Walker Wildman says religious freedom is about people being able to live out convictions

>> Rick Green: We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.

>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.

>> Jeff Chamblee: This is at The Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to at the The Core with Walker Wildmon.

Rick Green: America needs more American history and civic ritual

Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. And I am still feeling the patriotism from Sunday night. Well, really the whole weekend. I mean it was, it was off the charts as a buddy of mine at the White House said as he actually got to be there in the moment, watching the fighters go out, do their walkouts and all that good stuff. And he said patriotism is at an all time high. And I couldn't agree more. It was remarkable, absolutely remarkable beyond everything that I hoped it would be. I'm a big believer in what Ronald Reagan said years ago actually in his farewell address from the Oval Office as he was quite literally signing off from public life. And he had, in his first speech after becoming governor's first public speech as a public servant, he had that great quote about freedom's a fragile thing, never more than one generation away from extinction. You know, doesn't get passed in the bloodstream. You got to fight for it, protect it, pass it on. Love that quote. It's great. But at the end, 50 years later. Well, not. Sorry, not 50 years later, 20. It would have been 24 years later. So this would have been 19. no, it'd be 22 years later, January of 1989. So he's given his last, last address as a public servant and he says if we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm, warning of an eradication of the American memory that will lead to an erosion of the American spirit. And what we need is more American history and civic ritual. Okay, so that first part, we all realize that's true. That's happened, right? We forgot what we did. We don't know who we are, don't talk about our heroes anymore. America's the bad guy. I mean, all that nonsense from the woke left, that became a poison poured into the minds of American children for three generations. Well then Reagan gives us a solution. American history and civic ritual. What you just saw over the weekend was civic ritual. What you're seeing with all of the 250th celebrations is civic ritual. It's no different. It's very similar actually to all throughout the Bible, when God says, remember the former days and they sit down and they recount the history and they tell the stories. In this case, you had all of these ceremonies you got coming up in the next couple of weeks, we're going to have this big national fair, you know, like your state fair kind of thing. But it's going to be all 50 states doing the same thing together on the National Mall there. We'll actually be there and have a Patriot Academy and American Journey Experience booth, to teach and to share stuff. I might even go and speak. But you got. Everybody's doing their July 4th celebrations. I mean, just go down the list. You got the Freedom trucks going all over the country. You got the Indy 500 race that's going to take place there in D.C. it's going to be stuff like this from now till July 4, 2027, in a big, big, big way. But it should continue even after that. We should look for Memorial day, Veterans Day, July 4th, Independence Day, September 17th, Constitution Day, Dec. What is it, 11th or 15th? I'm blanking on Bill, of Rights Day. I mean, these should all be days that we have civic ritual to remind us what we did, who we are, who our heroes are, all of those things. And I just got a hand at Dannah White and President, Trump. They absolutely did it better than anyone's ever done it in my lifetime. And it was, you know, it was the bald eagle flying out over the crowd. It was Zach Brown Band singing the national anthem. It was, the Marine The Core Band just, you know, unbelievable. Throughout the whole night, singing the walkout songs, playing the music m. From the movie the Patriot. I mean, it was just. It just. I couldn't get enough of it. It was incredible.

Justin Gaethge was the American fighting at the top of the card

My favorite moment. Well, my two favorite moments of the whole weekend. The, One of my friends actually got got. I should say acquaintance. I'm not close to him, but, got beat. One of the fighters that, probably the most pro American guy on the card had a bad night, man. He got beat bad. And the guy that beat him, Brazilian. When he got to get the microphone from Joe Rogan and, give his victory speech, first thing out of his mouth was to quote Jon 3:16 and tell the world that, the gospel, basically preached the gospel right there in the octagon to the world. I mean, I don't. I've seen crazy numbers, man. 150 million people or more watching that night. so that was cool. And then my second favorite Part of the night when Justin Gagey, who, for the. I know most of this audience is probably not UFC or probably not made up of UFC fans, but Justin Gagey was the American fighting at the top of the card. So he was the main event. It was he against a guy from Spain named Ilya Tapura, which, who was undefeated 180 champ in two different divisions, had already knocked out some of the biggest, most famous, most amazing fighters in UFC history. his last three fights were just unbelievable. Beat Volkanovsky, beat, Max Holloway, who nobody expected, and beat Charles Oliveira. So just unreal, what the track record of this guy, Justin Gaethje comes into the fight. Six, seven, eight to one odds. I mean, he was, he was not expected by anyone to win. And literally, came in, you know, not just the underdog, but, like, people were actually making fun of the card, saying, what's he doing at the top of the card? There's no way he's going to beat Topuria and Gage. what they did was they had these walkouts where. And my friend at the White House, we got lots of Patriot Academy grads working at the White House. And this one particular guy, also UFC fan, he had been sending Tim Barton and me, who are UFC fans, pictures, all weekend as they were preparing things. And inside the White House. Inside the White House and all these rooms. They had the locker room set up. They had everything set up for these guys to warm up and the mats and all that. It's just really cool. And then the walkout. And by the way, for any of you out there that are buying into this, this ridiculous Hillary Clinton line that this is somehow defiling the White House. No, her husband defiled the White. This, this stuff is actually has a great tradition. Teddy Roosevelt used to have boxing matches inside the White House. Now, I thought it was on the, on the White House lawn. No, I've verified it now it's inside the White House. In fact, he ended up losing sight in one of his eyes as a result of participating in these boxing matches. So this is not. Not new. Anyway, so Gagey is this kid from Arizona. I say kid, he's 37. that is just one of the. One of the most exciting fighters to watch. They actually call him the highlight. I mean, he incredible. have a good friend that trains, regularly with him and was in his camp and, his fight camp, over the last eight or nine weeks. And, he's just an incredible. Kidgey's amazing, but completely considered the underdog well, at the beginning of his walkout. Oh, I forgot to tell the rest of the story. So what they were doing was, again, most of you, not, probably not. UFC fans will just like boxing. You might have seen a boxing match in the past where, where they do the big walkout, right? The music's playing, the crowd's cheering, and each fighter comes through the, you know, entrance into the arena. Camera follows them up to the, to the ring, or in this case, the octagon.

>> Rick Green: And it's a big deal. It's like, it's a, it's kind of the build up to the, to the fight itself. And in the ufc, it's the exact same way. So they had each of these, fighters coming, doing their walkout from the White House. And so they were, most of them, they were coming from different parts of the White House. So that's almost like a different scene showcasing different parts of the White House. And, when Gagey does his, he's in the Oval Office. So the camera starts on him and he's in the Oval Office. He's got the American flag wrapped around his shoulders, and he's looking up at the Declaration of Independence. So the first shot of him, he's standing there, I mean, I immediately recognized the document on the wall, and he's looking at the Declaration of Independence. And I got chills. It was just. It was just so powerful. Knowing him and knowing how patriotic he is. This is a kid that went out campaigning all over the country for Donald Trump. He got very involved in the campaign. He, he, with my friend Benil Dariush, another UFC fighter. They went and campaigned and just, phenomenal. So anyway, then he does his walk and his walk, he walks by this, this one particular part of the White House where they have pictures and portraits of all the presidents. And there is this incredible. If you haven't seen it on social media, it's this incredible snapshot. I think it's picture of the year of Justin Gaethje walking by with the flag wrapped around his shoulders. And Teddy Roosevelt's picture is right to just. And, in fact, it's only part of it. It's actually really great picture. but it's Teddy Roosevelt's picture on the other side of Gage that you see in this, in this, in this picture. And it's. If you don't know the man in the arena, you may not understand why that's so iconic. I might have to read that in the next segment, but it's the whole thing about the credit Belongs not to the critic, but to the man in the arena who's, who's getting bloodied.

UFC fights took place on June 14, which is also Flag Day

anyway, so Gaethje goes out there and against all odds, ends up winning the fight. And it's, it's just an amazing, I mean, it was incredible. And so he ends up winning the fight. After he wins the fight, Donald Trump and Melania come into the well, oh, no, no, let me back up. He wins the fight. Rogan, Joe Rogan always goes out there and gets comments from the victor. And the first thing out of, out of Gage's mouth, Rogan sets it, sets up the interview by saying, you know, you were a 6 to 1 underdog. How does it feel right now? And Gage's response was, hey, man, I'm an American. We're Americans. We were even bigger underdogs 250 years ago. This is in our DNA. And I'm telling you, I about came unglued. I was already out of my chair. I don't know if you could tell I'm hoarse today because I was yelling so much during the fight. it was absolutely one of the most patriotic, iconic moments. And what it said to me was that the patriotism that we're instilling, the civic ritual that we're doing, is more than just hype. Because what he was saying was, we're not just waving the flag. We understand why that flag is worthy of, being waived. In fact, between all of the fights, they had these incredible videos that they were playing that were educating the American people. It was civic ritual. They actually played the entire speech of Ronald Reagan on Flag Day, June 14, however many years ago that was. So these fights took place on Donald Trump's birthday, June 14, which is also Flag Day. So it's already a patriotic day. And so for them to play that speech from Reagan 40 years ago, it was incredible. It was great education. And then the other videos that they played, they had videos that just, they had quote after quote after quote from president after president after president that kind of told the American story through these, through these videos. And had the. One of my favorite quotes actually, from what I was just talking about when I was talking about the, eradication of the American memory leads to an erosion of the American spirit. We need more civic ritual. Reagan also said, an informed patriotism is what we need. I have used that line for 35 years of public life, of going out and giving speeches on patriotism and restoring these things. Informed patriotism. What I've always said after 9, 11 especially was you know, we need more than just a renewed patriotism that happens out of fear because we've been attacked. We need informed patriotism that is based on understanding who we are, understanding the foundation, in the words of Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, understanding the principles upon which the foundation was laid. And, man, Gage did it. I mean, he just. It wasn't just the victory. It was. It was what he said after the speech. And then. Then Trump and Melania come into the. Into the octagon, and. And, and. And. And Gaethje grabs his mom, and he grabs Melania. He says, my mom is your biggest fan. He grabs his mom. Her. Actually, that was the cool part. Right after the fight, he literally jumps out of the cage, climbs over the cage and. And runs out there to his mom and dad and gives his mom and dad the biggest hugs and the lead up to the fight. If you are a UFC fan, you know, there's a thing called the Countdown, which is a video that's released a few days before. And then, then there's all kinds of clips they play before each fight, letting you get a kind of a little bit of an idea about each of the fighters. And in all of those videos, Gage's honoring of his father and mother were. It was just phenomenal. I mean, it was so good. And, And he did that right after the fight, jumped out there, honored them, brought him into the cage, and then whenever they had a chance to visit with. With President, Trump and Melania, he. It was just beautiful. It was beautiful. So I. It wasn't just the winning of the fight. It was the patriotism. It was the red, white and blue. It was the stories. It was the, you know, renewing of the American spirit, of American exceptionalism. And I am laughing so hard at the left wingers that can't stand it. They are sick to their stomach right now because America's back and American patriotism is back. And because, you know, we're. We're winning. That's what. That's why they're sick to their stomach. We're winning, and we're winning the American people over. And so to all those whiners out there about what President Trump's doing to the White House and all that, I'll tell you what he's doing to the White House. He's doing the opposite of what Joe Biden did, the opposite of what Bill Clinton did. Instead of defiling the White House with depravity, he is bringing back patriotism, restoring civic literacy, and giving us a great opportunity for civic ritual. It's beautiful. We'll be back in a moment. 888-589-8840 is the phone number. I'm Rick Green. You're listening to at the The Core.

Preborn Network offers free ultrasounds to women facing unplanned pregnancies

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>> Rick Green: this is at the The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Rick Green.

Rick Green: We're trying to restore civic literacy in our country

Welcome back to at the The Core with Mark Wildmon and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's costume coach. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for staying with me on this wonderfully patriotic day after an incredible weekend of patriotism and restoring some civic literacy. Let's not be civically ignorant. That's the petri dish. Where bad government grows, where the virus of bad government grows. It's obviously grown a lot in the last few years. We're trying to turn that around and restore civic literacy in our country. And by the way, if you want to take this a little deeper and not just watch a good, you know, show or fireworks display or whatever it might be on July 4th, best thing I could encourage you to do is go to patriotacademy.com and sign up as a constitution coach. It's free to do so. And you can then host our Rebuilding Liberty course for the 250th. You could host constitutional Live or Biblical Citizenship or one of these other courses in your home or at your church. And I can guarantee you it will restore patriotism 100%. It helps to get people excited and involved and, and you get to be the catalyst. That's kind of the, you know, you're the one that lights the fire of that brush fire of liberty in your community. You're the, you're the catalyst for restoring biblical values and constitutional principles. And if you have any, any amount of patriotism in you, that should sound really exciting to you, you should want to do that. I'm kind of, kind of disappointed sometimes with people that don't have patriotism or they don't have a, sense of duty that they're supposed to do something about this and be a part of, the, part of the solution. but then I look back and I say, you know, that's the nature of man. 250 years ago, it was a small, small group compared to the size of the country. We had 3 million people in the country. Only 3% actually fought in the revolution. Only about 6%. maybe 7. Yes, I like to say 6, 7 just to get under people's skin, actually had anything to do with the revolution. Meaning like, you know, 3% were fighting, but then you had other people that were, you know, in state legislature, serving and funding or business, people that donated or merchants that donated or whatever else it might be. But, you know, 6% of, 3 million is not that many. And it leaves 94% to benefit from the sacrifice of the rest. It's just like with the military. We have such a small percentage that are actually serving on the front lines willing to put their lives on the line or even not just put their. And that was the thing about Justin Gagy, by the way. In that opening speech, not only did He Talk about 250 years ago, we were underdogs and all that. He dedicated the fight and the victory to our men and women in uniform and thanked them for their service and said, you know, good times and bad through all throughout our entire history, you've been there and defended us and made this possible. I thought that was really cool as well. But my point is that's a small, small percentage. Everybody else benefits from what they have been willing to do, and it's much the same now. So for those people that aren't patriotic and don't want to host a Constitution class or do something to help save liberty, yes, they still disappoint me, but I recognize that's just the nature of man. There are going to be those who mooch off of the rest of us. They're going to be those who get to enjoy the benefits and the blessings of liberty, even without bearing the burden. But thankfully, thankfully, every generation of Americans has had a high enough percentage, we've had enough that we're willing to step up and say, here am I, send me, I will do my part, whatever that might be. Whether it means signing the dotted line and spending four or eight or 12 or maybe even 20 years being willing to put their lives on the line. Or maybe it's, you know, like I was saying, who was, I think it was. It was one of the videos, one of the videos that they played during the fights. And it just reminded me, you know, you think about even these guys, even the guys that. So we had eight that died in this bomber crash out in California, and it was a train. You know, I think what people forget is that it's not just when you go into combat, it's every day you are giving your life. When you serve in military, you're giving up, the youngest years, you know, what some people would say are the best years of your life. You're giving up some of those youthful years to serve. And just the accidents and the training exercises and the loss of life that happens and the risk that they take every single day for what they're doing, it's just a reminder that freedom is not free. Freedom is a fragile thing, as Ronald Reagan said, and that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. And we forget the price is being paid every single day by those that are serving us. And that should be part of our restoration of patriotism, is thanking them, not just, you know, I don't say this to in any way diminish or, demean or in any way reduce the respect for the title combat veteran. I understand the value of that, but I don't want to demeanor, belittle or sometimes when I hear that, I think there is a reduction in value for those who are veterans who didn't necessarily serve in combat. And I don't think that's right. I don't think that should be done. I think anyone who serves us in the military deserves a tremendous amount of respect and thanks for the sacrifice of their life, their fortune and their sacred honor for the years that they serve and for their families and what they go through. So this is part of that patriotism that should well up in us is that we should, as, Abraham Lincoln said, he said, the way you thank those who serve, especially those who die, who literally pay the ultimate price, which we talked about a couple of Weeks ago on Memorial Day. But the way that you thank them is not just by saying thanks or just by clapping or whenever we honor them at an event or whatever, but you do it through your life. You do it through having what he called an increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. An increased devotion to the cause. Well, what we saw Sunday night and throughout the weekend was a description of and a reminder of the cause.

Two words best described in the two words American exceptionalism

What is the cause for which so many have given the last full measure? devotion. What is the cause for which so many have given years of their life where spouses have to go sometimes, you know, not only. Sometimes months. I mean, you think back to World War II, and some of these guys served two, three, four years, never coming home during that whole time. I mean, so many give so much. Why? What is the cause for which they are willing to do all those things? And it is best described in the two words American exceptionalism. It is the fact that the American value system is, bar none, better than any value system of any nation in the history of mankind. And it is, in fact, saying, we are the exception to the rule. There are so many people that are discovering that right now. The fact that America is extraordinary. Extraordinary. Not normal. It's beyond normal. And all these people that have come in from Europe and all over the world for the World cup, which I am not a soccer fan at all, but it's brought all of these people from around the world to the United States, and they're discovering, wow, this American dream thing really is something. Now I get what everybody makes such a big deal out of. In fact, I think one of the best, Oh, what's the right word? I'm looking for one of the best examples, but I'm wanting a better word. Poster child of this is Bucky's. You know, they're blown away by Buc EE's. They're walking into Buc EE's. And. Or even before they walk in, they're going to. What is the deal with all of these, you know, 120 gas pumps, and then they walk in and you look at the wall of beef jerky, and you've got a hundred different flavors and options for your beef jerky, turkey jerky, elk jerky, you name it. And I'm reminded of, I keep quoting Reagan today because I'm feeling so patriotic, but I'm reminded of Reagan's speech at the Republican National Convention. I can't remember if it was 88. I don't think it was 88. I think it was 92. I think it was 92 when he came back four years after being out of office. and he gave that speech where he talked about the kid that wrote him the letter and described the American dream as being able to have, whatever it was, 122 flavors of ice cream. And he laughed. But he made his point was where else could you have so many options? Where else could you have so much convenience? Where else could you have so many inventions? And why is that? It's because of the American ingenuity. It's because of the free enterprise system that rewards you for creating options, to reward you for creating a better mousetrap. The American value system is better than any that has ever existed. The American society is better than any. Do we have our problems? Absolutely. Do we see an absolute depravity coming on in our country because we moved away from the value system? Absolutely. We have all of that. But right now, we have the chance to revive the American spirit, to revive the American dream. And so that whole thing From Reagan with 120, whatever flavors of ice cream summing up what it means to be an American now, now it's a hundred different beef jerkies at Buc EE's. That's. That's gonna be the story that is on par with 40 years ago what, what Ronald Reagan said. So I. I love. I love watching these videos of these Europeans discovering just how amazing America is. It's too bad that our own people too often don't realize it. we get, you know, familiarity breeds. What is it? Familiarity breeds? Not contempt, but, apathy. You know, you just. You get used to it. You just forget how incredible this is. It's one of the reasons why when people complain about some of the things in America, I have to say. Compared to what? I mean, what are you comparing us to? If you think things in America are bad, if you think you don't have enough opportunity in America, I don't care. I don't care what the color of your skin is. I don't care what your daddy did. I don't care what part of the country you come from. I don't care what your IQ is. I don't care what advantages you have or don't have. There is no better place on the planet for you to be able to do better, to rise up from whatever level you're at, whatever level you're born into. Whether you do end up with a lot of advantages or you start with none, this is the best place on Planet Earth, to be able to raise to the next level, to be able to do better for your family than maybe what was done for you, or to just be able to create things that make things better for other people and to raise them up. It's what, what I love about our system is you don't get blessed without blessing other people. You at least it used to be that you don't just get to live off of a mooch off of other people and you don't get to take from other people without blessing them. The, the beauty of free enterprise is that you have to bless me with some good or service before I bless you with my dollars. And that if you bless me well, I'm going to bless you well, and other people are going to bless you well, and word's going to get out and you're going to do well. But if you take advantage of me, if you have a lousy product, if it breaks down, word gets out and the free market will correct that much quicker than government can. This is the essence of why socialism doesn't work and communism doesn't work. Because you got some little group of experts making the decisions for everybody else. And they cannot possibly do it as fast as create the correction in the marketplace as fast as you and me and every 330 million other people are going to do. If you create some widget and you go on television and sell it and it works, people are going to get excited and buy it and you're going to be able to buy more ads and sell it to more people. But if it doesn't work and it falls apart, words going to get out and you're going to be known as not someone that created a better mousetrap, but they created a some widget that doesn't work and therefore people stop buying it. And if you lie and you defraud people, that's when you have to live with the consequences of that and government can actually come after you. But man, I'm just thrilled that people around the world are going to get to see how the better mousetrap works. Now the crazy thing is that this is with the last 60 years of moving away from free enterprise and towards this command and control economy. It's amazing to me that we still have ingenuity in America with all of the regulations at the federal and state level. Now they have this albatross around the neck of the American people, this boot on the neck of the American people, where if you want to build something, it is difficult. Now you have to Jump through so many hoops, and they try to stop you at every level from being able to build something, create something, put it on the market, go out there and organize and all those things. It is incredibly hard to do that in America now compared to 60 years ago or compared to, I mean, go back to Thomas Edison's day. How did he end up with so many patents? I think it was 1099, if I remember right. I may have that number right, but it's just over a thousand different patents. And he was out there at 12 years old, had a, had a, had a food and fruit stand, was selling stuff on the train. at 12 years old, he's doing that. Well, child labor laws today would prevent a young Thomas Edison for being able to do that.

Rick Green: UFC fights on Sunday highlighted character traits that make America great

All of the permits required in the, and the, and the regulations that would stop you from being able to, to do that. And he starts at 12 years old and then ends up doing things that change the world. Man, let's get back to that. Let's rediscover the things that made America great. And part of what I love from the UFC fights on Sunday at night is that we highlighted and, rewarded the character traits that actually work in, an economy like ours, in a free market economy, Work ethic, personal responsibility, consequences. And you live with the consequences. And no excuses, no blame game. I mean, that's why UFC is, I think, such a good example for us, because just like boxing or some of these other individual sports, you don't have anybody else to blame it on. Your work either pays off or it doesn't. You either worked hard enough and outworked the other guy and you win, or, you don't. And you can't blame it on your coach, you can't blame it on your camp, you can't blame it on the shape of the octagon, you can't blame it on the referee, you can't blame it on the other guy. It all comes down to whether or not you worked hard enough to perform and executed your skill. And I love the fact that even in a loss, this guy I was telling you about, the Spaniard that was undefeated 18 0, Ilia Topuria, even a guy like that, that has the only defeat that he's had in the ufc, and probably the greatest setback or defeat of his life in terms of, a challenge that he has now faced, even he said, I'll just read this as we're going to break. He said, justin, congratulations. You said you'd leave your mark on my face and you did. You took the sight from my right eye in the first round and by the end of the second, from my left, too. Here's what he said. No excuses. Had one of the best camps of my life. I came in sharp, prepared and ready. Last night was your night. That's the nature of this game. Glory and pain walk side by side. I'll heal, I'll rest, and I'll return stronger, wiser, and far more dangerous. And trust me, the story between us is far from over. We will have our rematch. I read that to you because it just exhibits the right attitude and character. How do you get up off the mat and get back in the fight, whatever the fight is for you in your life? How do you get back into life and succeed? What great examples for us, man. We're going to take a quick break. I'll be right back. Phone numbers 888-589-8840. You. You are listening to at the The Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick. America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the Constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250 this is at the The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Rick Green.

Rick Green and Walker Wildmon discuss whether America is a democracy or constitutional republic

Welcome back to Core with Walker Watman and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. Phone number is 888-5898-8408-8858-9888 for zero. Let's go to the phones. James in Oklahoma is up. first. James, go ahead, ma'. Am.

>> James: How you doing, sir? Good talk to you again.

>> Rick Green: Yes, sir.

>> James: First of all, I just got through voting. Voting day in Oklahoma.

>> Rick Green: Oh, wow. I didn't even realize that, man. Thanks for calling in and reminding us.

>> James: Yeah, I, got your DVD collection on, Constitution Alive.

>> Rick Green: Oh, good.

>> James: And I have a. I have a relative, matter of fact, older brother. He and I was having a discussion about America, whether we're a democracy or a constitutional republic. Yeah, Excuse me. I, told him we're, we are a, constitution republic. So is there anything that is democracy in our politics?

>> Rick Green: Well, you know, some people use the term democracy just generally to mean, you know, free societies that have elected representatives kind of thing. That's how most people, perceive it. That was not the way the founding fathers of America perceived it. They actually called it mobocracy. they called it one of the greatest of evils. They said it always ends in violence because it was seen as mobocracy, that the mob would rule. It didn't have the buffer of a republic that has representative government that keeps the mob from just doing whatever's popular at the time, but actually doing what's right. And then it didn't have the Constitution, which would limit the representatives themselves and only give government a certain amount of power. So, yeah, democracy is bad, bad, bad. We are not fans of democracy in America. We are absolutely a constitutional republic. it was well understood by the founders. We don't understand it today. Our own presidents often say, you know, how America is one of a great democracy and all this. And of course, Joe Biden was famously would always say, we're a threat to democracy. And every time he would say I was a threat to democracy, I would say, you're darn right, I'm absolutely a threat to democracy because democracy's bad. We don't want that. We are a constitutional republic. So, James, that's a great, great question and great point. I would point to Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution, which is where we're guaranteed to be a republic, not a democracy, and that each state will be a republic. And of course the, cherry on top is the constitutional republic. So if you think about kind of a sliding scale, democracy is obviously very bad. You don't want that. You move towards a stronger system of government if you have at least a republic where you're electing representatives. But the Goldilocks just right. Perfect solution is constitutional republic. So you have elected representatives, but they can only do what the people have listed in the written down Constitution says they can do. And so that's kind of the way I describe the difference in those, in those various forms of government. Okay, let's go to, let's see, 888-589-8840 is the phone number. Let's go to Oscar in Arkansas. Go Hogs, go Oscar. What part Arkansas you in, man?

>> Oscar: Hello, can you hear me?

>> Rick Green: Yes, I can. Where are you at in Arkansas?

>> Oscar: I'm in, Huntsville, Arkansas.

Amazon is not a threat to the free market

>> Rick Green: All right, all right, well, thanks for calling in. What's your comment or question?

>> Oscar: Oh, my comment was a little bit about, the lack of discourse about, master billion systems being built. Kind of like preying upon all the success and data that Amazon had with this idea of cloud data with basically just generating, or extracting data to generate more profit. And therefore Amazon doesn't produce anything or doesn't like really make anything, but it provides the services of going through their platform and they have record profits and they use that now with Palantir. And my question is, is this really not the biggest threat to what we have in this country, to this free market where not just a few will have the information and the capital to make the gains they make?

>> Rick Green: Well, let me ask a question this way. So, if it's. If. Do you ever use Amazon?

>> Oscar: Yeah, yeah, of course.

>> Rick Green: Okay. So, so do you. Do you. Are you by any chance an Amazon prime member where you get the free shipping?

>> Oscar: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been for some time. Sometimes I didn't think I was going to buy. I wasn't.

>> Rick Green: Yeah. Okay. So, me too. I am as well. And for a while I threatened to not use Amazon because Bezos was doing a lot of liberal stuff and they were doing a lot of things, helping, some of the cancellation and things out there that I was very much against. And however, this is the beauty of a free market. We can choose whether or not to use it. And I use it. And it has not been a threat to me. It's actually been a huge benefit to me. I can't imagine. I mean, I love being able to go on Amazon and have whatever I'm ordering that day or the next day, and at the worst, two or three days, the convenience that has created the time, the manpower and just, increase in productivity that that has created for me, for my team at Patriot Academy, and for hundreds of millions of other people is off the charts. That's a massive, massive value. So I, I mean, when you say threat, I get where you're going with that. It's, it's. Do they have the ability now, because they have so much of our data, to become the only ones to benefit? Do they get to control the economy, that kind of thing? And that's usually the fear of having billionaires or trillionaires or years ago it was even a millionaire. how much power do they get to consolidate wealth? But most of the time that that fear and that concern comes from a worldview that the pie is, is limited, that there's only so much in the pie, there's only so many pieces of the pie to go around. And that, in my opinion, is a faulty view. I don't believe that is how the economy works or A free economy works. It does work that way in communism because there's only so much to go around because nobody's creating anything, are causing things to, be force multiplied. In the American economy, every time we think there's a limited resource of something because of ingenuity, because of competition, because of rewarding people to work hard and R and D to find a better way, a better mousetrap, we end up producing, or M. Whether the item itself, even if it's a natural resource, we either find more of it or we end up figuring out how to use it in a way that produces more. For instance, you know, we were supposed to run out of oil back in the 70s and there was going to be no more, you know, fossil, fuels at all. And it was all going to be gone. And, and then you get the Cadillac converter and all of a sudden you can get twice as much or whatever the number is. And all of a sudden we figured out fracking and we're able to get down and find even more oil. And, you know, it just, it just goes on and on and on. So it's, it's. I would not. I reject the premise of, of the question from the standpoint of no matter how much Jeff Bezos. Bezos accumulates for himself, it actually hasn't hurt us, it's helped us. No matter, no matter the fact that now, Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire doesn't hurt us. It helps us because he's able to. I mean, look, this guy's created. Look at all of the things that have benefited each and every one of us in society as a result of Elon Musk's ingenuity and money. What if Elon Musk had not had the money to buy Twitter? Where would we be as a nation? The amount of council culture and control by government, not by. Well, now it was government collusion with some of these people, like Mark Zuckerberg, that was, in fact becoming a threat to our civilization and to our freedom. But thankfully, in a free market, and thankfully, because Jeff Bezos not, I'm sorry, Elon Musk, not even, originally an American, was able to come over here and benefit from the competition. And now, granted, he did get some crony capitalism, we could go down that road in terms of the start of Tesla and some of those things. But why does he continue to get paid billions of billions of dollars by government? Because SpaceX does it better than anybody else because they cannot get from any other competitor or even from NASA itself. That the things that he can provide as a result of the free market and his investment and the things that he's done. How many people on the planet now have high speed Internet as a result of Starlink that wouldn't have had it before? How many people on the planet are going to benefit more and more from not only SpaceX but Tesla and all the other things that he's done? X has become the juggernaut. I mean it's where I get my news. Half the time I can pick who I follow that are investigative journalists and that are good reporters and people like that. I can go find the best of the best and weed out the people that are no longer trustworthy. And I don't have to turn on CBS or NBC or CNN or any of those people now because they're so untrustworthy. I mean I could go on and on and on, but there are so many examples of actually the opposite of what the concern is. They're not a threat, they're actually a blessing to us. They could become a threat if we're not, you know, if we're lazy and we don't participate. But it's kind of like, it's kind of like, it's why I'm never against monopolies. It's like IBM, everybody wanted to break up IBM, but then along comes Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and all these, Micah Dell and all these other people that end up creating a better mousetrap. And the monopoly doesn't last. I frankly think if you invent something, if you're the one that creates the mousetrap, you, you should be able to have a monopoly on that thing. And somebody else is gonna have to figure out a way to compete with you to take away part of that monopoly. and that's you know, for Bezos, he's got an incredible mousetrap. And there are others trying to compete, create competition. There's conservative groups that have come up with conservative websites where you can buy things to buy from people that support what we believe in. And I think that's great. And I try to find those and I try to use those. but they haven't pulled it off yet. And eventually somebody will invest. Look what happened with Daily Wire. Same thing. I remember sitting down with Jeremy Borein at ah, Patriot Academy 15 years ago and he was saying we've got to create a better mousetrap. We've got to have, somebody's got to make a billion dollar play and go, go create a better news source. A better network, better entertainment, all those things. And he did it. He went and found the people that would invest the significant amount of money necessary and then he made the mousetrap so good that it ended up producing the kind of revenue, you know, he was even talking about this the other day. In fact, you should watch Jeremy Borein's show. It's absolutely incredible.

Rick Perry: You should always be against more government regulation

I think he's one of the most important voices in America right now on so many fronts. But anyway, he was describing how some people say, oh, the Wilkes billionaires, the only reason Daily Wire had any success at all, you wouldn't have been able to do what you. Well, they, they did make a significant investment up front, but it was only a portion of what was needed. And literally within, I think it was the second or third year, Daily Wire was absolutely profitable and producing the revenue that it needed. But it became a competitor to all the other left wing news sources. It launched Matt Walsh being able to do the movie what Is a Woman if he hadn't done that documentary. I mean that was the turning point on the transgender insanity. It basically showcased how insane they were and it changed the narrative completely. Completely. That wouldn't happen without Daily Wire. there's just so many examples I could give you that the free market, no matter if you see someone and you think that they are getting a corner on the market and you think that they are getting too much power and too much benefit as long as they are not able to collude with government, that's where the problem comes in. If you let the market winners, the, that are doing well in the marketplace, then have government power as well and stop competition. That's the problem. That's what you have to prevent. That's what would be un American and unconstitutional. We do it all the time, right? I mean anytime industry goes to government and lobbies them to create barriers to entry, to prevent competition, it makes it harder to compete with them. That's why you have all these regulations I was talking about earlier in the program. It's, it actually hasn't been typically, you know, some individual trying to get a, government regulation to prevent something bad from happening to them. It's actually industry creating regulation to prevent someone from being able to compete with them. And, and because they've got the money to, to be able to lobby and, and to go through all of the regulate regulatory processes, it's to prevent the little guy from competing. That's why you should always be against more regulation. Government is not going to save you. I mean you say, oh, Rick, what about the food supply? Don't we have to have a government program to make sure that restaurant down there, as a food inspector, to make sure that I don't get sick? No, no, you don't need that. Word will get out if that restaurant has a nasty kitchen and people are getting sick whenever they're eating at that restaurant. The market will solve it faster. Government actually slows down the cure. When you use government to fund science and research, when you try to try to pick the winners and losers of the universities that are going to get the, the next big grant and all of that, you slow down the cure. You need to get government out. Government's job is to protect, it's to protect your rights. It is not to provide the money. it protects your rights. It doesn't protect your health and your bank account and your, you know, all of those things. It's to protect your right to go do those things, not provide for you and not somehow keep you from ever getting sick. It fails miserably at doing those kind of things. If it would only do the things that are in the Constitution. Stay in its lane, it's a blessing. Get out of its lane, it's a curse. And our job as citizens is to put it back in its lane. I'll, close with that line out of the declaration that when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. So the ends are life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, truth, consent of the governed, all those things. So when regulation is preventing you from using your property as you want to use it, as long as you're not harming your neighbor, we need to alter or abolish that government. We need to alter that local government and abolish departments of that local government. When the federal government is being destructive of our, freedom and liberty, we need to abolish those pieces of the government that are doing that and alter our government back to, in fact, the caller's question earlier, back to being a limited government of a constitutional republic and not some random democracy mobocracy where people can go get the government to shut down their competition, go get the government to create barriers to their industry. When we do it the right way, everybody's blessed. And so this civic ritual that we have right now of the 250th of being, able to celebrate who we are as Americans gives us the opportunity to remind ourselves who we are as Americans and what the values of system is that made us great in the first place. Make sure you're a part of that. Patriotacademy.com Sign up as a coach. We'll go a lot more into this. It's free and you can be the catalyst in your community for restoring biblical values and constitutional principles. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to at the The Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

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