FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Senator Chris Elliott - Jeff Poor Show - Wednesday 7-03-24
[music] Look back to the Jump Force Show on the 5th talk, 106-5, thanks for staying with us on this Wednesday morning, 2513430106. That's the tech slide, you need to be in touch with the program, that's how you reach me, still come on a program, Joey Clark from these talk 93-1 at about an hour from now, is where regular Wednesday appearance and Congressman Barry Moore of Enterprise, technically the second congressional district, but almost as dear certainty to be the next member from the first congressional district, will join us in that 11 o'clock hour, so you'll want to stick around for that. Joining us now on the program, he is our returning champion, usually here on Fridays, but we had to move him around, give it the holiday weekend, State Senator Chris Elliott is with us, Senator, good morning, how are you? I am doing well, thanks for accommodating the schedule change, and let me, let me join you. Hey, thanks for, thanks for being flexible here, let's start with this, we'll go back to debate Thursday night, not, not that we've ever seen anything like that happening before, we're at that special at that level, but have you ever heard of anything like that happening? I have not seen, I haven't seen a train wreck like that, and that's, you know, after witnessing a train wreck, I mean, that was, that was about the worst debate performance I have seen from any candidate, much less a presidential candidate, in, you know, in my adult life, that was, that was scary, not for the campaign, not for what happens in the next four years, that was scary for where we are as a country right now, I don't see how Joe Biden can, you know, anyone could, could pick Joe Biden after seeing that, that debate, I don't see how we're not concerned that he's the president today. It's like who's really running the country right now, and I think, but I think this is like very emblematic of what's really going on, it's not who we elect, there's other people who are in charge. Well, and that's true in all, you know, all levels of government, and, and this, you know, somebody who sees, you know, what's going on in Montgomery, what's going on in, in some of the, with some of these folks that are in advanced age, in, in Washington, you know, all too often it's, it's staffers that are 20 something 30 or something that are, that are really running things and making the decisions, and, and sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes it's a very bad thing, but all too often it's the elected officials are, are in my mind, are manipulated either by their staff, or they're manipulated by the special interests, and I see way too much of that, and it's one of the reasons you need to have strong, assertive, aggressive elected officials in office that are not afraid to, to drive as opposed to sit back and just let somebody else do it. Yeah, and you, but, you know, it feels like this is like a new ish phenomenon, where you once upon a time did have a little more buy it from the very top elected executive of whatever level of government, and it's just here lately, Senator, I say last 10 years or so, but it definitely feels like that, that power is now kind of, it's in the dark, we don't really know who is running what in a lot of cases. No, you're, you're absolutely right, and, and you talk to some of these elected officials, and it's scary. They're, you know, some, some of them that are, you know, in it, it doesn't have to necessarily just do with age, but some of them are just so out of it, and, and you have staff members making all the decisions and, and, and that leads when we talk talking about the, the president, you, you have to wonder, hold on just a second, he's got the constitutional authority to make some incredibly important decisions. Who's guiding a man that is that absence? Who's really in charge? Who's, who's, you know, whose thinker is really on the button when you have somebody who cannot put a sentence together? That's concerning. And, and so, I think we need to demand more from our elected officials to debate, to engage, to assert policy decisions, to interact with the press. That, that, that should be, must be a requirement. You shouldn't be able to hide from that, whether it's, you know, a representative, a senator, a governor, a county commissioner, or the president of the United States, you want to have to stand in front of the people in the press and answer tough questions and be able to articulate those answers. But, but, but, senator, and let's say, and not not picking on kiv, but that, that situation there, the people overwhelmingly voted for her. Uh, they voted and now we can, 2020 was kind of a weird presidential election. That's why I'm not using Biden here. But, but this, this is the argument I'm making. This is the will of the people on display. This is what they voted for. This is, elections have consequences. And I just don't think the public is really, I don't know the, there's a disconnect here. So, so in Ivy's case, whatever you think is going on there with the bureaucracy running the show, what's the other, only other takeaway that that other than a mandate and more of what you had seen the previous six years with that? And this is what people want, it seems. Well, without getting into specific politicians other than the governor, I mean, other than the president, rather, I will just say this, you know, the, the people in my mind have got to wake up to what's happening. And we'll use the president as an example here. You can't just pick somebody who's likable, who's got a cute accent or interesting sayings or tell stories like your grandpa or your grandma or something like that. You've got to, you've got to value in an elected official somebody who can clearly articulate their positions, who is effective and assertive and able to, to get things done and to tell you what they're doing and what they're thinking. That has to be more valuable than just an all gee shucks, cute sayings or old stories. People have not to wake up and realize that this thing called government and running this, this giant monstrosity that impacts so much of your life should be run by elected officials and not the bureaucrats that they hire who are dependent on, on these, you know, these heads of state, if you will, to just for their own survival. And we've got to demand more from our elected officials than what we're doing right now. It's imperative for our public. But I mean, I mean, picking on the voters now, I mean, it falls on them and you look at it, we have more access to information that we've ever had in our democracy or whatever you want to call it, our representative republic. But I just, you get the sense, especially with a low turnout, just a lack of engagement, a lack of like really interest. And the people who care are those who are probably more closely aligned with the bureaucracy. There's no doubt about it. And I see that in Montgomery and you see that in Washington too, there are, there are two really types of voters in my mind that you see show up to the polls. There are those that are infested in and dependent on the bureaucracy, right? If it's the lobbyists class or if it's those that are working for the bureaucracy, they're going to vote. And then it is the extremes of each party that are going to vote. They're going to show up every single time. And so that those are, those are the constituencies that the elected officials are catering to, they have to in order to continue to get reelected. But my plea is for those that are not at the far extremes, you know, to engage, to demand more of your elected officials. Otherwise, we end up with what we've got. And as somebody who is involved in that process on a daily basis, I do end up shaking my head all too often. We need to demand better. Well, I just, like I said, it's a weird, it's a weird dynamic when you have, I mean, maybe not at the state level with the decline of like newspapers and watch not, but just just federal politics even. You know, there's so many new sources and so much information and people can just pull it up on their phone. And, but there seem to be this connection there. There's a miss there like, and I think that's what's leading to the lack of engagement. Well, I think you're right. And that's one of the reasons I enjoy coming on your show every week is to be able to talk about the issues what's facing us in, in South Alabama, what's going on in Montgomery and to some extent, what's happening in Washington is it's an ability to connect with with your listeners where they don't have to go and search for it, right? They don't have to go where's where the Elliott on this or that you and I get to talk about that on a regular basis. I wish more people would do that. I wish the governor would do that. I wish more my colleagues would do that so that you could get a better sense of what they're thinking and, you know, and they could be questioned by folks like you and ask the tough questions. Well, most of your colleagues, and I say most, there's a, there's a handful of holdouts, but they're receptive to it. I just, the other thing that's interesting to me, I think, and I'm part of it and disservice by the media. Just, just not, you don't have a crop of journalists right now, especially at the state level who really get it. You know, they, this is number one, it's like a job before their next job, or when it's, they're climbing a ladder, trying to get to a bigger market. So, so, and the thing about Alabama, Senator, and I'm kind of interested to hear your response to this, but you know, probably when you left Baltimore County Commission to go be on the state Senate, I mean, the state is incredibly complicated and trying to figure out like how everything works together, especially a state like Alabama, this very tribal in nature. I think the media don't really get that and that's, that makes it harder for people to really understand it. If the reporter covering it at the state house doesn't quite get it, then how are we supposed to expect the average person driving through Locksley right now 59 to get it? No, you're right. It is complicated. It takes a, a level of political acumen that a lot of the journalists just don't have nowadays. You know, it's a, it's an industry that's not financially on, on good footing. So, you don't see, you know, the, the, the crop of communications majors or journalism majors flocking to, to the industry. It is complicated, but there are so few, you know, older journalists who have been around for, for a long time. And to the extent that they are all too often, they become part of the bureaucracy too. It seems, you know, they've got their, they've got their favorites within government that feed them, you know, the information. It's just, it's, it's very incestuous. It's not as independent as I'd like for it to be. Well, I, you know, so we started on this discussion about Lydes debated, have, have wilded up here. So, moving it right along. Uh, well, one more question about kind of what's going on nationally. These Supreme Court cases, particularly that Chevron Doctrine, I think is a really, really important to this state. That is the biggest decision the Supreme Court has made in, in a long time. And for folks that don't know what we're talking about, I mean, that is, that is this, this decision, the Chevron Doctrine deals with the ability of the bureaucracy to essentially make its own administrative rules and to make its own laws essentially. And, and that is such a huge deal to roll that back because so much of what we're governed by is administrative procedure, administrative law, and not that which your representatives in the legislature have passed. And it's allowed government to grow in its influence to grow so dramatically over the last decades that I'm thrilled with the Supreme Court making the decision that has made. And it's one of the reasons that elected President Trump is so important because what we're seeing now in the Supreme Court is a direct result of the President's appointees. One of what we're seeing right now as far as shrinking the size of government on the federal level for the first time in decades is a direct result of the Supreme Court that's there because President Trump was in office. And so it's a, it's a huge deal. It's a huge rollback of the power of unelected bureaucrats to govern, you know, all 50 states. And I'm thrilled with that decision. I hope we see more of them. And I think if we really like President Trump, we will see more of those decisions and more of those types of appointees to the Supreme Court. Last question we'll get out of here on this. And let's talk about, I guess, you know, the thing about the Jubilee phenomenon on the Eastern Shore, I'm sure you're very familiar with all your life. But now with the internet, it's not quite the word of mouth network that it once was. And now I think you've got some state officials, maybe you're a resultless. I don't know really what's going on there, but they're watching the internet for this stuff too. And that's creating a problem it seems. Yeah, you know, and then you see folks reacting to, you know, what constituents are saying or what the internet saying. Look, I think you had an incident that got way out of hand because you had somebody respond poorly to a law enforcement officer. And that law enforcement officer tried to deescalate the situation. And this individual was having none of it. I think my favorite comment was when the pepper spray came out, he said, I'm not getting pepper spray again. We kind of indicated he'd been pepper spray before. You know, listen, comply with law enforcement. You know, this did not need to escalate into what it needed to. We'll take a look at whether or not you need a saltwater license during a Jubilee. There are problems with the legislation where you've got to define what a Jubilee is, where the geographic limits of it are, etc. But by and large, man, if you live in Farrow, you'll get a fishing license. They're not that expensive. Mine's on auto-renew. And then you'll have your fishing license when there's a Jubilee, and then respect the bag limits. Leave some for our kids and their kids and, you know, get what you can easily and then, you know, say thank you and move on. Well, and that's just it. Like, are these under the legal definition of it? I mean, is this like an act of God, though? I know fishing license is not that expensive, but just, you got to, we got to define some terms here, don't we? Well, we do. And that's the problem. I mean, are you defining a Jubilee by an oxygen level in the water? Who's testing that oxygen level? Where does it start? Is it occurring in Fair Hope and not Daffy or Daffy and not Fair Hope? What about is it occurring and point clear? It just gets pretty complicated. I think that our conservation officers are using a fair amount of discretion. I just think this one instance got way out of hand where you had somebody that was clearly being greedy, well exceeding the bag limit. And then when questioned on it, I decided he wanted to fight with the Game Warden, which is never a good idea. And so, you know, I do think there's some room to talk about whether or not a license is necessarily required. We just have to get those definitions really nailed down on what is and is not a Jubilee. And if we're able to do that fine, and if we're not, then we probably all believe it alone. But you see what the problem is here. The perception is maybe not the reality. I think you're right about this individual, but the perception is, oh, look, here comes the state of Alabama cracking down to no fun police or whatever. And we're going to have this taken away from us because of these guys. I think, you know, look, I understand that perception. I got it at some time. At some point, we got to get into the facts and the facts are that this guy decided he wanted to get in a big fight with law enforcement. And I'm always going to come down on the side of law enforcement, trying to be respectful, trying to enforce the laws we have on the books. I'm not saying we don't need to look at whether or not a license is required during a Jubilee, but I think the back one, it's absolutely out of stay where they are. That leaves that resource for our children and their children for the future. Don't get greedy and be respectful of law enforcement officers. This is a pretty reasonable, a pretty reasonable way to proceed my mind. Sir, we always appreciate your time safe travels. And we'll do this again next week sometime. Thanks so much for having me on the happy fourth of July. Stay Senator Chris Ellie in there. We got to get a break in here. We'll be right back. This is up in talk with 065.