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Steve Deace Show
Tucker Is TORCHING JD Vance's Future with Trump | Guest: Scott Rasmussen | 6/25/26
01:39:50
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A
It's the Steve Day show, and here's what happened while we were away, brought to you by kickoff. Last night in D.C. the officially official kickoff to the America 250 celebration went down. Featuring flyovers, music from military bands, and a speech from President Trump.
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B
From Athens to Rome, from London to Paris, from New York to LA and from all of the other parts of the world, the great civilizations of history did not wallow in any aging ruins of the past. They built new cities, they created new monuments, and they forged towering legacies that still inspire the world after hundreds and even thousands of years. As America turns 250 years, 250 years old, young by comparison to some, but superior to any nation that's ever been built, no matter how many years it took. We are the inheritors of these incredible traditions. We are the ones who are carrying forward the light of Western civilization because this is the very beginning of the golden age of America. We're in the golden age. There's never been an age like this. There's never been an age like this. This anniversary is a time to be proud of our past, but it is also a time to lift our sights, expand our ambitions, and raise our expectations of what America can be. We will leave our children nothing less than the richest inheritance, most advanced civilization, and highest standard of living in human history. There's never been anything like it. But with all of that being said, the best is yet to come.
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A
This morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held court at a lengthy press conference where someone tried to corner him on he and J.D. vance's relationship.
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C
Do you not want more of a
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A
direct role in these talks, which have
- [01:50]
C
been, until now, really led by the vice president?
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D
And, well, I think like any. I think that's just a silly analysis. So the vice president is the second ranking person in our government. It just shows you how seriously we take that endeavor. And we have a team of people that do work. I mean, I'm here today because they were overseas last week. We all have a role to play in this regard. So, I mean, I'm here. I've been here for three days. This is a key component of that. So. But I think that's a really silly question. The vice President of the United States, other than the president, is the second most powerful person in our government.
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A
The topic of Iran, Rubio also added,
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C
you used to call them religious theocratic lunatics.
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E
Do you still believe that language applies to the leadership today?
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D
Well, it's not that I believe it, it's the fact of the matter. I mean, the IR system is led by clerics, radical clerics. That's what it's always been led by and that's what it continues to be led by. That said, we also have to manage the geopolitics of the situation. And there's an if they've changed their mindset or if they change their approach to their relations with the United States and their neighbors, then we're going to give this thing a chance to work. Maybe this changed. I'm not saying it has. I'm saying the president wants to explore whether that's the case. And if it has, we're going to find out. But we're not going to find out because of what they say. We're going to find out because of what they do.
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A
In Venezuela, a pair of back to back 7.0 plus magnitude earthquake struck the area close to Caracas, causing widespread damage and devastation. Unimaginable videos started pouring in out of the country showing large buildings teetering, some buildings collapsing, and daring attempts to escape. Trump posted on Truth Social this morning the US Is ready and willing to help and that initial assessments do not look good. The Supreme Court ruled 63 this morning Hawaii's law banning licensed concealed carry permit holders from carrying handguns on private property open to the public is unconstitutional. SCOTUS also ruled 6:3 this morning that the Trump administration can indeed end the temporary protected status from thousands of Haitians and Syrian immigrants. In a ruling authored by Justice Alito, the nation's highest court also ruled this morning that immigrants who show up at our southern border have not actually arrived in the United States, legally speaking, and therefore are not eligible for asylum on those grounds. Those latter two rulings, of course, are huge victories for the administration. And Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's primary price gauge rose at its highest level since 2023, reinforcing the central bank's recent tough talk on inflation and interest rate hikes. Excluding food and energy, the Personal Consumption Expenditure Price index showed a 3.4% annual rates after rising 0.3% for the month, the highest level, as I said, since October of 2023. And finally corporal punishment. Two examples in the past 24 hours will start on a beach somewhere in Italy in where a video appeared yesterday, it surfaced online, of what appears to be an African immigrant just dropping his underwear on a public beach and pleasuring himself with zero shame in front of dozens of women and some small children. Obviously not showing that video, but I will show what happened to the individual in the immediate aftermath. As you can see here, a gang of men, Italian Men, including this man who smacked the dude around before he was saved by a woman who was ostensibly being masturbated in front of. Then we go to Louisiana where, as accounts read, this pastor had been on the receiving end of threats from the young man towards the bottom of the screen. Allegedly, the young man had even threatened to rape and kill his wife and granddaughters. So the pastor was caught on video you see here, beating the absolute piss out of this young man. After getting out of jail, the pastor reportedly told his church that he had done a biblical act by laying hands on the S. Both those seem pretty cut and dried and that's what happened while we were away.
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C
So the media clearly took some of you cues trying to create a shadow primary that will have no impact whatsoever for 2028. Media is obviously now trying to with its own questions of the Secretary of State taking their cue from you guys. We'll get into why what you're doing is actually hurting our cause and won't make a difference in 28 anyway. We'll get into that. And I don't know, I mean, the proverb says whatever you do with your hands, do with all your might. Looks like that's what Pastor Tony Spell was doing there. Correct?
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E
You're healed.
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C
Indeed. We'll get into that and more next year on the Steve Day Show. All right, greetings. Happy Thursday. Welcome to the Steve Dase show here live and on demand on Blaze tv, radio and podcast. I am Steve Dase. He's Todd Erz, he's Aaron McIntyre. And coming up on today's show, bottom of the hour, good friend of the program, pollster Scott Rasmussen's gonna join us. We're going to talk about his latest book, out of touch, the elite 1% in the battle for America's Soul. And then theology Thursday, I'm going to give you guys a little bit of a taste of what I did out in Granger, Indiana over the weekend at Pastor Lucas Miles Church. We always talk about men acting on this show all the time. Well, what does righteous action look like? Right? And I made a little remark, Todd, to you a couple days ago on the show. That pretty good model for masculinity is that one time in human history that God decided to become a man and lived that way up till about his mid-30s. Maybe try to emulate how he behaved as a man as best as we possibly can.
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E
Seems like a good place to.
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C
So. So we're gonna, we're gonna use that then kind of as our measuring stick. That's coming up on Theology Thursday. But first, we're brought to you by our friends over at Patriot Mobile. They have been on the cutting edge of the much needed red parallel economy and they deliver you excellent US Based customer service. That means you can understand them all the bells and whistles of the communist companies that hate you, but without giving them your money. It's an excellent product and we can attest to that as a family because we've been with Patriot Mobile now for over six years. But that's why you want to use them, not because they're patriots. There's lots of great patriots out there that have no business running a cell phone company or virtually anything else. Doesn't mean they're terrible people, just not what they were equipped to do. So go with people who do excellence because one of the values we're trying to conserve is that. And then the tie goes to your teammate. Right? So it's an excellent product and they share your values. They reinvest back into your values nationwide. I've seen it with my own eyes when I go out and speak and travel around the country. And use my promo code Steve to get started with a free month of service right now@patriotmobile.com Steve patreon mobile.com Steve use the code Steve to get started with a free month of service right now@patreon mobile.com Steve. And don't forget that right now you can also get your exclusive America 250 merch in the Blaze store at shop.blaze media.com that's shop.blaze media.com use the code Steve. 10 for 10% off. Can't guarantee now that it'll get to you by the fourth, but there's a chance it might. But it's, you know, it's going to be the two 50th. Like the year doesn't end on July 4th. It's the 250th, you know, birthday the whole rest of the year. And it's only going to happen once anyway. America250, get your merch now. Shop.blaze media.com Coach Steve 10 for 10% off. All right, let's get to the montage. Let's actually start the two things that I said I wanted to address the most out of Aaron's montage. Let's start back to front here. Let's begin with Pastor Tony Spell in Louisiana. And if the name sounds familiar at all, he was one of the pastors around the country, the handful that stood up against lockdowns. He was one of the ones that did so in the state of Louisiana during COVID All right, so let's have this conversation because it kind of ties into something we'll talk about on Theology Thursday. Right. Okay. Let's assume, for the sake of this conversation, let's assume that pastor spells accusations that this young man was making a lot of very disgusting think he was threatening to rape his wife and kids and grandkids when he's not home. Let's assume that this is all very true. We. We're not police. We can't investigate this. I'm sure the authorities down there in Louisiana will. Will be investigating this because that's going to be the pastor's defense, is that he was acting in self defense of his loved ones. Right. So since we are not in any position to adjudicate that allegation, for the sake of this thought exercise, can we all just stipulate that this is true and how this young man was behaving?
- [10:10]
E
Yeah.
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C
Okay, so one of the things we're going to get into quite a bit next hour is what it means to exercise power under control. Right. Power under control. Okay, so then do you. Do we think that that video was power under control? Did he cross a line? Did he go too far? Or was he administering the kind of corporal punishment and whooping that that young man's daddy probably didn't give him when he was young and that's why he turned out to be the thug and punk that he is. Which one is it? Or is that. Or here's a better thing, given the footage we have, is that truly then in the eye of the beholder, like, we all agree, choking him out would not have been prudent. Killing him would not have been prudent. Right.
- [10:54]
E
Okay, well, this is where I was gonna it. As long as he had a sense of proportion and limits with what he did there, which is important. Like, I. If he just went in raging and anything could have happened and he could have killed him, you know, and his. And he was then.
- [11:14]
C
Which would require us to be there to know that video from far away is not going to tell.
- [11:18]
E
Only he can know that. Yeah, but assuming he had a limit. And this is just like. And we saw it. Absolutely fine. In fact, if this is the new Pentecostalism, I'm willing to investigate. Talk to me.
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C
Todd's like sola scriptura. Yes, please.
- [11:37]
A
Yeah, I thought there were some strange noises coming from the studio earlier this morning. I guess Todd was speaking in tongues or something. Here's. Here's where I come down on this I'm not.
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C
No, that was boom shakalaka is what that was.
- [11:47]
A
I'm not trying to be cute. I'm not trying to split the baby in half. Here's what I, here's what I really believe. I do not encourage any pastor to do that. I'm really glad that this pastor did that. I think it's just cut and dried there because I don't want to be encouraging violence, just, you know, whole cloth, but I think it was warranted in this scenario. So I don't know, you can call that whatever you want to. I'm just not going to encourage that to pastors. But I'm really, really glad that this pastor did it.
- [12:17]
C
Yeah, I wouldn't make that a baseline encouragement for men in general unless the circumstance, a particular circumstance like something like this warranted it. And then you do get into, I think you're, I think you used a key phrase, their proportionality, because that's a big part of just war theory as well on a macro level for nations. Right. So that would get into, did you have control? Because whether you do or do not have control from afar watching can look like a lot of different things subjectively to a lot of different people. Right. I mean, but I would tell you, if I was on the jury, I'd see the guy, the guy that he, he whooped, he whooped him pretty good. But he got up and walked away.
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D
Right.
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He's not like, you know, no one needs to needed to call 911 or, you know, he's not, you know, knocked out or bleeding profusely. You know, he got up and largely walked away. He got a sufficient level of whooping and got up and walked away. So that's some evidence in the favor of this guy. Was under, was under control a little bit. Just because you're angry doesn't mean you're not under control.
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E
Okay, here's the Christians make the mistake of we have just war theory for a reason.
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C
Violence, because that would mean that there's
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such a thing as just wars is acceptable at times. It's what a lot of Christians have talked themselves into believing that violence is just bad. Of course they're the same people that'll say abortion is fine and things like that. And that just goes to show you how ridiculous this is. Why what you're doing it for is where you start. It's not with violence writ large. What you're doing is for. And if somebody, a demon threatens to rape your wife and children, Ass beating is on the table for his good for his good.
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C
I don't disagree. I mean, there needs to be among men some form of a law of the jungle. And getting rid of that was one of the massive mistakes that's been made in the last generation. One of the reasons why you probably didn't 40 or 50 years ago have a pastor. Even during the counterculture summer of love, stoners are out there, hippies out there trying to, you know, bump uglies with literally every free love chick they could find. But they probably weren't standing out in a street and screaming, I'm going to rape you and your children and grandchildren, because you still, they, they were godless as well. But there was a law of the jungle. There was a. There was an expectation that some form of punishment might be meted out in the extreme or in the immediate, I should say, for such extreme attempts at malevolence. Right, yeah. It was baked into the cake. So you had a little, little self censoring mechanism right there in the brain that maybe it was gonna take another drop of acid before you truly abandon that. Because was your mouth going to write a check that your body couldn't cash? Right. We got rid of all that, you know, just as we got rid of masculinity, we got rid of the law of the jungle. There must be. There must be a law of the jungle. So I would say the first argument against that pastor lost control is the guy took quite a whoop in there, but he also got up and walked away. He also got up and walked away. So I'm sure it hurt, but it wasn't too bad. So I was more embarrassed than anything else.
- [15:26]
A
Want to reemphasize? I'm really glad that that pastor did what he did. Just want to emphasize that I'm really, really glad.
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C
Are you going to drop it now? Go and do likewise?
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A
No, no, I'm just. I'm really glad that he did what he did.
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C
Okay. All right, let's get into the other matter now, and let me start here. The machinations that some of you are making online about the 2028 primary are completely irrelevant. So it'd be one thing to be doing this if it had a chance to make a difference. It's entirely another thing to be doing it when it doesn't. Now, what do I mean? And by the way, this goes both ways, okay? In fact, to be fair, let me start off with my own guy. I've made it publicly Known I'm a JD guy for 28. He's going to have to prove me wrong. Right. I'M not committed, but it's a strong lien. So we're not married. But I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm serious. I'm seriously interested. So he's going to have to prove me wrong. But in the end my opinion is irrelevant. So did you guys see this? Comments today from Tucker, from Marcion saying he doesn't believe that to Vance was president. There's no way know how he does this. Iran war. Yeah, that's the kind of stuff that is devastating to JD28 and some of you now that are doing the shadow Rubio primary. See Steve, I told you. No, you're wrong. It's not, it's not devastating because you're right. Your opinion's not going to matter and neither's mine. Kings, if they're still alive to do so, always pick their successors and Trump is king. I'm not exactly sure what primary cycles everybody else has been paying attention to, but I, I seem to recall the only meaningful primary Trump has lost in the last couple of years was the governor race here in Iowa and it was by less than 1700 votes. Correct. Pretty extraordinary circumstance. He still almost took a candidate who was dead in the water and in three and a half days resurrected, resurrected him by at least 10 points.
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E
I'm not dead yet, says Monty Python.
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C
So ironically, in that quote unquote loss that might have actually been one of Trump's more impressive feats. All right. Is he took the dry bones known as Randy Feenstrom. Was carry those across the. In three and a half days and three and a. Trump looked at Randy Feenster and said I'll raise him back up again in three days. That almost happened. Okay. That's the only one that he lost. So it, it kind of tends to be that the king puts out the signet ring. Right. And the subjects tend to respond accordingly. You may not like that. I, I would imagine we would be one of the shows that would kind of have a, a segment of our audience that is a particularly bristled at such notions fair. You know, And I'm not even saying you're wrong. I don't care. You know, I mean it's, it, we could go out here and yell at the weather. It's too hot, it's too cold. I hate the snow. I, I'm sick of the rain. What control over the weather do we have? I'm just giving you the forecast, man. So this isn't a value judgment. It's not a, it's not even an endorsement. It is what it is. Am I wrong?
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E
No.
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C
No. He's going to pick. He's not only going to pick the winner, he's going to determine if we have a primary or not by when he decides to do so. Which is a problem when someone who is supposed to be one of your friends or a former friend is out there saying that you wouldn't do the key significant foreign policy objective of the current president, at least up until this point in his presidency, in real time, that's a problem. And it's not, because so and so is a Rubio burner account. No one cares. But Trump does. We're doing this all for an audience of one, folks. Welcome to the King's court. Everything else, the only thing that matters is what's done and said in front of the King. And everything else is just gossip. Well, having the king's crown prince be told by one of the king's friends. I know you wouldn't do that if you were in charge. That's not that. That dog ain't gonna hunt. Okay, so. So JD Is gonna have to clarify at some point the relationship with Tucker, but it won't be for, like, any of our benefits. Are we. Our opinions are irrelevant. And it'll be for the. It'll be for Trump's benefit. Trump's gonna demand that. Otherwise, Trump might decide. Maybe we'll let this primary go on for a little while and we'll kind of just. We'll just see. Am I wrong?
- [20:07]
E
No, not in the meta. No. No. I mean, I. The details of the. The relationship of Vance and Tucker, you know how friendship has a lot of different levels to it, so, you know, the timing of all this and all that. None of us know that. But in terms of the meta, you're right. Yeah.
- [20:27]
A
I just think it needs to be reemphasized. These guys are on the same team right now. And, like, I'm talking about the same specific team. Both of these guys are in the same cabinet meetings. Vance and Rubio. Both of these guys have the same boss. Vance and Rubio trying to pit each other. Pit them against each other. That's just dumb. You know what happens when you start pitting members of their own team against each other? Usually that team starts to falter a little bit, or at least you're signaling weakness as well. It's just dumb. This stuff will play out in due course of time without any of our input. For the most part. For the most part, this will play out. Whatever happens will happen in 2028. Most likely, unless we see some move from Marco Rubio or J.D. vance, I'm dropping out of the administration and I'm running my own thing, which would be suicidal, politically speaking. This is just a moot conversation. There's no winning play here. If you think that you're on Team Rubio versus Team Vance, there really isn't, at least in terms of, you know, trying to attack the other. There's just not a winning move in terms of attacking.
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C
Agreed.
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A
The only winning move is saying, hey, this is why I like this guy the most without attacking the other. That's not how we're used to playing ball around here. I know, because there are still gators in my mention as well that still have not left the spring of 2024 or whatever it was the winter of 2024. But that's just how this thing is going to shake out for the time being.
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C
And so let me finish. And so if, if you're so that's not good on the JD Side. Now, he is going to have to clarify. Trump is. Maybe we'll never see that publicly, I don't know. But I'm just going to tell you right now, you don't endear yourself to Donald Trump by having your people go out there. At least people aligned with you and associated with you go out there and say, well, we all know that if he was really the one calling the shots, he'd be doing something different than Trump. That's not going to fly. That just does not, you know, I'm sure they know that. We probably saw that before I did. That's not going to work. That's the kind of stuff that the king is going to be like. I think we're going to need to clarify the order of things around here. Secondly, though, in terms of clarification, the questions that you saw Rubio get and for the framework that you saw him get them, he's taking his cue from some of you or the media is taking their cue from some of you. And I don't know, I mean, why are we giving enemy media an opening, a talking point, particularly because it won't make a difference anyway because of everything I said first. It won't make a difference anyway. Trump's going to make these decisions for all of us. So all you're doing is giving the media an opening to try to publicly drive a wedge. And again, why don't we just show the Iranians, hey, half the administration that the two most high profile crown princes don't even are not in agreement with each Other, let alone maybe Trump. I mean, guys were in a cold civil war. This primary is at least a year off, and that is assuming we even are permitted by the king to have it. We don't have time for this. It won't work anyway. None of us has any claim on this, any stake on this. Listen, I'm the guy that exhausted all my political capital at the end to help Zach lane win by 1700 votes. And I'm right here in the same state where this is going to take place first, where I do have an immense amount of political capital, frankly, as I just demonstrated. And I'm here to tell you, none of our opinions, including my own. I'm. Including none would mean my own. That would be including my own opinion, correct? Yeah. None means none. So I would be part of the none. None of our opinions matter. None of them do. Trump's opinion alone matters, and he's gonna. He's gonna then dictate what opinions will be permitted from that point on. That's how kings work, and that's the king that people want. And they keep proving it over and over again by when he lets out sounds the shofar in every primary, they answer. So all we're doing a year out from a primary, we may. That is at least a year away, and that is assuming we even get to have it at all. But all we're doing right now by running this shadow primary on X between Trump and. I'm sorry, between JD And, And. And Marco. And I know a lot of you that aren't on X, you don't see it, but again, this is where all the news gets made and the narratives get formed. The corporate enemy media is seeing this now, and they're taking your premise and the questions they're asking the Secretary of State. It is one thing for that to happen if. If what you're trying to do would even make a difference. In this case, though, it's pretty clear that it won't. Except to portray that we are divided here, and the Trump that Trump has his own internal problems and doesn't really have the leverage that he thought we have to win here, we have to win here, and we're not going to win here by fighting some kind of shadow primary a year before it would begin, provided it will ever be allowed to happen in the first place. Now, Todd, go ahead.
- [25:48]
E
Well, there's multiple things that play the psychology and emotions of the American people, but also we are talking about a sort of election interference. We know both the Democrats and foreign agents have been trying to affect nefariously our elections now as long as Trump has, has been in the game. I mean, how close are we getting, whether it's Tucker, Candace, et cetera to this, you know, actual foreign agents influencing elections and this being this beyond just about American politicking, the legal lines. How close are we getting is a Tucker and Candace getting to them?
- [26:33]
C
Because we don't know. I wonder if that might be something that moves in the future terms of service on one of these things, if you are getting paid by a foreign country or you're an agent of some kind of a foreign nation. You know, Elon could make, he runs the whole thing. He could make that a term of service tomorrow if he wanted to do that.
- [26:51]
D
Yeah.
- [26:52]
E
I mean, because that seems to be a pretty big thing standing in the middle of a conversation between Tucker and J.D. vance. You know, we know that. You know that we know. I mean, I just, if that if they're getting the money that a lot more and more people. I saw another post today about these guys are obviously being paid by somebody somewhere in the Middle East. I just, I don't know how that's not a major part of this going forward because as I, as I also said, I think Tucker is very seriously weighing whether he's going to run for president himself. And you take it off the rhetoric table by bringing a, now a legal aspect into it about how you're running interference for foreign agents. Whose side are you really on? That's, that's something where they can take Tucker far easier than on the rhetoric front.
- [27:47]
C
Don't disagree. I'm not exactly sure how all that
- [27:50]
E
would get traced, but again, I totally agree.
- [27:53]
C
That's why I suggested making it a term of service, you know, and if these stories were to come out or something like that that you don't disclose. But you know, but I didn't spend $44 billion to buy X. I mean,
- [28:04]
E
so I'm bringing this up.
- [28:05]
C
Elon Musk, you inspired me to bring
- [28:07]
E
this up because you're especially, you actually buried the lead when you were talking about Tucker today and you said he's this close from naming his dog Ishmael or whatever you said.
- [28:16]
C
I mean, his next hunting dog Ishmael.
- [28:17]
E
Yes, that. Yeah. And so we got to, if, if, if this guy is, has this much influence over who our future president might be when we are hanging on razor's edge. It can't, it can't be more than just a meme. I had send you that one people.
- [28:38]
C
See, I think we're burning that's the problem.
- [28:40]
A
That's the problem here. Do you remember the stories that we had about two months ago where somebody was able to go and, and see what the rows are on the database for Tucker Carlson's website? And he had like a few, was a few hundred subscribers, a few thousand subscribers. And yet he gets this supposedly massive traffic on YouTube and X. See, the risk that you run by prosecuting him for being a foreign op actually might actually increase via sympathy. Hey, he's being persecuted by the government, you see.
- [29:09]
E
Oh, I understand. Yeah.
- [29:10]
A
So it's just a sandwich.
- [29:13]
C
See, I think there's quite a bit of evidence Tucker really doesn't have any influence. I mean all the candidates he endorsed like in every primary just had, just got completely, completely crushed and annihilated. I mean, I had a major advertiser tell me that they generate more and more revenue off of my show than his just recently. I think there's a lot of evidence that he doesn't have a lot of influence. The question that will be on the table is what kind of evidence does he have over J.D. vance in particular? That'll be the question, not how much he has over the populace. And that will be a question if Trump is. If Tucker's going to continue to say things that try to separate JD From Trump. Forget about us asking those questions. It's not relevant. But the King will ask him and then it becomes very relevant at that point. More in a moment, The steve day show. So listen, there are certain conversations we all have to have that we don't want to have, don't look forward to having. But you know, that's the way of life. That's the circle of life. Eventually Father time comes for us all. That's why you want to talk to our friends over at Trust and Will. This is what Amy and I use for our estate and future plans. And they're easy to use website, it's so easy to use that we could use it. And that's why we rave about them. That's why we recommend them to you. All your information and documents are securely stored with bank level encryption. You can also now they didn't have this when we first signed on. They do now easily share all of your estate planning documents with trusted friends with their new shared document access feature. Your friends and family, I should say because that shared document access feature is going to let your loved ones know that their role going in if you want them to know up front in your future. So they can also plan accordingly as well. Each will or trust state specific, customized to your needs, whether you're looking for final arrangements, power of attorney care, wishes, guardian nominations and more. Trust and will affordable estate plans, priceless peace of mind. Go to trustandwill.com dace Even though the logo is the ampersand, the website is the word. And okay, go to trustandwill.com days get 20% off. That's trustandwill.com days get your 20% off now@trustandwill.com dace and the name of the book, out of touch, the elite 1% and the battle for America's Soul from pollster Scott Rasmussen, who joins us again on the show. Good to see you, Scott. How are you doing?
- [31:41]
F
Great, Steve. Happy to be with you again.
- [31:44]
C
Always good to see you, brother. Let's start with who you know, we're in this season now of America's 250, right. And what is so fascinating when you look at the the men who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honors, they were the 1%. As you know, Scott, John Hancock was probably the wealthiest man in the thirteen colonies. This was not they were not doing a Credence Clearwater Revival song. This was not fortunate, son. All right. They knew when that when they basically said we're seceding from the British Empire, they knew it was going to be their sons and on their lands that these battles were going to be fought. It was going to be their crops that were going to get burned. It was going to be their churches that were going to get ransacked. They knew this.
- [32:23]
E
Right.
- [32:23]
C
And so what's fascinating is we are here now, 250 years later, celebrating a revolution started by elites. They were the elites. They were almost all Ivy League educated. They were the elites. And yet we are now trying to preserve what they fought for by battling the elites. So, Scott, what has changed from then to now?
- [32:44]
F
Well, let's start with the college degree. You know, you said they were Ivy League educated. That's, you know, that's a 21st century worldview. In 1636, one of the most important moments in American history took place because these pilgrims would fled across the Atlantic because they wanted religious freedom, wanted to start a college. But in that era, in that time, you were not allowed to start any organization without permission from the king. And they knew that, hey, if we went to the king and asked permission, he'd say, sure, start a college, teach my theology, the very thing that you fled. So the colonists decided that they would do something much different. They just decided to ask forgiveness rather than permission. They Started a college illegally. They got a break in that. The English Civil War broke out around that time. The king lost his head. By the time 1776 came around, there were nine universities in the colonies. Seven of them were illegal. The reason this is so significant is this was the beginning of what separated the American colonial attitudes from the British. Once people figured out they could start a college without permission, they thought we can start a business or an abolition society or a library. We had 140 years of self governance. The elites of that time on the colonial side were saying, this is what we are fighting for. Now look, there are some members of the elite 1% today who do believe that we need more freedom and who do believe in the founding ideals. But many of the elites we talk about in the book have a fundamentally different view. And Steve, one other real quick point. We're not talking about just the richest 1% here. The leak 1% that are a threat to the country today are people who have a postgraduate degree. They live in a densely populated urban area like Manhattan or D.C. and they make a lot of money. These are people that control the political narrative and they fundamentally today reject America's founding ideals.
- [34:55]
C
So what I hear you saying is the type of university education the founding elites of the country received is, is not the exact, you know, one of these things is not like the other. The same kind of college education today's elites receive. Is that what you're saying?
- [35:10]
F
That that's a great understatement. You know, after the Civil War, from colonial times up to the Civil War, colleges were close to seminaries. Nine out of 10 college presidents in America were clergy. But in the late 19th century, a new movement arose. It was a movement of people who wanted our universities to be more like European universities. They wanted to move away from the traditional things. One of the people who was part of that movement, Woodrow Wilson, a man I consider the worst president in our history, he wrote a paper calling for what we now know as the administrative state. One of his mentors, when he was getting his PhD, founded the American Economic Association. To join that association, when it was founded, you had to say that free market economics do not work. You had to say that basically anything the private sector can do, the government can do better. So there was a conscious movement away from those founding ideals in the late 19th century. It's been growing in fits and starts for the last hundred plus years.
- [36:18]
C
So what's the antidote then? What do we do?
- [36:21]
F
The first thing you have to do with any of it is to recognize it, you know, to recognize that the narratives we're hearing and the storylines that we're hearing about how the American people don't believe in those founding ideals anymore, something is wrong with vote. That's just not true. I see more polling data than just about anybody. I'm very optimistic that the American people continue to embrace those ideals. We need to find more ways to empower them. The short answer is we need to find ways to make decision making go closer to home. I suggest some ideas in the book on that, but I think another way is to change the way we look at politics. Most of our discussion today, most of the political world, talks as if we're a 50, 50 nation. We're divided between the MAGA world and the socialist world or some other division like that. I would argue that we are really a 10, 1080 nation. There are 10% or so on the left who are engaged in a bitter war with 10% on the right. The 80%, they're trying to keep their head down. They don't want to get caught in the crossfire. They want to live their lives, raise their families, build their communities, and they hate the political process. Unfortunately, we're at a point now where the 10 percenters are really more interested in beating the other team than trying to represent or care about the 80%. And that's a core problem in our political process.
- [37:47]
C
Interesting, your deduction. So I have used a similar analysis. My numbers and phrasing is different, but I have said to our audience for the last few years that we're not a 50, 50 nation. That I would have put, I'd put it 25% of people. And I'm going to be biased, of course, because I'm an ideologue, but 25% of us are truly, truly committed to trying to actively defend what's good, true and beautiful. The stuff that you and I started off Talking about here, 25% of Americans are completely and totally activated in order to undo all of those things in favor of some sort of brave new world. And that the other 50% of Americans are just normies. And you have it at 80, but I would describe the normies as exactly how you described them. Okay, so my numbers and phrasing is a little different, but our paradigms are roughly the same description of the, of the, of the current situation.
- [38:43]
F
And I do like the term normies because I think that puts the, the emphasis in the right place. You know, people in the political world and, you know, you and I are included in that, don't realize how little most people talk about politics. Only about 8% of Americans talk politics on a daily basis. About two thirds either rarely or never talk about it, or maybe once a week. It's just not something that's part of their life now. They may encounter political situations, but it's just not their world. The good news, by the way, not just how do we resolve this in a political sense is almost all positive. Change in America begins outside of the political system. Just like that cultural change from starting Harvard in 1636, that led to a different culture here. When Thomas Jefferson was president, he didn't want America to become a manufacturing nation, ever. He thought we should be an agrarian nation and that we should just trade for the manufactured goods with Europe. Well, while he was president, some guy that most of your listeners, most Americans have never heard of, Sam Slater, had a different idea. He became really. He built America's first manufacturing empire. He became known as the father of the Industrial Revolution. And literally, while the president was living in the White House saying we should never become a manufacturing nation, he was making it happen. That's where change comes from.
- [40:14]
C
I was having a conversation. I'd love to get your take on this as a pollster, Scott. So we had our small group last night, and one of our friends, a couple friends, just got back from D.C. and, and, and they were. They were, you know, girding their loins the Saturday morning. They were there because they're on a Saturday morning in June and all the Pride March stuff is out, and they're thinking, this thing's going to be packed. It's going to be six people, six rows deep. They were stunned how sparsely populated it was. They were stunned at how few onlookers and stuff there were for this parade. And so we got to talking about it, and we. We kind of just came to the conclusion that the excesses that people like me warned about, if we redefine marriage, those excesses actually ended up. The normies just have largely, by and large, just moved on and said, all right, this is just, we, you know, do whatever you want, but this has gotten disgusting and crazy. And no, you're not chest binding my kids. And. And so the excesses of this created a normie backlash that ended up, in many cases, diffusing it beyond what ideologues like me were probably capable of doing, even with our best efforts.
- [41:22]
F
Yeah, that's a good description. And when you talk about diffusing it, sometimes the worst thing that you can do to an ideologue on either side of the Great divide is not care about what they're selling. It's. You don't have to disagree with them or agree with them. It's like, okay, you go do your thing. I'm going to live my life. And I do think a lot of that is what we're seeing happening today. Again, you know, we do live in a very culturally diverse world, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay. If you want to live your. If you, Steve, want to live differently than I do, if your small group talks about things differently than my small group, that's great. But most normal people don't want to get caught up in the internal debates we're having within our groups or within our various bubbles around the country. And I think that's the important thing. We need to be focusing on the fact that these normies are moving the nation forward. These are the people who are bringing about change and who are going to define what America looks like far more than the political activists on either side.
- [42:27]
C
All right, because I can see the thought bubble over Todd's head. Let me close with this question here in a final two minutes. Okay, so it's not always a good. It's honestly often not a good thing that they're this disengaged. Right. So. So the question is, what engages them and when? How can you get them engaged? Right. So what would you say to speak to any of that?
- [42:48]
F
So the book is dedicated to the nation's 519,000 state and local elected officials. They are the audience we should be reaching because they actually know their constituents. They see them in the supermarket, they see them at the football game on the weekends or whatever else is going on. The way you reach these people is the way you reach the 80% is through these state and local elected officials. Now, these local officials also, their voices can be heard in Washington, so they can have a balancing effect. But ultimately, the way to bring about the change we need is to bring decision making closer to home. More decisions made in the family, not by government, more by local. Local government, not by state, and so on. In the book, I talk about a number of steps that state and local officials can take. Not to ask for power back from Washington, but to take it back. And as we're doing that, and I think this is something that people in the political world also miss, I suggest a process that we gird ourselves for, a process of radical incrementalism. Political people want a brave leader to come in with a bold agenda and change everything by waving a magic wand. Actually, cultural Change takes place one little step at a time. And we want to take those steps and recognize that's really a part of our tradition as well. So the answer, Steve, to what do you do about this? How do you reach these disengaged people? You bring decision making closer to home and you make a real effort to reach out to them through the state and local elected officials.
- [44:23]
C
Check out the book out of touch, the elite 1% in the battle for America's Soul from Scott Rasmussen. Good to see you again, brother. Hope you're well. Thank you.
- [44:31]
F
Thank you.
- [44:32]
C
Take care. You know, I'm reminded, guys, of a conversation that I had with speaker new to Gingrich, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, about 15 years ago. We were having dinner and because he wanted to run for president here in Iowa. And he said a couple of things. He said to me that day that he thought we were more divided than we even were in the 1850s. And that was 15 years ago. So. But one of the other things that he mentioned to me that kind of struck with stuck with me is he said, you know, we desperately, as Scott was just saying, we desperately need to return more power and control to the state and local government jurisdictions. But he said, I'm not entirely confident that the states and local people would know what to do. They're just so used to outsourcing everything to D.C. for so long. What happens if we finally were to. He said this to me, not knowing that Trump was on the horizon, but Newt said to me, what would happen if we finally got kind of an outsider that would get elected and say we need to do stuff like that. But then the state and local governments were like, well, we don't know what to do. And frankly, we're just kind of waiting for you guys to tell us.
- [45:33]
E
Yeah. And then they'd actually, like, I've said many times, they'd actually resent it and they'd blame the people who actually gave it.
- [45:40]
C
Like, we thought people were going to be pleased when we showed them that their mask didn't work. And instead of showing it to them,
- [45:45]
E
Israelites miraculously freed said, why did you do this to me? Same story, right? There's nothing new under the stone, Steve, that we aren't a. This is, God bless him. He's a. Scott's a glasses half full kind of guy. I just don't think we have that kind of time. I'm more glasses half empty. And it's not filled with water, it's filled with gasoline.
- [46:04]
A
Yeah, my ears perked up as well. When he said, what is 8 or 10% on the left fighting against the 8 or 10% of the right and most people or no, it was 8% of people talk politics every single day, which means what, 92% don't, and probably, you know, a lesser percentage targets. You know, once a month you can break those out however you want. But the 10% on the right fighting against the 10% on the left. We'll be talking about this more on the Dace Group tomorrow. But I mean, this is the reason why initially I really did not want Zoran Mamdani to win in New York City. It's because I could see the kind of campaign he was running, the kind of sweet nothings he was able to say, and a lot of the support that he was having. Just slick, just slick. No substance. Just slick. Slick all the time. Except for the $8, what was it? Halal food? No substance. It is that minority. It is the vocal minority and it is the committed minority, the minority that does the boring stuff, that minority that puts in the work that's always going to win. It's always going to win because there are so many people who just don't want to be bothered, that just don't want to be thinking about all of the nastiness and all of the, the untowardness of politics. I'm above all of it.
- [47:18]
E
Yeah.
- [47:19]
A
It's always going to be the people that are the most committed, even if they are a scant minority, that are going to win the day. And that's why my ears perked up about that. Always love hearing from Scott Rasmussen. Not just a pollster, he's a guy
- [47:33]
E
with a breadth of wealth of he loves his country. Yes, absolutely.
- [47:36]
C
We'll come back. Theology Thursday. What does Righteous action for Men look like? We'll get into that next. Stay tuned. Sam. All right, back here with hour two, live and on demand on Blaze TV, radio and podcast alongside Todd Irzin and Aaron McIntyre. I'm Steve D. You can let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedace.com inbox by emailing the show steve@stevedace.com d e a c E like us on Facebook. Me, we and Gab. You can follow me at Steve Dacia on X Instagram and Tick Tock. Don't forget to subscribe to our Rumble channel at Steve Dace on Rumble. That's at Steve Dace on Rumble. And then finally, you can subscribe to the podcast by hitting subscribe or follow on Apple itunes. That way you'll never miss an episode. It'll slowly matriculate its way into your feed every single time we do one of them. And then finally you can also leave us a five star review. Many of you have tens of thousands of you have done that for us. So thank you for each and every one of those. Thanks as well to our friends over at Freedom Project Academy. You know, we were just having this conversation with Scott Rasmussen about the difference in elites our education system produced at the founding of the country compared to the elites it produces now. Well, that's why things like Freedom Project Academy, they exist. You want to get educated the same way that people who founded the country did. This is a great outlet for you to go to fully accredited, deliverable classical online education firmly rooted in Judeo Christian values as well pre kindergarten all the way through high school. If you're looking for structure, you can go live in with real teachers in a virtual classroom if you want. Anytime courses. Those are available 24,7 if you want control their homeschool track, put your child in the driver's seat. They make it as customizable for you and your family as you want. And it, it's a fantastic place. My own son Noah was a student there at FBA for a couple of years and we got a chance to see up close and personal why they were awarded the 2026 Christian School of the Year by Education Insider. All right, so go to Freedom for School right now. Freedom for school.com right now. Check out all the incredible classes for free@freedom4school.com if you decide that this is the right option for your family here coming this fall, use the Code Steve to get 10% off your tuition. With the Code Steve at Freedom for f o r freedom4school.com Code Steve@freedom4school.com well, we are for the fifth week now, we are the number one best selling new release children's Christian book in America according to Amazon. You guys have done terrific to a job supporting a book I'm very, very proud of. This whole trilogy I'm very, very proud of. But this one in particular is kind of the culmination of the previous two. And the events that led that come from Easter and that led to the first Thanksgiving is what ultimately inspired the founding of this country whose birthday we are all in the midst of celebrating for the 250th time one of the longest ongoing concurrent, maybe the longest ongoing concurrent experiment in human freedom in the history of our species. And our book gets into it all.
- [51:15]
A
Here's a preview every 4th 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.
- [52:08]
C
So we are down to only a couple thousand hardcover editions left. If you want to get yours, there's still time to get it and to get it now before the Independence Day holiday. When you go to Amazon.com order your copy today. Why Independence Day? America is Great. Because God is Good. The number one best selling children's Christian book in America. Again, thank you guys so much for your awesome support of this project. And then finally, if you've already gotten your book and you really enjoy it, leave us a five star review please at Amazon. Those help Amazon to promote the book more to people as well. And one of the ways that we are commemorating this event which happens once only 250 years and when you look at the history of our species, about once every 7,000 years. All right, we are looking at the top eight ways Providence impacted the making of America. And today, Todd, we're on number four.
- [52:56]
E
Go on. I love the providence of this show because even before I knew exactly what Scott Rasmussen was going to say about who are elites were, where they were educated, how those what elite ideas that they had, I was going to talk about that anyway. So buckle up. John Adams exhorted clergymen to lead the way toward freedom. Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. He said, let us hear of the dignity of man's nature and the noble rank he holds among the works of God. Let it be known the British liberties are not the grants of princes and parliaments. In 1775, Adams bragged that the Philadelphia ministers, quote, thunder and lighten every sabbath against George III's despotism. And Jefferson noted that in Virginia, quote, pulpit oratory ran like a shock of electricity through the whole colony, end quote. Those that's the black road regiment that Steve has educated you about quite frequently. John Wingate Thornton concluded that, quote, to the pulpit, the Puritan pulpit, we owe the moral force which won our independence, end quote. In America, religion favored the cause of liberty and political statesmen favored religion. No other institution in America was so responsible for inspiring and motivating The American War of Independence as the Protestant churches. Okay, so where did those clergy come from? For example, Samuel Cooper, who preached before Governor John Hancock and the Senate and the House of Representatives of Massachusetts on October 5, 1780, in the heart of the war. Cooper received his doctorate at Edinburgh after graduation from Harvard, served as a member of the Harvard Corporation, and turned down the presidency of Harvard. He began his sermon and. Which was anthologized in Holland and elsewhere in Europe as an archetypal American political sermon. That means it was normative. That's what you got everywhere that October day, with an extended parallel between the people of Israel and our own circumstances in 1780. Based on the 30th chapter of Jeremiah, which dwells on the groaning of the Israelites in captivity, desolation and conquest. Not hesitating. Not hesitating to link George III to Nebuchadnezzar, Cooper noted that the Hebrew government, quote, though a theocracy, was yet a free republic, and that the sovereignty resided in the people, end quote. And in that way, he rooted republican liberty in. In biblical religion. Quote. Such a constitution twice established by the hand of heaven in that nation so far as it respects civil and religious liberty in general, ought to be regarded as a solemn recognition from the supreme ruler himself of the rights of human nature. And he concludes, as piety and virtue support the honor and happiness of every community, they are peculiarly required in a free government. Virtue is the spirit of a republic, for where all power is derived from the people, all depends on their good disposition. If they are impious, this is the normies we talked about. If they are impious, factious and selfish, if they are abandoned to idleness, dissipation, luxury, and extravagance, if they are lost to the fear of God and the love of their country, all is lost.
- [56:35]
C
So let's unpack this a little bit. To use a famous favorite youth pastor term. Unpack that for a minute. So how can you have a divine theocracy that still operated as a republic, as is claimed there? Well, the last judge of Israel, his name was Samuel. And the people go to Samuel, right? And they make a certain demand. Do you remember what certain demand they make at the end of Samuel's life?
- [57:05]
E
We want a king.
- [57:06]
C
They want a king. They want a king, Right? And so Samuel takes this demand to the Lord, right?
- [57:15]
E
Yes.
- [57:16]
C
And the Lord says, do not be. Don't fret, Samuel. The people are not rebelling against you. But who does he say they're really rebelling against? He says, God says, me. They're really rebelling against me. Right. So what's a republican form of government? That is what government by the consent of the governed means. That's what it means. What's the phrase government by the consent of the governed in the Declaration of Independence? What's it mean? It means a republican form of government that you elect people. We don't have a democracy where we're voting up and down all the time on policies, but we elect representatives. That's what republican form of government means. We elect representatives who are then like proxies, like proxy shareholders on a board in a corporation. They are proxies, who we empower to govern on our behalf. In other words, we have consented for them to govern. Who's given them the consent? The governed. That's what this means. This is what government by the consent of the governed means. All right, so let's go back to Samuel now, the last great judge of Israel. And the people come to him demanding, grumbling, we want a king so we can be like everybody else. And he takes their lament to the Lord. And God does not say, samuel, that you're so terrible at this, that they are rebelling. He is saying, they are rebelling not even against you, but against me. Conversely, that same God, when he encounters a certain apostle named Saul on the road to Damascus about a thousand some odd years later, who's on his way to persecute God's now New Covenant people, the Christians. And when Jesus, because it's the same God, when Jesus confronts Saul on the road to Damascus, what does the question that he asks Saul, why do you persecute me? Me? Not my followers, but me. We'll see. The. This works in both directions. Who gives consent for anybody to follow him? God. Did we wake up one day and say, as a, as a species, you know, God, have you thought of a Messiah? We had an idea. Can we run this by it? We workshopped it. Have you thought about this? And God was like, you know what? That's a great idea. I'm going to, you know, take that under an advisement. We'll implement it when the time is right. No, he instant. He initiates the whole way through. Correct. He initiates and we act. We're going to get to more of that here in a minute. He initiates and we act. So part of his initiation is to give us the power to act. Gives us the power to act. So since you cannot, you could not become an Israelite without God's consent. They were not a real people. They had not existed they were nomads. He gathered them together, these Semites, these descendants of Shem. He gathered them together. Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldees. He was in Iraq. That's where Father Abraham was when he was called. He was an adult Iraqi. So he gathers this nation together, which means the authority that they wield came from who? God. So they're acting as his representatives, correct?
- [60:44]
E
Yes.
- [60:44]
C
Right. They were to be a light to other nations, to show other nations how to live as his representatives, correct?
- [60:50]
E
Yes.
- [60:50]
C
And the top of what he repeat, what he appointed before kings were called priests and they administered the religion as his representatives, correct?
- [60:58]
E
Yes.
- [60:58]
C
They made and they did. And it went both ways, Right? They made sacrifices on behalf of the people. I should be blowing your mind right now. They made sacrifice on behalf of the people, correct?
- [61:07]
E
Yes.
- [61:07]
C
So they were all, they were appointed by God as the representatives for him to the people and for the people back to God. Correct. Government by the consent of the governed. That's what it is. That's what it means. That's what it means. And that's why Jesus says to Saul, why are you persecuting me? And before that he said to Samuel, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. So did the people have the power to overthrow God and put their own king in place? No. Only God had that authority. But what did he do? He gave them exactly what they petitioned and they asked for, did he not?
- [61:43]
E
Yeah.
- [61:44]
C
A government by the consent of the government. And impious, to use that term, from that era. And impious people, stiff necked people, a rebellious people, a sinful people, went to God. Remember, the judges are ruling at one of the darkest times in Jewish history when everyone did what was wise in their own eyes. Right. So a stiff necked, rebellious, sinful people went to God and demanded, give us. We're rejecting your leadership. We want a king like all the other nations have. And so what did God give them? A king who was handsome and looked apart and tall and strapping, but he was vain and he was vindictive. Vindictive. And he was shallow and he was dishonest. In other words, what did he do? Gave him a king just like everybody else. Isn't that what they asked for? It is a government by the consent of the governed. That's how you have a theocracy. At the same time you have a republic. And that's what it also means when the Bible says there's no authority on earth except that which God ordains or allows. We are given a certain amount of freedom. But that freedom doesn't come from ourselves. It comes from him when we use that freedom to glorify him. Like, whereas Moses said, I've given you blessing and cursing life and death, choose life so that you may live when we do what God wants us to do, where we are rewarded and when we don't, we are punished. And often that punishment is just the natural results of the really stupid and retarded decisions and choices we made. As Calvin once said, when the Lord wants to punish a rebellious people, he gives them wicked rulers. Or to use your phrase there, Todd, an impious people. And that wasn't even Theology Thursday yet. Hopefully that blew your minds. Here's the thing. It's sad that it did, because for the first 200 years of this nation, this kind of preaching, what I just did, was pretty prevalent. It was the norm. But for the last 50 years or so, it's not been. And so here we are.
- [63:59]
E
Yeah, John.
- [64:00]
C
Celebrating that this year, Walmart does not have displays in the front of the store on how to chest bind your daughters. That's how we got here.
- [64:06]
E
John Adams had a pretty healthy ego. It's an ego that when he, you know, was vice president and president, it got him in a little trouble sometimes. But look at him racing out to give all the credit to the pastors because they were just nailing it day after day after day.
- [64:23]
C
So some of that is the history that we get into for kids, though. The kid version. Get the kid version. And why Independence Day? America is great. Because God is good. Get your copy today at Amazon. And remember, we only got a couple thousand of these hardcovers left, and then they're gone. So you still have time to get yours before the holiday. And if you have yours and you love it, please make sure to leave us a five star review as well. All right, you guys ready for some Theology Thursday?
- [64:48]
A
You bet.
- [64:48]
C
Well, that was the appetizer.
- [64:49]
E
I'm not.
- [64:50]
C
Everybody might be full after that, right?
- [64:52]
E
I think, I mean, providentially, it belongs on this show after everything we've talked about. But I. I'm ready for it. I don't know how ready everybody else.
- [64:59]
C
This is like, we all went out to eat at Machine Shed together recently and I made the mistake of getting the potato skins with the, the barbecued brisket potato skins. And then when our lunch came, we were like, we had too many of those appetizers. That's a little bit. So, yeah, that was, that was a hearty appetizer there. All right, so we talk a lot on our show about men acting. What does it mean to act? What does it mean to act? Because we can act out. Like what the Israelites did that we just described going to the judge and Samuel, demanding that they no longer live under God's direct authority. So we can act out. We can act up, you know, we can just kind of have a, A tantrum. Okay. Or we can act. How do we know the difference in all those things? Well, I think I shared this story with you guys about a month ago, but let me share it again when I went to, had a chance to go to D.C. for this American Heritage tour with Speaker Mike Johnson. And when you go into the rotunda where the, where the House of Representatives used to meet, where it originally met in the Capitol, there are certain tiles on the floor, marble tiles on the floor that are marked for who historically sat here as a member of Congress. And this is where their desk was. And one of the things that Speaker Johnson did is he took us over to the marble tile marked for John Quincy Adams, who to this point still in our history is the only president to go back and get reelected to the House of Representatives. And the issue that pretty much drove John Quincy Adams to stay in politics and get back into Congress was the abolition issue. And he brought it up year after year after year after year. It was voted down, didn't go anywhere, didn't even make it out of committee. Year after year after year after year. His final year in Congress, he brings it up again. And one of his young staffers, one of his young pages, says to him, Mr. Adams, why put yourself through this? You're not in good health. I mean, this is going to be stress you out. We know that this won't pass. We know it won't go anywhere. And it is in this context that John Quincy Adams gave his most famous quote. John Adams son that you were just referencing gave his most famous quote. And he said to his, his staffer, his young page, he said, son, duty is ours and outcomes belong to God. In other words, John Quincy Adams says, I have been given this power and freedom from a power above my own. And ultimately I am to wield it as his representative in a republic. I am to wield it as best I can in a way that honors and glorifies what he has revealed as good, true and beautiful for my constituents that elected me so Republic. Going both ways, going both ways, representing the interest of the people that elected him, an interest of the, of the, of the God that he swore his oath of office to. He's representing them both. Shortly after making that statement, John Quincy Adams suffered a catastrophic heart attack that ultimately killed him. And he spent the last month of his life bedridden on a couch in a back room of the House of Representatives where they tried to care for him with 18th century or early 19th century medicine as best as they could. But he just kind of died a long, slow death and never returned to that desk. So the thing that we first have to. We have to understand as men when we're going to act out or we're going to act, I should say the first thing we have to understand is that we act out of an expectation and hope, but not necessarily that we alone are in control of a desired result. So we act out of an expectation and a hope that we'll get the desired result. Aaron, you like to say all the time that disappointment often comes from unmet.
- [69:01]
D
What?
- [69:02]
A
Expectations.
- [69:02]
C
Expectations. Yeah. You know, I endured. As many of you know, I went through quite an ordeal to make a film once if I ever. And I ended up, after taxes and everything else, with $48,000 hardly worth not one, but two different death defying moments, let alone I almost got the last time I tried to make a film, almost got divorced, almost got killed twice, and then I almost went bankrupt. So why not do it again? All right, and, and we, and you get to the end of all of that and then you, you can't wait for opening weekend because you're like, hey, man, the Lord's gonna make it rain. It. It rained on me. As Roger Daltrey once sang, okay, rain on me. We barely made 500k our opening weekend. We should have ended up bankrupt. And I, as you guys know, I've told this story before. I was as out, I was as despondent as possible. I was as close to proving Calvin's perseverance of the Saints wrong as I have ever been. And I hope I will ever be. The rest of my walk with the Lord, I was done. I'm like, you brought me all the way out here just to have me step on a rake and we're all going to go bankrupt. Would we do what we do all this for? Now? You guys know ultimately the Lord opened up some incredible doors, movie ended up making a profit, paying back all our investors. Still wasn't worth it. You know, most people wouldn't do what we had to endure to make that film. Just even what I had to endure to make that film for $48,000. Except on my, on my desktop here, I have a folder marked nefarious it's right here on my computer. And inside this folder are thousands of emails from all over the world of people telling me how they were prophetically impacted by this film or where people that they love and care about were prophetically impacted by this film. Which is why I'm willing, should the opportunity emerge one day, I'm willing to do it all over again. Because this is way more valuable now. The next time I hope I make more than $48,000, but it's way more valuable than $48,000. The notes that are in this folder the notes that are in this folder are the stuff of well done, good and faithful servant, not an increased profit margin. Not that there's anything wrong with an increased profit margin. And I learned some things the first time. If we get a chance to do it again, I won't make mistakes the the next time around. But ultimately, the reason it was all for it and I'm willing to do it again is because of what's in this folder right here on my desktop and the thousands of emails sitting here right now that I can at any moment open up and read. So you never really know ultimately when you're in the Lord's will, how he'll answer your prayer, how, how he'll answer your service or if you will, you don't even know that it'll happen in your lifetime. It, it might be for your children's benefit that you, what you're doing right now, generations you'll never yet see. It might be cycles of dysfunction and generational curses that you're the Lord's going to use you. We're going to break that right now, in your time. But on behalf of a God that proved he would spare not even his own son on your behalf, you do it anyway because he's worth it and not necessarily because of the hope or an expectation of a particular outcome. And if you start by acting from that premise as often as you can in your life, it will radically transform the decisions you make and more importantly, why you made those decisions. Let's pause there for a second. Do you guys want to comment on that before we get to a few more points?
- [72:52]
E
Every man, what Steve is saying is every man, every man has a duty. And my way of saying that lately is being a man is not a leisure pursuit. There is no autopilot. It is always about every day reading the the lay of the land. There's the closed hand of what I do as a Christian man, non negotiably, every day. And then there is the open hand. I got to be nimble. I may not get what I want this day. I can't. I can't check out on the faith walk that day. In fact, I got a faith walk even harder on that day. That's the whole point. So, I mean, this. This is like that. This is such an important foundation because as a Christian, if. If you forget that this is ultimately about your sinner and defeating that curse is what the faith is about, you will turn the faith as we've into all kinds of things. The skin suit that Oron talks about, this foundation that Steve says for men is fundamental. You have a duty, no matter what you think on any given day, that must be done and met.
- [74:06]
A
Going back to the profit margin and the folder on your inbox, Steve, you pay Todd and I once a month. And that paycheck is a huge deal to Todd and I. It's a big deal to me because that means that I get to what? I get to keep the electricity on and the air conditioning on on these hot summer days. I get to put food on the table. That's great. I get to pay all of the bills. It's a huge deal. It's not even close to the only deal, though. If you're just a crappy person and you just make me feel, you know, you mistreat me all the time, which you don't. You mistreat me all the time. Is it worth. And you make me do things that I find reprehensible. Make me do things that I find reprehensible. Is the paycheck, then? Does that really balance out? You get what I'm saying? A paycheck is a big deal. It's not the only deal, though. On the same level, being a provider for your family is a big deal. Men. It's a big deal. What does the scripture say about a man who won't provide for his family? It's a pretty big deal.
- [75:11]
C
Worse than an infidel?
- [75:12]
A
Worse than an infidel. Is it the only deal, though? No. If I'm providing for my family, but I'm also going home and smacking them around for no reason or any reason. If I go home and I'm just not there, when I'm home, my body's there, but my mind is elsewhere all the time, how big of a deal do you think my paycheck, my providing is to Benjamin and abby when they're 18, 20 years down the line? How much of a deal do they. Will they think of that? They might thank me for It. But that's kind of where the relationship starts and stops. You catch my drift? There are far greater things. You have to have your list of open hands and closed hands. But in terms of what you are as a man, it's not just bringing in the paycheck. It's not just providing a lifestyle for your family. It's not just some of the things that we see from the outside that say, hey, that guy's got it going on. He's doing pretty well. It's the way that you handle yourself outside of the times when you're actually, you know, making the sausage of paying the bills, most often outside of your work, outside of what you do to provide for your family, is going to be the main determiner of the legacy that you leave. And I think that the more that that's the use of hippy dippy turn, the more you internalize that, the more you really believe that in your bones, the more that it's just going to make acting natural. Acting natural, acting as a man natural. And not just something that feels out of place.
- [76:51]
E
And the paradox of what Aaron just said, that important truth is that even if a man is. If you do come on hard times and you lose your job or you took a stand and you lose your job because you provided in all the other ways above that, your family will be with you. They'll respect that sacrifice that you made because of the larger principle.
- [77:11]
C
All right, so the first thing which you just heard from Todd and Aaron, and to use Todd's term that Aaron I think beautifully described, we act out of duty. All right? We act because the God has. Has made us the head of things, given us dominion over things. Okay, so we act out of duty, meaning we act because he put us in position to act. He initiates and then we act. All right? He initiates and then we act. All right, so how do we then wield that power? Right? What's the most effective way to do that? We'll get into that here next. Stay tuned. The Steve Day Show.
- [77:59]
A
I wrote a little song to remind you. Choice hotels get you more of the experiences you value.
- [78:06]
C
The Cambria Hotel's got it all. A rooftop bar. Have a ball. Cocktails up here feel just right. It's Cambria. Amazing.
- [78:18]
A
All right, bring a date, your team, or even your mom.
- [78:23]
C
Book direct@ChoiceHotels.com See you on the roof. Hey, pardon me for a second. You caught me in the middle of a voice text. Hold on. Hey, give her a kiss from Papa. Heard this from Papa. The grandbaby is at the house right now, but by the time I get home after the show, she'll be gone. So sending some instructions to. To Nana there. Back here on a theology Thursday on the Steve Day Show. Hey, a little quick housekeeping, by the way, normal show tomorrow, DACE Group. And our good buddy Keith Malanac from the Pat Gray show. He'll be our guest panelist on the DACE Group tomorrow.
- [79:14]
E
Monday.
- [79:14]
C
We are taking that off as a company holiday.
- [79:17]
B
Or.
- [79:17]
C
No, that's the following week. The following week.
- [79:19]
A
I was gonna say that's news to me, but wahoo.
- [79:21]
C
Okay, sorry about that. Never mind. Forget the whole thing. Forgot what date, what day? That's next week. All right, we'll do that housekeeping next week. My bad.
- [79:30]
E
Next week is a show what, Monday through next week.
- [79:33]
C
Next week we have got normal shows Monday through Thursday. Monday through Thursday, Yes. Yeah. Monday through Thursday we have normal shows. Friday we have as a company holiday.
- [79:43]
A
And then the following Monday we've got Special edition.
- [79:45]
C
Special edition on Monday the 6th. Yeah. So I give you guys an extra day off for the fourth of July holiday. So, yeah, my mistake. The weeks are kind of just piling onto one another. You know what, let's get to. Let's. Let's make some money here and talk about our friends over at Chef iq. So, Aaron, they just sent me another one now. It came in the mail yesterday. Do you need it? If you need it.
- [80:06]
A
No.
- [80:07]
C
Then I'll give it to you. If not, I'm going to probably keep this one.
- [80:09]
A
No, you should.
- [80:09]
C
And you, because you sold me on
- [80:10]
A
it, you've got the Blackstone, correct?
- [80:12]
C
Yes, I've got the Blackstone.
- [80:14]
F
Yes.
- [80:14]
A
And I think you will be blown away. Just set it up once, get it paired with your phone, get it on the WI fi, and you're good to go. And like I said, I just, I can't believe how easy it is because I was stuck with those kind of generic off brand meat thermometer probes that would, you know, connect to Bluetooth. And Bluetooth can be kind of finicky. And then of course, they've got the wired. You know, those metal, weird wired connections, they don't wash up well at all. And so you're messing around with all this soot in your sink as well when you're trying to wash them off. And you can't get them washed off. Not so with Chef iq. They go in, you open up your phone to the app, it keeps track, especially on long cooks, like I do with smoking, keeps track of your temperature. Your ambient temperature gives you updated estimates of when your piece of meat should be done. And then you can monitor it more effectively that way. And like I said, these probes wash up perfectly. Goes back into the case, charged up, ready for the next use.
- [81:16]
C
There you go. I mean, sold right There by Aaron McIntyre. So if you want the Chef IQ, you can get the Pro Level Chef IQ performance now in the Stars and Stripes collection, but only for a limited time. So whether you're a grill master or just love making great food, you got to check them out. Just listen to Aaron's recommendation a minute ago. And this is a limited edition to the Stars and Stripes collection, by the way. And once they're gone, they're gone. So go to chef IQ.com use promo code Steve for 40 off. There's nothing more America than grilling with some Stars and Stripes Chef iq. I mean that's, that's just as America as it gets right there. All right, chefiq.com promo code Steve for 40% off. That's a huge discount. Chefiq.com promo code steve for 40% off. All right, back to theology Thursday, talking about what it means for men to act righteously, right? So, number one, we do so out of a sense of duty. We do so. I do so out of a sense of duty. We recognize that the power and, and freedom that we have been granted as men come from our creator. We didn't create ourselves, we can't make ourselves. We can't give ourselves a conscience or a soul. These are things that were all granted to us. These are all ways by which our Father in heaven initiated for us to therefore have the opportunities to wield power and authority as a duty to him. So first we recognize where, that, where these opportunities came from so that we know therefore to whom we're accountable to for them. I love what Chase Davis said on our show earlier this week about the young men. And he's concerned about them having a bitter root because of the, the poop sandwich that they're being asked to inherit. And they are, I say this is a son of a, of a, of a 19 year old young man. They, they are being asked to inherit one heck of a poop sandwich here. There's a dearth of homes, there's a dearth of jobs, there's a dearth of, of, of women you'd even consider wanting to marry. Go get him, kid. It's a poopy situation, man. It is, it is.
- [83:23]
E
You still have a duty, though.
- [83:24]
C
But you still have a duty. You do. And if you still recognize that ultimately you're accountable for your life. Not to the women who may disappoint you, or the job you didn't get, or the house you always wanted, but to the God who made you. It re. Clarifies things. That's what Chase was talking about the other day. It'll get rid of that bitterness and replace it with duty. And you'll be like, you know what? If I want those things, if that's the life I want, then I'm. I'm gonna have to work harder for him than the last few generations did. But I guess that's then what I'm gonna have to do. That's my duty. Indeed. So then how do we act? Well, we do so under control. So let's read. Let's go to. Let's go to Matthew 5. 5, right? Jesus says the meek shall inherit the earth. He didn't say the weak would. He said the meek would. So what's meekness? Best definition I've ever heard from an old pastor of mine. He described it as power under control. How do you see this emulated throughout the life of Christ?
- [84:27]
E
Right.
- [84:29]
C
Well, first of all, Jesus is wielding immense power. He is the King of the universe. He's God incarnate. And yet for this period of time, he sets his divinity aside. The fullness of his divinity aside, I should say, he sets it aside in order to live fully as a man. You hear him say numerous times, I can only do the will of my Father. I and the Father are one. He's. He's exhibiting a chain of command,
- [85:04]
E
right?
- [85:05]
C
So he's the second Adam. He's our rep. He's our new representative. Now there's a chain of command, just like we said before, talking about what you were. Just what you did with the. With, you know, your providential moment. Today there's a chain of command above him, the Father, and then there's a chain of command below him, the apostles. Who did, who appointed the apostles? He did. With the power and authority that the Father granted him. He chose them. So right away, you see, again, this is a two way street. There's also order. So He. He. He obeys and. And also enforces a chain of command. Obeys and enforces a chain of command. That's what, number one, you do that. You obey a chain of command and then you enforce it.
- [85:54]
B
Obey.
- [85:54]
C
But you got to obey the one above you before you get to force the. To enforce the one below you. Enforce the chain of command in your home and your children will respect you. Though, provided they see you obeying the chain of command above you. That's how you go from being a tyrant to being a father. What's the difference between a bully and a disciplinarian? Everything I just said, honor the chain of command above you first, and then, and then, and then, and then you enforce the chain of command below you. Jesus also has order. There are moments he says to people, don't reveal that yet. We're not going to do that quite yet. Then there are other times. He says, now's the time. Go get that donkey so I can ride it in. Go find that person and make sure we've got an upper room. There's a. There's order, there's a plan, there's details. He knows them. He'll fulfill them. We're not just randomly doing stuff. Even at the end of his ministerial life, he takes his disciples about 40 miles away from their normal route to a place called Caesarea Philippi. Why did he go there? He wanted to make a very, very specific point. And you wanted them to see a very, very specific group of things to make that point. So there's order, there's timeliness, there's prudence, meaning waiting for the time to be right. We also see Jesus get angry. Now, what's the difference between righteous indignation and a tantrum? Well, when he sees the. The wickedness happening there inside the temple, he doesn't grab a whip and then just start violently swinging it around. Just losing his stuff and catches some innocence. Some women had nothing to do with it in the crosshairs. He aims it directly at the people who are guilty of what's going on here. In his talk, he does this. Hey, I'm talking about those folks, right? That guy right there. That guy right there. Don't listen to that guy. Total whitewashed him. That guy over there. Utter toolbox. No, no, no, that one.
- [88:10]
E
That one.
- [88:11]
C
Utter toolbox. Don't listen to that guy anymore. There's order. He's not just spouting off, but there's control. That's why the opening question we asked about Tony Spell with that video at the top of the show, was this under control? Was this power under control? Ties back to what we're talking about right now. Now, here's the thing that we have to learn, though, and then I'll turn it over to Todd and Aaron. I've spent a lot of time on this show over the last few years pointing out love is not a temperament, it's not a tone, right? You guys have heard the story about Zoe wanting to wander off when she was a little girl a million times. I finally once had a high V parking lot, had to grab her by her little pink hoodie and yank her back before she got hit by a car. And then I said to her what every parent ever says to a child in that situation, if you do that again, I'll kill you myself. Don't ever do that again. Now if you were just walking into the store, had not seen the context of what Zoe was about to happen to Zoe, and just saw at the time about a 350 pound man putting his finger like that in the face of a three or four year old girl and saying, don't ever do that again or kill you, you're probably thinking that's mean, that's cruel, that's. I mean that's cold, right?
- [89:22]
E
Abusive.
- [89:23]
C
But you didn't see what happened before. So I suppose I could have, rather than risk being seen as that I could have been seen as more loving by not acting. And then so I wouldn't come across as cold and crude and, and instead just pleaded with Zoe in her good nature to come back and avoid the cars in the parking lot, waited for her to get hit. Now who's the good father? The one that was the one that acted or the one that was not? The one that acted is the one who's the loving father. That's the loving one, the one that acted. Love is, is a motivation, not an emotion, it's not an action, it's a motivation. So that's the whole thing. We've got to get. We, we've been disabusing people of these notions on this show for years now. Love isn't a tone. When Jesus says to the Israelites, go into Canaan and urban renewal, the place hit control, alt, delete. He does it with the same motivations. He stretches his arms out as wide as they can on a cross that he's nailed to out of love. When Paul says to use words of love seasoned with salt and not to exasperate your youth as you're disciplining them, and then he see we see them at other times, discipline people by telling him things like you're a son of the devil, cut your entire penis off. If you love cat, if you love circumcision so much, how do we make sense his motivations? The same love. Love is a motivation. It's not a tone or a temperament. That's a bunch of Western, postmodern, post feminist, longhouse hippie, dippy crap. You want to know why a bunch of men with acerbic edges who had lung darts like a food group got off of amphibious boats on June 6, 1944, in storm beaches? Out of love. That's why they did it. Love's a motivation, not a tone or a temperament. But here's the thing to remember. Confrontation's not a tone or temperament either. That's also very important to know. We had two generals that won World War II, Patton and Eisenhower. Patton was the fiery one. He was also a brilliant strategist who outwitted maybe the greatest Nazi general of them all, Erwin Rommel, in North Africa. Eisenhower was more reserved. He was also the ruthless general that planned the most successful amphibious assault of all time, D Day. Based on Patton's temperament, you might not think he's really all that sophisticated, right? You might just think he's just the, you know, random spouting guy. Based on Eisenhower's temperament, you might not think he's really a ruthless killer, but a bureaucrat. Tone and temperament doesn't tell you anything about confrontation any more than it does about love. If you're. If you're fiery like me, you have to ask yourself, am I acting out or am I acting? Am I frustrated or am I convicted? Because if you're frustrated, you'll just grab that whip of chords and just start indiscriminately whipping it around and you'll just vent and go off. If you're convicted, you'll go right after those Did Tony spell just start screaming and yelling at the whole neighborhood. This place sucks. Is that what he did?
- [92:27]
E
No.
- [92:27]
C
One guy made threats to his family, right?
- [92:29]
E
Yes.
- [92:30]
C
Who did he go after?
- [92:30]
E
Him.
- [92:31]
C
The one guy that's acting, not acting out. Then he didn't turn around like anybody else that had ticked him off or pissed him off and said, and you know what? That thing you did six months ago. Let's discuss that. Is that what he did?
- [92:45]
E
No.
- [92:45]
C
No. He gave that young man the whooping his daddy should have given him years ago so he didn't turn out to be the thug and punk that he is now. And then when the young man got up, thoroughly whooped, and walked away, what'd he do? Went back and got on the bus. That's what he did. So as. As those of us who have a more fiery temperament, you know, you don't just get to just vent. That's a tantrum. Are you acting out or are you acting? If you're acting out, you're just venting. You're tantruming. You're frustrated. There's nothing fiery or anything about that. You're just being a jerk. I've done it, so I know. I know exactly what it looks like because I've done it many times. Okay? Now, if you're more reserved or calm, maybe you're more of the Eisenhower. The question is, are you not acting because you're waiting for a prudent time, which is good. And the. And what would be the prudent course of action? Or because you're a coward? Don't let your. Your reserved, your. Your reserved tone and temperament. May. Does not get to camouflage the fact you just might be scared. And that doesn't make you prudent. It makes you. Another word that starts with P. Prissy. What'd you think I was gonna say?
- [94:00]
E
Something else.
- [94:01]
C
Something else. I make you nervous there for a second?
- [94:05]
E
Been here a while.
- [94:06]
C
Maybe Aaron first time might have made Aaron a little nervous. All right. No, say it. I was like, half of the women listening to this show wanted me to say it. Trust me. Okay? Yeah.
- [94:17]
A
And you started saying pr. I was like, what is he about to say?
- [94:20]
C
Yes.
- [94:20]
A
Expecting something else.
- [94:22]
C
So, hey, you know when, when Nana used to look at you back in the day and say, I'm going to need you to go pick out your switch. Pick out your switch. That was a confrontation. I've talked before, man. If, if, if mom said, wait till your dad got home, I thought, that sucks. But if my mom looked at me and said, man, I'm just really disappointed in you right now, I'd be like, hey, can you call dad, like right now? In fact, where's dad at? I'll meet him. Let's have him just beat me now and get it over with. Because that's way better than you telling me you're disappointed me, right? That was a confrontation, was it not? Totally different tone than you probably hear from the old man after work, but a confrontation nevertheless. So confrontation is not atone any more than love is. You can do it prudently, you can do it with reservation. You can be a cold blooded killer. You can also be fiery, just as long as the fire is a conviction and not a frustration or a tantrum. You can do it prudently and calmly as long as you are going to eventually do it. And it's not just, well, I'm waiting for the right time, which never comes because I'm really a wimp. But in either situation, the edict is clear. We must act. We are called to act. Jesus finishes his ministry in the Gospels and then hands over the rest of his authority to his apostles in the next book. What is that book called? Acts. It's called Acts. Is it called the Pontifications of the Apostles?
- [95:56]
E
It is not.
- [95:57]
C
Is it? Is it? Is it called the Ruminations of the Apostles?
- [95:59]
E
It is not.
- [96:00]
C
No. It's called the Acts of the Apostles. I had no idea we lost this much time already. I was just about to turn over to you guys.
- [96:06]
E
You were preaching. Testify.
- [96:11]
C
That'll do it for today's theology Thursday. 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.