SO LONG? Netanyahu Says It's Time to Nix American Aid | 5/11/26

Summary

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Steve Deace Show: "SO LONG? Netanyahu Says It's Time to Nix American Aid"

Date: May 11, 2026
Host: Steve Dace | Blaze Podcast Network
Summary by Expert Podcast Summarizer

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Overview

This episode centers on U.S.-Israel relations following Prime Minister Netanyahu's unprecedented call for ending American financial aid, contemporary political events in the U.S., trends in American society—especially the decline of marriage—and an in-depth philosophical debate over whether America is truly a "creedal nation." As always, Deace and his panel deliver sharp conservative analysis with a signature snarky edge, digging deep into the historical, cultural, and religious underpinnings of current events.

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Key Segments & Timestamps

• 00:01–15:10 | International Affairs: Iran, Israel, and Netanyahu’s Remarks
• 15:11–24:32 | Global & U.S. Political Strategies: China, Oil, and the Middle East
• 24:33–30:11 | The U.S.-Israel Relationship: Decoupling & Anti-Zionism
• 31:43–47:31 | Societal Trends: Collapse of Marriage & Masculinity with Bob Vander Plaats
• 50:43–57:03 | Introducing the "Why Independence Day" Series: America’s Foundational Creed
• 58:33–95:36 | Creedal Nation? In-Depth Debate: What Unites (or Divides) Americans

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1. International Affairs: Netanyahu's Bombshell

(00:01–15:10)

• Trump on Iran Stalemate: President Trump rejects Iran's peace offer, maintaining a naval blockade amidst stalled negotiations (00:01).
• Netanyahu's CBS Interview:
  • On Iran: "It's not over because there's still nuclear material...proxies that Iran supports...ballistic missiles that they still want to produce." — Benjamin Netanyahu, 00:35
  • On U.S. Aid: Netanyahu says he wants to "draw down to zero the American financial support...we receive $3.8 billion a year. I think it’s time that we wean ourselves..." (01:14–01:36)
• Reactions: Deace notes the absence of celebration from anti-Zionist U.S. factions who have long called for cutting Israeli aid.

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2. U.S. Political Developments & Virtue Signaling

(01:36–04:41)

• Tennessee and Virginia Update: Recaps on gerrymandering battles—Tennessee's redistricting wipes out its only Democratic House seat; Virginia’s Supreme Court reverses Democrat-led redistricting (01:36–02:16).
• Maryland Governor on Gender Transitions:
  • Patrick Bet David asks Wes Moore what he'd do if his son wanted to transition.
  • Moore responds with a "be there for my son" stance, refusing to set 18 as a minimum, which prompts Steve Dace’s hard critique on parental responsibility (02:16–03:07).
• Trial of Charlie Kirk’s Assassin: Cameras allowed in court; trial delayed as defense tries to prolong the process (04:14).
• Hantavirus Scare: Debbie Birx recommends better viral tracking; Deace mocks the “expert class” (04:02–04:17).
• Trump Statues & "Aliens": Miami-based faith leaders unveil a golden Trump statue; a satirical Trump statement on aliens lampoons the news cycle (04:18–05:45).

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3. U.S. Policy on Iran & China—The Art of Leverage

(15:10–24:32)

• Iran: Stalemate and Attrition: U.S. claims to have destroyed 70% of Iranian targets, but both military and political "resolve" to finish the job are in question.
• Speculating Trump’s Next Move:
  • Deace suggests Trump could bomb Iran again right before or during his state visit to China as ultimate leverage: "take out your trash or we're going to do it for you" (15:42–16:48).
• China’s Position:
  • Todd Erzin questions how much China wants $5 gas and unrest.
  • Deace notes China’s own civil unrest, inflation, and oil needs.
• Proxy Warfare in the Middle East:
  • Discussion of Iran’s proxies like the Houthis, fragmentation of IRGC, and future stability (20:00–22:11).
• Host’s Broader Worry:
  • Deace: “Their level of commitment compared to ours… had a bad feeling about this from the very beginning…” (22:11).

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4. U.S.-Israel Relations: Decoupling & Anti-Zionism

(24:33–30:11)

• Decoupling Support—Or Not:
  • Deace highlights hypocrisy: "We didn't see all the anti-Zionist folks cheering...I mean, this is what they said they wanted, right?" (24:32–24:40).
• Deeper Motives:
  • "They didn't want decoupling...they want a diminishment of Israel. That’s what this is about." — Steve Dace, 24:53
• Personal Responsibility:
  • Challenge to anti-Zionists: If their genuine concern was U.S. over-involvement, they should be pleased with Israel’s self-reliance.
• Social Commentary:
  • "You don't dance with the devil, the devil dances with you…they're not capable of letting go..." — Todd Erzin, 24:47

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5. Societal Crisis: Collapse of Marriage & Masculinity

(31:43–47:31)

Guest: Bob Vander Plaats (The Family Leader)

• Startling Decline in Marriage:
  • 1975: 91% of women, 81% of men married by age 30.
  • 2025: 26% of women, 17% of men married by age 30.
  • "This trend line is stark. It is death of a culture level stuff." — Steve Dace, 35:33
• Causes:
  • Feminism, no-fault divorce, sexual revolution, and deliberate de-masculinization.
• Personal Advice from Vander Plaats:
  • "Graduate from high school, get married, get a job, have kids in that order—and your poverty level goes way way down." (38:17)
• Marriage Devaluation:
  • No-fault divorce and the redefinition of marriage have undermined its cultural value.
• Restoring Hope:
  • Notable trend: resurgence of Gen Z men in church and renewed interest in family—"Men are realizing: we have a role to play." (43:41–45:45)
• Final Word:
  • True answers "come in being reconnected through Christ to your heavenly Father...that reconciliation is what will make you the husband and father that you desire to be." (46:05)

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6. “Why Independence Day”: Teaching America’s Christian Heritage

(50:43–57:03)

Launching Deace’s New Book Series:

• Promo for "Why Independence Day":
  • Series explores "3,000 years before 1776," connecting Mosaic law, the Magna Carta, Greek philosophy, and Christian thought to America’s founding.
• Historical Trace:
  • Todd Erzin traces biblical republicanism (Exodus 18, Jethro & Moses) through Pericles, Cicero, the Magna Carta, and Machiavelli as seeds for America’s founding ideas.
• Mission:
  • "We’re trying to conserve our heritage and pass it on to future generations." — Steve Dace, 57:03

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7. Creedal Nation? The Deeper Debate on U.S. Identity

(58:33–95:36)

Background & Framing

• Key Question:
  • Are we a "creedal nation"—united by shared beliefs rather than ethnicity or religion?
• Why It Matters:
  • Deace: The younger generation deserves clear, honest answers, given the "systemic generational failure" seen in marriage rates, culture, and loss of shared values.

Justice Neil Gorsuch’s Take

[69:27–70:23]

"The Declaration of Independence had three great ideas in it. That all of us are equal, that each of us has inalienable rights given to us by God, not government. And that we have the right to rule ourselves. Our nation is not founded on a religion...it’s based on those ideas. We’re a creedal nation." — Neil Gorsuch, 69:27

Panel Responses & Philosophical Dive

Analyzing Gorsuch

• Deace: Gorsuch’s interpretation leans libertarian—a "husk" of the founding without its religious core:
  • “In the world in which they lived, it was not possible to have a creed without religion...No secular nation had ever existed.” (74:55–77:32)
• Todd Erzin:
  • Gorsuch’s "pleasant, gentle words" ring hollow in an era where foundational consensus is gone.
  • "Those dulcet tones...instead of making us feel a warm fuzzy...we’re like, how in the hell did we forfeit all of this?" (71:42)
• Steve Day:
  • Americans now react skeptically or angrily to traditional rhetoric about national unity.

Key Points of Contention

• Common Culture:
  • The colonies rebelled against a single nation (England), rooted in a "common culture, common law, and common religion"—specifically, Christianity.
• Religion’s Centrality:
  • Deace: "There had never been a secular nation...the only God ever referenced for inalienable rights was the God of the Bible."
• Assimilation vs. Multiculturalism:
  • Previous generations demanded immigrants assimilate—“Your people will be my people, your God, my God” (86:01–87:39).
  • The loss of mission-driven assimilation leads to today’s "diversity is our strength"—a new, shallow creed that undermines genuine unity.
• Libertarian Drift:
  • Both Deace and Erzin argue that Gorsuch’s “creedal nation” without religion collapses into either balkanization or nihilism.
• Modern Paradox:

  • "We are still a creedal nation—just with a creed that there are no nations." — Steve Day, 93:25

    "All the downside of democracy and none of the benefit, all the downside of human freedom with none of the limiting principles, and you end up as a people because we’re sinners..." — Steve Dace, 91:51

Who Enforces the Creed?

• Deace hints this remains a future topic; the panel agrees that restoration of shared creed requires robust enforcement and cultural agreement.

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Notable Quotes

• Netanyahu:

  “I want to draw down to zero the American financial support...it’s time that we wean ourselves from the remaining military support.” (01:14–01:36)

• Steve Dace:

  “This trend line [marriage decline] is stark. It is death of a culture level stuff.” (35:33)
  "We need to have some fights and some arguments. Creedal Nation may not even mean the same thing in 2026 that it meant in 1976..." (66:30)
  “It is almost as if they really were not anti-Zionist, but they were really just anti-Semites. The more you know…” (24:47)

• Todd Erzin:

  “They want a diminishment of Israel. That's what this is about.” (24:53)

• Bob Vander Plaats:

  “Graduate from high school, get married, get a job, have kids, in that order, and your poverty level goes way, way down.” (38:17)
  “We are living in a bubble...all three boys are church-going, married, successful. That’s not what people are fighting with today.” (36:21)

• Steve Day:

  “We are still de facto, at the very least, a creedal nation. Now, it's not the creed that you're talking about, Steve, but we are still a creedal nation.” (93:05)

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Memorable Moments

• Gorsuch’s "Creedal Nation" Statement sparks the show’s most passionate debate (69:27–95:36).
• Netanyahu’s Call for Ending U.S. Aid upends decades of policy and alarms both right- and left-wing ideological groups (01:14–01:36).
• Twenty-First Century Social Decline Chart: The shock of modern marriage statistics (32:38–36:21).
• Humorous Detour: Trump’s satirical “aliens” confirmation delivers a snarky break from heavier topics (04:41–05:45).

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Takeaway Themes

• America’s Identity Crisis: The nation cannot be maintained only by vague or competing "creeds." There must be shared substance—historically, this was biblical.
• Political Realignment: Both U.S.-Israel relations and U.S. political culture are at a watershed, re-examining relationships, responsibilities, and the limits of “universal values.”
• Social Renewal: Restoration of marriage, manhood, and cohesion begins in church, family, and candid civic conversation.
• Challenge to Listeners: Don’t take the intellectual or spiritual inheritance of 1776 for granted—define it, defend it, and be wary of impostor "creeds."

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Summary Table: Most Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Key Segment | Notable Quote | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:35 | Netanyahu on Iran | "It's not over...there's still nuclear material..." | | 01:14 | Netanyahu on U.S. Aid | "I want to draw down to zero the American financial support." | | 24:53 | Steve Dace on anti-Zionists | "They want the diminishment of Israel. That's what this is." | | 35:33 | Deace on marriage decline | "This trend line is stark. It is death of a culture..." | | 38:17 | Bob Vander Plaats on success | "Graduate...get married, get a job, have kids, in that order."| | 69:27 | Neil Gorsuch | "...we're a creedal nation..." | | 91:51 | Deace on libertarianism | "...all the downside of human freedom with none of the limiting principles..."| | 93:05 | Steve Day: new (problematic) national creed | "We are still...a creedal nation. We've just traded it one creed for another..."|

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Bottom Line:
The episode’s sharpest insight: America's future depends on regaining both truth about its founding creed and the courage to live it out, resisting the temptations of diluted, decoupled, or nihilist alternatives.

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Transcript

[Steve Day]

Hey, it's the Steve Day show. And here's what happened while we were away, brought to you by red lines and no deals. President Trump on social media yesterday says he reviewed Iran's response to the latest peace proposal and says it's totally unacceptable. So the naval blockade continues as negotiations stay put in the horse latitudes. Perhaps more noteworthy, at the very least from the Israeli perspective, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's interview on 60 Minutes where he makes it clear what the red line continues to be in the war.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Is the war with Iran over, and

[Steve Day]

if it isn't, who will decide when it is?

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I think it accomplished a great deal, but it's not over because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran. There is still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we've degraded a lot of it, but all of that is still there and there's work to be done.

[Steve Day]

He also discussed the future of U. S. Israel relations.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I've said this to President Trump, I've said it to our own people. Their jaws dropped. But I said, look, what do you mean?

[Steve Dace]

What are you saying?

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have because we receive $3.8 billion a year. And I think that it's time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support.

[Steve Day]

Back at home, Tennessee successfully approved a redistricting plan nixing the Volunteer State's only Democrat congressional district, much to the chagrin, of course, of certain Democrat state lawmakers like Justin Pearson, who became aggressive in the face of a Tennessee state TR. On Friday, Virginia's Supreme Court ruled that the legislative process employed to redistrict or gerrymander into a likely 10 to 1 Democrat advantage violated Article 12, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia that also backfired on Democrats. Maryland governor Wes Moore joined the Patrick bet David podcast and boy, howdy, did he have some virtue to signal.

[Steve Dace]

Your son comes in saying he wants to transition. What do you do?

[Wes Moore]

Well, first, I mean, if, if it's, if, you know, it's my son, so I love him regardless, right? And he's always going to have my undying love. That's, that's me, right? I want to make sure that I'm involved in understanding where he is, how he's feeling, the way he's feeling, why he thinks it's important. If this is a journey that he wants to go down. I want him to always be comfortable in his own skin, and I want him to always know that he has a partner in me to help him along that journey.

[Steve Dace]

Would you advise him to wait till he's 18?

[Wes Moore]

If this is how he is feeling and I feel like I am closely tied to him, I'm not going to advise him on something that he feels is at 14 years old.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

Wes.

[Wes Moore]

No, I understand it.

[Steve Day]

In Utah, the judge presiding over Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson's case ruled Friday cameras can indeed stay in the courtroom throughout the legal process. Judge Tony Graf also granted a request to delay Robinson's preliminary hearing, originally scheduled to begin later this month as Robinson's defense team again seeks to draw the legal process out. You've probably heard about hantavirus or seen headlines about this South American variant that has supposedly infected several people aboard a cruise with two later dying. Seventeen Americans on that boat arrived in Nebraska this morning to be processed by a specialized quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. Here's former White House Coronavirus Task Force director Debbie Birx. And yes, she still has her scarf.

[Steve Dace]

There could be more human to human transmission than we actually see. It's never good to track viruses through symptoms. We should be tracking viruses through blood tests like pcr.

[Donald Trump]

We've learned that with COVID No.

[Steve Dace]

What year is it?

[Steve Day]

At Trump Doral, Miami, a group of faith leaders unveiled a new statue of President Trump. John Mark Burns, an American evangelical minister and spiritual advisor to the President, led the unveiling ceremony. For those of you listening, it's a giant golden statue of Trump. Yeah. And finally, since we last spoke, President Trump did indeed confirm the existence of. Of aliens.

[Donald Trump]

My fellow earthlings, this is your favorite president, and it is my complete and total honor to confirm the existence of extraterrestrials. They call them extraterrestrials. I call them aliens. Got along very well with many highly respected aliens all across the universe. You look at, you may have heard of him. ET Tremendous guy. And he came to Earth and he said to me, sir. E.T. phone home, sir. He wanted to go home, and he couldn't go home. But we made a perfect phone call and we sent him home. And now the Democrats are impeaching me over it. ET Phone home. It was a perfect call. He pointed, he said, ouch. And we sent him home. But he's a tremendous guy. We get along very well. I also get along well with Marvin the Martian. Marvin's a great guy. And he said to me, sir, you have to help US out on Mars, sir. It's the red planet, but the Democrats are trying to turn it blue with mail in ballots at 3 in the morning. We can't let it happen, sir. I said Marvin would not get to let it happen.

[Steve Day]

That's John Farish. And that's what happened while we were away.

[Steve Dace]

That is absolutely perfect. That is phenomenal. All right, coming up here in a minute, that clip from Westmore. You. You can't share a country with this and with that and you won't. Israel wants to wean itself off of US Support, which is weird because I would have expected all the anti Zionist crowd would be celebrating over this over the weekend. Did you guys pick up on that on your various feeds? Did you see a bunch of. No, I mean, this is. This is what they were asking for, right?

[Todd Erzin]

Among other things.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, among other things. Interesting. And we're at a standstill in Iran, but we might have an event coming up that might break that log jam. We'll get to that and more here next on the Steve A Show. All right, we are back. Like we never left. Happy Monday. Greetings. Welcome to the Steve Day show here live and on demand. Demand. Live and on demand here on Blaze tv, radio and podcast. I'm Steve Days alongside Todders and Aaron McIntyre. We're brought to you by our friends over at Jevity. I know what you're thinking. I'll get to it later. It's too expensive now. I don't know where to start. I mean, it's only your health. Jevoty, short for longevity. And they can help you. And they've eliminated now all your objections. You can get launched now with their free tier for free. You can upload your current blood work and have Jevity's care experts take a look at it and build a custom longevity blueprint for you. And then you decide if you want some, if not, all or none of it. But at least it gives you more information and more options. And you're gonna want as many of those as you possibly can with quacks like Debbie Burks still, for whatever reason, not on trial for their lives. All right, so go to God.com. i've been using Jevy. I'm taking the supplements now. Weekend feel great. So I love the way they have them laid out. They make it as absolutely simple as possible. And don't tell me you're too busy. It's highly unlikely you are busier than me. Highly unlikely. And I can mix this in so you can do it too. All right. And you'll get 20% off if you want to go with Jevity right now at go. All right. G E V I T I G E V I t I get 20% off at the promo code [e-mail] promo code days for 20% off. That's go jevity.com code dace all right. Coming up here on today's show, bottom of the hour, Bob Vander Plass is going to join us and we are going to talk about some data going around that absolutely itemizes what the sexual revolution has done to the country. And then how do we get out of this? All right. Because Bob and his awesome wife Darla have raised three boys all the way to manhood who are now married and productive members of society, which puts them in a scant minority and they all reach that, that, that threshold before they turn 30 years old. That was the expectation a generation ago. That is the exception now today. So both in terms of practicality, what they do in their home that maybe we could learn from and then also in terms of policy because this is what Bob does year round for a full time job is advocate for pro marriage, pro family policies. We'll get into that with Bob coming up at the bottom of the hour. And then next hour, this whole debate that's been going around and we've kind of chimed in here or there, for the most part though, I've wanted us to just kind of listen to both sides, this whole debate about are we a creedal nation or not? Can anybody be an American or not? And it reached another, it reached another breaking point with some recent comments from Supreme Court Justice Neil Gord Gorsuch speaking to his fellow libertarians at Reason magazine. And I want us to take next hour and to look at these comments. And as one of the few people alive today who is on friendly terms and first name terms with both Joel Berry and or on McIntyre on each side of this debate. I want us to take a look at each side of this debate and then determine which side we're on. You may not be surprised because I do tend to roll like this as a contrarian and I don't try to be a contrarian. It's just, it just tends to work out that way. But, but I actually think there, there is a middle position between both sides that'll probably, when I'm done, make them both hate me. That's just kind of what I do.

[Todd Erzin]

You can do it.

[Steve Dace]

It's just my way. Indeed. All right, but let's, let's get to some of the Items, Aaron, that you highlighted in your montage today. So we discussed on the show last week this, this standoff moment that, that I, I'm analyzing politically, politically, militarily, I have no idea what's going on. It's way beyond my expectations and knowledge. But I also, or expertise, I meant to say in knowledge. But I also recognize that if we wanted to or thought we had the political latitude to do it, or we knew what would happen after we did it, we could have, you know, taken the line of ascension of the entire Iranian high command to the fourth generation to make sure that our great great grandchildren never live in a world where anybody knows what an Ayatollah in Iran is ever again. We could do that if we wanted to and probably do it in 30 days or less. Fair, fair, fair. But we have all those other caveats that I just mentioned. Politically, do we have the capital to do it? Do the American people have the resolve to do it? And then who, or what or how or how many who's and what's would then take over and fill this vacuum? I think that if we had a, a Boris Yeltsin, Lequa Lessa or even Al Sisi level character that we could have put in there. This war now is in its 10th week. I think that we would have, we, we would be promoting that person. Do we all three agree on that? If, or persons.

[Todd Erzin]

My goodness, I hope so.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. If, you know, 10 weeks into this, okay, so we're at this standstill now. The President said today we have successfully eliminated about 70% of the targets in Iran that we set out to eliminate with Operation Epic Fury. Given the capacity of Iranian response, seeing them down to basically a 30%, I mean, it's not going to be a one to one, but we're layman here trying to make sense of all this terminology. All right, so let's just say Iran's down to 25, 30% of its capability. Just anecdotally, what we see Iran doing on a day to day basis, that would, that would appear to not necessarily be outside the realm of likelihood. Fair. Okay, they're not eliminated, but they are greatly diminished. Fair. Are we all still okay on our own?

[Todd Erzin]

Better be.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. So we're at this standoff though in that what it would take then to get that other 25, 30%, we may not have the resolve for here at home or the political capital to, to, to execute, literally and figuratively. And a lot of it comes down to what I just said, what happens next? Or instead. Still with me.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So this is kind of the standoff that I articulated that I thought we were at last week, that I. I think the President has been, to use a phrase from my childhood in the Reagan era. I think he's been dynamically scoring this. And I. I don't think that this has happened. Meaning that this has been an evolving. An evolving assessment based on we let. We have a President who loves leverage and negotiations. It's what he's galactically great at. Right. So we've always talked about in our show. Art of the Deal seems the core of Trump's worldview. So I don't think it's really out of the realm of possibility at all that he is weighing what we can politically do without taking on even. We're at the point now that the president's numbers are kind of so low that there's really. There's not much of a lower point to get to in terms of public perception right now.

[Todd Erzin]

Right?

[Steve Dace]

There's not. We're kind of at that basement right now. You would think. Or close to it.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, $5 gas is going to test that line, Steve.

[Steve Dace]

It might. It might. All right, so you know what? Let's. On that one, let's put that open for debate then. And maybe we're not as solid on that, based on what you just said. All right, So I do think he's been weighing these things this entire time. How much can we really devastate these people? And then how much do these political calculations here at home? And how much organically could some form of alternative governing structure emerge? They tried to find an alternative governing structure. You guys realize it was almost like a month ago that we sent the vice president over there already. That's how much time has flown by. Right. And then he came back. And you guys remember why? Because it was very clear that the people he was negotiating. This is what JD Said. It was very clear the people he was negotiating with didn't really have the power to make a deal. So then, therefore, there was really no point in moving forward. Okay. So that's the standstill that I believe we are currently at. But there is an event coming up here in a couple of days that I think could break this lockjam. Yep. Do you see where I'm going with this?

[Steve Day]

Oh, yeah.

[Steve Dace]

All right. What do you think? I'm about to say?

[Steve Day]

China?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So when the president first started running, when Trump first started running for president the first time, China was literally all that he talked about, that they were the great threat to our hegemony. Intellectual property status in the world, etc.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And

[Steve Dace]

a lot of people on our side are urging the President to not go through this visit with China. I think it's, it's the 13th or the 15th. Aaron, is that when it is? Wednesday through Friday?

[Steve Day]

That's correct, yep.

[Steve Dace]

Okay. Have you connected the dots of where I'm going with this yet, Urzen? The message, if you're, if you're doing some art of the deal here and you're, you're, you're trying to push this, because if the Iranian regime is as crazy as we think, I'm not sure what the negotiating deal with them ever is.

[Todd Erzin]

Right.

[Steve Dace]

What is it ever at that point. Right. So then it would be the most Trumpian thing of all time to bomb the absolute living hell out of the last 30% of targets in Iran that we have not scorched yet, either right before he goes to China or even while he is there. That would be the most Trumpian thing of all time. And to kind of send a message of take out your trash or we're going to do it for you, and to see if, if we can get a fully isolated Iran. Now, when even the Chinese are tired of their oil being blockaded in the Strait of Hormuz, basically the entire planet comes along and says you get to survive on one condition. You hand over every last nuclear capable asset or material that you have that you currently are unwilling to. And I think that's maybe the next play we're looking at here. Thoughts on that?

[Todd Erzin]

Well, bold strategy, Cotton, but why does China not want us to have $5 worth of gas in a government that makes Trump's job much harder than easier?

[Steve Dace]

Excellent question. Well, remember, they got to pay this too. And also, yes, they're in a command economy that they can do things to their people that we can't. But remember, one of the quiet stories that's gone on that has gone largely unreported over the last year is there's been quite a bit of civil unrest in China too. Some of the same concerns that our young men have. How do I find a wife? How do I find a job? They're having the same concerns with their young men as well. All right? They have inflation problems there. There was already a coup attempt against Xi that ended up getting outed before it was launched. So they've already lost Venezuela. They were Venezuela's leading buyer of crude. They've already lost them. I would imagine we weren't getting any oil from Iran. Okay, So I would, I would, or hardly any So I would imagine they were probably Iran's greatest customer as well. That, again, if you see things the way I'm trying to see things, the way Trump sees things, understanding he's gonna have knowledge on this, I don't have. But if you see all of this as an art of the deal, and all of these are leverage points, right, how much more unrest. Trump can just sit there and say, listen, I may lose the House next year even if I do everything right. I might be facing impeachment next year even if I do everything right. We could have. We could have. I could have a 55% approval rating right now. And presidents tend to lose the next midterm election after they get elected anyway. All right. But I also don't have to run again. So, I mean, then Democrats are never going to have enough votes in the Senate to remove me. So I'm sitting here for another three years pushing your buttons. You guys sure? You've got three more years to wait me out. I mean, he might be. That might not be right.

[Todd Erzin]

No, it's not.

[Steve Dace]

But. But that could be the plan.

[Todd Erzin]

This is asking a lot of a deal with a country that gladly poisoned us not very long ago.

[Steve Dace]

You're right. But see, I don't think so. That only leaves us with two options then. I see. Tell me if you see a third. We just walk away and leave the regime in place, and it will continue to troll us and try to humiliate us in the public stage as they stood up to the Great Satan. Or we do what it takes to get rid of the regime. I don't see a third. To me, what I'm describing here is the third option. I don't see another. If you don't agree with that option, then those are your other two options that effectively, in a way, we almost did this for nothing. We just walk away and claim wins, and then we. We put the consumers and everything else through this for basically nothing and let the regime rebuild itself. At least that'll be. The perception is we did it for nothing, or we risk a lot more political capital by going in there and more directly trying to uproot the regime.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm not agreeing with the options as options. I'm agreeing with the likelihood of them succeeding. And you know what I think about Trump thinks about? Why can't we all just be groovy together? Just saying, China has not shown an interest in playing that game before. If they do, amen. But I'm skeptical.

[Steve Day]

Here's another variable, though. Kind of along the lines of China, how much influence they have, Number one, are you telegraphing the message to the rest of the world? Which maybe who cares to some degree? Are you telegraphing, though, that we really can't do anything unilaterally with Iran? It's actually China who has the power to do that? That might be a message or at least a spin. How much people care about that, I don't know. But the other variable I think you need to think about or kick around a little bit, the Houthis in Yemen. Do you know who the Houthis are? They're another one of those regional proxies. Do you know where they gathered? Do you know what they are? Are they an arm of the Yemeni government? They're one of those regional proxies that Iran funds. Yet on occasion, they've been able to muck up the Bab El Mandab Strait, that's the Red Sea version of the Strait of Hormuz. They've been able to do that on occasion. They fortunately, from what I've seen, have not been able to do so right now. Kind of makes you go, huh? I think something that we need to consider is, ironically, has the IRGC essentially been reduced to a version of the very proxies they've been funding, meaning within the IRGC itself, are there really any commanders left? Even if you could make a deal with one faction of the irgc, is the faction of the IRGC that happens to be on the geographic coast of the Strait of Hormuz, are they just going to, are they going to do their own thing? What I'm trying to say is we have, we heard this a lot in the first couple of weeks, very decentralized command and control structure. Maybe we didn't realize how decentralized it was. And if that's the case, again, I'm operating, I'm trying to, trying to work through this under the assumption that it is extremely decentralized. How much sway does China actually have in that scenario? You see what I'm saying? You're just in a situation where it's probably going to take years with somebody like, I don't know, Israel who's willing to maybe see this through for years and just picking off IRGC targets one at a time. We're, what I'm trying to say is under this scenario, we could see trade through the Strait of Hormuz backed up for years.

[Steve Dace]

If that is this entire conversation is why I did not, I had a bad feeling about this from the very beginning, had nothing to do with any level of respect for the Iranian command whatsoever, their ability to thwart us whatsoever, but their level of commitment compared to ours. And then what would come next? What would come next? All right, that brings us to Israel before we get there. Patriot Mobile of course has been on the cutting edge of the red parallel economy. Pardon me. Which you can join now by joining me at Patriot Mobile. Our family's been there, the Daces have been there for over six years and we've never looked back. They have been outstanding for us. Anytime we need something, anytime they're there. And at first maybe you think, well, because we're partners, maybe why? But I've heard so many great customer service stories from all of you as well. Everywhere I travel around the country, I see Patreon Mobile quite often sponsoring, helping, aiding the causes they share with you and the values they have in common with you as well. They can hook you up with any of the major networks in the country that they have access to and switch you anytime you want for free. Maybe you're in a bad contract with a communist company, they can maybe help buy you out of that as well. Keep your number, switch your number, keep your phone upgraded if you want, but get started today with a free month of service when you go to patriot mobile.com steve and use the promo code Steve. Get started today with a free month of service@patriot mobile.com Steve using the code Steve to get started at Patriot Mobile. So that brings us to Israel and I, I've been telling you guys for the last year plus that there are plenty of elements in Israel that would like to decouple from United States. How many times have I brought this up on the show? Right? This is not a one way relationship that particularly in these voices have grown since October 7 that they are like, you know, listen, appreciate the United States and its support but I just think maybe our commitment and resolve to this region of the world where we live and what we face on a daily basis might be beyond theirs. And it's really some of our own defense contractors that don't want to do it because they don't want to compete with Israel's interests and the weapons on the open weapons market because that would drive prices and revenues down and you know, for War Inc. But what I found fascinating and maybe greatly instructive is that we didn't see all the, the anti Zionist folks cheering and, and, and, and, and, and praising Bibi Netanyahu for now, making this an official position of the Israeli government on our own 60 Minutes program. I mean this is what they said they wanted, right?

[Todd Erzin]

It is, yes.

[Steve Dace]

So maybe since they're not, they're getting it, or at least it's being proposed by a guy that could make it happen and they're not cheering it.

[Steve Day]

The tails wagging the dog, Steve.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, maybe.

[Steve Day]

I mean, decoupling from the dog.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, maybe it's not what they wanted.

[Todd Erzin]

As you always said, you don't dance with the devil, the devil dances with you. You know, they're not capable of letting go of this one.

[Steve Dace]

No, I don't. They didn't want decoupling, okay? They, they want a diminishment of Israel. That's what this is about. Because if they wanted decoupling, they'd be like, you know what? Cool, Iran's your mess. We bombed 70% of their targets. We've got a bunch of stuff to do back home. All right? So we're going to head over and do that. Okay? You guys, do you, you know, but, you know, we've, we've got 633 more houses on the market than we have current buyers in America. That's a bad thing. Correct. So we're going to deal with that stuff, you know, and try to get gas back under 350 a gallon and replace Jerome Powell here in a few days and, you know, try to get interest rates and inflation under control. So we softened them up for you. You guys are a sovereign nation over there, and you guys work it out and we're going to focus on our own problems. I mean, I would think that's what all the, the anti Zionist crowd would want. Right? And yet that's not what we're hearing. It is almost as if, it is almost as if they really were not anti Zionist, but they were really just anti Semites. The more, you know, let's close this out here with Wes Moore. You can't rise above your own worldview. And when you watch that clip, the governor of Maryland is having a very sincere. I took this as having a very sincere conversation. And I, I think that he is sincerely struggling with his own worldview. And his standard is, well, if my son really thought he needed help. But what if your son needs help raping women? I assume Wes would say no. Well, based on what standard then? If it's just the feelings of his son. Right.

[Todd Erzin]

What did he say? It's just me, but I'm with my son.

[Steve Dace]

Okay, so you think things like this, when you don't think people are born into sin, but are basically good, are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God and therefore accountable to him ultimately, as are you. So you say things like that when you don't believe things like that.

[Neil Gorsuch]

And

[Steve Dace]

you, you, you are never going to share a culture with that. We've been trying to for about a generation. How's that been working out?

[Todd Erzin]

Terribly.

[Steve Dace]

Terribly. There are absolute things your children would. I, I, I'm gonna say this because I think I have to. And the year of our Lord 2026. But there are things your children will want or desire that are not good for them. And your job as a parent is to say no to those things. And if you remember nothing else we discuss or I say on this show the rest of the day, maybe it's to remember that there are times to say no to your children. Now, the whole thing from a worldview standpoint, though, is it works to, it works in both directions. So when would a parent know when to say no to their children? Because you can be very abusive by saying no all the time, too, to things your children actually want and desire that they, that are good for them and they truly need. Right. So that would seem to indicate that the sinfulness works for both the parent and the child, right?

[Todd Erzin]

Absolutely.

[Steve Dace]

So the child needs the parent to be the limiting principle in his or her life, right?

[Todd Erzin]

Oh, yes.

[Steve Dace]

And then that would mean the parent would need maybe a heavenly father to be the limiting principle in his or her life, right?

[Todd Erzin]

Correct.

[Steve Dace]

And without a limiting principle, what do you get? You get a governor of One of the 50 states of this union who says if his, his son, who's not even old enough to have a learner's permit, a driver's license, smoke a cigarette or take a marijuana gummy, you know, the rights that we really are concerned about in America today, it wouldn't pass age verification for most porn sites if he wants to be mutilated. I mean, I have, I can't stand in his way. I have to give him what he wants. That's the governor of a state, guys. And you can tell as he's navigating these circumstances in real time, you can tell that he is sincerely wrestling with his worldview. And ultimately, he did the devil's arithmetic with his own worldview and came to the conclusion, his own world, the only conclusion his worldview could provide him, for him to come to another conclusion would require him to repudiate his worldview. Todd.

[Todd Erzin]

That's not just the governor of a state. That's gonna be the U.S. house of Representatives leadership here in a very short period of time unless something changes oh,

[Steve Dace]

you mean in terms of what, getting some more stuff done in terms of

[Todd Erzin]

the leadership they're gonna win.

[Steve Dace]

People like that are going to wince. People are going to be in charge. Yes, correct. That's correct. Bob Vander Plass joins us next, The steve day show. All right, back here on the STEVE Day show, you know, yesterday was Mother's

[Todd Erzin]

Day,

[Steve Dace]

but right now the fight with our moms continues. There's a there are too many women in America because we've turned every mailbox in America into an abortion mill. There are, frankly, too many women in America that today are going to wrestle with whether or not to become a mom or a murderer. I mean, I guess I just can't put it any bluntly than that. And that is where our friends over at Preborn, where they come from. And this is where you guys join them. And you guys have been incredible. I mean, your generosity is why we are continuing on with this partnership here with Preborn yet another year here at the Blaze, because for as little as $28, you could fund an ultrasound today. It doubles a baby's chance at life. And then also, they do a lot more there at Preborn, too. They don't just say, hey, thanks for choosing Life. Good luck to you. They are there now to help this new family get started off on the right foot. Prenatal care, counseling, postnatal care, like car seats, diapers, as much as they can, sometimes for up to two years after the baby is born. They are there now to help this new family get started off on the right foot. And this stuff is all free of charge as well, but we all know that it's not really free. And that's where you and your tax deductible donation comes in today. Let's keep it going. You guys have been incredibly generous. You've helped them save tens of thousands of babies with our partnership here at the Blaze. There's tens of thousands more that need saving as well. @Preborn.com Steve. Again, that's Preborn.com Steve. Well, we welcome in our good friend Bob Vander Plass. I'm a film leader. Good to see you, brother. How are you?

[Bob Vander Plaats]

I'm doing very well. Good to be here. Love the Brooks Brothers shirt. Kind of spicing it up.

[Steve Dace]

You like that a little bit? It was a little kind of a spring kind of a color scheme. So I thought I'd go, I think

[Bob Vander Plaats]

in Michigan when I come in or Crocs or whatever else, just like you told me you're going to wear.

[Steve Dace]

I am wearing my Crocs today, you just can't see them under the desk.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

But yes, even when you called me to say, hey, if we're going to go see the vice president, just know I'm in sweats.

[Steve Dace]

And I was trolling you. I was.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

I know you're trolling me. I figured it out.

[Steve Dace]

But I did.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

It was fun.

[Steve Dace]

We went over there to see JD when he was in town last week, and I called Bob and said, hey, I'm. I'm just coming right from the show, man. I'm wearing my shorts and Crocs. Do you think that's okay? And there was a slight pause, and he was like, well, I mean, I guess if that's what you're wearing, that's what you're wearing, I guess.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, I was actually kind of excited. I thought, at least I'm gonna look really good because I'm suit and tie, showing the office a little bit of respect.

[Steve Dace]

So let's look at something that does not look really good.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

You bet.

[Steve Dace]

All right, so this is a trend line of where Americans are by the age of 30. This was going viral on social media over the weekend. In 1975, 91% of women were married by age 30 in America. So roughly about the year I was born.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

Okay. 81% of men had already been married at least once by the age of 30 in America. All right, so now we have 1985, the first full. Now the. The generation born into the sexual revolution now has its first foray into adulthood. And the numbers, look what happens to the numbers here. 77.5% for women and 67.7% for men. All right, had already been married at least once by age 30. So generally speaking, biblically speaking, a generation is 40 years.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Right.

[Steve Dace]

So now we're. From 1985 to 40 years would be 20, 25.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Right.

[Steve Dace]

All right, let's look at now a full generation of what this looks like. So you see right away from 75 to 85, an instant breakdown once we get into the fullness of feminism in the sexual revolution. Way more women full time working in the. In the workplace and in corporate America in 1985 than there were in 1975. Right. All right, so the fullness of feminism and the sexual revolution hits, and there's an instant precipitous drop in just a decade. But now look to see what has happened in the decades since feminism and the sexual revolution have become fully immersed and deployed in the culture. All right, this is why I say worldview is destiny. Look at these numbers. 1995, it drops again from 64% of women to 54% of men. 2005, it drops again. We're now 51% of women, 41% of men have been married at least once by age 30. 2015. Look at this. 37% of women married at least once by age 30, only 28% of men. And now in 2025, 26% of women have been married at least once by age 30. Only 17% of men. Now, I did a little research on these numbers and these numbers, you could take it from a few different sources and maybe percentages might move a few points here or there, but the overall trend line is absolutely within the moe. This trend line is generally and fundamentally true. All right, so maybe depending on another source you look at, the men might be at 19% and the women at 20, but we're in that margin for error. This trend line is stark. It is death of a culture level stuff. So the reason I wanted to talk to you about it today, Bob, is because I think you can attack this from a couple different angles. One, policy wise, doing something about stuff like this is what you guys do every day at the Family Leader.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

It is.

[Steve Dace]

All right, so we could talk. I want us to talk about what policies are we not pursuing that we should. What policies are we pursuing that we should not? Right. And what policy should we be doing more to incentivize? But then I also wanted you to make it just very practical and personal. You and darla have raised three boys who were all married by age 30. Right. And are well adjusted, successful young men. Right. So you have defied, you've defied this Trend line of 17% three times in your own household. What are some practical personal things that you and Darla instilled in your home that you could maybe now that you're old enough to be grandpa now, kind of pass on as well. So the floor now is yours. You may take the personal or the policy, whichever you want to take first.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Well, I would take the personal first because Darla and I just had this conversation and we said before you had the statistics up here that we are living in a bubble. And meaning living in a bubble is that all three boys are church going young men. They're all married. They're all, all of them are successful in the careers in which they have chosen. They all own their own home and they're all free of college debt. And so it's like.

[Steve Dace]

And you're a multimillionaire, of course.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Yeah. No, no, no, no.

[Steve Dace]

You are not even close. No.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

But taking a look at that, going, what an advantage they have on the rest of their peer group in culture, because that's not what people are fighting with today. And so when you look at these numbers, it's disturbing because not only is it the sexual revolution, Steve, which you talked about, and the rise of feminism, but it's also the rise of how do we demasculate our men instead of men taking that role responsibly. Now, Darla and I, we got married at age 20. Both of us at age 20, still in college, graduate of college, get a job. After we get a job, we have kids. As we have kids, we continue to engage in the church and make church a very vibrant piece of their life while they get an education and living well balanced in regards to what can we have, what can't we have? Making even financial decisions on what basketball shoes can you have, what camps can you attend, what leagues can you be a part of? Because money just, you know, doesn't grow on trees. Right. But kind of the foundation of funnels. It's not complicated. I think Charlie Kirk used to say, listen, graduate from high school, get married, get a job, get married, have kids, in that order, and your poverty level goes way, way down.

[Steve Dace]

Get married, have kids, go to church. Yeah.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

And what you're seeing today should be alarming on a lot of angles. And so, to me, it should not be all that complicated. Matter of fact, Chuck Hurley, a peer of mine that both of you guys know, or Aaron as well, vice president, chief counsel of the family leader, has been around forever, but probably 15 years ago, he came to me and he said, I want to write a book. I said, all right, what's the book going to be? And he said, I want to encourage teenage sex. I said, you know, kind of like, you know, tap the brake, put in the clutch like Chuck. Are you sure? He goes, no, I want to get married first, but then I want them to start having kids because God designed you with high sexual octane at that level. Get married, put parameters on, be engaged in church, have kids, raise kids, have a bunch of kids, and flourish as a society. And what you're seeing today, by these numbers, you're just killing the American family. The other thing that happened, though, Steve, is the rise of feminism, the rise of demasculating men, but also the devaluing of marriage. And the devaluing of marriage happened on a couple of fronts. One is no fault. Divorce. And divorces started happening like crazy. There's a lot of kids in those Statistics that say, listen, I'm not going through that, I'm not doing that. I'm not getting married. I saw what it did to me and to my siblings. But the other thing that devalues marriage is when you take the parameters off of marriage and all of a sudden it's same sex marriage and nobody knows.

[Steve Dace]

That's weird. I mean, we're letting anybody literally marry anything they want, and yet we're getting less marriage than we ever did before.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

But what is it?

[Steve Dace]

Help me understand how that works.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Marriage, that was never the role and design for the institution of marriage. And so when you take a look at the family index, I think that referenced you on the phone, and, you know, we'll try to make it available to your readers. It's a very something. It's like a 22 page report. But the essence of it is married adults. So what, you're going there with a graph. Married adults with children. Okay. And then it's married adults, married adults, children. There's one other category, but it's just like that is what is the basis of this thriving? You know, if you want to build a civilization, if you want to build a culture of life or a culture of family within your state, this is the way you'd go about it. And we have states failing and failing miserably in it.

[Steve Dace]

So if you could, if you could get on the phone with President Trump right now, all right, what two or three things would you have him do about what I just said that, or what I just asked you about that he could do without needing literally any help from Congress whatsoever? Because I think we are looking for those options given the state of Congress. What two or three things have we not done here in the state of Iowa yet that you would urge Governor Reynolds to do before she leaves office? What two or three things have we done in the state of Iowa that you would urge other states to do if they have not yet.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

You know, those are all good questions. And I think there's things that we could do. You know, say you get down in the weeds. I think the, the biggest thing that a President Trump could do, the governor of every state could do, is model what does this look like? And give voice to what does this look like? And so President Trump, I mean, it's well known he's been married three different times, or he's on his third marriage, but you take a look at his kids, even like an Ivanka and Jared, but at least it's a family unit or a Eric. And I forget his wife's name, is it Laura? Eric and Laura, you know, but be modeling these type of things, be given voice to these things. Why this is healthy for a culture. If you're Speaker Mike Johnson, same type of thing. If you're governor Kim Reynolds, same type of thing. Kim Reynolds talked a lot about in her State of the Union two years ago about fatherhood and about the roles of dads and raising the importance of the roles of dads and men being men today. I think one of the lasting legacies of Charlie Kirk and you're seeing it lived out all the time is Gen Z Men. Well, one of the growing factors right now is Gen Z men are getting back into church. It's one of the highest statistical things of what we're seeing in growth in the churches with Gen Z men and Gen Z men basically saying we've been lied to, people trying to demask us. We have a role to play. We have a role to play here. I think even in the whole abortion debate or foster care debate or adoption debate, it shouldn't all be on the woman. You know, where's the man that impregnated this woman? What responsibilities does the man have? You can't advocate that kind of responsibility.

[Steve Dace]

Like when I hear abortionists say things like, well, if we get rid of abortion, then we're going to have to punish the men who get these women pregnant. And I'm like, well, your terms are acceptable. Yeah, agreed. So let's proceed to the next stage.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

The terms are acceptable. However, the term is also a little bit the problem. We want to punish the men instead of, you know, children are a heritage from the Lord. I mean, this is a glorious thing. This is not a punishment thing. I mean, Darla and I just saw the baptism of our third grandchild yesterday. You've got a chance to see one and you got another one on the way. When you become a grandparent, I think you realize more how precious it is that you are entrusted with these children and now these grandchildren. We got our fourth on the way. So Josh and Daniela in Columbus, Ohio, we called them to wish Danielle a happy Mother's Day yesterday. She's not due until October. But this is a gift from God. But what we have done is we've turned it on our head that this is an inconvenience. It's an inconvenience to your career. It's an inconvenience to your. To your prosperity. It's an inconvenience to your joy in life because life is all about you. So one of the Best things the leaders can do. And I think forget about the political leaders for a second. Look at leaders that you want to model after as iron sharpens iron. If you say, you know, I want to have joy and fulfillment, well, what about the mom and dad who have been married 40, 50 plus years? Darl and I, when we're in an Uber like in Washington D.C. just last week for the SBA gala, an Uber driver said, how long have you two been married? We said 43 years. And he was like blown away by that because he just doesn't hear that anymore. We've been married 43 years. God gave us four boys. Three, and then of course Lucas as well. But three boys, happily married, developing families. That's where joy is. The joy is not in the bank account. The joy is not in the corporate ladder. And one guy, agree this politics, or don't agree this politics, but encourage you to read it, watch it, whatever. But Ben Sasse is being very clear eyed now as he's facing death about what is important. And it's not about having that other meeting, it's not about having that next trip, it's not about whatever family's important. Some of the regrets that he has is that he missed out on some of those times with his family.

[Steve Dace]

Well, we got about 90 seconds here. I want to make sure we get the order of things right, because what's happened to masculinity and the nuclear family can drive men back, young men back to church looking for answers. Okay? But ultimately the answers come in being reconnected through Christ to your heavenly father.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Amen.

[Steve Dace]

And then that flows from the inside out. You don't, you don't go to church to become the husband and father you desire to be. You go to, you go to church to become who you were originally created to be through Christ. And that reconciliation is what will make you the husband and father that you desire to be. And that's. I go back to Charlie's memorial when Rob McCoy stood up there and said, hey, all these young men, now we're going to be sending to you guys in your churches. Are you really ready for them? Translation, Are you guys ready to stop teaching the pseudo feminist 22, 24 minute feminized MC sermons and the Jesus is my boyfriend music in order to receive all these young men, otherwise this will all be for not. Because if they go to church and don't get the answers they're looking for, because we're not taking discipleship seriously, then all we're really doing is taking their angst and just turning them right into future groipers. Essentially, those are really the options. You get about 30 seconds. I'll give you the last word.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Plug them into good churches. Let me give you some hope. There's three things that we're seeing in the church world today and these are of good churches. One is they are planting more churches. That's a very good sign. That's a sign of a vibrant church. Two, as I just mentioned, gen zers are coming in like never ever before. So you want to be able to do that, plant new churches, gen zers coming in, men coming back into the church. But then three is churches wanting to be the answer to the community problems going. It's not government, it's the church. When that happens, some of these trend lines will reverse.

[Steve Dace]

Good to see you, brother. Thank you.

[Bob Vander Plaats]

Good to see you.

[Steve Dace]

All right, when we come back, we're going to introduce a new segment on the show and we're going to have the whole conversation about the debate that's been raging the last few years on the right Is America a Creedle nation or not? What does that even mean? We'll get into that here in a moment. Stay tuned. All right, back here with hour two live and on demand on Blaze TV, radio and podcast. Podcast with Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre. I'm Steve Dase. Let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedays.com inbox by emailing the show [e-mail] that's D E A C E like us on Facebook, Me, we and Gab. You can follow me at Steve Day show on X Instagram and TikTok. Please. Also don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel at Day show on YouTube. And then if you love the podcast version, you can both subscribe. Many of you have, a lot of you have which is why we are our third contract here at the place. But you can hit that subscribe button or if you're on Apple itunes, hit follow. And that ensures that every time we do a new episode you can be assured it is right there in your podcast feed. And then something else you can do, leave us a five star review. Tens of thousands of you have done that for us. So thank you. We appreciate each and every one of those and appreciate it if you would consider adding yours to the pile as well. And we appreciate our friends over at MD Hearing. They deliver high quality rechargeable digital hearing aids for just $297 a pair. That's over 90% less than traditional clinic hearing aids. How do they do it? Well, they were created by a medical professional who saw his patients needed hearing but were often unable to afford it. So we set out to fix the system. And that fix it's empty hearing. Their new Neo model fits just right inside your ear so that it's nearly invisible. And the Neo Xs is their smallest hearing aid ever. So no bulky hardware, no learning curve. Just get big savings with a tiny hearing aid from MD Hearing. I can't give a better recommendation than I've given these to members of my own family and they have raved about it. So go to shopmdhearing.com and use the promo code Steve to get a pair of hearing AIDS for just $297. Plus they're adding a free extra charging case that's a hundred dollar value just for being a part of our show. That shop mdhearing.com use the promo code Steve to get a pair of hearing AIDS for just $297. And please make sure to use my promo code Steve to get those savings. And they know that you heard about them from [e-mail] promo code Steve. Well, we are debuting a brand new segment you're going to be seeing over the next few weeks here on the show and it's about this.

[Steve Day]

Every fourth of July, we light up the sky. We wave our flags, we celebrate. But if your kids asked you why, could you tell them the real story? It's a story that starts 3,000 years before 1776. A story most people have never heard told. This a miracle in the desert, a miracle on Christmas night, commandments carved in stone, a constitution written on paper. What's the connection? This 4th of July, give your family the story they've never been told. The one that explains everything.

[Steve Dace]

Outstanding job there by Aaron on that promo. Pre orders are now underway for my next book. It is the conclusion of the trilogy of books that we started in 2022 on America's Christian heritage. Started in 2022 with why Thanksgiving? Which was a a national best seller. And then of course, two years later we did why Easter? And now we get to the conclusion for America's 250th birthday. Why independence Day? America is great because God is good. Pre orders are available [e-mail] the book releases on May 26th. And counting down to the release of this book, we want to just go back and relive the providential history that led to this country's birth in the first place. We go through as Aaron pointed out in the promo 3000 years of history. Because in many respects, America's ultimate origin and Genesis story is literally in the book of Genesis, right? And the founders were greatly influenced by the Old Testament books we're now supposed to not read and look at, even though they quoted from Deuteronomy pretty much more than literally any other volume of written word in all of their combined writings. And so this was an opportunity, this country called America, as best as possible, to emulate a covenantal people as much as we could, in a civic sense, that God had established with the nation of Israel. We looked at the one, the most successful period we could find of trying to live freely. And the one thing our founders discovered is that period of time was only found during spurts of time when the Israeli people obeyed God. And so let's try to emulate that. How about a country where rights come from God? Our laws are based on God's laws and many of our customs and much of our heritage traces back to him and his Word. All right, so we get into all of that in ways that your children can understand. And if you liked the first two books, you will definitely like this one as well. Same illustrator, same format, but now we tell Paul Harvey the rest of the story. So pre orders available now at Amazon for why Independence Day. America is great because God is good. And so now, Todd, we're going to start counting down to the release of this book over the next couple of weeks with kind of a top 10 list of the most important events leading up to Independence Day, the very first Independence Day in America. So, brother, the floor today is yours.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, it's a privilege to get to do this, especially when this nation that has given us so much is about to turn 250. Steve has often said that conservatism is an observational science. But before we get to 1776's contributions to that story with why Independence Day, let's meet some of the original political observers who ultimately inspired Benjamin Franklin to one day tell his fellow countrymen that they had a republic if they could keep it. And we're going to go way back, all the way back as late as the 15th century to Exodus 18 with Moses. Father in law. Jethro, what you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me, and I will give you some advice. And may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him, teach them his decrees and instructions and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people, men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate, dishonest, gain, and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, 50s and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times. But have them bring every difficult case to you, the simple cases they can decide themselves that will make your load lighter because they will share it with you if you do this, and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain and all these people will go home satisfied. And it goes on. 5th century BC Pericles. We do not say that a man who takes no interest in public affairs is a man who minds his own business. We say he has no business being here at all. Cicero, 1st century BC God's law is right. Reason, when perfectly understood, it is called wisdom. When applied by government in regulating human relations, it is called justice. The Magna Carta, 1215. No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or deceased, or outlawed or exiled or in any way ruined, nor will we go against him and send against him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. And lastly, Nicolo Machiavelli, 1513. It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to enslave a people that wants to remain free. As you can see, we've already literally covered thousands of years and we haven't even journeyed to the Americas yet. And that's where we're gonna go tomorrow. As we lead up to the events of 1776, we're gonna start talking about the voyage to America and the men both here in America and in Britain, that continued on the conversation that goes all the way back to the very beginning. And that's why it's not just a guy named Steve writing a book. He is part of a legacy that is as old as time. And if people like Steve don't pick it up, all of it perishes.

[Steve Dace]

That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to conserve our heritage and pass it on to future generations. And Todd, what you just pointed out there with Jethro and Moses, that's really the beginning of republican small R representative government. In the Bible, the idea that you are appointing proxies or those in your stead, but are expected to carry out the values agreed upon by the people in that. In that place and not just necessarily their own, you know, desires and Wishes it really has its birth right there in that chapter. And that's one of the leading fundamental influences that ended up, you know, ended up having a huge inspiration on not just our founders, but then the other writers that they would go on and read in the eras that, that preceded the founding of the country. So we get into all of this as much as we can in a way kids will understand. All right. In the new book coming out May 26, pre orders are now available. Why Independence Day? America is great because God is good. You can get that now pre order it now at Amazon. Releasing on May 26th. Great job, guys. All right, before we get to today's topic, and we did actually plan it this way, a lot of times we don't stuff just kind of happens organically. But this one, we did plan this way because this is the perfect segue to have the conversation that, that we've kind of covered this conversation. Is that a fair assessment, that we've covered this conversation but necessarily have not engaged in it much ourselves. Is that a fair way of describing it?

[Steve Day]

Yeah, correct.

[Steve Dace]

So, like, we've had Joel on the show a few times. Oran's been on the show a bunch, right? We, we kind of had a series that we even did after Tucker platformed Nick Fuentes last year. We got people on both sides of this debate that we had a series of interviews with that was like last, I think, October, November. Right. So we've covered a lot of this debate, but we haven't necessarily communicated where we stand on it. And I'll explain why that is, and then we're going to have the, the discussion about where we stand on it. Are we a creedal nation or not? We're going to do that here in just a few moments after I tell you about our friends over at Fast Growing Trees, where they have the largest online nursery in the country. That's why they got over 2 million happy customers. All right? And here it's not just the wide selection, all right, but it's the satisfaction you're going to get with their alive and thrive guarantee that promises that your plants will arrive happy and healthy. All right? It's the guidance you're going to get. Now, you might think I don't have a green appendage, let alone a green thumb. What am I going to do? Right. Well, they're going to help you with their plan experts. They're going to help make sure you've got the right thing for either your indoor outdoor needs and then help you to learn how to care for them every step of the way as well. So right now they've got great deals on all your spring planning essentials, up to half off on select items, in fact. But you guys, if you have never gone to them before and you're a part of our show, get an additional 20% off your first order when you use my code dace at checkout at fast growing trees.com that's fast growingtrees.com using the code DACE at checkout for 20% off your first order with the code dace at checkout at Fast Growing Trees. Calm. So this debate has been raging on the right Are we a Creedle nation or not? Before we define that and then maybe define where we stand on it, let's discuss why we have chosen to cover it and not really wade into it in one way or one way or another. 1. I think, and I, and I've said this on other fronts. I, I think the next generation, given the mess. I mean, did you, did we not just hear the conversation? We have the Bob Vander plots. Fifty years ago, 90% of women were married at least once by the age of 30. Today that percentage is in the low 20s. 50 years ago, 80% of men were married at least once by the age of 30. Today, that percentage is in the teens. I hope. Do we, do we understand as a people, given the overall amount of wealth stored up in this country, freedom and liberty and choice, we still have, we still have. As much as I lament the current state of the church in America, we are still, we are still more churched and more biblically discipled than any other nation in the west. And it's not even close. So do you guys understand how many things have to go systemically wrong when the first command God gives us as a people is go have sex. And then raise kids? And we can't figure that one out. We're not, we're not Africans in, in the Sahara desert of the 80s running from, you know, a famine. We're not plagued with constant regime change and civil wars in the streets like some banana republic. We're not oppressed by some overbearing, tyrannical, totalitarian government demanding that if you're pregnant with a, with a girl, you abort it. How many things have to go wrong? Given the amount of prosperity, wealth, freedom, liberty, choice and church, frankly, that we still are privy to in our country, how many things have to go wrong for 80% of young men to be married by age 30, 50 years ago, and the number today is in the teens how many? You answer. Everything, literally everything has to go wrong. Everything has to go wrong. Systemic generational levels of failure to end up where we are. And so therefore, I do think, and I am sensitive to this. I have, you know, I'm, I'm in the process of keep telling you guys this. We're launching our own son out of our home as we speak. Him and I have these conversations, have had these conversations quite frequently in the last year. So I'm, I, I do believe the next generation, particularly of our young men, are owed some explanations. They're owed a little bit more than, hey, just accept what the previous generations want to feed you. Because based on that trend line, gentlemen, how do we even know how much the previous generations even believe the stuff they're trying to feed the next generation? Right. Right. This entire decline did not happen on the. It did not happen because of Gen Z. They're inheriting this decline, Correct?

[Todd Erzin]

Absolutely.

[Steve Dace]

So what went wrong? I think you're entitled to some big conversations. I do. You're worthy of them. You're made in the likeness and image of God. God. God is no respecter of person. Seniority is not a biblical concept. People don't just get things because they're older. That's not how it works. I mean, in general, when your cultures in. Not in the free fall, ours is in. Does older usually mean wiser when that's not the case? Right, but can we necessarily say that right now, given the condition of our culture?

[Todd Erzin]

We definitely can't.

[Steve Dace]

No. You guys should not be asked. You should not. You're perfectly within your rights to not want to take literally anything for granted that you're being handed. You're being told that if you don't fund Grandma and Grandpa's health care and retirement on the way out the door, you're a terrible. You're terrible. At the same token, if you want your student loans paid for, you're a socialist. You're being told if you're in a heavily subsidized state like Iowa, because we are run by agribusiness, one of the most civilized, one of the most subsidized industries in America, that, that you have to be willing. You have to be willing to, to, to put up with all kinds of subsidies to Monsanto and all these big companies. But if we have a gubernatorial candidate come along like Zach Lane here in our state who says, well, I want to give some, if we're going to give the company some money, let's give some to the families to move back to rural. That's socialism, and we can't do that. That's. That's wrong. Socialism cannot be. When someone other than me gets a check, that can't be the standard.

[Todd Erzin]

Right, right.

[Steve Dace]

But doesn't that kind of seem to be what the standard is nowadays?

[Todd Erzin]

Quite often, yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So you guys are entitled to ask literally any question you want. I'm not opposed. How many times have I said on the show, I am not opposed to just asking questions? Ask any question you want. Question everything you want. I'm opposed to where are we going for answers. That's. That's. That's. That's. Are we asking questions to get answers or just to further deconstruct and. And. And nihilist. The culture? Where are we going with the questions? It's not about the questions you're asking. It's about where are the answers and where do we go for them? So, one, I thought, let's let this thing play out because I think it's a worthwhile debate. What do we. Because Credo Nation may not even mean the same thing in 2026 that maybe it would have meant if we were having this conversation in 1976 while we're blasting out Elton John's Philadelphia Freedom and celebrating America's 200th.

[Todd Erzin]

Right, right.

[Steve Dace]

I mean, I would assume it would not. We might have different ideas of what a creedal nation meant in 1976 compared to what we think about it right now.

[Todd Erzin]

Sure.

[Steve Dace]

Fair. Credo Nation means give up your job to an Indian immigrant on an H1B visa. That's what Credo Nation means to a lot of Americans now that we have no heritage. At the same time, we are a nation founded by a series of specific beliefs. Now, do you guys know what word often defines a series of philosophical. Often, but not always, but often religious convictions. Do you guys know what word that is?

[Todd Erzin]

Creed.

[Steve Dace]

Creed. That's. Look up the word creed in the dictionary. You know what it's going to say? A set of determined, determinative, religious, philosophical. Not always religious, but often religious. Philosophical convictions. That's what it would mean. Okay. But I can understand why maybe this generation, what they've been sold is a creed is open borders that literally Muslims in Somalia can come and become Americans and maybe even more American than you if they'll work for less. Right. That's what Credal Nation kind of means now. So by all means, I think we need to have some fights and some arguments. Secondly, I kind of wanted to see who was begging these questions because they maybe had a false objection and this was an opportunity to take the conversation where they wanted it to go. Meaning they were deconstructors. Does that make sense?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, sort of like what I said last hour. We need a couple from Israel. We need a couple from Israel. Israel's like on 60 Minutes last night. I think it's time for us to decouple from the United States. No, no, no, no, not like that, Willie. I thought you wanted to. I think you guys would be ecstatic. You want the troops home, you want to decouple from Israel. Israel's like, yeah, we're going to kind of go on our own. Got to save ourselves. That would be the. When you're, that's like your thing with abortion that you've said for years, right? Tell them we're going to make every, every abortion illegal except rape, incest, and see what they say. And of course they deal because those are all false objections. Right? So when, when, when literally when Israel offers you decoupling, offers it to you with their Prime Minister on 60 Minutes last night offers you decoupling and you're not celebrating today on X, when you've been hashtag decouple for, for year, for months and months now my. Maybe decoupling from Israel wasn't really your argument. Might have been a false objection. Right.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, we've all had a hashtag decouple phase in our lives, haven't we Steve?

[Steve Day]

Ah, yes.

[Steve Dace]

So on one hand I think this is a much necessary conversation. On the other hand, I think it's also being used to spread a way more nihilistic and ulterior agenda. But it really kicked into high gear when Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said this during an interview last week. With reason.

[Neil Gorsuch]

The Declaration of Independence had three great ideas in it. That all of us are equal, that each of us has inalienable rights given to us by God, not government. And that we have the right to rule ourselves. Our nation is not founded on a religion. It's not based on a common culture even, or heritage. It's based on those ideas. We're a creedal nation. What was Europe like at the time? It was monarchies. The notion that all people are created equal. No, there are kings and serfs. The notion that you have rights from God, from your Creator. No, everything came from government and self rule certainly was a very dangerous proposition in the world of the Declaration. Right, you're right. We, we take it as the air we breathe. Like fish in the water. Don't even realize. But those things were dangerous and inevitable and they were Traitors for declaring them all.

[Steve Dace]

Right, before I say anything, follow up, I just want each of you guys. You're very smart, which is why I pay you out of my own pocket. Well, I want your instant reactions to this clip. And I think you need to interpret what he means by this, by the way that he has rendered decisions on the Supreme Court. Right. Like when Paul writes, you know, to honor the king, to be submissive to government, and to give everyone honor to which, to whatever honor they're owed. How do we know the fullness of context of what Paul meant by that better than his own life? How he laid out that own testimony? Right. Which was he was exceedingly submissive to Rome as a Roman citizen until Nero came along and asked something of Paul that was an honor he was not owed, which was faithful allegiance, worship, and Paul refused it. And that cost Paul his life. Right. Okay, so that, so clearly then, that, that puts the, that puts the ultimate context in what Paul meant by those statements in Romans 13. Right. So I think we should then also attribute the context of how Neil Gorsuch has, has, has ruled from maybe the most powerful position in our government as it's currently behave in its current behavioral pattern. Supreme Court Justice I think we should, you guys should factor that in to your analysis of what you think he thinks that means.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, listen, my reaction to not only what he said, but the reaction as well is, is that, listen, what we talked about with Bob Vander Plaats is exactly the reason why, and the young man Steve is talking about is the exactly, exactly the reason why there's instantaneous tug of war in relation to what he just said. Instead of at the 250th anniversary of our nation being born, us sitting around and just honestly counting our blessings upon hearing something like him, the exact same words, and then gathering together in prayer. But we don't live in that moment right now. We live in that moment. Those dulcet tones, instead of us making us feel like a warm fuzzy and feeling blessed, we're like, how in the hell did we forfeit all of this? That's my reaction. It's, it's, it's too delicate and it's too kind for the moment. This is what we should be feeling and thinking after 250 years. But the fact that we aren't means the little lecture is ultimately, it may still be true in a du jour sense, but in a de fact, people are hearing something like this and they're just like, nah.

[Steve Day]

So the overall context of this interview and another One he did with National Review, where he said many of the same things you just heard him say. There to reason is he has a new children's book out called heroes of 1776. And in the other interview, he goes into detail about, hey, if you're interested in certain documents, what you're really going to end up interested in is, are the people who wrote those documents. How did they think? What did they believe? And that's what he was trying to communicate in that National Review interview, which is he's targeting this book at young people. We need to pass down the reason why. Why Independence Day.

[Todd Erzin]

That's true. That's what I did. Yes.

[Steve Day]

We need to pass those down to our progeny or else. And he said this. Basically a version of this. If we don't do that, we're gonna let go of the rope and we're gonna let go of it really, really quick. Now, we might have already let go of the rope. We're still finding that out in its totality. All of that is true, but it doesn't fundamentally address what creedal nation really means. So in the context, I kind of understand what he's. Absolutely understand what he's saying. You need to pass down the thoughts, the motivations, the actions of our founding fathers from generation to generation so that the young people of the next generation understand why we are here to begin with. Would anybody have a. Would anybody object to that?

[Todd Erzin]

That's not even on its face. It's not negotiable.

[Steve Day]

It's not. Yeah, I think that's going further.

[Steve Dace]

That's literally the book I just. That I have coming out in two weeks.

[Steve Day]

Going further. I think that's warranted. But it still, again, doesn't under. It doesn't address the fundamental underlying premise of what does it mean to be a creedal nation? Are we still a creedal nation? Was it okay to even use that term at one point? What does it even mean, creedal nation? Is that an oxymoron? Does that not include borders? I think that's a conversation we'll probably

[Steve Dace]

end up having here. So in this clip, Gorsuch says, we are a creedal nation, yet we were not founded on a religion. This would have been. Now, people think this way in our era. I promise you, they never thought this way in the later 18th century. We are pre Darwin. We are pre evolution. We're pre Descent of Man. We had not been worked over by any of the. Of the. Of any of modernity's plague, philosophical plagues. That those works ended up infesting into our water table. And if you read any of the, the, the things that ultimately inspired our founders, I'm just going to tell you if you look at the. They quote from Deuteronomy literally more than any other written work. In all of their, in the, in the full volume of their writings you in the world in which they lived. It was not possible to have a creed without religion. It just did not exist. There had never been a secular nation in the history of the world at the time in which they lived. The idea that there were large secular spaces you have to remember all these governments claimed they had the divine rights of gods to rule. That was the, that was. We are the ones that broke. That's the whole point of Cleon Skousen's 5,000 year leap that we broke 5,000 years of human history and claiming that government is God or gets its, its power to govern you from its gods, often plural to we're actually made in the likeness and image of God and the people that run the government are every bit as accountable to that same God as the aspect as are the people. That's why we can have a government by the consent of the govern because God's not a respecter of person. So we're both equally accountable to God regardless of our socioeconomic status or station. That's why justice is blind in the world. That the, the, the, that the, the Declaration of Independence was written in the idea of a creed without a religion. So if there's. So if we have creeds that aren't tied, if, if Neil's right that the creed is not tied to a specific religion then that means we can just take this to the, the Islamist world. We believe that we tried that. That's what we tried to do after 911 we were going to bring democracy to the Middle East. How did that work? I mean we're just, we're just here plugging in. We're just. We unplugged one cree our creed that's not tied to our religion. It's not tied to our religion. Right. And we. So we just took our creed and plugged it in and ran it through Google Translate, plugged it into their Arab Arabic speaking their Arabic speaking platforms and said here's your creed. How did it work? Did it work?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Dace]

No. So yeah, we're going to have to identify what religion we're a part of here. There's more questions that I think need to be asked of Neil Gorsuch here when we come back.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

Foreign.

[Steve Dace]

Back here on the Steve Day show. And if you like this kind of conversation, we're going to be having a lot more of these as a network. You guys can already tell we're doing more. Faith based programming is a network than we ever have before. We've got even more lined up for you moving into the future. So that's why you don't want to miss any of it. Become a subscriber to [e-mail] day shoes the code DACE today and you'll get a discounted subscription. $20 off your annual subscription today at BlazeTV. That's BlazeTV.com DACE. Use the code DACE for $20 off your annual subscription so you don't miss any of our exclusive content here at the Blaze. So this is why I said that I think the context of how Neil Gorsuch is ruling as a Supreme Court justice should be added into what you think of his definitions. I, I just received a note from Aaron Reali, who's emailed the show numerous times over the years, because I don't think if you asked him, he'd say we weren't founded on Christian principles or Judeo Christian principles. I think he's clearly saying we weren't. We aren't founded on a religion in the sense that we don't have a national religion like the European countries did. Maybe again, that's probably what people would have thought in 1976. Right. At her 200th birthday.

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Can we take that for granted in the 250th year?

[Todd Erzin]

No. Which is why people are so frustrated by something that they would have been just like, hey, that sounds good. Let's play the music and light the fireworks. But they don't feel that.

[Steve Dace]

And of course, Gorsuch helped. Listen, he's been Trump's best Supreme Court justice overall. He also, though, in one of his libertarian. I always say libertarians are 100% right 70% of the time. And the other 30%, you're like, what planet are you Yogan? He also gave us Bostock. He also gave us training Madness. Neil Gorsuch did. That's why we have to look at the context of how he's ruled. Right. So he gave us. So. So what does that mean then? Also that when the when, when. What it meant in 1776 that we weren't founded on a religion is that all 13 of the colonies were founded as vestiges of Christianity. But one, Rhode island, it was originally founded as a place where all sects of Christianity were Welcome. The other 12 were all founded Specifically by sex or denomination of Christianity.

[Todd Erzin]

This is perhaps the most important point. Not without religion back in 1776 meant C.S. lewis, like mere Christianity, set aside the sectarianism. Now, modern day, it means this can be done without religion, period. And that is a night and day difference.

[Steve Day]

We are literally in the early days, earlier days, Maybe prior to 1950, 1970s, something like that.

[Steve Dace]

Yep.

[Steve Day]

Where was most of our immigration coming from?

[Steve Dace]

Western Europe. Western Europe, yeah. And Todd can tell you, as a Catholic, there was a lot of controversy in America at the time about what's going to happen. We import all these Catholics.

[Steve Day]

It's not as if that went swimmingly all the time either.

[Steve Dace]

Correct. I mean, we had Al Wilson didn't win a presidential election just because he was a Catholic. Kennedy, a lot of people think, had to cheat to win because he was a Catholic. I mean, there were lots of concerns about what was it going to be like to integrate fully, you know, millions of folks from Catholic Western Europe. Now we would be like, could we, could we find a million Catholics in Western Europe to bring here? There's not even a million Catholics maybe in Western Europe now. I don't even know. Not a million much of anybody that goes to church or does anything there anymore. So this was done because the founders were just a generation or two away from the post Reformation world where Catholics and Protestants murdered each other on the, on the fields of Europe and in. And in the courts of Europe for, you know, 300 years.

[Todd Erzin]

And Anglicans and Congregationalists weren't so hot on each other.

[Steve Dace]

Correct. So. So the way to get around that then was, hey, you guys, hey. If the, if the state of Connecticut is run by the Congregational Church, and it was, then that's your state. Okay? And the state of Virginia run by the Episcopalians cannot tell you what to do, or the state of Pennsylvania run by the Quakers cannot tell you what to do and vice versa. That's what all that meant. See, this is why the context matters greatly. And this is why future the new generation, the next generation, is owed these explanations and has not been. The last couple of generations, frankly, have not been taught much of what we just said in the last five minutes, let alone we're passing on to the next generation. All right? Gorsuch goes on to say that it's not based on a common culture, really. All 13 colonies were rebelling against one single nation. What nation was that? England. So if they're only rebelling against one single nation, that meant they were all founded out of where or in or empowered or in or under the control of whom? That single nation?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

We weren't rebelling against four different countries, were we? We rebelled against one. They had one nation to rebel against, which meant their common culture and heritage was what?

[Todd Erzin]

English.

[Steve Dace]

How are the founders taught the law. Many of them were lawyers. They were taught blackstones. Commentaries on the laws of. What's the next word?

[Todd Erzin]

England.

[Steve Dace]

Commentaries on the laws of England, the English common law system. This was a common culture. One of the reasons they don't have to spell these things out is because they already had a social compact that predated the spelling. The things they spelled out were about their differences, not what they shared in common. The Constitution doesn't remind everybody about the things they already had. Similar to the word of God. The word of God doesn't command you to do the stuff you'll instinctively do. It commands you to do the stuff you instinctively won't. That's why the Constitution was written as a limiting principle because of our social compact. Don't do these things to each other. Don't do illegal searches and seizures. Don't take away trial by jury. Don't have wives testify against their husbands. Don't. Don't disarm the people. Didn't have to spell out all the stuff we agreed upon because if we didn't agree on all that stuff, we wouldn't be there. Right?

[Todd Erzin]

Right.

[Steve Dace]

So there was absolutely a common culture. So again, I would. I'd love to ask Judge Gorsuch, can we just. Can we just plant this in Somalia? I'm sorry, Minnesota. Will it work? No, it won't. There was a common religion in this. In the mere Christianity, first thing, sense of the word. There was. It didn't become sectarian because that's where the differences now begin to set in. But there was a common religion, there was a common culture, and it was the basis for the creed. And let's go back to the beginning. What does. What is a creed? A series of convictions, often religious. That's what it is. That's what it is. That's what a creed is. And so you can tell he doesn't mean what I just said, because if he did, he's not going to rule for tranny madness. He's going to think, well, the highest law says God made them male or female, so that's retarded. We aren't going to do that. That. That's. That's what the previous generations that founded the country would have done. Right? Yeah. And then we won't even talk about what they would have done to the people who suggested they consider such things, because that'll get the entire Blaze thing just, you know, sent to Canada in a camp. Right. So we won't even talk about that. Let's just leave that part of it out. With the punishment then would have been for suggesting such things as training madness. We'll just leave that part of it out and just state here they would have. This would have never been even considered in the world in which this country was founded, because they did have a common religion and they did have a common culture, and that was the basis for the creed. And yes, it is possible for people from other cultures to come here and assimilate, but then they had to do what you see when people do it in the Bible, like Ruth, they abandon their old traditions and they assimilate into the new one. Like when Ruth says, your people will be my people, your God will be my God. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. She leaves behind her old life in order to assimilate into this one. Now, unfortunately, was that common? No. Which is why there's also a lot of language in the Old Testament about protecting cultural distinctiveness and foreign influences, particularly foreign religious influences, including a mass deportation, including women and children, towards the end of the Book of Nehemiah, in order to defend that distinctive religious distinctiveness. So I would argue we are a creedal nation. We have to define what is the basis for the creed. What is the creed? Then why rights come from God and not government? He says, well, how would we know? The only claim of God in the whole world is. Is the Bible's claim of who God is. That's the only claim. There's no other claims of God in the whole world. Never has been. We have all agreed the only God is the God of the Bible as a species. We've always agreed on that, right?

[Todd Erzin]

No.

[Steve Dace]

No. So then at some point we've got to answer who this God is. Then that gives us our rights, right?

[Todd Erzin]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Is it a law? Is it Zeus? Is it Jupiter? Is it your mom? Who is it? Who's the God? Who is it? Ourselves. Government. Who is it? Oh, you mean the one that says that he made them male and female? So that's why I can't rule for training. Madness. So you can tell that Neil Gorsuch does not mean Aaron. What? The Aaron that just emailed me what you want him to mean, because you have to look at the context of his own rulings. And I would even go so far as to say if he believed what I Thought he wouldn't be a libertarian in the first place because right away you would understand there's a limiting principle on human nature, and it's called God. Not everything human beings want to do is good, nor should it be incentivized and should often be punished because we're sinners. As William Penn once said, if men were angels, they wouldn't need government. So, yes, we're a creedal nation. I agree. But we have to define then what the creed is based on. Who is the God? Who's this creator? Who is it? Was Jefferson thinking of the Cherokee gods that was the Creator? Is that what he thought?

[Steve Day]

No.

[Steve Dace]

Who was it?

[Neil Gorsuch]

Did he?

[Steve Dace]

Did. Did. Did the. Did the founders quote more from Deuteronomy or the Quran? Did they quote more from Deuteronomy or the musings of Confucius? More from Deuteronomy or Buddha? More from Deuteronomy or scientific consensus? What do you think the answer to all those questions was? Deuteronomy. So that kind of tells us then who the God is here, correct?

[Todd Erzin]

It should, yeah.

[Steve Dace]

Then it kind of tells you what the common religion was, right?

[Todd Erzin]

It should.

[Steve Dace]

Then the fact that they were all rebelling against a single nation because it was taking away their rights as Englishmen. That's no taxation without. What's the next word?

[Todd Erzin]

Represent?

[Steve Dace]

Representation. Which means you're doing this to me without a voice in my own government. Which means they would be a common culture then, right? Some of them were Somalis. Some of them were from. From Bangladesh, New Delhi, Sri Lanka. Were they?

[Todd Erzin]

No, no.

[Steve Dace]

So there was a common culture. There was a common religion. Right? Now, here's the thing about the common religion. It says we have to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. So the same word that says, no, you don't get to come and invade their culture and make them worship foreign gods. You don't get to do that. Is the same culture that says we don't automatically persecute people for worshiping foreign gods for such as once were all of us, we were. We also were sinners too. Correct. So this is where we get the balance, the striking of the balance, which is why maybe you can, when you have a creedal nation in its proper form, when we agree, therefore on the basis for the creed. And then even further, I mean, talked about who that enforces the creed. Oh, yeah, that's. That's another hour conversation maybe we'll have here in the future. That's a whole separate confrontation. Confrontation conversation, I should say who enforces said creed. But for Right now we're just defining the creed. Maybe you can have exceptions where maybe you see a small country in your own hemisphere that is being absolutely terrorized by a tyrant. And because you're in a. You're in a place of wholeness as a people and your social compact is in place, maybe you could decide as a people then that you want to bring a few thousand of them here in order as a sanctuary, as a safe haven, because they were made in the likeness image of God as well. But of course they're going to go by your customs. They don't, they don't get to take your charity and then come here and dictate terms to you. Right? They're going to learn your language, they're going to go to your churches, they're going to go to your schools. They're not going to bring, they're not going to bring the same trash worldview that trash their country. You would never, a sane people would never let them then bring that exact same worldview here, would they?

[Todd Erzin]

Nope.

[Steve Dace]

Nope. But that's exactly what we've done, correct? Over and over and in fact to the point that it's not an exception now, it is the rule. And if you don't want to do it anymore, then you're the racist, you're the problem.

[Benjamin Netanyahu]

Yep.

[Steve Dace]

So absolutely, it's a nation founded on a creed. But what is the creed? Where does the creed come from? Why did they choose this creed? Precisely because they had a common religion and a common culture. Where did the creed come from? Their common religion and common culture? It didn't come from a think tank. What Gorsuch is suggesting is a husk. This is what libertarianism is. All the downside of democracy and none of the benefit, all the downside of human freedom with none of the limiting principles, and you end up as a people because we're sinners. And libertarianism rejects that. That's why its first three letters, lib, are the same as liberal on the other side. They have that in common. So when you reject human sinfulness, you just end up hoisting yourself from your own petard. And it's just a matter of, of whether you're doing it from the right cheek, as libertarians often do, or the left cheek, as the spirit of the age often does. But hoisted from your own petard, you are nevertheless, gentlemen, your thoughts.

[Steve Day]

The tragic, excuse me, the tragic irony, or more precisely, the demonic irony, or more precisely, yet the demonic contradiction, is that we are still de facto, at the very least very much a creedal Nation. Now, it's not the creed that you're talking about, Steve, but we are still a creedal nation.

[Steve Dace]

Diversity is our strength is the creed,

[Steve Day]

and the creed is this. There are no nations. That's the creed. That's pretty unifying as well. Cheap labor on the right, more voters on the left. Pretty unifying. I don't think you can argue against that, especially not in the last 20, 25 years. I don't think you can argue against that. So we are still very much a creedal nation. We've just traded it one creed for another, and that is that there are no nations. That doesn't make sense. And it can't make sense because as you pointed out, the creed has to be based on something. It has to be undergirded on something. And when you say creedal nation and there are no nations, that in and of itself is going to collapse in on itself. So the question then becomes, what is our actual creed that we say on paper we are based in or have unity around? What is that? What is it undergirded by? And then, as you also stipulated, we need to get through the actual enforcement of that at some time sooner than later.

[Todd Erzin]

See, these words make Steve and others mad, even when the exact same words said at a different time in history would have been like, that's right, because it's the same example as birthright citizenship. And Jacob Howard is that.

[Wes Moore]

Yep.

[Steve Dace]

Jacob Howard, the Michigan Center.

[Todd Erzin]

Jacob Howard, the Michigan center the same kind of thing, words were written to mean a certain thing. And obviously so at a time and now later, for any number of reasons, they aren't. And that's what's so weird about this particular justice. It is this weird amalgam, this weird combination. On the one hand, libertarians are like hyper technocratic, where they just take all of the life as it originally meant because they're just being hyperclinical. But then on the other hand, you hear him talking and he's got that NPR voice. He's talking about it very poetically, very flowery. So you, you have this, all this emotionalism on one side and this hyper technocratic thing on the other, and in the middle is the truth. And right now people are really mad about this is because you're not addressing the truth of the matter at all. You're not addressing the truth of the matter historically, and you're not tracing. Addressing the truth of the matter where I live and why none of this is working right now.

[Steve Dace]

Preach. Yeah, we'll probably have to have variations of this conversation a few times, no doubt. Back at it again tomorrow, noon to 2 Eastern, right after Glenn Beck, right here on Blaze TV. Until then, go hard. Romans 8:28.