The Eric Metaxas Show - Allen West

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

Former Congressman Col. Allen West discusses his latest column: "The Pitfalls of Identity Politics."

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Do you check your bucket list lately? Are you ready to take care of item number seven? Listening to the Eric Metaxus show? Well, welcome. Tune in and then move on to item number eight, skydiving with Chuck Schumer and AOC. Here now is Mr. Completed My Bucket List at age 12, Eric Mattaxas. Hey folks, welcome to the show, or to this part of the show. I have the privilege and joy of having, as my guest, in this hour,

someone many of you are familiar with Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. He is, as you probably know, if you know anything about him, a Christian constitutional conservative. so am I. He is a combat veteran. I am not. He's a former member of the U.S. Congress. I'm also not a former member of the U.S. Congress. As you know, I am currently the senator from the great state of Wyoming. Actually, just kidding. Alan West, Colonel, welcome the program. It's good to be back with you, Eric, and thanks for lowering your standards and allowing an old paratrooper to come on. An old paratrooper. Yeah, I don't think anybody thinks of you that way, but thank you for being. So, Humble. I got to ask you, there's a lot to talk about, but you wrote an article, you write a weekly article for townhall.com. And the new one is called the pitfalls of identity politics. Let's just start there.

What is the gist of what you have to say there in the new article at townhall.com? Sure. Well, I think that when you start to listen to this whole thing about equity, what it means is that we're not going to be, judging people based upon their character or, you know, evaluating them based upon merit. It's all about a certain color skin or demographic or thing of this nature. And I bring out the point with this current nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, who is basically Al Sharpton with four stars on his shoulder, and how he came out and said that he does not want to have any more than 46% of white. combat fighter pilots in the Air Force.

And I'm thinking, what happened to just want to have good pilots in the Air Force, those that have the skill and have the ability to fly and to fight and to win. And then I further go into the instance of Kamala Harris, who, without a doubt, was selected because of identity politics. And now the Democrat Party finds himself in a very tough situation, Eric, because you have a current president and Joe Biden that really is faltering. he is failing, but without a doubt, they're afraid to replace him with Kamala Harris because her approval rating is even worse.

So the pitfall of identity politics, when you don't look at people based upon their skill, their capability, their competency, and merit, this is where you end up falling. Well, I mean, I think where we should start is to say that we understand that a good idea can go wrong, right? In other words, the idea that, you know, we want different. kinds of people represented, whatever. Like, that's sort of a nice idea. But the question is, how far do you take it? What do you mean when you say different kinds of people? So it's one of these ideas that the reason it's appealing to so many is because it sounds good, right? You know,

it sort of sounds like a nice idea. I mean, when Barack Obama was elected president before we all knew that he was a communist, you know, a lot of people thought, well, it's a nice, it's nice, optics, that America, which has struggled with racism, which struggled with savior, that we now have somebody in the White House who is a black man. And on the most surfacey level, those things matter. Optics matter. But obviously, something happens when the government gets involved and they start saying we're going to mandate these kinds of quotas.

And we know that the Supreme Court very recently overturned. the affirmative action idea for colleges, something that, you and I, we grew up with this, that this is like this basic thing, and you kind of think, is this ever going to, are we ever going to get past this? Well, we finally did, because we have a Supreme Court that understood

that, you know, this is not constitutional. But what we're talking about now, what you just talked about when you're talking about, is he the chairman of the Joint Chiefs or to become? Well, he is currently the chief of staff the United States Air Force and he's been nominated to be the chairman of the George Chiefs of staff. So when someone like that takes this thing to the nth degree and says that we want X percentage of people who are blacks piloting, you think, you've got to be kidding me. Like you're kidding. You're talking about fighter pilots. Why would you degrade the military by saying,

this is the metric. Why would you do that? What does it say about what kind of a leader you are in the military? How did someone like that, who you describe as Al Sharpton with four stars, how can somebody like that have risen to get four stars? That doesn't speak well of the military, obviously. Well, I think that that's one of the problems that you're seeing in the military right now in the senior level leadership is that we don't have the best or the most competent. that we have the most politicized. And one of the things, going back speaking of Barack Obama, what he did very successfully in his time as president was to purge out senior military leaders

that did not want to go along with this ideological agenda. And you were right in that many people in the United States of America thought that this optic of having this black man to be president in the United States of America would wash away all of the previous condemnations and the sins of the country. But what we should be doing

is not looking at optics, we should be looking at character. And I think that that's one of the things that we learn and know about as Christians when, you know, Jesus Christ talked about, you know, it is not so much what someone is having entered in through their mouth is what comes out of their mouth because it's coming from their heart. And I think that's what we have to start evaluating people on. And you're right, something like affirmative action. You know, it sounded real good back in the day. I'm quite sure you can agree. But when you start to understand the soft bigotry of the low expectations that says that, you know, because of your skin color, I just don't think you can make this standard. You can meet this qualification.

But we're still going to allow you to be a part of something. And see, that is what is anathema to us in the United States military because the standards should never change. The qualification should never change. And so I go back and think about the Tuskegee Airmen, the 3302nd the fighter squadron, the first black combat fighter pilots. And guess what? No one was caring about their skin color when they were the most requested bomber escort unit in World War II. And that was because they never lost the bomber. So it wasn't about we want to have these guys escort us because they're black.

We want them to escort us because we know we'll get home. That's what we should be looking for. I mean, it really is amazing to me that things have gotten this far. I mean, I know that Joe Biden made some comment the other day. You know, we're talking about sending people back to the moon. And, you know, I don't know if he said we want to send, you know, three black women or whatever. But it just sounds laughable. It sounds laughable.

I mean, I'd love to send Barack Obama to Mars if there's a, you know, if we're going to send everybody to Mars. But it's sort of, I would say that it really is denigrating to black people. I would be offended if I were black. The idea that you're, you know, you're kind of, you're disrespecting me by referring to me principally by the color of my skin. There's something about that, which is itself racist, ironically. It is. And think about this. You know, right now you have the people on the left who are saying that math is racist.

And, of course, they want to use that as an excuse since in the public school system, most black kids are not reading or doing math. level. But remember, if we want to talk about going to the moon, remember that movie hidden figures that highlighted those black women? They were brilliant mathematicians. So why would we come back and say that you're not capable of doing math? It's a racist thing. Two plus two equals four is not right. We don't need to have any college interest exams. But just give us the standard. And what I like instead of this equity thing and this equality of outcomes and this whole focus on identity politics is the quality of opportunity. And as you well know, you're being highly educated and an Ivy League kind of guy, the quality

education opens the doors. And you've got to set the conditions starting very early on. And when you look at the decimation of the traditional nuclear family, having that good mother and father in the home, that's what made the difference in my life. The reason why I became an officer in the United States Army was because my dad challenged me at the age of 15 to be the first officer in our family. And therefore, he laid out all of the things that he felt that I needed to do, which academically was important. I want to come back to that when we come back from the break. Folks, I'm talking to Lieutenant Colonel Alan West.

Don't go away. We're doing a campaign for food for the poor. Actually, I take that back. It begins today. Monday, July 31st. People who listen to this program know that we partner with Food for the Poor. They are total heroes. Food for the Poor steps up because there is always, there are always hurricanes flooding other natural disasters at this time of year. So because of poverty or collapse infrastructure in a lot of these countries, by the way, in case you didn't know, America is an amazing country.

These other countries do not have a lot of infrastructure. So we need to step up. those of us who have the ability to step up. I want to encourage you to go to metaxis talk.com and give what you can. Let's get a good start. Go to metaxistalk.com. Do what you can. Or just text Eric to 911-999. Please do this. Text Eric to 911-999 or phone [phone], Hope, 844-8663 Hope. Legacy precious metals has a revolutionary new online that allows you to invest in real gold and silver online. In a few easy steps, you can open an account online, select your medals of choice,

and choose to have them stored in a vault or ship to your door. You'll have access to a dashboard where you can track your portfolio growth in real time anytime. You'll see transparent pricing on each coin and bar. This puts you in complete control of your money. The platform is free to sign up for. Visit legacy pminvestments.com and open your account and see this new investing platform for yourself. Gold can hedge against inflation and against the volatile stock market. A true diversified portfolio isn't just more stocks and bonds, but different asset classes.

This new platform allows you to make investments in gold and silver, no matter how small or large with a few clicks, visit LegacyPMinvestments.com to get started, you're going to love this free new tool that they've added. Please go check it out today. That's Legacypminvestments.com. Folks, welcome back. If you haven't yet given to food for the poor, go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner. Or you can text the word Eric to 911-999. Have you given yet?

If you have, thank you. If you haven't, please go to metaxis talk.com or just text Eric to 911-999. I have as my guest, Lieutenant Colonel Alan West, and we're talking about a lot of important stuff. We're talking about merit. We're talking about working hard. We're talking about earning your stripes. You just said, Colonel West, you just said that your father,

when you were 15, challenged you in a particular way. Take us back there because that to me is, it's clearly foundational in your story of success. Well, let me set the stage for that. My dad was a corporal in the United States Army doing World War II, and he served in a segregated army. My older brother was a Lance Corporal, the United States Marine Corps. He served in Vietnam as a combat infantryman.

But at the age of 15, my dad challenged me to be the first officer in the family. And I think that's what's so important is that we set higher standards for our children so that we can push them to achieve greater than what we had ourselves. And so my dad laid out this plan and I knew that I had to study and do very well in high school because it was about getting accepted to a college to have a great ROTC program. I was in the junior ROTC program in high school. I ended up going to the University of Tennessee. And, of course, you're not going to be an officer unless you graduate, get that degree, and then you can get commissioned. So it was that simple challenge that my father laid out for me.

and this was not about, you know, my skin color. It was about intelligence. It was about competency. It was about character. And throughout my military career, sure, maybe there were some officers that looked at me differently because of my skin color. But guess what? My dad taught me that you find out what the standard is and you exceed it. And no one can hold you back.

If that's your mentality and that's your focus. And that's how I've always tried to live my life. Well, I mean, it's inspiring. when you hear that kind of thing, when you hear somebody working hard. I mean, every story, it's built into the warp and woof of all of creation, that human beings, we like stories of the underdog, fighting, triumphing.

When you just get something handed to you, it has no value. It's sort of gross. And there's something so beautiful about fighting and triumphing as you did, as so many people do, the idea that the government or someone would just give you something, it strikes me as insulting.

And I know that there are many people who would be insulted by that. There are many people you know the stories of people who say, I will not go on welfare. I would rather struggle and have the dignity. What we're talking at the end of the day has to do with dignity. When we think of civil rights heroes like Rosa Parks, that was a woman of tremendous dignity. when we think of Jackie Robinson,

a man of tremendous dignity, Dr. King, tremendous dignity. I mean, I have to say that awe-inspiring dignity, and that seems to have fallen out of favor, generally speaking. You don't have many of those voices other than yours. We have Justice Thomas, profound man of dignity, who really, really fought and fought and fought. And but in this day and age, it's kind of like those voices tend to be relegated to what we would call the conservative side of things, which is lamentable,

because this is not, this ought not to be in any way political. This is a simple human issue. It absolutely is. And what you just described, Eric, is really the culture of the participation trophy. When all of a sudden people came up with this idea that we're going to give kids, this little trinket, plastic toy, basically, to help their self-esteem. It helped them to feel better about themselves instead of talking to them and telling them about working harder and making sure you can get out on that field and participate.

You know, my ideological mentor is a guy by the name of Booker T. Washington. And when you think about his story, and I always challenge people and admonish people to read his biography up from slavery, autobiography, up from slavery, because he was a man that was born into slavery. and when he became free, there was only one thing that Booker T. Washington wanted. And that was an education. And think about a man that was born in the slavery. He did not ask for reparations.

He did not ask for, you know, sympathy or anything else. He asked for an education. And when he was challenged to be the one that would go down and start the first institution of higher learning for blacks down south, he discovered Tuskegee Normal Industrial Institute. And he became one of the greatest educators in order. that this country knew. He hosted a president at Tuskegee. He was a guest of another president, Theodore Roosevelt, in the White House. From him came George Washington Carver, Tuskegee Airmen. I mean, you just named even the Commodores are from Tuskegee, Alabama. So that's to be the model that says,

no matter where you're born, no matter where you came from, whatever station you started off in life, that does not have to be the end of your store. I think what we have to tell you. I think what we have to talk about, you know, when we're talking about identity politics, we're talking about what's been called the grievance industry, I think we want to be really clear, uh, because this is true. Nothing good has ever come from taking that path. In other words, if you are complaining, whining, uh, saying, I have been hurt. I have been dealt with unjustly on and on and on and on. that really just leads to more of the same. In other words, you don't ever hear the story of somebody saying that,

well, thank you, I got this and now I'm good to go. It becomes something that's repeated over and over and over that no matter what you do for someone like that, they're in a mode that says, I can never say thank you. I always have to be complaining. And it just becomes this bitter complaint that is never ending.

It's like when you say America is fundamentally flawed 1619 project, you can never get out of that death spiral. It's always just we're bad, bad, bad. And it's like a curse. It's like when you curse a kid, say, you're never going to amount to anything. You know, you're just like your father. You're just like your mother.

You're cursing them. And you're never allowing them to kind of, you know, pull themselves up by their bootstraps and say, I can do better. I screwed up, but I can do better. I can be redeemed. I can repent of what I did wrong and get it right. There's something about the nature of identity politics of this grievance industry

that it basically thrives on complaining and complaining more. It doesn't seem to have the ability ever to say, oh, okay, now you've made it right, now we're good, and now I'm going to go on my way. It's almost like it thrives on the controversy, it thrives on the complaining, And so I've made the case that the people who are talking about that, they are actually covertly in favor of racism because if it goes away, they don't have anything. In a weird way, it's good for business. And for folks like Al Sharpton, you mentioned earlier, it's good for business, basically. Whenever they can find these grievances, it does well.

So somehow bizarrely, they're complicit. in the very thing they're criticizing. No, you're absolutely right. And as a matter of fact, Booker T. Washington had a quote about that, that there is a certain class of the Negro race, the color people who like to keep the grievances of the black people in front of them because, number one, it gives them power. And number two, in a way, it pays.

And I think that that's what you see happening in this race hustling, race-baiting community as society that we have. And it takes me back to something that my mother taught. me. She said, the measure of a man is not how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up. And I think there's a scripture that backs this up as well. It's Romans chapter 5, verses 3 through 5, where Paul writes that, you know, trials and tribulations produce perseverance. So hard times, those obstacles that you run into, it produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. It is not a hope in man, but a hope in our Lord and Savior

to Jesus Christ. And in James 1, verses 2 through 4, it talks about count it all joy when you come into these moments of trial and tribulation, because that is God perfecting you and creating an endurance in you and making you stronger. And I think that that's what we

have to start stressing is that don't stay down, waddled in the muck in the mire. Look at how you can pull yourself up. You know, when I was a commander, I didn't like whining soldiers. I wanted soldiers. They say, hey, look, I screwed this up, sir. I'm going to make it right.

And I'm going to Charlie Mike, as we say, continue the mission. That should be the mentality that we are professing and pushing here in America because that uplifts the will and determination of the individual. Well, I'm going to Charlie Mike continue the mission of talking to Colonel Alan West. It's a joy. We'll be right back. Before we go, folks, if you haven't yet given to food for the poorer, we need you to step up. You can do it right now during the break on your phone.

text Eric to 911-999. It'll come right up. Just text Eric to 911-99-9-9-9 on your phone. You can also go to Metaxistock.com. Or if you like right now, you can dial 844-863 Hope. 844-863 Hope. We need your help. 844-863 hope. Every day we hear about another familiar brand selling out their customers and going woke. Americans are sick and tired of having leftist propaganda jammed into every product they consume. Woke mobile companies are no different. For years, they've been dumping millions into liberal causes, and we've had to take it because you need a cell phone and probably thought there was no alternative. I've got news to you there is, and I want you to make the switch today. Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative wireless provider offering dependable nationwide coverage on all three major networks. So you can get the best possible service in your area, minus the leftist propaganda. When you switch to Patriot Mobile, you're sending a message that you support free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life,

Second Amendment and our military veterans and first responder heroes. Their 100% U.S.-based customer service team make switching easy. Keep your phone. Keep your number two. Just go to Patriotmobile.com slash metaxus or call 878 Patriot. Get free activation today with the offer code metaxus. Ask about their coverage guarantee while you're there. Get the same dependable service and take a stand for your values.

Just go to Patriotmobile.com slash metaxus. Tell me why Relief Factor is so successful at lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question just the other night. I was asked that question. Well, the owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal. And I agree with them. And the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients,

yes, 100% drug-free ingredients, and each one of them helps your body deal with inflammation. Each of the four ingredients deals with inflammation from a different metabolic pathway. That's the point. So approaching from four different angles may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. If you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee, or foot pain from exercise or just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it'll work for you. It has worked for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more on one of them. Go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for Relief to find out about this offer.

Feel the difference. Hey, get rhythm. When you get the blues. Come on, get rhythm. When you get the blues, get a rock and roll feet. Welcome back. I've got the joy of speaking to Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. I have to tell you, Colonel, I didn't know that you were an avid distance runner, a master scuba diver, a motorcyclist.

Honestly, that's a lot. Well, I gave up the busy guy. You gave up the motorcycle. Yeah. I had a very catastrophic accident three years ago on Memorial Day weekend. And God spared my life. When you're going 75 miles an hour and you get hit on an interstate highway, you should not still be among the living. So God has blessed me to still be here.

Okay. But you're still doing scuba diving and running, I guess. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, it's interesting that, you know, when we think of, the military. We think of people that, you know, you want to be physically fit, you want to be mentally fit, you want to be emotionally fit. All these things are, it's merit-based. It's a battle, right? It's not something that anyone can give you. You have to earn it. And we're talking about

identity politics, which is antithetical to that whole idea. What you just mentioned about Booker T. Washington, to think that over 100 years ago he was addressing, and what you just just referred to, I read in an article, I'm trying to think who put it out, but mentioning that Booker T. Washington was addressing the grievance industry of his day. Kind of an amazing thing that it existed even then. I was surprised that we always have to fight against us. We have to fight against self-pity. We also have to fight against this idea that somebody is in control of my destiny. If they would only give me this or give me that, there's something fundamentally sick about that.

I want to talk about in the article that you've written, which people can find at townhall.com or on your substack when it comes out there, about the, you talk about in 2016 in the election. I mean, I think you referred to it a moment ago with Kamala Harris, but talk a little bit about that because it's fascinating. Well, I think that when you go back and you look at where she was And without a doubt, I think that they wanted her to be that Democrat presidential nominee. And at that first debate, she actually came out and just lambasted Joe Biden and everyone elevated her.

But in the second debate, she ran into Tulsa Gabbard, who put two torpedoes in her broadsides. And the next thing you know, she dropped out before there was the first primary race. It didn't even barely have 1%. But Joe Biden selects her to be that nominee. and Eve for vice president because the Democrats realized back in 2016 with Hillary Clinton, they lost a lot of black electoral support. And they did not want to see that happen again. And Joe Biden's presidential candidacy was pretty much so shot until the South Carolina primary when they once again got the black vote to come out and support him. And so what did they

have to do? Well, if you're going to have a vice president, then you got to make sure you keep that support. And I think that that's just a horrible thing that, again, we're focusing on optics. We're not focusing on character. We're not focusing on competency. We're not focusing on commitment to the fundamental principles and values of this great nation. And we have to mature ourselves as a voting electorate so that we don't continue to go down this path of just, you know, hey, look at the shiny toy. Someone yells squirrel. And we go off chasing after that false image and that false illusion. So I just pray that this country can realize that in 247 years, show me a country that has done better to be a more perfect union, as it says in our preamble of the Constitution,

than the United States of America, and understand that our greatest days can be ahead of us if we stop looking at the politics of the identity, you know, first and foremost, and we start looking at people that can really lead our country. Have you thought of running for office again? You know, Eric, a lot of people ask me that question. I always point them back to Proverse 3, 5, through 6, where it says, trust of the Lord will follow thy heart. Lean out upon your own understanding in all your ways,

acknowledge him, and he will guide your path. So whatever God would have me do to be a humble and obedient servant first to him and then to my country, that's what I'll do. And so being here with you right now, I think that, you know, I'm being obedient to his will. and if he wants me to run again for elected office, I will do so. But I just want to make sure that I'm obedient to him. Well, I have no doubt that that's your focus.

But I guess just because I live here in the United States, I would like to think that we would have leaders like you in Congress. I think that we have many, many people on the GOP side who are not men and women of character. They're just going along to get along. They're what we call hack politics. They're addicted to power, and they're not willing to rock the boat. They're not willing to be radical because I really think that that's the nature of the job.

You're supposed to go in there knowing that you have a duty to do for the people that elected you and that it is meant to be self-sacrificial. It's not about you. It's about them. And I just don't think that we have a lot folks like that in Congress, certainly, I expect that on the GOP side, but I've really seen a lot of timidity, unwillingness to take on what needs taking on. We're going to go to a break. We have the whole hour with Colonel Allen West.

I want to ask you, have you given to food for the poor? If you have, thank you. If you haven't, please go to metaxus talk.com. You can do it right now. Metaxistock.com. You'll see the banner. Or text Eric to 911-9-9-9-9-9. Text Eric to 911-in-your phone right now.

Thank you. Hey there, folks. My friend Mike Lindell has a passion to help you get the best sleep of your life. And he didn't stop at the pillow. Mike also created the Giza dream bed sheets. These sheets look and feel great, which means an even better night's sleep, which is crucial for our overall health. Mike found the world's best cotton called Giza.

It's ultra-soft and breathable, but extremely durable. Mike's Giza sheets come with a 60-day money-back guarantee and a 10-year warranty. Mike's latest incredible deal is the sale of the year. For a limited time, you'll receive 50% off the Giza Dream Sheets, marking prices down as low as 2998, depending on the size. Go to MyPillow.com, click on the radio podcast Square and use promo code Eric. There you'll find not only this amazing offer, but also deep discounts on all MyPillow products,

including the MyPillow, Mattress Topper, MyPillow, Kitchen Tow, and so much more, or you can call 800, 978-3057. That's 800-978-3057. Or go to Mypillow.com, use the promo code Eric. Mypillow.com, use the promo code Eric. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. We're talking about everything.

And so I've got to ask you, Colonel West, do you have any hope, realistic? that as a nation we can get out of the death spiral that we're in right now. What they just did to Donald Trump, I mean, even people who don't like Trump know something's not right. That when you have people this nakedly political, it's a scary thing for America. And I think the good part of it is I think people are waking up that we've got to do something. We can't allow this to go on. But what is your sense of what's going to happen with him and the next election and the nation in general?

Well, I think the nation in general is going to have a moment of awakening. I think that things go in cycles. And once upon a time, Eric, and you know this very well, if you said, hey, look, there's this thing called progressivism, socialism, Marxism, communism, communism, that is infiltrated into the political atmosphere in America. People would have called you an alarmist. You're crazy. You're out to lunch. But now people clearly see it. And you even have people that are declaring, yes, I'm going to.

about socialist. I'm a Marxist. You know, BLM, the founders there said that we're trained Marxist. So the American people are starting to wake up and say that I don't like the direction that this country is going. I think the most important issue that is facing us going forward is when you have Joe Biden, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Karin-John Pierre, all of these people saying that your children are not yours. They belong to all of us. When you had Terry McCullough stand on the debate stage in Virginia and say that parents have no right in deciding what their children are being taught. I think that's the firewall. When you start talking about our kids, this whole thing about mutilating the bodies of our children,

when you see certain states like a California passing laws to say if you don't, quote, quote, affirm your child believing that they should be a different gender, the government will take the child away from you. Parental rights, educational freedom, school choice, these type of things. things are going to be an incredible important issue. And on top of that, when we see all of these people coming across the border illegally to include people that are terrorists and things of this nature, and you look at the domestic violence and the crime on our streets, the American people are waking up. They're asking themselves, why is it so hard to put food on my table? Why is it so expensive to put gasoline in my tank? And then they look and see that we're becoming not just a banana

a republic, almost a mango republic, and that you have an administration trying to jail their chief political opponent. So these are things that I think will make a difference, but it is also incumbent upon us to continue to talk about these issues

and not allow people to go back into a slumber. Well, it is staggering to think where we have come, and sometimes I don't want to talk about it because it's so disturbing, but when you talk about our policy on the southern border, I mean, If you wanted to destroy America and you could install a president to destroy America,

he would institute the policies that are being instituted right now. The idea that we would let people we know nothing about come across our border is it's an astonishing thing. I mean, if you're in China right now and you want to take down America, you'd be a fool not to take advantage of a porous southern border. Send in, you know, Manchurian candidates. send in people that are going to be there. They're going to blend in. And then when the time comes,

they're going to do the bidding of their Marxist overlords in Beijing. I don't understand how you can have those kinds of things going on unless you actually wanted to bring down the United States of America. It's a bizarre thing to me. Nobody seems to be able to answer it. Well, it is purposeful. It is intentional. And when you look at the amount and the number of single military age males,

that we're allowed to this country, and now, especially Chinese, or the fact that you have the governor of Illinois who has come out and said that, yeah, I'm going to allow illegals to be law enforcement officers. So how can you have someone that is here illegally, supposedly upholding the law and order and going out and having the power to arrest law-abiding American citizens? So everything that you see happening right now from the degrading, degradation of our economic security, our energy security, our national security, foreign policy, our border security, our domestic security, everything. This is purposeful and intentional, and I think it comes back to what we just previously talked about.

The American people know that something's not right, but they're looking for a fighter. They're looking for someone that will stand up and defend their rights, freedoms, and liberties. And for whatever reason, that's why people are still enamored with President Trump because they see him as that fighter. and you articulated that for whatever reason, the Republicans have been so timid, they have been so reticent, they have been incredibly recalcitrant, and being confrontational and going after the Democrats and their progressive socialist Marxist ideals. Well, it's hard not to be disturbed by it. And apart from my faith in God, I would not have any hope. I do have hope because I believe God's hand is still on this country. that he is allowing us to go through this hell to wake people up and to turn people toward himself. I think that is also happening, that when things, when you get really hopeless, you turn to God. And I think that there are people that are turning to God because they don't know.

You know, if you looked around and you try to figure out what's happening, you can't really make sense of it unless you use the term evil. It seems like evil has crept in. This is not just a difference of opinion, which we've always had in this great country, but it seems like we're talking about evil. It thinks like we're talking about things that are antithetical to what most people would ever believe. I mean, when you bring up the trans issue, the idea that little children are being asked what they are, to me is a kind of child abuse. It's a sick thing to subject a little child to have to think about something.

something like that, particularly when his or her mother and father are not on board with that. They're sending him to school for other reasons, not to have him challenged in his core of who he is. So there's something so sick about that. And the idea that, you know, when you mentioned that we actually have government leaders, like Terry McAuliffe and others, thank God, by the way, he blurted that out in that debate. It's what guaranteed Yunk in the win. But the idea that they would not understand that one of the bedrock principles of a free society is family, is that parents have the say over their kids because they're the ones that love their kids.

They sacrifice for their kids. If you go to the former Soviet Union, you go to China, you go to any communist country. The first thing you find is they believe the exact opposite. They believe that the state controls the kids. We'll be right back talking to Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. Don't go away. seem to fade to black and white. Welcome back. Have you given to food for the poor?

Have my reminders gotten you actually to text Eric to 911-99 or to dial 844-863 hope or to go to Metaxus talk.com? If you have, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, because you are helping the poorest of the poor in our own hemispiece. Their lives are routinely difficult, but in hurricane season, they really suffer. And we need to be prepared. The money needs to be in the coffers of food for the poor so that the moment these tragedies strike, which they will, they can deploy their various forms of help to these folks.

So if you've given, thank you very much. If you haven't yet, I want to encourage you, folks, we really need your help. please text Eric to 911999 or go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner for food for the poor right there, emergency relief, or you can dial 844-863 Hope. You can do it on your phone right now, 844-863 Hope. A few minutes left with Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. We're talking about your article at townhall.com on the pitfall of identity politics. And in the article, you actually caution President Trump on that score.

Talk a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean, there has been rumor that President Trump is looking at bringing on a female as his vice president. And we don't want to fall into that pitfall. And President Trump should not fall into that pitfall. What you want to do is make sure that you have, again, the most qualified person that can step in into that position in the Oval Office. And so let's not look at the optics. Let's look at the character. Let's look at the confidence.

Let's look at the courage of an individual to be in that position. So I would caution President Trump not to do that. And I think, Eric, that for the first time, maybe in a long time, the vice president position may be pivotal as far as this election coming up in 2024. Because right now, as we said, there's no confidence in the current vice president of the United States of America. But yet, the Democrats are kind of stuck. because of their love of identity politics. So I think we've got a great opportunity to outmaneuver them. And it would be interesting to see who is selected to be on a debate stage with Kamala Harris.

If she ends up to the president. I don't think Biden is going to make it to the end of his term. We haven't talked about the Hunter Biden case. But I think the level of corruption, it is breathtaking. It is absolutely breathtaking. And day by day by day, it's coming out more and more and more. Thank God. because this is the antithesis of the founder's vision.

This kind of career politicians, you know, aggrandizing themselves at the expense of the people they're elected to represent. It's so ugly. So I don't think he's going to make it to the end of his term. And I think that the Democrats are going to have to do, you know, some fancy footwork. And whether they put in Gavin Newsom or they put in Michelle Obama, we don't know what they're going to do. But it is, it's going to be at least interesting to watch what they do because we know. know that Biden, he's not up for the job today, much less, you know, in three or four years. Kamala Harris was never up for the job. So it's going to be interesting as they look at this.

But do you have anybody that you think Trump should think about as a VP candidate? Well, I will tell you, my belief is that we have to have someone that can really bolster the policies of America first. and someone that can be completely trusted by the American people. And, again, I think you may need to look at someone from outside the swamp and the D.C. bubble as well. Outside the swamp. Can you think of anybody? I'm now, you know, I'm bugging you for names.

I can't think of when you say somebody outside the swamp. Well, just remember how Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse, and, you know, God took him through all of the different sons of Jesse. and then finally, the little strong kid came in. Yeah, so there's a David out there. Okay. Well, God bless you, Lieutenant Colonel Alan West. Thanks for being my guest.

My pleasure. It's a pleasure to be with your head. God be with you.