By Mike Huckabee
July 6, 2023
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BY MIKE HUCKABEE
Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Thank you for subscribing!
Programming Note: This week, my writers and IT person will be on a well-deserved Fourth of July vacation. But never fear, we’ve written lots of great material in advance for you, and rest assured that if anything earth-shattering occurs – like Hunter Biden being held accountable for ANYTHING – we’ll rush back to our keyboards to cover it. In the meantime, join us in taking a much-needed break from the news to relax and celebrate the birthday of the greatest nation in the history of the Earth while I’m still allowed to say that.
Sincerely,
Mike
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother.
Proverbs 6:20
The Most Important Form of Government is a Father, a Mother and Children
There's an old Japanese proverb that says, "It is easier to rule a kingdom than to regulate a family." I don't know who said this, but as someone who's done both (though I'd hardly call Arkansas a kingdom), I can say with absolute certainty that he was right.
I'll bet you've never thought of your family as a government. But when you get right down to it, it's the form of government that matters most, much more than Congress or your state legislature or even your neighborhood block association. Get your family right and its strength will wind its way up to the highest levels of global power. Of course, the reverse is also true: When the family fails, so do the other organizing structures around it.
Why does a person commit a heinous crime - use a deadly weapon to rob someone, vandalize a school, rape a woman, murder a hapless victim for twenty dollars, or steal millions from investors (perhaps including friends and relatives) in a Ponzi scheme? Are these acts caused by incomprehensible wickedness? Are these people just plain bad? No, it's really very simple.
These are people who failed to grasp or were never offered the simplest lessons of self-discipline, respect for others, and a strong sense of human decency. And where should those lessons be taught and learned? It's not the job of a school, a workplace, or even a church to provide these most basic of life lessons (though we shouldn't forget about them there either – or ban them from schools and workplaces, as some people are trying to do.) Besides, even when we do rely on institutions for these lessons, they usually fail.
No, these lessons cannot be taught by a teacher, boss, or minister. In order to create truly valuable and respectful citizens, these lessons need to be taught at home. By the time we enter school or start a job, we should have already learned how to behave. I'm not usually a pessimist, as you probably know, but I'm afraid that if a child has not learned to behave by age four or so, he or she never will.
When I was a child and did something my mother found objectionable, she'd say, with some exasperation, "Were you raised by wolves?” Of course (being objectionable), my immediate inclination was to whip back a smart-aleck answer like "No, ma'am. I got it from you!"
But I never did because I knew that the wolf in her would come out and probably chew me out. Plus, I knew what she meant: This was her way of reminding me that I was supposed to try to achieve a certain level of civil behavior. I might even demonstrate a notable difference from animals in the wild by using a napkin, saying a blessing before diving into a plate of food, or washing up before sitting down to eat. Such civilized rules of courtesy, kindness, and unselfishness were expected of me not merely so that I could get what I wanted but because, quite simply, they were right.
To this day, I try to behave the way my mother wanted me to - not because I'm afraid of being grounded (my wife does that now), but because she taught me the difference between right and wrong and showed me by example how to behave. These principles originate, of course, from the family.
Okay, let me say it before you do: No family is perfect, and even children raised in wonderful families can turn out to be like wolves. We’ve all seen the stories about gang members or looters who get arrested and wish the cops had held them in protective custody in jail when their furious mamas show up to drag them home by the ear.
Still, it makes sense that children nurtured with rules are far more likely to follow them than those given free rein to follow their most primal instincts of "self first, others second." In the national ongoing conversation about how to change "government" and make "society" better, I rarely hear a reference to the obvious starting place: the creation and nurturing of functioning families, in which a mother and a father bring up their offspring with the understanding that the older generation is training the younger to be their replacements.
On this issue, as on so many others, I cast my lot with Ronald Reagan, who said, "The family has always been the cornerstone of American society. Our families nurture, preserve, and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundation of our freedom."
It should surprise no one - certainly it would not have surprised President Reagan - that those who now want to "transform" traditional America recognize this truth from the opposite direction and have placed the American family smack in the crosshairs. You know this. You see it every day, from the many attempts at sexualizing children to schools welcoming drag queens and Satanist clubs to teachers indoctrinating students with radical gender and political propaganda while telling them not to talk to their parents about it (underlying message: your parents are your enemy, the government is your friend.)
Recently, thanks to loose lips on social media, we’ve actually heard teachers boasting that they own our children, not their parents. They see it as their mission to separate children from parents as early as possible, so that they can fill kids’ heads with nonsense about socialist utopias and racial and gender identities instead of parents passing down traditional morality, patriotism and religious faith. One of the few silver linings of the pandemic was that, thanks to online classes, parents saw to their horror what schools were telling kids when they thought their parents weren’t listening.
America-hating leftists know that it’s the father/mother/children family structure that’s made this nation the most powerful and prosperous in the history of the world, and that’s precisely why the family is under assault today as never before.
As parents and even grandparents, what can we do? Simple. We fight back. It won’t be an easy fight in an age when a thoroughly corrupt and politicized Justice Department tries to tar concerned parents as “domestic terrorists.” But it’s a fight that parents have to wage and must win. Recent legal victories, like those over Loudoun County, Virginia’s, out of control school board, prove that the battle can be won.
What happens in our day to the traditional family will determine whether we stop the slide and remain a morally healthy nation of self-reliant families, for the most part, or continue degenerating into a decadent welfare state of shattered, chaotic, and dependent families.
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America the Beautiful
God's creation is all around us. We are blessed with his bounty. Take a moment to enjoy it.
The spiritual side of our lives really does matter
When I was growing up, my bedtime ritual always included a fairy tale that started with “Once upon a time...” and ended with the comforting words we all remember: “And they lived happily ever after.” As a child of the optimistic 1950s, I dreamed that life might be like that: whatever obstacles, dangers or perils might come my way, in the end, I would live happily ever after.
There were certainly plenty of struggles along the way, but I have to say that things did eventually work out even more happily than I could have imagined, from a career that I love to a wonderful family, including the world’s greatest grandkids. But sadly, for many people, “living happily ever after” does seem like an unobtainable fairy tale. Why is that happy ending growing ever more out-of-reach for so many people?
Of course, there are always factors beyond our control, like health problems and accidents. None of us can ever know if our birthday or Christmas celebration was the last we’ll ever enjoy. We have no way of knowing when it will all end, only that someday, it will (that’s why it’s said that the only certainties in life are death and taxes.)
Well, I can’t help you with your taxes, but I do have a bit of advice that I think will make death less frightening and greatly increase your chances of living “happily ever after.”
For decades, our nation has been focused on personal pleasure. The message drummed into everyone by pop culture is, “If it feels good, do it.” It’s fostered a culture of self-centeredness that led to Baby Boomers being nicknamed “The Me Generation.” Today’s young people have been dubbed “iGen” because many are so fixated on self and selfies that even their gadgets’ names all start with “I.” Advertising bombards us with the message that life is all about me and all about now. Such messages of immediate self-gratification may sell products and services, but they cause us to sell our souls if we follow this philosophy to its logical conclusion.
At some point in life, we all experience events that shake up our routine, much like the agitator in a washing machine shakes loose the grime in our clothes. We may not want or enjoy such experiences, but they’re necessary to force us to focus on the frailty of life and the certainty of death. They also force us to begin asking what really matters and why.
If we react to setbacks based solely on what feels good right now, we greatly lower our chances of enjoying a happy future. But if we believe there is even a remote possibility that our actions have lasting implications beyond the immediate, both within and beyond our lifetimes, it should cause us to think differently, live differently, and leave a different kind of legacy.
Without apology, I believe that the spiritual side of our lives really does matter. To believe otherwise is to define humans as little more than animated protoplasm, going through the motions of life for no particular purpose. I prefer to believe there’s more to us than flesh and blood. If we possess a soul capable of living beyond our lifetimes, then the seeds we plant in this life will yield fruit forever. If you believe those things, the ultimate becomes more important than the immediate.
When we decide to live beyond our lifetimes, our responsibilities to the next generation will outweigh our roles in our current jobs. More important than the money we’re paid for our work is what we will become as a result of our work. Our character will become more important than the careers we follow.
For all of us, life began “once upon a time.” Unlike the fairy tales, however, it’s up to us to make the choices that determine whether the last line of our life stories will read, “And they lived happily ever after.”
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I am all for standards in DC, just be consistent
I often write about the necessity to have immutable standards. If a society’s standards shift with the winds, or its leaders hold others to standards that they don’t apply to themselves or their allies, then it’s as bad as having no standards at all. Maybe even worse, because it so badly erodes trust in the fairness of the system. It’s like building a house on a sand dune in a windstorm.
That’s why the story of newly-elected New York Republican Congress member George Santos presents such an ethical conundrum for so many people.
Recently, the New York Times ran an article claiming that much of Santos’ resume was false, including his educational background, work experience and even his Jewish family background and sexual orientation. Santos initially denied the claims, but finally admitted to what he called “embellishing” his resume, a word that can apparently be stretched to include making blatantly false statements.
Now, I believe that elections should not be run under false pretenses, and that there should be consequences for deliberately misleading the voters, even when it’s someone from my own party. That’s because I believe in unchanging and universal standards of honesty, honor and integrity.
But something funny is going on. I’ve been making that same argument for years, and it was often a lonely hill to stand on. Now, suddenly, I find myself joined by a huge chorus of Democrat politicians and liberal media members, all outraged that an election was affected by the public not having full information about a candidate, and by that candidate lying about his personal background and qualifications. They’re demanding that Santos resign and a special election be held that they would (coincidentally, I'm sure) likely win. To which I say this…
Back that truck up for a minute! Aren’t you the same party that was arguing in court just a few days ago in Arizona that concerns about election integrity should be ignored, the clearly botched election not be redone, and the people who protested be sanctioned? And wasn’t the New York Times one of the major media outlets that misled voters into thinking the revelations of sleazy Biden family deals with foreign governments on Hunter Biden’s laptop were all “Russian disinformation” so you could help get Joe Biden elected (polls show that if voters had known about that story - now confirmed as true even by the New York Times - enough Americans would have changed their votes to reelect Trump.)
As Bonchie at Redstate.com points out at the link, lying about your background has become an honored tradition in the Democratic Party, from Sen. Elizabeth Warren advancing herself professionally by lying about being Native American to Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s stolen valor, and neither of them has resigned, or paid any price, really.
And then there’s the Prevaricator-in-Chief, Joe Biden. Bonchie recounts just a few of the many, many false statements, fictitious accomplishments and jaw-dropping whoppers Biden has graced us with over the years. After all, this is a man who had to drop out of one of his Presidential runs after it was revealed that he plagiarized another politician’s speech and literally stole his biography.
Biden’s list of false claims is legendary, from having been a truck driver (he wasn’t) to being arrested with Nelson Mandela (he wasn’t) to taking part in civil rights protests in the '60s (he didn't) to hitting a home run in a Congressional baseball game (he struck out twice) to having three law degrees and graduating at the top of his class (he has one degree and graduated in the bottom 12%.) He claimed to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, but never taught there. He claimed to be a liaison to Israel during the 1967 war, but the prime minister he claimed he met with didn’t take office until 1969. And as Bonchie says, all this is just the tip of the iceberg. He even lies when he has to know we know he's lying, like claiming that he inherited $5-a-gallon gas prices from Trump and brought them down.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-torched-claiming-gas-took-office-lies-staggering
Nobody on the left, neither in politics or media, cares that Joe Biden, to quote Buddy the Elf, “sits on a throne of lies.” And they all did whatever it took to prevent voters from knowing that in 2020 so they could help him misrepresent his way into the highest office in the world.
Now…suddenly…when it’s a freshman Republican in just one of 435 Congressional seats…they develop rigid standards of integrity and honesty for their political opponents to follow. But not themselves, Heaven forbid.
Am I saying that Santos should be held to the same no-standards as Biden? Of course not. Few conservatives would. In fact, when Santos came on Fox News – an outlet the liberal talking heads routinely accuse of presenting “misinformation” without evidence – Tucker Carlson sub Tulsi Gabbard pounded him like a cheap piece of flank steak. And rightly so.
But where are the clips of any of the liberal outlets that are calling for Santos’ head doing the same thing to Joe Biden for his mountain of lies that makes Santos’ lies look like a molehill? Knowing that the stink of their hypocrisy would surely become an issue, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes tried to get out in front of it by declaring that somehow, there’s a big difference between Santos’ lies and the “‘normal’ politician BS-ing” represented by Biden. That went over like a kale salad at a Super Bowl party.
I’m sure there will be Republicans who fall for this and demand that Santos resign, as they continue observing an unchanging set of standards for honorable conduct, and I appreciate that. Under most circumstances, I would stand with them. But I’m tired of seeing these standards applied in one direction only.
So instead, I now call for the bipartisan imposition of basic standards of honesty and transparency. I will join the call for Santos to step down, but only on the condition that he leave DC in linked arms with Biden and all the other serial liars and con artists who advanced their political careers by blatantly misrepresenting their backgrounds and policies to the voters and by covering up vital information. I also call for any so-called “journalists” who colluded to hide vital information from voters to tender their resignations and leave as well. The same goes for any bureaucrats who misused their positions in federal agencies to pressure media and social media outlets into hiding vital information, such as Hunter Biden’s laptop, from the voters.
And when that vast parade of former government and media employees is finally beyond the city limits, we can start the huge job of holding new elections and job interviews, to repopulate a now-virtually empty Washington, DC.
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Advice for parents:
If you’re thinking of sending your kids to Texas Christian University, you might reconsider after reading this story.
Unless you think it’s worth paying tuition for your son to learn how to be a drag queen or be taught that “the gender binary is a tool of white supremacy,” or that it’s “violence” to ask a man in a dress if he’s a man.
And my advice for Texas Christian University: Either change your curriculum or change your name.
Big Tech Censorship
Want to see some real-time proof of how Big Tech is trying to censor people and shape how we think and what we’re allowed to say and believe? Then read this story (while you still can) about NCAA athlete Macy Petty.
She wanted to make a statement on Twitter about her opposition to letting men compete against women in women’s sports, but she couldn’t get it under Twitter’s length limit. So she asked the artificial intelligence app ChatGPT to cut it down for her. Instead, she got back a robot lecture on how “it’s important to emphasize inclusivity and equality in sports rather than promoting exclusion based on gender. Sports should be accessible and welcoming for all individuals, regardless of gender."
Just a reminder:
The Biden DOJ is trying to put former President Trump in federal prison for allegedly letting someone without a top security clearance see a classified document that was reportedly a crackpot plan to invade Iran that he never approved. They call this revealing state secrets and endangering national security.
So what do you call it when Joe Biden stands up in front of a roomful of donors at a fundraiser and blurts out the state secret that the Chinese balloon he recently let float across the US was loaded with “a boxcar full of spy equipment,” something the public wasn’t supposed to know?
Leave California
If you need any more reasons not to move to California, Democrat legislators just advanced a bill that would allow children as young as 12 to be “emancipated” from their parents and moved to state-run shelters on the say-so of therapists and counselors. The bill’s backers claim it’s to protect children and ensure they have access to mental health care, but detractors say it’s opening the door to letting the state remove parents from decisions over things like giving “trans” surgery to minors.
https://freebeacon.com/california/california-assembly-bill-665/
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