Could Idaho Lead America to Liberty? w/ Sen. Ben Adams
23:44 Share

Well, I'm back with a guest who I enjoyed when I first got to interview him. It was in D.C. and then over the years on radio. And he's a returning guest and he works with Bring Our Troops Home. We have with us Idaho State Senator Ben Adams. How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much for having me on.

It's great to have you on again now. So how's it like? What's going on in Idaho right now? What is the tip of the spear? What's the thing that everybody's thinking about and buzzing about in the political scene in Idaho for local state politics? Oh, you know, we just got kicked off. We're in day 10 of the legislative session. And

Right now, the big buzz is how much property tax relief, how much tax relief in general we can provide. The governor promised $100 million. The speaker promised $300 million. So we're excited for more tax relief to come down the pipe here in Idaho. We have a flat tax on income right now that we're trying to drive down even farther.

And yeah, that's a big wrestle. But everyone's pretty excited about the inauguration coming up too and the dominoes that will fall after that. What are some of the dominoes that you hope to fall that would help you and the people of Idaho that you represent? Yeah, well, I'll give you an example. We had a grant that was given to us by the federal government for $3 million for pregnancy centers.

But we sent it back because the Biden administration required that we would provide all abortion options. And we said, yeah, we're not going to do that. So even something as simple as that with a change in administration, those strings aren't attached when you have a pro-life president. Yeah, that's good. So you, I remember you,

Meeting you in DC and you told some really powerful stories and I've shared those stories with a lot of folks and media over the years about the folly of being endlessly overseas policing other people. And one of the things that you said that always stuck with me was you cannot

nation build you cannot force people through the barrel of a gun to change their worldview or their religious ritual practices for politics these things are not things that can be changed overnight by just forcefully you know

pushing it, especially when you're also limited in the amount of force that you can employ in the first place to get the point across. And that always stuck with me. And that was a really great point because you said the amount of violence that you would need to do to get through to some of these cultures in Afghanistan and so forth is

would be something that we would never stomach, nor should we stomach, nor should we endorse as a society. And that just points out the folly of nation building around the world. Now, one of the things you've done to do something about that is to defend the Guard Act with the Bring Our Troops Home group. Tell me about how that stands in Idaho. What's going to happen with that? Yeah, great. Well, I'd love to talk about where we, the ground we've taken, right? Yeah.

Any big political push, it's a fight. And sometimes you take ground, sometimes you lose a little ground, and the goal is to capture their flag. And that's kind of what we're pushing for. This is now my fifth year pushing Defend the Guard in the state of Idaho. The first year, I was a brand new legislator and was treated like one.

And they did not have very much respect for anything that I was gonna bring forward. And they killed that bill in a print hearing before it could even get moving in the first year. The second year I ran it as a personal bill, which means it can't become law, but it is public. So the public can see it, can weigh it themselves. It has a bill number, but it doesn't get a hearing. That was my second year.

My third year, I did an informational hearing, which was very different. That's after I moved to the Senate. And an informational hearing, essentially, I got to stand up and give my debate for why this legislation was critical, not only to the state of Idaho, but to our national future, what we envision the future of America looking like. And last session,

the State Senate of Idaho overwhelmingly voted to support Defend the Guard, and we passed it out of the State Senate in Idaho. It went back to the House where I had had troubles before, and no less than four generals showed up to the committee hearing. They had pre-whipped the committee. We were able to stand up and make some arguments, and then they held the bill in committee.

So this year, coming into it, we've demonstrated that the state Senate is ready for this piece of legislation. But when you're talking about an issue this big, a lot of folks, they're used to talking about their local water rights or well rights or things that are very close and important.

talking about a topic this big seems like a big bite, right? And so the way I've approached this upcoming session is the House of the Idaho House of Representatives, it's time that they had that deep discussion that they they have to look inside themselves and decide who they really are when it comes to this issue. And

So we're very optimistic. We have several, actually more than several of the members of the House that were in strong opposition to this were defeated in their primaries and replaced with pro-Defend the Guard legislators

including all three, both the senator and two representatives from Mountain Home Air Force Base, the district that has the largest DOD base in Idaho. All three of their former legislators were opposed to defend the guard from pressure, right, from the Department of Defense. And they were all replaced by supporters of defend the guard, which is phenomenal.

That's fantastic. For those who are not familiar with this, tell us about the Defend the Guard bill, what this does and why it's important, why you've been pushing. Yeah, thank you. Defend the Guard is simple in concept. It gets challenging when you get into the legal ramifications, but it's a pretty simple concept. If you're going to send your troops into combat, then Congress should be able to put their names on the line saying that,

essentially putting their political necks on the line if they're going to ask service members to put their literal necks on the line. And so what defend the guard does is it simply says, listen, the state militia is the National Guard. And if Congress is going to send them into combat, and they're going to send them to war, then they should declare war. And until they do,

It is the we we would essentially place a legislative prohibition on allowing our our National Guard to be sent into combat zones. They can still go for training. They can still go for all sorts of things. But when you start the difference between training and combat, and I've had this discussion many times, the difference between training and combat is one is training and one is not.

It's really simple. And the Department of Defense would argue that these deployments to Syria and Iraq and all these highly kinetic combat deployments, they would say are great training, but it's not training. And the Supreme Court has already in rulings has said that the president can send the National Guard wherever he wants for peacetime training.

not combat operations. That is enshrined in Article 1 of the United States Constitution. That authority rests in Congress. Interesting. So is there any indication that the Trump administration would support this? Or is there anything, would there be obstacles to this if they wanted to? Yeah. So I don't think, I think this is very America first. I think this is maybe the most America first

legislation in the country that deals with the Department of Defense by far. Restructuring is hard, but if there's one thing that this election taught us, it's that the American people are ready for change. They're ready for things to change, get back to being America.

frankly. And I know there's a lot of optimism around our incoming, God willing, Secretary of Defense, who has publicly supported Defend the Guard. And I look forward to working with somebody in the Pentagon who actually supports the vision of rebuilding America in a way that reflects the values that we believe in

Yeah, that'd be fantastic, wouldn't it? You know, to be able to have somebody in the Pentagon who understands the importance of having a declaration of war, perhaps, and giving states their right to have control over where their guards are going, right? That'd be pretty amazing. Well, I was a teacher in the Army. But I know that she's in a different position, you know.

Yes. And the truth is, the future is bright. You know, it's easy to see all the bad things that are going on and the battles will continue. But on so many issues, the push back to sanity is coming. I look at Roe versus Wade being overturned as a perfect example of that. Everyone said the sky was going to fall, but guess what? There are a lot of pro-life issues

States that have, because of the laws that were put in place, because they were allowed as states to not be, not have the federal government act as overlord on their legislation, they've been able to save babies' lives and create a foster of life in their society rather than death. That's a bellwether, but that's not complete. I mean, that's not all of the examples. There's so many of them.

And defend the guard is no different. It just pertains to our foreign policy, which is it's critical we get that right. I hope that and I would encourage you to look into something I've created called the Marriage Liberation Act. And the Marriage Liberation Act, I think, would be very popular in Idaho. The people of Idaho understand this very well, which is this idea that.

allowing for a private option to exist in the forming of marriages so that just like you have public schools and then you also have homeschool and private school options, you should have a private option outside of the traditional government marriage licensure system that defaults you into the terms of entering and exit and

of something that predates and pre-exists prior to the state's existence. So it would be the bare minimum that governments could at least provide for a private option for families that say, hey, you know what, we're members of the Baptist Church or the Catholic Church, and our particular faith denomination

has an option that is in congruence with this law that we can set a covenantal agreement where the exit and the terms are set up by our particular faith

so that it allows for people to form families and strong foundational institutions if they so desire. If they want the public option, that's always available for everybody to default to. But if you want to have a private option where disputes are mediated in church courts or church dispute mechanisms, then you should allow people to do that. Just like homeschool has created a thousand different programs

of education, make a, what is that saying? A thousand flowers to bloom, all these options. We should allow that because there's a lot of young families right now that could provide really stable tax base income

for the state of Idaho, but they're afraid to get married because they see the dumpster fire of so much of what, you know, one size fits all public marriage terms provide where it's no fault divorce. It's all these things that have carved out the family and so many young families, young men, young women,

want to get married. They want to have kids, but they want a contract that's that's same for their worldview. And they ought to have that option. And they don't have that right now. Right now, government has an illegal monopoly on the terms of something they never created. You know, marriage, marriage licensing didn't even come about until they were trying to stamp out interracial marriages, you know, so it wasn't even create, you know, this is not the founders would be ashamed.

of the states for thinking they have the right to monopolize the terms of how marriage and marriage problems can be solved. You said something that caught my ear. You said the government is hijacking something that preexisted them and they're taking advantage of it. And I immediately thought, well, that just sounds like what the government does. Yeah, yeah. That's in their nature. They don't create. Yeah.

But they ruined that which God created. We told them a government to tell us what to eat, and they got us seed oils and made us sick. And then God said, well, why don't you just use what I created, like butter and things that, you know, grandma used to cook with, you know, natural fats that God created, not these Frankenstein foods that take, you know, it takes, I know people like corn in Idaho maybe, but I don't, do you guys grow corn? I don't want to be. Well,

You know, we grow corn. We're a big potato state. All right. Sugar beets. All right. Well, we'll pick on corn. It takes 96 ears of corn to produce one or two tablespoons of corn oil. The average American is eating many, many tablespoons of oil, vegetable oil, like corn oil a day. Wow. Each meal.

So imagine that kind of Frankenstein food. These seed oils, what they do is they put your body into a state of torpor, like it's preparing for winter. Like this is what bears do when they're ready to get to winter. They start eating acorns and things rich with these seed oil fats, omega-6 fats.

puts them in a state of slumber so that they can then feed off of their fat during the winter months. We don't go into hibernation, but when you eat seed oils all the time, you're perpetually like you're in a state of torpor preparing for hibernation. That's why people have adrenal fatigue. They're sleepy. They're foggy headed. This is what a bear feels like if we could get into a bear's mind and when they're eating all those acorns. Well, that's what we're feeding. We're feeding people,

Way more than acorns, because again, if you were to make acorn oil, it'd probably require like 90, like a massive amount of acorns to make a tablespoon of acorn oil. That's the kind of crap we're feeding our kids.

in the public school system. We need to stop it. Maybe you could do something about that too, to get Idaho to not promote vegetable oils and seed oils in the standard food system for school lunches, as well as nursing homes and hospitals. This is just something that's outrageous. And I know that Bobby Kennedy is on agreement with me on this. And I know that the folks that

are hopefully going to be able to be staffed up there. I know a lot of those guys, they understand the science behind this, but maybe, you know, that's something that you would also be able to lead the nation with in Idaho. Yeah, I'm very excited for Mr. Kennedy to get in there. I think he brings a fresh perspective on so many issues that frankly, we were just told not to think about. But we started thinking about him and then he's, you know, people started saying it out loud and then he's championed it.

And I'm ready to make America healthy again as well. That's awesome. One of the things that we could do at the state level too that you probably have looked into is allowing for more food freedom. So people should be able to, just like you can, you know, do Airbnb or you can do Uber with your car or your house, you should be able to use your home. Grandma should be able to use her home to make some apple pie and sell it to a few people around the community.

You know, and that's not legal right now in most state laws. I don't know what it is in Idaho. I know Arizona has passed some type of food freedom bill. Do you guys have anything like that? You know, I'd have to double check. I eat all the food my wife makes. Yeah. Wouldn't it be great if you had a grandma? Some of these people, they make some of the best muffins or things like that. And wouldn't it be cool if you could just, you know,

Oh, hey, look, on Facebook, I'm selling these pies for whatever, you know, come by and get them. Right now, that's not illegal. You know, you have these food, you know, kind of nanny state people that come around and say, oh, it has to be in a licensed commercial kitchen. Well, grandma's not going to do that. But grandma has a certain cookie that will never be produced at the McDonald's or wherever, you know, some big fancy restaurant. But they ought to be able to share that with their neighbors. That's an American principle. And that would allow people to, you know, be able to enjoy food

bonding with their community more if they had that kind of freedom. So I don't know, just some things to throw out there to you because you're on the same page and all this stuff. I love it. I love it. And I'm very excited for the next four years. I'm very excited for the next two years, especially because we have the House and the Senate.

in DC and I'm optimistic. It's funny, Washington DC is getting a little bit of taste of Idaho in this administration because there's such a super majority in the state of Idaho and they finally get both chambers too. So we'll see what they can do with it. What would you say to people that want to run for office that you have principled positions and a lot of principled people don't get an office, let's face it, where if they have principles, they get quickly, you know,

a wind and dine by all the big, Hey, you know, you want to fit in here. You better play the game, buddy, or we're going to give after you. I know that's just, they either go the hard way or they go, you know, the sticks or the carrots, right? The carrot. I'm sure. I don't know what it's like in everyone's office, but I'm sure everybody in Idaho is just really nice, sweet people in the political world. But you know, when you typically hear about it, whether it's in here in Florida, we have Tallahassee or DC or wherever, but,

You go in there with great ideas and then you quickly, well, that's nice and cute, but this is how we play things around here. You're new here. You don't understand how it goes. If you want to have power, if you don't want to have people, you know, take you on and put you out of power, you got to play the game. And so it gets really hard for someone to stand by principles when the public sometimes doesn't even understand the value of those principles. And then you have all this institutional support chasing out anybody who goes against

doing the right thing. So what would you say to people who want to run for office and have principles and keep them? Yeah, that's what makes a good legislator. I have been challenged in every primary that I've had. And I connect with my voters. I talk to my voters. And they have supported me and continue to send me back here.

it having principles and sticking by them does matter that doesn't mean you need to be uh that doesn't mean you should be uncivil to people who even that are uncivil um because at the end of the day uh we want to win the game not just the round yeah uh and when i say the game i mean it's an it's an illustration obviously but we we want to win we don't want to fight we want to win

And, uh, that means you can stick by your guns. Um, but you'll have a lot of fights on the way to the victory. So I encourage it. I think we need more principled people in politics who believe in something. There are a lot of folks, uh, I'm not going to say in Idaho, but I believe there's plenty of them in Washington, DC that have stopped believing in anything. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh,

That's what makes this system work is people who actually believe in something bigger than themselves. And so we need those kind of people in here. So I encourage you to run if you're listening to this.

Well, very good. I really appreciate your time, Ben Adams. It's always great having you on and it's great to hear all the successes and things you're building towards in Idaho. And I do need to get over there sometime. So maybe we'll see each other in person and I can see what's going on. And I've never been to Idaho before, but it sounds like a cool place, especially with folks like you leading the charge for a renaissance of great opportunity for freedom. So keep up the great work.

Absolutely. You are always welcome. And God is good. He's continuing to bless us. So we'll continue to pray for his blessing. Very good. Amen. I appreciate your time. And that's it for A Neighbor's Choice, folks. You can email me hello at anaboardchoice.com or you can follow us at davidgranowski on x.com.

♪♪♪