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At the Core with Rick Green discusses Iran and other topics
>> Rick Green: Welcome to at the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green, I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. Thanks for joining me today. We got a couple things we're going to share with you today, sort of catching up a little bit on the Iran situation. I'm actually going to share some, Wall Builders conversation. So David and, Tim Barton and I have a show called Wall Builders, the Wall Builder Show. Been doing that for about 20 years. And, it's a, that always takes a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective on the hot issues of the day. Once in a while I share interviews here on at the Core that I've done, through Wall Builders or through my, television show the Tavern. But, this one's just a conversation with David and Tim about Iran and about what's going on in the Middle east and what this means for America. I think this is important to share with you, and I want to say right up front, this vote yesterday in the Senate, embarrassing, honestly. they can't vote on the SAVE act, the most important piece of legisl, the president's number one priority for legislation. And Senator Thune can't get that to a vote, but he can get to a vote on slapping the president's hand and telling him he's got to pull out of the Middle east and not complete the mission with Iran. It's just absurd. It's ridiculous. And the problem is you've got these octogenarians in the senate like Mitch McConnell and, John Cornyn and these others, that are always saying up front they support the president but then undermining what he does behind the scenes, always saying up front they are for the conservative cause and for conservative principles and then undermining conservatives and pushing for swamp creatures all the time. So if you hear frustration in my voice, it is definitely connected to the idea that President Trump may endorse John Cornyn over Ken Paxton, who are now on a runoff for U.S. senate in Texas, and, may do that today. It may have already happened and I missed it in the news. I hope not. it would be a disaster, a huge mistake on the President's part.
Senate voted on whether to use War Powers Act to force President to withdraw
but anyway, back to Iran. So they had this vote on whether or not to use the War Powers act to essentially force the President to pull back before his 60 day deadline to report to Congress. And we talked about this on Tuesday. The way this thing works, the Constitution clearly spreads this out between the executive and the legislature in terms of the power of war, the ability to wage war around the world or to use military assets or money and all that. We talked about the balance where, yes, Congress has the power to declare war and the power of the purse to fund any of these actions, but the President is one with the authority and the power to respond quickly and to deal with situations. And the War Powers Acts. That's not in the Constitution. That's just a piece of legislation passed by Congress to sort of codify and set up a process for how to balance those powers between the legislature and the executive. And that's fine. That's okay. it's a decent system where the President can act and within 48 hours let the Congress know. And then within 60 days, the Congress has to essentially approve or disapprove, and then the President can actually extend that by 30 days. So there's this whole process that takes place. But this vote yesterday was nothing but an embarrassment and a weakening of the United States because what these people were doing in the Senate was undermining the President at a time of military action where our men and women are in harm's way, where they are in the middle of the fight, and their own Congress back home is essentially undermining them and saying to the world, we don't support what our men and women are doing right now. This is not the time to do that. Wait until the action is over. We're already there. We're already in the middle of it. So this is just a horrible decision by John Thune to allow this to happen and Rand Paul to support it and vote for it. Thank you, John Fetterman, Democrat that voted against it. So the vote failed and the President can continue. I think it was 4753 that it failed. So, all the Democrats, of course, voted for it. And then one Republican, Rand Paul, who I like most of the time, but the libertarian strain does not understand nuance and is always black and white and the world is just not that way. And so, on this one, he's wrong. and John Fetterman, Democrat, liberal on those things, came over and voted with the Republicans to say, you don't interrupt in the middle of this thing. Let it finish, and then debate it out in Congress. You're already there. The Constitution empowers the president to make these kind of decisions. If they end up being the wrong decision, he'll pay for it. His party will pay for it. but it's just an undermining of America and of our men and women in uniform. All right, let's get to the interview with. Or not interview, but the discussion with David and Tim because, I'm just going to play straight up for you our program on Wall Builders from, a couple days ago, where we discussed this whole Iran situation, what this means to the world. David Barton, of course, America's premier historian, tons of wisdom on how this fits into, you know, our position in the world, what biblically to think about here, and of course, what, you know, where, where we've seen this before in history. So here we go. Let's jump in with David and Tim Bar.
Rick Green joins the Wall Builder show with David Barton and Tim Barton
>> Rick Green: Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us today on the Wall Builder show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Lots to get to today, of course, day after primary elections in Texas, Arkansas and North Carolina. And then, of course, lots of news out of the Middle east as well. So we'll try to get to all of it, guys. first and foremost, of course, update on Iran. could continue to take out a lot of their military infrastructure. Apparently a lot of the, I don't know if you call them political leadership or clerical leadership that was going to choose the next, leader. that's a big deal, Rick.
>> David Barton: You don't have to repeat yourself. You said political. For them, it's Iran. They do have a theocracy. Don't repeat yourself.
>> Rick Green: And that seems like a rejection of the whole package. Right? Like, it's basically saying. It would be like saying in America, there's no Democrats left or there's no Republicans left, like they're going to wipe out that whole Islamic regime so that they don't end up with, that theocracy that you just mentioned.
>> David Barton: Well, it's interesting. I think what Trump is doing is we're allowing you, you people to choose a complete reset. If you want to, you can go back to pre1979, when Iran was a democratic country, by and large, when they were part of the Western allies. And so what we're going to do is you have an institution that has been framed against you to never let you have power. We're going to give you a chance to see if you want to keep that institution or if you want to do something different. I think that's the big choice they have.
>> Rick Green: Well, guys, one of the things, too, that's worth pointing out. I had a conversation with Bill Federer, actually. He's in the podcast, the American Story podcast, released today. And he was explaining part of why this is significant is because part of the Islamic belief system, certainly they believe in the caliphate, but, but part of what they believe is what ushers in the end times for them. So Christians, there's end times theology, the eschatology of the end times. There's a lot of thoughts what that looks like in Christian circles. Well, Muslims have beliefs about end times as well, but for Muslims, their end time belief is that when the next world war breaks out, that There is this 12th Imam who's like 1200 years old and living in the cave, he's going to come out and he is going to, in essence, be the voice of sanity in the world. And, and we actually might like, refer to that as, like the Antichrist kind of thoughts, where it's going to come and there's going to be one world order, and, and this is part of their end game, very intentionally. And because there are extremists who believe that in order for the end times to come, and ultimately then a lot of their belief and prophecies to be fulfilled, there needs to be a world war. Why that matters is, is this is the predominant belief in Iran. And so when, when people talk about Iran getting a nuclear weapon, there are some people in America who might go, wait a second, we, we don't care what Iran does. Let Iran be Iran. And it, it shouldn't be a problem if, you know, Iran has a nuclear weapon because China does and Russia does, et cetera, et cetera, why this is so different. And I think it's probably something that somebody and President Trump's administration understood well enough to go, hey, what, what we were dealing with is not just that they were trying to build a nuclear weapon, but they have brought great clarity for the last 40 or 50 years in explaining their view of America as, we are the great Satan. Israel is a little Satan.
>> David Barton: Why? Because we are the two strongest leading voices that are leading in an opposite direction of Islam. And because of that, we are the problem. We need to go, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Why all of that matters in context is because it makes complete sense on so many levels that what President Trump did by preventing them from getting a nuclear weapon and then the idea that we're going to preemptively strike before they launch all these ballistic missiles at America and Israel, it's very reasonable when part of their worldview and ideology is, we want World War III, because that's what's going to bring out this 12th Imam who's been hiding away in a cave. And finally, this, like, Messiah figure is going for them. It's like a Christ figure. It's like, for we, us, as Christians, we believe Jesus will return. They believe that this 12th Imam is going to return. And. And again, we would call that like an Antichrist figure, but for them, it's. It's something that is a savior for them, and it comes only through World War iii. All of this matters in a worldview context. We're not just having conversations about geopolitics. It's not just important to understand maybe some of the history of Iran, but specifically the worldview of the Shiite aggressive Muslims in Iran and why they are intentionally trying to cause trouble and drama. Why has Iran been funding the number one funder of terrorists around the world? Why are they funding all these bad groups attacking Christians and nations around the world? Because they actually want World War iii, that they're going for this. Which also then is interesting that they've been siding with China and Russia and North Korea and some of these other nations, right? They want to destabilize the West. They want to bring in a war that will usher in the 12th Imam to come and be their Messiah, Savior figure, etc.
David Barton: These surgical strikes have taken out most of Iran's leadership
So, guys, I think in the midst of the conversation, all of this matters too. And I know I'm probably. If Bill Federer was listening right now, he'd be like, tim, you're mostly correct. Let me clarify. Fortunately, he was, with me on the American Story podcast. And so, people can jump over to YouTube or Spotify, wherever else, and listen to him explain this in greater detail. But this does matter for our conversation that a lot of times in the American perspective, we're analyzing behavior, maybe from a political, a Geopolitical, and economic perspective, not recognizing that for some groups, and specifically the Shiite Muslims, they have a very, very different motivation for a lot of what they do.
>> David Barton: You know, and obviously people's theology affects the way they do. Everything that affects our government, affects their education, it affects their behavior. There's no, no way around that. And if you have no theology, that affects you too. So your world, your belief is what's there. And it's interesting that when you look at Iran, they have a, a kind of process of secession. I mean, their Ayatollah is now gone. Been there 37 years. And these surgical strikes have taken out most of the leadership. It took out definitely right up front. They took out the military leadership. the first day there were seven of the cabinet members gone, the military cabinet members. And so all those guys are disappearing. But it's interesting, and I, I, mean, this kind of sounds strange, but Iran has a constitution, and the constitution stipulates how their governments to operate. It's not a constitution, anything like should when you hear constitution, you know, we kind of default to Western constitutions. They have one, and just to go over some, what they've got here, if the Ayatollah is killed, then they have a leadership council. And that leadership council is three people. And those three people come in and they, under their constitution, they assume temporary leadership. And then what they do with that is they have a 88 member panel and it's this kind of what we would call a legislature. And they're elected for eight year terms. And those elected eight year terms, they will be the one to choose the new president. Now, interesting. The 88 that are elected are all clerics. You have to be a Muslim cleric, you have to be a Muslim theologian. and you have to be, not a Sunni, but you have to be Shia. And so a Shia Muslim. And so what, I mean, this is complete theocracy. You have, the only people they can vote to choose your leader are, theologians, if you will, they're Shia clerics. And so they will choose the next Ayatollah, the next leader of Iran. And so what happens is when you take out the 88 members that are elected and we take out all the leaders, hey people, you have your choice. You can do anything you want to. Now. You can move in the direction you want. Now if you guys choose to go back to oppression and whatever, that's fine. And if they do, you know, nobody wants them to do that. Trump doesn't want to do that. But the thing is, now, because you have a complete leadership change because you really have cut off the head of the snake. They don't have the people there that can go in and continue their nuclear program. Because even after Trump took out that nuclear program with all those precision strikes that we marveled about back in that quick war, they have since then started accumulating all the assets again to rebuild their nuclear program. And Tim, as you pointed out, it's a theological belief. They have to bring in the 12th Imam. And to do that, they have to have a global war. And he'll come out and finish that war and bring peace and everybody be a Muslim and everybody else be killed.
>> Rick Green: All right, friends, hold it right there. We'll be right back. That was David Barton speaking. David and Tim and I, our radio program from a couple days ago on the wallbuilder show that I wanted to share with our at the core audience because of this important discussion about why Iran does the thing it does, the things that it does, and what we need to do, or, why we're doing what we're doing to stop them.
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Rick Green: Iran has theological belief that they need nuclear weapon
>> Rick Green: We're back here on at the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green America's Constitution coach, and we're jumping right back in with our conversation with David and Tim Barton
>> David Barton: Their theological belief dictates that they have, that they need that nuclear weapon to be able to bring what they see as the reign of peace. But then they don't have anybody that represents a people. They have people that represent only the theology they've got. And again, this is where the Judeo Christian biblical belief brings freedom and individuality and so many other things where this is exactly opposite. It brings oppression, it brings death. It brings death to nations all over the place. So that's why I really say Trump has given them an opportunity. They can hit the reset button if they want to. And there have been certainly a lot of people in the streets since this has started. There's a lot of people out now on the other side. It's made a lot of the Shias really angry. That's why they've attacked consulates across, the Middle east, attacked the United States consulates across Middle east and Pakistan and elsewhere. And if you haven't seen, the Marines have done a really good job of defending these embassies which they're doing. They're assigned to do that this or duty posts. And so we have been able to withstand all these attacks, but all these radical Shias are going after US consulates because, you know, again, theology drives what they do. And so for people who think all religions are equal or there's no difference between Muslims and Christians and Jews, no, that means you really don't understand history and you really don't understand the beliefs of those groups. And it's strike striking to me that the Democrats who keep crying separation church and state to keep Christian and Jewish principles out, that doesn't bother them to have Muslims running stuff. You know, it's like that's where you would really want separation church and state was with Muslims. If they're going to, if they're going to use nuclear forces and weapons and everything else, why don't you have separation church and state there? And ah, Democrats are just so crazy on this. The very things they claim they want, they do exactly the opposite of it. They, and so they join up with Muslim forces that have this theocracy kind of mentality and they want the whole world to be run by theocracy. So that's, that's why I think what's going on Iran right now is significant. Trump has said it's going to be at least another week of surgical strikes before they get done what they want, taking out all these because even now they're still firing off missiles. Like there's no shortage of missiles. I mean, Iran had so many missiles stockpiled and so much set aside and they're still attacking other nations, attacking surrounding nations, attacking military bases, attacking assets across the world. So it's, it's a really great opportunity for a kind of peace we haven't had since 1979. And this has been the leading perpetrator of that problem across the world. We even talked yesterday how that these are the guys funding Hamas and Hezbollah and all these other places we see these attacks. It's really all coming out of Iran. So if there can be a reset in Iran, we're going to see a different world at Least for a while. Yeah.
>> Rick Green: As we're, as we're going to break, we'll come back, talk about some of the election results.
Prop 10 in the Texas Republican primaries says no Sharia law
A great segue from Iran and everything that you guys just said to the election Results is Prop 10 in the Texas Republican primary which is essentially just a poll of Republican primary voters but we've talked about it here on the program quite a bit is to you know the Texas should not have Sharia law, prevent Sharia law and it's looking like maybe the highest number I've ever seen on a proposition. 95%.
>> David Barton: ah.
>> Rick Green: So you know, who knows if it, it the impact that it has on the public servants. Right? That's the whole idea. It's not the force of law but can it force law? Can it, can it say to all Republican officials, 95 of Republicans in Texas, I don't know who these 5% are but, but 95 of Texans say no Sharia law in Texas. So when we come back we'll talk about some of the other elections but thought that was an interesting way to finish our Iran conversation. Quick break, we'll be right back.
Wall Builders: Patriot Academy is looking to fill leadership void in America
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>> Rick Green: Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on the Wall Builder show day after the election and two days after Texas independence celebration. Right. So it's March 4th today guys. We didn't, we didn't read William Barrett Travis's letter Monday. We should have. That's you know, for all of our non Texas listeners, you just need to know there's only two kinds of people, Texans and those that want to be Texans.
Everything in Arkansas pretty much went according to what was expected
So, okay, now that they're all upset with us, let's talk elections that were in Texas, guys. and also Arkansas and North Carolina. Any big surprises to y' all from last night?
>> David Barton: I don't think there were necessarily any big surprises. I mean, there was, There was nothing to really keep you awake necessarily in Arkansas. Everything in Arkansas pretty much went according to what was expected. Sarah Huckabee Sanders had no opposition, and that's how well she's doing. there. There was a couple on the Democrat side, but they recognized them as sacrificial lambs. I think in the last election, 81% of the counties in Arkansas voted Republican. So if you're a Democrat in Arkansas right now, you're kind of out there with the dinosaurs that they're excavating in other places. So not a whole lot of excitement in Arkansas last night. Well, and, Dad, I would say specifically when it comes to the congressional races or the Senate races, because obviously there's in the state. There's some state House, state Senate, Democrats from Little Rock or, you know, some other big city, Fayetteville, maybe. But as far. Yeah, we were joking about it when we were doing news coverage last night. not only that, we were able to call races like Governor Sanders race very early, like before they released polls because she ran alone. But even Thom Cotton, who had a couple challengers and, you know, God bless them, nothing against them challenging him.
>> David Barton: But you're. When you have a senator who is so well liked, like in Arkansas, or who has such good name recognition, you're not going to do well in a primary against him, number one. Number two, if you're the Democrat challenger, dad, as you point out, like, you're not going to win in that state. And this is a little different than if you contrast it with Texas, where now we know that, Senator Cornyn, the current US Senator from Texas, and Ken Paxton, who was the Attorney general, are going into a runoff. And this is going to be interesting for different reasons. John Cornyn has a long track record of voting overall, overwhelmingly conservative in his voting record, but he's not a guy that you've seen take the lead on any conservative fight in years, if not more than a decade. Whereas Ken Paxton, he's the guy who's been looking to pick fights, and he's been a fighter. And so in a lot of ways, he's more representative of what Texans largely care about. But the challenge is, as I heard somebody say jokingly and not incorrect, Ken Paxton has a trainload of baggage. And so then the challenge of Ken Paxton if, if he won the runoff going up against James Talarico, who is a very smooth communicator, who is a, identifies as a pastor. I say that not jokingly, lightly.
>> David Barton: Tim, before you go further, since we haven't introduced Talarico, he's the Democrat nominee and Talarico is. Will be running against Cornyn as a Democrat. So we were talking Republican for anybody who didn't catch that transition. And so James Talarico, it won the Democrats primary to run for the Senator of Texas, and he would have to run against whoever wins the, the runoff between the current senator, John Cornyn, and Ken Paxton. And I know for many people we're getting in the weeds here. And you're probably like, why are we talking about this? Why does it matter? Only because of some of the ideology and understanding a little bit of, of the inside of politics. So John Cornyn is, is not a fighter, but votes overwhelmingly conservative, even though he's kind of it. It's almost like a bandwagon fan to some extent. Like he's just along for the ride, really enjoying it. And, and, and John Cornyn had been someone that two decades, three decades ago, he was known as a fighter. He's not known as that anymore. Kim Paxton, known as a fighter, but has crazy amounts of baggage, legitimate baggage, but he is a fighter. Well, whoever wins that Republican ticket, they would have to go up against the Democrat, James Talarico, who it in reality is a pastor, but he is a woke pastor who is on the side of the DEI, the, the LGBTQIA, R2D2, whatever movement they are.
>> Rick Green: And, and, and very good at, twisting scripture. Right. Like this is the guy that went on Rogan. A lot of people have seen clips of him on was it Colbert or whoever. He's all over the place. So the Democrats love the fact that he gets up and claims to be, you know, actually fighting for the Bible when he's totally doing anti biblical positions.
>> Stephen McDowell: And, and he, he woke shames Christians who actually believe that there's male and female who believe in gender, who don't want to mutilate the bodies of children. I mean, etc. But the reason it matters is because if you have a guy like James Talarico, he's a little bit of an Obama in the sense of like President Obama. Barack Obama was a very smooth communicator. And he, he came across as very likable. James Talarico is the exact same way. And so if you have a candidate who appears to be very likable, even though they hold crazy views for so many of the average voters who don't pay attention, and they see, for example, if, if Ken Paxton won and they see legitimate baggage coming from Ken Paxton against a very smooth guy, well, then they might go, well, this guy isn't nearly as crazy or don't have as much baggage, etc, even though he actually is kind of crazy. Ah, I'm saying all of that because it does make a difference when you get into the primaries now that you're having to. To some level, I think we talked about this some Yesterday from Exodus 18:21, where you choose able men that fear, God, men of truth hating covetousness. And, and the able part is significant. there's some people that are not competent to hold office. There's. There's some people that are not capable of being elected. So that able can be a factor. And so now this is, this is something that, as you get into primaries or get into runoffs, you want to vote for the best candidate. But part of what makes someone the best candidate is the fact that they can win to further promote those values. And that's part of, to me, some of the interesting things we saw coming from Texas. Not just interesting where voters voted, but also what that means going forward. Because then for potentially the new attorney general, you have another runoff between Maze Middleton and Chip Roy. Both of them overall pretty good guys, both of them, different personalities, different styles, etc. And I know we're way in the weeds of politics now, but this is why for everybody, whatever, state you're in, you're going to have primaries and possibly you're gonna have runoffs. And we want to be wise in how we engage in this system. We want to make sure we vote for the best candidate. But certainly people that fall in that capable men, men of truth hating covenants that fear God, we want those kind of people to be our leaders.
>> Rick Green: And primaries tend to be the best place to kind of prune a little bit, right? And we get to be more, more picky in the, in the primary. So it's just so important for everybody, to vote.
The turnout in Texas' primaries was 33%, which surprised me
The turnout, you know, David, are you surprised that the turnout I noticed in my home county, it was like 33%, but this is. I'm in a pretty red county,
>> Rick Green: so that seemed high to me.
>> Rick Green: But, But I know we're like an 80 county where I live. and I, I don't know that I saw the number statewide for Texas, but, it just seems like getting Christians to show up and vote, not just in November when now you're down to only two candidates in m. Most states that, And. And sometimes they're not. What could have been a better option in the primary? You know, if you show up in the primary. If you show up in the primary, you're kind of getting in the kitchen and, and preparing all the desserts that everybody else will choose from on the table later, rather than just complaining that you didn't get the, you know, gooey, chewy chocolate chip cookies when you showed up at the party. it's really the best way to be involved.
>> David Barton: Yeah. I mean, we're using analogies. And so chocolate chip cookies. I. I got. I go, totally. And part of it, even the way I explain it, is if you just vote in the general election, the car dealer, you go to a car dealership and say, I want to buy a car. And he says, I got you two choices here. Which one do you want? And you get those two choices. If you'd shown up in the primaries, you could actually go back in the garage and choose any of the cars back in the garage as one of the two he brings forward. And so if you just show up and say, I want to buy a new car, and he says, here's the two you've got, that's not many choices. It could be between good and bad. It could be between bad and worse, could be between good and better. But if you get involved in the primary, you get to help choose what's going to come out on the floor of the car dealership to be bought later. And that's where it becomes significant, and that's where you can really have more impact. Because, generally in the general election, about 60%, 60% of folks will vote in that election. In the primary election, you're down around 25 to 30%. So every vote you cast is like casting two or three or has the strength of two or three in the general election because so many fewer people vote. And so this is where you can really help if you're. If you keep saying, there's no difference between the two parties, all the candidates are alike. That's because you're not voting in the primaries and you're not helping choose the candidates that make it to the end. You're just waiting for the car dealer to roll out the two Choices you've got. So starting last night, we started the primary season. And for the next few Tuesdays, every, every Tuesday or so, there's going to be some states having primaries. Then it kind of lets up for a little bit in the last half of April. But starting in May and June, it gets really busy again with state primaries and some, some weeks. We had three states last night, but, when we get in May and June, it's going to be sometimes five and six states, ah, a week. And so definitely get involved in primaries. if you, if you don't know who the candidates are, start working now. It's so easy with AI now to be able to ask for a voter's guide or who the candidates are. Give me their names. Once you find their names, you can find out about them. So it's, it's actually much easier now than it has been in several years. And we were experimenting with some of that today with AI to see what it would bring up and what kind of voter comparisons you can get. So that plus a little legwork on your own and create your own voter guide and spread it around your community or your church or your neighborhood or your school or anything else. we can, we can really start having significant impact through primaries. So make sure to plan to be involved in your state, in your party and primaries over the next two or three or four months, A primary is going to be coming to your state. And for a lot of states that will then have runoffs. Not every state does. In Texas, we're going to have runoffs. So we'll have another vote coming up with the top two out of the primaries. So just get involved in the process. It makes the whole nation healthier and you get a lot more choices.
>> Rick Green: Our folks headed into another break here for. And in our final segment, we'll pick this up. But yeah, this primary runoff thing is really important because very few people show up for that. So if you've got one of those in your state anytime throughout the year, it's a great time to have influence. Of course, in Texas we'll have the AG runoff, the US Senate runoff, we've got some local runoff. so there's a lot at stake and, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens. Quick break. We'll be right back. You're listening to at the Core with Guapawam and Rick Ring.
Preborn Network helps women make decisions about their unborn babies
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>> : Podcasts are available at afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
Rick Green: There are many ways to get involved in the upcoming elections
>> Rick Green: Welcome back to the Core with Walker Wildmon Green I'm Rick Green America's Constitution coach. we've been sharing with you a program that David and Tim Barton and I did just, yesterday, day before yesterday. Anyway, it's basically, if you missed, if you're just tuning in and you missed the first part of the program, we really hit the Iran issue in the last segment. We finished that up and talked, a little bit about election Review day, after. And we'll wrap that up here in just a second. And then I want to, bring some discussion, with Lieutenant, Governor Dan Patrick of Texas. But let's jump in and finish up the conversation with David and Tim on, the results of the, March 3rd primary in Texas, Arkansas and North Carolina.
>> Rick Green: All right, so all the folks outside of Texas and Arkansas and North Carolina, you still got primaries coming up in the next few months. get educated on those things. Go to the voter guides, go to your, you know, get involved in the local party and, and we're not going to tell you to be a Republican. You can be a Republican or a communist. Totally up to you. no kidding. there's lots of options out there, but obviously you got to pick a machine that can actually win, which goes back to, to what Dave and Tim were talking about and being able, capable of winning. So there's a lot of ways to get involved, go to wallbuilders.com today, get on our email list. Make sure you're doing some biblical citizenship classes and getting people together, and that'll really help.
>> David Barton: Also remember ChristianVoterGuide.com ChristianVoterGuide.com we have a link for every state for voters guides in those states. If there's a voter guide available out there, we try to have it on that website so you know exactly who's going to be there in your state that you can vote for.
>> Rick Green: Christianvoterguide.com Christianvoterguide.com no matter what state you're in, check that out today. And then, and, then be a force multiplier. I get other people to go vote. So we're pushing for, for you to go vote, but we also want to get you to talk to the people in your, in, in, your family, friends at church, maybe even do a voter guide at your church. There's just so many ways to be involved, to make a difference.
>> Rick Green: It's a really important year to do that.
>> Rick Green: So thanks for listening. You've been listening to the Wallblower show.
>> Rick Green: All right, that was a conversation with David and Tim Barton on the Wall Builder show just day, before yesterday regarding, Iran, regarding the elections. and now I'm going to jump into an interview with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. We're only going to get half the interview today. I might be able to share the rest next week. But just a remarkable record in Texas, the things that have been done. Specifically on this one, we talked school choice and several other things.
This is not a fight between Republicans and Democrats
But let's jump in with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick of Texas.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: This is no longer, Rick, a fight going on in America between Republicans and Democrats. This is a fight of darkness and light. You know, any totalitarian regime, any communist movement, the first thing when they take over a country is to get rid of churches, close them down, get rid of God, because they don't want anyone superior to them. The second thing they do, they take over the education system. Well, we know that the march has been on by the radical left and the Marxist left. You know, Lenin said, give me your children for four years and I'll have them for their lifetime. And we know we've lost the schools to the teacher unions to Randy Weingarten over the years. We have many good schools and many great teachers, but we know the general education system of America has shifted, to that direction. And this woke business and boys going in the locker room and playing girl sports, which in Texas, I passed laws to get rid of all that. Here In Texas, the dei, everything. We banned all that in Texas, but it's everywhere else in the country for the most part. and then what else did they have to do? They had to take over the, the message. You know, it's Pravda in Russia. I don't know what it is in China, but they all have their own networks. Well, so do this Democrat Party, I mean, except for Newsmax, Fox, and great radio, shows and podcasts like this. And, we're outnumbered. They've conquered both. And the reason they hate Trump so much is because he stopped them with the third leg of the soul they have to have. And that was. He stopped them from getting the Supreme Court, because had he lost to Hillary, it would be a 7, 2 or 6, 3 Supreme Court. It wouldn't make any difference what bills, conservative legislation we passed in Texas. It would all be overturned. That's why they hate him so much. This has been a multi decade, decade march. And they felt so emboldened when Biden won. They thought Trump was through. They felt so emboldened. They all came out of the woodwork. They didn't hide anymore. You know, they came out in the light. And we said, man, these open borders letting murderers and rapists and sex offenders in and doing nothing about it, which we're dealing with now in this country, and, punishing the Christians. Oh, we could do that. We can do that. and then what happened? Donald Trump gets reelected again, and we've got our chance to save this country. But it's darkness and light, and those in the dark are in the dark. They want God out of this country, and those are in the light. You know, it's a difference. There are people on the left who think they're God and government is gone, and people on the right that, no, we're not God, we follow God.
>> Rick Green: That's right. That's right. Great difference. One quick comment and then one final question. I just want to thank you for school choice. When I came into the legislature with Phil king back in 1998, we couldn't even get a vote on that. And it is breaking. That is what will break up the teacher union control and the Marxist control of the, of so many of our kids and their education.
>> Rick Green: So thank you.
>> Rick Green: You came along. I think I came out in 03. I think you went in in 06. Right. As a senator, when you first.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: I came in, my first session was 07.
>> Rick Green: Right, yeah, 07. So, you know, you've always been for those liberty issues and accomplished so much over the last two decades.
>> Rick Green: It's been incredible.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: Can I make a quick comment on school choice?
>> Rick Green: Yeah, yeah, please do.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: I always believe that if we could get a bill passed in any form, that it wouldn't be hard to make it larger the next session because so many parents would sign up. inner city, suburbs, rural Texas, doesn't matter. if you look at the national numbers on school Choice, only about 3% of parents opt their children in. Most of them are okay with their schools. more and more disenchanted today than they were years ago. After Covid, we saw a lot, and the schools were exposed. But most parents are okay. most kids don't want to leave their friends. But there are kids with disabilities. There are kids in failing schools. There are kids, that are, being bullied and pushed around, and they're not in a safe environment. And so I always knew this. And so when I became education chair in 13 in the Senate, I moved a bill, but it went nowhere. Like you experienced in 15. We passed a school choice bill out of the Senate. they stood up in the house on day one, said, we're not passing a voucher bill. Well, this isn't a voucher bill. The money goes directly to the schools. The parents pick the schools once they qualify for. But I had that every session, and I never gave up. And we finally passed the bill last session. The biggest bill in the world of school choice, his first year, a billion dollars. And there's a former House members. You know how much money that is for a hundred thousand students? it opened qualifications, on the app, opened up to register or try to register. Not try to register, but hopefully to get a slot, one of these 100,000 slots. It started 13 days ago. It ends March 17th. Everyone should apply. Who wants to. We're already over a thousand hundred applications.
>> Rick Green: 100,000.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: 100,000 in 13 days, I think. And I always thought we could get to 200,000. We may. But the point is, Rick, and you know how the House reacts when we come back next session, there are going to be a lot of parents to. All these members who fought it, opposed it, killed it, are going to say, hey, I did another slot. I didn't get in. That's right. And suddenly the whole world's going to change and it will get bigger. I love, it. And this last note for people who do, who are listening and say, well, I have a concern how it impacts public schools. It doesn't at all. we have 5.5 million kids in public schools in Texas. 9,000 campuses, 1200 school districts, 365,000 teachers. So 5.5 million with a budget of 40 billion and this is 100,000 kids for a billion. There's no way this is going to undermine public schools, but it will make them competitive. And last, besides passing school choice, we passed a bill putting 8.5 billion into public schools. Half of that I insisted, go to teachers directly. so we've increased teacher pay from an average of 54,000 to 69,000 now in the last several years. We're taking care of our public schools because we have to have a great public school system. But every parent deserves a right for whatever their reason is, to send the school, the child that they love, to the school of the choice that they think will be best for them.
>> Rick Green: Yeah. Amen. Man. I remember sitting down in debt. January of 99, here I am, this 27 year old, you know, legislator, with George Bush, Governor Bush, and it, was my one on one with him, right? And I'm getting, and I said, I was like, governor, I'm here to get school choice. That's my number one issue. He's like, well, it's nice to have goals, son. Well, 30 years later, Governor Patrick, you got it done. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: Well, it took the effort of President Trump, it took the effort of Governor Abbott, who joined us.
>> Rick Green: Governor Abbott, yeah.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: And we defeated, I think there were 21 Republicans who voted against school choice in 23. And, I think we beat 18 or 19 of them somewhere around that number.
>> Rick Green: That's great.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: And the others got a little religion. That's a good way down the shelf.
>> Rick Green: That's right.
Christians need courage to speak out on religious issues
Well, speaking of religion, that was my last question for you. I just. Do you sense a turn in. And for the first few years you were in and for all those years on radio, Christianity was so attacked and Christians felt like they couldn't express their faith. And there was just this mantra against pastors speaking to cultural issues and all that. As you guys are meeting with the commission, as you hear all this testimony, is that shifting? It seems like the Coach Kennedy case was a huge change. We often say we got more religious liberty than ever. You're one of your committee members, Kelly Shackford loves to say that. I believe that. but in terms of people's opinion, do you feel like there's a shift now? It seems like people are sharing their faith more. Just seems like a new day. What do you think?
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: Well, it's A great question and two ways to answer it. It's a little, alarming that if you look at the, polling done by religious groups, that in 2015, I'm doing this by memory here. Ah, 55% of Americans felt religion was important in their life. And today it's 40%. It's dropping. We've seen church attendance drop, we've seen, these attacks, which has had an impact. We see a culture change. But with that said, to go back to your point, which you're right on, those of us who believe we are speaking up, up. We're not taking bolder. So we are being. You know, I always. I always pray for supernatural words, wisdom and favor every day. And I said that one time, and I was at a Christian school actually, giving a speech. And. And it was Angela Paxton School, where she taught, actually. And Angela said, you need to add courage to it. And I, said, you know, I hadn't thought about that. She said, because the Lord gives a lot of people, the words gives a lot of people favorite. but do they have the courage to go speak out? And that really spoke to me. So we have to be courageous. I think that word in the Bible is spoken. I forget how many times, but more than any other one word, chapter after chapter, verse after verse. And I love about being courageous. I love in the Book of Jude, which is a very small book right before Revelations, where Jude was really talking to the church to beware of imposters in the church and destroying the church from the inside out. But he said in that. These words that. I just love these words. We must contend earnestly. You know, it's kind of a biblical way to say that today we'd say we got to fight for what we believe in, but we need. And Franklin Graham said this in one of our committees, we, need more combatants out there, with love, but we have to fight for what we believe. when the president announced this commission, Cardinal Dolan told me he was. He went to the conflave to, pick the new pope, and cardinals from around the world came up and said, gee, the president has appointed you to this commission. You must fight for religious liberty because it's disappearing in the world, even in Western democracies. and we know that. We know how some people have been in prison for just praying outside of a Planned Parenthood center in England. So we're the last hope for the world on religious liberty. And I was invited to go by the president to go to Davos Switzerland, which is a place of very wealthy people, making big business deals in countries from all over the world. They show up there once a year and basically come down from the mountain to tell the other 8 billion of us how we should live. And, they may be well intentioned, but when I spoke, I said, when you come down from the mountain, don't come down with your business deal. Don't come down with your policy, that you're going to take back to your country. How about coming down like Moses did? let's look out for the people. Let's, let's do what's best for the people. And we can't do what's best for the people if we don't have a message of faith. You can't change the character of a person or the culture, without changing a person of the country's heart. We can't do without Jesus Christ or for those who don't believe in Jesus with the God they follow in their faith. And we have to stand up and fight in this country, Rick. And so I'm all in the fight. I serve the Lord first, and everything second. And, and I know there are a lot of people there with me. Like, you've been, I mean, you've been there for day one. I didn't know you went to George Bush and said, hey, we got to get school choice pass. I knew you were always in the fight. We were serving together. So, yeah, pleasure to be on with you. And you, know David Barton.
>> Rick Green: Thank you, man.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: David Barton came in to our hearing and gave some of the best testimony. And it won't be, it'll be in our report. A lot of what he said, that's good. Talking about our military and how, how, you know, we supplied Bibles to the military. The government did, from, from the. Found from the founders in 1776, even, before that, all the way to 2012 when Joe Biden stopped it. yeah, wow. He stopped, chaplains at, Walter Reed Army Hospital from talking about God. They're chaplains, for crying out loud. What a shame.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: So, ah, we're taking it back. And, you know, it doesn't matter, Rick, how many of us there are, we are going to win. God's on our side. We all know where we're going at the end of the day, and that's the heaven. And while we're here, we're going to be in the fight to, save
>> Rick Green: our country and to. I'm going to, I'm Going to borrow this from you now. I love it.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick on Wallbuilders: Contend earnestly
Contend earnestly. I love that. Contend earnestly. That's great. Governor Dan Patrick, God bless you, man. Thanks for coming on Wallbuilders today.
>> Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick: Hey, thank you.
>> Rick Green: You bet.
Wall Builders interview with Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick highlights importance of grassroots activism
>> Rick Green: All right folks, that was Dan, Patrick, Lieutenant governor of Texas, in an interview that we did for the Wall Builders program. So shared a lot of, Wallbuilders rad. you can get all that at Wallbuilders show. If you missed the first part of today's program, it was a conversation with David and Tim Barton about the Iran situation and then sort of a post election discussion, with, with what happened in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas. And then that last segment was half of the interview with Governor Dan Patrick. And you know, part of what I want people to realize is there's a lot of good people in the arena. Nobody perfect. Everybody, you know, got their quirks and, and you know, sometimes vote wrong or lead wrong or whatever because we're all humans. But there are some great people that are serving in state legislatures across the country, statewide leaders like Governor Patrick. we've got people in Congress that are doing a phenomenal job like Mary Miller and Chip Roy and Juan, Siskamani and people like that. so I just, I don't want you to get down and everything. Even when we lose an election or even when we get really bad policy or we go through a horrible presidency like Joe Biden that we've lost the nation, we, can win these things if we get involved. And so that's one reason we mentioned the primaries and the runoffs and all that. but just make sure that you're doing your part, whatever that is, wherever you are, make sure that you're doing your part to preserve the torch of freedom. Out of Time for today, folks. You've been listening to at the Core with Lovell, Rick Rees.
>> : The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
