Inauguration Speech and the Future
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Join Jon as he shares his thoughts on recent political events and Donald Trump's inauguration speech. In this episode, Jon discusses why he chose not to attend the inauguration but provides a detailed analysis of the speech from his perspective.
Key points covered include:
Trump's emphasis on America First policies, focusing on the well-being of American citizens.
His critique of the "weaponized deep state" and intentions to dismantle it.
The significance of prioritizing God, national identity, and traditional values like recognizing only two genders.
Economic policies aimed at reducing taxes while increasing tariffs, and the implications for government efficiency.
Trump's stance on immigration, crime, and international relations, including his vision for a new Manifest Destiny.
Jon also reflects on broader societal issues like education reform, the role of Christianity in American politics, and the surprising alignment of some tech moguls with Trump's vision. He ponders whether this shift could signal a broader cultural change and what this might mean for evangelism and church leadership in the coming years.
- 00:00
- Hey everyone John here, that's the Hudson River sound you're hearing is ice hitting against each itself
- 00:07
- I guess little mini icebergs. We'll call them that we had a blizzard here last night It's the reason that I am
- 00:12
- NOT at the inauguration Not too bad. They've already cleared the roads. I don't know if we got you know, four inches something like that but I was busy shoveling and It's kind of a bummer.
- 00:22
- I wanted to be at the inauguration About half of me wanted to half of me didn't want to Just cuz it's like five hours away and I wouldn't have gotten much sleep and all that But anyway, it didn't happen, but I did watch it and I have some thoughts
- 00:35
- So I wanted to summarize Trump's speech and then give you some Thoughts that I'm having about the future of the country in general.
- 00:41
- So here's the speech, right? So my bullet points he talked about America first, which I think is great
- 00:48
- It was a great speech to be quite honest with you little things. I might disagree with here and there but He's not about Trying to meet some kind of this like ideological threshold.
- 00:58
- It's not about America on this cosmic journey for equality or something It's about the condition of the
- 01:03
- American people and he wants to prioritize them That's why he's in office and I think that's great. So he's gonna put
- 01:09
- America first. He wants to end the weapon weaponized deep state and I think that's obviously really good where he wants to remember
- 01:18
- God He emphasized that even did a dramatic pause and said we can't forget our God using that possessive plural pronoun
- 01:24
- Deport foreign criminals. He wants to fight the cartels label them terrorist groups. He wants to drill for oil
- 01:29
- I remember a few years ago when I was in Alaska. I talked to this guy who worked for whatever department in Alaska Opens and closes the pipelines and he said it was frustrating every four years
- 01:40
- He even quit his job eventually because he's like every four years. It's a different policy and it got frustrating but he wants to Have less taxes and more tariffs.
- 01:48
- I think it's super important to couple those things so it's not just about having more tariffs, which
- 01:53
- I think would be not good if we just added tariffs to the What we have now if we didn't change the taxes
- 02:00
- So he wants to less taxes more tariffs common sense and efficiency in the government. I'm a little suspicious about adding new
- 02:08
- Bureaucratic entities without taking out some but okay Stop censorship.
- 02:14
- He wants to have a merit -based society And I think it's important to remember that he is a big America first guy
- 02:20
- So when he says merit -based he wants an in -group preference for American citizens. He made that so clear and You know, the reason
- 02:27
- I emphasize that is because I know some hardcore conservatives are gonna say look, you know He's trying to fulfill
- 02:32
- MLK's dream. This is haven't you read like Christopher Caldwell's book? The civil rights regime was anti -constitutional
- 02:39
- It attacked freedom of association. It's this is bad. Well, okay I mean, he's got neo -conservatives in his department and all of that I get it, but but I think that he you know, he's not for a complete merit -based society.
- 02:51
- I don't think he wants American citizens to fare well, he wants them to Win basically in the global world
- 03:00
- So I don't think he's about like let's just be as efficient as possible With all the smartest minds from all over the world if they're gonna take
- 03:06
- American jobs At least I hope that I'm right on that like with h1 bees and that kind of stuff So I I don't think that he's for a strict merit -based society
- 03:15
- I think what he meant there was he wants to take away the focus on trying to support aggrieved
- 03:23
- Or, you know allegedly aggrieved minority victim classes to the sacrifice of in detriment, well, you know taking away from the success of Institutions and that kind of thing.
- 03:39
- So it's it's a repudiation of what he sees as the woke ethos He wants to recognize
- 03:46
- Speaking of the woke ethos. He wants to recognize two genders and two genders alone male and female
- 03:51
- I thought that was great and the kovat regime. I thought it was important. He say that given what he How he was
- 03:58
- I think manipulated by Fauci and others He wants peace through strength and a new manifest destiny.
- 04:05
- He referenced going to Mars He referenced taking back the Panama Canal I don't think he said anything about Greenland but we know he wants to purchase
- 04:12
- Greenland if possible or at least some arrangement where the US has the ability to Get some of the precious metals and also
- 04:19
- I guess have military bases there So this is a really strong America first speech and he really took a strong sacrificial narrative of American history and identity that Americans are people who suffer deprivation made
- 04:34
- Sacrifices so we could have what we have and we should honor them And this is so different than the
- 04:39
- Democrats who focus on the emancipation narrative that America is an awful place with these awful social
- 04:44
- Arrangements and those who fought those social arrangements are the real heroes And so it's those who ended up fighting
- 04:49
- America who are the greatest heroes. I mean, I'm obviously summarizing Heavily, but I think that Trump's America is not the
- 04:59
- America being taught in schools at all I just talked to a teacher yesterday. There's one of the things I wish he would have talked about but he didn't and In New York here.
- 05:07
- I mean, it's horrible in the public schools. They're cranking out graduates. You don't know what they're talking about They don't know how to think and the only history they know is basically the woke version they just know how terrible of a place it is and the you know, the people who stood up to it and They don't have pride.
- 05:24
- They don't have an identity in America because they're not being taught that anymore And if we don't get that under control and I mean at this point some would say the ship sailed
- 05:34
- But if we really don't get that under control, we are gonna look at it. You think it's different now It's gonna be very different in 10 15 20 years so I mean, this is one of the things that has to be focused on and Education reform it's been something
- 05:47
- I've been interested in for a long time. It's one of the reasons years ago I even considered being a lawyer and pursuing that career was because of education reform
- 05:56
- More than anything else probably So there's things I obviously wish like that that he said more about but look it was a great speech for the most part
- 06:04
- And one of the things that struck me and this is what I wanted to say Is that conservatives and Republicans even if they don't get everything they want they're rejoicing
- 06:11
- Most of them I saw a few guys online Who you know, I don't want to blame any group in particular, but there's there's guys like bemoaning that you know
- 06:21
- Look at all the abortions still happening. Look at all this and I get it like, okay there's always bad stuff happening, but We've been given a window by the providence of God for the next four years to work on the state and local level on some of these things and and in some cases on the federal level and You're never going to have a perfect world and so when we make strides and we we have
- 06:48
- You know, I guess this is an incrementalist Approach here, but when you have it, you know when when things
- 06:54
- Improve or they're less bad than they would have been We can take some time and rejoice in those things and and work ahead and most conservatives most
- 07:03
- Republicans are like this It's Democrats generally who they get everything they want and they still say we have so far to go
- 07:10
- We just have so far to go and So winds picking up the
- 07:16
- The thing I was thinking though, is that you know? one of the things I imbibed when
- 07:22
- I was I Guess in my teenage years and I think many Christian conservatives have the same idea is
- 07:30
- This notion that we can't have any improvement in anything and especially like social and political life without a national revival without preachers
- 07:39
- Leading the way without churches leading the way there is no hope and you might as well Just whatever don't you don't don't think it's gonna last right?
- 07:49
- but the thing is like revivals also don't last and like you'll think about all the revivals that we
- 07:55
- We talked about even in American history and look where we are like the revivals don't change your social conditions forever
- 08:05
- And think of the things you do in your own personal life How often do you spend even just playing with your children or going to work so you can provide or making tasty foods?
- 08:13
- Because you enjoy them like there's all kinds of things you do as much as we should be for spreading the gospel and People being born again and being used by God in any way that he has with our spiritual gifts
- 08:26
- There's all kinds of things we do to better our estate to help our fellow man
- 08:33
- That aren't that directly in so I just think there are things obviously we can work on without having a national revival and I think this is where some some guys like Freak out and want to say that like Christian nationalist types, which
- 08:49
- I don't call myself that but but but you know, they'll say people who say what I'm saying who call that you do call themselves
- 08:55
- Christian nationalists are They don't care about evangelism. They don't care about the gospel they don't care about discipleship like, you know, is it that's like the only thing that you can have it are those things and If you don't have those things then it's all it's it's worthless
- 09:09
- It's and it's interesting because some of the people who will say those same things are also rejoicing today
- 09:14
- So I know that at a certain level they don't actually believe that they actually do think that you can do some things
- 09:21
- And there are some worthwhile endeavors that can happen that you know, it may just be
- 09:30
- Using common sense or applying, you know Christian morality to certain
- 09:38
- Institutions and Procedures and that kind of thing and and so, you know, there's room to chew gum and walk at the same time we should be working on a bunch of things simultaneously and And enjoying life too.
- 09:51
- I think there's plenty of room for that. But but yes working. We have a window We have four years here at least to work on some things.
- 09:57
- And so so I'm encouraged no matter what happens I obviously want to see true revival
- 10:02
- I pray for that kind of thing, but I'm I'm looking at today and I'm saying this is a great opportunity
- 10:07
- And this is I'm rejoicing This is a good good thing and there's no reason to be down in the dumps because it's not everything that you want
- 10:15
- There's not everything that could be and whatever It's good. All right, it's good.
- 10:21
- And so I wanted to say that I also wanted to say It's interesting to me that you have The contrast okay, and It's happened so quickly.
- 10:32
- So so think back four years ago. We had an election in 2020 that I was being shut down from YouTube because I said stuff about it that I said there was funny business going on This isn't this doesn't seem legit all of that and you know, my account was threatened
- 10:50
- I had videos deleted right because of and not just on YouTube. It was happening on Facebook.
- 10:55
- It was happening on X So Elon Musk buys X now Facebook. You got Mark Zuckerberg Signaling that he kind of supports
- 11:04
- Trump, I guess. I mean Okay, Jeff Bezos Amazon now contributed all this money to the inauguration and they like what is going on here that all of a sudden some of the guys who were
- 11:16
- Big on censorship and all of that are now like what happened, right? They seem like they're on Trump's side and the contrast also with Biden Look at what
- 11:27
- Biden did in his final hours. He's saying that now the Constitution protects abortion and He did all these pardons of people in his family of Fauci of all, you know just Even CNN is saying this is a stain on his presidency.
- 11:42
- So what's that about? Well, there's a huge contrast and the momentum is with Trump right now now we'll see what happens if I starts the boarding people and CNN gets, you know a hold of You know stories of kids and stuff that they can use to try to make people
- 11:58
- Vilify Trump, you know a lot of things could happen. But as it stands now Trump has had more support than he's ever had.
- 12:04
- He He has big tech guys with him. I mean big tag. That's the thing. I did not see happen and We have to I think be grateful for that.
- 12:13
- But also yeah, listen to that. Listen to that ice beautiful just Ice breaking apart in the
- 12:22
- Hudson River there anyway There's a slight suspicion no, it's more than sight
- 12:28
- I have a suspicion these guys I don't think they're social conservatives in every way, but I think there's an opening here
- 12:34
- I think they realize like Elon Musk even said like we need a stronger Christianity I'm not a Christian, but we need a stronger
- 12:40
- Christian like they see the social a Reason for Christianity that doesn't mean that they're gonna repent and turn to Christ It just means that they know that something's gone awry
- 12:51
- So what we need to do now is I think capitalized on all of this. Yes, they're right about that Yes, people see the spiritual need and I think it's time for churches and preachers to to capitalize on this and if you know if Mark Zuckerberg can go on Joe Rogan and say
- 13:09
- I was wrong and I you know, I got too woke. How come guys like, you know,
- 13:14
- I don't know Dave David Platt JD Greer Matt Chandler and others. Why can't they just repent just you know
- 13:22
- We were wrong what we did was wrong, and I don't think we should trust them necessarily when they say it
- 13:28
- But like as far as I shouldn't say that we should we should like accept it But I don't think we should just like be like, okay and you you should just retain your positions of authority like there needs to be like a trust period there, but but why why is it so hard to to Admit that kind of thing for Christian or evangelical elites
- 13:47
- What we need more than ever is to capitalize on The the mission field that's out there the people really asking questions about Christianity They're not on the left and this is where Evangelicals have put their focus for the last decade or more is on the left
- 14:03
- That's the open field. That's where we're gonna like clearly something is happening on the right and this is where I think we need to put our efforts and I know that there's gonna be
- 14:12
- Christians who think like this isn't the Right order of things the church needs to repent first and that's
- 14:17
- I get that but look God uses the weak things and I don't think there's anything in Scripture that says specifically that even if it's a revival that it has to necessarily be something that I Know I've heard this many times many times the revival started in the church
- 14:37
- Yeah, I get that like and in the church in like a spiritual sense. I understand where that's coming from But I also think though that God can save very
- 14:50
- People who are new to Christianity he can save them now and raise up new leaders and We shouldn't translate that like that notion of like it needs to start with the church into All the same leaders that we've had need to like get their act together
- 15:04
- I don't think that's what that means. I guess that's what I'm trying to say like we can have People who are even new believers and I I don't like obviously the elders shouldn't be new believers, but we could have new believers be the ones that Or we could see new believers be the ones that populate a stronger church in the
- 15:25
- United States. Like that is a possibility I'm just saying something's going on on the right and we need men who are spiritual and Who believe in the power of the
- 15:36
- Holy Spirit who believe in the the power of the Word of God Who have answers who are men who knew know what to do?
- 15:43
- they know the times and know what to do and they're able to capitalize on this and That's that's one of the things
- 15:48
- I want to put some of my efforts into my writing and You know documentary film work preaching everything.
- 15:55
- So anyway, just a few thoughts for you I hope this blessed you. I hope that this encouraged you
- 16:01
- I know I'm encouraged by today and Yeah, enjoy enjoy the scenery here.
- 16:07
- Look at this. This is a the Hudson River in the middle of January and Sometimes it gets