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. – host Leahy welcomed former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson to the newsmaker line to talk about next week’s Rediscovering America Tour in Franklin, Tennessee, and his philosophy in restoring America’s values and principles.
Leahy: We welcome to our newsmaker line, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and all-around great American, Dr. Ben Carson. Good morning, Dr. Carson. Thanks for joining us.
Carson: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Leahy: You’re going to be in town here. Tell us about where people can see you, Dr. Carson.
Carson: I always look forward to coming to Tennessee because it’s one of the places where people have common sense.
Leahy: Absolutely. (Laughter)
Carson: We’re going to be at The Factory in Franklin, Tennessee, for an event, Rediscovering America, and it will be myself, Dr. Tom Krannawitter, The Vino & Veritas Society, basically talking about what made America, and what are the founding principles.
There have been so many attacks on who we are recently, and an attempt to soil the reputation of the United States. I think it’s so important for people to know who we are, what are our values and principles, how do we get started, and what we must do in order to extend the promise of America to those who are coming after us.
Leahy: And that event is one week from today, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Rediscovering America at the Factory at Franklin.
And by the way, you were at the Factory back in January when you were the featured speaker at an event that our good friend Carol Swain held.
Carson: That’s correct. And we had a very good time there. But we’ve been going all over the country, really just trying to get people to understand who we are and that we, the American people, are not each other’s enemies.
And we should not allow ourselves to be manipulated into thinking that we are each other’s enemies, because when you look at the position of America and the world before we became a great superpower, there were all these despotic leaders going around trampling on anybody who was weaker than they were.
That stabilized to a large degree as our strength increased and as our values were spread around the world. But now as we’re getting weaker and we seem to be losing our values, those despotic leaders are starting to pop up again. And that’s why it’s so important. The concept of America and what we bring to the world is stability and opportunity.
Leahy: Dr. Ben Carson, you are a strong Christian and you said something very significant there. We are not enemies of each other.
My sense of all this is that all of this division of the country is driven by a small percentage of people who actually control the Democratic Party, control a lot of the media and are constantly creating division. As a Christian, how do you interact with people who have that negative intent?
Carson: Recognize that they need to create a sense of dissatisfaction with who we are. So the best way to do that is to drive wedges between people. And they use race, that’s a big one, and gender and income and age and religious affiliation and political affiliation.
And they just keep driving these things to divide us because a house divided against yourself cannot stand. I realize that many of these people are zealots. They believe that they are right, that they are righteous, and that anyone who opposes them is an infidel, is someone either to be converted or eliminated.
It’s basically the same kind of philosophy that the radical jihadist has. And we have to still love these people, but we have to show them a better way. And you can’t do that by standing in the corner with your head down and hoping no one called you a nasty name.
Leahy: What’s interesting about this is I think you’re much kinder than I am, Dr. Carson. See, you say we have to love these people, and well, I’m just not as nice as you are, because I think we need to beat them, we need to defeat them. And that is the only way we can go forward. Now, how should I be nicer in dealing with these people?
Carson: Now recognize you can love people, but still defeat them. You have children, you love them, but you don’t let them get away with terrible things, because they grow up to be terrible people. So the two things are not incompatible with each other.
Leahy: That makes a lot of sense.
Carson: The key thing is that we have to show people that there’s a better way. We have to be aggressive in doing that.
Leahy: I like being aggressive and showing people a better way. What are some examples of being aggressive in showing the lunatic Left a better way?
Carson: For instance, at American Cornerstone Institute, which I head up and founded, we have something called the Little Patriots program, littlepatriotslearning.com, where we have lessons, animated, beautiful, cartoon lessons on the history of our country and on our values and principles. It’s extremely well done.
We hired some of the best talents from Disney and Pixar and ABC Kids, the ones that were not woke, by the way. (Chuckles) And these things are something that just sort of grab the kids.
I mean, we’ve had 23,000 sign-ups just last week. They’re coming in droves. And it’s great for home schools, for public schools, for private schools, for all kinds of learning facilities – and the best part, free of charge.
Leahy: Dr. Ben Carson in-studio with me right now, a couple of my good friends. One, Joe Carr, is the Republican nominee for the mayor of Rutherford County. That’s a big county here, just outside of Nashville, and our election here is two weeks from today. Joe Carr is dying to ask you a question. Ben. Dr. Carson.
Carr: Good morning. Dr. Carson, how are you this morning?
Carson: Doing well, thanks.
Carr: Looking forward to seeing you at World Outreach Church.
Carson: Fantastic.
Carr: So the question I’ve got is for those of us who have the same worldview, which is one of compassion and understanding the principles on which this Republic was founded, which is based in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, life begins at conception, the defense of our liberties.
It just seems to me – and I’m listening to you and I agree with everything you’re saying – but the challenge in those statements comes from … it seems like we have tried to, our side of the aisle with this particular worldview that embraces life has bent over backward trying to accommodate the Left.
And it seems like our accommodation has looked more like capitulation if you look at the progress the Left has made at eroding these fundamental principles and values we have.
Listen to the interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Ben Carson” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
