Point of View October 7, 2026 – Hour 2 : Trump Poll Numbers

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View. And now, Liberty McCartney. Welcome back to Point of View here for the second hour and joining me in studio, Melinda Preston. First time guest on Point of View, but not new to Point of View. Fun fact, I just learned that Melinda actually volunteered with Point of View years ago.

[00:00:34] And that's a reminder for you, if you are local to Point of View, we usually have volunteer opportunities. So hit us up. We'd love to work with you. Also former youth pastor with her husband, currently serves as the Republican Strategist and the Denton County Republican Chair in Texas. So, Melinda, thank you so much for being on Point of View with me today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's fun to have you in studio. It's always great to have somebody else around the table.

[00:00:58] So let's talk about the midterms for a minute and we'll get into all the news of the day and topics that we're going to cover. And I'd love to get your take on those. But, you know, we do have those coming up really quickly. One of the things that Point of View has been talking about a lot is the socialist surge that we are seeing across the United States.

[00:01:18] And so this is we've seen more people winning primaries, even running for national office, who are not only OK with the socialist label, but proud and loud members of the Democratic Socialists of America. And so what what do you see as the driver of this? One of the things that I've wondered is it seems like we're really seeing a shift of the Overton window with many of these extreme policies being talked about that a few decades ago.

[00:01:46] You wouldn't even say in politics, because then even if you were a Democrat, you would not not be allowed to run anymore. I know. Yeah. Radical. But you're right. We're seeing a shift. So where did this come from? There's a lot of places that it came from. But I want to let's talk about comfort. Comfort is our biggest enemy. Right. Yeah. And this happens throughout history where you get comfortable where you're at. We've had you know anything about the communist movement in 1963?

[00:02:15] It was put in the archives of the Library of Congress, what they were up to. I mean, it is insane what they have been able to do. First of all, you know, there's several things that were on their agenda. They had forty five major agendas. One was to take over a political party, to take over the school system, to cause riots, rioting everywhere to where there is just upheaval. I mean, so many things gain control of all student newspapers.

[00:02:43] I mean, there is just one thing, you know, infiltrate the press. Look at the press today. I mean, it is definitely one sided and it is propaganda. Tons of propaganda, tons of propaganda being poured out into into people's minds. And scripture is very clear about the mind. And, you know, we are to bind our mind to Christ and we are to be in the word and we are to know the truth. We are to seek truth.

[00:03:08] But if you don't know Jesus and you're just getting, you know, it's a very chaotic time. You can feel it in the in the environment. You can feel the chaos. But Jesus is the God of peace and the God of control. And so the media is pushing a narrative that is pulling these people to that socialist mindset. Now, what do I mean, we're also getting it in the school system again.

[00:03:37] You're looking at the school system that doesn't teach American history, world history. But last session, we were able to get passed. And that was in 2020. Gosh, what year is it now? Twenty twenty five. We were able to get a bill passed to where every student in Texas will learn about communism. What is communism? We had Rafael Cruz gave his testimony so that people understand what is communism.

[00:04:07] People need to read 1984 animal farm. We grew up reading these things, knowing about communists. We saw the, you know, the wall fall. We saw communism in Russia. It's still we have three children we adopted in 2001 from Russia. So Russia is still a mess. It's going to always be unless the Lord sends revival, unless revival happens there.

[00:04:31] But there is there was a move to because people saw that communism, socialism wasn't working. It's never worked. It's always failed. And so but here in the United States, there's been a desire to take over through communism and the Islamic movement as well. And so we are we are battling that. And it's not a war against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of darkness.

[00:04:57] It's where the church is so vitally important, where prayer moves mountains, where we see major change. We're seeing schools revival happening in schools. I was interviewed by a professor and a teacher and they both one was with the university in the area. And he said, we're seeing students coming to the Lord like crazy. And the high school teacher said we are, too. Wow. So God's moving. Yeah. And waking people up.

[00:05:24] We just have to remind people what is communism? What is socialism? What does it really mean? And that the Democrats are very open about it. It sounds great, right? Everything's free. Mm hmm. Everybody's equal. Yeah. Well, everybody's equal except, you know, when you start reading Animal Farm and you see where it goes, there's always going to be somebody who controls and who is gaining wealth. You know, it's not going to be the average citizens.

[00:05:52] It's going to be the people in control of the government. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I love what you said at the beginning, comfort being our biggest enemy, because if you really go into the history of Marxism, as I know, you know, there is a godless worldview underneath it all.

[00:06:10] And when you when you realize that it clicks and it clicks that, OK, you're taking a worldview that's atheist and you're trying to then be like, OK, I don't acknowledge God. But now I'm going to try to solve all the world's problems. Oh, yeah. Without. And when you talked about comfort, it made me think about an interview that I did on the Know Why podcast on Gen Z and the anxiety rates are through the roof.

[00:06:40] And it's so encouraging what you just said about suicide and suicide. And so that that there are students coming to Jesus. That's really encouraging. I want to talk about that maybe a little bit more here in a minute. But, you know, if you've got all this change, I mean, you had like covid and and a bunch of other things that really did a digital environments that caused a lot of problems for young people growing up a lot of uncertainty.

[00:07:05] It kind of makes sense that then they would want to go to something that is comforting and says we're going to literally take care of everything for you. You'll never have to pay bills again if we get our socialist vision. Exactly. And that is that is the the dangle, right? The carrot that is being dangled. Everything will be free. You'll live in comfort. You'll have everything that you need.

[00:07:28] And yet, you know, throughout history, we see what communism, socialism does to society, the poverty. I mean, the the when we adopted our children, it was such a shock to go to Russia because we were outside about I guess it was about six hours, maybe eight hours outside Moscow that we had to travel to two different orphanages. They were eight, 11 and 12.

[00:07:55] And the poverty that you saw, you couldn't even in our world here in America, you can't imagine. I mean, people were walking. Women were were carrying buckets of water because they had no water in their homes. I mean, the sewage system was unbelievable. People were digging out of trash to find food and and the little towns around. I mean, the children were so abused. It was just because and they don't the parents don't keep their kids because why would you?

[00:08:24] You don't. There's no you lose all feeling and you lose all empathy, sympathy, you know, courage. Everything is lost because you have nothing. The fruits of communism. You have none of it. We'll be right back after this short break with Melinda Preston.

[00:08:45] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Christians have always needed to know how to defend the Christian faith ever since Peter admonished us to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

[00:09:15] This is even more true with many people skeptical about God, Jesus and the Bible. Doug Rotice and Andrew Shepardson are the co-authors of an introduction into classical apologetics with a title, The Knowledge of God in the World and the Word. The primary focus is to put forth various arguments for the existence of God and then finish with a defense of the Bible and a presentation of the truth about Jesus and his resurrection. Here is a summary of just three of the chapters in their book.

[00:09:43] The cosmological argument recognizes the relationship between cause and effect. This then points to a first cause of the cosmos that is transcendent to the cosmos. This argument is even more powerful now that scientists believe the universe had a beginning. The moral argument derives from the realization that there must be objective morality. If God did not exist, then objective moral values and duties would not exist. But they do exist and point to God's existence.

[00:10:12] The design argument claims that God's fingerprints can be found all over creation. William Paley proposed this argument, but scientists in the 19th and early 20th century dismissed it. However, we now see what has been called the return of the God hypothesis because of the discovery of the fine tuning of the universe. In my interview with the two authors, I mentioned that more and more scientific evidence has accumulated to bolster some of these arguments. No wonder some have described us as living in the golden age of apologetics.

[00:10:42] 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. All right, Melinda Preston in studio.

[00:11:08] She is a Republican strategist and the Denton County Republican Party chair in Texas. Also, former homeschool mom. Melinda, you were just talking about your experience adopting children from Russia. And so we've been talking about the socialist surge. And, of course, this is in the context of leading up to the midterms. But, really, I feel like we've been digging down deep into the why and what people need to know about the fruits of socialism when it is applied.

[00:11:35] Right now, it seems like you talked about kind of dangling the carrot of look at all this comfort. Let the state take care of everything for you. And a lot of young people who haven't been educated properly are falling for that. And we see that in how many people Gen Z, even a third of churchgoers, according to Barna Research, support socialism. But, anyway, I'd love to hear more of your experience when you were in Russia and just kind of the fruit of that that you saw and how it affected people's lives. Sure.

[00:12:02] So we went to Russia in December of 2001. It was shortly after 9-11. So quite a shock. The children had two of the girls had come to visit us over the summer, and we had asked if we could adopt them. They were 10 and 11 at that time, so they got to choose whether they wanted to be adopted. And then we had a son in Russia that we hadn't met. So we went over. And, you know, you're warned.

[00:12:29] You're warned about, but you can't possibly understand until you see it. It is when we went over, you know, we went to the orphanages. The conditions of the – of course, it's freezing in Russia. It's very, very cold. The conditions, broken windows. Children have nothing. You know, they literally have nothing. They have to share everything.

[00:12:52] And – but what you saw was – you know how whenever you and I are talking and we're laughing and we – you know, there's a spark of laughter and, you know, and you have all the facial expressions, excitement. You know, we can do – well, there's nothing like that there. They don't laugh and they don't smile. There's nothing to smile about. There's nothing to laugh about. There is just sadness and despair.

[00:13:19] And it is – and I'll give you an example. You know, we went over. We were very excited. I had always wanted a large family. I wasn't able to have them. And so we had taken our three children to Russia with us. They were – they were five, eight, and ten. And we were adopting an eight-year-old, 11-year-old, and 12-year-old. And they were so excited. We get over there and we're wearing bright clothes. Well, they don't wear bright clothes there. So that was an issue.

[00:13:44] We had to have people guard us, go with us to different places to protect us because we were – they could tell we weren't Russian. And so the language barrier, of course, is always an issue. But we had a translator who went with us everywhere we went. And now the translator had been to America. The woman who was helping us through the process had been to America. They were totally different because they had spent a lot of time in America.

[00:14:12] But the people in Russia, it's just a sad, sad condition. Their housing is, you know, very impoverished. They have very little food. In fact, when the girls came over for the summer and I took them to Walmart, they were like, oh, my gosh, tomatoes. Like there's only one kind of tomato there. They love tomatoes. But we have a plethora of different sizes and colors. And they had never seen anything like that.

[00:14:39] And so another story was my son, we had – I brought toothbrushes and everything over for them when we finally got them. They – we gave them all their toothbrushes. And they were very excited because they never had their own toothbrush ever their whole life. Nothing of that. Never. Well, he thought that his little brother had taken his toothbrush and started crying and was very upset. And I'm like, toothbrushes are – I can get you tons of toothbrushes. I mean, they're not expensive.

[00:15:08] But to him, that was his world, a toothbrush. It just – it's mind-boggling just what they had to go through, what they had to live through. When they finally got their own clothes, you know, I mean, this is mine. Yeah, this is yours. You know, we even had the issue of hoarding food because they thought that, you know, what if tomorrow I wake up and I don't have any food? Because that was the majority of their life.

[00:15:33] And this is what a lot of people who have just been raised in the United States don't understand. No idea. I mean, you hear, you know, how bad the United States is and, you know, all these horrible things that people graduating from our public school systems have been taught to believe. Even from universities.

[00:15:53] And yet, I think many probably, like you said, can't fathom unless they've seen it and haven't even been educated about what it's like in other places that do not have the freedom that the United States has. I think that that's one of the biggest issues that we have, right? I think that children need to go on missions trips. They need to see the other parts of the world to truly understand what you have. We haven't had hardship in America. We haven't had a war.

[00:16:23] We haven't had anything to kind of bring us back, you know, ground us. And I think that we have a lot of very, very spoiled people who just don't understand that we're so, so blessed. You don't see anybody running from America, but you see a lot of people trying to get in. Right. That should be a sign that, you know, they're trying to find freedom. They're trying to find hope. They're trying to find peace. And but we're not going outside trying to find that because we really do have it here.

[00:16:53] Well, a conversation I had recently on Point of View was with a missionary who's actually he serves in multiple places, including going to Ukraine recently. And one of the things he said is that the pastors over there actually pray for the United States, for Christians here, because we are so comfortable, like you said. And so that was kind of a convicting wake up call to be like, oh, wow.

[00:17:19] So you have, you know, Christians in war torn parts of the world, you know, in similar conditions like what you're describing. And they're praying for us over here because they believe that we're spiritually in danger because of the comfort that we have. But let's talk about some of these policies that are really up for a vote. I mean, we're talking about the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America.

[00:17:42] We talked about kind of the Overton window a minute ago, but you have people now openly talking about packing the Supreme Court, abolishing ICE, abolishing the Electoral College, having a state ownership of, you know, businesses, universal basic income. Everything that they say, you know, is going to just make this kind of utopia here in the United States. Right. What help people understand? Like, what would that mean for us to have that radical of a change in our nation?

[00:18:10] Well, they're also talking about getting rid of the Senate and that just. So, first of all, we have the most amazing Constitution in the world. It's 250 years old. It's the oldest Constitution. When you're talking about our forefathers, I truly believe without a shadow of a doubt that God inspired them. God spoke to them. You know, you know, the story of Benjamin Franklin stopping and saying, we need to pray.

[00:18:34] You know, who are we, you know, to not to not, you know, pray to the father of lights who has brought great wisdom. So, you know, we really do have a Constitution to where they did make sure that they sought the Lord. And it was way before their time. Remember, they didn't know what was coming. But yet, look at all that is in the Constitution that protects us today. And they couldn't really see the future. But yes, yeah, but they did. They did see the future. The Lord gave them that.

[00:19:04] So changing the Constitution. You see all over where there is a political takeover of a country such as, I'm going to just name some Venezuela. Venezuela is one of the richest countries in the world. And it was taken over by communists. And then, you know, the streets. I mean, you heard stories of, you know, eating dogs, eating. Even I heard stories of cannibalism. I mean, it was just insane because there was no food. No food, no money, nothing to help them.

[00:19:34] The government wasn't coming in to help them, although the government said that it would, right? The communists said that they will come in and help. It is never going to work because people need an incentive to work. Also, whenever you take away freedom, because it does, it takes away your total freedom. You know, you have to do what the government says. You were right earlier when you said a communist country cannot have Jesus, any religion at all.

[00:20:01] It has to be, the government has to be the religion. A great example of that is Rafael Cruz. It's a very good friend of mine. He talks about Cuba. And in Cuba, you're looking at the people. When Castro finally took over, he would go into how he got Christianity out of the schools and out of the mind of the children. As in kindergarten, he would send soldiers in. And he'd say, everybody, bow your head and pray to Jesus for a piece of candy. They'd bow their head.

[00:20:31] They'd pray. Now wake up. Did you get a piece of candy? Wow. Now bow your head and pray to Castro for a piece of candy. They'd put candy on the desks. And now, now do you have a piece of candy? Yes, you do. Castro is your God. Castro will always provide. And that's what, that's that whole warped, you know, changing the minds of the people. And, and that's what we're, we're going to see if communism takes over.

[00:21:01] They're going to come in. It is going to be chaotic. And, and you're even seeing reports now that they're saying if the Republicans win, there's going to be war. I mean, there is all kinds of people that are talking about the Democrats. We're coming in no matter what. Well, when we get back from this break, let's talk a little bit more about the importance of actually getting out to vote in the midterms, which are historically have low turnouts, especially for the party that is in power and more with Melinda Preston. We'll be right back.

[00:21:32] 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. Marx sought to destroy religion, the family and everything the Bible supports.

[00:22:01] 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? 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.

[00:22:29] 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. Point of View will continue after this.

[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 Liberty McCarter. Melinda Preston is with me in studio. And we've been talking about socialism and honestly so many things. But really the spiritual dearth that you have to have in order for socialism to thrive.

[00:23:27] And that's a big reason that we're concerned about the DSA. More people, you know, in some sectors seeming to support socialism. Even though there was a Fox News poll. You can look at this at pointofview.net, by the way. Showing that 55% of registered voters hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Socialists of America. That's something. But let's talk about the midterms, though. Because a lot of people maybe will feel concerned about it.

[00:23:54] But when it comes to actually getting people to go out and vote in a midterm election or especially vote down ballot on a lot of, like, more state level and local positions that really can impact a lot of things about your life. Like, turnout can be really low for that. But yet there's so much that could change in this election that people need to get out and vote. Yes. Yes.

[00:24:20] I'll give you some numbers just so that you can kind of get an idea of where we're at. So we have about, in Denton County, almost 700,000 people that are registered voters. In the primary, we had 88,000 Republicans come out to vote and 82,000 Democrats. Now, that was up three times for the Democrats because they normally do not come out for a primary at all.

[00:24:47] But we're so far down for where we need to be. I think that people don't understand that since 1946, during the election, a primary election, especially when, obviously, a president is not on the ballot. And you're looking at, you know, from Senate on down. We have had a turnover in most of those years.

[00:25:15] So since 1946, whoever is in control, whatever president is in control, Republican or Democrat, whatever in the House, in the Senate, there is a flip. And so you lose control. I don't believe it has to be that way. I believe it has been that way in the past. And I think that that is something that we need to wake people up to. Because at this point in history, as you were talking about the Democrat socialists that are moving, and that's really what's taken over the Democrat Party.

[00:25:43] It's no longer your grandma, your grandpa's Democrat Party. It is a communist party. And so and they're not afraid to talk about it. Right. I mean, they openly talk about it. So they're going to own it. It's amazing. They're not afraid. And so that's something that should wake every one of us up. I say all the time, I do a lot of voter registrations in churches.

[00:26:04] If every church woke up and said, get out and vote, vote biblically, vote according to scripture, we would never lose another election, especially in Texas. But so many Republicans that are that are go to church, do not vote a very 25%.

[00:26:25] So that's a very small, small number compared to what it should be to where right now we just had an election in Frisco and 97% of the Muslims voted. You know, we have 25% of the Christians. So that's something we need to wake people up to. This midterm is going to be the most critical midterm that we've ever had in the history of the United States.

[00:26:49] Will we continue to be a constitutional republic or are we going to move to communism? And that's really the two choices we have. And there's no other choice. And this is what we're up against. So we'll see. I believe, you know, we all should read our Bible every day. That's my lesson for everybody. And if you're not, please get the Bible app and you don't even have to read it. You can listen to it.

[00:27:16] But everybody needs to hear the word every single day. The Lord highlighted Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat to me, both military, you know, extreme, huge armies coming at them. No way that they could win. They weren't equipped. They didn't have the people. But God. But God. And that's where we're at in our history right now. We need Jesus. We need people getting to the polls. We need people that are strong believers.

[00:27:46] You know, again, I say this scripture all the time. Proverbs 29. When the righteous rule, the people rejoice. When the wicked rule, the people mourn. And that is that is truth. And persecution. You're talking about persecution earlier. I've heard that said many times. The mother in law was a missionary to Mongolia for 17 years.

[00:28:06] And in China, the Christians, Raphael talks about a Christian woman who said, we pray for persecution for the American church because it will wake you up. Wow. We need to be woken up. And so, you know, church, wake up, rise up. Be who God has called us to be. And I and I believe that this is the time I think God's going to do. And it needs to be to where he does it. And he's the only one who gets the glory. No, I can't take the glory for my county.

[00:28:36] You know, no one else can take the glory, the president, whoever. We need to give the glory to God. And when we don't have when we're not voting our values, when we're not using a biblical worldview to guide our decisions, to get to the polls and how to cast our vote, then we see some really concerning things. And so I just want to highlight a couple of articles that are up at point of view dot net that you can look into a little bit more if you want to.

[00:29:00] But I always like to point out that in 13 states plus Washington, D.C. and in the United States right now, assisted dying, what they call it, euthanasia is legal. There is a really important op-ed in the New York Times from two doctors from Canada who actually helped to approve made for their patients. And they are actually warning that it has gone too far.

[00:29:21] Now, I think that it's wrong in all circumstances, but for even doctors who are participating in this to then say, you know, we have people who are choosing assisted dying or asking for it and getting it the same day just because, you know, they are getting older or they're scared about a diagnosis they received when there's actually nothing wrong. That's a big problem. We already see that in states. There's another thing.

[00:29:47] If you're in Massachusetts listening, you need to be aware of a new law that just passed. And this is an example of people getting out. We talk about going and voting in midterms. But a new law just passed that eradicated any sort of restrictions on abortion in Massachusetts.

[00:30:02] But if by late October they can get enough signatures on a petition, then they can actually put that new law from going into place on hold until 2028 when then all voters can actually vote on it in the 2028 election. They need about 50,000 signatures to do that. So, again, go read that at pointofview.net. That report is from World Magazine. But there are so many implications, Melinda, that touch all aspects of life.

[00:30:31] We've been really focusing on our constitutional republic and the fallout of communism and socialism when it's applied in a nation. But you have things that are affecting life, pro-life issues, you know, at the beginning of life, at the end of life. I mean, we've talked about education. Like there are just so many implications that touch every aspect of our life that are determined by who we elect and what we vote for. Well, and you're looking at right now the states that have abortion up till birth.

[00:31:00] I mean, we're talking about a woman is delivering and they can kill a child. I mean, how did we – somebody asked me recently, how did we get here? You start taking away moral values. You start, you know, destroying the family unit. You start filling people with all kinds of lies. And school children start at a young age, as we're talking about. And then all of a sudden, you know, it's written that our constitution is written for a moral people.

[00:31:30] Yes. If you are no longer moral, does it really – does it have any value for you? I mean, it is startling. But also, we have been given a charge. And the charge is to shine the light. You know, we are to shine our light for Christ. We are to, you know, share with people. We are to minister. We are to – because, you know what, an election is a good thing.

[00:31:57] I obviously am the chair of the Denton County Republican Party. But more than a party, we need to get people to know Christ. That's what's going to change everything. That changes everything. And so that right now is something we need to be focusing on, loving on people. And there was a story a while back. It was the first time that Trump ran, and there was a Trump rally. And I've always thought of this story. It stuck with me.

[00:32:23] This – I mean, this journalist wanted to do a story on the Trump, you know, rally. And so she went over to a group of people and said, hey, I'm a Democrat. I would love to go in and listen to this Trump rally. Can I go in with you guys? And they were like, oh, my gosh, yes, come on in. And they just kind of brought her in and kind of treated her like family. She went in, saw, got all excited. And she came out. She said, I'm going to do that on the Democrat side and see how that will go. Well, it didn't go well. She ended up becoming a Republican.

[00:32:53] And you're seeing that. You've seen that several people have become Republicans. I mean, you're looking at Fetterman. Next thing you know, he's going to definitely be a Republican. I'm just waiting for the day. I'm waiting for the day. Yeah. And so you're seeing people see the other side. And he'll even say they're so ugly. I mean, they're so mean. And we need to love people in. And that, to me, is something I'm a mom, grandma. You know, that's something that's very, I'm very passionate about. But we also need to be waking people up.

[00:33:22] This is an election that's going to be, as we've just talked about, a very important election. It's going all the way for Texas, all the way from Senate down to, you know, justice of the peace for most cities, most counties. And that's a wide, very, but let me tell you who you have in charge. Well, let's go into it when we get back from this break. More with Melinda.

[00:33:57] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back for a few more minutes with Melinda Preston. Just been having a great conversation, Melinda. So glad that you could join us in studio today. I am too. Let me remind listeners, go to pointofview.net, click on any of the links to see topics that we've discussed today. A few minutes ago, I mentioned articles that I really hope you check out.

[00:34:21] One is another one from the New York Times about the assisted dying law in Canada and just how crazy it is getting. We've talked about that before. But it is a warning and a wake-up call to make sure that we are protecting life and voting that way in the United States. Also, if you're in Massachusetts or know people who are, you need to be aware of a new bill. They are trying to get so many signatures so that they can prevent a new abortion law from going into practice until voters can vote on that in 2028.

[00:34:51] This new law would completely eradicate any restriction on abortion up to birth. It would not even require abortionists to perform late-term abortions in a hospital. And it would not track, by state, how many babies they kill in the third trimester. Horrible, horrible, absolutely horrifying. I've also talked about this, but if you are in Virginia, we have listeners in Virginia. If you're in Nevada, if you are in Missouri or know people in Idaho,

[00:35:19] these are states that have propositions on the ballot for their midterm elections coming up that are going to potentially enshrine abortion in their state constitutions. So this is one of the things that we need to be aware of, Melinda, is how can people research ahead of time? Because there are ways to do it. We've talked about iVoterGuide. But, you know, so many people, they will go into an election and maybe they'll say, okay, you know, I'll vote for senator or congressman, somebody they've seen a lot of commercials for.

[00:35:48] But then what about all these propositions and these local things and school board members and commissioners and judges and things at the county level that people maybe aren't educated on but they can have literally life or death impacts when you're talking about things like abortion and really affect people's lives in other ways? Well, people are busy. And that's just a fact.

[00:36:09] You know, especially, you know, we're having children and families and working and we're not, you know, as far as Christians, we don't tend to be on the government dime. We believe in working. We believe in making a difference in our community. So sometimes it's hard to know what's really going on. That's where your local parties do come into play.

[00:36:32] So every county, every city, every neighborhood has what is called a precinct chair. And a precinct chair is your go-to person to find out who's running, what's the, you know, what's going on. How can I get involved? Those kind of things. Precinct chairs are really the grassroots, the foundation of a party.

[00:36:56] And we have a great, a lot of amazing precinct chairs in Denton County, but other counties too. I'm over Denton County. But we have some amazing people who would give you that information, help you with that. And it is important to know who's running because that's your everyday, especially locally, it's your everyday life. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what's going, you know, that's what's going to definitely affect you. You have a bad judge. You're going to see, you have a bad DA.

[00:37:21] The two most important people, I tell people all the time, the two most important people for safety in your community is your district attorney and your sheriff. You need to make sure you have really good, very good people in those two positions who love, you know, to take care of, they love the Second Amendment. You need to be able to take care of yourself too, right? Be able to bear arms.

[00:37:44] You also need to know that they believe in taking care of anybody who's breaking the law, that they are going to prosecute them, that they're going to put them in jail, that they're going to take care of the community, that they're not going to let somebody out on bail for, you know, $500 that has murdered somebody, which we have that in other cities. You have to be so careful with that. And I think that isn't something that members of the DSA have said is that we need to abolish prisons. Isn't that the funniest?

[00:38:13] That's the most insane thing I had ever heard. I mean, abolishing prisons. That means that you will have criminals all over the streets and you will be fearful of even walking out. Your kids could not go out and play. No. It just does not make any sense whatsoever. We have prisons for a reason, and that's to take care of the citizens and to protect us. Yeah. So these, again, maybe that's not something that we would see happen right away, but the Overton window is shifting.

[00:38:42] And what you are seeing on the far left, and I don't know if there's any other left than the far left right now. There is no other left but the far left. And then you are seeing these radical proposals really advocated. So one thing I wanted to ask you before we run out of time is something that we talk about a lot on the Next Generation Roundtable here on Point of View. I hear a lot of my younger conservative friends who are Gen Z, maybe in college or starting families, talk about affordability.

[00:39:10] And, you know, from around the country, it's hard. You know, they want to be able to buy a home, start a family, things like that. And I have heard that, you know, maybe they feel like the kind of establishment, GOP, isn't listening to those concerns as much as they would want. And that's why a lot of young people are being driven to socialism. So what can the Republican Party do to address that? I'll tell you, let me give you some examples of where we are. We are fighting for affordability.

[00:39:40] I think that people need to understand that the economy is something we're constantly looking at. We took a lot of businesses out of the United States, a lot of companies, and took them overseas. And we lost a lot of jobs. We're bringing those jobs back. It's unreal what President Trump has done. It takes a little time to get it, you know, all together, but we are in a place that we have not been in a very long time as far as being able to bring jobs back. We need to put America first.

[00:40:08] That's what we always should have done. That's what we will do. Here's some affordability numbers. In California, an average house is $764,158. Texas is $299,000. Let me make sure I said that right. In California, the average house is $764,158. In America, it's $299,000.

[00:40:34] I mean, in Texas, it's $299,000, $367,000. Hawaii, an average house is $833,340. Massachusetts, $661,896. These are all Democrat states comparing to Texas, which is a Republican state. So $299,367 is the average home cost.

[00:41:02] And if you're looking at bringing in socialism, bringing in the Democrat Party or the Democratic Socialist Party, your house prices are going to go up astronomically. You're looking at having state income taxes. We don't have state income taxes in Texas. The cost of gas in California is $6.13. Here in Texas, it's $3.95. Hawaii is $5.51.

[00:41:30] Washington is $5.56. All of these things are, you know, economy, it moves. It changes throughout the United States. You work with the government to make sure that you make it livable. You have a livable wage. You're able to buy a home. You're able to buy food, things like this. Sometimes it's going to ebb and flow, right? Throughout history, it'll ebb and flow. It matters what's going on in the world, what's happening in the United States. Do we have enough food?

[00:42:00] Do we have enough oil? Do we have enough jobs? Right now, very few people are without a job right now. We're in a very good place here in the United States. Trump's done a good job with that. So we need to remember the difference between a communist or a Democrat state right now compared to Texas. And look at that also in New York, what's going on in New York. You don't want that here. Right.

[00:42:29] You know, this is a good reminder, and we're about to close out the show, but that our elections do have consequences, including the cost of living consequences. So, yes, get to the polls. And Melinda Preston, thank you so much for being here on Point of View today. Thank you for having me. It was so fun talking to you. We're going to have to have you back. This has been great. And so, as always, thank you, Megan, for engineering the show. Thank you, Megan, for filling in for Derek today and producing the show, both of our Megans. And thank you for listening, of course, to Point of View.

[00:42:57] Again, if you missed any part, go to pointofview.net. Click on the links to see what we talked about or listen to the podcast. I'll be back with you tomorrow right here on Point of View. The Bible tells us not to worry. And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today. Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry.

[00:43:26] God gives us a next step. He says we need to pray. But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult. And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement, a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation. Each week, you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans, along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others.

[00:43:55] We'll also include a short free resource for you in each email so you can learn more about the issue at hand. Will you commit to Pray for America? Go to pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner at the top of the page to subscribe. Again, that's pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner.

[00:44:22] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in America. Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.