Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network.

Ed Vitagliano: We thank you for listening to AFR. We've got 24 and a half more minutes of riveting radio right here. You don't want to miss it.

Tim Wildmon: Brad, did you want to comment on anything we were talking about? We didn't let you talk at all for the last 15 minutes or so.

Brad: I think Alex addressed the importance of these propositions that are out there, along with the Senate, House, and governor races. Look at these propositions. There are a couple of really important ones in Colorado. Do not ignore those down-ballot issues.

Chris: We were talking about this in our story meeting. I'm going to be doing some stories next week dealing with the abortion issue, so pay attention.

Brad: Virginia is a big state to watch. It would basically make abortion a constitutional right there.

Chris: What's interesting about Virginia is that there is a bipartisan coalition trying to get out the vote ahead of that one, and the coalition includes Democrats for Life. They're actually urging people not to make abortion a constitutional right.

Brad: Missouri is another one. If it receives a yes vote, it would reverse some things Missouri has done in recent years to allow for abortion. That vote would also prohibit the gender manipulation of minors through surgery and medications.

Chris: Washington state is a big one to watch because, if approved by voters, it would prevent males from competing in female sports, which is still a huge issue in the United States, even though President Trump has done that.

Tim Wildmon: That's a statewide referendum?

Chris: In Washington state.

Tim Wildmon: It will be interesting to see how that one goes. I'm just going to follow up with what Alex and Fred said. I'm going to share my heart for just a minute, and I'm going to say it the way my dad would have said it to me.

Ed Vitagliano: Was he big on sharing his heart as a Marine?

Tim Wildmon: That's probably not the way I am. I may be mixing metaphors here. When it comes to voting, people, just do your job. Don't pay attention to the polls. You don't worry about this and worry about that. Your job as a citizen of this country is to vote. It's to find out about the candidates and go vote.

My dad would always say, when I complained that I didn't have time to do something, "Do your job. What did I tell you to do?" I would say, "You told me to do this," and then he would share his heart. He would tell me, "Just do your job." It was kind of a man-up kind of thing.

Folks, I'm saying that may be a little strong, but we have iVoterGuide. Go to iVoterGuide.com. We've done all the work for you to find out about the candidates, whether they are very liberal or very conservative. We give you all the information. We tell you how to get registered, and we tell you where to go vote in your state. All you've got to do is do your job as a citizen and cast a ballot.

If you can't do that, it's sad. That's your job as a citizen. Most of you, I'm sure, are very mature, responsible adults. You don't want to get up in the morning to go to work, but you do it. You don't want to take care of the kids or give them a bath for the umpteenth time, but you do it because it's your job. That's what God's called you to do.

So all I'm doing is saying it doesn't matter what the polls say.

Ed Vitagliano: You're encouraging people.

Tim Wildmon: I'm encouraging people. There you are. That comes from Edward Anthony Vitagliano, my dad. That's what he would say to Edward Michael.

Ed Vitagliano: Those are three really important names. I don't know where they come in on the list of names.

Tim Wildmon: We're going to check it out.

Ed Vitagliano: Good word, brother.

Tim Wildmon: Everybody go vote. If you're a conservative, you need to vote early and often, okay?

Ed Vitagliano: That's what the other side does.

Tim Wildmon: I'm not defining the other side.

Ed Vitagliano: In all seriousness, Election Day might be Tuesday, November 3rd, but in the state of California, the count will continue for weeks because they get all the mail-in ballots.

Tim Wildmon: We've turned Election Day into election season.

Chris: It sure is. It's like deer season.

Tim Wildmon: You're listening to Today's Issues. What's our next story, Chris?

Chris: Let's keep it political for a moment because I have a lot of sound bites. There have been a lot of debates between candidates for Senate races. I've got some audio here from Michigan, where there was a debate between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers. They were attacking one another. There was even an allegation that El-Sayed has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Here's the clip.

Mike Rogers: It's actually really quite beneath you, Mike. It's really quite beneath you to call into question my loyalty to the Constitution.

Abdul El-Sayed: I'm talking. I'm talking.

Mike Rogers: I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution, which guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray. The question that you would ask is actually really quite shameful, I think. We wore the uniform of the United States proudly. My son did. My wife served. My brother served. My father served, so you could pray any way you want. I know you want to make this about you being a victim.

Chris: That was a debate between Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate, and Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate in Michigan. He's a Muslim, and there have been reports that his family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which is a terrorist organization like Hamas and Hezbollah. Even the Egyptian government doesn't want those guys. They kicked them out because they're so radical.

Ed Vitagliano: Do you think it's fair?

Chris: People who support Mike Rogers have made it an issue. There are constant ads and posts about it.

Ed Vitagliano: It's about family connections of Abdul El-Sayed. Some of them have admitted, including his mother, I think, that they were proud of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Chris: That's the issue.

Ed Vitagliano: While we're on Mr. El-Sayed, Fox did a pretty good job. He mentioned in this debate last night that he's a real patriot and proud to be an American.

Chris: They did a good job of showing that he has modified his positions on some things. They showed what he said then and what he says now. On Abdul El-Sayed, have a listen to that.

Abdul El-Sayed: We as a country owe it to the world to open our doors, and we're better because of it. Let's be clear. We've got to keep the border secure. All of our borders are secure. What Medicare for All does is do away with the private insurance market. It now has one single payer, and that is the government of the United States. If you would like to have a private insurer above that, you're welcome to do that.

I believe that we do need to defund the police insofar as defunding the police means disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets. I believe that we need to fund the police when it comes to retirement, retention, and recruitment.

Tim Wildmon: Oh, that's beautiful.

Chris: Fox did that. He's trying to moderate as he runs for a Senate seat.

Ed Vitagliano: Those were dramatically different positions that he announced right there on big issues. Either he had some sort of moderate conversion, or, like a lot of politicians, he's just saying what he thinks will get him elected at the time.

Tim Wildmon: My idea, and this is my opinion, is that what he said then is what he really believes.

Ed Vitagliano: It's what he really believes.

Chris: He only changed because he knew how radical that was, and it wasn't going to play well enough for him to win a statewide election in a purple state.

Ed Vitagliano: We did the same with James Talarico, the Democrat who wants to be a senator. He's been in Texas, too.

Chris: Very disappointing. This comes under the heading "flip-flopper," all right? He puts the T in inconsistent.

Ed Vitagliano: Who, Talarico?

Chris: Oh, yeah. Here's a little bit of Talarico then and now.

James Talarico: There are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six. I missed the mark on some of my past statements. I will be the first to admit it.

What I meant is that there are two sexes, and then there's a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities.

I will say what I think not enough Democrats have been willing to say: Joe Biden failed us on our southern border, and I'm worried about what this senseless border wall would do to our tourism here in the region and what it would do to our local economies.

There are some folks who would think that if you deny your child's gender identity, that's incredibly harmful. Whether or not we can label it with the term abuse, I mean, it's abusive.

I believe that parental rights are sacred, and we should trust parents to raise their kids. But if there's something that's going to endanger a child or a minor, certainly something that could cause permanent damage, then I'm always going to err on the side of protecting those kids.

Tim Wildmon: Permanent damage. What do you call surgery to remove body parts or give them drugs and keep them from being able to have children? You talk about permanent damage.

Listen, I'm trying not to be Ed Sr. here, okay? I'm trying not to be my dad. But my dad, in many ways, was a wise man. He was a former Marine.

This is on the voters. It is sad to say there are many clueless voters in our country. They don't pay attention to politics, and they don't pay attention when it comes time for the election. So they are fooled by people like El-Sayed and James Talarico, who just lie to get into office.

I'm not saying that no other politicians from the other party lie. People lie. But that is why the voter has to be informed. That's why I tell people to go to iVoterGuide.com. Check it out, and you'll find out who's who and what's what, depending on how they voted, what they've said, where they get money from, and where they send their money.

This is true across the country. This is what we do here at AFA and AFR. We encourage you to vote. I would especially emphasize that in Michigan and Texas, those Senate races are apparently going to be very thin in terms of the margins between the two candidates.

You need to make sure that everybody you know who is a conservative goes and votes. Your church members, your family members, your coworkers, whatever the case may be. We don't need to lose those races because people don't show up to vote.

Let me encourage people on this, too. All this talk about Democrats flipping the House could suppress Democrats going out to vote because they will think it's in the bag and they don't need their vote. That's a perfect opportunity for people who are conservative, and especially evangelicals, to go to the polls and vote.

All this talk about the Democrats sweeping and doing this and that may cause Democrats to get overconfident.

Ed Vitagliano: They get overconfident.

Tim Wildmon: They get overconfident, so you just go and cast your vote and do your job.

Chris: In addition to voters doing what they should do, I would also appreciate, and I know this is probably never going to happen, for more people in the media to actually do their job. When people running for office make crazy comments, let's go back to El-Sayed for a moment.

I'm not going to play the audio, but he said, "The government's going to pay for it." I just wish somebody interviewing these people would lean forward and say, "Sir, who funds the government?"

Talarico, on September 29th, was given a speech, and he said, quote, "When Jesus fed the hungry, he didn't price-gouge to turn a profit. So when I say that no child in Texas should go to bed hungry, I'm doing it on biblical grounds." Everybody claps, okay?

If a Republican said "biblical grounds" in a speech, people would lose their minds, including James Talarico.

I'm tired of these people getting a pass, and the people who could hold their feet to the fire, the media, stink at their jobs.

Tim Wildmon: Jesus never said for the government to provide food for people.

Fred: You're talking about Jesus being against the government feeding people?

Tim Wildmon: Jesus is all for us as Christians helping our brothers and sisters who are going through a bad time. That's what He's about. He never suggests that the Roman government tax people more in order to feed people. You don't see that anywhere.

Fred: And he's Canadian. He gets it.

Chris: That is a conversation for another day, but it is a good one to have because the political left in this country often describes socialism in a way that makes it seem like the kind of compassion for humanity you find in Scripture and that Jesus promoted and advocated we practice.

When you say Medicare for All, for example, you say, "That means health care for everybody, from cradle to grave. That's compassionate. That's right. People can't afford health care, or they go broke trying to pay their hospital bills. Shouldn't the federal government pay for all this?"

Ed Vitagliano: If you call yourself a Christian, don't you believe people should be denied medical services because of money? You see how this works?

Chris: Sure, that sounds appealing, but there is a response to that. First of all, as Fred said, I don't know if the Bible prohibits the federal government from paying for it.

Fred: No, it doesn't prohibit it.

Chris: Right. The question would be that we do have Medicare and Medicaid, so we already have those programs. We also have charitable hospitals. There is charity out there for people.

But you have to consider, when you look at government programs, what's best for the most people. The federal government can't pay for it. That's what's called socialized medicine, and you experience it in Canada.

There are people who advocate for that, but they don't talk about the downside.

Ed Vitagliano: This becomes what I don't like about what Talarico said and what the left often says in trying to drag Jesus into their corner. First of all, neither political party is going to drag Jesus anywhere, okay?

But in terms of trying to quote Him, there is a strong argument to be made about charity and compassion. The Bible does not address the proper way in which you should meet the needs of the poor. That becomes an issue of wisdom, where you find out the wisest way to attack the problem.

If, as a country, you want to be a country of compassion, and we are a very compassionate country, I think the worst way to do it is by putting the government in charge of it. They are less efficient and obviously subject to all sorts of fraud and abuse. We've been talking about that.

So you say, "What is a better approach?" I think that's what conservatives are saying. They're saying socialized medicine is not the best approach.

The system we've got now is pretty broken in terms of people losing everything they have because of hospital bills. But what's the best way to attack that problem? Conservatives ought to come up with an idea that is allowable from the Bible, meets the need, and does not result in a state so massive that it begins to encroach in every area of our lives.

Tim Wildmon: What they don't tell you about socialized medicine is that it sounds wonderful on paper. They tell you, "The federal government is going to take over health care." Guess what? They're going to tell you what doctor you can see.

"Wait a minute. I don't like that. I want to go see Dr. So-and-so."

"No, no. Too bad. You've got to go with whatever doctor and whatever town we tell you to go to."

"And your appointment is in six months? I've got cancer."

"Yeah, sorry. We're rationing health care."

"You've got a broken leg? Wait until September."

They don't talk about what happens when you need medicine. You have to go through a process, and that medicine may come from China. They don't talk about that. They just say, "Hey, health care for everybody."

Fred: I can tell you that any amount, any study, or any ballpark figure that a proponent of Medicare for All or single-payer health care throws out there is going to be low-balled. It's going to be far more than that, based on the fact that we are a nation of at least 350 million people.

They're all different ethnicities. Every ethnicity has some sort of health care issue that they have more often than somebody of another ethnicity. There's no way we can just say, "Okay, it's going to be this many trillion dollars to treat everybody's problems."

Canada has a ton of immigrants as well, with a bunch of ethnicities, but Canada's population is that of California. There's no way Bernie Sanders can point to Canada and say, "We can do it if we do it here, too." We can't. It's not possible.

Ed Vitagliano: Where do ethnicities come in here?

Fred: For example, Hispanic people tend to have high blood pressure and diabetes. African American people have sickle cell anemia. White males are prone to things like heart disease, and white women are prone to other health issues.

All of those things will add to and pile onto the debt we have because of government-funded programs.

Tim Wildmon: What are you saying?

Fred: I'm not saying that's the only issue. I'm saying mathematically, there's no way we can have a single-payer system.

Tim Wildmon: I understand. It sounds great.

Ed Vitagliano: Some of the names of these towns we have across America sound great, too. Don't we have that pulled up?

Fred: I can do it right here.

Tim Wildmon: We need to end the show on a positive note.

Fred: This is a survey of the strangest name for a town in every state.

Tim Wildmon: You got that, Chris?

Chris: You're pulling it up as we speak, Fred.

Tim Wildmon: We thank you for listening to AFR. We just wanted to close on this.

Fred: There are some clever towns. I'll pull it up on my email.

Tim Wildmon: All right. Well, just forget it.

Fred: I can't find it.

Tim Wildmon: What we had here was a list of towns all across America.

Fred: I can't find it.

Tim Wildmon: All right. Fred, you can whistle, can't you?

Fred: Oh, do you find it?

Chris: I did.

Tim Wildmon: Eureka. That's the real place.

Fred: Yes, it is.

Tim Wildmon: I'm going to ask you, what's the strangest name in Colorado? We talked about Colorado.

Fred: The strangest name in Colorado would be Parachute.

Tim Wildmon: Parachute, Parachute. Okay, whatever. There's Pie Town in New Mexico. How about Arkansas?

Fred: That one we've had callers on. That's about the best one on Trivia Friday.

Tim Wildmon: What does it say for Arkansas?

Fred: For Arkansas, it is Toad Suck.

Tim Wildmon: Can I say that?

Fred: You just did.

Tim Wildmon: It's a town. Get the dump button ready.

Fred: Toad Suck, Arkansas. We have gotten calls from there, and they're very intelligent people.

Chris: Very articulate.

Fred: Don't forget Smart, Tennessee, with two Ts. Smart.

Tim Wildmon: And what about New Hampshire?

Fred: New Hampshire? Dunmer.

Tim Wildmon: What?

Fred: There's a Dunmer, New Hampshire.

Tim Wildmon: And isn't that New Hampshire?

Fred: Handsome Eddy, New York.

Tim Wildmon: What do you mean? D-U-N-M-E-R?

Fred: Dunmer.

Tim Wildmon: So there's a town called Handsome Eddy?

Fred: Yes, New York.

Tim Wildmon: Yes, Handsome Eddy. And I'm moving there. I'm going to move there.

Fred: I don't know if it's spelled Coupon or Coupon, Pennsylvania, but that's another one.

Tim Wildmon: What about Mississippi, our home state?

Fred: I have a dispute with this one.

Tim Wildmon: Oh, you can't read it.

Fred: It's very small.

Tim Wildmon: Is it?

Fred: Awesome Neck.

Tim Wildmon: I think you're right. Awesome Neck. I think we should have a different one.

Fred: There is a community in Monroe County, Mississippi, called Splunge. You mentioned that in the email we sent around.

Tim Wildmon: When I was pastoring in the little town west of here, one of our elderly ladies was from this, probably not incorporated, community. She said, "I'm from Ignorant Ridge."

I said, "No, I wouldn't."

She said, "No, that's the name of my community."

Fred: Ignorant Ridge.

Tim Wildmon: You wonder why they were never incorporated.

Fred: We should do a tour of these places. We should take Today's Issues on the road and go to all these towns down there.

Tim Wildmon: He made me cough like an old man.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening to Today's Issues on AFR. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Trivia Friday tomorrow.