CLAY: We were talking a lot and have been talking a lot about the Kyle Rittenhouse trial as it continues in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The judge yesterday, his phone went off during the proceedings. By the way, usually if you were in a courtroom and your phone goes off, you are in trouble. The judge is not going to be favorably disposed to you.

So, it’s probably a better sign that the judge had his phone go off. He’s been a judge, by the way, for almost 40 years in the courtroom, has handled a lot of big cases there. But I thought this was interesting — and also, not surprisingly, the reaction perhaps even more so. Here is the judge’s ringtone in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. See if you can hear what’s the song that his ringtone is.

RINGTONE: (God Bless the U.S.A.)

BUCK: You gotta let it set for a second, Clay. Some people are gonna get it.

Coming back from lunch, Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense team argues that the prosecution is purposely aiming for a mistrial.

Meanwhile, the judge’s phone rings. The ringtone is Lee Greenwood’s patriotic anthem “God Bless the U.S.A” pic.twitter.com/xGY3dJd4e4

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 10, 2021

CLAY: I love Lee Greenwood who, by the way, got kicked off of I think it’s the American Arts Council by Joe Biden. Did you see that? He’d been on it for 30 years, Lee Greenwood had, and they kicked him off of that council.

BUCK: I think this is such a better song, and people always think, “Oh, Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA.” Springsteen is a rich commie, folks. I know New Jersey folks right now are gonna get mad at me ’cause they love The Boss. But Springsteen has the politics of AOC. He has the bankroll of one of Jeff Bezos’ top lieutenants, but he’s a left-wing guy.

So, don’t think, “Born in the USA…” You listen to the lyrics. That is not… Lee Greenwood’s song is much better for those of us who love America. And I’d say this. You know, the judge, Clay, was appointed by a Democrat in this case, but he doesn’t… It seems like he’s unlikely to hate America, which you see in the way that he’s actually trying to protect the Constitution in that court room.

CLAY: How crazy is it that when Proud to Be an American comes on, you know he’s not a Democrat?

BUCK: It’s where we are.

CLAY: Right? That’s where we are as a country. When somebody’s ringtone is Lee Greenwood’s Proud to Be an American —

BUCK: I would ask anyone listening to us right now to think the same thing. You’re on trial, you’re in a criminal trial, you’re the defendant.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: Do you feel better about the chances of you getting a fair trial as a conservative if all you know about the judge is that the judge has an American flag on his or her porch?

CLAY: I do.

BUCK: Right away.

CLAY: I do.

BUCK: Like, okay. You know? Right — if they have a U.N. flag flying, you’re in deep you-know-what.

CLAY: No doubt — and, honestly, Kyle Rittenhouse, if the judge had a Black Lives Matter flag or a Black Lives Matter sign in his yard, I would be of the opinion that there’s no way I was gonna get a fair trial. But an American flag, I’d feel good. By the way, I think my dad’s highlight of his life — one of them, anyway, other than my sister and I being born and maybe marrying my mom.

He was at the 1985 Sugar Bowl when Tennessee played Miami and Lee Greenwood came out and sang Proud to Be an American at the Sugar Bowl down in New Orleans, and it is just a majestic experience to hear Lee Greenwood sing Proud to Be an American inside of a crowded stadium. My dad still talks about how incredible that performance was. And the fact that Lee Greenwood gets kicked off I think it was the Arts Council by Joe Biden? It got a little bit of attention but it’s just emblematic of many different Democrats hating people who love America.

BUCK: Culturally speaking, people on the right are proud to be American. They are proud of because of their association with mercury, they think that being an American is something to be proud of. Culturally speaking, people on the left take pride in thinking they’re better than and need to reform America.

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: Different.

CLAY: Totally different. Remember we talked about this a little bit, was it around July 4th, Buck, when the New York Times reporter went out in Long Island and drove around and she said, “So many American flags!”

BUCK: Terrified.

CLAY: New York Times editorial board member.

BUCK: Yeah. Terrified by all the American flags out there. They just stopped short of, “The American flag is a hate symbol in the hands of Trump supporters,” and that was I think the pride in America was honestly one of the big factors in the rise of Donald Trump’s not just presidency but really the political movement —

CLAY: No doubt.

BUCK: — the MAGA movement, Make America Great Again. There’s so many people who feel like why is it that…? Every other country… Let’s be honest. There are other countries that have a lot less to be excited about than we do as a country. I think that might be controversial but there are some places. No one feels badly about loving where they’re from as a country.

It’s a uniquely left-wing American thing to want to denigrate your own homeland, denigrate your own country of citizenship or birth because you feel like that’s fashionable. This is fashionable in New York. It’s fashionable. You know, at my Amherst College, they actually were flying a U.N. flag from the town square, which I always thought was just… A United Nations flag. It’s a town of a couple thousand people, but if you’re a leftist, if you’re a commie you think that’s really cool.

Maybe you’re not listening out here. We talked about the impact on the ceiling with the Republican winning there, certainly the close race in the governor’s office in New Jersey, all the things that happened in Virginia, but there was a red wave that even was rolling through Long Island and Nassau County, Suffolk County. They both just got swarmed with Republican voters.

BUCK: I think people are also recognizing in parts of these blue states like New York, unfortunately — the state of New York — some of the stuff that’s in this Biden Build Back Better bill in terms of the taxes. I just spoke to my accountant recently about this, and he says that for a lot of folks, you’re gonna be spending — you’re gonna be paying — more than half of your income, like small business owners, to live in these blue states.

You’re looking at a 55% all-in tax rate if you’re considered a high earner, which does not make you rich in a place like New York City, and there’s gonna be a continued flight out of these blue states. But in the suburbs where you have people who are dealing with this reality ’cause in New York there’s people dependent on the state and ultrarich right? There’s not a lot of middle class families are making it here without substantial state assistance, ’cause it’s so expensive.

You go out in the ‘burbs and you have more people that are swing voters, and they’re swinging toward the Republicans because they’re realizing, “This is madness,” the tax increases that they’re gonna be facing and the government overreach that’s already making things more difficult for all of us across the board.

CLAY: Monster swings in Long Island that I think we needed to take note of there because it happened all over the country, and we’re poised for even more of a dominant red wave in 2022.