Latest / Booker Scott: Truth Be Told / Rigged - LA Mayor Election

Transcript

Rigged - LA Mayor Election · Booker Scott: Truth Be Told

0:07
Speaker 1: It's 6 Eastern. It's 3 o'clock Pacific.
0:09
Speaker 2: We will draw this city closer together. Coast to coast
0:12
Speaker 2: and around the world from the America Out Loud talk
0:15
Speaker 2: radio studios. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism
0:20
Speaker 2: with the warmth of collectivism. It's time for The Truth
0:23
Speaker 2: Be Told with Booker Scott.
0:29
Speaker 1: Perception is reality. That's what people say. You may look
0:33
Speaker 1: at something one way and think it is this. Another
0:36
Speaker 1: person may look at the same thing and think it's
0:38
Speaker 1: something else. I look at rigged elections and I think
0:43
Speaker 1: it's very similar. What does that mean, rigged? I think
0:48
Speaker 1: some people think it means one thing and other people
0:50
Speaker 1: think it means something else. I'm Booker and this is
0:55
Speaker 1: The Truth Be Told and it's great to have you.
0:57
Speaker 1: Thank you so much if you're listening live, and if
0:59
Speaker 1: you found us later on a podcast, thank you for
1:02
Speaker 1: making that extra effort to do that. Perception. Perception is reality.
1:08
Speaker 1: I think that's right. It becomes someone's truth in how
1:11
Speaker 1: you perceive something. Everything is about perception in life. It
1:16
Speaker 1: does become reality. That's true. But is it the actual truth,
1:22
Speaker 1: the way someone perceives something? Probably not. I want to
1:26
Speaker 1: get into President Donald Trump's walkout of the interview with
1:30
Speaker 1: Kristen Welker over the weekend. He was supposed to be
1:33
Speaker 1: on NBC's Sunday show with Kristen Welker, and he walked
1:36
Speaker 1: out on that interview. You probably heard about that by now.
1:39
Speaker 1: But I want to break this down a little bit
1:41
Speaker 1: more in context with what is going on in California
1:45
Speaker 1: with the counting of the votes. It's still going on.
1:48
Speaker 1: You have Spencer Pratt, who has now dropped out of
1:52
Speaker 1: second place. He is into third place. I mentioned last
1:55
Speaker 1: week it looked like he would hang on to second.
1:57
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen because they continue to count votes.
2:01
Speaker 1: And most of those votes are coming in for Democrats.
2:03
Speaker 1: And that's why Donald Trump says California is rigged. Many
2:07
Speaker 1: people do. I think it is. But I think the
2:10
Speaker 1: word rigged brings a perception to some people of one
2:14
Speaker 1: thing and a perception to other people of another. And
2:19
Speaker 1: I'll get into that. But I want to start with
2:21
Speaker 1: the interview with Kristen Welker and where things started to
2:24
Speaker 1: get a little bit dicey between Trump and Welker. And
2:29
Speaker 1: this had to do with the $ 1. 8 billion slush fund
2:33
Speaker 1: that the Attorney General Todd Blanch testified in a hearing
2:36
Speaker 1: last week and said, we're not going forward with this.
2:40
Speaker 1: And that $ 1. 8 billion slush fund is what is holding up,
2:44
Speaker 1: or what was holding up, the funding of DHS, the
2:48
Speaker 1: last part of the appropriations fund. of the government's budget
2:52
Speaker 1: from 2026. They have since passed it because they got
2:56
Speaker 1: rid of that $ 1. 8 billion slush fund. The problem was
3:00
Speaker 1: there weren't a lot of regulations, rules, or laws that
3:03
Speaker 1: were put into that amendment that would tell anyone how
3:07
Speaker 1: to spend that $ 1. 8 billion. And even some Republican senators said, okay,
3:12
Speaker 1: we're not doing this. There's no regulations on how this
3:16
Speaker 1: money goes out, who it goes to. Because the fear
3:19
Speaker 1: was that some January 6 prisoners and those convicted were
3:24
Speaker 1: going to get money for what they did. And in reality,
3:29
Speaker 1: a lot of them do deserve some restitution on that.
3:33
Speaker 1: You had grannies walking into the Capitol. They didn't know
3:37
Speaker 1: what they were doing. They just wandered in because the
3:39
Speaker 1: police were standing there opening the door for them. There
3:42
Speaker 1: were two sides to that Capitol on January 6. Literally,
3:45
Speaker 1: two sides. You know, on one side, bad things were happening,
3:49
Speaker 1: and even some people on the conservative side, even though
3:53
Speaker 1: a lot of Republicans don't believe that to be the truth,
3:56
Speaker 1: but it is. A lot of people deserve to get
3:59
Speaker 1: what they got from that day on January 6th. I
4:02
Speaker 1: have said it since that day, and I'll never stop
4:06
Speaker 1: saying that. But also on this program, I have brought
4:09
Speaker 1: the stories of several J6 prisoners that were in prison
4:14
Speaker 1: at the time of our interview, in some cases. And
4:18
Speaker 1: I felt that their story needed to be told. And
4:21
Speaker 1: I did that. And in a lot of cases, a
4:24
Speaker 1: lot of people were innocent. But the DOJ was weaponized
4:29
Speaker 1: by the Biden administration and went after those people. And
4:32
Speaker 1: they made it into a, quote, insurrection, unquote, when in reality,
4:36
Speaker 1: that's not exactly what it was. We know that. The
4:40
Speaker 1: side with the most guns showed up to an insurrection
4:43
Speaker 1: without one gun. Think about that. That doesn't make any sense,
4:48
Speaker 1: does it? And again, maybe that's perception also, depending on
4:54
Speaker 1: what side you are on and how you look at it.
4:58
Speaker 1: Maybe you are on one side of the Capitol or
4:59
Speaker 1: maybe you are on the other. But I am getting
5:02
Speaker 1: too deep into this because I really want to stay
5:05
Speaker 1: here focused on this interview with Kristen Welker and President
5:08
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. And really, more than anything, I want to
5:12
Speaker 1: stay focused on what's happening in California with the counting
5:15
Speaker 1: of the votes still going on and how elections are, quote, rigged, unquote,
5:21
Speaker 1: and how the perception of rigged is perceived by one
5:25
Speaker 1: side or the other or even within factions of one side,
5:30
Speaker 1: politically speaking. Here's the interview with Kristen Welker and Donald Trump.
5:34
Speaker 3: Eight billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. It was going to compensate
5:40
Speaker 3: people who say the federal government weaponized the legal system
5:43
Speaker 3: against them. It's been blocked by the courts met with
5:46
Speaker 3: opposition from Republicans.
5:48
Speaker 4: And Democrats.
5:48
Speaker 3: And Congress and Democrats.
5:51
Speaker 2: Mostly Democrats.
5:52
Speaker 3: Mostly Democrats and some Republicans.
5:54
Speaker 1: Very few Republicans.
5:55
Speaker 3: Just to be very clear, are you backing off the
5:59
Speaker 3: fund completely, as your acting Attorney General Todd Blanchard said,
6:03
Speaker 3: or are you looking for another avenue to revive the fund?
6:06
Speaker 2: So let me explain what the fund is. People have
6:09
Speaker 2: been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that work
6:15
Speaker 2: for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe. They're vicious. They're violent.
6:19
Speaker 2: What they did to people. And of course, they went
6:21
Speaker 2: after me more than anybody else. They raided Mar-a-Lago and
6:24
Speaker 2: all the other things.
6:25
Speaker 1: Let's stop right there and talk about January 6th people
6:28
Speaker 1: who their lives were turned upside down. Some of them
6:32
Speaker 1: really were. There were many suicides as a result of that.
6:37
Speaker 1: Good people that went January 6th to do what they
6:41
Speaker 1: wanted to do in protesting peacefully that the election be
6:45
Speaker 1: looked at. And they ended up being prosecuted, convicted. Some
6:50
Speaker 1: of them took their own lives. Others, they lost their families.
6:54
Speaker 1: They divorced. They lost their jobs. A lot of people
6:58
Speaker 1: lost their jobs over it. Here's more of this.
7:01
Speaker 2: People have been badly hurt. They've committed suicide. They've lost
7:06
Speaker 2: their jobs. They've lost their families. They've lost their wives.
7:08
Speaker 2: They've lost everything. They've lost everything over a fake. Weaponization
7:15
Speaker 2: of government.
7:15
Speaker 3: So are you looking for a way to revive it?
7:17
Speaker 2: Well, look, it was up to me. I'd pay them
7:22
Speaker 2: the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed.
7:25
Speaker 2: Lives have been destroyed.
7:27
Speaker 1: Many suicides.
7:28
Speaker 2: Think of it. People have committed suicide because a bunch
7:31
Speaker 2: of thugs went after them. So me, personally, I think
7:35
Speaker 2: the weaponization fund is a great idea. And so do
7:39
Speaker 2: many other Republicans. You have to get it approved. If
7:43
Speaker 2: they get it approved, that's great. If they don't get
7:46
Speaker 2: it approved, I'd be disappointed.
7:48
Speaker 1: And you hear that sound in the background? That's actually
7:50
Speaker 1: rain falling on the roof where they were. There are
7:53
Speaker 1: John Deere tractors there. It's a barn, really, is where
7:57
Speaker 1: they're doing this interview. So that's the sound of rain
8:00
Speaker 1: falling on the roof. Now let's go from there to
8:05
Speaker 1: where he ended up getting up and walking out on
8:07
Speaker 1: Kristen Welker. And that is when she started asking questions
8:11
Speaker 1: about California. And he says it's rigged. Here's the way
8:15
Speaker 1: I see the rigged elections. Rigged elections can happen from
8:21
Speaker 1: laws that are created in states like California and New York.
8:26
Speaker 1: The perception that I have, maybe just like Donald Trump,
8:30
Speaker 1: is that those laws rig the elections that make it
8:34
Speaker 1: not fair for everyone. most importantly, Republicans. But then you
8:39
Speaker 1: go back to California and you say, well, it's over
8:41
Speaker 1: two to one ratio Democrat to Republicans who live there.
8:45
Speaker 1: But when you look at the laws that have been created,
8:50
Speaker 1: there's a reason why that has happened. Because those laws
8:55
Speaker 1: and the rules that are made within a state, according
8:57
Speaker 1: to the Constitution, which is a problem that was always
9:00
Speaker 1: going to come up for the SAVE Act, and I
9:02
Speaker 1: said that since the very beginning, The Constitution allows states
9:06
Speaker 1: to make the laws for elections. Federal government can pass
9:11
Speaker 1: laws for federal elections, but not for state elections. And
9:15
Speaker 1: keep in mind, the two that we're talking about, Los
9:18
Speaker 1: Angeles mayor and the governor, Steve Hilton, Spencer Pratt, those
9:22
Speaker 1: are both state elections. So the SAVE Act really wouldn't
9:25
Speaker 1: help there, with the exception of where the voter rolls
9:30
Speaker 1: are cleaned up. If voter rolls are cleaned up, then
9:33
Speaker 1: they would be clean for this and That's where some
9:35
Speaker 1: of this rigging comes in. Let's go back to this interview.
9:39
Speaker 2: You have more evidence. There's more evidence than ever presented.
9:44
Speaker 2: Let's talk about elections in this country. We're like a
9:47
Speaker 2: third world country. Your elections are crooked and you're crooked
9:51
Speaker 2: and meet the press is crooked. And so is ABC
9:54
Speaker 2: and CBS and CNN. You're one sided crooked network. Right.
10:00
Speaker 2: call it quits because i've had enough he's starting.
10:03
Speaker 1: To walk out now standing up he's had enough of it.
10:08
Speaker 2: I traveled all the way to Wisconsin. On and off
10:11
Speaker 2: in the rain, and I've given you enough time. You
10:14
Speaker 2: ought to straighten out your press, because you know what?
10:16
Speaker 2: A country can never be graced with a dishonest press.
10:18
Speaker 4: Listen, we traveled all the way to Wisconsin.
10:21
Speaker 3: For this interview.
10:23
Speaker 1: So let's get back to the perception of rigged here.
10:26
Speaker 1: You know, more than likely, California elections aren't rigged by counting.
10:32
Speaker 1: They're rigged by the laws that allow it. Progressive elected
10:37
Speaker 1: officials make laws like, I'll give you an example, mailing
10:41
Speaker 1: out ballots to 20 million people. Every registered voter in
10:46
Speaker 1: California gets a mail-out ballot. So let's take an apartment
10:51
Speaker 1: complex real quick, and let's assume that there have been
10:55
Speaker 1: 15 different people that lived in an apartment over the
10:58
Speaker 1: last 20 years. The voter rolls are not cleaned up.
11:02
Speaker 1: Ballots are sent because that's where they are registered to.
11:06
Speaker 1: And then on that little mailbox outside in an apartment
11:10
Speaker 1: where everybody's mail comes to and people that live in
11:12
Speaker 1: the apartment now, they get the mail. And I don't
11:15
Speaker 1: know if you know this, but they just throw it
11:16
Speaker 1: on top of the mailbox. Well, then you have NGOs
11:19
Speaker 1: that come through and collect all of those in places.
11:24
Speaker 1: And then NGOs will fill out the ballots and turn
11:27
Speaker 1: them in. Not a real person voting, but it is
11:30
Speaker 1: their law that allows them to mail out to registered voters.
11:35
Speaker 1: Is it rigged? Yeah, by their laws. But it's not rigged.
11:40
Speaker 1: It's not illegal. And that's the way the left will
11:44
Speaker 1: look at it. These are our laws. This is the
11:47
Speaker 1: way we want it. And we created these laws and
11:50
Speaker 1: these rules to do it this way. So that is
11:53
Speaker 1: the perception there on rigged elections. They are rigged through that.
11:58
Speaker 1: Another way, there may be 23 people registered to an
12:01
Speaker 1: abandoned gas station. The ballots go there. And the NGOs
12:06
Speaker 1: scoop them up. They fill them out, and then they
12:10
Speaker 1: add them to the collection of the votes on Election Day.
12:14
Speaker 1: And then they continue to count votes for, I don't know,
12:17
Speaker 1: until July. They have 30 days left to count the
12:21
Speaker 1: votes now. Everybody else, a state like Florida, they can
12:26
Speaker 1: count votes in 24 hours or less, six or seven.
12:32
Speaker 1: The population, not quite the same, but it really doesn't matter,
12:36
Speaker 1: does it? They still get it done in six or
12:38
Speaker 1: seven hours, not 45 days like California. Another way, dead
12:44
Speaker 1: people on the voter rolls. Again, it comes down to
12:47
Speaker 1: the voter rolls. If they are not cleaned up, then
12:51
Speaker 1: all of these ballots are going to all of these
12:55
Speaker 1: names that no longer exist, whether they're dead or they're
12:58
Speaker 1: not living in the apartment. Or there are 23 of
13:00
Speaker 1: them that have registered at a gas station because they
13:03
Speaker 1: were homeless. But none of these people are actually voting. Typically,
13:08
Speaker 1: on voter turnout on an election like this in California,
13:12
Speaker 1: you're probably at 25 to 30 percent election turnout of
13:16
Speaker 1: the registered voters. That leaves a 70 percent cushion for
13:21
Speaker 1: the backfill of all of these ballots. So if you
13:26
Speaker 1: need more, just bring more in. We'll make sure our
13:28
Speaker 1: person is... is elected. Los Angeles is the incubator for
13:35
Speaker 1: the socialist plans to enact what they have in America's
13:40
Speaker 1: most liberal city in Los Angeles. And that is exactly
13:45
Speaker 1: what we see with these rigged elections. Their system for
13:48
Speaker 1: elections is by design. That's what I want you to understand.
13:52
Speaker 1: It is by design.
13:54
Speaker 4: L.A.
13:54
Speaker 1: Is the first one to defend or even sue when
13:58
Speaker 1: election laws come out. Because they have created these laws
14:02
Speaker 1: in California just like this. But Trump is right. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN,
14:09
Speaker 1: they all suck. And L.A. is rigged. He's right about that, too.
14:18
Speaker 1: People on the left looked at rigged and they think, well,
14:21
Speaker 1: there's no evidence of fraud. Well, there's no evidence of
14:24
Speaker 1: fraud because it's legal to do fraud in places like
14:28
Speaker 1: California and New York. New Jersey, and it's growing, and
14:32
Speaker 1: they want to grow it throughout the country. And when
14:34
Speaker 1: they do, what do you think that does for elections?
14:38
Speaker 1: Will any of our votes even count? Of course not.
14:43
Speaker 1: There's still about 130,000 votes to count in Los Angeles.
14:47
Speaker 1: And whether Pratt is out or not as the new
14:51
Speaker 1: mayor of Los Angeles, and whether he moves on to
14:55
Speaker 1: the final general election, Regardless of that, Pratt won Los Angeles,
15:01
Speaker 1: he won California, and he won America. Because if he
15:05
Speaker 1: had not brought attention to LA's real issues, not one
15:10
Speaker 1: of us would have ever paid attention to the LA
15:13
Speaker 1: mayor race. It's a foregone conclusion. Los Angeles will elect
15:18
Speaker 1: a Democrat. But Pratt showed how even people in California
15:24
Speaker 1: are getting pissed off at officials who take our money,
15:27
Speaker 1: create programs for illegals, but can't help lifelong Californians in
15:33
Speaker 1: Palisades whose life went up in flames. They can build
15:37
Speaker 1: a high-speed rail, spending billions of dollars that goes absolutely nowhere.
15:43
Speaker 1: Like that bridge to nowhere in Alaska years ago. It
15:47
Speaker 1: was a long time ago. But apparently, not much has changed.
15:53
Speaker 1: Pratt won the race because he made the L.A. mayor
15:56
Speaker 1: race about Americans first. And there's nothing to be ashamed
16:02
Speaker 1: of when America is first. So great job, Spencer Pratt.
16:08
Speaker 1: I want to move on real quickly to what Vice
16:11
Speaker 1: President J.D. Vance has done, and that is he has
16:15
Speaker 1: referred the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, who ran for
16:19
Speaker 1: vice president with Kamala Harris. He's referred him to the
16:22
Speaker 1: Department of Justice. And this has to do with all
16:25
Speaker 1: of the fraud in Minnesota. Not just Minnesota, it's everywhere.
16:28
Speaker 1: But apparently, there are people within the government that have
16:32
Speaker 1: blown the whistle and said, we tried to bring this
16:34
Speaker 1: to their attention. We told them there was fraud. But
16:37
Speaker 1: within the governor's office and the AG Ellison's office, there
16:42
Speaker 1: was intimidation and coercion to keep their voices quiet. Is
16:47
Speaker 1: that illegal? I'm not sure that it's even illegal. We'll
16:50
Speaker 1: have to wait and see what the DOJ says about this.
16:54
Speaker 1: There's no doubt there's a lot of fraud, a lot
16:56
Speaker 1: of corruption in this country. And wouldn't it be great
17:00
Speaker 1: if we could take all of that out? Can you
17:02
Speaker 1: imagine what America could actually do with its resources? Maybe
17:06
Speaker 1: shore up Social Security that is in a big bunch
17:10
Speaker 1: of trouble. Pay attention to this if you are on
17:12
Speaker 1: Social Security right now, because your Social Security may be
17:17
Speaker 1: up to $ 500 less than it currently is. Look into it.
17:22
Speaker 1: But it's not just Social Security. Maybe we could actually
17:26
Speaker 1: lower the cost of health care for Americans if there
17:30
Speaker 1: wasn't so much waste and abuse and corruption within government.
17:35
Speaker 1: And paying these NGOs millions and billions of dollars to
17:39
Speaker 1: scoop up ballots off the top of mailboxes at apartments
17:44
Speaker 1: in California. Or grab the 23 ballots. at an abandoned
17:49
Speaker 1: gas station in Los Angeles. NGOs are getting paid your
17:54
Speaker 1: money to rig elections in places like California and New York.
18:00
Speaker 1: It's all about perception. So are they rigged? They are
18:05
Speaker 1: by their own laws. Are they illegal? Chances are they
18:10
Speaker 1: are not. But we have to fix this because we
18:14
Speaker 1: need this country to be the best that it can.
18:16
Speaker 1: And the only way that we can make America first
18:19
Speaker 1: is putting Americans first.
18:22
Speaker 5: We pray for rain and thank him when it's falling
18:25
Speaker 5: because it brings a grain and.
18:27
Speaker 2: A little bit of money.
18:28
Speaker 1: We put it back in the plate.
18:30
Speaker 2: I guess that's why they call it God's country.
18:34
Speaker 1: More Truth Be Told with Booker Scott in minutes on
18:37
Speaker 1: America Out Loud. Someone asked me the other day, how
18:41
Speaker 1: do you even get a sense of what's going to
18:43
Speaker 1: happen next? It's hard. I don't know that we can,
18:46
Speaker 1: the way the news moves so fast. But you know
18:49
Speaker 1: what I told them? I said, I've been checking out
18:51
Speaker 1: PolyMarket a little bit. It's extremely insightful. You're basically watching
18:57
Speaker 1: how thousands of people are betting on outcomes. Political elections,
19:02
Speaker 1: big policy moves, even events you wouldn't expect. It's kind
19:06
Speaker 1: of like a live pulse on what the public actually believes.
19:11
Speaker 1: And you can see trends before they even happen. and
19:14
Speaker 1: before they even make the mainstream news. For me, it's
19:19
Speaker 1: not about gambling. It's about understanding the probabilities and where
19:23
Speaker 1: the momentum is shifting. If you like or love the
19:26
Speaker 1: news like I do, maybe you're a news junkie, but
19:29
Speaker 1: you want to take a little deeper look at what
19:31
Speaker 1: people really think, go to Polymarket. It's a fascinating tool. Polymarket.com.
19:46
Speaker 1: When was the last time you actually took the time
19:49
Speaker 1: to read the Constitution or any part of it? I
19:52
Speaker 1: think it's pretty important. We're coming up on 250 years
19:56
Speaker 1: of this nation. I love this country. I have always
19:59
Speaker 1: been patriotic. I know you're the same way. And we
20:03
Speaker 1: really should take a step back every once in a
20:05
Speaker 1: while and read what our founders wrote. in the Declaration
20:09
Speaker 1: of Independence as we come up on July 4th, and
20:12
Speaker 1: then the Constitution beyond that in the late 1780s and
20:17
Speaker 1: amendments into the early 1790s. It was the Second Amendment
20:21
Speaker 1: that was ratified in 1791 that I want to take
20:26
Speaker 1: a look at right now. In fact, I want to
20:28
Speaker 1: read it as it is written straight from the Constitution
20:32
Speaker 1: or that amendment, the Second Amendment. Quote, a well-regulated militia
20:37
Speaker 1: being necessary to the security of a free state, the
20:41
Speaker 1: right of the people to keep and bear arms shall
20:45
Speaker 1: not be infringed, unquote. That is it. That's how simple
20:50
Speaker 1: it is. What does it mean? I ask people sometimes,
20:54
Speaker 1: what does it mean to be infringed? Because we have
20:57
Speaker 1: waiting periods of three days, seven days. Some people want
21:01
Speaker 1: it longer. They want it 30 days. is that infringing
21:05
Speaker 1: on the right to own a gun? Or is it
21:08
Speaker 1: infringing on the right to when you can own a gun?
21:12
Speaker 1: I've had Dexter Taylor on this program before. He sits
21:14
Speaker 1: in a prison in New York for 10 years now
21:17
Speaker 1: because he made his own guns as a hobby. He's
21:20
Speaker 1: a great guy. No record ever. 35 years as an
21:24
Speaker 1: IT expert. Went to work every day, had a child,
21:28
Speaker 1: and now he's in prison because he made a gun.
21:32
Speaker 1: Is that infringing on his rights? I think it is.
21:37
Speaker 1: There was a 2008 landmark case, which was the District
21:40
Speaker 1: of Columbia v. Heller. And this case in the Supreme
21:44
Speaker 1: Court actually expanded the Second Amendment, when you look at it,
21:49
Speaker 1: because they said that individuals have the right to bear
21:52
Speaker 1: arms for self-defense. So the Supreme Court in 2008 expanded
21:56
Speaker 1: what was ratified in 1791. Not only is it that
22:05
Speaker 1: we can have guns and weapons for a militia in
22:10
Speaker 1: a state, but the Supreme Court said you can have
22:13
Speaker 1: a gun to defend yourself. In 2010, McDonald v. The
22:18
Speaker 1: City of Chicago extended the prior ruling from federal laws
22:22
Speaker 1: to state and local laws. Where does the Second Amendment
22:26
Speaker 1: come from? Well, as I said, it was ratified in 1791,
22:30
Speaker 1: was proposed by James Madison to allow the creation of
22:35
Speaker 1: civilian forces that can counteract a tyrannical federal government. A
22:40
Speaker 1: tyrannical federal government. Not an outside government, but the government
22:47
Speaker 1: from within. And if you listen to the first segment
22:50
Speaker 1: of this hour, we have socialists in this country. They
22:55
Speaker 1: want to change our election laws so that really none
22:58
Speaker 1: of our votes count. That's what that segment was about.
23:02
Speaker 1: That's my perception of what those laws have done in
23:05
Speaker 1: California and Los Angeles. If it comes to that, won't
23:12
Speaker 1: we want to have our guns if we have a
23:14
Speaker 1: tyrannical government in this nation? Remember, the founders were writing
23:19
Speaker 1: all of this from oppression from a tyrannical government that
23:23
Speaker 1: they had fled in England. They didn't want the same
23:27
Speaker 1: thing to happen within our country, within our nation, within
23:31
Speaker 1: the walls of this great country. And they knew that
23:34
Speaker 1: it was a possibility. They knew that it could happen.
23:38
Speaker 1: And because they knew that, they wanted to make sure that,
23:44
Speaker 1: in the case of James Madison, that we could defend
23:48
Speaker 1: ourselves against our own tyrannical government. And I know the
23:53
Speaker 1: left will say, well, they had muskets then. Well, the
23:57
Speaker 1: muskets were the weapons of war, which I make the argument,
24:02
Speaker 1: if that is the case, if you're going to go
24:04
Speaker 1: with muskets, I'm going to go with missiles, drones, and F-15s.
24:10
Speaker 1: That's what I would need to defend myself against a
24:12
Speaker 1: tyrannical government with a mighty military that the United States have.
24:17
Speaker 1: That's what it was written for. I think it's important
24:20
Speaker 1: to understand that as we see socialists trying to take guns.
24:23
Speaker 1: They've done it in other countries. And they are doing
24:27
Speaker 1: it now in Virginia, the state of Virginia, right here.
24:30
Speaker 1: James Madison University is in Virginia. James Madison was from Virginia.
24:35
Speaker 1: And his own state, the guy that wrote and inspired
24:38
Speaker 1: the Second Amendment, his own state is doing a gun
24:43
Speaker 1: grab by the, quote, moderate, unquote, governor, Spanberger. She ran
24:49
Speaker 1: as a moderate, but she has showed that she's nothing
24:52
Speaker 1: more than a socialist. I think most people knew that
24:55
Speaker 1: she was anyway, that knew what was going on. The
24:58
Speaker 1: people of Virginia fell for it, and now they're not
25:00
Speaker 1: so happy. Her approval rating is very low, but they
25:04
Speaker 1: have passed a law to get rid of guns in Virginia.
25:09
Speaker 5: Firearms takes effect on July 1st, and this.
25:13
Speaker 2: Is leading to a surge of gun sales in the Commonwealth.
25:17
Speaker 1: So everybody in Virginia is out buying guns right now
25:20
Speaker 1: because of the law that is changing. They're going to
25:22
Speaker 1: change things like how many bullets your magazine can hold.
25:28
Speaker 1: They're telling you now what you can and can't do
25:32
Speaker 1: because the state of Virginia has decided to infringe upon
25:35
Speaker 1: your right to defend yourself against the very tyrannical government
25:39
Speaker 1: that they are becoming. It's the first move. They have
25:44
Speaker 1: to take your guns because if they take their guns,
25:47
Speaker 1: they can go about their business like rigging elections in
25:49
Speaker 1: California and Los Angeles. When you look from 30,000 feet,
25:54
Speaker 1: there's no other way to see it than that.
25:58
Speaker 6: This legislation in Virginia was signed into law last month.
26:01
Speaker 6: It bans the future sale, manufacture, import and transfer of
26:06
Speaker 6: semi-automatic rifles or pistols that have a magazine capacity of
26:10
Speaker 6: more than 15 rounds. So essentially starting July 1st, under
26:14
Speaker 6: the law, it will be a misdemeanor to buy, sell,
26:17
Speaker 6: transfer or make an assault firearm. But get this, since
26:21
Speaker 6: the Democrat-led effort was introduced earlier this year, the number
26:25
Speaker 6: of background checks done for the purchase of a firearm
26:28
Speaker 6: went up drastically, according.
26:30
Speaker 1: To the FBI. Everybody's running to get a gun in
26:33
Speaker 1: Virginia before this tyrannical government in Virginia starts taking away
26:38
Speaker 1: their guns and their ability to defend themselves against the
26:43
Speaker 1: people that are taking their guns. That's how this works.
26:46
Speaker 1: That's what's going on in Virginia. It has already gone
26:50
Speaker 1: on in New York. Look at Dexter Taylor. He can't
26:53
Speaker 1: make his own guns. Because he can't make his own guns,
26:57
Speaker 1: you know, he's in prison. New York's law is you
27:01
Speaker 1: have to register every gun. Where does it say that
27:04
Speaker 1: in the Second Amendment that I read? Does it say
27:07
Speaker 1: you have to register your guns with the federal government
27:11
Speaker 1: anywhere in the Second Amendment? That sounds like an infringement
27:14
Speaker 1: to me of on my right to bear an arm.
27:19
Speaker 1: Is it or is it not? Am I thinking wrong?
27:21
Speaker 1: I could be thinking wrong. If you think I'm thinking wrong,
27:24
Speaker 1: please send me an email. BookerMediaUSA at Gmail. BookerMediaUSA at Gmail.
27:30
Speaker 1: You can also find me on Twitter. RealBookerScott is my
27:33
Speaker 1: handle there. RealBookerScott. I'm happy to take those questions and
27:38
Speaker 1: tell me how I'm wrong. This is a gun grab
27:42
Speaker 1: in Virginia. If the people of Virginia can't defend themselves
27:46
Speaker 1: against the people taking the guns... then we have a
27:49
Speaker 1: problem in this country.
27:51
Speaker 6: For example, in just the month of May alone, more
27:53
Speaker 6: than 75,000 background checks were conducted. That's more than double
27:58
Speaker 6: the amount from last year, where only some 37,000 were
28:01
Speaker 6: conducted in May of 2025. In a statement after she
28:04
Speaker 6: signed the law, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger wrote this, quote,'
28:08
Speaker 6: Firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on
28:12
Speaker 6: our streets,' We are taking this step to protect families
28:15
Speaker 6: and support the law enforcement officers who work every day
28:18
Speaker 6: to keep our communities safe. Well, as you may guess,
28:21
Speaker 6: many gun rights advocates and gun shop owners are.
28:25
Speaker 1: And maybe it's not as simple as I try to
28:27
Speaker 1: make it to be. I know there is debate over it.
28:31
Speaker 1: They can debate every section of the Second Amendment as
28:35
Speaker 1: short as it is. They debate it. It's a sentence
28:40
Speaker 1: and they debate. each statement within that sentence. So it's
28:44
Speaker 1: not a simple answer or question. I know that. But
28:49
Speaker 1: the tension lies between the amendment's opening reference to a
28:52
Speaker 1: well-regulated militia and its guarantee of the right of the people.
28:58
Speaker 1: Legal scholars and constitutional experts, they have debated this for
29:03
Speaker 1: a long time. I can only tell you the way
29:06
Speaker 1: I look at it. They can tell you the way
29:09
Speaker 1: they look at it. You're going to have to decide
29:11
Speaker 1: how you want to look at it. You know, their analysis,
29:15
Speaker 1: they look at it each phrase, phrase by phrase. These
29:18
Speaker 1: are very smart people. And I don't know that they
29:20
Speaker 1: can come to an agreement. They look at its historical origin,
29:25
Speaker 1: exploring how the Supreme Court has also transformed it, as
29:28
Speaker 1: I mentioned, about 2008 and 2010 decisions. But if you
29:32
Speaker 1: understand the 18th century militias, does that help you? The
29:37
Speaker 1: modern image of militias, well, they conjure up ideas of
29:41
Speaker 1: the Proud Boys and other groups like that. In the
29:45
Speaker 1: 18th century, however, the militias were really civic institutions. Militias
29:50
Speaker 1: encompassed virtually all able-bodied white men between the ages of
29:55
Speaker 1: 16 and 60. George Mason, a Virginia delegate to the
29:59
Speaker 1: Constitutional Convention, captured this understanding when he declared, quote, I ask, sir,
30:06
Speaker 1: what is the militia? It is the whole people, except
30:10
Speaker 1: for few public officials. Very interesting there. That's an interesting
30:16
Speaker 1: comment from George Mason. Let me read that again to you.
30:20
Speaker 1: This is during the Constitutional Convention. This is as they
30:24
Speaker 1: were working all this out. This is part of the
30:26
Speaker 1: sausage that they were making as they founded this country,
30:31
Speaker 1: considering the Second Amendment and the right to own and
30:34
Speaker 1: bear arms, and it shall not be infringed. Here's the
30:38
Speaker 1: question again, quote, I ask, sir, what is the militia?
30:44
Speaker 1: It is the whole people, except for few public officials.
30:50
Speaker 1: He's reiterating, he's making the point that all of us,
30:54
Speaker 1: are America's militia against the tyrannical government. That was from
31:00
Speaker 1: the founding. That's one of the guys there. So regardless
31:03
Speaker 1: of what the debate is among the experts, the scholars,
31:07
Speaker 1: and the lawyers, how they break down each one of
31:11
Speaker 1: these phrases within the sentence of the Second Amendment, that
31:16
Speaker 1: is the heart of the Second Amendment, that we have
31:20
Speaker 1: the right to bear arms against a tyrannical government within
31:25
Speaker 1: the United States of America, not a foreign government. And
31:29
Speaker 1: some people will argue, well, the militia was the military then.
31:33
Speaker 1: And it was. The First Army of America was made
31:36
Speaker 1: up of militias. That's true. But they fought that war
31:42
Speaker 1: then in the Revolutionary War. They weren't speaking, or they
31:46
Speaker 1: would have spoke at the time, of foreign countries. But
31:51
Speaker 1: they didn't. George Mason said, It is the whole people
31:55
Speaker 1: except for few public officials. So the president, the governor,
32:01
Speaker 1: the people in government that we elect, those are the
32:05
Speaker 1: ones that don't have the right to bear arms, according
32:08
Speaker 1: to George Mason. All the rest of us, we are
32:11
Speaker 1: the militia to defend ourselves against them. That makes a
32:15
Speaker 1: lot of sense to me when you break it down simply.
32:19
Speaker 1: And I know it's a complex issue, and it's one
32:22
Speaker 1: that It gets people really excited. And I don't want
32:26
Speaker 1: to see anyone die, children killed in schools. But I
32:32
Speaker 1: also don't want to see a tyrannical government take over
32:35
Speaker 1: your rights and your liberties. And if they can take
32:39
Speaker 1: the Second Amendment from you, little by little, you don't
32:43
Speaker 1: eat an elephant in one bite, not one gulp. They
32:47
Speaker 1: start with a three-day wait, a 30-day wait. And then
32:52
Speaker 1: they go to how many bullets you can have in
32:55
Speaker 1: your magazine. You can't make your own guns. They have
32:58
Speaker 1: to be registered with the federal government. Little by little,
33:03
Speaker 1: they eat away at the right of the Second Amendment
33:06
Speaker 1: and the right that you have to bear arms. That's
33:10
Speaker 1: how a tyrannical government works. Not one bite. You can't
33:15
Speaker 1: ever bite an elephant in one bite and eat it.
33:18
Speaker 1: It's a little here and a little there and a
33:19
Speaker 1: little there. Before you know it, This country is gone.
33:24
Speaker 5: I don't know about you, but the one thing the
33:26
Speaker 5: last five or so years has taught me is that
33:28
Speaker 5: there's a lot, and I mean a lot, of companies
33:30
Speaker 5: and services out there that don't share the foundational values
33:33
Speaker 5: of this country and we the people. And I've spoken
33:35
Speaker 5: to a lot of you about it who share the
33:37
Speaker 5: same concerns, and you wonder where to shop. where to
33:40
Speaker 5: spend your hard-earned money without feeling gross about it. It
33:43
Speaker 5: can be frustrating, but here's the good news. You don't
33:46
Speaker 5: have to do the research yourself and you don't have
33:48
Speaker 5: to tie yourself up in knots any longer because we've
33:50
Speaker 5: done the legwork for you. At mammothnation.com, we have thousands
33:54
Speaker 5: of vetted, freedom-loving, pro-America companies who actually share your values.
33:58
Speaker 5: So now the ball's in your court. Keep spending money
34:00
Speaker 5: with companies that frustrate you and then use the proceeds
34:03
Speaker 5: to fund initiatives that are in direct competition with your
34:06
Speaker 5: values or be a part of something better. I think
34:09
Speaker 5: the choice is pretty easy. Come be a part of
34:11
Speaker 5: the solution. Join Mammoth Nation today and you can save
34:14
Speaker 5: 30% off your membership by using promo code USA.
34:35
Speaker 1: You know, as we look around this country, there are
34:37
Speaker 1: a lot of scary things going on. And if I
34:40
Speaker 1: said we're living in a negative world, what would come
34:43
Speaker 1: to your mind? Probably a lot of things, and probably
34:47
Speaker 1: none of them are what we're about to get into.
34:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring into the conversation now the guy
34:53
Speaker 1: who wrote the book, Living in the Negative World. His
34:56
Speaker 1: name is Aaron Wren. Aaron, welcome to the conversation.
34:59
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
35:01
Speaker 1: I think one thing that you wrote in this book
35:04
Speaker 1: We've entered a new and unprecedented era in America, and
35:08
Speaker 1: it's one you call the negative world. And if you
35:11
Speaker 1: would just dumb it down for everybody, what is this
35:15
Speaker 1: negative world?
35:15
Speaker 4: I'd be happy to do that. So the negative world
35:19
Speaker 4: specifically refers to the way that sort of society views Christianity.
35:27
Speaker 4: In my book, Life in the Negative World, I lay
35:29
Speaker 4: out a model looking at the last 60 to 70
35:32
Speaker 4: years of American history, where we started out in the 1950s,
35:37
Speaker 4: where although we didn't have a state church, we did
35:40
Speaker 4: have a sort of softly institutionalized, generic, you know, Protestant
35:44
Speaker 4: Christianity as our de facto national religion. Half of all
35:47
Speaker 4: the people went to church. We were adding, in God
35:50
Speaker 4: we trust to our money. We were adding under God
35:52
Speaker 4: of the Pledge of Allegiance. We had prayer in schools.
35:54
Speaker 4: We had Bible reading in schools. Then in the 60s,
35:58
Speaker 4: I date it to 1964. You can quibble with the dates,
36:02
Speaker 4: but roughly in that era, Christianity began to go into
36:06
Speaker 4: decline in America in terms of attendance, adherence, and people
36:10
Speaker 4: beginning to question Christian sort of moral norms and moral frameworks.
36:14
Speaker 4: And I divide this period of decline from 1964 to
36:18
Speaker 4: the present into three eras or worlds that I call
36:21
Speaker 4: the positive, neutral, and negative world. The positive world is
36:24
Speaker 4: 64 to 94. That is a period of decline for Christianity.
36:28
Speaker 4: I want to be clear about that. At the same time, society,
36:32
Speaker 4: especially at the elite kind of official level, still basically
36:35
Speaker 4: views Christianity positively. To be known as a good church-going
36:39
Speaker 4: man makes you seem like an upstanding member of society,
36:42
Speaker 4: and Christian moral norms are still the basic moral norms
36:44
Speaker 4: of society. In 1994, we hit a tipping point in
36:48
Speaker 4: what I call the neutral world, which lasted from 1994
36:50
Speaker 4: to 2014. where Christianity is no longer seen positively, but
36:55
Speaker 4: it's not really viewed negatively yet either. It's essentially one
36:58
Speaker 4: more lifestyle choice among many in a pluralistic public square.
37:03
Speaker 4: And Christian moral norms sort of had a residual effect
37:06
Speaker 4: of that era. And then in 2014, we had a
37:09
Speaker 4: second tipping point, where for the first time in really
37:13
Speaker 4: the 400-year history of, you know, settlement in America, official
37:19
Speaker 4: elite culture now views Christianity negatively. We're in this negative world, right?
37:25
Speaker 4: So to be known as a Bible-believing Christian does not
37:29
Speaker 4: help you get a job at Goldman Sachs or Google.
37:31
Speaker 4: Quite the opposite, in fact. Christian moral norms are now
37:34
Speaker 4: expressly repudiated. And in fact, in some respects, certain segments
37:39
Speaker 4: of Christianity are now viewed as the leading threat to
37:43
Speaker 4: the new moral order. You see a lot of the
37:46
Speaker 4: hand-wringing about Christian nationalism being very much in this vein.
37:50
Speaker 4: And so this entry into a place where sort of Christianity,
37:57
Speaker 4: certainly with the evangelical world that I am most familiar with,
38:01
Speaker 4: sort of viewed itself as the moral majority and now
38:03
Speaker 4: has to face the fact that it's kind of on
38:04
Speaker 4: the outs side. And this has been very dislocating.
38:07
Speaker 1: Well, you go back to 1964. Are you able to
38:10
Speaker 1: put your finger on anything that happened that changed the
38:14
Speaker 1: narrative to change that period from 1964 to 1994? What
38:20
Speaker 1: was it that happened in our country? Was there anything
38:22
Speaker 1: that you've been able to define?
38:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't. subscribe to the where did it all
38:27
Speaker 4: go wrong theory. I don't try to necessarily go back. And,
38:31
Speaker 4: you know, some people go back a long way. Some
38:34
Speaker 4: people say it was William of Ockham and nominalisms where
38:38
Speaker 4: it all went wrong. Charles Taylor, this Canadian philosopher, wrote
38:42
Speaker 4: a book called A Secular Age that told essentially a
38:46
Speaker 4: 500-year story of secularization. I mean, I would say, look,
38:50
Speaker 4: the trends were moving sort of away from Christianity in
38:54
Speaker 4: the West and for a long time. I mean, even
38:57
Speaker 4: going back to the, you know, the, you know, the
38:59
Speaker 4: founding fathers, a lot of those guys were not necessarily
39:02
Speaker 4: in private, you know, the most enthusiastic about Christianity. But
39:06
Speaker 4: the key is, you know, the elite never really was
39:09
Speaker 4: as interested in Christianity in many respects, but they felt
39:12
Speaker 4: the need to honor it publicly. And they said, well,
39:14
Speaker 4: we need to have this religion in the country to
39:18
Speaker 4: really have a coherent country. What happened precisely in the 60s?
39:23
Speaker 4: A lot of things happened. Obviously, we had the upheavals
39:27
Speaker 4: you know, of the late 1960s, the sexual revolutions there.
39:31
Speaker 4: You had the generation gap with that, the Vietnam War.
39:35
Speaker 4: We saw the sort of collapse of the old, what
39:38
Speaker 4: they called WASP establishment, the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment that
39:42
Speaker 4: had sort of controlled the country in one form or
39:46
Speaker 4: another from a very long time. I mean, there's this...
39:50
Speaker 4: A guy who was president of Yale University during the
39:53
Speaker 4: Vietnam War, for example, was a guy named Kingman Brewster.
39:57
Speaker 4: And he was the 11th generation descendant of Elder William
40:01
Speaker 4: Brewster on the Mayflower. And so there were still, like,
40:05
Speaker 4: into the 1950s, maybe even the 1960s, members of the
40:09
Speaker 4: Adams family that played prominent roles. I think it was
40:12
Speaker 4: Charles Francis Adams IV that was the CEO of Raytheon,
40:16
Speaker 4: for example, for a very long time. And so— you know,
40:20
Speaker 4: that all collapsed. And, you know, there's just a lot
40:24
Speaker 4: of things that started happening in the culture in the 1960s.
40:28
Speaker 4: And then I think the next major event that comes
40:30
Speaker 4: along that is really important is the fall of the
40:33
Speaker 4: Soviet Union in 1989. You know, the reason we're adding
40:37
Speaker 4: under God and stuff to the pledge, in God we
40:39
Speaker 4: trust the money, it was part of the Cold War.
40:42
Speaker 4: It was part of our uh, competition against this atheist
40:46
Speaker 4: communistic system. You know, Christianity was sort of bound up
40:50
Speaker 4: with the West war on communism. And once communism went away, uh,
40:56
Speaker 4: you know, we thought, okay, Western culture is going to
40:59
Speaker 4: be triumphant in carrying forward. And people might've assumed Christianity
41:03
Speaker 4: would be part of that, but what it actually gave
41:05
Speaker 4: was essentially a, a little bit of a green light,
41:08
Speaker 4: start rewriting the relationship between Christianity and culture, uh, and
41:13
Speaker 4: he's sort of, you know, decentering and pushing out Christianity
41:16
Speaker 4: a little bit. I actually debated whether I should put
41:20
Speaker 4: the beginning of the neutral world in 1989 because of
41:22
Speaker 4: the Berlin Wall. So, you know, you can make some
41:26
Speaker 4: debates about some of these things, but there's certainly been
41:30
Speaker 4: a lot of, you know, a lot of shifts in
41:31
Speaker 4: the culture over that time that really did transform, you know,
41:35
Speaker 4: society in that way. And again, it's not that The
41:39
Speaker 4: 1950s was some great high-water mark of American morality. Probably
41:43
Speaker 4: it wasn't.
41:44
Speaker 1: No, right after World War II, the guys coming back.
41:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, there was a lot of hypocrisy. People didn't necessarily believe,
41:52
Speaker 4: but there was still this idea that we had a
41:54
Speaker 4: sort of public religion in the United States, which was
41:57
Speaker 4: sort of a generic– again, kind of a generic Protestantism,
42:00
Speaker 4: generic Christianity. And now the people who are running the country,
42:05
Speaker 4: kind of the elites– have decided they don't need that anymore.
42:08
Speaker 4: You know, we can dispense with that. And, you know,
42:12
Speaker 4: to the extent that we have a sort of moral order,
42:15
Speaker 4: that moral order is based on ideologies. And the problem
42:20
Speaker 4: with these ideologies is they change all the time. You know,
42:24
Speaker 4: thou shalt not steal is kind of a, you know,
42:27
Speaker 4: a timeless principle, if you will. There really was sort
42:31
Speaker 4: of a moral system that had prevailed for a long time.
42:34
Speaker 4: Of course, there's like emphases and changes here and there,
42:37
Speaker 4: but there is sort of an idea that like, okay, great,
42:39
Speaker 4: you can anchor back to the Ten Commandments or something. Well,
42:42
Speaker 4: now it's like whatever the flavor of the month is,
42:44
Speaker 4: everybody's got to like all of a sudden tack it
42:46
Speaker 4: into a new direction.
42:48
Speaker 1: You see that in cities in this country right now
42:51
Speaker 1: where they're not prosecuting and holding people accountable for going
42:54
Speaker 1: in and shoplifting. And now we see these shops moving out.
42:58
Speaker 1: So you can steal in America now.
43:00
Speaker 6: Right.
43:00
Speaker 4: It's like, you can, you can walk into a CVS with,
43:04
Speaker 4: you know, a couple of huge trash bags, load them
43:07
Speaker 4: up and walk right out with impunity. Uh, but then again,
43:10
Speaker 4: there are people, for example, that said all lives matter
43:12
Speaker 4: on a company conference call and got fired. So, you know, it's, uh,
43:17
Speaker 4: you're more likely to, uh, you're more likely to get
43:20
Speaker 4: fired for an ideological transgression in some respects that you are, uh,
43:25
Speaker 4: for actually being immoral in some ways, as we would
43:30
Speaker 4: have normally understood it.
43:31
Speaker 1: You're listening to Aaron Wren, and Aaron writes on Substack, AaronWren.com also.
43:36
Speaker 1: By the way, that last name is spelled R-E-N-N, so AaronWren.com. Aaron,
43:43
Speaker 1: you wrote something in your book, The Negative World Poses
43:46
Speaker 1: a Profound Challenge to American Evangelicals and Their Churches. And
43:52
Speaker 1: it also helps to explain why there's been so much
43:56
Speaker 1: turmoil and conflict within the evangelical world. Can you talk
44:02
Speaker 1: about that?
44:03
Speaker 4: Sure. Well, again, you know, evangelicals are used to thinking
44:06
Speaker 4: of themselves as the cultural mainstream, as the moral majority.
44:12
Speaker 4: And so having to make this shift from being a
44:14
Speaker 4: moral majority to a moral minority is quite dislocating. And
44:20
Speaker 4: because you know, sort of Protestants as Christians were the
44:24
Speaker 4: majority for so long. They essentially, you know, relied on
44:28
Speaker 4: sort of the mainstream institutions of society to sort of
44:32
Speaker 4: reinforce their values, and those are the institutions they look to. Whereas,
44:37
Speaker 4: you know, minority groups, although they participate in and look
44:42
Speaker 4: to mainstream institutions, always had like their own unique institutions
44:47
Speaker 4: for their community to sustain community identity in life. And so,
44:51
Speaker 4: The example I use is early 20th century Catholicism, where
44:54
Speaker 4: there was still a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment at that time,
44:57
Speaker 4: so they had to create their own Catholic schools. They
45:00
Speaker 4: had to create their own Catholic charitable groups. They had
45:03
Speaker 4: to create their own fraternal societies. They had to create
45:05
Speaker 4: their own Catholic universities. They had all these practices like
45:09
Speaker 4: abstaining from meat on Fridays or praying rosaries that really
45:14
Speaker 4: helped identify and sustain their community life in a Protestant nation.
45:20
Speaker 4: And so evangelicals struggle in part because they never had
45:24
Speaker 4: these to nearly the same extent. So that's part of
45:29
Speaker 4: the problem right there. It's a big psychological adjustment and
45:32
Speaker 4: then the lack of these institutions. And then the vast
45:35
Speaker 4: bulk of evangelical churches and institutions and ministries were built
45:42
Speaker 4: for cultural realities that no longer exist. And so they
45:46
Speaker 4: need to change. It's just like how technology comes along
45:48
Speaker 4: and revolutionizes everything. First, there's the smartphone, right? So if
45:52
Speaker 4: you don't have that, you know, if you can't adapt
45:56
Speaker 4: to the smartphone revolution, maybe you're an old landline telephone company,
45:59
Speaker 4: you're in trouble, right? Now AI, who knows what that's
46:02
Speaker 4: going to do? So, you know, if you have like
46:04
Speaker 4: a business or, you know, a church or anything built
46:07
Speaker 4: for an old reality, new realities, you know, force the
46:10
Speaker 4: need for change. And so I think that has really
46:14
Speaker 4: put a lot of pressure on the evangelical church and
46:17
Speaker 4: the various different groups that make it up. and I
46:20
Speaker 4: go through some of them in the book, talk about
46:23
Speaker 4: them a little bit, have sort of deformed, and they're
46:26
Speaker 4: now starting to essentially fight with each other maybe a
46:30
Speaker 4: little bit. And so I think it's just an uncertain time.
46:34
Speaker 1: You write in the book specific strategies for churches, institutions,
46:38
Speaker 1: and individuals to live faithfully in a negative world. Can
46:42
Speaker 1: you share a couple of those?
46:44
Speaker 4: Sure. You know, about, again, a quarter of the book
46:47
Speaker 4: is diagnostics and the framework and laying it all out.
46:51
Speaker 4: And then the last three quarters are a little bit
46:54
Speaker 4: thinking about how we should live now. There's a lot
46:56
Speaker 4: in that. I'll just give a couple things. One, I
46:58
Speaker 4: think we need to move into more of an exploration
47:02
Speaker 4: mode and be more comfortable in the unknown, because we
47:06
Speaker 4: really are in an unprecedented scenario, an unprecedented time. And
47:12
Speaker 4: The world is just rapidly changing, right? Who saw Donald
47:17
Speaker 4: Trump coming to be president? Who saw the pandemic? Who
47:20
Speaker 4: saw the invasion of Ukraine, Middle East upheavals? There's a
47:23
Speaker 4: lot of things going on in the world, and we
47:25
Speaker 4: have to be ready to adapt. And so we can't
47:30
Speaker 4: just easily plot our course from point A to point B.
47:34
Speaker 4: We have to be much more comfortable walking by faith
47:37
Speaker 4: than by sight. and thinking much more like maybe the
47:39
Speaker 4: Lewis and Clark expedition, where we're going into this kind
47:42
Speaker 4: of unknown territory, and we've got to feel our way along.
47:45
Speaker 4: The second thing I say is, again, churches need to
47:50
Speaker 4: be much more focused on self-consciously stewarding and strengthening their
47:56
Speaker 4: own communities, because the world is going to be a
48:00
Speaker 4: lot more negative than it was and so self-consciously stewarding
48:05
Speaker 4: your own community strength is going to be very important
48:08
Speaker 4: it's sort of like learning to think like a minority
48:11
Speaker 4: and that and so doing the things that again minorities
48:14
Speaker 4: have always had to do and again that doesn't mean
48:17
Speaker 4: you have to be mean to people hate people all
48:19
Speaker 4: that stuff but you have to think about hey how
48:21
Speaker 4: do we sustain our community life and what what is
48:23
Speaker 4: essentially something of a foreign land yeah and.
48:26
Speaker 1: So what does that look like aaron Well, I think
48:30
Speaker 1: some of it.
48:30
Speaker 4: Is, you know, I talk a little bit about it
48:33
Speaker 4: in the book. I think a lot of it, I
48:35
Speaker 4: think the Christian education revolution is a good example of that. Say,
48:40
Speaker 4: you know, we can't rely on the public schools. We
48:42
Speaker 4: have to create our own schools. We have to create homeschooling,
48:45
Speaker 4: create educational infrastructure to inculcate our own values. I think
48:50
Speaker 4: it involves finding a way to create a kind of
48:54
Speaker 4: moral community. that can flourish and be distinct, sort of
48:59
Speaker 4: a counterculture from the world. One of my things is, hey,
49:03
Speaker 4: we should not accommodate ourselves to the rising tide of
49:06
Speaker 4: long-term or even permanent singleness, which a lot of people
49:10
Speaker 4: in the churches are doing. We have to help our
49:12
Speaker 4: young people find a way to get married. And again,
49:16
Speaker 4: I'm not talking about people. There are people who don't
49:18
Speaker 4: want to get married, but there are a lot of
49:20
Speaker 4: frustrated singles who want to get married. Rather than trying
49:23
Speaker 4: to reconcile them to that condition, how can we help
49:26
Speaker 4: them get married and have successful marriages and have families?
49:29
Speaker 4: And so we have to just do the basics on
49:32
Speaker 4: some of that stuff.
49:33
Speaker 1: You mentioned Christian nationalism earlier. Can you share some thoughts
49:37
Speaker 1: on that?
49:38
Speaker 4: Well, I think Christian nationalism is sort of like the
49:41
Speaker 4: left's boogeyman.
49:44
Speaker 1: I've talked about it. I think it's something that they
49:47
Speaker 1: are positioning for the 24 election to make everyone afraid of.
49:51
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes. If you go back, even to when
49:57
Speaker 4: George W. Bush was elected, people were talking about a theocracy.
50:01
Speaker 4: There's going to be a theocracy about that. People like
50:04
Speaker 4: Kevin Phillips and Damon Linker wrote books, you know, basically,
50:08
Speaker 4: it's kind of ludicrous in retrospect. I mean, I think,
50:11
Speaker 4: you know, kind of evangelicals have never been further away
50:15
Speaker 4: from really the levers of power in society. And so
50:20
Speaker 4: the idea that we're in danger of some, you know,
50:23
Speaker 4: Christian nationalist takeover doesn't seem very likely. And one of
50:29
Speaker 4: these keep in mind is, you know, the Republican Party
50:31
Speaker 4: still has a bright future, perhaps in America, and Donald
50:34
Speaker 4: Trump may be elected But increasingly, the Republican Party itself,
50:38
Speaker 4: it represents a sort of post-Christian right in which it's
50:44
Speaker 4: not necessarily animated by evangelical values.
50:47
Speaker 1: No, not at all.
50:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's more sort of cultural items and things of
50:53
Speaker 4: that nature.
50:55
Speaker 1: Well, Aaron, thank you very much for joining us. The
50:58
Speaker 1: name of the book is Life in the Negative World,
51:01
Speaker 1: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture. And Aaron, tell everybody
51:07
Speaker 1: where they can find your work.
51:08
Speaker 4: Oh, just the book is available wherever fine books are sold,
51:12
Speaker 4: Amazon or your local bookshop. And, you know, definitely sign
51:17
Speaker 4: up for my website at aaronrenn.com, and you'll be able
51:21
Speaker 4: to see all my work posted there.
51:22
Speaker 1: That's a great book, too. Please check it out. Very enlightening.
51:26
Speaker 1: We've got a little more time here in this hour.
51:29
Speaker 1: Let me go to this video. This is Representative Lauren
51:33
Speaker 1: Bovard of Colorado. She has aligned herself with Thomas Massey,
51:38
Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Greene, in what I am calling the MAGA
51:42
Speaker 1: Island of Misfits. Listen to this as she's approached by
51:46
Speaker 1: a reporter about her sexual relationship with Thomas Massey, whether
51:51
Speaker 1: she had one or not. There is that rumor going
51:54
Speaker 1: around social media. I don't know if it's true or not.
51:57
Speaker 1: How would I know? But that rumor is going around.
52:00
Speaker 1: The reporter asks the questions.
52:02
Speaker 2: Okay, so there is Lauren Boebert, the Colorado representative. She
52:06
Speaker 2: almost lost a few years ago in her race.
52:07
Speaker 3: She won by 700 votes.
52:08
Speaker 7: Her district was gerrymandered, and she moved so that she
52:12
Speaker 7: could run in another district.
52:14
Speaker 4: They do that.
52:14
Speaker 1: They shop seats. and that's what she did. She will
52:34
Speaker 1: end up on that MAGA island of misfits, along with Mace,
52:39
Speaker 1: Nancy Mace, the representative in South Carolina. She is running
52:42
Speaker 1: for governor. The primary is happening Tuesday. And Donald Trump
52:46
Speaker 1: has endorsed her competitor, Yvette.
52:48
Speaker 7: You know, I knew it was on the line when
52:49
Speaker 7: I voted to release the Epstein files, and I'm a survivor.
52:53
Speaker 7: If the price to pay for an endorsement was to
52:56
Speaker 7: not release those files, I would never pay it. So
53:00
Speaker 7: I knew it was on the line, and I disagree
53:02
Speaker 7: with this endorsement, and I'm going to vote for myself.
53:04
Speaker 7: I'm asking voters in South Carolina to vote for me
53:06
Speaker 7: as well on Tuesday. I mean, we're crushing it right now,
53:09
Speaker 7: working really hard.
53:10
Speaker 1: And she's going to lose. Yvette will win, and also
53:13
Speaker 1: in Maine, there is a primary happening Tuesday. You have
53:16
Speaker 1: Graham Platner for the Democrats that will win there, and
53:19
Speaker 1: Susan Collins will be the Republican eventually in the general
53:23
Speaker 1: election coming up in November. Get out and vote. Bring
53:27
Speaker 1: up that low voter turnout. For the Republican side, it's
53:30
Speaker 1: been bad since November. If you don't go out and vote,
53:33
Speaker 1: you really can't say anything. When a tyrannical government takes
53:37
Speaker 1: over your life, your Second Amendment, and all your other rights,
53:41
Speaker 1: it could happen. Are we that close? Probably not. But
53:45
Speaker 1: if you don't go out and take action, it's getting
53:48
Speaker 1: closer and closer day by day. I'm Booker Scott. Thank
53:51
Speaker 1: you for joining us tonight. Don't forget that you were
53:53
Speaker 1: told 2,000 years ago that you are the salt of
53:56
Speaker 1: the earth, and salt without flavor, it has no value.
53:59
Speaker 1: So whatever you do, keep being salty. Have a great night.
54:02
Speaker 1: There is only one truth. You've been listening to The
54:06
Speaker 1: Truth Be Told with Booker Scott on America Out Loud.