We're Gonna Need MUCH Better Than Pam Bondi | 2/12/26

And greetings. Happy Thursday. Welcome to the Steve Dace Show here live and on demand on Blaze TV, radio, and podcast alongside Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre. I'm Steve Dace. We are brought to you by our friends over at GhostBed. You ever heard of being micro-tired? It's that feeling that hits when things slow down and your brain tells you to take a nap. But of course, you don't have time. You're in the middle of a workday. That's why you've got to get that best sleep quality overnight. That's why you want to check out Ghostbed and their over 60,000 glowing reviews. We swapped out my son's bed for a Ghostbed. He's been raving about it. It's got cooling features in every mattress that actually senses the body temperature and adjusts. So you're never going to get too hot or too cold. You're going to be comfortable all night. If you don't love your mattress, return it for free. Get your money back. All right. 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But before we get to all of that, here's Aaron's rundown of what happened. while we were away. What happened while we were away brought to you by Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam. Bondi testified in front of a house panel yesterday and it went very well. Stop it, stop it, please, I beg you. Whoops, strong clip. The Dow, the Dow right now is over, the Dow is over $50,000. I don't know why you're laughing. You're a great stock trader, As I hear Raskin, the Dow is over 50,000 right now. The S&P at almost 7,000. And the NASDAQ smashing records. Americans' 401ks and retirement savings are booming. In addition to claiming we only prosecute pedophiles when the Dow is under 50,000, Bondi also accused a Jewish lawmaker of anti-Semitism. With this anti-Semitic culture right now, She voted against a resolution condemning... Oh, oh, oh! I just want to be clear. Do you want to go there, Attorney General? She also yelled... Don't you ever accuse me of a crime. And for the PS resistance, she allowed Jerry Nadler to attain the high ground. Whoop strong clip. How many of Epstein's co-conspirators have you indicted? How many perpetrators are you even investigating? Now, it is true Democrats could have pursued the Epstein issue during the Biden administration if they wanted to. So this entire exercise, at least from the Democrats, is a charade. It's also true that the quote unquote Epstein survivors seen here in this terrible for optics photograph could at any time name their abusers and file police reports. But holy cow, Pam Bondi is bad at this. This guy has Trump derangement syndrome. He needs to get, you're a failed politician. In other news, the perpetrator of that mass shooting at that small Canadian town has been named Jesse Van Rootslar is his name, and he was involved in the demonic doctrine of transgenderism. One of his victims was his own mother, who, according to independent journalist Andy Ngo, affirmed his gender madness. Rootslar also shot and killed a sibling and six schoolchildren in Tumblr Ridge, British Columbia, before killing himself. In Minnesota, Operation Metro Surge is over, according to Borders' R. Tom Oman. With that and success that has been made arresting public safety threats and other priorities since this surge operation began, as well as the unprecedented levels of coordination we have obtained from state officials and local law enforcement, I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude. Oman was also asked if the level of cooperation from state and local law enforcement is sufficient. I have not met one county jail that says no to us. They want to work with us. The House yesterday passed the Save America Act. The bill's author is Congressman Chip Roy, and he says... It was on a bipartisan basis. We had a Democrat join us. So now it heads to the Senate. So the question now is whether the Senate will take it up. And I hope they will take it up, but not just take it up. Take it up and press the rules of the Senate to force members of the Senate onto the floor and to debate. and go ahead and tell the American people why you don't support common sense legislation. Or maybe you do. We've already had Senator Fetterman and Democrats say, hey, I don't have a problem with voter ID, so let's put it on the floor of the Senate. Force the debate. And finally, what would it sound like if Pam Bondi were a waitress? Probably like this. Greetings. Hi, what are your specials? Well, you know, it's funny. Since my time as waitress, I have completed more orders than any. Oh, sorry, what are the specials? Excuse me. I'm going to answer the question when I'm good and ready. Your theatrics are ridiculous Okay, the market price fish might be up But the Dow is down Oh, you can't read the menu because of redactions? How about you apologize for coming in here with a party of eleven? Ma'am, could I get a refill on water? Did you drink the water I already gave you? Yeah, but I want to So you admit that I already gave you water? Yeah, but I want to Ma'am Oh, so you want to complain that I gave you pickles When you said you didn't want pickles But how about you apologize for a complicated order? I have yet to hear an apology from you, or you for that matter. What are the gluten-free options? How about you grow a pair? A turkey burger? This guy's got beef derangement syndrome over here. Give me a break. Check, please. You do not tell me what to do. I will get you the check when I want to get you the check. And could I please get that with Italian dressing? Italian dressing? In America? Just say you love illegal invaders. And that's what happened while we were away. Aaron's Montage brought to you by The Blaze. Make sure if you want to help us win this culture war, you align with us. You subscribe to Blaze TV so you don't miss any of the exclusive content we do for you as a network. Each and every day when you go to blazetv.com slash dace, use the promo code dace. You'll get $20 off your annual subscription. Comes out to just 26 cents a day, $8 a month. That's blazetv.com slash dace, code dace, to get $20 off your annual subscription. First and foremost, I want to say this to one of my best buddies, Texas Congressman Chip Roy, who tirelessly has been working for nearly two years to get the SAVE Act passed through the House of Representatives. And was finally able to do it late last night. Well done, good and faithful servant. And it now goes to the Senate. But this entire ordeal, and this simply just doesn't happen without Chip. there's a few other people it doesn't happen without but I mean he was the mustard seed that got all of this started now this is exactly why he's correct in returning home to run for state attorney general of Texas and he's going to win and he'll be a phenomenal a state attorney general of Texas because even he can't do anymore now this legislation he worked two years for this legislation He can't sign it into law. He can't get the Senate to vote for it. And then I think we all know, let's just say that we end the zombie filibuster and we get the votes out of the Senate. Trump signs it into law. Where is this piece of legislation going to end up approximately five minutes after it is signed into law, do you think? Courts. In a federal court. And the reality is it's not the system that we were given. It's not the system we should have, but it is the system we do. So I have to live in the world until we have an executive that is willing to step forward and say, nah, we don't have that currently, like literally anywhere in America, in elected office. So until we have an executive branch that is willing to exert its authority, we are left now with the courts being supreme and the federal courts being, as Sonia Sotomayor once infamously said, where policy gets made. And you bet your sweet bippy, if you're going to lose a Ken Paxton to the U.S. Senate, you better believe you want somebody like Chip Roy in that state attorney general's office. And here's the sad truth. Chip Roy is going to do way more to defend our, again, not the system we should have. Am I endorsing this system? No. No. But is it the system that we are currently living under? Yeah. So I could sit here and give you the perfect score and rub your bellies and do some hyper-intellectual theoretical podcast on why this is all wrong but have no power whatsoever to change all of it. But what would it change? Nothing. So it's the system we have. So given that it's the system we have, and by the way, I will not take, let me pull a Pan Bondi here. I'm not going to take, well actually, no, because I have actually done stuff. I don't have to take any of your lecturing on this because I'm one of the few people that's actually led a successful fight anywhere in American history at reigning in the courts. I'm one of the few people that's done that. So I'll take my bona fides up on this issue up against literally almost pretty much every other current homo sapien that exists on planet Earth. Is that fair? Oh, that's as fair a thing as you could possibly say. Listen, you want to learn how to build the next luxury liner, don't call me. you want to learn how to change your oil don't call me you need to go dunk a basketball not your guy you need to put a 9 iron from 200 yards away within 3 feet from the cup not your guy but you want someone with experience one of the few who's taken on the courts and won I'm your huckleberry nevertheless this is the system in which we live we have to abide by it because we're not empowered to change it We keep electing people who won't. So if that's the case, then we are way better off having Chip Roy as the Attorney General of Texas than just being one of 435 members of Congress where it takes two years to pass one signature piece of legislation that still may not pass. Where every single day he's got a chance to write a court brief on an issue that matters in the federal courts as the Texas AG that would have national significance. Any thoughts on that really quick? Oh, it's of course true. And to extend that to what you've accomplished in Iowa, as I mentioned a while ago, you just watch what's going on in the Iowa legislature right now. I mean, Steve's legacy lives on every single day up there. There is a bunch of people that are now fighting for all kinds of causes. I mean, this is must-see TV. Not everyone always passes, but there's wins everywhere. And it does, in fact, happen because of the very uncompromising and righteous precedent set by men like Steve and Chip locally. How many people get elected to Congress out of the whole population? Really small number. How many people get elected to Congress and actually author a bill that becomes or that is voted on and passes in the House? Very small number. How many people do that while also at one point at various points going up against the president of the United States at various points aligning with the president of the United States? It's a really small number. I think Chip Roy has done his job. He's done. I mean, this is a civilizational shaping bill that was passed multiple times. This is just the most recent version. It was passed. He's done all he can as one of however many hundreds of representatives. So, yes, far more power in Texas. There's a proof of concept with this guy named Chip Roy that I would like to see empowered with, you know, real power. And he's done, like I said, he's done all that he can. Listen, I don't live in Texas. Chip Roy is going to do way more for me as the attorney general from Texas than he will being one of the 435 people trying to fight rigor mortis every day in the United States Congress. That's the same for literally everybody within the sound of my voice. Again, not the system we should have, not the system we're supposed to have, but it is the system that we do. Look at what a lampstand Florida was for the conservative movement. He's going to have a chance to be that kind of lampstand in Texas, and it's needed. Let's talk about lamps. Like, I wanted to break some. I watched some lamps go out, some lights go out. Let me couch what I'm about to say with this. All I want to do is win. To quote the greatest coach of Todd's childhood favorite team, winning isn't everything. It's the only thing. I just want to win. Everybody just wants to win. The difference is what we define as winning. Now, for the last few decades on our side, winning has been getting access, building a brand, monetizing said access, running to be something rather than to do things. All the stuff we have talked about for how many moons the entire time you've worked on this program, and for the years that went by that you listened to it before either one of you came to work here. Too many moons. Too many. But everybody wants to win. I mean, everything is about winning. Now, the win for you, if you're a believer like me, the win is you hear at the end, well done, good and faithful servant. And that means by some worldly standards, you may have taken an L, but our kingdom is not of this world. All that matters is winning, with the exception of one thing. How do we define the win? All that matters is winning, with one exception. How do we define the win? I define winning as saving America. As far as we know, there may be a land mass underseas we're not aware of but as far as we know this particular land mass is the last best hope we have this side of eternity post Genesis 3 is that a fair case to make? yeah and that's how I'm defining a win that's the win I'm going for I had a conversation yesterday with a little birdie who has probably seen as much, and somebody that's never been on our show, probably will never be on this show, but also has probably seen as much polling data. it would be in the top 1% of people on the American right who have done, seen, analyzed as much polling data as this little birdie has. And we discussed where we are on our side heading into this midterm right now. And essentially what he said to me was, we're cornered. Because just look at the Tom Homan video out of Minnesota. for all we know this could be a huge win they might have done their job we we don't know we don't know right we mean we really don't know so it's just all rhetorical perception right it's just all rhetorical perception yeah okay i mean i mean we we had just as many stories of people on our side upset about what looked like we were punking out as there were stories on their side of people looking like they were working now with ice and tom homan right i mean this whole thing is the fog of war perception which which makes the point i'm about to make even more important. The messaging is even more important because that's the case. And so on one hand, we did this messaging for months that we're going to deport everybody. I think we're unanimous on this show in favor of said stipulation. Yeah, correct. All right. But there are not a lot, but I don't 15, 20, 25% of this party that Consuela, you know, cleans their home and watches their babies for them. And, you know, her husband, you know, Pedro mows their lawn. Or, worse, all kinds of Hispanics whose names they don't even know are working at their meatpacking plants or their various other industries for subsistence wages because we don't have E-Verify, right? Yeah, isn't what the new View guest host told us about her husband's construction company. Correct, yeah. Marjorie Taylor Greene was making those comments too. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so on the one hand, we did this like really radicalized messaging, but the perception is we're not delivering on it. Like we may have a huge win in Minnesota that we don't know if we knew the data, but perception-wise, do you feel like we just went there and owned them? Do you feel that way perception-wise? No. No, and a lot of politics is perception, by the way. A lot of it is. And this is your warning in your book. Don't attack what you're not prepared to do. Correct. So on one hand, we did this, like, we did all the messaging that those of us in the base, the online write, the podcast write, whatever you want to call us, okay? MAGA, whatever you want to call us. We did all, I mean, the messaging was on point, man. Like, literally just the talking points from a show like this, right? But then we may not. And so we did that, while alienating the Romney, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell wing of this party. But then at the other, but here's the thing. We don't feel like we're delivering on our own messaging. And so now, neither side of this extreme is satisfied. And you cannot look at how much we are loyal to Trump as a base as any kind of a polling metric right now. Because the base is already, the base left Trump in 2017 and 2018 too, right? Yeah. How many house seats did we lose in 2018? 40, I believe, was the number. 40. 40 was the number. because you can personally admire the president and everything he's done for this country, and you probably should, in great numbers. But when you have to move because AI took your job away, and you have to move now to where you can still do your job. So on one hand, you've got to move. on the other hand now, but you can't sell your home that you were in. There's no buyer for it. You don't get to say, have you seen the stock marks? Is it 50K? You don't get that deflection. You have to live in the world of actual realities and outcomes. And so when the pollster calls you and says, do you love Trump? I love Trump, man. I love how he sticks it to him. He says what I think. Dude took a bullet for America. He's my guy. Okay, cool. Mark that down. What do you think about the current direction of the country and your situation? Well, I need to sell my home right now. I can't. AI took my job. I can't relocate. I'd like to get my kid out of the government schools so he doesn't think Drag Queen Storytime Hour is a major, but I can't afford a private school. We don't have school choice yet and can't afford it. See what I'm saying here? I do. And so we've created this dynamic like on immigration where we talked really tough and gave all of our influencers all the talking points to filter down to all of you. But the perception is we haven't really delivered on that. So then we alienated some of the other people in the party who are less likely to show up for us. For what? What do we do it for? And this is reflected everywhere. Let me tell you where else it's reflected. Epstein. We're going to go on all these shows. I'm going to go tell Theo Vaughn, Joe Rogan, all these guys. We're going to let everything out. People need to pay for this. Get the base all fired up. Well, it's actually some of those same Republicans that might be a little nervous about the Howard, you know, the Howard Lettnick crowd. Might be a little bit nervous about what's in those files, right? Fair? Mm-hmm. Okay? Because it's probably more or less their kinds of Republicans that's crossing over and going to Epstein Island more often than our kind, probably, I think. Fair. Fair. But then you don't deliver. And so you alienated the more squishy, moderate establishment wing to not deliver results that your hardcore wing anticipated. You did all this hardcore messaging. Cool. I mean, people's engagements grew. Bills got paid. But you did all this hardcore messaging that made the squishes. We do need their votes. now i'm not good it's a little bit like the the what paul says in romans we were talking about what it means for the lesser brother right and on one end you have to be you have to accommodate the lesser brother but you're not a slave to him either right right don't go out of your way to tempt the lesser brother you know when his faith is weaker than yours but you also don't just completely bind yourself to him like he dictates your conscience for you either right you are ultimately trying to right let help him rise to the higher correct all right so as we used to say in our generation, don't write checks your mouth can't cash, basically. Right? Okay. And this is just reflected. It's the golden age economy. And Howard Litton, the crowd, while they're also getting protected from being on Epstein Island, I'm like, looks pretty golden age to me. Dow is at $50,000. And you're like, I've got $50,000 in equity in my home and I can't sell this sucker. See what I'm saying here? Mm-hmm. What that woman did yesterday was retarded. And given that it's arguably the most important position in the executive branch other than president, that's totally fine. Totes cool. Totes fine. Her position as the attorney general is to prosecute crime and corruption within the United States Not care what the Dow Industrial Average is or the NASDAQ's up. What in the world would we have said if Hillary Clinton tried something like that? Well, I know. Because that's what we're doing to Pan Bondi right now. And this is how you know we're at a, you know, it's a little bit like in a sports team. You go from, your fans are very excited and you disappoint them. To they think they can fix it, but you keep disappointing them because you don't listen to them, right? Okay. And then you become, then they get bored. They get defeated. They don't show up. We've been seeing that in a lot of our special elections around the country, right? Okay. But then you reach, what's the final stage where a coaching change has to get made? It's not apathy. it's when the fans join in on Babylon being their own team laughing at their own team like I remember during the Brady Hoke era when I found out the Michigan football team was so bad we had to give tickets away if you bought a Coke Zero I laughed until I urinated because the team had so let me down that I felt no residual emotion to defend it you know what I'm saying And now I just want retribution for what I invested as a fan that you're not paying back. Yesterday, holy cow, I don't know that I have ever seen a figure on the right more memed and pilloried like Pan Bondi was yesterday. Holy moly. Holy moly. And you kind of got a figure, you kind of got a sense of who's getting paid to say some things and who's not. Because it was literally just the people that were getting paid to say things were the only ones trying to defend that indefensibly yesterday. And first of all, she de facto accuses Jamie Raskin of being a crook, right? I hear you're a great day trader, correct? Right? You know, that's essentially what she's alluding to, right? That he's insider trading off of his congressional knowledge. What position does she hold hot? Attorney John. Attorney General of the United States. That's what position she holds. Who of all of the approximately 362 million people that live currently in this nation, who would be uniquely equipped and empowered to find out if Jamie Raskin, and punish him thusly, if Jamie Raskin is using his position as a member of the United States Congress, untowardly who would that be by any chance do you guys think maybe who would that possibly be her the Attorney General of the United States and her name's Pam Bondi this is where we are now see this is where your base turns on you when you start humiliating them when you play them for suckers when you say things like oh we know you're a crook sir but I'm not doing anything about it. I just wanted the talking point. Your base can't sell their homes, aren't sure that their jobs won't be taken by AI. They really don't want a data center on every block. That's not a chicken in every pot message for them, okay? And then you're going to tell them, but hey, but here's what I got for you. I gave it to Jamie Raskin with some innuendo. That's what I got. Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? I'm laughing all the way. What that was from that woman yesterday, that's not serious testimony from an attorney general. That's an audition to be Fox News contributor. That was the worst performance by a Republican before a congressional panel I have seen in my life. In my life. I was embarrassed for America watching that. Embarrassed. I just want to win. That's it. I have no other agenda but that. And that ain't going to get it done, son, what that was yesterday. Gentlemen, your thoughts? Can you imagine 10, 15 years ago before any of us knew what a Pam Bondi was? And just out of context, you had clips from her railing against the Democrats. You were like, finally, somebody who fights. And then you have to check notes and say, oh, this is her fighting against doing her due diligence on her checks notes again. child predator Epstein files. I mean, we're on the upside down. There's a bridge about five minute walk away from here. You know what I'm talking about. Do you think that's high enough? Because I wanted to jump off a bridge watching that. It was embarrassing. It was absolutely embarrassing. Taken all together. I mean, we're talking about the stock market in the context of I mean, either it is or it isn't. Does pizza mean actual pizza or is it something else? There's too much money, Aaron. It's just clown show. Clown hour. I don't see how certain people don't see this or are just peeing on you and telling you it's raining. Good grief. I just want to win. I don't apologize for that given what's at stake. And I'm going to critique things that are going to stop us from winning and i don't apologize for that either and whatever in the sam hill that was yesterday is one of those things the steve day show All right, back here on the Steve Day Show, powered by Relief Factor. 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So I'm going to do something in this segment I've never done before, and I would prefer not to do, and wish that I didn't think I maybe had to. But some events over the last few days had me thinking about this. and that's why I'm going to do it. Those few events would be in order. In my own home state, I had a conversation on Tuesday with a little birdie that has seen more elections in Iowa than anybody else I know. and we were discussing this gubernatorial race. And he really likes Adam Steen, my guy, thinks he has clearly separated himself from the rest of the primary field to be kind of the conservative alternative to Randy Feenstra, our rhino congressman that's running. But he's concerned that whether or not Adam can catch up to Feenstra. On the other hand, he doesn't think there's any chance that Feenstra can win a general election, despite Iowa having a 200,000 Republican Party voter advantage. And when I asked him why, he said, well, you remember what you said about Romney when he ran in 2012? That Romney desperately wanted to beat Barack Obama, but he wanted to only do it a certain way. And he wanted to do it in a way that demonstrated he had successfully marginalized the Republican base. And that's why in Romney's first run, he tried greatly to cater to the conservative base, reached out to almost all the major Christian conservative leaders. In his second run, he did none of that. in his second run in fact he did almost no conservative organizational appearances whatsoever in between the two runs in his second run remember he boycotted the Chick-fil-A day revolt against the Chick-fil-A boycott and this little birdie said to me my phone was very busy yesterday this little birdie said to me this is what Randy Feenstra is doing here in our state. Sure, he wants to beat Rob Sand, but we've moved this state, he said, so far to the right that this is an establishment power play. Their first objective. Beating Rob Sand is the goal along the way, but the first objective is to gain back power that people like you and me have taken away from them in the state. And this is why Randy's not shown up at your buddy Bob Vander Plaats' Family Leader Summit. This is why he doesn't show up in any of the Moms for Liberty debate. This is why he does nothing to demonstrate any fealty to the conservative base at all. Because the establishment is very resentful of how much we've moved this state to the right. And Randy Feenstra is just simply a cudgel, a vehicle, a tool to gain back, it wouldn't matter what his name was, what he had done. They were already trying to sink their claws into the end of the, he told me, the end of the Kim Reynolds administration, which is why you found yourself on the opposite ends of her on whether we're going to fund, you know, give subsidies to woke corporations and whether we're going to steal people's farm, you know, for a, you know, for a pipeline we don't need. All we would really have to do is just change our CO2 standards and we wouldn't even need the pipeline at all, let alone the morality of stealing people's land, you know, for billionaire investors. and that this is all an attempt to try to reset the state back to where it was before. And that blew my mind. It always blows my mind when people take the stuff I used to say or have said before and feed it back to me in ways I didn't anticipate. Because that's when it really hits home to me that I've missed something, right? And you know what? I told this person, that makes perfect sense for his behavior over the last year. Perfect sense. This is an attempt to say, we are now in control. That Tom Hanks meme where the guy says, I'm the captain now, that's, we've moved this state so far to the right. And it reminded me of what's happened to DeSantis in Florida with his legislature too, kind of rebelling against him. But really, we just want to sell out to big pot. We don't want to do any more conservative stuff. That kind of stuff, right? Okay. Yeah. so there was that moment the second moment I've already addressed it was another conversation I had yesterday with someone who again has seen as many poll numbers on the right as literally any carbon based life form has in the last decade or so the third is a headline I saw this morning that we are apparently incapable as a party of putting a candidate on the ballot in the state of New Mexico. Did you see this? No, I didn't. I think it was governor. Was it governor or senator? I can't remember. I'm sorry. It was governor or senator. There will be no Republican on the ballot. We were incapable of putting a candidate on the ballot. Well, Steve, we're never going to win there anyway. That's not the point. You put a candidate on the ballot in a key statewide race because that helps you raise money and visibility for everybody else running across the state. If you're running as a Republican in New Mexico, I mean, I don't care what you're running for. Whatever your odds were of winning have decreased precipitously by not having somebody at the top of that ticket. Literally anybody. And I was kind of thinking I was going to punk out this morning about doing what I'm about to do. I was like, eh. It's schmaltzy, cringy. I think it's necessary, but... It's just not typically how I roll. And then when I saw the National Republican Party is so inept. It's Senate. It's the Senate. It's the Senate candidate. We don't have a Senate candidate in New Mexico because it's the NRSC who couldn't make it happen. You know who runs the NRSC, by the way? Mr. Beard. Tim Scott runs that. in between. Apparently, he was so busy convincing everybody last week that Trump was a racist for the Obama meme. He forgot to put a candidate up on the ballot for sending to New Mexico. I don't know. Maybe a little less virtue signaling and a lot more activism. Thoughts on that, maybe. And that was the moment when I thought, okay, I'm not going to punk out on this. I'm going to follow through. this is a big audience and you never know who's in this audience out of this audience came the people we raised the money to make Nefarious out of this audience came the editor Brian Jeremiah Smith that saved that movie Nefarious I've had venture capital people come to me out of this audience you just never know the combined time, talent, and treasure in an audience of this size. Particularly given the kind of content we do. Because we're not the show. If you're just looking for conservative chucklehead talking points for the water cooler tomorrow, I'm probably not your guy. Fair? Fair. Yeah. I mean, you're probably serious about the process to some degree if you're tuned into this. I mean, we do our best to make it as entertaining as we can. But, you know, we're missional before we're, you know, anything else. And so chances are, if you're tuned into this, you want to be entertained, but you're probably also missional before anything else. Fair? Yep. Okay. So that scene in The Darkest Hour, I know we just talked about it a few weeks ago, where he goes down into the subway station, the train station. Love it. The ruling class is about to fold, and the people are like, listen, you all do what you want to do. All right? But we're not just bending over for the Germans here, all right? I mean, we're going to fight them with clothespins, right? You know what I'm saying? Okay? Yeah. And it sucks to ask this of you, but here we are. There have got to be a few people of means in this audience who could write some serious checks. Now, I'm not suggesting you cast pearls into swine. Okay. Hey guys, I have the one, I scored perfect on the worldview exam, but I haven't put in the work. Nobody knows me. I've been running for six months and I'm at 1%. But if you gave me a million dollars, no, don't give that guy. I tell you, don't give that guy a million dollars. Hart's in the right place. He can't do the job. We have got to win this midterm. We have to. And there's a few things we just simply can't control. We cannot control what the economy is going to do. We can't. Can't control what the Supreme Court's going to say about birthright citizenship or about the tariffs. We can't control that. We can't control firing Pam Bondi, which should have happened. Well, I take that back. The hiring should have never occurred. Can't control that. We can't control that the Republican Party apparently cannot put a candidate on the ballot in New Mexico for U.S. Senate. As one does. Can't control that. So what can we control? around the country there have got to be candidates like my guy Adam Steen that have demonstrated enough juice on their own that they've gotten on base. So to use a baseball analogy, a fair analogy. Yeah. You always make the candidates get on base on their own. Always do that. If you're being hit up as a donor, and you can decide as the donor what getting on base means, but the candidate should always have to get on base on their own. always have to do it on their own. And you should be the one that is brought in then to advance them from base to base or whatever base they're on to get them home. But always make them. It's a vocation. And your corporations, the companies that are the reason you have that level of resources, you're not hiring people to do their job for them, right? And you wouldn't hire them if they couldn't demonstrate they could actually do the job in your place because you don't have time to do it yourself, right? Okay? So make sure they can get on base on their own. Get on base on their own. And you get to decide as the one writing the checks what getting on base means. But they have to get on base on their own. But there have got to be candidates as we head into this primary cycle. Like my guy Adam Steen. That if they just had $100,000 here, $500,000 here, $1 million there. And in a lot of places, out-of-state donations like in Iowa. Out-of-state donations, limitless. give as much as you want. They do that, by the way, so that major ag companies will come in here and buy all these spots, and we can't end up taking these people out in primaries. That's why they do that. But look to see if you've got a Steen-level candidate in your state that has demonstrated they have gotten on base, and you're like, we have to win, and I just can't trust the Republican Party is going to get this thing done. I mean, I just can't. I mean, I just can't trust the people that cannot put a candidate for Senate on the ballot in a U.S. state. Guys, there's only 50, and not all Senate seats are up every year, right? Right. Kind of knew this thing was coming the whole time. Didn't, like, sneak up on you over there, Mr. Scott, did it? Okay? We just can't. We can't entrust our futures and our kids and our grandkids' futures to those people. And you know what? I have a lot of political connections. you're not sure where to go and you're a person of means, email me, steve at stevedace.com. I'll look at my Rolodex and see if there's anybody I can point you to. In Iowa, for example, I certainly could. Because what did I just say about Chip Roy? He's going to do more daily for America as the state attorney general of Texas fighting in the federal courts for us than he can fighting in Congress. That's true in a lot of these gubernatorial races around the country. You bet you care who's the governors of these states. everything's a national election now, folks everything is now again, not the system we're supposed to have not the system we should have but it's the system that we do everyone's a national election now and we just simply can't outsource this to these people I mean, we just can't and the time of just relying on Trump's once-in-a-lifetime personality to carry our sorry carcasses across the finish line is coming to an end. He'll never be on a ballot directly again. No one will ever get to vote for him ever again. So maybe in the past, you're like, I could write that kind of check, but I don't trust these people. I'm the kind of guy that can help you know who's on the up and up and who's not. I don't need another job. Man, man, I don't need another one of those. But I do need a country. I need one of those, though. I do not need another job, but I do need a country. And it's just very clear we cannot just... All right, we're just going to let the people that are there take it from here. No, they don't have this. I promise you, I promise you, they don't have this. I promise you. So if you can write that kind of check, write it. If you need help of where to go. anywhere in America. Come to me directly. There are ways to do this, by the way. No one has to know who you are. It doesn't have to be through a C3. I can help you with that, too. And especially if you want to do it with my guy, Adam Steen. Because there's just no excuse to lose a governor's race when you have a 200,000-seat voter registration majority. But I'm going to tell you right now, all my little birdies pollings have Randy Feenster losing to Rob Sand right now the Democrat despite that and why? because he is actively depressing his base right now because the second priority is beating Rob Sand the first priority is beating you and we just can't afford that man you guys have been asked to vote for how many Lindsey Grahams your whole lives right we have to vote for Susan Collins again we have to win right only when they're going to turn around and run campaigns that depress our base so the Democrat beats them? We can't. It's not fair. I hate it. I don't like it. It's where we are. It's where we are. You just can't trust these people, man. You can't. So if you've got those kinds of means, steve at stevedace.com, email me. I'm your connective tissue of where to go. And I almost feel dirty, and I'm sorry for saying this, but it's where we are. We're in a political party that could not put up a candidate for U.S. Senate in a state. We just, we can't trust these people. We just can't. Was that cringy, terrible, awful? Yes, but not for you. Oh, gosh. For the Republican Party. I hope Tim Scott isn't running the 250th American birthday party because yikes I hope he's better at finding a wife than he is at finding a U.S. Senate candidate in New Mexico or finding racism Theology Thursday is next We be right back here with our two live and on demand on blaze tv radio and podcasts with Todd Erzin and Aaron McIntyre. I am Steve Dace. Let us know what you think about what we think via the SteveDace.com inbox. Steve at SteveDace.com. That's D-E-A-C-E. D-E-A-C-E. Like us on Facebook, MeWe and Gab. You can follow me at SteveDaceShow on X, Instagram and TikTok. Don't forget you can also subscribe to our YouTube channel over at DaceShow on YouTube. At DaceShow on YouTube. And you can subscribe to the podcast many of you have. Thank you. You're the biggest part of our audience. Please hit subscribe if you're a podcaster and haven't done it yet, or hit follow if you're on Apple iTunes. And that's how you're going to know now that you are one of those, and you'll never miss an episode in your feed. Tens of thousands of you have left us five-star reviews. We appreciate all of you for doing that. We'd appreciate it if you'd add yours. So thank you for that, too. And thank you to our friends over at Jace Medical. There's a lot of information going around these days. What information can you trust? I mean, we just went through a scenario. Did you guys see that they turned down a Moderna flu vaccine yesterday? Did you see this? Yes. Did you see the reason why? I don't know that I did. Gave people the flu? It said you guys have not, the FDA said, well, that's all, appreciate your efforts, but you guys have not supplied us any evidence that this works. It's never stopped them before. I know. I thought you were going to say you've never brought a successful product to market. Well, ah, yeah. For those of you that don't remember, Moderna had not brought a successful product to market once until Operation Warp Speed. Well, so they still haven't. Well, now that'll preach right there. Okay. Yeah, so they tried to bring an mRNA flu vaccine and the FDA was like, yeah, that's, I mean, by golly, you worked hard. But you've provided us zero evidence that this thing works. Okay. All right. So this is, again, take as much control over your situation as you can. We can't operate on ourselves, right? Can't prescribe drugs for ourselves. So, I mean, there's limitations, but there are certainly more things that we can do to make sure that we have as much control, agency over our healthcare as possible. One of those things, get prepared with the Jace case. You get some of the most venerable medications and antibiotics of all time. And then some things that used to be greatly celebrated and given Nobel Prizes like ivermectin. You can customize it and add that to your Jace case if you want. They've added on so many new different options since they first came on board with us about four years ago. All right. So you can get on board with them and get a discount at checkout when you enter the discount code DACE, my last name. Discount code DACE at checkout for a discount on your order at jace.com. That's D-E-A-C-E for the discount at J-A-S-E, jace.com. Well, we are down to the final two weeks of our Roman study. We're going to break down the first half of Romans 16 here in the next 30 minutes. And then we will deal with the second half and kind of our concluding thoughts next week. And then we'll head off to Israel. And then when we come back, provided that the U.S. hasn't invaded Iran by then, we will come back and we'll take a couple of weeks. I think a two-year study probably deserves maybe two weeks of remnant questions from the audience of things to discuss. What do you think? If they've got them, for sure. Yeah. So that's what we'll do when we come back after our trip to Israel in March. And then we'll probably just do topical, theme-oriented Theology Thursdays for a while. Just wander the earth. Just walk the earth. Yes, indeed. Yes, grasshopper. That's another religion, but I hear you. Yeah. Okay. So let's get to the first half of Romans 16, the final chapter here. And Paul is writing his final personal greetings here, and we're going to go through half of them because he also says some interesting things in the second half that I think we could do an entire separate conversation on. I'm going to do my best with these names. Forgive me. Paul writes, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant. And I'm going to come back to that word in a minute, by the way. to our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Centrae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Eponatus, I think it's Eponatus, who is the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ even before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apellas, who is approved. What do you like pronouncing better, the ancient Greek names or Hebrew names? Thoughts. the Greek names that have all the vowels and the Hebrew names that have almost none. What are your favorites? All right. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ and my beloved status. Greet Apellas, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsmen, Herodian. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphanea and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asencritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobus, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Greet, right now, everybody's like, better you than me, Dace, better you than me. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus, and his sister, Olympus, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. So, I have no notes for you on Romans 16 from Mr. Spurgeon because I have no notes. My expository book on Romans from Mr. Spurgeon ends at the end of chapter 15. It doesn't have any notes for anything he preached on chapter 16. So, I have two things that stand out to me before I hand this off to Dr. Hahn. I'm sorry, because every Catholic in the audience would correct me when I do that. Dr. Hahn and Dr. Sproul. Number one, you see something here, and this isn't the only time that Paul does this in his letters, but this isn't the only time you see this in the Scriptures. Names of people you otherwise would not have ever known and that you may not have perceived to be, quote, significant are cited and cemented for all of eternity. Jesus said not one letter, not one word of the Word of God will ever go away, right? It'll last forever, right? That includes these names. And many of them are names that you would have otherwise never known, except for these kinds of notations at the end of Paul's letters or in the Old Testament. They list all the workers who built the tabernacle. They list all the workers who built the temple, the second temple. And God is no respecter of persons. just because you may not have an obvious form of gifting that puts you in a spotlight that someone with a more obvious form of gifting may otherwise occupy has nothing to do whatsoever with the overall value that you have in Christ or the gifting that he has given to you. There aren't elites in the word of God, or the kingdom of God, I should say. There's not a socioeconomic ladder in the kingdom of God. Here you see Paul say several times, either A, this person was a believer before me, they came to the truth before me, or B, I could not do what I'm doing on behalf of the truth without them. And this is what equality in the kingdom of God looks like. Equality is not sameness. Equality is not sameness. Unfortunately, in our human wisdom, we think it is. You know, Rush used to say that liberals always wanted to have equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunities. The problem, if you try to dictate an equality of an outcome, you know, as founding father Samuel Adams, or I'm sorry, John Quincy Adams said, duty is ours. Outcomes belong to God. if you try to dictate an outcome as if you have a hand personally in foretelling and shaping future events that's another manifestation of ye be like God and we will always make the worst decisions in our fallen human nature when we think we can behave as God we can replace him every single time and so Jesus does not appear to Urbanus on the road to Damascus and then call him to be the chief apostle to the Gentiles and say, hey, you're going to get to write most of the New Testament. But Urbanus' work is so vital to the one there that Jesus did call, Paul, that Paul makes sure that Urbanus receives the recognition he deserves. and so does the Holy Spirit or God. I have a show with a large audience. You might be the Sunday school leader at a country church of 150 with 10 kids. There is, just because I can reach more people, that's not how the kingdom of God operates. I am of no more value to the kingdom than you are we're not the same I was for whatever reason in God's sovereignty given a platform by which I can reach hundreds of thousands and you're reaching hundreds but what you're doing with those hundreds is way more intimate than what I'm doing you're there you're making eye contact And so in a way, if I wrote a salutation at the end of my time with you, I would be remiss if I didn't say, hey, all of you that took all the stuff that I tried to say in this very public platform all these years, but you actually took it and changed lives with it in ways I was never going to be able to or never have the opportunity to. I'd be derelict in my duty. there are no insignificant contributions in the kingdom of God. None. And you see this in both the Old and the New Testaments. Any thoughts on that before I move on to my second point and hand it over to your tour guides? Well, because you said rightly that there's no insignificant contributions, That is another way of saying no matter what contribution you can or cannot choose to make that is right in front of you, that makes it all the more important because none are insignificant that you make it. Faith that works is indeed dead. I'll just say ditto to that. And I also hope that really encourages if you're kind of burnout, man. Right? I'm here with these kids every week. Do they pay attention? or I'm here doing the songs for the choir or for the praise team every week. Are people really listening? Okay. God is. And he makes sure that he sees you and wants you to know that he sees you. And you see that in the word of God. I just gave you several names of people you see nowhere else. and yet they're given specific shout-outs in, I think, the most important theological work that's ever been written in the history of the human species. All right. Now let's get tricky. Let's go back to the beginning here. Romans 16, verse 1. Paul says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Centrae. The word servant there, a more precise translation of that word, is deaconess. That is the most precise translation of that word, deaconess. Now, Phoebe wasn't a dude. by the way, proposal. Phoebe and Tabitha, another prominent female name in the New Testament, two names that need to make a comeback in our modern girl naming. All in favor? Sure. Yeah. I've always thought those are great names. Okay. Phoebe and Tabitha. All right, anyway. So the literal translation for this term is deaconess. Now, for those of you that don't know, traditionally the church has recognized there are two primary office holders within the church, elders and deacons. Elders are the term presbyters, deacons, and elders are those who handle the spiritual needs of the church. Deacons are typically those that handle the physical needs of the church. There is absolutely zero zilch nada evidence in the scriptures, and you guys argue with me if you disagree, zero zilch nada evidence in the scriptures that women were given any title of pastor or ministerial leader, like apostle in the early church. Zero evidence of that. Correct. Agreed, Aaron? Yes. Okay. Zero evidence that the word elder was associated with women also in the scriptures. Right. As we understand it. Yes. Aaron, agree with that too? Yep. All right. So we get the Catholic and the Protestant both agreeing on the first two. Now, where it gets trickier is in this thing of deacon. Now, the deacons serve the physical needs of the church. What's that mean? That might be in your modern church. That might be your usher. That might be the one who helps with the offering and the collections. Phoebe is serving the physical needs of the church here. She is delivering letters. She is a messenger. She's handling physical needs. She's collecting offerings. So, thoughts on that? Catholics still have that and always have. They're called nuns. Oh, that's how you guys answer that. Okay. So in a Catholic church, there's no office of deacon? Or there is still an office of deacon? Oh, yes. But only men are given that title? Yes. Women who want the physical needs of the church then are called nuns? Yes, sisters, yes. Okay. I don't know. I'm asking. Why that distinction? Well, because of everything you said about the formal leadership. of the church has already been clearly laid claim to, but again, there's a, I mean, if I must go sola scriptura, if there's a, you've laid it out perfectly, there's a, these are formal biblical example that there is a, I mentioned this yesterday, it has to be read contextually, but you're right, ministerially, words that are, as servant, clearly in the Greek have a more specific application. We must pay attention to that. And as you just perfectly laid out, there's a calling and anointing that is subscribed in the language that is scripturally used. Okay. All right. Aaron, your thoughts? I kind of feel like I can't be Mr. Sola Scriptura as a Protestant when you just read the original, you know, Greek word there. and laid out what you just laid out. I don't have any problem with that. I don't. All right, so... With the stipulations that you already stipulated about elders, pastors. Okay, so you think it's okay for evangelical churches that are sola scriptura to give the title of deacon to women? As in one who serves the physical need of the church, or deaconess, maybe is the more precise term here if we're going to apply it to Phoebe. I think if... I'm not trying to wriggle out of this. I would want to know what their motivation is. That's how I would answer that. Because I think far too often in our country, that's maybe an attempt to go down a rabbit hole that then leads you to elders, pastors. Now, it doesn't have to be that way. But I think if you laid out your case, hey, this is a specific job for a specific person, and we know that Paul lays out in Romans 16, mentions Phoebe, this is not a teaching role, this is not a blah, blah, blah role, this fits in. If you want to make your case like that, then that's fine. Yeah, you have to understand, egalitarianism and feminism, there was no wave of feminism yet, right? That's some of the difficulty in trying to apply this to our modern understandings and sensibilities of these terms, particularly because the same guy that bestows the title of deaconess upon, Phoebe, is also the same guy that does all the harshest teaching about letting the proto-nascent versions of feminism and egalitarianism, where those things were first located in the ancient pagan world and have been way more well-developed in our world today, he demonstrates in his letter to the church in Corinth, which was one of the most lascivious and debased communities in all of ancient Greece. He lets it be known how much he disdains all of that in that exact, it's the same author, how much he disdains it all, right? So, but this is the danger. This is why I wanted us to have this conversation. This is the danger of trying to always apply this in a modern parlance. And I think what you said there, Aaron, what's the motivation for why you would want to do this? Is it some form of accommodation of the modern spirit of the age, right? Why? And the tension, I mean, because there's an obvious necessary tension for Protestants that Catholics don't have in this conversation because under no circumstances can women ever become priests. And obviously the line has been blurred in various strains of Protestantism where— Right. Like, for example, full disclosure, I go to a Pentecostal church. Fire-breathing Word of God pastor and Pastor Jesse. But a lot of your contemporary Pentecostal churches, because of the whole husband and wife, the two will become one flesh, have no problem bestowing upon the wife or the wife of an elder the title of elder or the title of pastor. But they're not given like teaching or preaching or leadership roles, but they're bestowed that title. So there's just no danger, boss girl danger. I mean, in the early church, most of this is a lot of this was consecrated virgins. it was an entirely different walk of life all right i hand it over now to you too todd you go first well um to your first point scott han finished making it because he thinks it's every bit as uh salient uh and it's a it's an ode it's a love story uh he talked he talks like about how a lot of times in Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, list of names, never heard of them, never going to remember them, boring, and genealogies, things like that. And he says, you know, well, you have to have eyes to see to understand what's being done there. And Steve, I think you aptly did something that Scott would commend. These greetings show us that Christian ministry— We could greet quite a bit throughout this study. I'm sorry, my interruption. Go ahead. I know. Yeah, that maybe ought to tell us all something. These greetings show us that Christian ministry must always be an investment in people. Ours is not a religion restricted to ideas and abstract dogmas that have minimal connection to life. How many times have you said, Steve, are you getting into heaven because of your fully realized— Jesus didn't die for a systemic theology, he died for people. Yeah. Christianity is a religion of the word incarnate. The Son of God became consubstantial with us in order to reach us in the depths of our human need. His disciples can do no less when it comes to being his witness in the world. Ministry, in other words, is an incarnational activity. It requires a spirit of real compassion that attends to real needs. evangelization youth ministry and other pastoral activities have as much to do with building personal relationships as with anything else even some of the finest preaching and teaching can fall on deaf ears when a personal connection is lacking ministry tends to be most fruitful when we give ourselves to others along with our message this is something that comes to mind when i read the greetings that Paul sends to the Christians in Rome. Behind many of these names is the face of a friend known to Paul Behind others is a believer who must have been greatly encouraged to be singled out for mention by the apostle to the Gentiles Few figures have had an impact on the history of the world quite like Paul, and this in part is because of his loving attention to people. Incarnational, using that word multiple times. God taking on flesh, basically. Which is another way of saying faith without works is dead. Your ascent must be lived bodily. It's an action word. You must go. Mass, the translation of mass, is actually to be sent forth. It's not done. You worshipped the greatest form of prayer. Now you go out into that world and be hands and feet. And hands and feet so that you too, in your own way, can help somebody's name be written in the annals of heaven. And they can in turn help you. Amen. Aaron. So we'll read Dr. Sproul's message about Phoebe, just for maybe a little bit even broader context to what you were saying here, or just interesting. Sproul writes, This lengthy list of greetings and mentions of various people begins with a special commendation of a woman named Phoebe. She is described as a servant of the church in Cancria, which is on one of the coasts of Corinth. Paul's brief commendation has received no small amount of attention by those trying to glean from the New Testament an understanding of the role of women in the life of the church. Phoebe's name is taken from a pagan goddess. In the early church, Christians who had been named for pagan deities retained those names after conversion because the name's origins no longer had any religious or theological significance. We need to bear that in mind because disputes over any sort of Christian link to anything with pagan roots occasionally arise from the church today. Easter sounds close to the pagan deity Ishtar, and the celebration of Christmas on December 25th corresponds to the time in ancient Rome when celebration was held for the pagan god Mithras. Christians decided at one point to use the occasion to celebrate the birth of Christ. That was a noble endeavor, but some are still scandalized by the historic relationship to the Mithras cult. It's understandable that many things in our culture, Sproul writes, have roots in paganism, yet those roots have long since been overlooked, and we do not need to have scruples about them. The days of the week were named for pagan gods. Monday was named for the moon. Wednesday, about in honor of the Scandinavian Norse god Woden. Thursday comes from the celebration of the pagan deity Thor. Saturday goes back to the celebration of the Roman god Saturn. We use these designations, but we do not attribute the names of the days of the week any particular religious homage. Phoebe is identified as our sister in faith and a servant of the church in Corinth. This descriptive term of servant of the church comes from the Greek word diakonia and is rendered in some translations as deaconess. Many churches in our day are organized by elders, ministers, deacons, and deaconesses who are female deacons. Over the years, there have been disputes, even within Reformed communities, of which Dr. Sproul is one of them, about whether the office of deaconess should be an ordained office. Years ago, I was asked to write a theological position paper with respect to the role of women in the church and with specific reference to the meaning of a church office. In that paper, I pointed out there is no connective description of the term church office to be found anywhere in the New Testament. The concept of church office is something we extrapolate from the example given to us biblically. The most generic term for a church worker in the New Testament is diakonia, which describes a position of service to which all of us in ministry are called. In my paper, I wrote that the New Testament is replete with examples of women being deeply involved in the life of the church as well as the ministry of apostolic expansion of the church, though no woman was selected to the office of apostle, and restrictions were placed on women in Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus. Nevertheless, we see that women were profoundly involved in the life of the church. Women were the last to remain at the cross and the first to greet the risen Savior in the garden at the tomb. We see throughout Paul's greetings his profound appreciation for the assistance he received from women who are serving the cause of Christ and the church in very significant ways. What the Church does today in terms of ordination is a different matter, which I will not address here, Sproul says. The point is, we must not underestimate the very important role that women have in the life of the Church of Christ. So that's Sproul's explanation, exposition on that unique greeting for Phoebe. In essence, you are able to give women the agency and standing of their talents and giftedness in the church without giving them titles that the Word of God says don't belong to them. Because we're equal, but we're not the same. We're equal, but we're not the same. Let's check in with what's going on with Gen Z here in a moment. The Steve Day Show. All right, back here on The Steve Day Show, powered by our friends over at Preborn. You guys have been incredibly generous throughout this partnership and have helped them to save tens of thousands of babies and maybe their mamas in the process from being murdered by their mamas. And let's keep that going. Because for as little as $28, you can fund an ultrasound that doubles a baby's chance at life as soon as today. But it's not just that, right? Because they understand that's just the first step, right? Once mom chooses life, steps out of the darkness and into the light, well, now we've got a new family here, and they need support, and they're there for up to two years after the baby is born, providing that practical things like car seats, diapers, intimate things like counseling, for example. All of that, by the way, comes at no cost to this new family, but, of course, none of it is free. That's where you and I come in to fund it instead. Make your tax-deductible donation today to this five-star charity at preborn.com slash Steve. Again, head over to preborn.com slash Steve. Once again, that's preborn.com slash Steve. We now head over to my oldest, Anastasia. Good to see you, sweetie. How are you? Doing good. New season of Love is Blind is out. What is that? Love is Blind. Yeah, what is it? I don't know what that is. It's a reality show. Okay. That's it? Yeah. Probably lost me at that. Okay. Sounds good. So losers, basically? No, people find real love on there. Oh, they do find, they do. Yeah. It's like supposed to be like love at first. It's like love unseen. So they can't see each other. They can only talk to each other and like get to know each other on a deep personal level. Oh boy. And then one of my favorite things is when a woman described herself as looking like Megan Fox. And I'm not here to say that she did not look like Megan Fox. So when she came out and he came out, there's some great moments, but there's also some great, you know, like intimate moments where people learn a lot about each other before they see each other and then they fall in love with the physical as well okay didn't like nobody get married the last season or like two seasons ago you know what i don't remember aaron you know about this yeah bella's a huge fan of the show oh i'm guessing you talk about it she is yes and the bachelorette comes out next month so that's exciting as well gonna watch that too so I feel like I failed as a parent. Well, we all make mistakes. We're not perfect. Todd, worse. Sports bro? Who's worse? Her dad, the sports bro, or Anna watching The Bachelorette? Who's worse? Yes. All right. Cool. We're back on equal footing again. We're both terrible people. We're both terrible examples of human beings. Good. Good. Fist bump? Yes. Okay. I'm proud of you again. Thank you. All right. What are we doing this week? Well, speaking of reality shows, that is what I'm on here to talk about today, actually. Okay. It's not Love is Blind. All right. Good. It is a reality show that is going to come soon. And never compare yourself to Megan Fox, by the way, when you're on that show. No. Keep the expectations low. You know, people think I'm approachably pretty. That's maybe the max, I would say. Fair? Yeah. Okay. It's fair, yes. Yes. Unless you are Megan Fox, don't say you look like Megan Fox. Correct. Correct. Yes. All right. And then if you are Megan Fox, you probably need therapy. Go ahead. Right. Exactly. So anyways, but this is about a reality show that has been announced by somebody named Xavier DeRusso. He works for PragerU. Okay. And he has announced a new reality show called Party Lines in which he will follow people on the left and people on the right in a new reality television show. Initial thoughts. This will go great, question mark. Great idea. It's a great idea. All right. I don't think there's any question that it's a great idea. Yes. I think what I would question is how will it be executed? Mm-hmm. All right. And I think that comes down to what, first of all, do you guys agree with me it's a great idea? I think so. What do you mean they will be following? Yeah, that's a good point. Let's clarify that. What is that? Well, I actually brought the trailer along. Oh, you did? I did. Okay. I did. All right. Should we fire it up? Let's fire it up. All right. Let's fire it up. We're on in three, two, one. You elected a literal socialist to run the global center of capitalism. We're talking about giving the Nobel Peace Prize to a guy who is declaring war on his own cities. Your job was like the first lady. That's not even a real job. You just support your gay husband. I like her. It's Xavier Day. It's Xavier Week. Like the only reason you're choosing to go meet up with your friend Amber Rose while we're filming a reality show She wanted the ship America's on well Now I run your show I Miss Charlie this is America everyone has gotten you know where the counter organizations to turning point USA I try to be the gateway drug. First, trap them in a little bit. He's a liar, and he lied to everyone. I do not want to crawl back to being a corporate whore. I don't want this to get ghetto. It's stressful out here, being Black and Republican. You accidentally said slavery was OK. What is wrong with you? I'm as real as my hair. We can chill, too. Thank you. If I were Israel, I wouldn't even provide matching socks to gossip. Now walk with me. Walk with me. With all due respect, I'm not going to call a grown man destiny. His name is Steven. Nice big breaths, okay? Twitter is a mental hospital. My entire brand just fell apart. You do have to have a screw loose to do politics for a living. I hate everyone in that trailer. Like, everyone. I don't know. the chick who said all you do is just stand around for your gay husband about barack i i i might be on that she's a treat is she i've heard many a things about her i don't know a single now here's the thing i i mean i i work for i work for one of the largest platforms on the american right i don't know who any of these people are i only recognize i think one person well you know destiny i've heard the name i heard that but but if i i knew the name yeah i never put a face of the name once in my life just looking at any of these face and maybe some of the other names i will know. Maybe they came on my feet or something. But just looking at all those people by face, I didn't know a single one of them. Not one. And see what I thought was kind of interesting about this whole reality show idea, because I agree with you. At the beginning when I heard about it, I said, well, this could be really interesting. Like you're following the lives of people behind the scenes as they're trying to make change. And then you watch the trailer and you're like, oh, okay. They're trying to make this a reality, reality television show with the drama and the fighting and the cussing and the yelling. And I actually kind of wondered if this was a perfect analogy for the difference between being a conservative and being a Christian conservative. And I think that that's something that we see a lot. Or being based, but what are we based in or based on? Yes. Like what are you actually rooted in? Are you rooted in just the political of this or are you rooted in values because of who your creator is? And I kind of think from what I know about most of these people. I thought it actually outlined the fact that we have people that, you know, are conservatives, but aren't Christian conservatives. We're not rooted all together. And so I thought that this would kind of be an interesting thing to analyze because obviously I think that this is geared towards Gen Z, which would be my age. It would be kind of a good thing to analyze all of us, what it means to be a Christian conservative versus what it looks like, I think in that trailer to just be a conservative in political values rather than biblical values. So Todd, those are good points. Todd, you and I, I mean, we are the advent of reality TV, right? We were in high school when MTV debuted The Real World. We've, we, you know, Anna, you were born or you were born after Survivor became like the number one show in America when it first debuted. So we've lived with, you know, our, you know, Aaron and Anna have lived with reality TV all their lives. We have seen its advent and now its ascendancy. Without setting aside our age as much as you can, did you get the vibe that anything constructive about the national conversation will be achieved through what you just saw? I'm asking. That wasn't meant to be a... I'm not setting you up. I'm genuinely asking. What did you think no but i'm pretty sure we should absolutely have uh pam bondy on that show because she would fit in perfectly yeah um that's her answer every episode have you seen the stock market yeah she would fit in perfectly uh well but reality tv in and of itself from the beginning has added absolutely nothing it's subtracted it's it's not reality it's narcissist tv and it always has been it is constantly saying look at me look at me look at me there so you you couldn't do anything resembling what we have come to know as reality reality tv to answer your point anna and have it accurately reflect whatever we claim christian conservative is supposed to be You can't be an authentic Christian conservative and be part of that nonsense. It's just the whole definition of what that thing produces. It's the opposite of he must increase and I must decrease. So we just heard from the Gen Xer and Todd, we're a few years away from. That's a Gen Xer take. You realize that, right? Our boomer parents and grandparents are dying off and we're just a few years away from. Well, that sounds like a typical Gen X-er trope. So, all right, we're about to assume that position. Okay. Aaron, as a millennial, same question to you. My question is, what is the point of this show? Is there going, is this, hey, look, we don't have that much, you know, we don't have that much in terms of differences. We're really a lot closer together than we thought. Is it bad? It's some sort of kumbaya thing? Because the only thing I saw in there was what Todd said, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, and drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, which you might say, well, that's what the young kids want. They want the tea. They want all this and that. That's how you reach the young people. Okay. You might be able to talk me into that, but drama for drama's sake. I mean, I haven't seen a single episode of the show. It doesn't sound like it's out yet either. I would need to know what the overarching point is. Is it just to make a fun show that people talk about, or is it something a little bit deeper than that. I'd need to have that spelled out a little bit for me. In the description of the show, it says, quote, this reality show is meant to answer the question, what does life look like behind closed doors for these polarizing figures? Okay. So it's just basically a vanity thing. So it's voyeurism. Yeah. There's no higher point. All right. So Todd representing Gen X is a negative. Aaronism representing Generation Millennial is skeptical. You're the Gen Zer. What do you think, Hannah? Well, I think that there is a way to do this that could be beneficial. You know, like you'll see documentaries or kind of docu-series types of things that I think are really beneficial to Gen Z, where you're kind of seeing, you're answering this question, what is life like behind closed doors? But there's a point to it. You're seeing people making a difference, making a change, answering questions. I mean, for example, I think if they had made like a docu-series about Charlie Kirk, that would have been really interesting and would have answered a lot of people's questions about his own personal life, but also followed him around as he had like some of those viral moments and maybe spent time with his family. So you got to see what he was rooted in. And that's why I bring along the question of the difference between what does it look like to be a conservative versus a Christian conservative? You know, like when you go home, are you rooted in a family, in a biblical foundation, in prayer, in taking action? because that's what God calls us to do? Or do you go home and you're rooted in taking action because you want to have the most likes, the most viral clips, the most money, the most popularity within whatever movement you're in, et cetera. Because, I mean, for example, this Emily Saves America girl, I've heard that she is one way on camera and a completely different way, you know, behind the scenes. I've heard that from reliable sources that she was really nice to people who were trans in a video that she did and then turned around and said, You know, they were men in dresses and all this stuff. And to me, it's like, well, you're not living an authentic life that way. And so I think that's why this kind of shows the example of the difference between what are you rooted in? Are you rooted in doing this because that's what God calls you to do? Or are you rooted in doing this because you just think it's the right thing to do and you want to get, you know, the most popular you possibly can out of it? Todd, were you going to say something? If you want anything resembling real TV, it'd be, you know, real families with some experience. You can't put these young people—it doesn't work. And that's what online, all of a sudden, I'm this, I'm that. I just became a Christian, and now they spend all day long pontificating stuff that they should just be quiet about and research on. I mean, this is Matthew 6. When you pray, pray in secret. When you give, do not—your left hand know what your right hand is doing. It is not—it's supposed to—it can be when the moment organically comes, lights, camera, action. That's a moment you might need to be ready for. but most people it's to be saints it we just talked about this on the show saints are a lot of names you've never even heard before just doing the little things and everybody just wants to be a star yeah this is feeding some of the worst impulses kind of across the board but i think growing on quote unquote our side which yeah is you know and i say this as somebody growing up i i wanted to work in in right-wing media okay so i'm saying this as as somebody who wanted to do this. I didn't even know what an influencer was back then. That wasn't really even a term that we used. But I always had it in the back of my head that this was for a higher purpose, a larger purpose. And I just think there's an inclination that there are too many people who have substituted real results in terms of the marketplace of ideas and praxis, getting those ideas and putting them into actions. They've substituted that for whatever influence they have in audience. This is cosplay. Yes. Here's what, let me give a take that will not be repetitive of your guys'. The thing that stuck out to me is when we made Nefarious, we clearly were trying to emulate the vibes of the 90s thrillers in this genre that were very successful. all right um silence of the lambs um the uh oh the ed norton film with richard gear primal fear primal fear was another one and then uh i think it's fallen with denzel washington those are three of the films that in terms of a vibe as we were building out our aesthetic those were three of the films that were the most in that most influenced how we wanted our film to be seen okay but they also didn't influence at all how our film was oh and seven there was those are the four but they didn't influence how our film would be received right we didn't use the same language they did we didn't use the same worldviews and belief systems they did okay the vibe and aesthetic we as best we could with the budget i was able to raise we did our best to emulate that vibe and aesthetic but the messages were and the worldviews and the in the dialogue were not emulated in any way, shape, or form. To me, this clearly wants to be seen as your modern hipster young person's, you know, in terms of its overall vibe and aesthetic reality show. But then I think it goes too far in indulging all the craven natures of those reality shows too. And then you start asking yourself then, what constructive thing as conservatives are we making by doing this? What are we, right? I mean, I do think as conservatives, there should be a higher standard than just being voyeurs. Yeah. Right. What are we missionally trying to accomplish? Right. Because ultimately, what's the root word of conservative? Conserve. So what is it we're trying to conserve? Right. When you watch that trailer, what do you get the sense it's trying to conserve? That it would be among the things that history has revealed to be good, true, and beautiful for the human condition. I don't get diddly squat from that. Neither do I. it's it's slickly made for sure okay but slickly made at what cost what are we what are we slickly trying to preserve right are we just doing stuff you know just for clicks and entertainment right we're gonna stick around and do overtime for blaze subscribers for the rest of you we'll see you tomorrow until then go hard romans 8 28 Thank you.