Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 454 | Allie’s Dad on Texas Dems, Voting Bills & Raising Strong Kids | Guest: Ron Simmons

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

Today we're talking about the Texas Democrats who fled the state, abdicating their responsibilities, to prevent the Texas legislature from passing a voting integrity bill. To provide insight on the situation, we have a very special guest in studio: Allie's dad, Ron! Ron is a former Texas politician and knows all about the kinds of political games Democrats try to play. We discuss the governor's intent to arrest the Democrats who fled, whether this stunt will pay off at all for Democrats, and what's actually in the bill that has the Left so up in arms. Then, we ask some more personal questions: life advice, parenting opinions, and stories of what Allie was like as a kid. --- Today's Sponsors: Good Ranchers meat is 100% American! All of their product is individually wrapped, vacuum sealed, and ready to grill (which helps to eliminate waste!) & it's delivered right to your door. Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE to get $20 off & free express shipping! Reliefband is the #1 FDA-cleared anti-nausea wristband that has been clinically proven to quickly relieve & effectively prevent nausea and vomiting associated with motion sickness, anxiety, migraines, hangovers, morning sickness, chemotherapy & so much more. Go to ReliefBand.com & use promo code 'ALLIE' to save 20% off, plus free shipping! --- Past Episode Mentioned: Ep 170: Is it OK to Celebrate Halloween? | Guest: Lisa Simmons (Allie's mom!) https://apple.co/3icdBCq --- 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, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. I am super, super excited for today's episode. I am interviewing none other than my dad.

We are going to talk Texas politics. He has been very involved in Texas politics for a long time. He used to be a state representative. in Texas and we're going to talk about some of the drama that's happening with Texas state Democrats fleeing to D.C. because they are trying to abdicate their responsibility and get the support, I guess, of federal Democrats and trying to avoid voting on this voting integrity bill. We're going to talk about what's actually in the voting integrity bill, what's in the federal voting bill, HR1. He's going to clarify a lot of things for us.

And then he is going to answer some of the questions that you guys sit me. He's going to answer questions about how we get involved in our communities, how we get involved in politics, if we should run for office, how we make that decision. And then he's going to answer quite a few personal and parenting questions about growing up in his household, his in my mom's household, and what they were like as parents. And then what I was like as a child and some advice that he has for you guys raising kids to be Christians who stand. up for the values that you believe in. So super, super excited for you to hear this interview. Without further ado, here is my dad. Dad, welcome to Relatable. Thank you for finally joining us. I've been trying to get you on for so long. You've been putting me off, putting me off, putting me off, but you're finally here. So thank you. I'm just, you know, honored to be here no matter when it is. I'm glad to be here. I think you've got a

pretty good start on your own. You didn't need me to help you get going. Yes. And that is actually a a joke for people who don't know. We have been talking about him coming on my podcast for a while. A lot of you guys have been asking for him to come on my podcast for a while. And it is, it is me that finally, finally made it happen. So I'm very grateful that you're here. We're going to talk politics first and then we're going to kind of get into personal and parenting and things like that. So I know, I know. You've been involved in Texas politics for a while. Obviously used to be a Texas legislator. Tell me what you think in general about what's going on with Texas Democrats fleeing to D.C. to basically avoid their responsibilities.

Well, just so people know, this isn't the first time Texas Democrats have done this. They did this in 2003 in the famous trip to Ardmore, Oklahoma for the House, and then to New Mexico for the Senate. And they are making the same mistakes that they did in 2003. You know, people say history doesn't repeat itself, but actually it does. And what they've done is they have broken quorum. You have to have two-thirds of the Texas House to be able to conduct business. And that's 100 members. There's 150 total.

Two-thirds would be 100 members. And I think 57-58 Democrats got on two chartered jets with no mask, cases of beer, all around, and flew to D.C. to claim that they were trying to help out voters when it actually, what they're doing by not voting on this deal will be suppressing votes. in the future if this bill doesn't pass. But they are acting like this is some big, you know, like civil rights move. I saw some tweet by legislators saying that they're sacrificing so much because they're leaving

their family, they're leaving their constituents and they're going to D.C., but it really just seems like more of a political stunt that's not really going to accomplish anything. Is it going to accomplish anything? Oh, no. And they may help them raise money for their campaign, you know, from the George Soros's of the world and people like that. But it's not, at the end of the day, it will not accomplish anything because the way that special sessions work in Texas is that the governor is the only one that can call a special

legislative session. And they last up to 30 days, depending on how long it takes them to get the bills passed. And the governor is already on record. Already on record is saying he will continue calling additional special sessions until this election integrity bill is passed. And so they said, how long would that last? He said right up until the election in 2000. 22. So they'll have to come home here soon. What they'll do is they'll end up saying, well, we made

our point, you know, we've stood up, and then I'll have to come back. And they'll vote no, probably on the bill, not all of them, but most of them will vote no. And then we'll move on. Okay, I want to play a little clip from the Texas Democrats at the Capitol singing to get, I guess they're trying to rally support. I don't know what they're doing, but they're trying to sing, we shall overcome. I just want to play that quickly. So that is them at the capital. I do believe we will today. So that is them at the Capitol, I guess, trying to, you know, liken themselves to civil rights heroes. They say that they're trying to get federal support. I think Kamala Harris

actually met with some of the state legislators. What do you think? what do you think is going to come of that attempt at some kind of partnership? Do you think the Biden administration is going to be able to help out the Texas Democrats in any way? Or again, is it just political posturing? Well, last time I checked, and maybe they've changed some rules since I've been in there, but I don't think so, that President Biden nor Vice President Harris has the ability to cast a vote in the Texas legislature. And, you know, it's so funny, Allie, because many people think of our nation. as they should as a country.

But however, our country is made up only of the states. It's not like in some countries, like in Europe and what have you. The power that the federal government gets is only derived from the states. And so therefore, it was originally set up that the states were run the elections. And you actually have 50 different state elections. You don't, there's really not a national presidential election. Right. It's 50 different states voting for their,

choice for president and then having their electors cast that vote on their behalf. And so to have the federal government micromanage the state elections is the most overreach that I've ever seen in my history, in my, you know, 60 years of living. And that is what HR1, the federal elections bill is trying to do, correct? They're trying to basically say, hey, the federal government is going to come in and, like you said, try to micromanage state elections, right? That's exactly right. They're going to come in and they're going to take over state elections. They're going to require, they're going to, they're going to, they're going to do things that would just have been unconscionable before. In fact, they're going to do things that aren't

even done right now in some of the most liberal states out there. They're going to require same day registration so that if somebody can't, we can't even have the ability to check their eligibility for, to vote, because it's going to be same day. How are you going to know whether or not they're eligible or not. They're going to require online registration. Now, think about that for just a second. With all the cyber hacks and the ransomware going on out there, how in the world could we assure that that's going to be safe and secure? Right. I mean, it's just incredible and it's nothing. And they also are going to take away you and my individuals as citizens of this country to challenge an election. You and I will not be able to do that anymore. It'll only be elected officials that can do that

or bureaucrats, which is absolutely crazy. So I am proud of our U.S. Senate for standing up against that, not allowing that to go through. And I'm also proud of, you know, Senator Manson saying, I am not going to vote to have that done outside of the filibuster rules. And it also allows ballot harvesting, correct? Can you talk about what ballot harvesting is? Ballot harvesting, and this is a real problem in the real Grand Valley of Texas. This is something that some organizations have reported on Texas Public Policy Foundation. And what it is, it's where an individual, usually working for a campaign, will go around, usually to older people, seniors that are doing mail-in ballots.

And they'll go around and they will actually collect the ballot. Most of the time help them fill the ballot out, which is illegal. And they will then harvest a lot of ballots. And who knows what they're doing with them once they've done that. and then bring them in to the elections office and what have you. And they get paid to do that in many cases, which also is illegal. And that's something in the Texas bill that we're just clarifying. Now, like, let's say that my mom was still alive.

You know, you talked about Grandma Dodd on here before. And you wanted to help her vote, you know, to help take her ballot. She votes on her own, but you take her ballot. You could do that as, and you could still do that as a family member. But you can't have somebody for a campaign that's going around. intimidating citizens, telling them how to vote, and picking up their ballots, and who knows. We need a secure chain of custody, which is something that the new law in Texas is putting into place.

So would you say HR1 just makes it easier to cheat in the name of trying to alleviate voter suppression? Yeah, it's just like a lot of liberal ideas. They are really great ideas. The problem is... The problem is they don't work. Yeah. And everybody wants every year.

legal vote to be casted and counted it. But what HR1 does, it allows the bad actors more opportunity. In fact, holes you could drive a truck through to be able to do things that we know are nefarious. And so tell me, I know you just talked a little bit about it, but tell me more about what this Texas voting bill does, because you've got Joe Biden, and I want to play this clip as well before you explain this, Joe Biden saying that, you know, these voting bills, not just in Texas, but in other Republican states are the biggest threat to our democracy since the Civil War. So let me play that. Our election is just such a threat.

Literally. I've said before. We're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That's not hyperbole. Since the Civil War. Okay. So to me, that kind of rhetoric is very dangerous. I mean, this is harsher rhetoric than we have heard the president used towards, you know,

some of our foreign enemies. And yet they're basically saying, he's basically saying that Republicans and these Republican legislative bodies that are pushing these kind of voter integrity bills are threatening our democracy. Tell us why that's not true and what specifically this Texas bill does. Well, first of all, you remember President Biden has not had an original thought in a long time. So somebody wrote this for him.

And as you know, as we all know, his staff is about as far left as you can be. And President Biden actually voted for some of the protections that's in the law now during his Senate career, right? Yeah. He voted on voter ID and all those types of things. So, you know, it's just like many things that he's done. He just totally reverses himself. And I'm not sure he even remembers that he's done that. And so in some ways, I feel a little bit sorry for him.

But we will overcome that, I believe. Yeah. The Texas bill, you know, what it does is it does a few things. it would actually, and I've said this before recently in that by not voting yes on the Texas bill, Democrats are suppressing votes. Right. And let me tell you how that happens. The way that happens is, is that if one illegal vote is cast, if one, and they always talk about,

well, it's not widespread fraud, that doesn't matter. Fraud is fraud. And if one illegal vote is cast, then that cancels out a legal vote. They have suppressed that legal vote. What we need to make sure that every single possible legal vote is counted and that every single illegal vote is not counted. And what the Texas law does is it continues to build parameters to ensure more legal voting. One of the things that happens right now is if you're actually doing a mail-in ballot in Texas,

if you beat the criteria for that, you do not even have to prove that you're eligible to vote or who you are. What this will do is it will require you to provide proof of ID when you send that mail-in ballot, either through the last four digits of your Social Security number or through your driver's license, if that's what you choose, or your passport. So you're saying right now in Texas, if this bill doesn't pass, right now, if you qualify for mail-in voting, you can do that without having to verify in any official way who you are and whether or not you're eligible to vote in Texas.

Yeah, that's exactly right. That's what happens and that's going to be changed. So why would anybody be against that? Only people that are against that are the people that want to leave it open for being able to, you know, to cheat. I mean, there's no better term for that. The other thing that it does is it expands early voting hours. Unlike the nation that is made up of states, Texas is not made up of cities and counties.

Texas is a state and all the powers that a city or a county has are only have them. because they're given to them by the state. And so the state controls the elections, not the county, not the cities. And so what the state wants to do is make sure that Texas all over the state have a uniformity in early voting. So they expanded the hours to any nine hours between six in the morning and nine at night. So that is a plus. Why would somebody be against that? Now, Harris County tried to do 24-hour voting.

Now, they got shut down because it was against the Texas law and the Supreme Court shut them down, but 24-hour voting, again, just opens the opportunity for more things. You know, when you were young, I used to tell you, nothing good happens after midnight. It's the same way in voting as well. Nothing good happens after midnight in the back, off the back rooms of how votes are counted and votes are cast. So is there anything at all to the claims that we're hearing from Democrats that these laws, for example, in Georgia, we heard that that was like Jim Crow, that it specifically trying to suppress the minority vote through a variety of subtle means? Is there any credibility to that claim at all? And why are they even claiming it if not? There's only credibility if you think being able to

not verify legal votes is proper. And so there's absolutely no credibility to that. What this bill, again, continues to do is allows more poll watchers. It sets up the systems for how people, campaigns can people watching the polls. It has a chain of custody to make sure that the ballot is followed through to the very end. We require live streaming and video in all vote counting places in most counties, the larger counties. So I just can't see it. I think they got on the mantra and then they just decided to stay with it. And the media has helped them out. Some media has. There's a, there's actually in the Dallas Morning News today, there's a great editorial in there about, And it's pretty balanced, but it basically says the stunt that's been pulled by the Democrats in Texas is just that.

It's just a political stunt. And there's nothing in the bill that suppresses voting at all. There was a deal in there on you couldn't vote before 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock on Sunday. That's now been moved back to or 10 or 11. So that's that was just, again, it's a red herring that just does not exist at all. And this is going to make, just like getting rid of one punch, straight ticket vote. voting, this is also going to make Texas elections even more secure. Yeah. And I know that there are Democrats who say, well, you know, this is just a solution

in search of a problem. Like we really don't have widespread fraud. But to your point, even one fraudulent vote cancels out another vote, which is a form of voter suppression, which is something that they claim is happening on a wide scale. There's even less evidence that voter suppression is happening on a wide scale. And yet that's something that Democrats are running with. And the Democrats that have fled to D.C. are saying that they're doing it to try to save democracy. They're actually abdicating their responsibility, you know, in a Democratic Republic to represent the constituents that voted for them. Do you think it's going to come back to bite them in the election when people say, okay, this is where my taxpayer dollars are going?

Well, based on the polling that I have seen so far, people aren't happy that they fled. And I'm talking about independent voters. Of course, Republicans are not. Now, the hardcore Democrats, you know, they're fine. They're fine with that. They're going to vote with them no matter what. But if it follows the pattern that it did in 2003, 2022 is going to be a great year for Republicans in Texas. And you know, interestingly enough, this little bit of maybe in the weeds a little bit, but I think it's interesting is that the way the procedure works is that yesterday, Speaker Dave Phelan did a call on the house. And a call on the house means that, Every member has to be there unless they have an excused absence.

They could have a death in the family or something like that. And once that happens, they actually yesterday locked the house doors. Now, they went into recess and let everybody go home and, you know, sleep and all that type of stuff. But that call on the House continues so that the minute that a Democrat member enters back into Texas, they are subject to people hear about arrest. Well, they're not arrested going to jail. They're escorted by a state trooper to the Texas house so that they can do their job. And that's going to be really interesting to see how that turns out.

Yeah, because Greg Abbott said that they would be arrested when they came back to Texas. Well, they're technically arrested, but they're not arrested going to jail. They're going back to the Texas house to do their job. And, you know, the interesting thing is, too, these people are up there in Washington, During special session, they get a $200 a day per diem, you know, pays for hotels and stuff like that in Austin. And then they get, of course, their limited salary. So during this 30 days, if they stay gone, each of those people are going to get $6,000 for advocating their responsibility. And $600,000 with 60 people is, what is that?

That's $360,000, something like that. So that's Texas taxpayer money going to fund this boondoggle in D.C. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. I can't imagine that it wouldn't come back to bite them. So is it going to pass? Eventually, will the bill pass? Absolutely, 100%. And Democrats have the ability to try to amend the bill on the House floor and the Senate floor if they want to. Of course, it passed the Senate yesterday. But they have the ability to amend it on the House floor to have discussion. And they also have the ability to vote their constituents. They want to vote no. They can vote no. Okay. Well, that's good news. I know a lot of people.

People are worried about that, but they want these voter integrity bills. So the fact that this isn't going to thwart that, I know, will encourage a lot of people. So absolutely. Thank you for your insight on that. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality.

We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. I do want to talk to you about some personal, while some people had some business questions, Some people had some personal and parenting questions, a lot of curiosity about who Allie was as a child, as a teenager, things like that.

Let's start with some questions about one person had a question about their own politics and maybe political career. One person had a question about a business decision that they're making. One person asked, do you think that it's a good idea for them to, for someone to run for office while they still have? have a young family, like state office. That's a big decision. How would you encourage them to go about making that decision? Well, my response on that is that nobody should run for office until they've had life experience themselves. And I don't mean life experience. I've gone to high school and I've gone to college. I mean that they've actually gone out there and either signed the front of a paycheck or the back of a paycheck so that they can understand how laws that they're going to be voting on will affect

them and it's and it has affected them and so without regard to where they have a young family or not i believe people should go out especially if they're going to the state level now if they want to get involved as maybe a precinct chair which is a great place to start which is an elected position uh if they want to start on maybe their local school board or city council something like that i think that's those are good ideas to do i do believe that if you have a young family especially at the state level where you're gone away from them. In Texas, it's a little easier because we only were in session every other year for about six months. In a lot of states, it's every year for several months. I would have them think obviously and pray long and hard about that because that has to be a family decision.

They will give up some things for their family and they will miss some things for their young children. And they just have to decide whether or not the tradeoff for themselves and the family and the area which they're serving is worth that. It would be a big decision. It would be much easier to do that once your family has established itself a little bit. Because it's going to be very difficult on your spouse. You know, for mom and I, you were in college when I first ran. And so pretty much everybody was out of the house.

Now, you know, your brother, Daniel was not, he was still living at home with us because of his challenges and what have you. But it was much easier for us. We didn't have as much to consider. Yeah. I think a lot of people are very eager to get involved in some way. I get questions all the time asking, you know, what can I do? I don't like the curriculum that's being taught in the public school in my area or at my

kids' school. I don't like a lot of the things I'm seeing come down the pipeline. And I just kind of feel powerless. It feels like so many of our major institutions and obviously at least two branches of our federal government are all not just liberal, but they seem very opposed to Christian conservative values in a lot of ways. People want to speak up. They want to stand up, but they don't know if that means running for an elected position or if it just means being involved in their community. What would you encourage people to do? If it doesn't mean running for something,

just on a practical level in their everyday life, how do they stand up for the things that they believe in and maybe affects change, at least in their community? Well, first of all, I'm glad you brought this up because I want to tell everyone how thankful I am for critical race theory. Oh, really? And the reason for that is it has woken up, in my opinion, a sleeping giant of young moms and dads and older moms and dads that have said, you know what? Enough is enough. We're having more conservative participation in school board meetings and city council meetings than we've ever had before. You know, most of us that are conservative, we're trying to out, you know, build a business, do our job, raise our family, go to church. And so we,

have put some of those things on the side. And I understand that because you have to prioritize. But the best way to get engaged, the best way to get engaged is to make sure that you're at those school board meetings. That's probably the number one place. The thing that has the longest term effect on on what happens in our country is what goes on in our public schools. Yeah. And if your kids are in public schools, or even if they're in a private school and you have the ability to meet with them, it's still money. That's right. And you should, that's where you should, that's where you should, should make yourself known the most. The other thing that you can do, if you really want to make sure that the proper officials are elected, is that you can get off your dairy air and go help them

get elected. You say, well, I don't have a bunch of money. They're looking for big donors. You know what? Nope. The people that I remember the most, Allie, and all of my elections are the people that got out there and knocked on doors for me. And you say, well, I'm not a politician. I can't be a speaker. You don't have to do anything. Knock on the door, hand them a brochure saying, my family's voting for this. candidate. Yeah. That's what's most important. So you just, so to do that, you just look at who's running for the positions in your area and you basically just reach out to the campaign and you say, how can I help? Here's what I'm willing to do. And I would tell you to meet with, don't do it without meeting with the candidate themselves. If that candidate's unwilling to meet

with you or they're too busy, that's not the candidate to represent you. Yeah. So there are all types of ways that people can get involved and can speak up without running for office if that's not what they're prepared to do at the moment. Because like you said, that is a big sacrifice. That's that maybe God is calling, you know, more Christian conservatives to do, which is awesome. But like you said, there's a lot of issues right now that I think are waking people up, not just critical race theory, but also some of the sex ed that's coming down the pipeline for these schools. And people think, okay, it's not going to affect my community.

I'm in rural Alabama or Georgia or Texas. It's coming for you. I mean, that's just what progressivism does. So, yeah, I think that's really good encouragement and insight. And speaking of parents and parents who want to get involved, a lot of people, people ask, okay, what did your parents do to kind of instill you with Christian conservative values? I'm trying to do that for my kids, but it's hard because the world is saying other things. Like, what would you say are some things that you and mom that you feel like you guys did well

to instill those values in us? And what are some things that you wish that you would have done differently? Well, first of all, you've already had Lisa on here. Yes. And she was the number one reason. There's absolutely no question about that. Lisa's faith, your mom's faith is as strong as anybody I've ever seen. She's never, you know, it's funny the other day, one of our grandchildren, not yours, but one of our other grandchildren was talking to their cousin. And they said, do you know Grammy? And that's what, you know, they call them. And they said, no, who's Grammy? He says, well, Grammy like seeing in the Bible. So I thought that was really. She's nice. They said, she's nice. She like singing and the Bible. Yeah. And that really sums up mom. And so I think your ability to see

mom daily, daily in the word probably had the biggest influence. And her, she was very diligent and praying for all of us. Yeah, she absolutely did it. I think for me, the thing that a dad can do most is he can be someone that their kids can look up to as a man of character and integrity. And it has to be the same at home as it is outside. And I think we talked about that a lot growing up. We talked about what's right, what's wrong. We were very engaged in our own development of our self, personal development.

You know, Lisa and I just didn't get to be adults and just. stop. We said, how can we be better? How can we learn more? We both came from pretty meager backgrounds. You know, I tell people all the time, I was born in Louisiana, raised in Arkansas, got to Texas as fast as I could spell it at age 25. So it was really, I was squeezed four years of college into 10. So, you know, those things are, those things are hard to overcome. But, and I think us both having an early faith decision. You know, I was a youngster when I accepted Christ and Lisa and mom was too. And I think the foundation that was built over time, did we always stay exactly with it? No, but it was always there. Building that foundation allows you to have your kids something

to fall back on. And you probably talked about that before. I would just encourage people to just make sure that you're men and women of character and that you follow Christ at home as well as you do at church. Yeah. And we didn't, you know, we didn't sit around the dinner table and talk politics that much, although I do remember some political things. Like I remember the Bush Gore election. I knew who we were going for. I remember 9-11 being in fourth grade and what that meant. I remember always feeling a sense of patriotism and gratitude for living in a free country. And you guys, even whether it was intentional or not, although I think it probably was intentional, you definitely instilled in us a desire for. for entrepreneurism, a desire to kind of be our own boss for better and for worse. That has been good. It's also been difficult. It's difficult when you're not your own boss and you want to be. And so you kind of instilled that drive in us as well. And it was based on, I think, you know, what you and mom did and the tough decisions that you guys made when you got married at 19 and 20, you know, you didn't know what you were going to do. You didn't necessarily have a dream of your life,

but you just kind of put one foot in front of the other. For other people who are in that situation, they don't know what they want to do with their life. Maybe they don't have a grand vision or a grand dream, but they know they want to create a better life for themselves and their kids than they had growing up. Like, what's your advice for those young people or just adults in general making that decision?

I think the best advice that I've ever given someone, and I'm sure I heard it from someone else, was that always take the next uncomfortable step. I believe that God honors righteous action and that he's not sitting there saying, if you take that wrong step, I'm going to hit you over the head. It's not a whackamo. We don't serve a whackamo God. We serve a God that says, hey, this is who I am.

I care about you even more than your own earthly parents. And therefore, I love you more than them. And I want you to, yes, I have a plan for you, but I need for you to be able to have faith in that plan. And so if you've sought me and you have and you're feeling, hey, I don't know 100%, I want you to take that step. And I'll be there to guide you, stop you sometimes. There may be, there may be, you may suffer consequences from that. But that's just, you know, that's just the way it is.

You know, and when you were a teenager, things weren't always rosy between us. I think people would, you would admit that. You've probably talked about that. Most of that was my fault. because you and I are a lot of like and that were pretty headstrong. You probably more so than me. Maybe, maybe not. Wow.

Yeah, no, that's not true. That's a big statement. That's not true. That's a big statement. That's right. And, you know, mom was so important and saying, hey, I think we need to sit down and go to a counselor to figure this out because she felt like she was caught in the middle between us. And the things that we learned from that counselor, the things that I remember the most,

is that parents have to decide, especially as their kids. kids are getting older as to what's your family value. Okay. I think for us that was pretty simple. We didn't have a big problem with that. Where I got into the problem was what's the difference between a rule and a preference? In the world that I grew up in, everything was a rule. Okay.

And there were no preferences. The preferences were what I said, they were rules. And so I had to learn that many, many things that your kids go through are simply your preferences and they shouldn't be your rules. And that was very hard for me. But I think, and I think once we got past that, things were better. Also, I think prayer is so important. When you went off to college, Allie, we didn't know.

Anytime you send a kid off to college, the additional independence that you have is probably pretty overwhelming. mean, and most college kids don't handle it as well as they should. And I'm sure, as I've told all my kids, if you did something in college that you haven't told me about, don't tell me to ease your conscience. I don't want to know it in the future, right? But I think in your book, you've talked about some of those challenges and what have you, but I will tell you, and I've told people this 100 times, is that I've never seen somebody

mature more than they have in Christ in college, as you did. and you got with some girls that you had a Bible study, you know, you got with a small group of girls, you know, maybe not all the time, but some of the time you've got some mentors outside of your college that were just really, really important for you. And then, of course, you had mom and grandma still praying for you every day. So that was, that was, I think that was important. I think that's what you can do for your kids. You know, this is my last question and you just answered a lot of it, but a lot of people, different kinds of questions, but just, to sum it up, people want to know, okay, what was Allie like growing up? What was it like

Raising Allie? You already talked about was, you know, difficult sometimes in my teenage years because, like you said, we have those similar personalities and we're just kind of budding heads. But in general, people want to know what was Allie like as a child. Did you always expect me to do something like this? Does it surprise you that I'm doing something like this now? Or just kind of, what was it like? Well, that's interesting. First of all, I think, you were a very quick learner. I mean, you were verbal early on. You're very smart.

We could tell that. There was a pretty good gap between you and Daniel, you know, age-wise and Justin. So by the time we had you, poor Justin had to grow up with us because I was 20 when he was born, just almost for 21. Mom was 21. And so he kind of had to grow up with us. And I've apologized to him many times for that. He turned out. He turned out well.

By the time you were born, you know, things had settled down for us in financially and everything else. So I think we were able to take things, at least when you were a little at a slower pace. And everything wasn't brand new to us. And so we were able to enjoy probably your childhood even more than the others, only because we were separated. far enough from it in age. And I think that allowed you to maybe blossom into who you would be independently, maybe a little bit more so than we were able to do early with the other two. And very talkative, very headstrong.

I'll never forget when I'll never forget the car we had. We had this this red car. You were sitting in the back seat. You were five years old. I know exactly where we were. We were down by the Galleria. And we were, you and I were arguing. over something, all right?

And I don't even remember what that was, but I was trying to make my point. And at five years old, you said, well, dad, what do you want me to do? And it was like, it was like you were an adult. I mean, I was like you in that I couldn't wait to be an adult. I couldn't wait till I turned 30 to get the first bit of gray hair because I was always the youngest one in the room in whatever I was doing. And so I knew then, and I told mom this many times, is that you were just an adult. in a child's body.

And that's really, and so for you, when you got more independent, okay, now you didn't understand in high school like none of us did that the front lobel part of our brain hasn't fully developed yet. And it doesn't develop until we're about age 25. So we think all our decisions are the right ones. I thought the same thing in high school. You know, I thought exactly the same thing. That's why many times I knew what you were thinking.

Mom didn't think like that. That wasn't the way she processed stuff, right? But I knew that if we could ever get you to be an adult, you were going to be a great adult. Now, you might not make it, you know. We may have had to do something drastic, but it didn't work out that way. And you were going to be a great adult. And you are a great adult. Some of them we're very, very proud of.

Well, thank you very much. Being an adult, I have to say, is everything that I ever thought that it would be not having a bedtime, being able to eat ice cream whenever you want to. It really is as good as you think it's going to be when you're little. And of course, becoming a parent and being married in all of the wonderful things about adulthood, a lot of people say to put responsibility off as long as possible. But I could not recommend enough growing up. Yeah.

Growing up and becoming an adult and taking things seriously, it really is the most fruitful and fulfilling thing, not just for you, but I'm sure also for your parents to see that. Let me tell one more story. Okay. This is for dads. This is straight to dads, okay? Okay. A little bit to moms and the daughters.

But dads, you know, when I'm not. Ali Beth was in high school and she was dating, okay, which I was totally against. Didn't matter how she was. Which you should have been and I shouldn't have dated in high school. I'll just say that. I shouldn't have been dating in high school. Yes, yes. So, but one of the things I'd learned through some of my other mentors like John Maxwell

and others was, hey, you don't just let your daughter, first of all, go out with somebody you don't know. Don't let them, you know, if you can avoid it, trying to let them meet somewhere, make the boy come to the house. And so if you remember, Allie, the boys would have to come to the house. They would come into my office. And I was mortified. You were mortified.

I was mortified. My office was right off of our four-year area, this big kind of, you know, dark-paneled walls and all that type of stuff. And of course, I made them sit on the other side of the desk in a chair that was a little shorter than mine, which gets you in the dominant position. And they were all nervous. and I would I'd learn this I'll listen I forget who did this but somebody that I'd listen to on a radio program or something had done this and it's and so they would sit down I'd say tell me a little bit about yourself hey I'm glad you're I'm glad you're dating Ali taking Ali Beth out tonight what are y'all going to do do you understand you know the parameters and things like that and and when she

needs to be home and all that yes sir yes sir yes sir I said then I would hit this question with him I said are you going to marry my daughter oh my gosh See, I didn't even, it's better that I didn't know this. Are you going to marry my daughter? And, of course, they went into total sweat panic mode, right? Yeah, I imagine they would. No, sir. I said, oh, that's good.

I didn't, I don't expect that. I said, but you know what that means that you're dating somebody else's wife tonight? And you know what else it means? Somebody else is dating your wife. I want you to treat Ali Beth like you want your wife treated tonight. Can we do that? And then the last one was when I hate it. I'm sorry, I didn't even say this, but I think it's funny.

that says, and I would ask them every time, and I hated it because you know me well and if no it. Do you know what inappropriate touching means? Because if you don't, we'll talk about it. Oh, yes, or yes. You know, and so they would leave. Oh, my gosh. Just thoroughly embarrassed in time.

And yes, that is not something that she wanted to talk about with them. No, but I do think dads do not be afraid to do that. Yeah. Do not, your daughter will thank you for that later for standing up for her. secretly down deep, even then she probably appreciated it. Yeah, of course. There's a lot of people whose dads don't care. And I think one of the most detrimental things, and especially a girl's life, is to have a dad

who doesn't care. And I never had that problem. Even, you know, with the back and forth that we had, I never had a problem with parents who cared, and I'm very thankful for that. Thank you so much for coming on. Great job. Great conversation. I know a lot of people are really going to enjoy it.

Thank you. Hey, this is Steve Dase. if you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're

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