Hunter Baker

@BryanInNC We got Obamacare, which is a big part of radically higher cost of the system. That mistake sticks with us long term.

Say what you want, but the eight years under Obama were just calm. Competent people in charge, no drama, no scandals. We really took it for granted.

My new job is all about renewing and strengthening American civics education . . .

@mygirliegirls Thank you for reading about my dad.

@hunterbaker I don’t know you and I only came across this because Omaha was trending for me (from Omaha Nebraska). I read every word. It’s an amazing tribute to an obviously amazing man. I’m sorry for your loss.

I woke up yesterday morning disoriented. Where was I? A hotel. Why? A wedding? A speaking engagement? Somebody died? Who died? My father died. Yesterday, we gathered at the funeral home for a viewing and then drove out to the cemetery for a graveside service. I had not seen my father since he had passed. Every part of me did not want to enter the room for his viewing. I considered not doing it. The reason was that I was afraid I would fly apart like a dandelion in the wind and would not exist any more. When I saw him, it was like that. I felt like the hold of reason on my mind was slipping. Strange sounds of grief came out of me. It was the worst thing that has ever happened seeing him there. The only thing that brought me back to myself was when my daugher entered the room and I needed to be a dad for her sake. We drove out to the cemetery for the graveside service. Friends and family members were already waiting there when we arrived. My parents hadn't lived in Decatur for several years. We found a pastor to help us, who did well beginning and ending the service. My sister and I both spoke at the graveside. I know you've already had a lot from me about my dad, but I was conscientious to write a eulogy that was different from what I've posted here. There is so much I could write about my father. Please find the eulogy below. I hope it blesses you. Remembering Terry Baker My father was a gift to planet earth. The world is better because he was in it. It was better for his love, for his friendship, for his happiness, for his talents, for his work ethic, for his service, and for his sheer usefulness. If we were beginning a new town or village, a person like my dad would be great choice as a founding member. Dad grew up in Mount Pleasant and Hohenwald (the High Forest in German), Tennessee. He knew that he was raised in a beautiful place and remembered from his childhood that it had been called with great affection “the dimple of the universe.” He was scientifically and technologically minded and thought about what it would be like to orbit the earth in a spaceship and to look down on the dimple of the universe. He was from people who farmed the fertile land of middle Tennessee. His mother’s family had the better farm, which she liked to point out. She also liked to recall the time in high school when she scored a 100 on her chemistry exam. With a glint in her eye, she would tell me how her teacher confessed she’d tried to find something wrong and couldn’t. Had she been born in a different time and place, she might have been the engineer he became. His father was a storyteller and a dedicated church member who led acapella singing from the hymnal. He loved to help people and spent the years of his retirement volunteering in the waiting rooms of the hospital. He was almost always warm, friendly, and ready to share a joke or an anecdote. I have rarely known such a pure extrovert as he was. Well, except my father . . . My dad grew up as an only child in their house. His birth must have been difficult because the doctor told his mother not to have another one. Based on watching them together, I think they had a happy household with lots of extended family, many gatherings, and a cornucopia of food at each occasion. It never really felt like he was an only child because of the many aunts, uncles, and cousins who regularly came to the house. His mother cooked for him each day before school even though she was headed off to work, as well. She made the most wonderful tiny buttermilk biscuits that I still crave. Terry excelled academically and musically. He went off to Vanderbilt as the valedictorian of his small high school class on both academic and marching band scholarships. He studied chemical engineering (which was hot at the time), though he suspected his real gift was for the electrical discipline. While in college, he became a demon for playing bridge and loved hanging out with friends in the dorm. He told hilarious stories about the rich kid who got a haircut every week with the goal of always having his hair look exactly the same and another about a dorm mate who lured a squirrel into his room through the window with a trail of nuts only to regret it! Dad also remembered a young man caught cheating at Vanderbilt who was immediately expelled. Speaking as an academician of today, that was another era. His contemporaries of that time at Vanderbilt included Lamar Alexander, the future governor, U.S. Secretary of Education, and U.S. Senator from Tennessee; Thomas Frist, co-founder of the Hospital Corporation of America and father of a future U.S. Senator, the once well-known American humorist Roy Blount, Jr., and a relative of Winston Churchill, Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill. I’ve always been grateful dad was able to go to such a place and to begin a career that would benefit his future wife and children. Terry went to Decatur, Alabama where he would have his primary residence for almost the rest of his life. There was a short stint in North Carolina (when golfers once had to take refuge in our house during a blizzard!) and another fondly remembered one of about seven years in Pensacola during the 1980’s, a golden age along what we used to call THE GULF OF MEXICO! All told, Terry spent about 50 years in this city on the Tennessee River. From this wonderful place, he traveled around the world, but Decatur was his home. It is fitting he should rest here. He and my mother, Becky, met in the late 1960’s and married in a judge’s office. The judge was T.C. Almon, for whom a recreational center in Point Mallard was named. They began a nearly six decade union which we kids have commemorated in Delano Park. During his time in Decatur, Terry began work for the Chemstrand Corporation, which was acquired by Monsanto. He gave Monsanto more than three decades of his life and eventually obtained their highest technical track position, which was fellow of the corporation. It was unusual for a man with his bachelor’s degree to obtain that position, which indicates the extent of his technical expertise. Later he would work in missile defense as a contractor for Boeing and held other jobs all the way into his early 80’s. He defied his children’s arguments that engineering jobs would not be available to a man of his age when he reached his late 70’s. It turned out he was right and they were wrong as he took up employment one last time with the Wood Corporation of Greenville, SC, working remotely. I needed to give due regard to his educational and professional accomplishments, but I would like to talk about the man I knew as a son. He was a wonderful chef. He cooked eggs every way, fried potatoes, fried boloney, grilled cheese sandwiches you could build a food truck on, minute steaks with skillet gravy, and tempura fried shrimp. He was a captain of the grill making hamburgers, steaks, and chicken with that famous North Alabama white sauce. His Abbey Road, so to speak, was his pancakes, which he loved to stack up with lots of butter. One of the few ways I ever made him mad was when I tried to cut out the butter in his pancakes while I pursued a low fat diet! He was a coach. He coached me in the backyard and on practice and game fields. You could find him as part of the coaching team when I played flag football, baseball, and basketball. He also taught me how to golf and spent many hours playing tennis with me and our family. Baseball was the dominant sport. Almost every day for years, he would go out in the backyard with me and squat down in a catcher’s stance to absorb fastball after fastball. Considering how hard I was trying to throw and the occasional unpredictable ricochets off the ground, his bravery was pretty impressive. He was an athlete and a competitor. When I was young, he seriously considered becoming a pro bowler. Even years after he’d stopped bowling regularly, he could roll out truly impressive three game series. He was authoritative with a bowling ball in his hand. He was also a really good long distance runner. Dad was a naturally skinny guy. When he trained, he easily ran 10k races and seemed to be built for the task. At times, he would try to involve his stockier son. I remember once throwing myself into a ditch just to put a stop to it and to get my breath! Dad was my primary opponent in all kinds of contests. We went to war in pool, ping pong, basketball, golf, tennis, touch football, and video games. Hour after hour. Match after match. I never had fun battling with anyone like I did with my dad. I was super competitive and wanted desperately to find a way to beat him at everything. One night, I was thrilled to be holding my own in a game of ping pong. We were nearly even. I was beside myself with joy to finally be in reach of toppling Goliath. I weakly defended one of his shots with a floater across the net. Wincing, I prepared for the typical response which was to have him smash the ball back at me at the speed of a hypersonic missile. Instead, he just lightly batted it across. I instantly realized what was wrong. He’d been playing the whole match with HIS LEFT HAND!!! I was white hot with rage. For the rest of his life he enjoyed remembering that moment and my volcanic anger. We were at war as competitors for decades. I am losing my greatest playmate and to be honest, my best friend. In the end our battle settled in to golf where we fought to possess The Baker Cup. While I finished out our rivalry with the title, it came only after he had the shoulder injury that finished him in golf. There is little question he got the better of me far more often than I did him. Video games are a kind of side category that came out of his passion for computers. In addition to his early adoption of the VIC-20, the Commodore 64, and the IBM clones, he was the first person I knew who mastered PAC-MAN. He memorized all the stages and the strategies for winning. Later, I would impress him by learning how to defeat GALAGA, which was also a game he loved. We were sports fans together. I learned the joys and passion of Crimson Tide football from him under the sign of the Bear. The first game I really remember was the Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Penn State with that marvelous goal line stand. Before ESPN, we enjoyed watching Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and the highlights they showed at halftime. We were Braves fans in years of absolute futility. Fairly or not, he taught me to hate the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Yankees. That enmity continues to this day. When watching golf, we rooted for Jack Nicklaus, who, in the right light and the right angle was a dead ringer for dad. Dad was an enthusiastic musician. He could play any brass instrument (mainly the trombone) and the guitar. He was a wonderful singer who sometimes performed at occasions in his youth. When Ruth and I married, I asked him to sing with the certainty that he’d knock it out of the park, which he did. When I go back and listen to the ceremony, I realize I should have had him do the trumpet piece, as well! He is still well-remembered from my church in Tennessee for the time he spent playing in the church orchestra. His old worship leader talked about how dad always met his commitments and was excited to practice and then play for the congregation. One of my old Union students who played next to Dad texted to express his sympathy for “Mr. Terry’s” passing. Christina and I grew up listening to him play the music of the great Roger Willams on his guitar. Dang Me, You Can’t Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd, England Swings, Chug-a-Lug, King of the Road, and, I think our favorite, Kansas City Star. (Got a letter just this mornin’ it was postmarked Omaha. It was typed and neatly written offering me this better job . . .). My kids also had the fun of growing up listening to him performing those songs and sometimes singing along. And while he was a master of Roger Miller and the American songbook, the less public truth was that he nursed the deep passion to displace the lead guitarist of Def Leppard banging out Pour Some Sugar on Me and Rock of Ages. I know I have a lot to say, but this is kind of a last chance to say it. My Dad was so gifted. He could fix anything. We had a house in Hickory Hills where he finished out the whole second floor. He was good with machines, with wood, with wallpaper, with paint, whatever. He could do it. I have to admit I was shameless in my manipulation of him to get things done. All I had to say was, “I’ve tried everything. It’s impossible.” He’d immediately spring to the task and show me how wrong I was. His skills may have saved my young marriage. Ruth and I married and moved into a very small one bedroom apartment. Right up front, we agreed neither of us would spend more than $50 without the other’s permission. In almost no time, I went out and bought a piece of exercise equipment for over $100. It was from Service Merchandise. Remember those? I had not asked Ruth. To make things worse, I put it together incorrectly by not following the instructions. This meant I had a non-functioning piece of exercise equipment using up our scarce space in the living room. I had messed it up so badly one piece was inalterably stuck. I had shouted and raged against the heavens at my own stupidity and the incredible degree of stuckness I had created in this machine. Mom and Dad came from out of town for their first visit to the married couple. I showed Dad what I’d done and explained that it was impossible to fix. This time I really believed it! He examined the machine, pulled out the tiniest hammer I have ever seen, and began tapping the stuck bolt. TINK. TINK. TINK. In seconds, he removed it and began properly assembling the machine. This was Terry the fixer. I don’t think I ever saw him defeated. Grace walked into the hotel talking about low tire pressure. The first thought that came to my mind was, “Get Dad to look at it.” There are a million other delightful things about him. He was a language enthusiast and wanted to improve his German and to learn Spanish. He was generous in every way including his time, his money, and his energy. He was naturally democratic in his desire to socialize. I can remember driving through Birmingham at midnight. We stopped at a convenience store where he happily engaged the clerk in a conversation about the head cheese he saw in the refrigerator case. He could and did talk to anyone about anything. There was no high or low for him. People were people. He was a good parent. I did two things that really offended him. One was talking disrespectfully to my mother. The other was driving too slowly in the left lane. He wasn’t overly corrective, but when I went to college and performed less well early on than he expected he began writing letters about getting enough sleep, sitting up front in class, and taking notes. When that didn’t fix things, he took me for a drive while I visited home. He asked what I planned to do next. When I said a master’s degree. He said, “You sister is coming right behind you. I won’t be able to help you with graduate school. I figure you’ll need a high GRE score and at least a 3.5 GPA so you can get an assistantship or a fellowship.” It was all stated matter of factly and with no room for compromise. From that moment forward, I only got stronger. I won scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships through three graduate degrees and was always at or near the top of my classes. Having the generous and easy Terry crack down a little bit opened my eyes like nothing else could. Dad would do anything for us. I haven’t mentioned that my father was a serious car guy. He had a ’57 Chevy (I think that’s right) and a glorious purple Chevelle muscle car that he treasured when I was a small child. But after that, he went through my childhood with a white VW Bug without AC and then a Toyota Corolla that he drove for years with no fifth gear and a paint job so bad we once slopped stain on it which actually made it look better. The car guy put himself dead last for the family. Later, after we were out of school, he got himself an Acura TL that he loved and drove almost to disintegration. My dad had a great memory for the poetry he learned in high school. I want to share a segment he regularly quoted to me about death from the poem Thanatopsis. So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. However, Dad was more a follower of the New Testament than he was of Willam Cullen Bryant. I think that when it came to his faith, Dad approached it like he did his mathematics. You know how a math problem might begin with something as a given, “Let X = 5 . . .” I believe Dad’s faith was like that. Jesus Christ’s death, resurrection, and rescue of those who repent and call upon his name was his given. I never once heard him doubt it. Instead, he grappled with what was the right way to be a Christian, but never the fundamental reality of it. As I conclude, I think again about Dad the youngster envisioning a trip into space to look down upon “the dimple of the universe.” If his given about Jesus and mine are right, he’s got a lot better view than that right now. I can imagine his delight.

@DennyBurk It's out there, regrettably. A thing, as they say.

@hunterbaker That’s pretty bleak.

Andrew Walker rightly warns against the “right-wing gaze”: — Call it the right-wing gaze. Here, the commissar on the shoulder is not a progressive but a pseudonymous X account with a Roman-statue avatar, questioning whether your take is sufficiently based or, for example, whether you are beholden to the “post-war consensus.” Or, it is some right-wing podcaster or YouTuber who talks unflinchingly—even daringly—of repealing the Nineteenth Amendment, rewriting the First Amendment, or who “just asks questions” around Hitler’s legacy (yes, that’s actually happening).

Loyalty or no other choice???

@hitefield @WilliamWolfe Jesse, that's absurd. I believe in God created the earth. I believe Jesus is his son, was born of a virgin, died for our sins, was physically resurrected, and will return again. I'm pro-life and pro-traditional marriage. Where is the liberal drift in all that?

@WilliamWolfe @hunterbaker is a brilliant example of the liberal drift of the sbc. Such a liberal.

The Big Eva anti-Vance op is underway. It will not succeed.

READ Fellow Hunter Baker's article on Senator Lindsey Graham. @thelandcenter @hunterbaker buff.ly/xj90Ukb

Nextprez

Ann Coulter appears to be back.

I suspect what Trump can’t accept is that there were 22 million more prez votes in 2020 than 2016. Of course, 2024 was high, too, when he won.

Land Center Fellow for Public Policy @hunterbaker recently wrote, "Court packing should be DOA." Read it @thelandcenter buff.ly/iBBpbpp

CNBC posts its best states to do business and features things like "inclusivity." You could think of CRCD's Religious Liberty in the States ranking as inclusivity for traditional religious believers. Move to the high ranked states if you want your beliefs respected. religiouslibertyinthestates.com/news/

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' state leads the nation with the top spot in this year's Religious Liberty in the States ranking by the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy at First Liberty. Read about the rankings below. religiouslibertyinthestates.com/news/

Time for this week's Washington Wednesday on Lindsey Graham, the Supreme Court, Iran, and a comment on my father's passing and fatherhood. The statesmanship deficit wng.org/podcasts/the-s…

As you may know, I've recently joined First Liberty's Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy. Every year, they put out the Religious Liberty in the States ranking. Speaking as a person who may have run the first Congressional campaign in Tennessee to make religious liberty the center of the platform, I'm thrilled to see the Volunteer state right next to Arkansas at the top of the list!!! religiouslibertyinthestates.com/news/

@AndrewPWeis @Yellow_Dog1959 @JamesAGagliano @davidaxelrod Burger and Blackmun were part of Roe. Whether liberal or conservative depends on the issue. You got Roe, gay marriage, Obamacare, and various establishment clause wins out of what you call a conservative court.

@Yellow_Dog1959 @JamesAGagliano @hunterbaker @davidaxelrod Last time there was a 5-4 liberal majority: 1969. Nixon appointed Burger, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist in his first term, and SCOTUS has a conservative majority ever since.

I remember when I worked at CNN and saw @davidaxelrod in the green room. Asked a question that continues to befuddle me. Never got a satisfying response. Here goes again: During entire SCOTUS history, when has there EVER been a liberal justice — appointed by a Democrat POTUS — considered to be a “swing vote,” in the tradition of a Justice Anthony Kennedy. So rare to see the three liberal justices on the current court now EVER act as a “swing vote.” And yet, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, ACB, and Chief Justice Roberts (MANY TIMES) side with the liberal wing. Why? Think that Sotomayor or Kagan or KBJ would EVER take a *consequential position not aligned with their preferred ideology? Serious question. Why are “swing votes” almost always right to left? 🤔

@realErikJuergen Thank you.

I was sorry to learn of your father's death this morning on World and was very moved by your words about him. You and your family are blessed to have had him. I'm in the process of a long goodbye with my own father with dementia and struggle to think about what I'll one day say about him. God bless and console you and your family! 🙏

What a week this has been. We lost Robert Sloan. We lost my dad (a great and benevolent person). And we've lost Lindsey Graham. I live in South Carolina and move in Christian circles. Lindsey Graham assiduously cultivated our support. In January, I attended the big pro-life dinner in Columbia. Lindsey jumped up on the stage and did a rousing kind of routine. He was a politician. He was making sure everybody knew he was there. On another occasion, I attended a pastor's luncheon (though I am not a pastor) at a church in Greenville. We all ate Chick-fil-A (what a stereotype!) and waited for the senator. He entered the room and sat down right next to me. He'd recently done a favor for my university, for which I thanked him. When Senator Graham found out I teach politics, he launched into a discussion of foreign policy. I found him to be extremely bright and informed. I have to tell you that he appeared to love what he did and having access to kings and presidents. When the luncheon ended, he put on a press conference. I was borne along by events and was surprised when his handlers had me stand next to him while he declaimed for the cameras. He was an interesting combination of brains, bravado, and wit. One of the guys who was definitely not born on third base and used military service to advance his career and his possibilities. People forget, but like many in the GOP he was very much against Trump at the beginning and even made a viral video of himself smashing his cell phone after Trump told people to call him. But he was the ultimate political survivor and found ways to become even more influential in the new era of Republican politics. Machiavelli might have enjoyed Lindsey Graham. youtube.com/watch?v=RED2Gj…

@NorthwestTex @BonifaceOption I’m a little worried we’re going post-Jesus.

Totally agree with this gal and her cuckold. You need to be telling your children “someone hits you, you hit them back HARDER.” Escalation of force brings order and establishes hierarchy. Shameful that people omit this. Good for them pointing out this failure.