Allen Jackson NOW

Allen Jackson: Good evening and welcome to Nashville. I'm Allen Jackson. We're less than three months from the midterm elections, and some of the most revealing political stories in America right now are not simply about which candidate won or lost. They're about what the results are telling us about where the country is headed.

In the swing state of Wisconsin, Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong came within roughly 3,300 votes of becoming the Democratic nominee for governor. She had been leading by double digits in some polls just days before the election. Hong had previously called for defunding and ultimately abolishing the police.

She spoke favorably about a world without prisons. Her campaign called for abolishing ICE and resisting federal immigration enforcement. She wanted to expand abortion rights, calling it reproductive justice. In a social media post in 2020, she said the following: "Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original super spreader event that killed indigenous folks and women, so be it."

Francesca Hong lost, but only barely. And that may be the more important story because candidates once considered far outside the political mainstream are becoming increasingly serious contenders for major offices. We have already watched democratic socialists gain influence in some of America's largest cities, and younger voters seem increasingly receptive to ideas that would have been considered politically radical only a generation ago.

How close is democratic socialism to becoming mainstream politics? Did Wisconsin show just how close those radical ideas are to winning power in a swing state where half the state votes conservative? Dozens of candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America will appear on ballots nationwide this November.

Leaders who openly campaign on a platform that is contrary to Christian values is a very loud wake-up call. Elections reveal our spiritual health. The people elected don't make us more or less healthy; they reveal our spiritual condition. I'm of the opinion that an election is like when you go to the doctor for a physical and they do your blood work.

If they come back and say your cholesterol is a bit too high, the lab report itself doesn't make you unhealthy. The blood work is just an indicator of your health. The condition of your health dictates the blood report. I believe an election is an indicator of our spiritual health.

When we see that we're electing in a broad way people who have platforms in opposition to a biblical worldview, it should be a warning light to all of us that the spiritual condition of our nation is deteriorating, and it should matter to us. I think what we're finding out is that we're not as healthy as we wanted to believe we were.

Elections have consequences. Look no further than what took place in Massachusetts when the governor signed a bill to legalize killing babies in the womb up to birth. The new law eliminates Massachusetts' previous limit of six months in the womb for abortions, replacing it with abortion at any point—no limits and no guardrails.

What was so deeply disturbing to see was how ecstatic the room full of women were at the signing ceremony. The governor posted the video, and the text with the video read: "As long as I'm governor, abortion will remain safe." What she fails to mention is that it's not safe for the baby. In our nation, the killing of a newborn is called murder.

But if a woman in Massachusetts decides the day before the due date to kill the baby, it's called reproductive rights. Folks, we better wake up. We can't afford to stay quiet about our biblical worldview, and we've got to pray for our young people who are heading back to school. There's a concerted effort to rewrite history in our schools, our universities, and our institutions.

The Smithsonian, a taxpayer-supported institution, receives more than a billion dollars annually in federal funding. Well, last year, the Smithsonian recorded almost 15 million museum visits. Roughly 4 million of those visits were made by school-aged children. After a recent review driven by the Trump administration, the Smithsonian has been called out for becoming a vehicle for woke progressive activism.

The investigation found Smithsonian materials highlighting activists who demanded citizenship for illegal immigrants. They opposed ICE enforcement. The Smithsonian in 2023 and 2024 flew the pride flag, while the museum's Star-Spangled Banner flag-folding program hasn't been held for several years.

Another Smithsonian exhibit challenged the biological definition of female, telling young visitors that being a girl is not necessarily determined by sex at birth. As Christ followers, we must let our biblical worldview and biblically informed values be expressed consistently. We must lead with our faith.

If our faith doesn't live outside the church, then we don't have one. The analogy that I like to use when I talk about this is it's like being married, but then when you leave the house in the morning, you take your wedding ring off. We have wrongfully accepted the notion that our faith is appropriate but only if it resides when we're at church.

Whatever arena of influence God has given us, I believe we have the assignment of taking our faith into that arena. And if we'll be trustworthy with that, God will expand the arena of our influence in our communities, and our nation will experience better outcomes.

Coming up next, we'll visit with the editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, Alex Marlow. He'll join us from Los Angeles right after this short break. I'll be right back.

Tonight, we're joined by the editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, Alex Marlow. Welcome back to the show, Alex.

Alex Marlow: Pastor, it's so great to see you, and it was a pleasure to be on your program.

Allen Jackson: There are several primary elections that have been unfolding around us, including in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The results haven't exactly mirrored one another, but they're intriguing nonetheless. What are you learning from these elections that we're watching?

Alex Marlow: What's noteworthy here in some of these races is whether or not the socialist takeover of the Democrat Party, which is happening and is going to continue to happen, whether or not it's a uniform thing. It did look like perhaps the elevation of Francesca Hong, who is a failed service employee restaurant worker who said all sorts of crazy things—like there are too many white people at the Culver's fast-food place and she doesn't like that she's in proximity to whiteness, even though she has a half-white son and got pregnant from a white person—all these horrible things were a bridge too far for the Democrat socialist crowd.

Abolishing the police—not too far. Abolishing ICE—not too far. But apparently there were just some things when she said, for example, she doesn't like Thanksgiving. That drew the line. I do think it drew the line for people who were strategic and who are trying to win. Because if you present it in a very shrill and crazy package, these horrific ideas, then you just can't sell them in the middle of our country.

I do believe the leftward lurch of the Democrat Party is intensifying. I believe that party is getting overwhelmed by the Democrat Socialists of America. The people who want to destroy this country and are teaming with Islamists to do so is deeply scary. This raises the stakes, but it also makes them very vulnerable to lose elections.

Allen Jackson: The Democratic Socialists have gained the confidence to start reading their platform in public and telling us directly what they believe. We have to believe them, don't we?

Alex Marlow: Of course we do. We should always believe them. They really want to destroy this country, and that's why you're having these conflicts of ideas which don't make any sense. For example, we're going to have open borders and also a gigantic welfare state, a socialist welfare state. It's physically impossible to do that, and it would hurt American workers the most.

And yet they're simultaneously trying to sell us both ideas. Why do they do that? Because they don't care about a big welfare state or socialism or open borders. What they care about mostly is destroying America and what we stand for. That's very scary, and we should believe them that that's their ultimate goal.

That clip is precisely the right question, and I've been asking this rhetorically: where do the rapists go? Where do the murderers go? And she says, "I don't want to engage in a hypothetical." The hypotheticals are a real thing. There are going to be rapes and murders. Where do you put these people? They have no answer for that.

Allen Jackson: The midterm elections are less than 80 days away. It seems like this time there's more than just Trump at the center of the ballot. He's the lightning rod, but a course correction in our nation is being debated. What are the real implications in November?

Alex Marlow: Unfortunately, we don't have as much to campaign on as a conservative movement as I would like. The Iran war has dragged on. I think there's a very noble cause to dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities, intercontinental ballistic missiles—all this stuff is very worthwhile, and I'm glad the president tried it in retrospect. But it's been a tough sell to the public.

And then we did not get things like the Save America Act passed. I think that was handled very poorly from all sides—we could spend hours breaking that down. And we don't really have a major electoral victory since the Big Beautiful Bill. It is just like pulling teeth to get some of the positive things that are happening in this country front and center. The news cycle still controls so much of what we discuss.

So it does make it that it's going to be a tough sell to the American people that the first two years of Trump have been as good as possible. But we got some good inflation numbers this week—hopefully that gets out there. We brought back a hostage from Russia this week—hopefully that gets out there. There's a big update from the Secretary of War how we're detransing the military—we need that out there. Prescription drug prices plummeting—we've got to make that case or else we still are going to be very vulnerable.

Allen Jackson: The Trump administration has done some remarkable things, but it's also revealed the intransigence of the bureaucracy and how they resist the will and the direction of those people we elect to these offices. How do we weaken or dismantle the bureaucracy? Because they seem to hold an enormous amount of power.

Alex Marlow: It really is one of the major things that we've been talking about for the last 10 years since Trump came down that escalator. How do we do this? How do we actually drain the swamp? I think that you've just got to do it brick by brick. You've got to put one foot in front of the other.

Every person who should not be in the bureaucracy has got to get fired. If you can wholesale wipe out entire sections of people working on projects that are not worthwhile, we need to fire those. I do think raising awareness is very important. I like to cite these examples in my home state of California where we start these road projects, these construction projects, and there's never an intention to finish the project.

The intention is to create the job and then to keep funding the job, which is why the same road construction, when I moved back to California, has been going on since I got here five years ago. The goal is not to actually complete the work. Educating the public on how it really is a big gift, a lot of our bureaucracy is not designed to fix problems for the taxpayer. It's just designed as a jobs program for people who can't make it in the free market. Once we share that, I do think there'll be a broader appetite for cutting.

Allen Jackson: I saw a chilling video this week. The governor of Massachusetts was signing a bill protecting abortion up through the delivery date—through a full nine months—extending the six-month limit that had been there. What was so chilling was all the supporters in the room clapping, applauding, and laughing while the bill was being signed. Have we really deteriorated to the point that we'll celebrate murdering babies at nine months of development? That's unbelievable to me, Alex. How do we respond?

Alex Marlow: It's been happening. There's an actress out here in Hollywood named Lena Dunham who is about my age, and she is saying that she wished she had an abortion. She never had one, but she wished she did so she could have had that experience. There was this whole movement to shout your abortion.

And now we've got this thing with the telehealth and the abortion pills where abortions are actually increasing three years out since the Dobbs decision. It's super dark, and it really is a unifying thing for a lot of people who vote Democrat and so entrenched, such a religious belief. It's truly demonic, and that's why we need to spend a lot of time communing with God and the Bible because there's a demonic presence here.

Allen Jackson: We need to take a short break. I hope you'll stay with us for another segment.

Alex Marlow: Absolutely. Thank you.

Allen Jackson: The findings from the Fauci investigation, as they continue to roll out, become increasingly unsettling. In private, apparently, he was acknowledging that he knew the vaccine could be disruptive to pregnancy, and yet he stands in public encouraging pregnant women to take the shot. Is there going to be—I know he's got a pardon, a full presidential pardon—but is there going to be any way to reconcile this with the American people?

Alex Marlow: First of all, Pastor, let's be honest. Wouldn't you lie to the whole public and get a bunch of people killed if that meant Julia Roberts was going to like you? Joking aside, I don't know what's going to go on. And this is what's so frustrating: was the auto-pen pardon by Joe Biden legitimate?

If it was legitimate, then I do think that Rand Paul has got an opportunity to hold him in contempt of Congress and contempt of the Senate because he refused to ask questions under the Fifth Amendment, but nothing he would have said would have incriminated him. So because of that, he could be in contempt of the Senate. If the pardon wasn't legitimate because Joe Biden is not competent and we challenge that somehow, then he should go to jail for other past crimes.

The problem is, though, with my audience—largely conservative audience—they really want to see perp walks and handcuffs here. Because what Fauci did is he was the person who championed the lockdowns in private, got New York locked down, got California locked down. This led to relapses, death, addiction, learning recesses where people are going to be recovering for decades—they'll never fully recuperate from this.

The social anxiety that people are experiencing, so many businesses going out of business because of this—it's all because of him. And then publicly he says, "Oh no, I had nothing to do with that," when privately we know the truth. It's all very repulsive, and it's something that should be illegal in this country. And the health sector—the faith that it's had from the American people is so eroded by this guy.

You would think they would be the ones who are most enthusiastic to make sure he gets held to account and say, "Hey, we had nothing to do with him." They need to do a better job if they want to ever have trust restored. And just a memo out there—I'm married to a Western medicine practicing physician—for pregnant women out there, you should be as au naturel as possible. You absolutely should not be taking experimental drugs at all during your pregnancies. You shouldn't need Fauci to tell you that.

Allen Jackson: The Smithsonian Institution has come under fire lately, their director in particular. They receive over a billion dollars a year in federal funding, and they have been promoting activist Marxist-inspired approaches to history. Don't we want the nation's premier museum to be supporting America, not tearing it down?

Alex Marlow: Completely insane stuff. Amazing revelations here. I know my friend Lee Habib has worked really hard on this. I know the White House had a lot of work on this, but this is an outrage. This is our most important museum network, our most well-funded. And the fact that they've got all of this woke content in there, but they don't have anything about our nation's founding.

Our nation's founding takes a back seat on their agenda to the woke agenda. This is the exact sort of thing that under President Trump's watch should not be going on. We should be doing everything we possibly can to try to make it so that in celebration of America's 250, we're not doing leftism. It's not about conservatism; it's about that America is a uniquely wonderful place.

If our institutions that are supposed to preserve our legacy are treating America as if it's a uniquely horrible place, that is just about the worst use of government I can think of.

Allen Jackson: Something has to happen in the hearts of the general public. More than 10 million people a year go through that museum. There should be a hue and cry from the people who are experiencing those exhibits. I'm grateful for what Trump's team is doing, but it seems to me we've got to use our voice to object to that kind of foolishness.

Alex Marlow: So well said. It's one of these things that the president's administration continues to identify things that I can't believe they're real. Just this week, we learned that we're now banning Medicaid funds for transgender transitions, or attempting to. How were we doing that to begin with?

Why did we have a year and a half of this happening without anyone noticing? Of course your tax dollars shouldn't be going into any gender transitions. Just the fact that this was happening at all is so appalling. It really does mean that the swamp draining process is probably going to go on for decades.

Allen Jackson: In the continued story of the theater of the absurd, the WNBA is claiming a place of their own. They seem to make headlines week after week. They have trouble understanding what a woman is, and yet they're a women's sports league. How do we respond to the nonsense?

Alex Marlow: Well, first we have to demand that they drop the W from the WNBA. They can't decide what a woman is, so you don't get to have the W in the league name. And any gendered team names—like I know they got a team, the Valkyries—you have to be a woman to be a Valkyrie. So if they're not going to keep the league to just women, then by all means, drop the W.

I would argue maybe drop the B. I've seen some of the highlights, Pastor, and I didn't get past freshman basketball, but they're not really playing hoops out there. They're poking each other in the eye, they're trying to rip each other's heads off. They seem like they can't drop the ball in the basket a lot of them if they're standing above the rim. So no W, no B, so I don't know what they're going to do with it.

But I cannot believe Sophie Cunningham's coach was defending a player who assaulted her and tried to rip her head off and then yelled at us that she chooses kindness and we can all go to hell. That really happened, and I can't believe it did.

Allen Jackson: Well, Alex, I thank you for your time today. Once again, your wisdom and common sense are helpful.

Alex Marlow: Thanks, Pastor. Always a pleasure.

Allen Jackson: Thank you for spending a few moments of your day with us and for taking the time to send us your emails. Your thoughts and opinions are always a highlight. Steve from South Carolina wrote: "The parable of the talents is a great example of how God expects us to be responsible with and for our own actions, and which leans towards capitalism, not socialism. The servant that produced no gain was thrown out, while the others were rewarded."

Steve, I think you're onto something. The fundamental principle of Scripture is that it celebrates work, that hard work is good for us. We're introduced to God in the opening pages of the Bible with God at work in creation, and He continues His work until this day. The Bible says the son that sleeps during harvest is a shame. Work is a biblical principle and an expression of worship. We've got to start championing work in our lives again.

Quentin D. from Mississippi said: "Why do nations like Norway and Sweden have obvious Christian flags, but the American flag, which represents one nation under God, does not have anything to do with God in the 21st century?" Interesting question, Quentin. I think I'd approach it a little differently. The United States has never been a uniquely Christian nation in that our founders didn't demand that you be Christian in order to be a citizen.

Clearly, our nation was put together with a biblical worldview. It's reflected in our founding documents, in our legal system, and our educational system. But because of that biblical worldview, it's enabled us to be a nation that allows diversity and equality because of those Christian values.

While we may not be expressing those Christian values as clearly as I would like, I'm here to tell you that Christianity's alive and well in America in the 21st century, and we're representation of that. So I'm at peace with the flag, but I think the church could turn up the light a little bit. That would help all of us. Thank you for your time today. God's moving in the earth. Let's cooperate. Good night and God bless.