Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show.

I'm the announcer and I've known Eric since he was a big nobody.

In fact, I'm one of the people he stepped on as he climbed the ladder of success.

And now my former friend,

Eric Mataxis. Hey there, folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Today I'm playing the role of Eric Mataxis. Albin, would you play the role of Albin Seder? Okay, I was going to be Chris Heim's, but I'll be Albin today. No, that's all right. That's a right. That's a stretch for you. That's just right. He's half Cuban and I don't think you could pull that off.

All right, we got to get really serious.

We have to get really serious today. So much is going on. Let me just say to ground us for a moment.

I'm in New York City. It snowed beautifully all through the night.

And it's the city is always quiet and it seems magical to me because I don't have to shovel a driveway.

But let me just say that where we are with the election and in the country right now, I thought I need to speak directly to my audience about it because I've been dismayed.

Typically, I try not to wade too much into things because I feel like I don't have the bandwidth, whether time or energy, it's just, it's too much.

And I don't like to get into, you know, arguments with people.

But because of a few things, I thought I should directly address some things.

I'm really happy to say that I have people that I consider friends who are

completely opposed to me on this issue. And I normally don't engage them on Twitter, but this

morning I felt I needed to because I respect them too much, not to, frankly. One of the friends is Karen Swallow

prior. Another friend is Terry Mattingly. Another friend is Rod Dreher. These are all people that

I love and have had real disagreements with lately. And I thought it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's actually a sign of

respect that I would talk to them because I think that it's, because I actually believe

they're the kind of people who could, who could hear or try to hear what I'm saying and

won't just blow it off, which is why I would

make the effort. But I just want to say that right now, and Albin, you and I, we talk about this

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