Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to discuss false statements made by News Channel 5’s Phil Williams that were left hanging on the internet for seven hours before correction.
Leahy: In studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. Crom, lead story at The Tennessee Star, which I wrote. Headline: News Channel Five Quietly Removes Unsubstantiated Claim by Phil Williams that Andy Ogles ‘Kept the Money.’ That was the original headline. Subtitle of the headline: that Andy kept the money from this GoFundMe account established in 2014.
Carmichael: And did the story go on to essentially say that?
Leahy: It had a statement to that effect that has disappeared. The headline and the statement that Andy kept the money which, by the way, Phil Williams could not substantiate that Andy kept this $23,000 GoFundMe account set up to honor Andy’s dead child in 2014 and used for Andy’s said purpose of helping other families that had children who passed away. It was up on the internet for seven hours, that Andy kept the money. He couldn’t prove it and couldn’t substantiate it.
Carmichael: Or he didn’t.
Leahy: He didn’t prove it.
Carmichael: He didn’t prove it. He didn’t substantiate it and offered no evidence.
Leahy: Offered no evidence that, that he kept the money. And then, mysteriously, seven hours later they changed the headline to say that Andy, kept the money and he won’t say where the money went.
Carmichael: He has said where the money went.
Leahy: At the time he published it because Phil went up to him and said, okay, I wanna know immediately how that money was spent eight years ago. And Andy didn’t answer the question. He came and gave us an exclusive statement and he explained how the money was spent. He didn’t show the accounting records.
Carmichael: Now, wait. So he did say.
Leahy: Subsequent to that headline.
Carmichael: Now, wait a second. Phil Williams says I’m lost on what the second headline says.
Leahy: The second headline said, “He won’t say where the money went.”
Carmichael: That’s not true either. That’s not true either. If you give somebody 30 seconds to respond to something and then they later respond, to not give anybody time. Let me just say this.
Leahy: He did say where the money went. He hasn’t provided any accounting records to that effect.
Carmichael: But then he has said where the money went.
Leahy: That’s a very good point. So the statement itself is wrong. Phil Williams’s statement should have been he will not provide me any accounting records. That would be an accurate statement.
Carmichael: Let me just say this. Phil Williams has been around for a really long time.
Leahy: He’s old.
Carmichael: He’s old; he’s got white hair. It reminds me of Randy McNally. They have something in common.
Leahy: They do. They’re past their prime.
Carmichael: Past their prime. They say things and do things that they shouldn’t do. And I think there is a Republican lawmaker who has…
Leahy: Todd Warner.
Carmichael: Who publicly said that Randy McNally needs to step down. And you have editorialized…
Leahy: On Sunday.
Carmichael: That Randy McNally, after having served for 45 years should step down. Phil Williams should step down. He’s lost his step.
Leahy: Lost his fastball.
Carmichael: He’s lost his fastball. That’s a better metaphor. And uh, put me in coach a baseball. So here we’re talking baseball metaphors. (Leahy laughs) But Phil Williams is past his prime and like Randy McNally, he has the hair to show for it.
And there’s no doubt when you look at Phil Williams, you look at a man who might very well be past his prime just by looking at him. But then when you see the story that he put up where he made an accusation that he could not support, by journalistic standards, that is a terrible thing to do.
Leahy: He can’t substantiate his claim that Andy kept the money.
Carmichael: That’s the first claim and the most important claim because to claim, I’m changing the headline to, he won’t provide an accounting of something that was eight or nine years ago, I would ask anybody to keep an accounting of something that that’s eight or nine years ago.
Leahy: That’s a very good point. It would take a while to put that together. If you can.
Carmichael: If the accounting still even existed. I go through my files at the office and stuff that’s old and no longer relevant, I clean those files out because I’ve closed the books on them. I’ve paid my taxes on them and I’ve done everything. And I’ve held him for the appropriate amount of time for my tax purposes, and I eliminate that stuff.
Leahy: Phil Williams is trying to create the impression that he actually never said Andy kept the money.
Carmichael: Right. And that’s what I’m saying. That’s why he’s like Randy McNally and News Channel 5 needs to recognize that they have a reporter who will say and do anything perhaps for a personal vendetta.
We don’t know. We don’t know what his motivation was. It could be that his mind just isn’t as sharp as it ought to be, and Phil should be put out to pasture. (Makes horse sound)
Leahy: I love the sound effect. Phil, you’re going out to pasture.
Carmichael: You’re going out to pasture and we will hold the gate open.
Leahy: And Phil Williams. Phil, your own actions and statements are leading you to be put out to pasture because you, he tweeted Wednesday evening at 9:27 pm, about an hour after News Channel 5 secretly changed that headline from, Andy Ogles ‘Kept the Money’ to ‘Andy Ogles Won’t Say Where the Money was Spent.’
He retweeted this tweet from Dr. Joy Heningsen News Channel 5 never said he kept the money, which right is falsely blasting Williams for. Actually no, he did say that and he said it for seven hours, Crom.
Carmichael: Who is claiming that Channel five never said what Channel five said?
Leahy: His retweet was claimed by some blue check.
Carmichael: That’s more evidence that he needs to be put out to pasture. Listen, I think Phil Williams believes everything that he is saying. I think he believes everything he’s saying and therein lies the problem.
Leahy: News Channel 5, by the way, has a policy Crom that they correct errors promptly, prominently, and transparently. They need to be prominent, so there’s no confusion about what changes were made to the story. They did not follow their own corrections policy. They made this major change.
Carmichael: Maybe there are some other people there who need to be put out to pasture. The pasture’s getting bigger.
Leahy: Bigger, bigger, and bigger.
Carmichael: And the gate is getting larger. It’s so tough to backtrack on something that you did that was wrong.
Leahy: Phil Williams is finding that out.
Carmichael: Yes. (Makes horse sound)
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Phil Williams” by Phil Williams NC5.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed official guest host Grant Henry in the studio for another edition of Grant’s Rants.
HENRY CONTINUED:
Let’s talk about Biden’s plan to add more seats to the Supreme Court. So a controversial commission set up by President Joe Biden to explore changes to the U.S. Supreme Court concluded in a draft final report on Monday that there was, quote, profound disagreement over whether to add more seats to the Supreme Court bench.
Profound disagreement. The report from the commission, which was established in April, comes as polls show that public approval of the Supreme Court has dropped in recent months. That’s CNN’s reporting right there. And I’m here to say, who cares!
Who cares about the approval rating for the Supreme Court? The court is not there for your approval. The Supreme Court is not there to write our laws and tell us how to change society. It is merely there to interpret laws that the people have duly passed in the federal paper number 78, Alexander Hamilton said, “The judiciary has no influence over either the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of society and can take no active resolution whatever. It may be truly said to have neither force nor will but merely judgment.”
You see, Hamilton pondered that the judiciary should be the least dangerous branch of government because it couldn’t control the military or the money. Now there’s a clear reason why there is a profound disagreement over whether to add more seats in the Supreme Court, even in the progressive Biden administration, because the political tactic to circumvent the will of the people by adding justices is both obvious and perverse.
This is not the first time this has been tried. Just look at what happened to the Commerce Clause when the Roosevelt administration threatened to expand the court. Then the federal government arguably grew more during that time period than at any other point in American history.
And hopefully, there is disagreement within the Biden administration because some of those imbeciles up there recognize that the Supreme Court is not meant to be a political body. Listen ya’ll, Democrats figured out how to circumvent the legislature 50 years ago.
They forced everything to the courts, whether it was abortion to Roe v. Wade decision or same-sex marriage issues through the Borderville decision, or even something like Obamacare when Roberts flip-flopped in the whole tax fee, fee tax nonsense. Democrats have used five unelected people to force their beliefs in the rest of the country for several decades.
And that tactic has squelched the voice of at least half of this country. Why do you think Trump was able to beat Hillary? Because the people had had enough! In some sense, Trump was merely a market force reaction. So change will occur. It must.
But societal change is meant to be slow, a thoughtful, deliberate process whereby you convince your fellow men. Change hearts and minds and cement things in stone by passing a law. Doing it properly means that we don’t have to continually revisit the same issues year after year. Change is inevitable.
Progress is healthy, but it must be done through the proper channels. There’s a very clearly designed constitutional mechanism through which societal change must occur. In other words, the legislature. I’ll end with this story, Michael. Justice Scalia used to tell my favorite story all the time about the passing of the 19th Amendment.
This is the right to vote for women. And of course, everything nowadays is being pushed through the 14th Amendment. This substantive due process claims whether it’s Bergfeld and same-sex marriage or Roe v Wade and abortion, it’s all a 14th Amendment claim. So presumably, the right to vote would be a right.
That is our constitutional protection that’s issued well before the alleged right for women to vote or same-sex marriage or anything.
But if the 14th Amendment actually did mean what it meant, why did women not rely upon that to push the 19th Amendment? The 14th Amendment had been around for 55 years prior to women getting the right to vote.
They didn’t use the 14th Amendment because they wanted it to last. They wanted to set it in stone so that we would never have to visit this issue again. They convinced their fellow man they changed hearts and minds, and they passed the 19th Amendment. again.
There are clearly defined ways to change our society, relying on five unelected people to tell the entire country what to think. That ain’t it. And increasing the number of justices to flip the vote in your favor for a decade or two is borderline treasonous behavior. We deserve better and we know better.
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the studio to discuss Governor Bill Lee and 26 other Tennessee state Republican’s letter to Joe Biden regarding Afghan refugees and the administration’s bias against southern states.
Leahy: And that is Behar County Sheriff Javier Salazar commenting about the border crisis. Andy Ogles Mayor of Maury County, there’s a story sort of related to that at The Tennessee Star. Right now, Governor Bill Lee has joined 25 Republican governors and requesting a meeting with Joe Biden regarding the border crisis.
The letter reads, as chief executives of our states, we request a meeting with you at the White House to bring an end to the national security crisis created by eight months of unenforced borders. Do you think Joe Biden is going to take that meeting Andy?
Ogles: (Sighs) Who knows? But even if he does, what does anyone really expect to come out of it? That proclamation, that announcement is nothing more than a campaign soundbite. It doesn’t have any action attached to it.
What I would love to see is governors across the country refuse services to illegals or migrants settled in states without the state’s permission.
Don’t give them any state Medicaid or dollars or those sorts of things and put it back on the federal government.
Leahy: This is interesting because Governor Lee has signed this letter, along with 25 other Republican governors. Say, pretty, please, Mr. President. Meet with us so we can complain about what you’re doing, which will have zero zip nada effect.
And yet at the same time, he appears to be welcoming with open arms, a wave of unvetted for security or health purposes Afghan refugees. Already over 400 have arrived in Tennessee.
More than 300 apparently have been resettled in Tennessee. Governor Lee has said, well, gee, I’m not so sure I like this, but he’s doing nothing to change it. Your thoughts on that?
Ogles: Well, keep in mind, those numbers are just for Nashville. And we have documented cases in Memphis, Chattanooga, and Knoxville now where Afghan refugees have been resettled there, so one can only guestimate.
There’s not a lot of clarity here that that number could be closer to 1,000, if not more. But again, I appreciate their service for those that actually may have helped us.
Leahy: Well that’s a very, very limited number. The reports are 95,000 Afghan refugees are coming to the United States of America. A very small percentage of them were the interpreters that helped us.
Most of them are unvetted, possible terrorists, and certainly possibly unvaccinated. (Chuckles) And they’re going to be paid with all their social welfare. In the beginning, I think it will be covered by the federal government. But after eight months, it’s all on Tennessee taxpayers.
Ogles: Yes, that’s right. Look, again, I appreciate your service. But for those that helped us in Afghanistan, why didn’t we help resettle them to Kuwait or Jordan, the UAE, or somewhere else like that?
And at the end of the day, you have to be a fool if you don’t understand that Islam and Christianity, just don’t mix. Islam and a free Republic don’t mix.
And so we now have imported hundreds of thousands of people who at the end of the day, the religion hates America.
Leahy: That’s interesting because now we’re about maybe two percent of the American population is Muslim. My view is that there are those of that background who assimilate to America.
But there are quite a few whose general worldview is not consistent with the American concept of a constitutional Republic. They want to have a caliphate.
Ogles: And that goes back to the whole unvetted problem. And that is you have so many of these folks who are truly unvetted. We have no idea who they are.
All they came with is scraps of paper. And so who they claim they are, it may not be who they actually are. There’s no way to know. And we’ve just opened the door. Come on in.
Leahy: We have a law called the Refugee Act of 1980, which set standards for the legal admission of refugees in the United States. It’s a lengthy process, and they have to be reviewed and vetted.
I have yet to figure out why these 950 Afghan refugees are not going through that legal process. Apparently, the Biden administration is bigfooting American governors and bringing them all in. Here’s the story.
Andy, from Eric Lender at The Tennessee Star. We have only one story that says 26 Republican governors sent a letter to Biden. Please meet with us so we can talk about the southern border.
But 18 Republican governors apparently support Biden’s Afghan refugee settlement plan. Last week, the White House declared that at least 360 Afghans will be resettled in the US across 46 different states.
The only states that will not be receiving refugees or Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C.
Ogles: Again, why is Tennessee not in an opt-out position? When I look at this and you mentioned the federal government kind of pushing the governors around, I think this is part of a larger problem and a larger agenda where you have the federal government overstepping its authority and forcing the states to become co-opted into a program and co-opted into a policy.
And so it’s incrementally marginalizing our governors in our states. And keep in mind, we are a free Republic. We have the 10th amendment.
And whether it’s COVID or refugees or whatever, these governors have to stand up and start fighting. And playing footsie with a President who does not like us is not getting us anywhere.
Leahy: Yeah, it’s and it seems to be pretty transparently not liking the southern states.
Ogles: It’s blatant.
Leahy: Here’s an example. This is a story from Fox 17. Distribution changes in monoclonal antibody treatments may cause shortages in Tennessee hospitals. Did you see this story?
It seems to be a blatant political punishment of his opponents by the Biden maladministration. Here’s the story from Fox 17. The demand for the monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 patients has led the federal government to change the way it allocates its supply. This is a very kind of neutral reporting from Fox 17.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced they are distributing the antibiotic treatment doses based on state and territory, instead of allowing hospitals to directly order the number of treatments they need. And, yeah, a week and a half ago, if you wanted it, they distributed it to you. What’s wrong with this picture?
Ogles: They’ve kind of danced with this idea that they’re going to ration it to the states that don’t have the highest vaccine rates. It’s a dangerous position they’re putting themselves in. They being the federal government.
And so I think they’ve walked that back a little bit. But what you’re seeing, what they’ve done is you have a time of increased demand for the monoclonal antibodies.
The federal government is stockpiling a reserve, which is creating a choke point in the distribution. And so that they’re making states feel the pain through a kind of a stockpiling measure knowing, at the end of the day, you’ll start refusing treatment.
You’re going to have anarchy on your hands when you have someone who is sick. There’s a known treatment and they’re not able to get it.
I did see a different kind of on the idea of COVID that Israel is now beginning to recognize a natural immunity. It’ll be interesting to see if other states, businesses, et cetera reacts with a treatment that’s available.
You have the vaccines that are available. Where does natural immunity fit into this dialogue? And that’s, I guess, yet untold.
Leahy: Interestingly enough, last week, the entire Republican congressional delegation, all seven members, sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
And basically, they said, why are you changing the distribution policy, and why are you limiting it to Tennessee? They haven’t gotten an answer yet. I kind of like what Ron DeSantis said.
He said, okay, you want to ration the distribution of this stuff to us? We’re going to go out as a state and buy it from another vendor. I like that idea.
Ogles: Absolutely. And kudos to Ron DeSantis on this whole COVID vaccine virus issue, he has truly been a leader.
Listen to the full second hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Ben Cunningham welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the studio to discuss migration to Middle Tennessee, record-breaking growth, and the Freedom Matters Tour’s unusual large amount of attendees.
Cunningham: My name is Ben Cunningham and I’m sitting in for Michael Patrick Leahy. Joined in studio this morning with Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles and Grant Henry with Americans for Prosperity.
Guys, good morning. Thanks so much. You were just commenting, Andy, about the traffic. I saw the same thing coming in from Gallatin. I don’t know. Maybe that’s a good indication that things are picking up.
Ogles: I don’t know what was going on this morning. I don’t know if we all left three minutes late and it created this log jam, but, it takes me about an hour to get here, give or take, but it took me an extra 10 minutes or so just because the traffic getting to the interstate was heavier than normal.
Cunningham: I saw the same thing. And of course, Middle Tennessee is booming anyway, I saw where you guys had, like, $4 billion in new investments in Maury County. I mean, you all are just killing it down there. New battery plant. People are moving. They’re moving everywhere in Middle Tennessee. It’s an amazing phenomenon in –
Ogles: I think when you look at total investment for the last 12-month period, we’ve had about $4.5 billion investment in Maury County per capita when you look at per-capita growth. So that’s a percentage of the population with the fastest growing county in the state of Tennessee.
Cunningham: Oh, you are now?
Ogles: Yes. And number one in manufacturing job growth. So we’ve become one of those economic engines for the state. So we’re a small county that punches way above our weight class.
Cunningham: You’re doing a great job in Middle Tennessee in general. I saw where FedEx was going to hire 1,000 new people in Middle Tennessee. And, of course, Amazon can’t get enough people. They’re just begging for people to come work for them. It’s an amazing time to be in Middle Tennessee.
And I get on the Nashville Tea Party Facebook page. I get almost daily messages of people saying I’m in upstate New York or I’m in Ohio and Illinois.
And what can you tell me about good areas to live in Middle Tennessee? And I tell them, heck, any area you choose, except you might want to stay out of Davidson County. Haha. (Laughter)
Ogles: I was thinking, I just wasn’t going to say it.
Cunningham: And so many things going on. You’ve got an event coming up. You, Tennessee Stands, and Robby Starbuck have been going around the state.
Ogles: Freedom Matters Tour.
Cunningham: And you’ve got an event coming up tonight.
Ogles: That’s right. So we’ve been traveling the state. The first one was up in Kingsport and had a little over 400 people. And then last week, we were in just outside of Knoxville and the Tellico Village retirement community.
Again, we had about 420 show up there. Then tonight in Mount Juliet, I’m expecting 450. I don’t know. 550. It’s kind of hard to tell sometimes.
Cunningham: Can people just walk up and walk in? Is it general admission?
Ogles: Yes. It’s a free event. You can go online and get tickets. We have ample space. (Inaudible talk) So we do have room. Of course, we’ll register you at the door. Whereas, like Tellico Village, we had to cut off registration about two weeks prior to the event because we’re just out of space.
And, but there’s just a lot of pent-up angst. You guys are talking about the Senate budget and these bills that are coming forward. When you look at Critical Race Theory and kids being out of school and all these Covid restrictions and impingement on freedoms, people are frustrated.
And I think that you see that manifesting itself. When was the last time you have a town hall in previous years, and you’d have 400 people show up?
Cunningham: Right.
Ogles: It’s crazy. And I’ve been doing grassroots for a long time. We all have. And to have 400 people show up to an event on a Tuesday night or a Saturday afternoon is insane. And like I said, Tellico Village, if we would have had another two weeks, we would have had another 100, 200 people there.
Cunningham: What is resonating with people? Why are they motivated to show up?
Ogles: I think for different people, it’s different issues. And some of the aforementioned, like Critical Race Theory. You knew the scores were going to be bad, but now you see them with the school testing and the numbers coming out. I don’t know, the election.
I think a lot of people, myself included, know that there was election fraud and feel that the election was stolen and they want to know that they still have a voice. And that’s what the Freedom Matters tour is about. Tonight we’ll be in Mount Juliet. And then on Thursday, I’ll be up in Greenville – so, Upper East Tennessee again.
Cunningham: Wow. That’s great. You’re right. I don’t think I’ve seen this level of angst amongst the electorate in a long, long time, maybe ever. I don’t know. There are so many things that got people really angry, and they’re just very worried about the future of the country.
Listen to the second hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Ben Cunningham welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles and Grant Henry of Americans for Prosperity in the studio to discuss the increasing indoctrination of young children, the desperation of generations to have a purpose, and the waking of the silent majority.
Cunnigham: It’s great to rant and rave in front of the big Michael Patrick Leahy microphone for a day. And I appreciate Michael letting me come in and sit in for him. He’s out expanding his huge media empire, going to state after state. I’m telling you, the guy is just unstoppable.
And thank goodness, because the media has been taken over by the liberals, just like most of our other institutes. And we’ve got to fight back. Andy Ogles, Maury County mayor, is with us in-studio this morning, and Grant Henry with Americans of Prosperity, also sitting in.
A triumvirate of hosts this morning to fill in the big shoes of Michael Patrick Leahy. All right, guys, I got a culture update for you this morning. It turns out that in the Baby Muppets TV series, and frankly, I don’t even know where the Baby Muppets are shown. But this last episode, apparently, Baby Gonzo decides he wants to go to a ball, a dance, a royal ball as a Princess and as a female.
And so the transgendered agenda is being pushed even to our children. This show is aimed at kids four to seven years old. And this is from a Fox News article. It says a fairy rat father grants Gonzo his wish to become a princess. And later in the show, the piggy character tells Gonzo we met the most amazing princess.
And this gushing kind of affirmation of transgender to our kids. If there’s any tendency of some poor kid out there to be confused, who has gone through some kind of emotional wounds, this will give them an avenue to go into the transgender role just as easily.
And we see this so much with young kids these days. You guys have probably seen this Libs of TikTok. There’s a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok, and the guy goes on TikTok and takes the most outrageous videos on TikTok.
And it is just amazing how far into this delusional world the young kids have gotten. And the left is pushing this transgender and basically saying to anybody who comes out against it and who doubts it that you are a bigot. You’re a hater. And that really is where we’re going.
Ogles: Well, I’ll come out against it. It’s a bunch of crap. I’ve got a six-year-old son.
Cunningham: I like that.
Ogles: And I’m offended by this. This transgender, which is a mental disorder. We’re pandering to less than one percent of the population. When you have a six-year-old boy or six-year-old girl, but they don’t understand the world, they don’t understand their boundaries.
And so they’re gonna ask questions like, you might have a boy say, hey Dad, can I have my nails painted? And the answer is no, because that’s what girls do, right? Or a girl may want to do something that is overtly masculine. And there’s nothing wrong with boys being boys and girls being girls.
And we’ve got to stop pandering to these lunatics on the left. There was a time and day that a kid could turn on Saturday morning cartoons and the parents didn’t have to be worried about what’s going to be forced down your children’s throat.
And now you’ve got a screen, everything, even the content for your four or four, five, six-year-old child. And I’m offended by that. And it’s time that we take this country back, which is why we’re doing this freedom tour. We are a conservative state and it’s time we start acting like it.
Henry: So speaking purely as myself here, not on behalf of AFP or any other organization, just Grant Henry. You said it before, Ben. This is a program that’s targeted primarily towards the ages of three to eight. Pregnant pause for effect.
I think that’s kind of the answer. Can kids just not be kids today? Is there not an availability anywhere in the nation anymore to just allow the innocence of a child to remain? And part of it speaks to me in this, Ben. I’m reading through Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning right now.
Cunningham: Great book.
Henry: Here’s a quote: Man searches for meaning is the primary motivation of his life and not a secondary rationalization of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific, and that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone. Only then does it achieve a significance, which will satisfy his own will to meaning.
That to me, screams that humanity itself is yearning for purpose. Meaning. There is motivation behind that like there is nothing else in our lives. A little bit of what this is right now is this desperate search to find meaning in something.
And I’m telling you, all right, now it is incumbent upon conservatives and primarily Christians, to start presenting a better alternative to some of the stuff that we’re seeing out there.
Cunningham: Absolutely. And we’ve seen this in other totalitarian states. The children are the first thing they go after. And it happened in the Soviet Union. It certainly happened in China. It happened in Cambodia, with Pol Pot.
In Cuba. The first thing they will do is to change the education system and the culture so that these kids are targeted with big government and authoritarian orthodoxy.
And that’s exactly what this is part of. And they’re basically saying to us, if you disagree with this, you’re a bigot and you not only will be silenced, you should be silenced. That’s the scary part. This is a quote from Victor Davis Hanson, who I love, and his analysis. He was writing an article about this process, and he says now, with the money and institutions in its hip pocket and cool popular culture on its side, the left would not just damn American institutions but infect them.
Alter their DNA and reengineer them into revolutionary agencies. And that is precisely what has happened. They’ve infected them with their far-left DNA and they’ve re-engineered them. Another guy that I love, Leonidas Johnson, who is one of the great black conservatives on Twitter.
He says, we’re now faced with a situation where cowardice is called courage. Failure is called success. Men are called women, abortion is called health care. Racism is called antiracism. Fascism is called antifascism. Opinions are called facts. Facts are called hate, and regressive is called progressive. And we have these poor kids that you see on TikTok that are just so deep into this delusion.
I don’t know if in our lifetime, certainly not in my lifetime, whether or not they’re salvageable and whether the culture is salvageable. We just got to take our own little Baileywick, our own little sphere of influence, and try to do what we can.
Henry: I do find hope, though, in some of these statistics that I look at with Generation Z, which I believe is the most recent generation, is the most conservative portions of it. Portions of Generation Z are the most conservative generation to have existed in American history. At least in the last 800 to 150 years. Now someone’s going to have to fact-check me in that. But the point I’m making here, Ben, is that I think that pendulum swings in both directions.
As widely as it swings left, it’s swinging that far to the right as well. There will be a point where it settles back down. We’re in this time of over 10 windows shift this time where what settles back down to a state of normalcy and what we accept as commonly accepted principles. That’s the real fight. That’s what’s so fun about being alive right now. Now is the time to actually have principles, stand on principles, and make your virtue known.
They matter now more than ever in American life. And I’m telling you one more time, free-market being what it is, let’s start responding with choice here. Let’s start responding with, hey, if you don’t like this show, turn to a different show, man.
Ogles: That’s right. If you don’t like it, move along as people get upset about some of my posts on social media. And it’s like, then why are you reading it? But to your point, Grant, it’s like again, anecdotally – Kingsport 400 people. Tellico Village, which is just outside of Knoxville, 400 people showed up.
Tonight I’m expecting, say, 500 people. And it’s this undercurrent of frustration. And people want their voices heard. This ‘silent majority.’ And I looked at this story on Breitbart we’re just talking about. The Internet Celebrates the Collapse of a Left Woke Olympic Icon. So you have people who love America. I love the Olympics.
Henry: Me too.
Ogles: You anticipate watching these. We’ve got three children, and you’re going to watch these things with your kids, and you’re going to pass along these traditions. And there’s more leftism and transgender in it. The dude weightlifter pretending to be a woman who competes in the weight lifting, and then he totally chokes. But I’m glad. Because that’s not what the Olympics is about.
Cunningham: Absolutely. There is one thing we’ve learned and that’s culture is just as important as politics. And exerting a cultural agenda. Like you say, Grant, is that is: a counter to this leftist orthodoxy is just as important as asserting an alternate political agenda.
Listen to the full second hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
