Washington and Lincoln’s Warnings for America’s Future

On February 22, 2023, Kim Monson marks George Washington’s birthday by examining how the founders’ warnings about America’s decline resonate today. Senior Fellow Scott Powell discusses Washington and Lincoln’s prescient insights, GOP chair candidate Aaron Wood outlines his vision for Colorado Republicans, and sixth-generation rancher Trent Loos exposes the dangers of Biden’s 30 by 30 land conservation initiative.

Washington and Lincoln Foresaw America’s Internal Threats

Start listening at 31:45 – Hour 1

Scott Powell, author of Rediscovering America: How the National Holidays Tell an Amazing Story About Who We Are, traces Washington’s farewell address warnings to modern American decline. Powell identifies three threats Washington predicted: citizens failing to stay well-informed, internal division from hyper-partisanship, and the erosion of religious obligation and national morality. Lincoln similarly warned that America’s destruction would come from within, not foreign invasion. Powell notes that both great presidents were homeschooled, never attended college, and credited their success to faith and reliance on God rather than personal ability.

The technology sector’s concentration of wealth drives today’s political corruption, Powell argues, pointing to Mark Zuckerberg’s $400 million contribution to ballot harvesting through the Center for Tech and Civic Life. Free speech, the cornerstone of the republic, faces unprecedented assault. Ben Franklin warned that public liberty cannot exist without freedom of speech, yet today’s pronoun revolution and social media censorship threaten the very process of discovering truth.

“Both presidents, that’s Washington and Lincoln, readily admitted that it was not their own abilities that made the difference, but rather their faith, trust, and reliance on God on God that gave him their strength and opened the way for their success.”

Scott Powell, Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute

A Business Approach to Republican Party Leadership

Start listening at 17:00 – Hour 1

Aaron Wood, founder of Freedom Fathers and candidate for Colorado GOP Chair, explains how watching his wife and children protest mask mandates at school board meetings convicted him to get off the sidelines. As a precinct committee person and delegate, Wood witnessed firsthand the disorganization plaguing Colorado’s Republican apparatus. His background in marketing, brand strategy, and data analysis offers an outsider’s perspective on rebuilding the party.

Wood advocates closing Republican primaries, calling Proposition 108 a manipulation that allows Democrats to choose weak Republican candidates. He supports preserving the caucus assembly process, describing himself as a product of that grassroots system. On ballot harvesting, Wood argues Republicans must start playing the game Democrats already dominate, particularly through church engagement. Senate Bill 101, sponsored by Republicans to gut the caucus system, represents the wrong kind of unity, one that aligns with Democrats and elitist consultants rather than conservative values.

“There’s a side of unity that stands on the values and tenets of the Republican platform, the conservatives, the real true conservatives across the state. The other side is unified with Democrats and elitist consultants, and everybody gets rich while all of our policies are bad and the state continues to suffer.”

Aaron Wood, Founder, Freedom Fathers

Biden’s 30 by 30 Initiative Threatens Food Security

Start listening at 69:00 – Hour 2

Trent Loos, sixth-generation farmer and rancher, has spoken in 42 states about Biden’s Executive Order 14008, signed just one week after inauguration. The 57-page order devotes only two paragraphs to the 30 by 30 land conservation goal, with the remaining 56 pages focused on eliminating fossil fuels from America’s energy supply. The initiative originated not from the Biden administration but directly from the United Nations, Loos reveals, connecting it to farmer protests in the Netherlands and Ireland.

Jane Fonda’s appearance at the UN, presenting a 5.5 million signature petition to designate 30% of the world’s oceans as fishing-free sanctuaries, exemplifies the movement’s radical agenda. Conservation easements signed in perpetuity strip landowners of development rights forever, with organizations like the Nature Conservancy writing these binding documents. Combined with existing federal and state land ownership of 33%, achieving 30 by 30 would place two-thirds of American land under government control, a path Loos characterizes as leading to starvation.

“If, in fact, they accomplish this conservation easements program to increase their control by another 30%, two in three acres of the United States landmass would then be owned and managed by federal and or state government. That is a path of starvation that we cannot allow to happen.”

Trent Loos, Sixth-Generation Farmer and Rancher