Episode 5037: WarRoom New Year's Special 2026 cont.
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Aired On: 1/1/2026
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Yeah, I make all the normal ones, you know, get in shape and try to save a few more bucks and all that kind of thing.
But I'll just, you know, go further on what Ben Harnwell was saying.
And and Harnwell, you know he's another joyful guy I like watching.
I always watch his Catholic shows at 6 p.m.
He's very good.
Even through those beady eyes.
There's a sense of joy in him and a sense of humor.
There's a genius in there.
You know he did these genius types.
They got the humor thing and so he teed up.
You know this.
He's great, I love him.
I even watched the Trad Mass debate this week to educate myself and you guys.
But in addition to his internal thing right, the crusades.
I'm all for it, the crusades.
Go read Rodney Stark on the Triumph Of The West.
Rodney Stark does a whole upside down on your Catholic tradition and you guys have gotten a short shrift there in the long history of ideas.
But in addition to the internal piece which everybody in the United States is in is internal piece because it's linked to, you know, modern psychology and Freud and all this stuff there is also an external piece that gets overlooked, God.
God has built in a metaphysics in the beginning.
God created in Genesis 1.
Right, every culture on earth knows there is a judge.
Plato knew it, Aristotle knew it, the Jews knew it, the Greeks knew it, the Hindus know it, the Islam knows it, Christians know it there is a judge and there's up and down.
At the end of the day right, I'm not gonna.
I want to stay positive here, but there is an up that judge.
You better find out who that judge is, because everybody knows there's a judge.
You know that even the liberals know there's a judge.
Their worldview is totally whacked right now.
And we got to explore that deeply because there's some problems that are affecting our country and our schools.
And we got to get at that.
But you got to find out who is that judge because that is going to affect your eternity and your life here.
And then what are the rules of that judge?
And just to give you the good news, there's a joyful answer to that.
That's why I can be chipper, right?
There's good news when you find out who that judge is and what that judge has done for us.
There's good news.
And that was Christmas, right?
And so, but there is an external piece that we've just left behind due to K-12 education and the schools and all that.
And I encourage all you parents, right, as you reflect on your own goals for the new year, how you're going to make yourself happier, and that is the one thing we can do: our sense of agency, right?
We do, you do control yourself.
And every young kid in this country, there is hope.
If the parents push them and the kid goes out and learns and takes advantage of things, you can still do well individually, even though this country is such a mess.
And so, internally, right, I covered it in the last hour.
Harnwell did a great job, but I just wanted to add there is the external metaphysics, right?
Above the physics, there are rules to the cosmos, and everybody has known this through all human history.
If you don't know that, go study that because that'll add to your confidence when you come to reach your own conclusions, which only you can do.
He was a Baptist, but he's a Baptist historian, but you can't do better on studying the Christian West than Rodney Stark.
I mean, he goes through how the West overcame things.
I mean, if you want to get pumped up, you read one of Rodney Stark's books on the Christian West, and you can see you can connect the dots that go back of your heritage and what's so special about your heritage in the Judeo-Christian West.
It does an amazing job.
Ben Harnwell, let me go to you.
End of the year, your inventory.
Do you make New Year's resolutions?
How do you fire off the football in the new year?
Because we're getting people, all the stuff that we talk about, we're going to have PAC shows every day from now into the future.
But today's really get everybody kind of set in their mindset about the battle space we're going to go into and how it comes down to individual human agency to kind of pull this together.
The reason you're joyful is that the Brits that are expatriates, and maybe this is just my prejudice being Irish against the Brits, although I am, to a degree, an Anglophile.
I noticed, and you'd studied Lord Nelson when they're in the Mediterranean, when they're in the Caribbean.
And of course, the Brits love sunshine.
That's why they all flock to Florida.
They're in LA in the film community.
But isn't the expat community in Rome is more upbeat?
I mean, aren't Brits more upbeat when they're out of England?
And because England gets a little dour with the weather, particularly when we get the sunny southern climes, Like the Mediterranean and the Caribbean and Southern California, they always have another spring in their step.
Of course, we are more joyful when we are outside of the UK, not only because of the weather, it's because in recent decades the UK has been diminished.
I don't want to ruin the festive chair, but the UK really has been running to the ground.
It's a third-rate third-world hole.
It really is, to use President Trump's glorious use of that word applied to the UK.
And of course, people are just miserable gits in the UK because what are they going to be smiling about?
Oh, perhaps I'll have perhaps in the evening when I decompress, I'll have a smaller shot of whiskey.
Well, you know, that's not going to last 24 hours, is it really?
And then, you know, so what's the point of setting yourself up these great targets and collapsing at the first hurdle before you even made it into January the 2nd?
We've had a great run here of people being inspired and taking upon themselves to accomplish things.
You're seeing it with these 18 to 25 or 24, 25-year-olds on your show on Wednesday, what's happening with this kind of revival movement inside the Christian churches and somewhat inside the Catholic churches.
Talk to me about human agency, the importance of it.
You know, if you wanted to ask what is the American, you know, what is uniquely part of the American genius, it's that.
It's human agency.
There is nothing more American than people deciding to take their own destinies into their own hands, make themselves the protagonists of their own destiny.
That is, you know, that's why the idea of monarchy, despite whatever the left are saying about no kings and all the rest of it, a monarchy wouldn't work in America because it just goes against the American spirit.
The American spirit is we can do things for ourselves.
We don't need to be told what to do.
We don't need government.
We can do, we just need, you know, as you say constantly, Steve, really what the ordinary regular guy wants is just a fair chance, a fair shot at being able to succeed.
That's the difference between Americans and Europeans.
But I'll expand on this in the next break if you want.
We're going to play this entire song underneath our voice.
Just real quickly, do you think in the year ahead, you know, because year after year, politically, we're now into, as I tell people, I think this is the toughest year we're going to have because it's all on the table here.
And we kind of see what you're up against, the established order, right?
Part of it's very radical, but part of it's just very commercial, but it does not want to budge.
We're going to have to hammer it down.
Do you see, do you see the year ahead of us as I do?
If you're looking at the secular press, the mainstream media, I think it's been a little bit too early to start writing the obituary of MAGA in indicating some of the splits that exist in this movement.
These splits are going to grow in 2026 in this year.
It's absolutely necessary that they do that because finally, I think after 10 years of this developing movement, it is necessary to get a few things straight.
And one of those things is, I think, the absolute prioritization of America first within the MAGA movement.
And that, coming back to the agency thing, don't look to, we shouldn't look to leaders in order to re-establish the priorities of this movement going forward for the next generation.
This is something that Americans, only Americans can do this for themselves.
Only MAGA can do this for itself.
And it's a very healthy thing.
And the movement's going to, you know, we're going to win.
You know, everything that the war stands for, we are going to win this battle.
And the movement's going to be a lot healthier for it.
And that's what from the very beginning of the foundation of our country, from the Mayfriar Compact all the way through to the revolution, it's always been on the shoulders of the people to drive this forward.
It's what you decide.
It's not what people tell you what's going to decide.
It's what you decide.
That's why this year is going to be so incredibly tough because people are going to try to knock you off your game at every second.
Okay, take a short commercial break.
When we come back, we're going to do one of the holiday season, one of the Christmas season's favorite movies.
We're going to do the powerful ending of it.
And I'm going to turn to Dave Bratt and Ben Harnwell for their analysis.
Short commercial break, back in the warm in just a moment.
unidentified
Come in, Uncle Billy.
Everybody in here.
Where is it, George?
Mary did it.
She told some people you were in trouble today.
They scattered all over town collecting money.
Didn't ask any questions, just the charge in trouble and counting idiots.
I guess it's a red light.
The lime farms on the right.
Clark, come in, George.
Oh, Mr. Martin.
Step by.
Oh, get up.
You can drink a box too!
I changed my mind.
Oh, Mary, Anna.
I made enough money for these watches, Baba.
I give a thumb look.
Oh, Harry.
Hey, George, you've got the factory.
All that stuff.
Here's your beauty payload.
I wouldn't have a wreath over my head if it wasn't for you, George.
Just a minute.
Just a minute.
Quiet, everybody.
Quiet.
Quiet.
Now get this.
It's from London.
Oh.
Mr. Gower cables, you need cash.
Stop.
My office instructed to advance you up to $25,000.
Stop.
and Merry Christmas, Sam Wainwright.
God has every tragedy.
Cool.
Mary Trinity!
Harry!
Mary!
I got him here for the airport just as quick as I could.
The fool flew all the way up here in a blizzard.
Harry, now you're banquet in New York.
Oh, I left right in the middle of it.
soon as I got Mary's telegram.
Good idea, Ernie.
A toast to my big brother George, the richest man in town.
Okay, that's Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, the ending.
Some people don't know the movie was actually kind of financially bombed when it came out.
It was for those celebratory days, I guess, post-World War II, because I think this film came out in 46 or 47.
It was a little out of step for the times.
It was only later when the copyright, they didn't perfect the copyright that started to be shown on independent television that became a classic.
And then Ted Turner got it and ran the sprockets off and became an absolute classic.
Jimmy Stewart, we always talk about the film 12 o'clock high.
Jimmy Stewart was 12 o'clock high.
He was in a flying fortress over Germany and was a very highly decorated pilot, stayed in the military, even though he came back and became a bigger star than ever, even before the war, which many of the folks didn't.
Jimmy Stewart eventually became, I think, a brigadier general in the United States Air Force Reserve.
Dave Bratt, Frank Capra's A Wonderful Life is a classic now.
When it first came out, didn't really get traction, right?
I think that film says a lot better than I was trying to earlier on in the show.
The point about being the best, just responding as best you can to the Holy Spirit in whatever sphere the Holy Spirit has put you.
What's the theme of the film?
Is it not that sort of ordinary lives can bend the universe, to put it like that?
That's what I'm trying to say, I think, wrapping it into the theme that you were mentioning before, Steve, about human agency.
What I was saying before, you know, I don't know whether we're going to win the battle to keep Christendom Christian.
I said on our Christmas Eve show, it's wrong to say that Europe is post-Christian.
It's really pre-Islamic.
I don't know whether we're going to turn that around.
And in a sense, we can't be responsible for the big picture beyond our own immediate sphere of action.
What we have to do is be as coherent as we can to the gospel in our own sphere and let the Holy Spirit take control of the rest.
I think you can, I think, you know, that there's, you know, it's a, obviously I'm making a political argument, and a wonderful life is more of a Christian assurance type argument.
But I think the two themes are, you know, reinforce one another.
As soon as we get back, people are going to be overwhelmed with information and what's going on and focus.
What is your recommendation to people to maximize use of their agency, both for themselves, for their families, their communities, their church, and for their country?
The reason people come to the war room is obviously they have a very strong instinct or attraction to working with people together in some sort of team environment to save this country and return America to her greatness.
That's why this has always been the bedrock of MAGA and the Trump movement in support of President Trump.
Although, as everybody knows, on different policies, we're not 100% there on every policy, as you wouldn't expect to be.
But what is your, because this one's going to be a tough one.
I tell people, particularly as the economy, I think, turns around.
And as I see the numbers, I think you see it turning right now.
It's not perfect.
I realize for working class people and for middle class, a lot of people feel left out.
I also don't buy the argument.
I have to disagree with the vice president and the president that this 26 midterms are going to be about affordability.
I think we're going to go past that because I do think you see the rate of inflation starting to lower, and we're never going to go back and unwind the prices in many regards that Biden kind of dumped on us with all this federal spending.
But that you are going to see the economy turn as far as growth and jobs and wages and all that.
I think that's coming.
But we're still, then I think the fight even gets nastier.
And one of the realities is what you're seeing in Minneapolis and other places is not a bug, it's a feature of the system.
Yeah, well, I was just going quick in my head toward how do you prepare for a fight?
And never bad to go to God.
And Jesus, at the opening of his ministry, met with the devil, met with a Satan out in the desert.
And Satan offered him everything.
He offered him the world, the wealth, the power, the money, the bread.
And Jesus said, be gone, be gone.
And so the real rule and the real test for our lives is we got to get ready to fight.
And you say, well, there's no Satan now.
There's no Satan.
Anything that opposes God and Christ is Satan.
It's the Antichrist.
Right?
So when you see evil breaking out in the world, that is the antichrist.
It's anti-Christ.
And I'm not doing end time stuff here or whatever.
I'm just saying anything opposed to the will of God.
And that can take on a whole list of things.
Marxism was created in opposition to God.
Socialism comes out of Marxism.
Liberalism, if it's not grounded in God, I've had to come to recognize some of my idols, you know, Milton Friedman and Hayek, they're not grounded in the faith.
Took me a long time to figure that one out and why their systems will not end up in the right place.
Freudianism, modern psychology, capitalism, if it's not grounded in the faith, it just turns into what it is now, corporatism.
It doesn't have any goals in mind.
The rich CEOs are not pursuing the good.
And so that's just all a setup to say the war room needs to get ready to fight.
And for too often, we've kind of sanitized Christianity and made Jesus out to be this nice liberal guy who just loves everybody and whatever.
Go read the book again.
Jesus very rarely says, hey guys, how are you feeling today?
Let's go out for Starbucks, right?
He's usually point on game, challenging whoever he's with.
He's gracious, the woman at the well, but he's tough on the apostles day in and day out.
Kind of like banning on the war room, right?
He's on your case, tighten the message.
You better get to it and you better do it right.
And we need to put a little of that fortitude.
All those films you were just showing had strong men in them.
That was only 50 years ago.
Today we've feminized everything.
We've softened everything.
We've turned love into an emotion and a feeling instead of a practice.
And so I would just tell everybody, learn how to steal yourselves, right?
Nietzsche wrote some great stuff, right, on the will to power.
He's, of course, an atheist, but that gets spun out the wrong way sometimes.
But the will to power, self-overcoming, but do it all within the Christian worldview.
Self-overcoming, become strong.
Iron yourself.
Turn yourself to iron for God and learn to fight because we got a fight coming across the board.
And you better go back to the book and figure out where in that text do we get not only permission, but the command to fight the fight for our country, for our God, for our families, for ourselves, for our sanity, because it's on us.
Well, if I could take this opportunity of the show today to say what I think the broad themes are going to be then for 2026.
As I was saying before, in terms of the movement, MAGA, I think there is going to be a bit of house clearing that's going to take place.
And it's going to be difficult.
The press is going to call it a civil war, but it's necessary and the movement will be healthier at the end of it.
That's, I think, in the political sphere.
That's what I think is going to be the most important thing that involves us and the fight.
It's the defining of what this movement is and getting at, kicking out of this movement, all the people who were never part of it in the first place.
There were people who started off 10 years ago, never Trumpers, have hijacked the movement, have pretended to be MAGA, quoted as being MAGA in the press.
And all they basically want to do is put other interests and other nations' interests ahead of America.
These people need to be exercised.
And that's going to make this movement healthier.
On the religious front, I would say this, inspired by what Dave Blatt was just saying, actually.
But it's not just for 2026.
I think this is going to be epochal for the next generation.
And it does lean a little bit more into end times than what Dave was saying explicitly he wasn't intending to do in those early remarks.
Think this is the characteristic that we're going to see, and it's going to cut across all Christian denominations.
I think that those denominations are going to fade away to some extent with regard to this point I'm going to make now.
I think as we move forward from here, people who are motivated by the Holy Spirit will recognize other people who are motivated by the Holy Spirit.
And the opposite is going to be true as well.
Is that people who are not motivated by the Holy Spirit will not recognize people who are not motivated by the Holy Spirit.
Now, I formulated that in a strange way, not in an atypical way, but it's very much what I mean to say on the religious front.
That is, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, when they are genuinely motivated by the Holy Spirit, we will recognize that amongst ourselves.
What is taking place, the corollary part of that, is that I think people who aren't motivated by the Holy Spirit won't necessarily realize that they're not motivated by the Holy Spirit.
And that is going to, as the Bible says, as Christ himself indicated in the end times, that is going to be why a lot of people will allow themselves to be deceived in the end times.
People who are not motivated by the Holy Spirit will not recognize those who are not motivated by the Holy Spirit.
So those are the two things.
And as I say, in Christian terms, it's not just for 2026, but this is an epochal generational thing.
Why is it that in the first witness, written witness, which is the Gospel of Mark, which is really the eyewitness account of St. Peter as his scribe Mark put down, what, in the year 63, 64 AD, the centrality of the Holy Spirit in that entire gospel narrative, why is that not discussed more?
Because if you look at the first gospel from the eyewitness of the individual that he had said, when I'm gone, it's upon your shoulders and you've got to take this thing forward.
The absolute centrality of the Holy Spirit from the very open all the way through is so powerful as its embodiment in Christ.
Why do you think that's not more?
You said if you're in the Holy Spirit, you'll notice that.
Why do you think it's not the Gospel of Mark's not more emphasized, and particularly the Holy Spirit's predominant or dominant role with Christ in the Gospel of Mark?
This is why Christianity is, in fact, if lived properly, authentically, and coherently, it's a very difficult, it's an impossible religion because we measure up to the perfect an idea of perfection which we're obviously never going to reach in our fallen, sinful human condition.
And to be motivated, you know, this is the difference between true Christianity and, say, for example, Islam.
Islam is concerned about exterior observance, whereas Christianity is about inner conversion.
And inner conversion is a lot more difficult.
It's easy, easy to live to an outward conforming template, facade, if you will.
To change yourself or to allow yourself to be changed by the Holy Spirit is a lot more difficult because it involves our will, you know, our affections.
And that obviously in being sinful, we're obviously going to, as Saint Augustine wrote, I think so beautifully, and never been surpassed in 1700 years.
It is easy for our desires to fixate on things which are not God, created things that are not the creator.
And that's the problem, you know, dealing with the Holy Spirit is you're there right in the immediate nexus of interior conversion.
And that, you know, all the church fathers, all the spiritual traditions of the church really are about that.
It's about dampening down your own will and what you want and conforming it to the will of God, which is something you can only do with the Holy Spirit.
You know, I would say, Steve, let me hand back to you on this point.
I would say the ideal prayer really for Christians isn't so much to pray for what God wants, but to pray to be able to want what God wants.
Because that's where the spiritual battle fundamentally takes place with regards to will and all the ways that that can be abused and corrupted, not only by ourselves and our sinful nature, but also by the devil, which I think is also part of St. Mark's gospel.
Right after Christ is baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, it's right to the desert and into that struggle, as you just so beautifully talked about with Satan.
Short commercial break.
We're going to return in the War Room in just a moment.
Okay, welcome back.
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Guys, I'll start with you, Dave Brad.
A couple minutes, wrap up.
It's been a fantastic show.
I really want to thank you guys for doing this, our New Year's Day special.
Brad, some closing thoughts for people that are going to spend the rest of the day thinking about the job we have before us, sir.
It's a great opportunity to renew ourselves in the Holy Spirit for the battle of the year ahead.
I actually think 2026 is going to be a great year.
I'm not a natural-born optimist, but there are a number of things that made me quite excited about the way this year is going to go.
My theme of the show today, and I think it's a great point to close with this, is this.
What we can do in terms of contributing to the wider renewal, inspired by the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, but under God, under Jesus Christ, as Dave Bratt correctly reminds us, our focus should always be.
My message is this: let's just try to be the best witness to Jesus Christ that we can possibly be in the sphere that Christ has put us in with the grace of Christ.
And that I think is the best that we can do.
I don't think God would expect us to do more than that.
We do that.
We will be the yeast that makes the bread rise.
With that, Steve, Dave Bratt, the control room at RAV, and you at home, the War Room posse.