Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Happy Birthday America: Celebrating What is Extraordinary about our Great Nation

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Happy Birthday America: Celebrating What is Extraordinary about our Great Nation · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:00
Speaker 2: It is Verdic with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
0:03
Speaker 2: It's so nice to have you with us on the
0:05
Speaker 2: radio wherever you are around the country as we get
0:08
Speaker 2: to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this
0:12
Speaker 2: country center.
0:14
Speaker 1: What a fun show to get to do together.
0:16
Speaker 3: Well, let me just start by saying happy Birthday, Happy
0:20
Speaker 3: birthday to America. This weekend, we are celebrating the two
0:25
Speaker 3: hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the United States of America,
0:29
Speaker 3: I believe, the greatest country in the history of the world.
0:34
Speaker 3: And you look back to July fourth, seventeen seventy six,
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Speaker 3: when the signers of the Declaration of Independence gathered in
0:43
Speaker 3: Philadelphia and they signed that declaration. When they signed it,
0:50
Speaker 3: they were pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors.
0:56
Speaker 3: And what is extraordinaries that virtually all of them gave
1:01
Speaker 3: their lives, gave their fortunes, but not a single one
1:05
Speaker 3: of them abandoned their sacred honor. Fifty six men put
1:11
Speaker 3: their signatures on that piece of paper. And understand, when
1:14
Speaker 3: they did so, they were committing treason. They were at
1:19
Speaker 3: the time British citizens. They were subject to the British crown,
1:23
Speaker 3: and by declaring independence, they were declaring war on the
1:28
Speaker 3: mightiest military on the face of the planet. John Hancock,
1:33
Speaker 3: of course signed it with a signature large enough that
1:37
Speaker 3: King George could read it without a spectacles on. And
1:40
Speaker 3: if you look at that declaration, it was the beginning.
1:44
Speaker 3: It was the birth of this nation. We're going to
1:47
Speaker 3: talk today about what is unique, what is extraordinary, What
1:52
Speaker 3: makes the United States of America different, different from France,
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Speaker 3: different from England, different from Germany, different from Japan, different
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Speaker 3: from China, from Russia, different from every country on the
2:02
Speaker 3: face of the earth. Two hundred and fifty years of
2:05
Speaker 3: our extraordinary nation. We're celebrating it right now.
2:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is incredible. And just to be excited
2:13
Speaker 2: about what's happening right now in this country and be
2:16
Speaker 2: proud of it is another part of the conversation we're
2:18
Speaker 2: going to have today. I also want to talk to
2:20
Speaker 2: you about as America celebrates its two anniversary, this milestone
2:24
Speaker 2: is also time for all of us to reflect on
2:27
Speaker 2: the enduring relationship between the US and Israel. Our greatest
2:31
Speaker 2: ally and President John F. Kennedy once said, Israel was
2:34
Speaker 2: not created in order to disappear, Israel will endure and flourish.
2:39
Speaker 2: Now those words captain the spirit of a young democracy
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Speaker 2: determined to survive two nations thousands of miles apart, yet
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Speaker 2: united by shared values of democracy, faith, freedom, and resilience.
2:53
Speaker 2: As America celebrates two hundred and fifty years of independence,
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Speaker 2: the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews turned to God
3:00
Speaker 2: in prayer, asking that his wisdom will guide elected officials
3:05
Speaker 2: and lead America and Israel to moral clarity and national unity.
3:10
Speaker 2: So sign up to receive a free USA Israel flagpen.
3:15
Speaker 2: When you go online to flag pen IFCJ dot org.
3:21
Speaker 2: That's flag pen I f CJ dot org. So, Senator,
3:26
Speaker 2: I really think that just celebrating America is something that
3:30
Speaker 2: everybody listening right now should be excited about. There's a
3:33
Speaker 2: lot of people that try to make it into this
3:35
Speaker 2: parson fight. I think it's absurd. I love this country.
3:38
Speaker 2: You love this country. And if you look at what
3:41
Speaker 2: our founding fathers, going back to your point a moment ago,
3:44
Speaker 2: they were committing treason, they were risking it all and
3:47
Speaker 2: new that if it didn't work out, they were all
3:49
Speaker 2: dead men.
3:50
Speaker 3: Well, and let me say, I don't care about the
3:54
Speaker 3: people engaged in partisan bickering right now. I got to
3:57
Speaker 3: say the Democrat governors, the Democrat mayors who are like,
4:00
Speaker 3: we hate Donald Trump. So no, we're not celebrating the
4:02
Speaker 3: fourth of July. I don't care. Stop it. It's not
4:06
Speaker 3: about Donald Trump in two hundred and fifty years. Look
4:10
Speaker 3: our nation. I'm a huge fan of President Trump. I'm
4:14
Speaker 3: the strongest supporter in the Senate. But at the end
4:17
Speaker 3: of the day, our nation's two hundred and fiftieth birthday
4:20
Speaker 3: is bigger than whoever happens to be in the Oval
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Speaker 3: Office right now. And we're in such a partisan, angry,
4:26
Speaker 3: divided times that you see Democrats like, damn it, I'm
4:31
Speaker 3: not celebrating the fourth of July because I don't like Trump,
4:34
Speaker 3: and that's just dumb. I don't want to engage in
4:37
Speaker 3: those partisan bickers.
4:40
Speaker 2: You know.
4:40
Speaker 3: You see obviously their festivities in DC, their fireworks, there's
4:45
Speaker 3: the big festival, and you see Democrats saying they're boycotting it.
4:49
Speaker 3: I want us to pause and reflect, all right, Number one,
4:52
Speaker 3: this is fourth of July. Ben You and I are
4:54
Speaker 3: both dads. I hope every listener here this fourth of
4:58
Speaker 3: July you spend time with your kids, You spend time
5:03
Speaker 3: with your spouse. You go out, you have a burger,
5:06
Speaker 3: you have a hot dog, You.
5:09
Speaker 1: Forget the mark.
5:11
Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta, you gotta make that brisket or
5:13
Speaker 2: shoulder ribs. Like you if it's you're going all out
5:16
Speaker 2: fourth of July, So you should.
5:17
Speaker 1: You know me well enough.
5:19
Speaker 3: And by the way, we have California listeners, so if
5:22
Speaker 3: you want your tofu and sprouts, you can do that too.
5:24
Speaker 3: But and listen. To be clear, I am married to
5:28
Speaker 3: a California vegetarian, so I make fun. But but but
5:32
Speaker 3: we are a big, beautiful, diverse country. So that's eat
5:35
Speaker 3: what you want. But but I want to encourage you
5:38
Speaker 3: spend time with your kids. If you don't spend this
5:40
Speaker 3: Fourth of July hugging your kids, loving on your kids,
5:44
Speaker 3: stopping working for a minute.
5:47
Speaker 1: And and when I want to.
5:48
Speaker 3: Encourage everyone, yes, go out and throw a frisbee with
5:52
Speaker 3: your kids, Go out and and throw a football, throw
5:55
Speaker 3: a baseball, uh laugh, go to the beach to do whatever,
5:59
Speaker 3: go to lake, swim whatever you're doing. But I also
6:03
Speaker 3: want to encourage you. Look, two point fifty is not
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Speaker 3: two forty nine. It's not two fifty one We're only
6:10
Speaker 3: going to have one two hundred and fiftieth birthday of
6:12
Speaker 3: this country. Everyone who listens to this podcast, you care
6:18
Speaker 3: about America. You love America. You're not a passive citizen,
6:23
Speaker 3: You're an active citizen. You care about what is unique
6:27
Speaker 3: and extraordinary in this country. So I want to charge
6:29
Speaker 3: everyone listening to this take a minute to talk to
6:34
Speaker 3: your kids about what's different about America. What does it
6:38
Speaker 3: mean to be an American. That's different from being a
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Speaker 3: Frenchman or a Chinaman, or a Venezuelan or like, look,
6:45
Speaker 3: their country's all over the planet. What is unique? Have
6:48
Speaker 3: that conversation with your kids. And by the way, if
6:51
Speaker 3: your kids are anything like my kids, they'll resist it,
6:54
Speaker 3: they won't want to have that conversation, but have it anyway.
6:58
Speaker 3: Take this moment to reflect. And I'm going to say
7:01
Speaker 3: one of the things I've learned having two teenage daughters,
7:05
Speaker 3: talk less, listen more, ask questions, try to elicit from them.
7:12
Speaker 3: And you know, certainly for every parent of teenagers, you
7:16
Speaker 3: may not love every answer they give. But use this
7:21
Speaker 3: moment to have the conversation about what would it mean, son, daughter,
7:28
Speaker 3: if you had been born in another country, if you
7:31
Speaker 3: were not an American. What are the blessings of liberty
7:37
Speaker 3: you've inherited and why does that give you a unique
7:41
Speaker 3: place in the world. That's a conversation you had to
7:43
Speaker 3: have with your kids this weekend.
7:45
Speaker 1: Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more.
7:47
Speaker 2: And I tell you what, just having basic conversations about
7:51
Speaker 2: how grateful we should be that we live in the
7:55
Speaker 2: United States of America, how many people that want to
7:58
Speaker 2: come here, how many people wish they were born in America.
8:01
Speaker 2: Just having basic pride and like you mentioned a moment
8:04
Speaker 2: ago has nothing to do with politics, Like it is
8:07
Speaker 2: okay to celebrate this country and be proud of it.
8:11
Speaker 2: I want my kids to have pride in being Americans.
8:14
Speaker 2: I think the World Cup is a great example of this.
8:17
Speaker 2: If you're born in another country, let.
8:19
Speaker 3: Me just stop and say, Usa, Usa, USA. I gotta
8:23
Speaker 3: say I watched that game. I watched that game sitting
8:28
Speaker 3: there with my family. Look, when we were up one goal,
8:33
Speaker 3: that was great, and then the red card came and
8:36
Speaker 3: that was heartbreaking. And to play with just ten men,
8:40
Speaker 3: to play a man down and score another goal, it
8:44
Speaker 3: was awesome. I was out of a sports bar with
8:46
Speaker 3: my family. We were cheering, we were chanting. It was
8:49
Speaker 3: a great moment to come together. And by the way,
8:51
Speaker 3: that red card was utter nonsense. It was garbage, it
8:55
Speaker 3: was bs. I'm frustrated by that, but I'm inspired by
9:00
Speaker 3: the win. It's a great way to celebrate two fifty.
9:03
Speaker 1: So no, I want to go back to the World
9:04
Speaker 1: Cup just for a second.
9:05
Speaker 2: I'm not a big soccer guy, but in college almost
9:09
Speaker 2: all of my roommates were actually foreign students that were
9:12
Speaker 2: on the tennis.
9:13
Speaker 1: Team with me, so they're obsessed with it.
9:15
Speaker 2: My best friend from England actually came through Houston on
9:20
Speaker 2: their family vacation and we got to watch a game together,
9:22
Speaker 2: the US game together. They were freaking out as kids
9:25
Speaker 2: because they're obsessed with soccer aka they call it football.
9:28
Speaker 2: But I love watching so many different people get together,
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Speaker 2: so much excitement and people celebrating this country and our team.
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Speaker 2: It's really awesome.
9:39
Speaker 1: It is now.
9:40
Speaker 3: I got to ask you, you're a Memphis boy. Did
9:43
Speaker 3: you grow up that there are some jocks. You're a
9:46
Speaker 3: tennis guy, so that's not exactly football. But then again,
9:49
Speaker 3: then again, I'm a debater, so I don't actually have
9:52
Speaker 3: room to cast shade. But are you one of the
9:55
Speaker 3: guys who grew up sort of sort of turning your
9:58
Speaker 3: nose up to soccer and making aspersions.
10:01
Speaker 2: Oh I remember we called it tornado ball. My parents
10:04
Speaker 2: signed me up for church soccer just because you know,
10:07
Speaker 2: everybody did it. When you're I don't know, kids, you
10:09
Speaker 2: play soccer, yeah, kindergarten, first grade, and then that was
10:12
Speaker 2: the end of that.
10:12
Speaker 1: Then you moved on to as I say, real sports
10:15
Speaker 1: after that.
10:16
Speaker 3: Se see, in high school I played basketball, soccer, and football,
10:19
Speaker 3: and I actually like soccer, you know.
10:21
Speaker 1: I I was a.
10:23
Speaker 3: Midfielder, and it look I wasn't terribly good, but but
10:27
Speaker 3: midfielder you just had to be able to run, and
10:29
Speaker 3: I could run quite a bit, and so you just
10:30
Speaker 3: kind of you were on offense, you were on defense.
10:32
Speaker 3: You got blamed for everything. I will say our team
10:36
Speaker 3: at the time, we did a lot of slide tackles.
10:39
Speaker 3: I was actually talking with with like a buddy of mine,
10:41
Speaker 3: going what happened to slide tackles in soccer, because when
10:44
Speaker 3: we were in high school, particularly on defense, you just
10:47
Speaker 3: slide tackled. There was a guy who was a full
10:49
Speaker 3: back on our team who would slide tackle with his
10:51
Speaker 3: cleats up and just rip the living daylights out of
10:54
Speaker 3: the shins of the other guy. He ended up becoming
10:57
Speaker 3: a marine. He was a tough guy. They don't do
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Speaker 3: Actually googled this week wondering what happened to slade tackles
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Speaker 3: in soccer, and they said, well, the rest now give
11:06
Speaker 3: so many red cards for it, so they don't do
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Speaker 3: it very much. Look, I played it, but I'm not
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Speaker 3: a big soccer fan. You know, there are people that
11:16
Speaker 3: are obsessive about it. I'm enjoying it because World Cup
11:18
Speaker 3: is like, we're hosting it and it's a great time
11:20
Speaker 3: to be patriotic. I will say my cousin Marina, who
11:24
Speaker 3: loves soccer, I did manage to get him a ticket
11:27
Speaker 3: to one of the games in Dallas where Messi was playing,
11:31
Speaker 3: and Marino, God bless him. It was it was like
11:36
Speaker 3: I'd given him a chance to meet Pele and George
11:41
Speaker 3: Washington and William Shakespeare and I don't know, Charles Lindbergh
11:47
Speaker 3: all combined. He was so ecstatic.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're a soccer fan, geting to see Messi
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Speaker 2: play in a World Cup is literally now based on age,
11:55
Speaker 2: a once in a lifetime event.
11:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I do want some props. I am like
11:59
Speaker 3: over Christmas and Thanksgiving and acclaim like excuse me, who
12:03
Speaker 3: got you in to see messy lightlight? Like do I
12:04
Speaker 3: do I get something for that?
12:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get a really good Christmas gift. I agree,
12:08
Speaker 1: I agree with that one.
12:10
Speaker 3: But I will say, look, soccer. There are people who
12:13
Speaker 3: adore soccer. There are people who are not into soccer.
12:16
Speaker 3: That being said, the World Cup is really cool. Save
12:20
Speaker 3: the country route for America. Look like that's an amazing thing.
12:24
Speaker 3: It's like the Olympics. And one of my favorite tweets
12:27
Speaker 3: that I saw recently online was someone said, okay, new rule.
12:32
Speaker 3: Every country that America beats in the World Cup for
12:36
Speaker 3: the next four years has to call it soccer. I
12:38
Speaker 3: thought that was really funny.
12:40
Speaker 1: That's like my favorite.
12:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I laughed because I put one of those out
12:43
Speaker 2: there that was like, if if America beats you in
12:46
Speaker 2: the World Cup, until you beat us, you've got to
12:49
Speaker 2: call it, refer to it in your country as soccer.
12:51
Speaker 1: Like it's so good and the drash talking is great.
12:53
Speaker 1: Like I also, I.
12:55
Speaker 2: Don't know were you in Houston the night that Mexico
12:58
Speaker 2: played in won the other night?
12:59
Speaker 1: Where were you in Houston then?
13:01
Speaker 2: Or your not so you could actually hear the horns
13:06
Speaker 2: honking by our house outside after the game, warn of
13:09
Speaker 2: people on the street honking their horns, which was just
13:12
Speaker 2: awesome to see people that excited about a big victory.
13:17
Speaker 3: Look, rooting for America is great, and so the World
13:23
Speaker 3: Cup hosting it is awesome. But I also want to
13:25
Speaker 3: say we're at a time you know, it used to
13:29
Speaker 3: be for for decades, probably for centuries, both parties rooted
13:36
Speaker 3: for America. Both parties were happy, were proud to be Americans.
13:41
Speaker 3: You know, one of the depressing things right now is
13:44
Speaker 3: you look at the stats of the percentage of Democrats
13:48
Speaker 3: that are proud to be Americans, and it is incredibly
13:52
Speaker 3: low compared to the percentage of Republicans. And that's unfortunate.
13:58
Speaker 3: That didn't used to be the case. You know what,
14:00
Speaker 3: John F. Kennedy, I'm convinced was proud to be an American. FDR,
14:04
Speaker 3: I'm convinced proud to be an American. I mean, for
14:07
Speaker 3: most of the history of the country, both parties were
14:11
Speaker 3: proud of our nation. And there's something right now on
14:15
Speaker 3: the hard left and listen it is. And we're going
14:18
Speaker 3: to break this down a little bit more. We're going
14:20
Speaker 3: to talk before we break it down. We're going to
14:22
Speaker 3: talk about what's extraordinary about America because I want I
14:24
Speaker 3: want to take a time. Look. Often Verdict is focused
14:28
Speaker 3: on current events, it's focused on news, it's focused on
14:31
Speaker 3: what's happening now. I figure once every two hundred and
14:35
Speaker 3: fifty years we had to stop and reflect. And by
14:38
Speaker 3: the way, I don't know about you, Ben, I don't
14:40
Speaker 3: intend to be doing this at the five hundred anniversary
14:43
Speaker 3: of America. So you know, the next Verdict toasts.
14:48
Speaker 1: And fifty years, I doubt you and I are going
14:50
Speaker 1: to be here.
14:52
Speaker 3: We've done something profoundly wrong. If we're here at the
14:55
Speaker 3: three hundredth anniversary, we've done something profoundly wrong. I intend
14:59
Speaker 3: to be an old coat yelling at the hologram, and
15:04
Speaker 3: I don't expect to be doing this podcast fifty years
15:06
Speaker 3: from now, much less two hundred and fifty years from now.
15:09
Speaker 3: But one of the virtues of doing this is Look,
15:14
Speaker 3: you know my wife Heidi, Well, Heidi listens to the
15:17
Speaker 3: podcast often. And look, she and I have been married
15:20
Speaker 3: twenty five years. Anyone that's been married a long time,
15:24
Speaker 3: you and I have been married how many years? Look?
15:27
Speaker 3: My guess is she doesn't listen to the podcast all
15:30
Speaker 3: that often. Heidi doesn't necessarily listen to it all that often. Look,
15:34
Speaker 3: it is hard to get your wife to listen to
15:36
Speaker 3: what you're saying. And I get that and Heidi, but
15:39
Speaker 3: here's the point I want to make Heidi listens to
15:42
Speaker 3: it because she says she learns things like she'll run
15:46
Speaker 3: on the treadmill and put the podcast on because she says, Gosh,
15:50
Speaker 3: I get things that are useful that when I go
15:52
Speaker 3: to work, I'm talking to co workers, I'm talking to
15:54
Speaker 3: clients and they'll ask about something and I'll be like, hey,
15:58
Speaker 3: I know what to say on that because I heard
15:59
Speaker 3: it on the podcast. I hope that this podcast does
16:04
Speaker 3: that for our listeners. It gives something that you can't
16:06
Speaker 3: get just by turning on Fox News. It gives you
16:11
Speaker 3: understanding knowledge that you can't get anywhere else.
16:15
Speaker 1: Center.
16:16
Speaker 2: Let's talk about what makes America what it is, how
16:20
Speaker 2: incredible this experiment was. And if I hear a lot
16:25
Speaker 2: people say, if the founding fathers saw this now, they'd
16:28
Speaker 2: be rolling over in their grave. I also think that
16:31
Speaker 2: they saw America what has become after a two hundred
16:33
Speaker 2: fifty years, they'd be incredibly proud of what it had
16:36
Speaker 2: become as well.
16:38
Speaker 3: I think that's absolutely right. And I think back last
16:43
Speaker 3: year I was in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing
16:46
Speaker 3: and there was a witness testifying who President Trump and
16:50
Speaker 3: nominated to be in the State Department. And he had
16:52
Speaker 3: filed written testimony, as every witness does. And I walked
16:57
Speaker 3: into the hearing kind of midway through, and Tim Kane,
17:01
Speaker 3: my colleague, Democrat senator from Virginia, was questioning. And one
17:05
Speaker 3: of the things this nominee had said is he said
17:07
Speaker 3: that our rights in America they come from God and
17:12
Speaker 3: they don't come from government. And Tim kan began unloading
17:17
Speaker 3: on this nominee. He said, I read this statement in
17:20
Speaker 3: your written statement, and he said that is a radical concept.
17:27
Speaker 3: That is an extreme concept, that is dangerous. It is
17:33
Speaker 3: fundamentally dangerous. And he said that's what theocratic regimes like
17:38
Speaker 3: Iran believe. And he said, we're not like Iran. We
17:41
Speaker 3: don't believe our rights come from God. We believe our
17:43
Speaker 3: rights come from government. He unloaded on him. And I
17:46
Speaker 3: gotta admit, like most hearings I come in, my staff
17:49
Speaker 3: is prepared a series of questions and comments I had
17:52
Speaker 3: for this hearing, a series of questions. I don't remember
17:54
Speaker 3: what they were on, but they were on a different topic.
17:57
Speaker 3: As I walked in, I saw Tim kan on Land
18:00
Speaker 3: voting on this nominee, and I got ticked and I
18:03
Speaker 3: ended up just kind of free wheeling, and I was
18:08
Speaker 3: questioning shortly thereafter, and I said, you know, just a
18:10
Speaker 3: minute ago, Senator Kane said, the idea that our rights
18:13
Speaker 3: come from God not government is a dangerous idea. It
18:16
Speaker 3: is a radical idea. It's an extreme idea. And I said,
18:19
Speaker 3: you know what, He's right. It is dangerous, it is radical,
18:26
Speaker 3: and it is extreme. And it is also the founding
18:30
Speaker 3: principle upon which the United States of America was created.
18:34
Speaker 3: And I went on to say, look, maybe you're listening
18:38
Speaker 3: to this. You're not inclined to believe me. That's okay.
18:41
Speaker 3: If you're not inclined to believe me, maybe you would
18:44
Speaker 3: be inclined to believe another Virginian like Senator Kane, by
18:49
Speaker 3: the name of Thomas Jefferson, who two hundred and fifty
18:52
Speaker 3: years ago penned the words in the declaration, we hold
18:56
Speaker 3: these truths to be self evident, that all men are
19:00
Speaker 3: created equal, that they are endowed by their creator. Notice
19:08
Speaker 3: he didn't say by government. He didn't say by the DNC.
19:11
Speaker 3: He said by God Almighty, with certain unalienable rights, that
19:17
Speaker 3: among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
19:22
Speaker 3: That idea was transformation. If you look throughout the history
19:25
Speaker 3: of mankind for millennia, the conventional wisdom was that sovereignty
19:34
Speaker 3: emanates from the top, It emanates from God, and that
19:38
Speaker 3: God designates kings or queens, emperors or rulers, and that
19:46
Speaker 3: those kings and queens rule because God has given them authority.
19:51
Speaker 3: And if there are such a thing as rights, they're
19:55
Speaker 3: given by grace. They're given like crumbs from the table
20:00
Speaker 3: of the ruler. And by the way, anything given by
20:04
Speaker 3: grace can be taken away by whin that for most
20:09
Speaker 3: of the history of the world has been the way
20:10
Speaker 3: the world has been ordered. What America did is inverted
20:15
Speaker 3: the concept of sovereignty. It said, you know what, sovereignty
20:18
Speaker 3: does not emanate from the top. It emanates from the bottom.
20:22
Speaker 3: It emanates from the people. We the people. The Constitution
20:25
Speaker 3: begins with we the people. And the idea was, the
20:28
Speaker 3: people have sovereignty, and they give the authority to govern
20:36
Speaker 3: to elected officials for a temporary period. Nobody has an
20:40
Speaker 3: entitlement to this and that temporary period, the sovereignty comes
20:46
Speaker 3: from below. Supreme Court has described what the Constitution did
20:51
Speaker 3: as splitting the atom of sovereignty, taking what used to
20:55
Speaker 3: be uniform government control, and number one splitting it horizontally,
21:00
Speaker 3: splitting it between the executive branch, the legislative branch, of
21:04
Speaker 3: the judicial branch, separation of powers between three branches. And
21:08
Speaker 3: number two splitting it vertically between the federal government, the states,
21:14
Speaker 3: and the local government. And all of that was designed.
21:18
Speaker 3: As Jefferson also put it, the Constitution was chained to
21:23
Speaker 3: bind the mischief of government. That was radical, the idea
21:29
Speaker 3: that sovereignty rested with we the people. If you look
21:32
Speaker 3: through the history of humanity, what America did here was
21:37
Speaker 3: extraordinary and unprecedented. And likewise the point that our rights,
21:43
Speaker 3: what does come from God, is not the authority of
21:47
Speaker 3: kings to rule us. Instead, what comes from God is,
21:51
Speaker 3: as the Declaration put it, certain unalienable rights that God
21:56
Speaker 3: has created us. Look, you and I and everyone listening
21:59
Speaker 3: to this, we are created in God's image. He formed
22:05
Speaker 3: us to reflect his mind, his spirit, his character, and
22:11
Speaker 3: by virtue of being a human being. Whether you are
22:15
Speaker 3: brilliant or stupid, whether you are strong or weak, whether
22:19
Speaker 3: you are incredibly able or profoundly disabled, if you are
22:24
Speaker 3: a human being, those inalienable rights life, liberty, in the
22:29
Speaker 3: pursuit of happiness, what it means to be a child
22:33
Speaker 3: of God is profound. And that concept that our government
22:38
Speaker 3: is created to protect those rights is unique and powerful
22:44
Speaker 3: and worthy of celebration on this birthday.
22:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really, it really is.
22:49
Speaker 2: And I do think you look at where this country
22:53
Speaker 2: is and how great it is, and it's also I
22:56
Speaker 2: think a point where as you mentioned in the first segment,
22:59
Speaker 2: we've got to do a better job of being proud
23:02
Speaker 2: of this country and defending this country to this next generation,
23:04
Speaker 2: because if you look at the data and the polling number,
23:07
Speaker 2: there are a lot of younger people in this country
23:09
Speaker 2: that have been indoctrinated to believe that somehow America is
23:12
Speaker 2: a bad country, that America is not a country to
23:15
Speaker 2: be proud of, that America is so flawed that there
23:19
Speaker 2: has to be massive changes to move into something that
23:22
Speaker 2: looks like communism or socialism or Marxism. And so I
23:26
Speaker 2: think this is like a really important birthday historically on
23:30
Speaker 2: two front center one because it is two hundred and
23:33
Speaker 2: fifty years. The fact that we survive this experiment and
23:36
Speaker 2: thrive to this point is amazing, But you also have
23:39
Speaker 2: to realize how fragile it is.
23:40
Speaker 1: At the same.
23:41
Speaker 2: Time, Yes, there are people that want to destroy this
23:44
Speaker 2: so that we don't have a three hundred perth day
23:47
Speaker 2: and look like what we look like right now.
23:50
Speaker 3: Well, and let me focus. Like most of us know,
23:54
Speaker 3: the most famous sense of the declaration, we hold these
23:57
Speaker 3: truths to be self evident. I want to point out
24:01
Speaker 3: the sentence that follows that is every bit is important.
24:06
Speaker 3: Right after it says life, liberty, in the pursuit of happiness,
24:09
Speaker 3: the Declaration says the following that to secure these rights,
24:16
Speaker 3: governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from
24:23
Speaker 3: the consent of the government. So understand, it's not government
24:27
Speaker 3: that gives us those rights. Instead, it says that to
24:31
Speaker 3: secure these rights. So your right to life, it's not
24:35
Speaker 3: the federal government, it's not the state government. It's not
24:38
Speaker 3: any elected official that gives that to you. It's God
24:40
Speaker 3: that gives that to you. But why do we have
24:44
Speaker 3: a government. We have a government to secure these rights,
24:49
Speaker 3: to protect them. That concept is extraordinary. It is unique.
24:54
Speaker 3: It is powerful, and in most of the world that's
24:59
Speaker 3: not the law. Most of the world, that's not the understanding.
25:02
Speaker 3: In most of the world, the government has the power
25:05
Speaker 3: to take your rights, to take them certainly in dictatorships,
25:11
Speaker 3: whether you're talking in Russia or China, or North Korea
25:16
Speaker 3: or Iran. In dictatorships, the government has the power to
25:20
Speaker 3: throw you in the gulag, to torture you, to murder you,
25:24
Speaker 3: to do whatever they wish with you, because the government
25:28
Speaker 3: has all power. America was built on the principle that
25:37
Speaker 3: the entire purpose of the government is to protect our rights.
25:42
Speaker 3: And I want to say something else about America. Look,
25:45
Speaker 3: the critics on the left criticize our nation as being arrogant,
25:49
Speaker 3: as being imperial, and listen, we are the strongest superpower
25:56
Speaker 3: on the face of the earth. We're certainly not in
25:59
Speaker 3: men form arrogance. But I want to say, you want
26:03
Speaker 3: to look at a unique moment in history. Look at
26:05
Speaker 3: nineteen forty five, at the end of World War Two,
26:08
Speaker 3: America was the only country in the planet that had
26:11
Speaker 3: nuclear weapons for millennium. If any country had the ability
26:16
Speaker 3: to destroy any other nation, they would to conquer the world.
26:19
Speaker 3: You know what, America. Did we exercised restraint. We said,
26:24
Speaker 3: we're not interested in conquest. We're not interested in using
26:28
Speaker 3: an asymmetric power we had over everyone else. Instead, we
26:33
Speaker 3: are going to protect America and promote freedom and prosperity
26:38
Speaker 3: across the globe. There is a nobility to that which
26:42
Speaker 3: every America ought to.
26:43
Speaker 1: Be proud of.
26:44
Speaker 2: Senator I want to spend a moment and talk about
26:46
Speaker 2: how there are two ways that we can go as
26:49
Speaker 2: a country moving forward. We can either continue to be
26:52
Speaker 2: proud of this country, continue to grow, continue to learn
26:55
Speaker 2: by the way from mistakes that we've made, to become
26:58
Speaker 2: even better country than we are right now. Or we
27:02
Speaker 2: can take the other road. And that other road actually
27:04
Speaker 2: seems to be pretty darn clear. It is the Democratic
27:08
Speaker 2: model to be ashamed of this country and to fundamentally
27:11
Speaker 2: want to destroy it from within. We are witnessing and
27:14
Speaker 2: watching candidates across the country running and winning on this
27:17
Speaker 2: platform that is obviously very very concerning. I want to
27:22
Speaker 2: get your reaction to where we are now, two hundred
27:24
Speaker 2: and fifty years in well.
27:27
Speaker 3: I want to do something that may surprise you. I
27:30
Speaker 3: want to speak directly to Democrats. Now I recognize they're
27:34
Speaker 3: probably not a ton of Democrats that are listeners to
27:37
Speaker 3: this podcast. I hope there's some. And actually, when I
27:40
Speaker 3: talk to young people, when I talk to college kids,
27:42
Speaker 3: when I talk to high school kids, I encourage them.
27:45
Speaker 3: Wherever you are in the political spectrum, try to listen
27:49
Speaker 3: to both sides and pick a podcast or two on
27:52
Speaker 3: the left, a podcast or two on the right. Obviously,
27:54
Speaker 3: I suggest this one on the right is one to
27:56
Speaker 3: listen to, but assess so. And by the way, there
27:58
Speaker 3: are also a ton of reporters that listen to this podcast.
28:01
Speaker 3: It's one of the interesting and really powerful things this
28:03
Speaker 3: pod does is we drive news. So there are a
28:05
Speaker 3: ton of reporters, and almost all reporters are politically left.
28:09
Speaker 3: So if you're left of center, if you're a Democrat,
28:12
Speaker 3: I want to give a message to you on our
28:14
Speaker 3: nation's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Do not let the
28:19
Speaker 3: Democrat Party be conquered and colonized by socialists and communists.
28:28
Speaker 3: And I say that with all sincerity. Listen, I disagree
28:31
Speaker 3: with Democrats. I disagree with Democrats on a lot of issues.
28:34
Speaker 3: I spent fourteen years in the Senate battling Now by
28:36
Speaker 3: the way, I don't treat my Democrat colleagues with contempt.
28:41
Speaker 3: I don't treat them meanly, I don't insult them personally.
28:45
Speaker 3: Where we find common ground, we work together. Where we disagree,
28:48
Speaker 3: I try to engage on substance, but I treat them
28:52
Speaker 3: with respect. And I want every Democrat within the sound
28:56
Speaker 3: of my voice to listen. You are facing a hostile
29:01
Speaker 3: takeover of your party. The socialists who are winning primaries
29:08
Speaker 3: in New York, they're winning primaries in Colorado. They are
29:12
Speaker 3: not Democrats. They are and understand, Socialist is the sort
29:17
Speaker 3: of nice suite, homogenized term for what they in fact are,
29:25
Speaker 3: which is America hating communists. Listen, communism, the economic system
29:31
Speaker 3: of communism is socialism. Anyone who calls themselves a Democrat
29:36
Speaker 3: Democratic Socialist today is in fact a communists. In many
29:40
Speaker 3: of the DSA leaders, you can find lots of videos
29:44
Speaker 3: of them saying, look, our goal is communist communism. I
29:48
Speaker 3: speak from personal experience. My family was imprisoned and tortured
29:54
Speaker 3: and nearly killed by communists in Cuba. Communism has brought
29:59
Speaker 3: misery across the globe. It has brought misery. It has
30:03
Speaker 3: killed over one hundred million people between Russia between China,
30:07
Speaker 3: between Vietnam, but between Cambodia, between Venezuela, between North Korea,
30:12
Speaker 3: between Cuba, Communism has been It's not an accident. Every
30:17
Speaker 3: nation that has imposed communism has resulted in massive human
30:22
Speaker 3: rights violation, murder and torture and oppression. When the government
30:26
Speaker 3: has all power, your rights go away. Because communism is
30:31
Speaker 3: based on the inverse of the premis America was based on.
30:36
Speaker 3: Communism is based on the premise that government has the power,
30:40
Speaker 3: ostensibly in an egalitarian purpose to empower the proletariat. But
30:47
Speaker 3: every single instance, not most, not a lot, all of them,
30:52
Speaker 3: communism results in massive oppression and suffering and misery and
30:57
Speaker 3: poverty and death. And and so I want to say
31:00
Speaker 3: to Democrats, look, I look at my Democrat colleagues in
31:05
Speaker 3: the Senate. Most of them are not, in fact socialist
31:10
Speaker 3: or communists. They're just scared. They're looking at their party.
31:14
Speaker 3: And by the way, if you're not a socialist or
31:16
Speaker 3: communist and you're a Democrat, you're getting primary right now
31:19
Speaker 3: and beaten. And they're like, Okay, I don't want to
31:21
Speaker 3: get beaten. So I'm just going to stay quiet, and
31:24
Speaker 3: I'm going to give the radical left what they want
31:28
Speaker 3: and I'm going to make a plea fight to take
31:32
Speaker 3: your party back. I don't want you to become Republicans. Well,
31:35
Speaker 3: yes I do, but I'd settle for just a rational
31:40
Speaker 3: Democrat party. Like if you think the top marginal tax
31:45
Speaker 3: rate ought to be ten percent higher than it is,
31:47
Speaker 3: I disagree with you on that, but we can have
31:49
Speaker 3: a conversation. If you want more government regulation, I want less. Okay,
31:55
Speaker 3: we can have a rational conversation about that. But if
31:58
Speaker 3: you look at the communists who are winning primaries right now,
32:02
Speaker 3: they're openly calling for abolishing the police. They're openly calling
32:06
Speaker 3: for abolishing borders, they're openly calling for abolishing prisons. Let
32:11
Speaker 3: me ask you something. If you shut down mon Dommie
32:13
Speaker 3: said this week he's going to shut down Rikers Island,
32:17
Speaker 3: what do you think happens to this country if we
32:19
Speaker 3: release all the murderers, all the rapist, all the child
32:23
Speaker 3: molesters for the Democrat Party. I think you're facing an
32:27
Speaker 3: existential challenge in your party, and if your party becomes
32:32
Speaker 3: a socialist and communist party, it will hurt America the way.
32:36
Speaker 3: I want to say two other things, and then I
32:37
Speaker 3: want you to comment on it. Number one, there's some
32:40
Speaker 3: Republicans who are sort of quietly celebrating, saying, okay, Democrats
32:44
Speaker 3: have gone crazy. That means Republicans are going to win.
32:47
Speaker 3: And that may be right. It may be that we
32:50
Speaker 3: can go campaign and say these people are really out
32:52
Speaker 3: there and don't vote for them. I don't want that outcome.
32:57
Speaker 3: As much as I'd like Republicans to win, if one
33:02
Speaker 3: of our two major parties becomes absolutely insane, that's bad
33:07
Speaker 3: for America. I'd rather we debate within the forty yard
33:11
Speaker 3: lines instead of going crazy one way, and so there
33:18
Speaker 3: is a real fight. And secondly, there may be some
33:21
Speaker 3: Democrats listening, or even some reporters listening, who say, look,
33:26
Speaker 3: that's easy for you to say you want us to
33:27
Speaker 3: take on these people, but if we do that, we'll
33:31
Speaker 3: be thrying out all office. We'll lose a primary. And
33:34
Speaker 3: I want to point out I'm engaged in this same
33:37
Speaker 3: fight in the Republican side right now, the woke right
33:41
Speaker 3: that is trying to destroy the Republican Party, that is
33:44
Speaker 3: trying to turn us into a big government, left wing party,
33:47
Speaker 3: that is trying to turn us into an isolationist party,
33:50
Speaker 3: an Israel hating party, an America hating party. I am
33:54
Speaker 3: fighting the Tucker Carlson's and all of his acolytes in
33:58
Speaker 3: my party and at not inconsiderable personal and political risk.
34:03
Speaker 3: And so I want to call out to Democrats on
34:06
Speaker 3: this nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Is there anyone
34:10
Speaker 3: who will stand up and say, damn it, I will lose.
34:13
Speaker 3: I will be voted out of office rather than lose
34:16
Speaker 3: my party and lose my country. This may surprise you.
34:21
Speaker 3: Look for those of y'all that are regular Verdict listeners,
34:24
Speaker 3: you probably did not anticipate my making a lead Democrats,
34:29
Speaker 3: particularly on our nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. But
34:32
Speaker 3: I pray that there are some Democrats who, like JFK
34:36
Speaker 3: and FDR, love American and are willing to say I'm
34:41
Speaker 3: not going to roll over and see our nation destroyed.
34:44
Speaker 3: I want us to have a three hundredth and a
34:46
Speaker 3: four hundredth and a five hundredth anniversary.
34:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, aim into that. I could not agree with you more.
34:52
Speaker 2: I love celebrating this country. I love that we've got kids,
34:56
Speaker 2: both of us, that are going to get to grow
34:57
Speaker 2: up in the great sport. Celebrate it every single day,
35:01
Speaker 2: but especially on the two hundred and fifteth anniversary. God
35:04
Speaker 2: bless our men and women protect and defend this country.
35:07
Speaker 2: The Senate and I will see you back here next week.
35:09
Speaker 2: And don't forget on the podcast all week long. God
35:12
Speaker 2: bless America. We'll see you back here soon