Sasha Stone "devoted [her] entire life" to the Democrat Party. But after voting for President Biden and realizing that he didn't return America to the "normal" she longed for, she has found herself somewhere she never thought she'd be: on the Glenn Beck Program. Stone, the author of the new piece, "How Joe Biden Lost My Vote," describes to Glenn the moment the Democrat Party became a "religion," what she learned from watching Trump rallies, and why she has "never seen anything like" the Left's "dehumanization" of Trump supporters: "I see the cult more on the Left than on the Right."
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Sasha Stone is with us now.
Sasha, how are you?
SASHA: Oh, I'm fine. Hi. Is this Glenn? Am I speaking with Glenn Beck? Wow.
GLENN: Probably something you never thought would do.
SASHA: Absolutely never something I thought I would do. But I am familiar with your thoughts and on certain things. I've watched you -- your interviews with different people, over the year.
GLENN: Yeah.
So, Sasha, you were -- you've been a diehard Democrat. Obama, Clinton, and -- and Joe Biden, right? You made videos about Joe Biden, trying to get him elected.
SASHA: Yes. I mean, I want to tell you, I devoted my entire life, unfortunately to this life. Whole years have disappeared from my life.
And as you get older, you really need that time. You need it back, and you can't get it back. So I guess I thought I was on some sort of crusade, spending every single day arguing on Twitter and Facebook and writing blistering pieces for Medium.
And I really did think I was on the right side, and I -- and I felt the same sense of purpose, that I think a lot of people on the left felt after Obama rose to power in 2008.
I think it just -- that's when it became. I know you're interested, in talking about religions and stuff like that. I think that's really the moment that it became a religion.
GLENN: Hmm.
I would agree with you. What -- what was it, that you voted for, with Joe Biden and you think your friends voted for with Joe Biden?
ALEX: Well, for me, it was strategic partly. But also I had an emotional connection to him, somehow. I had over the years. I don't know where it came from.
But I -- I liked him.
He reminded me of my dad. And I thought he was a good guy. But, you know, you have to remember, on our side. We actually -- it's weird that people with so much power and wealth, dominate almost every institution, would feel like they're the ones who are besieged.
You know, that they're the oppressed side. But I think that's definitely what we convinced ourselves, that we were stopping Hitler.
And I believe that Joe Biden was the only one that could do it.
But I did get a lot of heat from my -- my friends who didn't think Biden was the guy.
And I feel sort of somewhat guilty about that. That I didn't see it. I thought, he'll win. That will be fine. And everything will be -- everything will be back to, quote, unquote, normal in America. And what that meant, was rolling back the forward motion of this country, to the Obama administration. To the Obama era. I think that's what everybody was thinking. But what I've learned in the past few years, is you can't go back. You know, you have to keep moving forward. There's no other option, really. You try to hold on to the past, you just will be selling things that people are no longer interested in. But wouldn't that be -- that's what Joe Biden says he's selling. And Barack Obama is part of the plan here. And moving his vision forward. Isn't that what he did?
SASHA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that's the problem. They are so desperately trying to cling to the utopia that we've all built. That they lost site of most Americans. The reality of most Americans. The reality that most Americans have changed. The world has changed. The left has changed. And I don't think they see that. They're just desperate to hold on to the path. And I think they see it as -- and I've started to see it, the fight between Obama's America and Trump's America. Which is a little like the -- the moment that, you know, back in the 60s, when they were switching from JFK, to Nixon. Nixon was sort of like the disrupter.
And then eventually, that moved to Reagan in 1980, and then the whole pendulum shifted to the right.
I think that's where we are right now. We're in that struggle phase of the disrupter that's breaking up the status quo. As the pendulum is starting to swing to the right. But it will be a while before we get there. And it might not get there, if the Democrats hold on to power. They're not going to let that happen.
GLENN: This is -- I'm sure we disagree still on a lot of stuff. You wouldn't consider yourself a conservative? You're just a -- a traditional liberal, I'm guessing?
SASHA: Well, I am in sort of a strange place. I was telling one of my best friends. Because my friends basically no longer speak to me. Most of them don't. Because we don't really have anything to talk about.
GLENN: Yeah.
SASHA: But I kept saying no. And all this time, my policies haven't changed in my mind. The one area where my mind has changed a little bit is abortion. I used to be one of those people, you know.
But I've seen the other side of it. I've seen things from the perspective of the right now. And I understand why this is something they've been fighting for decades, you know. So I do struggle with these things. I find myself of an in between place. I'm not really sure where I would go politically, you know -- I live in California, so it doesn't really matter anyway.
It's such a Deep Blue state, that my vote is meaningless.
You know, so I don't have to -- like, if I lived in Pennsylvania or Arizona, you know, honestly, I'm pretty sure, it would be just voting red.
I voted for the recall. And I voted for Larry Elder for that. So, you know, I'm just one of those independents that is going to take every election. And decide on the spot.
No. I'm not a traditional conservative. The way that you are, for instance.
GLENN: Yeah.
SASHA: You know, I don't have that sort of sense of purpose, I think, that a lot of people on the right have.
GLENN: Yeah. So what was it, that broke the camel's back?
SASHA: Well, I'm not really sure what happened in my brain, that changed the way I followed the world. But I know it happened in 2020. I know it happened once the protests and the riots broke out. And watching the media cover it up. And change the story and the narrative. And then as we headed into the election, I just kept seeing how there was an administrative state, that was taking over the Democratic process. That's how I saw it anyway.
And I was sort of blown away, by that. I had never seen it like that, before. But there was so much money and power, bringing down a duly elected president, that they didn't like.
GLENN: But you didn't like Donald Trump. Or did you is this?
SASHA: Well, that was the hard thing. And the weird thing. Is that when I decided, to -- you know, you -- you talk about this a lot, actually, Glenn.
Which is the dehumanization of whole groups of people, that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. And I felt, when I was on Twitter, I was part of that.
And it gave me a chill, that I was dehumanizing a whole group of people. And I thought, where does this end? Where does all of this hatred every single go?
You know, they think the right is the side with the hate. But they're not. It's the left.
And so I started -- it's been my way of trying to get to know this world. I began watching Trump rallies. And I watched all -- still to this day, I've seen every single Trump rally. You know, looking for that smoking gun that would say, yes. He's a terrible racist, fascist, selling hate. But I didn't see that with Trump. In fact, it's hard to watch him not like him. Because he's charming and charismatic. And funny.
GLENN: Funny. People that really hate him. And they've missed a really good time. On his rallies. He's funny. He's very funny.
SASHA: He was really funny. And it was more than that. I was in such a dark place. And the only -- nobody believes me on this. But the only moments of joy I had, was watching those rallies. Everybody was happy. Kind of like the people of Whoville, when the Grinch has taken away all their toys. And Christmas trees. And everything. And he's waiting to watch them suffer.
But they don't. They're happy. And I was watching this -- and then I started to look forward to his rallies.
Okay. Let's see this. The music would start. And he would come out, and it was just a love fest. Of people who had hope, that he gave them hope. And I didn't see the cult. You know, I see the cult more on the left, than I do on the right. And people don't know this about Trump. But he makes a lot of jokes at his own expense.
And -- and, you know, when I explain this to people, like the one where he says, the guy -- one of the governors, or something, plucked a hair off his head. And he said, and we went looking for that hair. Because he couldn't refuse to lose one hair. But he's always making jokes at his own expense. Jokes about his vanity. And he's funny.
GLENN: So hang on. But you watched all of these. And yet, you voted and made videos about Joe Biden. Right?
SASHA: No. I mean, I had done all that before. I was on the Biden train. Yeah. In 2019. And as I was heading into the 2019 election. I was talking to my friends. I had two friends that were Trump haters.
They won't even speaking to me about Trump. They call him evil. His supporters must be terminated, and stuff like that. I said, you know what the word exterminate was used for, don't you? In regards to people.
And that did shut them up for a minute. But they really -- they're so full of hate, I've never seen anything like this, in my entire life, honestly.
That kind of dehumanization. So what I kept saying, I'm not so sure about Biden. I don't think he should be president.
And what's the alternative?
Trump was way worse. And I said, I don't know. I'm seeing this sort of bizarre new religion that's overtaking the left. And he's going to usher that into government, and that's really dangerous. And he's old. I mean, not old, as that's a bad thing. But I could say see that he was declining. You know, since I saw him at a luncheon in 2019.
He was already starting to decline mentally. And I had seen my dad go through dementia I can't a year before. And I was recognizing a lot of the same downward patterns that my dad went through. And they just shut me down.
And, honestly, Glenn, to tell you the truth, I do have a business that I run that is a Hollywood business.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
SASHA: No. I'm just saying, I'm flirting with disaster here. If I had voted for Trump, let's say. My career would be -- I wouldn't make another time, ever. If they ever found out, right? So I didn't vote for Trump. Vote for Biden, and I did it for that reason, honestly. And I don't know where I am politically. I have to just do some soul searching to really figure that out. Because I don't really know at the moment.
GLENN: All right. Hang on. How much time do we have with you, Sasha?
SASHA: As much time as you would like.
GLENN: Okay. Good. Yeah, I would like to see if we could get another 20-plus minutes out of you if you don't mind, if you've got that time.
SASHA: No, that's fine.
GLENN: Back in just a second. One minute and back to Sasha Stone.
There's an old saying about charity, which goes a little like this, give until it hurts, and then give a little bit more. I believe that, and I suspect you believe that as well. Use a word that sometimes the left doesn't like: Sacrifice.
You do it for the right causes. We sacrifice for one another.
That's great. Now, what do you sacrifice for? What do you really believe in?
Well, I know that our police officers put themselves in harm's way every single day. And they're being attacked. I know that fire firefighters do the same. I know that soldiers do the same. The Tunnel2Towers Foundation was a charity that was formed after 9/11. And it understands this solemn sacred mandates, to care about, and care for. So when a first responder or a military service member does not come home. And young children are left behind. Tunnel2Towers pays off their mortgage to lift the financial burden from this family. Help these heroes and these families, join Tunnel2Towers in its mission to do good in their honor. Donate $11 a month in T2T.org. We want the government to do less. Then we have to do more. That's T2T.org.
Ten-second station ID.
(music)
GLENN: So, boy. You are in a nasty predicament. You are in California. Your business is tied to Hollywood. God bless you.
SASHA: Uh-huh yep.
GLENN: But you're not shy about things now. You have a great Substack.
SASHA: Thank you.
GLENN: And you wrote an article, how Joe Biden lost my vote.
And it was -- it was heartening to see somebody that had taken their own education, and decided, this might take me places, I don't want to go. But I want to know the truth. Is that how you would describe what you did?
SASHA: Yeah. That's an absolutely brilliant way of describing it. You know, that is where -- that is where my mind has taken me. It's taken me down a lot of rabbit holes over the years. Watergate. The Salem witch hunt trials. World War II. I'm a fanatic for that.
And, you know, when I find that something doesn't seem quite right. You know, I have to sort of investigate it. And I feel like, that the truth matters to me. This is what I've found now in my life. Is that that matters more than just about everything, except for my daughter probably. Maybe my dogs. But it matters, you know, that we see the truth. That we can speak the truth. That I can speak the truth. I grew up in a country. You know, the left was always the counterculture. So we were encouraged to speak the truth, always.
And now I'm being asked to modify my version. You know, to believe a lie. A lot of lies about people.
And I feel like, the only thing that really matters to me right now, is giving some relief to the other half of the country. To the people who are being treated so terribly.
On almost every level. You know, once I started to get to know this world. I began watching documentaries. And the Oscar race. Because that's what I read about, the Oscars. And I just noticed, how they reflected only one point of view. And how limiting that was for them. They can't tell the story of the working man, anymore. Like they used to be able to. Because the working man is most likely going to be a Trump supporter.
GLENN: And you never saw that, when you were in the bubble.
SASHA: No. And that was the weird thing. Is when I realized I was in a bubble. I kept trying to tell people, I can't talk to you, I'm in the bubble. They thought I was a lunatic. They thought I lost my mind.
I sounded crazy to them. And, you know, I've thought about it a lot. I've been online for 28 years. I was an early adopter. Got online in 1994. Built a website in 1999. So I know the internet well.
And I have to conclude, that a lot of this has to do with how we migrated on to social media. And become -- you know, in our own little eco systems. Where, you know, on Twitter, they only get news that they want to hear. So it distorts their thinking.
That's why I had to cut off the news completely. Because even if I watch one news story on the left. They can completely persuade me, to think about something a different way. But it's one thing if you're getting that in a different way. And deciding for yourself. And it's another thing when you're only watching the one version. And I just found that honestly, the more critical thinkers. The more intelligent thinkers. Oh, this is so terrible to say. But they're on the right now. They're not on the left anymore. The left has become a movement that they believe they have all the answers now. And the answers are found in ranking people by race and gender, not by class or economics. And --
GLENN: Or by character.
SASHA: Or by character, right! Even though, if you go into the Trump world, you will see it's incredibly diversity. It's not just white people. And that's the next piece I'm about to right. Is about that. Because I think it's such a crazy thing to watch them stereotype and characterize people, that doesn't align with reality.