Point of View November 4, 2026 – Hour 2 : Midterms Debrief (Continued)

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View Radio Talk Show, Kerby Anderson. Second hour today as we talk about of course the midterm elections and as we've already pointed out it wasn't just a blue wave it was a blue tsunami or as Governor Ron DeSantis said an extinction level event for Republicans so we want to try to figure out why.

[00:00:34] We've had a chance to of course here with our good friend Gary Bauer and we bring now to the microphone Melinda Preston who is a Republican strategist and has been serving as the chairwoman of the Denton County Republican Party in Texas. So Melinda thank you so much for being with us today here on Point of View. Thank you for having me on how are you doing today? Very good and I thought I would come first to Liberty and then get your comments because one of the articles Liberty that we've posted is

[00:01:03] Gen Z can't afford the culture war and of course there are all sorts of great pieces in that but one of those is is that 49% of the young Americans in the poll that they were talking about the you gov poll said that their personal finances have gotten worse since Trump took office for the second term. Ninety-one percent said that the cost of living will be important in determining their vote you think and of course we've always talked over the years about it's the economy stupid which goes all the way back to the Clinton years.

[00:01:33] So affordability is something we've talked about we did a whole issue on our outlooks matter of fact the next issue will also probably address some of that my commentary today is about the American dream but that's become an issue and it didn't help when the president said well I think it's just a big hoax.

[00:01:53] Yeah I you know we saw this with Biden and unfortunately I think that Trump made the same mistake and this is something you've written recently about Kirby and you know the K-shaped economy and so there are certain elements that when you look in the economy things are going well.

[00:02:08] You have lower unemployment rates than you had under Biden for instance inflation has come down but when it comes to everyday Americans you know the average person the recent college graduate or young couple trying to decide if they want to start a family gas prices are up.

[00:02:26] I believe it's a dollar seventeen since the latest Iran war began on average grocery prices are still high young adults are struggling to try to buy a home in many places. And so just saying that you know the economy is doing so well that is not going to really sound very relatable or sympathetic to many young voters.

[00:02:50] And so we kind of saw Gen Z skip over a lot of those culture issues that young Americans often focus on in elections and kind of jump straight to the economic concern saying we can't even think about these other priorities if we can't afford to live our lives or feel like that. And so you know Melinda one one thing that we talked about whenever you were here in studio with me is are these economic concerns that young Americans have and you made a really great point.

[00:03:17] And I'm bringing it up because you know we're in Texas right now which just turned to blue but it's not just Texas there are some other states as well and you made the point look at how economies are doing at the state level and where people are prospering and where they aren't. I'm a little concerned about whether or not some of that prosperity can continue in some of the states where actually things have been better for people than in other places due to the results last night. Well I agree look at the stock market today.

[00:03:46] You're looking at a you know it's going crazy because they're concerned about our country. Look at Texas you're right. We had more early voters than we have ever had and a lot of those early voters voted Democrat Republicans. They were supposed to be Republicans but the Republicans voted for the Democrats.

[00:04:08] So that's the concern that we have that people are have an unrealistic expectation of voting the other way and everything's going to be okay. And yet we look at California. We look at New York. We look at Minnesota. We look at these different countries. I mean yeah it's like a different country actually. We look at these different states and they're having major financial issues and people companies people are moving out of those states. California we have a ton of people moving to Texas.

[00:04:37] North Texas is one of the fastest growing areas in the whole United States. And so they're moving here trying to find a way to survive, a way to get a home, to buy food, all of the things that we talk about. And yet they're bringing exactly what they left here. And so it's quite an eye opener.

[00:04:56] Melinda you live in you have Denton County that has University of North Texas and Texas Women's University where you're going to have a lot of younger people who are looking at the future and whether or not they're going to be able to afford that. That does that affect did that affect Denton County? And of course just to your east there is Collin County and you also have just to the south Tarrant County both of which have been Republican strongholds. And at least last night, the last I saw it, it looked like they might be flipping blue. What is your assessment of that?

[00:05:27] I think that what we're looking at is we have people, the voter went to the polls and they spoke. And that is, and it was loud and clear. They did not like Paxton. They did not want Paxton. And when we were doing polling, when we were doing, we were calling, texting, those kind of things. We had many, many, many people that we called and we text tell us that they were not going to vote for Paxton. They may not vote for Tallarico, but they certainly were not going to vote for Paxton.

[00:05:56] And as you know, if you leave a vote open, if you leave it, you're going to vote for the Democrat. That's just they're getting what they need to get ahead. And so and then you had the issue with Abbott and Abbott had there were several. One of them was he never did address the data centers. Truly, he didn't address the data centers. The school vouchers, it was not a popular bill and people were very upset about it. And yes, the gas prices, so many things that go into this.

[00:06:25] We're looking at a younger generation who is, you know, being taught all kinds of crazy ideas that socialism is good, that communism is good, that it is let's share the wealth. They haven't read 1984. They haven't read Animal Farm. And they truly believe that there could be a way of everybody being equal. And that is an impossible, as we know, through history, if you've ever studied history, that socialism, communism does not work.

[00:06:55] So but these people have these students, these younger, the younger generation has this idea of this utopia. And this utopia is not realistic. And we do go through ups and downs throughout, you know, the history of our nation. We've had, you know, times whenever it was very difficult. You know, we had inflation. We had food costs were extremely high. Gosh, do you remember Carter and the gas lines?

[00:07:21] And literally we had shootings at the gas, you know, at the gas stations. It was crazy. People were just out of control. So this has been something that has happened throughout history. But younger generations, this younger generation is wanting, they want it fixed now, right this very second. And it's going to take time. So it is concerning. I mean, you're looking at we've been a Republican state for 30 years.

[00:07:49] And now we are no longer a Republican state. Now, Denton County, we lost six seats. We won 34 seats. We're not in terrible condition. But there are we've got a lot of work to do. We've got to change our messaging. We need to talk about history. We need to be talking about truly what is communism, this Democratic Socialist Party. What does that mean? What where will it get you? And of course, it would.

[00:08:17] Of course, we'd have to get rid of our Constitution because it wouldn't align. So we are in a strange place in history. But I do have hope. You know what? This may be the very thing that the Lord has called to wake people up so that they will fight for the next election. It is a wake up call. And of course, yesterday we even talked with an expert at a research institute. Just remind us of about the historical and political illiteracy of the people that went and voted yesterday.

[00:08:45] So we'll come back and talk about that right after this. This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Now that the election is behind us, it's worth revisiting one of the major themes of the 2026 campaign. That was the issue of affordability.

[00:09:14] There is an accurate way to quantify what many voters felt. Each year, writers and investopedia do a calculation of the true cost to achieve the American dream. This year, they estimated the American dream now cost $5 million. They come to that conclusion by calculating the cost of eight milestones, owning a home, buying new cars, raising two children and sending them to college, retiring, paying for health care, having a wedding, owning pets and taking a yearly vacation.

[00:09:43] The original concept of the American dream came from the writer James Truslow Adams in his book Epic of America. It was the fulfillment of a life that was better and richer and fuller for everyone. If we assume that the writers of Investopedia have accurately calculated what amounts to the American dream, it immediately crashes into reality. They compare the five million figure to what most Americans might earn. For example, a single wage earner falls short.

[00:10:09] A full-time worker with a bachelor's degree earns a median of about $3.6 million from age 25 to 64. That is based on a reasonable analysis of Census Bureau data. Even if we add Social Security retirement, that worker never reaches the necessary amount. As I've mentioned in previous commentaries, Americans and our world fall short because the value of the dollar diminishes. Thus, the cost of living goes up faster than any increase in wages and salaries. And that is why the American dream seems elusive today.

[00:10:40] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view. 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. Once again, let me encourage you to go to the website pointofview.net.

[00:11:09] Of course, you're going to see quite a bit about socialism. The November issue of Outlook is, of course, on the socialist surge. And Melinda raised a good question. Dr. Matthews, I might come back to you because you asked a question in The Hill in an article you wrote a while back. Could a democratic socialist truly agree with the particular aspect of the Constitution? Because if indeed you take the oath of office, you are supposed to defend the Constitution. Support and defend the Constitution. Right.

[00:11:38] And they, because they want to change Article I, Article II, and Article III of the Constitution. Yeah. I asked the question, could they truthfully take the oath of office? And I argue that they can't, but they would go ahead and take the oath of office anyway. Yeah.

[00:11:54] And, of course, the Center for Renewing America has come up and used that argument in a paper in October saying the House could deny seating some of these people or the Senate if they were democratic socialists on the grounds of not being able to truthfully take the oath of office. Now, Democrats are going to throw up the House and Senate, so it's not going to be an issue. It's not going to happen. But it was interesting that they brought up the – Good question. Yeah. They brought it up.

[00:12:20] Well, one of the things that Melinda also brought up, and I wanted to get your thoughts about that, is the issue of corruption. And that is there was a survey that was done, and 88 percent of voters said that one of the top concerns for them was corruption, which, to put in perspective, that was higher than 85 percent who said it was inflation. Now, when they're asking corruption, obviously in Texas maybe that is, of course, Ken Paxton. But for most people around the country, that's not the case.

[00:12:49] So when they're thinking corruption, they're thinking of Donald Trump and his family growing richer in their second term. And I've said before that I think Peter Schweitzer has a new book coming out after the president steps down because he's been investigating corruption for Democrats for some time, sometimes for Republicans. And there are some reasons why people voted against the Republicans, even if technically Donald Trump was not on the ballot. Right. Yeah.

[00:13:16] There is a widespread perception among the public that there is a lot of corruption going on in Washington. And I do not know if much of what this is, what the Trump family has done is illegal. It may be perfectly legal. It is, I think, in many cases unseemly to do some of that.

[00:13:34] But just for instance, when Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff created World Liberty Financial in September of 2024, right before the election, Donald Trump doesn't know anything about cryptocurrency. But they created this as a kind of a cryptocurrency organization, put Steve Witkoff's son in charge of it, Zach Witkoff, and also I think one of the Trump sons were involved in it.

[00:13:59] And so right in January, I believe it was, one of the United Arab Emirates, one of the people who controlled their sovereign wealth fund, put $500 million into World Liberty Financial. And you look at this and think, $500 million from a Middle Eastern country into an organization that was created by Donald Trump. And for a while, they had Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff as the co-founders emeritus on their website.

[00:14:29] They took that down. And so Carolyn Levitt would say, there's no, Donald Trump is not involved in this. This is sons. There's no corruption or conflict of interest. But it just doesn't look good. And interesting, I found out later on that the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which had been hosting Hamas, had sort of this rivalry trying to be able to get in charge, be closest to Donald Trump.

[00:14:56] And then so United Arab Emirates puts $500 million in this. Qatar gives him a $400 million plane. This just looks, it doesn't look good. Even if there's nothing wrong with it, it doesn't look good. And what we know is the Democrats are going to start investigations in both the House and the Senate. And we may find a lot of things that really don't look good in this.

[00:15:17] Liberty, as we've talked about before, when you've been the host of the Next Generation Roundtable, one of the things we talk about is the younger you are, Generation Y, Generation Z, they're already pretty skeptical anyway. And all you have to have is just the whiff of conspiracy, the whiff of any kind of corruption. And that's enough for any vigils to maybe say, I'm not going to vote for them. Oh, absolutely.

[00:15:39] I think that Gen Z in particular and many millennials as well are kind of starting from a place of just already being jaded. And so they're probably not surprised to hear about corruption again. You know, and it's probably amplified on different social media algorithms and things like that. But I don't think people like it.

[00:16:00] And again, when you get back to just kind of those fundamental needs that many are expressing regarding things like affordability, then they are saying, well, I don't really trust anybody. But who is saying that they're at least going to, you know, help me afford health care or, you know, freeze my rent and keep, you know, my rent from increasing or things like that. And as to Melinda's point, you know, they haven't really been educated.

[00:16:24] But I really do think that the Republican Party needs to do a better job of not just talking about, wow, the left is too crazy for us, but saying, OK, what are our answers to these problems? And what does what does a free economy look like? What are the benefits of the American system when you compare it to different places around the world? Those are the details that need to be winsomely and eloquently articulated. And unfortunately, they just haven't been.

[00:16:53] Melinda, I'd love to get your comments as well. Well, I 100 percent agree. I think our messaging as far as the Republican Party has been none. We haven't had really any messaging. And so we need to be working on that. We need to be bringing in the younger generation, explaining what it is to be a constitutional republic.

[00:17:12] What is the difference between, you know, being able to start a company of your own and being able to become wealthy all on your own by working hard compared to another nation where you have no, you know, you just work every day and you get a paycheck. So there's a big difference. I think that a lot of people that's something that we need to be shouting as the Republican Party. We also need to be talking about ways for people to get into housing.

[00:17:40] Why are we having such an issue with housing right now? You know, what is going on with Iran? I think that communication is the key. I don't think we've explained well enough on why we are at war with Iran. And this is a huge issue for so many of these young people. Why are we at war right now? What's going on? And why are our gas prices so high?

[00:18:03] I think that we need to do a better job whenever we decide to go into whatever it is that could cause us to pay a little bit more. We need to explain and we need to win over the hearts of the people and make sure that they're buying into it so that they understand, hey, there's going to be a little bit of discomfort. But in the long run, here's what we're going to get out of it. And we haven't done a good job with that.

[00:18:24] Melinda, one of the issues that I saw that people were saying was one of the things that concerned them was there was not enough pushback against President Trump and his policies. And so Democrats tried. Republicans just did not push back at all. And so I'm wondering if we're going to see what are your thoughts? Will Republicans come up and sit now and say the voters did not like the tariffs? They feel like tariffs raised the rates and raised what they were paying for things. And so we're going to try to start pushing against some of the tariffs.

[00:18:54] We're going to try to they may even push back against the war in Iran. What are you thinking about how Republicans might try to differentiate themselves from the president and some of his policies? Well, I'll tell you that seeing the pushback from the voters should wake everybody up. And also, you know, you've always heard here in Texas that Governor Abbott, he'll be the governor forever. He's got the money. Nobody can beat him. He's untouchable.

[00:19:21] And last night, hello, that is that's the Lord puts into power and he takes down. So that is something that we need to always remember. But I do believe that we need to stand up for righteousness or what is right, what is wrong. And we need to have a voice no matter who it is, even if it is, you know, Donald Trump. You stand up and you have to be able to say, I don't agree with this and not worry about the repercussion. You know, we've got to do what is right.

[00:19:51] And I think right now we're seeing a lot of people are going, wait, did you just say that? Did you just say what you did last night? You know, no, no, no, no, no. How about humility? We've made some mistakes. We've made some mistakes. Absolutely we have. You know, how can we fix this? How can we get everybody together? How can we come together as a nation, actually come together as a party?

[00:20:12] And that's one of the issues that we've had is so much division in our own party, which when you have divisions, it's very difficult to get anything accomplished. So I believe that this is a wake-up call. I believe we need to come together, and we need to come together as a church, as a family, as a people, and say, do we really, what road do we want to take for this nation?

[00:20:36] And I really do believe that, you know, the Democratic Socialist Party is a path straight to communism and limited freedom. And I have seen that world. I've been to Russia. I know what it looks like. I've told you I have three children from Russia. So, you know, that's a fear. One of my daughters called this morning and goes, did you see what happened? And I'm like, I know, I know. It's going to be okay. So, you know, God is in control.

[00:21:05] That's what we just have to keep saying is God is in control. But we need to help the younger generation. That's the next generation that's going to take the helm and that's going to run with us. We need to help them and be better at communication. Let's take a break, and when we come back, we have some other very important issues to put on the table. All that coming up right after this.

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[00:22:59] You are listening to Point of View. 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. Back once again, we're going to spend just a little bit of time talking about this idea of pushback and whether or not there are certain presidential possible candidates who might disconnect with Donald Trump.

[00:23:26] But let's get to one of those because the Wall Street Journal put out the job approval for the president, his first and second term. And it begins to take a real dive when he went all in on tariffs in April of 2025. Remember that? And then, even after his tariff defeat at the Supreme Court, continued to impose those particular tariffs.

[00:23:50] If you look at some of the disapproval, Hispanics disapproved of tariffs by 81%. That's almost 100%. And, of course, then they remind us that Senator Phil Graham warned on these pages the Wall Street Journal. Republicans have suffered many similar defeats over the decades when they've resorted to tariffs. One of the obvious places where there could be some Republican pushback is on the tariffs. Absolutely.

[00:24:16] And that's in part because the Constitution empowers Congress to pass tariffs, not the president. And Congress has given the president some limited authority to do that. But Trump has taken that to something of extreme in many cases. And this is where we're going to see what happens now as people who are thinking Donald Trump is not going to be on the ballot next time in two more years, we think. He's not going to be there.

[00:24:43] Will he have the ability to be able to say, if you disagree with me, I'm going to back somebody to primary you? Or will disagreeing with Donald Trump on some things, especially really unpopular things, actually be sort of a star in somebody's cap? And so tariffs is one of the things. Republicans did not push back at all on that. And it would not surprise me if we see some pushback.

[00:25:06] I'm almost certain that Hakeem Jeffries, as the Speaker of the House, will move legislation to take some of the tariff authority away from Trump. I'm almost certain that's the case. I suspect he'll get some Republican votes. Donald Trump would veto that. Would you have enough Republican votes that would cross over to override that veto? And just this isn't this isn't trying to penalize Trump. This is just taking back the authority that the Constitution gives the House and the House and Senate. Pretty good.

[00:25:36] Let me, if I can, for just a few minutes, because I'd love to get comments both from Liberty and Melinda. In the outlook issue in November, you talk, Liberty, about four abortion measures on state ballots. And, of course, we just talked a little bit with Gary Bauer about the one in Virginia. But it does seem to me that we, as we look at these candidates, also need to recognize that some of these measures, some of these propositions, some of these amendments are very significant.

[00:26:03] And maybe on Friday we'll do a little bit more of an analysis of that. But give us an update on where we stand on the pro-life issue. Yeah, it's not very encouraging when it comes to these four ballot propositions that we have highlighted. And we've mentioned multiple times on Point of View, obviously, in the article as well. In Missouri, voters rejected Amendment 3.

[00:26:23] So they voted to, and then in, I'll come back to that one in a moment, but in Nevada, they did vote to enshrine abortion as a state constitutional right. Same thing in Virginia. In Idaho, thankfully, they did vote to keep the existing ban on abortion.

[00:26:44] Now, what's important to note about Virginia is that there is already a lawsuit on the table that we need to be praying about and just keeping our eye on from an organization in Virginia, the Family Foundation of Virginia, because the proposition they are arguing was materially misleading. This is a note that I made in the Outlook article as well, because the way that it is worded, again, I think talking about reproductive rights,

[00:27:12] it is so misleading. It does not include that there are other elements of that proposition as well, including gender transition for minors that would be enshrined in the state constitution. And if you look around the nation and places even like Colorado and I believe Arizona, voters actually rejected or voted in favor of propositions that would ban gender transition for minors.

[00:27:39] So they are, you know, some of those are some of the propositions that should actually encourage us. But that was one of the elements of Proposition 1 or Question 1 in Virginia. And so a lot of people didn't realize that. So basically what this proposition does is it legalizes abortion up to birth in Virginia. But there is already a lawsuit to overturn that based on the argument that the proposition itself was materially misleading. And so we need to keep an eye on that.

[00:28:05] Melinda, I wanted to come to you because right now many people think of at least Texas as being more of a pro-life state. But you now have talked about the fact that we have a remarkable change from the governor all the way down to the Texas House and the Texas Senate. What about that? Well, you know, Proverbs 29 says when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

[00:28:29] It's a huge concern because we have fought hard to keep gender modification out of Texas to make it illegal for abortion to be illegal. And yet now we have a whole new group of people. And Henehosa and I know Tallerico is not in Austin, but they both fought against banning abortion, banning gender modification. They both fought heavily against that.

[00:28:58] Therefore, you know, harming our children, taking away rights from the parents. All of these things, you know, full term abortions. These are things that we should be very concerned of. And when you allow them to, even as Republicans, and I am sure many, many, many Christians voted for this, for them, which is the strangest thing. They voted against what we have been fighting for for so many years. It is concerning. It is very concerning.

[00:29:26] And the good thing is we still have the House and the Senate, so they're not going to be able to, you know, really get anything passed. But it's going to be gridlock in Texas. Nothing's going to get passed. We'll have no move forward. So it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. A couple of years. Well, one of the things I'm going to hold up our booklet again on a biblical view on woke candidates. And, of course, one of those is James Tallerico. Another one we talked about there in Kansas is Adam Hamilton and others.

[00:29:54] And when they're out there saying that the Bible doesn't say anything about abortion, we should be not only looking at how that affects politics, but how it affects the culture. If you have reputable individuals, U.S. senators saying, well, the Bible really doesn't say anything about abortion. As a matter of fact, I think this idea of banning abortions is not something we should be doing. That's a cultural issue that we should have the churches speaking out about. And as Gary Bauer points out, many times we haven't had pastors address those issues.

[00:30:25] That's true. And it's a big issue from the, you know, when you look back in history and we had the Black World Regiment, that was the pastors, the pastors in the pulpit that were fighting for the culture, for the people. And today is this whole idea of separation of church and state, which is absolutely insane that we even think that that was ever part of the writings of our founding fathers, because it was not.

[00:30:53] And we have got to get back to being the church, being the ones who are the climate, the ones who shine the light in a dark place, the ones who bring the people in that are hurting, that are, there's so many hurting people. When you look at the whole LGBTQ community, how angry and how, how just, they have no hope.

[00:31:22] They have no peace. But yet we have the answer. The answer is Jesus. That we try to stay out of politics. The church does because it's too messy. But Jesus never said this was going to be easy. He said that he would be with us through all of it, that he would be with us whenever we go to share the gospel, that he will be with us. And I think that the church is missing it when only about 17% of the church votes. That's, that's alarming. That's alarming.

[00:31:52] Melinda, it seemed like in the 2024 election, cultural issues and economic issues were sort of both up there in primary. In this, it may be that we're just a victim of our own success because it didn't seem like cultural issues played much of a role this time. It seemed like it was primarily economic issues. And when we push those to the background, things can change. Don't you think that people have gotten more used to it?

[00:32:19] It's almost like you see a person who is, you know, with a woman with a woman and nobody, you're like, oh, I've seen it before. It almost, you know, you get desensitized. And I think that we have got to wake up and realize that the Lord has called us for such a time as this. That this is the battle that we should be fighting. Even over, I love, I think politics is great, but I love Jesus more.

[00:32:44] And yet he says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my faith and turn from their wicked ways, then what will he do? He'll hear from heaven. And he will forgive our sins and he will heal our land. But we forget to call on him, you know, and that is, I think that that's where the church is right now. We're going to church because it's the thing to do. But are we really worshiping? Are we really reading our Bible?

[00:33:11] Are we really praying with the people who are hurting? Are we touching lives? I think that that is, that's crucial right now in this time in history that we are touching people, praying for them and showing them what true hope is. And freedom, you know, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. It only comes from Jesus. Only. The government can't do it. Let's take a break.

[00:33:35] And when we come back, I thought we'd talk a little bit about Democratic political dirty tricks as well as Decoy Dan. All that coming up right after this. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back for a few more minutes.

[00:34:04] Of course, we're going to be covering some of this all week and looking forward to our Friday weekend edition. But Dr. Merrill Matthews, this piece that came out, Dirty Democrat Political Tricks. And again, we've talked about this before because the New York Times did an investigation because you have the Daniel S. Sullivan and the Daniel J. Sullivan. And Daniel S. Sullivan has 47.88% of the votes so far. Daniel J. Sullivan has another 1.68%. If you have those together, then that works. But because there was some confusion.

[00:34:33] And I read a story yesterday of an individual that came out of the voting booth in Anchorage and was asked by a reporter, well, did you vote for both Dan Sullivans? And he goes, I only saw one. So right off the bat, you have some people getting confused. Well, you remind us here that this isn't the only time. And, of course, we have spent some time and will spend some time on Friday with one of our historians about this. And then we also have this piece by Cal Thomas.

[00:35:01] But there have been some dirty tricks for some time. But this is the first time I know it has happened at this level in the United States Senate. Right, yes. And so I highlight the one that happened in Alaska and then also the one that happened in Montana. That's an interesting one. In this case, and I heard about this on This American Life, but it's a situation in which there was sort of a lady who was running for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat, the open Senate seat in Alaska.

[00:35:28] And Democrats, she was not known. Democrats, the Democrats, she found out that all of a sudden she started seeing ads coming on television and radio. Mailers going out all over the state. Tweets and so forth supporting her. And she had no idea where this was coming from. Nobody ever contacted her. It really promoted her. She ended up winning the Democratic nomination.

[00:35:52] And then after that, she got pressure from the Democrats to drop out because the Democrats thought their best chance to win and to beat the Republican in Montana was to support an independent. Right. Who was a veteran and also president of the University of Montana. And so he had the connections and so forth. And so she decided she was not going to drop out. But she got a lot of pressure from doing that. And there was even a public campaign.

[00:36:18] She showed the people in This American Life signs being put up around the state saying you need to drop out of this race after they after they promoted her and got her the Democratic nomination. So it was interesting because they wanted to have the independent run against the Republican there. And I point out that back in the 2024 election, you had excuse me, the 2022 election.

[00:36:43] You had Democrats supporting running ads supporting the most MAGA of the Republican candidates in various states in hopes of getting that candidate to win, making it easier for the Democratic candidate to win against the MAGA Republican. And that happened in some cases. Well, again, we got the one by Cal Thomas as well, reminding us of Watergate and what they did to try to sink and eventually did sink Edward Muskie's campaign and on and on and on.

[00:37:11] Yeah, Cal goes way back in years on various kinds. This is not democratic, but it. Yeah. But again, we had the other day we had Richard Lim on and he reminded us of all sorts of examples that were taking place. So that's one of those key issues. So let me go around the roundtable because in some respects, Liberty, you also talk about the issue of A.I. And that's an issue.

[00:37:34] And I want to get Melinda's comments about that as well, because people are starting to say what is true and what can really be something that I trust. And that is really made some of the election a little bit fuzzy as well, hasn't it? Yeah. Just just one more reason for people to be skeptical whenever we are looking at things online. But I do think it's important to talk about A.I. In light of what happened last night. And Melinda was talking about messaging a little bit earlier in this hour.

[00:38:03] And this is an area where I really think the Republican Party and particularly President Trump fumbled in a big way in terms of not making a strong case for his position on artificial intelligence. When you look at the exit polls, 59 percent of voters say A.I. will hurt society. That's not insignificant. 56 percent of voters say that A.I. and data centers were a crucial factor in their vote and in their choice.

[00:38:34] And again, here in Texas, just as an example, even though I think there were similar races and issues replicated all over the nation, Governor-elect Hinojosa actually made data centers one of her three priorities. She didn't highlight her extremely progressive voting record, you know, at the Texas state legislature or anything like that. She talked about schools and she talked about the other big thing she talked about were data centers. And at the same time, like you this has not been a secret.

[00:39:03] This is not a surprise. The fact that Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, have concerns and hesitancy about A.I. So you didn't really see a whole lot of Republicans, I don't think, addressing that very well or making the case for why. Hey, we hear your concerns, but we're going to make this case. Instead, you had President Trump saying we're going to rename it, you know, S.I., super intelligence. What what practical good does that do? I mean, what practical good does that do?

[00:39:32] And then I talked about this a month or so ago when he tweeted it out. But he said, if you don't want a data center in your community, then you want to be backwards and poor. And now how many rural American voters who have voted for Trump two or three times now heard that and thought I've been abandoned by my president? Because it's a really big issue. So that's just one of the things that I think we need to realize. And when we're looking at why Republicans failed so much last night. Melinda?

[00:40:03] I agree. We had a data center that they were trying to put in recently here in North Texas and Denton County. And one of our precinct chairs did an amazing job fighting against it and actually joined with the Democrats. I mean, they joined together to fight this data center right across the street from three of my grandchildren's homes. And in a crazy area. And it failed. We won. But it was amazing to see how many people did not want to touch it, didn't want to touch this subject.

[00:40:33] And, yes, 59% of the people that have been polled said that they have issues with this. I do believe that is one of the reasons why Abbott lost. 100% do. Because he would not address data centers and AI. They asked for a special session. He would not do it. But, you know, that right there and the school vouchers. Those were the two things that I think just – and he did not think it would affect him. And it did. So we have to hear the people.

[00:41:00] We have gotten – we can't get so far removed from the citizens that we – they're our boss, right? When you're an elected official, I am actually an elected official. So they're my boss. And so I need to listen to what they're asking me to do. What do you want me to do? What do you need me to do? Yes. You know, we weigh it. We see how many people, you know, are – because you're going to get all kinds of crazy things. And believe me, we do.

[00:41:28] But we better be listening to what the citizens are saying. AI is an issue. It's going to be an issue. Block cameras are an issue. We have several things that people are concerned about. And yet, I believe that we have had a deaf ear as a Republican Party. And we've got to wake up. We've got to hear. Well, Melinda, I appreciate you joining us once again. And I look forward to the next opportunity.

[00:41:51] Again, if people would like to know a little bit more, we do have a link that you can follow to DentonGOP.org in case people would like to weigh in or get to know you a little bit better. And all of that is on our website at pointofview.net. So thank you for joining us today here on Point of View. Thank you for having me. Y'all have a great week. And, again, I want to thank the two of you for being here as well.

[00:42:13] I thought for just a minute I might just mention that tomorrow we have John Lott on because there's a big question as to whether or not a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. And that was a big issue in Bend, Oregon. And the argument is, yeah, but that's unbelievably rare. So we're going to have him on to talk about that because I think the Second Amendment is going to show up in Congress. And, of course, we'll continue to look at some of these other very important issues. And, Dr. Matthews, you're joining me on Friday.

[00:42:39] I know we have Chelsea and you and I think we have Richard Lim by phone again. So it's going to be a good Friday. I'd be glad to have Richard, especially with all the politics that are going on right now. Richard knows his stuff. And, again, Liberty, again, I thank you for your work. Again, I encourage you to follow all of the links here. We, of course, have the link to Point of View and the link to the Next Generation Roundtable and the Know Why podcast. All of that is good. Most importantly, I want to thank Megan for her help engineering the program.

[00:43:09] Derek, thank you for producing the program. We'll see you back here tomorrow right here on Point of View. In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs, but words and ideas. London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism, and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. London was in many ways the center of the world economically, militarily, and intellectually.

[00:43:37] Marx sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports. Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers. Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth. It is truth for all of life. Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today?

[00:43:58] Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign up for the Viewpoints commentary at pointofview.net slash signup. Every weekday in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time. It's free, so visit pointofview.net slash signup right now. Pointofview.net slash signup.

[00:44:27] Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.