WEBVTT - VOTING FOR THE LESSER EVIL 0:00:15.140 --> 0:00:17.020 A century and a half ago, around the time of 0:00:17.060 --> 0:00:20.360 the Civil War, the runaway slave Frederick Douglass, the greatest 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.530 black American of our history, made an important statement about 0:00:24.570 --> 0:00:25.930 the politics of his time. 0:00:26.270 --> 0:00:30.190 Quote, the Republican Party is the ship, he said. All 0:00:30.370 --> 0:00:32.350 else is the open sea. 0:00:32.470 --> 0:00:34.690 What Douglass meant by this is that the Republican Party 0:00:35.030 --> 0:00:37.970 was the only vehicle, the only way to save the country, 0:00:38.010 --> 0:00:42.100 to protect the republic, bequeath to Americans the from its founders. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.940 Douglass's point was that American politics is fought in teams, 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:48.739 and there was a good team and a bad team. Basically, 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.540 the Republicans were the good guys and the Democrats the 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.720 bad guys. Douglass was not merely addressing Democrats and independents, 0:00:55.860 --> 0:00:59.170 urging them to vote Republican. He was also addressing a 0:00:59.230 --> 0:01:04.650 group that he himself led, abolitionists. The abolitionists were reluctant 0:01:04.690 --> 0:01:11.110 to throw in with the Republicans. They The abolitionists' view 0:01:11.150 --> 0:01:15.420 was that slavery is inherently evil and standing on principle 0:01:15.740 --> 0:01:18.920 or standing on Christian values, they could not make peace 0:01:18.980 --> 0:01:22.520 with any view that fell short of abolition itself. Sure, 0:01:22.860 --> 0:01:26.280 the Republicans wanted to stop slavery from going into the territories, 0:01:26.580 --> 0:01:30.550 but the Republicans were not committed to immediate and total abolition. 0:01:30.590 --> 0:01:31.770 In fact, they opposed it. 0:01:32.150 --> 0:01:36.970 As impractical and unconstitutional. So the abolitionists considered the Republicans 0:01:37.010 --> 0:01:40.150 to be the lesser evil and the Democrats to be 0:01:40.310 --> 0:01:43.810 the greater evil. Admittedly, some abolitionists said, we prefer the 0:01:43.860 --> 0:01:46.640 lesser evil to the greater evil. But there were others 0:01:46.700 --> 0:01:49.700 who said, no, we don't want to have anything to 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.360 do with evil, whether in its lesser or greater quantity. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.380 We stand for principle, we stand for the good, and 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.560 we refuse to vote for the lesser evil on the 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:04.190 grounds that it is still Now, Douglass shared these views 0:02:04.250 --> 0:02:07.090 at one point, but in time he came to reject them. 0:02:07.290 --> 0:02:11.130 He became a dedicated Republican and remained one until his death. 0:02:11.430 --> 0:02:15.290 He pleaded with the abolitionists to follow his example. Get 0:02:15.510 --> 0:02:18.740 on the ship, he said, because the alternative is to 0:02:18.810 --> 0:02:21.940 drown in the open sea. We're a long way from 0:02:21.980 --> 0:02:26.859 the Civil War and a very short way from Election Day, 0:02:26.940 --> 0:02:28.679 the midterms. I'm often asked, what do you think is 0:02:28.700 --> 0:02:29.280 going to happen next? 0:02:29.790 --> 0:02:32.450 I have nothing interesting to say on that topic. 0:02:32.930 --> 0:02:35.050 I know what I would like to see happen, and 0:02:35.290 --> 0:02:37.990 I know what I fear might happen if the polls 0:02:38.389 --> 0:02:41.010 prove to be accurate. I'm also careful not to confuse 0:02:41.330 --> 0:02:44.350 what I want to happen with what is going to happen. 0:02:44.430 --> 0:02:47.960 But I'd rather focus my energy in a different area 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:52.060 than speculating about something that seems inherently impossible to predict 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.300 with certainty. I want to focus on persuading a certain 0:02:55.340 --> 0:02:59.239 type of conservative and Christian who hasn't yet voted— and 0:02:59.300 --> 0:03:03.720 is considering staying home on Election Day. These are the equivalent, 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.370 the modern-day equivalent of the abolitionists of the 19th century, 0:03:07.660 --> 0:03:09.730 and their reasons for not voting are pretty much the 0:03:09.770 --> 0:03:13.910 same as they were 150 years ago. We have critical 0:03:13.950 --> 0:03:17.570 races in Maine, where the Republican Susan Collins is trying 0:03:17.590 --> 0:03:21.489 to hold on to her Senate seat. against Democrat Troy Jackson, 0:03:21.530 --> 0:03:25.690 also in Texas, where Republican Ken Paxton, having unseated the 0:03:25.750 --> 0:03:28.570 incumbent from his own party, John Cornyn, is now up 0:03:28.650 --> 0:03:33.530 against Democrat James Tallarico, also in Ohio, where Republican Vivek 0:03:33.570 --> 0:03:37.830 Ramaswamy is battling into the finish line with Democrat Amy Acton. 0:03:37.890 --> 0:03:41.590 I could discuss other races, but I'll focus on those three. 0:03:41.610 --> 0:03:44.670 In all three cases, we have conservatives and Christians who 0:03:44.710 --> 0:03:47.450 are considering staying home, staying out of it, because they 0:03:47.470 --> 0:03:50.650 don't want to vote for a lesser evil. In some cases, 0:03:50.770 --> 0:03:54.690 as with Susan Collins, the reluctance is ideological. Quote, she's 0:03:54.730 --> 0:03:57.690 too liberal. Well, yeah, but she's not as liberal as 0:03:57.770 --> 0:04:00.529 Troy Jackson. I know, but she's out of sync with 0:04:00.550 --> 0:04:03.530 my values. I refuse to vote for a liberal simply 0:04:03.570 --> 0:04:07.010 because she's less liberal than the other liberal. In Ken 0:04:07.030 --> 0:04:10.240 Paxton's case, the reluctance is not so much ideological as 0:04:10.300 --> 0:04:13.620 it is personal. Ken Paxton was actually one of the 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.650 most effective attorneys general, maybe the most effective one in 0:04:17.690 --> 0:04:20.640 the country. No one seems to take issue with Ken 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.039 Paxton fighting election fraud or going after criminal syndicates or 0:04:25.100 --> 0:04:28.640 combating the censorship of the Biden regime or getting the 0:04:28.700 --> 0:04:32.650 first detransition center in the state. No, the problem with 0:04:32.670 --> 0:04:35.830 Ken is his personal life and character. One view is 0:04:35.870 --> 0:04:39.210 that he's shady or has been shady in his business dealings. 0:04:39.300 --> 0:04:43.679 Another is that he's a chronic adulterer. Some evangelical Christians 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.400 in Texas who previously supported Paxton seem revolted by his 0:04:47.460 --> 0:04:50.690 personal conduct. They say, we can no longer support that man. 0:04:50.730 --> 0:04:53.570 Of course, we're not voting for Tallarico, but maybe we'll 0:04:53.589 --> 0:04:59.380 just stay home. So Collins is facing mostly ideological resistance 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.560 and Paxton, personal resistance. As for Vivek Ramaswamy, it seems 0:05:03.580 --> 0:05:07.080 to be coming from both directions. Some MAGA conservatives don't 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.420 like Vivek because they think he's too pro-immigration. 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.260 Even if it's legal and not illegal immigration. 0:05:13.300 --> 0:05:17.719 Vivek has supported H-1B visas, which these conservatives insist is 0:05:17.820 --> 0:05:21.500 rife with fraud. And some Christians despise Vivek for no 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.210 reason other than the fact that he's Hindu in some 0:05:24.270 --> 0:05:27.110 extreme forms. They even call him an idol worshiper, a 0:05:27.190 --> 0:05:31.510 demon worshiper. Some MAGA activists even want Amy Acton to 0:05:31.610 --> 0:05:35.330 win in Ohio. They're openly advocating for Acton. Their point 0:05:35.370 --> 0:05:37.950 is not that Acton is good, but that the Republican 0:05:37.990 --> 0:05:39.890 Party needs to be taught a lesson. 0:05:40.050 --> 0:05:40.850 What's that lesson? 0:05:41.270 --> 0:05:44.090 Don't nominate people like Vivek, and the only way for 0:05:44.110 --> 0:05:46.510 this lesson to hit home, in their view, is for 0:05:46.650 --> 0:05:49.770 Acton to win. Their hope I want to begin by 0:05:49.810 --> 0:05:53.640 discussing in general terms the doctrine of the lesser. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:54.660 Evil, and then. 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.780 To apply it to the specific cases mentioned here. Now, 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.670 in politics, as in life, there are no perfect goods. 0:06:18.730 --> 0:06:21.890 There are goods, but even the goods are diluted or 0:06:22.029 --> 0:06:25.890 admixed with evil. Either the good is partial and not total, 0:06:26.150 --> 0:06:29.050 or even if it is total, the motives behind seeking 0:06:29.089 --> 0:06:33.550 that good are often questionable or dubious. In sum, this 0:06:33.690 --> 0:06:37.310 side of eternity, we are never actually choosing between good 0:06:37.380 --> 0:06:40.260 and evil per se. We're always choosing on a spectrum. 0:06:40.660 --> 0:06:43.480 Even the evils we fight against are not total evil. 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.880 They're evil disguised as good, or they're evil enough. But 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.560 we can always imagine an evil beyond the evil that 0:06:49.620 --> 0:06:53.860 is being proposed. Sometimes the evil does contain a modicum 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:54.839 of good. 0:06:55.420 --> 0:06:57.020 Consider some examples. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.820 In World War II, the United States allied with Stalin 0:06:59.870 --> 0:07:03.450 and Soviet communism, a great evil, in order to defeat Hitler. 0:07:03.990 --> 0:07:06.510 Hitler wasn't even more evil than Stalin. It's hard to 0:07:06.650 --> 0:07:10.050 settle the proportion of evil between them, but Hitler posed 0:07:10.110 --> 0:07:12.730 a greater threat at the time. So it was right 0:07:12.830 --> 0:07:15.370 and just for us to team up with Stalin and 0:07:15.410 --> 0:07:18.370 win World War II, even though the victory contained the 0:07:18.410 --> 0:07:21.130 seeds of the next war, the Cold War, which dominated 0:07:21.150 --> 0:07:23.710 the second half of the 20th century. Example number two. 0:07:24.450 --> 0:07:27.860 The Democrats support abortion on demand, and toward that end, 0:07:28.220 --> 0:07:32.100 they support the mandatory legalization of abortion nationwide. This was 0:07:32.140 --> 0:07:34.770 the basis for their longtime support of Roe v. 0:07:34.830 --> 0:07:35.210 Wade. 0:07:35.510 --> 0:07:40.810 Democrats even pushed, although unsuccessfully, for federal funding for abortion. Now, 0:07:40.850 --> 0:07:44.330 Republicans got Roe overturned. Abortion is now a state matter. Hey, 0:07:44.630 --> 0:07:48.930 many states have legal abortion. Others allow abortion under certain conditions. 0:07:49.390 --> 0:07:52.470 So again, we're choosing between a greater evil and a 0:07:52.530 --> 0:07:55.590 lesser evil. Isn't it better to have fewer abortions in 0:07:55.610 --> 0:07:58.380 the country than more? Does it make any sense to say, 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.220 let's vote for the party that wants more abortions so 0:08:01.260 --> 0:08:04.260 that we can pressure the other party to become more 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:08.640 anti-abortion in the hope that one day that reorganized party 0:08:08.700 --> 0:08:10.700 will win and end all abortions? 0:08:10.980 --> 0:08:11.280 Wow. 0:08:12.100 --> 0:08:13.960 As a third example, we can apply the doctrine of 0:08:13.980 --> 0:08:16.930 the lesser evil to Trump himself. There are several things 0:08:16.970 --> 0:08:19.270 he said he would do that he hasn't done. He 0:08:19.310 --> 0:08:21.830 said he would fully expose the Epstein files. We still 0:08:21.870 --> 0:08:24.410 don't have the full story. He said he would do 0:08:24.550 --> 0:08:28.290 mass deportations. We've gotten some, but not much of that. 0:08:28.630 --> 0:08:30.970 He said the economy would be much better, and largely 0:08:31.010 --> 0:08:33.240 due to the costs and strains of the Iran war, 0:08:33.410 --> 0:08:33.620 it is. 0:08:34.010 --> 0:08:34.319 Isn't. 0:08:34.580 --> 0:08:38.900 Even so, Trump has done some great things. He sealed 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.059 the border when lots of people, including Republicans, said it 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.870 could not be done without comprehensive legislation. He did some 0:08:45.890 --> 0:08:47.930 good things with the big, beautiful bill. He has brought 0:08:47.990 --> 0:08:51.370 huge investments from abroad to America that will pay off 0:08:51.450 --> 0:08:54.840 over many decades in terms of growth and jobs. Can 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.620 anyone seriously contend the country would be better off under 0:08:57.660 --> 0:09:00.780 Kamala Harris? So once again, the president who is an 0:09:00.980 --> 0:09:03.699 admixture of good and bad, the very definition of a 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.620 lesser evil, is vastly preferable to one who would be 0:09:07.700 --> 0:09:11.970 pretty much bad across the board. A fourth example. In 2012, 0:09:11.970 --> 0:09:16.480 the country had a choice between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Now, 0:09:16.500 --> 0:09:18.440 there were a bunch of conservatives and Christians who had 0:09:18.500 --> 0:09:22.740 qualms about Romney. Conservatives said he was too weak, too accommodationist, 0:09:22.780 --> 0:09:26.650 too milquetoast, and they were right. Christians said he was 0:09:26.710 --> 0:09:29.069 a Mormon and therefore a heretic, and I'm not going 0:09:29.090 --> 0:09:33.450 to dispute that either. Even so, those conservatives and Christians 0:09:33.470 --> 0:09:37.050 who refused to vote for Romney did help Barack Obama 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:38.740 win a second term. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:39.230 Think about it. 0:09:39.260 --> 0:09:42.900 Obama represents the gangsterization of the Democratic Party, and those 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.560 on our team who thought they were standing on principle 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.360 or standing up for Christian values didn't. helped to give 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.040 him a second term in which he could complete, or 0:09:51.070 --> 0:09:55.670 at the very least continue, what he himself termed the remaking, i.e. 0:09:55.710 --> 0:09:59.250 the destruction of America. Are you happy with that remaking 0:09:59.290 --> 0:10:02.360 that we must now watch? so hard to undo? Are 0:10:02.380 --> 0:10:04.719 you pleased with your role in giving him the power 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.900 to do it? If not, then at least reconsider the 0:10:07.980 --> 0:10:11.120 logic that made you stay home in 2012 because that 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:15.350 same logic or illogic might be holding you back from 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.969 voting in the midterms in 2026. One further point about 0:10:19.010 --> 0:10:22.290 all this very often the shift from a greater evil 0:10:22.350 --> 0:10:27.550 to a lesser evil becomes the basis for further shifts toward. 0:10:27.470 --> 0:10:28.250 Even less evil. 0:10:28.530 --> 0:10:30.490 And this is the way that we make steady progress 0:10:30.550 --> 0:10:35.010 toward the good. Consider the anti-slavery movement. It started with 0:10:35.130 --> 0:10:39.120 outlawing just the slave trade. Then it attacked the spread 0:10:39.260 --> 0:10:42.760 of slavery in the territories. And finally, only finally, It 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.680 got rid of slavery itself. Moreover, the abolition of slavery, 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.220 because that is what happened in the end, did not 0:10:49.300 --> 0:10:52.920 occur because of the abolition movement. The abolition movement did 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.709 not have the power to end slavery, but the Republican 0:10:57.010 --> 0:10:59.550 Party did. So in the end, it was the Union 0:10:59.670 --> 0:11:03.670 armies organized by a victorious Republican Party that got the 0:11:03.710 --> 0:11:07.689 job done. How ironic that some abolitionists refuse to support 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.540 the very party that would ultimately bring to fruition their 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:16.319 wildest and most unrealistic expectations. Susan Collins is a lot 0:11:16.380 --> 0:11:19.300 better than Troy Jackson. On a spectrum of, say, 1 0:11:19.300 --> 0:11:22.059 to 100, where 100 is the worst possible set of 0:11:22.100 --> 0:11:25.910 policy outcomes, Susan Collins is, well, a 50. But Troy 0:11:25.950 --> 0:11:29.460 Jackson is close to a 90. That's a 40-point differential. 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.920 To put it differently, or crudely, Collins is 50 plus 0:11:32.980 --> 0:11:36.240 and 50 minus, or net zero. Jackson is 10 plus 0:11:36.380 --> 0:11:39.490 and 90 minus, which is negative 80. Think of how 0:11:39.530 --> 0:11:42.250 much evil, how much bad stuff is being prevented by 0:11:42.309 --> 0:11:44.230 supporting Collins over Jackson. 0:11:44.290 --> 0:11:45.050 Vote Collins. 0:11:45.780 --> 0:11:50.040 Ken Paxton might have a more checkered personal life than Tallarico, although, hey, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.630 I doubt it, because Tallarico is quite obviously a freak, 0:11:52.990 --> 0:11:54.910 and who knows what kind of freakish stuff that guy 0:11:54.970 --> 0:11:57.250 is into. Someone told me that if he gets elected, 0:11:57.270 --> 0:11:59.590 he's going to transition to being a woman. I have 0:11:59.630 --> 0:12:01.770 no evidence of this, but let's just say it wouldn't 0:12:02.190 --> 0:12:05.470 shock me. The guy seems to have a trans fetish, 0:12:05.550 --> 0:12:08.530 and that is more perverse, more twisted, more deviant. than 0:12:08.570 --> 0:12:11.429 a guy who strayed in his marriage vows. But we're 0:12:11.450 --> 0:12:14.600 not voting for Ken Paxton to be our pastor. We're 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.380 voting for him to be in the Senate. What senators 0:12:17.420 --> 0:12:22.120 do is decide critical policy issues affecting foreign... and domestic policy. 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:27.559 And here, Paxton's record is outstanding. Here, Paxton is trustworthy. 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.820 We have no reason to believe Paxton will let voters down, 0:12:30.860 --> 0:12:34.600 let us down on policy. So hey, pray for Paxton 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.060 to sort out his personal life, but vote for him 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:41.059 without hesitation to represent us in the Senate. There he 0:12:41.140 --> 0:12:44.750 will do us proud. Yeah, I know, but what about 0:12:44.790 --> 0:12:47.170 his character? When I worked in the Reagan White House, 0:12:47.230 --> 0:12:49.650 I noticed something very strange. Reagan was not a war 0:12:49.710 --> 0:12:53.130 hero as George H.W. Bush was, and yet Reagan did 0:12:53.170 --> 0:12:56.069 more for the military and was more admired and loved 0:12:56.130 --> 0:13:00.600 by the military than Bush. Reagan projected martial values better 0:13:00.650 --> 0:13:03.420 than the guy who was an authentic war hero. I 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.640 learned from this that we're voting not for the man 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.339 who has displayed more personal courage, but for the leader 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.660 who will display more political courage in taking on the 0:13:12.700 --> 0:13:16.060 left and fighting the Cold War, and that man was Reagan, 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:18.960 not Bush. Now, I'm not saying character doesn't matter at all. 0:13:19.140 --> 0:13:22.940 Only that personal virtue, or lack of it, sometimes matters 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:28.250 less than public virtue. Besides, Texas itself hangs in the balance. 0:13:28.330 --> 0:13:31.220 It's virtually impossible to save the country if we can't 0:13:31.300 --> 0:13:34.760 hold Texas. Losing Texas is the prelude to losing the 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:37.900 United States of America. That would be the greatest evil 0:13:38.020 --> 0:13:43.830 of all. Let's keep Texas red by voting for Ken Paxton. Finally, Vivek. 0:13:44.190 --> 0:13:46.410 Vivek is an Indian American, as I am, and he's 0:13:46.490 --> 0:13:49.910 also Hindu, as I am not. I would obviously prefer 0:13:49.950 --> 0:13:52.970 we have a Christian as the next governor of Ohio, 0:13:53.010 --> 0:13:54.610 but here is news for you. 0:13:54.690 --> 0:13:57.850 We're not going to. Is Amy Acton a Christian? 0:13:58.230 --> 0:14:01.240 No Democrat who supports the policies that she does can 0:14:01.270 --> 0:14:04.540 be regarded as a Christian in any meaningful sense. So 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.040 our choice is not between Hindu and Christian. It's between 0:14:08.340 --> 0:14:13.700 a Hindu who is socially conservative, who supports Judeo-Christian values, 0:14:13.820 --> 0:14:17.280 and a nominal Christian or even secular Democrat who... who 0:14:17.340 --> 0:14:21.990 supports the repudiation of those values. Vivek's policy positions are 0:14:22.350 --> 0:14:26.630 across-the-board conservative. Yes, Vivek is more pro-immigration than some on 0:14:26.650 --> 0:14:29.490 the right, but he's pro-legal immigration. At the same time, 0:14:29.850 --> 0:14:32.250 Vivek knows the immigration laws are a mess. They must 0:14:32.290 --> 0:14:35.150 be reformed. But they can't be reformed right now. And 0:14:35.250 --> 0:14:39.450 why is that? Because the Democrats are uniformly against reform. 0:14:39.890 --> 0:14:42.410 They don't just refuse to fix a broken legal system. 0:14:42.770 --> 0:14:46.030 They are open advocates for keeping the borders as wide 0:14:46.190 --> 0:14:46.970 open as possible. 0:14:47.330 --> 0:14:48.840 That's Amy Acton. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.859 So in what sane world would anybody say, I don't 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.120 agree with Vivek on legal immigration, whether it's H-1B or whatever, 0:14:55.140 --> 0:14:57.720 and therefore I'm going to root for his opponent, who 0:14:57.740 --> 0:15:00.960 would be just fine with letting in 20 million illegals 0:15:01.020 --> 0:15:04.060 during her term as governor. Such a position doesn't make 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:07.970 you principled or Christian. or even intelligent, it's profoundly stupid, 0:15:08.310 --> 0:15:11.530 and it's also immoral, because in refusing a candidate who's 0:15:11.670 --> 0:15:14.110 on your side most of the time, you get the 0:15:14.230 --> 0:15:17.410 one who opposes pretty much everything you stand for. 0:15:17.430 --> 0:15:20.340 Quote, but at least she's white. 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.160 Yeah, I gotta go there because there are some on 0:15:23.180 --> 0:15:25.250 the right who do, but they seem to be missing 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:29.450 a simple truth. White Amy Acton would be far more 0:15:29.530 --> 0:15:33.630 likely to dub you and your family white supremacist and 0:15:33.770 --> 0:15:36.790 even prosecute you or throw your white ass in jail. 0:15:37.090 --> 0:15:38.290 Brown Vivek won't do that. 0:15:38.810 --> 0:15:41.340 White Amy Acton would be far more likely to keep 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.400 your kids out of college or prevent your white husband 0:15:44.420 --> 0:15:47.260 from getting a job because of her support for DEI 0:15:47.300 --> 0:15:51.590 policies than Brown Vivek. Brown Vivek supports a rule of merit, 0:15:51.650 --> 0:15:55.190 and whatever you think of merit, it's vastly preferable to 0:15:55.230 --> 0:15:57.770 a system of systematic discrimination against. 0:15:57.590 --> 0:15:59.650 Whites on the basis of race. 0:15:59.750 --> 0:16:02.360 Now, as in the period of the Civil War, the 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:04.780 fate of the country is at stake. Now as then, 0:16:05.100 --> 0:16:08.040 the Republican Party is the ship and all else is 0:16:08.100 --> 0:16:11.590 the open sea. Choose wisely because it is better to 0:16:11.630 --> 0:16:14.390 be on the ship in stormy seas than to be 0:16:14.530 --> 0:16:18.130 floundering around in the water. The deluge may be upon 0:16:18.190 --> 0:16:21.010 us anyway, but let's not be the ones who help 0:16:21.050 --> 0:16:24.730 to bring it about. And that's the way I see it. 0:16:28.610 --> 0:16:58.790 and the people responsible for with this mass poisoning know 0:16:58.850 --> 0:17:02.310 exactly what they're doing. But Trump's initiative to make America 0:17:02.350 --> 0:17:05.629 healthy again starts with you. 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One 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:55.119 of the really exciting aspects of biblical archaeology is its 0:21:55.180 --> 0:21:59.800 ability to point to, to illuminate, to confirm the people 0:22:00.260 --> 0:22:04.390 and the events and the places of the Bible. Now, 0:22:05.150 --> 0:22:08.310 how do you confirm the existence of a person? Sometimes 0:22:08.390 --> 0:22:11.950 it's an historical inscription. Sometimes it's a monument or a 0:22:12.010 --> 0:22:16.340 tiny clay seal. And similarly, we can find records that 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:18.629 confirm events of the Bible. But today we're going to 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:23.450 be focusing on the places of the Bible. Now, I 0:22:23.490 --> 0:22:26.130 think we all know that biblical locations don't come with 0:22:26.170 --> 0:22:29.430 name tags. We also know that biblical locations, many of 0:22:29.470 --> 0:22:34.030 them have gotten lost through history. So nobody knows where 0:22:34.250 --> 0:22:35.969 Sodom is or Gomorrah is. 0:22:36.030 --> 0:22:38.609 And there are arguments. Is it over here? Is it 0:22:38.670 --> 0:22:39.149 over there? 0:22:40.130 --> 0:22:42.210 Today we're going to be talking about a remarkable place. 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.200 site that in the Bible is known as Bethsaida. It 0:22:46.340 --> 0:22:52.580 is a site that Jesus visited. Jesus did miracles at 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:56.899 or near Bethsaida. It is the home of three of 0:22:57.020 --> 0:23:03.740 the apostles, namely Peter and Philip and Andrew. 0:23:04.330 --> 0:23:08.810 So it's important in that sense. So this is a, you. 0:23:11.609 --> 0:23:15.730 Not only was it lost for many hundreds of years, 0:23:16.550 --> 0:23:19.990 but for a long time, archaeologists and scholars were looking 0:23:20.070 --> 0:23:23.910 at another site, believing that one to be Bethsaida. 0:23:24.490 --> 0:23:27.920 And we're going to talk today to R. Stephen Notley. 0:23:27.980 --> 0:23:32.440 He's the academic director of the El Arraj Excavation Project 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:35.899 in Israel. Professor Notley is dean of the School of 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:39.080 Religious Studies at Pillar College. He's also the author of 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:41.709 a number of books and articles, including... a book on 0:23:41.790 --> 0:23:47.090 Jesus called The Sage from Galilee. And what we're going 0:23:47.109 --> 0:23:49.530 to be talking about is the discovery, or maybe I 0:23:49.550 --> 0:23:50.020 should say. 0:23:50.020 --> 0:23:56.179 Rediscovery, of biblical Bethsaida. Stephen, welcome. Thank you for joining me. 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:03.470 This is a kind of very exciting development. Let's start 0:24:03.510 --> 0:24:07.530 by talking a little bit about biblical Bethsaida. I want 0:24:07.550 --> 0:24:10.980 to emphasize that there is a distinction that's sometimes confused 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:17.000 and has been even confused over history. between Bethsaida and Bethesda. Now, 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:20.420 there's a place near Jerusalem or in Jerusalem, the suburbs 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:23.380 of Jerusalem, called Bethesda. There's a pool of Bethesda that 0:24:23.420 --> 0:24:28.939 I've seen. And because of the similarity of names, sometimes 0:24:29.220 --> 0:24:33.050 Bethsaida and Bethesda get kind of mixed up. But we're 0:24:33.090 --> 0:24:36.850 talking about two completely different locations, aren't we? Bethsaida is 0:24:36.950 --> 0:24:41.510 actually somewhere near the Sea of Galilee, and Bethesda is 0:24:41.850 --> 0:24:42.830 in or near Jerusalem. 0:24:43.619 --> 0:24:47.020 Our focus is on the settlement on the northern shore 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:51.560 of the Sea of Galilee, Bethsaida. And you're correct, it's 0:24:51.660 --> 0:24:56.690 to be distinguished from the site mentioned in John chapter 5, 0:24:56.690 --> 0:25:01.570 located in Jerusalem. So we're at very two different sites, 0:25:01.970 --> 0:25:08.110 but you're absolutely correct that it has been confused, particularly 0:25:08.310 --> 0:25:13.060