Point of View May 29, 2024 – Hour 2 : Today’s News

[00:00:00] Across America, live, this is Point of View Radio Talk Show.

[00:00:42] This is an attempt to recognize that there may be some winds of change blowing across

[00:00:47] America.

[00:00:49] Some of that has been very evident by some of the names that we just mentioned a few

[00:00:54] minutes ago of people who you wouldn't necessarily think that they'd be saying things that as

[00:01:00] Christians who have a more conservative or orthodox biblical view might believe, but

[00:01:06] nevertheless whether it's Jordan Peterson or Jonathan Haidt or Bill Maher or Joe Rogan,

[00:01:12] of course he was mentioned, Richard Dawkins and a number of others, on most issues we

[00:01:17] would of course have some real disagreements with those individuals, but common sense is

[00:01:22] breaking out all over the place as we've said before and he believes that if we do pray

[00:01:26] for revival God certainly could bring about a remarkable change and I think that's what

[00:01:32] we're going to need because some of these problems that America will be facing in the

[00:01:37] future are so intractable that even if you have really good people in office, I'm not

[00:01:44] sure we're going to have that many this election season as well, but even if you did, some

[00:01:50] of those are a problem.

[00:01:52] When you have a declining birth rate that doesn't turn around tomorrow.

[00:01:57] When you have basically about $35 trillion in national debt, you don't turn that around

[00:02:03] tomorrow either.

[00:02:04] So there are some things that even though we might see a revival, there are obviously

[00:02:11] going to be some tough times ahead and I think that's really important to think about.

[00:02:15] So that is certainly the case.

[00:02:19] Let's if we can also just mention because so often I kind of race through the program

[00:02:23] and forget to mention that first of all you have my Viewpoints commentary today which

[00:02:29] has the title Worldview Deficiency and if you've been listening to Point of View any

[00:02:34] length of time, you know that over the last couple of months it seems like from time to

[00:02:38] time because my producer Steve Miller identifies a good book, we've had people on the program

[00:02:45] who in many cases have talked about the lack of moral behavior among evangelicals and that

[00:02:53] list is getting to be a longer list of people who have written a book complaining about

[00:02:59] leadership of a church, leadership of a Christian group or whatever it might be that haven't

[00:03:05] necessarily had the best moral behavior that we would like.

[00:03:09] And of course if you read Ministry Watch or Christianity Today or World Magazine, you have

[00:03:14] other examples and over the last few interviews I've decided to somewhere in the interview

[00:03:22] after the guest whether he or she talks about some of the problems and talked about the

[00:03:28] what, I want to come back to the why.

[00:03:31] The why I talk about today is the fact that we don't have Christians in some cases even

[00:03:37] Christians in leadership acting like Christians and I then take you to of course the George

[00:03:43] Barna American Worldview Inventory.

[00:03:47] He's just produced some more material which I'm sure Steve will probably get him on again

[00:03:52] to talk about but it's just a reminder that when you look at most Americans whether they

[00:03:58] call themselves Christians or not, at best you come up with about round numbers 4% that

[00:04:06] actually have what we could call a biblical worldview and by a biblical worldview we're

[00:04:11] talking about on six major questions, God, Jesus, salvation, authority of the Bible,

[00:04:18] absolute truth, things like that would agree with what would be considered just a basic

[00:04:23] Bible view on those issues and another 4% have a variety of other worldviews.

[00:04:30] Sometimes those are a little bit different.

[00:04:32] They could be Marxist or a variety of others but you go okay 4%, 4% is only 8%.

[00:04:39] What about the other 92%?

[00:04:41] Well his conclusion was is the other 92% have a syncretistic worldview and so since that

[00:04:48] may be an unfamiliar word I give you a definition in my commentary and it's really where you

[00:04:54] kind of have an amalgamation or a mixing together of different religions, cultures and schools

[00:04:59] of thought.

[00:05:00] What that means in terms of Christianity is you have individuals that kind of pick and

[00:05:05] choose what they believe and that percentage is higher the younger you go so that's of

[00:05:12] concern.

[00:05:13] When you talk about those people that have an orthodox worldview, biblical worldview,

[00:05:19] it's a higher percentage of those who are 50 and older.

[00:05:22] It's a much lower percentage of those who are 30 and under and so as a result I use one

[00:05:27] example a majority of Americans, 58% believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth,

[00:05:34] something that is always true.

[00:05:35] They basically say that moral truth is up to the individual and then I go on to simply

[00:05:40] say one other thing, you might say well then isn't it appropriate that pastors for example

[00:05:47] might address this issue?

[00:05:49] The problem with that is George Barna has concluded that senior pastors, just a little

[00:05:56] less than a majority, about 41% of senior pastors have a biblical worldview and that

[00:06:03] ranges from a higher percentage of say Southern Baptist pastors to a much lower percentage

[00:06:09] of establishment or sort of quote mainline religious pastors have a biblical worldview.

[00:06:16] Then when you think about your kids, since we were talking about that just a minute ago

[00:06:20] with Michael Brown, only 12% of youth pastors have a biblical worldview.

[00:06:26] So anyway that's my commentary for today.

[00:06:28] If you aren't already receiving my commentary on your email, we make it very easy by just

[00:06:35] simply clicking on the button there that says never miss a viewpoint and sign up.

[00:06:40] We would love to send it to you every single day.

[00:06:42] My commentaries come to you Monday through Friday.

[00:06:45] Pentateuch's comes to you on Saturday.

[00:06:48] She writes one a week, I write one a day.

[00:06:50] If you at the end say, okay smart guy, you're talking about a biblical worldview.

[00:06:58] What are you talking about in terms of how you put that all together?

[00:07:02] Well then go from that column on worldviews to the column on video and we have a video

[00:07:08] which I would like to encourage you to watch.

[00:07:11] It's less than seven minutes long so it's not going to take too much time and it's entitled

[00:07:15] Putting the Pieces Together.

[00:07:18] Again if you think about a worldview kind of like the box top on a jigsaw puzzle, and

[00:07:26] around our ministry from time to time we do jigsaw puzzles.

[00:07:30] The box top is the worldview and then the pieces are the individual issues that we oftentimes

[00:07:36] talk about here on Point of View.

[00:07:39] And so it's an attempt for you to actually look at that and it includes interviews with

[00:07:44] Alan Sears who you was the founder of Alliance Defending Freedom.

[00:07:48] It has an interview with Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life

[00:07:54] America.

[00:07:55] It has an interview with Dr. Stephen Meyer on the science issues who's the director of

[00:08:00] the Discovery Institute and also an interview with Lieutenant Colonel Alan West of course

[00:08:05] who has been a guest and a guest host on this program.

[00:08:09] So this is an attempt just again to help you understand a little bit about this issue

[00:08:14] of worldview.

[00:08:16] We come back from the break though I want to get into a couple of the issues which are

[00:08:20] all kind of pulling some interesting material from a book that came out a number of years

[00:08:24] ago because there was this book that talked about what's the matter with Kansas which

[00:08:30] was by a liberal but it gets into two issues.

[00:08:33] Number one the myth of rural rage and then to play off that idea what's the matter with

[00:08:40] people of color.

[00:08:41] We'll get into both of those issues that I think will affect the election.

[00:08:45] We'll talk about that right after this.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:02] Over the last few months I've been doing some interviews on books that document in one way

[00:09:06] or another a lack of moral behavior among evangelicals.

[00:09:10] If you read articles in Christianity Today, Ministry Watch or World Magazine you see other

[00:09:15] examples as the authors document what is happening in the evangelical world.

[00:09:20] Always like to bring us back to why the why question is probably more important than the

[00:09:24] what question.

[00:09:25] Why aren't Christians acting like Christians?

[00:09:28] Of course all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but Christians are supposed

[00:09:32] to be different than the world but there is abundant evidence that they are very much like

[00:09:36] the world around them.

[00:09:38] Each year George Barna posts the American worldview inventory.

[00:09:41] His most recent report shows that very few Americans including evangelicals have a biblical

[00:09:47] worldview.

[00:09:48] About 4% have a biblical worldview with about 4% more with a variety of different worldviews.

[00:09:54] The dominant worldview encompassing 92% is the worldview of syncretism.

[00:09:59] The classic definition of syncretism is that it is an amalgamation of different religions,

[00:10:04] cultures or schools of thought.

[00:10:06] In the Christian context it is an acceptance and even an affirmation of a diverse set of

[00:10:11] beliefs that aren't biblical.

[00:10:13] That is best illustrated by the fact that a majority of American adults don't believe

[00:10:17] in absolute truth and instead believe that moral truth is up to the individual to decide.

[00:10:23] You would hope that pastors might be able to correct some of this theological confusion

[00:10:27] but George Barna has found that less than a majority of senior pastors have a biblical

[00:10:31] worldview and the problem is worse with youth pastors.

[00:10:35] We shouldn't be surprised at what is happening in the evangelical world when we understand

[00:10:39] the why behind it.

[00:10:41] I'm Kirby Anderson and that's my point of view.

[00:10:47] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet A Biblical View on Antisemitism go to Viewpoints.info

[00:10:53] slash antisemitism.

[00:10:55] Viewpoints.info slash antisemitism.

[00:10:59] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth.

[00:11:04] Once again I want to talk about a couple of issues that may affect the election in significant

[00:11:09] ways that I don't think the mainstream press is covering very well.

[00:11:13] Again, that's the kind of thing we do here on Point of View so often and it really comes

[00:11:17] from an article I'll hold up for you to see.

[00:11:19] Those of you watching online will see that it's called The Myth of Rural Rage.

[00:11:24] Also has an interesting diagram or cartoon of obviously a very urban, liberal looking

[00:11:31] man talking to a man that looks like he might be a conservative or certainly a rural farmer.

[00:11:37] This piece is written by Elizabeth Currid Halkett.

[00:11:40] Now again, to help you understand her perspective she is really telling her fellow liberals that

[00:11:48] they have a very false, completely biased and inaccurate view of the rural America.

[00:11:56] She probably is the best to write about this because she is a university professor.

[00:12:02] She calls herself a lifelong liberal.

[00:12:05] She talks about all the people she's voted for.

[00:12:07] I don't think there's ever been a time that she hasn't voted for a Democrat.

[00:12:11] She says, I read the New York Times, I listen to NPR but here's where I think you see the

[00:12:15] difference.

[00:12:16] She agrees with Uri Berliner who is somebody I mentioned recently who is a liberal at NPR

[00:12:22] who expressed his concern about the systemic liberal bias in news reporting.

[00:12:27] And she writes about this because she is convinced that her fellow liberals have a very jaundiced

[00:12:34] and biased view about rural people.

[00:12:38] Now you've heard the phrase before, the bi-coastal elites and then flyover country.

[00:12:45] Especially if you're flying over agricultural areas, there is a real liberal bias and urban

[00:12:53] elitist bias against people in the rural communities.

[00:12:57] Now you can think of some reasons why that is the case.

[00:13:01] You think of movies like Deliverance comes to mind or you think of comedians even like

[00:13:07] Jeff Foxworthy, you must be a redneck or whatever.

[00:13:12] I'm using pop culture references but how about references from presidents or presidential

[00:13:18] candidates who talk about people that are bitter and cling to their guns and Bibles.

[00:13:23] I think we had a president that said that.

[00:13:25] Or a variety of others.

[00:13:26] So whether you look at the pop culture, whether you look at statements by politics, that is

[00:13:32] the case.

[00:13:33] And so she tells a story first of all of Craig, who is interesting enough turns out to be

[00:13:38] about my age, a retired person living in Iowa and he uses that to really explain what

[00:13:43] is going on.

[00:13:45] And one of the books that she critiques if you will came out a number of years ago by

[00:13:50] Frank Thomas.

[00:13:51] It had the phrase, the title of the book is What's the Matter with Kansas?

[00:13:55] I'm going to come back to that in just a minute because it also is the reason for the title

[00:14:00] of the first article we've listed here.

[00:14:03] But in writing her book on the overlooked Americans, she came to realize that rural

[00:14:09] people are really nice and they're nothing like the media stereotypes created in movies,

[00:14:15] created by political speakers and all the rest.

[00:14:18] They aren't deplorables.

[00:14:19] But of course Frank Thomas in his book, The Matter with Kansas says these people are angry,

[00:14:25] they're vengeful, they're ignorant.

[00:14:28] As a matter of fact, he even says that the loyalty of some of these rural people to the

[00:14:34] Republican Party is a good example of their derangement.

[00:14:39] And of course after Donald Trump was elected in 2016, you saw all the articles coming out

[00:14:45] about the fact that this was an example of rural revenge.

[00:14:50] But Elizabeth Curid-Halcutt actually points out no really, the rural people aren't that

[00:14:55] different.

[00:14:57] The University of Chicago General Social Survey and the GSS surveys we quote all the time

[00:15:02] around here actually says that even on politically charged issues like immigration or religion

[00:15:10] or whatever it is, rural Americans kind of feel about the same way.

[00:15:16] Now statistically both half of rural and urban Americans are religious, even if rural Americans

[00:15:23] are more likely to openly discuss their belief.

[00:15:27] So she's really hoping that there will be an honest discussion, I'm not going to hold

[00:15:31] my breath, with the public intellectuals and the media outlets to reset their conversation

[00:15:38] about rural America.

[00:15:40] But it was interesting to point out that when she asked for example individuals in rural

[00:15:46] America about how they felt about liberals, they said well I don't really hate them, I

[00:15:51] think they hate me.

[00:15:53] And she obviously acknowledges that there are some people in rural America that are

[00:15:57] angry, well of course there are, but there are also angry people in the cities and I

[00:16:02] just think it illustrates again the division sometimes isn't so much red and blue as it

[00:16:09] is urban and rural or even more accurately elite and non-elite.

[00:16:16] The elites kind of disparaged and almost pejorative attitude towards rural people

[00:16:23] I think is something she was trying to counter.

[00:16:26] And again I've been mentioning that book, What's the Matter with Kansas?

[00:16:31] Well Rich Lowry, and this is our first article, actually changed the title by saying, What's

[00:16:37] the Matter with People of Color?

[00:16:40] The argument that Frank Thomas was making is if these people in Kansas, these people

[00:16:44] in the flyover country really understand what was at stake, they would be liberals, they

[00:16:51] would vote for Democrats, they would never vote for Republicans.

[00:16:55] And now Rich Lowry is saying probably there's going to be a new book coming out saying

[00:16:59] What's Wrong with People of Color?

[00:17:02] Because as he points out we're starting to see more and more statistics that are causing

[00:17:08] at least a little bit of stomach upset, ulcers, hypertension among some of the liberals because

[00:17:17] let's take a couple of examples.

[00:17:19] The New York Times poll a few months ago had Donald Trump beating Joe Biden among Hispanic

[00:17:25] voters 46 to 40.

[00:17:28] I mean that's a pretty significant gap there.

[00:17:31] You had the Wall Street Journal poll that came out in which it had 30% of African American

[00:17:37] men say they are definitely, or probably going to vote for Trump.

[00:17:43] And of course there are other polls that aren't quite as dramatic, but what you're already

[00:17:47] starting to see is that the assumption has always been made that if you're a person of

[00:17:53] color, that would be Hispanic American, African American, that you would always vote Democratic

[00:17:58] and that's not necessarily coming this time.

[00:18:01] Let's just take the Hispanic vote because that's where we see probably the most significant

[00:18:06] changes because if you look at various polls and compare how people are reacting to questions

[00:18:14] like are you concerned that the country is on the wrong track?

[00:18:21] It turns out that 69% of Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track.

[00:18:28] An even higher percentage of Hispanics, 72%, say the same thing.

[00:18:35] As well as about a third of the country, 30%, say inflation and the economy are the top issue.

[00:18:41] An even higher percentage, 42% of Hispanics are saying that.

[00:18:47] And so what you are seeing is that there has been kind of a tendency sometimes to lump

[00:18:52] people together as the so-called people of color.

[00:18:56] And yet we're seeing that there are groups that are very different.

[00:19:02] They have diverse backgrounds, maybe have different demographic characteristics which

[00:19:07] are I think showing that they're not very supportive right now of some of the woke politics

[00:19:14] that we've seen there as well.

[00:19:16] Well, let's just play this out and we'll get into some other issues in the election after

[00:19:21] the break.

[00:19:22] But if you look just at the Hispanic vote, since I just gave you some Hispanic numbers,

[00:19:27] I'm going to go on and give you some others as well.

[00:19:29] But let's use the Hispanic vote as well.

[00:19:32] You can see that Hillary Clinton in 2016 won nearly 40% of the Hispanic vote.

[00:19:41] Joe Biden in 2020 won just 23%.

[00:19:45] And if you start running these numbers, that percentage could be even lower this time.

[00:19:52] True, the New York Times poll shows him beating by 46 to 40%.

[00:19:58] But I think that in some respects those are all Americans.

[00:20:02] You start getting certain voters and certain demographics could be different.

[00:20:07] And so again, those individuals may not vote or they may vote for Donald Trump.

[00:20:13] And so some of these demographic shifts are becoming much more dramatic.

[00:20:18] And as Dr. Mero Matthews has pointed out in one of his recent columns in The Hill,

[00:20:24] the election of a Republican candidate, whether it's Mitt Romney, who didn't get as much of

[00:20:29] the Hispanic vote as Donald Trump is, or the African American vote, which always has been

[00:20:35] at a small percentage, usually single percentages, if that changes even a little bit, it does

[00:20:41] not look good for the Democratic candidate for the presidency and looks a lot better for

[00:20:47] the Republican president in this particular case, presidential candidate.

[00:20:52] So what we're dealing with is some remarkable shifts due to a variety of factors.

[00:20:58] Some of them have to do with the economy, which we'll talk about before the end of the

[00:21:01] program today.

[00:21:02] Some of them have to do with cultural issues.

[00:21:05] Some of them have to do with some of the things Michael Brown was talking about in that first

[00:21:09] hour of our program, because there does seem to be a pushback.

[00:21:13] There does seem to be a bit of a backlash.

[00:21:16] And that shouldn't surprise us when even people who wouldn't call themselves Christians are

[00:21:21] starting to speak out against some of the excesses of a woke culture.

[00:21:25] Let's take a break.

[00:21:26] We'll come back with more right after this.

[00:21:32] In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs,

[00:21:38] but words and ideas.

[00:21:41] London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism, and legendary Baptist preacher

[00:21:47] Charles Spurgeon.

[00:21:49] London was in many ways the center of the world, economically, militarily, and intellectually.

[00:21:55] Marx sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports.

[00:22:01] Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers.

[00:22:05] Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth, it is truth for all of life.

[00:22:12] Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today?

[00:22:17] Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign

[00:22:22] up for the Viewpoints commentary at pointofview.net slash signup.

[00:22:28] Every weekday in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand

[00:22:33] against darkness in our time.

[00:22:36] It's free, so visit pointofview.net slash signup right now.

[00:22:41] Pointofview.net slash signup.

[00:22:49] Point of View will continue after you are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:03] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management

[00:23:09] or staff of this station.

[00:23:11] And now, here again is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:14] Thank you for a few more minutes here in the last half hour, and I just might mention that

[00:23:18] tomorrow, since we will probably be really kind of overloaded with a number of interviews,

[00:23:25] I thought I'd mention what my commentary tomorrow is as well.

[00:23:28] But just before we do that, let me just mention that Bill Fetter, William Fetter has been

[00:23:31] on the program with us many times before.

[00:23:33] His new book is Silence Equals Consent.

[00:23:37] And so it's certainly a reminder that there has been a call for some time for Christians

[00:23:42] to speak out on various issues.

[00:23:45] And then we'll also have John Smithbaker, and we'll be talking about fathers in the field.

[00:23:52] And I think you'll appreciate that particular conversation as well.

[00:23:56] So we'll be focusing on many of those topics tomorrow.

[00:23:59] My commentary is about the popular vote.

[00:24:03] And if you're not familiar with that, it's been a while since I've talked about it, but

[00:24:06] it's actually begun to get some momentum again.

[00:24:10] And it's what's called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

[00:24:15] The reason it's had some momentum is just recently Maine voted to join the National

[00:24:20] Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

[00:24:23] What does that mean?

[00:24:25] It would be an attempt to get states to pledge that they would send electors to Washington,

[00:24:30] D.C. to vote for the president based on the popular vote.

[00:24:34] Essentially, it would require electors in your state, if your state is actually joined

[00:24:39] in this compact, to ignore how your state voted for the president, but instead to vote

[00:24:46] for the winner of the popular vote.

[00:24:48] Basically, it's an attempt to change the way we elect the president without a constitutional

[00:24:54] amendment.

[00:24:55] Now, I first started writing about that in my commentaries back in 2008, so it's been

[00:25:00] around for a while.

[00:25:02] Back then you had two states that joined the compact.

[00:25:04] By the end of the year, you had four states.

[00:25:07] But really haven't written about it at all since about 2019, which has now been almost

[00:25:11] five years.

[00:25:13] But more recently, you've had Minnesota join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact,

[00:25:20] and now Maine has joined it.

[00:25:21] So that means you have 17 states and the District of Columbia that have joined the compact.

[00:25:28] It will only go into effect when enough states holding 270 electoral votes approve the plan.

[00:25:35] Right now they're at 209 electoral votes.

[00:25:38] So it is, of course, an attempt to dismantle the Electoral College.

[00:25:42] I think that's a really bad idea.

[00:25:44] Matter of fact, I have a map that I like to sometimes show people.

[00:25:49] If you were to actually make the country on the basis of population, you would have a

[00:25:54] few states that would just overwhelm the rest of the country.

[00:25:56] California, Texas, New York, and Florida.

[00:25:59] No surprise there.

[00:26:01] And as a result, it would be just looking at the popular vote.

[00:26:05] And one of the reasons it was not implemented as a popular vote is that the framers, especially

[00:26:12] from the small states at the time, were concerned that big states and big cities would always

[00:26:18] determine the outcome, and there would never be an attempt to try to run the election across

[00:26:24] the country.

[00:26:26] That is still the case.

[00:26:27] I have heard that the Trump campaign is seriously talking about having a five-state campaign.

[00:26:35] That hasn't happened since, I think, Richard Nixon tried to do it in 1960.

[00:26:39] But nevertheless, it is a possibility.

[00:26:42] It always is difficult if you're trying to make your way to Alaska and Hawaii.

[00:26:46] Sorry about that, because it's just a little further away from the rest of the country.

[00:26:49] But not giving up any state in the union is something kind of interesting.

[00:26:56] But if you think about it, the third parties have always, of course, had a real impact,

[00:27:02] because we've had a lot of elections where neither of the candidates had a popular vote

[00:27:08] majority, but the electoral college then gives them a majority.

[00:27:14] And it's worth mentioning, as I do, that Abraham Lincoln won less than 40% of the popular

[00:27:20] vote, but did rely on the electoral college for his authority.

[00:27:25] At the moment, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will not affect this election, but

[00:27:31] it could have an impact in the future.

[00:27:34] Which brings me to something else that I've written about more recently.

[00:27:38] You probably saw that commentary.

[00:27:41] Is it possible, because we do have an electoral college, we could have an electoral college

[00:27:46] tie?

[00:27:48] Those have not happened, but it is possible, because again, you could, if you manipulate

[00:27:56] some of the various vote totals right now, come up with a 269-269 tie.

[00:28:02] Dr. Merrill Matthews wrote a piece on that.

[00:28:05] My May 8th commentary talks about that.

[00:28:09] If North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona won, Biden won those, and if Trump won Michigan,

[00:28:15] Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada, based upon the fact we believe that anywhere from

[00:28:20] six to seven votes in these various states could be the swing votes, then you could come

[00:28:28] up with a 269-269 tie.

[00:28:32] Another alternative is Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia, and Arizona go to Biden, Trump

[00:28:38] wins Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, which I think is less likely.

[00:28:41] Again, you could come up with a 269-269 tie.

[00:28:46] So of course, I think it is less likely for two reasons.

[00:28:50] Number one, you have the possibility of a faithless elector.

[00:28:55] Most states require the electors vote for the state's winner, although those of you

[00:28:59] in two states, Nebraska and Maine, actually can split your vote, and some states do not

[00:29:05] have a law prohibiting faithless electors, so it is quite possible that one or two of

[00:29:10] those electors could actually determine who the president is.

[00:29:15] If you think we've had controversy in the past, just hold on to your seats for the future,

[00:29:19] but it is a reminder of the fact that we live in a rather volatile electoral process right

[00:29:27] now, and it could get a whole lot more volatile between now and November.

[00:29:32] Which brings me to my next article, which is a piece by Rebecca Downs, which is basically

[00:29:38] quoting from Senator Tim Scott.

[00:29:41] He was on CNN's State of the Union the other day, and they played an ad from the Biden

[00:29:47] campaign claiming that Donald Trump is disrespecting black folks.

[00:29:52] He stood with violent white supremacists, warned of a bloodbath if he loses the next

[00:29:57] election, and vowed to be a dictator who wants revenge on his enemies.

[00:30:02] First of all, all three of those statements are wrong, easily dismissed, but nevertheless

[00:30:09] an illustration again of maybe desperation.

[00:30:13] When you have to lie so often at this stage in the campaign, you begin to wonder.

[00:30:20] For those of you who say, wait a minute, I think those are true.

[00:30:22] First of all, when you talk about stood with a white supremacist, all you have to do is

[00:30:27] go back to the Charlottesville rally when he spoke and said, I'm not talking about the

[00:30:31] neo-Nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.

[00:30:37] So obviously that piece has had a life of its own, but it is something the president,

[00:30:42] as Joe Biden has repeated time and time again.

[00:30:46] The idea that he is calling for a bloodbath, well, it probably wasn't the best choice of

[00:30:51] words but he was talking about what would happen to the US auto industry if indeed Donald

[00:30:58] Trump was not elected and Joe Biden was reelected, and he's talking about that in the economic

[00:31:04] sense.

[00:31:05] And I think anybody that watched the video knows exactly what he was meaning there.

[00:31:10] And the idea that he vowed to be a dictator, even he himself has confirmed that he was

[00:31:15] made in jest and all of the rest.

[00:31:17] And it kind of brings me back to one of the questions that people have been asking.

[00:31:22] Given the fact that there, let's be honest, are so many things that the president, former

[00:31:27] president I should say, has said that you could use in a campaign ad, why did you pick

[00:31:34] three things which are demonstrably false?

[00:31:38] And as Senator Tim Scott, who is African American, says why would you want to try to fool other

[00:31:45] African Americans unless you were just convinced that they don't have access to even a Google

[00:31:51] search to know that many of those things in the ad were wrong.

[00:31:56] Moreover, on CNN's Face the State of the Union, he went on to say, here's what I can tell

[00:32:02] you under Donald Trump, we, meaning African Americans, were better off.

[00:32:06] He says there are two things that are driving black voters back to Donald Trump, jobs and

[00:32:10] justice.

[00:32:11] He says number one, Donald Trump, our wages were going up.

[00:32:14] Right now fairness is going down.

[00:32:16] And if you're really concerned about racial justice in America, let's not forget that

[00:32:21] Joe Biden is the guy who talked about racial jungles as a result of desegregation and even

[00:32:26] said we need more common sense under Donald Trump, not four years of segregation and really

[00:32:32] raised to the whole issue which I think is going to be a campaign issue of school choice.

[00:32:39] Just the other day, as a matter of fact yesterday, we had a runoff election in the state of Texas

[00:32:44] as one illustration and a number of the individuals that lost in the runoff were individuals that

[00:32:51] did not vote for school choice and were specifically opposed by the governor in the state of Texas,

[00:32:56] Greg Abbott.

[00:32:57] And this just illustrates again that this issue of school choice might be a bigger issue

[00:33:02] than people imagine.

[00:33:03] And of course, as I shared just a few minutes ago in this piece by Rich Lowry, maybe there'll

[00:33:10] be a future article or book on what's wrong with people of color because many more of

[00:33:15] them seem to be more inclined than ever to not vote Democratic but to vote Republican.

[00:33:22] But I think the piece from Tim Scott is just a good reminder that during this election

[00:33:27] season, there is going to be a need for us to have much more discernment.

[00:33:32] We're going to see a lot of ads that are just factually incorrect and sometimes we even

[00:33:37] need to fact check the fact checkers.

[00:33:39] So be discerning, especially during this election season.

[00:33:45] Take a break.

[00:33:46] Come back with more right after this.

[00:33:47] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth.

[00:34:02] For a few more minutes, let me just mention that our last article is one in which we

[00:34:06] quote from Michael Barone, but I'll also quote another one in just a minute.

[00:34:10] Michael Barone has been on the program with us before.

[00:34:13] He is probably best known as the principal author of what is called the Almanac of American

[00:34:18] Politics and he's been writing for many years about political campaigns.

[00:34:23] I'll probably quote him a number of times between now and November.

[00:34:26] But lately he's been writing about the disconnect, which we've talked about on this program,

[00:34:31] between the left-leaning media and maybe even some politicians and the American voters.

[00:34:36] One of the examples he uses is the writer for The Atlantic has said, for example, that

[00:34:42] the Biden years have given us the strongest economy the United States has ever experienced.

[00:34:48] Okay, that hyperbole, it's hard to even say that with a straight face, but okay.

[00:34:53] But her suggestion is one we've heard before.

[00:34:56] If the voters were just a little more intelligent, if they really understood just a little bit

[00:35:02] more about all the economic benefits coming to them, they would understand that the economy

[00:35:08] is doing great.

[00:35:10] Does that resonate with where you are right now?

[00:35:12] I didn't think so.

[00:35:14] But Michael Barone actually points to charts and we will include that in my upcoming commentary

[00:35:20] so that you don't have to dig them up.

[00:35:22] But the first one actually looks at net worth for individuals, household net worth.

[00:35:28] And you can see that both of them have been going up.

[00:35:32] But of course, you can also see they've been going up faster under Trump than they were Biden.

[00:35:37] But then the second chart, which I think is more telling, which comes from individuals

[00:35:42] having written a very good piece in The Wall Street Journal, takes inflation into account.

[00:35:48] Well, then it looks really poor because you can see that again, the increase in household

[00:35:55] net worth goes up dramatically on the red line, which represents Trump.

[00:36:00] And it goes up a little bit under Biden in the blue line, but eventually drops below

[00:36:05] the line because at this point there is actually a decrease in net worth.

[00:36:11] So that's Michael Barone.

[00:36:14] And if you would like to read it in its entirety, it's there and is four pages long.

[00:36:20] But I might also point you to another one which I did not post, but is also very well

[00:36:24] done by Rebecca Downs.

[00:36:26] This particular case, she is quoting from an article in Axios, which again shows a couple

[00:36:35] of things.

[00:36:36] And first of all, it takes a shot on what I might call a straw man argument.

[00:36:41] It says that most Americans actually believe that the United States is in recession.

[00:36:48] OK, let's give her where it is due.

[00:36:51] It is not.

[00:36:52] It is according to the traditional definition of two quarters of net growth.

[00:36:59] Then you certainly do have a recession.

[00:37:04] But at the same time, the same polls show that most Americans, 70 percent, say the cost

[00:37:11] of living is their biggest economic concern.

[00:37:15] And 68 percent also say that inflation is the important concern for them as well.

[00:37:21] And so there's just a reminder that you're going to continue to see we've been seeing

[00:37:25] these for some time.

[00:37:27] The economy is good and you just don't appreciate how good it is.

[00:37:32] You can of course find almost all sorts of charts that compare the cost of a Big Mac

[00:37:38] five years ago to currently the cost of gasoline, the cost of milk, of eggs, whatever it might

[00:37:46] be and see that once you factor in the inflation costs, which are very dramatic, that you can

[00:37:54] begin to recognize that the problem is a whole lot worse.

[00:37:59] And as we've pointed out before, some of the articles that have been written actually

[00:38:03] acknowledge that a lot of this is based upon CPI, which is called the Consumer Price Index,

[00:38:10] which excludes all sorts of things that possibly need to be included.

[00:38:16] And if you indeed did count inflation and the Consumer Price Index in 2024 the way we

[00:38:24] did in the 1970s, then you would say that we didn't have a peak inflation of 9 percent.

[00:38:32] We had a peak inflation of 18 percent.

[00:38:35] And that's why you feel the pain in your pocketbook and you feel it when you actually buy groceries,

[00:38:43] when you fill up your gas tank and all of the rest.

[00:38:46] And so again, I wanted you just to see a very good piece by Michael Barone, who is in many

[00:38:52] cases oftentimes an equal opportunity grief giver.

[00:38:56] If indeed he is concerned about something that has been said by a Republican president,

[00:39:01] he'll call that out just as much as he will be concerned about how individuals certainly

[00:39:06] are not telling the truth about the economic cost of living, which I think is a much better

[00:39:13] indicator.

[00:39:14] And of course, completely ignoring inflation, which has been, of course, perhaps the most

[00:39:20] devastating part of that calculation.

[00:39:23] But just before we go, I wanted to prepare you for tomorrow because Bill Federer has

[00:39:28] been on the program with us before.

[00:39:30] In this new book, Silence Equals Consent is going to be a way in which we kind of merge

[00:39:36] two things we like to talk about here on Point of View.

[00:39:40] First of all, he's going to give you a fair amount of history because that's kind of what

[00:39:44] he does.

[00:39:45] And he has certainly looked at that and asked a very good question.

[00:39:50] How have godly people been persuaded to let ungodly people reign?

[00:39:55] And he says in a quote from, of all people, President Dwight Eisenhower, who wasn't exactly

[00:40:01] the most orthodox people in terms of Christian convictions, nevertheless said that the relationship

[00:40:06] between a spiritual faith and our form of government is obvious.

[00:40:11] Everyone is endowed by his creator, born in the image of God.

[00:40:16] Pretty good line from an individual that wasn't necessarily a regular churchgoer.

[00:40:20] But he then takes us back to the American founders who were actually inspired by the

[00:40:25] idea of a covenant government because that's what they had.

[00:40:30] This was what, of course, the Puritans implemented as they found the New England colonial government.

[00:40:37] And I think most people don't realize that federal is actually the Latin term for covenant.

[00:40:43] And so we're going to spend some time talking about Romans 13, 1-7, about the idea of a

[00:40:49] self-governing republic.

[00:40:51] We're going to be talking about what we might have learned from the pilgrims and the Puritans,

[00:40:56] what was really intended by the Christian patriots.

[00:41:00] And more importantly, then takes us now to where we find ourselves today, where there's

[00:41:05] more and more influence by globalists.

[00:41:08] And of course he quotes from George Storos and the World Economic Forum.

[00:41:13] We're going to spend some time talking about what it's going to take to really have a just

[00:41:18] and stable government.

[00:41:20] And so you'll see a very good connection between some of the things that Bill Federer will be

[00:41:25] talking about tomorrow and some of the things that Michael Brown has been talking about

[00:41:30] today.

[00:41:31] And so again, what kind of legacy are we leaving to our children?

[00:41:36] Proverbs 13, verse 22 says that a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.

[00:41:43] And so what are we leaving for the next generation in terms of our government and in terms of

[00:41:49] our economy?

[00:41:50] And I think you will really appreciate his book, Silence Equals Consent.

[00:41:55] If you are interested in maybe having him come and speak, he has been speaking at a

[00:41:59] variety of different venues in a lot of churches and been on a number of radio programs.

[00:42:05] And so we're thrilled we will have him tomorrow to kind of educate us about American government,

[00:42:10] about our history, and maybe to look to what we need to be doing in the future as we come

[00:42:17] to the ballot box in November voting for our elected representatives.

[00:42:22] So again, if you'd like to know more about some of the things we've been talking about,

[00:42:25] the various articles, my viewpoints, commentary, the video, which I would encourage you to

[00:42:30] watch and of course the interview with Michael Brown.

[00:42:32] It's all available at our website, which is pointofview.net.

[00:42:36] If you'd like to watch it again or listen to it again, you can click on that red button.

[00:42:40] If you might consider donating to us, click on that blue button because we are dependent

[00:42:45] upon your financial support to keep these kinds of programs coming once again.

[00:42:49] It's been an interesting couple of days here, so I want to thank Steve and Megan for their

[00:42:54] help behind the scenes to get everything up and running.

[00:42:57] Megan, thank you for engineering the program.

[00:42:59] Steve, thank you for producing the program.

[00:43:01] We look forward to joining us tomorrow as we talk with Bill Federer right here on Point of View.

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