Sept. 28, 2026

The Bill Martinez Show 09 28 26

Transcript

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.980 --> 00:00:01.620
Are you ready?

2
00:00:01.800 --> 00:00:02.620
Yeah.

3
00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:03.319
Okay, let's do it.

4
00:00:03.339 --> 00:00:07.839
Bill Martinez Live, a program about current events, our culture,

5
00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:11.150
our values, our politics, and our future.

6
00:00:11.609 --> 00:00:15.509
And now, Bill Martinez. Hey, welcome back.

7
00:00:15.529 --> 00:00:15.970
Good morning.

8
00:00:16.030 --> 00:00:17.789
Six minutes after the top of the hour right now.

9
00:00:17.850 --> 00:00:18.649
I'm Bill Martinez.

10
00:00:18.690 --> 00:00:19.370
He's Dr.

11
00:00:19.390 --> 00:00:22.550
Lawrence Reed, a new book to talk about, Born of Ideas,

12
00:00:22.949 --> 00:00:26.609
How Principles, Faith, and Courage Forged America.

13
00:00:26.989 --> 00:00:27.269
Dr.

14
00:00:27.309 --> 00:00:28.750
Reed, good to have you with us. How are you, sir?

15
00:00:29.379 --> 00:00:31.260
Hey, just terrific, Bill. Thanks for having me.

16
00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:35.469
Well, the book is perfect timing. I mean, 250th anniversary

17
00:00:36.490 --> 00:00:39.289
in the midst of this, you know, the rise of

18
00:00:39.670 --> 00:00:41.090
the Democratic Socialists, huh?

19
00:00:42.009 --> 00:00:46.070
Yeah. And the American founding is such an extraordinary story.

20
00:00:46.329 --> 00:00:48.719
It needs to be told and retold over and over again.

21
00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:50.939
So in one sense, it's always timely.

22
00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:51.840
Yeah.

23
00:00:52.229 --> 00:00:55.729
Well, exactly. And of course, in much the same manner,

24
00:00:56.340 --> 00:00:59.200
when you look at the Old Testament, God told the Jews,

25
00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:03.560
the fathers of the faith, to keep talking about this,

26
00:01:03.579 --> 00:01:06.620
to keep reminding their children as they were walking and

27
00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:09.700
talking and waking up and sitting down and around the

28
00:01:09.750 --> 00:01:12.230
dinner table and that sort of thing. And I think

29
00:01:12.650 --> 00:01:16.150
we have lost a little bit of that, I don't know,

30
00:01:16.189 --> 00:01:19.469
that credo because of the culture, the busyness of it

31
00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:22.719
and everything. And we're paying a price for it, are

32
00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:23.079
we not?

33
00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:25.620
Oh, we sure are. I mean, I think if our

34
00:01:25.659 --> 00:01:28.540
founders could come back and take a quick glimpse of

35
00:01:28.579 --> 00:01:31.200
what we're doing today, they'd be horrified to see things

36
00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:35.379
like a $ 40 trillion national debt or government just all

37
00:01:35.459 --> 00:01:39.480
over our lives. They would say, hey, somewhere along the way,

38
00:01:39.549 --> 00:01:41.829
you must have stopped reading what we gave you.

39
00:01:42.890 --> 00:01:45.049
Yeah, what happened to the idea of federalism, right?

40
00:01:45.549 --> 00:01:46.810
Yeah, yeah, that's right.

41
00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:49.920
I mean, all these things, you know, people have been

42
00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:52.140
saying for a number of years, and I would say

43
00:01:52.459 --> 00:01:56.840
most recently, that every three-letter institution of our government has

44
00:01:56.920 --> 00:02:03.609
some form of corruption and grave fraud and inefficiency, to

45
00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:05.950
say the least. And that's why we're at $ 40 trillion

46
00:02:06.189 --> 00:02:06.849
and counting.

47
00:02:07.469 --> 00:02:10.090
Yeah, and it's one of the reasons I wrote the book,

48
00:02:10.169 --> 00:02:14.169
because I wanted to encourage Americans to pick up something

49
00:02:14.189 --> 00:02:16.629
they could read in a couple of evenings. that was

50
00:02:16.770 --> 00:02:21.069
easily accessible and that would remind them of the ideas

51
00:02:21.169 --> 00:02:23.370
and the people that made this country so exceptional.

52
00:02:24.050 --> 00:02:27.960
Well, and in some circles, it's difficult to talk about

53
00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.900
this because people are just closed-minded. You know, they're so

54
00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.560
fixed and ideologically fixed on something that wants to disassemble

55
00:02:37.659 --> 00:02:39.599
anything that has to do with America, right?

56
00:02:40.539 --> 00:02:43.729
Yeah, that's right. I'm hoping the book will be kind

57
00:02:43.789 --> 00:02:46.710
of an antidote to that. But yeah, a lot of

58
00:02:46.729 --> 00:02:49.150
people are dug in on the wrong side and have

59
00:02:49.189 --> 00:02:54.610
been duped into thinking that America is just a bad

60
00:02:54.669 --> 00:02:57.469
and sinful place that never really did much for the world.

61
00:02:57.930 --> 00:02:59.289
Nothing could be further from the truth.

62
00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.310
Yeah, I mean, I don't know how they get there

63
00:03:02.449 --> 00:03:06.610
because the history is quite clear. I mean, people are

64
00:03:06.629 --> 00:03:08.449
always quick, and this kind of bothers me a little bit,

65
00:03:08.490 --> 00:03:11.210
is that everybody's really quick to say, well, America's not perfect. Yeah,

66
00:03:11.250 --> 00:03:14.159
we understand that. We didn't get it all right. But

67
00:03:14.189 --> 00:03:16.460
the deal is it didn't stop us from trying to,

68
00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:20.060
whether it was slavery or any other thing that has

69
00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.319
happened in this country. We have tried to redeem and

70
00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:27.419
do the right things. And, you know, and some of

71
00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:30.740
it is just our own humanity getting in the way.

72
00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.020
The fact that, you know, nobody's perfect on this plane,

73
00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:34.379
are they?

74
00:03:35.060 --> 00:03:35.319
No.

75
00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:39.500
And you briefly touched on slavery. I'd like to point

76
00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:42.379
out in the book does this, I think, very thoroughly.

77
00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:46.539
that we are not exceptional in America because we had slavery.

78
00:03:47.219 --> 00:03:51.639
It was everywhere and had been for since 3500 BC.

79
00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.199
We are exceptional because of the lengths to which we

80
00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:56.159
went to get rid of it.

81
00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.460
Well, and the other thing, too, is when they present slavery,

82
00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:02.379
they don't give you the full context as who enslaved

83
00:04:02.539 --> 00:04:05.900
the slaves to begin with. It was other blacks that

84
00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:06.740
did this, right?

85
00:04:07.460 --> 00:04:12.139
Yeah, typically you would never have almost never. had occasions

86
00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:16.939
where slavers would dock their ships in Africa and then

87
00:04:17.670 --> 00:04:22.509
invade the interior of Africa to capture people. No, they

88
00:04:22.550 --> 00:04:27.129
made arrangements with local blacks who made war on other

89
00:04:27.189 --> 00:04:31.689
black tribes, kidnapped those people and brought them to dockside

90
00:04:31.870 --> 00:04:35.149
and then sold them to the white slavers. That was...

91
00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:39.959
And every African country had slavery. Slavery of Africans by

92
00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:44.079
Africans within Africa goes back many, many centuries.

93
00:04:44.670 --> 00:04:47.209
And that model, as you say, does go back centuries,

94
00:04:47.269 --> 00:04:49.550
whether it was black or whites. And that is if

95
00:04:49.569 --> 00:04:52.670
you got conquered, you became enslaved. I mean, we read

96
00:04:52.709 --> 00:04:55.350
about it in the Bible. I mean, there were, you know,

97
00:04:56.189 --> 00:04:59.389
nations would would lose the war and they'd be enslaved

98
00:05:00.730 --> 00:05:02.889
or just outright eliminated.

99
00:05:03.939 --> 00:05:04.139
Yep.

100
00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:07.839
It's an ancient evil. And I think we should give

101
00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:12.959
our founders proper credit because although they didn't and couldn't

102
00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:15.379
go the full distance, they had to compromise for the

103
00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:18.860
sake of unity at the time. They took us and

104
00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:21.870
not just America, but the world further down to the

105
00:05:21.899 --> 00:05:25.029
path of liberty for all than any other generation in

106
00:05:25.069 --> 00:05:25.870
the history of the world.

107
00:05:26.550 --> 00:05:26.769
Right.

108
00:05:27.069 --> 00:05:29.509
And of course, we saw what happened in England with

109
00:05:29.550 --> 00:05:34.550
William Wilberforce, who died to that end. It was quite

110
00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:38.310
interesting that England didn't necessarily go to war, but we did.

111
00:05:38.949 --> 00:05:44.110
And we invested, what, over 600,000 lives. And most of those,

112
00:05:44.870 --> 00:05:47.240
last time I checked, most of those were white, right?

113
00:05:47.250 --> 00:05:50.519
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. And, of course, not every

114
00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:54.459
soldier in that war fought either for slavery or against slavery.

115
00:05:54.500 --> 00:05:57.339
They had other things on their mind. But nonetheless, we

116
00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.189
paid the full measure. for the sin of slavery. And

117
00:06:01.310 --> 00:06:03.740
one of the first and most positive developments of the

118
00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:06.860
Civil War is that we formally brought it to an end,

119
00:06:06.899 --> 00:06:07.639
made it illegal.

120
00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:08.519
Right.

121
00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:12.819
Yeah, exactly. Which was an incredible accomplishment paid with the

122
00:06:12.899 --> 00:06:18.040
blood of America's citizens to free all. And here we

123
00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:23.079
have been battling this for almost 100 years. And now

124
00:06:23.139 --> 00:06:26.050
with the Supreme Court, their decision saying, you know, we've

125
00:06:26.069 --> 00:06:28.290
kind of run that course. Yeah.

126
00:06:28.310 --> 00:06:28.470
Right.

127
00:06:29.250 --> 00:06:32.290
You know that most people wouldn't know this, but the

128
00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:38.680
first country to abolish slavery in world history did it

129
00:06:38.860 --> 00:06:42.740
in 1804, and it was Haiti in the Caribbean. But

130
00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:46.560
by 1804, there were eight American states that had already

131
00:06:46.620 --> 00:06:49.800
abolished it within their jurisdictions or set it on a

132
00:06:49.819 --> 00:06:56.420
path for extinction within a few years. So we were

133
00:06:56.519 --> 00:07:00.410
really on the cutting edge of an abolition movement in

134
00:07:00.430 --> 00:07:01.829
the 1770s and 80s.

135
00:07:02.509 --> 00:07:05.209
Well, and it almost, from the very start, when the

136
00:07:05.250 --> 00:07:09.050
framers said that we were all born equal.

137
00:07:09.689 --> 00:07:09.949
Yes.

138
00:07:10.170 --> 00:07:13.269
You know, we had God-given rights. So that really stuck

139
00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:16.199
out for, I believe, many people. I mean, you know,

140
00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:18.980
after you signed the document and you're going, okay, we

141
00:07:19.180 --> 00:07:21.740
got a serious problem here. How are we going to

142
00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:25.750
resolve this slavery issue? Because we're being hypocritical.

143
00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:31.350
Yeah, the Declaration, by using those incredible words, that all

144
00:07:31.389 --> 00:07:35.509
men are created equal, really set the stage for slavery's

145
00:07:35.610 --> 00:07:39.740
ultimate extinction. It was the document that Abraham Lincoln and

146
00:07:39.750 --> 00:07:45.199
that other abolitionists referred to throughout the 19th century saying, hey,

147
00:07:45.399 --> 00:07:50.250
it's in our founding documents. Credo, we are a free country.

148
00:07:50.310 --> 00:07:52.689
We haven't yet quite achieved that. We've got to live

149
00:07:52.750 --> 00:07:55.410
up to our own ideals and take it further. So

150
00:07:55.449 --> 00:07:57.750
we can thank the framers and the writers of the

151
00:07:57.790 --> 00:08:02.560
Declaration for giving us the spirit and the ideal that

152
00:08:02.620 --> 00:08:04.709
it took a little more time to finally accomplish.

153
00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:07.839
What a great country, you know, you think about. You

154
00:08:07.860 --> 00:08:10.319
think about our founding and all this, you know, the

155
00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:15.850
Declaration of Independence, our Constitution. you know, no doubt, aspirational,

156
00:08:15.949 --> 00:08:19.209
kind of a mission statement, like any other organization says, hey,

157
00:08:19.250 --> 00:08:21.029
this is what we're about, this is what we're heading for.

158
00:08:21.410 --> 00:08:24.220
It doesn't mean that you've accomplished it, but it sets

159
00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:25.240
the goal, doesn't it?

160
00:08:25.459 --> 00:08:28.660
Yeah, yeah, it sure does. And another little tidbit on

161
00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:31.800
the history of slavery, by the way, is, you know,

162
00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:36.330
the last country in Africa to formally abolish slavery by

163
00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:44.460
law didn't do it until 1981, within our lifetimes. Mauritania

164
00:08:44.519 --> 00:08:48.519
was the last African country to abolish slavery, barely 45

165
00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:48.899
years ago.

166
00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:51.629
Wow, that's incredible.

167
00:08:52.570 --> 00:08:55.070
A new study finds a major increase in STEM learning

168
00:08:55.090 --> 00:08:59.389
in after-school programs, but gaps remain. Today, 92% of parents

169
00:08:59.409 --> 00:09:02.470
with children in after-school say STEM is available, up from

170
00:09:02.470 --> 00:09:06.600
69% a decade ago. That's 6.4 million kids now getting

171
00:09:06.679 --> 00:09:10.100
STEM in after-school. Emma Binet, Overdeck Family Foundation.

172
00:09:10.309 --> 00:09:14.110
This study underscores the remarkable work out-of-school time programs do

173
00:09:14.190 --> 00:09:16.980
to help students discover the joy in learning while preparing

174
00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:19.059
them to succeed now and into the future.

175
00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:22.299
The study finds rural and low-income students are less likely

176
00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:25.940
to get frequent STEM opportunities, with rural programs also offering

177
00:09:26.059 --> 00:09:30.470
fewer opportunities in computer science and technology. Jody Grant, Executive

178
00:09:30.490 --> 00:09:32.129
Director of the After-School Alliance.

179
00:09:32.509 --> 00:09:35.710
STEM literacy is no longer optional. It's the foundation of

180
00:09:35.750 --> 00:09:38.769
nearly every aspect of our economy and our world.

181
00:09:38.990 --> 00:09:42.299
The next step is clear. Invest more in after-school programs

182
00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:45.539
so every child in every community has access to STEM

183
00:09:45.580 --> 00:09:50.159
learning after school. To learn more, visit AfterSchoolAlliance.org, sponsored by

184
00:09:50.299 --> 00:09:51.250
AfterSchool Alliance. After School Alliance.

185
00:09:51.889 --> 00:09:55.429
Timeshare owners, listen to this. You know it's coming. Your

186
00:09:55.470 --> 00:10:00.090
timeshare maintenance fee bill. At RFA Cancellations, we've seen timeshare

187
00:10:00.149 --> 00:10:03.370
maintenance fees rising every year. And I bet you have too.

188
00:10:03.509 --> 00:10:05.529
Most of our clients that we help get rid of

189
00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:09.240
their timeshares don't have that kind of free money laying around.

190
00:10:09.419 --> 00:10:12.559
If you don't either, call us. When you hire our experts,

191
00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:14.720
we'll do all the work for you. to help you

192
00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:17.639
get out of your timeshare with zero money down with

193
00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:20.600
approved credit. If you haven't used your timeshare this past

194
00:10:20.659 --> 00:10:22.779
year and you want a legal way to get out

195
00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:24.539
of it, we can help you get out of your

196
00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:28.679
timeshare contract right now and stop paying all the maintenance fees. Plus,

197
00:10:28.700 --> 00:10:31.179
put more money back in your pocket every month. Your

198
00:10:31.220 --> 00:10:34.740
timeshare is not free, but this call is. Call us

199
00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:37.000
right now before time runs out. 800-245-1365.

200
00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:37.059
800-245-1365.

201
00:10:37.059 --> 00:10:37.120
800-245-1365.

202
00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:37.320
That's 800-245-1365.

203
00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:39.080
This is Don Shank with today's Global Update from the

204
00:10:39.139 --> 00:10:41.299
Tide Ministry, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ worldwide in

205
00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.179
the languages people were born to speak.

206
00:10:59.210 --> 00:11:02.580
Many people throughout Zimbabwe already follow Jesus, but the gospel's

207
00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:04.919
not yet reached everyone, which is why the Tide is

208
00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:08.100
taking steps to expand its gospel broadcasts. The Tide boots

209
00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:11.419
on the ground have applied for three radio broadcasting licenses that,

210
00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:14.440
if granted, will put more Christian programming within reach of

211
00:11:14.500 --> 00:11:18.450
additional listeners in densely populated areas. The Tide currently reaches

212
00:11:18.490 --> 00:11:21.190
a limited number of Zimbabweans by purchasing airtime on a

213
00:11:21.269 --> 00:11:25.210
single FM station, with programs restricted by that station's schedule

214
00:11:25.250 --> 00:11:27.700
and format. A license of its own will enable The

215
00:11:27.740 --> 00:11:31.909
Tide to independently provide evangelical content more frequently across a

216
00:11:32.009 --> 00:11:34.909
wider audience, a shift the ministry has been working towards

217
00:11:34.950 --> 00:11:38.710
by building relationships with church leaders and radio technicians capable

218
00:11:38.750 --> 00:11:40.960
of running the stations. To learn how you can pray

219
00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.259
for and encourage people around the world whose lives are

220
00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.639
being eternally impacted by hearing the good news of Christ

221
00:11:45.779 --> 00:11:48.379
in their own language, visit thetide.org.

222
00:11:48.700 --> 00:11:49.799
That's thetide.org.

223
00:11:51.370 --> 00:11:54.450
Do you have Medicare and do you use a CPAP machine?

224
00:11:54.710 --> 00:11:58.509
This is a national health care alert regarding your CPAP supplies.

225
00:11:58.870 --> 00:12:02.370
Using a clean CPAP mask and clean supplies is important

226
00:12:02.389 --> 00:12:04.970
to staying healthy. The best way to make sure your

227
00:12:05.029 --> 00:12:08.110
CPAP equipment is clean is to get new supplies.

228
00:12:08.370 --> 00:12:10.509
If you have Medicare, we have great news.

229
00:12:10.730 --> 00:12:13.830
Medicare will pay for you to have new clean supplies

230
00:12:14.070 --> 00:12:17.519
every 90 days. We'll even do all the paperwork for

231
00:12:17.580 --> 00:12:20.460
you to make sure that there's little to no out-of-pocket

232
00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:22.639
cost to you. And you don't even have to leave

233
00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:26.519
your home. We provide free in-home delivery. So if you're

234
00:12:26.539 --> 00:12:29.820
a CPAP user and you have Medicare, staying healthy with

235
00:12:29.940 --> 00:12:33.029
new CPAP equipment is easy. Just make this free phone

236
00:12:33.070 --> 00:12:34.769
call right now to get started.

237
00:12:35.009 --> 00:12:37.070
Sponsored by Specialty Medical. 800-254-1421 800-254-1421 800-254-1421 That's 800-254-1421.

238
00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:53.639
The Magavitamin Company wants to help you get a good

239
00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:58.059
night's sleep. Introducing Restova, the new all-natural supplement that helps

240
00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:01.019
you relax and sleep peacefully through the night. Our lives

241
00:13:01.070 --> 00:13:03.409
are busy enough with our minds racing from one thing

242
00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:05.269
to the next, but at the end of the day,

243
00:13:05.350 --> 00:13:07.149
we need to turn it all off and get a

244
00:13:07.230 --> 00:13:11.230
good night's sleep without any distractions. Restova helps you relax

245
00:13:11.269 --> 00:13:13.850
your mind and your body so you can fall asleep,

246
00:13:14.169 --> 00:13:17.750
stay asleep, and be fully recharged and refreshed the very

247
00:13:17.809 --> 00:13:20.990
next morning. Restova works naturally with your body, helping you

248
00:13:21.029 --> 00:13:24.070
turn off the day's problems and gently transition to a

249
00:13:24.110 --> 00:13:29.299
peaceful and relaxing feeling. Restova is available exclusively at Magavitamin.com.

250
00:13:29.620 --> 00:13:32.940
That's Magavitamin.com. Visit now and learn how you can get

251
00:13:32.980 --> 00:13:35.500
a free bottle with your order. All orders ship quickly

252
00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:38.929
and include a 30-day money-back guarantee. For a better night's sleep,

253
00:13:38.950 --> 00:13:41.990
get your order of Restova today and make sleepless nights

254
00:13:42.070 --> 00:13:46.500
a thing of the past. Get Restova exclusively at Magavitamin.com.

255
00:13:46.700 --> 00:13:48.320
Nutrition for patriots.

256
00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.889
We're talking with Dr. Lawrence Reed. He's a graduate of

257
00:13:57.899 --> 00:14:02.769
Grove City College and our mutual friend, Dr. Paul Kengor,

258
00:14:02.789 --> 00:14:05.590
who is instrumental in getting us together. So I'm grateful

259
00:14:05.629 --> 00:14:10.200
for that. renowned historian, economist, author, and longtime advocate for liberty.

260
00:14:10.539 --> 00:14:13.120
And I love that because to me, I got to

261
00:14:13.139 --> 00:14:18.639
tell you, Larry, liberty is our highest God-given calling. I mean,

262
00:14:18.679 --> 00:14:20.919
this is why Jesus came is so that we would

263
00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:23.730
be free indeed. And I think that sometimes, especially as

264
00:14:23.769 --> 00:14:26.389
young kids, really, you know, they may have freedom on

265
00:14:26.409 --> 00:14:28.610
their shirt, you know, because of Charlie Kirk and understand,

266
00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:32.370
but I don't know that they really value what freedom

267
00:14:32.529 --> 00:14:33.289
actually means.

268
00:14:33.350 --> 00:14:33.629
Do you?

269
00:14:34.629 --> 00:14:37.649
Well, in many cases, I think they don't fully understand

270
00:14:37.889 --> 00:14:41.470
or appreciate it. To me, I think liberty, or let

271
00:14:41.490 --> 00:14:45.549
me put it this way, life without liberty is unthinkable,

272
00:14:45.970 --> 00:14:51.259
just unthinkable. We are made to be free. God didn't

273
00:14:51.320 --> 00:14:54.279
create a fleet of robots. We're not identical one person

274
00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:56.940
to another. And so to be who we really are,

275
00:14:57.100 --> 00:14:59.759
each of us as individuals, we have to have freedom

276
00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:02.539
to make our choices, live our lives. If you don't

277
00:15:02.580 --> 00:15:06.909
have that, then you're not living your own life. Somebody else,

278
00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:09.679
some dictator is living his life through you.

279
00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:10.600
Right.

280
00:15:11.059 --> 00:15:14.940
Well, and what happens, which we know historically, is you

281
00:15:14.980 --> 00:15:18.120
have a dictator who has ways to make you live

282
00:15:18.299 --> 00:15:21.830
according to their tenets. And our founding fathers realized that

283
00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:24.110
this was going to be a heavy lift if you

284
00:15:24.149 --> 00:15:26.250
had to have that kind of pressure, you know, at

285
00:15:26.289 --> 00:15:30.230
that time, certainly not like today, 350 million people. I mean,

286
00:15:30.269 --> 00:15:31.429
who wants that job, right?

287
00:15:32.070 --> 00:15:35.250
Yeah, yeah. The founders knew that this would be a

288
00:15:35.330 --> 00:15:40.360
virtually unprecedented venture that they were undertaking. They did look

289
00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:45.740
back to the early Roman Republic and its liberties as

290
00:15:45.799 --> 00:15:49.600
an example, but they also knew full well that that

291
00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:52.940
too was an exception in history, that periods of freedom

292
00:15:53.019 --> 00:15:55.960
are rather rare, that most people who have ever lived

293
00:15:56.659 --> 00:16:01.879
have lived under some form of serfdom or slavery or

294
00:16:02.269 --> 00:16:04.529
simply in fear of the powers that be.

295
00:16:05.129 --> 00:16:08.590
Right. Do you think our founding fathers had a grasp

296
00:16:09.210 --> 00:16:14.200
of what this would mean in terms of this idea

297
00:16:14.220 --> 00:16:17.659
of liberty and the power that it would unleash in

298
00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:19.779
the masses of its citizens?

299
00:16:20.940 --> 00:16:24.580
They were optimists in so many ways. They felt that

300
00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:30.909
human potential for centuries had been limited by crushing despotism.

301
00:16:31.659 --> 00:16:34.379
that humans were capable of going so much further than

302
00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:37.679
they have ever been allowed to go by tyrannical governments.

303
00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:40.919
And once they would be unleashed, of course, the founders

304
00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:43.759
were concerned, too, that we have vices that we have

305
00:16:43.779 --> 00:16:46.230
to fight all the time, too. So that's why they

306
00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:48.789
thought what they were doing was really only fit for

307
00:16:48.830 --> 00:16:52.129
a virtuous people. But they also believe very strongly that

308
00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:57.269
if free people of good character can go about their business,

309
00:16:57.389 --> 00:17:01.549
they will do remarkable things that no one can predict

310
00:17:01.590 --> 00:17:03.610
in advance. And were they ever right?

311
00:17:04.170 --> 00:17:07.900
Well, yeah, look at the history, 250 years, you know,

312
00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:10.279
the things that we got right. If we could just

313
00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:13.359
focus on that, I mean, get away from, you know,

314
00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.960
the narrative that the mainstream media would want us to

315
00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.640
believe and these anti-Americans that want us to believe. It's

316
00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:21.140
just for a moment, give me a moment, can you?

317
00:17:21.559 --> 00:17:24.940
And just tell me about the good things that made

318
00:17:24.980 --> 00:17:28.349
America the superpower, that made America that light on a

319
00:17:28.410 --> 00:17:32.329
shining hill, that has drawn, you know, immigrants to this country,

320
00:17:32.670 --> 00:17:35.630
that they say that, you know, if we really left

321
00:17:35.650 --> 00:17:39.680
the borders open, you know, we'd have such a flood

322
00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:44.160
of millions of immigrants coming in because of, you know,

323
00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:47.500
what liberty and what our Constitution and what this country

324
00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.400
represents in terms of the potential, right?

325
00:17:51.140 --> 00:17:54.460
Yeah, in most other cases in world history, when countries

326
00:17:54.500 --> 00:17:57.960
build walls, it's to keep people in, to keep them

327
00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:00.480
from escaping. That's not our problem.

328
00:18:02.069 --> 00:18:04.829
No, not at all. But, you know, again, by the

329
00:18:04.890 --> 00:18:09.029
same token, you know, we need to be responsible stewards

330
00:18:09.509 --> 00:18:11.170
of this great American idea, right?

331
00:18:11.349 --> 00:18:14.430
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Ben Franklin warned us of that on

332
00:18:14.470 --> 00:18:17.430
more than one occasion, but maybe most famously as he

333
00:18:17.470 --> 00:18:23.369
was leaving the Constitutional Convention. in 1787, a woman approached

334
00:18:23.410 --> 00:18:25.970
him and said, Mr. Franklin, what form of government have

335
00:18:25.990 --> 00:18:30.039
you given us? And his famous reply was, a republic, madam,

336
00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:33.420
if you can keep it. In other words, we put

337
00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:37.220
some great words on paper, but if you don't pay

338
00:18:37.259 --> 00:18:40.839
attention to them, if you don't stand guard against all

339
00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:44.250
assaults on them, if you're not a courageous and people

340
00:18:44.289 --> 00:18:47.009
of solid character, you're going to lose it. He was

341
00:18:47.069 --> 00:18:47.730
exactly right.

342
00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:51.160
Well, and of course, then Over 100 years later, you

343
00:18:51.180 --> 00:18:54.009
got Ronald Reagan reminding us that we're but one generation

344
00:18:54.049 --> 00:18:58.069
away from losing these precious freedoms, are we not?

345
00:18:58.150 --> 00:19:02.190
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And don't we miss him? He was

346
00:19:02.230 --> 00:19:05.950
a man who loved this country, understood its ideals, saw

347
00:19:06.490 --> 00:19:09.559
the threats to them for what they were, both within

348
00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:12.980
and from without. And we owe him a debt of

349
00:19:13.019 --> 00:19:14.660
gratitude that we can never repay.

350
00:19:15.630 --> 00:19:17.509
Larry, how do we get this country back on track,

351
00:19:17.730 --> 00:19:19.430
back on its, I mean, we've been saying for a

352
00:19:19.450 --> 00:19:20.839
long time on this show is that we need to

353
00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:23.720
return to first principles, these principles that you write about,

354
00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:27.339
these solid foundational principles. We're certainly off the rails here,

355
00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:30.799
you know, in much the same way that God has

356
00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:35.700
given us freedom, but there's also boundaries, you know, within

357
00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:38.349
those freedom. And I believe the same thing with our country,

358
00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:41.390
that somehow we found a way to gray up the

359
00:19:41.390 --> 00:19:45.349
lines and make it not so black and white, so

360
00:19:45.349 --> 00:19:46.170
to speak.

361
00:19:46.170 --> 00:19:46.630
Yeah.

362
00:19:46.630 --> 00:19:49.569
You know, I often get asked, Bill, from audiences, no

363
00:19:49.589 --> 00:19:52.470
matter what my topic may be, what do you think

364
00:19:52.509 --> 00:19:55.339
the most important issue in the country is? And they

365
00:19:55.390 --> 00:19:58.519
expect me to say, oh, it's the national debt or

366
00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:02.799
it's taxes, size of government, or it's opioids or Iran

367
00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.640
or fill in the blank, all of which are important issues.

368
00:20:06.180 --> 00:20:11.420
But I like to say, no, the number one issue here, now, everywhere,

369
00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:14.960
and in all of time. It's always the same. In

370
00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:20.299
a single word, it's character. No country has ever lost

371
00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:24.269
its character and kept its liberties. No country can rise

372
00:20:24.890 --> 00:20:27.670
to become a truly great one and leave the world

373
00:20:27.710 --> 00:20:30.710
a better place if it isn't made up of people

374
00:20:30.789 --> 00:20:34.509
of solid character, who value truth, who are honest as

375
00:20:34.589 --> 00:20:37.990
the day is long, who are patient, who have a

376
00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:41.140
sense of gratitude for the good things that come their way,

377
00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:45.599
who also are humble and don't think that they have

378
00:20:45.640 --> 00:20:49.980
the mental capacity to plan economies and run other people's lives,

379
00:20:51.019 --> 00:20:54.400
and that are responsible. Responsibility is very much a part

380
00:20:54.460 --> 00:20:58.319
of strong character that a free society needs. Can you

381
00:20:58.339 --> 00:21:02.720
imagine living in an irresponsible society? That would be everybody

382
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:05.720
pointing the finger of blame at everybody else, even for

383
00:21:05.740 --> 00:21:06.539
their own mistakes.

384
00:21:07.019 --> 00:21:08.619
We're kind of getting a little taste of that right

385
00:21:08.660 --> 00:21:11.900
now when you've got people who should be in jail

386
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:16.740
are somehow being, you know, portrayed as their victims, you know,

387
00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:20.410
and the system has worked against it. No, they killed somebody.

388
00:21:21.650 --> 00:21:25.089
I'm sorry. But this is the upside down world that

389
00:21:25.130 --> 00:21:28.430
we were warned about in the Old Testament that there

390
00:21:28.450 --> 00:21:30.990
would be that day when, you know, good would be

391
00:21:31.029 --> 00:21:34.369
called evil, evil would be called good. And every day

392
00:21:34.569 --> 00:21:36.359
it's more and more. And I'm just saying, God, how

393
00:21:36.390 --> 00:21:38.839
much more can we deal with this? Because what you're

394
00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:41.900
talking about in terms of character, these are these virtues that,

395
00:21:42.619 --> 00:21:45.920
you know, part of the virtue class that Benjamin Franklin,

396
00:21:46.220 --> 00:21:49.079

The Bill Martinez Show 09 28 26

Listen On

Recent Episodes

Support On