Former Virginia Gov. George Allen said Sunday that “everyone ought to” embrace the GOP grassroots movement because “when they actually look at how these different policies affect them at their kitchen tables, they’re going to be on our side."
Allen discussed the progressive agenda and how it led to Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial victory in Virginia on "Life, Liberty & Levin."
“We don’t need government directing our choices and our decisions and our lives. You ought to listen to the people -- they are the owners of the government and not a bunch of people who like to be talked down to or ignored...and those who do that -- like Glenn Youngkin did and Jason Miyares and Winsome Sears and a lot of legislators in Virginia -- they won. And the other side, who thinks they know best, are the ones who have lost."
Below is a transcript of this segment from "Life, Liberty & Levin":
Mark Levin: “George Allen, do you think this time around, the Republican establishment in Washington and elsewhere will embrace the grassroots? They didn’t embrace the Tea Party, even the Reagan movement they resisted for such a long time. Of course, you had the Never-Trumpers and so forth. Do you think they finally embrace the grassroots, or as you say, the people who own the government?”
George Allen: “They ought to; everyone ought to. And in fact, you and I -- well, I got started in the Reagan campaigns of 1976. We were the rebels for principles and ideas. And I think that most people, when they actually look at how these different policies affect them at their kitchen tables, they’re going to be on our side.
“The so-called progressives and their ideas are regressive. The people hurt most by having to pay $800 a year more in electricity bills -- they’re paying, you know, $20 more every time they fill up their tank, or they have to pay higher prices for food; it’s not these wealthy elites that fly off to Paris or Cancun or Glasgow for some U.N. climate change conference -- it is hard-working, lower- and middle-income working families who are hurt by it. And I think that we, the people who care about making sure that we’re a meritocracy where everyone, regardless of their background, their religion, their ethnicity, all have that equal opportunity to compete and succeed on a level playing field.
“And we don’t need government directing our choices and our decisions and our lives. You ought to listen to the people -- they are the owners of the government and not a bunch of people who like to be talked down to or ignored; they need to be listened to -- and come up with constructive, positive ideas and reforms that can make their lives ones of greater opportunity.
“And those who do that -- like Glenn Youngkin did and Jason Miyares and Winsome Sears and a lot of legislators in Virginia -- they won. And the other side, who thinks they know best, are the ones who have lost.
“But most importantly, everyone will be uplifted by the ideas of free people and free enterprise prospering and being promoted here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It will be a much more competitive state, and that applies for the whole country because we’re in competition with other countries around the world, and we want to make sure that on that index of freedom, the U.S. is going up.
“In Virginia, you want to be in that Chief Executive magazine going up as one of the best states for doing business. And you want to see people moving into your state, as opposed to the exoduses you see from loser states with high taxes, high regulations, not right-to-work laws, and so forth like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California are losing, other states are booming. So, those are your economic object lessons on how freedom and less taxes, reasonable regulations, and a skilled, capable workforce from which to draw, those are the states that are prospering.”
Levin: “Again, you bring up the people; it’s interesting. The Democrats like to talk about expanding the vote, expanding the vote, expanding the vote. And yet, when they rule, they don’t really give a damn about the will of the people, do they?
“They just want to get in power and then they rely on the bureaucracy which they expand, they rely on certain judicial appointments -- activists and so forth. They’re the opposite of representing the people.
“Even now, while they’re pushing this massive bill that would fundamentally alter our economic and governing system and change our society forever, they’re trying to do it before the next election with the barest of majorities in the House and no majority in the Senate, just a luck of the Constitution where the vice president can change the majority.
“And so, they really do not believe in the will of the people, whether or not they say they believe in more people voting.”
Megan Williams is a CNSNews intern and junior at Hillsdale College. She is majoring in Rhetoric and Public Address with a Journalism minor. She is the assistant opinions editor for the Hillsdale Collegian and enjoys covering local events, from concerts to conventions. Born and raised in Southern California, Megan is excited to experience D.C. and grow as a journalist with CNSNews.