American Thought Leaders - Winsome Sears: Why Socialism Always Fails

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

In this episode, we sit down with Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, author of “How Sweet It Is: Defending the American Dream.” We discuss her remarkable story, her values, and what drives her.“Here I am, second in command in the former capital of the Confederate States. Don't tell me America hasn't changed. Of course it has. Now, are there problems? Of course. There are problems in other countries. There is no utopia. But America is the best we've got and we're going to keep her,” Ms. Sears says.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.  

I'm from a third world country. I've seen propaganda. I knew the word propaganda when I was eight years old. You know, the fastest growing segment of gun owners are women, Black women, especially. In this episode, I sit down with Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, author of How Sweet It Is, Defending the American Dream. We discuss her remarkable story, her values, and what drives her. Here I am, second in command in the former capital of the Confederate States. Don't tell me America hasn't changed. Of course it has. There is no utopia, but America is the best

we've got and we're going to keep her. This is American Thought Leaders and I'm Janja Kellek. Lieutenant Governor Winston Sears, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders, and I'm Jan Jekielek. Lieutenant Governor Winston Sears, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. Thank you for having me, Jan. I've really been enjoying reading your autobiography. And, you know, let's start here. Your grandmother and my grandmother, who I actually never knew because she died when my mother was nine years old, had something in common. And I would say, you know, kind of an interest in helping others above and beyond. And that influenced your life significantly.

And I want to start there. Well, yeah, my grandmother was a very interesting woman. You know, she started with nothing. When you read the book, you'll see that she was born in a one-room hut and it's still there today. Sadly it doesn't belong to my family but maybe we can buy it back again. But I'm very proud of it, you know. It's got boards of all shapes and sizes and colors to the building, the structure, and I say to myself, this is a

reminder of where I've come from and you know we can't afford to get too big in our britches because as she would have said to me, the same people you meet on the way up are the same ones you're going to meet on the way down so you treat everyone with respect. So yeah, she was a one woman force. But then, she's my paternal grandmother, but so was my mother's mother. You know, grandparents are, I think maybe because they have more time for you as a grandchild,

you learn a lot. Well, the thing that I noted is, that you noted, right, was that she made a point, you know, she would be helping people out when there was very little around, right? And sometimes people would have issue with that even. Yeah. Like, why are you doing this? This isn't your family. Yeah.

Well, we, as the grandchildren, would. Don't they have anyone to help them? You know, this is our, you know, you get jealous. This is our grandmother and our grandparents. But this is just the woman she was. And you think when you grow up you'll never do that. But because you saw the example, you can't get away from it for too long before there's something in you that the seed was planted and then you find yourself wanting to help others. You know if you don't help others who need that help you see it.

What kind of a person are you? You're callous. You walk by someone and you just leave them be. Now I'm not saying that you help every single person because there are some that you can't help no matter how you try. And some you have to understand. You have to have the discretion how to help them. Maybe I'm not going to give you the money to go buy the food.

I will buy the food and bring it to you. Well, you know, so while we're talking about this, I mean, one of the most, I guess, traumatic parts of your book is actually you figuring out how to deal with your daughter, Dijon. And then, you know, again, you know, tragic events that followed. And so dealing with mental illness in the family. Well, tell me about that. Yeah, she's growing up and you're not, you're thinking maybe she's just rebellious because she's not doing what we would say the normal things, you know. You just don't think that it could be a mental disease and nobody wants to talk about mental issues, you know.

And so you're not recognizing the signs and when it's happening during the teenage years you think it's a rebellious teenager. But then she had that real break in college and we had to go and get her. And then finally, and because she was an adult by that time, the doctors aren't telling you everything, and so she stopped taking her medication. But the doctors did tell us that sometimes mental illness gets to a place where they come back into themselves, you know, the chemicals because she had a chemical imbalance. And she's working again, she's been productive again, and because of that she assumes that

she's fine, she doesn't need her medicine. And it's a roller coaster. she doesn't need her medicine and it's a roller coaster she doesn't take her medication she goes right back off of it and it's the cycle that's like a seven month cycle and but you learn to recognize the sign and by the time I did it was you know cycle number whatever but it was too late she seemed to be on the right foot that no, you have to keep taking your medication. We even had to watch her stick out your tongue, et cetera, et cetera, as an adult. So we just thought she was back on the right track, but she clearly wasn't. You had a premonition actually of sorts when the day or the few days were... Actually, it started with my granddaughter, Faith.

Because a month before they went to heaven, Faith would say, Grandma, Jesus is giving us a big house, a really big house. And I would just wonder, what is she talking about? And then she started drawing big houses, you know, in the childlike way that she did. And then one night, because my daughter would drop them off and we would go to Bible study, one night I heard her praying and she said, Thank you Jesus for the big house you're going to give us.

And that's when I thought, Okay, something's going on. I'm going to ask my daughter, is she moving? Well, the next day she came to pick them up and I asked, are you guys going somewhere? Because Faith keeps talking about you're going into a big house. And she said, I don't know what she's talking about, Mom. We're not moving. But now I understand the child was trying to say mansion. And the Bible, Jesus Jesus promises a mansion but she didn't know the word so she kept saying big house well the day before they went to have

my daughter again came to pick them up and and she bent down and I just and she looked at me I just saw a skull the skull the skeletal skull in her face and I, she stopped taking her medication. I've got to talk to her about that. But I'll do it next week because I don't want a war because that was always inevitably what happened. Well, Faith, once again, she came and sat on this hip and she asked a question of me, but I cannot tell you to this day what the question was

because I heard a voice fill the room and ask, what are you going to do if she dies? I was sort of jarring and I looked to see if my other daughter had heard the voice, but she hadn't. My other granddaughter, they hadn't. My husband was in the kitchen. Nobody. I was the only one who heard it.

So I thought, hmm. And Faith jumped off my hip, came around, looked me in the face and said, Grandma, because it was obvious, I was not here. And so I, yes. And then I, yes. And then I just studied the curvature of her nose. I studied her whole face. I just studied her because the voice had asked, what are you going to do if she dies?

And the next day they were gone on home. Well, I'm very sorry for your loss. I know this was some years ago, of course. But it was incredibly evocative how you explained this. And also how it, I guess, influenced you, your thinking, what you learned from it. And that's actually a big theme in, it seems, your writing or in your life. Yeah. Yeah, trauma just seems to be, it's a clear and definitive point. And what do you do now? Are you going to disintegrate? Are you yourself going to lose your mind?

Are you just going to exist until you die? That happened with my grandmother when she died when I was 18 and I was supposed to start college that August, but when she died that July, I thought my life was over and I'm just going to die. I'm just going to die. Here I was 18 and I was so traumatized, but the Marine Corps saved me when I joined. Yeah yeah, the few the proud, and I thought, that's what I need, discipline. And then here it is again, another traumatic death, and what do you do? Well, I had two remaining children, my husband and I. You can't fall apart. They need you too.

And so you find a reason to get up every morning after you collapse, of course, because there are three caskets in front of you. What are you going to do? How do you go to the field with three? Not one, not two, but three. You have to find a way. You lost your two granddaughters. Yes, my daughter and the two grandchildren. So, and I don't say lost, because I know where they are. They're in heaven. They're where I want to be. And that is very comforting. Because they don't, they're not subject to the vagaries of life anymore, the insults and all that. So they're fine. They're just fine. Well, you know, okay, so speaking of insults, let's

work on that for a moment. I mean, the term not black enough comes up a lot in your book and, you know, questions about this. Yes. Yeah. So what is this thing? It's all political. And it unfortunately is a divisive type of argument, you know, that, and it's happened, especially during my first run for election for office. And just because I'm a Republican and I'm black, and I guess I'm supposed to be a Democrat if I'm black. And, you know, this is America. Nobody tells us, you know, what we're supposed to be and how we're supposed to be, et cetera, et cetera.

We make those decisions for ourselves. But for some people, it's all about political power. And if you can keep all of us, you know, in the one basket, then we need you as our political savior. I don't need a savior. I already have that. I need you, the government, to get out of my way so that I can accomplish. This is America. My dad came to America with $1.75 and just to picture it, seven quarters.

Seven quarters. And yet he succeeded and he is comfortably retired now. Well, and at a time when there was, you know, actually some pretty serious barriers for him. Yes, yes, he came. More than now there would be, right? 1963, 17 days before Dr. King gave his I Have a Dream speech. Think about that.

He, as a black man, having read and being told what to expect in America, begged anyway, begged to come to America. Begged thought this was where he could start his, restart his life. And then he brought me. And you know who else knows that America is the place to be? The people at the southern border. They're throwing their children literally over the fence to plant them in American soil.

Now I say you have to do it the right way. We have to know who's entering the country. We have to know everything about you. We have to give you permission. But they believe that if they get their foot on American soil, the trajectory, the opportunities, everything will be for the better. They're not believing about, you know, racists, the opportunities, everything will be for the better. They're not believing about, you know, racists, sexists, whatever. They don't believe that.

Well, and I might add, you know, despite all the huge problems that, you know, I'm seeing and many Americans are seeing, they're actually right about that, I would say. Right? They want America to stay America. They want the America they hear about where opportunities abound, where if you work hard you can make it, where you can really literally decide your own future, where you're free. You're free even to fail. I mean what government do you know that puts in their constitution happiness? The pursuit of the government is interested in you pursuing happiness?

Now that wasn't always true. Of course we know that. But we are not there anymore. And I am proof that I was elected under the same Constitution that existed way back then. And not only that, but here I am, second in command, in the former capital of the Confederate States. Don't tell me America hasn't changed. Of course it has.

Now, are there problems? Of course. There are problems in other countries. There is no utopia. But America is the best we've got got and we're going to keep her. Well, talking about immigration, from everything I've seen and the experts I've spoken with, I'm convinced that the main reason that there is this kind of huge interest in the southern border and kind of crossing at the southern border is because people know they'll get to stay basically, again with all the perils of getting through.

So how are you approaching that? Is this an issue for Virginia? As we know, really, there are no more border states, per se, because the immigrants coming through, they don't stay in Texas and Florida and New Mexico, etc., etc. They're coming in California. They're coming up through the rest of the states. And just in case they're not, which they are, Texas et al. is making sure we get some of them. And you hear, for example, the state in which I grew up, New York, they're crying, crying. And yet they don't have the numbers of immigrants that Texas has, for example. And yet they're crying with a little, with the small percentage that they do. It impacts all of us. Yet they're crying with a little, with the small percentage that they do.

It impacts all of us. Fentanyl, which is coming across the border from China especially, is killing at least nine Virginians every day. We have other types of drugs coming through. We have crime that's affecting us, coming because of people coming through the border. There are terrorists who have come through the border that now I understand the FBI, the CIA, whoever, they're trying to locate some of them. There's so much happening. I mean, sex trafficking, child trafficking, it's happening. It's coming up

for maybe sometimes on the 95 side, but definitely on the 81-85 side, going all the way through. Some of these small towns in Virginia, they're affected by this. You'd be surprised. You'd think the rural area is not so much. No. So we're all affected by it. We have to know who's in the country. A country without borders is not a country after all. You know, as we're speaking here, I can't help but think about this recent election, not a few weeks before as we're sitting here and filming right now.

And I remember you saying something in the book. I think actually I took a note. You, of course, talk about your win, how sweet it is, right? And you say it was a win for Republicans, Democrats, and everybody in between, one Virginia. This election recently, it seems like, do you read that as people saying, we don't want these policies that you were elected on? How do you read what happened? Well, I think fundamentally, at its very base, elections are about numbers. Elections are about turnout. And in our race in 2021, for example,

there were 500,000 Republicans who voted for us, who the very next year set out the race for Congress etc and so you know business can lose a small business especially medium-sized business in particular can can lose 500,000 customers and think they're going to be a viable enterprise. It's impossible. So what we had to do is we kept losing because these are people who only vote if it's a presidential race or if it's a gubernatorial race. Otherwise, they sit it out. And so the Democrats, mind you, they have the same problem.

They have their low-propensity voters, we call them. But they've figured it out. They have a solution. They get them to vote absentee. So whether you come to the polls or not, a ballot is mailed to your home. That is the objective, after all, is to get the ballot in the hand. And they figured out there about three to four years ahead of us, we were able to cut into that. We were able, in fact, to lessen the amount of, well, we won in certain of our races the absentee ballot numbers before election day.

Because we were going, as Republicans, into election, 17,000 votes already down and having to make that up. 10,000 votes down. We cut into that significantly. We have to just keep on doing it. But you know, the Democrats in this race cycle, they raised $110 million for state rep, we call them delegates, for state senator, $110 million.

We only raised 77. And the reason why we raised $77 million was because we have a governor, Governor Youngkin, who really pushed for it and was able to bring that money in. So I think we're going to do better. We did pick up a Senate seat. We didn't win the Senate outright. We did lose the House, yes, but it could have been much more worse. But basically you don't think it was a referendum on the policies that U.N. Governor Young can... No, because I tell you what, when we were going door to door, doing the door knocking, and we were letting them know that Democrats believe in abortion up until the day that the child could be born and even afterwards because

we had in uh two years ago when we had the democratic governor ralph northam who is a pediatrician a pediatrician said that it came on the radio and explained how you could have an abortion afterwards after the baby's born and he And he said, if the infant is born alive, we're going to keep the infant, this infant, he said, comfortable until the mother decides what to do. What are you talking about? The baby's already here, breathing on its own. So you're just going to leave the baby on the abortion table to die? No help?

What kind of a society have we become? So when we were explaining this at the door, the voters said, no, we don't believe that. We don't believe in that at all. You see, they never heard the whole message. Well, that's actually one of the criticisms that I've heard, which is that there was a very successful messaging campaign around, you know, what Roe versus Wade or the end of Roe versus Wade actually meant, which was something like, you know, no abortion anywhere. And that was a lie. Which obviously is not the case.

It was a lie. Because if the life and the health of the mother is at stake, we can't force her to go forward with it. Her life is in danger. You know, we had rape and incest, but you never heard that. The Democrats just flat out lied. But next time will be different. Okay. but next time will be different okay well and just you know to touch on i don't want to harp on abortion too long but you you were pretty strong in your thought you know reading in the

book too that you believe it's a especially for the black community it's been like a form of eugenics which is um i don't know a controversial position i guess no it's not a controversial position, I guess. No, it's not a controversial position at all because it's a fact. I guess facts can be controversial, but the truth is the truth. Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood to help. One of the reasons, to get rid of the black population. To get rid of the black population. And in fact, it's one of the reasons why there is a Planned Parenthood in New York who took Margaret Sanger's name off because it was noted that she said, if the N-word ever find

out that this will get rid of their population, their babies, then we're in trouble. So it's amazing to me that those who did not want black people to be around are somehow our saviors. And in fact, black women nationwide, we make up of the childbearing population, I believe it's 14%, and yet we have 40%, 46% of the abortions. If you had wanted to get rid of us, you couldn't have planned anything better. So, yeah, I want our babies to live. Okay. And other babies.

Right. I'm going to read from here. You were the first woman lieutenant governor of Virginia, the first black woman, the first naturalized female citizen. Of course, you're an immigrant from Jamaica. And first female veteran elected to statewide office. That's a lot of firsts. But I don't see that being as celebrated as one would expect. You know, it's a political thing, again, because I am destroying narratives. It is said that

Republicans hate immigrants. Well, here I am. I was born in Jamaica. It is said that Republicans hate immigrants. Well, here I am. I was born in Jamaica. It is said that Republicans hate black people. Well, here. Here I am again. It is said that Republicans are, you know, not too loving of women in general. Well, here I am. I am destroying all those narratives.

And the funny thing is I did nothing special to become Lieutenant Governor except stay in school and study. And I try to tell that to whoever will listen that you will dictate your life even if, well, children you can't. You depend on your parents to fight for you, on your parents to love you and to care for you. But you can't be 40 years old later and continue to blame your parents. At some point we're going to take responsibility for our own lives. It's your life.

So if you have to restart your life at whatever age, maybe at 20, whatever it is, restart it, get going. I didn't go to college until I had three children under five. I'm saying you can do this. This is not some Pollyanna's comment, but yes, you know, my win is not so celebrated, but it's not a win for me necessarily, it's a win for everyone because they can say, if Winsome can do it, I can do it too. And I think that's the uplifting message. Yeah. No, I mean, you had a small business, electrical. You were an electrician, I guess, in the Marine.

An electrician and a diesel mechanic. So you could smell me before you saw me. So, I mean, there's just a lot of things about you which are kind of unexpected, I guess. Yeah. Right. Breaking the gender norms, I guess, in some ways. Whatever that is. You know, I've all just always been taught that you have to do for self. Nobody's going to do it for you. If it is to be, it's up to me. You know, it's that old adage. And really, it's your life. If you don't care about your own life, who will? Are you going to just roll over and die, or are you going to get up and go get it done? Go get it done.

Yeah, I think you told me there's always tomorrow, no matter how hard it seems. I was asking if there was something you wanted to make sure folks you know got out of our interview I that's a great that's a that's a great message I mean there's nothing that happens to you that hasn't happened to someone else nothing you're facing that is so so unusual that well nobody in this world has ever faced that, and woe is me. Now, we don't make light of the things that people suffer, abuse, whatever it is, racism, whatever it is. But do you allow your perpetrator to win? Or do you get up and say? And first,

the first getting up is forgive them. Because as someone once pointed out, unforgiveness is like you drinking poison, expecting it to hurt someone else. No, you forgive that person. And sometimes you've got to forgive them as many times as it comes to your mind and then you move on. And some days it's easier and some days it's harder but you move on. Because there was somebody who really did a terrible thing to me and one day I just decided, you know, I'm going to forgive. I'm just going to forgive. And you know I heard that that person had died eight years not long after I had decided

to forgive. So had I carried that with me I'd have been angry at a dead person, a dead person waiting for that person to come and ask for forgiveness. So as I said, you've got to get the strength, you've got to find people who will energize you, who will encourage you, who sometimes will say, we can't go down this road anymore. You know when you start down this road you're're gonna end up in some depressive mode. Don't go there. You gotta find friends like that

who will tell you like it is, who'll pull you up out of it. So yeah, surround yourself with those kinds of people. So you mentioning racism moments ago, just for the record, a lot of people still today are saying America's a systemically racist country. How do you react to that? Well, those who understand what it is, especially

President Biden was asked that question that was asked of President Kamala Harris and she said America is not a race systemically racist country so if they're saying it doesn't exist and you know I guess I'll agree with them because there are some people who they see racism in everything. Now, are they racist? Of course. But then if it's not racism in a country, it's colorism. We had that issue with some people are lighter and some people are darker.

If it's not that, it's sexism. If it's not that, it's classism. We always find reasons to divide ourselves. Humans are good at that. It's in every country. But you know what? I don't see anybody leaving America for any of these other countries. They're all, as I said, breaking down the doors to get in. We work around things. We overcome things. Surely we're not back in the days of slavery. Surely we're not back in 1963 when my father first came, when there were real dog whistles, when there were real fire hoses. Surely we're not. We'll overcome and we'll keep overcoming. We're not victims.

You know, during COVID, starting in 2020 with all these shelter-in-place lockdown policies, all sorts of policies, bizarre monetary policy and so forth, your business actually suffered quite a bit. I mean, I couldn't quite remember if that was it for it or you wrote it out in the end, but what's your view on what happened during that time? Well, you see that apparently there was a lot of overreach. There was a lot of stepping on toes and stepping on the Constitution.

That shouldn't have happened. If you wanted to keep your job, you were forced to get a vaccine. You had waitresses, waiters, asking you for your vaccination status. Are you kidding me? You had houses of worship closed, businesses shut down. We will tell you. You had big box stores open, but mom and pop stores were closed because of government policies. COVID didn't shut us down. Government policy on COVID shut us down because Florida didn't shut down in the way that, for example, Virginia did. Our schools were closed. The public schools were closed. But yet private schools were open five days a week for a whole year. But the public schools

were closed. What? COVID doesn't go to private schools? None of this made any sense. We had in Virginia, for example, the ABC stores, the liquor store, state run, that one was open, but other stores were shut down. Why? Did they need spirits or something? You know, so yeah, there was a spirit in the air, all right, and it affected my business. I remember that the governor then, Northup, declared that you had to have permission to be out in case the sheriff stopped you. What country is this, you see? So we had South Dakota didn't shut down in the way that we did. And so everybody flocked to these free states, as they were being called.

Even the Democrats. I saw AOC in Florida without a mask. But when she went back to do it, what are you doing there? Governor Pritzker from Illinois locked his state down, but sent his wife and children to Florida, where everybody was free to do as they wished. So they're all hypocrites. Governor Newsom in California was hobnobbing and having a wonderful time with so many thousands of plates of dinner with donors, maskless. Speaker Pelosi was in California, in San Francisco, going from, you know, getting her hair done without a mask, Fauci without a mask, until the camera caught them. So none of this made any sense.

But the people, I think, they're slowly waking up. Well, so one of the, I guess, you know, themes that comes out in your autobiography is, I guess, dealing with fear. Yes. Dealing with fear constructively. But here's the connection. During this time, I think, you know, we could call it industrial-grade propaganda to sow fear was employed at an unprecedented scale, at least to my knowledge, with, you know, all these, the newer, the newest technologies, and enabled through social media. And it turns out it's very difficult for people to deal with that and to even see it for what it is. Yeah. Right. Probably because we're not used to it. And it turns out it's very difficult for people to deal with that and to even see it for what it is. Yeah. Right.

Probably because we're not used to it. I'm from a third world country. I've seen propaganda. I knew the word propaganda when I was eight years old. I knew about what that meant because we were taken over by a socialist Democrat is what he called himself and that's what AOC and her ilk call themselves and oh we're gonna do this the right way and it destroyed Jamaica destroyed our economy broadcast her over from Cuba Cuba's only 45 miles

from Jamaica now Jamaica and Cuba have always had a good relationship you know my grandfather worked at Guantanamo Bay way, way back then. But by then they were communists and they brought that Russian money over, started building schools, et cetera, destroyed Jamaica's economy, nationalized everything. I remember you couldn't buy the chicken unless you bought something else that went with the chicken. You know, we had supply issues. It was bad. Multinational corporations who were doing so well in Jamaica and providing so many jobs up and left because they understood

their profits were no longer theirs. You know, these communists, these socialists, one day they'll figure it out. Probably, we learn from history. We never learn from history. So maybe we won't ever learn that communism doesn't work socialism is no good well so so how does that relate to what you see it we're seeing happening in this country now yeah it sounds really good that you know we're all gonna share and share alike and accept that what in in our work environments, at our jobs, you know that you work harder than your coworker.

Do you want to share the bonus that you get with your coworker who didn't do half of the work that you did? Because that's what communism says, we're all going to share. There is no merit in working hard. No, none of that makes any sense. If you work hard, you should get the reward. That sounds fair to anyone. I'm reminded of the classic teacher situation, teacher, teacher in the school where he asked the class all right well if you get an a are you going to share your a with your classmate who got a d yeah nobody wants that do they so let's just be real about how things really work in the real world um one of the things that we hear communists or whoever socialist you know say is well if you

read the bible which apparently they pick and choose the scriptures that they want it's well jesus said that you're supposed to share everything together and and that's one of the verses that talks about that, except they forget when they talk to the rich young, when Jesus talks to the rich young ruler, he doesn't say, give everything away. He says, sell everything you have and then come follow me. Sell. He doesn't say, give it. He says, sell it. So there you are. That's an interesting distinction that I've never heard about. Something that just came to my mind actually is during the election in 2021, there's this poster that, I don't

know if it was a poster or just a photo that went viral, of you with a kind of menacing-looking weapon. I'm not talking about the sword here either. Oh, the Marine NCO sword, yes. Yeah, no, absolutely. So, you know, you're a fierce Second Amendment advocate. And that was part of, you were very clear about that from the outset. You know, the fastest-growing segment of gun owners are women, black women especially, because we understand that, especially those who were crying for the defunding of the police.

Who are we going to call when we are in need of rescuing? When I call 911, I want to know somebody's coming to help me, to rescue me. But in the meantime, what do I do if the intruder is entering and he has a gun? What am I going to do? What do I do? I need my own protection while I'm waiting. And by the way, if you're my neighbor, you're going to hope that if I'm going to help that, you know, well, we don't win something. You see what I mean?

So we have to be able to protect ourselves. There are, I'm told, over 400 million guns in America. There are people who are not law-abiding. We're going to deal with those people. But how could there be 400 million guns and we're still safe as we are? So we just have to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. We need our protection. Well, you know, one of the things I've heard people saying lately, and I've really been reflecting on is, you know, you need the Second Amendment to protect the first. Yes. I'm sure you've heard that a million times. Well, and, you know, I was just this morning,

before we were filming, I was at a hearing of this, the Subcommittee on Weaponization of Government, astonishing newer evidence even of basically government encroachment on the First Amendment. Have you been following this? Well, governments, I think over time, tend to want power more and more and more. The more that, you know, the founding fathers tried to devolve power when they wanted to make Washington a king. Thankfully, he said no to that. And then they realized, and this is through a bible verse isaiah 33 and i believe

22 the lord is our lawgiver the lord is our judge the lord is our king king executive branch lawgiver judicial legislative branch i'm sorry and judge judicial branch the three branches of government the founding fathers would have known this because John Knox spoke about it the great philosopher all the time he was of their time and so they devolved power and of course man being who he is fights for his power and so there comes the checks and balances. You know, they don't, we don't want encroachment from the legislative branch on the judicial branch on the executive branch fights. And that fight for power keeps, like the wrong ends of the

magnet, keeps power, you know. But then invariably there comes along some smooth talker and we give all our power to that person and off we go again. We learn from history, as someone said, we never learn from history. So I mean, you know, the Romans tried it and it didn't work out very well. We tried, but, you know, we just have these petty tyrants. Let me share with you something that just struck me recently for the first time. So, you know, I've been learning with lightning speed about, you know, the American founding, what the Constitution was about, I mean, over the last however many years. And it took me a while just to grasp that the whole concept, at least in my interpretation, I think you alluded to, you said this, was to limit the concept of the Constitution and

the approach of the US government was to limit the obvious accumulation of power, which would happen when you put people in charge of anything, I mean, let's say, right? And so I was recently at Mount Vernon, actually, where there's this reenactment of, perhaps it was creation from letters, but the assistant to George Washington was basically speaking about his legacy he had passed. The thing that struck me is exactly, you mentioned how they wanted to make him king, and he absolutely refused this. I think, I wonder if all of this was a great, fantastic idea until that moment when George Washington actually said, actually, no, I'm not going to be as much as, there's a lot of good reason for me to be king. Look, there's a lot of people that aren't, are certainly my lesser.

Maybe he wasn't thinking this way, but he could have thought that. I mean, might have been right. He would have been a great ruler, right? Except that he said, no, I have to step away because I have to let this work itself out. And maybe that was the moment when this whole experiment, as they call it, actually became real. We're still experimenting and hopefully we'll keep it alive. In America, I think it's interesting that the military has to answer to the president that the generals aren't in charge. That's interesting. It's fascinating. And really you couldn't have a coup in a sense that we see coups all around.

It just wouldn't do. It is so ingrained in the American psyche. We're independent. We don't overrun one branch for the other branch for the other. But you never know. Anything can happen for the other branch for the other. But you never know. Anything can happen. So we hope for the best. And we need more civics classes.

We need people to understand more about how America came to be and know she didn't get it right. There was atrocities on black people, atrocities on Indians. Yes, we don't deny that, but we learn from it. And here we are, as I said, people are breaking into the country wanting to come. I just want to touch on the military for a moment because a number for during, again, the COVID years, which I guess we're still kind of in, I was reading how

the military is now asking people who are let go because they refused to take the vaccine by mandate back. But at some point, people were I think even dishonorably discharged because of this. And then at the same time, there's this, you know, a lot of criticism of the military becoming more woke, like just basically a very different focus from what you imagine a military to be focusing on, which is the defense of the nation. Yeah. As I said, Constitution was trampled on quite a bit because of COVID policies.

We didn't know very much about this vaccine. Now I just, I said, you know, if you want to take the vaccine, take it. If you don't want to take it, then that's your prerogative. But we can't force people to put something in their bodies, you know, just because you said so. Where will it end then? If you're talking about your body, your whatever, your decision, then wouldn't that apply to COVID, you know, vaccines? What new thing will we now think? Because, you see, we've already started down this path.

We've shut down businesses, because the government's gonna tell you what to do about that. We shut down houses of worship, we shut down education, we shut the whole economy down. It was absolute power. And here in Virginia, the Democrats had absolute power. They had the executive branch, they had the legislative branch. They had the legislative branch.

And they ran wild. Whatever their hearts desired is what they did. Absolute power. And they went a bridge too far. And the very next year, the people elected us, the Republicans, because they understood that all bets are off. When you keep my child out of school, you shut my business down, my business is dead, you made certain decisions, and who are you? And so we had Democrats who voted for us. We had independents who voted for us.

And we have to keep remembering these lessons because those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat those errors, as it is said. Very quickly, like what should the military do now, given what, you know, what happened? The military has to remember that it's about guarding our safety and security. And we've got to be careful with the policies. But then again, I mean, Congress has a role to play. This is the beauty, again, of the military. It's that the leaders are confirmed by the Congress. You know, it's not the president who makes the decisions about who is this general, who is the colonel, who is et cetera, et cetera. No, we all have a part to play and we've got to

make sure that we first and foremost understand that we're supposed to protect the people, protect the people even from its own government. And we are the people. Protect the people even from its own government. And we are the people. Governor, this has been an absolutely fascinating conversation. Any final thoughts as we finish? Just one thing. In everything that we've already discussed, that it is your life. It's the one life you have. Live it to the fullest, help others as you're coming along.

It's fear. Fear will always be with us. The fear of man. I read the Bible, for example, and I see great men being in fear, like David, David the giant slayer. David who slayed lions and bears as a boy, was afraid of a man, a political leader, feared for his life.

So it's common to all of us. If you're going to do something, do it afraid. Courage, I was once reading, is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing it even as you are afraid. So you take those shaking knees of yours and you go do it. If you've got to challenge the boss, you've got to challenge the boss. Now the reason why you're afraid is because there are consequences. You could lose your job.

You could lose your life. But so many people, so many people got ahead of that fear and yes they suffered, created America. Benjamin Franklin said to his fellow patriots in the war against the British Revolutionary War, gentlemen, either we hang together or we will surely hang separately. And in fact, some of them did hang and those who didn't lost everything. So it is what it is. They lost everything but gained something. Yeah. Very, very valuable to many people. Lost family. Yeah. Lost family, lost estates, lost everything. But here we sit. It's life.

Well, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, it's such a pleasure to have had you on. Thank you for having me. Thank you all for joining Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I'm your host, Jan Jekielek.