Bob Good on the Conservative Movement at a Crossroads

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: in the morning on American Family Rad I love talking about the things of God. Because of truth and the biblical worldview, the U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect the rights that our founders recognize come from God our Creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you, and God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time.

Jenna Ellis: We need to conserve conservatism for the future

: This is Jenna Ellis in the morning.

Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Friday, July 24, and we are rapidly progressing through the GOP primaries and into the midterms. And so this would be a good moment to kind of take a 30,000 foot perspective and look at the state of where we are not just in the election itself and some of the polling projections and, you know, all of the things that obviously we care about. But two years into Trump's second term, we need to take stock of where the conservative movement as a whole is at this juncture and what wins we've actually had. And there have been some significant ones, some generational wins through Trump's, first and, and halfway into his second term and then where we need to still make progress, yes, progress as conservatives, because we can't just continue to try to conserve the past. We need to conserve, for the future. And that's what our founders understood when they wrote this beautiful, ah, Declaration of Independence and also the U.S. constitution that, provided for principles of liberty. They reflected on and recognized the reality of God our creator, and how our rights, transcend any form of government. They are pre political and they are pre established, ingrained in who we are as human beings, made in the image of God before civil government is even formed and that structure. And so as we move forward into, the post Trump era, but also the back half of his second term, how we apply those principles to new considerations, things like, artificial intelligence, you know, things that we are now navigating for the first time in human history. And as we continue to make progress in, the tech world, in, you know, all kinds of advances of, Human technology and civilization, we need to apply still the very same principles of conservatism because they transcend, any sort of advancements of human technology. I mean, it's the same thing with freedom of speech. I mean, what we're doing right now is speaking together about truth. And so we're exercising those first principles and that are enumerated in our first Amendment to speak together about truth. So we have freedom of speech, freedom of association, free exercise of religion. And we can do that without government interfering, regardless of whether it's pen and quill or it's on the, radio airwaves, or it's now on social media and TikTok and who knows what else we'll invent in the future.

Bob Good: Conservatives need to stand up with courage and speak truth

So to, to join me for this conversation, I'm really pleased to have former Virginia congressman, Bob Good, who also hosts a really phenomen podcast that I'd encourage you to listen to as well. It's, one of the few that I actually take time, to listen to because, his perspectives are not only great from his experience in the halls of Congress, but also as a Christian and as a very sincere conservative who actually understands that definition. So, Bob good, thanks so much for joining me this morning.

Bob Good: Great to be with you, Jenna. Thanks for having me. And thank you for being a courageous conservative warrior and a beacon of truth, one of the rare ones today who's willing to speak truth irrespective of the consequences.

Jenna Ellis: Thank you. I appreciate that so much. And that's important for us to be able, to continue to do and stand up with courage. And I mean, you, in fact lost your seat in Congress simply because you were willing to stand up for truth regardless of the consequences. And so there are consequences, occasionally for truth. And I've experienced that in my life, you've experienced that in yours. But the fact remains that we need to stand up with courage and speak truth. And, you know, one of the most recent examples, and we talked about this yesterday on air, is, with Guy Benson, who, you know, is this openly homosexual, so called conservative. And you know, those two things necessarily clash because you can't conserve truth while not conserving the truthful definition of what is a family, what is a marriage, what is parentage look like? I mean, all of these issues are part and parcel to that. And yet today, in the greater, quote, unquote conservative landscape, or maybe just a little more to the right than the crazy progressive communist left, we, we tend to give a pass to people who are Perceived to be on our side. And I think that is one really important example of how we need to take stock of where the conservative movement is today. How would you rate us, right now in terms of where we are right now and where we need to go moving forward?

Bob Good: Well, you make a lot of great points and a lot of great. First of all, we need to be biblical and constitutional conservatives who are loyal to policy and principle and our values and our beliefs, if you will, our convictions, and not loyal to a party or a personality. That can change with the times, that does change with the times today with the two major parties. You've got the one party that of course is humanistic, it's communist. It's embracing Islam essentially, with those who are being nominated in primaries across the country and so forth, but has rejected the very principles upon which the nation was founded. They reject the idea that our rights come from our creator. They reject that America should have a moral, religious foundation. That, of course, is the Democrat party, but then the Republican party is the party of compromise, the party of just power for the sake of power, in and of itself. Power as the ultimate end. not power to be used as a tool to accomplish the things that are most important for our country, but just to obtain and to retain power. And they'll do anything, it seems, to try to get that power, to keep that power. And they think that the moral issues, the issues of life, the issues of. Of marriage, the issues of morality, the issues of family, they think that those are political losers or they want to have. Be a big tent party and reject those. But I think about you talking about courage and conviction and a willingness to stand and fight for the things that you believe in. If you think about the founders, which we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration, if it weren't for them willing to pledge their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honors, to risk everything for the things they stated in the Declaration, to be essentially killed for committing treason was what they were risking then. Then their beliefs would not have mattered. Beliefs are just noise unless you have the courage of your convictions to stand and fight for those. And it's hard to believe that many in the Republican Party today would have been, part of the revolution. It seems like the party today would have been loyalist to the crown, seeking safety and security over freedom and liberty.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and that, that's so well said that we have to be principled instead, advocates for any personality or even any party. I mean, when you look at the ballot, then typically the issues that, that most candidates are on the side of would be more conservative in the GOP than they would be on the Democrat side. But that doesn't mean that we can just say, okay, well, because the GOP is a little more to the right than the Democrats, then we're doing a good job and we're winning. And so when we look at those basic principles of conservatism, you know, before we even get into, you know, the, the policy that should be derived from that, I think we have to first talk about what it means to be a conservative. And I think for a lot of people they have this, in their view that that's synonymous with the Republican Party, but as you just described, it's really not.

Bob Good: On what basis could you say based on results and actions in Washington today? And I'm going to return back to the Guy Benson thing because you've been, you've unique and rare and willing to speak out to that.

I would argue that the Republican Party is moving us towards socialism

I do want to pivot back to that because I know that's where you're trying to take me a few moments ago. But on what basis could you look at the Republican Party with full control of government over the last year and a half and say the Republican Party is conservative? I would argue that the Republican Party is moving us towards socialism by the policies that have been pursued and enacted, particularly from the administration through executive orders and executive actions. m. Maybe certainly not as rapidly, certainly not as explicitly as Democrats would do it. But I don't know under what basis you would say the Republican Party is conservative and that ties into the moral issue. We can't defy God's perfectly created sexuality, morality. That's the foundation of the human race. It's literally the foundation of perpetuation of mankind, and deciding a culture. The nuclear family, the traditional biblical family. We can't deny that or defy that and think it won't have severe consequences. And we're experiencing those consequences today, particularly over the past 60 years or so going back to the 1960s. But a child raised in a home by two same sex individuals living a homosexual lifestyle will almost never, will almost certainly never have a proper understanding of God's design for morality, marriage and the family. And you know, we shouldn't label people gay and call them gay and like, oh like that's, that's who and what they are, as if they cannot control it. No, it's what they choose to do, to live a homosexual lifestyle. And they demand that we accept and we celebrate it. And this is perhaps the hardest issue for conservatives to speak out on because of so called conservatives, so called conservative media, so called conservative politicians, so called conservative groups and organizations that have surrendered on the issue out of fear and out of being intimidated and threatened and harassed in doing so. So that we're demanded that we not only accept, but celebrate, the gay or the homosexual lifestyle. And literally though, when children are adopted into that lifestyle by two, individuals practicing a homosexual lifestyle, then we're essentially destroying the lives of those children with regard to the things that matter most, you know, which of course what matters most is our view of who we are, and created in the image of God, how God doesn't make any mistakes, how God creates us for a purpose and the truth. Our source of truth ultimately is God's word. And the Bible is very clear about how God created sexuality and how God created marriage and how God created the family and what God's intent, design for it is. And if we look around us, almost everything that plagues our society is a failure to follow God's design for morality, marriage. And we defy that at our peril.

Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. And you know, to put a fine point on it, you're so right that it's easier for us as conservatives and Christians to call out the left because we are naturally in political opposition with the Democrat party because they tend to be the ones that, we, we naturally disagree with as Christians. But when there are things within our own camp or our own big tent, if you want to call it that, because a lot of Republicans unfortunately want that, it's a lot harder to stand up with courage and to point out that, there are people even within our own tent that are not conserving those principles. And often when we call those things out, we are then lambasted by our own side to say, well, you know, why are you not just going along with the party and you're infighting and all of these other kind of derogatory comments instead of people recognizing and asking the better question, which is why are we holding up people like Guy Benson as a conservative political pundit, or Dave Rubin, who also had the same issue when, he and his quote, unquote, husband, adopted through surrogacy, twin children and purchased, their babies, which this is something that is morally wrong. Why is it that the conservatives and the Christians standing up for that and saying, you know, this is wrong, why are we the ones being lambasted and why are we still listening to them and saying that somehow, just because they're Conservative maybe in one respect, like you know, fiscal, economic policy or something, that they then can be held up as people that we should actually pay attention to. We should allow access to our party, we should hold up as, as some kind of pundit for our side.

Bob Good: There's a famous quote that's, you know, very old quote that says no man is more hated than he who speaks the truth. No man is more hated than he who speaks the truth. And we see that playing out in our culture, in our society today. You see that as it stands that you're taking, but you know, I wonder sometimes these, as you said, so called conservatives who clearly don't believe the foundation from which the conservatism arises, which is our biblical foundation, Biblical truth, our Judeo Christian principles upon which our nation was founded, and again the fundamental foundation of our society and our human race and our culture. and sometimes I think that they are just trying to infiltrate that by pretending to be conservative in order to advance their agenda. Their agenda when it comes to immorality, when it comes to their definition of sexuality or marriage or what's right or what's wrong or what. You know, if you separate it from God and you separate it from the Bible and you separate where truth really comes from, then it's whatever man thinks, whatever man believes. It's constantly changing, it's constantly, I'll say evolving or devolving. and, and, but it doesn't matter what, what you believe or what I believe. What it matters is what the Bible says, what, what God told us, what his truth is. And it's our job to be obedient to that.

Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. And, and this is why if more Christians and true conservatives would stand up and reject the false ideology and the wrong headed principles within the so called conservative movement, then we would have a big, a bigger coalition. And, and we do on certain topics and issues. And this is what I find really fascinating as well about the whole conservative movement is that we have coalitions around different issues, but we don't necessarily have a coalition around what it means holistically to be conservative and to say if you want to be part of this movement, it's not just pick and choose your issues like a buffet. You have to believe foundationally in the principles of scripture and then have all of your perspectives on issues flow from that. And, and so why do you think that that is from your experience in D.C. why do we have coalitions and even you know, the non profits and the, the lobbying and all of this, that is more Issue based instead of perhaps ideological and philosophical based.

Bob Good: Well again setting aside the Democrat party and because that is a lost cause in terms of Democrat elected officials and what they've become and what they're trying to do to destroy the country. and that's the enemy to be, to be defeated. And that's what the Republican Party uses. Okay, we're not as bad as Democrats. We can't have Democrats. So you have to vote for anyone with an R after the name because we can't have Democrats. And that's the constant justification or rationalization that takes place while we elect and reelect these establishment moderate rhino status quo. and instead of electing true courageous conservatives or being willing to primary them and take the risk of losing the general election. So the Republican Party, it really is as simple and as basic as it's about power and control. It's about getting elected and getting reelected. It's about having the majority, it's about having the gavel, it's about you know, retaining that power. It really is that simple. That is, you know that that is what is primary to 99%. Probably literally 99, certainly upwards of 95% of elected Republicans in Washington. It's about getting elected, getting reelected. And that is why by the way they go along with things that the President is doing that they would m, you know massively criticize if it was being done by Joe Biden or Barack Obama. But they tolerate it at least with their silence or they're, they're going along with their votes because they're afraid of getting massied or getting treated like Bob Good and you know, losing their seat or getting primaried because they got out of, out of lockstep with the President. And so they tolerate things like the spending that continues. They tolerate things like the refusal to reform FISA or they tolerate things like creating new entitlement Trump accounts or they, or more farm subsidies or you know, more excessive defense spending without offsets. they tolerate sovereign wealth fund and central bank digital currency creation and those government ownership stakes and private companies things that we would appropriately criticize Democrats if they were doing it. And it's simply about they want to keep their seat, they want to stay in power, they want to get reelected.

Jenna Ellis: And what good is it really to get reelected on the basis of then conceding, fighting for what you should. I mean it makes absolutely no sense in any other context to say that. I m mean what good would I be doing if I accepted this job at American Family Radio network. But I wasn't willing to actually talk about biblical values on air because I was worried that if we get, you know, one complaint from a listener or something, you know, I'll lose my job. I mean, my entire role is to speak out in truth and to do the job for which I was hired. And that's, that's true for any job, including going to Congress. And yet the two party system, I think, has necessarily, made it this way, that if you aren't a quote, unquote team player, and especially in this era of Trump, if you aren't just in lockstep and in total fidelity to the personality, then you will get primaried or you'll be labeled, you know, a traitor or whatever. And, and so a lot of people who want to just simply keep their job are willing to go along with that at the concession of doing their job. How do we that Right.

Bob Good: You're exactly right. That. Is power a tool to accomplish an objective, you know, to return us to our founding principles, to, to conserve and preserve the things that matter most for our country, to strengthen our culture and our society, to return us to fiscal stability. Is power a tool to accomplish that? Or is power the goal, or the pursuit in and of itself that is the problem. It's like what you just said about your radio show. I presume you'd like to grow your audience, continue, to grow your audience, I should say, presumably like to continue to expand your reach and your influence and your platform, but not at the expense you've demonstrated. This is true of you. Not at the expense of standing for truth and standing for righteousness and fighting for the right thing. So you use the platform you've been given as a tool to fight for the things that matter to you, not just to exist and to have the platform, but ultimately, and this is the part we don't like, but we get the government we deserve and the government reflects us. The founders knew that preserving the Republic that we were entrusted with by the original framers and, and the original Constitutional Congress was dependent. Keeping that, preserving that the Republic that we've been trusted with was dependent on a moral and religious people who knew where they came from and where our values came from, what truth was. An educated, informed population that was keeping up, that was following the issues, that was that, that knew what was going on and cared about the, the things that mattered. And then finally that was engaged in participating in holding accountable our elected officials, you know, replacing them, primarying them, you know, freeing them up for their future. Retiring them when necessary and truly demanding citizen legislature, legislators who were accountable to the people. So ultimately, the responsibility lies with us on who we elect and who we reelect and who we allow to and what we settle for and what we tolerate from our elected officials.

Jenna Ellis: So well said.

American Family Radio celebrates America's 250th birthday with patriotic apparel

Well, we've got to take a break here. I'm talking with former Congressman Bob Good about the state of, the conservative movement, the GOP and more. So we will be right back with more,

: 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 topics welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Former Congressman Bob Good talks about the state of the conservative movement

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. I'm here with my special guest this morning, former Congressman Bob Good. And we're talking about the state of the conservative movement, the gop, being a, solid, ah, having our solid principles that we are building upon instead of fidelity to a party or a personality. And that has become very contentious, of course, especially in the era of Trump, but being willing to speak truth, regardless of what your influencer status is or, you know, how many listeners you have, all of that kind of thing. And, you know, as we were talking before the break, it's so important for especially Christians to stand on biblical truth and to, to have that biblical truth show in our political philosophy and our view of human civil government, just as it's important to have the biblical view in the context of the church and theology, always stand firm on the principles of the Word of God and also within the context of the family, defining it truthfully. And so as we're talking about, you know, the candidates that want to, maybe concede some of their principles in order to retain or ascend to power, then, how do we, as a conservative movement, when we're focusing mainly on issues, you know, like pro life, the family, religious freedom, I mean, these things that we've been fighting for, since the founding, we tend to be more issues based, but we can't push even something as simple and what should be as nonpartisan as election integrity. I mean, the GOP can't even manage to pass the SAVE Act. And the only reason for that is not that there aren't enough Christian conservative advocates for election integrity. It's that there's not enough votes in the people that we have elected. And so do you think that maybe the priorities of the conservative movement and a lot of the lobbying efforts and the money where it's being given and all of these things are maybe, upside down, where we need to focus more on who goes to Washington before we focus just on pushing isolated issues?

Bob Good: Well, the system certainly doesn't reward principle. It doesn't reward courage. It doesn't reward conviction. And you said it yourself a few moments ago leading into this. You said, hey, be a team player. You hear that? Why can't Republicans just work together and be united and go along? And that never means, Jenna, to fight, to overturn or to eliminate or to roll back, the things that have happened to us or been done to us by the Democrat socialists in the past, it's always about no spending money, you know, keeping the government open, doing whatever the president is saying to do, whatever the definition of the Trump agenda is at that very moment, and just be united and pass the bill, no matter what's in the respective of what the contents of the bill are, irrespective of if you even got the final version of the bill or whether that you read it, you have the president screaming for, you know, House members to vote for whatever the Senate sends back, or vice versa, without even knowing what that bill will actually look like. And at the end of the day, what's really hurting the Republican Party, too, in respect to primaries and who's winning nominations or keeping nominations or keeping their seats, is you've got the president who puts his thumb on the scale for the worst of all criteria or reasons to pick a candidate. And you can look no further than South Carolina with what's recently happened in South Carolina, one of our most conservative states. But why don't we have conservatives representing South Carolina on a statewide basis? And if you look at how the president protected Lindsey Graham, who he apparently thought was one of the best senators ever, what he has said about him, before and after his sudden, passing, the president protected him from any and all challengers from a primary standpoint. And then you look at the governor's race recently, he endorsed the unpopular establishment Rhino, Pamela Yvette for lieutenant governor, then he turns around just because she was pledging loyalty to him. And then he turns around and endorses the Attorney general when he realizes that the attorney General might win, and endorses them both. And then The Attorney General does win, but what he was fearful of, quite explicitly, was that the conservative fighter Ralph Norman might win, who finished third. And then he's doing that again with the U.S. senate. Today. We're literally picking a senator because her last name happens to be Graham, the sinister of the senator, and then because she's pledging what is really unconstitutional. Allegiance, subordination, support of the President. Constitutionally, the President is supposed to do what the Congress carry out the laws, to execute the laws that are passed by the Congress. It truly is unconstitutional for someone to run for Congress saying, I'm going to go there and obey the executive branch. I'm going to go and obey the President. I'm going to go and enact the President. Show me where in the Constitution it talks about the President's agenda or that Congress is supposed to do what the President says. But we're picking members of Congress. We're filling the halls of Congress in the Senate and in the House with people simply because they're pledging or expressing or claiming unconditional, unapologetic, complete surrender, subordination, subservience, loyalty to the President. And so as long as we allow that to happen, then we're going to get members of Congress who are the absolute worst members of Congress.

Jenna Ellis: M. And I'm glad you brought up, South Carolina as a great example of this because, when, you know, Senator Graham, passed away, I mean, he was deeply unpopular within the broader gop, at least for, you know, some of his positions and votes. And it's interesting to see how that completely changed in the aftermath of his death. And I think it's perfectly appropriate to, you know, at least remember him fondly and have people, even on the other side of the aisle, you know, talk about his collegiality, you know, some of those things. You know, that's. That's fine. But in terms of actually having conservatives in office, I mean, there was a big push among the base, not just even in South Carolina, but in general, to primary him. And now all of the sudden, when, when he now is obviously unable to. To fulfill his seat for the next term, instead of saying, okay, we have an opportunity now to replace him with a genuine conservative. Now all of a sudden, just because of what, hereditary, nepotism. Now suddenly, Darlene Graham, who nobody knows any of her positions on anything, and she's even said in interviews that, she's not going to be a senator. Lindsey Graham, she's gonna. You're gonna get a senator. Darlene Graham. Well, okay, I appreciate your honesty, but what does that mean? Does she even know where she stands? The only thing that matters, it appears to be to President Trump and the GOP and Fox News, that's the PR arm and she does, you know, this primetime sit down with Shawn Hannity is that she's gonna vote with whatever Trump wants. Well, okay. Her term would be six years, though Trump is out in two. What does this actually mean for the future?

Bob Good: Yeah, even if she does is loyal to Trump for two and a half years and even if you liked that and thought that was a good thing, which I don't think that's again, on the basis on which we should be basing policy, is just what one person thinks.

: But.

Bob Good: Right. What does she do for the next four years? She could be the Lisa Murkowski of South Carolina for all we know. And what the President is doing is trying to prevent and rejecting Ralph Norman from South Carolina, a, leader in the Freedom Caucus. Because Ralph would be like a Rand Paul or a Mike Lee or a Rick Scott, and that's why most of them have endorsed him. By the way, a Ron Johnson type would be a true fighter in the Senate. And there's no desire for true courageous conservative warriors, fighters, based on conviction. They want those who will go along to get along, who will, will, will check their thoughts or their convictions at the door and be a team player, run the play that's called by the President or the speaker, the Majority leader, which are taking their orders from the President. And so, but you're right, it's. People sometimes say things and pretend things just in order to get re elected or to get elected rather. You don't even really know if Darlene Graham likes President Trump or really supports President Trump. You know, she's willing to say it behind closed doors in order to get an endorsement, but she's using the President as much as the President is using her because nobody really knows who or what she is or what she really believes or what she would do once she got that six year term.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, and that's what's really scary and especially for the conservative movement overall. And this is why elections matter. Elections have consequences. And and so, you know, where, where do you think then the potential weaknesses are in the overall scheme of the GOP to maintain gatekeeping to elections and to basically have these selected candidates that they prefer that are then, you know, lauded on Fox News. And so, you know, people see them all over the news and they see President Trump's endorsements. So they have this perception, whether right or wrong, that, you know, this is the candidate we should vote for. so the cycle continues. Where do you think are the weaknesses in that model that potentially genuine conservative candidates could exploit to perhaps have a fighting chance?

Bob Good: Well, it really. It is in the hands of the people. We still are a government of the people, by the people, for the people, but as Thomas Jefferson said, we're a government of the majority that participates and again is engaged and informed and holding accountable. But as long as the people will just continue to give their votes to the R whom they voted for last time, or the R who they're told to vote for this time by the president or whomever, by the. And. And the people aren't, you know, supporting grassroots conservatives, which it's hard. It's hard to discern. It's hard to tell the difference. Everybody, you know, the Democrats run as moderates and then govern as radical Communists. The Republicans run as conservatives and then govern as moderates. At best, it's kind of the opposite thing that takes place. And so it is hard for the people who are living their lives and trying to put food on the table and just take care of their family and so forth to do the hard work that it takes. But again, if we don't do that, then we get the government that we've gotten. And so we need to. But. But what we can do is reward those who take the courageous stands. You know, I just saw one of the better members of Congress, and I won't, because he is one of the better ones, but he just justified the reason why he voted for, the big spending bill.

Congressman says he did what his constituents wanted him to do

They just voted for the CR and the NDA was because he did a town hall, and his constituents said they wanted him to follow the president and do what the president said that he had concerns about it, he had problems with it. He was, But. But the people told him that's what they wanted him to do, so that's what he did. And I guess, suppose you could argue that you should do what's popularly desired by your constituents. I happen to think you do what you think is right, and then you defend and explain that to your constituents, and hopefully they respect that and appreciate that and they allow you to continue to do that. And if they don't, then they can choose someone who will do what. What they want them to do.

Jenna Ellis: I guess, yeah.

Bob Good says churches and pastors should speak out on political issues

And how damaging do you think it is to the overall movement and the selection of candidates that, pastors often think that, they can't speak on politics and they can't speak, in favor of certain candidates and also that non profits unless they have the action arm. But they're so tentatively scared, just because of the irs, to say that they can only speak on issues and not candidates. I mean, how damaging do you think that is to the process overall and just playing into the hands of, of the uniparty?

Bob Good: Well, you know, we, we often say that we want courage in our elected officials, in our candidates and our representatives, but we've got to have it as a people as well. We've all got to be willing to speak up. We've all got to be willing to advocate and to debate and to, and to challenge our culture and our society and to fight for the things that we believe, even if it may cost us friends or even family members, you know, favor with family members or business or our career or things like that. You know, we cannot be threatened or intimidated or harassed into silence. And that's true in churches as well. Pastors need to. It was the pastors in the churches that led in the revolution, the founding of this country and the principles of the Declaration, the principles of the Constitution were first spoken in the pulpits across America in our, in our culture, in our society. And so we need to demand that of our churches and of our pastors as well. Because if they don't speak out, who is going to speak the truth and who's going to inform the sleeping giant that is the church in this country and credit needs to be given where it's due. You know, sometimes, you know, we can be critical, but kudos and thanks to the Trump administration to say, hey, we're not going to enforce this unconstitutional so called Johnson Amendment, which isn't an amendment, but going back to Lyndon Johnson when he was in the House saying that a, churches and pastors cannot speak out on political issues or on candidates or on elections and that they would be threatened with their First Amendment privileges, or the ability to exercise the First Amendment rights of freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Speech and also, you know, we suffer from a tax consequence which has never been enforced. As you know, the Trump administration was right to speak against that and, and that ought to be, that ought to be overturned and repealed. By the way, the, the part of the law, the civil rights law that, that, that was attached to, because there it is unconstitutional to restrict pastors and churches to say that we can't speak truth in the public, we can't speak truth in the church. You know, a church shouldn't be you know, a political organization, you know, it ultimately should be be a church, but there's no constitutional right to exclude churches and pastors from speaking out on issues and candidates and elections and, and the things that, again, matter for our culture and our politics.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And, and I respect, the many pastors that, that I've heard or spoken to personally who just say, you know what, I'm going to speak the truth from my pulpit on, you know, literally everything, and I'm going to tell my congregation what I think. And, and, you know, if the IRS wants to remove our tax exempt status, so be it. I mean, that's not worth, the price to pay to then, you know, have those kind of golden handcuffs and to say that somehow you're going to do a disservice to your congregation, just because you want to remain tax exempt. M. And the history of that, of course, you know, we don't have to get into now, but, you know, the IRS doesn't actually removed, that kind of tax exempt status. Now, could it happen under, especially a future Democrat administration? Potentially. But I agree, that we need to be bold, even if that, you know, means, giving up a few of these very honestly, minor privileges. But we're going to take one more break here and Congressman, Bob Good is going to, stay with me through the break and we're going to, talk more about conservatism and the winds and some of these projections moving forward. So we'll be right back with more.

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: welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Bell: I think conservatism is at a crossroads ahead of midterm elections

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And we're talking about, making sure to stand up with courage and to fight for not just, the issues in politics and policy that we prefer and not based on any personality or party, but actually getting to the root of what civil government is supposed to be about which it's. Which is its legitimate, exercise of authority that is delegated by God for the sole purpose of preserving and protecting our rights as human beings and made in his image. And so conservatism is at a crossroads, I think we can, viably say, without, you know, suggesting, you know, that every election determines the future of America, which, you know, is a little bit, much, I think. I mean, I think there's truth to that, that elections have consequences, especially, the midterms, well, the next presidential election. And, you know, as we've seen the rise of communism on the left, which is just insane. But I think that we can also acknowledge some of the winds of conservatism in spite of, perhaps President Trump's, you know, kind of populism and the lack of a comprehensive political, philosophy other than, transactional and populism, because the pro life movement has really changed the conversation. and no conservative victory has been more significant than the reversal of Roe versus Wade. faith has reentered the public square. I, think that for many years, Americans sort of accepted this false premise of separation of church and state and that faith belonged exclusively within church walls. But increasingly that assumption is being challenged. I think especially with the proliferation of more and more alternatives on social media and broadcasting and the family, and the truth about gender is being defended, even though it's not yet fully defined. I mean, those are just a couple of, the issues. I think that even in spite of a, A really moral m. Basis for the GOP and a lack of overall principle of the gop, this is more kind of the rise of the coalitions, around some of these things that I think we can, point to and say we're on the right trajectory.

Bob Good: Well, if you look, Jenna, at what's happened in the past year and a half during the Trump administration, there are a lot of wins to point to. There are a lot of good things accomplished primarily by the president, more so than by the Congress. From a congressional standpoint, you would, you would just point to the positives, and there's a lot of negatives, in my view, but the positives of the Big Bill from a year ago, primarily the tax cuts that were extended, which are important to American families. And almost all Americans got a tax cut with the 2017 Trump, first, the Trump Tax Cut and jobs act of 2017, but also what the President has done with the border. You know, when we were having some 15 million illegals invade the country under the Biden administration during those four years, and the President has done such a good job with the border that it's not really focused on or talked about with the short attention span that is the American electorate. And we forget, or could easily forget the harm that was being done. What the President has done to dismantle the Department of Education, while we haven't had a vote in Congress to eliminate it per se, he has moved so much out from under it. He's taken away so much of its responsibility and he has greatly diminished the Department of Education. What he's done to reduce the federal workforce by some 10%, about 300,000 of the 3 million, civilian employees that make up the federal workforce. Now, I think we need to get rid of about another million of them. I think my experience when I was in Washington, we could get by with about half of them. Them. What, he's done to refocus our military on core mission, lethality, effectiveness, war, fighting to be the most effective fighting machine so that no one wants to challenge us. How he's fought against DEI in our, on our college campuses and our public schools and our government schools, our, our, our. Our public institutions and in our, in our government and help people not to be afraid to speak out against, racism or reverse racism and those kind of things. some common sense things like, you know, fighting against, transgender surgery on children or men, and boys competing in women's and girls sports and, and you know, enter, you know, frequenting safe spaces, sacred spaces, restrooms and locker rooms and that sort of thing. So the President has done, you know, what he's done with cutting regulations, even more so than what he did during his first term, and, and bureaucratic red tape. What he's done to unleash energy and make us energy independent and not dependent upon the nations of the world for the, for vital energy for our economy and our national security. So a lot of good things have been done in the past year and a half. But, there's so much more that could be done as well.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we're running short with just a few minutes here. I wish we had, you know, kind of the three hour, radio show this Morning.

JD Vance: I'm very concerned about the future of the Republican Party

Because we could talk about so many more things, but where do you see the, the biggest battleground facing conservatism in the near future, perhaps after the midterms are going into 2028?

Bob Good: I'm very concerned about the future of the Republican Party. I'm very concerned about Republicans accepting government as the provider, government as the nanny, government as the caretaker. And big government generally. More subsidies, more entitlement accounts, more spending. A failure to address or even talk about, let alone, fix, the mandatory spending. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. That's unsustainable. The debt. We're going to have to raise the debt limit again. Apparently they're going to do it again first of the year that the debt goes over 40,000. Excuse me, $40 trillion here. the refusal to be fiscal conservatives. and can the Republican Party return to being a true conservative party? what is the party look like? JD Vance is a populist and a big government guy. Trump is a populist and a big government guy. I would like to see the Republican Party reject that and go back to the true principles of limited government, the appropriate role of the federal government, fiscal, fiscally responsible, do what's been done in Argentina. Look what Javier Malay has done. And the results that have been achieved where they're running a surplus now, he's made massive cuts, massive reforms, and the people are benefiting from that. I'd like to see that same kind of courage in our leadership in this country.

Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. I would, too. And, you know, this is why you and I both supported a Ron DeSantis presidential administration in 2024. I hope that he somehow, you know, can, can achieve a victory if he decides to run in 2028. We'll see. but where do you, where do you stack him against someone like a Marco Rubio? And where do you see, you know, maybe the optimism for the future of the GOP under leadership of someone who, is actually principled like that?

Bob Good: Well, even though, as you noted when begin the broadcast or my segment anyway, you know, I suffered consequence for endorsing Ron DeSantis, but I'm more proud of that endorsement every day because of the blueprint, the model that he has put forth as the nation's finest governor in Florida. And we ought to be embracing and following that as a country, and we ought to be elevating a leader like him to the White House. I think he is the best choice for the nomination in 2028. I hope that Republicans will recognize that and make that choice and, and I hope that he's able to, to, to. To make that, make that jump. and, and you know, he was a leading candidate, the leading alternative to President Trump in what turned out not to be a competitive primary, back in 24. But I hope that he'll be the nominee in 28. But I, but the American people have to have a hunger and a desire to, to. For the kind of true, courageous principal leadership that he represents. I mean, he took on all the tough during his eight years in leading the state of Florida, without apology. And that's what we need in the, in the White House.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Bob, good. I so appreciate your time this morning and, diving deep into these issues. And it's just a reminder that, exactly what you said, I think that was the perfect way, to end this conversation, to say that it, it is up to the people to say that we demand a return to principles. And, and with that demand to return to principles, we have to first know what they are. And that is why it is incumbent upon Christian pastors, Christian leaders, in both the church and also the public square. And we should be involved in both, in, in each of the spheres of government that God has ordained to first have a knowledge of truth, a knowledge of the person of God, and how, he has delegated his authority, to these institutions so that, we can then go and teach others and advocate for them. Because if there was a population in America that demanded leaders that were moral, that stood with courage, that, had these conservative principles at the forefront, then we wouldn't find ourselves debating communism. We wouldn't find ourselves electing, you know, Democrats anywhere. We wouldn't find ourselves electing these Republicans in name only. I mean, there would be this comprehensive return in civil society to a truly Christian nation. And what that means is understanding the reality to which God has presented us and giving us the best opportunity to then go and be the church in civil society, to have a government that is limited, that protects the rights, that come from God, and that we have the greatest opportunity to bring more and more people into a saving knowledge of him, to focus on, what our family should be doing, to raise children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, all of the things that encompass true and genuine liberty. So it starts with us. It starts with a working knowledge of truth and then applying that to civil society. So have a great weekend and as always, you can reach me and my team. Jennaafr.net. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com afr.

Bob Good on the Conservative Movement at a Crossroads

Bob Good on the Conservative Movement at a Crossroads

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