00:00:00.000Hello and welcome to Brokernomics. Now, in this episode, I'm absolutely delighted to be joined
00:00:18.120by Joel Webben. Some people call him controversial pastor from near Austin, Texas, I believe. Joel,
00:00:26.200thank you so much for coming on thanks for having me yeah we're just north of austin about 45
00:00:31.100minutes north in georgetown texas great um joe for those who haven't had the pleasure of encountering
00:00:38.380you yet um tell us a little bit about yourself yeah so i pastor a local church and uh that's
00:00:45.000my primary focus um but i'm i do a lot um of political cultural commentary through media
00:00:51.820So I lead a ministry called Right Response Ministries that focuses on theology, some of the theological framework for how we should think politically and culturally in the West and America specifically.
00:01:06.480But then I also started another organization called NXR Studios, NXR, New Christian Right Studios.
00:07:37.320So they can laugh, they can mock, they can say it's extreme, but they're talking about
00:07:41.540my latest episode. So I say the right has to embrace socialism to win. And Dana Loesch and
00:07:46.840Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and everybody in my country is retweeting me. This happened just last week
00:07:53.460and talking about the thing that I put forward. So you can call it a LARP, you can call it unserious,
00:07:59.560but it's kind of like Johnny Depp and the pirates of the Caribbean. He's like, you're the worst
00:08:04.480pirate I've ever heard of. Yeah, but you have heard of me and you can't help yourself, but talk0.99
00:08:09.620about me. So for me, it's like, am I going to win an election in, you know, the year of our Lord
00:08:15.7202026? No, I'm not even going to run because I know my place and I'm, I'm, I'm realistic. I'm
00:08:22.220a realist, but I am able to provide cover fire for other guys so that they can push further.
00:08:28.940This kind of good cop, bad cop. It's like, well, you know, Beau French, I guess we'll vote for him.
00:08:34.700he's reasonable, but Joel Webin is extreme. So I think there are different pieces on the chess
00:08:40.820board. We're all on the same team. We're trying to push the discourse further. And here's the
00:08:45.440thing. We have to think of the long game, right? Everybody, at least in America, I don't know how
00:08:50.920it is in England, but there's been this mentality for decades of this is the last election of our
00:08:57.580lifetime. Get out there and vote red, vote with every single name with an R next to it, down the
00:09:04.100ballot without fail. If you have to plug your nose and plug your nose, do whatever it takes,
00:09:08.840be a patriot because it's the last election of our lifetime before the communists take over.
00:09:13.540And the reality is that's just, that's not true. That doesn't mean that elections don't matter.
00:09:18.960I'm going to be voting in November in our midterm elections here in Texas. I will be voting for
00:09:26.020Beau French, for railroad commissioner in Texas. I'll be voting for Ken Paxton, not because I
00:09:32.140like everything about Ken Paxton. I like Beau French a lot more, but because of the alternative
00:09:36.900being James Tallarico, he's very, very liberal and progressive and twists the word of God,
00:09:41.680claims to be a Christian and uses Bible verses, like NASCAR stickers on a windshield to try to
00:09:47.980just push across his transgender theory for children. I mean, he really is in many ways,
00:09:54.380the devil incarnate, in some ways worse than the devil when he's tempting Jesus in the wilderness.
00:09:59.040I think he would have blushed if he heard some of the things that Tallarico was saying,
00:10:03.100like the devil, you know, was, I think he'd be like, Hey, James Tallarico, let's at least
00:10:07.100be a little more subtle. Let's be reasonable. I mean, this is too on the nose. So, um, and it
00:10:12.300depends who you're running against. It depends what you're standing for. It depends what the
00:10:16.180position is. Um, then I I'm still voting. I'm not going to just not vote. Um, however, there are
00:10:22.120some guys with R's next to their name that in this election, uh, they're simply not good enough.
00:10:27.560And I'm not going to vote for them. And I don't believe that if we get the alternative, a Democrat, then it's just going to end the country. I think in some sense, this is how I've been thinking about it lately. Mitt Romney versus Barack Obama in 2012 in America's presidential election.
00:10:44.820There were about a million conservative patriots here in America who said, I'm sorry, I know
00:13:51.140But I am saying, guys, if you give a VEC your vote, right, this is just a case study that proves the principle. You are messaging to the GOP that they don't have to meet any, any of your wishes. All they have to do is be just half an inch to the right of whoever the communist Democrat candidate is, and they can assume your vote forever.
00:14:12.740And here's the deal. Ohio is a deep red state. In the checks and balances, the other systems of state government in Ohio, Amy Acton will have her hands tied behind her back from day one. She will be able, if we're honest about it, to do very little.
00:14:28.980And so for four years, not federally, not nationwide, but in an isolated state race with a deep GOP, a deep red state, you'll have a Democrat, terrible, terrible governor, but who will be constrained and mitigated severely in the damage they're able to do and isolated in one state instead of the whole country.
00:14:50.840and clear the field, hopefully sending Vivek back home
00:14:54.400where whoever is able then four years later in 2030
00:16:37.540Who were the early voices who put forward a resistance?
00:16:42.420And so my plan is to push out a little bit beyond the Overton window, but then assume the center, anchor down, plant a flag and be ready for the future if God opens up an opportunity.
00:16:56.820I mean, on the Ramaswamy point, I can imagine a scenario where labor keeps putting the taxes up and I myself find myself looking for asylum in Texas or something like that.
00:17:07.040if i were to do that i would think that it is fundamentally illegitimate for me to run for
00:17:13.380office or or to involve myself in politics in any particular way i might as a commentator because
00:17:18.120i mean that's what i do but i think it's just fundamentally illegitimate when you join a
00:17:21.900country to then try and join the political process directly i think i think it might even be
00:17:26.180questionable for my children you know assuming you know perhaps even children that i had while
00:17:30.600i was over there so yeah i mean i totally agree on that i mean on the point of on shifting it to
00:17:35.680the shorter timescale i mean that is something fundamental different about your nation and mine
00:17:39.900is that i recognized everything that you said about being half an inch of the to the right of
00:17:45.040the left wing option and famously our conservative party basically became that they became heirs to
00:17:51.080blair they positioned themselves that way but where i think we did get a bit different is the
00:17:56.160the last election we basically the right wing has basically rejected the conservative party
00:18:00.620and we knowingly took on the chin a Labour government in order to try and shift us away
00:18:05.440from that and there's now an enormous fight between on the right between conservatives
00:18:09.200Nigel Farage's reform uh the party that I support which is the most based option obviously of
00:18:14.320Rupert's Lowe uh but we're willing to go through that in your country it's a little bit more
00:18:18.720dangerous because you know it's fine making a statement in a deep red state but if you're
00:18:23.200living in one that could go either way the Democrats are genuinely mad they genuinely
00:18:29.460will come after your children they will try and indoctrinate them in school they will try and
00:18:34.120turn them trans they they will let off career criminals and unfortunately i know our demographics0.96
00:18:39.820are bad but your demographic started from a worse place they will let generational criminals with0.99
00:18:46.440multiple convictions off so i mean honestly it's bloody difficult in your country to not treat the
00:18:53.460next election as quite as existential that it is so i mean i i completely understand that we you
00:19:00.000know we're trying to change the lens of the guy who's 20 years old today who might achieve high
00:19:04.880office in 2045 and we'll start out on day one with a set of assumptions that appear completely
00:19:12.360obvious to him that you and i are pushing now that are not necessarily obvious to to anyone
00:19:17.020else on the right. But you do have basically a mad, insane, evil, demonic opposition that you're
00:19:26.040running up against. Absolutely. And yet at the same time, you know, I feel like, you know,0.52
00:19:33.040they say that the only thing that incentivizes a person to change is when the cost of staying the
00:19:39.340same, um, becomes greater than the cost of making the change. And the reality is, um, I, you know,
00:19:47.140I have five kids, six kid on the way. I live in a border state, um, right there in Texas on our
00:19:54.620Southern border. Um, I am white. My wife is white. Our children are white. We are Christian. Um,
00:20:02.240I'm a public figure that people find incredibly controversial and millions of Americans know of
00:20:08.480and hate, especially those on the left and some conservatives as well. And so because of all of
00:20:14.840those things, I find myself as someone who is vulnerable. My children, my family are vulnerable.
00:20:20.860We are a prime target for persecution and oppression. And yet at the very same time,
00:20:26.400I recognize that if we're going to have any of the positive change that we want,
00:20:32.180What I see in 2026, what I see going on in the political discourse today is I see conservatives, Christians in America, whites, heritage Americans in my country, essentially all crying out with one voice saying, you know what, it's not that bad.
00:20:53.820That's what they're ultimately saying.
00:20:56.320Because you would not vote the way that you vote.
00:20:59.980You would not speak the way that you speak.
00:21:02.160You would not advocate for the things they're advocating for
00:21:05.100if at the end of the day, you were really hurting.
00:21:09.420If at the end of the day, you really saw the threat.
00:21:13.040I think of the frog that's slowly boiling in the pot.
00:22:00.280and actually began to jump out of the pot.
00:22:04.220And so that's kind of what I'm hoping for.
00:22:07.400Now, there is a difference in being an accelerationist
00:22:11.020where you're actually trying to orchestrate
00:22:13.380that scenario of events. I'm not an accelerationist and a large part is because I am a husband and a
00:22:22.440father and I have a lot on the line. I have a lot to lose. So I'm not going into a voting booth
00:22:30.620and voting for the worst options imaginable. And I'm not encouraging any of my followers to do
00:22:36.360something like that. So I would not describe myself as an accelerationist,
00:22:41.300But I would describe myself as somebody who has standards, who actually has convictions and certain virtues and who is unwilling to compromise election after election after election.
00:22:56.020I think that there is a way of threading the needle where your conscience is clear before the Lord, where you're not intentionally doing evil so that good might result.
00:23:06.160Romans chapter 3 talks about that and condemns that, says that's not a Christian practice.