Point of View June 29, 2026 – Hour 2 : Monday’s Top Stories

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson. Second hour today, let's see if we can get into some of the issues in the news, but before we do so, I thought we would still spend a little bit of time talking about America's godly heritage.

[00:00:29] This booklet that we made available a number of months ago, A Biblical Point of View on the Declaration, I think is very relevant to our first article by John West. John West was on as we talked about his book, which really dealt with this idea that we are endowed by our Creator, which is the title of the book. And of course, he's with the Discovery Institute.

[00:00:52] He says, today, many people think that belief in Creator is a subjective preference based on their personal faith, but that was not the view of the American founders, nor was it a view held by many others. He goes through, for example, the Greek and Roman thinkers. He talks about, of course, the Bible teaching the same in Psalm 19, verse 1, The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. He then takes you through some of the history.

[00:01:21] For example, Protestant reformer John Calvin and others. And, of course, even if you think about this, in the Bible, you go to Romans 1. It talks about God's invisible qualities, His eternal power, divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what He has been made so that people are without excuse. And so then he points out that even by the time you get to the rise of modern science, which took place primarily in the 16th and 17th century,

[00:01:50] you still had individuals that believed that we were endowed by our Creator. Isaac Newton, for example, declared that our most beautiful solar system could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. As a matter of fact, argued that the best argument for an omnipotent and omniscient God is the frame and nature of the bodies of living creatures.

[00:02:17] John Ray, who was a botanist, spoke about the wisdom of God manifested in the works of creation. And as we've talked about with John West, these ideas precede, of course, the 18th century and Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But nevertheless, Thomas Jefferson, of course, an individual probably was maybe a little less orthodox than, say, George Washington, as we talked about in the first hour.

[00:02:46] Nevertheless, certainly held to that one of the signers, I should say, of the Declaration, which I'll get to in just a few minutes by Roger Kimball. That would be John Witherspoon. Also is an individual saw that as well.

[00:03:02] And even Thomas Jefferson said, I hold without appeal to revelation that when we view the universe in its parts and general or in particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill and indefinite power in every atom of its composition.

[00:03:24] And that's why near the end, John West spends a little bit of time talking about the film that they've produced, which we've mentioned on this program, The Story of Everything, in which they take the time to talk about the fine tuning in physics and chemistry and biology, which allow for life to exist. Also, the incredible convincing proof of a creator, which is all there as well.

[00:03:51] So if you're certainly wanting to try to tie the two issues together, arguments for design in nature, and we, of course, produce some booklets on that, or even, of course, the idea of the declaration in which it talks about the fact that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.

[00:04:11] I think you can come to the conclusion that even as you look at the declaration, you see God is mentioned either explicitly or implicitly three times. The first I've just mentioned, the fact that we're endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Number two, that it says that the colonists were appealing to the supreme judge of the world.

[00:04:37] They were engaged in civil disobedience, from the British point of view, treason, to make sure that their values and their beliefs were right, and so appealing to God himself in that regard. And then also, in the declaration, they also called for protection of divine providence, because they were asking God to protect them in what came to be the American Revolution.

[00:05:04] And they understood only so well that they were going against the greatest military power of the 18th century. We mentioned just in passing today with Peter Lilbeck about the victory in Saratoga, one of the very few, by General Gates. And, of course, you have, of course, the victory at Yorktown.

[00:05:25] But there were a lot of failures, a lot of defeats, a lot of retreats, which is still amazing if you go back and look at the history of the American Revolution. So, if nothing else, this first article is one that you might want to read in a little more detail on this coming 4th of July.

[00:05:46] And I certainly, in just a few minutes, when we come back from the break, want to talk about what Roger Kimball refers to as America's forgotten founding father, John Witherspoon, who was very profound and had such a great impact in this country, if for no other reason, because you can think of some of the individuals that he actually trained.

[00:06:10] James Madison, known as the architect of the Constitution, one vice president, that would be Aaron Burr, 10 cabinet ministers, 60 members of Congress, 12 governors, 56 state legislators, and 30 judges. And, of course, Princeton almost got Alexander Hamilton as well, so that would have been another one. So you can kind of see that he was very significant and yet tends to have, in many cases, become the forgotten individual.

[00:06:40] We will, of course, as the week unfolds here, also talk about some of the last Supreme Court decisions. One came down today, which I'm disappointed in, but I guess it's understandable. In a 5-4 decision, the two Republican appointees, and that would be Amy Coney Barrett, along with, of course, the Chief Justice John Roberts,

[00:07:05] which joined with the three liberals, in which they argued that even though we have federal election day statutes, and the argument from the Republican National Committee is, we should then not count ballots except on that day. The election day should be the election day rather than the election week.

[00:07:28] They still decided that, yes, federal law dictated that ballots must be cast by that day, but state law dictates when they could be received. And I think that is an attempt primarily to not make a decision right now, recognizing that there would be just so much controversy just as we are coming into this election.

[00:07:53] If that particular decision came down in an off year, I would suspect maybe it would go the other direction. But unfortunately, we don't seem to understand that we really would do better if we had an election day rather than an election week or an election month. But as we go to our break, let me once again mention that we are coming to the end of our fiscal year. We do have your financial support. We do need your financial support.

[00:08:23] We appreciate, what is it now, about 45% of those of you that have been listening. We've reached at least 45% of the match, but there's still a match on the table. And if you've been wanting to give to point of view, and I hope that you would, you have a dollar-for-dollar match on the table. So I hope you'll give us a call, 800-347-5151, 1-800-347-5151. We'll be right back.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Summer jobs for teenagers have been disappearing, and Harvard professor Roland Fryer has some explanations. He quickly dismisses many of the reasons given, AI, tariffs, and gas prices. He reminds us that the classic summer job has been disappearing for nearly half a century. Tariffs and oil tankers don't explain four decades of teenagers walking away from jobs they could have had. His explanation is simple.

[00:09:30] The price of a teenager's time changed sharply. The wage premium, a college degree, brings roughly doubled between the late 1970s and 2000. There is a much higher opportunity cost for a teenager bagging groceries, taking fast food orders, or folding shirts. Part of the equation is the minimum wage. As I've documented in previous commentaries, the value of the dollar declined, and wages have not kept up.

[00:09:56] This is also true of the minimum wage, which is now worth less than half of what it was in the late 1960s. Affluent teenagers looking for better resumes are another reason. She trades the lifeguard chair for a research internship, science camp, and SAT tutor. Economists have found the greatest decline among students from educated, affluent households. Teenagers from poorer families who do need a summer job face the reality of a shrinking pool of work opportunities in the private sector.

[00:10:23] They also face shrinking opportunities in the public sector. Those of us who had summer jobs realize that there were benefits beyond a paycheck. We learn to get up early, work hard, and be responsible. The disappearing summer job is another sad statistic and the reason we need creative people to construct solutions. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my Point of View.

[00:10:49] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back once again, let's see what we can for just a few minutes talk about what Roger Kimball referred to as the most forgotten founding father. That would be John Witherspoon. And then we're going to talk with Janet Weidler, who's our vice president of stewardship.

[00:11:19] And she can give us some perspective on how we're doing in terms of reaching our goal here on our fiscal year end. And Roger Kimball said, you know, he thought he might return to a question he's asked before, and that is, who is the most unfairly neglected American founding father? And his argument would be John Witherspoon. And I would imagine that if you've been listening to this program for a while, you might know the name, but I suspect many of you say, no, I really don't know much about him.

[00:11:48] He was the president of what today we call Princeton. Back then it was called the College of New Jersey, although it was in Princeton, New Jersey. So it was almost inevitable that the college would be called Princeton. He was a Scottish Presbyterian who came to this country and really helped give birth to the American independence. During his lifetime, he had just a high reputation. An individual that I followed over the years, Benjamin Rush, talked about the fact that he was a man of a great and luminous mind.

[00:12:18] And in some respects, maybe we know less about him because of an accident in history. It turns out that an accident was a fire that destroyed his library and his correspondence. So historians, in some respects, have a lot less to work from because of that. But he was an individual who, even as early as 1774, in an essay called Thoughts on American Liberty,

[00:12:47] talked about the fact that we are firmly determined never to submit to or deliberately prefer war with all its horrors and the rest. But he also recognized that we need to maybe think that through. And by May of 1776, actually wrote and preached a sermon which was called The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men.

[00:13:14] Now, in our booklet that we've made available to you on America's godly heritage, One Nation Under God, I talk about that in some detail. And one church historian said it may have been one of the most influential pulpit messages during the whole course of the war. And so what he was able to do is help people understand that sometimes providence moves in that direction.

[00:13:40] And this word providence, of course, we've been talking about in the first hour with Peter Lilbeck about George Washington. But as I've pointed out before, you cannot overestimate the impact that John Witherspoon had on this country. Because under his teaching, he produced, of course, one president, James Madison, who also, of course, is known as the architect of the Constitution, one vice president, Aaron Burr,

[00:14:09] 10 cabinet ministers, 60 members of Congress, 12 governors, 56 state legislators, and 30 judges, including three justices of the Supreme Court. That's an incredible legacy, to put it mildly. But nevertheless, one of the things they point out is that because he was teaching the students about a biblical orthodox view about human sinfulness,

[00:14:36] but also that people can be redeemed through God's grace, you see so much of that showing up in some very important documents. One of those booklets I've made available to you in the past is a biblical view on the Federalist Papers, Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. But Madison, in particular, known as the father of the Constitution, spends some time in, for example, Federalist Paper No. 10,

[00:15:04] talking about factions and how to deal with those in some particular way, say that they were sown in the nature of man. And so, as a result, we need to find a way in which we can have ambition, rival ambition, which is, of course, the idea of checks and balances. And later on, in Course Federalist Paper No. 55 and 51, he goes on to say that if men were angels, no government would be necessary.

[00:15:31] If angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary. He goes on to say that in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this. You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself. So, really, many people say that James Madison's Calvinist background, the teaching he received under John Witherspoon, gave us the Constitution we take for granted today.

[00:16:01] So, again, if you'd like to know a little bit more about what might be the most forgotten founding father, this particular piece by Roger Kimball, I think, is just a great example of that. And as we get closer to, of course, the 4th of July, which will be this Saturday, we'll probably cover some more of that as well. But after the break, we will spend some time talking about socialism. We need to not only talk about some of the great things happening in this country over the last 250 years,

[00:16:30] we also need to look ahead at some real concerning issues, and so we'll spend some time talking about that after the break. But I thought while we are in the midst of raising our fiscal year-end support, and while we have still a very significant match on the table, let me, if I can, now go to Jana Weidler. She is our Vice President for Stewardship, and she joins us now by phone. So, Jana, thank you for joining us today. Oh, my pleasure, Kirby.

[00:16:59] It's good to be with you. Let's, if we can, talk about why individuals who are listening in this program, maybe some that have been listening to it for some time, need to support Point of View. Well, Kirby, I want to address the listeners right now. Please ask yourself, has Point of View blessed you? Was it maybe Kirby's commentaries? Could it have been Liberty's Know Why podcast? And maybe even Megan's highlights.

[00:17:24] You know, our Outlook magazines and our Biblical View booklets cost money to produce, and they do provide critical information that all Christians need to know. We just, we've all been answering the phones. The phones have been ringing very slowly, so we definitely want to encourage you to be praying about giving. But we just received a gift, a $500 gift from Julie in Farmington, New Mexico. But we really need to see more of these coming in, Kirby.

[00:17:54] Well, and again, I mentioned just a few minutes ago, when we started the program, we had about 43% of the match taken care of. And as we've said on the program before, Jana, if you put money on the table and said the only way you take it off is by having people match it, you wouldn't want to leave any money on the table. And at the moment, we're leaving a significant amount of money on the table, aren't we? We would. But I'm really praying. I know that God will provide, but he's also providing his people to give.

[00:18:22] So what kind of impact can our listeners make on this program? Folks, please pray and please consider your best gift and call in right now. One of the things we've said before, Jana, is no gift is too large. And we've seen a few larger gifts. But no gift is too small. And I think sometimes when you answer the phone, I know when my wife has been here, my daughter's been here answering the phone, people say, well, I'm sorry, I can only give whatever the amount is.

[00:18:50] We certainly are looking for participation to all of our listeners. And I would appreciate the fact that even if you say, well, I could give, but you wouldn't really be able to use our gift, they have no idea how very careful we and you especially manage our finances. Can you speak to that? I certainly can because you've seen some of the hotels I've stayed in, Kirby. But it's true. Your point about not having a gift that's too small, God multiplies.

[00:19:20] And he might be waiting for you to give that $100 gift right now. And, again, that's going towards a matching challenge. And we've had several people commit towards building this matching challenge fund, and we don't want to let them down either. So please call in right now with whatever gift you feel you can give. And believe me, we are going to be stretching it as far as it will go. You know, one of the things we talked about in the first hour was with Peter Littlebeck.

[00:19:48] And if you go to the website, pointofview.net, we talk about how your gift will be matched through June 30th. And we have a quote from President George Washington in which we talk about the sacred fire which has been entrusted to the hands of the American people. And then we go a little bit further and talk about, of course, Ronald Reagan, who also observed that freedom is a fragile thing and never more than one generation from extinction. And a lot of what we've been talking about, Jana, is freedom.

[00:20:15] Jim, we've been talking about America's godly heritage. I think sometimes you and I have both run into people who say, well, I think they're a bunch of deists. I don't even know if they were all Christians. I think we gave a pretty good answer in that first hour, and we give a pretty good answer in much of the material that we have. I'll hold up our booklet on the Declaration and even the one on America's founding. These are well documented with just an incredible number of end notes. And one of the reasons we do this is because we recognize we need to teach this to our children and grandchildren.

[00:20:44] So your gift really helps us continue to educate the next generation to preserve freedom. So, Jana, I appreciate you joining with us today. And again, I think what you would encourage people to do right now is to give you a call. They might even get to talk to you. 800-347-5151. 800-347-5151. You're ready to take those phone calls, aren't you? I certainly am. So please call me right now. We're going to take a break.

[00:21:13] And again, you can go to the website, pointofview.net as well. There's a place where you can give for a one-time gift. I hope some of you might think about the ongoing button, which means you could give monthly because that would be helpful as well. 1-800-347-5151. We have a lot more to cover. We'll be right back. By the fact that you're hearing me right now, I'm pretty sure that you care about preserving the biblical values that influenced America's founding.

[00:21:41] So, let me ask you a question. What are you doing to preserve them? If you're not sure how to answer that question, let me suggest a way that you can help restore those values in our culture. Partner with Point of View. Point of View is not just one more program to consume, but a lifeline that equips Americans to defend faith, family, and freedom in their communities.

[00:22:09] And that lifeline is only made possible by supporters like you. Time is running out for you to take advantage of an incredible opportunity, a $94,000 matching challenge that will double any gift to Point of View by June 30th. Giving is easy. Just visit pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151.

[00:22:38] That's pointofview.net and 1-800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:05] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson. Once again, love to hear from you again. That number, 1-800-347-5151. Let me just, as a program note, mention that we're going to have Mike Ferris with us tomorrow. Michael Ferris, good friend of this ministry. Homeschool Legal Defense Association. Of course, Patrick Henry College.

[00:23:32] He, of course, has been the head of Alliance Defending Freedom. He is right now helping, of course, the national religious broadcasters with some legal issues. He's going to give us kind of an overview of some of these religious liberty cases, the Johnson Amendment, many of those kinds of things. And we will spend just a half an hour with him, but we could spend two hours with him because of all his expertise.

[00:23:53] And he is certainly a great fan of Point of View, always has talked about how that particular broadcast many years ago under Marlon Maddox was so helpful to him. Then we have Joshua Barnes with us. We'll get into some of the issues that he's going to be addressing from a youthful point of view. Also, of course, his Christian perspective. And then, of course, we'll get back to some of these issues, which I think is going to be on socialism.

[00:24:19] If you don't think we're going to be covering this issue, you need to look again because I'll hold up some of the booklets. We've done some on socialism, the road to serfdom, one on capitalism and socialism. This particular issue, for those of you looking online, is the February issue on socialism. More to come because we are seeing more and more of that taking place. And so, again, as we go through this, I hope that you'll consider what you might do to visit the website to find these articles.

[00:24:47] One on the great relearning, the other on the new Jacobins. But if you scroll down a little bit further, you'll see the banner that says Restoring America's Godly Heritage. So as you stop by to pick up some of these articles, print them out, and I would encourage you to do so. And maybe pass them on to your friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members. You can also stop there and click on that button that says Give Now and Support This Ministry. But this one is called The Great Relearning.

[00:25:15] And some of us around the table, Steve and I, talk about Jonah Goldberg. And Jonah Goldberg, a while back, wrote a piece about The Great Relearning. And actually, it was a reference, as does the author here, to Tom Wolfe. Now, as an individual that grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and even occasionally because he grew up there, drove through Haight-Ashbury.

[00:25:39] The novelist Tom Wolfe, who then later was quoted again by Jonah Goldberg, called it The Great Relearning. Because the hippies in the Haight-Ashbury there in San Francisco decided that many of the, if you will, rules and principles that we use to keep people healthy are part of bourgeois inventions.

[00:26:04] So things like personal hygiene, monogamy, sexual fidelity, and a variety of others. Those all just got thrown out. And very quickly, the communes were then visited by some of these afflictions that modern medicine had not seen in generations. I'm thinking of my father in particular, so at pharmaceuticals, or my grandfather, who was a doctor.

[00:26:28] These doctors at these free clinics were having to go back and teach basic sanitation principles to some of the hippies there. Which, as the author here points out, Victorian housewives took for granted. And Tom Wolfe referred to that as the great relearning. What happens when a civilization discards hard-won knowledge?

[00:26:57] It doesn't leap forward to utopia. It gets dragged back to nature, red in tooth and claw, nature of dirt and grime and disease. And that was the case. And so he says, we are, in a sense, now facing another great relearning. What are we talking about?

[00:27:19] Well, the author points out that when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, a set of propositions seemed pretty subtle beyond dispute. Those are documented in my little booklet on a biblical point of view on socialism. We saw what happened when you had countries that had central planning and controlled every aspect of the economy,

[00:27:43] who then became impoverished in one half of Europe, while the others that had free markets actually were enriched and had human flourishing. So it was pretty obvious that what socialism was doing was making things worse for everybody in society. And everybody pretty much said, well, that's a principle we'll never have to learn again. Hate to say it. We're going to have to have the great relearning again.

[00:28:13] Because the author points out a generation later, those conclusions have been forgotten. Voters in wealthy democracies and the young, above all, are electing self-described democratic socialists who promise to repeal economics by decree. Unfortunately, you can't make water run uphill. You can't violate basic principles of economics. And he said, what are the lessons that these voters have forgotten?

[00:28:39] Well, for example, free trade is desirable because it lets Vietnamese seamstresses and Iowa farmers prosper by doing what they do best, while protection taxes a nation's own citizens for the privilege of buying less. They go on to talk about private ownership of factories fails, go through this long list, confiscatory taxes defeat themselves and cause people to leave or simply not produce. He says, none of this should surprise us.

[00:29:08] We are not blank slates onto which empirical argument permanently writes. We are the descendants of other individuals who think about hunting, gathering communities and things of that nature that have kind of a zero-sum intuition. And that's the case. If you only have one particular elk or deer brought in,

[00:29:34] anybody that takes more of the elk keeps somebody else from having another part of that elk. And so you can understand why sometimes in our brains we have this idea of a zero-sum game, which is the mindset, unfortunately, of many of the socialists. But then along comes Adam Smith and says, you know, it's not a zero-sum game. As a matter of fact, it's an expanding pie. It's not a fixed pie. It's an expanding pie. And yet people have to learn the lesson once again.

[00:30:04] And so he points out, if nothing else, the author points out that, again, the chain is broken. When you stop teaching a lesson, you guarantee its repetition. And most recently, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as FIRE, actually found on college faculties that the far left outnumbers the far right by 16 to 1. Not many conservatives, lots of liberals.

[00:30:33] And the dearth of academics and the public intellectuals willing to be able to defend sound economics is wreaking a havoc, both on the right and the left, by the way. Some of these ideas of tariffs aren't working very well and all of that. And some of these so-called populist solutions are things that need to be changed as well. But the real problem, although some want to blame the president for every economic issue here,

[00:31:02] have to do with some of the other particular desires and this incredible rise and growth of the Democratic Socialists of America. So, nevertheless, the author says, My hope is modest that the young will relearn the affordable lessons before they reach the final expensive one. Friedrich Hayek, who is somebody I actually summarize in this book on socialism, The Road to Serfdom.

[00:31:31] Friedrich Hayek explained in 1944, Socialism, whether implemented by the left or the right, is unstable because when it collides with arithmetic or just basic math, government must choose between abandoning the program and abandoning the voters who object. The choice may not be as obvious to those in power as it should be.

[00:31:58] And so one of the things we will continue to do is to put these resources together. As I've mentioned before, a number of years ago, we produced this little booklet, which was, again, a biblical point of view on capitalism and socialism. And it primarily was really to deal with the issue of arguments against the free market, arguments against private property, arguments against capitalism.

[00:32:24] Then it occurred to me that we probably needed a book that just looked at all of the problems with socialism, its historical track record, which is dismal, and all the arguments against socialism. And then more recently, just last year, I said, Well, we need another book maybe on socialism. I know. Let's take this book, written by Friedrich Hayek. Most people don't even know who he is. Very few of you will ever read the book, The Road to Serfdom. But I read the book. I gave you a good, if you will,

[00:32:52] CliffsNotes summary of some of the best arguments against socialism. And if you think these are the only booklets we're going to have, or this February issue of Outlook is the only one we're going to make available, well, no, there's more coming. And that's one more reason to consider what you might do to support this ministry. If you're convinced about the election of so many democratic socialists, if you're concerned about the direction in which this country is going, we need to educate the next generation.

[00:33:21] And so this is something we are engaged in every single day here on radio, in our three different podcasts, through our various articles, materials, and the rest. Your gift will help us continue to do that. So scroll down on the website to Restoring America's Godly Heritage. Click on that button that says Give Now. And of course, as Jenna mentioned a minute ago, they're ready to take your phone call. 1-800-347-5151. We'll be right back.

[00:33:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back once again, just for a few more minutes, let me just mention we're going to get to this article on Here Comes the New Jacobins in just a minute. But we just had a call from an individual that said, you know, it's 250 years, so I want to give $250, and I want to challenge other people to give $250. And I thought that was pretty good. I believe this was an individual from Ohio. And so, first of all, thank you for that $250. But also, maybe that's a good challenge.

[00:34:29] Some of you might say, well, I can't give a lot, but maybe over time I could give $250 in honor of 250 years of, of course, the nation, and a couple of things. So I want to put that on the table. I also just have heard that we started at about 43% of the match. We're getting real close to 50%, which is encouraging, 50%, but that means we're going to have to have a really good day tomorrow. So you can do the math and figure out that there is still room for you

[00:34:57] and for people that oftentimes will ask me when we're out, maybe speaking at a group, and they'll say, well, if I give tonight because I really appreciate what you're doing, is there a match? And sometimes we have to say, well, there is or there isn't. There is a match on the table, and that match is available, and it's a dollar-for-dollar match. So if you give $250, it becomes $500, and if you gave $2,500, it becomes $5,000. So, I mean, I'll let you figure out what you would want to give.

[00:35:25] And if you only give a small amount, I understand. No gift is too small. No gift is too large. And we've seen a couple of large gifts, but most of them are small, and that's just pretty much how this particular group, an audience is part of. So if you can help us, we would greatly appreciate it. This last one is a little bit disturbing, but I think it's worth saying something about. Beckett Adams says, here comes the new Jacobins. You might say, well, I don't even know what they are. That's a little bit of French history.

[00:35:53] These were the radicals during the French Revolution. Robespierre, remember him? Okay. These were the ones that gave us the reign of terror. Now, he's not the first person to suggest that some of these leftist radicals are very similar to some of those radicals during the French Revolution. Certainly, we've heard other individuals address that issue. Victor Davis Hanson uses that phrase. But nevertheless, Beckett Adams puts it this way.

[00:36:22] If you think it's bad that the Democratic Party refuses to acknowledge its violence problem, and then he has a link to an article that gets into that, you have to realize there's a growing contingent there in the left which actually not only condones violence, but views it as a necessary end. And he quotes from one of his colleagues, Noah Rothman, who I tend to quote. Noah Rothman's written this book called Blood and Progress. I don't have the book yet.

[00:36:51] I guess another book I'm going to go out and buy because I would like to quote from it. Actually, I'd like to have Noah Rothman on here to talk about it. But he points out there's a great way to illustrate how more and more individuals not only won't acknowledge the violence on the left, they actually condone it. And he says, for example, consider the angry reactions last week to the sentencing of nine Antifa members

[00:37:17] convicted of partaking in a premeditated assault on federal workers at an ICE detention center in Texas. Now, I'm broadcasting today, as we do, from Dallas, Texas. And if I got in a car in less than an hour, I would be at that ICE detention facility. So it's pretty much in our backyard. It's south, I guess, west of Dallas. But that is the case. And he said, taken at face value,

[00:37:47] he says the outraged responses from the left-wing activists and even members of the press leave the impression that the guilty had done nothing wrong. And yet they were trying to kill people. So let's get into it. In 2025, members of the North Texas Antifa cell organized and planned an attack on a federal personnel stationed at the ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. On the 4th of July, this is why it's worth mentioning coming up here,

[00:38:16] after conducting a reconnaissance. They arrived at the detention center dressed in black uniforms, equipped with body armor and first aid kits, and armed with 11 firearms. Now, this is not exactly just your routine protest. They disabled the facility's cameras, the CCTV cameras, set off fireworks to lure the federal personnel out into the open. Because you hear these fireworks, you start hearing that. The Lieutenant Thomas Gross

[00:38:46] of the Alvarado Police Department responded to the call because they'd called 911. As he arrived and began issuing commands, one of the attackers shouted, go get to the rifles. He was shot in the neck, according to, of course, the body cam footage, which we all have had a chance to see. At the same time, a second gunman fired approximately 20 to 30 rounds at two unarmed ICE correction officers who, at that point,

[00:39:15] had stepped outside of the ICE facility. They were a terrible shot, which is fortunate. Gross survived, and the attack was throated. Okay. So, this is a premeditated attack with individuals in body armor with 11 firearms. And on March 13th of this year, the federal jury here in Fort Worth, just down the road, convicted these nine members of the cell on charges, ranging from providing material support to terrorists

[00:39:44] to rioting with intent to commit violence. The trial lasted 12 days. The group's leader was convicted of attempted murder for shooting Gross. Five witnesses who had pled guilty testified that the cell was organized around Antifa ideology. Okay. Straightforward, right? Sentences were fair, all that. Try telling that to the far left, Beckett Adams says. For example, Rashida Tlaib, a representative from Michigan, said,

[00:40:14] these sentences are a travesty and totally unjustified. Americans hate the fascist Trump regime, so the only way they can try to cling to power is brute force. And this memo from the president, she says, is a grave threat to all of us and uses some words I won't use on radio, as you might imagine. The founder of the Civil Rights Corps, for example, said the sentences hound down today are a huge threat to the possibility of a democratic society and goes on to affect

[00:40:43] that this is the evidence of an illegal conspiracy is non-existent. As a matter of fact, some of the others were, for example, the New Republic said these individuals actually were, in some cases, not part of Antifa, which, by the way, was established in the court very easily, and then had a very sympathetic profile of those individuals and said that this is the first test of Donald Trump's crackdown on free speech. They weren't here

[00:41:13] to protest, not when you have body armor on, not when you have guns. This is not a peaceful protest, but somehow people have missed this. MSNOW Crystal Ball said, I read this whole particular conviction five times to make sure I was properly comprehending what these people were facing. It's beyond insane. I love it. Beckett Adams said, well, if she read it five times, maybe a sixth reading would help clarify this. Then PBS,

[00:41:43] not to be outdone, said these anti-ice protesters is the latest crackdown on dissent. Again, they were trying to kill people and they see this as like a peaceful opportunity and a crackdown on dissent. Washington Post said, federal judges in Texas gave eight members of these alleged Antivis, I love the alleged, for the protest that turned violent

[00:42:12] at the ICE facility. By the way, it wasn't alleged, it was documented very well. And then the Guardian, not to be outdone, again, activists accused of being part of Antifa prison sentences and on and on and on. But the point is, you can't, as he said, chalk this up to agree to disagree. These are individuals who used violence and now are being defended by the left and by a lot of the mainstream press. So that's one of the reasons why I hope you'll consider

[00:42:41] supporting Point of View. We're going to tell you the other side of the story. So as we go off the air, we'll still take those phone calls. 800-347-5151. 800-347-5151. Of course, go to the website pointofview.net. Click on that banner that says Give Now. As always, I want to thank Megan for engineering the program. Steve, thank you for producing the program. We'd love to hear from you. I'll give you an update tomorrow right here on Point of View.

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