Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 774 | Allie's Dad on Trump's Possible Arrest, Life Lessons & His New Book

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

Today we have a very special guest – Allie's dad, Ron Simmons! He's here to talk about his new book, "Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon: 15 Ways to Take Charge and Create a Path to Success," in which he shares his story and advice on how to live the richly meaningful life you were meant to live. We discuss his upbringing and how this shaped his work ethic, meeting Allie's mom, and what the "little red wagon" in his book stands for. We talk about finding financial freedom, building up a business, and prioritizing being a present father. Then, we take a look at Trump's announcement on Truth Social that he will be arrested today. What's really going on, and what will the response be? --- Timecodes: (01:00) Giveaway (01:40) Interview begins (04:20) Growing up (13:40) Meeting Allie's mom & finances (21:45) Red wagon & making hard decisions (30:35) Building a business (36:29) Fatherhood (46:16) Life lessons (48:30) Cancer diagnoses (55:49) Trump arrest prediction --- Giveaway: We’re giving away three prize packages, all featuring some of our advertisers' products, new Relatable merch, and a copy of Allie's signed book.  Each package includes: A copy of Allie’s book, signed (one will receive THE copy of Allie’s book that’s been in the background of each show!) One crewneck from our new collection One tote from our new collection One hat from our new collection Three stickers Carly Jean Los Angeles: $250 gift card A’Del Cosmetics: skincare essentials kit Good Ranchers: $100 gift card + t-shirt Naturally It’s Clean: swag + cleaning products Range Leather: hat, earrings, leather bag Cozy Earth: pillowcase set How to enter: Follow @alliesshorts and @alliebstuckey on Instagram Tag three friends on the giveaway post on @allieshorts Follow our sponsors on Instagram: @carlyjeanlosangeles @adelnaturalcosmetics @goodranchers @naturallyitsclean @rangeleather @cozyearth You have until midnight Thursday, March 23 to enter. We will select three winners at random on Friday, March 24. NOTE: Make sure your Instagram can receive messages so we can tell you that you’ve won! --- Today's Sponsors: Cozy Earth — go to CozyEarth.com/ALLIE and use promo code 'ALLIE' at checkout to save 35% off your order! Carly Jean Los Angeles — use promo code 'ALLIEB' to save 20% off your first order at CarlyJeanLosAngeles.com! PublicSq. — download the PublicSq app from the App Store or Google Play, create a free account, and begin your search for freedom-loving businesses! BlazeTV — join BlazeTV today and get $30 off an Annual Pass with our Student, Military, or First Responder Discount! Just go to Subscribe.BlazeTV.com, click the verification button, and enter your ID to get started. --- Relevant Episodes: Ep 773 | SPECIAL EPISODE: New Set, Announcement, Giveaway & Other Fun! https://apple.co/40hqmQQ Ep 454 | Allie’s Dad on Texas Dems, Voting Bills & Raising Strong Kids | Guest: Ron Simmons https://apple.co/3LBomPb Ep 631 | Allie's Dad On the Economy, Fatherhood & Raising Christian Kids | Guest: Ron Simmons https://apple.co/3LEK7gQ Ep 693 | The Disturbing Truth About Breast Cancer Awareness Month | Guest: Chris Wark (Chris Beat Cancer) https://apple.co/3yVqKsp --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: 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. President Trump? Getting arrested? What in the world is going on? Well, to break this down to tell us what is really happening is my dad, Ron Simmons.

So we're going to talk about that at the end of the show. But we are also going to be talking about his new book, his first book, which I'm so excited. about and so proud of that is life lessons from the little red wagon so he's going to be talking some about his life story today which i i just find fascinating as someone who has heard it many times and i know you guys will too but in it he really expertly weaves in life lessons that can apply to all of us in any stage of life you're going to love this interview you're also going to love this book this episode is brought to you by our friends at good ranchers go to good ranchers dot com use promo code alia check out that's good ranchers dot com

Compt Code Alley. Okay, before we get into this conversation with my dad, I just want to remind you guys, we've got a giveaway going on. Just go to my Instagram. It'll tell you exactly what the giveaway entails, how you can enter. You've got until Thursday evening, I think Thursday at midnight to enter. We've got amazing gift cards and merge and all kinds of stuff included in this giveaway. So make sure that you go check that out.

Yesterday, we launched our new set. We revealed that for you. Also had a fun announcement and some fun things that we did. So go back and watch. or listen to that episode to check all of that out. All right. Now, without further ado, here is my dad. Dad, thanks so much for joining for the third time.

Has it been three times? Been three times. That's awesome. I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Yes, you're my first guest on the new set, which is an honor. This is a great set. I really like it.

That's good. And also, I get the first interview, which I think is fitting, since I am your daughter, for your new book, your first book, Life Lessons from the Little Reds. wagon 15 ways to take charge and create a path to success. I have not finished the book yet because my husband took the book with him, finished it in like a day on a work trip and he said that he could not put it down because it's not just good lessons, but it's a really good life story. So before

we get into all of it, tell me a little bit about what it was like just writing the book. It's been a few years in the making and how it was telling your life story and all that. Yeah, that was interesting. And, you know, you've written a book, so you understand this as well. But it's a lot harder than I thought it would be because you think when you're just kind of walking around thinking about it, that's pretty easy just to kind of put stuff down. And the way I did it is I had a partner, Don Yeager, who's one of the great storytellers of all time. He's written books for people like Jack Nicholas and others. And so Don and I would spend an hour or so on the phone, I don't know, maybe once every

couple of weeks or so. And he would just ask questions. And it would kind of bring up stories and things. And there were things, and obviously, that I wanted to talk about as well. So it was an interesting journey. And y'all know one thing, you're always glad that when you've completed it. So I'm really excited about it coming out. Actually, it comes out today officially. Yeah. And was it difficult for you to kind of reach into parts of your past and your upbringing that were maybe not the most comfortable to talk about? Because you didn't necessarily have this perfect home with perfect parents and an easy go of it. Was that tough? Well, I think it's tough anytime you make yourself vulnerable. However, it's really the reason I did the book. The reason I did

the book was because I know there are a lot more people out there like me that have regular lives than the lives people see on Instagram or TikTok or whatever it is they're looking at these days. And I wanted to make sure that those people received encouragement from just a guy who had his ups and downs and, you know, parents had their ups and downs and the things that we've dealt with in our own family, which you know about. And so that was really the reason for it. In order for that to be effective, I needed to be vulnerable. Yeah. So let's talk about a few of those things. Obviously, we want people to go out and get the book. And so we're not going to talk about all the details of his life or even all the lessons that he weaves in there. But just tell us a little

bit about what kind of life you were born into and what that looked like and how you kind of started doing what you do. Yeah, well, that's, it's an interesting. It's really kind of the basis for the book is that, you know, my mom and dad were public school teachers. And so they were the first ones in their families to go to college. They met at college at a small college in Louisiana. And things were with four kids. They had four kids. I have, you know, two brothers and one sister. Things were tough financially. Not only is Louisiana and Arkansas kind of at the bottom of the education rankings in a lot of ways, they certainly are there for teacher salaries. And so not only did they pick a job that doesn't pay a lot anyway, but certainly in Arkansas and Louisiana where we grew up.

So it was really a tough thing. And it always bothered me. It always bothered me that everything that we basically did revolved around money. And even as a little, little guy that bothered me. And so, and I don't remember the exact time, but somewhere in my early life, probably before I was a teenager, it was in my mind that I did not want to grow up and live like that, that I wanted to have some type of financial security or wherewithal so that I didn't have to make every decision based on money. It was just stress. You felt like it was always on their minds and kind of weighing on their shoulders? Yeah, there's no question about it. One story I tell in there, which is kind of funny, is that we lived on what I called the Oreo diet. And my mom

and dad got paid once a month as schoolteachers, not every couple of weeks like we're used to now. And we would go to the grocery store. And when she went to the grocery store once a month, you know, she'd buy everything that she could, mostly off-brand stuff, but she would generally buy a pack of Oreos or something like that. And I knew that when we got to the end of the Oreos, that the things were going to be pretty slim the rest of the month for as far as food was concerned. So I called it the Oreo diet that we lived on. And you said that you didn't like the stress that it caused and just the constant revolving around finances and what you guys didn't have. And as you said, getting to the end of the month and feeling like you didn't have enough.

At the time, did you resent your parents? Were you angry about the circumstance that you were in? I don't know that I resented them personally, but I was very disappointed. pointed at the circumstance that we were in. I just didn't feel like it was, you know, at that stage, what do we say? It's not fair, right? I don't know if you ever said that when you were growing up. I never said that. But I would say it was not fair, right?

And I was a middle child, which has other issues that go along with that, because you're always trying to make a name for yourself and differentiate yourself. And I just thought, man, I just got to get out of here so I could make my own way. because the stress around and the stress developed, I believe that was a lot of reason my mom and dad ended up getting a divorce was part of the stress that was on top of that. Because, you know, when you have that type of money stress so that you're thinking about that all the time, then you really, the relationship that you had when you were dating goes away. Yeah.

You don't really enjoy each other because you're having to come together and make very, very tough decisions and you miss out on a lot of the enjoyment you should be having as a couple. And it's not just the financial stress that was weighing on the family. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with your parents, your relationship with your dad specifically. What was that like? Well, you know, my mom and dad, they're good people. Okay. They are good people, so I don't want to say that they're not. And mom's passed away, as you know. But my dad was a good person, very outgoing, very talented musically and whatever. But he and I were, in some ways, our personized was similar. But really, the way we look at the world was taught. totally different. So, and my dad and mom divorced when I was in high school, and my dad basically left, and so we didn't really have much of relationship at all after about the time I was 16. And we still communicate today, but it's just a different relationship than I wanted or think it should be. And so that was tough because I really never had, in my mind, a guide when we

were having kids and raising kids, okay, well, what's a dad supposed to do in this situation? What's a dad supposed to do in that situation? And so I'm sure I made a lot more mistakes than I should have made. And again, I don't, I'm not not trying to be the victim, but it's very, very difficult when you don't have that guide. Yeah. So you're 16 and your dad basically leaves. you felt like you had to grow up really quickly and provide for yourself then, right? I did. I did. And in my senior year, by the time I was a senior in high school, which I graduated in high school when I was 17 because I started just a few months early, my mom and dad had divorced and my dad had moved away. My mom had actually taken my younger sister and brother

and moved about 50 miles away. So my senior year, I spent most of the time, I'll basically couch surfing, staying with friends. Sometimes I would go home and then drive back up to school early in the morning, 50 miles away. But it was a tough thing. So I knew by the time I started my senior year that as soon as I graduated, I was going to be on my own. Yeah. And you worked at a grocery store starting when you were 15 or 16? I would have been probably 15 when I started working at a grocery store and then continued doing some of that, you know, while I was in school making money and doing other odd jobs and mowing yards. was at 6 a.m. on Saturdays?

6 a.m. on Saturdays unloading the produce truck. That's exactly right. We had to get up and unload the produce truck. And I'll never forget one night I was playing. I played high school football. And I happened to be on the sidelines for just a couple of plays because when I was a junior or senior, I didn't sit out very much. And the lady that owned the grocery store came over and pulled me off the sideline

to remind me that we had the produce truck coming in the next morning. Don't stay out too late. Yeah. And, you know, focus on what's really important, right? Yeah. But that small town, that small town growing up, which I wouldn't have traded that for anything in the world. I love the fact that I grew up in a small town because there was a limit on the amount of mischievous that you could get into. And as a 16 to 17 year old without much parental guidance at the time because they were focusing on their own issues, it could have gone off the rails pretty easily.

And yet the Lord kept you busy, which you probably didn't like at the time, but that busyness and the need to provide for yourself probably kept you out of trouble too. I believe that's correct. Yeah, I obviously didn't see it at the time. At the time, I resented it. Yeah. Because my friends, most of them didn't have to do that. And so how did you make it to college?

Because you went to college, you squeezed, as you say, four years into 10, right? That's talented. That takes talent, by the way. That's very talent. How many people can do that? So how did you even decide, no, I'm going to go to college? I think most people in your circumstances providing for themselves would just say, you know what? I just need to keep working, even if it's at the grocery store.

Why'd you decide to go to Southern Arkansas? You know, I would give my mom a dead credit for that. It was never, there was never a time growing up that all four of us weren't going to go to college. It just was never something that we, I don't even think any four of us considered not going to college. So I just had to figure out how to go to college. It wasn't if I was going to college. It's how did I go to college. And I knew, I knew that my intellect would allow me to make it through college.

I just had to figure out how I was going to get it done. And I reverted to kind of what ended up being the easiest or least expensive way to do it. And that would go to a local community, what we would call a community college right now. Then they called it Juniper College. 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. So you went to junior college and you worked through college. You met mom. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, actually, I had met mom when I was a, I didn't remember this, she remembered it. When I was a senior in high school, I met her. She was in a beauty pageant, and the girl I was dating at the time was in the same beauty pageant. And so the day of the beauty pageant, a friend of mine and I, who had both been injured the night before,

or maybe the week before in a football game, I had tore my ACL and he had injured his neck. we had gone up to see our girlfriends while they were practicing getting ready for the pageant that night. And for whatever reason, Mom remembers this, that she came out and met me when I was talking to the girl I was dating at the time. And so mom remembered that. And she said, I asked you, what happened to you? Did you have a car wreck? And I said, yeah, a wrecked with Strong. And Strong was the name of the town, the football team we were playing.

And so, no, that was the line. That got her, didn't it? Got it. Got it. But when we started college, I met her again because she went to the junior college as well, and we had a couple classes together, biology and psychology. Okay. And mom says both of them worked over the long time.

There you go. Okay. So take us a little bit further ahead. You worked your way through college. You started working at Murphy Oil. Correct. That was your first job. I mean, not out of college because you still had to continue college later on.

But that was your first real job after you and mom got married. You all lived first in a house and then in a mobile home. The mom says was infested with water bugs, which are cockroaches, if you all don't know. All of that is true. She has PTSD from that mobile home. So tell us a little bit about the early marriage years, that stage of life, because I know that wasn't easy either. Yes. Well, the reason I went to work for Murphy Oil, because mom and I had planned after our first year of college,

after we started dating and everything, we were going to go to Louisiana Tech. We were big time in it, right? It was going to be a four-year college. We were going to go down there, live on campus. You know, she would live in the girl's dorm. I would live in the boys' dorm, yada, yada, yada. We didn't really know how we're going to pay for it. You know, she didn't have a lot of money either,

but we could get student loans and stuff at the time. But a friend of mine said, hey, they've got job openings at Murphy Oil. And Murphy Oil and the town we lived in was the big dog, right? I mean, they were a Fortune 500 company in a very small town of 20,000 people. and so I said, well, okay, I'm interested in that. And I said, where is it doing? It said, well, it's in the mail room, which I didn't even know really what that meant. I mean, I knew it had something to do with mail.

But the key was is that they would pay for two-thirds of your college tuition and books if you had, if you worked for them and you kept a, made a B or higher in grades, if your grade would be or higher. And so I said, okay, that sounds like a good deal to me. So I went and applied for it and got the job. literally at the bottom of the rung of the ladder. There's nothing lower than the mailroom in a group, in an organization like that. So I would go to the post office every day, pick up these huge bundles of mail,

and then me and some other people would deliver them to the individual offices around the building. But you didn't stay there. You didn't stay in the mailroom. Did not stay in the mail room. Every day we're looking for different job openings, right? It was easy because at the time, you know how you have job posting websites now. Well, back then, before the Internet, they posted a job same way, but it was physical posting on these bulletin boards, okay, that were in departments. And in the mailroom, every job they posted was better than the one I had.

So I would apply for almost anything that came up, and I ended up getting a job in their HR department. And that's how I got involved in learning investments and retirement plans and things like that. And again, I didn't care about them one way or the other. I was just looking to make more money for my little family. And in the back of your mind, because you and mom, y'all were, you were 19 when you got married. Yep. A few months away from 20. Mom was 20.

Y'all were 21. You were almost 21, right, when Justin, when your oldest was born. And so in the back of your head, too, you're not just thinking about mom and Justin. You're also thinking, I don't want to forever have to be beholden to financial stress. You were trying to find some freedom for your family so that you can make choices based on other things rather than how are we going to make ends meet. So is that part of, I mean, what's driving you to figure out all this stuff? That's the number one thing that's driving me. Absolutely no question about it is how can I get to the point to avoid financial mediocrity?

At that time, we certainly were still probably, it would be considered below middle income. You know, we weren't, I don't think we were at a middle income yet. but, you know, living expenses were pretty small and all like that. But I also knew I need, it took almost everything we had to live off of. And so therefore I knew we really weren't getting ahead, right? We were treading water. And so I was constantly thinking about how do we, how do we break out of this, right? What do we do?

I don't have, Murphy's not my last name. So there's certainly limit us to how far I could go in that company, although it was a great company to work for. And I didn't really have, again, I didn't have any mentors at the time. that I could talk to. I didn't, you know, my dad wasn't in a situation that I could talk to him. My grandparents, my one grandfather was passed away, and my mom's grandfather had had a stroke. So there wasn't really anybody to talk to about things like that. I didn't really know what to do.

I mean, I call you. I mean, sometimes daily, but definitely weekly, either to talk through a news story or to talk through a contract or to talk through an opportunity. I mean, that's invaluable to me. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing without that. I can't even imagine being just trying to navigate it almost completely alone and having no one to look toward to say, okay, that's it. And really one piece of guidance that you got was that you needed new shoes, right?

Oh, I need. Well, yeah, my boss at Murphy, when I, you know, moved out of the mailroom, was pretty casual up to where at the time, you had to wear a coat and tie every day, you know, as guys and ladies wore skirts or, or, you know, slacks and things like that. And so we didn't have enough money. And I probably didn't take care of my shoes as well as I should. And my boss would kind of make fun of me a little bit.

Now, I do think in his own way, he was trying to help you a little bit, right? Yeah. Mom didn't think so. She was mad. She was bitter. Probably still bitter to this day. Oh, yeah. But I do think it helped me because I didn't have anybody doing that.

I mean, that's something that your, that your mentor might do, right? Yeah. And so I probably was embarrassed at the time, but I appreciated it very much. And hey, you need to at least shine your shoes, right? So he told you basically that you needed new shoes. You called Mom and you said, Lisa, I need new shoes. Mom says that she had to dig into the couch for coins and for extra money lying around and was like, how in the world am I going to be able to afford new shoes?

That's right. And she did that, you know, and we were a team. I mean, from day one, we were a team. and I don't think we ever We didn't always agree on everything But we've always been a team And at the end of the day We did things like that together for sure

Yeah, okay, before we transition To the next season of your life I don't want to disregard The title of the book Which is about the red wagon And the different parts of the wagon And how that is really kind of a metaphor For your life

And some of the first few things That you talk about are the part to the wagon Which we can get into But also expecting the unexpected And taking the next comfortable step and also continuing to look forward. I mean, yes, that's true in all your stages of life. But when we look back to those early years, which are really the most fascinating to me,

because they're the most kind of foreign to me, I mean, you implemented all of those steps, expecting the unexpected, the next comfortable step, continuing to look forward. What does all that have to do with the red wagon? Well, you know, when I opened the book a little bit on a story about my own red wagon when I was about six years old and an accident that I had. in it and I'll let people read that to find out what happened on that. But as I went, as I was thinking about, I wasn't thinking about it at the time, okay, or even at the time I was in my early 20s, but as I've matured, I've thought about, just think about life, right, like we all do and whatever.

And as I think about the red wagon, the red wagon really is something that everybody can relate to. At some point in time, all of us have had a toy wagon of some type. The most famous is the radio flyer. But the wagon has components. And those components to me definitely have, each of those components have a important part on how life is done. Like for example, if you're sitting in the wagon and the handle is just flopping around and you start going down a hill, you don't know what direction you're going in. Wherever the wagon takes you is where you're going, right? You don't have any control over that because you don't have the handle. If you have the handle, then you can guide the wagon anywhere you want it to go. However,

you may get to a point where it's too heavy to carry. Maybe the cargo in it's too heavy. And as a young father, sometimes the cargo in that wagon, which was mom and your brother and your two brothers, actually, became very heavy. And I needed somebody to help me push the wagon. And that's what people do. And those sometimes, those are your encouragers. or those are your mentors or sometimes it's your faith, right? It's an invisible force that's pushing the wagon. And for us, for people like myself and you who are people of faith, we believe that's God helping us along in that.

Yeah. So tell us about that. Tell us about pulling, pushing, guiding the wagon along through what I know was a very turbulent time. You know, Mom's Mom died. Justin and Daniel, they're young. Daniel was born, 1985, and y'all are about to move, take a big move from.

Arkansas, small town Arkansas, which you just described, to Dallas, which Dallas back in 1985, now we would consider it a small town, but that was big time. That was big time then. So tell us a little bit about that. How in the world did you make that decision? Well, I made the decision based on the financial mediocrity question we talked to earlier in that. I enjoyed my, what had happened is, is I had, the company had done a compensation survey by an outside firm on how much money people should make in certain jobs. And it came out that I was making quite a bit less than what I should have been making based on the job they were asking me to do. But they wouldn't raise my pay up to that level all at one time. They wanted to do it gradually.

And that bothered me because I wanted to get paid for everything I was worth. And they were like, well, you know, you're too young. You don't have a degree yet. I know what they were thinking. They were thinking he's not going to go anywhere. Well. Because you didn't, they thought, well, you don't have a better opportunity. You don't even have a degree. Well, you know me well enough to know. That's when I start looking. Yeah. So I started looking for a job. I had a lady that used to work with us in the HR department that had moved to Dallas because she was from that area. And I asked her to start sending me the Dallas Morning News, the Sunday paper. And she would send that to me, and we would just look for jobs. And then I applied for a couple of jobs and, you know, was able to get

one. And then Murphy tried to keep me there, wanted to match the pay. And I said, no, I'm not doing that. If I'm worth that today, I was worth that yesterday. And mom was not very happy about that. Because she was used to live in where she was. And her mom had not passed away yet. And we had the two babies and all that. But I just knew that I needed to move on. And I probably didn't handle it with her as respectfully or as gently as I could have. So I don't feel good about that. But I do, I never questioned whether it was the right thing to do. And I think that's where, you know, I mean, God was just kind of saying, okay, man, I'm going to have to be your mentor right now. Yeah, because you didn't have anyone telling you what you need to do.

Okay, so you moved to Dallas. Yeah. And that did prove to be the right thing. I don't think your life would have turned out the same if y'all had stayed back in Arkansas, even though it was really hard, I think, in a lot of ways. So. And that's what I tell people a lot in the book to, the big thing in the book, one of the big messages is take the next uncomfortable step.

Yeah. You know, a lot of times, especially, especially I will talk to my friends that have a faith, is that they'll say, well, I'm just going to wait. I'm just waiting on God, right? I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, right? And sometimes that's absolutely the right thing to do. But sometimes God might be saying, hey, you know what? I need you to move.

I need to see what decisions you are going to make. Where is your faith? I need to test your faith here. And I don't, because I, if you think about, if you think about, God being a loving father. Okay. Then a loving father isn't sitting waiting for you to make the wrong move so he can bop you on the head.

Even if you make the wrong move, he wants to gently move you back in the right direction. So I always needed in my mind to have that picture of how God was. Now, I hope that's the truth. It's the truth to me. And so I just knew that that was the right thing to do. and the confirmation that happened after we moved were just incredible. And we talk about a lot of those in the book. Yeah.

Because the people that we are close to today are some of the very first people we met when we moved here, which is phenomenal because that's been 37 years ago. And you and mom were always really good about helping my brothers and me think through that. Like when I was thinking through college, I had some teachers say the same thing. But definitely today, I think it's more popular for my age people to say, while to be paralyzed by overthinking, paralyzed by overanalysis, paralyzed even sometimes by prayer, just getting stuck in the spiritualism of it. But I do remember you and mom saying, you know, college isn't jail. You can make a decision. That's what mom said. College isn't jail.

You can make a decision to leave and to move. And as long as the decision that you're making isn't sin, you know that it's not sin, you know, it's not disobedient to God. Like, it's going to be okay. The Holy Spirit will guide you. And thankfully, God is the one who's perfect, we're not. And I think I've always said that God honors righteous action. So if you have a righteous heart or a heart that you believe, like you said, doing the right thing, then even if it's a mistake, you're going to get gently loved back into the right area. And, you know, if I'm doing it out of pride or something like that, it might be a little more harsh.

And certainly I've experienced those things as well. But it was a good move. And the Lord really blessed us with meeting some really good friends. friends here. And for me, some business people that kind of helped me move to take, move on and realize a bigger picture about what might be available to me. So what you learned at Murphy Oil, because you took the next uncomfortable steps, you learned about investments, retirements. And again, you said, this is not something that you were, oh my gosh, I'm so passionate about this. But you saw this as a way to make good financial decisions for your family. You move to Dallas. You get into

investments. You get into retirements. then eventually you take over your own retirement investment company. This is early 90s, right? Yep. Yeah. And tell me about some one time you told me a funny story. You sat down with one of your colleagues with two guys. I think that you maybe wanted to invest in your company and you said something along the lines to them. You know, we can make you rich or something if you invest in a company. Oh yeah. Let me tell you. Yeah. Tell us how you were kind of, because you're confident. You've already said that. You're confident, but these people kind of put you in your place. Which is something that a lot of people experience.

You heard the adage pride cometh before the fall? Yeah. Well, here's a perfect example of that. Okay, news alert. So actually, these were our chief investors in our company. They had helped us get the company started. Is this RAA? This is RAA.

First, it was P.H&H. No, first it was First Southern Trust. Okay. And then it was Retirement Advisors of America, which was RAA. Okay. And RIA, the RIA was the company that a couple of us put together and started in late, 1990, early 1991. And things were going pretty well, probably a year or two into it. I don't remember

exactly when it was. And we were having a board of directors meeting. It was myself, my partner, and three outside people that put the money up to start the company, because we didn't have enough money to start the company. They had to help get us going until we made a profit, right? And it was pretty expensive. They had probably put, at the time, they'd probably put a couple million dollars into the company. So it wasn't a small amount. Yeah. And we don't have time to get into it, but you had to like find these investors and convince them to invest your company. So that's a whole skill that, yeah, I guess you just naturally had. And they, I mean, I mean, obviously, I think those were God things that he helped along the way.

But so anyway, we have this board meeting. And my partner had already decided, look, this thing's going pretty well. We don't really own as much of this company as we'd like to. So really we're going to, we're going to keep making them rich. That's all we're doing. And so we had a whole game plan. what we're going to say when they came in and we got started and my partner was going to start it. So you didn't think it was fair, just to reiterate. You didn't think it was fair. You thought that you and this guy should own more of the companies than these guys that you're about to talk to. And therefore get more of the profits, right?

And so my colleague was going to get it started and everything. He kind of fumbled around. So I thought, okay, I got to get this going. So I said, Jim and Rick and Bill, that were their names. I said, you know, things are going well. Appreciate all you do for us. but, you know, we're just tired of making y'all richer. We want to be rich, too.

And I'll never forget Jim, who was the senior guy who had a large stake in Morgan Stanley and was many times wealthy over, never looked up. He said, we're already rich. Next question. What did you say? Oh, man, we just, it was, I had nothing to say. It was, I just like, okay, okay, move on. Yes, let's do that.

So that was, we definitely didn't handle that one, correct. Although I will give them credit. They didn't just, you know, boot us out the door either. And the investment was a good investment for them. And it was a good investment for us, too. Yeah. Tell us maybe a little bit about the beginning of starting that company, some mistakes you made and some lessons learned.

Because this was another risk, another uncomfortable step that you took in starting something that you didn't know originally would be successful. Yeah. And I don't really know, Allie, if I know the answer to this particular thing I'm going to talk about, is that my the the other guy that helped me start uh we had both worked at the same company before and we came over this new company he and i were different personality wise and there were some things in his personality that um that made me wonder you know and uh and mom also you know kind of had a you know a little bit of a women's intuition which i believe was a real thing you know

something something's not 100% right. Although, but for me, I wanted to make this move so bad, I think I probably overlooked some things about his character that, you know, probably shouldn't have. It ended up working out okay, but I tell you what it did cause is it caused an event that was hugely stressful because about three years into the deal, the board members I was telling you about Jim, Bill, and Rick came down to the office and they said, Ron, you're going to be CEO in about five minutes because we're firing your partner. And it was a, it was a tough. I had no idea that was going to happen. I do that they had had some problems working with him and he, you know, wasn't very responsive to him and all that and what have any. He probably wasn't doing everything he

was supposed to be doing. And, and it was tough because it really, really hurt my relationship with him. He thought I was part I was in on it. Part of the ousting. Yeah. And that was very tough. And I think the lessons that I learned in that is you really, and I talk about this the other day to somebody, is that you really have to be slow in picking your partners. Take your time in picking your partners. In all realms of life. In all realms of life. That's exactly right. Because once you do it, you do need to stay committed to them. And I think I've made that, certainly made that mistake. of not being as deliberate as I should have been in that process. Yeah.

And there's so much more we could talk about with your business life and what was motivating you. But you talk a lot about personal life too, which I'm sure was even harder to talk about because, like you said, in the beginning, it is vulnerable. You talk a lot about being a dad. You talk a lot about us kids. And so we know that you were motivated by you wanted your family to be financially free. You worked really hard. A lot of times you worked long hours, especially 90s, early 2000s.

You're building this business. You become CEO. Tell us what it was like also being a dad. At this point, Justin's, you know, in high school, Daniels around there, I'm young. I'm little. Tell us about this time. Once you all got to Texas, what it was like working that hard and trying to be a more present dad than your dad was. Yeah.

You know, it was something that was in my mind. all the time and I felt like that I was gone a lot. But it is interesting because, and I don't remember how long ago this was, but it wasn't that long ago that Justin said or either wrote something somewhere that I read, your oldest brother, said, you know, Dad, I don't ever remember you missing one of my games. And I don't think I did very much because it was really, a high priority for me that I was present for things that were important to y'all. And so I think I probably did a little better job of that than I felt at the time because I do remember feeling

it was constant stress, right? Constant stress of I need to be doing this to help this business grow, but I also have these obligations. And I'll tell you, if you don't really have a strong partner, and I'm talking about Lisa now, my wife, you know, your mom. mom and that relationship if that isn't strong and if you don't have a a wife or a spouse that's totally sold out on what y'all are doing as a family team then you're with me doing what I was doing there's no way that marriage was going to stay together 100% and I don't take much credit for that most of that credit goes to mom because she was dealing with you know all of the stuff that goes on day-to-day in a young family while I was focusing most of my attention on a

day-to-day basis on the on the business I would definitely try to be present as much as I could be and I think I did as good a job of that as I could but without mom there a lot of those marriages end up split just because of that right there but she you know she said she said this more than once to people I've heard her say it when they would say you know what do you because I would you know, take these business risk and other things and she would say, people would say, what do you think about that, Lisa? Or do you not, does that bother you? Says, yep, it bothers me.

And I don't know about that, but I believe in him. Yeah. And that's really what was important and why, you know, things. And the fact that, you know, my mom lived with us for a while. When you were little, she lived with us for a long time. And she was a big help in that. And I think that Lisa and her had such a good relationship. And I give most of the credit to Lisa because it's sometimes hard to get along with your

mother-in-law. but she had a true love for mom and mom loved her and that really worked out to be a good partnership there too. Not for me. If my mother-in-law is listening to this, I have a great relationship with my mother-in-law and she makes it very easy. Yes, she does. But that's true.

I mean, I had a great relationship with grandma and also a really close relationship with mom. And of course, the most important thing for me when I was growing up, I was a basketball star and you somehow made it to my basketball games. That's right. That's sarcasm. That's not true. I was mostly thinking about where we were going to go to lunch after. Yeah. And you would ask those questions in very important timeouts when Coach Bart was trying to get you to focus on the game. I wasn't interested at all.

Where we're going to eat? That was your number one thing. No, social hour. I'm ready for it. But I remember you saying, so you made it to all these games, even though, I mean, I do remember, and I think I carry a lot of these characteristics that you have. Like, I enjoy working. I feel like I can carry the stress. of doing all that. We can never do it as perfectly as we think that we're doing it. But I mean, I remember you being busy. I remember you staying up late. I remember you working a lot. But I also remember you telling a story that you have a memory of your dad not showing up to some important events and important meets in your life, right? I'm sure that whether you realize it or not, that was in the back of your mind. It probably was. I'm sure it was

and I was not going to. Plus, I enjoyed being a part of those important times. You never know when your kids are doing an event, whatever that happens to be, whether that's a Bible memory verse at their Sunday school class for church or their sports event or their play or whatever, you never know when one of those events is going to be, have a lifelong, life lasting effect on them. And you want to be there when that happens. Tell us a little bit about, I mean, you talk about the challenges with one of my brothers, my middle brothers, who we know is special in so many ways and beats us in a lot of ways, whether it comes to memory, being able to find things, creativity, good ideas, innovation.

But there were struggles there growing up. It's not always easy finding the right school and opportunities for someone who doesn't necessarily fit the mold. And he doesn't. Yeah. Well, certainly Daniel was a square peg and a lot of round holes. And we didn't know what it was at the time. Lisa with her teaching background knew he wasn't developing properly and trying to find the right

education scenario for him and getting told by your Christian education school at the time that he didn't have the gray matter to go to their school and you need to get him out before the end of the first six weeks when he was in first grade. Basically, if people don't understand, his, he's just not, his brain doesn't work enough. That's what they thought. Yeah, that's what they thought. Yeah. Which was probably to this day, the most.

difficult thing I've ever had to hear. Yeah. And hurtful, especially coming from your church school, right? It was just like, seriously? Anyway, so, but I will tell you what, it put us to work on knowing that we needed to lead his wagon. And the biggest challenge when you have someone like Daniel, who obviously we love dearly, is the way life works is that having your kids in your wagon as cargo,

carrying them along is something that you plan on doing. That's part of life. But when they get to college and beyond, you expect them to get out of the wagon, kind of go on their own. Occasionally they may have to jump back in for a little help and whatever, but mostly go on their own. When you have someone that has a disability like that,

they're going to be in your wagon the entire time. And that is, that's something you have to almost, you have to reorganize yourself to accept that and plan around that. And so that's the things that Lisa and I have, you know, had to figure out over time. And now he's, you know, well into his 30s and, and, you know, it's just, it's just something that we as a family have to deal with. And it was, it was definitely hard. There's no question about it. But you know what? It was hard on us, but it was hard on him

too. Yeah. It was hard on y'all. And so we have to, I have to remember that to whatever it is that I'm complaining about because I don't have, you know, the flexibility maybe that I want to because of the things we have to think about with him, it's nothing compared to. He would trade all of that to be like us. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of parents out there either you've got a special needs child, whatever it is, whether it's on the autism spectrum or they just learn a little bit differently, whether they have Down syndrome. There's a whole range of special needs. And it can be, I mean, especially today, a lot of people are like, you know what, public school, I don't know if that's the best option for my kids. That's how you all

felt for us who wanted us to get a Christian education. Sometimes Christian education isn't an option for these kinds of kids. And a lot of these parents are stressed with that. And then they're thinking, oh my gosh, I'm never going to have the retirement or the, you know, the later years that I thought that I was going to have because I'm going to always be taking care of my child. And so I just really encourage, especially those of you who fall into that camp to read this book, because that is an unexpected challenge that you guys just didn't know that has turned into a blessing in a lot of ways. Yeah, it's an unexpected challenge and unexpected benefit because I will tell you, the one thing that Daniel, I think, has done for me is it's also made me slow down.

And it's made me have perspective on things that I probably wouldn't have had the perspective on. Yeah. Okay. Gosh, I could talk for another hour about your story. I do just, I want to read people the lessons. So you're going to get an amazing story when you read this and it'll, you know, go chronologically through his life in a lot of ways. My husband said that he couldn't put this down because it's just a really, really good story. And also my grandpa, my mom's dad, also, who is not a big reader.

He doesn't really read, but he called. And, you know, we don't have time for the story. But for whatever reason, my dad and my grandpa call each other George. Neither of them are named George. But he said that George's book, was one that he also couldn't put down. So there are a few lessons that are learned. Finding your place in the red wagon.

So that'll talk more about what the metaphor is and what all the parts of the wagon represent. Expect the unexpected. The next uncomfortable step. Continue looking forward. Finding your place on the team. The fear of failure. Create your opportunity.

Yes, isn't always easy. Seek out mentors and get unstuck. Change your method, not your message. Are you a participant or a crusader? Get out of your comfort zone. either you're a show pony, a plow horse or a workhorse, victory after despair, and then dreams of a better tomorrow. And in all of those, you have an action. So something that's happening, all of those you have something to consider, a lesson to learn, and then a takeaway. So it's a story,

but interwoven are three really, really clear steps. And I mean, you can read this book in like a day and learn a lot about it. So I hope so. I hope so. I hope it comes out there. And you know, The last thing I guess I would say about the book is that it also talks about my life in public service as being a state representative and all of that because it was a total change. I had to, you know, in the investment deal, I was the guy holding the handle, right? Well, when I totally changed and went into public service, I didn't know anything about that. So I had to crawl back in the wagon and be the cargo for a while and let other people pull the wagon for me until I learned what I was doing. And I think you have to realize it. Sometimes in your life, you're not always going to be on the handle.

Sometimes you've got to get your right spot. If you're supposed to be the cargo and you've got the handle, then that's going to be trouble. That's going to be trouble because then you definitely are going to be stuck. It's going to be stuck. That's exactly right. Well, actually, the last thing I do want to talk about because this is an epilogue. You were just saying how there's a long epilogue in here. Because talk about a curveball and talk about not knowing, you know, how you're going to navigate this wagon.

You and mom in the past year were both diagnosed with cancer. You didn't know that when you were writing this book. So tell us a little bit about that. And what has that been like over the past year? Yeah, that's really been, you know, as interesting, almost in fact, we're doing this podcast, almost a year to the day that we found out about Lisa's breast cancer. And we're rocking along like everybody else does.

I think we're in pretty good health. We don't really have cancer in our family history, in our background. So we don't have that. So it's not something we really think about. but, you know, Lisa got diagnosed with breast cancer last March, and that sent us in a, you know, just a little bit of a spin, okay, what's this mean? What are we going to do? You know, we're always thinking about, okay, we've got our life already planned out. We don't need this one. And, but I will, I tell you what it does. First of all, it makes you figure out what's really important, you know. It makes you reflect, which we should be doing more anyway. And then it makes you make a decision of how determined you to do what you can to take care of this and become healthy, do what you can. And Lisa went headlong into research, which is her. Well, she does. She does. She's always done that. Maybe it's her teacher background. She likes learning. Great. Reader comprehends everything. She reads.

Yeah, she's very, very good. Analyzer. And so she really started looking at nutritional ways that would help her be more healthy. She went ahead and did the surgery to have the tumor removed, and thank goodness it was small, and she had a few rounds of radiation. But I don't think any of that would have gone as well had she not got involved in this nutrition scenario. Which I've had the guy on my show that she followed Chris Work, Chris Beak Cancer. And so Mom went, and I know I'm not saying that this is necessarily the

that everyone takes, but my mom went full vegan, which was hard for her because that meant she had to give up coffee because she doesn't like coffee without milk in it. And so, I mean, this has been maybe one of the most disciplined things. I mean, in addition to how you got so fit when I was in college, but also just mom being so disciplined in this and being so committed to her health. Incredible. She's just been incredible. And little did we know that while she's going through this, I'm going to my doctor for my normal checkup, and he says, well, Ron, your PSA is a little bit high, so I need you to go see a urologist. And so I went to the urologist and he says, well, let's just give it a, yeah, it's a little high. Let's do an MRI. And so I hadn't really

told Lisa much about this during the time because she's kind of going through her deal. I just said, hey, made a little bit, it's probably nothing because mine had kind of gone up and down. And, And so I did the MRI, and the MRI noticed that there were something on my prostate that was not normal. But you still don't know at the time as to whether or not it's cancer. It could be non-malignant, right? And so I told the guy, I said, look, I'm not going to do anything until Lisa is through with her radiation. Because at the time she was getting ready to go through radiation. We just didn't need all of that, okay?

and so she got through that and then we had my biopsy where they take some of the cells and sure enough it was it was prostate cancer now we are still in the area right now for me of monitoring it based on how there's had this scale and based on where you're on the scale you can either monitor it or you need to go ahead and have something done and right now we're steering the monitoring phase hopefully we can stay in that phase I've tried to do what least is doing on the nutritional side, not as disciplined as her for sure. But, but, you know, I think it, I already think that has helped as well because the last time I had it checked is actually was down a little bit. So, so you never know. So yeah, but it threw us a curveball, the C word,

you know, sometimes, you know, we talk about a say in there that you think that, well, if one's good, two's great, well, not with the C word. Not with cancer. But I will tell you, it also makes you realize that that at the end of the day, who is in control? And if you don't have the faith to know that whatever happens that God is still in control, then I could see where you could get into a tailspin, you know, pretty quickly. Because no matter whatever happens to me or mom, he's been faithful. He's been faithful. And I can't look back and complain no matter what.

Amen. Well, everyone needs to go out and get this book. It has ringing endorsements. Also, this just speaks to like the reputation. you've built over the years, the kinds of endorsements that he has in this book from some of the most influential people, both in the private and the public sector. It's really incredible. So you can go on Amazon wherever books are sold, I think, hopefully it's in physical bookstores. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. So it should be. It's distributed by Simon and Schuster,

so it should be. Yeah. Life lessons from the Little Red Wagon. And hey, if you also, if you're out there, I know I got other podcasters and other media people that listen to this podcast. Like there are so many aspects of this book that could be good for your audience, whether it's business leaders, it's entrepreneurs, whether it's people that are in public service, whether it's just parents, parents of people with kids with special needs, like just men in general, like how to be a good man. I encourage you, reach out to us. We'll connect you to my dad. He would be a really, really good guest on any of your shows. Okay, we got a little bit of time left. Good. A little bit of time. Let's talk real quickly just about news because I haven't talked about this yet. Oh, yeah. Good.

Okay. So this would be, this would be like you can pretend like you're listening in on a phone call with me and my dad. So when there is a story out there or I'll send him an article and say, what do you think about this? Dad, what's going on here? So I haven't been totally following everything that's happened with Trump announcing on truth social that he's going to be arrested by a Manhattan DA because of a misdemeanor, alleged misdemeanor. a campaign finance rule in giving money to Stormy Daniels. You remember this. This is a story from several years ago. He's saying that he's going to be arrested for this. And he also urged his supporters to go out a mass protest in his defense. Well, Twitter is lit up with all kinds of disagreement about what is going on. So as we're recording this, this hasn't happened yet. So we don't even know Tuesday morning if this is actually come to fruition. Dad, what do you think is going to happen and what is really going on here?

Well, he's not going to be perp walked. You don't think? No, no. Because that's what the left wants. It's not going to be perp walked. The Secret Service is not going to allow the local DA or local police in New York to do that. And so that's not going to happen. Really? The Secret Service can say no. They're just not going to allow it to happen. That's the word that I've got as early as this morning. That's not going to happen. And he is not going to. to be forced to go back to New York. He is in Florida. Now, he could go to New York if you wanted to, but he's not going to be forced to do that. Now, they may end up doing the arraignment over Zoom or

something like that, but there's not going to be a display, unless I guess President Trump wanted to display for other reasons. So I don't see that now. By the time this comes out, this all may have happened by the end of the day. It's a misdemeanor, which by the way, even on this misdemeanor, the statute of limitations is expired. Yeah. And that's why the guy is trying to get it to be a felony, which is, I just don't know how you get there. I don't know how you get there because, first of all, it's not illegal to pay somebody hush money. If I wanted to say, hey, I'm going to pay you X number of dollars not to tell the story about whatever, then that's okay to do that.

It is illegal if he used campaign funds, which he, as far as we know, he did not do that. He says he doesn't. Yeah, he says he didn't. And so it's just a show. It's all a show, and I think it's going to end up backfiring on the Democrats. Yeah. I mean, there's only only only been one other president in the history of America that's been arrested, and that's Ulysses S. Grant.

He was arrested for driving his carriage too fast in Washington, D.C., and got a $20 fine. So if indicted, Trump will be the first former president in U.S. history to face, well, this says to face criminal charges, but you're saying that Ulysses S. Grant. But maybe that wasn't criminal at the time. Yeah, maybe it was a little. Traffic violation may not consider to some thing. So this is not the first DA to try to do something like this. And it's really sad when you think about what should be the priorities of the DA in Manhattan, which is not a particularly safe place right now. Obviously, crime has sord in a lot of these cities. People are getting murdered. People are being let out of jail based on so-called equity standards. And so they are wasting their time on something just because they want a few minutes of fame on MSNBC when people are suffering in his actual district. Well, 50% of the people that are arrested there for felonies, he bumps them down to a misdemeanor. He's trying to bump this misdemeanor up to a felony.

I mean, it's just, it's wholly George Soros backed. Yeah. I guarantee you this guy had to make the promise to somebody that he was going to do this. And so he's checking the box. He's just like President Biden. He's checking the box. Yeah. I can't believe George Soros still has American citizenship.

It should be something we should be able to do about that. Okay. People are also upset with Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida, I guess, because Trump is in Florida. They think that Governor DeSantis should say, should be the one to say, no, you're not going to arrest him. You're not going to purplock him, which you said is not going to happen. But he said yesterday, he said in a speech, I have no interest in getting involved in some manufactured circus by some Soros DA. He's trying to do a political spectacle, which we agree with. He's trying to virtue signal for his base.

I've got real issues I got to deal with here in the state of Florida. Now, some people are upset about that. Some people are also pointing out that a Trump PAC in Florida tried to file an ethics complaint recently against DeSantis to try to get at him because Trump obviously sees him as some kind of threat to his presidential campaign. So, I don't know, do you see this as DeSantis trying to get back at Trump for that? Or do you think he's just being genuine? There's really nothing he can do. Well, first of all, every state has extradition. rights, okay? So he can't stop. If there's been a crime committed in New York, okay? Ron DeSantis

can't stop the New York authorities from coming to Florida if they choose to, just like New York couldn't stop Florida authorities, okay? There's, there's, I guess it would be called intercomers, you know, interstate commerce that allows those types of things to happen. So there's probably not much he could do other than, you know, put a barrier up there of, you know, the state troopers or something like that. Also, I think that he doesn't want to add. to the circus that just keeps it going in the media cycle. And I would actually agree with him on that. President Trump's a big boy.

He can handle that on his own. Ron DeSantis wasn't a part of any of that to start with. And it's likely to cause, again, it to be a bigger story than it should be if he gets involved in it. Wow. This is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I agree with you about Governor DeSantis, that there's not much he can do. And it does sound like he is saying what you just said, that he doesn't want to add to a circus. So he's obviously against what's happening.

It's not like he said nothing. But he's like, you know what? If I am a part of this, then it just turns into a whole big thing. That's exactly what Alvin Bragg wants. No question about it. Absolutely. And so he's not going to go along with that. This is a little scary.

I mean, are you concerned about the state of the country that this is something that's happening? Have we seen this kind of witch hunt in the past before? We have not. As a matter of fact, you know, Hillary Clinton's campaign. campaign had to pay a $100,000 fine for using campaign money to pay for that still dossier. Okay. And was she arrested?

Did you ever even hear about it? Most people don't even know that happened, right? And so, no, this is all, it's what Trump derangement syndrome. I think people call it that. And I've never seen it. And I think it hurts, it absolutely hurts our country. Now, unfortunately, there are Republicans that also hate Trump so much that they don't say anything about this either. And I get it. I did not vote for President Trump in the primary.

I voted for him in both general elections. And do I think he should have done differently in the way he communicated and whatever? Absolutely. But I will not take away from the actual policies that were implemented during his time, the judges that were selected and all that. I mean, as far as consequentialness for the long term, I think he probably had more an effect on this country than a lot of two-term presidents in the past. Which is that's really why they hate him. That's really why they're going after him. It's not because of his tweets.

It's not because of anything that he said. They don't like what he did. That's a good point. They don't like that. And they saw all of those judges that got appointed that they know are going to be strict constitutionalists, which they do not want. They want to legislate from the bench. That is the number one thing they want to do.

They want to do what Soros is doing in the DA offices and use prosecutorial discretion. And they want to legislate from the bench because they know they, they can't get laws passed through Congress. They know they can't do that. And so they want to legislate from the bench. Yep. And speaking of Congress, Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, said that he, they're directing relevant committees to immediately investigate a federal funds are being used to subvert our

democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions. We'll see what happens there. It sounds like there's not too much Congress can really do besides just investigate and see what's going on. We'll see what actually happens. And the other thing to remember is that all this, every time the other people, people are talking about Trump, they're avoiding talking about Biden and the recent stuff that they found all that. So they're going to keep that going as long as it's the shiny object over here,

right? That's what a lot of the strategy is. Yeah, a lot of it's coming out right now about Biden and China that even the leftist media are talking about. So this is a nice distraction for him. Yeah, absolutely 100%. Okay. Thanks so much, Dad. I really appreciate you coming back on. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Had a good time. 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 looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where 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.