Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1125 ｜ God Bless 47! Here’s What’s Next ｜ Guest： Kevin Roberts

00:00:00.000 It is President Trump's Inauguration Day, and we are so excited. We're celebrating here on Relatable.

00:00:07.940 We are talking to Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation. We are going to take an exciting look

00:00:13.840 into how Trump is going to overhaul America's most corrupt institutions and turn them back

00:00:22.060 institutions that serve the American people, truly, hopefully, by the grace of God,

00:00:27.640 making America great again. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:33.400 Go to GoodRanchers.com, use code Allie at checkout. That's GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.

00:00:47.020 Hey, guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Well,

00:00:52.040 it is a great day, not just because it's Monday. And I guess every day is a great day. This is the

00:00:58.740 day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it so we can always rejoice every day that

00:01:03.440 we are alive. But today is an especially great day because it is Inauguration Day, the day that many of

00:01:11.060 us thought would not happen, not because Trump couldn't win, but because there is so much against

00:01:18.980 him. And he did. He won handily. And this is a day that we have been anticipating for so long that

00:01:25.940 finally we get a change in power and we're hoping for more peace and more stability and more prosperity

00:01:33.860 for America to be the best, safest, healthiest, most prosperous place to raise a family. He's only

00:01:42.780 got four years, but I think because he only has four years, he is going to be especially effective.

00:01:50.480 And I think J.D. Vance is going to be an especially effective vice president. We will be talking about

00:01:56.460 the highlights of the inauguration later this week. Today, we are talking to Kevin Roberts. He is the head

00:02:02.760 of the Heritage Foundation, a huge conservative think tank, and you know them as the authors of

00:02:10.700 Project 2025 or the organization that organized Project 2025, the center of so much media ire during

00:02:19.860 the campaign. We're going to talk about that today. And if that ire was justified, what is Project 2025?

00:02:26.980 Is it actually going to play a role in setting President Trump's agenda? We will talk about

00:02:32.680 Trump's agenda. We will also talk about how to retake now corrupt and ineffective, counterproductive

00:02:40.160 institutions like the FBI and the CIA, like our universities. And so it's a really, really good

00:02:48.780 substantive conversation, and it will just get you excited about Trump's presidency if you're not

00:02:54.120 already. And this is just a great mercy, just as a reminder, a great mercy of God. It's not something

00:02:59.640 that we deserved to get rid of the inept and the, I would say, evil administration that we just had

00:03:09.400 when we looked at the policies that they promoted, both here and abroad, and to give us a better

00:03:14.780 leader. And yet that is what God has given us. And I think we can be really thankful for that. And

00:03:21.420 there are some of you listening or watching who actually did not vote for President Trump,

00:03:26.160 maybe only in the past few weeks, you've started to question some of your progressive ideals. And

00:03:32.060 if that is you, then welcome. Or maybe you're just now getting into politics. You're only now realizing

00:03:37.380 that politics matter because policy matters because people matter. Someone recommended the show to you

00:03:41.900 and you are tuning in. Well, I am grateful that you are here and it is time for us to pray for

00:03:49.760 President Trump and for this administration. Just as we prayed for Biden and his administration,

00:03:55.720 we are called in scripture to pray for all of our leaders, whether we voted for them or not.

00:04:01.080 And so I will be praying for President Trump, that God would give him humility, that God would give him

00:04:06.700 wisdom, that God would give him vision and foresight and discernment, that God would be close to this

00:04:14.140 administration, that they would make the right choices when it comes to filling all of the

00:04:19.800 positions that need to be filled. I think they've made some great choices so far. There's still

00:04:24.820 a ways to go. And I pray that God's righteousness would prevail. And I just want to remind all of you

00:04:30.680 that now that we are in this broad coalition on the right, we've got the Make America Healthy Again,

00:04:35.700 we've got the Make America Great Again, we've got the Christian conservatives like you and me,

00:04:39.420 we've got people who are center-right moderates, even some people on the left, some people who are

00:04:44.120 very socially liberal, economically conservative. We've got a mosaic of people here on the conservative

00:04:50.960 side, on the right side, if you want to call it that, the non-leftist side. It is not our time,

00:04:58.820 Christian conservatives, to compromise. It is not our time to say, well, let's just let the moderates

00:05:05.380 get their way. I mean, Trump is moderate compared to us on a lot of issues. That doesn't mean that

00:05:11.700 we have to be. We can support him. We can be glad. We can be thankful that he won this presidency.

00:05:19.380 And we can also be an anchor on the right and say, no, I am not going to compromise on the definition

00:05:26.320 of marriage. I am not going to compromise on the sanctity of life. I am not going to compromise when it

00:05:33.680 comes to the reality of male and female, not just for children, but for all people. I am going to be

00:05:40.380 an anchor over here in defense of the family, in defense of life. Yes, in defense of children,

00:05:49.240 but also in defense of reality, in defense of truth. Do not buy the lie. And this is just as pertinent now

00:05:56.460 as it was during the election. Do not buy the lie, Christian conservative, that you and you alone have to

00:06:02.240 check your worldview, your beliefs, your faith at the door before you engage politically. Everyone

00:06:09.080 is bringing the fullness of their beliefs into the political sphere to have these debates and

00:06:15.340 discussions about policy, about culture, and may the best idea win. But you should unapologetically

00:06:24.340 bring persuasively the fullness of your biblical worldview into the public sphere and be

00:06:32.080 able to make a case for why God's definition of marriage and the family and gender and all of

00:06:38.840 these wonderful things, God's definition of justice, why they are superior. Do not believe that you have

00:06:47.100 to check your faith at the door or else you're some kind of so-called Christian nationalism. That's an 0.67

00:06:52.880 intimidation tactic that is used against you to silence you. Don't buy into it. If God created the

00:07:01.280 heavens and the earth and he did, then he is the authority over all of it. If he is the authority

00:07:06.240 over all of it, then he alone gets to say what's right, what's wrong, what's good, what's bad, what's

00:07:12.280 true, what's false, what a woman is, what she's not, and when life begins. And almost all of these things

00:07:19.540 are answered in the first few chapters of the Bible. But specifically in Genesis 127, we see right there

00:07:26.620 that God made us in his image male and female definition of the sanctity of life, the value of

00:07:32.240 life that we're made in his image, the definition of male and female, and the definition of marriage

00:07:36.700 right there. Christians don't have to read very far into the Bible to see what God very clearly thinks

00:07:41.860 about those things. And that reality cannot be compartmentalized from the rest of life. In fact,

00:07:48.260 the rest of life flows from what you believe about who created the earth, who is in charge

00:07:54.740 of it all, what humans are, why we are here, what the family is, what our purpose, our calling is, all of

00:08:04.020 these things. They all come from what you think about God. So do not believe in the next four years as we

00:08:12.840 kind of have this conflict and struggle even amongst ourselves on the right about how far we go with

00:08:21.120 social policy and how far we can push our conservative values. Just don't be fooled into thinking that

00:08:28.240 you're the one that needs to take a seat. God's ways are better. And if we love our neighbor, we will

00:08:33.660 unapologetically advocate for God's ways in all things. All right. God's eternal plan of redemption is

00:08:41.320 always going off without a hitch. And today is a great day in that eternal plan of redemption. Jesus

00:08:47.380 Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13, 8, no matter who is in charge. And yet

00:08:54.380 we are very glad that President Trump is about to be in charge, at least in some way, starting today.

00:09:00.380 And to kick off, unrelatable, this new administration, we've got Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation

00:09:08.540 with a really fascinating conversation about what is about to go down when Trump steps into the White House.

00:09:16.040 So without further ado, here is Kevin Roberts.

00:09:22.900 Kevin, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. I'm so glad you're here.

00:09:28.280 Lots to talk to you about. I am wondering what your feelings are on today, Inauguration Day.

00:09:35.420 Well, Ali, it's a pleasure to be with you. You know, my family and I are big fans of yours and

00:09:40.900 we have been for many years. And to your question about, of course, and to your question about

00:09:45.680 Inauguration Day, this is the beginning of taking back this country, not just in terms of politics

00:09:51.100 and policy. But if you think about what Donald Trump and J.D. Vance personify, which is that they

00:09:57.180 love this country more than I think any other Americans, perhaps ever in history,

00:10:02.540 the rest of us have something to learn, which is that beyond elections, beyond policy,

00:10:07.320 let us be very serious as we go about our family lives, building our businesses,

00:10:12.300 going to church, maybe going back to church this year, that those are all things that are far more

00:10:17.660 important than Washington, D.C. In other words, ironically, on Inauguration Day, when all of our

00:10:23.480 eyes are cast upon events in the nation's capital, as they should be, starting tomorrow,

00:10:28.320 we really need to get about rebuilding our communities and being the kinds of Americans

00:10:33.840 who deserve to be a self-governing people. I think that's going to be the legacy of this day.

00:10:39.580 Heritage was at the center of a lot of media contrived controversy, as you very well know,

00:10:45.520 during the campaign with Project 2025. Can you talk about that a little bit? Were you surprised,

00:10:52.000 first of all, that Project 2025 became like the rallying cry of Democrats during the election?

00:10:59.520 Boy, media contrived is the best explanation I have heard about that. I was not surprised that

00:11:05.760 the radical left overreacted because that's what they do. You know, their performance theater about

00:11:11.180 anything that conservatives do that might actually be conservative is guaranteed.

00:11:16.300 What did surprise me to be completely candid with you, Ali, is the scale and scope of their

00:11:22.940 overreaction. And clearly they thought, particularly at one point in the summer, that this was going to

00:11:29.440 be the Achilles heel for President Trump and a lot of conservative campaigns. And once we started

00:11:36.680 correcting the record, I think my comms colleagues at Heritage secured nearly 100 fact checks from

00:11:43.280 really conservative outlets like CNN and USA Today, we realized that we were going to turn

00:11:50.180 the corner. And of course, as it turns out, I think it was a net positive for conservative candidates

00:11:55.500 because what people were telling me across the country for a couple of years was that it wasn't

00:12:01.080 enough for conservatives to win, that they also needed to have a plan. It's obviously up to the

00:12:06.540 president and vice president how much of that plan they want to use. But I think it was a real sense of

00:12:11.300 security that in addition to winning elections, they would have conservative candidates, elected

00:12:16.020 officials who actually knew what they were going to do, that they were going to have a blueprint. So

00:12:19.840 it ultimately backfired. It was great to see. And we just can't get can't wait to get started

00:12:25.400 on the next version of that in the 2028 presidential cycle.

00:12:29.340 You know, it really just didn't stick the way that they thought that it was going to.

00:12:33.860 There are still people out there, I realize, even in my audience who have friends maybe across the

00:12:39.500 aisle who are still scared of Project 2025. They think that that is what is going into place

00:12:44.400 tomorrow. And they believe that what is in Project 2025 is that you personally are going to go to

00:12:49.700 their house, open their drawer, steal their birth control and run away. That seems to be like this

00:12:56.040 crazy fear that has been stirred up in a lot of people on the left. Can you just tell us for those who

00:13:03.600 still haven't heard, like, what is Project 2025? And does it actually have a role to play in Trump's

00:13:11.320 agenda? Thanks for that question. Most succinctly, Project 2025 is this election cycle's version of

00:13:19.400 something that Heritage has done since 1980 for President Reagan. And it is just a menu of

00:13:26.360 conservative policies. It's actually on one level, Ali, really boring. It's what think tanks and

00:13:32.340 public policy organizations do. But perhaps because it covers every policy area from international

00:13:39.420 policy to education policy, and we are unabashedly conservatives, the Democratic Party and its

00:13:46.660 affiliated institutions thought that they could turn it into something that would scare people.

00:13:51.660 And so the advice that I would give, and I really do intend this to be friendly for people who are in

00:13:56.600 the political center or maybe on the political left, is that whatever you've heard about Project 2025,

00:14:02.320 is unlikely to be true. And so I would encourage you to go read about it, read the substance. What

00:14:09.000 almost every person who's taken that advice from me has said, is that they may not agree with

00:14:14.200 everything, but they have found nothing in it that would cause someone to be worried about continuing

00:14:19.520 to do whatever it is that Americans are doing behind closed doors. Let's get on with conservative

00:14:24.980 policy, with governing this country. We can have policy differences, but the lying and dishonesty,

00:14:30.440 which is purposeful and behind which $75 million was spent really is pretty ridiculous.

00:14:37.120 Yes. When I read it, because we did a deep dive on this show, I was looking for something. Okay,

00:14:43.020 let me look for some things that are truly kind of scandalous that maybe I agree with, but I

00:14:48.140 understand why this would make the left mad. And while, of course, I do understand that there are policy

00:14:54.080 proposals in it that people on the left would not like. As you said, it was kind of boring. Like,

00:15:01.060 there just wasn't anything in there that I was like, whoa, I can't believe they went all the way

00:15:06.760 there. I mean, a lot of it is very typical. And I don't say this in a bad way at all, but typical

00:15:11.360 Republican stuff that a lot of conservatives have been saying for decades. And so how they somehow

00:15:17.900 created really this boogeyman of Project 2025. It was kind of interesting to watch, very dark to

00:15:25.900 watch. But as you said, it showed me also that they had very little to run on if they had to lie

00:15:31.680 about this kind of like boring bulk of policy prescriptions by a conservative think tank.

00:15:38.840 It shows you how little the political left had run on this year. And look, in my lifetime,

00:15:44.980 it may go all the way back to when I was a little boy in the 1970s and early 80s,

00:15:49.660 while conservatives disagreed with the political left, the political left had a real viable and

00:15:55.580 popular policy agenda. That isn't the case anymore. It really is based on, unfortunately,

00:16:02.100 creating in a dishonest way, a complete mischaracterization of what the right wants to do.

00:16:07.140 And if there's a silver lining to this whole story, Ali, it isn't just that this effort backfired on

00:16:13.000 the left, but for a lesson that maybe all Americans, regardless of their political background, would

00:16:18.520 agree on, is that it shows that in this era, when a lot of money can be spent to create in a dishonest

00:16:25.100 way, a completely different picture of what reality is, that when you just stay the course, which is

00:16:31.820 what my colleagues and I at Heritage did, and you continue to tell the truth, and you continue to

00:16:37.340 correct the record, and you have friends like you in the media who are willing objectively, as you did,

00:16:42.500 to go into that and say, look, I'm going to look for something that's really objectionable here.

00:16:47.060 And when you realize that that's not the case, and you tell the truth, a majority of Americans still

00:16:52.040 will respond to that. And I think we ought to all take that as real encouragement that our political

00:16:57.400 discourse can still be saved.

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00:18:12.980 You and I are Christian conservative, Christians first, conservatives. And we, because of that,

00:18:25.620 also have what are considered socially conservative views, culturally conservative views. Not everyone

00:18:32.560 who votes Republican shares our views about the definition of marriage, family, things like that.

00:18:38.300 And now that we kind of have the Make America Healthy Again movement with the MAGA movement,

00:18:44.360 we've got lots of different kinds of people over on the right, which is great. We needed everyone to

00:18:49.820 win this election. It's a good thing. But we've got some pretty big disagreements. How do you see those

00:18:56.700 disagreements? I don't want to call them factions because there's so much that we agree on as well.

00:19:01.760 But the different segments, I would say, of the Republican Party, how do you see that playing

00:19:07.780 out in the Trump administration over the next few years?

00:19:12.040 Boy, historically, it's always difficult to take a diverse political coalition and harness that

00:19:18.680 political power into governing policy power. But that's certainly what Heritage and I are committed

00:19:25.620 to doing. Obviously, we have some differences of opinion with some people, not just new adherents to

00:19:31.440 this coalition, but gosh, longstanding friends. And you know what? That's okay. What we try to do at

00:19:36.020 Heritage, and it's the first part of answering your question, is just be part of the conversation.

00:19:41.420 That is, in other words, as my colleagues, I think, personify every day, is don't just disallow a

00:19:47.180 conversation from happening because we think we disagree with someone. The second example that I will

00:19:52.500 use is to riff off your comment about Make America Healthy Again. That's something that really has

00:19:58.780 animated a lot of people for whom political ideology may be important, but really what we're all

00:20:04.760 realizing, whether we're liberals or conservatives or somewhere in between, is that we've been sold

00:20:09.860 a bill of goods from big pharma, from big government, from local pharmacists, local doctors, and it's time

00:20:16.180 to correct that. And the beauty of the Maha movement is that it is apolitical. I mean, the motivation of

00:20:21.440 RFK is not some political ideology. And so let me just take that one level deeper, if I may, but for

00:20:29.540 you and for me and your audience who are social conservatives, and let's talk about the issue of

00:20:34.600 abortion in life. RFK is not nearly as committed to the pro-life cause as you and I are, although I've

00:20:41.180 learned that he's more so than maybe he was in the past. If we look at lifestyle, if we look at quality

00:20:48.240 of life, if we look at the health of mothers, if we look at the health of expectant mothers, and you

00:20:54.540 start to sort of impose or implement the Make America Healthy Again agenda on that in public policy, all of

00:21:01.780 us, whether someone's an expectant mother or like me, a middle-aged dad, we all can benefit from that. That's

00:21:07.840 so far upstream specific policy proposals regarding what we want to do with abortion. Our operating theory here at

00:21:16.140 Heritage, where we're all pro-life, is that we can gain some momentum, some muscle memory, if you will, of

00:21:21.860 working together such that at some point down the road, I don't know what year that will be, both in

00:21:27.620 state policy and federal policy, we might be able to develop an emerging consensus on what the right

00:21:33.440 federal policy regarding abortion is. I know that that sounds fantastical because almost everyone on the

00:21:40.060 left and in the center wants us to say that there's nothing that we can do regarding abortion. I just think

00:21:45.480 we need to take things in the proper order, the proper chronology. We need to be magnanimous. That doesn't mean

00:21:51.000 that we're going to betray our principles, but it does mean that we're willing, as I think our Lord would want us to

00:21:55.860 do, to have conversations with everyone. And I think that's going to help American society.

00:22:00.740 A lot of people are freaking out about the possibility of the dissolution of the Department of Education. I've even got

00:22:07.320 some conservatives in my audience saying, hang on a second, my friends are saying that this is going to be

00:22:12.020 terrible for American education. Am I supposed to be supportive of this? So what do you think about getting rid of

00:22:19.380 the Department of Education altogether? And what do you think realistically will happen while Trump is in office?

00:22:26.860 I understand why that might sound scary to anyone, even some conservatives. But the first point is the reason that

00:22:34.120 we want to eliminate the Department of Education. And make no mistake, if you gave me a magic wand to do one thing in

00:22:40.060 public policy, that's what I would do. The reason that we want to do that is to improve education. And so

00:22:45.860 for people who are skeptics of that, just bear with me for one moment. I am a fifth generation teacher.

00:22:51.340 I only went to public schools. I'm an unabashed conservative. I think one of the greatest

00:22:56.420 achievements in American society is our public school system. But since 1979, when the Department of

00:23:03.020 Education was created, all that's happened after spending trillions of dollars and centralizing power in

00:23:09.260 Washington, is that education has deteriorated. I'm not saying that President Carter, who had this

00:23:15.560 idea, or other people who support the Department of Education are ill-intentioned. I'm just saying that

00:23:21.160 they're not looking at the data. And so here at Heritage, and certainly for me as a social science guy,

00:23:27.060 I want to look at the data. And I want to do something different on behalf of America's school

00:23:30.840 children and teachers. And what we need to do that's different, Ali, is to eliminate this

00:23:35.480 over-centralization of power in Washington. Give that back to the states, give that back to local

00:23:41.220 entities, and very importantly, give it back to parents and families. And let's have a block grant

00:23:47.040 system in which states compete for dollars and the money that they get is reflected on the achievement

00:23:54.740 that they're able to secure on behalf of America's school children. That system will be far more natural

00:24:01.080 for America, far more natural for America's families, and also think it's going to be a lot

00:24:06.300 more appropriate, if you will, for the 21st century. What we're doing is outdated. And for us to say that

00:24:12.080 is not to call into question fellow Americans who are a little skeptical about this big change. We get

00:24:17.100 it. But at Heritage, and frankly, at Project 2025, we're so transparent. We've laid out step by step how

00:24:24.280 this can be done. And I think it's very important to sum up here that President Trump and the Secretary of

00:24:29.680 Education and other leaders be in constant communication with the American people about

00:24:34.840 why they're taking each one of those steps, because it is a very legitimate skepticism to have

00:24:40.540 about making such a big change.

00:24:44.160 It's hard for us to even imagine it, because obviously, for most of us, our entire lives,

00:24:51.100 we've had a Department of Education. And we've also been told that that is the foundation of all good

00:24:56.600 education in the United States. And there's been really no reason for a lot of people to question

00:25:01.760 it. But over the past, I mean, 20 years, but especially in the past five years, as people have

00:25:07.680 asked themselves, not only, okay, is my child even getting a good education? Can they read? Can they do

00:25:14.040 the same math problems that I could do at their age 20 plus years ago? But also, what are the values

00:25:20.940 that they're learning? And are the teachers or the administrators at this particular school actually

00:25:26.800 in direct opposition to what I am teaching them at home? And it's just made a lot of people over the

00:25:32.400 past few years who would have said they're huge supporters of public education in America,

00:25:38.100 ask, okay, who is behind this? How much power do the teachers unions have? What is actually going on

00:25:44.420 at the Department of Education that these changes, unnecessary and counterproductive changes,

00:25:49.100 have been happening over the past few years? Speaking of parents and parental rights, you

00:25:53.680 mentioned, what is this parental bill of rights that I hear talked about so much?

00:26:00.080 Another revolutionary idea, which is a reminder that it isn't bureaucrats in Washington, even if

00:26:07.000 they're well-intentioned, it isn't politicians, even politicians we agree with in Washington, who are in

00:26:12.680 charge of this society. It is parents. And of course, the overall lockdowns under COVID really

00:26:20.040 amplified this already existing move for state legislatures and for Congress to issue this

00:26:26.760 parental bill of rights. That is, they of course are in charge of their kids' education. They also need

00:26:32.160 to know to speak about the issue that's particularly timely as we have this conversation. If their child

00:26:38.580 is in conversations with teachers or school officials about going through a so-called gender

00:26:43.440 transition, they are also need to be, parents need to be notified about anything that might be a mental

00:26:49.380 health concern. In other words, what's happening, and frankly, it's related to the previous conversation

00:26:54.660 thread we had about the Department of Education, is that as we have centralized power in the Department

00:27:00.060 of Education, that that centralized power has crowded out, it's actively pushed out the role of parents,

00:27:06.540 the right of parents to be obviously not just involved, but leading such conversations.

00:27:11.980 One of the great successes that has happened because of conservative public policy advocates

00:27:16.620 is the parental bill of rights. It's passed in a number of states, obviously a big issue in front

00:27:21.760 of Congress. We think that restoring that, that amplifying this call for a parental bill of rights

00:27:27.640 is not only common sense, it's apolitical, it transcends a lot of the political divide. And we think

00:27:33.380 looking at public policy through the perspective of parents is one way that we can develop some

00:27:39.620 momentum in Washington and in state capitals around the country toward good education policy,

00:27:45.340 also policy in other arenas, such as reminding people that boys are boys and girls are girls,

00:27:50.740 and that at the very least, parents should have 100% of the say regarding that.

00:27:55.320 Absolutely. I've had parents on this podcast who would not describe themselves as conservatives,

00:27:59.880 as Christians, as Republicans, who have had their children taken out of their custody

00:28:04.940 because their child declared themselves a particular gender that does not align with their sex.

00:28:11.560 The parent didn't go along with it. And the child was taken to a home that affirmed this newfound

00:28:16.820 so-called identity. They were able to butcher their bodies and immutably or irreversibly change

00:28:24.220 their bodies through a hormone regimen. And these parents, the people who have the only people

00:28:30.880 really who have the best interest of their child at heart are completely excised out of the child's

00:28:38.500 life. And so I think you're right that this is an issue, not just the parental rights issue when it

00:28:44.120 comes to that, but this issue of boys declaring themselves girls and vice versa, especially boys and men

00:28:50.880 entering into girls and women's spaces, is one that has woken a lot of people up, I think moved a lot

00:28:57.640 of people over to the right and voting for President Trump. I think a lot of people in the Make America

00:29:02.800 Healthy Again movement, whether or not they are with us on the definition of marriage, when life begins,

00:29:07.640 things like that, they realize not only the absurdity of this issue, but the danger of this issue.

00:29:14.140 And while Trump wasn't as strong on some things during the campaign as I wanted him to,

00:29:18.560 like abortion, on this one, he has been pretty steadfast. So what are you anticipating when it

00:29:24.840 comes to this transgender issue policy-wise in this next administration?

00:29:32.400 I think by the end of this calendar year, the scourge, the tragedy, the evil of properly trained

00:29:40.720 physicians butchering the bodies of young Americans will come to an end. And it will come to an end

00:29:47.480 because of stalwarts like you in the media, stalwarts who are governors of states. And one of the most

00:29:55.640 important stalwarts on this issue has been President Trump. And so there's certainly a role for federal

00:30:01.000 action on this that I think we will see continue here in Washington. And if we do that, that is, if we end

00:30:08.500 this terrible practice, then the United States will simply be catching up with none other than the

00:30:14.840 European Union, which, of course, in most parts of the European Union, most European countries

00:30:19.900 have disallowed this practice. And that, of course, is going to be just in time before this really

00:30:27.200 catches fire. Unfortunately, as we do every January at Heritage, in our gender ideology conference,

00:30:35.240 we have a few people who've gone through transition surgeries. It will not have prevented the terrible

00:30:40.980 tragedy that's been inflicted upon other Americans, but at least there won't be any others. The key

00:30:47.280 thing here, Ali, is that we learn our lesson. And the lesson is that when you take a handful of

00:30:53.520 physicians, a handful of medical schools who are able to get this practice approved by their different

00:31:00.200 licensure boards in various states, we have to understand there is a role for common sense and for

00:31:06.760 those of us who are social conservatives to say, on behalf of American kids, on behalf of biology,

00:31:12.720 on behalf of parents, we have to prevent these kinds of practices. I'm hopeful that not only we

00:31:17.680 secure that victory, but that it becomes a lasting lesson for us across the board in decades to come.

00:31:24.800 The House just passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. I mean, this seems to be just the

00:31:31.440 most common sense piece of legislation. Unfortunately, only two Democrats, but good for these Democrats.

00:31:37.940 Two Democrats from Texas voted for it. The rest of the Democrats voted against it. HR 28 says to amend

00:31:44.240 the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX

00:31:49.780 of such act of athletic sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and

00:31:55.700 genetics at birth. I mean, in a way, it's kind of sad that we even need to spell that out.

00:32:01.440 But I do think even before Trump is president, that it's good that Congress is all already making

00:32:07.740 this clear and moving in that direction. I do think that congressmen, congresswomen are realizing

00:32:14.240 this is whether you like it or not. This is the direction that the country is moving. And I actually

00:32:21.760 hope to see more Democrats realize that. And even if it's just because it's politically advantageous to

00:32:28.100 them, start speaking out about fairness in sports, at the very least, when it comes to women. 0.60

00:32:34.800 It's ridiculous that there aren't more Democrats who are willing to do that, to your point on the

00:32:39.360 substance of the matter. But just speaking to the politics of this, this is an 80-20 issue,

00:32:44.540 at least. In fact, one recent poll I saw showed that 85 percent of Americans support the legislation

00:32:49.820 that you just mentioned. And so, yes, hats off to those two Democrats. But almost every other

00:32:55.380 Democrat, every Democrat really should be supporting this because of the common sense.

00:32:59.760 Well, this is, but this sort of conveys a lesson about politics. Rank and file Democrats, pick your

00:33:07.240 state. You know, whether it's a blue state like New York or a red state like Texas, a rank and file 0.62

00:33:12.120 Democrat is supportive of this legislation. But the problem is when they become elected officials and

00:33:17.780 they're here in Washington, the institutional part of the Democrat Party prevents them from going along

00:33:23.900 with their populace, with their constituents. And that's really going to cause a reckoning for the

00:33:29.580 political left in this country. As a lifelong conservative, on the political level of this,

00:33:35.160 I relish that they have to go through this kind of controversy that they themselves have created.

00:33:40.120 But obviously, what's far more important than the politics is the human side of this. And it would be

00:33:44.480 great if we just bring this terrible practice to a close right now with their help.

00:33:49.420 Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm praying for that.

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00:34:50.560 Tell me about your new book, Dawn's Early Light, Taking Back Washington to Save America.

00:34:56.120 Well, there are a lot of public policy leaders who write these books and nothing against them

00:35:02.300 or their books. And, you know, my book is not perfect. I was trying to write a book as the head

00:35:06.860 of the largest conservative policy organization in the world that caused people to think, that caused

00:35:12.640 them to be a little surprised. And so what I do with a little bit of edgy rhetoric is explain what's

00:35:18.580 at stake. And I will say that in a couple of things that I wrote about in the book well before

00:35:23.520 the conclusion of 2024, I sort of predicted the Trump victory and the man who wrote the forward,

00:35:30.300 J.D. Vance, is now the vice president of the United States. I also talked about the mismanagement

00:35:34.760 of California potentially leading to a massive wildfire in the southern part of the state. And I use that

00:35:41.640 concept of forest mismanagement, the lack of controlled burns in a literal sense in forests that

00:35:48.520 of course led to this tragedy in California, and apply that to what we need to do in politics and

00:35:54.320 policy. In other words, I name names, Allie. I talk about the New York Times and what used to be

00:35:59.920 called the Boy Scouts of America as entities that no longer are worthy of existence. Nothing against

00:36:06.100 the people who are in them, but they as institutions no longer deserve to call themselves American

00:36:12.200 institutions. And figuratively speaking, I argue in the book, we need to apply this concept of a

00:36:17.700 controlled burn and eliminate those organizations, those schools, those universities that simply are

00:36:23.720 doing no good, but actually doing a lot of harm. And I inject a personal story like a lot of people

00:36:28.800 and the vice president who was inaugurated today had some challenges in my family life as a child.

00:36:34.680 And I try to appeal to the quintessential American story of living the American dream,

00:36:40.000 which I dare say, based on what happened today in Washington, is still alive and well.

00:36:44.820 Yeah. You know, Christians built the many of the universities that now are the worst perpetrators 1.00

00:36:51.640 of this progressive activism that are turning out those who are out there in the streets,

00:36:56.880 anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, anti-American protesters. Many of them are products of these

00:37:05.240 Ivy League schools that actually have like a Christian pro-America foundation. What does it look like?

00:37:12.320 Can you give me an example of how America loving people can take back these institutions for the

00:37:19.380 good of the country? I'll give you two examples, both in education, because you know, that's my

00:37:24.340 first love, having founded a school and run a college. And the first would be what any parent

00:37:29.360 can do. And whether your child's in public schools, or whether they're in private schools,

00:37:33.640 or whether you're homeschooling, in all of those cases, you are using a curriculum. And you need to

00:37:39.860 have some skepticism about the curriculum that you're using. And so it doesn't matter if you're

00:37:45.080 not someone who says, I have enough formal education to do this. You're an American. Of course you do.

00:37:50.760 It doesn't matter if you're a business person or a liberal arts person or a physics person. Go ask

00:37:56.600 questions about the curriculum that your child is using. And I'm just here to tell you that if by simply

00:38:02.500 taking that simple act, you are going to learn more and you might discover something in some of those

00:38:08.080 cases where it's really bad. And if you discover that it's bad, then you need to take action. You

00:38:12.600 need to be more involved in your child's education. The second example is also in education, but it's

00:38:18.040 in universities and it involves public policy. I think that universities that take federal funds

00:38:24.860 for student loans and grants, for research, which is almost all of them, that if they have large

00:38:30.980 endowments and they are teaching things that are anti-American and they have students to whom they are

00:38:36.020 promising a great education and they're not delivering it, that their endowments ought to

00:38:40.520 be taxed by the federal government. I think that they need to lose some of the privileges they have

00:38:45.120 because frankly, they're living off the trough of the generosity of the American people,

00:38:50.300 but doing everything in their power to undermine the American dream. And what's particularly sadistic

00:38:56.640 about this, Ali, to your point, is that in so many of these cases, particularly all of the Ivy League

00:39:02.220 colleges, these are entities that have Christian roots. And there was a time when they offered the

00:39:08.960 finest education in the history of the world, and now they're at embarrassment. Federal policy ought to

00:39:14.960 treat them as such, rather than holding them up on pedestals.

00:39:19.080 What about our security apparatus in the United States? A lot of people are concerned about that,

00:39:25.280 especially in light of recent terror attacks. And you've got people asking, rightly so,

00:39:30.600 okay, how did these people get in? I mean, as far as we know, the person who committed the atrocity

00:39:37.020 in Louisiana was an American citizen, but how did they become radicalized? And how did this happen?

00:39:45.440 Were they already known to law enforcement? Could something have been prevented? And we just wonder,

00:39:54.340 are our intelligence agencies, are they effective? Are they operating in integrity? I think,

00:40:00.400 a lot of people would say no, in many cases, and people want to see an overhaul. I mean,

00:40:06.600 it's a national security issue, of course, and people don't like instability. That's one reason

00:40:12.460 why President Trump got elected. We don't like instability. We want him to bring back stability

00:40:17.280 and strength and protection. So tell us about that. Like, can there be some kind of overhaul?

00:40:23.180 The corruption runs so deep, sometimes it feels kind of hopeless.

00:40:28.460 It does feel hopeless. I'm more hopeful today than I was yesterday. Thank goodness President Trump won.

00:40:34.720 But boy, do some of his appointees have a big job ahead of them. John Ratcliffe at the CIA,

00:40:40.600 Kash Patel at the FBI, which I think is the most rotten of the rotten agencies, not just intelligence

00:40:45.860 agencies, but federal agencies, period. And we have to get them fixed for the American people.

00:40:51.000 Take, for example, the perpetrator in Louisiana. He is a native-born American. He is someone who

00:40:58.060 was radicalized, it seems, fairly recently before the attack. But think about the FBI's response

00:41:04.380 to that. On three or four different major questions in the first days following that tragedy,

00:41:11.740 they gave completely opposite answers to questions. And at the very least, that's incompetent and doesn't

00:41:19.080 breed any kind of confidence in their assessment. But what I've happened to come to know firsthand

00:41:25.100 because of the work that we do at Heritage involving some retired FBI agents is that the FBI

00:41:30.580 is rotten to the core. That in fact, someone like you or someone like me, maybe many people in the

00:41:36.160 audience, merely by being conservative is more of a target of FBI analysis and assessment than are people

00:41:43.340 who are real perpetrators like this man. And so this is precisely the kind of thing that has to be fixed.

00:41:49.360 I will say, Ali, that I am cautiously optimistic that it will. I'm only cautiously optimistic

00:41:55.520 because there is something that is very real and it's the deep state. And until and unless Trump's

00:42:01.240 excellent appointees to these intelligence agencies in leading them will just completely, in a figurative

00:42:07.280 sense, lop off the heads of the deep state, we're going to continue to have this problem. It is a

00:42:13.560 huge priority, not just for the American people, but for free societies around the world.

00:42:18.820 Yes. I mean, you mentioned in your book some of the other non-governmental institutions, BlackRock,

00:42:23.640 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I mean, these organizations, George Soros' Open Society,

00:42:29.220 they've also got a lot of power. Now, not as much power as I thought they did because I thought there

00:42:34.680 was no way they were going to allow Donald Trump to win, whatever it means, legal or whatever,

00:42:42.000 that they could employ to stop Donald Trump from becoming president. I certainly thought that they

00:42:46.820 would pull out all the stops. And so, as you said, there's already more hope than I thought,

00:42:53.280 but it sounds like people need to read your book to understand the specifics of how these people can be

00:42:59.840 stopped and how the institutions that used to exist for America's good can go back to serving

00:43:07.100 that purpose. So, I'm guessing they can get it wherever books are sold. Is that correct?

00:43:12.300 That's correct. They can get it anywhere. And to your point just now, just very briefly, I try to use

00:43:16.820 stories of regular Americans, people who would say that they're not special in the same way that

00:43:22.340 I would say that I'm not special. My heritage colleagues are not special, just ordinary Americans who

00:43:26.880 work behind enemy lines here in Washington, D.C. on everyone's behalf. But I used stories of those

00:43:32.440 ordinary Americans in the book to encourage others who are reading the book to understand

00:43:37.220 they, too, can play a really small part that has a big consequence in taking back the country. And yes,

00:43:44.520 you can find the book anywhere good books are sold. That's Dawn's Early Light,

00:43:49.260 Taking Back Washington to Save America. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to come on.

00:43:55.000 Allie, you're a great American. It was a pleasure. Likewise. Thank you.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - January 20, 2025

Ep 1125 ｜ God Bless 47! Here’s What’s Next ｜ Guest： Kevin Roberts

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