reno industria >> closed-captioning of "nevada newsmakers" is brought to you by the nevada trucking association. trucking moves america forward. this is "nevada newsmakers" with host sam a political

now from the "nevada newsmakers" broadcast headquarters, here is sam. >> and back on "nevada newsmakers" taping this program on february 1st to play back at this time, we are joined by eric herzik. great to have you on the program, sir. >> thanks for having me . >> from a historical perspective, can you compare it to the election cycle and compare it to another that seems to be as crazy? >> cop out answer. every election is unique. you would have to go back to maybe '68 where you did have candidate. now, trump is not a third party candidate but trump is an amazing phenomena. he says things that are just wrong. i mean both factually and in terms of denigrates the united states i think in many ways. george wallis was much the same way. and it's really be afraid.

losing everything. and it's, like, i can -- jeez this is george wallis. but if you think about that to that time, george wallis could be criticized and his supporters did not care because they knew america was about to fall off a cliff. and then you had the traditional democrat hillary clinton's role and then richard nixon who in this case the establishment did win on the republican side. primarily because they had gone the rascal route four years before with barry goldwater. barry goldwater is really the father of the tea party. not only reagan and they turned the party over to him, and he drove it off a cliff. so if i'm looking for some sort of comparison, maybe '68. >> and very strong race -- >> absolutely. obviously towards african-americans rather than muslims. you had a very unstable world

talking peek of the vietnam war. united states is not doing well. so perhaps i could go there. i don't want to make too strong of link. but that's the closest one i can think of . >> the media in general. not just the news media but the media in general, how much are they responsible for the fear that permeates this country at this point? >> they bear a great deal of the responsibility. and that's not meant to bash the media. the media -- commercial media. you've got to have viewers. you've got to sell papers. whatever. and journalism 101 if it bleeds it leads. so you're always promoting stories that have more risk and fear associated with them than anything else. and so now terrorism attack and muslim terrorists. and yet if you look at the mass shootings in the united states over the last couple of years, you might as well start rounding up, you know, evangelical christians who live in trailers.

who shot up, say, planned parenthood. or murdered various providers. it's -- but that doesn't get the same play as you know you frame the issues and then you want to carry these issues forward, and you present it in a consistent way to where wow we really are imperil. and -- it starts fear . >> so isn't what's missing in large part context? >> absolutely. and what's ironic is that you have so much in the sense of news out there now. the 24 hours news cycle, and you can get your news from any number of providers. but it's all just kind of tossed out as this bad thing has happened and then there's maybe in terms of context maybe some link historically or whatnot -- but that's quickly lost. instead you're looking at this bad thing . >> well, you know, it's interesting in watching the

finally gets water coming back in and the pineapple connection and all of this and you see dramatic pictures of cliffs falling away in southern california. this is not new. this is what happens when you have this kind of moisture coming down. it's part of the danger of living in earthquake country, living on the side of the cliff that they collapse. but we don't hear the context of that. >> well, having grown up in southern california, yes, it's -- you're in an earthquake zone. so you know that's going to happen. potentially. but do you fixate on it, like, oh, the earthquake is coming? the big one? if you did, i don't know how you live your life. >> right. >> people start to fear so much about almost -- well, they are. they're random events. it's, like -- no, it's not a random event. there will be an earthquake. but you can't predict where or when. i don't know when, i don't

be in the wrong spot, yeah, then i drew the short straw. but to make that into kind of this world view ofo they're coming to get me or nature's out to get me. that part i've never understood . >> you know, it's interesting i was talking to a relative who is israeli and they're saying how they feel safer in tel aviv than new york city. >> well, same thing. the shoot-out in paris. oh, it's not safe to go to paris. well, if there is a terrorist attack, obviously that's bad. but on a day-to-day basis the chances of you being shot or stabbed or anything in almost any european country are next to nil. so the same thing. you see the one thing and no context or you're providing own context. oh, well, then it's a dangerous place. >> all right. let's take a break.

>> to contact "nevada

nevadanewsmakerscom. >> closed-captioning of "nevada newsmakers" is brought association. trucking moves america forward. and now back to "nevada newsmakers" with sam chad. >> and back on "nevada newsmakers" we continue our conversation with eric herzik, political science professor at unr. nevada is going to be on the battleground of the background check situation. and how far do you think that this is going to go? i mean a lot of money is going to flow into nevada. i come from england, and i come to the united states, and i see that there are this many -- hundreds of millionsns- literally hundreds of millions of guns. over 300 million guns in this country. the horse has left the barn. how do you stop -- you don't. i don't see it. i mean i'm not against background checks.

i'm not against gun ownership. but it's just -- where do you go with it? >> well, you hit a major problem. there are, in my opinion, too many guns. okay. fine, smart guy. what are you going to do about it? i don't know because the guns are out there. you're not really going to collect them. you can't take them from so-called bad guys with guns. but there are also good guys that do bad things with guns. this is why in terms of, like, people concealed weapons and carrying and, yeah, then a case of road rage becomes the shooting and we've had a couple of the instances in clark county, for example, so the whole idea that you can completely control the situation i think is just not going to happen. however, okay. background checks it's not a totally unreasonable thing. but that's not going to stop in the sense many of these actions. so it's -- it's a very

scientists will call a wicked problem simply because there are so many different angles it comes from. there is no agreed upon single solution that doesn't violate other laws and create unintended consequences. and so i will lighten it to campaign finance reform, every time we try to finance, one thing we know there will be more money in the election. so it's a problem that there are no easy solutions. it is ingrained i think in the american culture. and, yes, coming from england, that must have been quite a difference. >> well, yeah, i mean i'm not a gun person. i mean i've done one of my scenario things where you're shooting an air rifle. >> uh-huh. >> and that was fun. i didn't have real desire to shoot a gun. it's not in my dna, but i certainly know a lot of people that do and i have no problem with that. i think generationally you

fingerprint match, that's a good thing at least your gun couldn't be stolen or used by another family member or whatever but that's 20, 30, 40 years in the future to get to where all those kinds of guns are -- >> and you do have gun lock items. you have things that could come and make guns safer so to speak. somewhat of an oxymoron. but then you get into this polarized politics where if you dare mention anything about -- well, the no fly list, for example. the people on the no fly list probably shouldn't own guns. oh, no, that's their absolute right. so you've basically noted them to be a potential terrorist so we won't let them on a airline but gun? no problem. >> well, -- >> and that's just -- i just wonder about those kinds of -- absolute on one side and yet it doesn't make sense to me .

make sense to me is if you're on the no fly zone by mistake, off. >> for a couple of years i directed the university center for best studies. and we had a student that had been working for us and goes back to the back country and got put on the list. and i was, like, what's going on? and i was able to contact senator reed's office and they did a background and they said know. and this is a list that even they in a sense can't crack. once you're on it. just what you said. it's almost impossible to get off. and he has not returned to the united states as far as i know. >> you mentioned campaign finance reform. these campaigns have become such a big business. it's a multibillion dollar business. i mean anybody would be envious to start a business like this. i don't see where that ends. i don't see where, you know,

politics unless there's a revolution and i don't see a rerelution unless you have a war. and what i mean by that is that, you know, we don't see people out in the streets protesting or very rarely. but if we had a war that was declared where sons and daughters were conscripted, then sons and daughters would be out in the street protesting if it was not world war i or world war ii. >> it's one of these things where both sides talk about it and this is not meant to pick on bernie sanders but bernie sanders, it's big business and the wall street millionaires. he raised $70 million last year to run for president. that's not chump change. and i was, like, oh, it's from small donors. but you've got a lot of big donors too. so everybody is doing it. there's just more of it. my only solution is okay.

money, but i want to know where you got your money from. and that's to me the most troubling thing. stay with the citizens united it hides in the sense of the source of the money. you can hide -- and then you hide behind all of these names. prosperity for america or what we have it is. >> but the ironic thing is that most of these campaigns fail. >> absolutely. >> it's the most ludicrous waste of money i've ever seen because half the people have no idea about advertising or marketing. so the stuff that they do is just nonsense. and the public rejects it. >> i mean if you look at -- all of the expenditures last year and all of the republican expenditures to make barack obama one term president. guys, how did that work out for you? and, oh, well, we're shrewd business people and all the business backs, most of them fail. >> isn't there an irony that a lot of people who got wealthy got wealthy by being very

having their thumb on the cash register and making sure that every dime was accounted for. but then in their private life, for example, in politics, vacations, cars, whatever it may be, they go crazy. if we're lucky, they at some point realize that they need to give away their money and start doing great charitable things but don reynolds was a very tough man in business. owned a lot of media in nevada at the time of his death and since then his fortune has done a lot of good things in nevada. >> absolutely. a building on campus. >> there are buildings all over this stace. >> absolutely. >> across the country go to dc donald w reynolds building. >> you certainly want that to happen. you mention a war with all the side, oh, boots on the ground or we need to amp this up. it's, like, really? none of them served.

else to do it. send in the seals. bomb. it's, like, if you made the iraq war, the afghanistan war won where there was a draft and there was attacks to pay for it. because this wars were paid for on a credit card, i think people's attitudes about what the united states should be doing might radically change .

when we come back >> and back on "nevada newsmakers" we continue our conversation with eric herzik here for the whole show. you know, you were talking about the military and the politicians talking about, you know, how we've got to beef up the military, be in all of these other places. where do they get the idea from that our military is not

in the world? >> this is one where i guess facts need not apply. when donald trump comes out and says, you know, our military is in shambles. we lose everywhere. it's, like, what military are you looking at? the united states spends more on their military than what? the next 19 nations combined? >> combined. >> but the chinese -- >> i'm going we outspend them seven to one. >> they've got one aircraft carrier. >> yeah. we've got more stuff. we have a very large standing army. and what gets me is that when you have particularly these strict construction, we've got to get back to what the founders intended, they never intended for a large standing army. washington warned about it. we never really had one. oh, well, the world's changed. wait a minute. if the constitutional -- i can say the same thing about social issues. oh, it's different. the constitution is inviolent. so the u.s. military is an amazing operation. it's an amazing organization.

and it -- i think we use it too much to settle things militarily. but, for example, when the tsunami hits south asia. who were the first responders? u.s. aircraft carriers and helicopters. >> hospital ships. >> hospital ships because we had the capacity. so when i hear people make that statement or denigrate the u.s. military's capacity it's, like, are you kidding me? . >> another thing that strikes me and it's interesting to talk to the delegation and ask them how does the campaign affect what goes on in dc? they shrug their shoulders as, like, not at all because it's detached from reality. you know the reason why all of these people want to come to america legally and illegally? it's because it's a great country with unbelievable opportunities and where people get this idea that the country is failing in a dramatic way is beyond me.

we're losing, we're losing. it's, like, i don't see people rushing to move to russia. they want to come here, again, legally, illegally, you have chinese wanting to come here. >> people from india. >> india. and why? because the united states -- even in the economic downturn that we're more or less in right now, the u.s. economy is the strongest in the world. and all the bricks, the rising countries. but i've heard this my whole life. the soviets were going to bury us and then the japanese and putin is strong. that hasn't really played out well for him now that he's got troops in syria . >> and his economy is in shambles. >> and his economy is in shambles. so i don't know maybe i'm being a flag waving american but, yeah, this is a great country. it continues to be great. and we've got our problems but they -- we solve them far better than most other nations. >> i'm going to throw one at

we've got about a minute left. the wall street journal, it was interesting an editorial at the beginning of this, the paper said not many things are going to change on the editorial page. >> well, the editorial page was very conservative. >> libertarian. >> okay. what's the more frightening part of that? if you hear many former reporters they'll say they never -- yes, you had the editorial board but there wasn't the influence that you had to report in a certain way. to write certain types of stories. that to me is the bigger kind of worry if that begins to happen . >> well, the new publisher is former publisher of usa today. not exactly the most conservative arch right. it's going to be interesting to watch. but i think that mr. adelson should be very proud of the

an outstanding of journalism. >> i thought that was great. at its best. being here. we appreciate it.

>> we'll be right back >> as always you can watch "nevada newsmakers" 24 hours i a day at nevadanewsmakerscom and also download podcasts

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