From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Why Conservative Kids Are Happier Than Liberal Kids

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

A new study from the Brookings Institution, Gallup, and the Institute for Family Studies has shown that there is a correlation between conservative parents and increased mental health in children. Sean and Rachel are joined by their daughter and writer at The Federalist Evita Duffy-Alfonso to discuss why they believe their parenting style creates better mental environments and share tips on how to become a conservative parent. Later, they weigh in on the Colorado Supreme Court removing former President Trump from the 2024 ballot, and why they think that this is the most blatant attack on democracy the nation has seen in decades. Follow Sean & Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk and authorized gaming partner of the NBA.

BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm Sean Duffy along with my co-host for the podcast, my partner in life and my wife, Rachel Campos Duffy, as well as my daughter Evita

and I am stuck here in greater New York City at the Fox studio as the lady is going to hang out at home at the kitchen table, actually. So I wish I was there. Well, we're at the kitchen table for you, Sean. And it's great to be back. Yesterday, you were with Evita and you were both on the Laura Ingraham show. And I've gotten so many text messages and just responses online about you guys both on what you said and what even what the topic was on Laura Ingraham and just how you guys handled it so beautifully. So the topic was this new study that came out called, that says that children of conservative parents are at a much lower risk of mental health problems or issues than children of liberal parents. And so Laura Ingram, I thought very brilliantly,

booked both of you on to talk about it. And here's what you both had to say about it. So Evita's premise, Sean, is that mental toughness is what conservative parents focus on while liberal parents or leftist parents, as she calls them, focus on mental health rather than mental toughness. And with that spiritual resiliency, right, like spiritual formation that gives kids something solid to hold on to. You focus on marriage and the fact that strong marriages make strong families and kids that grow up in strong families just have more confidence. That's right. That's right. And so, again, to break down that study, 55% of adolescents that are raised in a liberal, you know, parent household would They're not experiencing any signs of mental health issues. And I think it's interesting because, again, we're talking about family. We're talking about, you know, the relationship between the parents. of kids trusting that nothing's going to happen with their mom and dad. They feel safe. They feel secure.

They hopefully see love between their parents. They see forgiveness and responsible arguing between their parents. But all of that can be healthy because they get a good example of how actually to deal with life, to deal with conflict, and still love each other through it. And also, I think what's important to note is that conservative parents also have, as I mentioned this, you have rules. You do have guidelines and there's a certain way in which we behave that we believe as conservatives. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. So often you see liberals are like, there's a better and

a new way, right? There's a new concept that says a boy could be a girl and a girl could be a boy. Let's go with that. Well, we don't know the consequences, or you could argue at the start, you don't know the consequence of what that'll have on the psyche of a child. Well, you and we all conservatives know what it'll do, but now the data comes out that you're stressing the hell out of kids. But you don't need data, Sean. You don't need data to figure that out. I think the bottom line is that conservatives have common sense and they trust. Conservatism says, you know, you trust what the past has done in a way you preserve those traditions, those traditional values, the traditional roles,

whether they be gender or whatnot. But I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. I'm picking up what you're putting down. Thank you. Evita, it also says that the gap between like, so conservative parents have a better relationship, conservative kids have a better relationship with their parents by 14 points more, which is pretty significant. Yeah, I thought a lot of things were interesting about it.

I kind of said as a sort of a joke on Laura Ingram that, you know, if your parents aren't telling you to cut off your private parts, you know, of course, you're going to be more adjusted than the parents that do. off your private parts, you know, of course you're going to be more adjusted than the parents that do. Um, but it's, it's actually true though. Like when you think about all of this sort of gender and sexuality, uh, conversations that leftist parents are having with their kids that are really, I think are really confusing when you're a young person, you're already trying to figure out who you are. Uh, you already kind of are, are, are not, are not formed in yourself and confident in yourself yet. And so to have the most basic part about you, right? What is my sexuality?

To have that be something in question is 100% going to cause a lot of internal turmoil as a young person. So it makes total sense to me on that front. But then we also talked about the idea of mental toughness. And I think that and of having discipline and structure around your household. And you might think that you're being the parent that isn't fun or doesn't, you know, like, you know, isn't, you know, it's not as it's not as fun, right, to be around the parent that has more structure. But in the end, they end up having better relationships with their parents, I think, because their parents ended up protecting them in the long run from things that they weren't ready for at a certain time, or maybe never should have been ready for, right?

Or just, you know, creating a household that has dependability in it. And hierarchy, Sean, because I think that's really interesting when you talk about a 14 percentage point gap, which is pretty significant, as I mentioned before, between the good relations. So this idea, I remember growing up, Sean, I'm sure you had friends whose parents were really, you know, loosey goosey. They were friends with their kids, remember? And I remember my parents always going, I'm not your friend. I'm not your friend. You're my child. I'm in charge. I'm the leader here, not you. You're going to do what I say because you're under my rules. And that's got to be comforting for kids. I bet it is. But again,

we're going back to what Sean said, reinventing the wheel. For centuries, parents were in charge. And then all of a sudden, I don't know when it happened somewhere in the sixties or seventies. Well, yeah, it was like, I want to be friends with my kids. I don't want them to,

you know, if they're going to smoke pot, I want them to do it at home. You know, and like that, that was, you remember hearing that stuff, Sean?

That is the point. I was going to bring that up. It's like, again, a conservative. And again, we're, we're,

we're painting very broad brushes here. And so if you're a liberal listening to our podcast, don't be offended. We're speaking broadly and for conservatives as well to give us these numbers, but you're probably not going to find a conservative parent to sit at home and eat pot brownies with their kids or smoke dope with their kids or drink with their kids. Those things are not going to happen. And in a conservative home, it's not going to be like, hey, there's no curfew. You're actually going to have a curfew. And in a conservative home, you might go,

you know what, you're not spending the night at your boyfriend's house or he's not spending the night at our house. There's rules and expectations that as conservative parents, we understand our kids don't always follow. They don't always get over the bar, but they know what the expectation is for us. And I do think they feel safer and happier and more secure when there's a set of expectations and rules by which we live in the family. One of the things I want to bring up is I think it's so important when we talk about global warming, climate change, and the fear mongering that has happened around climate change for so many young people. The stress that comes with these commentaries like the world's going to end in 12 years and we're going to have rain bombs dropping on the earth, as Al Gore would say.

Scares the hell out of kids. And it's not going to happen. But the anxiety that comes with that, and then a set of parents that also believe that and preach that to their kids, does not make for a healthy mind in a young person. Yeah, it's true. And it's a good point. They're not just getting this at school. Then they come home and they have their parents saying, that's right. The world's going to end in 12 years. You know, unless, you know, you confirm it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You confirm that. Unless you do this, unless we do that, unless we better not have another little sibling for you, because that'll be a little eco terrorist.

Like, of course, there's all that. But I think also, you know, there's sort of big picture, you know, issues like the importance of the family to begin with. I mean, you mentioned, Sean, no, your boyfriend can't spend the night here. And no, you're coming home at midnight. You're not allowed to go hang out at your boyfriend's house, you know, till after midnight or whatever those questions are. But in many cases, kids are now facing their moms having a string of boyfriends coming over, right? That's a whole other thing that's happening. And so this general breakdown

of the family, which is if we really get down to brass tacks, and I guess if we do have liberal listeners, I don't care if they get mad if they hear this, because I think it's important to say, which is that progressivism, leftism, the Democrat Party, as we know it to be today, because it's not JFK's party anymore, although he was a little bit of a sleazebag himself. It's not Bill Clinton's party either. Is that Bill Clinton's? Bill Clinton.

Yeah, it's not that party. That party is basically Marxist. And the whole premise of Marxism is to replace the power and the autonomy of the family with the state. And so it is very common to hear Marxists when they're speaking very openly and honestly, a.k.a. not Barack Obama, who's probably the most stealthy Marxist there is. But others will say it openly. And they say, yes, we have to break down the nuclear family. BLM, for example, when we had the Summer of Love and everyone was like, what was BLM again?

And they went to their website, and on their website was all the stuff that they stand for. Right at the top was the breakdown of the nuclear family. Feminism started, well, at least second wave feminism in the 60s, they would get together in little apartments in New York City, and they would say basically the equivalent of a prayer or a mantra. And part of that mantra and prayer in these little feminist apartments, I don't know, somewhere in New York City, there's lots of historical references to this. Part of that prayer was the breakdown of the nuclear family, and they would achieve it through promiscuity and other means. But that was a gender breakdown, which seemed like not like a big deal back then.

But now we're seeing the fruits of it. So part of the leftist idea is breaking down the family. So the very notion of the family is preserved, I think, through conservative values and torn down by leftist values. And so you may be a nice liberal family and you may love your kids and you may love your husband or your wife. But all the stuff that you're ingesting culturally is on the other end breaking down what you say you're trying to build and when we talk about marxism wanting to break down the family we have to also talk about how they want to remove people from their faith and that's another big difference between leftist and conservative families conservative families by and large tend to have

religion predominantly christianity and the marxist to to make sure that you are subservient and beholden to the state, have to remove any notion of a higher power, which is why they hate religion and why they actually specifically hate Catholics, because we have an amazing history of church hierarchy and theology. And tradition, which is the other thing you know we're coming into christmas time right now we're just a few days away now and it's just so evident to me how important our traditions are to our children you're saying you have to have parents that you can count on but also as the seasons of the of the and the cycle of the year moves forward you have these traditions that you count on and yeah okay some people can say uh every you know once every every thursday we or every tuesday we have taco tuesday okay like night okay some people have that that's not really a tradition that may be a family thing that you do, but I'm talking about traditions that are rooted in deep meaning, ancient meaning, like the traditions we have around Christmas, Sean.

And again, those things are inculcated through religion and religion is perpetuated and held up and idealized in conservatism. And as Evita pointed out, Marxism, just as it hates a nuclear family, hates religion because it sees those institutions as competition to their own ideology. But on that point, I think, again, we're called to go to a different place. We're called to hopefully get to a different home and if you believe that if you're taught that there's more inspiration to be a better person and i think better people more giving people are happier people i also want to just go go back a second and if we all remember our our our adolescence it's confusing confusing. It's trying.

Your body is changing. Your friends are changing. Your life is changing. It's a stressful time for humanity to go through this time of life. And that's just not recent. That goes back, you know, hundreds of years, if not thousands of years. Adolescence is challenging. And if you're going to add on to adolescence, one, the phone, which

is even a bigger pressure and stressor for a lot of folks, a lot of young people. But I think even what liberals are doing in the school, we're talking about sexualizing, but sexualizing kids in the classroom. And if you're willing to sexualize a child in the classroom, are you sexualizing that child at home? I mean, the books, the smut, the garbage that these kids are getting access to in a school system that liberals are pushing on our kids whose minds aren't ready for it. That says all you need to know. They're pushing things on children's minds that they can't comprehend that will stress them out, that will make them depressed. You know, on top of that,

if you're going to bring your child to a drag show, right? I'm sorry, you're having men dressed up as women, you know, scantily clad, shaking every part of their body to the crowd. And if you think that's entertainment for your child, something is wrong with the way you view how you should raise a child. And the consequence of those behaviors of parenting will create issues in your child, which will underscore the poll numbers that, again, 45% of liberal kids or liberal households are feeling mental anxiety when only 23% of conservative homes are. Say no more. Go back to the basic.

I mean, be a liberal yourself if you want. Go vote the way you want. Believe in your global warming. But leave your kids out of it. Leave your kids out of the craziness and be conservative as a parent to your child. So we're not at that place right now, Sean. I think that, yeah, I think there are some parents who were maybe non-ideological who I believe have woken up to what is going on. I think COVID has obviously

COVID and the drag queen stuff that's gotten out of control. The gender transitioning stuff that's gotten out of control. There's a lot of things that have woken parents up. We'll have more of this conversation after this. The Fox News Rundown, a contrast of perspectives you won't hear anywhere else. Your daily dose of news twice a day, featuring insight from top newsmakers, reporters and Fox News contributors. Listen and subscribe now by going to FoxNewsPodcast.com. But let's talk about for those who want to be more intentional about good parenting. What are the keys? You and I talked a little bit about this in preparation for this segment that you were

doing with Laura Ingram. And I want to get into some of the stuff that Evita talked about because I think it's so important. It means things as simple as chores. But let's start with the very first thing, which is the most important part of any family is the marital unit. And Sean, you were saying your job is to love me and take care of me and make sure that you and I are strong. I think you do a really good job of prioritizing our marriage. And it can be hard because it's really easy to get sucked into everything that's going on with the kids all the time because there's a lot of them and they all have their little needs. But

if we're not in sync, everything falls apart and the family falls apart. Would you say that's the most important piece you have to get to, at least the first part. Listen, if you don't have a strong marriage, you're not going to have a strong family. And a strong family won't rear strong children because there's a lot of chaos that happens if the mom and dad aren't doing well. So you have to focus on that. I mean, make sure you have a good marriage. And as we've done a lot of podcasts on marriage, and it can be complicated, it can be challenging, but it is the most beautiful institution I think that we have in our society and culture, and it's worth it. And then, you know, that strong marital couple that brings you that strong family. And by the way, the strong marriage and the strong family also comes from our faith and our religious beliefs that we're not getting remarried.

We said vows to each other, but we also said vows in front of God as well. There's three of us in the relationship. But that is critical in bringing the kids into that faith. So important. But can I just say, and on that topic, Rachel, because I enjoy being with you and around you and with you. And I like my kids. It's kind of nice to say, well, how do we spend time together? How do we build relationships together? And once in a while we'll throw on a movie at night and we're like, why did we do that? We should be, we should have sat around and chatted on this particular night instead of, you know, put a movie on, but we'll do dinners together.

That happened the other night. We, we, we watched the movie and we're like, why did we do that? That was dumb. That was a dumb movie. We should all just sit around and talk. So it wasn't, come on. It was Scrooge. It was a great movie, but that aside, I didn't love it. Uh, but I will say this being more intentional and being able to say, okay, that worked or that didn't work. And we're going to try something different next time. I mean, that intention around the family and around the marriage. I mean, we've had lots of podcasts. We've talked incessantly about the need for parents to go out together and travel together alone without kids. It is absolutely imperative. So that kind of intentionality around the marriage and also that intentionality around

child rearing um evita you talked about and listen she comes home she's 24 she still hates when i give her chores to do um everyone does i get it um i was there too well i don't like having chores when i have a job too yeah you have a job but we're still like you know we got a lot i have a job but i also have them towards just right but, you know, we got a lot. I have a job, but I also have them towards. But just, you know, we have jobs and we still have chores as well. Like, well, the house has to operate, right? That's not different. Okay.

But the point is that. We're a family fight here on the podcast. I come home, everybody thinks that I don't work because I work remotely and I do work. You do work. You do work. You know, we get that. I think that you brought up a good point, which is that in the end, being part of especially a big family and then also having responsibility in your case, probably more than most when you're the oldest of any. More than you and dad when you were growing up. No, absolutely. That's true.

No question. No question about it. Sean was the baby. He didn absolutely. That's true. No question. No question about it. Um, Sean was the baby. He didn't want to do anything. Um, but I'll say this, there is something that happens that you, as you said, you learn, you're not the center of the universe and you learn to do chores. And, you know, again, sometimes it's just really simple stuff. Chores, every study has shown children who have chores and responsibilities in the home, first of all, whine less.

Prove it. They've done study after study after study. They whine less. And they learn to have more confidence because they're learning to master skills. And that gives them confidence. And it could be as small as loading a dishwasher or taking out the trash to learning to care for an infant and helping your parents out. It is imperative. It teaches humility. It teaches teamwork. It teaches discipline and it teaches

responsibility. I think those are things that actually make you a person who has not mental toughness is what I said on the show. And I think that's what it is. I think when you're preoccupied with yourself and your mental health all the time and constantly thinking about how can everybody around me accommodate me and make me feel better? I think that that's not normal for humans. I think that we... But that is a trend. I mean, to talk about from your generation, like I have... Even some of my own kids will come at me with all this mental health stuff that they're... I don't know where they're getting it from, but it's in the water, right?

Like Harry and Meghan and all their mental health. Their signature issues aren't like soup kitchens. It's like mental health. And they you know, mental health, like their signature issues aren't like soup kitchens. It's like mental health and they mean their own mental health. Um, so there's like, there's a, their charity is themselves. Yeah, exactly. There's a funny, there's a funny TikTok that, but I always, we always joke about it at home because it's his dad who walks into the room and the daughter says to him, you know, dad, I'm depressed. And he goes, I thought this was something serious. Honey, depressed is just liberal for bummed out. Yes, that's true. Depressed is just liberal for bummed out. I'm going to steal that. I love it.

Okay. But I will say depression is real. Mental illness is real. That was a joke. But what I will say is that there's a lot of overemphasis on mental health and mental illness is real. That was a joke. But what I will say is that there's a lot of overemphasis on mental health and mental illness for people who are not mentally ill, but just lack discipline in their lives. And so they feel bad about themselves. And then the left's response to people who feel bad about themselves is to say, don't better yourself. Don't don't lose weight. Don't don't work harder at your job.

Don't try to work on your relationships at home or at work. They say, no, you're doing good. They're not accepting you for you. That's what they say. And that makes you in a cycle of bad habits and bad behavior that is actually really bad for your mental health. Everything that they teach you as a solution is actually just going to further the problem. Whereas conservatives tend to say, you know,, pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Stop complaining and fix it, right? Fix yourself. And that ultimately is what makes you a happier, healthy human.

And what I think is so opposite of what the culture is telling so many young people today. I mean, the culture says if you're overweight, like, stop fat shaming her. You know, it's like. It's like, no, you're on. And actually weight is a really interesting one too, because that has proven, proven correlations to your mental wellbeing, uh, your physical fitness and left left to say, no, you're, you should, you should, we should accept you. You're a happy and healthy, healthy. They say that too healthy the way you are, even though you're objectively not. And it's hurting people. And you don't feel good about yourself. You don't, you just, you feel better. You know, and I was in Congress and I was like 25, 30 pounds heavier. I didn't feel as good. You lose some weight and you lift a few weights or go for a walk. You feel better.

But what would happen if you were 20 pounds overweight, but everywhere in the culture, including your wife and everyone else around you was saying, you look great. Yeah, that's if anyone said to you that you look good, they would go. That person is so bad. They're fat shaming you. They're fat shaming you. You're except body positive. Sean, don't go for it. Don't worry.

Could those words be enough? Could the culture change enough to compensate for how you felt about yourself? I would still know that, listen, I still want to eat donuts, you know, and, you know, a couple of steak dinners and mashed potatoes and drink some wine. Like I could do all that and that can be enjoyable, but you still don't feel good. And you can tell me, you know, to the moon and back that I look great and you know, you look wonderful with 30 more pounds on. But the truth is, I know I don't. I know I don't feel as good as I do. And when you slim down a little bit, you feel better. So you look at yourself in the mirror and your eyes are not

going to lie to you. You'll look better if you take a few pounds off. No doubt about that. I just, as we kind of wrap on this topic, I just think that parents should not experiment with their children. Don't experiment. And again, whether it's with, you know, the sexuality or, you know, going to inappropriate sexual performances. Don't let your kids stay out at night. I mean, that experimentation with your children probably is not going to end very well. And you know, it's experimentation. So go back to the basics. And I think whether you're a conservative or a liberal, you love your children. You want to raise your children well. They take a lot of time and energy and money, and they're wonderful little beings that were made to procreate. Do the best job you can in raising them, and that means shun these liberal ideas. You can vote liberal, vote all you want liberal, but raise your kids in a very traditional way. And in the end, they're going to be happier and they're going to be healthier. And by the way, as parents, Rachel,

if you have happy, healthy children, you are going to be happier and healthier because when you have kids that are mentally distraught and freakazoids, they don't leave your house with all that stress. That stress will come back to you as a parent for the rest of your life, whether it's when they're in college, whether they're dating,

whether they're getting married, whether they have their own kids. You're going to deal with the problems that you created in your bad parenting for a lifetime. So don't do that to yourself. Go back to the basic traditions of raising good kids. Very simple. I was going to say, and I'm going to give a shameless plug because I have an article coming out

in the Federalist. By the time this is up, it'll probably be up at the Federalist. It's called The Lessons the Obamas Didn't Want You to Take Away from Leave the World Behind, which is a movie, a Netflix movie, Leave the World Behind,

about a cyber attack. Dad and I watched it. Mom has not seen it yet. The Obamas were the producers at netflix so you know it's probably got some sort of bad messaging tucked in there everything the obamas touch are terrible so it's aversive in this movie i didn't think it was it was pretty straightforward what it was yeah yeah yeah yeah well you can you can you can read my article i have some i have some analysis of that but But what I what is an aside from potential predictive programming and cyber attacks is that the family in that movie was very dysfunctional.

They're one of the first scenes that you see of them is they're all on their phones in the car or the dad is not not on his phone but he's fiddling with the radio like no one is talking to one another and and it what this i'm going to say spoilers ahead so if you're planning on watching this movie you know maybe skip a little bit maybe skip five minutes from now um only one minute only one minute only one minute sorry only one minute but sorry but the parents uh the parents in in the movie at one point flirt with the idea of cheating on one another. The brother is really just unnecessarily cruel to his little sister because they're going through a disaster. She says, you know, I I'd really like to know what happens at the end of Friends, the Friends TV show, because it would make me feel so much better. Make me feel sort of comfort

in this time where I feel really helpless and scared. And he's just like, you'll never see the end for no reason, just because he's, he's mean. And I just thought at the end, that family would never survive an apocalyptic scenario, like the one that they're in, because they, they're, they're, they're, they're not a you they're not a cohesive unit they don't even know and they weren't even really living before the apocalypse even happened it was like it was such a sad and i and i actually looked at and i thought i bet there's a lot of families that are like this and so in my article i talk about how you know there are things that we don't have control over in our lives.

It might be a cyber attack. It might be a lot of other things. COVID. It could be a lot of things that are being thrown. That they throw at you intentionally or not. There could be a currency collapse. A climate emergency. There's that too.

Another lockdown for the climate. But what you do have control over is your family. That's what dad always says. And you are able to say, you know what, we're going to set aside time together. We're going to recognize what each of us bring to the family unit, what value we bring. We're going to treat each other well, because if there is a disaster, our cohesiveness in unity as a family not only is good for your mental health, but it might even save you, save your life. That's such a great point, Sean. We talk so much about the unknown that we all get this sense that something very unstable is going to happen in the next year and a half. I mean, listen, as I'm, as, as we're on, on this podcast, um, I'm seeing, you know, we have Fox news is on,

on the return feed, on the return feed here. And, you know, we're seeing, I just saw, you know, we have Fox News is on on the return feed on the return feed here. And, you know, we're seeing I just saw a chyron from from Jonathan Turley. And it said what happened in Colorado is very, very dangerous for the country. Same time I saw there's collapse of the border. That's dangerous for our country. Then I see inflation and what's happening in the economy and the energy markets. That's very dangerous. So many unknowns. And we have talked about them, Sean. We've talked about the farms, people wanting to return and having more security with their food sources and how do they get generators? And there's all this prepping.

But the ultimate prep is, is your family ready to be tested? And if that alone is not what it takes to, you know, get your family business in order, I don't know what is. Oh, and I have to add something else about this movie that the dad in the movie was completely incapable. He could, he could. He's like a beta dad. Yeah, he didn't have, so he left his wife and children with strangers while they were in danger.

He didn't have a gun. He didn't know how to use a gun, even if he had one. He was a completely inept man. I mean, I'm sure he was the model, the model, you know, male feminist. But when it comes to an emergency, useless, completely useless. So cultivating the the the talents that we have as as male and female is going to be really important in a disaster as well. And leftists are trying to flip those roles on their heads. And when, when push comes to shove and you're in a, you're in a tough spot, you want a guy, you don't want a beta male. Yeah. You do not want to, that's so true. I look at what you just mentioned about, you know,

the scene in the movie, um, where the whole family is on their phones. And you got the idea in the movie that that is their life. They're all distracted on their phones, thinking about other things, as opposed to this cohesive unit. And I want to be clear, there's times that in our family, we're working, our work is on our phone oftentimes. Sometimes the kids think it on their phones, the ones that have them. But what happens in those moments is we'll stop Rachel. We'll be like, hold on, hold up, hold up, hold up. We're not, no, no, no. We're all, everyone's on

their phone, put them down. We're all going to, we're all going to engage. So we'll, you can, every family can slide into that because our lives, our work is on our phone and we're doing all this stuff. But there has to be a moment to go, stop, hold on. This is what we don't want to be. This is not what we want to do. And so even though it can happen, we break out of that. Again, this was last night. We watched Scrooged.

Scrooged? Right. With Bill Murray back in the 80 movies. Love it. But our whole family was home. And that's the choice that we made. And when you and I went to, no, actually this morning, when we woke up, we talked about it. We said, that was dumb. We shouldn't do that. We're all together for only a limited amount of time. We should be hanging out and talking. And again, the decision was a bad one last night, but the thought process today of how we remedy it and how we make better choices means we think about it and we care about it and maximizing that time. And I think that's what good parenting is, is not being perfect, but striving for perfection and recognizing mistakes that we make and trying to redirect and do better and be better in these little moments that come up.

trying to redirect and do better and be better in these little moments that come up. And I think when you do that, to Evita's point, you end up building a more cohesive, loving, caring family that to your point, Rachel, becomes a tribe that will fight for each other and work with each other when times get very difficult. We'll have more of this conversation after this. You mentioned, Rachel, I want to talk about this, this Colorado situation where Donald Trump is on the ballot. He's got the signatures to be on the ballot in Colorado. The Supreme Court in Colorado, which is appointed, it's not elected, in a four to three decision decided that because Donald Trump is an insurrectionist, the 14th Amendment prohibits him from being on the ballot in Colorado.

There's a couple of things wrong with that. Number one, Donald Trump was not charged with insurrection. Insurrection is a crime. The Department of Justice has thrown the kitchen sink at Donald Trump. Everything they can charge Donald Trump with, they have. But the one thing they didn't charge him with was insurrection. So there's not even an insurrection charged. But beyond that, there's an indictment, which means there's charges, there's allegations against Donald Trump for a whole bunch of things. But Donald Trump has not been convicted of anything. And so that the Colorado court would say that the Constitution prohibits Donald Trump from being on the ballot in Colorado for a crime he hasn't been convicted of and a crime that doesn't match the Constitution, which is insurrection. This was, by the way, this goes back to the Civil War era and insurrectionists, you know, in the time of the Civil War is what this was actually in reference to.

You're not to the lead Republican candidate who they're trying to take off the ballot in 2024. And so here's what's interesting. I had, I had the chairman of the of the Republican Party in Colorado on the bottom line last night. And if you haven't seen it, you should it's at 6pm Monday through Friday on Fox business always my uh shameless pledge with a plug if you're watching brett bear you're not watching sean duffy so switch that you should come on over um but what he said was he said listen here's what we're going to do if but so this was just another step back this is this has been appealed uh to the supreme court the supreme court i imagine is going to hear this case because a lot of other states are trying to kick Donald Trump off their ballots as well, Democrat states. But what the chair of the Republican Party in Colorado

said was, listen, we have a primary, but we could also do a caucus. And the caucus is run by the party, not by the state. And we can just, we could divvy this and we can go to a caucus structure. And I guess they do some lower elections. They actually do some caucusing in Colorado, so they know how to do it. The RNC could also provide them support to help them run their caucus in their state and get completely around this liberal Supreme Court that's unelected and have a caucus, pick their candidate. It could be Donald Trump. It could be Rhonda Sanders. It could be any of them. And then they can send that to the RNC and the delegates to the RNC for whoever won Colorado.

But what's happening here is not about the Constitution. It's not about insurrection. It is about Democrats have made a decision that they get to pick who is qualified to be a Republican candidate for president. But the people, the Republicans, are not inept enough to actually choose who their candidate can be. And this belongs in the hands of the elite Democrats to choose for Republicans. Yeah, I think it's really scary. The other thing

that I saw just before we started doing the podcast was that Rudy Giuliani is declaring bankruptcy because he was sued by these election workers who claim that, you know, he defamed them by suggesting that they might have been, you know, not on the up in terms of they were poll workers or election workers. You know, the message that they're, first of all, I'm so sick of the besmirching of America's mayor. Rudy Giuliani is an American patriot. He is a hero. And he's been a loyal friend to Donald Trump. And I think the message that they are sending, and I think it's effective, just like the January 6th message was don't protest. And we've seen no protests. You know, since January 6th, you have not

seen conservatives organized to protest because they're afraid of their government. They're afraid of being canceled. They're afraid of losing their jobs. They're afraid of their family and friends canceling them and calling them insurrectionists. And they don't want to get caught up at the wrong place at the wrong time, like some of those innocent protesters were on January 6th. And that is why you have not seen any protests for Donald Trump. Likewise, you will see lawyers not defend conservatives who are controversial like Donald Trump or who are a threat to the system like Donald Trump. The message is clear. We will take you out. We will destroy your life. We will destroy your finances. You will be declared bankrupt. This system is now rigged in a way

that I can't, I just can't believe it's America. This is the kind of stuff that our state department used to send notices and stern warnings and repercussions to foreign blank hole countries, as Donald Trump used to call them, which is our country is becoming closer to that these days with these actions. We would absolutely reprimand countries and give them financial consequences for these kinds of injustices against the opposition party in their countries. If they would take out their opposition, if they would subject them to lawfare in the way that we're subjecting Donald Trump and any of his allies, if we would see that if they would stick their secret police or DOJ or FBI onto their opposition, this is all happening here in this country. And that is why you see somebody who is as even keeled as Jonathan Turley on Fox News. He's, you know, not a partisan, you know, person.

He is a very even keeled, well-respected lawyer. And he's saying this is dangerous. I feel like they're trying to provoke conservatives. I feel like this is a new territory. And God forbid, if it is not a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court against what Colorado is attempting to do in taking Donald Trump off the ballot, I'm really fearful for what can happen. Which then brings us back to the original point of this conversation, Sean, which is we're in a preparation time because there's so much unknown out there. Well, but Evita, what do you think? And there's so much that you, go ahead.

But I want to give you this take, because there's another point on out there. Well, but Evita, what do you think? And there's so much that you, go ahead. But I want to give you this take, because there's another point on this as well, Rachel. Evita, what is your take on what's happening in Colorado and maybe even how conservatives should deal with it? It's really hard for me. Frankly, I feel at a loss, and I think that's what most people feel like, because I think it's fair to say

that they are trying to provoke conservatives. And I think that we know what will happen if anybody not tries to storm the Capitol, but even hosts a demonstration. We know it's going to be swarming with federal agents. We know that everybody who is involved that's not a federal agent is going to have their lives destroyed. federal agent is going to have their lives destroyed. And so to encourage people to fight back against this in the way that we're supposedly allowed to in the first, you know, in our constitution, I feel like I would be leading people to have their lives destroyed. So we're in a really tough spot. Americans are afraid of their government. This exposes one of the great lies of the Democrat Party. And for the last several years we've heard about it's the death of democracy. And Republicans want to take away voting rights in in Georgia. We have to move the Major League Baseball, you know, all star game out of Atlanta because it's Jim Crow 2.0 and democracy, democracy, democracy.

Crow 2.0 and democracy, democracy, democracy. What is democracy but to give people the right to vote for candidates that they think are the best candidates to lead, whether in a mayor's race, a congressional race, a Senate race, or a presidential race? And you have a party that talks about democracy all the time. Democracy is a word used as a tool to accomplish a certain end goal, which is complete control. Because what they've done in Colorado, and if you watch the news, you'll see Democrats in the House and in the Senate and governor's races and others, other Democrats in other states inspired by what's happened in Colorado because they do not want Donald Trump on the ballot. And if you don't want Donald Trump on the ballot, that's your fault. And you do not support democracy because democracy is not you taking Donald Trump off the ballot, but letting people in that jurisdiction vote for a candidate that works for them. And if you want to take that candidate off, you're an authoritarian. You are a fascist.

You are not a Democrat. You don't believe in Democrat principles and Democrat values. And I am so sick of them talking about democracy and Republicans want to destroy democracy. Democracy. I'm like, shut up. Norms and norms. You guys are destroying the norms. I'm like, I'm so sick of hearing it.

It goes back to voting. I'm like, you're going to mail everyone a ballot and no one has to show an ID. No one has to write down their driver's license or ID number on the ballot when they send it in. You just We send ballots out and whoever sends them back, so be it. We don't know whether the person who fills out the ballot is the person who is a lawful voter. You have bins stationed around cities where people can just drop off ballots at will. They can be stuffed. You have Democrats chasing ballots, trying to pick them up, helping, in air quotes, people fill out their ballots.

All of this is an affront to democracy and secure elections. And we're going into an unknown territory. It's one thing to prosecute a former president, to try to take away his money in a civil lawsuit that's total bogus like in New York. But they've gone to a new realm of saying, now we're going to keep him off the ballot. So you don't have the option of voting for him. If you don't like Donald Trump, don't take him off the ballot. Get in the ring and make the argument against him. Why are your policies? Why are your candidates better than Donald Trump and Donald Trump's policies? But if you can't win in the arena of ideas, I'm sorry, you don't deserve to win elections. Simple as that.

Yeah. Well, and so here we are. I think the next year and a half are going to be the most interesting, volatile, unknown period of time, I think, in our lifetime, Sean. And no better time than right now, during the Christmas season, before the new year, as everybody starts making resolutions, no better time to recommit to your family, recommit to all the good habits and things that we've talked about that make your family stronger, recommitting to your family, to making sure that should anything happen, you guys are, as Evita said, a tribe. You're able to work together. You're able to survive together because we don't know what's ahead for us um and and and that starts of course most important with your faith recommitting to that that foundation um recommitting to your bonds to one another to your traditions i mean

if you're going to double down on religion now's's the time. It's under attack. And it is what's going to get you through these tough times. Recommit to all of the things that we, you know, to freedom of speech, to telling the truth, to the Second Amendment, making sure that you're armed, making sure that you are prepared in every way that you can for the unknown. The most reliable people in your life. If bad things happen, is your family. It's nice to have friends, right? It's nice to have friends and neighbors that all can bond together.

But the most reliable people you'll have are the people that are in your family. And one of the easiest things as we, as, as we were in this Christmas season is, um, and some people like my, my family's a little dysfunctional. We're a little crazy or we haven't been doing this, so it might be a little complicated. I

make a lot of pushback if we try to put our phones down and have a meal together. And it's very simple. Sit down and talk. Try to be interested in the lives of the people that you share a roof with. Their friends, their hobbies, their loves, their passions, those kind of conversations, again, those are basic building blocks, but it builds out these stronger relationships and bonds that build into strong families. So listen, I think this is such a fascinating topic. Again, conservatives versus liberals. The conservative way is a healthier way that's going to lead to healthier better well-adjusted kids like avita is right there um kind of but also well-adjusted usually well-adjusted the importance of the family the importance of the

family the i know it's a joke to me importance of the family and especially when there's a lot of unknowns and we certainly are entering into the unknown in terms of what we understand as normal in American life. It's not normal. Everything that's happening around you since COVID, probably before you even noticed, none of it is normal. So anyway, well, great talking to all of you. Great conversation. Thank you for joining us, Evita. I've got kids upstairs who want to start making cookies. So I got to go. So be it. So listen, if you like our podcast, you can always rate, review, subscribe. You can do that now.

As Rachel's about to go make cookies with the kids upstairs. How fun. I'm not going to be there for that. They'll be done when you get home from work. That's what I'm talking about. Yes. If you like our podcast, again, you can rate, review, subscribe. You can always find us at foxnewspodcast.com. Please subscribe.

You get a notice every time we drop, which is Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. And listen, we hope that as you plan with your family, your Christmas celebration or holiday celebration, you redouble down on your family and your time with the most important unit and people in your life. We're doing that at the Duffy Household. We want to wish you, we're going to do one more podcast tomorrow. It's going to be Q&A. But we want to wish you, if you don't tune in on Friday night to that podcast, we want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a blessed new year. As we look to some hard times ahead of us,

but also everything is new every day, every year, and we can always make it better. So until next time, have a good one. Bye everybody. Listen, ad free with a Fox news podcast,

plus subscription on Apple podcasts and Amazon prime members can listen to the show ad free on the Amazon Music app. podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcast.com.