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It’s Rush To Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Hi5 Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
All right, we are back. Our number two Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560. Special guest joining us now, Brian Reisinger joining us.
Brian, welcome. How are you?
Hey, John, I’m doing good. Thanks for having me on.
All right. Land rich, cash poor, my family’s hope and the untold story of the disappearing American farmer. And when does the book come out?
The book is out. The book came out August 20th.
All right. So not that long ago, about a month ago, roughly. Cool.
All right. So I always ask authors to start with, why the book?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, for me, it goes back to really my earliest days on the farm, working with my dad since the time I could walk. This story has been with me since childhood.
I mean, growing up, I knew that farms like ours were disappearing. I didn’t know why. I didn’t understand it.
But I could see when teachers asked how many kids grew up on a farm, and I raised my hand, there were fewer each year. As I got older and got into business journalism and working in public policy, I saw the way the American economy was leading the American farmer behind, and I just felt like someone needed to tell the truth about this issue.
So what is the biggest misconception that you feel out there right now when it comes to farming?
The biggest misconception is people see the food prices going through the roof, and they think the farmers must have more money in their pocket.
Doesn’t work that way, does it?
It does not work that way.
Well, and really quick, and Brian, I don’t know enough about farming to know that in some cases it’s quite the opposite, isn’t it?
That’s right.
That’s right.
You know, when the consumer is facing the crunch, so is the farmer, and here’s why. Because there’s all kinds of industry between the farm gate and dinner table that have an impact on the price of that food, so the farmer doesn’t get more money in their pocket.
And by the way, and really quick, I want you to explain as well, sometimes that’s Uncle Sam that’s in the middle of it, right?
That’s absolutely right. That’s absolutely right. They have their hand in the farmer’s pocket, and they’re doing all kinds of things that increase the cost of food with regulations, taxes, and all kinds of different things that also dictate what the farmer can and can’t be doing, rather than the farmer just doing the good work of producing affordable food for the American consumer.
Yeah, the misconception is that the farmers control the price of crops, of production, the yield, and granted, there’s all sorts of factors, I know, Brian, that have to do with soil content and weather, and a lot of things come into play. But Uncle Sam does a lot to meddle in that world, which my point is, it’s really not as much of a free economy farming-wise as most people think, is it?
No, that’s right. And we’ve piled program upon program for decade after decade. You can argue about each individual program, were they good, were they not, but they’ve been piled on.
And now, I had an economist talk to me for this book who said it’s really like a fragile Jenga tower. It’s teetering, it’s toppling. It’s all just been piled on.
Yeah, no, and as you can tell, I know some farmers directly, so I can sort of speak to some of this a little bit more intelligently than probably some of my other counterparts in journalism, can’t you? Just because I know a little bit about it. And again, growing up in, I’ve grown up in this entire area in my whole life, Brian.
I’m a Colorado native, and I’ve known tons and tons of farmers over the years. I kind of grew up in the eastern part of Boulder County, which there was a lot of farming and things that went on in that area, not like you would in, say, Nebraska or Iowa or whatever. But learned enough along the line to know that the misconception that the farmer controls all the prices and government just lets them do whatever they want to is about as far from the truth as you can get.
That’s absolutely right. And usually the farmer and the consumer, they’re in the same position. The consumer’s in a crunch, the farmer is too.
Yeah, that’s exactly right. OK, so, cash poor, land-rich cash poor, which I think describes a lot of farms in the country because people think, oh, you know, they see these farms and they think, oh, there’s thousands upon thousands upon thousands of acres, in some cases, maybe tens of thousands of acres. Man, they got to be doing really, really well.
I see them rolling around that brand new million dollar combine. I tell you what, those guys, you know, man, they’ve got it made. Nothing could be farther from the truth, right?
That’s absolutely right. And the whole concept of being land-rich, cash poor, the idea is you’re on this land that you’re grinding out of living. It’s getting harder to make a living every single year.
You got to face your family on whether you can make ends meet if you continue farming, or you can turn around and sell the land and you lose everything else. You know, it’s not only your job, it’s your home, your community, it’s your heritage, it’s everything if you sell.
Yeah, yeah, no, you’re exactly right. Okay, so how do we get this message out? I mean, I know you’ve got the book.
That’s one step in helping people really understand what goes on on family farms. But I feel, Brian, and correct me if I’m wrong, but the family farm is at risk of not being around any longer. And what I mean by that is, and I realize there are some places, Nebraska being one, to where large corporate farms aren’t allowed, although they still have their ways of getting their tentacles in, if you would.
And the reality is, you know, how much longer is a family farm going to exist, I guess, is my question.
It’s a really good question. And the reality is that we have an opportunity to intervene because in a post-COVID world, people care more about where their food comes from than ever before. And so we can have local economies and rural regional economies where farmers are selling directly to consumers in a whole new way, a whole new generation of the way we do things in this country.
But the government has to get out of the way. They have to change things and consumers have to show that they want it. And that’s a big challenge.
Yeah, it is. And I think, you know, the education aspect of it, some of what even you and I are doing right now, a lot of folks. And again, I’ve got a lot of folks we know.
We cover about a four state region. There’s a lot of farmers even right now listening to us. Brian probably giving us a high five in the air, you know, in harvest right now, doing whatever it is they’re doing because they realize that most people don’t understand how this works.
But the reality is most people don’t understand how this works. The average person going to the grocery store, just picking whatever food out of whatever aisle they’re in, they have no idea how that product arrived.
That’s right. And here’s the deal. The modern American farm and food system is a modern miracle.
And farmers have helped build that. But the challenge is that with so many farms disappearing, 45,000 farms per year on average for the past century, and so many industries consolidating and getting so big, we have a food system that’s also vulnerable. So no matter how hard the farmer works, the reality is that there are times, whether it’s COVID or other times, where the supply chain gets disrupted, that drives the cost through the roof.
And it means that the food that needs to be available for the American consumer isn’t. So we have a modern miracle here that is deeply vulnerable as well. And that’s what we need to fix.
How much do you feel the crop control by Uncle Sam has to do with a lot of this? Because I also know that Uncle Sam gets his fingers in a lot of different things from milk production on down. I mean, they really do in a lot of ways.
And I’m going to be kind of critical right now. Uncle Sam does a lot to try to set prices of food and frankly fail miserably most of the time.
Yeah, that’s right. I mean, it doesn’t lead to anything that means that the farmer is providing what the consumer needs. Now the farmer has to turn around and say, where am I going to make my money?
You know, a lot of farms end up needing to chase those subsidies because they know they can make money in that area when what they want to be doing is chasing an entrepreneurial opportunity to provide what the consumers want. The government gets in the middle of that, creates a lot of waste and problems, and steers farmers toward all kinds of things that we don’t need.
Absolutely. No. And by the way, thank you for saying that because they end up doing things at times that I know for a fact they don’t necessarily want to do.
But because, to your point a moment ago, that’s where the money is at and how they feed their family. In a lot of ways, they’re forced to. I mean, I hate to say it, it’s like a drug addict.
They don’t have a choice.
Yeah. They’d love to be growing not only corn and soybeans and other things and raising animals, but also growing vegetables and growing fruits and different things that they could sell in local markets in addition to what they sell in the national commodity market. But the reality is that the government has created channels where if you want to go ahead and make money as a firm, you got to sell this kind of product to this kind of place.
And so there’s very limited distribution channels, very limited entrepreneurial opportunities. It’s not the way America should be.
No, even though we feed the world, and I mean that sincerely, we do.
That’s absolutely right. We export a ton of food. We feed the entire globe.
And the reality is that we do that while also selling a lot of food here domestically, but we have this fragile supply chain that because we’ve had it so concentrated in so many places and because the government has hindered it so much, it’s so easily disrupted.
So question, how do we fix this?
Yeah, well, there are still, despite losing 70% of our farms, there are still nearly 2 million farms. 88% of them are, believe it or not, are small family farms. So what we need to do is find a way for those 2 million farm families to be able to have new, growing entrepreneurial ventures.
So we need to have technology, focus on farms of all sizes, not only large, but also medium and small. We need to have scale-neutral technology that all these farms can use to innovate. We need to get government regulations and taxes out of the way.
We need to make sure that the government is making sure that there’s free and fair trade and that our domestic markets are competitive so that small businesses can thrive in this country.
Meaning, we’ve got to make sure we’re electing the right representatives and politicians that will do the things that you just mentioned and aren’t beholden to big farm lobby and and and, am I correct?
Yeah, and I’ll tell you what, I mean, I’ll be honest with you, I’ve got friends on the left and the right and everywhere in between who are upset about how things go with our farmers, and both parties, the establishment of the Democratic Party and the establishment of the Republican Party, have made mistakes over the decades and the reality is that what we need is people who are going to be focused on allowing good hard-working small business owners like our American farmer to find real entrepreneur opportunity in an open market. That’s all we need.
Yeah, because the flip side is as these family farms decide they just want to cash out, we’ll sell the land off or we’ll lease the land back out to somebody else and they start getting out of the farming, this problem just gets exasperated, am I correct in saying it that way?
It only gets worse and it runs out and I don’t know at what moment we’ll have lost so many family farms that were past the tipping point where we can do something about it, but I don’t want to find out.
I don’t either, I don’t either. Brian again, thank you so much. Where do folks buy the book?
Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate it. People can find the book online on Amazon or anywhere else they buy their books online. It’s also in independent bookstores all across the country.
Go ask your bookstore for it or ask them to order it if they don’t have it. And it’s Land Rich Cash Poor. I appreciate anyone who helps spread the word on these important issues.
Well, and I appreciate you joining us. This is a big topic, as you can tell. I know enough to know how much trouble we’re in.
Let’s just say it that way.
Well, it’s nice to talk to somebody who understands the problem, John. I appreciate you highlighting.
You’re very welcome, Brian. Appreciate you very much. Have a great rest of your day.
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Putting reason into your afternoon drive.
This is John Rush.
All right, we’re back, Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560. Thanks for joining us today. Our number two are about halfway through.
Not quite. Again, Kurt Rogers will be joining us here at 5 o’clock, and we’ll talk about the whole real estate world, mortgages and so on. Something I was going to play during the time that Sonny Kutcher and Allison were with us, and honestly just ran out of time, and I didn’t get a chance to do so.
But I thought this really coincides with what we talked about with them, really even coincides with what we were talking about a moment ago with our last guest, Brian. But I want to play this. Now, I don’t know how far back this is, although I don’t think it’s that far back.
And the reality is it doesn’t really make any difference, because they get on Donald Trump for saying things even 20 plus years ago. I’m going to play something that Kamala Harris said, and let me just hit this. Here we go.
Responsible behaviors among everybody in the community, and just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home, doesn’t mean that we’re not going to walk into that home and check to see if you’re being responsible and safe in the way you conduct your affair.
In other words, you can have a gun, you can lawfully legally own it, but what she’s saying is we’re still going to come in and check to make sure that you’re storing it and handling it correctly regardless. Last I checked, that’s not constitutional. Definitely not in the Second Amendment.
Definitely not in the search and seizure end of things. I mean, I can go down the list. The reality is they don’t have rights to do so.
Now, does that ever stop a Democrat, hardcore Marxist Democrat from doing things anyways? The answer is of course not. They do whatever they want to.
They don’t care about the law. They’re quote unquote above the law. So, that really, again, goes along with what we were talking about during the first hour in regards to, you know, socialism and in this case, total Marxism.
She doesn’t care what your rights are. Doesn’t care. So, for those of you that are on the left, by the way, that listen to me, and that will come out, and I had one of these on Facebook yesterday, all I do is lie, lie, lie.
It’s funny, you guys will come out and say that, but you never say what about. I’m always confused as to, and by the way, there’s usually some other colorful word that goes along with, you know, me being a liar that I can’t repeat on air because of the, number one, I don’t swear, number two, it’s not allowed on public radio, but you always put colorful words with it, but yet you never tell me what about. It’s so confusing.
Those of you that are on the left, all of you lefties that don’t like what I say, what is it I lie about? Can you be specific? Instead of just using the F word and then saying that I’m an F-ing liar, why don’t you tell me what I’m lying about?
I’m guessing you can’t because I’m not. You just don’t like what I’m saying because it calls you out. I.e.
this clip I just played from Kamala Harris. And yes, she’s a Marxist. I’m not lying about that.
Her father was a known Marxist. She has very Marxist beliefs. She says Marxist things.
She uses the Marxist catchphrases. She talks about Marxist things, I.e. what I just played to you.
How is she not a Marxist? Those of you that are on the left, how is she not a Marxist? Lines are open, 303-477-5600.
I got an entire half hour left of the program until Kurt Rogers joins me at 5 o’clock. But I really am asking the left, those of you on the left, how is she not a Marxist? The things that she says certainly are.
So you guys all, let me give you a comparison. I’m a car guy. You guys all know that.
I talk about all sorts of things that have to do with cars. I’m kind of a car expert, I guess you could say. People ask me all sorts of questions.
I answered a question even right before coming on air today about when should I flush the transmission fluid in my vehicle? I wouldn’t get those questions if I wasn’t a car expert. Now, I grew up in the industry.
My dad was a car guy. My uncles were car guys. My grandfather was a car guy.
It sort of got passed down, I guess you could say. In turn, my kids are car people. Now, they may not have all the same technical expertise as that I have, but they’re still car people.
And my point is because it’s passed down from one generation to the next. Now, is it always that way? Know that chain can be broken.
I get that. There’s times where, you know, son may do something completely different than dad. But typically speaking, what you’ve been immersed in in your entire life is what you become.
In my case, I was around cars from the time I can remember. And I’m not exaggerating. From the time I could walk and, you know, hand my dad a wrench or hold the flashlight or do whatever, I was there.
I was immersed in it. No different than what a Kamala Harris would be immersed in with a Marxist father who taught this stuff. How would she not be one, is my question.
I guess for me even, how could I not be a car guy after growing up that way? When you’re immersed in something and you’re around it all the time, and by the way, also have a love for it, which I believe she does have a love for Marxism as well, you can hear it in her tonality in the things that she talks about. The overreaching arm of government which she feels is just great, how is she not a Marxist?
So now, you know, we talk about this a lot and we did on the roundtable yesterday and last night you even heard it replay again before I came on air today, Bob Duco and Neil and I were talking about this yesterday. How can you be a Christian and vote for her? I’m going to, I’ll be bold, I’ll say it again.
How can you be a Christian, call yourself that, and vote for Kamala Harris? I’m leaving Tim Waltz out of it, because he’s even worse. But how can you vote for her?
And don’t come back to me and say, well, because Donald Trump is just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He doesn’t do the things she does. It’s proven he doesn’t do the things that she does.
He doesn’t have Marxist values. He actually believes in this country. He wants to see freedom in this country.
He wants to see individual rights in this country. He put people in a Supreme Court that believe in the same thing. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have some of the outcomes of some of the court cases this past few years that we’ve had if that weren’t the case.
So I come back to some of you as Christians that don’t want to vote for Donald Trump and you’d rather vote for Kamala Harris, and I just can’t understand why. You’re a hypocrite. You’re a total hypocrite.
I have a hard time believing you’re even a Christian. How do you call yourself that and still vote for that side in all of their Marxist beliefs?
I’ll rarely get any kind of a phone call or text message on this because I’m hitting at home with those of you that call yourself Christians that yet still vote for Kamala Harris. How can you do that? Honestly, I don’t see how you can’t.
To me, it just doesn’t go hand in hand. You can’t. There’s no way possible that you can’t because the belief system doesn’t align.
Jim, you’re next.
I see him, Jim. I’m a big liberal. But I got to tell you, every time I’ve listened to your radio show, I don’t think you even know how to lie.
Thank you.
At all. Thank you. It’s one of the most honest places that I think I can get information that I may or may not disagree with.
Well, thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. Yeah, and I say things at times that I’m sure there are people out there that don’t agree with, but I do my very best to be very honest in everything that is said.
And people can fact check me on it if they like.
Well, yeah, I’ve heard you say you’re wrong before, and that’s okay, but not very often. It seems like you have very opinionated right answers on the planet.
Well, thank you, Jim.
And enjoy yourself.
Well, Jim, thank you for saying that very much. And even though he’s not on our side of the aisle, I appreciate those comments. That’s somebody that I have a lot of respect for.
And by the way, I have conversations with people quite often where I may not agree with them. I can still have a conversation, be civil, and at the end of the day, shake hands and move on. Why is that so hard to do today?
Why do people struggle with that so much today? And I’m not saying everybody, but there are factions of each side, mine included. I can talk to my own party on this as well.
Why is it so hard to have those kinds of conversations? I mean, even internally in a party? Why can’t hardcore, you know, lefty Democrats not talk to the middle of the road Democrats civilly because they can’t?
Why is it the hardcore right, even here in Colorado? Why do they have such a hard time talking to people like me that I’m hardcore right? As Jim even just said.
But yet, I can’t have conversations with some of my own party because they disagree with me so greatly on things. Why is that? What’s brought us to that point in this country to where you can’t civilly have a conversation?
Instead, name calling just gets thrown out instead. Four-letter words come out instead of dialogue. Folks, I have no words for this.
I don’t know why that’s the case. Even inside of my own party, those things are existing and I really don’t understand why. In closing, Trump’s coming to Aurora supposedly.
It was on actually Nine News today. He’s going to come out and visit Aurora. Says he’s going to visit Springfield, Ohio as well.
Now, as far as the Venezuelan gang thing, I talked about this last week. And I think he even said at that time, is it as bad as the right paints it?
No.
Is it as rosy red as the left paints it? And Nine News would paint it? No.
Somewhere in the middle is what’s going on in Aurora. And are there bad things going on in Aurora with Venezuelan gangs? Absolutely.
Absolutely there is. Is it as bad as someone our side would want it to be?
No.
Or claim it is, I should say? No. Is it as rosy red as Governor Polis would make it out to be?
No. Somewhere in the middle is the truth of what’s really going on in Aurora. And really, I hope Donald Trump comes out and learns about all of those things and sheds some light, by the way, because he will.
That’s one thing about Donald Trump. He’s not afraid to get down and dirty and figure out exactly what’s going on, which that’s the one thing about him I do admire, by the way. All right.
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Now back to Rush To Reason, presented by Hi5 Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
All right, we are back Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560. John, you’re next. Go ahead.
Well, thank you, John, for all of your hard work, your knowledge and your courage. You were asking the question of why can’t people have civil discussion anymore?
Yes.
I think it’s two things, but the main thing besides just the constant gasoline on the fire from one side mostly.
Yeah.
But I believe that everyone believes they are the rebels. They’re not the stormtroopers, they’re not the empires, and they truly believe in their heart that they are fighting the evil empire. So they are so committed that when they try to have a conversation with somebody that they believe is the evil empire, they can’t go there.
You know what? I’ve never heard anybody state it that way, John. I don’t think I can disagree with you.
Nobody thinks they’re the evil empire.
I think you’re right.
Everybody thinks they’re the rebels.
Yeah. No, I agree with you. And in turn, because of that, they’re so worried about fighting that they won’t even sit and listen to what the other side says.
I think so. I think you’re right. I don’t…
Again, John, I can’t argue that one. That’s one of the better explanations I’ve heard yet. Thank you.
And once someone is hypnotized, it’s nearly impossible to be unhypnotized.
You’re correct. Good statement. John, thank you.
I appreciate that very much. I don’t think I could have said that any better. Pete, you’re next.
Go ahead.
You know, back in the 90s, I had a group of friends. There were three of us that were conservatives, three that were liberals. We used to get there together every Thursday night.
We’d go out and have dinner, and we’d argue for three hours. And we were all tight, tight friendships, maintain the friendship over the years. One of the liberals eventually became a conservative.
But we all got along great. There was a different atmosphere back there in the 90s. Things are a lot different now.
People take it way too personally, and they think, oh, if you don’t agree with what I say, you’re attacking my essence or something. I don’t know, but, you know, most of the people that move, either liberals becoming conservatives or conservatives becoming liberals, I saw a study once, and that ratio is about four to one. So, out of every five people that move, that become either change, becoming a conservative or a liberal, usually it’s the liberal becoming a conservative.
Yeah, I think as they get later in life, they start realizing how things actually work.
Yeah, and you know the old saying, you know, if you’re 20 and you’re not a liberal, you don’t have a heart. If you’re 40 and you’re not a conservative, you don’t have a brain.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that stated again. I again don’t know that I can argue that.
Yeah, and I don’t know what your own personal experience with that is, but have you known people that have made dramatic switches from because I was a dyed in the wool Democrat when I was in my 20s?
I’ve known some that absolutely have. Yes, yes, I have. In fact, one that I know specifically of late that I didn’t think I would ever hear this come out of his mouth, he’s actually voting for Trump this time around and he is a dyed in the wool Democrat, solid, hardcore.
It’s amazing, you know, and there was an interesting article I read a couple of months ago and this guy was a psychologist and he said, two things will make people become conservatives. One is that they’re just gradually over time, are hit with facts, very low key, and they start to draw their own conclusions and they eventually reach conservatism. And the second one was somebody has a dramatic, just horrific event happened to them.
Like, let’s say they’re all in favor of migrants, and then one of the migrants kills their wife or something like that. And they have just a dramatic event happen to them and they just switch literally overnight. But it’s one of those two things.
And the psychologist said, the best way is not to hammer people, but to talk carefully and easily to them and let them come to their own conclusion as if they have figured it out.
Yep, absolutely, Pete. That one I agree with wholeheartedly. You cannot ever force feed anything into anyone.
You have to get them to think about it themselves. Christ himself, when he was here on earth, did exactly what you just said.
Yeah, I think so. John, you do a great job of that. I listen to your show a lot, and you don’t ram things down people’s throats.
And I think you probably have more of an effect on people than you know. I thought the guy that called in and said, hey, I’m a liberal, but I listen to you all the time. I’m like, I think that’s a liberal that’s on the teeter-totter that’s about ready to teeter the other way.
Well, I appreciate that, Pete. I do. I appreciate the kind words, and I hope I’m making a difference.
That’s why we do it.
Yeah, you do a great job, man.
Well, thank you. Thank you, Pete. I appreciate that very much.
Somebody asked me via text message too, can I articulate how Donald Trump specifically reflects Christian values? And some of the text messages I’ve been going back and forth on is just, you know, look at the Supreme Court and other judges that Donald Trump appointed. And the question back was, well, how does that specifically, you know, say that those are Christian values?
Well, when you have some of the outcomes in the courts that we’ve had that are protecting individual freedom, and by the way, the individual freedom of unborn babies, I think that says a lot. You know, would I consider Donald Trump a Christian? Folks, I don’t know.
I don’t know anyone’s heart. I don’t know Pete, who just called heart. I don’t know people’s hearts.
I can know some of them and some of the fruits of what they do, and I can base my opinion on whether they’re a Christian or not on that, but I truly don’t know anyone’s heart. Only God does. And I’ve never once in my entire life ever tried to say somebody’s a Christian or not.
Not my place. Not my place. Frankly, it’s not, I would say it’s my concern in that I want everyone to go to heaven, but it’s not my concern in the decision that they make.
They have free will, and they can make that on their own. So going back to Donald Trump, does he portray more in the way of Christian values and helping the Christian evangelical community out than Kamala Harris does? Absolutely.
Absolutely. I mean, the stance on immigration alone should be enough to tell most Christians where each one stands. And please, don’t throw at me the verses that talk about the foreigner because the majority of those are taken out of context, and most people that are quoting scripture, by the way, have no idea what scripture even says.
I’ll say this. I hate people that quote scripture that aren’t clergy or really understand what that passage means because typically they’re taking it out of context. That’s a whole other conversation I could cover on another day.
But and I despise people to do that, frankly, because most don’t know what they’re talking about. Now, again, do I do I know that Donald Trump’s a Christian? I’m foggiest idea, frankly, don’t care.
And some of you that are Christians are probably gasping right now that I even said that I don’t I don’t care if Donald Trump, when it comes to president of the United States, do I care if he’s a Christian or not? I would like him to be, but am I not going to vote for somebody because they are? It’s probably been decades that we’ve had a real true Christian in the White House.
And I mean that. Charlie, am I wrong? Charlie’s agreeing with me.
I mean, maybe, you know, Jimmy Carter and even his Christianity and mine are different because what Jimmy believes in versus what I believe in are two different things. Would I say, though, that Jimmy Carter is a Christian? Yes, I would say that.
He’s not the same Christian I am, has different beliefs and values than I have. But some would say, well, you know, what about Ronald Reagan? I don’t know.
I don’t know. I don’t know what Ronald Reagan Hart was at that time. George Bush.
I mean, I can go down the list. Bush Jr., Bush Sr. I mean, I can go down. I don’t know.
Barack Obama, highly doubtful he was a Muslim. I mean, highly doubtful that there’s been anybody in the White House for any length of time that’s been a true Christian. Do I care?
Like I said, I would like them to be, but am I not going to vote for somebody because they aren’t? This is the problem I have with a lot of Christians. They feel like this is a sanctity test.
You know, how sanctified is the president and should I vote for him or not? You know, they feel like they’re voting for their pastor. You’re not.
Newsflash, he’s not your pastor. In fact, Newsflash, you don’t work for him. He works for you.
I always use this example. I talk about it on the roundtable, but I’ll say it again here. I look at the president as I would hiring an employee.
So when I do an interview as an employer, do I care if the person is a Christian or not? No. No.
When it comes to that job, no, I don’t. I mean, in life, do I care? Yes.
We’re not talking about that. I’m talking about a job that needs to get done. And the same is true with the president of the United States.
I’m talking about a job that needs done. Do I care if he’s a Christian or not? No, I don’t.
Do I care whether the job will get done better by him than someone else? Absolutely. That’s why we as employers hire different people.
You hire the best person for the job that will give you the best outcome for that job. That’s what I’m doing with the president. This is a constitutional republic.
Going back to the three o’clock hour, last hour with Sonny Kutcher and Allison Rogers, this is a constitutional republic. I’m hiring someone to do something I can’t do. That’s what the president of the United States does.
We, the people, through the Electoral College, elect a president. It’s an employee position that can be changed every four years or sooner, if there’s impeachment, of course, but really every four years, you can make that change with that employee. You’re giving them a contract for four years.
Think of it that way. Employer, employee relationship, and there’s a contract there for four years. That’s how I look at the president of the United States.
I don’t look at it any differently. I don’t put them on a pedestal. He puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like I do.
He is no different than I am at the end of the day. Yes, he makes different decisions than I make, but ultimately he’s making the decisions that I’ve hired him to make. And I think this is where a lot of Christians really get off base in who they’re trying to vote for is they don’t look at it the way I just said.
They put far more rank and file into that position than they should. They put that position on a pedestal, which it’s not and it shouldn’t be. Yes, it’s the president and it’s the office and we should respect it, but I don’t look at that person any differently than I do anyone else.
I mean, if Donald Trump walked in the door, would I treat him any differently than I would any other guest? No. And I think most of you would understand that I’m being very honest when I say that.
I wouldn’t treat him any differently if Kamala Harris walked in. I’d treat them both exactly the same. I wouldn’t treat her bad and I wouldn’t treat him better than her.
I would treat them exactly the same. There are two people running for office. They’re politicians.
And I know which one I’m going to vote for. It won’t be Kamala. I can tell you that right now because she doesn’t stand for my values.
So people that ask, you know, how does Donald Trump exemplify Christianity? That’s not a fair question, by the way. He doesn’t need to.
What you should be asking is, how does he give me more freedom than she does? That should be the real question. Okay?
In the text message I just got back, so now it doesn’t matter. No, folks, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter what the Christianity of that particular candidate is running for president. It does not matter. So this person goes on to say, we weren’t talking about Kamala.
Your side loves to resort to whatever arguments Kamala doesn’t hawk Bibles and pander to evangelicals or other extremists. Yeah, yes, she does, actually. She does pander to extremists.
Just not the evangelical extremists. She panders to the other side. She panders to the climate extremists.
She panders to those that love handout extremists. OK, she does pander to extremists, despite what you may think. You’re sorely mistaken if you don’t think she panders to those extremists.
She definitely does. It’s just two different extremes that each one’s pandering to. Does Donald Trump want the religious vote?
Absolutely. No doubt about it. Of course he does.
If she was smart, she’d go after it as well, but she doesn’t. She goes after the other side. So my point with all of this is when it comes to Donald Trump and is he a Christian or not, I don’t care.
When it comes to being president of the United States, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. How does he reflect my values and what will he do for me personally?
And will I have more freedoms and more money in my pocket at the end of the day than she does? Will he help get the economy back on track? Will he enable people to buy homes that weren’t able to buy them underneath Joe Biden, you know, Kamala Harris’s regime?
Will he enable you to buy a new car? Will he be able to put food on your table better than what the last regime has done? Will he lower the price of gas, which by the way lowers everything I just mentioned?
See, these are the things folks that I look at and I put aside who Donald Trump is as a person and his personality and some of the things that he says that even I don’t agree with but you put all that aside and say at the end of the day, who’s best to vote for? And why people struggle with that so much is beyond me. Do you like higher taxes?
Do you like higher food prices? Do you like higher prices at the pump? Do you like wealth taxes?
And by the way, those wealth taxes all the way always work their way down to you. So even though she says that this unrealized gain tax will never affect you, yeah, how many times has that been said by a politician? See folks at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, who helps you as an American more when it’s all said and done?
Her or him? I think that answer is very clear. He’s already proven that he’ll do that for you.
He’s done it. It’s already happened. He has a track record.
She’s running on the last three and a half years of the Biden administration, where they’ve done nothing but make it worse for you. I have a hard time believing. Anybody out there listening can tell me they’re better today than they were four years ago.
Because everybody has suffered the effects of inflation. Everyone. There’s not a single soul listening to me that hasn’t had a negative effect from inflation.
That inflation has been caused by one thing and one thing only, government run by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. If you don’t believe that, you’re sorely mistaken and you really need to go look at how things work economically in this country. And then on top of that, look at everything else personal freedom wise that we do in this country and which one’s going to have a bigger effect upon you personal freedom wise.
To me, this is hands down not even a contest. It’s an easy decision at that point. So those of you that are quote unquote Christians that won’t vote for Donald Trump because he just doesn’t say the wrong thing or doesn’t say the right things or he says the wrong things, shame on you.
Like you’re perfect. Like you always say the right things every day. You never make a mistake.
And I always hear this as well. Well, look at the things that he does and how he attacks people. That’s because he’s constantly attacked.
There’s not a single day that goes by that the media is not attacking him. What would you do in his case? I ask those of you in that case, what would you do in his case?
If you were attacked daily by the news media, how would you respond? This texture says, so he doesn’t need to be a Christian, doesn’t expose Christian values in almost any way as a man, husband and father, but he’ll appoint judges so that end justifies the means. Yes, it does, actually.
Yes, I don’t care on that end of things. Like, she’s some great individual. She slept her way to the top, people.
She was a guy’s mistress for years while he had a family. How is that making her any better than him? See, this person is texting.
You only look at one side of it. You say, I only do. You’re doing the same thing.
You’re giving her a pass but won’t give him one. How is that any different? Like she’s some sort of saint?
And I’ve never gone down that path before, but since you’re texting in and asking, I might as well. You open the door. She’s not perfect either.
She’s got skeletons in her closet big time. She is really only where she’s at for one reason. I hope you all know that that’s on that side.
She did not get there on her merits, just so you all know. Didn’t happen. So while you’re all critical of Donald Trump and some of the things that he’s done in his past, and by the way, to say he’s not a good husband and father, says who?
Looks to me like his kids have done great. I see nothing. You know what?
I’ll take any one of Donald Trump’s kids and put them up against Hunter Biden any day of the week. Tell me which ones are better. So in light of that, tell me which one’s a better father.
Oh, that one hurts, doesn’t it? That person that’s texting, that hurts a little bit, doesn’t it? Because Joe’s not a great father if you look at Hunter.
He’s a mess. Drug addict, deadbeat mess. Donald Trump’s kids aren’t.
So you really should be careful about where you’re pointing fingers and what you’re bringing up in light of what I just said, by the way. And think through what I just said. All right, American National Insurance is next.
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Now back to Rush To Reason on Klz560.
All right, Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560, lots of comments on the text line, by the way. I appreciate each and every one of them, even some that don’t agree with me, still appreciate the feedback, and all I ask people to do is really look at where were you at four years ago versus where are you at today? And in turn, how would things look moving forward under each individual person?
One has a track record of making your life better. One has a track record of making your life worse. To me, the decision is pretty simple.
I don’t think I really need to say anything more than that. And if more people would look at it in the way that I just am, putting the people aside even, even the things that they stand for and what they’ve done in their past, putting that aside, which one’s going to make things better for you in 2025? And then vote accordingly.
We’ll be right back. Hour number three is next. Kurt Rogers is going to join me.
This is Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560.