That’s what they’ve been doing on dictates and rules made up out of thin air. They already do that here in Nashville.
Carmichael: So I’m just curious. If I was to fly into San Francisco, which I’m not. But if I were to fly to San Francisco or any other city in California, is that just LAX?
Karen: It’s all California.
Leahy: That would be Gavin Newsom. Rules for thee but not for me.
Carmichael: So anybody who flies into California has to self-quarantine for 14 days. The hotel industry must be behind that Karen unless you are around your immediate family. So I guess you have to bring your immediate family with you know. (Leahy laughs)
Karen: No. My family’s there. I’m going to see them for Christmas.
Carmichael: Okay, so can you quarantine with them?
Karen: I’m not answering that question.
Leahy: Karen will comply with the law.
Carmichael: I didn’t ask you if you’re going to. I said does the law allow somebody whose family is in California?
Karen: To me it’s not a law but I understand what they want us to do.
Leahy: She’s going to comply with the law and regulations. Yeah, she’s just telling us about the glorious state of California.
Karen: And Crom, I came up with a definition for your Demo-Nazi. One who controls another’s behavior through intimidation and threats and imposes rules and regulations in order for that person to participate in society.
Leahy: I like that. That is outstanding. Do you teach English?
Karen: I’m a legal secretary.
Leahy: That was outstanding.
Carmichael: Can you send that to Michael Leahy.
Leahy: Here’s what we’ll do. Actually, we’ll turn this segment into a story and Karen’s definition.
Carmichael: Yeah, but I don’t remember everything.
Leahy: Well, that’s all right, but it’ll be in the story. We do transcript stories. Thank you, Karen.
Carmichael: Oh that’s right.
Leahy: Our listeners are the smartest in the whole United States.
Carmichael: Very good.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.Â
