Order of Man - DAN CRENSHAW ｜ Politics vs. Policy

00:00:00.220 Anytime you mention the word politics, you know you're in for a charged and polarizing

00:00:04.140 conversation, but it's crucial that we talk more about politics and the policy that comes

00:00:08.940 with it because it literally impacts every facet of our lives.

00:00:12.680 My guest today, Congressman Dan Crenshaw, joins me to talk about the key issues impacting

00:00:17.140 culture and society today, including a healthy approach to reaching across the aisle, why

00:00:23.120 it's important for conservatives to have a voice in what we would typically view as liberal

00:00:27.460 issues, not only the far left, but also the far right, something he calls woke conservatism,

00:00:33.220 the importance of humility and open-mindedness, and also distinguishing between politics and

00:00:38.620 policy.

00:00:39.480 You're a man of action.

00:00:40.800 You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly charge your own path.

00:00:45.100 When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.

00:00:49.140 You are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.

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00:00:55.580 This is who you are.

00:00:56.640 This is who you will become at the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you

00:01:01.820 can call yourself a man.

00:01:03.900 Gentlemen, what is going on today?

00:01:05.200 My name is Ryan Mickler.

00:01:06.460 I'm the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement.

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00:02:21.740 All right, guys, let me introduce you to my guest.

00:02:23.960 His name is Congressman Dan Crenshaw.

00:02:26.040 He's a representative serving in the second congressional district in Texas.

00:02:29.840 He's a former Navy SEAL.

00:02:31.100 He's got over 10 years of service and over five deployments in some of the most hostile

00:02:35.400 territory in the world.

00:02:37.340 He was awarded two bronze stars, one with valor, I believe, the Purple Heart and the

00:02:41.940 Navy Commendation Medal with valor, among others.

00:02:45.660 Now, since leaving service, he's been working and serving Texans and Americans and currently

00:02:50.760 sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Health Subcommittee, and also the Environment

00:02:56.400 and Climate Change Subcommittee.

00:02:58.320 He believes there is no higher calling than service to the American people.

00:03:02.560 Congressman Crenshaw, good to see you again.

00:03:07.040 Hey, good to see you, Ryan.

00:03:08.720 I was looking at our previous podcast, which, believe it or not, was a year ago last week.

00:03:15.660 So it's been a year since we had this conversation.

00:03:17.740 And a lot has transpired in the past year, not for the better.

00:03:22.440 Yeah.

00:03:22.960 Yeah, you better believe it.

00:03:24.640 That's true.

00:03:25.600 I don't even remember what we talked about last time.

00:03:27.880 Probably all sorts of things.

00:03:29.080 Oh, yeah.

00:03:29.960 Oh, yeah.

00:03:31.320 My question is, how do you prioritize everything that's going on and everything that needs

00:03:36.140 to be addressed?

00:03:36.900 Because it seems like there's just so much that needs to be tackled.

00:03:41.380 And how do you focus on where you should put your energy?

00:03:44.500 Well, okay.

00:03:45.700 So just generally speaking in politics, you've got a couple of buckets or lines of effort

00:03:51.420 in military speak.

00:03:53.720 And there are probably two main ones, right?

00:03:56.340 Your official side and your campaign side.

00:04:00.080 And obviously, there's a lot of overlap between the two.

00:04:03.400 But your political campaign side, that's getting reelected.

00:04:06.220 You can't do any of the policy stuff if you don't actually get reelected.

00:04:09.700 And so there's a whole team that you hire separately with campaign funds that you raise

00:04:15.180 just for that.

00:04:16.100 And then on the official side, which is technically your real job, which, frankly, most politicians

00:04:23.280 don't get to do a whole lot of because of the way our system is set up.

00:04:27.420 We can get into that as much as you want, why that is necessarily.

00:04:32.420 But that's your legislative side.

00:04:35.840 So every member of Congress should pick probably a couple of majors and a couple of minors. 0.93

00:04:40.780 That's how I would describe it.

00:04:41.880 It's funny, there's a lot of university speak when you come up here.

00:04:45.800 You come up here for freshman orientation, then you're in the sophomore class in the

00:04:49.960 next session.

00:04:52.100 And like I said, you get separated into different committees, which is, for all intents and

00:04:58.920 purposes, a major and maybe a minor.

00:05:01.780 So mine were energy and health care.

00:05:05.980 And that's not usually what people think it would be, but it is.

00:05:09.220 I've sort of like triple, quadrupled, majored in many ways, because I do the energy stuff.

00:05:14.860 I do the environmental stuff.

00:05:16.080 I do the health care stuff as well.

00:05:17.620 That's really my committee work on energy and commerce.

00:05:20.140 But I also do a lot of national security issues as well, especially border security,

00:05:25.820 homeland security.

00:05:26.460 So this is how I prioritize.

00:05:30.060 I mean, I've got ideas on education policy as well.

00:05:33.420 And I have a shallow knowledge of, say, what financial services does on that committee.

00:05:40.400 No one person can do it, Paul, nor should they, because then you just have a lot of people

00:05:44.760 who know almost nothing.

00:05:46.360 And so the way things generally work up here is you trust certain members, just based on

00:05:51.960 their backgrounds, based on their philosophies, to work on the real hard details on a certain

00:05:57.560 bill and a certain committee.

00:05:59.380 And you're giving them a lot of trust to a certain extent.

00:06:02.340 And because of how complicated a lot of these issues are, that's sort of how you do it.

00:06:08.560 And so I took energy and health care because those are important to my district.

00:06:12.900 They're important to the Republican Party.

00:06:14.280 It's important for us to have better angles on that, better communication styles on those

00:06:18.240 particular issues.

00:06:18.980 And so I gravitated towards those.

00:06:20.760 Yeah, I was looking at it because I wrote these down, your permittees, or excuse me,

00:06:25.940 committees, not permittees.

00:06:27.080 I'm thinking about my moose hunt.

00:06:28.280 They're talking about permittees and sub-permittees.

00:06:30.260 So that's where that came from.

00:06:32.720 I've never heard of that.

00:06:33.660 I've never gone.

00:06:34.620 Yeah, you have a permittee.

00:06:35.940 And then my son, my 14-year-old is my sub-permittee.

00:06:38.840 So I was thinking about hunting moose.

00:06:41.340 So that's where I'm getting that stuff from.

00:06:43.500 Permittee, I see.

00:06:44.740 Yes, committee.

00:06:46.880 Anyway, so you're on energy and commerce.

00:06:48.960 And then as a subcommittee is environmental and climate change, which is interesting because

00:06:57.500 you're right.

00:06:58.260 You don't, I don't typically think about that when it comes to the conservative or Republican

00:07:02.240 party.

00:07:03.000 But I can see how it's so important since it seems to me the narrative is being driven

00:07:08.780 by the left on a couple of these key issues that you're intimately familiar with and working

00:07:14.440 on.

00:07:15.900 Right, exactly. 0.99

00:07:16.640 I mean, you wouldn't believe how many dumb people on the right got mad at me because I 0.95

00:07:21.800 go to, I went to this UN climate change conference last year and I'm going again this year. 0.95

00:07:25.480 I'll go every year because you need a different perspective at these events.

00:07:29.700 And there's a tendency, especially mostly on the far angry, like, you know, kind of young

00:07:35.140 online, right?

00:07:36.800 Like, you know, you're not even supposed to talk to Democrats.

00:07:39.000 You're not, you're just, you're just, you're just supposed to really hate them and then

00:07:41.680 fight like they do.

00:07:42.540 None of this means anything.

00:07:43.660 These are all kind of meaningless phrases and words and soundbites, but it's also extremely

00:07:47.420 counterproductive.

00:07:48.140 And it also tells me that you don't really want to win.

00:07:49.980 So you do have to be in their, in their playing field a little bit.

00:07:53.800 Now, keep in mind too, the name of that subcommittee, the environmental policy and subcommittee

00:07:58.480 and climate change subcommittee, we'll probably change the name.

00:08:01.800 We won't, we won't call it when we take over, assuming we win the majority, we won't call

00:08:06.520 it that, that, you know, climate change subcommittee because it's a, it's a very loaded word and

00:08:10.800 it kind of annoys people, but it doesn't mean we're going to change how we talk about climate

00:08:15.280 change, which is from a very reasonable perspective, right?

00:08:18.280 I don't, I don't deny climate change is happening.

00:08:20.400 I don't, I don't, I don't take that route.

00:08:21.840 So I, I, we can talk about energy and more depth if you want.

00:08:27.400 But I basically take a rational environmentalist approach.

00:08:29.820 And I think that's, I think that's a really catching on amongst Republican circles and

00:08:33.700 certainly amongst independent circles, because independents are just going to form a more

00:08:37.020 rational approach to this stuff.

00:08:38.360 Like they believe there's a problem.

00:08:40.020 They don't believe AOC that we're going to die in 12 years.

00:08:42.380 So, you know, where's the middle ground there?

00:08:44.140 And we can offer them that without hurting our energy industry.

00:08:47.000 Yeah.

00:08:47.440 I mean, I've, I've, I've thought about that even myself, you know, you're not supposed to,

00:08:51.200 right, as a conservative and everybody knows that I am because I've, I've been outspoken

00:08:55.140 about that.

00:08:55.700 But yeah, I mean, we can acknowledge that the climate is changing.

00:08:58.340 We can acknowledge, I think about sustainable energy, for example, and renewable energy.

00:09:04.860 Why wouldn't we want that?

00:09:06.440 I just want to make sure that it's, that it is actually renewable, that it is actually

00:09:11.360 feasible and possible, and that's not going to create more harm than good.

00:09:14.520 But why wouldn't we explore those options if they're there and try to create some better

00:09:19.240 alternatives than what is currently available?

00:09:20.980 That doesn't seem like it should be a taboo in the conservative, in the conservative world.

00:09:27.000 It shouldn't be, but look, this gets to a much bigger problem, Ryan, in the conservative

00:09:30.160 world, which is rank contrarianism just for the sake of contrarianism.

00:09:34.720 And that's not driven by principle.

00:09:36.640 That's just, that's just driven by like, you know what?

00:09:38.600 Most of the people are thinking this way, so I'm going to be the cool guy and think something

00:09:41.780 different, but that's not driven by any sort of principle.

00:09:44.480 It's not anchored in anything.

00:09:45.800 It's not anchored in any kind of intellectual philosophy.

00:09:48.540 It's just rank contrarianism.

00:09:50.180 And I see it all the time on a ton of issues.

00:09:53.440 This being one of them, don't agree with the left.

00:09:55.940 Don't do anything.

00:09:56.560 Well, don't you, like, do you not understand anything about gamesmanship, about strategy?

00:10:01.880 Like it is about that give and take.

00:10:03.540 It is about that 4D chess.

00:10:05.340 And what we can do on the energy question in particular is really suck them in because it's

00:10:08.920 like, okay, climate change is happening.

00:10:10.080 And you know what?

00:10:10.380 I accept everything the UN climate report says.

00:10:13.040 The thing is, is nobody's ever read it.

00:10:14.900 It's 4,000 pages of scientific jargon.

00:10:17.640 And it's actually decent science.

00:10:19.120 You talk to any of the skeptics, like the people, everybody on the right loves, like Steve

00:10:23.440 Coonan, who goes on Joe Rogan and kind of debunks all these climate change myths, Michael

00:10:28.300 Schellenberger, Bjorn Lomberg.

00:10:30.060 None of them say that the UN climate report is hogwash.

00:10:34.300 None of them.

00:10:35.460 We just actually read it.

00:10:36.760 And when you read it, it turns out it's just, it's, it's, it's actually decent science and

00:10:41.340 it says something really important.

00:10:42.920 And I think here's the, here's my favorite fact piece of data from it, which is probably

00:10:47.180 the most important for policymakers, because the question is, what's the cost of climate

00:10:50.380 change?

00:10:50.980 That's the real question.

00:10:52.480 What is the cost?

00:10:53.220 And what costs are we willing to incur in order to mitigate that cost?

00:10:57.720 Just simple, simple cost benefit analysis.

00:11:00.880 And so when you look at the cost of climate change, there is a cost.

00:11:03.960 It is largely manmade as, as according to them.

00:11:07.520 It doesn't really matter, frankly, for our purposes, like who to blame.

00:11:10.560 The point is, is there, there's an element of CO2 production in the atmosphere that does

00:11:14.140 cost it.

00:11:15.380 But the cost is like four and a half percent of global GDP.

00:11:18.700 And so what do I mean by that?

00:11:20.060 I don't mean four and a half percent lower than what we currently have.

00:11:22.220 That would actually be pretty devastating if that were true.

00:11:24.600 What I mean is in, in, by the year 2100, you'll have four and a half percent less global GDP

00:11:29.680 than you otherwise would.

00:11:31.500 So global GDP is on a trajectory upward.

00:11:34.320 It always is, you know, we're at a down spot right now, but it'll keep going up and up and

00:11:38.140 up by the year 2100, you know, estimates are like 450% increase.

00:11:42.840 So that's the average estimate increase with climate change.

00:11:45.560 You've got about a 434% increase.

00:11:47.960 So it's a cost.

00:11:49.560 It's just a very small one compared to say what AOC is saying.

00:11:52.040 So note that with that knowledge, and if that's the scientific consensus, fine.

00:11:56.180 Now let's, let's attribute solutions accordingly that don't cost us more than that.

00:12:01.640 Let's start there.

00:12:02.640 Our solution shouldn't cost more than that.

00:12:04.960 And in terms of, especially in terms of human flourishing and that, and that's actually

00:12:08.980 harder to define metric.

00:12:10.080 Like what is human flourishing?

00:12:11.280 And I would define human flourishing.

00:12:13.180 It's like, you know what? 0.95

00:12:13.640 People in Africa can turn on their freaking stove instead of killing themselves indoors because 0.97

00:12:18.160 they're burning wood and dung to heat their, to heat their land. 0.85

00:12:21.480 So the UN is telling them that they need solar panels, which like just don't, they don't

00:12:24.600 even have a grid, you know?

00:12:26.360 So, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's really rational environmentalism is, is the conservative

00:12:32.140 doctrine because it says like all of the above energy solar, where it makes sense, wind, where

00:12:37.420 it makes sense.

00:12:37.900 It does make sense in West Texas.

00:12:39.340 It doesn't make sense to, to overpopulate the grid with it, with unreliable energy to

00:12:45.640 the detriment of investment in more reliable forms of energy, like gas and nuclear.

00:12:49.740 Okay.

00:12:49.900 So, so that's where the balance comes in.

00:12:51.780 That's where the rational environmentalism comes in.

00:12:54.600 Yeah.

00:12:55.100 It seems to me that so many people just want to score these virtue points or signal to their

00:12:59.540 constituents that, Hey, we're doing something about it.

00:13:01.940 Isn't that the rallying cry is do something, do anything.

00:13:04.740 It's like, well, hold on.

00:13:05.680 Like we want to make sure that what you're proposing, although yes, is doing something

00:13:11.660 is actually going to move the needle in the right direction.

00:13:14.940 But I think that's why we elect people as we at the root is like, well, you know, if

00:13:19.500 I elect Congressman Crenshaw, he's going to do something.

00:13:22.300 It's like, well, okay.

00:13:24.100 So why?

00:13:24.680 Yeah, exactly.

00:13:25.700 Right.

00:13:25.940 But we never evaluate that.

00:13:27.220 We think, okay, he's, he's conservative.

00:13:29.240 This person's liberal.

00:13:30.760 And so they're probably going to vote or, or, or institute policy that's based on that

00:13:35.420 side of the aisle.

00:13:36.300 And so I feel good about that.

00:13:37.980 It's just not enough.

00:13:39.520 Yeah.

00:13:39.920 And well, look, the, the, the action oriented governing philosophy is that's, that's a very

00:13:44.960 left-wing idea.

00:13:46.900 Lately it's become a right-wing one as well.

00:13:48.740 Now there's a difference between right-wing and conservatism.

00:13:51.100 All right.

00:13:51.380 Right-wing populism to my mind is very, very similar to liberalism in the sense that they're

00:13:56.960 very action oriented, especially when it comes to domestic policy and kind of this industrial,

00:14:02.440 this, this lurch towards industrial policy.

00:14:04.340 Like sounds, it always sounds good at first, but when you kind of start to break apart the

00:14:08.100 layers, it's hard to find examples of it working very well, but there's a temptation

00:14:12.560 because people, people are naturally inclined left or right to, to believe in that action and

00:14:17.900 believe that action holds some kind of virtue.

00:14:19.600 Don't matter what the action is, um, the, the nature of conservatism, it's, it's, it's

00:14:24.680 really the only proper governing philosophy because it says, look, we're not, well, conservatism

00:14:29.440 isn't necessarily about the outcomes.

00:14:31.780 So that's what, that's where a lot of people get wrong.

00:14:33.500 That's what right-wingers get wrong.

00:14:35.200 Right-wingers have a list of outcomes they think we should have.

00:14:38.280 And then they just rally around that.

00:14:40.620 Like they have no idea what the underlying philosophy is behind those outcomes.

00:14:43.940 Um, it's, it's more, it's more about a team sport with a lot of these folks, especially

00:14:47.440 again, especially young ones, especially online.

00:14:49.600 Uh, I call them the woke right for a bunch of reasons.

00:14:52.880 And yeah, because it, because it's all just feelings, it's all feelings.

00:14:57.220 And, and it becomes these kinds of idiosyncratic loyalty tests where it's like, if you're not

00:15:01.180 a hundred percent on this, that it's like, hold the hell on conservatism is about the

00:15:05.820 process by which we got there, right?

00:15:07.780 It's about the process of action.

00:15:09.560 And so we, we believe in, in limiting principles and in thinking through certain questions, like

00:15:14.820 does this infringe overly on individual rights?

00:15:17.220 Does it infringe on state's rights?

00:15:18.480 Should this even be solved at a state level?

00:15:20.640 Maybe it should be solved at a community level.

00:15:22.400 Those are, those are really basic conservative questions.

00:15:24.540 Is it affordable over the long run?

00:15:26.660 Um, you know, does our, does our tax and spend balance out?

00:15:29.860 These are, these are the basic process oriented conservative questions.

00:15:33.480 Now, now there's a very high likelihood that they do end up in certain outcomes that we

00:15:38.480 all tend to agree upon.

00:15:39.680 I mean, that's, that's basically how we've seen conservatism develop over the course of decades.

00:15:43.720 But the, what I, what I, what I fear is, is the people who didn't understand that history

00:15:49.660 to begin with.

00:15:50.880 And, you know, the first word out of their mouth every five seconds is rhino because they're 0.95

00:15:55.240 the most, because they're the most conservative, right?

00:15:57.480 And there's this, and there's this just weird trend of like heretic hunting that is, that is

00:16:02.600 extremely counterproductive.

00:16:04.620 And like, if we're all being honest, has nothing to do with what they care about as far as issues

00:16:09.160 or policy, it has everything to do with how much attention you can get online.

00:16:13.620 Optics.

00:16:14.600 It's not, yeah, it's just, it's just attention.

00:16:16.120 It's just, it's clickbait.

00:16:17.720 Yeah.

00:16:18.100 The other thing I've, I've wrestled with is this, even just the idea of government, so

00:16:24.380 many people, and I don't, I don't know, this isn't necessarily new, but it seems to be

00:16:28.000 a growing trend, believe that the government's job is outcome oriented.

00:16:31.880 And I don't think it is.

00:16:32.860 I think it's, Hey, the government serves its purpose by leveling the playing field and making

00:16:37.640 sure that we're all operating with the pursuit of liberty, life, liberty, and the pursuit

00:16:41.640 of happiness.

00:16:42.720 The outcome is on me.

00:16:46.320 The outcome is on my community. 0.98

00:16:48.420 The outcome is what I put forth or how smart I am or how dumb I am or what decisions I make.

00:16:53.440 But really it's not the government's place to secure the outcome, just level the playing

00:16:58.220 field so we can go out and secure our own.

00:16:59.940 Do you agree or disagree?

00:17:01.560 I do tend to agree.

00:17:02.500 And again, this gets to the divide on the right because you're, whatever they call themselves,

00:17:07.060 I call them the woke right, but they might call themselves populist.

00:17:09.660 They might call themselves nationalist conservatives.

00:17:13.420 They'll say, okay, okay, Ryan, maybe, maybe I agreed with that at one point, but we've lost

00:17:18.460 our country.

00:17:19.360 So now we have to take action.

00:17:20.420 And I just can't imagine anything more dangerous because the things they're willing to do are

00:17:25.480 extremely illiberal and also very left-wing, right?

00:17:30.740 They just tend to have a lot of overlap with progressives when they start talking.

00:17:34.720 They want to do things like get rid of the filibuster. 1.00

00:17:36.700 Like if we can just take one slim majority and take our country back.

00:17:40.320 Now, they always just, they say soundbites like that.

00:17:42.600 They don't ever really define it.

00:17:43.900 Um, then they'll do it.

00:17:45.860 If they'll, if they'll set dangerous precedents that can always come back and haunt you later,

00:17:49.600 they don't care.

00:17:50.260 They want to, they want to, they want to do that right now.

00:17:52.340 So that's, at least those are the kind of demands that they have.

00:17:54.900 Now they know they'll never really win.

00:17:56.420 So they'll never have the actual responsibility of being in charge and implementing a lot of

00:18:01.200 these things.

00:18:01.600 So it is, it is a bit disingenuous, those criticisms from my mind, but at this, but at the same

00:18:06.800 time, I think, you know, this, this conversation has long been going on.

00:18:10.620 I think lately it's gotten so toxic that I just dismiss it, but that doesn't mean that there,

00:18:15.000 there wasn't something to it.

00:18:16.300 And so, and so I guess the best argument for, for that other side, that, that the government

00:18:20.180 is there to, to have some kind of outcome.

00:18:24.140 Um, you know, they, they would say that, uh, you know, one of the goals of government is to

00:18:29.100 preserve liberty and prosperity and that it hasn't done that because it's grown so much.

00:18:33.640 That's pretty hard to argue with.

00:18:34.780 Like, I think that's a reasonable critique of, of, of this notion, but it's not even clear

00:18:41.300 that we're disagreeing at that point, because maybe we would be in agreement that the government

00:18:45.140 wasn't fulfilling its primary function in the first place, which was to, which was

00:18:49.060 to create that, that, that, uh, a level playing field, as you say, that everyone can

00:18:53.500 compete in within a meritocracy, engage in personal responsibility and, and achieve

00:18:58.640 prosperity as a result.

00:19:00.520 And so that, that, that, that is the, the rub, the, the, the other rub with conservatives

00:19:04.340 is more on the religious side that we, that we've lost our, our Judeo-Christian roots, uh,

00:19:11.320 in society.

00:19:11.880 And, and that government has to be there to, to take that back because I mean, our constitution

00:19:16.500 is built upon those foundations, but there's an argument there.

00:19:19.660 There, there, there's an argument there again, though, you, you, you, you tread into pretty

00:19:24.300 dangerous territory, uh, depending on what your solution actually is, you know, depending

00:19:28.300 on, on how far you're willing to go to use the hand of government to make what you want

00:19:31.960 happen, happen.

00:19:33.420 Uh, some good examples of this would be this abortion debate that we're having right now.

00:19:36.840 So yeah, you could, you could have a, a, a, if, if let's say we took control right now

00:19:41.380 and we just, and we eliminated abortion nationwide, um, it would be deeply foolish to think the Democrats

00:19:48.140 aren't just going to reverse that as soon as they take over.

00:19:50.200 So there is some, there is some benefit to this thing called the filibuster, uh, there

00:19:54.900 is some benefit to how impossible it is to pass very, very sweeping and very controversial

00:20:00.020 legislation at the national level.

00:20:02.600 And, uh, you know, McConnell was getting all those calls back when we had, um, the Senate

00:20:06.320 to do away with the filibuster in Trump's first two years.

00:20:09.360 And he resisted it.

00:20:10.780 Uh, and for good reason, if he hadn't resisted it, we imagine where we'd be right now.

00:20:15.280 Yeah.

00:20:15.300 Where we'd be right now.

00:20:16.120 Exactly.

00:20:17.080 I mean, it, it, it is last, there's last couple of years of like pieces of legislation coming out

00:20:19.980 of the house that would then pass the Senate are devastating.

00:20:22.800 Like, like what specifically?

00:20:24.140 I mean, I know obviously there's, you know, abortion and some of these bigger topics that,

00:20:27.780 that are very forefront on people's mind, but what else?

00:20:30.220 Oh, that would, that would be one.

00:20:31.460 Um, you know, you, you'd have like, yeah, you'd have abortion on demand at all, at all

00:20:35.920 stages of life.

00:20:36.840 Uh, you'd have HR one, which is a federal takeover of our elections. 0.96

00:20:40.540 And basically the dismantling of all the rules surrounding our elections, I think is sometimes

00:20:46.720 the best way to describe what HR one is, uh, you'd have HR three drug pricing bill, actually 0.96

00:20:51.820 crap.

00:20:52.320 They got that one through in the reconciliation, unfortunately. 0.99

00:20:55.240 Um, you know, you, you'd have, you'd have a lot of gun bills, uh, that I'm sure your

00:20:59.360 audience doesn't like, uh, you'd have universal background checks.

00:21:02.220 You'd have things like that.

00:21:03.820 You'd probably have a gun registry, um, which is in a way kind of what a universal background

00:21:08.640 check is, um, right.

00:21:11.180 So that's, that, that one's an interesting one to me because I mean, I've, I've purchased

00:21:16.880 firearms and I've never not had a background check, I guess, uh, maybe some private sales

00:21:23.040 or something like that.

00:21:23.960 But, uh, it's always interesting when you talk about these background checks, because

00:21:27.420 I, I don't know, it seems like everybody I've ever talked to goes through a background

00:21:31.920 check.

00:21:32.320 What's the, what's the issue as long as it's done legally, but that's, that's kind of the

00:21:36.000 rub, isn't it?

00:21:36.500 It's like, okay, well, this is, are criminals going to do this legally?

00:21:39.360 No, of course not.

00:21:40.660 And that's, that's the question.

00:21:41.820 And it's because, because like, I, I, I do, there are sincere people who are like, I don't

00:21:46.140 understand you, you go buy a gun from a gun store and you get a background check.

00:21:49.100 Why can't, why can't, if, but you can go online and buy it from some other guy who builds

00:21:52.940 ARs in his basement and you don't have to get a background check.

00:21:56.440 Now there's a lot of complications to the law there.

00:21:59.900 Uh, I, I believe if he's selling, if he's selling it as if it's a business, he does have

00:22:03.860 to register at a certain point.

00:22:05.020 Um, but the idea is that, you know, we're friends and you're like, oh, man, I, you know,

00:22:08.800 I'm not using this anymore.

00:22:09.620 Dan, do you want it?

00:22:10.780 Like, you know, that, that, that's the idea.

00:22:12.320 And then, and then the second idea, obviously that you alluded to is what if we were criminals?

00:22:18.820 Why?

00:22:19.220 Like there's, there's no, there's no teeth here.

00:22:21.120 There's no incentive for us to actually go get a background check.

00:22:23.620 So it's just not going to change anything.

00:22:25.240 And, you know, and if, and if a law is going to make us feel good, but not actually change

00:22:28.920 anything for the better than, uh, and it will infringe on freedoms, then the net, oh my

00:22:33.920 God, it's like, I just went through this conservative problem solving.

00:22:36.600 So it's a perfect example because like conservative outcomes were like, now we're, we're against

00:22:40.740 universal background checks.

00:22:42.080 The problem is people don't understand why, because too many people haven't gone through

00:22:45.520 the actual conservative process to get there.

00:22:48.920 And, uh, and again, I complain about this a lot.

00:22:51.380 This is why so many people end up as right-wingers instead of conservatives.

00:22:56.340 Men, let me hit the pause button on our conversation with Congressman Crenshaw very quickly.

00:23:00.940 Uh, I want to ask, do you have a band of brothers?

00:23:03.280 Because most men don't, most men are doing life alone, but you don't have to.

00:23:07.820 And frankly, you shouldn't, uh, men need to surround themselves with other high caliber

00:23:12.180 men all working together to improve themselves, uh, hold each other accountable and really

00:23:17.700 do the work necessary to achieve at the highest levels in every facet of life.

00:23:21.920 And that's where our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council comes into play.

00:23:25.260 And the good news is that we're open for enrollment right now for a very, very short period of time.

00:23:30.360 So if you've been on the fence or know that you need to band with other men to make the

00:23:34.520 most of life, then join us before we shut this thing down.

00:23:38.060 Uh, you can register at order of man.com slash iron council.

00:23:42.920 Again, that's order of man.com slash iron council.

00:23:46.120 Do that right after the show for now.

00:23:47.860 I'll get back to it with Dan.

00:23:50.500 So I know a lot of people are, are critical of, and I want to get your take on this, this

00:23:55.260 concept of red flag laws.

00:23:57.040 And, and that's something that, um, well, I don't, I, I won't preface it with anything.

00:24:02.140 I, I'm very curious about your take on these types of policies, these types of procedures,

00:24:07.260 these red flag law type things that are proposed quite often, actually.

00:24:11.960 Yeah.

00:24:12.140 I mean, I think we talked about it last time and this, this is obviously a little boogeyman

00:24:14.960 that always follows me because people online like they use me as clickbait and it's, you 0.99

00:24:19.820 know, it's become quite stupid. 0.92

00:24:21.240 Um, but like I've, I, the only votes I've ever taken against red flag laws, I voted against 0.98

00:24:25.980 them.

00:24:26.920 Um, that there's some claim that we all voted for red flag laws in a military spending bill

00:24:31.400 like last year.

00:24:32.300 And it's not really true.

00:24:33.600 Um, there was already a deal struck.

00:24:35.160 There was nothing, there was none of, nothing like that was going to be in the bill.

00:24:38.040 We all knew it.

00:24:39.220 Um, so that was a bit of a disingenuous attack, but again, if it's clickbait, people will say

00:24:43.440 whatever they need to say.

00:24:44.800 Well, we don't know any different, you know, as, as, as an average person, uh, we, we wouldn't

00:24:49.840 know any different because we're not going to go look into it.

00:24:52.180 We're not going to study and research for ourselves and we're just going to be force

00:24:54.840 fed and accept whatever media or other outlets decide to share with us.

00:24:59.520 Pretty much.

00:25:00.360 And, and those outlets, um, more times than not.

00:25:03.940 And, and this is, this is true on the left and the right, those outlets are, their business

00:25:08.780 model is driven by clicks.

00:25:10.080 So, and you know, one thing I tell conservatives all the time is I want you to imagine whatever

00:25:14.980 kind of fringy website that you like, uh, and it lists, lists some headlines.

00:25:19.440 And headline number one is like Nancy Pelosi takes trip on taxpayer dime to Italy or something

00:25:24.380 like that.

00:25:25.100 And, um, you know, headline number two is, you know, Ilhan Omar again, talks about how 0.96

00:25:30.280 much she hates the Jews. 0.96

00:25:31.520 All right. 0.98

00:25:32.000 So that's number two, number three, five reasons why Dan Crenshaw is a globalist rhino.

00:25:36.440 You're like, which one are you going to click on?

00:25:38.840 Of course you're going to click on, on mine.

00:25:40.900 Right.

00:25:41.140 Cause it's like, oh, he's supposed to be on our side.

00:25:42.840 Let's go see why he's a globalist rhino.

00:25:44.640 Right.

00:25:44.960 It's just, it's, it's pure childish clickbait.

00:25:48.420 Um, the number of conspiracies I've had to debunk about myself are really absurd at this

00:25:53.100 point and they don't even come from the left.

00:25:55.600 So, you know, they come, they come from the right wing again, the woke, right.

00:25:59.940 Um, and so anyway, back to red flag laws, the, the, the, the, the proper conservative

00:26:04.520 way to think about that is okay.

00:26:06.640 So you, you, you've got this idea where you don't want to infringe on everybody's rights

00:26:12.260 when it comes to guns.

00:26:13.420 Um, so you, you take it on a case by case basis.

00:26:17.140 All right.

00:26:17.540 So again, this, this, this doesn't sound too bad at first, the problem becomes implementation,

00:26:22.080 which is ultimately why most conservatives say like, I'm not sure how to get here because

00:26:26.060 the problem is implementation.

00:26:27.380 How do you create those standards?

00:26:29.320 First of all, what, what behavior, um, what behavior reaches the point where a judge can

00:26:35.980 actually confiscate your property.

00:26:37.960 Right.

00:26:38.540 And, and we're assuming that behavior isn't illegal yet.

00:26:43.560 Right.

00:26:44.000 Is that, that's actually the key point because like, if it's already illegal, illegal, sure.

00:26:48.420 But if they've, you know, if they've, if, if they've engaged, if they can be charged

00:26:50.980 with harassment, if they can be charged with stalking, if they can, you know, now you're

00:26:54.120 in a different world here.

00:26:55.080 Okay.

00:26:55.320 Now, now, now you can say, well, if you've broken the law, now there's some, there's going

00:26:57.980 to be some consequences for that law.

00:27:00.180 Um, the thing about red flag laws, the way they're written, nobody really knows what

00:27:04.300 exactly they're trying to enforce and where that standard is.

00:27:08.020 Uh, so, so you can't enforce it.

00:27:10.900 And that's ultimately why they probably won't do anything.

00:27:14.880 There's this idea that they're always being abused.

00:27:16.640 I haven't seen any evidence of that.

00:27:18.800 Uh, but they, I suppose they could be in theory.

00:27:21.920 Um, there's this other idea that, you know, an ex-girlfriend can just call a, call the police

00:27:25.640 and then they'll take your guns.

00:27:26.660 That's the, that's usually the soundbite that you hear.

00:27:28.860 I see no evidence that that's really true either.

00:27:31.320 Again, the reason to be, if you're going to make a real argument against them, the argument

00:27:36.160 should be along the lines that I just said that you, you run into very murky legal territory

00:27:40.360 and, and an individual rights territory and due process territory about what, what constitutes,

00:27:46.480 uh, that broken law that deserves some form of punishment because confiscating property,

00:27:51.880 even temporarily is some form of punishment.

00:27:55.000 Um, like people are very sincere when they're, when they're for these things.

00:27:58.360 I mean, they're like, look, some people will say, look, I got a schizophrenic brother has

00:28:01.560 just no business, no business having a weapon.

00:28:05.080 Um, you know, how do you deal with that?

00:28:07.120 Right.

00:28:07.360 And that's an honest question.

00:28:08.580 And it's, it's actually harder to answer from a policy perspective.

00:28:12.060 And I think many people would, would like to believe it is.

00:28:15.500 Yeah, I, I, well, it's, it's not convenient to be able to have to answer those questions

00:28:20.060 if you're an advocate for red flag laws, because that is a, that is a valid, those are, those 0.88

00:28:24.780 are valid concerns is the murkiness.

00:28:27.640 And then what ends up happening, I think, is you have precedent that's set through court

00:28:31.700 cases and litigation.

00:28:32.760 And that can be, as we know, very bad precedent.

00:28:35.760 And then everything is established on that bad precedent.

00:28:38.100 If it's not clearly outlined, what would constitute somebody having their property seized from

00:28:43.260 them?

00:28:44.600 Right, right.

00:28:45.600 Exactly.

00:28:46.120 And, you know, I will say, I'll give you some like elements of good news.

00:28:50.160 So there was like a red flag law, um, grant program, not a law, but a grant program passed

00:28:57.800 in this, in that big gun bill, everybody was really mad about, um, you know, that 10 Republicans

00:29:01.600 voted for it.

00:29:02.140 So the Democrats got it through.

00:29:03.080 If, if we're being honest about what that thing did, um, it's a grant program that actually

00:29:08.820 would force States with very lax red flag laws, lax in a bad way, like lax in a way

00:29:13.240 that second amendment members would not like, um, you know what I mean?

00:29:17.040 Like it doesn't, it doesn't have all the due process protections.

00:29:19.600 It would actually force them to use those.

00:29:21.680 So, you know, and, and, and let's be honest, States that don't have red flag laws, they're

00:29:26.820 not just going to suddenly put red flag laws up because you can get extra couple million

00:29:29.760 bucks from the federal government.

00:29:30.700 It's just not going to, I don't see why that would happen.

00:29:33.020 It's not really a financial burden or decision.

00:29:35.740 It's more of a policy decision.

00:29:37.200 So, you know, for viewers in Texas, there's zero evidence that there's going to be red

00:29:41.180 flag laws in Texas anytime soon because of that bill.

00:29:44.440 Um, and, uh, you know, in fact, I'm not sure what restrictions, if any, I have on my guns

00:29:50.540 after that bill.

00:29:51.860 Right.

00:29:52.940 Interesting.

00:29:53.800 That would be the, I mean, somebody could name me one, but well, you can't because I know

00:29:57.600 the bill pretty well, but, but it's, um, you know, I'm just saying like, there's more,

00:30:02.520 there's more good news than we would like to believe.

00:30:04.680 Um, like, it's not great.

00:30:05.800 It's still voted against it.

00:30:06.900 I still think it's, I still think, you know, I, I still fall into the category of, you know,

00:30:11.280 there's, there's, we don't want any action, um, that, that could potentially infringe

00:30:16.400 by second amendment.

00:30:17.020 Right.

00:30:17.360 But it also took the political conversation right off the table.

00:30:20.240 Democrats haven't been talking about it.

00:30:22.060 I mean, they, they, they moved on, they moved on to a different agenda.

00:30:25.380 Uh, so.

00:30:27.060 You know, we're trying, trying to make your listeners feel slightly happier over some of

00:30:31.000 these things that are passed.

00:30:32.480 Well, I, I, I think even just the way that you bring these subjects to light, uh, through,

00:30:37.340 through your social media is powerful.

00:30:39.620 Um, and we just don't get enough of that.

00:30:42.000 I know you and I have even had some, I would say slight, maybe surface level disagreements.

00:30:46.040 And then we've hashed it out a little bit via, you know, Instagram.

00:30:48.460 It's like, oh, okay.

00:30:49.540 Yeah.

00:30:49.720 That that's different.

00:30:50.640 I, I understand what you're saying now, but, but not everybody has that opportunity to

00:30:54.460 be able to hash through this, even the slightest degree how we have through messenger, for example.

00:30:59.340 And so we just, it's hard because everybody just takes everything at surface level.

00:31:03.900 And then to your point about the woke, right.

00:31:06.400 And the, and even the far left is people just cling onto that because they want their side

00:31:12.660 to win.

00:31:13.000 And, and there's, there's no, there's no way for us to really get a lot of the nuance

00:31:18.900 that needs to be understood for the decisions that are being made on our behalf.

00:31:23.500 I mean, there is, you know, but it just takes work.

00:31:27.100 Yeah.

00:31:27.540 Right.

00:31:27.780 True.

00:31:28.100 You know, and it's, it's not easy.

00:31:30.940 And, um, you know, all I, all I ask of people is like, take a step back.

00:31:36.760 Uh, the, the, the real problem is people just jump to conclusions that are highly irrational.

00:31:42.080 And like, if you don't, if you don't know about something, you don't know about something,

00:31:44.840 but you don't need to have a very strong opinion about something.

00:31:47.620 If you don't know about something, I would think, but a lot of people do, people have

00:31:51.280 very strong opinions over subject matter, which they, they know very little.

00:31:55.420 And there's a lot of trust loss.

00:31:57.300 I get it.

00:31:57.860 I, I just don't see that as an excuse.

00:32:00.540 Um, you know, people can find like, like a few instances where legacy media lied to them.

00:32:05.340 It doesn't mean they're always lying to you.

00:32:06.820 It doesn't mean everything you hear is a lie.

00:32:08.680 And it certainly doesn't mean that your next step should be going down the deepest,

00:32:11.720 darkest corners of the internet to like, you know, red conspiracy elephant.com.

00:32:15.920 And like, this is all, finally, I found my, found my news on info wars.

00:32:19.920 Like finally the truth.

00:32:21.900 And it's like, because, and there's this temptation by a lot of people to, especially men, you know,

00:32:26.600 or this is a man podcast, right.

00:32:28.480 Uh, to, to gravitate towards those deep, dark corners, like, like to believe that the most

00:32:34.040 sensational, uh, accusations and headlines are by, are by nature true.

00:32:39.540 And I'm not sure the psychology, I'm not sure about the psychology behind that and why that

00:32:42.980 happens, but I absolutely see it.

00:32:45.440 And, um, whereas, whereas I would say where I see things like that and I immediately take

00:32:49.840 a step back and say like, that, that just doesn't sound right.

00:32:52.200 There are others who do the exact opposite and say like, finally, somebody saying,

00:32:56.600 how it is, I'm like, right.

00:32:58.940 I don't think that's, I don't think that's what they're doing.

00:33:00.620 I think they think that you'll click on it.

00:33:02.120 I think that's what, you know, like this stuff isn't that complicated.

00:33:05.660 Um, the business model is very simple.

00:33:07.820 And, um, and it's, I mean, it helps, it makes my life difficult because within those 0.97

00:33:12.300 deep, dark, stupid websites, again, I I'm a globalist that works for the world economic 0.99

00:33:15.660 forum, according to them. 1.00

00:33:17.420 You're like, well, like what the hell are you people even talking about? 0.97

00:33:20.080 I mean, it's, it's complete nonsense, you know?

00:33:22.100 And it, and it, and it wastes a lot of our time politically wastes a ton of our time.

00:33:27.440 Um, you know, dealing with, dealing with some of these issues as opposed to dealing with

00:33:30.980 real issues like energy policy, pipeline permitting, things that will actually affect

00:33:35.460 your life and help you.

00:33:37.060 Uh, we deal with this nonsense instead.

00:33:39.440 Yeah.

00:33:39.500 You got to get bogged down by all this.

00:33:40.880 I think the psychology behind it, and I don't know, I haven't really thought about it much,

00:33:44.200 but since you brought it up is almost a defense mechanism or some grasp at control.

00:33:49.800 Right.

00:33:50.860 If I think this is probably more accurate for men is that, Hey, we want to make sure

00:33:55.140 we know everything that's going on so we can control situations.

00:33:58.120 We know our threats.

00:33:59.240 And so a lot of the times we just end up making things worse than they really are for some

00:34:05.200 semblance of control over something that we have very little control over.

00:34:10.800 Right.

00:34:11.360 In this case, the control would be information and just the general knowledge of your surrounding.

00:34:16.200 I could see that.

00:34:17.500 I could see that.

00:34:18.200 Um, and I don't know, I don't, I don't know how it happens.

00:34:23.460 Um, I, I think, I think we have a severe lack of critical thinking in this country.

00:34:29.480 Or even just humility.

00:34:31.420 Yeah.

00:34:31.860 Well, they are, there you go.

00:34:32.960 That's, that's a big one.

00:34:33.880 Actually, it's the humility to know what you don't know.

00:34:37.340 Right.

00:34:37.840 Cause I've gotten into discussions and debates, even on this podcast with, with people that

00:34:42.580 I say, Hey, tell me about this.

00:34:44.140 Cause I don't agree with that.

00:34:45.000 And then they explain it.

00:34:45.800 I'm like, Oh, okay.

00:34:46.540 Well, that's, that's interesting.

00:34:48.260 I, I hadn't considered that.

00:34:49.780 Or, um, you know, I thought you meant something else, but actually you mean this.

00:34:53.760 And it's been very enlightening, but I've had to have an open mind about it, which admittedly

00:34:57.780 I haven't always had.

00:34:58.800 And there's some areas and instances where I still close, very close-minded about that

00:35:02.680 I need to do a better job opening up about.

00:35:05.720 Yeah.

00:35:06.240 And that takes a sense of maturity and humility.

00:35:09.320 And if you're, if you're looking at people who are very, very active, young, active online,

00:35:14.160 politically oriented, uh, those two attributes are in very short supply humility.

00:35:19.960 Yes.

00:35:20.440 Right.

00:35:20.680 It's very much about like the chest thumping name, calling, you know, soundbite type of

00:35:26.060 culture and I, I, I look, I think a lot of people just have fun with it to, to an extent. 0.98

00:35:32.420 I think that they're just like, they're, they just like being muckrakers and shit talkers 0.99

00:35:36.620 online. 0.99

00:35:37.420 Yeah.

00:35:37.900 Um, I just wish everybody understood how badly it was destroying our politics and destroying

00:35:42.740 our national conversation and wasting people's time who, who actually have serious things

00:35:47.020 to do.

00:35:47.920 And that's what I wish everyone would understand that there, that there actually is some debt

00:35:52.060 it might be entertaining, but there is some negative consequences to turning our politics

00:35:56.020 into the Jerry Springer show. 1.00

00:35:57.680 If you're incentivizing, you know, idiots to come stalk me in person and just yell and 1.00

00:36:02.480 scream and do all this crap. 1.00

00:36:04.240 If you're incentivizing that with your attention and your clicks, you are, you are destroying 1.00

00:36:08.200 our political fabric.

00:36:09.960 And I don't care if that person's coming from the left or the right.

00:36:12.820 Doesn't matter.

00:36:13.800 It's destroying our political fabric because it turns our politics into the Jerry Springer

00:36:17.320 show instead of this, frankly, what should be a very boring, like process oriented, nitty

00:36:22.280 gritty policymaking.

00:36:23.600 It should be so boring that nobody wants to pay attention to it.

00:36:26.140 That's what, that's what good politics would actually, or good policymaking, at least good

00:36:30.080 governing would actually be.

00:36:32.880 Um, and it's, uh, it's, it's, it's unfortunately not that way.

00:36:38.660 Well, and it doesn't just come from the, the people.

00:36:42.080 It also comes from our, our elected representatives who use social media as an opportunity to grandstand

00:36:50.700 and to entertain and say things like AOC is a great example to say things.

00:36:55.480 And I'm like, this woman cannot possibly believe the things that she's saying. 0.97

00:37:00.560 Like this, that just can't, I cannot fathom how that would be possible.

00:37:04.120 Right.

00:37:04.680 And to me, it's just a bunch of grandstanding and entertaining, as opposed to, like you said,

00:37:08.380 policymaking legislation, the things we actually elected you guys to do.

00:37:13.860 Right.

00:37:14.480 Oh, that's a chicken or the egg question.

00:37:15.920 I'm not sure which came first.

00:37:16.940 Like the politicians willing to take advantage of it or the trends that were, you know, happening

00:37:21.100 in the public.

00:37:22.220 Um, but in any case, yeah, AOC opened the door, swung it wide open and quite a few others

00:37:27.540 walked through it.

00:37:28.080 The worst thing I hear on the right is we need, we need this girl to counter AOC. 1.00

00:37:33.260 So we just, we need another 25 year old with no work experience to count.

00:37:37.780 Are you kidding me?

00:37:39.280 Are you kidding me?

00:37:40.840 No, we don't, we don't need any more of this.

00:37:43.020 You know, and people like, I got a lot of trouble like a year ago, less than a year ago.

00:37:47.720 Cause I, I, I was talking about performance artists and then I used an example of, of,

00:37:53.180 of, uh, how to freedom caucus votes.

00:37:55.380 Now they didn't really vote with Trump and people were super mad about that because people

00:37:59.820 are very emotional and, um, that's fine.

00:38:03.320 I wasn't really talking about the freedom caucuses performance artists.

00:38:05.840 A couple are, but it's also important to note what we mean by performance artists and

00:38:10.720 political performance, political grandstanding and performance means dying on Hills that

00:38:14.680 you know, are useless, right?

00:38:16.520 Gaining attention for zero, for no purpose whatsoever.

00:38:19.780 That's the difference because it's one thing to like entertain.

00:38:22.580 I mean, I do, I do fun videos.

00:38:24.240 I, I do do entertainment, but there's a reason I'm doing it.

00:38:27.960 I'm trying to bring you to a, to a better place.

00:38:30.160 I'm also trying to use that kind of entertainment because my, the kind of entertainment I do

00:38:34.340 is a little bit more fun.

00:38:35.900 And what I'm doing is I'm grabbing people who might disagree with us and bringing them 1.00

00:38:39.980 into the fold.

00:38:41.180 So there's always method behind the madness.

00:38:43.440 A lot of what worries me is, is newer politicians coming up and coming or, um, more inclined to

00:38:50.320 have those, uh, those priorities switched.

00:38:53.800 Whereas the, the end goal is actually just more followers.

00:38:56.500 The end goal is actually, is actually just that being that influencer online and doing

00:39:01.940 whatever it takes to get there.

00:39:03.260 The, the, the, there are no other end goals related to say policy.

00:39:06.980 There's just not, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't write any policy.

00:39:11.120 She doesn't, she doesn't care.

00:39:12.920 I mean, she, she literally does not care.

00:39:15.060 So, you know, and ask yourself if that is, maybe she'd make a fine activist, but she shouldn't 1.00

00:39:19.420 be a member of Congress.

00:39:21.380 How do you change the public perception of that though?

00:39:24.320 Because it reminds me of a gladiator where he's like, are you not entertained?

00:39:28.860 Like we all, we all, we all love it, right?

00:39:31.580 We all thrive on it.

00:39:32.520 So how do you actually educate people to the point where they think to themselves or start

00:39:37.080 behaving like, oh no, this is important.

00:39:39.520 And yes, there is a performative element of it because you're trying to influence people.

00:39:44.680 But, uh, how do we get the population to think more critically about this?

00:39:51.100 You know, I don't know.

00:39:53.720 I mean, that's a, that's a really, that's a tough question.

00:39:56.800 Um, I, I try every day, you know, it's, it's part of, it's just part of, it's just explaining

00:40:03.060 what's going on.

00:40:04.300 All right.

00:40:04.880 I, this is why, this is why I tell people how I view something like the woke, right?

00:40:09.540 Uh, this is, this is why I explained the things the way I explained them so that people, uh,

00:40:15.460 so that some, so that a light goes on in someone's head and says, you know, I hadn't really thought

00:40:18.600 about that, that way and what they're doing and why they're doing it.

00:40:22.300 I kind of see what you're saying now.

00:40:24.640 Um, you know, train people to, I don't know.

00:40:28.580 I don't know.

00:40:29.180 The thing is, is like, there's, there, there is a real problem in America with what is incentivized

00:40:33.220 and what is rewarded.

00:40:34.060 And I would think again, cause, cause I'm like boring and I was always interested in

00:40:38.740 policy.

00:40:39.080 I was never interested in politics necessarily, but the policy.

00:40:42.560 And so if I'm looking at a potential member of Congress, I'm thinking, do they actually

00:40:46.680 understand these complicated issues?

00:40:48.740 And will they be smart people, uh, on the Capitol Hill when they talk about them?

00:40:54.080 That's what I'm asking.

00:40:55.740 Uh, that's just not what's necessarily rewarded because if they can't also do the entertaining

00:40:59.880 soundbite, they can't get elected.

00:41:01.580 Right.

00:41:02.020 And, you know, how do you get people to care about that?

00:41:05.400 I mean, I, I'm not sure I'm not, I'm really not sure.

00:41:10.220 Yeah.

00:41:10.700 It's a, it's a difficult question.

00:41:13.020 If, if we could answer that, I think things would change, but that's maybe why things won't

00:41:18.020 totally change or why it might take a very, very long time or a very painful and humbling

00:41:24.340 experience, uh, to, to change, which would be obviously unfortunate and dangerous.

00:41:29.840 There's this, this just been this trend towards like, we need a fighter, right?

00:41:35.300 You hear that all the time.

00:41:36.180 We need, we need a fighter.

00:41:37.120 Sure.

00:41:37.560 Right.

00:41:37.840 Okay.

00:41:38.360 Okay.

00:41:38.680 Well, what does, what does that mean in terms of politics?

00:41:40.780 Does anyone define it?

00:41:41.740 Well, I'll define it for you.

00:41:42.520 A fighter should be somebody who wins, right?

00:41:44.840 Maybe that, at least that's like the first step of, of fighting.

00:41:47.320 If you're going to get into a fight, your goal should be to win.

00:41:50.600 Sure.

00:41:50.740 Um, a lot of people don't want to win because winning means responsibility after you've won

00:41:55.680 and you've actually, you've actually got to govern.

00:41:57.920 So some people kind of talk, talk, talk about how they, you know, that's why when people

00:42:01.820 are like, I don't even want to go vote because my vote doesn't count.

00:42:04.180 And, you know, it's because you don't want to win.

00:42:05.880 Be honest.

00:42:06.280 It's because you don't want to win.

00:42:07.160 You'd rather be a victim.

00:42:08.480 Victimhood has been, has been elevated as a, as a key attribute in American society.

00:42:12.140 And if we think that's just happening on the left, we're crazy.

00:42:15.140 Oh yeah.

00:42:15.580 It's happening everywhere.

00:42:17.720 And, and so, you know, winning should be the goal.

00:42:21.240 And in politics, you win by persuading others to agree with you.

00:42:24.280 And so that's that, maybe that's, maybe that's the best, like if I had to ask people one rhetorical

00:42:30.260 question that would get them to understand what I'm talking about here, it's, does the

00:42:34.660 person you like so much, uh, in politics, have they convinced anyone to see things your

00:42:39.860 way?

00:42:41.480 Have they ever convinced a single person to see things your way?

00:42:44.100 Or do they probably do the opposite?

00:42:46.660 And if the answer is no, then they're probably not a very good fighter for you.

00:42:50.560 They are good at fighting for your attention that they're perfect at, right?

00:42:54.800 They're great at fundraising off of your attention and tricking you into thinking that they're

00:42:59.320 a so-called fighter, but they're not because they've never made anyone believe things that

00:43:04.480 are conservative.

00:43:05.160 They've never changed anybody's mind.

00:43:06.780 And that is the key metric to winning in politics.

00:43:09.740 So I think that's, that's the question you have to ask your representatives.

00:43:13.860 Yeah.

00:43:14.980 Well, good points.

00:43:15.980 Um, I really appreciate you coming on.

00:43:17.300 I know you're a busy man.

00:43:18.160 I know there's so much to talk about.

00:43:19.580 We can't obviously get to it all, but I really appreciate your work and what you're doing

00:43:23.160 and even our conversations that this and shorter ones that we've had, um, because they have

00:43:27.820 opened my eyes to seeing things a little differently.

00:43:29.560 Cause yeah, naturally I tend to look at what's posted on social media and gravitate towards,

00:43:34.940 Oh, there's a click.

00:43:35.660 There's a headline.

00:43:36.520 That's, that's true.

00:43:37.720 But these nuances are so crucial and I appreciate your time explaining them to us and helping us understand.

00:43:42.220 Yeah, right.

00:43:44.160 No, man.

00:43:44.580 Appreciate you having me on.

00:43:45.560 I know we didn't get, it was mostly, uh, uh, about politics.

00:43:49.660 We didn't even get into a whole lot of interesting issues, but I think, I think it's stuff people

00:43:53.540 need to hear.

00:43:53.980 So I appreciate you having me on.

00:43:55.220 You bet.

00:43:56.120 Yeah.

00:43:56.300 Always, always willing and ready to do this.

00:43:58.620 So if we ever want to do it again and get into some different politics, the actual politics

00:44:02.480 or policy, I should say, then we can certainly do that as well.

00:44:06.120 Always, always.

00:44:07.160 Thanks man.

00:44:08.040 Thank you, brother.

00:44:08.520 Appreciate you.

00:44:09.220 Appreciate you too.

00:44:11.960 All right, you guys, there you go.

00:44:13.160 My conversation with the one and only Dan Crenshaw.

00:44:15.520 I hope that you enjoyed the conversation and walked away with a perspective that maybe you

00:44:19.820 have not yet considered before, or it opened your mind or horizons to what is possible and

00:44:24.880 what we should be looking at regarding politics, uh, reach out to Dan connect with him on the

00:44:30.300 socials, uh, connect with me, take a screenshot of this podcast and share it with somebody that

00:44:35.160 needs to see it, uh, tag Dan tag myself.

00:44:38.040 He's also got a book, uh, called fortitude.

00:44:40.540 You can check out his book fortitude, wherever you get your copy of books.

00:44:44.480 Uh, we've got my book coming out later this week, uh, called the masculinity manifesto.

00:44:48.980 So make sure to pre-order that, uh, or purchase it depending on when you listen to this again,

00:44:53.180 the masculinity manifesto.

00:44:55.000 And then the last thing is check out the iron council at order of man.com slash iron council

00:45:01.340 order of man.com slash iron council.

00:45:03.680 All right, guys, you've got your marching orders.

00:45:05.980 Let's get after it.

00:45:06.940 We'll be back tomorrow until then go out there, take action and become the man you are meant

00:45:11.920 to be.

00:45:12.660 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.

00:45:15.120 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:45:18.980 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - September 27, 2022

DAN CRENSHAW ｜ Politics vs. Policy

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