Joe Rogan Is Right, He's Not A Republican

After the election, supporters of the Democratic Party called for the American left to establish a counter to Joe Rogan. 

"Liberals need to BUILD THEIR OWN JOE ROGAN," Elie Mystal of the Nation magazine wrote on X. News outlets like NBC, MSNBC, and the New York Times drew the same conclusion, citing the podcaster's influence on the election.

Ironically, the left had its own Joe Rogan. His name was Joe Rogan.

Rogan was admittedly a Democrat. He endorsed Bernie Sanders and once called Barack Obama his "favorite president." He supports higher minimum wage requirements, widespread legalization of marijuana, lax abortion laws, and many liberal social concepts.

However, he considered the party's shift in 2020 too severe. He attributes his dissatisfaction with the current Democratic Party to its draconian Covid policies, fascination with censorship, promotion of DEI, and decision to open the borders.

Rogan dismissed the Democratic Party as it dismissed common sense. 

He is not alone. 

In November, John Burn-Murdoch, the Financial Times' chief data reporter, organized a chart to demonstrate how the Democrats' approach to cultural issues shifted the party sharply leftward, leaving the median voter behind.

Consequently, Rogan endorsed Donald Trump during the 2024 election, which prompted claims that he is now a Republican. Err, at least conservative and perhaps a Trump sycophant.

Not quite.

Joe Rogan endorsed Donald Trump with a very simple message. What did Rogan tweet? Watch his interview with Elon Musk. (Credit: Getty Images)

OutKick argued in November that none of those labels accurately describe Rogan. We described him as a common-sense moderate who viewed Trump as the stronger of the two candidates on issues that matter most to him—the economy, border, international affairs, and upholding free speech rights across the nation.

He agreed with that characterization during a podcast episode this week.

"I don’t consider myself a Republican. I don’t consider myself a Democrat either. I consider myself an American," Rogan began.

"I’m a human being and there’s a lot of things that the Democrats believe that I believe. There’s a lot of things that they say that I say, that makes a lot of sense to me, and there’s a lot of things that the Republicans say [where] I say, that makes a lot of sense to me too. And the idea that I have to ignore things that make sense to me because it’s coming from the wrong team is just stupid."

Rogan also lamented the idea that Americans should treat politics like a sport, as in your team vs. my team.

"These are bad faith arguments where you have to have a conversation with someone and pretend that what they’re saying is not logical because they’re supposed to be your opponent," he said. "That to me is just dumb. That doesn’t benefit me at all. That doesn’t benefit anyone listening at all. It’s just stupid. It’s a stupid way to think."

See, the American left views anyone who doesn't pledge their undying allegiance to every new progressive idea (#ISupportTheNewThing) as an enemy, and thus some combination of right-wing, conspiratorial, racist, xenophobic, Nazi, and a threat to democracy.

But it's just not true.

Donald Trump didn't win the popular vote and all seven swing states because over half of America is suddenly fascist. In reality, the Democratic Party had become so obsessed with defeating Trump that it lost touch with the interests and needs of ordinary Americans.

As per our post-election column, Trump didn't radicalize the Republicans. He radicalized the Democrats. And moderate voters, like Joe Rogan, will always side with the less radicalized of the two parties.

Follow Bobby Burack on X here.