Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined in studio by all-star panelist Carol Swain to listen to calls from the Bless Their Heart line.
Leahy: Not so wonderful a time as to how our audience responded to Governor Bill Lee’s decision to say, welcome! To cave to the left and say welcome to all these refugees that Tennessee taxpayers are going to have to pay for. And we have the Bless Their Heart Line that we’re going to play right now.
This is the official voicemail messaging system of the Tennessee Star Report. You can call 615-744-4730, 24/7. And you can leave a message if someone in the public eye has made a mistake. Boy, the phone calls and lines lit up last night after Governor Lee’s decision.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: Carol. That’s funny, isn’t it?
Swain: It is funny.
Leahy: Because you know we talked about Gov. Lee who many have said is really a Democrat at heart and made a nice contribution to Megan Barry when she was running for mayor.
Swain: He certainly did.
Leahy: He certainly did.
Swain: Karl Dean and Bredesen as well.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: Now that’s kind of funny. I know he was talking about Mayor Cooper. But it’s kind of funny you’ve got to admit.
Swain: Well, Mayor Cooper has been very pragmatic.
Leahy: I don’t disagree. But the line is funny. (Laughs)
Swain: Yeah. It is funny.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: You can’t give up on that one. That’s a good point though.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: Well she didn’t say bless his heart. But the point is, that’s an example of how strongly people are reacting to this decision.
Swain: I’d like to write an opinion piece about it because it’s really not helping the people they’re bringing in. They don’t make it. They don’t get enough money to assimilate.
Leahy: That’s a good point.
Swain: But they don’t care. It’s all politics.
Leahy: And the voluntary agencies are getting a lot of money out of it as well.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: Yeah Carol.
Swain: I’d like to bless his heart too because everything he does like this he uses his Christian faith. Well, some of those people that he let fry or die in this state had committed crimes but had had conversions that you know had become devout Christians. He did not intervene. Had I been governor in some of those cases I would have intervened. My Christian faith would have said don’t let these people die.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: Our listeners are kind but don’t like the decision.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: Again, we haven’t had a single caller that likes the governor’s decision, Carol.
Swain: Well I’m not surprised. I hope the governor and his staff are listening. But I don’t think it will make a difference. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Leahy: This was intentional?
Swain: I can’t believe you asked me last week about what he was going to do if he hadn’t made up his mind. Of course, he made up his mind, a long time ago.
Leahy: I was trying to be open-minded.
Swain: (Leahy laughs) Well I’m open-minded too, but I know how decisions are made.
Leahy: I think you got that one right.
(Bless Your Hear Line plays)
Leahy: And that’s our last call on the Bless Their Heart Line. Santa Claus weighing in. Isn’t it good to hear Santa being a defender of individual liberty Carol?
Swain: Yes.
Leahy: The Bless Their Heart Line is the official recorded voicemail system of the Tennessee Star Report. You can call the Bless Their Heart Line at 615-744-4730. 24/7. Keep it nice and keep it clean. Carol, the phone lines just lit up on this. I think the problem for Governor Lee is that he’s revealed himself on this decision.
Swain: What do you mean revealed himself? He was never hiding. It was so clear. People wanted him to be the person that shared their values and invited their principles. You know he’s very good with the Christian talk. He’s very liberal.
Leahy: He’s genuinely in his belief a Christian. But I think your point is that he is part of the social justice warrior liberal Christian world view.
Swain: Yes. And it seems like among wealthy people with few exceptions that a lot of them maybe feel guilty because of their wealth but they tend to trend very left. And they make decisions maybe through they’re hearts and not through their heads.
But in his case, I think that he’s looking long term towards becoming president or something someday. So it was a very shrewd calculated decision. When those kinds of decisions are made, I want separation of church and state and public policy arguments supporting it and not my Christian faith. I want public policy being done using clear, rational, logical reasons, and data.
Leahy: Yeah, and I think we wrote about this during the primaries back in 2018 that Governor Lee wants to be the “the Pastor” for all of Tennessee and to impose his particular view of Christian faith upon the rest of Tennessee making them and forcing them to pay for the care of these refugees.
Swain: Well, you know that’s not what the Christian faith is about. It’s voluntary. Come as you are. It’s not about imposing our values on other people. When you are the leader of a country or a state, you have to make decisions that are rational. That protects everyone.
Listen to the third hour:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Background Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by Casey Fleser. CC BY 2.0.
Damn near every interstate exit in TN has homeless people standing there begging for money, and this dumbass wants to bring in more people that will need to be taken care of?
If Billy Lee is a Christian, then I refer him to Proverbs 14:12.
The modern version of that is “the road the Hell is paved with good intentions”. The reason refugees and illegal aliens are coming to the U.S. in droves is we offer them heaven on earth. I won’t bother with the details. But, we cannot deliver on Billy Lee’s ill conceived utopic dream, unless we take resources from the middle class and give to the refugees. The end to the path that may initially seem good, is hollowing out our lives, liberty, and happiness until we look like California. Billy Lee is starting to look more like Gavin Newsom. God help us!
Despite the many ideological and philosophical differences that I have with Governor Lee, I have to agree with him on the refugee question and rush to his defense. As our country has pursued foreign and military policies over the last century that have caused the very economic and political destabilization that led to this refugee influx, we have forced these refugees come to our home country. We committed aggression, in other words, against them first just to benefit a few of our corporations. Also, don’t forget that some of our employers have illegally brought in aliens to do cheap labor that no citizen in this country wants to do. Nobody ever punished these employers for illegally recruiting them; instead, we make the refugees hired by these employers to take the rap instead. That is unjust!
well. maybe u will vote for lee in the next governor election. we need no more people living off the welfare of Tennessee. let them go back where they came from. we owe them nothing nor do we owe lee or anyone who agrees with him any thing
They did not want to come here in the first place. It is because our foreign and military policies toward Latin America over the past century has destabilized their regions, thereby making them too dangerous to live in. Otherwise, they would not take the trouble of taking the dangerous land journey from their country to the U.S. If the U.S. undid the damage that it committed against Latin Americans, these people would gladly return to their home. What about employers who illegally smuggle them to our shores to work as cheap labor at jobs no native U.S. citizen will take? If we are serious about stopping illegal immigration, we will lower the boom on those unscrupulous employers who bring these aliens here and exploit them until they can physically work no more. If we rehabilitate their countries, they will want to stay there and bolster our economy. But the Right and the Conservatives don’t want to hear it!