Larry O’Connor comes back from vacation — just as I’m planning my exit for two weeks! We talk about his travels on a cruise with the Young America Foundation, and the cultural differences and similarities between Europe and the US. We also get a big laugh and some headscratching over ABC’s new show, “The Golden Bachelor.” Is this an attempt to normalize Joe Biden? And should “misgendering” be a crime in America?
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Welcome back to our VIP video series “Off the Beaten Path,” featuring my friend Larry O’Connor! The Townhall columnist and Salem News Channel host starts off our week by discussing stories and ideas that may fly under our radar, in culture, politics, sports, and more. Plus, Larry previews tonight’s SNC show!
Highlights from today’s stroll on the path less traveled:
- “Imagine if you only come to New York City,” Larry proposes, “and that’s what your total impression of America, right? And I think that’s what happens where a lot of people travel and they go to Paris and they think, oh well.” The real France, Larry says, is outside the capital. “We were in Bordeaux, thank you very much. And it was perfect.”
- I point out that Rome is very friendly to Americans, in contrast to Paris. “This older woman comes up to us,” I recall from one trip, “and welcomes us to Rome, because she’d heard us talking and realized we were Americans, and she was talking about how much she loved Americans.
It was just a brief little encounter, just completely out of the blue.” - Both of us trade anecdotes about secularization in Europe and the US, and Larry gives us his thoughts on this most recent trip. “I do see similar trends, especially in in the church here in America,” he says. “It’s not just Catholic Church,” either.
- How will “The Golden Bachelor” sell on TV? Both of us wonder about that. Audiences “want to see the bachelorettes getting into a screaming, hissy fight in the hot tub, right? And all the back-biting and all of the cattiness,” Larry says. “I don’t know if these women in their 60s going to go through all of that.”
- Larry wonders whether there’s deliberate subtext in play. “There’s no secret that Hollywood is on the side of Joe Biden and his reelection campaign,” Larry says. “Look at Indiana Jones, Harrison, Ford, the same age as the President, doing stuff in that movie that no normal 80 year old can do now.” He adds, “I feel like there’s this effort to normalize the idea that our President is [not] way too old to be doing his job.”
We have plenty more to discuss, so be sure to watch it all. Also, Larry will appear during my absence with David and Beege as co-hosts, so keep your eyes peeled the next two weeks for even more fun Off the Beaten Path!
