The World and Everything in It: October 25, 2023

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. I'm Barbara Winkler. I live in Singapore on the other side of the globe. Along with my husband, we serve as educators at East Asia School of Theology, training leaders for the church each day. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! President Biden pledges military support to Israel. How far will that go? 

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk with an expert today on Washington Wednesday.

Also today, another journalist detained in Russia and hyper-inflation on the ballot in Argentina. That and more on World Tour.

And, a man imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit is now working to help others stay out of prison.

AUDIO: We’re going to try to help some people because we see it from the inside.

And WORLD Opinions commentator Brad Littlejohn on a long-game mentality toward the culture war.

BROWN: It’s Wednesday, October 25th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

SOUND: [Sirens in and under]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Israel - UN Cohen v Guterres » Air defenses in Israel continue to intercept incoming rockets …

SOUND: [Israel sirens]

… as Israeli airstrikes in turn target Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

With the death toll mounting in Gaza, tempers flared during a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized Israel’s counter-offensive following unprecedented Hamas terror attacks.

GUTERRES: Those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen fired back at critics who charge that Israel’s response is not proportionate.

COHEN: Tell me, what is a proportionate response for killing of babies, for rape women and burn them, for beheading of a child.

Cohen asked the secretary-general—quote “In what world do you live?”

U.S. response » And U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken wondered aloud why the outrage seemed to be so one-sided. What of the atrocities committed by Hamas.

BLINKEN: Where is the outrage? Where is the revulsion? Where is the rejection? Where is the explicit condemnation of these horrors?

Meantime, at the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the United States is doing all it can to help Israel minimize civilian deaths, but…

KIRBY: This is war. It is bloody. It is ugly, and innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward. I wish I could tell you something different. I wish that that wasn’t going to happen.

He also said the United States does not support calls by some world leaders for a cease-fire. Kirby said pausing combat right now would only benefit Hamas, giving it time to regroup and launch more attacks.

Hamas U.S. border » And U.S. border officials are now warning of heightened terror risks on the U.S.-Mexico border. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: September was the last month of the fiscal year with the Border Patrol reporting 270,000 migrant encounters. That brought the total for the year to 2.5 (two-and-a-half) million, the highest in U.S. history.

Agents encountered 169 people on the FBI’s terror watchlist over the past 12 months. That’s more than the last six years combined.

And a new memo from a Customs and Border Protection intelligence office warns that terrorists inspired by the Israel-Hamas war may look to enter the United States from the southern border.

The memo warns agents to watch for military-aged males from the Middle East.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Speaker » House Republicans have nominated another potential speaker of the House  just hours after the party’s last nominee dropped out.

SOUND: [Chants]

Lawmakers chanted “Mike” in a show of support last night after tapping Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson, who told reporters …

JOHNSON: Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system. This conference that you see, this House Republican majority is united.

Messy indeed. Johnson is the fourth GOP nominee to replace former speaker Kevin McCarthy after his ouster three weeks ago.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer dropped out on Tuesday just hours after he was nominated when he was unable to garner enough support to survive a vote in the full House.

Johnson will likely get an up or down vote on the House floor today.

Jenna Ellis plea » In Fulton County, Georgia, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis has pleaded guilty to a felony charge related to alleged attempts by Donald Trump and others to overturn the 2020 election in the state.

SCENE - Zoom courtroom

Judge: Has anyone forced, threatened, promised or coerced you in any way to enter into this guilty plea?

Ellis: No ma'am.

Judge: Is it your decision to waive these rights and enter a guilty plea because you are, in fact, guilty?

Ellis: It is.

Ellis admitted to the charge of aiding and abetting false statements.

She received five years probation and agreed to pay $5,000 in restitution.

She’s the fourth of Donald Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the state to accept a plea deal.

Cohen-Trump » Meantime, in New York, another former Trump attorney Michael Cohen testified in a civil case against the Trump Organization. Cohen said he and others manipulated financial statements at the former president’s request.

COHEN: Yes, I pled guilty to a 1001 violation, which was lying to Congress. But I have also requested that people continue the sentence and the sentence is I did it at the direction of and in concert with and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump.

The former president called Cohen a liar.

Trump and his co-defendants deny accusations that they falsified the numbers in business dealings to get more favorable terms.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Defense funds for Israel and Ukraine on Washington Wednesday. Plus, life beyond the prison walls.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 25th of October, 2023.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up: support for Israel and Ukraine.

The U.S. and its allies have of course been backing Kyiv against Russia for more than a year.

SOUND: [Israel]

EICHER: But two weeks ago, a key U.S. ally came under attack.

SOUND: [Israel]

The Iran-backed terror group Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, carried out unspeakable attacks on the ground against Israeli citizens, and took hostages.

BROWN: Last week, President Biden made the case that it is in America’s national security interests to ensure that both Israel and Ukraine win their wars.

BIDEN: Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they both share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.

EICHER: Joining us now to talk about these threats is retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery. He served as policy director for the Senate Armed Services Committee back when Senator John McCain was chairman.

And he served more than three decades in the Navy as a nuclear-trained surface warfare officer.

BROWN: Admiral, good morning!

MARK MONTGOMERY, GUEST: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

BROWN: It’s good to have you. Well, let’s start with American assistance to Israel. The Pentagon recently sent military advisors to help Israeli commanders prepare for a large-scale ground invasion of Gaza. What kind of advice and guidance Do you suppose the Pentagon might be providing?

MONTGOMERY: Well, I think this is part of a broad effort by the United States to assist Israel. But that one component that you're mentioning here is very important. And that's the idea that a number of our general officers and our senior enlisted personnel have multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and particularly in Iraq, in dense urban fighting against a terrorist organization, pretty much what we're describing in Gaza, particularly Gaza City, and Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. And so we have more recent experience, you know, between 2003 and 2020, for some of these military officers, whereas the Israelis left Gaza in 2005. So while they have a very skilled military, and I would put their military on a person per person basis, you know, in the top three or four in the world, you know, alongside the United States, but they don't have this recent experience in urban environment. So I think that's why those advisors are there. I wouldn't overstate their value their of their value, that is not going to be the discriminator in success for the Israelis or not, that's going to be having a well thought out battle plan that gets them in and gets them out with a theory of victory, something we didn't properly have in Iraq in 2003, or, you know, in Afghanistan at any time, over the 20 years, we were there.

BROWN: Along with those advisors, the United States has dispatched multiple aircraft carrier strike groups to the eastern Mediterranean in support of Israel. Explain to us in practical terms, what the purpose was for dispatching those carrier groups.

MONTGOMERY: Myrna, thanks for the opportunity to answer that. In fact, I was a carrier strike group commander a few years ago, for two years, and they have very specific capabilities, many of which are misconstrued in the media. Look, there's two reasons that that is there, in my opinion: number one is a strong signal. There's a strike projection capability inherent in the carrier air wing and the missiles in the and the accompanying destroyers that could impose cost on Iran. So the number one reason they're there is a strong signal to Iran, do not expand this war, do not have your second group of proxies in Lebanon, which is known as Hezbollah and initiate combat operations in the in the north of Israel. And that's when the President, you know, looked at the camera a week ago and said "Don't," what he was saying right there was to the Iranian leadership, don't press this war any further, don't open a second front. And he's moved some of our strongest signals that are not just the two carrier strike groups, but we now have six Air Force squadrons stationed throughout the Middle East. 

The second reason you'd have a carrier strike group there, it's very specifically the the escort ships are known as cruisers and destroyers. They have a system known as the Aegis weapon system that has ballistic missile defense capabilities. Those are very good against Iranian intermediate range ballistic missiles. And while the Israelis have a system called Arrow to protect themselves, there's some question as to whether or not it's thick enough, do they have enough capacity to hold off the Iranian ballistic missile attack? Well, once you introduce the U.S. weapon systems on a on a number of destroyers and cruisers at least three or four at each of these carrier strike groups, now you have thick enough a system and the Iranians can't really present that kind of like intermediate range ballistic missile threat to Israel. So two good reasons to put carrier strike groups in the eastern Mediterranean, or as we're going to see with the Eisenhower strike group is going to go through the Suez and pop out in the North Arabian Sea and be very close to Iran to again, send a strong signal from the President.

BROWN: Before I go on, let me just also say thank you so much for your service. Let's shift now to Ukraine. Supporting Kyiv has become more controversial, at least among Republicans on Capitol Hill. Admiral, what is your assessment of how that war is going? Is either side winning right now?

MONTGOMERY: It is a tough war. Look, are the Ukrainians winning? Yes, because a major power, the second strongest country in the world, in theory, invaded them without notice, you know, 18 months ago, and they blocked the invasion. And between Belarus and Russia, they, you know, surround, you know, 60% of Ukraine, and Ukraine was able to fend them off. That's a win. Now, look, are they winning in their current counter offensive? That's harder to say, I think they've achieved a few of their goals. I don't know, they certainly haven't achieved all the goals they wanted. Our assistance was absolutely crucial to any success they've had. But our failure to provide assistance at the right time and speed has also been critical to some of their failures. We need to get them the systems they they are judged themselves to need, like F-16s, tanks, ATACMS, or cluster munitions. As you go back over the last 10 months, we've been slow to deliver what the Ukrainians asked for. And in the end, we realized they needed exactly what they asked for. So I wish we'd be faster about that. 

But I want to be clear, without the leadership--and, you know, I was uncomfortable with how President Biden handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan, I think he did a poor job, and that, I think his team led him down and he made some bad decisions, but his decision making on Ukraine has been correct. It was a place where we can invest treasure and not blood. And we've achieved a lot there in terms of protecting a beleaguered democracy and Ukraine, rallying our European partners to the cause who have been feckless on occasion, prior to this, and making sure that President Zelenskyy was portrayed as who he really is, which is a fearless Democratic leader, and not this crazy Russian, you know, meme of him being some kind of Nazi puppet. And so I really appreciate what the President's done here. I think we do need to bring the rest of this money to them this year. I hope the I think the majority of the Republicans in the House support it, the majority the Democrats support it. So it should be able to pass a fair vote in the House, I know to pass a fair vote in the Senate. And the President can sign it and get them their support. 

But I want to make clear that Vladamir Putin is an evil, evil man, and he he runs an autocratic state that tries to impose its will illegitimately on its neighbors, and finally, someone stood up to him. And you know, when someone stands up to the bully like that, it's our job, because we have the assets to do it, to support them with treasure and not blood.

BROWN: Final question here. President Biden also made the point last week that the United States has been shipping to Ukraine weapons and ammunition from US stockpiles, and then replacing it with new equipment. I'd like you to explain that in practical terms. So when we send weapons and ammo to either Ukraine or Israel, how does that work? And are we able to quickly and sufficiently replace those supplies?

MONTGOMERY: So that's a great question because it is kind of confusing. There's two basic ways they get equipment from from the United States. The first is the fast way that's called Presidential Drawdown Authority. He says to the army, provide them 30 M1A1 tanks, and 30 M1A1 tanks would go through a process and they're shipped and they show up in in Germany, they get trained on them, they move to Ukraine. Same things happen for artillery shells for all kinds of things that are inside the army; the army then gets the money to buy replacements. So this has led to the modernization of the U.S. Army. If you go and look at their at their stockpiles. Now this presidential Drawndown Authority has allowed, you know, the modernization of the javelins, the artillery, the tanks, those things are now flowing back. And by the way, that 20 to $30 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority is money spent only in the United States at U.S. factories, building these replacement items that would otherwise not have been built, big time jobs and growth in these factories. So that's the first, Presidential Drawdown Authority. 

The second one, when we don't have it or the army is like we can't give any more away, we need to preserve this for our warfighting capability, we do something called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. That money then goes directly to, say, Lockheed Martin to build you know, whatever missile we need, or to Raytheon or to-- but only to U.S. companies to build systems in America, again, producing jobs in America to send the gear to Ukraine. That's what's happening there. 

And I'll tell you one other way, when someone gives U.S. gear from, say, Estonia gives some and then they need to rebuy back, they're buying back from that same U.S. factory. So in reality, U.S. factories are also participating in the rearming of Eastern Europe and a few Western European countries, but particularly in Eastern Europe. They have U.S. gear that they're giving now. They originally gave some former Soviet gear, now this U.S. gear, so bottom line is, it is really a healthy story for the U.S. Army, for U.S. Defense industrial base and for Ukraine.

BROWN: Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Admiral, thanks so much!

MONTGOMERY: Thank you both for having me.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

Onize Ohikere is off this week, so World Radio Reporter Mary Muncy has this week’s roundup.

AUDIO: [Judge reading sentence in Russian]

MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: Reporter detained in Russia — We begin today’s World Tour in Russia.

A court on Monday extended a second Russian-American journalist’s pre-trial detention to December.

Alsu Kurmasheva is a Prague-based journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

She entered Russia in May for a family emergency and Russian authorities detained her in June for failing to register her U.S. passport. Authorities later added the charge of failing to register as a foreign agent.

The charges carry fines and a sentence of up to five years in prison.

In March, Russian authorities also detained a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich. He remains in prison awaiting trial.

Haiti Update — Next, to Haiti, where Haitian police arrested a former justice official last week for the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise.

Investigators accuse Joseph Felix Badio of hiring a group of Colombian mercenaries to kill Moise in July 2021.

AUDIO: [Sound from street]

Since the assassination, gangs have taken over many cities in the country and the United Nations approved sending peacekeeping forces from Kenya.

But a Kenyan court blocked the Multinational Security Support, or MSS—saying the Kenyan president doesn’t have the authority to approve it.

UN Special Representative for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador spoke to the UN this week.

SALVADOR: Reestablishing control by the Haitian National Police is a prerequisite for holding credible and inclusive elections. The deployment of the MSS brings hope that the situation will improve.

Salvador says in the absence of peacekeeping forces, a new vigilante movement has lynched at least 395 alleged gang members.

AUDIO: [Khan supporters]

Imran Khan Indictment — Now on to Pakistan, where authorities indicted former Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this week for allegedly revealing government secrets.

Khan’s lawyer says the trial should not occur behind closed doors.

LAWYER: He denies all the allegations. All are trumped up charges, all are politically motivated. All are by the two hostile regimes, the previous one and this one.

Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote last year and after the ouster, he allegedly waved a classified document in the air at a rally. He said it would prove that he was being threatened and that his ouster was a U.S. conspiracy.

A court has already sentenced Khan to three years in prison and he’s not eligible to run for office in January. The new charges could carry a life sentence or the death penalty.

MILEI: [Thanking supporters in Spanish]

Argentina election — In Argentina, presidential hopeful Javier Milei is thanking supporters for putting him into a November runoff election.

On Sunday, the economist and lawmaker claimed 30 percent of the opening round votes, scoring him second place behind the current economy minister, whose policies have driven inflation in Argentina to 140 percent.

AUDIO: [Sheep bells ringing]

Animal traffic jam — We end today’s World Tour on the streets of Madrid as sheep bring traffic to a standstill.

AUDIO: [Shepherds calling sheep]

Over the weekend, shepherds herded their flocks along ancient herding routes to their southern pastures for the winter. The fluffy parade is part of Madrid’s annual Fiesta de la TrashuMANcia, or the festival of the migration.

WOMAN: Yes it’s amazing, I think it’s a tradition for a long time. It’s nice to see so many people joining and enjoying as well. It’s amazing.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy, filling in for Onize Ohikere.

NICK EICHER, HOST: His name is Gregory Gregory! Yep. His first name, last name, the same.

Apparently, names are important to this Jersey Shore restaurant owner. In 1979 he started selling tacos on Tuesday. He liked the name so much, he had Taco Tuesday trademarked. Smart move, or was it? Audio from CNN.

GREGORY: I had no idea it would create such a national uprising.

National chain Taco Bell wanted to be able to use it, so they went to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to cancel Gregory’s trademark. And after months of haggling, Gregory finally waved the white flag.

GREGORY: And for me to spend 200 or 300 thousand dollars defending my trademark, it’s David and Goliath on steroids.

They probably don’t want him to get any ideas about Fajita specials on, ah, Friday.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 25th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: This week on Concurrently: The News Coach Podcast, co-hosts Kelsey Reed and Jonathan Boes help parents and educators get at the worldviews at the center of the war in Israel.

BOES: The worldview of Hamas, that's a very easy worldview to challenge I don't think you're going to find many people on the ground in your community sharing that violent, extreme worldview. But I want to talk about one of the more deceptive worldviews that we might see in our community that might say, well, who are we to tell the oppressed how they should fight back? That's a sentiment I've seen a lot. And this is where I think we bring in that term pos-colonial. We see people reducing this conflict to a kind of single black and white element of who is the oppressed, who is the oppressor. And there's really no reference to a transcendent moral authority. This is a humanist philosophy. If all good and evil in these circumstances are defined by who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor, then when you see things like the murder of civilians, you have no ground to call those things wrong if they're being committed by the oppressed.

REED: The post-colonialist view which oversimplifies or reduces into these power structures does not allow for humanity to name the evil in one another's hearts. When we cancel God, we are left with our own definitions, our own ways of trying to make sense of the world.

You can hear the entire episode of Concurrently wherever you get your podcasts. And find out more at concurrentlypodcast.com.

EICHER: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: doing another man’s time behind bars.

In 1994, Richard Miles was wrongly accused of murder. He was just 19 years old at the time and spent the next decade and a half in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

BROWN: But Miles used that painful experience for good. Today, he runs a nonprofit helping other former prisoners.

WORLD Feature Reporter Grace Snell has the story.

AUDIO: [Distant mowing, cicadas]

GRACE SNELL, REPORTER: It’s a blazing hot morning in Dallas, Texas. The sun beats down on the sports fields of a local community center in the Oak Cliff neighborhood.

A small band of workers are braving the heat. They’ve hauled an assortment of lawn mowers and leaf blowers here in a Chevy pickup and trailer. Purple lettering on the side spells out the name “Miles of Freedom.”

AUDIO: [Push mower]

A man with a push mower is cutting a path through the grass. His gray T-shirt soaked in sweat.

AUDIO: [Starting the blower]

A dark-haired woman in a pink sweatshirt follows behind—blowing grass clippings off the sidewalks.

AUDIO: [Blowing away grass clippings]

It’s a sleepy, peaceful kind of scene—nothing out-of-the-ordinary. Nothing to show the winding road these workers have traveled to get here.

KARENA: So I got referred from another lady that got out of prison. And she said Miles of Freedom was a real good program and they’ll help you get whatever you need. They helped me a whole lot. I didn’t have an ID they hired me on. I’m with the lawn crew and I get paid every week. I’m happy.

Miles of Freedom is a nonprofit helping ex-offenders adjust to life on the outside. But for its founder, Richard Miles, it’s also the fulfillment of a promise. And the redemption of a prison sentence he didn’t deserve.

In 1994, Dallas police arrested 19-year-old Richard Miles as suspect number one in a murder case. Miles had a strong alibi, but one of the eyewitnesses picked him out of a photo lineup. A jury found Miles “guilty” the following year.

MILES: And I remember when I got locked up, I’m sitting in the cell. I had 60 years. And I’m like, “God, what do you have going on here? This is, this is not right.”

But Miles says God brought to mind the story of Joseph in the Bible—another wrongful imprisonment.

MILES: And the story of Joseph personified my experience. And if I’m walking around, carrying this Book, saying I believe it, and I’m saying it’s true, then I have to say, “You know what, if you did it for Joseph, I have to trust that you will do it for me.”

In prison, Miles met an older man named Aubrey Jones. The two spent hours drinking coffee and talking. They wondered why so many people left prison just to land back behind bars.

MILES: So Aubrey Jones, and I would talk about, “Man, when you get out, when I get out, we’re going to start organization. We’re going to try to help some people because we see it from the inside.”

Then, in 2009, a judge overturned Miles’ conviction and he walked free on bond.

MILES: I ran and woke up Mr. Jones, and I gave him all my stuff. I said, “Man, I’m going, I’m going! And Mr. Jones looked at me and said, “Man, when I make parole I’m coming to see you,” and he did.

Together, Miles and Jones would start Miles of Freedom using state compensation money.

After his release, Miles encountered the obstacles that make it all-too-easy to wind up back in prison.

MILES: I walked into prison at the age of 19. I walked out at the age of 34. So just taking that into context, you’re talking about the, the formative years of a person, you’re talking about college life, you’re talking about first breakups you’re talking about. All the things that pretty much establish a person in our 30s or 40s happen in their 20s.

Everything looked different and the change was disorienting.

MILES: When I went to prison, I had just purchased a beeper. When I got out, they gave me my beeper back, but everybody had iPhones.

Miles spent some time getting his feet under him. One of his church ministers helped him find a job. He started budgeting and saving and moved into his own apartment.

Later, Miles started his nonprofit and began networking with local employers. Encouraging them to give former prisoners a chance to work.

AUDIO: [Mowing, gravel scuffing]

Miles also started offering job openings of his own. He bought some lawn mowers and organized a team of former inmates to cut grass.

Eventually, his team started managing cases. They help people leaving prison find housing, build resumes, and secure documents. This year, over 300 people came for job help. Over seventy percent now make more than sixteen dollars an hour.

Texas’ recidivism rate is about twenty percent. But at Miles of Freedom, that number is just five percent.

AUDIO: [Voices outside the food bank]

The Miles of Freedom team also partners with a food bank to distribute groceries. That’s where it clicked for Miles: Watching his team hand out food at a community center.

AUDIO: [Rustling and wrapping sounds] Thank you.

God was using his sufferings for good. Just like he did with Joseph.

MILES: I don’t know how many people we’ve impacted over the years. But we’ve been able to use this to be a resource and a continued source of hope for so many. And I think that’s what, that’s what I’m proud of. I’m proud that faith works. The trying and testing of your faith works.

AUDIO: [Handing out food]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Grace Snell.

WORLD Commentator Whitney Williams also contributed onsite reporting to this story.

BROWN: You can read more of Richard Miles’ story in our Nov. 4 issue of WORLD Magazine. We’ve included a link to the web version in today’s show notes.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 25th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next: WORLD Opinions commentator Brad Littlejohn on playing the long game in the culture wars.

BRAD LITTLEJOHN, COMMENTATOR: Why is it that conservatives always seem to lose cultural battles? Even the generational triumph of Dobbs seems to have been followed by a slew of setbacks at the state level.

We could point to the power of left-leaning educational and media institutions, which can leave conservatives feeling like David facing Goliath. But perhaps there is another fundamental factor at work: Conservatives don’t make good activists.

In a recent National Review profile of pro-life activist Lila Rose, the author observed, “Typically, activism is the Left’s domain. It requires certain qualities that are often lacking in conservatives: monomania; the desire for radical change … and, perhaps above all, a willingness to get into the trenches and stay there for as long as it takes.” The author is not wrong.

To live a conservative life is to live out the conviction that some things are more important than politics: such as faith, family, community. It is to commit to investing one’s time in these things—in the long hours of being a spouse and a parent, a church elder or Little League coach. It is to stay rooted in a place rather than be always on the go. It is to rest in God’s providence rather than entertaining delusions of grandeur about one’s ability to change the course of history. It is also to prize truth above all else, even effectiveness.

Radical progressivism, however, puts all its energy into politics; it is the work largely of the single and unattached, the restless and mobile, the arrogant and self-assured. And while these habits may not be the path to happiness, they can certainly effect political change.

Many on the right are calling for conservatives to fight fire with fire, to get in the trenches and do activism the way the left does. This is short-sighted. For the fact is, genuinely conservative causes cannot be advanced by radical means; it is dangerous to think that you can play with fire and not be burned. So, what are conservatives to do?

The answer, I think, is institution-building. Institutions are inherently conservative things: They require cooperation, commitment, self-sacrifice, loyalty, and humility. Our problem today is that so many institutions have become progressive that conservatives have turned against them. When the dangers seem so urgent, it can seem pointless to invest in the long, slow work of rebuilding and redeeming institutions. But it is the only way to effect true conservative renewal; consider how the Dobbs decision was the fruit of decades of institution-building in the conservative legal movement.

That’s not to say there is no place for conservative activism. We need some front-line troops in the field—not to mention saboteurs and commandos to slow the enemy advance. But they need not be very numerous; the attacking force will always have more.

And if it is human nature and created order we are defending, we have the high ground. Reality will win out over unreality in the end. We can afford to play the long game.

I’m Brad Littlejohn.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Political upheaval in Guatemala. Can the country put corruption in the past?

And another in our occasional series What Do People Do All Day? This time, behind the scenes of WORLD Radio. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, “There is none like you, O Lord. You are great, and your name is great in might.” —Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 6.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.