Dennis Quaid： Playing Ronald Reagan Was the Scariest Role of My Life ｜ Ep 225 ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast
Episode Stats
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Summary
Actor Dennis Quaid joins host Glenn Beck to discuss his new film, Reagan: Tearing Down This Wall, and his own life-changing experience as a young conservative radio host on the early days of the Reagan administration in the early 1980s.
Transcript
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All right, Glenn, you know, I've been a fan of yours since CNN.
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a man that not only brings Ronald Reagan to life on the silver screen in his new film, Reagan.
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But who also shares a personal journey of restoration.
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You know, when I found myself in bad situations, it was all my own fault.
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And I came to realize what a personal relationship with Jesus, Jesus Christ, is all about.
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an old homestead brought back to life from the dust and echoes of the past,
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We're pondering whether the restoration Reagan believed in can still happen today.
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It was mourning in America, Reagan once told us.
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A time of renewal, hope, and boundless opportunity.
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Mourning for a spirit, a people, and a leadership that once defined us,
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The love of country that he had and all of that seems to be fading in popular culture.
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Communism is on the rise inside our country as well as all around the world.
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And it seems like we have to fight it all over again.
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Are we just playing out a beautiful but ultimately futile melody on a piano,
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hoping the notes will somehow carry us back to a time that's long gone?
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couldn't resist sitting down at a piano we have here
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a bit of light in a conversation that at times feels
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like we're searching for something that might never be found again.
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simply trying to find our way back to something we've lost forever?
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This is a special episode of the Glenn Beck Podcast,
00:02:41.320
The war on Christmas has only been getting worse.
00:02:53.040
You don't think of people like you doing normal stuff.
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And I'm sure you had a radio show going on before that, right?
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and I don't think I'm ever going to get that one checked off.
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It was kind of like prisoner exchange or something.
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and I really thought people would have a sense of humor.
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It's not my favorite movie that I've ever done.
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But, you know, at the time, he was an outsider.
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and what that was going to bring to Washington,
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And I came home, and I had a roommate at the time.
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And he said, you were kicked out of the hippies.
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My dad had been talking about Ronald Reagan for president
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outside of him being the guy who sold Barakzo soap
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And that was my first memory of him as a political figure.
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You and I have the courage to say to our enemies,
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There is a point beyond which they must not advance.
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That was my first awareness of him as a political figure.
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And so, but, you know, he was, to take the role, like I said, I had, you know, fear went up my spine.
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Because he's, like, Muhammad Ali, he's one of the, probably one of the most recognized people all over the world, period.
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And I didn't want to do, like, an impersonation of him.
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He was my, I mean, he's, you know, probably my biggest hero, in a way.
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We grew up getting under our desk at school because, you know, they were going to drop the bomb.
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The Cuban Missile Crisis, you know, we lived in Houston, and we were in that circle that they had.
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You know, and nobody had been able to make any progress with that.
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At the time, everybody, you know, the left, everybody, to the left, everyone is a monster.
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You know, he was going to get us into a war for sure.
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But, you know, all we'd done with the Soviets was appease.
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Kennedy, you know, and Khrushchev had, you know, they were communicating.
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And that was, I thought that was handled well for the time that it was going to happen because it was going to happen.
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But then, you know, at the time that Reagan entered office, it was very much afraid that it was going to happen again.
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And that it was predestined to happen in a way.
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The Soviets, under Carter, really built their military way up.
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Carter was, you know, I thought he did a great job in the Middle East to bring Egypt and Israel together.
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And, but, you know, we gave away the B-1 bomber.
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And it, you know, the more that we gave away, the more I think they just kind of laughed at us.
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And we're, as Americans, I think Jimmy Carter, the Jimmy Carter administration exemplified the way the American people are in their heart.
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We want to live in harmony with the rest of the world, in allies, friendships.
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And, but that's not the way the rest of the world is.
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The rest of the world didn't grow up like we grew up.
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In the Middle East, you know, and they are a product, like we're a product of the way we grew up.
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And we don't have a chance against brutes like that.
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Reagan was, I always wanted, you know those, those old westerns where the cowboy kind of has a twitchy eye.
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Or we might be having, you know, a party in an hour.
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But when he said something, you knew he meant it.
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You know, it, he was the guy who you, you've really thought.
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Well, but why do you think that the Iran hostage is released 20 minutes after he took office?
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I, I, I love the way that the movie portrays him and Gorbachev.
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And, and I know a lot of people that were in the room at the time with all of this stuff.
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I mean, the only non-historical fact is that my dog Peaches is the family dog in the movie.
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So, I mean, uh, even down to like his and Nancy's relationship, which is so central to the story.
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So let me ask you, cause this is the one thing I thought about the movie.
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I don't know if people, let's say my son's age, 18 years old, 19 years old, is going to be able to relate to their relationship.
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Because that is so odd for today's society, for the consuming society.
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You don't see that kind of early, and that was real.
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They were like that, but it seems so unrealistic in today's world.
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Well, you know, even back in the 60s, it was kind of unreal, uh, unrealistic in a way, you know, because 50% of marriages were still breaking up.
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And they had, in fact, even, even Reagan was, you know, divorced, he was married to Jane Weiner.
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And, uh, in fact, I think he was our first divorce president, uh, in fact.
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But they had a special thing, and I disagree with you about that, because I'm married to the, like, the greatest woman in the world.
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You know, and I've, I've been, you know, I've been a dog in relationships before, too, but I, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's great to be in one that, uh.
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They might see it in their personal lives or anything, but in culture, that is not the, the.
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Yeah, well, we don't have, uh, the culture has changed so much.
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But just, I don't know, you go out into the middle of the country, and I see a lot of really great examples.
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I, I got this for my wife's, my wife and I, our anniversary.
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Harmony is the, I should be able to read my own writing.
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Uh, marriage state with a very first object to be aimed at is harmony.
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Harmony in the marriage, uh, harmony in the marriage state is the very first object to be aimed at.
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Um, uh, happiness by the, oh, gosh, I know I can't, I don't have my glasses.
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They were having dinner with Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
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And, um, their anniversary and he slipped it across the table to her.
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It's, but they did write and, so have you read, what is it, Love You, Ronnie?
00:15:30.380
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00:15:39.400
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00:16:47.000
So when you came over and you just hit the Steinway before we started, you were taught by Jerry Lee Lewis.
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When you play a character like this, and you're not a character, but a real person, and you're
00:17:05.940
really trying to nail them, you have to have a relationship with them.
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Even if they're dead, you have a relationship with them.
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For me, what makes acting so fascinating is the psychology of it.
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And that's what we were starting to talk about when I was offered Reagan.
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I didn't turn it down, but I didn't say yes because I did want to do an impersonation.
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And then I didn't want to do a hero worship thing.
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It's about playing that person from their point of view.
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And to do that is to find out what makes them tick.
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And I feel like I have a responsibility to do that.
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And there was a part of Reagan, and my research of it, people who knew him, that there was kind
00:18:01.960
There was this unreachable, very private place in him that I think even Nancy felt to a certain
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extent, although she probably knew him the best.
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I think it was his most private thoughts and probably a shield from the people around him
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because he had so many people always around him, at least in his political career.
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But I think this also went back to his childhood, where he could have that private place.
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And it's almost Japanese in that, you know, that we're talking about having the privacy in
00:19:02.120
You know, I think part of that is what made him a great communicator.
00:19:05.720
But getting to that is what I needed to get to because I knew it was going to be really
00:19:22.280
That's and that is was the Western White House.
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He bought that back after being governor of California.
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When I saw that scene, I thought, God, heavens, at that at that time, how much did they pay
00:19:52.220
A group of friends bought it after his passing and they kept it exactly as it was.
00:20:00.520
You it's like you feel that they're going to come back.
00:20:04.880
But I went through the first you go up five miles of the worst road in California to get
00:20:13.380
And went through the gate and come out and you see the place in the house, in the in the
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They had a king size bed, but it was two single beds that were zip tied together.
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And it's the house itself is maybe eleven hundred square feet.
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And you can feel that he really did do all the work around that place.
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And I think that's like that's when I that's when I said yes to the role was after that trip after
00:21:20.600
He could fit in on anything, but he seemed more at home at the ranch.
00:21:25.920
And, you know, I just you see these pictures of him and he's I don't know, he's just he's
00:21:32.340
almost the Marlboro man without the cigarettes.
00:21:43.320
But I think he maybe studied John Wayne's walk a little bit because they walked a little
00:21:50.880
You know, they were all taught how to walk and talk and everything when he got when they
00:21:57.260
And that was another interesting thing about Reagan was that I.
00:22:03.340
I look for things the way we all think of ourselves.
00:22:13.120
We all have levels of self-esteem during certain periods of our life and things that we go
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through that, you know, other people might think, oh, well, he's successful, he's powerful,
00:22:22.960
But inside your own person, it all that matters is the way you feel, you know.
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And I never thought I think I don't think Reagan ever got to the point of where he wanted
00:22:39.880
You know, he was relegated to B-movies, you know, Jack Warner.
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And like I said, you know, John Wayne, that role was already taken.
00:22:50.260
And then, you know, he was married to Jane Wyman.
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And I mean, she won an Academy Award, you know, like that.
00:23:09.380
And I myself was in kind of in a similar situation like that with, with Meg, you know, my career
00:23:15.760
was like, that would be methods and hers kind of went like, like, like that, you know, and
00:23:21.960
you know, you can be, you know, generous with yourself or whatever, or say that doesn't hit
00:23:28.020
you somewhere in, inside you, but it does, you're playing with, with that, you know,
00:23:33.220
and where you have this feeling like you were disappearing or whatever.
00:23:37.680
And so that's something I can understand about, you know, relate with him about.
00:23:45.700
So he was doing like Vegas shows in like cheesy comic Vegas shows, you know, to just a put food
00:23:58.080
Fame, I think is, fame and fortune is a battery acid to the soul.
00:24:05.560
And if you don't, if you don't know who you are.
00:24:09.060
It takes time sometimes to, to know who you are.
00:24:13.600
But I mean, if you, and if you, but if you don't in your business, even in my business,
00:24:19.640
you'll lose your way because you'll start, you'll feel, well, am I slipping a little
00:24:27.860
And then you have to decide, is it worth, are you going to do that?
00:24:38.180
Like if you're a kid from Houston, you know, working class, you know, parents, there's not
00:24:43.100
a whole lot of, you know, you really get raised to know what to do in those situations.
00:24:50.200
I'm lucky enough to have been in those situations that I was in, you know, and also lucky enough
00:25:00.580
But it was, you know, it was also when God closes the door and he opens another one.
00:25:07.880
And it's, I think with Reagan, it was a really, a lot of his life was based on finding God's
00:25:17.280
And, you know, he became, when you're, when you're, when acting starts to kind of like
00:25:26.440
fade, a lot of actors, you know, Ed Asner being one of them and several others, you become
00:25:39.180
And he was finding communists in the, in that role as well, because the communists, that
00:25:46.860
was back during McCarthy era, they were trying to take over the unions.
00:25:53.720
And I've always heard that he was really torn on that.
00:25:58.360
He didn't like the going in and turning people, having to give names, but he didn't have a problem
00:26:04.380
if they were communists, if they were a problem.
00:26:07.620
And well, his whole idea too, about, about communism, uh, whereas, you know, we're trying
00:26:18.060
And when he went to testify that he, he testified with the thing, the saying that, you know, you
00:26:26.280
ought to just allow communism in here because our system can handle it.
00:26:32.140
That's what the American, American system is all about.
00:26:36.120
You know, the freedom to, to, uh, form a, uh, political party.
00:26:41.460
Isn't it weird that, I mean, when you, when you started, you said, I said, why was he here?
00:26:48.020
Cause he won the cold war and he did, but isn't it weird that we're kind of back to where we
00:26:55.000
were except the love of country that he had and all of that seems to be fading in popular
00:27:03.420
Communism is on the rise inside, uh, our country as well as all around the world.
00:27:10.300
Uh, and it seems like we have to fight it all over again.
00:27:21.900
In fact, you know, right off the bat, it was, uh, after we formed as a country, you know,
00:27:26.780
there was a whiskey rebellion that, uh, Washington had to go put down.
00:27:30.700
Then we had the war of 1812 and then we had, you know, westward expansion and what was going
00:27:39.840
Then we went into another thing, you know, which are you an optimist?
00:27:43.460
You feel like, I believe in the American people.
00:27:47.860
And, uh, you know, it's sometimes a big, great experiment that sometimes doesn't, you know,
00:27:58.140
I like Churchill when he said, uh, trust the American people, you know, uh, they'll get
00:28:04.680
it wrong, but eventually they'll figure it out and get it right.
00:28:09.160
Well, the last time that, you know, the most similar times to today are, I would say the
00:28:16.040
sixties and seventies, you know, that culminated, uh, you know, the end of that was Ronald Reagan
00:28:38.820
And I think that's what people are yearning for really is a return to, uh, really kind
00:28:47.700
I love the fact that I've been watching his speeches, uh, for a while now.
00:28:51.880
And I just love the fact that he would always walk out and he'd be like Republican and Democrat
00:28:57.400
And he, he's not, he's not tearing people down.
00:29:06.360
You know, but we also back at the, this time we had, we had liberal Republicans.
00:29:14.400
And, uh, and, uh, I pine for the Democrat of Joe Lieberman.
00:29:21.140
That was like the last of the closest we came is probably Joe Manchin, uh, recently.
00:29:27.960
And there's a, I think there's a great distance between them, but it is close.
00:29:33.560
I think the great hope for, uh, for, you know, that would be RFK, to tell you the truth, as
00:29:38.480
far as being able to reach cross party and, or really not even be about party, you know,
00:29:45.160
be about America and where we are and where we're going.
00:29:50.140
I don't, I don't agree with probably most of his ideas, but I, I, you know, we could have,
00:30:01.480
He called when I was on CNN, he said that I should be tried for treason and executed.
00:30:09.420
Well, and like I said, don't agree with most of his ideas, but I don't know the full story
00:30:17.560
Uh, but he, but we had a great conversation, you know, had a great conversation.
00:30:23.520
Um, and he, and he said, yeah, I've, I've, I've revised some of my viewpoints on some of
00:30:31.800
It's enough of a struggle just to live our lives and try to keep tyranny at bay day after
00:30:36.380
day without also having to deal with pain on a regular basis.
00:30:40.540
If you're in constant pain, um, or just occasional, really bad pain, um, you can be count, you can
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Now, the biggest cause of our pain is inflammation in our joints.
00:30:57.620
I know because I used to have it in my hands really badly.
00:31:02.620
Sometimes, uh, I'd have to get my, my wife would get up in the morning and button my shirts.
00:31:09.160
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Um, can I go into the, the, the downfall in your life for a while?
00:32:00.660
Cause I want to talk about what you're doing now with music and everything else.
00:32:04.920
Um, and, um, I don't know how important is a real downfall to really finding yourself and
00:32:20.900
Um, I don't think one should go looking for it, right?
00:32:25.920
You know, like we all wanted to be James Dean back then, you know, to have that answer and
00:32:31.360
stuff, but I don't think, but I think it, uh, steals, uh, yourself as a person.
00:32:36.740
And I think that's where you, you really find about what you're made of or, and who you are.
00:32:44.260
Uh, uh, there are maybe there are some people that are lucky in life to, to know who they
00:32:52.920
But, uh, you know, I went through, uh, few periods in my life, you know, that were, that's
00:33:02.440
You know, I sometimes feel it's like God's pruning and, uh, you know, when I found myself
00:33:10.300
in bad situations, it was, it was all my own fault.
00:33:13.840
So, you know, I was all that stuff my mother said, you know, I don't work out for it, but
00:33:19.780
I found myself, you know, so you get to a point of surrender, you know, back in the
00:33:26.580
seventies and eighties, I was, you know, I got into cocaine, you know, back then.
00:33:36.400
I mean, cocaine, when it came along in the seventies, I remember a cover story of cocaine,
00:33:41.960
you know, that was like, they just discovered it or something.
00:33:45.220
And they were saying it was non-addictive and, and all that, you know, that all worked
00:33:50.720
But there are three, there are three, uh, phases of that, just like with any addiction,
00:33:56.960
really, where it's fun, then it's fun with problems.
00:34:00.300
And then it's, it's just problems, you know, and the rest of your life just doesn't work.
00:34:05.940
And, uh, you know, I was, you know, I think I got to that point, I guess I, yeah, I know
00:34:12.980
I got to that point, but I went into rehab like 1990 and I was, I was lucky enough to get
00:34:22.340
You know, and, uh, that really began kind of a, a second, uh, because the program that
00:34:30.880
you go through, uh, with addiction is a spiritual program.
00:34:34.040
That's what it, they say it's a spiritual problem.
00:34:36.200
And indeed it is because you're, you're using whatever you're using or, you know, whatever
00:34:41.820
your addiction is because to fill that hole inside you, which works for quite a while.
00:34:49.260
And then until it does, you know, and that, uh, you know, that needs to be like an eternal
00:34:59.980
And that's what I, I've read the Bible now, like five times through different parts of
00:35:07.760
And I got, I got, uh, uh, disillusioned with what I call churchy entity.
00:35:14.320
I grew up in the Baptist church and I got disillusioned with the churchy entity back in
00:35:20.140
And I read Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, which opened Buddhism and to me.
00:35:26.780
And, you know, when I went around the world, I asked, I, I read the Quran, I read the Dhammapada,
00:35:36.560
And, um, then I came back, I read the Bible again.
00:35:46.960
And, um, I was really struck by the red words of Jesus, which that was what really hit me
00:35:56.180
more than any of the, the other, the other books.
00:35:59.220
And I came to realize what a personal relationship with Jesus, Jesus Christ is all about or started
00:36:09.420
to know what that was all about, because it is a relationship that, that grows and that
00:36:15.080
ebbs, you know, according to the attention that's paid to it, just like any other relationship.
00:36:21.520
And, uh, but is always there and how real that is to me, it's about a personal relationship.
00:36:29.520
And that is, that is the thing that really runs through all religions, I think is, is the
00:36:40.020
I don't know if you know that, but I'm an alcoholic and, and our journey is very similar.
00:36:44.280
I think most people with addictions would say, but, um, and I didn't know what a personal
00:36:51.620
And there are times, and it would always be this way if I were, you know, um, always in
00:36:59.820
the right place, but there are times he is my absolute best friend.
00:37:04.660
And, and when you're in that space and you could, when you're in that space, anything
00:37:11.020
can happen to you and you'll be like, it doesn't matter.
00:37:17.240
A lot of people who, you know, who are not believers or, or whatever, uh, it's hard to
00:37:24.300
It's always been hard for me to understand that too, but you know, because that's a crutch
00:37:30.660
or it's like, it's some fairy tale about heaven or this or that, but Jesus, the way I, and
00:37:38.620
the way I read it and feel it and experience it, Jesus came in the red words of Jesus.
00:37:44.280
He came here to teach us about heaven afterwards, but more importantly, how to have heaven on
00:38:00.120
The kingdom of heaven is spread out upon the earth and man cannot see it because it's about
00:38:10.000
And you, you know, it's also incredibly simple.
00:38:13.480
It's exactly what it said, you know, but that's what I've come to know and cultivate.
00:38:22.100
You know, everybody gets all wrapped up in sin and stuff like that.
00:38:29.780
I think what Jesus was actually saying to us is that we ourselves, just like heaven exists
00:38:38.420
But we live as we go along out of our kid phase and we live in hell inside of ourselves.
00:38:46.880
We either have guilts or the things that we should have or think we should have that really
00:38:53.780
And it was, you know, Jesus came along and it's about giving up on that.
00:39:04.280
It's, you know, as much as being forgiven of, of sin, it's more about just throwing it away
00:39:16.620
I think that's the secret of heaven is being able to accept, okay, I did that, but it doesn't,
00:39:24.140
it's not, it's in my past and it doesn't matter.
00:39:28.380
And that doesn't mean necessarily it's going to be poof, you know, tomorrow, but you can
00:39:41.820
I mean, I, I, myself, I, I experienced actually in the last eight years is, you know, what I,
00:39:51.240
I would say the equivalent of a, of a, of a kind of a nervous breakdown, to tell you the
00:39:55.660
truth, because I, it was, I was turning 60, which freaked me out, but there were a lot of
00:40:00.980
things going on in my life that I wasn't being authentic to myself.
00:40:04.580
You know, I, uh, I think I was showing one thing to the world, but you know, I was inside
00:40:11.500
and wasn't a terrible person or anything, but it was like, uh, just things in me that
00:40:21.140
And I drew upon that personal relationship to, to, to get there.
00:40:29.860
And it's a voice that in one's head, you know, the voice that tells you, you're not good
00:40:39.280
People don't like you, you know, the Saturday night life's good.
00:40:42.200
Well, that's the, you know, we all have that voice inside our head and sometimes that voice
00:40:47.420
could take over and it keeps you from, yes, it keeps you from being who you are.
00:40:54.160
And, um, and funny enough, it, you know, along with Jesus was Yoko Ono, who really kind of
00:41:07.220
like gave me a little, uh, uh, you get your, you get your hippie card to get out of it.
00:41:14.400
She said after John, she just practiced, she went six months, she was a wreck and she just
00:41:20.540
started like smiling at herself in the mirror or trying to, and she didn't believe it for
00:41:25.400
six months, but it had actually turned into genuine.
00:41:28.800
And it's about really looking into yourself and really seeing yourself and nurturing yourself
00:41:34.940
and, um, and wanting to, I mean, I know I looked at myself in a mirror for a long time
00:41:41.080
and saying, you're worthless, you're, you're, you know, you're weak.
00:41:46.800
Um, and it, my dad said, start saying things that you want to believe about yourself and
00:42:01.020
I didn't even like Yoko Ono before that, to tell you the truth.
00:42:04.780
You know, the Beatles thing going way back there.
00:42:07.220
But, you know, they realized, you know, that, you know, happiness is a choice or that way.
00:42:14.400
I hate to say the word happiness because it's such a blanket thing, but it's, uh, what can
00:42:25.240
And once you kind of like, you know, they say confess your sins or this or that, what it
00:42:32.240
is, it's a throwing off of it and then you're free.
00:42:41.380
And so that was, you know, that was a deepening.
00:42:45.820
And, uh, I feel that, you know, like I said, God's pruning or, you know, I'm still enjoying
00:42:53.560
I thought, you know, by the time I got to be 60 or by the time I got to be 70, I would
00:42:58.000
have, you know, figure, figured it all out, been through all those like phases of my life.
00:43:03.100
But then again, I didn't realize that I'd never knew what it was like to be 16.
00:43:10.980
Um, I'm listening, I'm listening to your, um, your album and it's amazing to hear.
00:43:20.360
I think there's a huge difference between, you see the Johnny Cash movie.
00:43:25.680
So, so remember the time when he walks into, uh, Sam Phillips, uh, studio and he gets the
00:43:32.240
audition and he's playing and he's like, I don't believe you.
00:43:35.540
So you, you have the same kind of, um, feeling, I think that, uh, Johnny Cash had where, um,
00:43:46.600
you can tell you earned that, you know, you can tell, you can tell you mean that.
00:43:59.100
Because that was, that was, it was very personal.
00:44:02.000
The please don't give up on me is, is really, in fact, uh, well, the, uh, half the musicians
00:44:09.840
that are on that record were Johnny Cash's last studio band.
00:44:15.820
And, uh, but, um, um, yeah, it's, it was very personal.
00:44:21.380
I know, I don't know what you're talking about is they, uh, you can feel that it, I, I'd been
00:44:29.740
Um, turned out it was very obvious by my spiritual journey through life.
00:44:41.040
Um, I'm kind of working on a kid's record right now.
00:44:51.360
Well, like, you know, songs like, uh, does your chewing gum lose its flavor with a bedpost
00:44:57.300
overnight or remember when you ran away and I got on my knees and back, that was a kid
00:45:03.080
You know, and, uh, uh, you get the song called the jungle, which is, I wrote when I was 21
00:45:09.480
actually put on there and, you know, it's a little bit more secular, but, uh, kid songs.
00:45:16.360
There's a whole market out there that nobody's touched.
00:45:22.480
Most self-defense situations can be handled with a gun, but that doesn't mean they all
00:45:29.080
I believe wholeheartedly in the second amendment.
00:45:32.420
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00:45:50.320
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00:46:35.180
Let's just talk about where are we as a world right now?
00:46:50.780
It's weird because we've been through all of this before over and over again.
00:46:56.840
I mean, like some of it is almost exactly what we've been through before, but for some
00:47:02.560
reason we don't look to history to figure out, okay, well, don't do that.
00:47:06.280
Yeah, it seems like before we went through it before, there were actually leaders to the
00:47:12.440
leaders on our allies' side and on their side, or even in the domestic situation, you
00:47:26.920
You had SDS leaders, Abbie Hoffman, blah, blah, blah.
00:47:30.380
People actually kind of like spoke up for everybody in a sense, you know, and when it comes to
00:47:48.360
You know, even Black Lives Matter was like, who are the leaders of that that were like
00:47:59.140
Even all this political correctness and just where, you know, in that sense, there's some
00:48:14.300
way to have a conversation about it instead of just this kind of, which no wonder people
00:48:21.920
are saying, you know, that there's a dark government, you know, out there, but with faceless people
00:48:33.500
And you get the feeling of that, I don't know, but I also do feel that it's, like I said, it's
00:48:43.180
a cycle that all of us are working out as individuals and as the American people.
00:48:52.840
And I think the world feels right now, like it's been turned upside down, but I'm actually
00:49:00.840
starting to see signs of it turning right by side up.
00:49:05.180
Common sense seems to be, we lost it entirely for a while.
00:49:08.860
And it seems to be, I think people are tired of supposedly having to hate their neighbor
00:49:27.500
At least can we make like individual decisions on our own instead of just taking, you know,
00:49:36.640
some mandate that's been told that we have to, it's mandatory that we have to think this
00:49:45.100
And I'm talking about on both sides of the aisle, really.
00:49:48.320
You know, you feel like you can't cross that line or you're going to be, you know, a traitor.
00:49:52.780
And what happened to the individual, the rugged individual?
00:49:56.780
That was the American ideal, that you would, look, buddy, I don't, I don't agree with
00:50:09.980
Well, Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan did have that.
00:50:19.420
That was the main thing about Reagan is that he had principles in his life and he governed
00:50:27.980
And if you have principles, then it doesn't matter.
00:50:34.460
Because if you have those principles, you're going to make an unpopular decision with whoever
00:50:40.040
voted you in because it's the best thing to do for the whole.
00:50:51.920
It gives you patience, too, with other people and for allowing something to unfold.
00:51:03.480
I think it starts at home, in our relationships with our friends, local community.
00:51:10.760
You know, it really got to the point where people, if you know, you find out if they're
00:51:16.100
Democrats or you find out they're Republicans, you would just, there's this just label that
00:51:22.100
goes up on them and, you know, they're out the door on both sides, too.
00:51:36.420
You know, we go to school with people on the other side.
00:51:42.240
And, you know, then we find out they're either Democrat or Republican or this or that.
00:51:47.720
And all of a sudden, you know, they're horrible people.
00:52:02.500
I feel actually that the churches are people who go to church or religiously minded.
00:52:11.440
It was going down for so long ever since, I guess, you know, the end of World War II.
00:52:19.540
I think COVID, as horrible as COVID was, I think it was also, in a way, that's what a
00:52:29.580
spiritual revolution looks like or a revival is what it looks like.
00:52:36.740
Because it forced people to get out of their routines that they were obsessed about and
00:53:01.700
And a lot of people go running to God when things are bad.
00:53:16.620
And that's, I think we've, I mean, it's not full bloom yet.
00:53:32.300
That's where Reagan and I, I guess, we're the same.
00:53:36.620
And I think we both have a sunny disposition down at the bottom of it.
00:53:51.840
This is what was held down at his side on Inauguration Day, 1980.
00:54:09.000
It's kind of like the very beginning of his presidency, and it's also kind of a little bit of his Hollywood stuff.
00:54:23.560
As he began his song and sang the heartfelt words, may God smile down on you.
00:54:29.780
I couldn't help but feel the strength of his faith and the warmth of his optimism.
00:54:35.900
Friends, don't mourn for the death of the morning in America.
00:54:42.340
But like Reagan, Dennis Quaid understands that faith isn't a denial of reality.
00:54:47.940
It's the courage to face it with the God in whom we trust.
00:54:52.120
When you walk home to the door, when you're pulling back the shade, when you're kicking off your shoes at the end of the day, when you just need someone to tell your troubles to, I will be listening, baby.
00:55:16.960
Because each and every night, oh, each and every night, I pray.
00:56:18.860
Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend so it can be discovered by other people.