Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 356 | Biden's Call for 'Unity' & the Future of the GOP | Guest: Rep. Dan Crenshaw

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

Today we're talking to Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) about the inauguration of Joe Biden and his message of "unity." Is it possible to come together while being derided as a racist or fascist at the same time? Also, Rep. Crenshaw explains what's next for Republicans now that they find themselves in a politically disadvantaged position. --- Today's Sponsors: Annie's Kit Clubs have the perfect subscription box for both boys, and girls. Visit AnniesKitClub.com/Allie & save 75% off your first shipment. Bambee is here to help with all your HR issues - get your free HR audit today at Bambee.com/Allie Patriot Mobile has expanded their coverage, making it easier for more Americans to dump the big name carriers who charge way too much. Go to PatriotMobile.com/Allie & get FREE premiere activation when they set up the phone for you, & a special gift, with the offer code 'ALLIE' --- Buy Allie's book, "You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love" https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey guys, happy Thursday. Welcome to Relatable. Yesterday was the inauguration and we are going to dissect some parts of the inauguration on Monday. We'll talk about it more thoroughly. I'm also going to talk about, I think, depending on what happens in the next few days, if there's some breaking news that we have to cover on Monday, we might have to change things. But right now I'm planning on talking also about this accusation of Christian nationalism. I was talked a lot about when there was Christian symbolism mixed with Confederate flags and other. awful atrocious, blasphemous things at the Capitol right on January 6th. But there have been some convoluted definitions, I think, of what Christian nationalism actually is. We've talked about it on this podcast. I want to analyze it more thoroughly and compare what actual Christian nationalism is to the accusations of it and also to the integration of the Christian faith with the inauguration of Joe Biden and what this all means and how we should think about it.

So we'll get into all of that on Monday. Today I'm talking to Congressman Dan Crenshaw. We're talking about some of the promises and calls to unity that we heard from Joe Biden and Democrats at the same time that many Democrats and cronies in the media are calling everyone who disagrees with them, you know, white supremacists and all of these awful names. And if that unity is possible, what we can expect from the next couple years in the next four years as Democrats control Congress and the White House. We'll talk also a little bit about immigration policy. So I'm really interested or I'm excited for you guys to hear some of this insight because I know that you're interested in that. Okay. So without further ado, here is Congressman Dan Crenshaw.

Congressman, thank you so much for joining me again. I want to talk to you about a few things today. First on the heels of inauguration, I'm sure that you watched the inauguration ceremony. Everyone listening did. a lot of calls to unity, to faith, to togetherness. And I, you know, I'm sure you want that and I want that as well. Seems to contradict, though, some of the messages that we're seeing from your Democratic colleagues, some people in the media who tend to castigate and chastise everyone who disagrees with them even slightly. So do you have hope or optimism for us being able to come together and actually make some progress for the country?

Look, I'm, okay, I'll always say that I'm optimistic. And there's certain things that we can work on that I think would be beneficial. But we're looking into an immediate reboot of the Obama era when it comes to left-wing media, left-wing pundits. Just the way they describe the right, long before Trump ever showed up to the stage, we would always kind of repeat this basic mantra, which is the right thinks the left is wrong. But the left thinks the right is evil. They think we're a bunch of stupid rubs that just if they only understood how much progress they wanted to make and how much advancement is in store for our society, if we would just listen to these enlightened progressives. That's all that's back in full force, okay? The media doing all of their journalisming on what kind of shoes Kamala Harris is wearing and how cool and American it is and how just down to earth she is.

Oh my God. you know, what the president is, what he has for his ice cream. I mean, it's just, who's going to get the Peloton first in the White House? And, oh, my God, you know, the really important stuff. And meanwhile, just obviously, according to the media, all of the policies that they're going to put in place are just exactly what you'd want. So we don't even really need to cover them. The pros and cons, the cost, the benefits.

We don't even need to cover that stuff because it's just so obviously good. we'll just talk about what they're wearing today because they're basically our little progressive celebrities. Okay. Yeah. So that's that's what we're in store for. And it just irks. It just irks conservatives. It just irks, I mean, to a really deep level. Yeah. It's funny. Like a friend of mine, a Democrat friend of mine who was texting me today with what I believe is just the most condescending message about like, hey, this is, you guys should be happy about this because it's like, it's an opportunity for you to just just really like get rid of all the bad stuff. your party. It's like your independence day. And I'm just like, God, like, even if I agree

with like the problems that you're noting in my own side, right, because I see problems of my side, of course. I, I freely talk about them. But I don't want to hear your condescending tone about it, right? Because one, I don't think you get it. And two, it's just, it's just annoying. And if you to paint 75 million people as as these, these dumb, uh, bitter, greedy rubes that just don't understand your enlightenment.

I mean, I'm just so sick of it and you're just hearing it constantly. Okay, so that's my rant, Allie. Yeah. Well,

we're hearing people say, I mean, on that, we've literally heard people use the term. I think it was Katie Couric to, to,

um, on some show, she was talking about deprogramming, the people who voted for Donald Trump. Even though people have it said explicitly,

hey, we need these reeducation programs. They're basically implying it. They're saying, okay, how do we organize in such a way that we get all the people who voted for Donald Trump? Tell them that they've been lied to and deprogram them. But I mean, our values aren't going to change. There's a reason why we couldn't bring ourselves some of us to vote for Joe Biden. Our policy positions most of the time are not going to change. Is there going to be any kind of sincere efforts from the other side, from the liberal media, to try to understand, hey,

This is why we voted the way that we did, even those of us who maybe didn't love everything that Donald Trump did. Because that's the only way I think that we're going to achieve any kind of so-called unity if it's even possible. But I don't think they want to understand me or us at all. No, no. And the people who can make intellectual arguments like myself and like you can and like, and frankly, you know, conservatives just, I like to say this, conservatives should feel a sense of optimism. we have a great bench of people like you, and I would like to say people like me, who we just didn't have 10 to 15 years ago, people who can really speak to young Americans and speak to a wide variety of Americans, not just hardcore conservatives, about why we believe what we believe. We should be optimistic about our ability to make those arguments. But what does the left do? I mean, they try to destroy me. I've got a bunch of Harvard students trying to revoke by degree, which is just kind of hilarious. is. But also just a sad marker of our times, right? Like, you don't want to, we don't agree with somebody, cancel them, cancel them and destroy their character. I mean, this, this is, this is their only tactic because they really can't win arguments. The thing about my, my fellow Harvard students,

is that I know exactly what they're going to say before they say it. They're very predictable. Their reasoning on policy issues is about an inch deep. And there are, but the good ones, like the real liberals, the one who actually want to understand, you know, how we think. I love I love watching their faces as I explain to them why we might fall on this section of a policy issue or fall on the side of a policy issue. And it's disbelief, right? It's like, huh. And think about it that way. Now, that's what a real liberal does.

And there's few and farther. There are fewer and further between, unfortunately. But that's what a real liberal does. The thing about the Democrat Party is they're not full of liberals anymore. The thing about the left wing media is they're not full of liberals anymore. They're full of leftist progressives that believe in a postmodernist society, and they believe in change for the sake of change. And they have no problem trampling on the First Amendment or the Second Amendment or whatever amendment you choose in order to get their way. They don't like the Republic as it's structured.

They prefer a pure mob democracy. And they want to structure different constituencies within that to get to their 51%. And this is the real goal. That's why you won't see the kind of healing that they sort of like to give this. to give some talking points to, and that's all it is. I mean, if they were going to do it, they would be doing it now and then slowly revert back to their old ways. I mean, that would be the best strategy that I could imagine if you're them.

But I mean, they're not even trying to hide their contempt for the country. Right. And they feel justified because of the events of a couple weeks ago, which you and I both agree, were egregious and embarrassing and awful and criminal. But they're using that to then apply whatever standards they're placing on those people or whatever descriptors are placed on those people to apply them to everyone else who voted for Donald Trump. But, of course, they don't hold themselves to the same standard when people who voted for Joe Biden are burning down cities and destroying people's businesses. I think you talked about the media hypocrisy irking people. That hypocrisy really irked conservatives too.

even if we do have a desire to come together, seeing that kind of duplicitousness from politicians, from the people who say that they want to reconcile and come together, it's just rubs us the wrong way. It's not the way. It's not the way that we're going to be brought together, I don't think. Do you? No.

No. I mean, like, I was very outspoken on January 6th about what happened. And I took a lot of heat from it from our side, right? Because, because, you know, and I get it, right? I get the reaction, the visceral reaction. It's like, don't apologize for anything because look at them. I understand that, guys. But if I am to maintain my intellectual consistency, if I am to maintain the moral high

ground. And I think it's pretty important that your leaders have these two things, okay? Intellectual consistency and moral high ground. Otherwise, when I start making the argument that Democrat politicians and Democrat leaders are indeed responsible for the BLM riots, because I do believe they are because of their rhetoric. Because when you tell people that they're oppressed and they have no hope in life and that cops are chasing them down in the streets, don't be surprised that they burned a bunch of buildings down. Okay. So I think that's a pretty good way to lay moral blame on somebody. So you've got to let me be intellectually consistent.

I mean, that's my message to the right when you're so mad at me because I dare to acknowledge some truth here. But I also acknowledge what frustrates everybody on the right, which is that the left is full of liars and hypocrites and that they pretended that Antifa doesn't exist. They pretend that it doesn't matter or that it's even justified that that blocks and blocks of American cities are just being destroyed by these left wing mobs. I mean, over just the past couple of weeks, too, by the way. They're still smashing up businesses in Portland. And that's a whole other story. Right. It just blows my mind that people in Portland are still voting for this.

Yeah. But they are. So, I mean, fine, I guess. That's your thing, guys. Yeah. But don't bring it here. It's really sad. And it's, listen, it's not going to work.

This fake unity message that we keep being told is going to happen. Yeah. And I'd also like to point something else out to my leftist friends. You know, I don't plan on going easy on Biden. But look how I look how I. look how I go at it. All right. I list specific policy issues that I disagree with and I explain why they're wrong and why I want to fight against them.

I don't just call you evil. I don't just call him old or see. I don't insult him. I just, I go after the ideas. I go after the policy issues. Maybe the left could learn something a little bit about that and acknowledge that there's, there's fundamental policy disagreements and ideological disagreements in our country. And confront those where they're at.

confront my argument directly instead of always going on always trying to flank me with some kind of insult to my character they certainly could learn something from that but i think that they see what works and they see what's effective in some ways is that winning the culture war does make it does mean in some cases making every issue a moral issue and holding ideas that you disagree with the person has to be castigated as evil if you want to shame people into believing what you believe or at least saying that they believe what you believe. So unfortunately, they've gained ground doing that. I think that there are too many conservatives and quite frankly, probably too many Republicans who are afraid to argue with Democrats at least publicly about

Antifa or about the radical parts of Black Lives Matter because they don't want to fight. I think there are too many Republicans in Washington who don't want to fight the culture war. Democrats in Washington want to fight the culture war and they're not scared to fight the culture war. But I think a lot of conservatives feel like, yeah, you know, there are some people in D.C. like you who care about cultural things, who care about the values that we care about. But there are a lot of Republicans who do not, who don't really care about conservative values and will not fight the culture war with the same ferocity the Democrats do. Do you think that's a fair assessment or do you think I'm being too cynical? A little too cynical. I think I think that's been true for a while. I think

it's changing quite a lot. Look, I know a lot of my colleagues, it's not that they don't want to. A lot of times they just don't know how or they don't have the platform. And they're not skilled in making these arguments. It's very easy for a leftist to make the moral arguments on BLM, right, because racism. That's it. That's their argument. Like I said before, their arguments are about an inch deep. Okay. It's a little bit harder for the conservative. Where they need two seconds to make their argument, we need about 25, okay? And you've got to do it, and you've got to understand the issue really well. You've got to kind of test it against your peers a little bit,

tested against moderates. How does this, is what I'm saying getting through. Because oftentimes, if we do fight the battles, it's usually our more, you know, the kind of members that live in an R30 district, and they just say stuff. And it actually, and it's not good stuff. And it usually puts us backwards instead of forwards. So there's delicate ways to make these arguments that indicate that you're both fighting,

but also that you're winning. You see, I'm going to be saying this a lot lately because I want to get the conservative movement on this track of redefining what it means to fight. Fighting is not just yelling back at them, okay? It's not just getting into our own rallies and our own safe spaces and just being like, oh, yeah, BLM and Democrats and like raising my taxes, all of everything they're doing. It's so bad. And everybody's like, yes, it's bad.

We're fighting. It's like, no, you're not fighting. You're rallying. Like, rallying is good. You do need to do that sometimes. But fighting is a little bit different in politics. It's not what I did in the SEAL teams, okay? But there is, but there is a common thread, which is winning.

So we always go into a fight with the, with the intention to win. And the only way to win in politics is to get more people on your side. And the only way to get more people on your side is to speak to those independent voters and those moderates who I think instinctively agree with us on just about all policy issues, but don't want to hear the red meat rhetoric. So that's why I kind of disagree. I think too many Republicans just throw out red meat and they speak to only our base, where you can actually tailor that message to be more applicable to a wider audience. That's fighting. That's what it means to fight. Now, that's more difficult. You've got to go on the shows where that audience watches,

Sometimes you've got to go on the view at MSNBC and CNN. Choose your battles carefully like I do. You know, you've got to go to high school. You've got to take those hard questions. And you've got to have a tone that works with that high school students. So that's fighting. That's what actually works. I mean, and I think we did it in my district rather well.

I'm not going to pat myself on the back, but I guess I am. You know, we won a purple district by 14 points. Donald Trump won this district by one point. So it's 40,000 votes that 40,000 vote difference. So there's a way to success here. Like we can do this. We don't have to believe that our election system is, we shouldn't trust it anymore,

that there's no point in voting. These are the wrong ideas. That's kind of a take your ball and go home, quitter attitude. And I don't think we're quitters. I think we're freedom-loving red-blooded Americans who love this country and we're going to keep fighting for it. Yeah, I think there's certainly a time for offense and defense.

I mean, obviously, I think this goes to your point is, like, the right doesn't have all of the mainstream megaphones that people on the left have. We don't have as much of the mainstream media on our side. Certainly Big Tech is not necessarily on our side. And so it does take a little bit more effort to get your message out there. And we shouldn't always be on the defense. But I think there is a place for defense. And I just wonder, you know, how many Republicans are standing up and saying, actually, you know, I mean, there are. there are some Republicans saying this, but actually, you know, the 16-19 project shouldn't be in our

curriculum. And this charge of systemic racism, let's look at the facts and see if this is actually true. Black Lives Matter, it seeks to tear apart the nuclear family. That's not actually, that's not actually good for society. Some of these cultural issues that a lot of people are thinking about and want to say, but they don't feel like they have any cover. Democrats, liberals in the country feel like they have covered because AOC is always going to. going to say something more radical than they believe. Or Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or all these people, they're going to be fighting the culture war.

They're on the front lines. Whereas I think conservatives feel like, okay, people like, it's not the Republicans and Washington that are at the front lines. It's people like me. It's random people who have decided to start a podcast. I think a lot of conservatives feel like they don't have any cover on the conservative issues because, you know, Mitch McConnell and in other Republicans probably aren't going to be fighting the same battles that they feel like they're fighting.

So do you think there's any credence to that? Yeah, sure. You know, we don't just want to throw red meat out, but the base matters. Conservatives do matter. We can't just always be appealing to the moderates, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess I'll answer your question more directly. I mean, I still kind of disagree, but just because I'm with these people all the time.

And they do talk about. You are. And they just don't have a platform like what I, because I see this criticism a lot. And the question I asked back is, well, do you follow any of my colleagues on social media? And everybody's like, no. I'm like, are you on the email? Well, not all, but most, you don't follow most of them. You might follow a couple.

Yeah. And so, and then the other excuse that I'll give people is like, okay, like Mitch McConnell, like, when did the 60, when does the 1619 project even come up in the Senate? You know, it doesn't come up in legislation. So, you know, we have different roles. And I appreciate that a lot of the base does think it's up to their representatives to speak on every single topic. But there's only so much time in the day. The stuff is important. It's why I do it and I do it pretty often.

But that took a lot of time to make myself not only a legislative office, but also a media office. Yeah. Like we're not media offices. And so I asked for some grace for my colleagues who got in, who ran for office to cut, you know, to work on tax reform. And like, that's okay. Yeah. You know, we have culture warriors and we have tax reform warriors. And I'm not making excuses for people.

Like you should be able to do both to a certain extent. But not everybody can. So I mean, I guess it kind of sounds like I'm making excuses for a lot of my colleagues. But I'm also just not going to do what I see some of my newer colleagues doing and just and claim that they're the greatest messengers on earth and come to come to Congress and say, yeah. Yeah. And they're like, well, I don't, I'm not going to be like those other loser republic.

they never fight. They never fight. But like, you know, I agree. You know, I agree with that, that there is a difference

between some of the conspiracy, uh, focused people and people who I think that actually represent the cultural issue as well. And there has to be a difference between those two things. Um, and I do think, I mean,

there are Republicans who do it well. I wish there were more. And maybe it is a lack of a platform thing. I think sometimes, you know, we just kind of give up, we just kind of give up on the cultural and social issues because we figure it's going to polarize people, but the left never gives up on their cultural and social issues. So we just give a little bit of ground each time. I do want to talk to you about impeachment. We talked about how terrible January 6th was. You decided, though, that you

were not going to vote for impeachment. Can you talk about your reasoning behind that and kind of explain to us what's going on with the impeachment process now that President Trump is no longer the president. Yeah. Well, I'll answer that second question first, because I just don't know the answer to that one. So that was an easy answer. I don't know what the Senate's going to do there. It would be nice if they honestly just forgot about it.

It's so unnecessary at this point. I'm so sick of hearing the left claim that, look, guys, this is time to heal. And the best way for us to heal is for all of you to agree with us that your current leader of the party is just evil. and should be impeached. And then we can heal, right? And then you guys can go on to maybe agreeing with more of our crazy policies that we love so much. And that would be even more better for healing.

So that's their message. And I say, screw it. Now, okay, but why not vote for an impeachment? Because, look, a lot happened on January 6th. And this was, this was, you could find a way to, I think, lay some moral responsibility on the presidents and many others who I think hyped up that day, poured gasoline

all over the house and then and then told everybody to trample around in it until there was a spark. Okay, that's basically what happened. The question is, is it really impeachable? And especially using the articles of impeachment that the Democrats did write out. And I would say, no, absolutely not. For a few reasons. One, if you're going to say that somebody incited the riots or incited the insurrection, well, I mean, words matter.

So incitement is a legal term. and it's very specific. You have to have intent behind it and you have to have some kind of specificity behind it. So he would have had to say, no, I really want you to break into the Capitol and go storm it and maybe hunt down Mike Pence. So I'm telling you, I want you to do that.

So you'd have to be very specific and you'd have to intend for it to happen. And none of that is, none of that did happen. The second part of it, why I vote against it, look, there was a week left. There was a week left in his term. this feels this feels vindictive more so than than even punitive justice it just feels it felt vindictive and third you know I was just what I said was I just want to lower the temperature

the temperatures around the country is just too high this is the wrong way to do it I think I think the president got that message for a while I guess now former president Trump got that message because I think his statements over the last week have been exactly what we've been needing to hear from him for say the last six months. I mean, the message from him yesterday and today, if that was just his demeanor and the way he was addressing American people on a daily basis over the summer, I mean, he would still be president right now, guaranteed. Because I don't think people voted for Joe Biden's policies. I think they were just angry with Trump just as their leader and his daily tweets.

And but, but you can, I'm not just making this up. I mean, you can see this in the polling as well. Where as far as, as far as who you agree with on the issues, Trump would consistently win that. But as far as who they prefer as a leader, Trump would consistently lose that. So that's, we have a recipe for success in the future. If we, if we learn these lessons. Yeah.

Which is, which is a real shame because I think that the Biden policies will do real damage, especially with the Democratic-controlled Congress. But I think Trump, you know, he got in his own way. And there are people listening to and watching this who will not agree with me, who think that, you know, the tweets actually helped him. But people were really seeking some kind of stability and so-called normalcy. And even though I disagree with voting for Joe Biden, you could kind of see on a superficial level how you would just look at the two candidates

and say, okay, that guy kind of throws me off or makes me feel like things aren't stable and this honest old, good old Uncle Joe seems like he's going to bring some level of stability. Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to be what happens. What about the people who say, okay, I hear you, Congressman, but we got to hold Donald Trump accountable. This is not about, you know, vindictiveness. This is about showing people that you can't incite violence or whatever it is. We just got to hold him accountable. Do you buy that argument at all? I think morally accountable is different from legally accountable or impeachment accountable. There's different levels of accountability, and I don't mean to be cute or like split hairs,

but that's my job when I'm making such an important decision. So I think the fact that he wasn't reelected is a pretty big form of accountability. And this is extremely damaging to his legacy, which arguably is what most presidents care for. I think it's just a fallacy to suggest that again, this, this form of accountability is somehow making our country safer or better or more unified or preventing this from happening in the future. That's nonsense. Anybody making that argument I think it knows it's not really true. And so, yeah, just to stand by the explanations I had. Yeah, yeah.

You did talk about how Trump isn't necessarily legally culpable for what happened, but he might hold some moral responsibility. And you would say that's the same argument that you would make for people who are kind of ratcheting up or raising the temperature when it came to Antifa and BLM violence. That they shouldn't be legally culpable for that, but that they do contribute to raising the temperature, correct? Yeah, exactly. I mean, look, I'll never forget this. I'm just randomly watching some, I don't even know what news channel because it wasn't a mainstream one.

But I'll never forget, and it wasn't the Chicago City mayor, it was some Chicago city official. And she was speaking to the public right after these massive riots had burned down multiple businesses. And she says to them, I know that you're oppressed.

I know how much systemic oppression you face, but don't burn down your communities. I was like, how do you not see the content? contradiction there. If you're telling people to believe that there's no hope, that they're systemically oppressed, then how can you not expect them to lash out in the way that they have? Okay? Because you're lying to them. And so I mean, I see a parallel to January 6th. I mean, I put out a whole long podcast on this on my podcast. You know, the truth about January 6th.

And I lay out an excruciating legal detail and a reason through it for everybody on why, on why this hyping up of January 6 was always just a lie, fundamental lie. Not even touch the allegations about election fraud or that Trump actually won. I didn't even touch that. I'm just talking about the legal or what I would call an illegal process taking place on January 6th and lying to people about how this was going to fix all of their problems. And that otherwise, if it didn't get fixed, that they would lose their country, that they would be hopeless, that they would just be, that they would,

It would never have any hope again. I mean, if you tell people that if you amp up the rhetoric to such a huge extent, yeah, I think we can rightfully say there's some moral responsibility. But like, you know, moral responsibility does not mean legal responsibility. It doesn't mean stepping down from your office responsibility. Yeah. It means that we simply acknowledge it just to be truthful. And I think we do have to be careful too because I've seen this trend in particular on the left.

with saying anything that they disagree with is inciting violence or anything, even if they're just talking about being morally culpable for violence, I think that's also very dangerous, that we also have to be careful that not every bit of passionate speech, not every discussion about injustice or unfairness can immediately and automatically be tied to violence that ensues. I think sometimes it can be, certainly when it's misinformation, but we also have to be free and gracious enough to say that, okay, we and people on the other side of the aisle, that they can't always be held morally liable just because they gave a passionate speech that some people took the wrong way and took to violent extremes, right? Like, I get worried about

holding people's speech to the standard of, oh, if it's too passionate, it might incite violence, or if I disagree with it, it might incite violence. I don't think that's a good place to be either. No, I think we accuse them of raising the temperature too high and that they, they, don't get to act surprise when people act out. I mean, you know, again, there's, there's, I'm not calling for some action against somebody because in the end, this has protected political speech, whether Trump did it or whether a Chicago city official did it. Um, but it doesn't mean that we can't, again, there's a difference between rhetorical blame and, and legal blame and taking action against people. And we have to draw that line in the sand very clearly. So I mean, I, I, I think we're

agreeing, but look, I mean, I've seen too much from the left. I mean, they're, if it, when four, when cops are being assassinated and murdered because of BLM rhetoric, like, you, you, you can not tell me that there's no connection. Yeah. Okay. And again, it doesn't mean that I'm searching for somebody to be, to be legit, you know, in a very concrete way culpable. Yeah. But from a, but there is, what's call it rhetorical blame if you don't want to call it moral blame. But I, you know.

Yeah. We might be splitting hairs there. No, I think that we have to be. You've got to acknowledge it. Yeah. Well, we have to also be discerning enough, which discernment is not really characteristic of a lot of political dialogue right now. We have to be discerning enough to take it on a case-by-case basis. The guy who shot up a baseball field and shot Republicans, he said that he did it because Bernie Sanders said that, you know, Republicans were kicking people off their health care.

Even if we disagree with Bernie Sanders. Like, we're not going to lay that blame on Bernie Sanders' feet. someone I saw, you know, Lila Rose, pro-life advocate said something very obvious the other day. Abortion is violence. While an abortionist came back at her with a blue check mark saying, this is domestic terrorism. Obviously, that's stupid. And so we also have to take things by a case-by-case basis that, okay, sometimes, yes, this did intentionally raise the temperature that may have led to that. Sometimes someone was just telling the truth or someone just said something and someone took it the wrong way and took it too far.

we have to be discerning as well when it comes to judging people's speech. We do. And the reason why the January 6th issue was a little bit worse than usual was because it was centered on taking action. Now, nobody defined what that action was except to say you got to go fight and you got to be strong and you got to make those cowards in Congress do what we want them to do. Referring to people like me who refuse to object because it's a stupid illegal process. Okay. So when you tell people to go somewhere at a very specific time and a specific day and yell at specific people, that's, you're, you're getting pretty specific, is my point. And so, again, doesn't reach the levels of incitement that would be necessary to call for some kind of legal action. Still doesn't. But let's at least acknowledge that that's a really stupid thing to do. And I think that's all we're asking for. Yeah. Okay. Last thing I want to quickly talk to you about, you talk a lot about immigration, immigration legislation. This has been a big priority of Joe Biden going into his presidency saying that he is going to, I think, ensure citizenship for 11 million, for 11 million illegal immigrants. He's going to stop funding for the border wall. There's also apparently a migrant caravan in Honduras on the move towards the United States. What can we anticipate? What should we be concerned about when it comes to immigration policy in a Democratic White House and a Democratic Congress?

They've radicalized their immigration policy. It is not even close to what it was under Obama. I remember the left being mad at Obama for they called them the deporter in chief. I guess he deported so many people. But they didn't take they didn't take border security all that seriously. And some things happened in the courts with the Flores. settlement that actually perpetuated the massive influx. There'll be legal immigrants under Obama. It wasn't necessarily Obama policy. It was just, it was more like their lack of action. Like, they just, they just didn't really care to fix some of the things that happened under their watch. But now we have an administration that actually wants to take actual action to make it easier for people to cross the border and then reward them for doing so. I mean, this is what's so infuriating. People have

feel like there's a, there's a real sense of injustice here, especially if you're a legal immigrant. I think all of us, I mean, I have family who is legal immigrant. My stepmother is a legal immigrant, which means I have a lot of family that are legal immigrants. I think we all know somebody who's a legal immigrant and has gone through that process and thinks it's really cool and they think it's really, they're really proud to have gone through that process and become an American citizen. And this is such a slap in the face to them. Because this is, This really angers them. I mean, go talk to some legal immigrants.

And this is such, they get really mad about this because they work so hard and they did it the right way. And there's a sense of pride with that. And so now you're telling them that, well, these people do it the wrong way, they get to cut in line and just have their citizenship because, you know, because we just feel like it, but mostly because, let's be honest, Democrats want their votes. Because, and go talk to those illegal immigrants, they don't care about becoming citizens. They want to work.

Okay. So they want work visas. They're already here. Most of them have not committed any other crime except being here illegally. They just want to work. There's an interesting conversation to be had about that, but there is no conversation to be had about a path of citizenship for people who cut the line. That is off the table.

I would say the good news is if you want to get specifics and maybe talk political strategy here, you know, you're going to start out with work visas, basically permanent residency. And I think in like many, many years from now, it would be eligible for a path of citizenship. Well, many years from now, hopefully we take back Congress and the presidency and we can reverse those laws. And, you know, we won't have any issues here with what I'm talking about. But the other thing I'm really worried about Biden doing, it's actually not so much defunding the wall that's more symbolic than it is substantive. The real issue I'll have with the Biden administration is if they stop the remain in Mexico policy, program, otherwise called the Migrant Protection Protocol.

To put simply, this means when illegal immigrants are just turning themselves into border patrol across the border, in the past, one of the reasons we had such a problem was because we didn't know what to do with them. We would just kind of let them go, right, and hope that they show up for a court date. Well, that's a pretty big incentive to just come across and just turn yourself in. You don't even need to escape border patrol. Just turn yourself in. They're just going to let you go.

Well, the Trump administration did a pretty good job reversing that process, but also, working with Mexico to put at least a portion of the daily crossers back to Mexico City. And so now you have a huge disincentive because if you're illegally crossing, you're like, ah, well, there's a chance I might actually just be put right back in Mexico City and that would kind of suck. So I'm just not going to try. That's what happened. Then it had huge effects. Biden reverses that.

It reverses some of the protocols that we've worked so hard to put in place to stop the catch and release program. that is what's attracting this Honduran caravan because they're like, hey, doors are open and free health care. What a deal. Yeah. Ultimately, I mean, you know this, but I think some people who feel caught in the middle of this because what they hear is Republicans, you know, kids in cages, splitting families apart, inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants at the border or Democrats and compassion and love and acceptance and things like that. ultimately, a country has to have a border in order to retain its sovereignty and therefore in order to execute its laws to execute justice and protect its citizens. That's why it is compassionate, to compassionately but strongly enforce your borders. And that doesn't mean, should not mean inhumane treatment of people who are trying to cross, people who are filing for asylum. And so

there needs to be some understanding there that, yes, we have to enforce our borders. We have to. And we citizenship has to mean something in order for a country and its laws to actually mean something. And it's for the protection of both people who are born here and people who are not born here who are now citizens. It is the compassionate thing to do while also treating the people who are trying to get here as humanely as possible. Do you think that balance is possible? Is that argument effective at all? I do think that argument's effective and kind of going back to what we were talking about. you know, or semi-arguing over whether Republicans even try to make these arguments on the, on the same grounds that Democrats do, mainly the moral grounds, the compassionate argument.

And you're absolutely right. You need to, you need to directly confront their accusations, right? And their accusation in this case being that you're not compassionate because you don't want to just give stuff to people who want it. And I think, frankly, just reframing what they just said is the best way to debate them and it kind of like what kind of like I just said it let me get this straight I'm not compassionate because when somebody it like comes across illegally into my country I don't want them to just just get stuff from my taxpayer dollars that's why I'm not compassionate well if you're so compassionate then okay are you paying for their hotel room while they wait their asylum you know what the way their asylum process I mean do you I mean what's your limiting principle do you want to

just allow because because is a hundred thousand a month okay well why not five hundred thousand. I mean, arguably, there's millions of them who have a worse life than here. So do we just let them cross illegally or, I guess, let them cross indefinitely until there's a, there's a complete balancing of everybody? Like, is that the goal? And again, where's the limiting principle? How is the sustainable? The best way to debate this stuff is to really just go through it from a very logical perspective and address this idea of compassion directly and debunk it. It's really not that hard to debunk. And as you put it, we can win this argument by simply saying, look, we have a sovereign

right as a country to control our borders. The vast majority of Americans fundamentally agree with this. So we don't have to actually make the argument much further than that. But we have to stop using silly arguments. If we're going to go back to the border crisis and it's like two years ago all over again, then what was the wrong way to make the argument was, was demonizing those immigrants coming across. Because that's where we actually lose people.

And that did happen too often in right-wing rhetoric. You've got to use the arguments that we just laid out. And the family separation thing, which I always disagreed with, you know, under Jeff Sessions, I think really hurt as well. Because like you said, what people saw is just inhumane treatment, whether or not you believe people should be flooding the border illegally, which I obviously don't believe that. I mean, that's a problem. So that when the waters get muddy, it's hard for people, I think, to think clearly about, okay, what's the importance of borders? And I think what you said about a limiting principle is really effective, asking people before you even start engaging in the argument, well, do you think that we have any right to stop anyone from coming in the country? Or does everyone get to come in?

Like you said, is there a number limit? Is there a past crime committed that we should look at? Is there ever a reason why we shouldn't let someone in the country? And most people don't think that we should let every single person who wants to come in the country come in. They actually do believe in a limiting principle. Maybe they just haven't thought about what that is. So that gives us a lot of food for thought. And I appreciate that.

Okay, can you give us any optimism and hope? There's a lot of scared people. There's a lot of worried people about a Democratic-controlled Congress, Democrat in the White House, who just feel this wave of hostility coming towards conservatives, conservative Christians. They're scared of the legislation. They're scared for their protection. of their First and Second Amendment rights. I don't know if you have any optimism, but can you give us some a little bit of hope?

It's going to be hard. But look, the majorities they have are razor thin. You know, the Senate's 50-50. It's just that Kamala's the tiebreaker. It's a razor-thin majority. There are still some moderate Democrats that are pretty nervous about voting for some of these really radical policies. So maybe that's a bulwark against some of their more radical intentions. More optimism than that.

Let me just repeat what I said before. You know, we're not losing as bad in many ways as many people think we are. Again, compare this to like when Obama took over in 2008. First of all, they had much larger majorities, okay? They could really do whatever they wanted. I don't remember Ali Stuckey's podcast back in 2008. I don't remember Ben Shapiro's podcast back in 2008. I don't remember Dennis Prager.

I mean, obviously it was around, but like, it was not, they were not big influencers that are really making an impact and really persuading people back then. We truly were lost and we were just getting angrier and angrier. And we, that can be effective, maybe. Like, I'm not, you know, because it gets people involved. But again, fighting needs to mean persuading people. And we've got a lot more interesting people, smart people, persuading new voters every single day than we ever used to. Yeah.

We can win if we, if we learn the right lessons from the last four years, we can easily win back the house in two years, maybe even the, the, the second. I'd have to analyze the politics of that, but I think we can definitely went back to House. And then boom, we've got a pretty serious bulwark against the Biden presidency. And I still think we could probably win in four years, too, because they're already proving that they want to really overstep the will of the American people. They really want to trample all over it. Biden doesn't understand why he was elected. He was elected because people didn't like the president's tweets and comments and general demeanor,

not because they didn't like the president's policy platform. Okay. And now we're going to and I told I told voters over and over again, you've got to vote for Donald Trump because trust me, the Democrats mean what they say and I encourage you to listen to everything the Democrats are saying. And I don't think enough people believe me or my message didn't get to enough people because they still voted the way they voted. Yeah. Well, in Texas, Trump did win. So maybe I did my part here in Texas. But yeah. But, you know, I think now people are going to see that policy agenda right in front of their face. and they're going to realize that, you know, Democrats mean what they say. And I think we can win again. Yeah. And I hope that's enough optimism. I mean, I could try harder if you want. No, I encourage people to, based on what you said, to continue to pay attention because I think even people who voted for Trump are like the media, I don't know if it was intentional or not, but wore us out with Trump drama and political drama. Most of us, most people didn't pay nearly as much attention to the news and to politics as they have for the past four years. And a lot of people are just tired of it. I think

that's one reason why Biden won is because people are tired of paying attention. And they feel like if Biden's in the office, this great moderate, which we know that policy-wise he's not, then they don't have to pay attention anymore. And that's what they're betting on. That's what they're betting on. Apathy and ignorance by people who they know disagree with these policies. And so my encouragement to people is don't be, you don't have to be obsessed with politics. You don't have to spend all day on Twitter. I certainly don't. You don't have to be constantly inundated with this stuff, but pay attention. Pay attention to the executive orders. Pay attention to the bills that are getting passed. Pay attention to the court cases. This is not the time for conservatives to look

away. Make sure you understand what's going on, not just in your country, but also in your state and in your area. Because if we don't pay attention, then it's very easy to believe that. their rhetoric, just like Obama did, that everything is going great even when it wasn't. Do you agree? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, pay attention. And let's absorb the right information, you know, and take these arguments that, you know, I try to always present people with the facts and the arguments so they can use those arguments

to win over their peers. You know, that's my goal. and I think if the more we see it that way, the better off will be in a couple of years. But not all is lost. Like, America will survive. It's very hard, luckily, because of our Constitution and because the nature of our checks and balances in our republic. It is hard to seriously infringe on the rights of Americans. And that should give us some, I think, comfort.

Some comfort, but not enough comfort to get too comfort. and to be complacent and stop paying attention. Thank you so much. You told me to be optimistic. Yeah, you did okay. I'll give you, I'll give you a B on optimism. But thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.

I know a lot of people will appreciate your insight. Thanks for what you do. Okay, guys, just a quick outro after that conversation, I always want to leave you with a reminder, especially at the end of the week, that the reason that we have hope is because Jesus is king, no matter who is in the White House, no matter who is in Congress. Yes, these things matter. But ultimately, the government is on Jesus's shoulders. And he is the one who is in charge. He is sovereign over all. The Bible says that

he changes times and seasons. Daniel 2 says. And he raises up kings and he brings them down. So he's in charge of all of it. He's not surprised. He's not thrown back. He knows what every single day of our life holds, he knows what this next year holds, and he's got us. Like he's got his people. He's got his flock. He's got his church. And our responsibility is to make the best use of our time, as the Bible also says, because the days are evil. The days are always evil in comparison to the future glory that we are going towards. And so focus on the obedience that's right in front of you. God might call you to bigger spheres of influence as we talked about yesterday. We went through five very practical tips of what we can do when you're facing any kind of spiritual or political opposition,

the tangible steps that we can take and the words that we can speak in the midst of that and the peace that we can have in the midst of that. But always, without a doubt, he's calling us to immediate obedience and the things that we think and the things that we say and in the things that we do. And one thing we always know that we can do is we can love God with all of our hearts, mind, souls, and strength and love our neighbor as our sister. And remember, this is something I have to remember, which is really hard for me, is that we are called time and again in the Bible not to worry and not to be anxious. Do not fear, but instead to be courageous, knowing that it is the God of the universe fighting our battles for us. And I'm not talking about just the United States. I'm talking about the people of God. I'm talking about the universal church. That we can rest assured that he's got us, that he's going to keep us, that his gospel is going to be advanced. and his will is going to be done. Job 422 says that his will cannot be thwarted. So we can trust in that.

We can rejoice in that. Christians have gone through a lot of hard things throughout church history. And yet the Bible tells us time and again, rejoice in the Lord. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be made note to everyone as Philippians 4 says. So let us rejoice. Let us be glad. Let us be hopeful. Let us look toward heaven. Let us stir one another up toward love and good works, as Hebrews 10 says. Let us hold fast to truth and let us encourage one another. And let us be joyful. We have every reason to be glad because we've got the gospel. And we've got the Lord of the universe who promises to care for us and promises to claim victory over all darkness one day. And we look forward to that day just as much as we ever do.

So I want to end with that. We will be back here on Monday. Have a great weekend. spend time with your family, go to church if you can go to church. Love the Lord. Love your neighbor. And be glad. This is our father's world. And there is always reason for us to be happy and rejoice over that. All right.

See you guys on Monday.