You know, if you want somebody to stop the whole woke thing, you almost couldn't pick a better one than Donald Trump, right?

And it's really interesting. After his election, so many comments about how you can finally breathe again.

Like that repressive atmosphere of a nanny state policing of what you say, think, believe has receded. Now, is it gone? No. No way.

Right. But it has receded and that's a glorious thing.

Outstanding is a production of The Washington Stand where you can find news and commentary from a

biblical worldview. Welcome to Outstanding,

where we have critical conversations about the news of the day and the ideas that shape us.

Once again, I'm your host, Joseph back home, and this is yet another exercise in taking every

thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And today is a special day for us as a country because we now have a new

president, at least as you are hearing this, we are recording this a couple days prior to the

inauguration for the second time of Donald Trump. But you are hearing this after that event has taken

place. And we're going to reflect on that a little bit today. We're going to try to figure out

what this means for the country. How optimistic or pessimistic should we be about this development.

And my guest today is an astute observer of everything that's happening. Culturally, Hunter Baker

is an author. He's a professor and provost at North Greenville University.

And he joins me now to help us break it all down, Hunter. Good to see you today.

Hey, happy to be with you. Thank you.

Well, I would like first just kind of your description, your understanding of where we are right now as a country. We always talk

about every election as we head into it as the most important election of our lifetime. And of course,

everybody said that this time as well. Where do you see us as a country here in the end of January

2025?

So if I kind of think back, we are in a, we're in a very surprising place if you look backwards. Like I think about towards the end of the first Trump term. The economy was looking great.

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