TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: Unshackle Your Potential-By Shackling Yourself
Date: 09/01/23 Length: 54:28
Daniel Lapin 0:00
Welcome to each of you happy warriors. Welcome to the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show where I, your rabbi, reveal how the world really works. Yes, each and every one of you happy warriors you, you and you is a welcome part of our community of happy warriors happy? Well, that's because you are someone who has come to understand that happiness is not a reaction, it's a decision. You don't need outside factors to make you happy. You have decided that your default condition for happiness and success is a reasoned, determined, deliberate decision to be happy. And you're also a warrior. Because you understand that joyful success in life comes from struggling against the natural resistance, that in the nature of the world tends to obstruct and resist every step you make in the direction of improving yourself. I call it spiritual gravity. You try to get airborne, and it tries to keep you Earthbound. In every effort you make to improve any one or all of your five Fs, your family life, your financial life, your physical fitness, your social life, your friendships and your faith in all of the five F's, whatever you try and improve resistance and spiritual gravity throws up obstacles, temptations. But as a happy warrior, you know, that every single victory you win, no matter how small, brings other victories in its wake. And so that's why we are not just warriors, and not just happy-go-lucky is. But we are happy warriors. And one of the things that happy warriors realize is that our ability to progress, our very success and our happiness depend upon our ability to impose our own limits on our own freedom. That's right. Everything depends on our own internal ability to impose limits on ourselves. Being able to step off the slippery slope, that seductive slide of freedom, and imposing upon ourselves, restraints and restrictions and regulation. That is the direction in which happiness and success lie.
Daniel Lapin 3:00
Because so many people confuse license with freedom. Licentiousness is doing whatever your feelings drag you towards. Freedom on the other hand is what you have when you are capable of imposing limits and restraints upon your feelings and upon your emotions. And why that is so particularly important is when you are being carried along on an avalanche of emotions. Coming to trust our emotions is a very dangerous thing. And a happy warrior realizes that emotions are wonderful. We should all have emotions, and we should all feel wonderful emotions. We should feel emotions like love and appreciation and gratitude. We should not indulge in emotions like anger and jealousy. Emotions are real. But we don't regulate our lives on the basis of our emotions. We impose limits and restraints and controls and restrictions, rather than just acting on our emotions and doing whatever we feel. But even more importantly for today's show, is learning that as bad a mistake as it is to act on our emotions. It is seven orders of magnitude more dangerous to think according to our emotions. The dreadful peril is thinking that one is being rational. When in reality, one's entire line of thinking is being driven by emotions. I implore you for your own good. believe this to be true. But if you doubt it, just think about the decisions you have made in your life. decisions you made while in the grip of emotions, like anger. Love, desire. Remember the time you decide to spend a lot of money on something you now barely ever use. Remember the person with whom you formed an alliance that you later wish you'd never met? Remember the time you let fly at someone and said things you wish you'd never said, These things have happened to all of us who have lived for more than two decades or so. I want to help you learn to avoid allowing your emotions to cloud your thinking.
Daniel Lapin 5:29
But something that isn't emotional, but is entirely factual and logical is that now would be a really good time to subscribe to the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show, and let us grow our subscription numbers which are climbing beautifully and which gratify me and uplift me enormously. And, and that way you will, you'll be kept informed, you'll be aware of what's going on. So go ahead and subscribe. And also, I would like to alert you to a 10. Well, slightly more than 10 hours of video instruction from me, called the Financial Prosperity Collection. And the great thing is it's on sale now. Instead of being nearly $150, it's $125. So you save yourself a little money right there. And in addition to 10 hours of video instruction, it also comes with a 56-page workbook that you can download, and work on as you transform your financial destiny. It's very real, it addresses very practical and tangible things that you can do. sets of strategies that you can deploy right away to start improving your revenue. This isn't about getting out of debt. This isn't about how to invest. This is about how to increase the money that you create, increase the money you earn, increase the money that you make.
Daniel Lapin 7:20
And with that in mind, what I'd like to do is start talking right now about this whole concept of the title of this show, how to unshackle yourself, how to release yourself from the restraints that hold you back. And how you can start down the runway and getting airborne in the task of dramatically improving the financial side of your life. And, you know one of the things that happens as we go through that difficult time of transitioning from being children to adults. And in different cultures that happens round about at different ages, the American culture at the moment, sadly manages to prolong childhood, beyond all previously held records. But one of the things that happens as you're up is realizing that you don't have Guardian protectors watching over you at all. We are now for the first time in our lives. As we start reaching adulthood, and the adults in our lives start stepping back. We ourselves have to establish the rules and boundaries for ourselves much as we later do for our own children. Now, there's a tendency we all have. And I wonder if you recognize this in you. And I'd love to hear from you. You know how to do that you go on to the wehappywarriors website, you become a We Happy Warrior. And you let me know what you think. But here's what I wanted to ask you. Do you find yourself desperately wanting to leave your schedules open and uncommitted. Your day's free to do as you feel. Do you either not have a daily calendar or not use it. And if that is you, then what's happening is that you are you're wanting to feel free. You don't want to feel shackled. And the paradox is that that is exactly what is shackling you and limiting your potential.
Daniel Lapin 9:49
The truth is that paradoxically, and I'm going to use that word a lot by limiting our freedom by requiring ourselves to be organized and by forcing ourselves to use time deliberately and purposefully and wisely. That is precisely what gives us the freedom to be creative and productive. That's why time management is so important. I want to urge you to commit seriously to time management, stand up, look yourself in the eye, and say, Now is the time to start getting serious about time. engrave your schedule in Granite, so that you could be free to thrive in your work. What you need to do is lock yourself into productive commitments as much as possible. Every day on your calendar should be full of productive work, block off everyday except, of course, the Sabbath as you want to give yourself one day off a week. Now many people take off two days a week. Have you ever heard of the two-day weekend, Saturday and Sunday. But the truth is, that's excessive, really come on. God did not create the earth. And then on the weekend he rested. He rested only on the seventh day. Of course, many social family and health commitments must coexist with work. I'm not suggesting you have to work 24 Six. But I am suggesting that even those should err on the side of structure than the side of lazily spending the day on a couch. If you don't have a calendar by yourself a calendar. And my recommendation, by the way is to use a paper one, not the one on your phone and start making commitments, transfer jobs from your to do list onto specific time slots in your calendar. And that is how you will start succeeding. If you fail to do so your competitors will outpace you. I also encourage you that on the bottom of each page of your calendar, you record whether or not you completed your tasks that were set for that day. It's not enough to set goals, you got to meet them, you have to hold yourself accountable. And if you have trouble doing that, you need to appoint a friend or a mentor who would be willing to take on the serious task of holding you accountable.
Daniel Lapin 12:26
Now, there are two main reasons, two common reasons why people do not reach their goals. One is that their scheduling is overly optimistic. And you think you can do more in a certain amount of time than you really can. And those people need to set more reasonable goals. The other reason, which is much more common, is that people fail to focus on what actually needs doing. At the end of every day, I ask you to take an honest inventory. And ask yourself if you worked as hard as you could. Or if you goofed off, or you procrastinated? I asked you to be brutally honest with yourself. Did you not get everything done that you set out to do today? Because it was too much? Or did you simply fail to fully commit yourself to working diligently all day long? Take an inventory of what you did that day. You've got to be honest, if you fail to get through all of shall we say your sales calls. And yet you found time to watch a funny animal video on YouTube or send emails or Instagrams to friends and played a few games of Wordle on your phone, then the problem is not that you didn't have the time to finish your work. It's that you simply failed to prioritize your work. Happy warriors. Hear me when I say that real freedom is not the opportunity to constantly do as we please. But rather, it is the opportunity to lock ourselves into the things that need doing when they need doing. True freedom is the ability to be creative, by which I mean to create to actually do things. Remember, making money through creating commerce and business is really one of the most thrilling and creative things we can possibly do. We make money, business creates money and it creates good in the world that is creativity. And one of the most creative things we can do. When two or more human beings serve one another by trading, they are literally creating money bringing into the world and this is good but to be able to earn money, we must set limits on ourselves, we must set limits on our freedom. Earning money requires a plan, and a focus on that plan.
Daniel Lapin 15:16
So you have to remember, children are not the only ones that need explicit boundaries and responsibilities and commitments. Adults do too. This is because paradoxically, there's my paradox word again, paradoxically, to a certain degree, the more confined and structured you all the Freer you are, precisely by imposing structure on your own life, you gain a better understanding of the rules that govern you. Many adults do not comprehend this ever, because it's counterintuitive. Because we ask ourselves, how on earth can limitations provide freedom? How's it possible that I put restrictions on myself? And yet I'm freer? How can it be that I block in my calendar? And that's a good thing? Yes, that is the paradox, and I'm going to explain it. The Bible is always the first place I turn to, to try and understand timeless truths and permanent principles. And so the the part I want to tell you about, is in Exodus chapter 32, where God gave Moses the 10 commandments. And 3216 in Exodus says, and the tablets were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets. Now, the Hebrew word in the original Torah, for the word engraved, is the Hebrew root, root. But the word has two meanings. And the Hebrew language is unique in that when one word means two separate things, those two separate things have to be mentally merged into one to catch the comprehensive, consolidated intent of that particular word. So it doesn't work like that in English, right? Sole is the bottom of my foot. And it's also a fish. Dover sole. Right? There's no connection. fish - feet - no. Well, forget about it. Now nothing. And so English doesn't do that. But Hebrew does what is the second meaning of the word heard? Well, it means engraved. The main meaning I'm sorry, engraved marked in stone. But when you have marked something in stone, it's indelible. That's what the meaning is like engraved in stone. No eraser can remove it, when you gray engrave something, it cannot be changed, it cannot be deleted. There is no backspace when you engrave in stone, it's solid. And that's why people might say sometimes, well, I'm going to change my mind. I mean, it wasn't as if it was engraved in granite. Okay, because that's what the meaning is. But what's the second meaning of Herod, the second meaning is freedom, which seems to be exactly the opposite of the concept of engraving. Right? Engraving means it's locked in freedom means never locked in. I can always do whatever I like, I can share. I want to do that. Now. I don't want to do it. I won't do it. If I do, I will. It's always significant. As I say, when a Hebrew word has two meanings, you've got to merge them together to extract a consolidated meaning. So how on earth can engraved locked in solidified? How can that be matched with freedom? What did you know what how does that work? Well, freedom is not the same as license licenses an English word. That means just complete absence of any structure rules, any kind of formal approach in life license is the origin of the word licentiousness. And so freedom isn't license.
Daniel Lapin 19:44
Freedom is the opportunity to be creative to be a creator, to find meaning and purpose and achievement and joy in life. When we have total freedom, we have infinite possibilities to do more than most of us believe we can do We have the potential to get anything done. But potential does not mean actualization. It's only once we restrict our freedom by filling up our workweek with tasks that we actually will accomplish. But following a specific path closes off other possibilities. That's one of the reasons we like doing it. We like keeping all possibilities open. This is a problematic for in the human makeup. Well, the trouble is that you more the more that you sort of keep options open, as it were, that more tightly restricts our freedom. But as we close off positive possibilities in this way, our lives become more set in stone more engraved. And this is where the paradoxical effect comes from, the more you restrict our freedom by setting rules and limitations on ourselves, the freer, we are to actually be productive. The Idle person who likes sensuously, leaves himself free to do whatever he likes, when he likes, has the potential to accomplish something. But he actually accomplishes nothing at all. Because it's the person who rigorously restricts his freedom, and prioritizes what he wants to accomplish. That's the person who carves his life and his time and his schedule into granite. It's him who is actually really free. People who put no limits on their own freedom. And I mean, I know we've got to sort of wrap yourself around this a little bit, because first time, first time you hear it, it sort of sounds weird. I mean, surely, it's better to just leave everything open and do what you feel like when you feel like doing a trouble is, you'll never feel like doing the tough things, you'll always want to do the easy things. I mean, to put it bluntly, people who refuse to place limits on their freedom, people who just roll down the road who just go with whatever happens there, they're essentially children. Children want to stay up all night though, even though they'll be tired the next day and get nothing done.
Daniel Lapin 22:29
Looking at from a different perspective, children who are free to stay up all night are not free to get anything done the next day, they're going to be miserable. But children who have their schedules engraved in stone for them, who are restricted from staying up late or free to enjoy the following day, free of exhaustion, and they're able to do whatever it is that needs to happen that day. And as adults, we obviously should place limits on our children. And by setting limits on their freedom to do as they wish, we free them from the potentially horrible consequences of bad choices. By setting limits on a child's bedtime, a parent gives the child the freedom to be awake and alert the next day. When a parent puts a restriction on how much sugar and candy the child can ingest. The parent has been responsible and making sure the child will be freer the next day. By doing this parents are also doing children another favor. They are teaching them the value of rules and structure in life. The child can only see what he wants to stay awake, the adult can see how that desire is full if fulfilled, rubs the child have the freedom to be productive the following day.
Daniel Lapin 23:56
Let me give you an example. I think this might help. Imagine placing a rifle cartridge into a vise on a vise when you're on a carpentry bench. You turn the handle the two pieces of the vise the two phases of the vise come together tightly. Clamp a round, a cartridge in place in your workbench. Children, your rabbi says Do not try this at home please. This is a thought experiment. It's not a real life experiment. Now, go ahead and imagine taking a nail. Hold the nail up to the percussion cap on the back of the cartridge. Grab a hammer and hit the head of the nail into the cartridge. What do you think happens? There's a huge bang and a big flash of light. But now what about the lead bullet? What where does that go? Would you be surprised to hear that the lead bull it'll travel about 12 inches, the bras casing will spring open like a banana peel. And the bullet is just going to plop forward onto the, onto the floor of your feet. But how is this possible? When you fire that same round from your rifle, pulling the trigger causes that same bullet to travel hundreds of yards at a speed of well over 600 feet every second. So how is it that now the bullet just pops to the floor? What's the difference? The difference is that when the round is inside your rifle, the explosion is confined on all sides. But one, there's only one place open and that's down the barrel. And all of the chemical energy stored up in the powder causes the bullet to burst out of the brass casing and fly down the barrel at huge speeds. All of the energy is focused down and out the barrel all of the energy is applied to the rear end of the bullet in only one direction, the bullet goes flying down the barrel. But when the cartridge is held in a vise on a carpenter's bench, and not in the chamber of your rifle, when it gets fired when you hit the back of it with a hammer, it just causes the casing to burst open. And that disperses the energy in every direction. The sound energy, the sound of the explosion travels in every direction. Nothing productive happens the bullet goes nowhere. The difference is that the barrel of a gun confines and restricts and focuses the energy all in one direction.
Daniel Lapin 26:58
In exactly the same way you happy warriors, real power is achieved by confining our own selves. When we confine ourselves and focus our energies in the one direction that it's needed rather than many directions. We can really accomplish great things. Freedom is obtained from direction not from the potential to move in any which way without a goal. And without narrowed focus. without placing limits on our potential. Our energies are wasted, dissipated, ineffective. In our work, we must make our goals explicit. If we have a destination, then we will like the bullet that is restricted to one option, we also will know where to go. And this applies in every area happy warriors. I'm speaking about it in business and finance. But you've probably met people who are indecisive and non-committal. Invariably, they're unproductive people. And what they always say is they like to keep their options open. A man who avoids marrying or a woman who avoids marrying in order to keep his or her options open in case something better comes along all because they think they may be able to find something else to do. That person will probably never marry ever. I mean, as I'm talking to you, I'm thinking of people I've known who consulted me. And I remember saying to them, it is time to prioritize marriage. And the response I would get usually from women is oh yeah, I will get married. I definitely want to have children. But this isn't the right year this year, I've got to focus on my job or this year, I've got to focus on my studies. So this year, I've got to focus on traveling, whatever it is, and I know that they're not going to get married because next year there'll be another thing. Bottom line is people who say, Oh, I prefer to keep my options open. In general, that's a person who is not building creating, advancing growing or for that matter, probably not marrying either.
Daniel Lapin 29:22
That same person will probably have a hard time investing money because the ability to be productive, whether through getting married and creating a family, or investing money and creating a business. It's only possible when we limit our options, and we limit our freedom by choosing one direction and one focus. And it's true, you are limiting your freedom. The minute a man marries a woman. He's ruled out all the other women on the planet that's a limitation. You want to confine yourself by making purposeful choices and following them through to their logical conclusions. Freedom, potential options, they can be traps, they rob us of the chance to be productive and creative. Narrow your freedom. Limit your options, choose your path, and you will be free to pursue your goals to their ultimate end. Sometimes we overcomplicate matters, you know, one must avoid this pitfall we immobilize ourselves, when we view our lives and our circumstances and choices all at once. It's a panorama that gets too vast to contemplate, the view is overwhelming. And all the things I could be doing, oh, I could do listen this and you know, whether you're running a business or choosing a career or looking for a job, or whatever it is you're doing, or for that matter, even buying a car, there are a lot of choices. And by keeping options open, you end up doing nothing. So that's the secret happy warriors, unshackle yourself by shackling yourself. That's the paradox. And it is true, and very helpful, really, maybe one of the most helpful things that you have learned today, I believe. So go ahead and control your time, begin to work on it, have a calendar, regularly transfer tasks from your to-do list onto the calendar the specific time and then follow through and at the end of each day, put a few sentences at the bottom of your day on the calendar, evaluating how effectively you handled your day. Sometimes, this is so huge a jump in effective living for many people that I recommend that people sometimes make this only work for, shall we say, two or three days a week, sometimes six days a week can be a bit heavy. And then little by little you add on another day, then it's four days, then five days. And then finally, you're doing it six days a week. But however you do start doing it any way any help.
Daniel Lapin 32:11
And I want to share with you a brief conversation I had recently with an old friend of mine, who is one of the most astute political observers in the United States, and someone who has been an advisor at the highest levels of American politics. And his name is Dr. Ralph Reed. In 1989, he created an organization known as a Christian Coalition, which terrified the left because it mobilized 10s of millions of Bible-believing seriously committed evangelical Christians. And it brought them into the political arena. And all of a sudden had created a voting bloc that made a huge impact on election starting off, I was most aware of it in 94. That was when it really happened. That's that's a while ago, right, isn't it? Gosh. But that's that's when it really began. So I, I was interested to get Ralph Reed's impression of what impact the the religious faith voter is likely to have in American politics through to the end of next year to the end of 2024. And I spoke to Ralph Reed, in order to find that out. So here's the conversation. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
Daniel Lapin 33:54
Well, as I promised you happy warriors a little earlier, we'd be talking today with a man called Dr. Ralph Reed, whom I have known, since I'm gonna say 1988 or 89, probably 89 or 90. Come to think of it. And that I believe was when you were the founder along with Dr. Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition, right?
Ralph Reed 34:22
Yes, Pat was the founder and I was the first executive director.
Daniel Lapin 34:27
Right, exactly and, and it was through you that for the first time in my life. I spoke as speaker for a Christian audience. Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah. No, you introduced and I remember thinking when you called me up to ask me to come to speak that first time at the Christian Coalition convention in Washington, DC. And I remember thinking to myself, you know, what doesn't he understand about the word Christian? I'm a rabbi and it turned out to be one of the most delightful experiences of my life. It was quite wonderful. And it's, it's led to obviously many, many more since then. But let me just run through just a little bit of the history before I get to the question, because the whole purpose of this interview is one big question I have to ask you. But just to run back. So 1988, the the Republican primaries, George H. Bush is leading, Pat Robertson is in that race as well. Does fairly well at the very beginning, but drops out fairly early. And George Bush wins the '88 the election, right? Correct. And then comes 89. And, and Pat Robertson, who was was a dear dear friend, I The world became incredibly lonelier, a few months ago when he passed, but Pat Robertson had built a campaign organization. And instead of just letting it fade away, he had this vision of turning it into Christian Coalition. But visions go nowhere without execution. And nobody was more fitted and effective at executing the vision of Pat Robertson for Christian Coalition, then Dr. Ralph Reed, and you joined the picture somewhere in 89. I'm saying
Ralph Reed 36:21
that is correct. It was October of 1989, that I came on board and, and we launched it. And I certainly had no idea. I don't know if Pat did that it would become the major force that it did, and ultimately became one of the most effective political organizations, not only of that time, but I think of our lifetimes as well.
Daniel Lapin 36:43
So even be a part of that. Yeah, indeed. And by the time I spoke, and I'm thinking I probably spoke for the convention, you started 89. I'm thinking he was 91, or 92, maybe somewhere there. By that time already?
Ralph Reed 37:00
Probably 90 to 92. Yeah, the first time,
Daniel Lapin 37:04
it would have been, I think it was one of your first Washington DC big conventions, five or 6000 people there. I remember the the liberal press covered it as well with the expected hostility. And it was it was an amazing event, you are chapters, I think, in every state by then. And it was really as such a force that by 95, and I have this copy of the magazine in my study right here with me. 95, Time magazine features you on its cover in May. And the I looked at the picture when it came and I said, this does not look like my friend, Rob fraid, not even at all, they made their major look incredibly sinister, and very, very threatening. And the wording was the right,
Ralph Reed 37:56
or at least or at least tried, or at least tried to.
Daniel Lapin 37:59
Yes, you're right. It was it was a valiant effort. And it was in the right hand of God. Christian Coalition is on a crusade to take over US politics, and they're succeeding something like that. So and, and really, it was incredibly effective. You I mean, among the many important things you did. You helped encourage churches and pastors to understand that their 501 C three status was not at risk if they spoke their opinion on values and principles and ideas. And you really changed the entire game by getting pastors to become involved, right?
Ralph Reed 38:48
Yeah, we did. And we built an infrastructure that that was hierarchical in nature with a national headquarters state organizations, in virtually every state in the country and 3000 local chapters and got Christians engaged in the civic arena from school board all the way to the White House.
Daniel Lapin 39:12
And so then, I don't know if you remember this, Ralph, but in I'm gonna say it was in the fall of 2015. I think in October, Susan, and I were at a meeting at a hotel at a at a Ritz Carlton in Tyson's Corner and you were there as well. And we were listening to the GOP candidates for the 2016 election. And you Susan, I was sitting near you and you leaned over to us at one point, and I think it was it was yeah, it was during Donald Trump's speech. And you said notice that he is the only speaker for which nobody in the audience has their phones open and playing with their phones. He was the you you play pointed out to us that he was the only speaker who had the audience's full attention. And we heard from we heard several candidates that day. And we looked around and was really noticeable. Because Susan, I often comment about the fact that, you know, people are always on their phones, even during conversations and even during lectures and speeches. So, so we noticed that, and, and just a short time after that, on this very podcast, I pronounced my conviction that Donald Trump would win. And I also pledged my full support and encouragement and endorsement for him as president, which as you can imagine, led to some very interesting circumstances for me in the Jewish community. So it was all of which
Ralph Reed 40:48
you not only turned out to be prophetic, but with regard to the defense of the Jewish people in the state of Israel, you could not have been more right.
Daniel Lapin 40:57
No, I mean, really, I, you know, I am quite convinced that once the insanity finally dies down in America, God willing returns to normality. He will be recognized that term is one of the greatest and most effective conservative presidents of of the 20th and 21st century.
Ralph Reed 41:16
I certainly wouldn't disagree with that, you know, we'll have to await history's verdict. And but at least with from the standpoint of the pro family and the faith community, we've had a lot of great leaders, Ronald Reagan, both Bush's Newt Gingrich, many great leaders. But yeah, I think that I think that Donald Trump, if you look at his record on the issues we care about the Supreme Court life, support for Israel, religious freedom, defense of the First Amendment. He's one of the greatest champions we've ever had.
Daniel Lapin 41:56
Yeah, absolutely. And in 94, the Republican sweep in Congress under Newt Gingrich, that was largely driven by Christian coalition as well. And, and I remember very much I was friendly with new to that point, and was very aware of how aware he was of the faith community behind them. All of which brings me to my question for where we are right now and 2024 looming quicker than we think. Please tell me. To what extent is the faith community involved in the 2024 election? How influential and effective will it be? And is there such a thing as unified faith community with respect to the 2024 election?
Ralph Reed 42:52
It's a great question. The answer to the first part of the question is there they are going to be decisive. You look at the first three toll booths in the Republican presidential primary process of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, we estimate that 60 to 65%. Of all the caucus attenders who attend the Iowa caucuses. On January 5, we'll be born-again, evangelical Christians, that number will dip to a much lower level in New Hampshire, probably somewhere between 15 and 20%. And then when you get to South Carolina, it's going to be 60% of the vote. So there's no path to the Republican nomination for president. It doesn't run through the faith community. With regard to whether or not there's a unified voice. I don't expect there's going to be unanimity or even total unity. I think you'd be looking at the polling today. You know, Donald Trump is in a stronger position as any front-runner for the nomination in my career. And I'm doing this from memory. But I think his lead and in Iowa and the most recent Des Moines Register poll is somewhere between 20 and 25 points, I think he's in the, in the low 40s, low to mid 40s. And I think the sadness is somewhere between 18 and 20%. And how the Evangelicals would break down and that math would be roughly similar to that top-line number, because they're 60 to 65% of the vote. So their number is not going to be their share of support isn't going to be that much different than it is for all likely caucus contenders. But make no mistake about it. This is going to be a highly fluid process. It's going to be extremely competitive. There's a lot of very strong and appealing candidates out there. And no one should take any state or primary for granted, including the former president.
Daniel Lapin 45:13
I know you're not, you're not big on bombshell prognostications or predictions. After all, you are an advisor on a political and corporate level to many, many well-known faces and many well-known organizations. But if you were to make a guess, will the Democratic nominee be Joe Biden?
Ralph Reed 45:39
Barring some developments that we can't currently foresee, and I can't predict, and I'm not a prophet. So I don't know what the future holds. But unless something happens, it is pretty dramatic. Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, and Kamala Harris will be the vice presidential running mate. And, again, without predicting anything I know, Joe and Joe Biden. I don't know them well, but I do know him. I've testified before his committee. I've debated him. I've been with him at events, I've been part of a group dinner with him. And this guy spent his entire adult life working to become president United States, and there is no way he is going to get to that prize, and then voluntarily walk away. It's just not going to happen.
Daniel Lapin 46:35
That's, that's very interesting. And, you know, I've got to think that if I was a strategist for the Democratic Party, I'd be tearing my hair out, I'd really be extremely worried about running Joe Biden, diminishing popularity and Kamala Harris have no popularity.
Ralph Reed 46:52
I think they're worried about it. I talked to some of those Democratic strategists and they're worried about it. I think they're concerned about a very anemic job approval. You know, there's not been a lot of focus on this, but Mark Thiessen wrote a, I thought a very insightful op-ed in The Washington Post recently that I would commend to your listeners where he pointed out that Joe Biden's job approval, dropped below 50% After the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in the fall of Kabul, to the Taliban. And from that moment, in August of 2021 until today, Joe Biden's numbers have been upside down ever since. And he does not enjoy majority approval by the American people or his job performance on any issue. Not the economy, not inflation, not foreign affairs, not the border, not COVID, not crime, nothing. So he is extremely vulnerable. And what the Democrats are hoping and praying for is that Donald Trump will be the nominee because they believe it will be the easiest one for Joe Biden to defeat because in their mind, he's already beaten him once and Trump underperforms among suburban and college-educated voters now, whether they're right or not, is really neither here nor there. That's what they believe. And that's their game plan.
Daniel Lapin 48:39
And yet, the more they persecute him, the more they prosecute him, the more they torment him, the more popular Donald Trump becomes.
Ralph Reed 48:46
Yeah, and when you have a New York Times Siena College poll taken I don't know what, two or three weeks ago then had had them tied. I mean, if the New York Times says they're tied, it's probably better than that. Yes, you that's great. Yeah, I think if it does end up being Biden and Trump, but I don't know what it's going to be. There's going to be a lot of twists and turns between now and then. And there are always surprises. This will be in like 12 presidential campaign. I've worked at a senior level on multiple presidential campaigns. And I can tell you, that there are always surprises. And if you don't believe me, think about Obama beating Hillary think about Trump becoming our nominee and 16. Think about Joe Biden coming in fourth in Iowa, and fifth, fifth in New Hampshire, and then becoming the nominee that has never happened since the rise of the primary. Nobody came in fourth and fifth in the first two states and ended up as the nominee. So just to be clear, anything can happen. But it does end up being Biden and Trump. I think that array This will be not that much different than 2020. It'll come down to 234 states and those 234 states will be decided by 10s of 1000s of votes, not hundreds of 1000s of votes.
Daniel Lapin 50:14
Do you think that it would be it will be harder for the left to engage in shenanigans electoral shenanigans, in 2024, harder than it was for them in 2020.
Ralph Reed 50:28
setting where we are today, I think it will be much harder because we do not have a global pandemic that can be used as an excuse to engage in shenanigans like mailing an absentee ballot application to every registered voter, when that's supposed to be done based on an absentee ballot request obtained by the voter that gave them an advantage in terms of harvesting ballots, they had dropped boxes on every corner in every major city. That won't be the case, we have either gotten rid of those drop boxes, or we've directed by statute that they be within legal voting locations where they can be under staff and camera surveillance. And I think it will be a lot harder this time.
Daniel Lapin 51:19
Dr. Ralph Reed, I'd love to talk to you for longer, but I know that your time is limited. And I'd love to have the chance to pick up the conversation again, a little bit later down the road as we move closer to what I think be an incredibly significant 2024 presidential election. So thanks so much for your time, it's wonderful to connect up with you. You are running not only your business century strategies, but also the Faith and Freedom Coalition. And I've had the pleasure of speaking for that incredible organization as well in Washington, DC. So God bless with all your efforts. And, and I appreciate your time.
Ralph Reed 52:04
Thank you, Daniel, always a pleasure to be with you.
Daniel Lapin 52:06
Thanks so much regards at home, please Ralph.
Ralph Reed 52:08
you too my friend.
Daniel Lapin 52:09
Okay, take care. Well, happy warriors. I do hope that you have enjoyed today's show, I hope that you will proceed to unshackle yourself. Because on some level in some way each and every one of us is handicapped by our reluctance to lock ourselves in to the jobs that have to be done when we have to do them. And to the extent that we can cure that and repair that in ourselves is the extent to which we can look forward to achieving all those goals and accomplishing those ends that lie deep in our heart things we really urgently desire. And I hope you enjoyed my short conversation with Ralph Reed as well. And I'm going to be following up with him a few more times, though, before the 2024 presidential elections in the United States. As is true for every major election, lots hinges on the outcome. At any rate, even more hinges on the outcome of how you take care of your five F's. That's where it's really at. The truth is my friends, that what happens in your life, whether you find success or suffer the pain and agony of failure, whether you find joy, and serenity or tragically the reverse. Very little of that depends on an election very little depends on a government very little depends on a president very little depends on a parliament. Overwhelmingly it depends on how well you grow your five F's, how well you handle your family and your finances, your physical fitness and your friendships and your faith. And so I wish you a week of growth. In all of those things, my dear happy warriors onwards and upwards. And God bless. I'm Rabbi Daniel Lapin.
