Clarity from Chaos Podcast
Every episode brings insight to help guide you through the Chaos and into Clarity. We focus on three principals; Reason, Purpose, and Self-Esteem.
Clarity from Chaos Podcast
"Democracy's DNA: A Conversation with Richard C. Lyons"
Summary
In this episode of Clarity from Chaos, host Dave Campbell engages with author Richard Lyons to discuss the current state of the Republic, the spiritual battle facing America, and the implications of socialism. They explore the First Amendment, the role of Judeo-Christian values, and the impact of education and media on public perception. The conversation delves into issues of national security, urban violence, and the responsibilities of government officials, culminating in a reflection on the future of political leadership and the importance of accountability.
Takeaways
- The Republic is under spiritual threat, not just political.
- The First Amendment offers freedom but lacks accountability.
- Socialism historically leads to tyranny and violence.
- Judeo-Christian values are essential for societal cohesion.
- Churches face increasing attacks both domestically and globally.
- Education is failing to teach history and civic responsibility.
- Media influences public opinion and critical thinking.
- Citizens have the right to hold government accountable.
- The middle class is often overlooked in political discourse.
- The concentration of power in Washington is detrimental to democracy.
Titles
The Spiritual Battle for America
Understanding the First Amendment
Sound bites
"Socialism leads to tyranny."
"Churches are under attack."
"Socialism is imprisonment."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Reflection on the Republic
03:01 The Spiritual Battle for America
04:16 First Amendment and Accountability
06:23 Socialism and Historical Context
07:40 The Role of Judeo-Christian Values
08:41 Attacks on Churches and Global Violence
09:23 The Shift in Political Ideologies
11:01 Education and Historical Awareness
12:47 Media Influence and Critical Thinking
14:46 Constitutional Protections and Speech
17:35 National Security and Urban Violence
19:19 Sanctuary Cities and Criminal Protection
21:33 Federal Intervention and Accountability
23:12 The Role of Antifa and Insurrection
24:48 Lawsuits Against Government Officials
26:31 The Forgotten Man and Middle-Class Struggles
27:49 Concentration of Power in Washington
30:07 Outlook on the Republic
31:50 The Administrative State and Socialism
33:27 Future Political Leadership
36:31 Conclusion and Future Works
"Wherever you find yourself is exactly and precisely where God wills you to be"
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Thanks for listening to Clarity from Chaos
Live from the Clarity from Chaos Studios, heard worldwide, it's Dave Campbell. On every episode, Dave and his guests explore, discuss, and work on solutions to some of life's biggest challenges. So if you're ready, be prepared to be enlightened, amused, and even shocked by what you hear. And now, the real, the authentic, the one and only Dave Campbell.
SPEAKER_04:Welcome everyone. You're listening to Clarity from Chaos. I'm your host, Dave Campbell. If you are new to the show and like what you hear, hit the subscribe button on my podcast website at Substack. The site address is DKC051952.com. But before we get into this edition of Clarity, I would like to share a few thoughts about our republic. We now stand on the precipice and watch daily a group of people trying desperately to destroy our country. But this threat is not a political one. It's a spiritual one. And believe it or not, it's just as simple as good versus evil. The radicals who are hell-bent on destroying our country are doing so because it was founded on a Judeo-Christian idea and they cannot stand it. So we need to stop thinking in terms of Democrat, Republican, global elites, and corporate media as adversaries and start thinking of the entire problem as biblical. We need to bring the church and the Bible back into our lives. We need to defeat this threat spiritually. The people we elect need to answer to a higher authority and not to the puppet masters that they answer to today. So with that, I would like to share a Bible verse and then a prayer before we move on with our guest. The verse is from Philippians 4, 6 through 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Jesus Christ. So now let us pray. God, I thank you for protecting us. We are never alone. You always go before us, guiding our steps even when darkness comes into our stories. Your light is always greater. You are forever making beauty from the ashes of this world. Thank you for always being with me, and I declare that I can have peace tonight because you are my shield, my fortress, my shadow, and my refuge. I can rest easy because I know your angels are set around me, offering me protection when I need it. Calm my thoughts and help me to meditate on the comforting picture of your feathered wings covering my home tonight. Let your faithfulness be my shield, and I ask for a long life in which you show me the glory of your salvation. Help me to trust that you are my safe place and let your peace rest on me and my home. I thank you, Lord, for this. Amen. We're incredibly pleased to welcome back to Clarity, the author of the best-selling books, the Dean DNA of democracy and shadows of the Acropolis, Mr. Richard Lyons. Welcome back.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, thank you, David. Very nice opening.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you, sir. I'd like to start our discussion with what's basically been on our minds, I guess you said would say, Richard, and that would be around the First Amendment. There's been a lot of, you know, ever since the passing of Charlie Kirk, there's been a lot of nasty, ugly things said. And they always use the First Amendment as a backdrop that, you know, they can get away with a lot of this. And I'd like your thoughts around it because to me, the First Amendment does offer those abilities, but it doesn't come with apparently accountability or responsibility, or for God's sake, consequences about what you say.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think when, you know, when the founders were discussing uh freedom of speech, they thought a person's freedom would be uh cast inside a virtuous community. Yeah, somebody said outrageous things. I mean, some of the things are just horrific where they're you know praising an assassin and so forth. There there would be a community, and a community would react saying, you you can't be serious. I mean, where are you from that you think this way? Um, and I think you hit it on the head when you started the show, and that is, you know, there is this element in our country, and it is it does have its roots in socialism, and the socialists in this country got so far under Obama, and we saw it with the weaponization of agencies and so forth, um, and then Trump got elected. So the socialists had nowhere to go. And when socialists do not achieve their aims politically or through regulation or through the legal system, they get violent, they act out in ways and and you can see it historically, whether it was the Bolsheviks who did not win politically, they won by making Russia a bloodbath, or Mussolini, who did not win politically, he he killed his political opponents. Right. This is what socialism does. And if you look at Maduro or you look at Castor, it's all the same thing. It's tyranny. And they call it socialism nowadays. What it is is the government controlling everything, including every citizen, taking everything you have, having a right to do that, and taking it for themselves. And and so if they cannot do it politically or com or economically, they do it violently.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and it, you know, that kind of brings me around to the flag burning, Richard. And see, I I'm not quite I I forgive me, I'm not a legal scholar or constitutional scholar, but I do not understand how burning the flag is okay with the blanket of the First Amendment. I I'm I'm not quite sure how I uh how I get there with stating that I can Yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:Textually, you're correct. There's no there's no part of the Constitution that says you can burn an American flag. Right. Nor was there anything that says you can tear down uh statues of American heroes or that you can spit on the history of America.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:I think in a free society, you know, you have to in any society that that has ever existed, you have the society tends to become polar opposites, right? You you it's just throughout, it's in human nature. When you have someone who's a positive, you have someone who's a negative. The greatest thing about our country, if I might say so, David, and it goes straight to our founding, are five different systems which reconcile society, which reconcile our society, and you pointed out one right at the top Judeo-Christian ethos is probably the finest ethos in human history for bringing people together. And I think it's why socialism has such a problem with it, because socialism is trying to correct correct through violence and through authoritarianism what Judeo-Christianity heals and reconciles voluntarily.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because we treat each other very well, and the rich help the poor and and educate the poor and and um many other things. And you know, all the basis of the Christian churches is is all about charity and education.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and unfortunately, now, you know, uh the churches are under attack.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, they were under attack in the last administration. Now that there's violence being perpetrated against the churches. Um and and not only not only domestically, Richard, across the globe. Um, you know, you see the mass slaughter of Christians in, I believe, Nigeria. Um it's it's it's it's across the globe. And um I I just personally really feel that what's going on has bridged the the silliness of red versus blue, or you know, the global elites trying to consolidate everything around so that you know they're in charge and all of the Benjamins come through them and you know they get to throw the loaf of bread over the wall to the peasants. That's what they want.
SPEAKER_01:That's what they're exactly.
SPEAKER_04:That's exactly where they're trying to go. Yes. And and what worries what worries me, and the reason that I've I've taken this shift, Richard, is because to me, the the way we start turning the Queen Mary is to get it back a little bit closer to the founding thoughts and ideas. Not that um that they were perfect or anything else, but um I think we've gone pretty far afield from where we really were. And and people can argue, argue it one way or the other, but I think the basis of it, quite frankly, is the basis of our laws and everything else.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and uh again, I think you're perfectly correct. And the left takes advantage of our founding and expects that all human beings, right, that we assume the founders were perfect and anything they did wrong, of course, denounces denounces the Constitution, denounces all the sacrifices, as you mentioned, of hundreds of thousands of Americans who sacrificed not only for our constitution, but also for writing the constitution in the Civil War and also for liberating other countries to enjoy freedom in the world wars and so forth. And again, it the socialists need socialism to be God, and if we want their authoritarianism to work, they have to dismantle us from our constitution, and they have to make our sacrifices uh unheard of. They cannot mention, you know, that Grant went through the wilderness campaign, tens of thousands of Union soldiers literally burned alive in the wilderness, who were wounded in that battle. They don't mention that. Those soldiers were fighting for for the freedom of another race. They fought and died for that. That is unexampled, David, in human history. Never happened anywhere at any time ever. Right. And and the more that your program is on and other programs like it, they can educate the American public who has, you know, we have one of the worst education uh systems in the world right now for what we pay.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we don't we don't teach social studies anymore. We don't correctly teach history anymore because we're we're afraid of uh insulting somebody or or you know the whole issue around identity politics, you know, it's I mean we've gotten ourselves to the point where we're changing mascots on sports teams because we because we fear that we're um making a particular a particular group uncomfortable. Um and I you know the the socialists, I um I'll give them a big hat tip. They've they've done one hell of a marketing campaign. One hell of a marketing campaign.
SPEAKER_01:They really do. They are top, they are excellent at that. They they paint persons who are successful who work all their lives, right? Right to be successful, literally laboring 10 and 12 hours a day, six days a week. My father was one of those guys. I I tend to work a lot. Um but okay, so you have somebody who's labored all their lives and have built something, and here comes uh an athlete who's speaking against the country, who's making a hundred billion dollars for playing a game. Yeah. Their vilification of a guy who's worked all of his life is carried, and the praise the athlete is unquestioned. Well, he must be right, he's he's an athlete.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Well, I'll take it a step further, Richard, and then I'll get back to my my thoughts around what we were going to talk about tonight. But it's something as simple as like the view. Um people can watch what they want to watch, but I have a real hard time appreciating, I guess, a an audience clapping and cheering for some of the moronic statements that are made on these TV shows. And what worries me is these people, and you mentioned it a minute ago, through education or whatever, have the inability, apparently, to connect the dots or to have any kind of any kind of fashion of critical thinking around what's being said. And it it and it worries me that if you take that and extrapolate it across the country, that you have basically you have the Democrat Party. You have all of these people believing this horseshit and nobody questioning it, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I think you're you're correct generally, but in that I I think very correct. And it is, it goes to the education system, and the Democratic Party by design, by design, has owned education since uh the LBJ Great Society was was initiated. When they took control of all the dollars, took control with their unions, and then under Obama, completed the coup by making sure that everyone who gets a loan for a college education gets that through the government, and it's controlled by the Democrat Party. So it's been very very thorough in regard to the view, and this this is something I happen to know having had something to do with the television industry. They select their audience very carefully. Oh, I'm sure they do exactly who they are, and then they say, Look, when we raise this sign, applause, let's hear it, you know. So they get prep for the show. So that they and again, it goes to exactly what you said. It's the marketing, and this markets the view as being somehow some some sort of priesthood, when in fact, I mean, their combined IQ might be around 52.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. I I I I really have to question it. Um and and and and I apologize for getting kind of far afield here, Richard. So um, but uh I'd like to come back to I I watched a um a pretty interesting um bit on the Constitution today, and it was around the speech and debate clause and its inception and how it relates to what we were talking about originally about freedom of speech in the First Amendment. And the original idea around the protections of speech and debate was to protect speech and debate within the halls of Congress. Um, they didn't, you know, the they wanted the free idea, the idea flow and conversation to carry on. But what you have now is you have people like Adam Schiff and other members of Congress um making making statements in in um in committee or what that are completely complete lies and have been proven to be complete lies, but they are protected by you know Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution, which um in watching this this um video doesn't really protect them because Congress, either the legislative or the or you know, either you know the House or the Senate can can react to it. They can do something about it, they can even take it to expulsion, um but they uh they fail to do so.
SPEAKER_01:Well they have both the Senate and the House have their own rules and they do so constitutionally. And they have remedies like censure and and expulsion and suspension and things like this. I think the other remedy that might be looked into with regard to uh I'll call him Mr. Schiff because I don't think he deserves this position. Um the the other remedy of of Trump particularly is to sue him for liability and slander because of the lies he told in in an official capacity for heaven's sakes. And that ought to get greater we ought to be able to break him financially. Um by doing so.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, I mean, you have that and you have like the J6 committee, right? Which lovely bond. Yeah, I mean, you know, a a remarkable, you know, high standard of of the human human condition there. Um of course they all got pardons, at least we think they got pardons, because we're not sh quite sure at this point who signed the pardons.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's another interesting, yeah. Interesting unconstitutional act.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah. And you know, it it it just kind of seems to go on and and on, Richard, about the the lack of accountability and responsibility. So, which kind of brings me to my question and your thoughts around, you know, Trump has deployed the National Guard to the district, cleaned it up, now he's got the ongoing fight in Portland, Chicago, and Memphis, and an ongoing fight in Los Angeles. Um your thoughts around that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's a little convoluted because not because they've made it so. The Democrats during the Biden presidency acted outside the law by allowing literally the invasion of this country by 20 million people.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, these are not nice people, and and they also set up sanctuary cities all around the country. What has that done? It has made a systematic drug cartel and gang cartel in our country, and they are untouchable. When you have a no-bail system, when you're letting criminals out of prisons, they did that too, right? Uh when you when you let all this mayhem loose, you are ignoring the first line in our constitution, which has to do with we the people establish this constitution for the democ for the domestic welfare of the citizens, for peace and tranquility. It's the first line. I'm paraphrasing, I don't think I'm getting it word for word. It's the first line. It's also mimicked in every state constitution.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Illinois has a line just like it, so does California. But the Democrats have turned the law inside out. They have allowed persons from outside our country who are not citizens to have protections that even our citizens don't. And when they are protected like that, they can commit murder, aggreg, you know, assault, rape, they can loot cities. I mean, hundreds of billions of dollars have been looted from our cities. And all these retailers, which are employers as well, have moved out, literally moved out. So how are you, how are you helping your own citizens? As the mayor of Chicago, as the governor of Illinois, how are you helping when you go down Michigan Avenue and all the stores are empty? And all that's what is gas.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly. And I don't I don't know how people continue to vote. Um you've got the mayor of Chicago. I it it baffles me how he got elected and how he stayed elected.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I'm I'm from Chicago, and I thought Laurie Lightfoot, his predecessor, had to be the bottom. That had to be the I don't think so. I don't think so, man. Just when you think my city isn't gonna stand for another like this, then they do. And um, and and and these two these two persons, the the mayor uh and and Pritzker, the governor, are turning Chicago into a into a hellhole. There are areas in Chicago, I knew a third third-generation policeman. His grandfather had to talk him into uh putting in his badge because he said, Listen, I care about you, and nothing good can happen when you go into a situation, either you're gonna be sued or you're gonna be jailed or you're gonna be dead.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because there is no backup. The Chicago Police Department is not backed up by the mayor, not backed up by the governor. And so Trump is going in by his authority as commander-in-chief and recognizing the first line in the Constitution and says, I need to take care of those people. I'm assigned to it. He's the chief law enforcement officer of the country. And he has to do what he has to do. So you have these gangs and cartels living it up in the middle of these cities with the protection of the administration and the governor, the administration of the city and the governor of the state by being designated a sanctuary city. And they're har they're they're running prostitution rings, enslavement rings, drug rings.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and, you know, it's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it absolutely is. And and it and it it makes me wonder, Richard, if if Trump's actually going to um involve the insurrect insurrection act. Um, and then, you know, I think that, you know, that act, if if he comes forward with it, gives him the ability to do any damn thing he wants to federally, right? And in protection of the of the citizenry.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But the other part of that also comes with the accountability to the Pritzkers and the mayor and and the other people that are actually running running um cover for all of this, right? Because I think he can he can use the insurrection act as um the basis for handcuffing them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think a good start to that, David, was when they recognized that Antifa is a terrorist organization in America. So if you have if you have Antifa operating in the city of Chicago, that is insurrection. It's a terrorist insurrection. So I think he'll be challenged in lower courts. I think he already has, but it'll march up through the appeals process and maybe get to the Supreme Court. But somebody has to, somebody has to apply the law.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And if the mayor refuse, um, then it has to be the commander-in-chief.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. And you know, you wonder about cities like Portland. I I I've been in and through Portland on several occasions. Of course, that predates when you know they had the summer of love and decided to burn the place down.
SPEAKER_01:Was there ever a worse name?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I did. It's just it's just remarkable. Yeah. And then you have politicians standing there going, well, there's not a damn thing wrong in Portland. It's just absolutely lovely. People are riding their bikes, they're going on picnics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh and I'm sitting there going, my God, do you actually believe this crap? And you expect people to believe what you're saying. And I if I lived in Portland, I'd be yelling and screaming, or I wouldn't be living in Portland. I'd move someplace else.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and my brother did. He moved out of Seattle, had a great place there, and they drove it to hell. Um, but in if if he's not lying, if he's telling the truth, then David, he's committing, he's admitting to a dereliction of his first duty.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:As mayor, or as governor. Yeah, or as the chief of police, or as the chief of police, or the DA.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:How do you want to, you know, whomever of these persons are supposed to be abiding the first line of our constitution, and they don't.
SPEAKER_04:What are your thoughts around why why they're not handcuffing a Pritzker or or any of these other politicians? Why I I fail to understand. To me, it seems pretty simple that, like I said, they're running cover. But we're not, you know, all we're doing is we're talking about it. And, you know, Congress, you know, Elon Musk, and I'm gonna jump way off field here, but you know, Musk did the whole Doge thing, and and Congress is like slow walking, codifying all of the work that the Doge team did. And they literally went out and saved the country a trillion dollars in waste and and and fraud and everything else, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. But our politicians, and I think this whole idea about um people on the street going, you know, what the hell? You know, just like I said, they they uncovered all of this stuff, but our politicians are just slow walking the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think, you know, there there could be another a civil case for citizens to sue a governor or to sue a mayor for dereliction of duty that resulted in harm. Harm to their business, harm to their family, harm to themselves. Um, uh there's also a case if we're paying taxes, shouldn't we be protected? Why are we paying taxes for you to protect a drug operation, a prostitution ring, a gang? Exactly. Why are you protecting them and you're not protecting us? We're the ones paying the taxes.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it seems to me that, you know, it would open up a whole slew of rightful uh civil lawsuits against persons like this. I mean, how about how about owning a piece of property in a city that gets looted by a gang and then there's no protection on the street? What's the value of that property? What's the value of the business? And that that shouldn't be a real harm that the court recognizes.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I I would agree. You know, it's it's funny, Richard. The other day I I I reread the essay by Sumner, you know, the forgotten man, that he, you know, he wrote in 18, what, 1880, 1880? Somewhere back then. And it's just remarkable that he he basically put his finger right on what Trump realized is going on in this country relative to the middle class and everything else. And I, you know, I probably there's a lot of people out there that that haven't read The Forgotten Man. Um, but I would encourage you to go out and surf the internet. It's not very long. I think it's only like a 10-page essay or something like that. But it actually demonstrates the demise of the poor guy caught in the middle, this this pulling the wagon that everybody wants to keep throwing crap into and expect him to keep pulling, right?
SPEAKER_01:Right. Right. And very and very true, because power and and this is a lot of what my my second volume, uh Shadows of the Acropolis, is about. It's about how power has concentrated into one city, Washington, D.C., and all the wealth and power of our country is stowed there. And when you have a collection of persons that all live in one city and control all the wealth and power, they tend to forget who's living in Wyoming. They tend to think that they can do whatever they want and tell that farmer in Wyoming he can go to hell rather than complain.
SPEAKER_04:Well, and and and quite frankly, they do in in so many, so many words, right? Yes. I mean, you know, they they're they're pretty explicit in and well, quite frankly, it raises itself to an interesting level of arrogance that they think that you know they're the sh that they're the sharpest knife in the drawer, which um sure.
SPEAKER_01:He he he demands the sharpest knife in the drawer, and he's an idiot.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I that that that's what just perplexes the hell out of me. And then you have um you know the the squad, which you know, you have somebody, somebody that was a barista three years ago. It's now all of a sudden some kind of a political genius, and and it's not to disparage people that that you know build coffee in the morning, but I I just don't I just don't see how she raised herself intellectually to the point of where I would put her in the same class as um like a Gore Vidal or or somebody that actually had a command, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Uh well if you listen to her speak for more than 15 seconds, you get you get a real clear idea of how smart she is, right? Well, yeah, it's like listening to Kamala Harris. I mean, from exactly. Um, but it really but it is an aspect of democracy that you get what you vote for. And if New Yorkers keep voting, Hakeem Jeffries in, Chuck Schumer in, uh Ocasio Cortez into office, they're getting what they deserve. God, if they let Mondami uh be the New York City, they are and it will take the whole city and state burning down uh for New York to change their mind. Yeah, which I just I find that really hard.
SPEAKER_04:I yeah, I do too. Um, which kind of brings me to my question of your view on the status of our republic at this point, because you've done all the work on you know the DNA of democracy and then volume two on the Acropolis. Um I I'm not having a real optimistic outlook, Richard.
SPEAKER_01:I just uh Well, I I think there's there's a reason for both uh to be pessimistic and optimistic.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I started this work ten years ago in the middle of the Obama administration because I you and I both witnessed when the IRS started attacking uh conservative Tea Party uh organizations, yeah, or when the HHS sued the Little Sisters of the Poor and took their money because they didn't allow a board of fashions to be dispensed at their hospitals. These sorts of things, when I saw it happening, I said, I don't think anybody really knows what's going on here, but it's becoming more and more pervasive. And then I found out about how the FBI was surveilling Cheryl Atkison, and she was a hero of mine as a journalist. Um, and these things all combining, I said, it's somebody has to educate the public as to what this is. And what it is is the what I call the fang and the clause of socialism. It's what socialism becomes when they have all that wealth and power in one place, and you have an administrative state that you control, and the Democrat Party does, it's the unenumerated power of that part of government. And then Obama can start manipulating who who can exist as an association. He can say, I want the IRS to go after the Tea Party movie movement until they cease to exist. Yeah, I want monitoring of reporters until they all write what I want them to write, or I'll have them fired at CBS. Yeah, right? This is how they operate, and that is not America. That is, but on the optimistic side, you have Trump. How much did this guy put up with? But he is our now, and he has turned the tide and somewhat, but we have to bring in the education behind it, demonstrate this is why Trump went through all of this. This is why conservatives go through all of this, this is why there's violence against churches, this is why they hate our heroes, this is why they're burning flags. Right. It's because they are our polar opposites and they want authoritarian government, which is diametrically opposite to our constitution.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, absolutely. And the only thing that concerns me is when Trump steps away, the force of his personality, which, as far as I'm concerned, a lot of all of the good things that have been going on are sheer Trump personality. This this is who he is. He's running the country the way he ran runs his real estate and everything. This this is his core, right? It is his character. It's his character.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Um and that that's somebody after him steps into that void with with that same dynamic. It you know, or or we're gonna seep right back into the primordial ooze that is Washington, D.C. again, right?
SPEAKER_01:The quicksand.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Which seizes all the virtues from people and it's sucks the life out of everybody. Yes. I really I'm really hopeful about you know, several of the We got a good bench. Yeah, man. Um we got a good bench. Jamie Vance is is tremendous and stands his ground, no matter who's a good bench.
SPEAKER_04:Rubio, Rubio's done a hell of a great job. Vance is doing, I I I truly believe DeSantis in Florida, uh Ramaswamy, who will will take the the uh reigns in Ohio. Um I I think we've got a hell of a good bench.
SPEAKER_01:Did you see Pam Bondi in the Senate the other day?
SPEAKER_04:Yes, I did, and I set I set up my desk and I almost wanted to get a bowl of popcorn because you know, it was just so great watching her rewind that. Let me replace I want to reap, I want to replay. I want to see if that guy actually crossed the goal line. No, she just she just it was it was fabulous.
SPEAKER_01:Rip them up and and right, but with the oh yeah, I think you'll agree, David, with the conviction of her being right. Oh, yeah. And you're you're not gonna take flack from from Schiff who lies for a living. I don't think he, you know, I don't think he's capable of telling the truth.
SPEAKER_04:Well, it was like her sitting there looking at Blumenthal going, you know, U SOB, you sat there and lied, getting yourself into the Senate over your military history and everything else.
SPEAKER_01:Does not have.
SPEAKER_04:Right. Yeah. Well, that wasn't the question. Well, you're calling, you're calling my ethics blah, blah, blah. It's just, it was fabulous. Like I said, I wanted to get a bowl of popcorn and sit there.
SPEAKER_01:That's why I'm really I am I am gone from being literally when Obama was elected for the second time, I couldn't sleep. Yeah. That whole night, I could not sleep. Uh, but when Trump was elected this second time, I'm I couldn't sleep again, but it was from euphoria.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And knowing, you know, that this would follow and that his second term would be very w well informed by his first.
SPEAKER_04:And he wouldn't take any crap, he'd get all the right people, and he'd I Richard, I've been following politics ever since, ever since the Goldwater campaign. And I can't think of a cabinet that has been constructed and implemented with the kind of individuals that Trump put in there. Um in all of the presidencies that I that I've lived through, I have never seen a cabinet with this level of intellect, yeah, commitment, passion for the country, um just right on down the line. I just have not seen it.
SPEAKER_01:And I think it's it's another extension of Trump's character.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I do too.
SPEAKER_01:He chooses that he can he can talk to and understand them and respect them. Yeah. Uh, and and persons that that don't meet his level, I think are, you know, like in the first term, how many people came and went?
SPEAKER_04:Because he literally couldn't he couldn't count on them, he couldn't deal with them because they'd say one thing and do another, like Jeff Sessions or you know, I I think he did four years worth of of of daily homework, you know, day in and day out, preparing himself for the second run because there is nobody that outworks him. Nobody. And I can't think of a president. Listen, I don't know how he does. I don't either. I you know, uh and and God bless him. I mean, that man is like he's hammering it down.
SPEAKER_01:I uh you know, and and and those close to him call him call him the machine.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:He's the machine. Well so God bless him.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. We've been talking to Richard Lyons, author of the book The DNA of Democracy and the Shadows of the Acropolis. And as always, sir, it has been an extraordinary pleasure of mine to have you on and talk to you. Um, it's just been great.
SPEAKER_01:Same here, David. Really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_04:So what's next? What's going on with you?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, well, I've I've I have a compilation of articles called Passages Through the Shadows. So what this what this is, it's articles written for different uh publications about the day-to-day events. It's the battlefield we're on today. So it covers all the subjects, it you know, from the Middle East to inner city uh crime and all that, and and where the left and the right are fighting every day and why, because it goes to the first two volumes, which spell out the why. And then I'll be starting the fourth volume here shortly, uh, and that's all about how how we as a society with our human nature involve with government and how it makes, you know, there are tendencies in human nature which want tyranny, which want the so comfort of socialism. And there's other of our character who want all the freedom you can get.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we're scared to, yeah, we're scared to death, Richard, of being responsible, right? We're scared to we're scared to death that our decision making could be good or bad. And and what the hell happens if it's bad? Will I recover, so on and so forth. So we we kind of get into lockup around it, and we want somebody else to make the damn decision so we don't have to be responsible for a bad one.
SPEAKER_01:Now, well, let me just point out if we have one minute. During the 1960s, everything we heard in the music and everything about the culture was anti-establishment, right? Right. And that generation wanted to do everything about freeing the human spirit, freeing society. But it's always easiest to say, okay, we agree. Let the government do it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. And that generation, that generation created the biggest administrative state of any nation on earth.
SPEAKER_04:Well, because they absolve themselves of that responsibility, right? Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:They handed it off and said, look, you know what we want, you do it.
SPEAKER_04:You know, yeah, exactly. I don't have time for it. You go do it.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And 20 years later, they're going, yeah, they're going, ah shit. Look what happened. You know, how do I undo this?
SPEAKER_01:But these are the socialists of the present day. And they think socialism is somehow uh liberating when in fact it is the opposite of the case.
SPEAKER_04:No, no, it's absolutely, it's, I mean, yeah, it's got it's gonna end up be careful what you wish for, because um it's not gonna be pretty. Not gonna be pretty at all.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, watch new.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly. Well, Richard, like I said, thanks. Thanks for your time, sir. And uh, I wish you well, and uh we'll have you back on as soon as we can. Uh you know, when's the volume four due?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it's gonna take some time. It'll be uh year and a half, two years.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no, I'm not gonna wait that damn long. These things take time. I'm not gonna wait that damn long, no. Um I'll we'll have you back on and we'll talk, we'll talk some more as things have have progressed.
SPEAKER_01:That sounds great, Dan. It sounds great.
SPEAKER_04:All right.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, sir. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Good night now. Good night.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more Clarity from Chaos shows on demand, go to Clarity from Chaos Podcast.busfrout.com or send Dave an email at info at clarity from chaos.com for information on previous shows. You can also listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Twitter, or Google Podcast. Until next time, please remember it's not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain. Be well, everyone.