So I have a story here that came from CNN and was written by Zachary
B. Wolf, and I knew it's going to give a lot of people
hope for the future, maybe bring a little bit of happiness to some people
when I first and it is about the fact that pet Robertson has finally passed
away. Yes he made it to ninety two, but ding Dong the Wicked
Witch's dad. Seriously, this man was probably the worst of the worst on
the far far Christian right, and a lot of the things that we're dealing
with today in the political spectrum were really started by pat Robertson. Aaron,
I know, you had a lot to say about it. You want to
follow up. Yeah, So I wasn't too much. I was raised Mormon,
so I didn't really know too much about Pat Robertson. But in my
research, this guy he is super smart. You know. He graduated from
a private high school with honors. He earned a bachelor's in history, graduated
magna cum laude. He was a member of an academic society, five Eta
cap Well. He then got a law degree near the top of his class.
He got a Master of Divinity. After all this, this guy was
really smart and he got a lot done. He founded CBN University that has
a really good online program today. That's right, very highly in the state
of Virginia. He founded the American Center for Law and Justice, the seven
hundred Club. This guy was really busy doing a lot of things. Unfortunately,
he was doing things that I don't agree with and that I don't appreciate,
and that is trying to get Christianity built into our country. He was
basically the founding father of Christian nationalism in the United States. He was very
successful at it. He was so successful at it that he got he was
able to get his group of voters to turn out in higher percentages than in
almost any other group in the country. And they still vote. They still
registered to vote and vote at higher rates than any other group in the country.
So they have a lot of say in what goes on in the United
States. Cindy, do you have something you wanted to ask? Yes?
Uh, Well, just like you, I didn't know him very much as
a European, you know, is the kind of figures that don't make the
news too much over there. Um. Since his death, I've seen several
memes talking about the impact he had on American politics. Um and Uh,
the articles mentions something else. Uh and the article says he helped elect Roald
Reagan. And I'm not sure which is worse, honestly, because I don't
know which which one of both outcomes had a worse impact on the American society
right now. Because on one hand you have Reagan who implemented the trickle down
politics. He Um, he revived racism for his campaign and his political gain.
Uh. He removed a lot of the taxes on the reach. And
so the the extreme inequality that we see in the US is mostly because of
him, and only on the other side you have there it's it's like choosing
between carib Dian and Sea like. On the other side, you have a
group that's been dead focused on trying to put down everyone they don't like.
Um. And so he's also a symptom of something we talked about sal times
here on the show, how the right built their Victorian on road for fifty
years from the ground up. Like you said, Aaron, he motivated people
to vote for their agenda and that's something that other candidates should invest in as
well. And just for the record, I would like to point out because
a lot of responses were heading that way. There is absolutely nothing wrong in
saying good riddance to the death of an absolutely despicable person that's rich. Yeah,
it's this how you know you must respect them because they died. Yeah,
of course that's how it works, because we all respect styled in Paul
pot and hit the dummy. Um. He's he's an interesting figure. I
knew. I knew of him vaguely because he's on the radar to be one
of these weird preachers who occasionally predict things that don't happen and just gets on
TV a lot to become very rich, a phenomena that we in Britain find
baffling and fascinating an equal measure. And you're right, he had this way
of galvanizing people to vote based on this thing has happened. We don't like
it. To change it, you need to get out there and vote and
be part of it. And for that I agree with. The guy is
absolutely right. And the overturning of Row maybe that should be a similarly galvanizing
thing for a different group of people. Let's hope and other things that are
happening. There's some small matters of legal matters and things going on that might
galvanize people to vote a certain way. And in my country's small matter of
an ex primis, current primis are having a massive row at the moment might
be something we can focus on as well. We don't on anymore, that
let's do something different. But yeah, Pat Robinson's a very very interesting,
colorful character, and that kind of those kind of preachers the want to make
a lot of money and gain a lot of ground and have a lot of
power do tend to be very very smart. We on the sort of atheist
antitheiside, we kind of like to laugh at them and laugh at their arguments
and laugh at what they do book and pretend like they're not smart, but
they are, which always raises the question to me, does they know exactly
what they're doing? Is everything planned? Is the religion of vehicle for the
money and the power rather than something that's are actually central to them? Really?
How psychopathic? What's the guy? I don't know, but it's always
it's always raised the red card and somebody sort of thinks that their god is
short of cash. It's always kind of old that their god needs more power
because apparently these things can't just happen by God deciding they're going to happen.
Humans have got to get it in there and do it. Funny, that,
isn't it. He's yeah, he's a very very curious the whole thing,
and he's a great emblem of that sort of culture of mega churches and
wealth and power and how the Christian right and some exteps the Christian left like
to try and influence politics in the US in particular, and we've had it
here in the UK with every thing called the National Conservatives, who are trying
to be a sort of the UK's version of the Tea Party. It didn't
go well. We just pointed and laughed at them. So a bit more
of that I would suggest as well. But yeah, that shows you're a
little smarter than us over there. Well my answer to that will be Brexit.
But other than that, fair enough. Sometimes I think I think over
here what's happened is the older generation are voting less and Jen everything from Jen
zen Z to gen X are voted more. And we are happy with without
a lot in political life because those are there that were about they've owned all
the houses and we don't. So it kind of makes sure want to vote
for something different. So yeah, maybe we're getting smarter. Anyway, I'm
going to finish my waffling about our houses, and I think Aaron wants to
talk about that, the isolationism that happened as a result of his preaching.
Yeah, so he um as part of his preaching. You know, he's
he preaches. And I got this a little bit too when I was in
my when I was in religion, to keep themselves separate from the world.
Right, we're separate from the world. We're special, We're a special group,
and we need to stay away from the world and live live righteous lives.
And he kind of took it a step further where it wasn't just about
separate themselves, was about demonizing the other groups too, right, and that
I think that demonization of the other groups calling people names, uh what He
and Jerry Folwell were talking about the causes of nine to eleven Hurricane Katrine,
and they blamed it on the abortionists and the feminists. And that's just the
demonization of other people. And when you can demonize people, make them look
like they're other people and they're not to be trusted. And so when they
open their mouth to talk, oh no, I can't listen to you.
You're you're you're an abortionist, you're a feminist. I can't listen to you.
That's that's not what God wants me to do, and that really that
doesn't have any place in my view in politics. Politics should be about our
government, should be about what we want our country to be, how we
want to move forward together solving problems. And when you're demonizing other groups of
people, you're not going to be able to do that because you're gonna spend
your time like we are now, where you're just fighting culture wars and you're
fighting fighting against things that aren't really important in the in the scheme of things,
and you're not solving problem. You're not making people's lives betters, you're
not making people's lives better better. I don't want you can't say that word,
doctor rich You had something to add, Yeah, I love the word
usement that you structurate the fantastic And yes, I'm just thinking about the whole
process of the sort of in grouping and grouping that the religion in general goes
for. And Pat Robinson was fantastic at that what you were saying. Those
people are different to us, they have a different idea, of different belief
therefore their back. Therefore they're not part of our group. Therefore they can't
get away with the things we can get away. And the most fascinating thing
I've always found about in grouping is the way that someone in your group can
Let's imagine somebody took a load of state secrets and stuck him in a boardroom.
You might allow them the benefit of the doubt once they'd done that if
they're part of your in group. Whereas if the opponents so they did a
similar thing and then cooperated and get stuff back, they will be some kind
of demon. They'd be awful, they'd be terrible because it's a lopsided thing.
And I think it played on that very much. That's why his side
never actually looked at him and went, but you're a jerk. You were
just horrible. You do all the things we don't like about. Then they
didn't mind because it was part of the group, because he made it that.
Yeah, yeah, but he thinks devulsion is bad to he's actually cool.
Let's not worry about that. The other dodgy stuff is up to It's
yeah, it's a it's the way that of that side of things. It's
the way politics works at the moment. It's the way politics has been heading
for a long time, ever since our our friend Ronald Reagan and people who
came after me. So you know, Kelly helped me out. Yeah,
yeah, you know a lot of what you said the first time, I
totally agree with. I mean this, he was not a dumb person.
He was really, really smart. He ran for president. He didn't make
it, he got soldly defeated in the early stages of the primaries, but
he was not a dumb person. And his show, The seven hundred Club
had a viewership of over six hundred and fifty thousand people. And it doesn't
seem like a lot when you look at the whole scope of the country,
but it really is. And like the last election in my state was only
decided by a difference of about twenty five thousand votes, so six hundred and
fifty thousand can be very significant depending on where parts of those votes are at.
Right, just twenty five twenty five thousand, and those six hundred and
fifty thousand would have given mission again the Trump So it is. It is
quite a large group of people voting, and it was not something that we
should have ignored and still shouldn't ignore. This movement isn't dying with pat Robertson.
It's it's not, so we still have to fight back at it.
Um. Yeah, I think I think that's a big, a big thing
that we have to remember, is that just because pat Robertson is dead,
this movement that he started, that he began is still very much alive,
and we still need to be fighting back at it. Aaron, I know
you had something else you wanted to add, so go ahead. Yeah,
you know. Pat Robertson worked hard, and we have to work harder.
We have to. We have to get to the voting booth. We can't
be apathetic apathetic. We have to be active. We have to encourage people
to to care, because there's a group of people that cares a lot of
turning this country into a Christian theocracy, and so we have to care more
than them and show up and encourage people to show up. I think one
of the kind of switch gears a little bit. One of the problems I
think that pat Robertson did is he created single a single issue voter, and
I've known people like this where they would only vote based on somebody's stance on
one thing, and that was usually abortion. They would always vote for the
pro life candidate no matter what. And I'm going to I'm going to say
that when you only vote on one issue, the people you vote for don't
suffer any consequences for their views, for how they vote on certain issues,
on who they are as people, on their character, and if they care
or not. And so we need to not be single issue voters. We
need to focus on all the issues and picking candidates that are honest, not
just ones that have a single issue that we agree with. Cindy, you
got something something to say. Yeah. I keep thinking about what you guys
said about him being smart, and still he's using he's been using the very
simplest trick in in groups. It's if you want to fire up people,
the easiest way and the simplest way is to give them a common enemy and
everything you said about in group and our group, that's that's the purpose of
this. It's fire up by base so that I can do whatever I want
with them. And we see a lot of politicians do that today, not
just in the US, but targeting one group is extremely useful and and and
practical to fire up someone, because hate fires of people, whereas compassion and
empathy they tend to create less strong emotional responses. But rich you wanted to
say something, you're muted. It's a very simple thing that's been used very
very well. Um, sorry about that. I just got the small electric
shock, as you do. It's just this way of saying, pointed them,
point at them, they're the problem. And it's it's it's used by
politicians forever, issues, by all sides forever, and issues whenever they've got
no policies, you know. And it's the interesting thing about a lot of
the Christian fundamentalism I say in the US is I don't think it's a partisan
thing. I think if you're somebody on the right who's very strong over the
constitution, defend the constitution. If there's someone left it doesn't like what's happening
in social justice, fight the social justice Robinson is a figure that should unite
everybody in disgust, something I am quite a lot about, really rather than
and it's it's again I can say he is using a very symmetry. It's
a very smart man who knows that if you find a group to point out
and say it's them. Whenever you're going to problem, then that's what will
happen. People will look at them and go, it's their fault. And
it does work. It really works, and it works all the time.
It works everywhere, and it has worked forever, and sadly, I think
it will work forever. So those of us who were like not drawn into
that, well, and we need to fight back. We need to vote
so that we can stop that, we can stop this sort of othering which
happens all too often, and that Pat Robinson is an example of, and
the people who come after him are continuing to do. Yeah, Kelly,
M Yeah, I was just gonna type something else down. Um I.
One of the things I did want to say expound off of what Cindi said
about getting people motivated by Hay. He didn't just use hate. He used
fear too, which can really be a big motivator. I mean, he
had a lot of people convinced that liberals were gonna come, We're gonna start
building re education camps and start rounding up Christians and stuff. And he really
used that fear to again get those six hundred and fifty thousand people out of
the pole and he worked not just down a let's get this done tomorrow level.
But he had a really slow strategy. It was little chip here,
a little chip there, a little chip here, until all the chips added
up to one big thing. And that one big thing became kind of normal
because it wasn't just rushed overnight, which just happened a little bit, a
little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and fifty years later
he got rov Wade taken you know, reverse, So it seemed to work
for him. I don't think that that's the tactics we should take can trying
to take back the things that we that I feel we have lost in our
society because of him pushing these ideals. But it was a pretty good strategy.
I don't think it's necessary to do that. I think we could do
it a lot faster, reverse everything. So Aaron and Jeff something you want
to wrap it up with, Well, I just find it really interesting that
people would vote for people that are other people that are obviously not Christian.
It just goes to show that they're voting for the ends justify the means,
right, This is this is supposedly the group that cares about family values and
morality, and yet they constantly vote in people that are immoral, that don't
have family values, just because they again happen to agree with them on one
or two issues that they want to shove through, Cindy, Yeah, responding
to what you just said and what doctor Rich said, I mean earlier saying
that it will always work. I don't know if you saw it, but
last weekend the Future Republican, he explicitly said something like, Hey, if
you talk about taxing the people, yeah, there will be like this,
but if you talk to them about social issues, they will be cheering up
like those trans things. You know, five years ago, what you talked
about trans people, nobody knew anything about them, and now look at us.
And so he directly said to his people that he was cheering on them.
Basically, he was laying to them he was misiting them, and they
chaired him for that. And that was just astonishing, both both of the
fact that he admitted to that on camera in front of thousands of people and
the fact that he was admitting his tactics to the people who foll for it,
and those same people just cheered Hi up, cheered him up. But
was astonishing. Yeah, Yeah, it always works, It always works,
and it's happening here. Our government are going Yes, I know, after
drags, everything's terrible. People are crossing the Channel on small boats and they're
not English British. I mean, honest, look look at them. Look
at them. And what I was saying, I was just saying now as
the whole what we're saying earlier about how you let people get away with things
if they're part of the in group. In someone that he's about as Christian,
as a as an Islamic hitler who's married to Satan, doesn't matter to
them. They're sort of well, yeah, but he agrees with that things.
It's part of the group. Will let that go. But you,
on the other side, you're not perfect. Even if they actually really really
religious so fundamentally sleftist Christian, they'reill dislike more than this parody of a Christian.
Pat Robbins, yeah, the former president. I remember once he said
that he could shoot somebody in the middle of New York City and people would
still vote for him. And it's true. I think he demonstrated to his
party that they can do whatever they want and they're still going to get reelected.
And that's really unfortunate. Kelly yeah, I think you're right and this
you're it's all because they actually can just justify the ends by the means,
and I don't. I don't understand it. I've never thought that that was
correct. But I really had a good conversation here and I don't want to
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