Douglas County GOP Leadership, Conservative Principles, and The Great Reset Agenda

On January 23, 2023, Kim examines grassroots conservative leadership with Steven Peck and Matt Emerson announcing their Douglas County GOP slate, Brad Beck exploring his philosophy of turning irritations into pearls of wisdom, and Dr. Michael Rechtenwald exposing the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset agenda following the recent Davos summit.

A Pearl of Wisdom: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

Start listening at 35:34 – Hour 1

Brad Beck presents his philosophy of turning irritations into pearls of wisdom, drawing a parallel between how oysters create pearls from foreign irritants and how citizens can transform daily frustrations into positive action. Beck criticizes the constant regulatory overreach exemplified by Colorado’s new 10-cent bag tax and cage-free chicken mandates that increase costs for families. He argues that government has crowded out non-profit organizations and community involvement that historically addressed social needs through voluntary benevolence rather than forced redistribution.

Beck emphasizes the importance of re-engagement in community organizations like Kiwanis, Optimist Clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and faith communities. He contends that citizens gain personal fulfillment from helping others through voluntary association rather than through government programs that primarily enrich bureaucrats. Using the homelessness crisis as an example, Beck points out that despite Mayor Hickenlooper’s promise to end homelessness in Denver nearly a decade ago, the problem has only worsened as more money gets thrown at it. He contrasts this with Southern California, describing Los Angeles as worse than Bangladesh, with homes for the homeless costing over a million dollars while the free market could provide solutions more efficiently with greater accountability.

The discussion connects individual responsibility and civic knowledge to the broader struggle for liberty. Beck quotes Francisco d’Anconia’s money speech from Atlas Shrugged, explaining that money is a tool of exchange representing production and value, not evil. He argues that free markets and capitalism enable the creation of wealth that elevates everyone, citing Silicon Valley innovators like Steve Jobs and Hewlett-Packard as examples of how freedom to create benefits society. Beck stresses the importance of telling stories from personal experience rather than relying solely on facts and figures when advancing ideas of freedom and liberty.

“Taking those irritations that we find in our lives every day and like that oyster, surround them with better ideas, with positive action. And I think at the end of the day, when you string them all together, like you string a group of people together that are passionate about liberty and freedom, you have a beautiful necklace.”

— Brad Beck, Co-Founder of Liberty Toastmasters

Douglas County GOP Leadership Slate and Local Engagement

Start listening at 16:36 – Hour 1

In this segment, Steven Peck announces his candidacy for Douglas County GOP Chair alongside a full slate of conservative candidates. The slate includes Matt Emerson for First Vice Chair, Edward Harefield for Second Vice Chair, Megan Silverthorne for Treasurer, and Kim Baer for Secretary. Peck emphasizes the need to rebuild the party’s connection with voters, noting that many committed Republicans in Douglas County don’t even know what’s happening within the party structure.

The discussion reveals serious concerns about Douglas County’s changing demographics and political landscape. Despite its reputation as a ruby-red county, HD 43 in Highlands Ranch was lost in the recent election against a weak candidate. Peck attributes this to government policies driving demographic changes through transit-oriented development, subsidized housing, and economic development incentives that fundamentally alter community composition. He criticizes the current school board for maintaining an equity council, continuing CRT in schools, and advocating for tax increases while less than 50% of previous tax increase revenue actually went to teachers.

Matt Emerson, running for First Vice Chair, focuses on communication and outreach as his primary objectives. He emphasizes that many Republicans in his neighborhood remain unaware of party activities and conservative messaging. Emerson stresses the importance of knowing the constituency through better data management and leveraging the network of PCPs and district captains to identify and engage voters. The slate’s vision includes using the party’s “bully pulpit” through podcasts and media appearances to articulate why people should identify as Republicans and what the party stands for at the local level.

“Why would I give more money to an organization that’s propagating ideas that are antithetical to the American experiment? That is insane.”

— Steven Peck, Candidate for Douglas County GOP Chair

The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty

Start listening at 70:13 – Hour 2

In the second hour, Dr. Michael Rechtenwald, former professor of liberal studies and global studies at NYU, discusses his new book “The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty: Unraveling the Global Agenda.” Rechtenwald exposes how the World Economic Forum and United Nations formed a partnership in 2019 to accelerate Agenda 2030, which aims to fundamentally transform the world’s economic system through sustainability goals that curtail production and consumption, particularly in the developed world. The agenda includes population control measures that have been recommended by the UN since 1954, including forced sterilization and abortion.

Rechtenwald details the 15-minute city concept being promoted by globalist elites, where all human needs would be met within a 15-minute commute by bicycle or walking. This plan seeks to eliminate individually-owned fossil fuel vehicles, confine people within controlled zones, eliminate suburbs and rural living, and concentrate populations in dense urban areas. He explains that the transgender movement, drag queen story hours, and gender ideology serve the population control agenda by confusing young people about biological sex and reducing reproduction through surgical and pharmaceutical interventions that render people sterile.

The professor emphasizes that wokeness and social justice ideology function to bring about the Great Reset by guilt-tripping people out of their lifestyles, personal autonomy, and rights. He explains how corporations went woke to establish monopolies and cartels that drive out competitors, describing it as a scheme laid out by Antonio Gramsci’s prison notebooks and Rudi Dutschke’s “long march through the institutions.” Rechtenwald’s book includes a nine-point plan called “the grand refusal,” which involves rejecting technologies like Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), divesting from ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) banks, and establishing parallel economic structures of companies that reject the woke ESG agenda.

“Get a hold of the book and learn about this agenda because this is not going away. We’re into the fight of our lives. And I believe that the grand refusal is part of the way to resistance, and it means basically cutting the strings from these globalist puppet masters from ourselves and continuing to live the life of liberty that we were vouchsafed by the Constitution and our Creator.”

— Dr. Michael Rechtenwald, Author and Former NYU Professor