 Michael asks, I suspect there will be civil war, oh, after the dollar collapses, followed by quasi-fascist takeover. I don't think we'll tolerate forming fascism, we'll tolerate complete fascism, but what are down fascism people in the West will get behind. All right, hold that question and let's talk about the coming civil war. So massive amount of writings, I'd say coming out primarily from the right in the last two, three weeks, maybe two weeks, about the potential of a civil war. And not just civil war, but secession. A lot of talk about secession, a lot of serious people talking about secession, so not just kind of a wacky type thing, but serious reflections about secession, splitting the country into two or three or five different political entities, units. And a lot of people talking about this, but beyond that, the fear that this is gonna, what's gonna cause this is a real constitutional crisis. And we'll talk about the kind of constitutional crisis they are worried about. But behind this is a poll that came out of the University of Virginia. That has polled, I don't know how many people, but a good size poll that asked, we'll talk about the poll in a minute in terms of the kind of the detailed questions that they ask, because I think it's interesting. A lot of what they have in there is interesting. But here's the bottom line of the poll. The bottom line is a majority of Trump voters, 52%. And a strong minority of Biden voters, 41%, strongly or somewhat agree that it's time to split the country. So we have today over half of Trump voters, and over 40% of Biden voters agreeing either strongly or somewhat that it's time to split the country. This is probably a pretty shocking result. I doubt that even during, or leading up to the civil war, you would have got a result like this. This might be the period in American history with the most division, with the most, since the civil war, hatred of one tribe against another. It is truly shocking. The extent to which people have given up on America, both on the left and on the right, it seems like more so on the right than on the left. And a demonizing the other party, so evil, corrupt, and wrong that there is nothing to be done but to split the country up, or to engage in kind of civil war, whose results will be a split. So I wanna dig a little bit into this Virginia, these Virginia polls, again, I don't wanna, so I'm gonna go over the poll. Maybe I'll do like I did last time and put the poll up on the screen so you guys can see it. It'll be easier that way. Let's see if I can quickly do that. Let's see. Yeah, I think so. All right, hopefully you guys can see that, all right? So the poll starts by asking Biden voters and Trump voters about specific, if you will, policy issues, right? And this is a somewhat agree and agree strongly, so this is all the people on a particular side of an issue. So these particular questions relate to the infrastructure bill that is going through Congress, right? So improve the electric grid. Overwhelming majority somewhat agree and agree strongly. The Biden voters, more so after all, it's a Biden bill, but on the Trump voters, you get strong agreement on this. On the issue of modernizing drinking water, strong agreement between Republicans, Biden voters and Trump voters, let's call them that. Investing in construction roads, bridges, so on, strong agreement on both Biden and Trump voters. Raising income taxes in American households with income above 400,000. Here you start seeing a difference, right? But in both cases, in both cases, Biden and Trump voters, a majority believes that, you know, they somewhat agree that taxes should be raised on the rich. With Biden voters, it's an overall majority, it's 90%. Trump voters is still over 50%. Over 50% of Trump voters wanna raise taxes on the rich. Investing in universal pre-kindergarten for all American children. A major, major program with a progressive left turns out almost 60% of Republicans, again, not Republicans, Trump voters agree. And 90% of Biden voters agree. Increasing funding for rural broadband access over both parties, here you get a sense that Trump voters are to a large extent rural. Lot of voters support this on both 89 and 74. Creating a national paid family leave program. Yeah, here the gap is big, but still true. That Trump voters, over 50% of them, agree that we should create a national paid family leave program, right? Making community college free for all Americans. Here you get a bigger difference, less than 50%, but still 43%, a big minority of Republicans or Trump voters think this is okay. Legislation supporting unions, banning right to work. 42% of Trump voters want a ban right to work laws. 42%, 78% of Biden voters. So when you look at this, your conclusion has to be that the overwhelming majority of the American people are left of center on economic issues, on economic slash social issues, like preschool education. And that the difference between Biden and Trump voters is not that big. They basically agree, oops, sorry, oops, scroll down. Oh, I see you guys were behind, there you go. There's the investing in preschool and there's the rest. There's vast agreement on these issues. And yet remember, 52% of Trump voters and 41% or 42% of Biden voters want to split the country. Over what? They don't disagree that much. All right, let's look now at how they view each other. These voters who don't disagree that much on economic issues, how do they view each other? What is their perspective on one another? I have come to view elected officials from the opposite party as presenting a clear and present danger to American democracy. 80% of Biden voters, 84% of Trump voters. So the other party, even though I agree with much of their program, they're a clear and present danger to American democracy. I'm concerned that you or someone close to you might experience personal loss or suffering due to the effects of the opposite party's policies in the future. 80% Biden voters, Trump 82. Despite the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection of free speech, some media sources on the extreme left or right, depending on who was answering the question, have become so untruthful that they should be censored. Censored, they should be censored. The state shouldn't intervene to stop the spreading of dangerous lies. 78% of Biden voters, 73% of Trump voters. In other words, well over 70% of American people believe that it's okay to censor news as long as it comes from the other side of the political aisle. Republicans, Democrats, depending on who's answering, want to eliminate the influence of progressive traditional values in American life and culture, progressive or traditional, depending on what side you're answering. 78% Biden voters, 87% Trump voters. The conservative mainstream media, conservative or mainstream media, depending on how you're answering, might as well be part of the Republican Democratic Party, 77% Biden, 88% Trump. And look how many people have a strong view about this. 50 and 71, and same about, by the way, about censorship. 46 and 47% have a strong view of this. I believe the Americans who strongly support the opposition party have become a clear and present danger to the American way of life. And this tells you why we might be heading to the Civil War. 75% of Biden voters, 78% of Trump voters. Most Democrats, Republicans, no longer believe in the ideas that make America great. 72% of Biden voters, 87% of Trump voters. There's no real difference between Republicans and fascists, Democrats and socialists. 56% of Biden voters here, Biden voters are more generous. 76% of Trump voters, 54% strong. Would consider voting for any opposition party candidate as being disloyal to the people I care about. See, it's about loyalty, over 50% of both parties. So there is a massive, massive, massive distrust, hatred, resentment, and a willingness to use the state to implement it. You've got all the makings here. Well, I would argue for Civil War, but really for authoritarianism because here's the interesting thing about all this, right? They agree on the issues. So what you need is somebody both sides can admire. Both sides can respect. Somebody can unite them over the issues. The issues are all statist. The issues are all fascist, if you will. The issues are all expansion of the state, reduction of individual liberty, censorship. And it's spooky that they agree that the United States should be like Europe. But the left thinks this is great, we need to do it. And they identify as Europe. The rights, on the other hand, identifies it as America. They are so delusional that they don't even realize that what they're actually arguing is the same as the left and turning the country into Europe, abandoning America. Now, let's look about commitment to, I mean in the poll, they call it democracy, right? So here are the questions. There are many radical, immoral people trying to ruin things, our society ought to stop them. Society ought to stop them. 65% of Biden voters, Trump, 83%. If a society so wants, it is the duty of every two citizens to help eliminate the evil that poisons our country from within. 63% Biden voters, 78% Trump voters. Our country needs a powerful leader in order to destroy the radical and immoral currents prevailing in society today. 62% are Biden voters. But here's the kicker and here's what I've been warning you about all along. You still don't believe me. 82% of Trump voters. And 43% strongly agree. And let me remind you, our country needs a powerful leader in order to destroy the radical and immoral countries prevailing in society today. Powerful leader. It would be better for America if whoever is president could take needed actions without being constrained by Congress or the courts. Now here, they're faced with authoritarianism. They have to now struggle with the fact that this question is actually about authoritarianism. 46% of Biden voters say, yeah, we want a president who's not constrained by Congress. And 44% of Trump voters say, yeah, we don't want a president constrained by Congress or the courts. 44% of Trump voters, 46 are Biden. Now you tell me that this country's heading in a good direction, no matter who wins. And finally, the situation in America such that I would favor blue slash red states succeeding from the union to form their own separate country, 41% of Biden voters, 52% of Trump voters. 52%. All right, I don't think we need to go through that again. All right, you can see from this poll clearly, both left and right, a pro censorship. Both left and right, a pro, a strong leader. Both left and right, a significant number of both left and right. A pro, a president that ignores Congress and the courts. Both left and right, in my view, are ready for fascism. Now it's just a question of finding the right leader who can unite both left and right. Because on the programs, on the issues, they don't disagree. Not on, you know, I'm sure they're cultural issues they disagree on, they disagree on abortion. But even there, I'm sure a clever demagogue could find a way to unite them. They disagree on race, probably. They disagree on, I don't know, but on the role of government, the need for more government intervention, the need for more government involvement, the need for more government spending, the need for more government, if all we need education, they are united. They don't disagree. And this is what's so interesting about it. Is what has happened is we've elevated the social issues to such an important place in our lives that that's the only thing that matters. Only thing that matters is your position on these social issues. Economics, we've given up on. Property rights, given up on. Free speech, we've given up on. It's your position on CRT and your position on abortion. Those are the only things that matter. Right wing is not limited government. Right wing is not small government. Right wing is big government with different social programs. Left wing is big government with different social programs. There is, this is the case I've been making for years now, there is no difference. There is no legitimate right and left. Both are statist. The true spectrum, the political spectrum, the true political spectrum is individualism and collectivism. Collectivism, today's right and left are collectivists. You wanna preserve the word right to represent individualism and limited government. Good luck to you. What's the point? Right means nothing. It's just a side. Right wing means the people who sat to the right in the first parliament just after the French Revolution. They were the right and the left. And historically, right often is meant those who defend individual rights and limited government. But it doesn't mean that anymore. It's gone. Forget it. You wanna try to defend right against a culture that doesn't agree with you. It's hard enough to defend selfishness, important concept like being selfish, like egoism, like capitalism. Complete waste of time and energy and effort to try to convince people that Trump is not right wing, that the Republican party is not right wing, that national conservatism is not right wing. That's bizarre and ridiculous and a waste of time. You wanna engage in that waste of time? Go for it. The right today is statist. And the right today contrasts itself with the left. That's who the right is. So yes, the fascists are right. And the right and the left are both statist, both collectivist. And if you wanna fight them, you don't fight them as, oh no, you've got the word right wrong. You fight them as on the basis of a morality of individualism on a basis of limited government, on the basis of the Declaration and the Constitution, which are not right wing documents. They're individualistic documents. They're limited government documents. They're capitalist documents. And that is the perspective we need to have. Otherwise, you're gonna waste a lot of time and a lot of energy and go nowhere. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbrookshow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Iran book show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course, subscribe, press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.