← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
FBI Warns Terrorism at Whole Other Level, WH Refuses to Stand Up to Iran & Exposing The Marxists Behind the Attack on American Kids the Week In Review
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- [00:01]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome. It is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Weekend Review. Ben Ferguson with you. And these are the big stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week. First up, this week it was a bombshell that the media refused to report on. And that was the fact that Scott Kirby at the White House said he was, quote, not shocked by the FBI coming out and saying that terrorism is at a whole other level when it comes to threat in this country. Why? Because the open southern border. Up next, in a shock. Yes. Iran is selling a ton of oil right now and much of it is in violation of sanctions. So why is the White House not standing up to Iran? And also at the same time, why is the White House and their policies deliberately making Iran wealthy while putting a hardship on Americans through their obsession with green alternative energy? And finally, they're coming for your kids like never before at the university level, at the high schools, junior highs and even elementary schools. Schools. Liz Wheeler joins us to talk about her new book and what you need to know about what they're doing with your children. It is the Week in Review with Ted Cruz and it starts right now. There was a question that was asked of Kirby at the White House about our open border, about how unsecure it is. And now not about the illegal immigrants necessarily coming across, but the terrorists that are coming across. And he was forced to answer the question. I think honestly that yes, he is concerned.
- [01:32]
John Kirby
Listen, FBI director said today the ongoing war in the Middle east has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole nother level.
- [01:42]
Ben Ferguson
Let's just stop there for a second. When you heard that, Senator, how shocked were you by that?
- [01:48]
Ted Cruz
So I wasn't, you know, I have.
- [01:51]
Ben Ferguson
But them admitting that it's at a whole nother level. I was shocked by that type of candid answer from anybody in this administration.
- [01:58]
Ted Cruz
Well, my thought was immediately, holy crap, what does the FBI know that we don't know? Because just weeks or months ago, the FBI was saying the greatest threat to public safety is white supremacists in America. And give me a frigging break. Listen, Nazis and Klansmen are idiots and bigots. They're imbeciles. I oppose them wholly and unequivocally. But there's not a rise of Nazis in America. Like, like, okay, you got like six yahoos in some bar in somewhere in America that are going woo hoo. But like in the real world, that is not a rising threat. And yet the politicized Biden, Department of Justice and FBI said that's the threat. And I was always like, okay, what about radical jihadists who pledge that they want to murder all of us, who have committed horrific acts of terrorism all across the globe, who carried out 9, 11. Do you not think they're a greater threat? And until October 7th, until the attack on Israel, the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI said, nope, nope, nope. Jihadists are just okie dokie, no problem at all. We're just concerned that the Ku Klux Klan is coming back. And I'm like, okay, that's absurd. Now they've changed their talking points. So this week the FBI went before the house and said, wow, there is a real risk of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists coming across the border. Now listen, this podcast has covered this. I have said repeatedly that I think there is a greater risk of a major terrorist attack on the United States than there has been at any time since September 11th. And we did a whole podcast on the written memo from customs and border patrol instructing border patrol agents be on lookout for Hamas, for Hezbollah, for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They're going to try to hide who they are, and they're coming here to commit acts of terror. And so when I see the FBI saying this, my reaction is like, holy crap, they know stuff. For them to change their political talking points, frankly, takes my level of concern from an 8 to an 11.
- [04:30]
Ben Ferguson
Well, and that's what Kirby was also when he answered this, it was a very different answer. Remember this? The same mayorkas that said the border is secure, the border is secure. And now they're saying not only no is it not admitting it's not, now they're saying there were worried about a terrorist threat. Keep listening.
- [04:45]
John Kirby
In the United States to a whole other level, has the White House considered the possibility that a terrorist could be in the country right now after crossing the southern border?
- [04:55]
Peter Doocy
Peter, we are always concerned about the potential presence on US Soil of terrorists coming from overseas. That's something we're always worried about.
- [05:07]
John Kirby
But there was this bulletin last week. The CBP in San Diego said militants associated with the Israel Hamas war may be potentially, potentially encountered at the Southwest.
- [05:17]
Peter Doocy
You're talking about the San Diego.
- [05:20]
John Kirby
Is there any heartburn around here? 600,000 known gotaways just in the last fiscal year. Is there any heartburn about leaving the border in such a condition that One of those 600,000 could be a terrorist?
- [05:35]
Peter Doocy
So let me just break this down for you just a little bit here. First of all, I can't speak to this intelligence report that was leaked to the media. I wouldn't do that. I can tell you that we are constantly monitoring as best we can all ports of entry to the country for the potential arrival of anybody who might wish us harm. And one of the things that the president asked for in this supplemental was additional funding for border security for, like, 1,500 more Border Patrol agents and better technology at the border. I mean, so again, we would urge Congress to take a look at that supplemental request and pass it. But if the general gist of your question is, are we taking the potential threat seriously? Of course we are.
- [06:16]
John Kirby
If the general gist was, is it possible that somebody who wants to commit a terrorist attack during a time of elevated threat crossed the southern border into the United States already, I couldn't possibly.
- [06:27]
Peter Doocy
Answer that question, Peter. All I can do is tell you that we have remained vigilant to that potential threat.
- [06:35]
Ben Ferguson
Good job we have. I disagree with that, Senator. I would love to get your take on that. I do not believe they've stayed vigilant. I think, in fact, they've turned their heads and run and said, every illegal immigrant or anyone that wants to come across the border, come on over.
- [06:50]
Ted Cruz
What utter and complete crap. That entire answer. Listen, John Kirby is an admiral in the Navy. It makes me sad to watch an admiral just lie to the American people. You know, one of the things he says, we're vigilant at the ports of entry. Well, no kidding, you moron. Terrorists don't enter at the ports of entry. And they don't come up and say, hey, I'm an amaz terrorist. I want to kill people. Like. Like they're stupid, but they're not set that stupid. You want to know the stat that is horrifying? 2 million gotaways. So we're now north of 8 million people who crossed illegally in this country. Roughly 6 million have come in and turned themselves in. They've said, okay, I'm here. They look for border patrol. They turn themselves in. Most of them. They're fleeing poverty. They're fleeing economic misery. They're coming to America because Joe Biden has said, if you come to America, you get to stay. It's a disaster. And many of them are being abused. They're being brutalized by traffickers. They're being sexually assaulted. They're being left for dead. But those 6 million actually worry me much, much less than the 2 million. Who are the 2 million? The 2 million are the gotaways. Now, what's a got away? A got away is someone that border patrol observes. They observe through a sensor. They observe through Visual observation. But they don't catch them. They're the people that run. Now why do the gotaways concern me? Because, look, the people who are turning themselves in. When I was down at the southern border Thursday night at midnight patrol, the group that turned themselves in, they looked for border patrol, they turned themselves in. We spent 30 to 45 minutes visiting with them. They were mostly women and children. Look, I don't think the five year olds are going to commit acts of terror. They've been brutalized, they've been assaulted. They like what they've gone through is horrific and inhumane. But the five year olds are not a national security threat to the United States. The gotaways are the people that are actively avoiding and evading border patrol apprehension. And they are. Many of them are criminals. So they have criminal histories. They're murderers, they're rapists, they're child molesters, they have DUIs. They have. Many of them have horrible criminal histories. Others of them are gang members, they're Ms. 13 or otherwise. But others of them are worse. It's the two million gotaways. If you're a terrorist and you want to murder Americans, you're not in the people that are turning yourself into the border patrol. You're in the 2 million gotaways. And the point that he's ignoring? Well, we're vigilant at the points of entry, ports of entry. Well, great. That's not where the terrorists are coming in. And it is so fundamentally dishonest what this administration says about that.
- [09:44]
Ben Ferguson
Final question on this. I want to ask you about, you know, the new accusation, which is accurate, and that's that Joe Biden has welcomed 6 million illegal aliens in the U. S Exceeding the population now of 31 states. Now, now let's just think about that. 6 million illegal aliens into the United States of America. A foreign population exceeds the population center of 31 different states. And the White House was, Was asked about this, okay. They were asked like, hey, are you guys gonna talk about how this number and, and not only that, how many more illegal aliens are you gon. Senator Johnson had this to say. One of your colleagues, Secretary Mayorkas.
- [10:27]
Senator Ron Johnson
I've asked you this in the past. What numbers are represented here? How many people has this administration let in by encountering, processing, dispersing, or they've come in as a known or unknown got away? Approximately. I don't need an exact number. So what do we got, Senator? Let me, let me, let me. I need numbers again. Don't filibuster me. How many people has this administration led into the country? Let me say at the outset that our job would be a lot easier if the broken immigration system was. Secretary, I want a number. How many people have you led into this country?
- [11:04]
Ted Cruz
I, I should also.
- [11:05]
Senator Ron Johnson
Okay, I, I'll give you the number. It's about 6 million.
- [11:09]
Ben Ferguson
He won't answer the damn question because he doesn't want to be on record is saying, yes, we've let in the population that is more than 31 different states in America.
- [11:20]
Ted Cruz
Well, and it's worse than that because the 6 million is just the people who've been apprehended. There are an additional 2 million got away. So the actual number is 8 million illegal immigrants who crossed under Joe Biden. And that is larger than all but 12 states in America. And I want to do something, I want to read to you the states that are smaller than the number of illegal immigrants who come in under Joe Biden. Wyoming has 581,000 population. Vermont, D.C. alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, West Virginia, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, Kansas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nevada, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Utah, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Maryland, Missouri, Indiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Arizona and Washington State. Washington State has 7,785,000 people in is only when you get to Virginia. Virginia has 8,683,000 people in it. So we haven't yet crossed the population of Virginia. Virginia is the 12th largest state in America. We are between 13 and 12. And by the end of the Biden administration, we'll pass Virginia, we'll pass New Jersey at 9,261,000. We'll probably pass Michigan at 10,034,000. We may pass North Carolina at 10,698,000. And you get into the territory of number eight, Georgia, 10,912,000 or Ohio number seven at 11,756,000. That's how many illegal immigrants have crossed under Joe Biden in less than three years. 8 million larger than the population of all but a dozen US States.
- [13:23]
Ben Ferguson
Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week. Now, on to story number two. I want to move to another issue, Senator, and it's one that is deals with energy independence. It also deals with what we're witnessing now in Iran. The amount of money that Iran is making right now from oil is upwards of. I've been seeing some numbers that are billion dollars a day is what they're selling. These numbers are Staggering. There are many that are screaming right now and they're saying, hey, this shouldn't be happening. There are sanctions that should just be enforced. Not needing to pass new sanctions to stop this. This country that's sponsoring terrorism, especially against, you know, Israel, with Hamas, Hezbollah, they've helped ISIS and Al Qaeda. They, they, they are openly saying they want death to America and death to Israel and, and to wipe us off the face of the earth. And yet we're not enforcing these, this all at the same time while we are hurting in this country from a lack of energy independence which makes them richer. When we stop doing things here and we go into this green alternative energy, it's just making them richer, which means they can sponsor more terrorist activities around the world. And it's something that you've really dived into in this book that comes out on Tuesday that people need to get their hands on. Your new book, Unwoke is going to be out on Tuesday, next week. You can pre order it now. But this is something you've been talking about the Democrats obsession with green alternative energy and how it's actually helping the most dangerous people and terrorists in the world by having this policy.
- [15:07]
Ted Cruz
Well, so Iran right now is selling 2 million barrels of oil a day. So they're not making billions per day. Right now today the price of a barrel of oil is about $82 a barrel. That means Iran is making about $160 million a day from selling oil. And the bulk of that they're selling to Communist China. We assume China is actually paying less than that. So let's say they're making 140 to 150 million dollars a day, although we don't know what price China is paying them. Two million barrels a day. What that has produced for the Ayatollah over the last three years is about $80 billion. That is funding Iran, which is the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. It is funding Hamas. It is funding the death squads that are murdering Israelis and murdering Americans. It is funding the rockets that are raining down from the sky and murdering Israelis. It is funding the drones that Iran is providing to Russia that Russia is using to attack and kill Ukrainian soldiers. So while Biden is giving billions to Ukraine, he's also giving billions to Iran and funding both sides of the war. Now that makes no sense at all. But the point you made, and this is something that I emphasize in this new book. The new book, as you said, is called how to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America. And the book walks through all of the institutions in our nation that have been seized by the radical left. And it lays out how they were seized, why it happens, it tells stories, but it also lays out a strategy to defeat them. And the final chapter is on China and it describes how China is a central nexus that links them all. And one of the points that I make in the book, and this is a point that is rarely understood and it has to do with science and the Green New Deal which is right now. Today, the United States is the world's leader in oil production and natural gas production. America produces roughly 20% of all the oil and gas produced worldwide. We are a net energy exporter. We produce more than we consume. So that is incredibly valuable to have energy independence. What are the Democrats want us to do? They want to shift our energy usage entirely to energy produced by wind and solar. And who controls wind and solar? And the answer to that is Communist China. So here are some of the stats. China controls refining capacity for 73% of the world's cobalt, for 40% of the copper, for 59% of the lithium, for 68% of the nickel, and for 83% of rare earth minerals. And every one of those is necessary for wind and solar power. And when it comes to finished products that the Democrats want to produce all of our domestic energy. China is responsible for 80% of global solar panels manufacturing, for 70% of global wind turbine manufacturing, and 77% of global lithium ion battery manufacturing. So every time you hear a Democrat, every time you hear the corporate media say we must move from oil and gas to wind and solar, understand what they're saying. We need to shift our entire economy from an energy source that America controls and that we are dominant globally in to an energy source that China controls and that they are dominant globally. And, and we should give communist China the power at any moment. They want to cripple our economy and shut down our ability to access energy. That makes no sense. And I gotta say in the national energy debates we have very, very few people are making what I think is this very important point.
- [19:19]
Ben Ferguson
When you were writing this book, and I encourage people to go ahead and pre order it now, it comes on Tuesday. You wanted to look at these issues and bring them to light. Obviously, as we're going into this very important election cycle, it's a presidential election cycle because this is really about the future of this country.
- [19:37]
Ted Cruz
Well, it is. Look, our country is in crisis. I wrote this book because lots of people are saying, what the hell happened? How did we wake up and find every major institution, look you look at our universities and you see these rabid anti Semitic protests, anti Israel protests, and what's happened is the viciously left wing Marxist forces have taken over many of our universities. You look at K through 12 education, at the garbage being taught to our kids, critical race theory and radical transgender theory. You look at how journalism has been broken, you look at how government has been broken. You look at big tech, you look at big business, you look at entertainment, at movies. This book, every one of the chapters in this book focuses on a different institution. The radical left has taken over. And I explain how it happened. And look, one of the things that I try to do in this book, this is not an academic book. This is not an abstract treatise. This book is designed to be fun, designed to be readable, designed to tell stories and give you information that you useful. Look, the stats I just laid out on the critical minerals and rare earth minerals that are needed for wind and solar. You haven't heard those anywhere else. That's designed to give you the tools. The book has the same purpose as the podcast. The reason you and I put so much time into this podcast is I want to equip our listeners. I believe our listeners are the patriots who are going to save America. And I want to equip you with the news, with the information, with the facts, with the data, with the evidence, with the arguments to know what's going on, to fight to save the country. And so that's what this book is all about, is getting you prepared, but also, you know, giving you something to read that's fun and interesting. And by the way, the book I think makes, you know, we're heading into Christmas, it makes a great Christmas gift, which is you ought to get one for yourself and get one for your mom, get one for your son, get one for your next door neighbor. Because the entire purpose of this book is to get as many people as possible to read it and to hear and understand what's happening in our country. Because that's the only way we're gonna turn it around and bring our country back.
- [21:55]
Ben Ferguson
No doubt about it. And it's gonna be just one aspect of this book that we're gonna start highlighting so that you guys know what's in there. But make sure you grab a copy, pre order it now, wherever you buy your books. Finally, Senator, I wanna ask you about the FBI director, Ray, and his testimony that he delivered. It is some shocking testimony. Here is part of what he had to say before Congress. But as I said a few moments ago, on top of the homegrown violent extremists and domestic violent extremist threat. We also cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or another foreign terrorist organization may exploit the current conflict to conduct attacks here on our own soil. I mean, Senator, you hear Christopher Wray saying this. It's something that, unfortunately, we've talked about so much. You've got an open border. You've got these types of people that get into this country, and the threats are real.
- [22:53]
Ted Cruz
Look, the threats are incredibly real. I've said multiple times, I think the risks. The likelihood of a major terrorist attack on US Soil is higher today than it has been any point since September 11th. And, you know, as I hear Chris Wray saying that, listen, as you know, I know Chris Ray quite, quite well. For years, he has been annoyingly and counterfactually and bizarrely saying the greatest threat we have is from homegrown terrorists. And they're from white supremacists, are from Nazis and Klansmen. And listen, Nazis and Klansmen are idiots. They're bigoted morons. They're bad people. No dispute there. But the last I check, we don't have this rising wave of Klansmen, like, they're not Nazis that are suddenly attacking America. And frankly, the FBI focusing on that over and over again. It fit into the political narrative the left wanted, and it utterly discarded global jihadists who have pledged to murder as many Americans as they can and who are actively trying to do so. And so my reaction, the fact that Chris Wray said there's a real risk right now that Hamas terrorists may, quote, conduct attacks here on our own soil. My reaction is, holy crap, what does he know now that has suddenly forced him to say that publicly? That he's like, oh, this might happen really soon, and I at least want something on the record so that they can't claim I was blindsided by it. It's obvious our southern border is wide open. There's a major risk of terrorists coming across. But the fact that Chris Wray said that right now worries me enormously. I don't know any classified information that he might have that. That. That says that they know of Hamas terrorists in the United States. But the fact that he's saying that, I think is very worrying.
- [24:50]
Ben Ferguson
As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing. I want to get back to the big story number three of the week you may have missed, Senator. I also want to bring in Our guests, we've talked a lot about kids protecting kids. We also have problems in this country where we have basically given our kids over to the government and parents are trying to get back in their kids lives have been declared domestic terrorists by our own government, which is shocking. A good friend of the show, someone that you used to do Verdict plus with, people know her from that, Liz Wheeler has her own great show. She's got an incredible new book out as well and I know it was important that we make sure we had her on Verdict.
- [25:32]
Ted Cruz
Well Liz, welcome back. Liz is my former co host of Verdict. We did Verdict together, we traveled the country, we went to college campuses together and dealt with young leftists who had questions and wanted to be confronted with the truth. And Liz does an amazing job on her own show on the Liz Wheeler show and she has a brand new book, Hide youe Children, exposing the Marxists behind the attack on American kids.
- [25:58]
Liz Wheeler
Liz, welcome back Senator, thanks so much for having me. Thanks Ben.
- [26:02]
Ben Ferguson
Good to have you here. Tell us a little bit about this book, why you wanted to write it and why it's so important, especially right now.
- [26:10]
Liz Wheeler
Yeah, this book started as a question that I, I think a lot of parents actually had the same question that I had during COVID when we saw this increase in attacks on our children. I mean all parents had to do is look over their kids shoulder on Zoom School and they'd see critical race theory and trans ideology, the 1619 Project, plus good old fashioned moral relativism just thrown at their kids. And I understand that this isn't a new thing, that our kids are the target of the left, but it did seem to be escalating. So I wondered, well where is this coming from? Who's behind this? What's behind this? What's their goal? So the purpose of this book is I sought to find the answer to that question and what I found was both frightening and frustrating. The frightening part is that the left has spent decades trying to get to our children and to do so they have co opted they've captured what I call four of the five major cultural institutions. So the media, that's an obvious one. The education system, sadly, a lot of religious institutions too. The law, which has become evident in the last couple of years and now they've set their sights on the nuclear family, particularly on children. This is the frightening part, the frustrating part is if this attack on our children isn't new, if it's been decades in the making, why haven't we been able to stop this? What has the Republican party been doing for all of these decades to fight back. And so what I do in the book, the first half of the book, is I name the names of the people and the organizations that are behind the capture of the institutions behind the attack on our kids. And the second half of the book is a critique of the Republican Party. I offer a solution that I will tell you is different than what the Republican Party offers for how we can actually start winning, how we can recapture our institutions, how we can protect our kids and therefore our country.
- [27:57]
Ted Cruz
All right, so let's take those one at a time. You said the first half of the book, you're naming names. So who are the biggest names? Who are the individuals most responsible for the relentless attack on our kids?
- [28:09]
Liz Wheeler
Yeah, that's a great question. So what I do in the book is I make sure to differentiate between the Marxists who conceived the ideas, many of whom are long dead, and the current Marxists, the modern Marxists that are alive and well in our country today, who are propagating these ideas on our children. And I'll give you an example of one of each. One of the modern Marxists who's propagating an entirely destructive ideology in our children is a woman by the name of Gayle Rubin. Gayle Rubin is known as the founder, or she wrote, the founding document of queer Theory. Queer theory is a neo Marxist theory that, unsurprising to most of your viewers, is what underpins the transgender ideology. So these poisonous ideas that are being taught to children in school right now, that boys can be girls, girls can be boys, gender is not connected to biological sex. Everything's fluid. This is not just a random assortment of nonsense. This is pulled directly from neo Marxist queer theory, which was penned by Gayle Rubin, who is alive and well in our country today. And yet most people, maybe in the past couple months, they've heard about her because I've been talking so much about her. Most people have never heard of this woman, even though she's having such a direct and destructive impact on our children. That's the first example. The second example I will give is a Marxist who is long dead, and that's a Marxist, a Brazilian Marxist, actually, by the name of Paulo Freire. He was the one who contended that teachers in school shouldn't teach children facts and knowledge. He should teach them a worldview, how to view the world. And he called this worldview critical consciousness. What critical consciousness is, really is just teaching children to look at everything through a Marxist lens. And this idea of critical consciousness is what exists in our public school system today under the all encompassing, vague umbrella term of wokeness. So I trace everything back to its origins and show the manifestations of how it's impacting our kids in our society in America today.
- [30:07]
Ben Ferguson
Liz, I want to ask you about moms specifically. I've actually been inspired and I think TC and I, when we've been on the road, we've seen this. There are a lot of moms have gotten off the bench and are getting really involved with their kids and their kids curriculum and what's happening their schools and what they're being taught. That's one of the biggest blessings, I think of the COVID lockdowns was moms got to see in the classroom what was happening with their kids. I'm inspired by that and I think this is going to be something that the liberals are going to have hell to pay now with moms that are now involved. Is that part of what you're seeing and inspiring you to write this book?
- [30:42]
Ted Cruz
Yeah.
- [30:43]
Liz Wheeler
It's incredible to see how many parents, moms and dads who've had their eyes opened. I think as conservatives we're generally people of good faith. We generally like to give other people the benefit of the doubt. We generally see the good in humanity. And sometimes because of that, it can be difficult to look at our political opposition and label them for what they are. We'd rather say, you know what? This is a well intentioned good faith opposition who just has unwise practical solutions to problems that we all admit are problems. That's how the Republican party actually has operated for the last 50 years. But I think for the first time in many parents lives during COVID they saw that. No, that's not true. Our Democrat opposition are not well intentioned, well intentioned opposition who want the best but have bad ideas for how to bring that about. They are in fact embracing neo Marxist, anti Christian, anti American, sometimes anti human ideology. And it's a really important step in fighting back against this to be able to define what the other side is. That's why I spent so much time doing that in the first half of my book. Because if we don't understand the reality of this political enemy we face, we won't fight well against it. And if we don't fight well, we won't win. And I'm tired of not winning. I'm ready to win, as I know everyone watching this show is too.
- [31:59]
Ted Cruz
Amen. All right, Liz, last question. You said the second half of the book focuses on a critique of the Republican party and what we need to do better to fight back. What does the Republican Party need to do to stop this madness?
- [32:12]
Liz Wheeler
Honestly, this is the part of the book that I'm proudest of, and I know it's the part that's ruffled some feathers a little bit, but I stand by this 100%. So I'll give you an example of one of the most interesting pieces of information that I found in the course of researching this book. Our public school system was not mandatory. Children were not compelled to go to public school until the year 1852. In 1852, the state of Massachusetts became the first state to compel public education. And the reason why was because there was an influx of immigrants to our country at the time, particularly Catholic immigrants. And the Protestant politicians in charge wanted to indoctrinate these immigrant children in American values so that they would be loyal to America first rather than the country of their birth and in Protestant doctrine because of the centuries long battle between Protestants and Catholics. And I realized that our institutions were never intended to be neutral institutions. Our school system was never intended to simply teach reading, writing and arithmetic and otherwise be value neutral. That if we as conservatives and the Republican Party do not harness these institutions to teach children our values, what's going to happen is the left is going to swoop in and teach their own. The Republican Party has fallen for the false idea of tolerance and neutrality, which doesn't exist. And perhaps the philosophical reason for this is because they misdefine the word liberty. They define liberty as simply the maximum amount of individual freedom possible in a civil society, when really our government was formed around the idea that liberty is the means to something greater, that there's a moral, the thing that is greater is a moral thing and that our society, a flourishing society, is intended for to try to attain that. And Republicans have gotten very shy of bringing religion or morals or anything of that nature into our politics. And it's been to our detriment. We wouldn't be in the chaos, the cultural chaos that we exist in now, if Republicans had not surrendered both institutions in the name of neutrality and morality and virtue in the name of libertarianism to the left a long time ago.
- [34:15]
Ben Ferguson
Liz, congratulations on the new book. Grab it for your kids, your grandkids. Make sure you read this. Hide your children. It is out now exposing the Marxists behind the attack on America's kids. Congratulations.
- [34:28]
Liz Wheeler
Thank you gentlemen. I appreciate it.
- [34:29]
Ben Ferguson
Great to see you as always. Thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Don't forget to download my podcast and you can listen to my podcast every other day. You're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards. I'd love to have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And we will see you back here on Monday morning.