Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 17 | The Greatest Country On Earth

Episode Date: July 4, 2018

Happy 4th of July! I explain why I'm obsessed with America and why others aren't. Then, a *very* special announcement!   Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved.

Hey guys, welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to Illyria. She's the man. Anyone? Anyone? One of my favorite movies back in like 2004 along with The Notebook and Mean Girls, of course. Okay. Anyway, it's Allie's Ducky. This is relatable, a CR TV podcast where we approach relevant, cultural, and political topics from a Christian conservative perspective. You probably, if you're listening to this for the first time and you just heard my opening or like, wow, this is how Christian conservatives try to be funny, huh? No, please stay tuned. That's not really what I usually do. I don't know why I did it. Okay. I just, it just came into my head and I did it. I don't know. But anyway, today in honor of the Fourth of July, we are going to talk about America and why it is awesome and why so many young people today, including young Christians, are averse to patriotism. And then, and then I also have a really exciting announcement to make, but I'll do that after. Oh, gosh, I have to remember. I have to remember to make that announcement. It's going to be after I answer some questions. And then I'll tell you guys, the exciting news. Um, no, I'm not pregnant, by the way. So to those of

you who always ask me that, it is not that. It is something really fun, though, that you all will be happy about and that actually affects your lives, which my pregnancy does not, believe it or not. I am also going to try to make this podcast a little bit quicker today because it's the 4th of July. So either you guys are at the lake like I am going to be or you guys are trying to finish your work so you can go to the lake or just have fun. But I want you to enjoy this day off. But hopefully you're listening to me still to celebrate our Independence Day. This is my favorite holiday.

It's always been my favorite. holiday. So if you're ever on Jeopardy and they're like, hey, what is Ali Stuckey's favorite holiday? You're not going to say Christmas. You're going to say, what is Independence Day? And I know that's kind of blasphemous that I like the holiday that celebrates the birth of our nation more than the holiday that celebrates the birth of our savior. But you know what? You love who you love. I didn't choose that. Just kidding. Kind of. Obviously Christmas means more to me on a spiritual level, but I love the Fourth of July because I love summer. I love the summer. I love the celebrations and most of all, I really, really love America. My husband could tell you that every time

the national anthem is played, or God bless America, or even when we're pledging allegiance to the flag at some kind of event, I usually tear up. Like, I start crying and he's like, oh my gosh, you're ridiculous. It's like, it's just a random Tuesday night. And I'm like, I know, I know. I just can't help it. I was born with a love for my country. I was on HLN earlier this week. and they were playing a clip of George W. Bush's speech to the crowds after 9-11, you know, called his bullhorn moment where he was talking to the people at Ground Zero. Just this really amazing, courage-inducing moment. And when I was listening to this on HLM before I was actually on screen, I was tearing up because to me, it's moments like this that set our country apart from any other

country. And that's not to say that other countries haven't had heroes or heroic moments, but in our very short 242 years of existence, we have been absolutely defined by and filled with moments like this. There's this quote by the late Charles Crouthammer that I love. It says, it is one of the enduring mysteries of American history so near providential as to give the most hardened atheist pause that it should have produced at every hinge point great men who matched the moment. A roiling revolutionary 18th century British colony gives birth to the greatest co-house. hort of political thinkers ever. Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, Washington, Franklin, Jay. The crisis of the 19th century brings forth Lincoln. The 20th FDR. This was in a column

about the MLK Memorial. So the point was to also include MLK on that list. And I would also add Frederick Douglass on that list. So when we needed a Washington, we got a Washington. When we needed a Frederick Douglas, we got a Frederick Douglass, a Harriet Tubman, a Susan B. Anthony. We got them. When we needed an FDR, we got an FDR. When we needed a Martin Luther King, we got a Martin Luther King. When we needed a Ronald Reagan, we got a Ronald Reagan. So far, God has blessed America in this way more than he's blessed any other nation that has existed on Earth. So we've been around, like I said, for 242 years now officially. And just think for a second about what we've accomplished in this short amount of time, leader in industrial and technological

revolution, leader in space exploration, leader in innovation, electricity, the light bulb, the telephone, the television, air conditioning, the internet, computers, you are welcome. iPhones, Twitter, Facebook, you're welcome. Greatest advances in modern medicine, you're welcome. Best in most well-known movies and TV shows. You're welcome. Best higher education. Us. Greatest military power. Us. Greatest defender of liberty. Us. Greatest advocate of equality. Us. America has carried the world on our backs while safeguarded human dignity and perpetuating freedom for the past nearly 250 years. There has been no greater earthly hope for mankind than the United States of America. We saved the world from totalitarian obliteration and two world wars, then delivered part of the

world from communist destruction in the 1980s. Germany, you are welcome. UK, you are welcome. Australia, you are welcome. Japan, you are welcome. Russia, you are welcome. The list goes on. You are welcome. There's really nothing like the American spirit. Even our enemies acknowledge this. There's nothing like American grit. And no other country is this rags to riches story that has literally been popular since stories were a thing. The rags to riches story is not just possible in this country, but it's plausible. Our very inception as a country was a rags to riches story. I mean, think about it. a group of rag-tag rebels deciding they wanted to escape the tyranny of the English government, throwing a freaking shipment of English tea into the sea to protest unfair taxation.

Two years later, the Revolutionary War began. Three years later, they officially declared their independence from England. Eight years later, America forced British troops into surrender at the Battle of Yorktown. The odds were so laughably stacked against us that none of this should have ever happened. I mean, talk about an underdog story. That is America. That's who we are. It's our identity.

We overcome odds. It's in our blood. There's a reason why it's called the American dream. And not the British dream, not the Canadian dream. The American dream is the ability to go from nothing to something. It's the ability to move up rather than be bound by a zip code or social classes. We reward hard work and determination. We encourage innovation.

No one, no one even holds a candle to who we are or what we've accomplished. We are the only nation ever founded on an idea rather than a person or on power. And that idea that we were founded on was self-governance and liberty. Most countries were founded on some kind of dynasty or royalty or a strong man with the sole purpose of providing that person with power. America wasn't. It was the only nation created for the people by the people. the people rather than for power by power. It wasn't founded on George Washington or for George Washington.

He was just the man of the moment, the person who was up for the job. And that's what our entire history has been. Like I said before, a series of men and women who have been up to the task of safeguarding the gift of liberty. Some have done it well, some not so well. And that is what makes us so unique. We established a system that honors personal property and private ownership, tapping into something innate as human beings, which is to own something, to cultivate it, to create something to provide for his or her family. That is literally the God-given desire of every single person on earth and especially of every man. It's the only country built on the premise that all men are created equal. Now, I know some of you are thinking, Ali, aren't you whitewashing history?

What about all of the horrible things that America has done? What about the Trail of Tears, slavery, Japanese internment camps, Jim Crow, the racism and the inequality that still exists in our country. What about our homelessness and the opioid problem? I mean, what about abortion? What about the scandals throughout our history? What about our tribalism? And I would say, I hear you. I hear you.

I acknowledge these points. But no, I'm not whitewashing history by saying that America is and always has been the greatest country in the world. I'm not ignoring these things because the reality is our sins don't define us. our unbelievable ability to repent of and overcome those sins does. That's why I believe that we can abolish abortion because we've been able to abolish other atrocities in the past. We are a young country, guys.

England, like over a thousand years old. Japan, thousands of years old. China, thousands of years old. Sweden, old as crap. Russia, old as heck. These countries have like ancient history. We don't. At least not the actual United States.

The Native Americans did. but we as a country are just babies compared to the rest of the world. And guess what? Virtually every country on the face of the planet has also been through periods of injustice, of inequality, of slavery, of racism, of xenophobia, if you want to call it that. And few, if any, can say that they have overcome these obstacles as quickly and as valiantly as we have. We fought a freaking war over slavery.

God raised up an incredible civil rights leader in MLK to knock down segregation and Jim Crow, we live in a place now where everyone, no matter their race, no matter their socioeconomic background, no matter their religion or upbringing, can achieve great things. That's just objectively true. But unfortunately, we live in a day and age where people insist that that is not true. That because our founders own slaves, because they were white supremacists, because they were bigots that our founding, our founding documents are all fundamentally bad, that we are bad at our core, that America is not and never has been a good idea and that we're still seething with racism and hatred. That HLN interview that I told you all about, the other debater that was

also on the panel, was literally saying that he's not going to celebrate the Fourth of July because of America's racism against black people. Like, dude, you are living in a fantasy world. And that's a really dark fantasy. Like, I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist. And where it does exist, it is wrong. it should be called out. But if you or anyone else, honestly think that the color of your skin holds you back from succeeding in this country, you have been brainwashed.

Completely a thousand percent lied to. We have black, brown, yellow people in all positions of leadership. We have the greatest number of immigrants in the world. Of all the refugees in the world, the number one country they wish to migrate to is the United States. That is a documented fact. You can look it up.

The country that adopts, The most babies from around the world is the United States. We are an exceedingly compassionate and open country. The world would be so much poorer, so much more hopeless, and so much more truly frightening and dangerous, I believe, without the United States of America. Wherever there have been American boots on the ground, the lives of the people around them have improved. It was at the end of George W. Bush's presidency, though, that people really kind of stopped

believing this, that people felt dejected. I think the unity encouraged by 9-11 had worn off a little bit. People were confused. They were frustrated by the length of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Barack Obama totally exacerbated that. That's not my opinion. That's just a fact. I would say that whether I was a Democrat or a Republican.

There's a study from October 2017 by Pew Research that shows partisanship in America by measuring where Democrats or Republicans stand on each issue today versus where they stood in 1990. You can Google Pew growing partisan divide in America to actually look at the grass if you want to. I cite this study all the time because I think it's so extremely revealing. First of all, Democrats have moved way far to the left on virtually every issue, welfare, immigration, race issues. Republicans have honestly stayed about the same, except on guns. We've actually moved further to the right on guns. But overall, it is not conservatives who have changed our positions. It is progressives. And where we saw the most change on the left, the most moving of the left further

to the left was during Barack Obama's presidency. More Democrats than ever believe that systemic racism is what is holding black people back. That wasn't true even 30 years ago. More Democrats than ever are soft on immigration. More Democrats than ever believe the government doesn't do enough to help out the poor. From 2009 to 2017, Democrats went way to the left. And as a consequence, they now have abandoned positions that used to be common-sense American positions. Illegal immigration, nearly everyone used to be against illegal immigration. There are videos of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, all speaking out against the evils of illegal immigration and promising to curb it. Free speech, free speech was considered liberal at one point. A lot of freedom-focused

positions were liberal until liberals became progressives. Then it was no longer about what people could do, but about what people should do. They became the the thought police, the authorities on morality, the arbiters of truth. And a lot of that happened while Obama was president. He was really the first president to not just give credence to politically and fiscally progressive ideas, but socially progressive ideas. He gave a voice to Black Lives Matter, to anti-police protest, to intersectionality, to fears of systemic racism, to fights over gender equality, class warfare. Not only that, but he attempted to humble America to bring us down to condemn American exceptionalism by apologizing to other countries for our strength and then

turning around and strengthening terroristic countries like Iran. When people say that Obama was a Marxist who promoted Marxism, that is what they mean. And you might not agree with me, but I, on this one, but I don't personally, despite all of those things, think that Obama was a bad person. I actually don't think he probably intended to harm the country. He probably had to. He probably had great intentions. I think actually most progressives and Democrats probably do have great intentions. Maybe not all of them, not Maxine Waters, but some of them do. But their platform is without a doubt increasingly anti-American. I'm not trying to throw punches on the Fourth of July here. I'm just trying to give us context and trying to say why we are so tribalized these days. Why celebrating the

4th of July and being a patriot is now a political position, why we seem to be getting further apart. Trump certainly doesn't help matters if I'm being fair with his tactless tweets and incendiary rhetoric. But to blame him for our division would be wrong since we were growing further apart due to leftist extremism far before he took office. Now, I am someone who believes in a good debate and I believe that disagreements make us better, but only if we are headed toward the same general goal. As long as we both agree that American ideals, are good and worth preserving, we can disagree on what that looks like.

That's fine. I can live with America becoming different, but I cannot live with America becoming Europe. And that's the direction that the left is openly headed. They want socialized health care, free college, free housing, guaranteed government jobs, the abolishment of private prisons, the abolishment of private property. Alexandria Ocasia Cortez, she's a Democratic socialist that just won her primary in New York. she is the representation of where Democrats are headed. And that is her public platform.

The problem is, though, that is not America. And the reason that is not America is because it's just not a different interpretation of the original American idea of self-governance, the idea that we were founded on. It's actually another idea entirely. It denies that men and women have an inherent desire and an inherent right to own property. to do work that actually matters, that actually contributes to something. These things don't happen in a socialist society in which the government gives you everything you need. Socialism is not possible without a totalitarian government seizing the property

in the means of production. Freedom and socialism do not and have not ever coincided. And this is exactly what the founders were worried about. This is exactly what they warned us about and what every great voice of liberty in our history has warned us about. This is a is why I'm a conservative. This is why I speak up. This is why I vote. Not because I want to protect my ideology, but because I want to protect America. Now, again, that doesn't mean that all Democrats hate our country. I am sure that there are plenty of patriotic Democrats and unpatriotic Republicans, but the Democrats who wish our country resembled European socialism cannot simultaneously call themselves patriotic. They just can't. That system is antithetical to what our

country is built on and what has made America great for these past 242 years. So that's the troubling trend that we see on the left side of the political aisle. But I also want to point out some of the misconceptions that I'm seeing among my fellow millennials and particularly among Christian millennials. In the election cycle, I heard a good number of my Christian friends express a kind of apathy about voting and being involved civically because, well, Jesus is coming back. And who cares? Some of this apathy was understandable, I think, considering the level of vitriol in the 2016 election cycle and just kind of the griminess of both candidates.

And in general, I do think it's good and right and biblical for Christians to be able to remove themselves from the nitty gritty of politics to step back from the incessant conflict and the drama of the political world and remember who we are, whose we are and where we're going. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's true. It is for another kingdom that we work. That is true. All of this will come to pass. That's true. I say that almost weekly on my show.

One day we will no longer have arguments, no politics, no government besides the ruling of God himself. And none of this will matter. All of this is true. But my view is that until then, until then, we are called to play a role. If all Christians decided that we were not going to be a part of what we considered ungodly or secular spheres, then there would be no light anywhere. If Christians decided to pull out.

out of politics, out of schools, out of marketing, out of PR, out of engineering, whatever it is, just because ultimately none of it's going to matter, there would be no light in darkness. And we are called to be salt and light. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to be intimately involved and acquainted with every detail of the news. I actually think that would be super unhealthy. But it does mean that we should be active, involved citizens who work toward the betterment of our communities and our country. And a huge part of that, the main part of that for Christians, is sharing the gospel, loving your neighbor, taking care of your church, showing hospitality to strangers,

caring for the widow and the orphan, being the hands and feet of Jesus in the ways that scripture tells us to. But it also means using the talents that God has given you to contribute to the well-being of those around you. Colossians 323, work heartily ask for the Lord and not for man. First Corinthians 1031. Everything you do, do it for the glory of God. This is, I'm not saying that those verses support voting, but I am saying that those versus support being an active participant in your community and being able to contribute to your community by working hard. We are called to be active to work hard. Work actually as a side note was in the world before the fall, so it's not a consequence of sin. And also, we are called to be good stewards of the amazing freedom and gifts that

God has blessed us with. And that's another reason that it makes me so mad when Christians don't vote. you realize those of you who don't vote, which I'm sure none of you who listen to this podcast don't vote. But just in case, you realize that it's only by the grace of God that you live in the freest country in the world, right? And you realize that men and women have left their families, their homes to die for you to live in the freest country in the world. And you're not going to vote because you're too lazy or you don't feel like it.

That is such an ignorant and privileged position to take. You don't have to vote for my candidate. I really don't care about that. You can write in Kermit the Frog if you want to, but you need to vote. Vote in local elections. Vote in the midterms. Vote in the general election. You owe it to your neighbors.

You owe it to the men and women who have fought for your freedom. You owe it to the amazing country that God has mercifully allowed you to live in. And guess what, Christians? No candidate is ever going to be perfect, okay? Not a single one. They're all sinful. Even the ones who sound good are not good. No one apart from Christ is good.

okay, we know that. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't care about decency at all. I'm not saying that morality doesn't matter. I do think morality and decency matter. I talked about this on one of my previous episodes about Trump having sex with a porn star. The values of a candidate matter, of course, but refusing to vote because the candidate isn't perfect is stupid. Okay, it's just stupid. We're not voting for our political Messiah. We already have a Messiah. His name is Jesus. He's coming back. But until he does, we have the responsibility to advance his kingdom. by one, sharing the gospel and loving our neighbor, and two, being active, hardworking Christ-like participants in the world in which he's allowed us to live. He didn't have to do that, which, in my

opinion, includes being good stewards of the gift of common grace that is living in this country. I encourage everyone also to read Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller. It doesn't have anything to do with voting or being a good citizen necessarily besides working, but I think it does a good job of explaining the balance of being in the world and not of it. So all this to say, be grateful people, be grateful that we live in America. Be grateful to live in such an amazing country. Be cautious about those who would exchange liberty for convenience and handouts. And be careful with the gift of freedom that's been entrusted to us.

Also remember that no matter what side of the political aisle you're on, we are called to pray for our leaders, which I personally need to do more. And also, I do want to say, speaking of things I need to do more or are used to not do a lot of, I will also say, for those of you who are feeling guilty and feeling like ashamed that, oh, I don't know enough about or I don't participate enough in the political process, I will just say, this is not always something that I've done. I have not always been as aware of and as passionate about politics or politics and culture at least as I am now.

I was a fairly empathetic high school and college student. I wasn't always active and as participatory as I should have been. And so if that's you, don't feel bad about yourself. It's never too late. We all go through stages and I think it's an important part of adulthood to start paying attention and doing something about preserving the things that we care about. So just a note there. Okay, a couple questions that I got on Instagram.

I'm just going to read them off Instagram. Usually I take them and I write them down and I, you know, write out my answers and stuff like that. But today, I'm just not going to. I'm just going to read them off Instagram. So one of my questions or one of the questions was should Christians stand for or say the Pledge of Allegiance? I think that's a very interesting question. I think that's not necessarily, there's not necessarily a biblical answer for that.

I think that we're smart enough as people to know that when we pledge allegiance to the flag, we're not like pledging our entire soul. We're not saying that the flag grants us salvation. Obviously, our allegiance is to Christ, not to America. but in an earthly sense, yes, we believe in and fight for the values of our country. If you don't believe in the values of our country, then you should either try to change them or move. And that's all the Pledge of Allegiance is to me.

I don't think it's weird or unbiblical to be loyal to your country as long as that loyalty doesn't interfere with or supersede with your allegiance to God. I got another question about how I interact with liberals and people like that in real life. Um, okay. Well, you see, I don't actually interact with a lot of liberals in real life or a lot of feminists in real life. Now, I have in the past. And I have friends that don't believe the same things that I do politically, but we just don't talk about it. I have a friend who really loathe Donald Trump. She, you know, posted things about Donald Trump during the election. Really didn't like him. That's fine. You know, I don't think unlike my, some of my colleagues over on the left, I don't. I don't think that my friends who didn't vote for Donald Trump are bad people. I don't even think that they're bad people because they're liberals. Do I think they're misinformed? Do I think they're misguided?

Do I think that they're wrong for being liberal? Absolutely. Especially those that call themselves Christians. However, I don't think that they are, they have character flaws necessarily just because they believe differently than I do. So if it's necessary to maintain a relationship to put politics aside, I can do that. I always try to be respectful on air if I'm ever debating a liberal, which happens often. I don't always get the same respect. And I am pretty fiery and feisty because that makes for good TV.

And it's fun. And that's what I actually genuinely am like in real life. So I try to be respectful while also state my opinions. I'm very opinionated if you guys didn't know. Okay. Other question. As I'm sure you know, Maxine Waters has been encouraging devices. and harassment of Trump administration members. Needless to say this is immature and unbecoming, but do you believe that she should be censored and or removed from Congress? I don't. I think, really, number one, I think that she needs to say exactly where she is because she's doing a lot for the Republican Party. I think that she and Nancy Pelosi both, as crazy as they are, are doing a lot

of good for Republicans because it's showing, it's showing people just how crazy the Democrats be. And I don't know if she should be a censor to remove from Congress. Do I think that what she said was zany? Yes. I just wouldn't be the person in Congress to push that. But if it happens, maybe it's good. I mean, she did practically incite violence. And she is crazy. But like I said, she's doing good things for us at least. Okay. So my major announcement, my big announcement is that as of next week, I'm going to have two podcasts a week. So that's really exciting. Yay. I'm really excited. Your wishes are my commands. And you guys have been saying a lot how much you like this podcast, which I really appreciate. Thank you so much for listening. And then also how you

would like me to have more podcasts. And I would really like that too because I have a lot to talk about. Sometimes my podcasts get really long because there's so much I want to say. So now I'm going to have two podcasts a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting next week. So get pumped, get excited. You get twice as much of me at least every week, which is really, really exciting. I know you guys are just going to be celebrating all the more on Fourth of July because of that. But anyway, seriously, thank you so much for listening and for supporting this podcast.

That's why I get to double it because you have supported me so well. So thank you. I hope you guys have a great Fourth of July. Love y'all. See you on Tuesday of next week. Bye. Thank you.