Dad Saves America

President Trump’s strikes on Iran have reignited the American foreign policy debate. For decades, libertarians like myself have hammered the mistakes of the War on Terror, especially in Iraq. Ron Paul’s 2007 presidential debate performance laid out the blowback risks of interventionism, highlighting a specific story of American meddling in Iran—one I believed until very recently. President Trump is resetting long-held assumptions about regime change and endless war, forcing me to rethink the complexity of geopolitics. Caught between conspiracy theories of Israeli control and premature declarations of “mission accomplished,” Americans must decide for themselves what to think in these tumultuous times.
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Check my sources over on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/dadsavesamerica/p/trumps-iran-strike-israeli-influence?r=24ayxm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
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I sat down with Pastor Doug Wilson to unpack his views on “Christian nationalism” and American identity. Every legal system rests on moral assumptions—Doug argues that those assumptions should be Christian. We discuss whether America was historically a Christian nation, how immigration and assimilation shape a country’s cultural cohesion, the dangers of theocracy, and what would happen to Catholics in his ideal vision of America.
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Follow Doug on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/douglaswils?s=20
Learn more about Doug’s work: https://dougwils.com/
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Outline:
[0:00] What is “Christian Nationalism”?
[5:19 5:30] Were things better in the “good old days”?
[11:23 11:34] Immigration disrupts the national order
[19:29 19:40] What does it mean to be American?
[32:30] Pastor Doug’s political philosophy
[41:29] Religious liberty and the First Amendment
[49:31] Does universal liberalism grow out of Christianity?
[57:13] How America integrated Catholics
[1:05:02] Who gets to live in a Christian nation?
[1:12:27] Free will, predestination, and Calvinism
[1:17:10] What about when people break the Christian laws?
[1:26:10] Liberty, gay marriage, and drug laws
[1:42:37] Summing up Pastor Doug’s worldview
[1:45:04] Grappling with Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes
[1:51:59] Is Christianity in crisis or revival?
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I sat down with Lionel Shriver, author of “A Better Life,” to unpack why the American immigration debate has become so unreasonable. She argues that the “nation of immigrants” mythology is a kind of progressive moral blackmail, preventing Americans from asking basic questions about assimilation, national self-interest, and cultural cohesion. We also discuss whether Islamic immigration is compatible with liberal democracy and why immigration can’t fix collapsing birthrates. Lionel makes the case that the West has lost its sense of self-confidence—and now, its instinct for self-preservation.
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Order a copy of “A Better Life”: https://a.co/d/0g6H0sGW
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Outline:
[0:00] Writing a novel on immigration
[12:03] Why Americans struggle to discuss immigration
[19:51] White leftists don’t actually hate themselves
[26:53] Assimilation in the U.S. vs Europe
[42:20] Should we allow Islamic immigration?
[53:24] Uncontrolled migration and welfare can’t work
[1:01:45] The fertility crisis argument for immigration
[1:13:56] Western values must be actively defended
[1:21:01] Spoiled leftists just won’t wake up to reality
[1:30:56] Female virtue signaling and luxury beliefs
[1:38:21] Is our politics bound to keep getting crazier?
[1:43:06] Trump vs globalist totalitarianism
[1:51:16] The internet is supercharging social contagion
[1:57:06] “Toxic masculinity” and the feminization of society
[2:15:14] Individual sovereignty vs the survival of humanity
[2:26:45] We encourage bad and ignore good behavior
[2:37:15] “No pain, no gain” is the truest cliché
[2:42:48] Self-contemplation is bad for your mental health
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I sat down with Rob Henderson, author of “Troubled” and known for coining the term “luxury beliefs,” to explore how status, envy, and social mobility shape society. Rob shares how growing up in foster care, enlisting in the Air Force at 17, and eventually attending Yale and Cambridge forced him to confront what material success can—and can’t—deliver. Hunter-gatherer societies suppressed status through rigid egalitarianism, but as civilizations grew, status competition became an increasingly powerful force. Today, elite strivers hijack class politics to engage in their own battle between the “haves” and the “have-mores,” while serious discussions about class have begun to shift from left to right.
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Learn more about the “Troubled” movie: https://troubledthemovie.com/
Follow Rob on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/robkhenderson
Read Rob’s work on Substack: https://www.robkhenderson.com/
Purchase a copy of “Troubled”: https://www.amazon.com/Troubled-Memoir-Foster-Family-Social/dp/1982168536
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Outline:
[0:00] The sociology of status
[7:36] Class analysis flipped from left to right
[15:57] The haves, the have-nots, and the have-mores
[21:41] The traits that build wealth
[26:59] Narcissism comes in 2 flavors
[38:31] How do you keep the loudmouths under control?
[43:38] Why do we care about status?
[51:36] How gratitude advances civilizations
[55:22] Finding a stable identity keeps envy in check
[1:04:08] The state of sex relations in 2026
[1:15:46] We aren’t built for comfort
[1:25:27] Can the military fix TikTok-fried kids?
[1:37:25] Healthy cultural norms aren’t self-enforcing
[1:49:46] Elite hypocrisy on marriage and family
[1:58:09] Is it just “kids these days” or something else?
[2:03:10] Is religion a necessary anchor for moral culture?
[2:12:14] Adapting “Troubled” into a movie
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Purchase a T-shirt, hoodie, and more over on our merch store: https://shop.dadsavesamerica.com/
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I sat down with philosopher and author Dr. Stephen Hicks to unpack the West’s trajectory from medieval Christianity to modern progressivism. We explore the psychological fallout of online information overload and a failing education system that is fueling a socialist resurgence. Dr. Hicks breaks down how the rediscovery of Greco-Roman writings by figures like St. Thomas Aquinas—and, a few centuries later, the Protestant Reformation—set the stage for the Enlightenment, gradually developing the ideas that would eventually become “classical liberalism.” We also track the parallel development of leftist thought, from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the French Revolution to Marx and today’s woke reign of terror.
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Follow Dr. Hicks on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/SRCHicks?s=20
Check out Dr. Hicks’ Peterson Academy courses: https://petersonacademy.com/instructors/stephen-hicks
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Outline:
[0:00] What is “the truth”?
[6:06] “Expert consensus” and misinformation
[18:27] Filtering through information overload
[30:31] The evolution of adulthood and education
[39:53] Religion, literacy, and the Protestant Reformation
[45:12] Did Christianity invent individualism?
[59:44] Collectivism is the problem, not religion
[1:08:40] Was the abolition of slavery a Christian movement?
[1:20:16] Did Christianity lay the foundation for the Enlightenment?
[1:31:51] How Christendom revived Greco-Roman thought
[1:41:18] Rousseau and the French Revolution
[2:04:50] The blank-slate view of moral agency
[2:11:02] Rousseauean socialism vs Marxism
[2:19:09] How Marxism survived each of its failures
[2:28:11] What unifies the wide range of leftist ideas?
[2:43:13] The link between mental health and education
[2:54:22] Why philosophy matters
_____________________________________
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