When America was born, the idea was that a central government would be limited in scope and authority. It was not intended to promote DEI hires or impose the will of a ruling party, Steve Deace said on American Family Radio Monday.
In the modern day, the opposite has occurred.
“The founders got it right because they were permitted to in the culture that they came from. Christianity is the driving influence and impulse of the culture,” Deace told show host Jenna Ellis. “So, you had a people (then) that understood they were under the jurisdiction of whom James Madison referred to as the governor of the universe: God.”
Human nature has its limits, Deace said, and when the culture changed from recognition of and reliance upon God, a terrible nosedive was under way.
Now, worldview choice is affecting the tragedy that continues to play out, he says.
The death toll of the Los Angeles fires has reached 24 with dozens still missing.
Thousands of structures have been destroyed. Three fires remain, the smallest being mostly contained, but the larger ones, the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, are less than 30% contained.
The return of strong winds amid still-dry conditions has prompted The National Weather Service to issue red-flag warnings for fire danger in Southern California.
More than 100,000 Los Angeles County residents are under evacuation orders.
The Palisades and Eaton are likely the second- and fourth-most destructive fires in California history, CNN reports.
The total area burned by the three fires is roughly 60 square miles, an area larger than Paris.
Comparing disaster response
And the response is far different than how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis handled his state after Hurricane Ian struck two years ago, Florida-based podcaster Dave Rubin said.
“Everybody on the news was saying to rebuild the Sanibel Causeway, which is about four miles, (24:32) was going to take three years. That's what everybody was saying,” Rubin said.
Instead, the bridge reopened three weeks after the storm “because (DeSantis) brought all the best contractors down. He took everybody to the bridge and basically said, what do we need to do? They gave him recommendations, and he started making it happen the next day. That's proper, competent governance.”
Rubin said California is “an ever-growing state that taxes endlessly and punishes people for success. How is it that I have nice, clean roads in Florida? How is it that we don’t have homeless people in Florida? Why do things work with no income tax in Florida?”
The answer is core philosophy, Deace says. It’s not that DeSantis’ gifts and leadership skills exceed those of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We’re not debating personalities anymore," Deace suggested. "Ron DeSantis is a better manager than Gavin Newsom because he has a different worldview. He has a worldview that makes human dignity of preeminent worth, that we’re made in the likeness and image of God. That’s what’s made him more effective."
Land developers and a shoulder shimmy
By contrast, Deace says Newsom’s worldview elevates ideology – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or Environment, Social and Governance --- even over human worth and human suffering.
One stark example of that, which has gone viral on social media, is Gov. Newsom's bizarre TV interview (pictured at right) with a local Fox News affiliate. When he brings up the issue of speculators buying up destroyed properties, Newsom is smiling, and his shoulders do a shimmy, as if he's excited about the idea.
In comments, X users speculate the California governor is possessed by demons, high on drugs, or a sociopath unable to contain his feelings.
In a previous TV news interview about a lack of water for fire trucks, Newsom was slammed for throwing up his hands and telling CNN the "local folks" will figure out the lack of water in fire hydrants.
“The other guy is (also) driven by his worldview," Deace says of Newsom. "And in any Marxist worldview, ideology trumps human worth every single time. This is why there have to be DEI, ESG and environmental wacko regulations. We can’t escape worldview.”
The battle on the horizon as Donald Trump takes office will be among those who understand the significance of worldview and those who do not. Those who believe the path to restoring America lies in simply enforcing the will of the Right have it wrong, Deace said.
“The Godlessness in the West has seeped into the Right. The Founding Fathers could not have articulated this kind of governing vision outside of a Christian worldview. It could not function anywhere in the world outside of a Christian biblical moral view worldview framework, and it won't in our era either,” he said.
The greatest problem, Deace says, is that the Constitution alone won’t save America.
The Christian worldview doesn’t matter to too many people, and the Constitution, “like John Adams said, is meant only for a moral and religious people,” Deace said.
Not all of those people are Democrats.
“We have another group of people on the right who want to say, ‘well, we have to abide by the unwritten rules, and the honored, cherished traditions, and the distinctions, and the spirit of the law. Otherwise, we're terrible humans,” Deace said.
When governing is harder than winning
That’s the political landscape that Trump must navigate.
The cracks have been obvious just since Nov. 5 in discussions over H-1B visas and budget fight in the House, Deace said.
For Trump, the process of governing will be more challenging than winning the election. Democrats sense that, Deace said.
“Notice now that the Democrats are pretty quiet," Deace observed. "They’re like, ‘Okay, let's see how these guys actually run the country with the slimmest of majorities and everything else. It’s going to be a real challenge on the Right to come up with a cohesive, unifying message of how to affirmatively run the government and how to affirmatively govern a country.’
