Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 04, 2020


Ep 220 | Pandemic Pandemonium


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

187.61691

Word Count

6,018

Sentence Count

324

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

Today we talk about the coronavirus pandemic, the political reaction to it, and AOC's take on religious liberty. We also discuss the tragic deaths of two people who have contracted the virus, and how we should be praying for the families affected by it.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, happy Wednesday. Welcome to Relatable. Hope everyone is having a great week. Got a lot
00:00:06.460 of good responses about Monday's episode. If you haven't listened to that, why feminism will fail
00:00:12.300 you, I recommend that you do. You can listen, obviously, anywhere you get your podcasts. You
00:00:16.380 can also watch on YouTube. If you haven't subscribed to my YouTube channel yet, I would
00:00:21.300 highly, highly appreciate that. It's just an Allie Beth Stuckey YouTube channel, so it's not
00:00:27.140 relatable, though it has all the relatable episodes on there, as well as some clips and
00:00:31.440 other kinds of videos. So if you just want to go to YouTube and subscribe to my YouTube channel,
00:00:36.620 I would be so grateful. Okay, today we are going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk
00:00:42.520 about the coronavirus and everything that's going on with that, and specifically the political
00:00:48.080 reaction to it. And we're also going to talk about AOC's take on religious liberty. Now,
00:00:53.820 we might touch on a couple other things. I know you might be thinking, how could you not be covering
00:00:57.920 Super Tuesday? It's Wednesday. That happened last night. Well, that is kind of the limitation of not
00:01:04.100 having a live show. So there are so many wonderful things to doing this podcast, how I do it, but it's
00:01:11.200 not a live show. And so I'm recording this before I actually know the results of Super Tuesday. So I'm
00:01:16.640 not able to offer my analysis. As I said in the past, I'm not a prophetess. So I don't know what's
00:01:21.640 going on. If I were to guess, though, I would say that Bernie Sanders is going to be the nominee,
00:01:27.780 even though Joe Biden won pretty big in South Carolina. But anyway, we'll get to all of that,
00:01:32.520 hopefully, on Friday. Today, I want to talk about the craziness of the coronavirus first, because
00:01:38.140 it's just gotten the whole message, everything surrounding it has just become chaos. So coronavirus,
00:01:44.040 as I am recording this right now, at least two people, two people that I know of have died. So a 50-year-old
00:01:50.560 man who has underlying health conditions and a 70-year-old man. Obviously, these are tragic
00:01:55.840 cases. It's pretty sad when something like this happens, when someone dies, rather than thinking
00:02:00.940 about, oh, my gosh, this person died. Like they had a whole life ahead of them or half a life or a
00:02:07.820 third of a life ahead of them, no matter how old they are. They had some kind of life ahead of them,
00:02:12.340 and it feels untimely no matter when someone dies of something like this, just because a pandemic is so
00:02:19.080 unexpected, and it feels like maybe there could have been more things that were done originally to
00:02:25.200 actually inhibit its spreading. But we'll talk about that in a minute. So it's tragic. But instead of
00:02:29.880 thinking about that and all of the people that are affected by it, all of their family members who are
00:02:34.820 suffering from this, we think we do these calculations in our head. We're like, okay, well, so he's 50 years
00:02:39.980 old. Well, I'm only 28 years old. He had underlying health conditions. I'm pretty healthy. We're like
00:02:44.720 thinking about what it actually means for us. And I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing. I
00:02:51.100 think it's probably a natural survival instinct. But because of the pandemonium that's happening with
00:02:56.480 this pandemic, we're constantly just thinking about how this factors into our survival rate or the
00:03:04.740 likelihood of us contracting this disease and having to be hospitalized or dying from it. We also don't
00:03:11.380 know what the underlying health conditions are. So it's hard for people to make that calculation.
00:03:16.940 People say, you know, if you're a healthy person, you're going to be fine. You're going to survive
00:03:20.420 from the coronavirus. But what does healthy actually mean? So does it mean that you don't have cancer or
00:03:27.320 does it mean that you don't have anything wrong with you? Are we talking like people with diabetes,
00:03:31.580 people with thyroid issues, people with like IBS, Crohn's disease? What are you talking about
00:03:38.220 underlying health conditions? So when people are listening to these stories of people so tragically
00:03:43.540 dying and they're making those calculations about themselves, it's hard to do when we don't know what
00:03:48.420 health conditions would have an effect. Most people have some kind of underlying health condition. So
00:03:53.820 how severe of an underlying health condition do you have to have in order to significantly exacerbate
00:03:59.960 coronavirus to the point to where you are going to die or you are likely to die? It's really hard to
00:04:05.440 know. So instead of making those calculations, which, like I said, is natural, we should be
00:04:10.460 praying for not only the people who have contracted the virus and not just in America, but around the
00:04:14.840 world, but also the families that are affected, not just affected by fear, but affected by sadness,
00:04:19.500 affected by sorrow, affected by financial situations. And Christians should really be thinking,
00:04:25.140 okay, how does this affect the least of these? Like, how does this affect the people in our
00:04:29.860 communities who don't have access to all the resources that we do? And I've been trying to think,
00:04:34.740 like, what can I do to the people? Because poor communities are going to be affected by this more.
00:04:39.620 They just are. They don't have not only the resources, but they don't have necessarily access
00:04:45.740 always to the kind of care that everyone else does. Now, that doesn't mean they can't go to the
00:04:51.140 emergency room and get care because they can. Anyone can go to the emergency room and they cannot be
00:04:56.040 denied treatment. But we should be thinking, like, what can we do? Not, you know, what a government
00:05:02.160 handout can do, but what can we do to help those around us who are particularly vulnerable to this?
00:05:08.540 And of course, I would say the number one thing that we can do for everyone is to wash our hands.
00:05:13.480 So I'm just going to be a mom for a second. Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash them really good.
00:05:19.200 The CDC actually, I think, I think it was the CDC came out with a video on Twitter that was like,
00:05:23.940 this is how you wash your hands. It's really intense. It's longer than I think most of us do.
00:05:28.620 I think most of us just kind of get like a little soap and just run our hands under some cold water
00:05:33.240 and call it a day. Or a lot of people don't wash their hands. I know that's really gross, but a lot
00:05:37.860 of people, guys, and I'm just going to call you out if you're like driving in your car and you're
00:05:42.400 like, oh my gosh, that's me. I'm just going to call you out. There are some of you out there who go to
00:05:47.020 the bathroom, even public bathrooms, which I just can't even fathom, and you don't wash your hands
00:05:52.080 because you're like, you know what? I can't see germs, so they can't harm me. They can't harm anyone else
00:05:56.960 for your sake and for the sake of other people. Think about the people who have compromised immune
00:06:01.760 systems. Like think about the babies, the older people, the people who do have underlying serious
00:06:07.960 health conditions, all of the people who might get a cold or a flu and it turns into something else and
00:06:12.420 they die. So one of the biggest things that you can do to protect vulnerable communities that I can do
00:06:18.060 is to wash our hands. So like 20 seconds under some warm water with some good soap, back of the hands,
00:06:25.140 in between the fingers, all that good stuff. Cover your mouth. This, if you guys follow me on
00:06:30.660 Instagram, you know that one of my biggest peeves is when people don't cover their mouths when they
00:06:38.040 cough, especially on airplanes. I mean, you're just closed in this tube where everyone's germs are
00:06:43.900 circulating around. Please cover your mouth. You can cover it with your sweater like I'm doing.
00:06:49.820 You can cover it with your shirt. You can cover it with your elbow. You know, like do the vampire
00:06:54.560 cough, like really go into the crevice of your elbow when you are coughing or sneezing. Oh my gosh,
00:07:01.480 I was walking in a hotel the other day and the lady in front of me was just, it was just like she
00:07:06.240 was enjoying coughing into the air. It was just like no, no even effort into covering her mouth.
00:07:13.020 She was just, it's like looking up and coughing into the air to see how far she could project her germs.
00:07:19.300 People sneeze without covering their mouths. So if we want to be compassionate to those around us,
00:07:26.840 which we should all want to do, we should all be concerned with, we will wash our hands. We will
00:07:32.180 cover our mouths when we cough and when we sneeze. And if you are sick, like if you've got a fever of
00:07:38.140 any kind, if you've got a really bad cough and there is any way that you can avoid being in a place with
00:07:43.820 a bunch of public people, with a bunch of public people, what, uh, being in public with a bunch of
00:07:49.240 people, especially in a closed space, try to avoid that. If you can, I know sometimes it's
00:07:54.420 inevitable. Like there've been times where I've gotten on a plane and after I got on the plane,
00:07:58.180 I started feeling bad and I started getting sick. Okay, well, there's nothing you can do about that.
00:08:01.920 Or if you're in a place and you've got to get home, like I understand some circumstances make it
00:08:06.340 necessary for you to, uh, to go. But if you can avoid it, try to try to not be around people that
00:08:17.020 you could possibly, in fact, just do your best to be considerate of other people. I've seen people
00:08:22.620 out there say, you know, too bad. People just need to be okay with sickness. That's just the cost of
00:08:28.640 going out in public. Come on guys. Really? Is that logical? Is that kind? Is that loving? I don't think
00:08:34.680 so. So let us be as considerate as we possibly can of other people by washing our hands, by covering
00:08:41.600 our mouths, when we cough, when we sneeze, not going out in public, if we're sick, especially
00:08:46.060 where we're going to be around a ton of people, avoiding that if at all possible, uh, not to get
00:08:53.260 like prying too much into your personal life, but take you some echinacea and some zinc, some vitamin C
00:09:00.300 and D, uh, drink your water, all that good stuff. And we can be as vigilant as, as we possibly can
00:09:10.320 in preventing the spread, not just of coronavirus, but of any kind of sickness, because if someone
00:09:14.820 starts out with one kind of sickness, they contract coronavirus, it could end up being even worse for
00:09:19.700 them. So let us just be considerate, uh, of all of those things. I think too many of us are so,
00:09:26.420 um, we've got a one track mind on the things that we want to do and need to do that day that we're
00:09:31.840 like, you know what, people are just going to have to be okay with me, infecting them with my
00:09:36.500 sickness. Let's not be like that. Let's be a little considerate, a little bit compassionate. So that's
00:09:40.560 probably the best thing that we can do for those, especially those who are vulnerable, either
00:09:44.920 physically, financially, or whatever. And if there's anything else we can do for other people, like
00:09:49.920 there, if there are people in your church who are sick and they need you to babysit their
00:09:53.760 children, then maybe you can offer to do that. If you've got free time, bring meals and, uh,
00:09:59.880 different things like that, just to make sure that we are caring for one another, because no matter
00:10:04.180 what, no matter who's in power, we can't rely on the government or any kind of bureaucrat to save us
00:10:10.380 from this virus or to save us from anything, to save us from any kind of catastrophe. The government
00:10:17.000 made up of fallible human beings just doesn't have the ability to do that. Now let's get into the
00:10:22.340 political reaction to, to all of this that is happening. So Trump did a press conference. He
00:10:27.000 held a press conference. I think it was last week. Yes, it was last week about the coronavirus.
00:10:31.620 And some of the things he said, I think were very helpful that, Hey, we're doing absolutely
00:10:35.760 everything that we can. We have blocked travel from places that we wanted to, that we needed to
00:10:40.380 block travel from. Although there are still planes coming in from places that are highly infected
00:10:45.420 with coronavirus. And so I would really like to see that change, but, um, he was very sure,
00:10:51.080 very confident, but there were some other things, uh, that he said that kind of seemed to undermine
00:10:58.260 the CDC that kind of seemed to seem to undermine the experts. And he does seem to be, or he did at
00:11:05.040 least last week downplaying the, the pandemic a little bit too much to the point to where his
00:11:11.440 political enemies are saying that he doesn't really care about it, that he's not really serious about it.
00:11:17.360 And he, but I don't think that's true at all. I don't think that's true at all. I think that
00:11:21.220 the point that he is trying to make is that the liberal media and some people on the left and
00:11:25.220 some democratic politicians are blowing it, not blowing this out of proportion, because I do think
00:11:31.400 it's a big deal at this point, but, uh, blowing certain things out of proportion to make president
00:11:36.660 Trump look bad. So to make it seem like he is, uh, some circus clown that's just running around
00:11:43.180 and, you know, juggling on his unicycle and not really paying attention to the things that are
00:11:50.080 happening. Um, and that's just not an accurate depiction of how this administration has handled
00:11:55.580 this virus, at least not so far. The headlines that you are going to see is that president Trump
00:12:00.680 proposed cuts at one point to the CDC that, but they didn't actually cut. They didn't actually cut
00:12:08.380 funds to the CDC actually funds to the CDC public funds to the CDC taxpayer dollars have increased
00:12:14.120 while president Trump has been in office. And yet the headlines are he proposed budget cuts and
00:12:18.860 that's, what's making this worse. Well, that doesn't make any sense. The cuts didn't actually
00:12:23.120 go through. And even if they had gone through contrary to popular liberal belief, decreasing the
00:12:28.760 budget for something doesn't necessarily decrease its effectiveness. This is a conservative
00:12:33.360 administration. Of course, they're going to look to see where they can deregulate, where they
00:12:38.000 can cut back on spending, uh, because that is a tenant of conservatism. And because a lot of these,
00:12:45.980 uh, a lot of these programs, a lot of these organizations that are funded by taxpayer dollars
00:12:50.380 are given too much money and it ends up being wasteful. I'm not saying that's true about the CDC.
00:12:55.520 I'm just saying in general. So even if they had gone through with these budget cuts to the CDC,
00:13:01.440 which, you know, there are a lot of places that we can cut in our budget. I'm fine with continuing to
00:13:07.520 fund the CDC exactly how we do right now. Uh, but even if they had, that doesn't necessarily mean
00:13:13.840 that the CDC would have been less effective. So, uh, but the headlines are, are saying that
00:13:21.580 president Trump and his administration proposed these budget cuts. He doesn't really care. He's
00:13:26.260 not directing enough resources to it. And they're saying, Oh, Mike Pence, Mike Pence is heading up this
00:13:31.300 effort against this pandemic. We're all going to die because Mike Pence is so incompetent. Well,
00:13:35.760 Mike Pence is not incompetent first of all, and he is a perfectly, a perfectly appropriate person
00:13:42.880 to be, uh, heading this effort. He is not pretending as far as I know to be an expert on viruses and
00:13:50.280 expert on pandemics. He has, uh, tapped a lot of people who are the foremost experts in the world
00:13:57.300 on pandemics to lead this effort. And yet the left, because they are so upset still that Donald
00:14:05.100 Trump beat Hillary Clinton because they hate Donald Trump so much because they are so fully immersed in
00:14:10.640 Trump derangement syndrome that they are spinning this into a fully politicized thing when it really
00:14:17.560 shouldn't, but because they've spun it into a politicized thing, people on the right have to
00:14:21.960 react and then it becomes political on both sides. And I do have to react and respond to some of their
00:14:25.960 accusations, even though I don't want to make this a political thing because you can't let them get
00:14:31.520 away with a lie and have people believe that president Trump is somehow causing this pandemic
00:14:37.820 or that Mike Pence is causing this pandemic or that they have exacerbated it or allowed it, uh, to expand.
00:14:44.680 I saw this, uh, post the other day on Instagram. It was actually talking about how it's, uh, how people
00:14:50.660 need to not be racist towards Asian people during this coronavirus outbreak, which, okay. But the last
00:14:56.600 line of the, of the caption said, you know, if, uh, we get sick or like, you know, if we get sick or get
00:15:03.540 killed, it's going to be Donald Trump and his administration's fault. And people really believe
00:15:08.180 that the New York times had an op ed that said we should call this Trump virus. So a virus that started
00:15:14.920 in China and was spread outside of China because of China is Trump's fault. Okay. Like if that,
00:15:22.280 if that's your mentality, you might want to just check in, just check in with yourself, just check
00:15:27.680 in and think, did my, did the logical part of my brain fall off sometime? Did I drop it somewhere
00:15:33.660 behind me in the past three years? Okay. I might need to retrace my steps, go pick it up, put it back
00:15:39.700 and reactivate it and see if you can start thinking a little bit more rationally. Uh, that's what I
00:15:45.660 recommend because this has nothing to do this, the spread of this pandemic, which is tragic, which is
00:15:51.700 something at this point that I think that we can be concerned about in a, in a balanced way, uh, has to
00:15:59.140 do with communism. It has to do with China. As I've said many times, both on here and on Instagram is that
00:16:06.620 the thing far more dangerous and far historically deadlier than Corona virus is communism. Not to
00:16:13.560 say that we shouldn't worry, like I said about Corona virus, but the reason why Corona virus is
00:16:18.240 what it is now is because of communism. Uh, we have seen that in, we've seen that in how China has
00:16:24.420 handled this, refusing to allow health officials into the country to help, refusing to report actual
00:16:29.440 numbers of, uh, the infected and the dead, refusing to offer support to their overrun, poorly run
00:16:35.600 hospitals, quarantining people inside their homes, rather than allowing them to get the care that
00:16:40.220 they need. Uh, we're still not totally sure where the virus came from because they haven't been honest
00:16:45.260 about that. We have no reason to believe that they will ever be honest because China, like all
00:16:49.880 communist governments, uh, do not care, uh, does not care how many people get sick or live or die.
00:16:57.100 They care about staying in power, which means saving face. As we know, power corrupts and absolute
00:17:03.920 power corrupts. Absolutely. Which is why the bigger you make the government, even in the name of
00:17:08.460 compassion, which it always initially is government expansion, uh, the bigger you make the government,
00:17:13.360 the more people suffer. Big government is neither efficient nor effective as China shows us. And yet
00:17:19.760 the left somehow makes this about Donald Trump because the Trump admin has proposed, proposed in the
00:17:27.220 past to make cuts to the CDC proposed to decrease funding from the CDC, but they actually have it.
00:17:32.920 And let me go back because I meant to say this and then I forgot to explain this. So the reason why
00:17:39.300 they are so upset with Mike Pence, uh, being tapped to head up this commission to fight against the
00:17:45.260 coronavirus is, uh, because as governor of Indiana, he oversaw, he was, uh, in office when a terrible HIV
00:17:55.160 epidemic broke out in rural Indiana. He didn't direct enough funds. They say enough public funds to
00:18:02.740 a needle exchange program that would have offered free sterile needles to people who are using
00:18:08.700 intravenous drugs. So that apparently, uh, was Mike Pence's fault. So they blame Mike Pence for the fact
00:18:16.020 that people who were sharing needles with each other to do drugs, uh, got HIV and that HIV spread.
00:18:22.540 That is their actual reason that that was Mike Pence's fault. That is their actual reason for saying
00:18:27.320 that he is not qualified and is disqualified, unqualified from heading up this group that
00:18:34.360 is trying to fight coronavirus. That is how they are spinning this. So that's another way they're
00:18:39.280 making this political rather than pointing to China, which not only is the source of this pandemic,
00:18:45.500 but is also the reason that it has spread as far as it has and why so many people have died there
00:18:52.420 and elsewhere. Now this is not a slight against Chinese people, certainly not a slight against
00:18:58.120 Chinese people everywhere. So pointing out that this is China's fault has nothing to do with racism
00:19:02.840 and everything to do with China, the government of China being a bad actor on the world stage,
00:19:08.960 a dishonest actor on the world stage. And it also points to the fundamental flaw of communism,
00:19:13.920 which again, the bigger you grow the government, the more people suffer,
00:19:17.360 even, and especially in the name of compassion, which like I said, is always the reason initially
00:19:23.200 that big government is pitched. Uh, liberals are trying to claim that it is America's fault.
00:19:29.380 It's actually not America's fault. It's Trump's fault that all of this is chaos and things are
00:19:33.360 spreading that we're totally unprepared. This administration has no idea what they're doing,
00:19:37.260 but there is no evidence that that's true. America is the most prepared country for this epidemic
00:19:42.660 in the world because we have the best healthcare in the world. Uh, the system isn't perfect
00:19:47.340 I've talked about this. I spent 30 minutes on this podcast talking about some of the problems
00:19:51.700 with their healthcare system. But the fact of the matter is you cannot deny that we have the best,
00:19:57.660 most innovative, uh, uh, most advanced medical care in the world. There is a reason why the entire
00:20:05.260 world, uh, depends exclusively on America for medical innovation. The entire world depends exclusively
00:20:13.900 on the United States for medical innovation. We have the best people in the world, in this country,
00:20:19.980 in the fight against coronavirus. That doesn't mean that people aren't going to get it. Actually,
00:20:24.040 the CDC predicted that most of the country, uh, will be exposed to it. At least it doesn't mean people
00:20:29.740 aren't going to die. Unfortunately, that's going to happen. It's going to be, at least it's going to be
00:20:35.000 the last illness that some people get before they do die. They might have other underlying conditions,
00:20:41.180 but it's pathetic. It is pathetic that anyone would say any different that, uh, that we are
00:20:48.200 unprepared. Uh, it is pathetic that anyone would push that narrative that Trump is the cause of this
00:20:54.000 or Trump is exacerbating this. So Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, the liberal media, everyone who is
00:20:59.900 running with this storyline, they are shameless. Uh, and because they're false accusations require a
00:21:06.140 defense on the other side, the whole thing gets politicized. Uh, but it's important, like I said
00:21:13.380 earlier, to respond to what they're saying. Okay. Uh, let's get into the rest of this coronavirus
00:21:18.780 analysis, which unfortunately, in addition to being a physical pandemic has turned into a political
00:21:24.740 pandemic as well. It's a physical pandemic that has caused political pandemonium. And it's simply
00:21:31.040 because the left never wastes a good tragedy. The left never wastes a good crisis because remember
00:21:37.520 truth. This is something that I heard Dennis Prager say that I've thought about a lot. Truth is not a
00:21:42.620 left-wing value. Now, am I saying everyone on the left side of the political aisle is a liar? No,
00:21:47.180 I don't think that at all. I don't think all Democrats are liars. They don't think that everyone
00:21:50.360 on the left is a liar. Does that mean that everyone on the right is honest? No, I don't think that at
00:21:54.620 all. Of course not. That is very far from the truth. There are plenty of conservative politicians who
00:21:58.600 have lied. And as a Christian, we should be able to stand, uh, stand firm on the fact that we should
00:22:03.580 all be telling the truth, no matter what side of the political aisle that we're on. But I'm talking
00:22:07.220 about the ideology in general, the ideology of leftism, uh, does not hold truth as a value.
00:22:14.060 Their motto is not whatever is true. Uh, it's whatever works. So leftism's motto is not whatever
00:22:21.560 is true. It's whatever works. So because leftists believe that they are fighting for the greater good of
00:22:27.560 leftism, whatever lie gets them. There is justified again by many people on the left,
00:22:33.740 not all people on the left, particularly people on the far left, which whether you like it or not,
00:22:38.220 they're becoming more mainstream. Uh, now Donald Trump Jr. Said something about, um, that Democrats
00:22:45.200 are hoping millions of people will die. And vice president Pence said that he's justified in saying
00:22:50.780 that that's something that I've been thinking and haven't said out loud because I didn't know how to
00:22:56.920 phrase it because there are some caveats that I want to give to that. Do I think that there are
00:23:01.800 a lot of Democrats that want people to die? No, I don't. Do I think that there are even a lot of
00:23:06.440 people who are leftists that, that want millions of people to die? No, I don't. But do I think that
00:23:13.260 there is a probably growing number of radical leftists and radical Democrats who would be okay if
00:23:22.000 millions of people died so that they could use this against Donald Trump in November for November?
00:23:28.020 Yes, of course I do. Of course I do. Again, because truth is not a leftist value and whatever
00:23:34.720 requires or whatever is required for them to win, uh, for them to accomplish what they believe is the
00:23:42.620 greater good. And they believe the greater good is absolute power for leftism and the complete
00:23:48.260 drowning out of any conservative, any right wing, any moderate voice whatsoever. If that accomplishes,
00:23:55.140 if millions of people dying is what is required for them to win in November, I do think that there
00:24:00.360 is a group of radical leftists who would be perfectly fine with that. Who would be okay with that?
00:24:06.900 Who would even rejoice over the fact at least secretly of millions of people dying so that they
00:24:11.800 could gleefully get on Twitter and say, see, this is all Donald Trump's fault. We'll be able to now
00:24:15.540 you the pandemic, the deaths of millions of people against him for Bernie Sanders or whoever the
00:24:19.940 nominee is to win. Yes. And if that's not, if that's not what a group of leftist belief, then they
00:24:28.000 need to be clear about that because their glee right now, their dark glee right now, that people are
00:24:35.160 dying, that there is a pandemic, that there are people infected with the coronavirus here in America,
00:24:40.160 that they're able to leverage that to criticize Donald Trump, uh, the, that is making it seem as
00:24:47.220 if it's making it seem as if they're glad about that, that they're okay with that because I mean,
00:24:53.720 that's what it means to be deranged with Trump derangement syndrome is that even something like
00:24:59.020 a pandemic can bring you some kind of deep and morbid satisfaction because the hatred of Donald Trump
00:25:06.960 is at the forefront of your mind at all times. And I think that they probably believe that they have
00:25:12.740 good intentions because they have been so indoctrinated, so brainwashed into thinking that
00:25:16.840 they're fighting fascism, that they're fighting Nazism. And so they think, sure, we're fighting Nazism.
00:25:22.920 Like I saw someone say that Republicans are, uh, they're domestic terrorists and that they are, uh,
00:25:29.620 a domestic threat. And so if you believe that, like, if you really believe that in your mind,
00:25:36.960 then sure, you think that, you know, a million people dying of coronavirus and being able to
00:25:42.860 leverage that against president Trump is no big deal. These people who are using this against
00:25:47.620 president Trump are not shedding a tear for these two people that have died. They're not shedding a
00:25:52.720 tear for anyone who has died. They're, they're not sad about this at all because they see this as a
00:25:57.740 political opportunity. Now, does this happen on the other side of the aisle? Yes, it does. And I think
00:26:01.840 it's shameful. I think it's shameful that we use tragedies, um, to not just use it to say,
00:26:09.920 Hey, this policy needs to happen because that's inevitable. Okay. Like the right does that. For
00:26:15.200 example, when there are illegal immigrants who commit murders, the left does that when there
00:26:18.980 are school shootings, people say, use tragic situations to say, okay, we need to put certain
00:26:24.680 policies in place in order to change this. Of course, I don't agree with the left's stance on the
00:26:29.400 second amendment, but both sides do that. They use chaos and they use tragedy in order to say,
00:26:34.920 Hey, these are the policies that we are proposing. That is not the case right now with what's going on
00:26:39.460 with this pandemic, because there are no policies that they're proposing. They're just leveraging
00:26:43.880 this to make people angry, to make people scared, to make sure that people know that this is Donald
00:26:49.680 Trump's fault and that you shouldn't vote for Donald Trump in November, which is sad because people
00:26:53.580 are actually dying. Like this isn't a theoretical pandemic. People are actually dying. People are actually
00:26:58.820 hurting. People are actually suffering. People are actually planning funerals right now because of
00:27:03.820 this. And this is not about Donald Trump. And there's no evidence whatsoever that Donald Trump
00:27:08.000 and his administration have mishandled this. So it's just, it's gross. It's nasty. As Christians,
00:27:14.740 we need to be able to take a step back. And first of all, we need to pray. Like we need to pray for this.
00:27:20.440 We need to pray for God's mercy. We need to pray for his grace. We need to pray for his wisdom,
00:27:25.140 for his protection. We need to pray for opportunities to serve, opportunities to lead,
00:27:30.800 opportunities to point people to Christ, to share the gospel. And I'm talking about,
00:27:34.540 you know, myself here. I'm certainly not saying that I have, I've done all of these things,
00:27:39.660 but this is what we should be asking the Lord for. We should be praying for truth, for truth to win
00:27:44.860 out. We shouldn't be a part of all of this outreach that's surrounding this. We shouldn't be
00:27:49.320 part of this pandemonium. We know that God is still on his throne, that he is completely sovereign.
00:27:55.140 Remember that God is not thrown off by anything. He's not surprised by anything. He's not like,
00:27:59.400 oh gosh, that pandemic got more out of control than I thought. Now I've got to call in the cleaning
00:28:04.480 crew. He does not see messes and come in and clean them up. Like he is suspended in the eternal now.
00:28:10.660 So that means he is just as present a thousand years ago, as he is a thousand years from now,
00:28:14.800 as he is right now. So he is not deterred. He's not inhibited. He's not prohibited by anything
00:28:21.620 that is currently happening. He is still on his throne. He is still completely in control.
00:28:26.460 There was a picture of Mike Pence and the people that he has commissioned, that he has tapped to
00:28:33.940 help in this effort against the coronavirus, all praying. And there was a writer for New York Times
00:28:40.680 magazine that said, oh gosh, look, Mike Pence is praying. We're all going to die. Obviously showing
00:28:45.760 his disdain for Christians. If this were some kind of new age, like goddess circle, I'm sure everyone
00:28:53.240 on the left would be like, yes, this is so effective. Let's empower crystals to help us against the
00:28:58.220 coronavirus. But because this is a Christian person praying to the God of the universe, they're saying,
00:29:04.100 well, this is just shameful. This is just wrong. This is embarrassing. This is completely ineffective.
00:29:09.860 First of all, he's not praying and just sitting there. He is praying for wisdom as they move forward
00:29:15.520 with the resources and with the wisdom that God has given them. I am so thankful. No matter what
00:29:21.640 you think about the Trump administration, if you are a Christian, shouldn't you just be thankful for
00:29:25.880 the fact that we actually have people in this administration who are not only praying, but are
00:29:30.800 proud of their prayers and are willing to publicly point to God, the God of the universe, the God that's
00:29:37.180 in control of everything. Again, whether you like Trump or not, we should just own the fact that we have
00:29:43.320 been blessed by this administration. Does Trump have foibles? Does Trump say things that I don't
00:29:48.520 like? Absolutely. But this administration, particularly Mike Pence and just his public
00:29:55.140 faith has been a blessing to us. Like people's lives are better than they used to be, not just
00:30:01.520 because of this, but because of the economy, because of various policies that President Trump has put
00:30:07.860 forth. Again, has there been conflict? Has there been some chaos? Have there been things that
00:30:12.280 President Trump has said that I don't like? Yes, absolutely. But thank God, thank God for his grace
00:30:18.400 on a guilty nation, a nation just like any other nation who is guilty of sin, that he has put
00:30:25.080 Christians at the head of things like this, at the head of our government, people who are willing to pray
00:30:30.160 to him humbly, asking him for wisdom. I am so thankful for that. And we should all be. So we didn't
00:30:36.180 have time to go into the religious liberty stuff with AOC. I do want to be able to do that because
00:30:42.100 she has such wide influence and her talking about religious liberty in a way that I just simply
00:30:46.340 don't agree with. I really I want to be able to discuss and give some kind of response to. I know
00:30:52.860 that I'm probably a little bit naive. I do think that AOC, as wrong as I believe she is on everything,
00:30:58.840 I do think that she means well. I do. I think that she means well, but she just happens to be
00:31:04.580 so wrong. She's the embodiment of that Ronald Reagan quote. That's like, it's not that liberals
00:31:10.920 don't know anything. It's that they know so much that isn't so. And that's that's what I feel about
00:31:15.760 AOC. OK, anyway, I will talk about that next time or it might even have to be pushed to next week
00:31:21.640 because we got to talk about Super Tuesday at some point. Anyway, have a great rest of your day
00:31:25.080 and I will see you guys back here on Friday.
00:31:34.580 I will see you guys back here on Friday.