Florida is Leading the way for Conservative Values – with John Stemberger: Today we have John Stemberger on to talk about all the constitutional conservative victories that have been won in Florida recently, including victories for life, transgenderism and even border security. With the proper leadership, our country can be set in the right direction. We’ll also take some time to look at Ron DeSantis and what the future may hold.

Air Date: 05/30/2023

Guest: John Stemberger

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

 

Transcription:

Rick Green
Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders, where we’re taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. We’re doing that here with David Barton. He’s America’s premier historian, and our founder at WallBuilders. And Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And I’m Rick Green, America’s constitution Coach. Thanks so much for joining us, today. We want to encourage you also to join us on the website WallBuilders.com . And while you’re there, make that one time or monthly contribution, it’s your opportunity to come alongside us. We’re a listener supported program. And we sure appreciate you being a part of that by making a contribution. It’s a good investment in securing freedom, and restoring our liberty by getting people educated and equipped and inspired to do their part as biblical citizens. Alright guys, John Stemberger will be with us a little later, talking about what’s going on at Florida. Of course, the Florida Family Policy Council is what he runs. But that means he’s on the front lines in legislative sessions. They just wrapped up their legislative session, lots of good victories there. And of course, we’re always talking on the program about getting good stuff back into the culture so that we get good stuff out. And Florida is turning the tide on a lot of these major issues, whether it’s the transgender issue or, you know, just education in general. So we’ll get a little bit of a report on what’s happened in Florida and their legislative session. May be the beacon of hope for other states to follow.

Tim Barton
Yeah, guys, I think one of the things that, you know, we look back a couple years ago, Virginia was an example where people thought, what happened with Youngkin, maybe that can be a model. And then when you had the 2022 election, and Florida just cleaned house, with Ron DeSantis having this incredible victory and the down ballot impact. What’s happened even with the school boards, with Christians, conservatives, getting involved and turning things around. Florida has definitely become a beacon. And really an example that other states who want to do things right, how can you secure elections, because there’s so many questions that people have now surrounding elections. There’s so many conversations that are going on now about how do we solve problems? How do we solve education? How do we fix so many of these messes. And literally, Florida is at the forefront of giving examples of how you can turn some of these things around, of how you can clean up elections, of how you can make sure there’s transparency, that there’s honesty, there’s openness, and yet there are a fair just election system and what they’ve done even with higher education, and etc., etc.. They have really become the example of what should be done and how it should be done. And you know, as all three of us being from Texas, it’s always hard when we say you have to look to somebody else to be the example of what a conservative state should do and how it should function. But certainly with some of the nonsense that’s been happening in Texas recently, and not to dive into that nonsense, because that’s not really what we’re talking about today, but Florida has just been such a great example that other states need to begin emulating some of what has happened in Florida.

Rick Green
Yeah, I was speaking in Florida last weekend, guys and it was very humbling for me as a Texan to have to say multiple times, hey, look at this bill y’all did. I wish we could do that in Texas. Y’all are really doing better than us. That’s hard for a Texan to admit.

David Barton
Well, I tell you, Tim may not jump into it, but I’m going to jump into it, because Texas like a number of states, just finished its legislative session. States, unlike the feds, fortunately, do not go all year round all the time. Very few states do. California is one of those that does nearly all year. But states like Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, it’s going to be somewhere from one to two to three to five months is all they do. And so Texas got done and the Republican legislature in Texas, Republican Senate Republican House Republican governor, our republican Speaker of the House managed to kill 75 bills had been passed by the Senate, waiting for the House to pass them. So our Republicans in Texas, at least our house speaker in Texas, is not doing anywhere close… and that keeps us from looking as good as Florida. So I’m with you guys. I hate to say that Florida whipped us, but Florida whipped us. Texas had been a good leader for a number of years. But I got to say I don’t mind if other states come along and be great leaders as well. We don’t need to be the only state doing good stuff. And certainly we’re not. And I don’t mean to imply that. But nonetheless, it was not a good year for Texas. It was a great year for Florida. And because of Florida, they did a lot of things that will impact the nation as well.

Rick Green
Alright, folks, we’re going to take a break. And this is going to be a test today whether David and Tim and Rick if our egos, our Texas egos, can handle an entire program talking about how much better another state is doing than us. Stay with us. We’ll be right back with John Stemberger as our special guests here on WallBuilders.

Tim Barton
This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Too often today history education excludes great black heroes from the American founding. Such as Lemuel Haynes. Haynes, though abandoned as a baby, pioneered churches across upper New England. He became the first black American to pastor a white congregation, to receive an honorary master’s degree, and to be ordained by a mainstream Christian denomination, The Congregationalist. He was a soldier during the American Revolution and in his churches on George Washington’s birthday he regularly preached sermons honoring George Washington. Even late in his life he expressed his willingness to go back to battle if necessary to protect America, which he called, “€œa sacred ark.”€ American history is filled with numerous examples of black heroes who are largely ignored by mainstream education today. For more information about Pastor Lemuel Haynes and other colonial Patriots go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick Green
Welcome back, thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders. Our guest today John Stemberger from Florida and the Florida Family Policy Council and helped to start Trail Life and great attorney there as well and our partner at Patriot Academy for the Leadership Congress we hold in Tallahassee every year. John, thanks for coming on. Looking forward to seeing you in Tallahassee in a few weeks.

John Stemberger
Yeah, Rick, look forward to seeing you at the homeschool convention here.

Rick Green
It’s going to be good man. Well, I’ll see you the homeschool convention. I’ll see you when we do the Leadership Congress at the Capitol. And so much going on in Florida. And I have to tell you, man, I almost didn’t want to do this interview. Because it’s very hard. It’s very hard for a Texan to admit that Florida is just absolutely running circles around what is supposed to be the greatest state in the union. And I’m just… it It pains me, it grieves me. But I admit it, you guys have just hit home run, after home run, after home run over the last few years. So much so that the left is saying we’re out of here, which is what you want. I mean, they’re leaving the state, the leftist are. And people that want to live in freedom are moving to the state. You’ve been right there at the forefront of this for decades. You’ve watched your state and been instrumental in your state becoming a beacon of hope. So we just wanted to know the secret sauce, man. How in the world has this happened? And where do you think it goes?

John Stemberger
Well, it’s all about leadership and Governor Ron DeSantis. I mean, he is one of the most exciting figures I’ve seen in public life, in 40-50 years, maybe since Reagan. He’s just done a remarkable job. He’s a force of nature, his ability to be totally committed to principle, but then to also speak wisely. And as Ecclesiastes 3 says, know that there’s a time and a place for everything. It’s very hard to find, you know, full throated, social conservative leaders who are strong and uncompromising on principles, but have the discernment to know when to pull the punches, and when to speak fearless. And so he’s amazing in that way. He’s fearless. Family is beautiful. And so this is the reason why we’ve had all this done. Just today I did an interview, we passed the law here, because all these drag shows all over the state are just bombarding our kids everywhere. It’s just they’re pushing them in our kids faces. And so the law prohibits any sexual performances, sexually explicit performances in front of children. And so there’s this Hamburger Mary’s chain that has drag shows basically constantly in the hamburger restaurant. And they’re suing saying, oh, this is closing down their First Amendment right. And I can assure you, you know, Rick, better than anyone else. When the first man was drafted, it did not protect dudes that want to dress up as girls in dresses and throw their crotch around little kids. The state has a compelling interest in protecting children. And that kind of nonsense needs to be shut down ASAP, which this law does.

Rick Green
Yeah, I mean, it’s one of many, many examples where you guys have been bold. DeSantis has been bold. He’s been unashamed to say this is evil, you know, and calling evil, evil and good, good is hard to find right now. I mean, we’re in that biblical thing of everybody calling good, evil and calling evil, good. It’s the opposite, especially from our DOJ and FBI and the rest. That’s another topic, but you guys in Florida and like you said, it’s all about leadership. You know, Governor DeSantis set the tone for this. And you know, I’ve said it since you know, middle of 2020. He won me over as… my respect for him, when he was the first politician of my life to stand up and say, I got it wrong. I won’t do it again, and said these lockdowns are crazy. It was only a few weeks into the mess that he figured out this is not good, because he’s looking at the data and he doesn’t care if everybody blaming, you know, said you’re going to kill grandma, and all this baloney, all the lies. He didn’t care. He did what was right. And of course, they’re going to play videos and stuff from the first few weeks where he got it wrong, along with everyone else in the country. And then… but he was willing to say, wait a minute, this is not right. And he… and that to me, it shows a lot of character of… because I don’t… in fact, I don’t know of any other… Anybody that’s admitted it yet, other than him and said, you know what, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done that. It’ll never happen again. And they became such a champion for freedom and opening up Florida. What are your thoughts on that? What did it take for a guy at that level, to stand up and reverse course, and do the right thing?

John Stemberger
You know, it was such a weird time because we’re… the whole society is struggling with kind of this crisis of epistemology, right? That’s a fancy philosophical word for what is real like, which… We can’t even figure what’s real anymore. Everything’s politicized. Everything is like, you know, in terms of gender, in terms of science, in terms of diseases, it’s like we can’t figure out what’s real. And he really got to the facts of what was really going on, and was following the real true facts, not the garbage science that was being promoted by pharmaceutical companies. So you know, kudos to him. The man is just fearless. He really is. And he, at our dinner just on Saturday said wokeness is evil, and truth exposes wokeness. So he basically connected wokeness to moral relativism, and said when we oppose wokeness we’re opposing evil. So it’s like it’s so clear, because most people… A lot of people don’t know what that term means, but he just made it crystal clear what it means. I mean, who else has been fighting corporate America the way he is, I mean, it’s just unbelievable. Even Disney, I mean, the way that he’s pushed against them, and by the way, people need to understand that’s kind of a controversial thing. But Disney, Walt’s original vision for Disney was a city of tomorrow that was Epcot the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. That was supposed to happen. That’s why he got the special privileges to be their own little city with their own nuclear power plant and own police force and all that. SeaWorld doesn’t have that Universal Studios… There’s no other theme park that has that. But now as they’re pushing against protecting the children in this Parents Rights and Education Act, the governor says, okay, you want to play that game? We’re going to make you play like every other corporation in Florida, that’s a theme park, right? They’ve been having these special privileges all these year, which were given to them for the wrong reason anyway, because that city of the future was never built anyway. So it’s just amazing to see him push back on Disney, And Disney is not just a theme park. It’s ABC, they own far and wide, quite a bit of stuff. And he’s just not putting up with any nonsense. He’s the sheriff that’s just really killing it here in Florida.

Rick Green
Well, and John, think about our basic easy to tell moral issues of life and sexuality and all those things. And over the last five or six, you know, years, good governors on other issues that caved because of corporate woke, you know, woke corporations that pushed back, NCAA, and others. It happened to Republican governors in Indiana, Mike Pence caved on this because of that sort of thing, happened in North Carolina before they had a Democratic governor. They had a Republican governor that caved on this stuff. I mean, over and over and over again, they caved whenever the money talks, right? Whenever the money came in and said we’re going to… you’re going to lose jobs, or we’re going to take away this game or this tournament or whatever. Not Ron DeSantis, the exact opposite. The largest employer in the state, right? Or close to it. And he says we’re… I’m willing to stand for what’s right. And I’m not going to… yeah, I’ll play that game with you. And I’ll defeat you at that game. I mean, wait a minute, this is offense, John! We’ve been saying we need an offense from our leaders for a long time. Your guys actually doing it.

John Stemberger
And you know, for everything that Trump did, and he did a lot of good. There’s no way he took on corporate America the way DeSantis is, and no way he would in the future. So that’s a unique selling point, I think of Ron DeSantis that you won’t find in President Trump. Although he served, and he served wonderfully in his time, we appreciate his service. And he was a remarkable person for a remarkable time. But I just think Ron DeSantis is just a whole new breed that we need from this moment of really craziness in the world where he’s pushing back on this wokeness and craziness.

Rick Green
Well, and John, I got to ask you this. I mean, these… some of these attacks, on Governor DeSantis, have become a tax on Florida and on these very policies we’re talking about. So when the Trump campaign or whoever- media, whoever does it, when they come out and start lambasting Florida’s record over the last couple of years, when you’ve absolutely led the way and created exactly what an American way of life should be, and the results speak for themselves with the jobs, the economy, all of those things, when they start attacking because of they’re worried about him doing well in the presidential race, when they start attacking the very conservative values and policies that we should want in other states. I mean, what is that? That’s destructive to the ends, that the movement’s supposed to be about? I don’t know if I’m making sense of my question. It’s so frustrating when I see it happen.

John Stemberger
Well, unfortunately, there’s just a lot of lying going on. That’s the bottom line. I mean, they’re just trying to twist stuff. It’s pretty clear. People are flocking to Florida everywhere, because of what’s been done here and because of DeSantis’s leadership. And so, you know, we’ve got an amazing thing. And, you know, if he becomes president, I think that’s a great thing, because, you know, he’ll export those same principles around the country.

Rick Green
Well, I’m hoping that it’s the model that other states will begin to follow. I mean, I even look at the busing of immigrants, you know, he did the flights to Martha’s Vineyard. And he was the one that actually suggested the busing of these illegal aliens into New York and that sort of thing. And then Abbott took him up on it, and actually started doing it, but it was DeSantis that suggested that. So that’s why I say, it’s just like home run after home run after home run. I don’t know who’s giving him the ideas or who his advisors are or any of that stuff. You’re a lot closer to his team and what’s going on, on the inside. But the fact that he has… whether it’s his idea, or he’s just bold enough to take it and run with it, it’s just been incredible to watch over the last couple of years.

John Stemberger
That’s the secret behind Ron DeSantis. Every person behind him it’s 100%, like from the chief of staff down to the interns. And by the way, Casey DeSantis, his wife, is like a rock star 10 times more conservative than he is. So that’s the secret sauce right there is that I mean, literally his entire administration… Remember Morton Blackwell’s quote personnel is policy. Literally his entire administration is rock solid with him.

Rick Green
Wait, John, are you saying he doesn’t hire People that are actually against his agenda and put them in positions to then undermine his… I mean, not that anybody would ever do that. Anyway.

John Stemberger
What a novel a novel concept, right?

Rick Green
Yeah, no that’s incredible. I mean, that’s really, really good to hear. I have to ask you the question my wife asked last night when she knew that I was going to be interviewing you today. She’s like, okay, wait, Florida is doing so good right now, and we need good governors. So if he does go on to be president, who’s Stemberger’s like behind the scenes? I know you can’t say probably. But do you guys have a farm team? You have some people that will step up and continue for Florida… Or send them to Texas. So Texas, it’s our turn. It’s our turn to do well, no, seriously, who? I mean, I’m assuming there’s a good farm team there in Florida.

John Stemberger
No, we’ve got a long bench here, that’s really solid. I mean, unless she doesn’t want it, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez, who’s a Cuban American Baptist, solid Christian woman. She was pro tem Speaker of the House, knows Florida’s politics, very committed Christian woman, mother, children, husband, she would be the next governor, as lieutenant governor at least for a period of time. And then beyond that if she ran again, she would probably get it. But then if she didn’t, then there would be an open seat for a number of people. I know that Byron Donalds has talked about it, the black American congressman from Naples, who’s a good friend of ours. There’s even been rumors it’s possible Rubio could resign and run for governor. So there’s a lot of things that can happen. But we’ll see. You know, we… the good news is we have tons of great leadership. And you know, Courage begets courage. Backbone begets backbone. That’s one of the beautiful things about Donald Trump. He literally showed everybody, hey, you can talk… you can… media can hit you can hit you and you’re not going to be a wild flower, you’re not going to die, you’re not to be a snowflake, right? Punch back. Like, let’s be resilient in this thing. Right? So I think that’s what we’ve had here in Florida. Governor DeSantis has, really presented a model, and that kind of has built the backbone of every Republican in the state.

Rick Green
Amen. And more hopefully, across the country as well. I wish we could go back and edit this interview and every time we said Florida, replace it with Texas, but we can’t. It’s just the facts of life, folks. That’s where we are. John Stemberger, always a great guest, man. Thank you for coming on today.

John Stemberger
Hey, listen, you guys still have the best barbecue. So there’s that.

Rick Green
That’s right. That’s right. Alright, that’s John Stemberger folks. Stay with us. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Tim Barton
Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called The American Story. For so many years, people have asked us to do a history book to help tell more of the story that’s just not known or not told today. And we would say very providentially in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America, whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil, and everything in America was built off slavery, which is certainly not true or things, like even the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization itself, not out the statement Black Lives Matter, but the organization that says we’re against everything that America was built on, and this is part of the Marxist ideology. There’s so many things attacking America. Well, is America worth defending? What is the true story of America? We actually have written and told that story starting with Christopher Columbus, going roughly through Abraham Lincoln, we tell the story of America not as the story of a perfect nation of a perfect people. But the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation. It’s a story you want to check out, wallbuilders.com, The American Story.

Rick Green
We’re back here on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to John Stemberger for joining us as well. David and Tim, just like we talked about at the opening of the program, a lot of good news out of Florida and we’d love to see Texas follow Florida. As much as we hate it, we’d love to see Texas do, and there was a couple of bills we did. We finally passed the bill right at the end. In fact, we thought we may not get it done that prevents child mutilation. And some others I guess we had a few victories but man, nothing like what John was talking about. And it comes back to leadership. Wou really had, at the top, DeSantis as governor pushing all these things through. Even before the legislative session started, he made it clear what the agenda was going to be and it paid off for him big time.

David Barton
Well, I’ll tell you, he stayed with what his agenda was. He did not get side tracked, he really work it hard. And not a surprise, now that he’s done with the session he has announced for president. And that was known for a long time. We knew back in last November that he was probably going to run for president. The state knew it as well, which is why the legislature passed a law to allow him to be able to hold office as governor and run for president, which was not the law before. So Florida would like to see that kind of leadership nationally, and certainly a lot of folks would. And it’s… while it’s becoming a crowded field. It is not nearly as crowded as we thought it was going to be back in November. And so as you look at the folks that have jumped in, there’s actually three on the Democrat side. And, two are not small names. They’re a lot more moderate than Biden is. And so on the Democrat side, you’ve got people like Marianne Williamson, you’ve got Robert Kennedy Jr., and they’re both a whole lot more common sense. I don’t know that that’s going to have much impact on Democrat delegates, because they don’t have the kind of following Biden does for sure. But over on the Republican side, obviously, Trump is already in. But in addition to Trump, you’ve got a couple of governors in, you have Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas, who’s in and… former governor of Arkansas, and Nikki Haley, who is the former governor of South Carolina, and she’s in. And you have Vivek Ramaswamy, who’s in. He’s a great voice, really articulate, doesn’t have the standing or the track record that the other candidates do, but he’s going to keep some arguments and keep some issues out there that people need to talk about. And you have Tim Scott from a US senator from South Carolina. Tim is in. Tim, I think as much as anything, he’s getting his name up there, but he and Trump have been talking about him as a vice presidential candidate. So maybe that’s why he’s in, because he hasn’t had the national standings some of these others have. And then you have Mike Pence, who has been definitely out there on the road, has not officially announced. His folks that he’s going to announce. He’s certainly been making the rounds in the early primary states. So there’s some people in there, but certainly not the quantity, we thought. We thought Youngkin would be in there, the governor of Virginia. He has not jumped in yet. He’s actually now he’s not going to. So it should be a pretty vigorous race for the presidential election coming up in 2024. But at this point, there’s some decent folks in there, and we should have some real good debates. But I think on the Republican side it’s likely to end up with Trump and DeSantis as the two. And DeSantis certainly has a track record. People know what they’ll get for Trump, because he’s already been there four years. But DeSantis is the one that a lot of people know about, but don’t know specifically much about him or the details. And I think that’s going to come to light over the next few months. And there’s going to be a whole lot of people really pleased with what DeSantis has done in his years as governor of Florida.

Tim Barton
Well Dad, I think there’s still some question marks maybe about Trump, there’s some areas that are very clear. But, you know, Rick, you guys in the interview talked about that, the personnel is policy. And some of the people that Trump had surrounding him… Where did Trump find the connections to get some of these incredible people that surrounded him? Well some of the places he found the connections were through guys like Mike Pence, and obviously Trump knows so many people now. But if some of the people that were really good people around him, and I’m not saying that for Mike Pence right now, but I am saying it for some of the people that were in some of the departments, some of the leaders, some of the heads, that were really good, genuinely wonderful people, conservatives, Christians, constitutionalist that were recommending, maybe even Supreme Court justices that were reviewing some of the individuals who were nominated in the Senate to be on court of appeals. We don’t know who Trump’s going to surround himself with yet. And if you don’t know who he’s going to surround himself with, there’s a reason to have some question marks because, Rick, you kind of alluded to this, even in the interview, is there definitely were times Trump surround himself with people who were not his friend. And hopefully, he has learned that lesson, where you do have a pretty unique contrast is that DeSantis has a pretty solid track record of who he surrounds himself with of the voices he has around him. And right, this is not a slight on President Trump at all, but it’s a recognition of the reality of the situation. And it’s going to be very interesting between those two, certainly, for Donald Trump, pretty much everybody already knows his baggage, but he’s got a lot of uphill climbing to do to be able to win back some of the moderates, some of those in the middle, some of the votes that he would need. Whereas DeSantis doesn’t have nearly the volume of baggage, right, doesn’t have quite the same level of the dislike factor that Trump has to deal with. So it’s going to be interesting between those two. And so, Dad, I said only when we think of Trump and we say, well, you know what you’re going to get. Well, maybe. But I don’t know that we can expect his… if he becomes president, again, and has another four year term. I don’t know that we can expect it to be exactly like his first four year term, depending on who he surrounds himself with.

David Barton
Yeah, totally agree. I think if he gets a second term, it’ll be radically different from the first term, because a lot of those he had in the first term that did so well are not going to be with him this time, and they’ve made that clear. And in the first term, he did not clean out the anti Trump’ers, that were still there. But that’s one thing that DeSantis has done really well. He’s cleaned out people who stand in the way of the vision he has. And he has, Tim, as you said, personnel is policy, and at this point, there’s no question that DeSantis has done a much better job of taking the anti people out, the roadblocks, the impediments, and Trump did not do that very well, in his four years. And I don’t think he’d have as good staff this time as he did then. All that to say, it’s going to be an interesting race to watch and with DeSantis now in there, that’s going to be a real name to watch over the next few months, as well.

Rick Green
It is for sure, guys, and then another area that’s kind of unknown is COVID response, right? I mean, there’s a, you know, DeSantis has made a very clear record on saying, hey, I got it wrong in that first month, but he got it right, after that. Trump has never apologized for getting it wrong, and even gave Fauci the Medal of Honor in January of ’21. And so people that are from all, you know, left, right, center, you know, we got liberals and conservatives that are not happy about how that whole thing was handled. And so I think that’s going to be a major point of contention between those two throughout the race. And so, you know, it’s going to be a really interesting, what, year and a couple of months between now… well really no, a year, I guess we’ll know a year from now, because all the delegates will be chosen by then. So stay tuned, folks. I’m sure we’ll have many more programs about this subject. Thanks so much for listening. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders