Point of View September 25, 2026 – Hour 2: Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View Radio Talk Show. Kerby Anderson. Second hour today and we've postponed it long enough. We are in the midst of the midterm elections. Recognize that almost a half a dozen different states can now already vote. And we're less than 40 days to the election in November.

[00:00:32] So there are a couple of articles that we're going to focus on now in this last hour. One having to do with Merrill Matthews talking about Trump's tariffs on Canada could cost him several red states. A piece by Larry Elder about the decision by the president to ban some of the media from the White House. That didn't last long because one of the judges he appointed has already reversed that. And then one on voters to Republicans fix the Biden economy. So we've got some very important issues here to address.

[00:01:00] And Dr. Matthews, of course, we have your piece. But just to be fair, I posted a piece on trade war with Canada that came out September 14th. And again, I say, why is it that we are having a trade war with Canada right now? It makes no sense. There are neighbors to the north. We share a lot of history with them. And of course, later on your piece, you also say, look, if you're going to pick a fight, why don't you wait till after November?

[00:01:27] But again, you have for some time talked about this issue of tariffs. And I think it's important to get into this in some detail. So remind you again of the fact that you have fewer Canadians that can buy American products because the United States is nine times larger than Canada. So almost by definition, you're going to have a trade deficit, aren't you? Or am I missing something?

[00:01:51] We're going to have a trade deficit because we're nine times larger. So we're going to buy more from them than they're going to buy from us. And a lot of that happens to be oil that comes out of Alberta that goes through the Keystone XL pipeline and comes down here to be refined. But yes, the Trump administration was apparently, they thought, close to an agreement. And then at the last minute, they came to some kind of loggerheads. We're not entirely sure.

[00:02:15] One of the things I understand is that the Trump administration wanted to have essentially kind of a veto over other countries that Canada could enter trade agreements with. And Canada said, we're a sovereign country. You can't have a veto over what we do with. And you have to sort of highlight this right now because, and the media have picked up on this.

[00:02:36] You've got, here in the last two days, you had the Trump administration rolling out a red carpet for President Xi from China, who we really do have problems with. Yes. Bring him in for a state dinner and treating him very, very well. And here's Canada that we've had a long-term relationship with, and we're treating him very poorly. And this gets back to, I listened to one of the former ambassadors we had to China, and he said, it just does not look good to treat your primary allies this poorly.

[00:03:06] The prime minister of Japan landed in America. She didn't get a red carpet treatment. President Xi did. So it's not good, but the issue is that these trade barriers are really affecting a lot of the middle part of the country and the northern states. And I listened here a couple of weeks ago. National Public Radio has been doing focus groups around the country, and they have one in Michigan. They went and visited with this focus group.

[00:03:35] These are people that voted for President Biden in 2020 and President Trump in 2024. So they voted for both of them. And they did their focus group, and they said, you know, this is not scientific. This is a focus group. But almost every one of them said, we're being hammered by prices. We can't afford a lot of these things.

[00:03:57] I supported President Trump in 2024, but I don't feel like he has delivered on the affordability, the lack of inflation, and other things that he promised. And you just came away from this feeling like these are Michigan voters who voted for Trump, and they are turning away from him. Well, and again, we can, of course, have listeners in Maine. You talk about Maine here with Susan Collins. You talk about Iowa, Ohio. We have listeners in Ohio.

[00:04:23] I mean, if nothing else, this is something that if you are concerned about what the Congress looks like next year, Liberty, you need to pay attention to. You know, that's what a lot of people have been saying. The affordability issue really is so prevalent in the minds of so many Americans and young Americans. It's something that comes up a lot on the Next Generation Roundtable. And so I do think that people, again, you know, there's nuance there, right?

[00:04:49] And so people tend to have a short memory as well and, you know, forget that inflation was worse under Biden. And, you know, there's a lot of dynamics that play into that. However, if you just dismiss the concerns or you keep adding to them or making it worse, especially right before an election, I do think a lot of Americans kind of think, where is President Trump? Because this was supposed to be for me. This was supposed to be America first and, you know, our standard of living.

[00:05:18] And a lot of people feel like that hasn't been delivered upon. And I think President Trump exacerbates this sometime here recently. He said, yes, you're paying more for diesel gasoline, but that's worth it in order to be able to stop around from having a nuclear weapon. Maybe it is. But people who are trying to make ends meet, and I hear people talking about, well, I filled up my truck with diesel the other day. It was $125 or something like that. That's so much more than I normally pay.

[00:05:46] And then you've got the farm equipment that often uses diesel. You've got trains that use diesel. It goes through, and so we've hit the highest diesel price in history. And that sort of filters down through the economy. And people just – I hear it from my wife. I just went to the grocery store and spent $125, and I didn't get any food. And we did talk about the diesel issue. Don't mess with my wife. Because, first of all, the number one producer of diesel, United States.

[00:06:16] Number two is Soviet Union. But they're having trouble because three-fourths of their diesel refineries have been hit by drones from what? The Ukraine war. Yes, yes. And so they now have actually limited exports from Russia. But the other day, the president was talking about limiting exports from the United States. And, of course, a lot of these countries have had to come to our Gulf Coast, which is where we have just an enormous amount of diesel refinery. Yeah, we produce in the Gulf Coast a whole lot more than we can use. Yeah.

[00:06:44] But we have certain restrictions in being able to shift this around. So what typically happens – The Jones Act and everything. Yeah, the Jones Act and everything. The Northeast and the Northwest may import diesel from somebody else because getting it out of the Gulf Coast around them may be more difficult than just importing it from someplace else. So there are concerns that if you put this export ban on diesel, you will actually create some financial problems for both diesel and regular gasoline.

[00:07:13] Just to defend the president as we go to a break, just for a moment, he doesn't exactly get along very well with the prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney. No, he does not. Who is your classic globalist, right? I mean, here's a man – you talk about people that run the central bank, an individual whose wife lives more in the United States than in Canada. I think his kids even are here. But nevertheless, there's a little bit of head-butting between these two individuals. So, again, he's very frustrated by that.

[00:07:42] But at the same time, I've got to acknowledge that Canada is saying, look, we don't want to be bullied around by the United States, even though it is nine times bigger than us. And, indeed, its economy is almost twice or more than ours in terms of all the kind of production. So per capita, that's a big issue. And Canada, up until recently, wasn't paying their 2% of GDP for NATO. So you can kind of understand why the president isn't necessarily the best friends to Canada. But it's not helping the election right now.

[00:08:11] It is not. And I'll remind our voters that it was thought that the conservative candidate for prime minister would likely win. But when Trump started calling Canada the 51st state, that person went down and Mark Carney went up and won the election. Mr. President, why do you say some of those things? Anyway, we will, again, open up the phones if you have some comments about tariffs and trade. I know you're going to have some comments in just a minute because Donald Trump thought maybe it's good to ban certain members of the media.

[00:08:40] CNN, MSNBC and Politico. So we'll talk about that right after this. This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:06] Victor Davis Hanson argues that our modern world has become, in some ways, like the medieval world of the past. To understand his comparison, we need to clear up some of the misunderstandings most people have about the Middle Ages. Yes, it was a time of feudal wars, violent crime and plagues. People lived in unclean urban conditions, rotting food, fouled water and vermin. But science was advancing and some of history's greatest literature was also a product of the medieval mind.

[00:09:33] We marvel at the beauty of the colossal cathedrals in Europe. Our modern medieval world has some of the same contrast. He says our mounting urban filth, dangerous streets and resurgent diseases are juxtaposed with brilliant revolutions in artificial intelligence, bioengineering, robotics, satellite technology, spaceflight and cancer research. The difference is that we now know how to stop disease, crime and filth. But apparently many of our leaders chose not to do so.

[00:10:02] Instead, the vagrants and the homeless must be supported, at least from a distance or as long as they do not show up smelly on your doorstep. Of course, there's a cost. When mayors in many of our cities allow human waste and drug infections to collect and increase, deadly medieval diseases return. Here is the irony. He says in New York, some of the richest people in the world sidestep rancid piles of rat infested trash.

[00:10:27] In San Francisco and Chicago, some of the world's greatest cancer researchers check their shoe soles for human feces before entering their space age labs. Our modern world has become more medieval than most of us would like to admit. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view. Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net.

[00:10:55] That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Let's open up the phones again if you'd like to join the conversation. 1-800-351-1212. Liberty and Merrill with us today as we focus on a couple of other issues. We mentioned the tariffs and the trade war, and I'd love to hear some of your thoughts there as well.

[00:11:20] I've talked with people in Wisconsin that say, well, we don't like the barriers for us because, let's say, you produce cheese in Wisconsin. We'd like to sell it in Canada, but it's impossible because it's almost three times as expensive, and people are not going to buy cheese from us in Wisconsin. So I recognize there are trade barriers, and so that is certainly a very important issue.

[00:11:43] But on the other hand, you go through, Dr. Merrill Matthews, all sorts of examples where you have individuals running right now primarily in Senate races, but sometimes even in the House races that are just running five points, ten points behind. This is looking like one of those blue walls we talked about years ago.

[00:12:06] And if you go and look at real clear polling in the Senate races and the governor's races, so the northern states where El-Sayed has been leading in the polls against Mike Rogers, that's not by a lot, but he has been leading. You've got a socialist leading there in Michigan, and you've got in Iowa the governor, the Democratic candidate for governor, is leading like eight points over the Republican.

[00:12:31] The Senate candidate taking Joni Ernest's place is leading by three or four points. Indiana they're leading. Sherrod Brown. Yes. Ohio kicked him out. He's a liberal Democrat, and he's been leading by one or two points there in Ohio. This is not – and this is my point that you mentioned. If you're going to have a trade war with Canada, why not wait until November the 6th or 7th to start that rather than do it right before the election?

[00:13:01] Because you have these northern states with a lot of foreign people who are paying more for diesel and other things who might like to support Trump, but you've got to give them a reason to do it. Well, again, you don't want to later on talk about a Senator Abdul Al-Sayed or Senator James Tallarico or a few of the others, and yet that's kind of the direction. And the president can help or hurt. And in some cases, if you don't say anything, you maybe aren't helping, but you're not hurting. But right now that is the case.

[00:13:31] And I just – well, go on. So I was going to say, some of these states in the Midwest have huge trade with Canada. Yes, they do. And so if you're not able to sell your products there because you've got tariffs imposed and you're not able to buy products from Canada because the tariffs have made it so much more expensive, including Maine. Canada is Maine's primary trade. It's a smaller amount than some of these states, but it's more of their primary things. So you've got Susan Collins, who just today I saw actually picked up in the polls

[00:14:00] and was leading her Democratic candidate. For the past couple of months, the Democrats have been leading. Yes. Well, it again is less than 40 days. Some people have already voted. Can you believe that? Very early voting. Very early voting. Very, very early voting, but it's coming very soon. Okay, we wanted to get to this one, though, because the president from time to time has the media humiliation factor.

[00:14:25] In this case, he wanted to and did ban for a while CNN, MSNOW, and Politico. By the way, I've noticed that when he went in to speak this week at the United Nations, there was a CNN reporter who said, hey, I thought you were boycotting me. You're here right now. And they actually did not play his speech on CNN. But nevertheless, you knew that that would actually be reversed by a judge that he put in the federal judiciary. You knew that wouldn't last very long.

[00:14:53] But I have this piece by Larry Elder, who on the one hand illustrates why the president wanted to do it and reminds us that there are a lot of positives that the press doesn't report. But it doesn't help that when you have the heir apparent, whether it's J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio, both agree with that decision. Later on, you're going to have people, if indeed they become the presidential candidate, say two and a half years from now, being asked by the press,

[00:15:21] well, why did you go along with the ban of CNN and MSNOW? You can absolutely make the case there are some aspects of the economy that are doing very well, and some people are prospering by that. Other people are not doing so well. But, you know, in the media, the issue is we call it if it bleeds, it leads. And what that means is the media, if there's bad news out there, the media typically runs with that, whether it's Donald Trump or somebody else. So the media did not create the highest price on diesel in history. They didn't create $4 gallon gas.

[00:15:51] They didn't raise mortgage rates to 7%. They didn't put the 10-year Treasury note to 5%. They didn't force the Fed to increase interest rates a couple of weeks ago for the first time in three years. They didn't create a $40 trillion debt, and they didn't create a $2 trillion annual deficit for us. Media didn't do that, and this is bad news, and so the media goes with it.

[00:16:17] But it was interesting because Larry Elder's kind of saying, yeah, the media, you're really doing bad things out there. So I thought, does the people really listen to the media anymore? So I went and looked at the figures. MSNBC, they get a whopping 940,000 people out of 330 million in the evening. Now, Rachel Maddow gets a little more, nearly 2 million, but that's just a fraction of the public.

[00:16:44] CNN, 624,000 people in their average viewer listening. It's just a fraction. I mean, they could say all kinds of bad things, and almost nobody would hear about it. I was thinking about that as well, and I'm not in favor of banning the media from the White House because it belongs to the people. But, again, I think that what we have seen in recent years actually shows that when you've got a free press, then you can have a different publication come up and say, we want to actually report the news fairly.

[00:17:13] And we have seen many do that. In fact, Trump has invited many other publications that are right-wing coded, if you will, into the press briefings, which I think equal opportunity. I think that's great. And so people, really, they're going to go to the source that they want to go to, but it does not help. Again, it just doesn't help to then say, well, you're biased, and they are, but now we're going to kick you out of the White House press briefings,

[00:17:42] and then you give them more reason to talk about how oppressed they are as the media. We saw that a lot during the first Trump administration. It was a little overboard, but nevertheless, you know, it's just free press. And with MSNBC, or MSNOW, I guess they call it, Retro Matter, I mean, when you get past sort of 6 o'clock, past Brett Baer and past the news about 6 o'clock or later on, these become opinion shows. They're not really news shows so much. They're people. Sure.

[00:18:12] They get people, and they agree with them, and they talk. It's opinion stuff. So I just don't know that this was a good move for Trump, especially since one of his appointed judge overturns that. We'll see if he comes back and responds to that. I saw Anthony Scaramucci. Yes. Yeah, that's correct. They call him Mooch. Yes, Mooch. On the news yesterday. And he said, you know, I think if Carolyn Levitt was still in there, she could go to the president and say, Mr. President, I don't think this is a good move.

[00:18:41] It's just not a good thing to do. He said, I think if she was there, she would have stopped him from doing that because once he does it, it gets nothing but media attention. And interesting, a lot of the other media actually stepped on the side of CNN and MSNBC and so forth and backing them in what they did. You know, she was the youngest press secretary at the age of 27. You know, I've got clothes older than that. I mean, just amazing how young she is. Yeah, she is older than that. Yeah, and that's just amazing. But you're right.

[00:19:10] I think she probably could have stopped that, even though the age difference is remarkable between the two of them. And if nothing else, back to what Liberty said just a minute ago, she was the one that started saying, well, let's bring in some of the podcasters. Let's bring in some of these other individuals. Because quite frankly, more people listen to Joe Rogan's podcast than all three of the so-called mainstream press.

[00:19:33] So there are some individuals before we're all through, we might even be hearing about the Next Generation Roundtable reaching more people or the Know Why podcast getting out there and reaching more people because that's the future. And I think in some respects, rather than getting upset about what CNN or MSNOW says, just let them stay and stay some of their issues.

[00:19:56] But get some of the other individuals in there that are actually reaching to the public and I think are going to be the future of the media. You know, I've got the figures here. The three big broadcasters, ABC, NBC, CBS. Yes, you add all their news programs together, the nightly news program, and you get about 20 million, which is a lot of people. But it's still a fraction of the 330 million people in the country. Most people just don't watch that stuff. Yeah, they don't.

[00:20:23] And, you know, more people are turning to social media or they follow their favorite podcaster and they watch the clips from that. So, yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, they've done a good job at opening, in general, the White House press briefings up to those kinds of media personalities as well. Most people don't care about it and Trump gave them a reason to care about it. Yeah, and again, they turned them into, if you will, the victims. And that just bothered me more than anything else.

[00:20:47] Well, I was going to just suggest, again, if you go on to the Point of View app, you can also, of course, find the Know Why podcast. And maybe a few more of you need to sign up and we'll see how that does in the future. Have her sitting there in the White House press room. Hey, you know, maybe one of our co-hosts from the roundtable that's in the D.C. area, we can get them in the press briefings. That'd be great. That'd be good. Let's take a break, though. We have some more to cover. And this is a topic that Dr. Matthews and I like to talk about, and that is the economy.

[00:21:13] The voters to Republicans fix the Biden economy. Are there some things that even when we have less than 40 days could be done to address this issue of affordability? We'll talk about that right after this. I'm sure that you've noticed that social media is now filled with information generated by A.I.

[00:21:40] Dramatic descriptions of politicians and music stars supposedly making statements about a current issue, leaning into the microphone, looking into the lens, opponents silenced. It's powerful. It's riveting. It's riveting. And it's all lies. Even several national television networks were recently found using enhanced pictures, meaning manipulated, falsified, literally not giving a true picture. So many liars.

[00:22:10] So much deception. Where can we turn for truth? Right here. From Kirby and the team at Point of View. We need your support. Please join the Point of View Truth team today with a monthly gift of $30 or more. Together we can shine the light of truth and dispel the darkness and deception of this day.

[00:22:33] Give now at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net and 800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:23:00] 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. We'd like to join the conversation at 1-800-351-1212. Again, Meryl Matthews at Liberty McCarter. Let's, if we can, go to, I guess it's Springfield, Illinois. Alex, thank you for calling today.

[00:23:30] Yes, sir. Wanted to chime in on the Trump thing and the press. Is it possible that he's thinking ahead in the way that things work, you know, with the judges, that the judge comes in and makes him have to listen to CNN and these other ones, MS Now, that in the future when there's a different regime, that the Christian do or that another voice would have to be heard by going back on this very relay.

[00:23:55] Well, if nothing else, I don't know if anybody saw it, but the other day there was a rather interesting comment by the former president, Barack Obama. He said, yeah, I just can't believe what's going on in this administration. I mean, they banned some of the people from MS Now and CNN. That'd be like me banning Fox News. And unfortunately, in his audience, nobody laughed because anybody around the table knows that he actually did that, didn't he?

[00:24:20] But, you know, it's a good point that Alex makes because you could have a Democratic president come in and win in 2028, and they might be interested in kicking out Newsmax or One American News, I think it is, and some of those that tend to be a very pro-Trump deal. And if you set the precedent, then that particular president would not be willing to do that, maybe. Yeah, and if they're, you know, if the judge comes down and says, no, you can't do that,

[00:24:48] and then there's legal precedent involved already kind of preempting that. I mean, I won't speak to Trump's intentions. I kind of doubt that that's what he's playing chess in that way. But I certainly hope that, you know, that answer remains, you know, from the judiciary and that that would prevent that from happening because that was one of my concerns as well is we don't want to see this become a common thing every time the administration changes and they kick out, you know, the press that they don't like. And so in Alex's point, Trump may hit a straight lick with a crooked stick.

[00:25:20] And let's hope that's the case. Well, if nothing else, that's just another one of those issues we want to put on the table. And I've just asked, again, wonder why even bother with that? But that's kind of the humiliation routine he likes to go through from time to time. And I'm not even going to call on CNN because you're just crooked news and you're fake news and whatever. And so it's just one of those things that you have to sort of deal with, with Donald Trump as president. And there have been a few times, as two old guys around the table, remember when Richard Nixon,

[00:25:49] especially during the Watergate era, really got into it with Dan Rather. But that was few and far between. Most of the time people went along with the press. Richard Nixon certainly got on the opposite side. But by the time you get to Ronald Reagan, he'd just say, oh, Sam Donaldson, I can't believe some of these are saying. And everybody would just kind of smile. But that's not the standard that is being used right now by Donald Trump. Yeah, man. Sam Donaldson was actually quite funny.

[00:26:20] The Conservative Political Action Conference every year would have Sam Donaldson and who's the other? I can't think of the other. They'd have a debate. And Sam Donaldson could just be hilarious. I mean, he could be funny and had a way of being critical and funny at the same time. And you just kind of you kind of enjoyed it. Yeah. So, again, that is Robert Novak was the other person. That's right. I was trying to think who you were thinking of at the time. And again, there were individuals that would have some turns of phrases.

[00:26:48] Pat Buchanan writing a speech for Spiro Agnew and some other things. But there is a lot more confrontation now. That's for sure. There is more confrontation. And I did not expect it to last long because Donald Trump likes to be on camera. He enjoys talking to the media. In fact, he's been more accessible to the media than I think any president we've ever seen. Yeah, there are. Definitely more than Biden. That was a really low bar. For sure.

[00:27:15] But, yes, he brings the media into the White House frequently and takes questions and answers them. I've never seen anything like that. And sometimes he criticizes them, says, you're fake, you're terrible, and so forth. But it makes good television. Yeah, and he's willing to interact with them. And whether it's at the Oval Office or whether it's on Air Force One or whatever, it is amazing. And he has made it much more accessible. And as Liberty points out, again, Biden had a very low bar anyway, so he exceeded that rather dramatically. What about the economy?

[00:27:44] There's a number of lines in here that when it comes to the economy, unhappy voters are telling Republicans one very clear thing. Remember why we elected you fix the Biden economy. There are some things that could indeed be done. And there is information, which you can get in the Larry Elder piece and in this one by David Winston, of some facts that aren't being presented by the mainstream media in terms of whether you're looking at household income, unemployment, inflation, and the rest.

[00:28:13] But there's a great line in here. I've got to quote it, claiming that this is the greatest economy in the history of this country doesn't sit well in an environment where 73% of the electorate says the cost of living is increasing faster than their paychecks. And, you know, this is something we saw this with Joe Biden. Joe Biden thought the economy was doing pretty well. And you can make a case some parts of the economy when he was there was doing was doing well. And he said, I even like the idea of Bidenomics.

[00:28:40] So we're going to go out and we're going to sell Bidenomics to the country. And people had been hit by inflation and other things, and they just did not buy it. And it actually worked against him. And yet President Trump wants to do essentially the same thing without sort of recognizing the people out there because people keep telling him affordability is an issue. Democrats see this as a really winning issue for them. And the president oftentimes sort of mocks that issue and says the economy is doing so great.

[00:29:10] And it's just not sitting well with a lot of people. Yeah, I was thinking of Biden as well, because at the time it was like, how tone deaf can you be? Because it just didn't, despite, you know, some of the numbers that he would cite for just the everyday American, it did not feel that way at all. And so I am sure that this is a challenging messaging point for any president because you, as a president, I imagine, I've never been a president, never will be.

[00:29:38] But you get tired of, you know, these negative news reports. And obviously Trump, you know, took that out on the media by kicking them out of the White House. And you get tired of the gains that you have made not being reported on. But at the same time, you do have to think about what does it feel like for your voters, for your constituents?

[00:29:59] And then sometimes, you know, if you want to overplay the positive messaging, it comes off as tone deaf to the people who are still struggling to make ends meet because of some decisions that you have made, including war and things like that. And so where do you, you know, strike that balance of let's talk about the gains and the positive things that we've made, but acknowledge you still feel pain in some areas. And we're working on that. And that seems to be something that at least the last two presidents have not been able to strike that balance.

[00:30:25] Right. And the problem here is that President Trump said, elect me and I'm going to get prices down. And prices are not down. They're not going up as high as they were in the middle of Biden's term. But in Biden's last year, inflation was running about two and a half to three percent a month. It was three percent a month when Trump came in office in January. It actually went down for the next three months.

[00:30:51] But something happened in May and April that by May they started going up again. I wonder what it was. Yes. And so he struggled with that. And these are cumulative. So I want our listeners to know that when they talk about three percent, that's three percent added on to the three percent that happened a year ago and so forth. So prices are still going up. And especially with the with inflation right now being exacerbated by the war on Iran, people are feeling pinched on this.

[00:31:19] And it's it's not working well for the politicians. Part of it is messaging, because I can read a piece here by Dr. Merrill Matthews in March, fudging the numbers. Trump's economy is not what he claims. And a lot of that goes back to the State of the Union address. And if you say this is one of the better economies, that's one thing when you say it's the best economy, when you say and there are just so many times when one of those would have changed it. But it's always got to be hyperbole. It's always got to be the best.

[00:31:48] It's always got to be the greatest. And in some respects, then it causes people to say, well, if you're wrong on this point, then why do I believe the others? And there's been a lot of success that he's not getting credit for because the messaging is wrong. The messaging wrong. And Trump sometimes says things, as you indicate, that are demonstrably not the case. And he did that at the convention in Dallas when he said every seat is filled and they've got just as many people outside.

[00:32:14] And that's just egged on the media to say to run their cameras up there and look and see. And the whole just handed it to the whole top shelf was empty. The top layer. The next one was mostly empty. And then I thought, well, maybe that was just when somebody who was not as prominent was speaking. And so sometimes the seats are empty. And then I saw somebody who was there with their iPhone and they were looking at the president's speech as he says that.

[00:32:40] And they raised their iPhone and they look at the top layer at the convention center there. And it's just completely empty. And when he makes a case, every seat is full and you show that you think, to your point, what else are you saying that's not necessarily the case? That is the unfortunate thing. One of the things I do hear, and certainly Liberty will find this out when he goes out and meets some of the people. I've had people actually say, look, I appreciate the fact you support the president,

[00:33:07] but I also appreciate the fact that you are critical of the president when he makes some statements that aren't true. And you can build some trust. But when people start hearing you say some things that don't make sense, then they start going, okay, what else do I not necessarily believe in? And certainly right now the implication is you've got a couple weeks. You should get out some of the good news, which is in this article.

[00:33:32] But at the same time, be willing to acknowledge some of the things that haven't worked out and say we've gotten this amount of success. And this is what we want to do to try to bring about success more in the future. That's a good way to say it, but that's not the way it's done. Let's take a break. We'll come back with more right after this.

[00:34:00] Gloria Steinem died recently at age 92. The Washington Post called her the lodestar of the modern women's movement. As a freelance journalist, she wrote for prominent publications including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue. She became the face of second wave feminism, advocating for equality in the workplace. She famously posed as a Playboy bunny to enter the New York Playboy Club and exposed the degrading treatment and low pay bunnies were subjected to.

[00:34:26] In contrast to her dowdy and brash predecessor, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem brought a dose of glamour to the movement with her straight, parted hair and miniskirts. Vogue called her the most attractive activist in women's lib. In 1971, she helped start Ms. Magazine and became its editor. One famous article listed prominent women, including Ms. Steinem herself, who publicly declared they'd had abortions. Ms. Steinem eschewed marriage and never had children. She once told an interviewer that aborting her baby, quote, gave me life.

[00:34:56] I wouldn't have been able to live my life otherwise. In 2000, at age 66, she did marry South African businessman David Bale, the father of actor Christian Bale. She insisted her views about marriage hadn't changed. Marriage changed. She said, we spent 30 years in the United States changing marriage laws. If I had married when I was supposed to get married, I would have lost my name, my legal residence, my credit rating. Feminists have attained key goals. Young women are succeeding professionally.

[00:35:22] American women of marriageable age are better educated and have better career prospects than men. Amidst this progress, young women report less enthusiasm for marriage than young men, and surveys show they're less happy. Feminism has failed to effectively acknowledge the most important and immutable feature of womanhood, their biology, their capacity to be mothers. Unlike Gloria Steinem, most women, even ambitious women, want to be mothers. And this is what we must encourage if our society is to thrive and endure.

[00:35:52] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. We've been talking about midterm elections, and let me just mention that if you go to the Know Why podcast, and again, as I've mentioned before, if you have the app, you can go there very easily, or just simply type in KnowWhyPodcast.com,

[00:36:19] you'll notice that Liberty has put together why you need to prepare for the midterm elections now. And so I did want to mention that as one issue. Also, of course, my commentary and Penna Dexter's commentary on what's called Steinem-style feminism. We'll get to that in just a minute. But one of the things that you are recommending, Liberty, is even though many of your listeners and many of our listeners

[00:36:45] maybe won't vote until November 3rd, some will do early voting. And again, half of the states right now have voting. Right now, if you can believe that. There is an iVoter guide. We're going to have Debbie Withnow on to talk about that, because not only does she provide the guides, George Barna did a survey of her for her for the iVoter guide and found that a lot of Christians don't vote down to some of the other races.

[00:37:12] So as important as it is to vote for who's running for Senate or Congress, look all the way down and do the research, because there are individuals that are making decisions about what's going to happen in your city council, what may be happening in your children's schools. And it was embarrassing to find how many Christians only vote maybe for the top person on the ballot. Yeah, and us talking about that last week was actually one of the reasons why I decided to do that podcast.

[00:37:42] And also just based on my own experience, I mean, I will admit that I've gone into a vote many times and I did not adequately prepare. And then you're looking at all of these, you know, local positions and names and things like that. And I'm like, well, I don't want to vote just because they're a certain party. I want to actually know if I support them. So then I just end up skipping it. And I don't feel good about that.

[00:38:06] And I think what a lot of people tend to dismiss maybe or not be aware of is just how much you can make a difference in a local election. I know we've gone over these numbers before, but there are many examples around the nation where when you get more and more local level, I mean, that one vote can make a difference or a few votes. And those are the people making decisions in your town or, like you said, in your school district, like school board elections. So all of these, you know, smaller positions that you might not know off the top of your head,

[00:38:34] now is the perfect time to go and research those and not rush the morning of the election or just grab a voter guide that somebody hands you or vote down ballot. Like actually look into it and see who you want to vote for. That's a great way to make a difference. And I just mentioned we sometimes talk about voter fraud and the fact that voter fraud has a bigger impact on local elections, small elections where not that many people show up. So if you want to try to make sure that voter fraud doesn't give somebody a chance,

[00:39:04] then make sure you vote even in those local elections or even the other times when there's not everybody's going to the non-presidential elections because it makes a difference there. Let me just mention again to hold this up for those of you watching online, but the rest of you can certainly find it. This is the app. And if you go to the app, you can click on the one that says media. And then that will, of course, take you to the Know Why podcast. And as I look at your Know Why podcast, you can get it on your computer as well. You have the iVoter Guide.

[00:39:34] You've got Ballopedia. You've got, as a matter of fact, this one where only 55% of voters use the full ballot. Often lack of info is the reason why they don't vote in those local races. So we have just a lot of Christians that don't vote all the way down. And as you pointed out, one or two votes, sometimes for city council or for school board, will make such a difference. And also find out if you're registered to vote. I put vote.org on there too because some people may not realize their registration has expired.

[00:40:03] And depending on your state, you may still be able to fix that. But I also know people have showed up and I've witnessed that and they think they're registered to vote, didn't realize it was expired. And, you know, sorry, too late. I mean, unless you've got some fraud in there as well. But, you know, people who want to follow the law, they don't want to be turned away. So check it now while you have time. And just because President Trump has been talking about needing positive proof that you were a citizen when you were born, we don't have that right now.

[00:40:32] So if you don't have your birth certificate or something like that, that doesn't keep you from registering. And, again, sometimes there is fraud because we've talked about this one individual that went into the voting place in Washington, D.C. and claimed to be Eric Holder. What? And, first of all, Eric Holder is, you know, is 40-something or 50-something in African-American. And this kid was like 20-something white. And they were going to hand him the ballot, you know.

[00:40:59] And now he was just showing how easily voter fraud can take place. But it just illustrates, again, somebody could actually vote in your place. And so that's another issue that you need to pay attention to. So a lot of great material. And, again, you can go to the Know Why podcast to find out a little bit more. But real quickly, Penna Dexter is not with us, but we, of course, air her commentary. And you may have heard it right now if you were listening on computer. Because she points out that Gloria Steinem died recently.

[00:41:25] And here is an individual that basically, like a lot of feminists, said, well, I really don't need a man. A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle kind of thing. And then changed her mind and then married later on. But this whole feminist impact has been something that has continued, whether it is Gloria Steinem or a variety of other feminists. And your generation is still dealing with it even to this day.

[00:41:49] You know, a lot of people my age or maybe a little bit older really bought into that and decided. And we're really told that you don't need marriage or family. Your career is going to be what makes you happy or you can put all of that off. And so I'm obviously pro-women working because here I am. But family is the most important thing.

[00:42:12] And I think it's a failure of imagination, honestly, that this wave of feminism has told women that in order to be successful, you have to either reject family or kill your own offspring through abortion. I mean, can we get a little more creative than that? Can we maybe imagine a more family-friendly society for everybody instead of telling women that they have to sacrifice all the things that make you the most satisfied in life just to have a career? I think we can think bigger than that.

[00:42:42] One of the other commentaries is mine. And that's where I quote from Victor Davis Hanson saying our world is kind of like the Middle Ages, the medieval world in a few places. Because if you think of the Middle Ages, you can think of feudal wars and violent crime and plagues and things like that. Our modern world is different. But sometimes what's so interesting is in the midst of urban filth, dangerous streets, and resurgent diseases,

[00:43:04] we also have those juxtaposed against artificial intelligence, bioengineering, robotics, satellite technology, space flight, and cancer research. He said the difference, Dr. Matthews, is we know how to stop crime and disease and filth. But apparently in some of our cities, and I've been in a few recently because I was just out in the San Francisco Bay Area, these individuals are still there.

[00:43:28] And we're in some cases having people show up in these clinics with diseases that maybe my grandfather when he was a doctor dealt with, and we haven't even heard about since. And you know, we saw that in California, especially when you had, when the state decided that the way to help homelessness is to not move them out and address that. And you had, I used to see videos, I haven't seen many lately, but that doesn't mean they're not there, of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other places where you just had homeless encampments all up and down the city.

[00:43:57] They tried to do it in Austin, and they tried to move, they moved it back out. But yes, and when you do that, you get spreading disease, and you get poverty, and you get drugs, and you get everything you don't want in a city. And what you don't have in the city then is responsible people who have jobs who work down there. They don't want to go in the middle of that. Yes. Well, that book, San Francisco, goes into that in some detail. And that, again, is from an individual who was a liberal who was simply saying,

[00:44:23] I used to support drug legalization until it showed up on my doorstep, his office right there in Berkeley. And, of course, I was just down there. So, again, just a reminder of the world that we find ourselves in. Well, thank you both for showing up. Since I had two people cancel, it's always good to have somebody around the roundtable. So good to have you both here. And, as always, I want to thank Megan for her help engineering the program. Derek, thank you for putting up with a week in which we've had more cancellations than we've ever had. But thank you for producing the program.

[00:44:51] If you find yourself wanting to know more about some of the issues we've addressed, they're all available at the website pointofview.net. Hope you'll enjoy the weekend. I'm looking forward to a great series of very interesting interviews taking place next week. We'll look forward to seeing you back here on Monday right here. From Point of View. Where does moral truth come from?

[00:45:19] According to 58% of Americans, individuals determine moral truth. A quarter of Generation Z says society determines moral truth, and morality can even change over time. Only 42% of Americans believe that truth comes from God. I don't know about you, but I find these numbers extremely troubling. It really is a crisis of truth, and that crisis has consequences. Look at society. Evil is called good. Good called evil.

[00:45:49] People with biblical beliefs are called bigots, or worse, they're canceled. But there is hope. The Bible promises the truth will set us free, and that's why Point of View is relentless in our commitment to the ultimate source of moral truth, God's Word. At Point of View, we know that God's truth is eternal, and if we stand together, we can help more Americans apply His truth in their daily life.

[00:46:15] Help Americans find truth again by giving at pointofview.net, or call 1-800-347-5151. That's pointofview.net, and 800-347-5151. Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.