Is America Really Fighting a 'Culture War'?

Oct 09, 2026
Hayden Ludwig
Restoration Spotlight Podcast

What do Chicago crooks, babies, and Barack Obama have in common? They're all on Restoration Spotlight Season 2.

Welcome back to the Restoration Spotlight Podcast: Season 2

Rod Blagojevich is back in the headlines, claiming newly released FBI records prove he never tried to sell Obama's old Senate seat. What those records actually show is Obama and Rahm Emanuel maneuvering over who would get it—a story the legacy media barely touched at the time. 

In this episode of Restoration Spotlight Season 2, we're reopening the case with Restoration of America's John Pearman and Dan Curry, who watched it unfold in Illinois, and Restoring America host Grace Riley. The panel walks through it all—from the federal wiretap that took Blagojevich down, to a Bush DOJ that held its fire on Obama's team, to an Obama DOJ that did the opposite to Trump's in 2016. We're not defending Blagojevich; we're asking why the people around him never paid a price. 

The Hyde Amendment has kept federal tax dollars from funding abortion for 50 years and saved an estimated 2.6 million lives, but there's plenty left to fix, from tax-subsidized abortion groups to a deeply divided country and millions of Christians who sit out elections—and our panel breaks it down. 

Topics include: 

  • What newly released FBI records reveal about Obama and Rahm Emanuel
  • How the Bush and Obama DOJs handled presidential transitions
  • 50 years of the Hyde Amendment and how taxpayers still subsidize abortion
  • Gen Z, socialism, and America's deepening political divide
  • Why millions of Christians who don't vote could change everything

Hayden Ludwig is Founder and Executive Editor of Restoration News, launched in 2023 by Restoration of America. As a writer he specializes in election integrity and dark money, authoring the first investigations into the 2020 election "Zuck Bucks" scandal and unearthing the world's largest dark money network run by Arabella Advisors. He publishes regularly at RealClearPolitics, American Greatness, the American Spectator, and the American Conservative. Hayden is also a member of the board of directors at the National Legal and Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Email Hayden HERE

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