Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 153 | Two Americas

Episode Date: August 21, 2019

The left and right seem to be living in completely different realities when it comes to running this country. 

Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for listening or watching. If you're watching on YouTube, you might see that we've got a lot going on here. We've got a little bit of a differently configured set. I'm actually holding my microphone because my microphone stand just broke. And I'm looking just a little bit rough, even though if you're following along on Instagram, you know that I feel pretty well rested because my newborn has actually been sleeping much better. We have tried some new tactics out there that some of you have given me to make sure that she's sleeping for longer stretches than she is. So it's awesome. I just haven't brushed my hair in a while and that usually contributes to the messy look. But I appreciate you guys being gracious

and watching on YouTube anyway. And if you don't watch on YouTube, you should definitely subscribe. That's not what we're talking about today. We are talking about this idea that I have noticed, that a lot of people have noticed, but I really want to analyze in depth today of two Americas. So a lot of things happened while I was on maternity leave. Some things I followed, some things I didn't. Some things were petty like Twitter drama. Some things were much bigger deals like mass shootings, the Democratic debates. We've got clashes with the so-called squad and Donald Trump. And really what we have realized probably more than ever over the past few weeks and months and even years is that between the right and the left, we really do see two different Americas. How we see

our country and how we see the world, the right versus the left, is so fundamentally different, that we are completely driven apart. We are on completely different planes when we're talking about issues that matter. When we're talking about gun legislation or abortion or free speech or Israel or socialism, we have to understand that the reason we are so far apart from each other on these issues is not just because we see these issues differently, but because we see the world differently. And I've said this before, but the reason that we can't seem to get along is not because our disagreements are more complex than they used to be, but because they are actually more fundamental. We actually seem to exist in two different realms of reality. And so it is very hard for

us to actually talk to each other or with each other. We find ourselves talking past each other. Now, that's not to say that people on the left and the right agree on nothing or that we can't ever get along with those who disagree with us. I think we can and we should, but it is becoming increasingly difficult. You have probably noticed that in your own life. The mainstream conservative, so you and I, like the mainstream conservative voter, not even talking Donald Trump necessarily, but this probably does include mainstream conservative politicians. We believe that individuals should be free. So they should be free to build their own businesses, free to raise and to protect their families, how they see fit, to worship whom and how they want to worship and say the things that they want to say, believe the things that they want to believe. We would like the government to protect our borders, to protect us from threats foreign and domestic to punish criminals.

And most of us also believe that there is a place for the government to help those who desperately need it in a way that actually incentivizes them to work rather than enables them not to work. work if they can work. That is what we want in general. Of course, there's nuance to that. There are intricacies to that. There are more details to that. But in general, that is what conservatives want. Other than that, we would really like you, the government, to leave us alone. Tax us as minimally as possible. Don't tell me what to say or think or believe that is what conservatives want. We want, for those who disagree with us, we want the same thing for them. and for those who agree with us. We want those we disagree with to have as much freedom to express their ideas,

even ideas that we really don't like, even ideas that we are scared of ourselves. We want them to have as much freedom as possible to speak and teach, talk about, express those views. We want people to be able to worship whatever God they want to worship without the government stepping in and live how they want to live as long as they're not physically harming someone else. That's basically and generally what.

conservatives want. We believe individuals left or right are better suited to make decisions for themselves, to care for themselves and for their families. We believe the individuals left or rights are better suited to make decisions for themselves, to take care of themselves and their families in most cases than the government is, if not all cases. We see America as inherently good. We don't see America as perfect, but we view her as a nation built on good ideas. So the ideas of individual liberty and of equal individual worth as image bearers of God, as the Declaration of Independence says, I'm paraphrasing obviously, that have been at times imperfectly implemented in our history,

but are nevertheless good ideas. But we know that the imperfect implementation of these ideas doesn't mean that these ideas are bad. It means that humans are flawed because they have always been flawed. Every mistake that America has made, so from slavery to Jim Crow, hasn't been a reflection of the ideas upon which we were founded, but has been drifting away from those ideas. Every time we have righted our wrongs, we have stepped more closely into the ideas upon which we were founded. Every time that we have committed a wrong, we have stepped farther away from these values of equality and individual. liberty. America has righted our wrongs really well, better and more quickly than any other nation on earth. We don't believe that conservatives don't believe that America is defined by her

failures, although we acknowledge that she has had many throughout our history, but we're actually defined by our successes, which are unprecedented in human history, because these successes have made the world freer and safer than it has ever been. The American experiment of individual liberty, of radical equality, because of the inherent rights given to us by a creator, has improved the lives of millions upon millions of people throughout history. There is a reason. There's a reason why we attract and accept more immigrants and refugees on our shores every

year than any other country. There is a reason why protesters in Hong Kong. protesting for their freedom are waving our flag. There's a reason for that. We are the best beacon and safe haven and refuge for people of all races, all religions, and backgrounds that has ever existed in human history. And again, that doesn't mean we are perfect. But the ideas upon which we were founded are good. We are not above reproached. We, of course, unfortunately, slaughter millions of unborn children every year in the name of reproductive health. We, of course, have corrupt politicians. We, of course, have mass shootings. We have problems. But the ideas and the

ideals that the founding fathers wrote down that created this nation, have created the greatest nation that has ever existed. This is not what the left today thinks, or at least a portion of the left. again, when I say the left and the right, of course, I don't mean everyone on the left and the right. And I don't want it to seem like I am glorifying all conservatives and demonizing all liberals because I'm certainly not. There are liberals that I know. There are people I disagree with on the left who I really like as people. I think they're wrong. And I think if they thought about it a little bit more, they wouldn't be liberal. But that doesn't make them automatically and necessarily bad. So when I'm talking about the left and the right just know that, that I understand that there's nuance.

I understand that people are individuals. They're not just part of collections. But we are seeing a movement coming from the far left and becoming more mainstream, represented in every Democratic candidate that we've seen. We are seeing a radicalism that thinks that America is bad. That the ideas upon which America was founded are bad, that we are flawed. Now, there used to be a time when the left didn't believe that. When there were a lot of people in the middle who all believed that America was really good,

that we are a good nation, that we're the greatest nation in the world, that the world is better off when America is strong, when America is the leader. And we could just disagree on the policy that best represented that. But that's not true anymore. We're unable to have debates because we have fewer people in the middle. politicians used to be able to actually befriend each other on the, you know, on the other side of the aisle without being called a Nazi. Now, that's not to say that politics weren't always a dirty game because they have been or that tensions have never been high because they have, but we just didn't used to be as far apart as we are now. The Pew Research study that I always cite polarization and politics that came out in October 2017 shows that there are fewer Americans than ever in the middle that we have run to our respective.

sides and that there are more Americans than ever on the left and particularly the far left. And this increasingly popular far left ideology does not believe that America is a good country, certainly not the greatest country in the world. It sees America as inherently bad with bad foundational ideas and as evil. I want to play you a clip from failed senatorial candidate and presidential candidate Beto at work. And this country, though we would like to think otherwise, was founded on racism, has persisted through racism, and is racist today. But this racism, though foundational, literally kidnapping people from West Africa, bringing them here to build the greatness of this country on their backs and then denying their ancestors, the meaningful opportunity to enjoy in the wealth that they had created. Now, you can replace the word racist with many other words.

So homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, misogynistic, bigoted, and it would still be true to the leftist that align with people like Beto. The New York Times is undertaking a project called Project 1619, where they are analyzing the history and effects of slavery in America. Worthy enough endeavor, I think there's nothing wrong with that. I am all for education and learning accurately our history, except that they are openly doing so to try to prove that the lingering effects of slavery and racism are what led to the election of Donald Trump. I mean, what insane hubris. Not only that,

but they are also seeking to prove that everything that we consider great in America is because of slavery. They actually say that outright. I'm not just interpreting it as that. They want to show that every institution or movement or whatever it is, value that America has, has been built on slavery and therefore is inherently bad. So they are trying to prove that America is not actually great, but it is actually irredeemable. It was founded on horrible, terrible things. And therefore, this is the big therefore, therefore we need a revolution.

If America is inherently at its core very bad, they say, then that means as a moral people, we need to overthrow the ideas and the institutions that have held America together and replace them, with different and more progressive ones. Capitalism, the nuclear family, religion, and Christianity specifically, they all must be either replaced by or subjugated to progressivism. Because there is a value that ties each of these institutions together

that today's left fundamentally opposes. And that is this. That is individual liberty. So the free market, the family, faith all empower you as an individual to live. a life based on your own means, with your own support system, with your own moral compass, and your own values that are independent from the states. And each of these things then are a threat to modern progressivism, which views them as impediments to equality. And I will explain that. The left today believes that a revolution is at hand, one in which the state takes the place

of the market, takes the place of the family, and takes the place of religion. If you don't believe me, you should go listen to my episode titled Equality Act and you should research the equality act yourself to see what it says. They are coming for your private schools. They are coming for parents. They want to make sure that you are teaching your kids what they want you to teach your kids. The end game for this, this title wave of the left that is overtaking, it seems, the Democratic Party, again, doesn't characterize everyone on the left, but is coming from the far left and is quickly characterizing much of the left, the end game for this portion of the left is complete control. Now, that's not their pitch. They don't stand up on the Democratic

debate stage and say, we want to control your entire lives, even your, even your thoughts, like the thought police in 1984, that probably wouldn't go over that well. Their pitch is compassion. Their pitch is equality. Their pitch is common sense. Their pitch is decency. This is why they use the border situation, for example, or mass shootings or racism to boost their platform. They promise that the government can fix these things if you just give them a little more money, if you just give them a little more power. And they understand that that pitch is much more appealing when people are desperate and emotional. So that's why they use those issues to appeal to us. Now, I will say, just as an aside, that desperation and emotion are used by both sides.

for their own purposes, but in the context of democratic politics, that purpose happens to be control. For many on the left, I do think, I do think that their hope is sincere, that they want to help poor people, that they want to help those that they see as oppressed, and they assume that the only way to guarantee that is through the power of the government. That's just what they've been taught, taxing the rich and redistributing wealth. I do, I do not think that all or, even most Democrats know or are cognizant of their platform actually being total control. But nevertheless, it is. Many Democrats actually see personal freedom as an impediment, almost, an impediment

to a better and more equitable and a safer America. How they see it, people like Beto O'Rourke, apparently, how they see it is that America has it done very well with freedom. So we have it used individual liberty responsibly, and so we should have it taken away. Too much freedom, they would say led to slavery. Too much freedom led to Jim Crow. Too much freedom has led corporations to taking advantage of the little man. It's led to inequity and inequality and the oppression of women and the discrimination against LGBTQ.

And in some cases, they might be right just a little bit. Of course, government intervention has been necessary at some points. It has stopped bad things from happening or continuing. We as Christians believe that the government has a role, as Romans 13 says, to step in and to punish the wrongdoer. But today's left goes farther than that than just punishing the wrongdoer. It's not that they believe in the balance between individual liberty and government intervention as conservatives do. It's that they believe in almost every case that government intervention is better than individual liberty to ensure their desired outcome. because they believe that when left to their own devices, the people at the bottom of the totem pole are going to be oppressed by the people at the top of the totem pole.

And they believe it is up to the government to rectify that, to stop that. This makes sense when you look at their stances. So from gun ownership to free speech to how you run your business, freedom is always going to take a backseat to what the left views as protection from harm. And I put harm in quotes and I will explain why. That word harm is one that we really need to focus on and hone in on here because it's one that the left uses more and more I've noticed to justify their takeover for lack of a better word. The left is very good at manipulating language. It's how they have gained control of so many of the cultural conversations and one of the words

they've started to use in interesting context. Interesting, well, I'll explain what that means. Interesting context is the word harm. Now, if you've ever read the book, The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Heidi, I recommend it, by the way, I've read some of it, not all of it, but I get the gist. You know that liberals highly prioritized care, and they seek to avoid its opposite, which is harm. They seek to avoid harm of the oppressed, more than conservatives do. Conservatives are willing to sacrifice care in some cases for the sake of liberty. Liberals are not.

So it's nothing new that liberals are speaking of harm in their political speech. speeches, but they seem to be constantly expanding that definition. So harm to them doesn't just mean physical harm or even financial harm, but also emotional harm. Harm can mean offense. You will notice that the left has begun to use the word harm a lot when talking about speech or when talking about beliefs. Misgendering, for example, harms people, they say. Basing your views on the Bible has harmed people, even supporting the Second Amendment inherently is harmful. It harms people. Now, why are they doing this? Why are they using that word? Because if you can convince people that not just actions, but people's words and beliefs and ideas

and morals are truly and tangibly harmful, that they are inciting violence, that they are causing psychological damage, they are encouraging suicide, whatever, then they can expand their control and they can justify that. They can get people to hop on board with that. It justifies policing, they would say it justifies controlling what's taught in private schools or what's preached from the pulpit or what's learned in the home it puts them well on their way to virtually outline particular ideologies again read the equality act if you don't believe me remember after the new zealand mass shooting which was obviously tragic remember what happened a chain of bookstores actually banned jordan peterson's book 12 rules for life because of the so-called harm and incitement

that it allegedly caused. If you've ever read the book 12 Rules for Life, by the way, you know how absurd that accusation is, but this was a step in banning an ideology that disagrees with them. So that means that this tactic is actually effective or it's actually working on some people in some parts of the world, that people today are extremely concerned with harm. We are more than willing to define harm as actually offending someone. And that's what happens in a me-centered society, we begin to believe that our feelings are paramount, and therefore we have the right not to be offended. Therefore, we are happy to have the government protect that right, even at the cost of liberty. And when we believe that we have the right

to avoid all harm, it becomes really easy for the left to accomplish their agenda. If you believe that you have the right to avoid all harm, the government must ban guns. If you believe that you have the right to not be harmed, then the government has to ban offensive speech. They have to implement socialism so that no one can go without or no one be less or will be less than someone who has more. And in this way, we've talked about this before. Leftism has really become more like a religion than just a political ideology. They are attempting to create a version of heaven on earth in which there is no harm, there is no inequality, there is no poverty. There is no unfairness. There are no haves or have-nots. No one's feelings get hurt.

No one gets harmed, of course, except for those who stand in the way of the hearkening of this leftist heaven. Those people, of course, must be persecuted and prosecuted because they are the enemy. And that is why you see so much hate coming from the left towards the right. And not just towards the right, but also towards moderates, because when you believe that the beliefs that you hold, the political beliefs that you hold are truly holy beliefs, that they are exclusively righteous beliefs, that they are necessary for the manifestation of some kind of heavenly kingdom without sorrow or suffering, then anyone who disagrees with you isn't just wrong, but is actually a blasphemer.

The funny thing is, is that these are the same people who accuse conservatives of building a fascist theocracy. and here they are implementing basically that. When you consider leftism in this kind of religious context, you can see why they are so afraid of entertaining ideas that are contrary to theirs. No religious zealot in the world is going to tolerate someone speaking against their God or speaking against their religion. And this is why I also say, I've said it before and it was controversial, but it's true.

It is getting harder and harder, if not more and more impossible, to be a part of modern-day leftism and be a Christian. Why? Not because God is a conservative, not because God's a Republican, or not because you can't hold any liberal views whatsoever and be a Christian. Not at all, but because modern leftism is a religion. It's God is the government, and the Bible makes clear you cannot serve two masters, no matter who the other master is. Not to mention that leftism demands adherence to beliefs that are entirely unbiblical. like the redefinition of gender, sexuality, abortion, forced redistribution of wealth, white guilt, all of that.

Speaking of white guilt, this is something else that I want to talk about. The way that leftists plan to accomplish all of this is to, we've talked about this before in intersectionality, is to push back those that they consider privileged and uplift those that they consider unprivileged. So by demonizing those that they see as the oppressor and victimizing those that they see is the oppressed. That's really how they view the world. And remember, they determine who is the oppressor and who is the oppressed by using the intersectionality scale. So the darker skin you have,

the less Christian you are, the less male you are, the less straight you are, the less conservative you are, the less rich you are, et cetera, the more intersectional points you have. And the more intersectional points you have, the more oppressed you have been and the more you need the government to help you out by either taking other people's money and giving it to you, even though you haven't earned it, or by dictating how people run their businesses or by policing speech and by protecting you from all so-called harm. This is why we are talking about slavery reparations in 2019. This is why Elizabeth Warren is talking about LGBTQ reparations. This is why we're talking about free college. Because if you have college dead, it's not because you made a choice. It's because

you're actually oppressed by a system that has victimized you. The America that the left sees is white supremacist, is racist, is corrupted, is inherently evil, is harmful, as scary, is dangerous and bad. And this is how they convince you that everything needs to change in a very fundamental and drastic and radical way. Our economic system, our health care system, the electoral college should be abolished, the Senate should be done away with, these are real things that people on the left have argued for, speech should be limited, guns should be confiscated, they should be the moral arbiters. They want you to believe that this is the one. worst time ever to be an American. So you will vote Donald Trump out of office. And that's just not true.

The only reason it's a bad time to be an American right now or it's a hard time to be an American right now is because we can't get along. Because everyone's constantly fleeing outrage at the other side. Everyone's constantly lying about the other side. Everyone's a hypocrite because you've got a whole political party that is telling millions of people in America that America hates them and they should be resentful and bitter. But the reality is the economy is booming. Unemployment. is down. They want you to think we're headed toward a recession. We might be, but we're probably not. A quality of life for the majority of Americans is really good, better than it has ever been. History tells us how this kind of leftism works itself out. This is how every totalitarian regime

has begun and has ruined its nation. This is Marxism, to use a buzzword, but an accurate one. This is communism. I'm not even fearmongering here. I wish I were. I'm not the kind of person that enjoys fear mongering because I don't like being scared. Like I don't like being anxious. I don't like to think that things are going badly. I don't want to think that the future isn't going to be good for our kids. I want to think that we're going to live in a free awesome country forever and that socialism is never going to see it. Or we're never going to see socialism come to our shores. So I'm not fear mongering for the sake of fear mongering here. I'm telling you what I see and what is actually true. This is what many people are really pushing for, whether they know it or not.

it may be equality, but it is equal mediocrity at the expense of the individual and at the expense of freedom. And they will try to get you on board by telling you that you are a bad person if you don't buy into it. And especially suburban white women, I have an episode by the way titled Suburban White Women that you should listen to, especially suburban white women, you. They want to tell you that you are not compassionate if you vote for Donald Trump or if you're a conservative or you don't vote for Bernie Sanders, whoever it is, that you don't care about kids at the border, even though this is a longstanding crisis of Democrats making,

that you don't care about kids in schools, even though none of the legislative proposals that they put forth would stop school shootings, that you don't care about the poor, even though conservatives give far more to charity every year than liberals do, do not let them convince you that the government, that they are the answer to all of your problems. And that if you just put them in power

and give the government more power and more money, then everyone's going to be happier. That's just not true. It's just not true. So that's why when we consider all of that, even though I have been a critic of Donald Trump, I have been a critic of his rhetoric, I am a critic of his tweets,

I have been a critic of his overall persona, that all seems really insignificant in comparison to the future that the left is building. And I just don't think that they realize that. I don't think that they realize that they have out crazy Donald Trump. Trump. They continually do it. They out crazy him every day to the point to where people who are in the middle who don't like Donald Trump, maybe they think Donald Trump is terrible and awful and morally

grotesque, they look at the other side and they're saying, yeah, he might not be the best guy ever, but at least he's not a socialist. Like, at least he's not trying to take my guns. At least he's not trying to police speech. At least he's just kind of going to let me be. I don't. I don't. think the left realizes that they may have outplayed themselves, that the rest of the country just isn't quite as liberal as they think that we are. So I don't want to, I don't want to get us into a state of desperation here, but I also don't want our kids to grow up in a country to where we, mommy and daddy, have to tell them, oh, so there used to be a free, a free country called America that everyone immigrated to, that refugees came to there used to be a beacon of liberty.

There used to be this thing called capitalism. There used to be free speech. You used to be able to say whatever you wanted without getting thrown into prison. We used to be allowed to own guns. There used to be a time where we used to be able to go to church and the pastor could preach anything he wanted from the pulpit and he wasn't going to get in trouble for it. We used to be able to homeschool and raise our kids how we wanted to. There used to be some restriction on abortion. We used to have borders. I don't want to live in a country like that. So when I think about my two alternatives, I mean, I just, I'm not really sure how you as a logical thinking person, if you're not on the far left, can possibly justify this kind of revolution that the left wants to bring about for no other

reason except for control. And it's not going to end well for us. That's where I'm going to end today. We will be back here on Friday. On Monday, we'll be talking about deconversion. One other thing that, maybe I'll talk about it on Friday. So many of you guys have told me to comment on the Netflix series, The Family. I've gotten so many messages asking my thoughts on that. I have no idea what that is. So I'm going to have to look that up. Maybe I'll talk about it on Friday. If you have other suggestions or questions for me to answer on the podcast, we'd love to answer them. Thanks for listening. Leave a five-star review if you love the podcast on iTunes. Of course, you can follow me anywhere. Email me, Alley, at theconservative millennial blog.com with questions or constructive criticism.

and I will see you guys next time.