Order of Man - Men in Politics ｜ SEAN PARNELL

00:00:00.000 Politics is just something that we don't talk a whole lot about in the older man movement. And

00:00:04.060 I think it's painfully clear why that is. And I believe that masculinity isn't reserved for one

00:00:09.820 side of the political aisle, but there are some underlying principles of masculinity and the

00:00:14.760 betterment of society that tend to be politicized. And so I've rejected the notion of talking about

00:00:21.520 politics or even being remotely political, but it's clear to me that these are conversations

00:00:27.000 that definitely need to be had. And I can think of no better person to talk with us about it today

00:00:31.580 than Sean Parnell. He's an army ranger veteran, New York times, bestselling author, and he's also a

00:00:36.900 candidate for Congress. Today we talk about servant leadership, the American dream, trust, power grabs

00:00:43.140 and men in politics. You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears and

00:00:49.320 boldly charge your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time

00:00:55.040 you are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who

00:01:02.160 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,

00:01:07.740 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler,

00:01:12.700 and I am the host and the founder of the Order of Man movement. As I do every week, I want to welcome

00:01:17.600 you here. We need more men in this battle. And it's a battle. It is. It's a battle in society. Every time

00:01:24.060 we see some sort of injustice, it's a battle for our families. It's a battle against our weaker,

00:01:29.860 more pathetic versions of ourselves that we all have a tendency to fall prey to at times. And so 0.98

00:01:35.320 if we approach our lives as, as the war, as the battle it is, then we're more adequately prepared

00:01:42.440 to give ourselves the resources, the conversations, the tools, the equipment, the mindsets that we need

00:01:48.700 to thrive and succeed in turbulent times. And that's what this podcast is all about.

00:01:52.540 So we do that by interviewing successful men, men like Sean Parnell, who I've got on the podcast

00:01:58.460 today and Jocko and Goggins and Andy Frisilla and John Eldridge. I mean, we've, we've got some

00:02:06.020 phenomenal, phenomenal men who have joined us and it's my job to have conversations with these guys and

00:02:11.560 extract some of their knowledge and wisdom and impart that upon you. So I hope that we're doing

00:02:18.140 our job and I would ask that you do yours. You can do that by sharing this podcast, sharing the

00:02:23.120 message, enlisting other men in the battle to reclaim and restore masculinity to its former glory.

00:02:30.200 And I really want to let you know that I appreciate all the work that you do. We're going to get into

00:02:35.160 Sean's introduction. And of course the conversation here in just a minute before we do, I want to let

00:02:39.980 you know about my collaboration with warrior poet society network. I've got so much amazing feedback

00:02:45.940 and I'm honored that warrior poet society felt that we needed to be included in the project.

00:02:52.500 I'm honored that you guys are tuning in. If you're interested, definitely go check it out. You can do

00:02:57.000 that at war, excuse me, order of man.com slash WPSN as in warrior poet society network. They've got an

00:03:04.780 exclusive network and order of man is one of the shows that is exclusive over there. I'm talking about

00:03:09.660 things that aren't necessarily covered here. And again, it's a hundred percent exclusive. So you

00:03:14.800 won't get it anywhere else. You can check it out at order of man.com slash WPSN. So make sure you do

00:03:21.400 make sure you check it out. I think you're going to enjoy, especially if you enjoy this podcast,

00:03:25.140 you'll, you'll enjoy that again, order of man.com slash WPSN. All right, guys, let me introduce you

00:03:31.200 to Sean. He served as an army ranger with the 10th mountain division. His platoon nicknamed outlaw

00:03:37.180 platoon killed over 350 enemy fighters in some of the biggest firefights in the Afghan war. I think

00:03:43.780 I saw or read, or maybe he told me that over 80% of his platoon had received purple hearts. So they

00:03:50.020 were in some very serious and difficult situations in Afghanistan upon returning to the States. And

00:03:57.140 after serious injuries himself, including some neurological issues that he had to work through

00:04:01.840 and probably still is working through Sean was medically discharged from the military. He went

00:04:07.080 on to write his New York times, bestselling book outlaw platoon, and is now a regular contributor on

00:04:12.260 Fox, as well as appearances on CNN and MSNBC and so many others. He's also the co-founder of the

00:04:18.640 American warrior initiative and has since thrown his hat in the ring of politics. And he is running

00:04:23.740 for Congress in Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district. Enjoy this one guys. Sean, what's going on,

00:04:30.760 man? Thanks for joining me on the podcast. Hey, thanks for having me, Ryan. Yeah, we were

00:04:35.020 talking about it. Yeah, we were saying it's been a while on the works. I was thinking about it. I'm

00:04:40.880 like, you're kind of like a modern day Renaissance man. That's that's why I can't get ahold of you.

00:04:45.300 And we can't lock this thing down, man. I don't know about that. That's the first time I've ever

00:04:50.240 been called a Renaissance man. I feel like I, you know, I've always been a knuckle dragger from my time

00:04:55.160 in the infantry until now. You know, that's the strange thing about politics is it is people are

00:05:01.720 always inherently political. And I'm not I really I love politics. I like to be in the fight, you know

00:05:08.420 what I mean? But I'm not a politician. And so, you know, I'm a warrior. I'm a fighter. And and that's

00:05:13.700 all I really know. So we'll see how that goes with all this crazy congressional run. Yeah, I think I

00:05:19.760 think, ironically enough, being a warrior probably will make you a better politician. I think so. I mean, I,

00:05:26.920 you know, I think, like, my formative leadership experience was when I was a platoon leader in

00:05:33.140 Afghanistan, right? And I learned a lot of important, I learned a lot of important lessons there, Ryan.

00:05:38.780 And those lessons, you know, really, the concept of servant leadership, and it's the job of a leader to show

00:05:44.900 up and serve the people that that work for him, not the other way around. And that's become sort of

00:05:50.040 the bedrock of my leadership philosophy. That's the cliff notes version of it. But that's the bedrock of

00:05:54.940 everything that I am today. And that's really what I'm bringing in into Congress or into this run for

00:05:59.680 Congress with me is that I'm and I say this over and over again, man, I'm really truly with the

00:06:05.440 political answer, or the or the answer that's best for the Republican Party or the Democrat Party,

00:06:10.860 I'm more concerned with what the right answer is. You know what I mean? Like, isn't that what should

00:06:16.020 isn't that what we should be focused on here? What? And at the end of the day, the right answer is

00:06:20.260 what's best for the people. And I think sometimes politicians lose sight of that. You know, I won't.

00:06:25.860 But yeah, this is this whole experience is new to me, man. I've never done anything like this. But it's

00:06:30.180 certainly eye opening. That's for sure. Is this even something that was on your radar even what,

00:06:35.320 two, three, four years ago? I feel like ever since I've been back from Afghanistan, Ryan,

00:06:40.380 people have always sort of thrown my name around every two years, you know, you should run.

00:06:44.940 And I've always just been content to volunteer from the sidelines. And I and I and that's what

00:06:50.140 I did. I mean, I campaigned with Marco Rubio, because in 2016, I thought, you know, man, he's a

00:06:54.660 young is a young Republican with a lot of cool, innovative ideas, really the future of our party.

00:07:00.760 And I campaigned with him in South Carolina. You know, as the chairman of Governor Corbett's

00:07:05.880 Veterans Coalition. And I was the chairman of Mike Kelly, who's a local congressman here of

00:07:10.260 his campaign committee. But but again, like those are all volunteer positions, you know,

00:07:16.660 and, you know, I've always just been, like I said, content to volunteer. And then President

00:07:20.860 Trump comes to the district and he throws my name in the ring to run for Congress. And at that point,

00:07:28.560 it's like, well, that's the commander in chief, you know, turn my life upside down and got in the

00:07:33.100 race two weeks later, you know? Yeah, it's pretty wild. I'm always fascinated with some but why

00:07:38.380 somebody would ever get into politics, you know, and that's not a knock to what you're doing at

00:07:42.560 all. It's just I've had people say things probably similar to you is like, oh, when are you going to

00:07:46.520 run for this or run for that? I'm like, I have no intention ever of even remotely considering that.

00:07:51.440 So I'm really curious what your thought process was behind it when it's something, you know,

00:07:57.100 you haven't really considered for a long time. Yeah, I you know, I don't know. I mean, I felt like

00:08:02.060 what it what it really came down to is the president, you know, I respect the office of

00:08:06.760 the president, whether there's a Republican in that office or a Democrat in that office. If

00:08:10.680 if Barack Obama came out and said, you know, hey, Sean, we want you to be the ambassador to 0.99

00:08:16.060 Afghanistan, I would have been like, oh, damn it. That's the last thing I want to do. I don't want 1.00

00:08:21.020 to go back to Afghanistan. But I respect the office enough to do it, you know. And, you know, 0.96

00:08:26.060 when the president United States, I can't think of another time. And I've said this before. And I mean,

00:08:31.360 don't quote me on this. I'm not entirely sure of what what the history on this is. But I can't

00:08:36.380 and I've never heard of another time of a president calling out a random person to run for Congress

00:08:41.440 in a primary. Right. So there are already people in the congressional race. But the president name

00:08:46.660 dropped me at an event. And I just felt like, well, look, this hardly ever happens, you know,

00:08:53.220 and who am I to say no? So I dropped everything and got in the fight, you know, and and a lot of what

00:08:58.660 a lot of people don't realize is it you think it's brutal. And you're right. It is brutal.

00:09:02.800 Politics is bad. It's sort of a dirty. It can be dirty, you know. But a lot of people don't

00:09:10.840 realize you have to, like, raise your own money. You know what I mean? Yeah, like the party doesn't

00:09:16.860 help you at all, you know. And so it's just been me on the phone calling people nonstop,

00:09:24.780 you know, and and just trying to raise money as best I can. And so that's really what I've

00:09:30.460 been doing. It's difficult work. It's thankless work. And I don't know if you've ever you ever

00:09:34.920 cold call somebody. You ever tried to do that before?

00:09:37.300 Oh, yeah. I mean, my background is sales. So I know all about. Yeah, of course. I used to when

00:09:43.700 I was like, I must have been 16 or 17 years old, maybe even younger. I was probably 17.

00:09:50.320 I worked in a I worked in a call center. It was like it was a business to business. So it was

00:09:55.700 outbound business to business. And I remember this script they gave me, you know, I had to read it

00:10:00.260 off the computer screen and it was miserable. I hated it. But that's what you did when you were in high

00:10:04.240 school. You went and worked at the local call center, made a few bucks in the summer. And then

00:10:07.260 went back to school. And that's just how it was.

00:10:10.120 Exactly. I mean, it is it is absolutely brutal. It's brutal. And when I and when I do it, I have

00:10:19.140 to ask for twenty eight hundred bucks. So it's not like it's not like I can, you know, I'm cold

00:10:24.760 calling people and like asking them if they're interested in a product. Right. It's right. It's

00:10:29.620 I am I'm cold calling people and asking them to contribute twenty eight hundred bucks or fifty six

00:10:34.220 hundred bucks to a campaign. And so if you think people are defensive when

00:10:37.180 you call them out of the blue almost. I mean, I've never gotten a phone call, a cold call

00:10:41.180 from someone and been like, oh, of course, this is this is a great this is a great time

00:10:46.920 to talk. I'm definitely not in the middle of dinner. I'm definitely not trying to put

00:10:50.820 my right down to bed. I'm definitely not on a conference call. Please let's have a long

00:10:54.960 conversation, an intimate conversation with the stranger and then add to that, you know,

00:10:59.220 hey, can I also twenty eight hundred bucks? You know, I really support. It's it is.

00:11:05.220 Who do you call? Do you call people off of a like a registration list or like who is it

00:11:10.780 that you're actually calling? So, you know, OK, so I try to compete as a kid, you know,

00:11:17.380 when you're in the middle of a pandemic and you're a challenger, right, it's always tough

00:11:20.660 for a challenger to run a campaign. Right. No doubt. Because incumbents already have the 0.92

00:11:25.040 infrastructure, they already have the contacts, they already have the fundraisers, all this

00:11:29.680 stuff already lined up. I've got to build it all from scratch. So I always say I've got

00:11:33.480 to compete on a different level. I've got to get creative and compete on a level where

00:11:37.940 my opponent doesn't even know a game is going on. Right. And so what I do is that there's

00:11:43.100 there's Federal Election Commission reports, right? FEC reports, every donation to every

00:11:47.640 candidate, Democrat and Republic is completely public. I just go through those reports and I

00:11:51.660 see, oh, I look at how much I highlight the name and I try to track them down, find them

00:11:56.260 and call them, you know. So if they've donated in the past, that's that's a candidate that

00:12:00.560 could would potentially donate again. Yes. And there are people, you know, across the country

00:12:05.740 and certainly here in Pennsylvania where I'm running that that sort of are in the fight all

00:12:09.060 the time and they give a lot and you'll see their names over and over again on different

00:12:13.080 reports to different candidates. You know what? This is what I try to convince people all

00:12:17.660 the time. You're not. It's not like I'm calling it. I'm not asking for money. It's about the

00:12:23.580 movement. It's about the future of the country. It's about what you want this country to be

00:12:28.100 like for your kids. Are you willing to spend a dollar? Right. To invest in that future that

00:12:33.860 you want for your that's that's the sale. That's the ask. Right. Because, again, everybody

00:12:39.660 that I talk to, even even like these political pundits that go on TV and talk about this stuff

00:12:44.840 for a living, Ryan, they think, well, well, how much is the RNC giving you? Nothing, nothing.

00:12:50.760 They give nothing. It's all on me. And so, you know, outside groups, Ryan might come in

00:12:56.820 and spend money, super PACs. But as a candidate, I have no awareness of what you it's illegal

00:13:02.400 for me to communicate with some with the super. So I have no idea what outside groups are

00:13:08.120 doing. Many of the commercials that you see on TV are from outside groups unless a candidate

00:13:12.620 has a routine and a strong ability to raise money on their own. You know, and that's really

00:13:20.580 what I'm doing. I spend the lion's share of my time during this pandemic just trying to

00:13:24.780 raise money and get people on board with the movement.

00:13:28.020 Yeah. Which in addition to all that you said, asking people to invest right now is even that

00:13:34.560 much more difficult because there's a lot of people struggling. You know, guys are out of

00:13:37.440 work and they've been furloughed or they have some sort of an assistance and there isn't as much

00:13:44.720 spare money discretionary income that there was, you know, six months ago, for example.

00:13:49.380 You're 100% correct. I mean, that's why this pandemic has been uniquely challenging in a lot

00:13:54.160 of different ways. You know, one for the country, the fact that we haven't faced a global pandemic

00:13:59.280 like this in 100 plus years, you know, we've never brought our 20 trillion with a T plus economy to

00:14:07.660 a complete stop ever in our history. We're asking the healthy to stay home. That's the first time

00:14:14.640 that's ever happened when dealing with a plague or a global pandemic. Typically, we have a, you know,

00:14:21.100 in, in, in pandemic responses past, we've always quarantined the sick, never the healthy.

00:14:28.480 So, and then add to that, yes, absolutely. And then add to that, that I feel like debate on whether

00:14:35.720 we should reopen or not has become politically charged. And that ain't right, bro. That is not

00:14:41.100 right. You know, people are, you know, I, and this is typically, and I, I'm general, I'm speaking,

00:14:46.680 generally speaking here, you know, the Democrats are in the lockdown in perpetuity crowd. Republicans

00:14:51.780 are like, let's reopen and reopen safely. Um, that I, first of all, we should be doing what's

00:14:58.380 right for the people and no one should be looking down their nose at the freaking oil and gas worker 0.99

00:15:03.340 who works on a rig here in Western Pennsylvania, who can't freaking work from home. Right. And he 0.67

00:15:08.360 can't access this antiquated unemployment system that we got here in the state. Why? Because it's

00:15:12.700 overwhelmed. People in my region, they work with their hands, man. They're outside.

00:15:16.680 They're working on oil and gas rigs. They're working in manufacturing. They're working in

00:15:20.540 steel, uh, steel, fire, coal, power plants. These people can't put food on the table for 0.65

00:15:25.600 their family, Ryan. And every day I'm hearing from them saying, I've burned through my life

00:15:29.920 savings, Sean. I don't know what the hell to do. And, you know, when the dust settles from

00:15:34.780 this pandemic and, and I, you know, it's going to settle soon. I think we're going to learn

00:15:38.820 lots of different things, but it's, I hope that one of the things that we learn is just how

00:15:43.260 important, you know, leadership is, man. We, this as a country, like, let's try to get

00:15:48.320 away from electing politicians or career politicians. And let's start trying to focus on

00:15:53.940 people who have demonstrated the ability to lead in a crisis, you know? Um, because right

00:16:00.780 now, I mean, I, I, I don't know. I mean, I feel like we've been so blessed in this country

00:16:06.920 for so long with freedom and all the trappings of freedom that come with it, uh, that, you know,

00:16:13.500 crisis hits. And right now we have very few leaders in position and governor positions,

00:16:17.860 uh, very few leaders in Congress, very few leaders in the Senate. Um, and don't, don't get

00:16:23.120 me wrong. I I'm, I'm overly generalizing here. I really am. There are some really great leaders

00:16:27.700 on, on both sides of the aisle, but, but, but we need leaders in every position, not just some of

00:16:32.760 them. I think the problem though, Sean, is that what, regardless of what side of the aisle you're

00:16:38.240 on, it's like finger pointing, like, okay, if you're on the, if you're on the democratic side

00:16:42.400 of the aisle, you're looking at Republicans saying, yeah, we don't have leadership because you guys

00:16:45.340 aren't leading and you're being political as opposed to leading effectively. And the Republicans

00:16:50.440 are saying the same thing about the Democrats, right? So I don't know. I, I don't know if like

00:16:55.440 the two party system is, is antiquated, if it's outdated, if it's, if it's a hindrance, if it's good,

00:17:01.400 it's, it's just, it's really difficult for me to wrap my head around how tribal we've become.

00:17:06.340 And it's no longer about, from my perspective, about common sense and coming together and trying

00:17:12.940 to have mutually beneficial, uh, results. It's just about making your party right. And, and winning

00:17:20.600 this like game. I'm not even sure what it is we're trying to win. You know, it's like, it's very

00:17:25.600 frustrating. And I know a lot of people that listen to the podcast, they're probably going to have

00:17:29.420 doubts and hesitancy of me bringing you even on to begin with, but it's like, these are the kind

00:17:34.200 of conversations I want to have because I know people are just frustrated, not with you, but like

00:17:38.760 the system, like it's so frustrating. I mean, and they should be this. I mean, look, I mean,

00:17:44.020 there's, there's so many different directions that we can take this in. And, and by the way,

00:17:47.980 I get it, man. Like I, I, I hate when people call me a politician. I'm not, I I've never run for

00:17:53.580 anything in my life. I answered the president called me to serve. That's what I'm doing.

00:17:57.100 Um, but I call, I call balls and strikes, you know, my loyalty is, and will always be to the

00:18:02.460 people. And by the way, around here, that means Democrats and Republicans showing up for everybody.

00:18:07.640 A couple of things to your point, you know, leadership is about showing up. You know,

00:18:12.120 when I was in Afghanistan, you know, I led the most wildly diverse group of infantrymen that you could

00:18:16.940 possibly imagine. Democrats and Republicans, Christians serving next to atheists, black serving 1.00

00:18:21.420 next to white, serving next to Asian, serving next to Latino. It was my job as a leader to figure

00:18:26.960 out a way to bring that group of men together, uh, in one of the most austere, hostile places on the

00:18:31.840 planet. And so that, that too is part of my leadership philosophy that leadership is about

00:18:37.200 bringing people together and focusing on commonalities and showing up for everybody

00:18:41.180 acknowledging. And this is what I tell everybody around here. I can't promise you that we're always

00:18:46.240 going to agree on every issue of the day. In fact, I can guarantee you that we won't agree most of the

00:18:52.560 time, but guess what? If, if tribalism wins the day and we don't show up for one another and we

00:18:58.360 don't have those difficult conversations, guess what? There's no consensus reached. And when there's

00:19:02.640 no consensus reached, the work of the people is not done. You know, there's been a saying in our

00:19:07.120 country for a long time about like, you know, Oh, politics or religion. We shouldn't discuss that.

00:19:12.880 But do you recognize now we've been saying that for 50 years, many of the issues that we have in this

00:19:17.580 country are centered around politics and religion, things that we should have been talking about

00:19:22.280 around the dinner table for 50 years now. But would we have the problems today that we have today

00:19:28.140 if we were having those difficult conversations all along? I don't know. Um, but I don't feel like

00:19:33.640 it would be as taboo, right? Yeah. It certainly wouldn't be as, as, um, maybe hostile if we were just

00:19:40.380 accustomed to discussing it and talking about it. Totally. I mean, I didn't have those conversations.

00:19:45.520 I grew up, the only thing I really remember ever about politics was growing up in Southern

00:19:52.400 California thinking Rush Limbaugh was an evil human being. Like that's all, like, that's all I

00:19:58.960 remember of being little. My, my grandma and my mom, I remember, I don't know why I remember this,

00:20:03.160 but for some reason, Rush, they were talking about Rush and I'm like, I don't even know who that is,

00:20:07.880 but I remember he was a bad guy. That's all I know. Hey, look, man, dude, you're hosting your own

00:20:13.080 show now too. That's right. Probably be as big as him. I don't know about that, but, uh, but I

00:20:18.100 appreciate the vote of confidence. Well, dude, here's the thing, Ryan, like, like your show.

00:20:22.740 I mean, I listened to it. I watched the stuff that you post on Instagram all the time. Your show is a

00:20:28.420 cultural show. You're in the cultural fight. Well, everything in this day and age, whether you're

00:20:33.860 running for political office or not, you're in, you're in a cultural war and politics. Okay. Culture

00:20:40.740 predisposes politics, right? The way that our culture views the problems of the day, uh, you

00:20:48.080 know, the way is, is how we, you know, our culture, as we view things, right, elects political leaders

00:20:54.660 who are, who view things very, in very similar way. I feel like I'm articulating myself poorly,

00:21:01.680 but politics is downstream from culture. We elect the leaders, uh, that, that we deserve and your show

00:21:07.820 because it's helping, you know, shift cultural sentiment in many ways, um, is having an immense

00:21:15.060 political impact. You're, you're having, you're having dads, right. And probably moms who are

00:21:21.540 learning lessons about how best to be, to be a man in today's world, right. And raise good song,

00:21:27.960 strong kids and be the leader of your, of a family, uh, and, and raise service minded kid. Guess what?

00:21:34.260 Those kids are going to grow up and elect leaders that feel the same way. So this is all, all of this

00:21:39.400 matters, you know? And so to, to the viewers who probably would be skeptical about having somebody

00:21:44.300 running for political office on, I get it. You should be skeptical because politics sucks. 0.98

00:21:48.280 But at the end of the day, you look at what's happening with this pandemic, you can ignore 1.00

00:21:53.000 politics your whole life, but when shit hits the fan, politics tends to find you. And right. 0.99

00:21:59.120 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a great point is like, it, and I've thought that for a long time,

00:22:03.420 like, I'm not going to worry about this. I'm just going to keep my head down and stay focused on this.

00:22:07.160 And that's all fine and great until something goes wrong or something happens that, that you don't

00:22:11.420 approve of, or you don't appreciate, or it impacts you directly. So I just, the reason, part of the

00:22:17.120 reason I wanted to have this conversation is because I want men to know that we actually don't have

00:22:22.840 the right to absolve ourselves of the responsibility of staying informed and engaged to some degree

00:22:30.800 about what's going on, the political climate. And regardless of what side of the aisle that you

00:22:35.680 sit on, like being informed and being educated and knowing how the process works. And I'll be the

00:22:40.680 first to admit, you know, like I I've got to jump on and say, okay, Sean's running for Congress.

00:22:45.280 You know, what's the difference between the house of representatives and the Senate and like,

00:22:49.120 like how many senators versus how many representatives, like I'm not the most informed

00:22:54.220 either, but I am trying to get to that point. Yeah. You know, and that, you know, what's

00:22:58.700 important is just being, I think the important thing is, is you don't have to have the depth of

00:23:03.760 knowledge of a, of a civics teacher, just being engaged, you know, in whatever way that you see

00:23:08.960 fit, you know, and it doesn't matter to me if you're a liberal or a conservative, right? I mean,

00:23:14.380 I'm running with an R after my name, but I, one of the things that you learn about me pretty

00:23:19.080 quickly, man, is I hate being positioned as anything. I hate that. Like, oh, he's a

00:23:24.120 Republican. He believes this. No, that's garbage, man. I am, I am a leader. You know, I might be

00:23:29.280 running with an R after my name, but I'm a leader first, last and always. And if something, and I

00:23:35.380 recognize by the way, that this job is about serving the people. And if something that, you

00:23:38.880 know, leader McCarthy does, who is the Republican leader right now, something that he does puts a piece 0.96

00:23:43.680 of legislation forth that's bad for the, for the people of my region, you can bet your ass I'm

00:23:47.960 crossing party lines and voting with the Democrats to stop that, you know? So, um, you know, even

00:23:53.100 that, even that phrase though, that, that phrase of party lines, it's like, to me, I hear that and I

00:23:57.940 think, okay, well, you're supposed to toe the line, right? You're supposed to do what you're told,

00:24:03.160 vote with the party. I'm like, how is that beneficial? I mean, I know there's pros and cons. I'm

00:24:08.080 actually really curious what you have to say about the party system. Like what are the pros and cons

00:24:13.160 of having parties as opposed to just not having parties and just actually having to understand

00:24:19.320 what you as an individual are running for? Well, I think in this day and age, so much

00:24:24.120 about party politics is about resources, right? Um, you're able to, you get a bunch of like-minded

00:24:29.560 people who sort of see the future, right? That little speck on the horizon and what we want for this

00:24:35.360 country. We all sort of agree. You know, the thing with the Republican parties, like everybody

00:24:41.000 sort of believes different things within the reporting Republican party and different varying

00:24:44.980 degrees of how far right you are. But I think at the end of the day, it's about a group of like-minded

00:24:50.000 people like who, who see the future of the country in the same way. And they, and those people pull

00:24:56.560 resources together because it's almost like, it's, it's almost like a union in the sense that, uh,

00:25:02.900 you know, you, the more resources that we have, the more we pull our resources, resources, the more

00:25:07.640 we bring our voices together, the louder we are. And I think as this country has evolved, uh, you know,

00:25:14.080 so too of the political parties, but what we've settled on now are Democrats and Republicans.

00:25:17.880 The Democrats are emblematic of, of a more liberal view of society, Republicans of, of a more conservative

00:25:23.380 view. Um, um, but I look, you're absolutely right. Like this is, this is why people have such a

00:25:30.160 disdain for career politicians because they play party games, you know? Um, and I've been asked the

00:25:36.100 question a lot, you know, every, many people campaign, like I'm campaigning, like, Oh, I'm

00:25:40.260 going to be a, you know, independent voice. But the reality is, is you get down to Washington and

00:25:45.380 you're, you're being pressured by Democrats. You're being pressured by your own party,

00:25:48.640 being pressured by the president. You're being pressured by culture to be hammered into this

00:25:52.800 little box. But I go back to, this is why we elect leaders. You know, like, this is why you have,

00:25:59.100 we have to elect people who can resist group thing. Right. So it's, it's, it's, when the

00:26:05.700 country, absolutely, absolutely. When, when the country, and this is why what you're doing is

00:26:11.440 so important. Like the two party, uh, political system in this country, it can change, it can

00:26:19.080 change tomorrow, but it'll change when we demand it to change, right? It'll demand, it will change

00:26:24.560 when enough people in this country are fed up with politics as usual and demand the system be

00:26:29.440 changed until then it won't. Uh, and the only reason it will change if people are angry enough to

00:26:35.400 change it is a significant cultural ship, which is why, again, you've got shows like yours that sort

00:26:41.840 of shape cultural sentiment and, you know, generations later we, we elect leaders who reflect

00:26:48.040 that cultural sentiment. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that's true. I mean, every, every little bit goes

00:26:53.480 into it. And I liked that you said how you talked about culture comes before politics, right? It's

00:26:58.700 so actually what shapes, and I actually think we're at an interesting time right now with man, everything

00:27:04.840 from, from, uh, the, the COVID-19 fallout to race issues, to tensions between civilians and police

00:27:13.560 officers. And I mean, it's just, we're just at a very, very interesting point. And I, and I just feel

00:27:19.960 like that, again, we need to have these kinds of conversations. We need to be talking about these

00:27:24.560 things openly. We need to be respectful towards each other, even if we don't agree so that we can come up

00:27:30.120 with, with some solutions. I really don't feel like if you take 99% of the population, I would say

00:27:37.000 that, that the majority of us, we all want the same thing, right? We want to pursue a little

00:27:41.800 happiness. We want to have some romantic relationships. We want to have some friendly

00:27:45.840 relationships. We want to have experiences. And we pretty much just want to be left alone

00:27:50.120 to do what it is we want to do. Like, I would say that would encompass 99% of people.

00:27:54.920 Ryan, that right there is that right there to me is what's so precious about this country.

00:28:00.340 You know, the, this entire American experiment and the freedom that we have here is extraordinarily

00:28:06.820 rare in the history of the earth, right? And the freedom to pursue happiness and pursue the

00:28:11.720 life that you want to pursue with minimal government intervention is the vision that I have for

00:28:17.680 America. I, I want, you know, I, if it were up to me, I mean, I, I want government as uninvolved in

00:28:25.900 your life as possible, you know, because in order for man and woman to be free, they need to have

00:28:33.080 little, the smallest amount of government in their life as possible. It's just the truth.

00:28:37.080 The more government that we have in our life, the less free that we really truly are, you know,

00:28:41.600 ask any small business that's saddled with regulations, you know, these, if you look at,

00:28:46.820 you know, president Trump, and by the way, I'm not making a political statement, but one of the

00:28:50.580 things that I think president Trump has done well is deregulate, you know, he's, he is systematically

00:28:56.400 detangling this, this regulatory mess that small businesses were in under eight years under

00:29:01.360 president Obama. Right. And I don't care. I talk to Democrats and Republican business owners here

00:29:07.300 all the time. They're all like, you know, Trump has, while I don't like maybe some of the, you know,

00:29:11.040 the way that president Trump comports himself, man, he's made it easier for me to do business.

00:29:15.880 So what that means is the less government regulation in, in, in the small business area,

00:29:21.420 right. Means, uh, the more freedom they have to grow. And the same is really true in many

00:29:27.260 different aspects of our life. I see a federal government's responsibility as national infrastructure

00:29:31.720 and protecting people, right. Uh, where we can get back to the original foundations of what it means

00:29:37.860 to have like a federal government, like again, infrastructure, protecting people who can't

00:29:42.460 protect themselves, the better it is for everybody, liberal, independence, conservatives, the more

00:29:47.580 freedom you have in your life, the better it is for you and your children and your children's

00:29:52.100 children. And that's, that's my platform that my, the motto of my campaign is defend freedom.

00:29:57.680 You know, that's it. That's, it's pretty simple. And that's, and you know, look, whether I win or

00:30:02.440 lose, I like to think I'm going to win, but whether I win or lose, like everybody's motto of their

00:30:06.900 campaign should be defend freedom, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think you're right, but it seems

00:30:12.760 to me that people misconstrue that word or it means different things to different people. And, uh, then

00:30:19.880 there's all these conflicts of interest. I mean, even just the fact that you're mentioning president

00:30:23.540 Trump may have done something right is going to boggle, you know, 50% of the population.

00:30:27.260 population's minds. Like they can't fathom how that could actually be true.

00:30:31.800 Oh my gosh. Look, you're so right, man. Like, so over Memorial day weekend, I know I've never

00:30:37.700 met or talked to the president, but he, you know, ever, ever in my life. And he tweeted about me like

00:30:43.200 five times over Memorial, Memorial. I saw that. Yeah. I saw that. I mean, first of all, that's just

00:30:48.400 insane, man. Like, you know, to, to, for me, like, this is just what, how amazing America is to me.

00:30:54.500 Like when I left the military, I was wounded in Afghanistan, um, pretty badly. It was medically

00:30:59.300 retired. I intended to go into the military to, you know, uh, take, be in the infantry, go into

00:31:05.140 special forces and then try out for Delta. That, that was my, what I wanted to do as what I intended

00:31:09.460 to do when I went in and then I was wounded and I was medically retired and put out. And yeah,

00:31:14.400 I had my medical retirement, um, from the military, you know, I had my family and that's all wonderful,

00:31:20.360 but I was still left almost missionless. Like, what am I going to do now? You know? Yeah. Yeah.

00:31:26.140 And 10 years later, I've just, I feel like focusing on the right things, like trying to be a good father,

00:31:31.820 right. Trying to raise the next generation. Right. And busting my butt, hard work, perseverance.

00:31:37.420 Here I am 10 years later. And the president is calling me out and a guy I've never met him.

00:31:40.940 I've never met him before in my life. That is America right there. You know, with hard work

00:31:45.920 and perseverance, you put your mind to it, you know, yeah, you're going to fail a couple of times.

00:31:50.020 And I did too, since I've been out of the military, you know, but, but man, you really can't accomplish

00:31:54.520 anything. And, and now, you know, but I say all this to say your point of like, it's going to blow

00:32:00.000 50% of the people's minds. Oh my gosh, you're absolutely right. I spent almost my entire Memorial

00:32:05.040 Day weekend just because the president called me out. Now I didn't say anything other than thank you,

00:32:10.280 Mr. President. That's it. People are like, oh, you bootlicker. Oh, you baby killer. Oh,

00:32:16.860 you Trump sycophant. I'm like, dude, everyone just needs to take a deep breath, slow their roll,

00:32:23.420 drink some water. Like what, what is going on here? And so to your point, yeah, tribalism is,

00:32:28.680 is, is dangerous, you know, and, and the ability to sort of listen to one another and respect one

00:32:33.940 another and not shut down conversation. Uh, but just, you know, I guess we're really what it

00:32:39.100 boils down to Ryan is just respect. Yeah. I think a lot of it has been stripped away because of even

00:32:45.060 what we're doing here, where we have technology and we can hide behind a screen or a keyboard and,

00:32:50.820 and comment anonymously. Oh, you're so right. It takes a lot of the, even people who aren't anonymous,

00:32:56.880 it there's just a lot of the humanity is stripped away. You know, I've had neighbors who I know that

00:33:02.520 maybe we didn't agree politically, but we got along great. There was no fence between us.

00:33:06.900 We shared resources. I'd bring them stuff from our garden. They'd bake a cake for the family or wish

00:33:12.840 our kids happy birthday because there was so much humanity in it. This humanity is stripped away

00:33:18.380 through social media. And as powerful as it is, because we wouldn't be having these types of

00:33:21.780 conversations, there's a lot left to be desired because we don't get to know individuals in a

00:33:29.300 deep, meaningful, humanistic type way. You're absolutely right, man. I mean, I mean, and like,

00:33:36.440 just, I look back on, you know, me growing up, I feel like I knew everybody in my neighborhood.

00:33:41.460 You know, I, we talked all the time. We'd be outside playing all the time. I talked to my neighbors,

00:33:46.680 even, even six, seven, eight houses down. Um, you know, since I've had kids,

00:33:51.600 I've not had that experience. Everybody's more insulated. You know, everybody's like,

00:33:56.140 you know, people don't talk to each other as much. There's not as much community.

00:34:00.420 And, and because of that, I think, you know, you lose, you know, a level of, of,

00:34:07.180 I don't mean this in a negative way. You lose a lot. It makes it harder to respect the person

00:34:11.000 when you don't know them, you know, and, and, you know, you multiply that a million times over in

00:34:17.180 this country. I mean, maybe that has something to do culturally where we are. I mean, maybe what we

00:34:21.280 need really is more community. We need to talk and engage with people more often. We need to be less

00:34:26.120 insulated, you know, right. And the hope is that will, that will lead to a level of respect that

00:34:33.440 we, that we haven't seen in this country in quite a long time. All right, man, I got to pull you away

00:34:38.980 from the conversation real quick. I want to talk about two events that we had to postpone.

00:34:42.420 One is the legacy event. That's the father-son event for men with boys between the ages of eight

00:34:48.060 to 15. That one is going to be held on September 3rd through the 6th with some cancellations and

00:34:55.540 some timing issues. We've had a free, a few free spots come available for that. Again,

00:35:00.520 it's September 3rd through the 6th. It's the legacy event. So if you have a boy between the ages of eight

00:35:05.440 to 15, you're definitely going to want to check that one out. We've got, I believe six spots left for

00:35:11.180 that event. It's a father-son event. Unlike anything you've ever experienced, it's physical,

00:35:16.140 it's mental, it's emotional. It's all designed to help you forge a deeper bond with your son and

00:35:22.020 equip him with the tools he needs to thrive in his life. As he matures and becomes a young man and

00:35:27.020 becomes a man, he goes out on his own. The other event is the main event. This is a hundred men 0.73

00:35:31.380 coming to my property here in Maine. We're going to be talking about our battle plans and what we want

00:35:36.120 to accomplish and holding each other accountable and formulating plans and getting everything dialed

00:35:41.160 in. So we can produce more in the last quarter of this year than potentially you ever have in

00:35:48.880 your entire life. So if you're interested in that, we have also six spots left for that. And that is

00:35:54.220 October 9th through the 11th, October 9th through the 11th. So it's beautiful here in Maine in the fall.

00:36:00.340 And not only that, you're going to get to band with other men who are motivated, ambitious, who want

00:36:05.860 to win, who want to thrive and will help you do the same. So that main event is October 9th through

00:36:11.260 the 11th. If you want to sign up for either one of those events, the legacy event, father, son event

00:36:15.920 is order of man.com slash legacy. The main event is order of man.com slash main event and main as in

00:36:24.940 the state main main event. So check it out, get signed up, do it quickly. We only have six for legacy

00:36:30.960 and six for main event. And I would love to see you here in the fall again, order of man.com slash

00:36:36.600 legacy and order of man.com slash main event as in the state main. All right. So do that after the

00:36:42.920 podcast for now, I'll get back to it with Sean. Yeah. I mean, I think you're much more harsh on

00:36:47.800 an individual when you don't know them. Like if, like, for example, if we didn't agree, you and I

00:36:51.620 didn't agree politically, but I watched you deal with a medical condition with your parents or your

00:36:56.520 children. Oh yeah. You know, there's just a deeper connection. And, and, and I said this last

00:37:02.540 week with another guest I had on the podcast is there's just some more grace afforded, right? Like

00:37:06.840 I know that you're going through this thing and I can empathize with that and I can be compassionate

00:37:11.600 about that. And then that allow that level of humanity allows me to understand, oh, that's why

00:37:17.680 he thinks this way about that particular subject. It's not that you're an asshole. It's not that you 1.00

00:37:22.420 want to kill everybody or you want everybody to die. It's just that you have this experience

00:37:26.300 or set of experiences that made you think the way that you think. And I actually understand that as

00:37:33.760 I watch you go through what you went through. Yeah. And I mean, look, I look at this, you can

00:37:38.540 also look at this through the prism or maybe one example of what we're talking about is about

00:37:42.660 veterans who come home from war. That's an existential generational crisis that's gone back to the time

00:37:48.560 when Jesus Christ walked the earth. There's always been warriors who've come home from war. And so the

00:37:53.360 problem that's not wholly unique to the United States of America. But, you know, only 0.4% of

00:38:00.860 this country has served in the longest period of war in our nation's history. And so you have

00:38:04.400 millions, you know, hundreds of thousands of people coming home from these wars who, who don't really

00:38:10.860 get a lot of chance to talk about it with the people of this country because the focus tends to be

00:38:15.840 elsewhere. And I mean, these wars aren't in the headlines anymore. And because such a small

00:38:21.200 percentage of people serve, you know, you can come home and feel like an exile, right? In your own

00:38:26.600 country. And, you know, that, you know, feeling that that can lead to isolation, that isolation can

00:38:31.800 lead to substance abuse, that substance abuse and the worst can lead to suicide, right? We have an

00:38:36.340 epidemic of veteran suicide in this country, man. And I'm grateful for the VA. It's amazing. And the

00:38:43.920 greatest country in the face of the planet, we've got a healthcare system that helps veterans. But

00:38:47.040 the issue that veterans face right now is less of a healthcare issue. It's less of a clinical issue

00:38:51.580 and more of an existential cultural issue with regards to bringing veterans home, right?

00:38:55.980 And so what, so here's what we're talking about conversations, right? When veterans come home,

00:39:00.480 they need to educate society on what it means to go to war. And when society is better educated on what

00:39:06.040 it means to go to war, we elect leaders who understand the cost of it, right? And if leaders

00:39:11.060 understand the cost of it, we're not sending people to war at the drop of a hat for nothing,

00:39:16.560 because we understand the horrible cost of war. So you see, that's just one example of how respect

00:39:22.460 and understandings for our fellow men and women in this country can lead to a pathway forward for

00:39:28.180 this country that is profoundly, you know, profoundly good, you know? And so-

00:39:34.900 Well, I think, Sean, that's one of the things that people have a hard time with when it comes to

00:39:38.940 politicians is it's perceived that a lot of these politicians don't have to live with the result

00:39:45.380 of the laws they're implementing. You know, you think about that with regards to healthcare several

00:39:49.980 years ago and the big fiasco that became, uh, you think about it when it comes to sending our sons and

00:39:55.520 daughters to war. It's like, you've never been to war. Exactly. Like you've never had to stare and look

00:40:00.860 at somebody who, who was dying with, you know, tattered uniform, blood-soaked clothes,

00:40:07.300 literally dying in your arms. You never had to do that. So how do you have the right to sentence

00:40:12.060 somebody else to that fate? You know? And I think that's one of the biggest frustrations and points

00:40:16.140 of contention with a lot of people. Yeah, man. I mean, and I think what you're speaking to is,

00:40:21.300 is, you know, this is why people are so in favor of term limits by the way, right? Because the idea of

00:40:26.840 somebody who's been in Washington on either side for 50 years is just, you know, it's distasteful

00:40:32.640 because what happens is, is those people become untethered from the people that they're truly

00:40:36.860 supposed to represent. You know, um, they go to Washington, they stay. If you've been to Washington,

00:40:42.840 DC, it's intoxicating, man. It's the, it's the, it is the power center of the entire world,

00:40:49.440 you know? And you imagine like,

00:40:51.080 because I only went, I've, I've been once since we moved here to the East coast and we were invited

00:40:55.380 there and we actually took, uh, took a tour of the, of the Senate building and you're right.

00:41:00.240 I was like, man, this is awesome. We took a little tram under one of the buildings that went to the

00:41:05.800 Senate building and did the tour. And I was like, this is amazing. You know, you see the white house

00:41:10.400 and the Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial, and it is intoxicating. It's, it's amazing. And I could

00:41:15.780 see how the power that would come with that could quickly go to an individual's head.

00:41:20.280 Absolutely. Especially when you have people sort of the press and staff all following you around.

00:41:24.860 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And, and like, you know, this, this is what, you know, I can't remember

00:41:31.680 the quote, but it's something about power. Abraham Lincoln said it like absolute power corrupts.

00:41:36.060 Absolutely. You know, um, again, talking back to my point about leaders, you know, if you haven't

00:41:42.600 like, you know, use me as an example and I hate to do that because I don't like talking about me,

00:41:47.280 but like, you know, I had, I had power right at 24 years old as an infantry platoon leader. Right.

00:41:53.560 And, and the lesson that I learned there, everyone around me was getting shot up and wounded. I was

00:41:59.040 wounded too. Right. Was that the best leaders in the world take the power that, that is blessed and

00:42:04.220 bestowed upon them and they give it back to the people. Right. And the people when trusted with

00:42:11.360 freedom and power to make decisions and the best centers of themselves and the people that they

00:42:15.780 themselves serve almost always do the right thing with it. And when you empower people to do the right

00:42:22.080 thing and you empower, you trust people with leadership and power, um, this country and

00:42:27.660 military units in my case can do extraordinary things. But I also think the people of this

00:42:31.800 country can do extraordinary things. And this is why I've sort of been against, you know,

00:42:38.140 you know, obviously I was in favor of lockdowns early on, right. When we didn't know a whole lot

00:42:41.940 about the virus, you know, when they don't know a whole lot about the virus, you don't know how it

00:42:45.300 affects people. You don't know what the mortality rate is. My God, you have to do everything you can

00:42:49.320 to protect society while figuring out, uh, as much as you can about the genome of a potential

00:42:55.060 pandemic plague. Right. But as the data evolves, the strategy has to evolve. And now I think we

00:43:00.220 know, uh, the CDC just reported today that people below 50, the virus has a 99.97% survival rate of

00:43:07.700 people. Right. Right. Yeah. I think I saw generally it was like 0.26% fatality rate, I think is what the

00:43:14.820 CDC came out with. I'm not exactly sure, but I'm pretty sure it's right around there.

00:43:19.040 Yeah. And like, look, gosh, every death is totally tragic. I mean, we want to do everything we can to

00:43:24.280 protect people from this. I'm just talking from a larger philosophical standpoint here. Okay. We know

00:43:30.440 a lot more about the, about the virus today than we did three months ago. Should we not as leaders

00:43:35.640 be trusting people with their freedom? You know, should we not as leaders say, okay,

00:43:41.260 like, this is clear, clear, concise communication. This is what we face like FDR. The only thing that

00:43:48.700 we have to fear is fear itself, you know, be honest with the people, trust them with their freedom.

00:43:53.040 A lot of them, you know, like that's sort of just from a philosophical standpoint, why I'm against

00:43:57.600 the lockdowns, uh, in perpetuity, because the truth of the matter is Ryan. And I mean, you touch on this

00:44:03.460 and you're in your podcast from time to time that in a crisis, no course of action is without risk,

00:44:09.440 you know, and anytime we wake up and we, we draw breath in a free society to be free is to also,

00:44:16.340 uh, assume a certain level of risk in your life in order to be free.

00:44:21.500 Do you think that it is, is at its core, let's just talk about this, these lockdowns and restrictions

00:44:27.600 due to COVID-19 at its core, that it's a trust issue that our politicians don't trust that citizens,

00:44:33.000 everyday ordinary people like you and I can make good decisions in our own best interest

00:44:37.340 or alternatively, do you feel it's a, it's a attempt at a power grab that we can maintain and

00:44:46.180 wrestle? Cause I, I wish from the outside looking in, I wish that it was, we just don't trust you

00:44:51.900 make good decisions, but I don't know if that's entirely it. It feels like a power grab more than

00:44:56.160 anything to me. And I think it's okay to be, to have a little of both, right? Like, I think it's,

00:45:01.240 so I think it's possible to take, you know, COVID-19 and the threat it poses to society very

00:45:07.180 seriously, uh, you know, to, you know, taking seriously the economic impact of a perpetual

00:45:14.000 lockdown to taking all, you know, also authoritarian creep that comes along with lockdowns, right? You

00:45:19.860 could, it is, it is possible to care about all three, but as this, I share your same concern

00:45:27.200 and sentiment that, you know, use Pennsylvania as an example, we're still locked down here. You know,

00:45:34.180 why? I don't know. I mean, we have UP, the doctors at the university of Pittsburgh medical

00:45:39.260 center here in Western PA. These are epidemiologists, virologists who specialize in infectious disease

00:45:45.800 that have said, we prepared for this. We were on board with the lockdown, but the surge we said was

00:45:51.320 going to happen, didn't happen. And we need to reopen because the casualties from an economic fallout,

00:45:57.200 uh, are probably going to be greater, greater than COVID-19 and the virus itself. And so yet we're

00:46:03.080 still locked down. Why, why? The only thing that I can come, the only conclusion that I can come to

00:46:10.520 is that there is some sort of ulterior motivation that, that might be political that, that, that

00:46:16.700 maybe, you know, if you look at Democrat governors and God, please don't think that I'm pointing the

00:46:20.840 finger here. I'm really not trying to, but you've got governor Whitmer in Michigan. You've got governor

00:46:25.780 Cuomo, you've got governor Wolf. Um, these are all Democrats. They're all still locked down.

00:46:30.660 Governor Newsom in California is still locked down. Um, when the science really doesn't warrant it.

00:46:35.160 In fact, the science warrants opposite. The opposite is true of lockdown that staying cooped up with

00:46:40.560 people for long periods of time is not as the terrible for, uh, for, for mental health. It

00:46:45.700 actually makes you more susceptible to catching the virus. You know, whereas people are outside spread

00:46:51.140 out in the sunlight, it's more healthy for you, generally speaking, but it's also far harder

00:46:54.560 to catch the virus. 60% of the people in New York city caught COVID-19 after, after the lockdowns

00:47:01.140 have been in place for, I think a month. So what does that tell you? Tells you that, that lockdowns

00:47:06.060 are probably not the best way to deal with a global pandemic. And so I just wonder, we know all this

00:47:14.200 information now, much of this information is represented on the CDC website. So why are we

00:47:19.320 still locked down? And, and no, check this out, Ryan. They, they said that there's, there's recent

00:47:24.720 research that comes out that says the virus half-life is now 24 hours. I mean, meaning like

00:47:28.940 you, you know, you, so you can spread it within a 24 hour period. They also, there's also recent

00:47:35.740 research said there's no asymptomatic spread yet. We're also wearing masks still. Right. Well, if there's

00:47:41.040 no asymptomatic, I didn't know about that. Yeah. If there's really no asymptomatic spread

00:47:45.600 and the half-life of the virus is only 24 hours. And again, you don't trust me. Go look at, go read

00:47:50.480 the research, go to the CDC website, pull up some articles on it, read it for yourself. But if you're

00:47:55.140 asymptomatic and you're not coughing and sneezing, then how do you spread? Then how do you, why are

00:48:00.900 we wearing a mask when we're asymptomatic? Right. If we're wearing a mask to protect other people,

00:48:05.460 because our droplets can infect people. I get that. But if you're asymptomatic and you don't have 1.00

00:48:10.000 symptoms and you're not coughing and sneezing, then why wear one in the first place? I'm just

00:48:13.400 saying, masks, masks come with inherent risks as well. Like you're, you're, you're re-breathing

00:48:20.420 your own carbon dioxide. You're getting 60% less oxygen. So do two-year-olds and above need to be 0.95

00:48:26.680 wearing a mask when they go grocery shopping, when, you know, the virus is, you know, kids, you know,

00:48:32.720 I think 11 and below, or, you know, have almost no risk whatsoever associated with it.

00:48:37.280 You know, it's funny because right now you're, you're, you're borderlining on, on the, on the

00:48:43.240 phrase. And I think you probably are very close to saying it's common sense, right?

00:48:48.160 That's what I was going to say. Yeah.

00:48:49.880 But, but here's the thing. Somebody who's listening to this, who's disagreeing with you

00:48:55.840 is also saying the same thing. How can this guy, how, how are they talking to, this is common sense.

00:49:02.480 And it is amazing to me and a little confusing actually, how people can be so adamantly opposed

00:49:10.280 to their perspective, to each other's perspective and, and use the term science. Oh, well, science

00:49:15.880 suggests you should, science suggests you shouldn't, science suggests you should wear a mask, science

00:49:19.640 suggests that you shouldn't. Common sense says this, common sense says this. It's so hard to decipher

00:49:25.280 the information. There's so much information out there and it's hard to know what's, what's credible,

00:49:30.800 what's worth listening to and, and, and adopting in your life. It's just a very real challenge that,

00:49:37.980 that we're facing. I mean, exactly. I totally agree. And that, that's why I think data, the raw

00:49:43.300 data is really important. The flu. All right. I'm not comparing COVID-19 to the flu. I know that COVID-19

00:49:50.300 is more contagious. It's three times more contagious. I get that. But the flu a few years ago,

00:49:55.060 Ryan killed 71 plus thousand people in this country. The flu is more dangerous for me and for you and

00:50:02.880 for especially your children. Right. Yet no one was saying we must wear a mask in order to protect the

00:50:09.240 children. Right. But people are saying today that if you don't wear a mask and you don't agree with

00:50:15.820 lockdown and perpetuity, you want to kill grandma. Right. The truth is, is that we know that in the 0.92

00:50:22.340 state of Pennsylvania, 80% of all the deaths have happened in nursing homes. The state's policy

00:50:28.260 was that nursing homes need to take, are mandated to take COVID positive patients. So we knew who the

00:50:36.400 most vulnerable was to this virus. Yet we forced these nursing home facilities to take positive 0.55

00:50:41.700 patients, which is why 80% of the casualties to COVID-19 in the state have been in nursing homes.

00:50:46.800 So have lockdowns prevented, uh, uh, you know, any deaths? I look, the jury's still out on that.

00:50:54.080 I don't know, but I know what could have prevented deaths, you know, changing our policy of mandating

00:50:59.780 that nursing homes take COVID positive patients that we know that would have said, yeah, we know that

00:51:04.040 for sure. So, well, I remember when we had, I want to say, gosh, I want to say it was my second son.

00:51:09.760 We've got four kids and I don't know, they all, all of them at this point kind of sometimes blend

00:51:15.060 together as one of our children and was born with some respiratory issues. And there was the RSV season.

00:51:21.480 It was rough that year. And I remember the doctor saying, so it's your responsibility to ensure that

00:51:29.220 you don't take your kid to church and you don't take your baby out into public that, you know,

00:51:35.120 you, you probably ought to wait three months before you take your child out. We'll get past 1.00

00:51:39.860 the RSV season. Uh, his lungs will develop and it will be okay, but it's your responsibility to

00:51:47.520 ensure that your child is taken care of and is protected to the best of your abilities.

00:51:53.600 What you're talking about is personal responsibility and freedom, right? And that is what, that is what I

00:52:00.100 believe people are capable of in this country of taking a level of personal responsibility.

00:52:04.320 What, you know, inherent just, and this is philosophically speaking, and again, I'm

00:52:10.880 overgeneralizing, but the lion's share of people on the left believe that the government knows best

00:52:16.020 and, and they believe in more government control over, you know? Um, and that's why people,

00:52:22.580 you know, that's why you hear the phrase, oh, they're big government leftists because they believe

00:52:26.800 that the government can solve all of the world's problems, you know? And again, am I overgeneralizing

00:52:31.780 a little bit? Yeah, of course. The private innovation in the market, that is what driven

00:52:35.740 this country forward over the last 200 years to have some of the most remarkable innovations

00:52:39.640 that we've ever had. You know, people like you who started with nothing, who invested

00:52:43.380 their own blood, sweat, and tears into a podcast, took all the risks, didn't know if it was going

00:52:47.560 to be successful, but you invested all your time and energy in doing it and accomplishing the,

00:52:51.420 and here you are, you're a living embodiment of the accomplishment of the American dream,

00:52:55.240 man. You just are. And, you know, like liberals and on the, and the far left, and again, this is

00:53:03.220 not me throwing political barbs. I think that they believe that the government, uh, can, you know,

00:53:09.280 can be compassionate and, and has a, a level of responsibility of being involved in your life

00:53:15.100 and helping and helping people. Right. I think that's honestly how they view it. Um,

00:53:19.640 it's interesting though, Sean, because I don't think the government has the capacity to do that

00:53:24.580 any more than the collective, right? Like the, the government cannot be more compassionate than

00:53:31.740 its citizens, like only as compassionate, right? That that's kind of what I believe,

00:53:37.260 because that's a representation of us, right? So, and it's run by individuals. It's not like some

00:53:42.140 magical, mystical, all knowing, all powerful, omni good presence that, that, that operates

00:53:49.960 independently of us. They're there. It's run by human beings, you with flaws, other people with flaws,

00:53:54.560 right? Uh, it's just a fascinating thing to put that much faith into any organization or

00:53:59.120 institution. Oh, look, exactly. You know, and, and, and, and, oh, by the way, the pragmatic

00:54:03.620 implications of, of government being involved in your life is that, you know, bureaucracies,

00:54:10.600 they protect themselves first. They, they protect the, the, the internal workings of the bureaucracy

00:54:15.840 before they protect the people. And I think this from a philosophical standpoint, that's bad.

00:54:19.740 They're also highly inefficient. Like when was the last time that you went to the DMV and said,

00:54:25.000 man, that was just a delightful experience. Well, no, you know, it's the government. The

00:54:29.800 government is, you know, they ran out of cash in the program cash for clunkers in less than a month.

00:54:37.240 If you put the government in charge of the Sahara desert, the desert would be out of sand in a week.

00:54:41.700 You know, you, you should be, I, this is where I come from freedom and personal responsibility.

00:54:46.560 You like, what I tell people is like, you should keep the lion's share of your money. You know,

00:54:52.140 that's why I believe in tax cuts. You're the best, you know, the, the, the money that you earn,

00:54:56.940 because again, you put your blood, sweat, and tears into that show. You took all the risk.

00:55:02.040 The government didn't. And you're here. You are, you know, writing a check to the government and

00:55:06.540 paying taxes every year. And I bet that hurts, right? I would rather have you keep that money

00:55:11.580 and invest it in your family, invest it in your show, invest it in your children's future by the 0.99

00:55:17.580 new damn car that you want to get. And when you do that a million times over with taxpayers all 0.98

00:55:22.260 across the world, guess what? You know, you're, you're creating little micro economies around

00:55:26.480 everybody that you give a tax cut to, right? Right. So the goal is for me, let's try to lower,

00:55:31.340 let's try to lower taxes, right? On everybody that's busting their butt every day. Okay. You know, 0.96

00:55:36.420 so they can invest it in any way they want. And let's, let's, let's figure out a way to get as

00:55:41.060 many taxpayers as possible, right? So there are 50% of the people in this country don't pay any

00:55:46.080 income taxes at all. Let's do everything we can to make sure we get those people working,

00:55:50.320 give them some semblance of upward mobility, to give them the ability to invest in their future

00:55:55.240 and their children. And, and, and let's create jobs for them so that they can pay a, a, you know, 0.81

00:56:01.120 you know, a tax rate, albeit a low one, if it were up to me and the more money that you allow them to

00:56:06.560 keep, the more money that they can invest in their own little micro economy. And, and that has,

00:56:11.300 that'll have a domino effect a million times over in this country when people are keeping more of

00:56:16.100 their own money and investing it locally where we live instead of having federal government decide

00:56:20.140 how we spend our money. Right. Yeah. I think where people get hung up though, is, is that they look at

00:56:26.380 those who are less fortunate as less opportunity. And look, here's a term that I don't, that I don't like

00:56:33.560 is this term of like white privilege, right? That's a term that I don't, I don't like that said,

00:56:39.940 there have been some events in my life that I am truly fortunate for that were beyond my control.

00:56:45.560 I was born to a mother who loved me and my sister who was educated, who worked her ass off to ensure

00:56:52.920 that we had a roof over our head. I was born in this country. Uh, I was born with a reasonable

00:56:59.700 level of intelligence, like, uh, an average, maybe performance when it comes to, you know, physical

00:57:06.600 fitness. So yes, there's some fortunate events outside of my control. I need to be able to capitalize

00:57:14.340 on those things. And I know that there's people who are less fortunate. And for me, the way that we

00:57:20.900 begin to correct that is by allowing individuals like you, like myself, other people who have been

00:57:26.840 fortunate to educate, to inspire, to motivate, to provide opportunities. And if I can hire somebody

00:57:35.900 or I can share a message that somebody who's less fortunate than I am can hear it. And they're like,

00:57:41.120 Oh yeah, you know, I never heard it thought of like that. Maybe I can do that. And then they just

00:57:46.860 take one small action. Then they begin to change their life. But I need the freedom to be able to do that

00:57:52.700 so that I can serve these other individuals who I recognize as being less fortunate than I have been.

00:57:59.000 Yeah. I mean, that's a great point, man. And yeah, man, like, see, like you're in the fight,

00:58:03.440 you know, you're, what you're talking about is inherently political stuff. I mean, it might not

00:58:07.640 be like political, you know, talking points. Right. But that's, I I'm totally on board with you. I mean,

00:58:13.920 you know, and the truth is, is that, you know, you sound a lot like Marco Rubio when you tell that

00:58:18.120 story, because he tells a story similar when he's on the stage. He's like, when people say, Oh, you know,

00:58:22.260 you're, you're just a white guy. You're a beneficiary of white privilege. He's like, 0.71

00:58:27.100 hell yes, I'm privileged. I had a mom and dad who loved me. They put me, they raised me right.

00:58:32.260 They invested in my education. Yes, I'm privileged. I want that privilege for everybody.

00:58:37.460 Definitely. And it's not something that is just, you know, the color of your skin.

00:58:42.460 Everybody has their own existential struggles in life. You know, my God, I, I, I couldn't pay for

00:58:48.820 college. I had to join the arm. I joined the army after nine 11. I got that to pay for school. I

00:58:52.760 worked in a damn kitchen, washing dishes for, you know, all through high school and in college, 1.00

00:58:58.760 you know what I mean? Uh, but did you have to work at a call center? That's the real question. 0.99

00:59:03.000 No, I'm working at a call center now though, man. Yeah, that's true. That's true. You're putting

00:59:08.480 in your dues right now. I'm trying, bro. I'm trying, man. But dude, I, I, I love, I love the stuff

00:59:15.120 that you're doing with your podcast, man. I mean, again, I've watched you for a while

00:59:19.040 now and it's amazing. Not only, and I think this is really important to not only have you

00:59:24.380 achieved the level of success with this podcast that I'm not sure you probably believe that

00:59:28.940 you could do it, which is why you are where, where you are, but like, you're grateful for

00:59:33.020 it too. And that's absolutely being, being humble and being grateful is, is, is also so

00:59:38.260 important in this life. Definitely. Well, you know, I want to shift gears just for a minute

00:59:43.460 and I know we're kind of winding down and bumping up against time, but I want to bring something to

00:59:47.280 the forefront that is, is definitely on a lot of people's minds right now. And I know you had

00:59:50.840 posted about it. I actually wanted to get your take on this whole, um, this whole tragic incident

00:59:55.900 with, uh, with George Floyd. Oh my God. I posted about it right away. I saw that. I was horrified by

01:00:03.460 it. I, I saw everything that I need to see, you know, and look, I know I, that's the first time I've

01:00:09.700 ever weighed in because a lot of these police and a lot of the police incidents, you're getting a

01:00:15.200 real short video. You're not getting the whole thing. And half the time that video comes out,

01:00:19.440 the guy had a gun. I mean, so I've, it's just very important to be careful, right? When you're

01:00:24.180 weighing in and opining right away. But what happened, what happened in this situation was

01:00:30.480 just horrifying and tragic. Uh, when a man, when the man is in handcuffs, man or woman is in handcuffs,

01:00:37.580 yes, they could fight. Yes. They can fight back. But in the video that you watch,

01:00:41.800 he's down, he's out. There's no threat. He's facedown with a man's knee on his neck for eight

01:00:49.020 minutes, four of which the guy's completely unconscious while cops. And look, I, I love

01:00:55.540 the police. That part of the reason why I felt like it was so important to weigh in is because

01:01:00.020 those police officers don't get the tarnish, the badge of the 99.9% of cops out there who show

01:01:06.880 enormous restraint every day, who are the biggest steadfast protectors of our communities,

01:01:11.100 who are going into African-American communities and, and loving and caring for the people there,

01:01:15.780 these cops, these, these, these men with a badge, I don't even want to call them police officers,

01:01:20.860 uh, because that title comes with an inherent level of respect. That bothers me that one,

01:01:26.680 the guy is knee was on his neck for eight straight minutes, four of which he was unconscious,

01:01:31.880 but no one around him said, look, you can't, you can't do that. Like, Hey, let's get him on his

01:01:36.960 face. Stop, stop, just stop. Um, and, and look, there were times in Afghanistan, I had one of my

01:01:44.760 soldiers get shot in the head and we found the guy, the sniper, we shot him in the stomach.

01:01:49.860 He tumbled down the cliff and you bet my, you know, we wanted to take that guy out. You can

01:01:55.960 bet that we did, but we didn't. Why? Because we're freaking Americans. We hold ourselves to a higher

01:02:01.680 standard when we have a position of power, you know, and sure. When the guy has a weapon and it's

01:02:08.240 leveled at you, right. And he's a threat. You of course use lethal force to take them out. It's

01:02:12.740 actually our duty and responsibility to do so on the battlefield. Right. And I'm speaking in battlefield

01:02:16.740 terms, but when that, when that, when that enemy soldier doesn't have a weapon, he becomes our

01:02:21.580 responsibility to care for him and give him medical aid. It's the situation is not dissimilar in

01:02:27.380 Minnesota, right? That there was no threat. He didn't, I saw some of the snippets of the video

01:02:31.880 beforehand. He really wasn't resisting. They had responded to a forgery charge, right? So it wasn't

01:02:37.220 a violent crime. Um, yeah, I think he used a, based on what I saw, I just saw this. He used a, uh,

01:02:42.820 a $20 bill that, that was, that was, that was fake or something, which could have very easily

01:02:48.340 been a $20 bill that he had got from somewhere else and didn't totally even realize. Right.

01:02:52.580 So even, even, so let's like war game, the scenario a little bit, Ryan. So even if this guy

01:02:56.720 and this, he didn't, so let's just come up with a different scenario. Guy comes out of a house,

01:03:01.240 fires off a couple of rounds at police officers are the, you know, and then drops his weapon and

01:03:05.740 throws his hands in the air. Can the police officer? Absolutely not. You can't kill him. Right.

01:03:10.380 Once he's unarmed, he's no longer a threat. You take him out, you cuff him, you put him in the

01:03:13.580 car. Right. What did, what did this gentleman do to deserve death face down on the pavement

01:03:19.720 on a sidewalk? Oh, by the way, in the middle of broad daylight, well, people filmed him.

01:03:24.820 And what did he do to deserve, I mean, not, I mean, the video that I saw next to nothing,

01:03:29.000 but it doesn't even, it doesn't even matter if he resisted arrest. It doesn't matter what they

01:03:32.800 were responding to, whether no one deserves to die like that. It just, you know, and, and, and again,

01:03:39.360 I, I, I'm not, I don't want to like litigate via video. Right. Like all I said was that his family

01:03:45.360 deserves justice. And I believe that it's, it's not, I love the police. I'm a huge supporter of

01:03:50.640 the police. I just didn't feel like it was necessary to say that in the statement. Right.

01:03:55.220 Because it goes without saying, of course you and I support the police. I'm the, one of the biggest,

01:03:59.000 I've been, I've been doing charity work for police for the last eight years. I love them. They're the best.

01:04:03.360 But we also have to speak out when the bad apples among them do wrong. Right. And, and, and I've

01:04:09.920 not, and I've talked to a lot of police officers, Ryan, a lot, lots of my friends are cops around

01:04:16.300 here and around the country. And they all share the same sentiment as me. Like, oh my gosh, that's

01:04:21.620 horrifying. So, you know, and in fact, they're more passionate about it than me because they know

01:04:26.220 that that makes them look bad. And, and so I guess I'll end it with like, it is certainly possible to

01:04:32.220 feel compassion for it, to feel heartbroken for, for the loss of life and also care for the,

01:04:38.860 and also care for the police. Right. Like we can do both. And that's sort of where I am on the

01:04:42.260 subject, but I had to speak out on it. Just had to. Yeah. Yeah. No, I appreciate you sharing. I mean,

01:04:48.780 I know these are sensitive subjects and certainly questions you'll get asked more as you, as you get

01:04:52.540 further down the race leading up to November, but yeah, it's, it's a pretty unfortunate situation.

01:04:57.180 You talk about holding these people accountable and I think we need to, I think the police department

01:05:01.960 needs to, and the police force generally needs to, because if you don't, it undermines the integrity

01:05:07.320 of law enforcement officers throughout the country. Like they should be policing themselves.

01:05:13.520 You're right. And if you, I read their use of force guidelines for the, what is the Minneapolis

01:05:17.960 police? There's nothing in the use of force guidelines that says a knee on the carotid artery

01:05:24.420 is acceptable. Right. Not nothing in there. And so, um, you know, yes, we need that. We need to hold

01:05:31.660 those, those gentlemen accountable and we need to do everything that we can, uh, to, to deliver,

01:05:36.980 to deliver justice for the family. I mean, yeah, I've seen a lot of terrible things in my day,

01:05:43.320 you know, in, in combat and, you know, watched human beings do terrible things to one another.

01:05:48.520 But that was, that was up there. That was a pretty bad thing that I witnessed. It was pretty

01:05:52.360 terrible. And I, like I said, I'm not, I'm not saying that the, that the officers don't deserve

01:05:56.760 their day in court. They do. They deserve the opportunity to defend themselves. But, um,

01:06:01.420 and I'm certainly not trying to jump to judgment, but I can, I can say certainly that that, that man

01:06:07.920 did not deserve to die. Hmm. Tough situations. There's some real, real, uh, yeah, real tough situations

01:06:16.100 that we all need to deal with. So I appreciate men like you stepping up and being willing to have

01:06:20.000 those conversations and to do that work. Cause we certainly need honorable men, moral men,

01:06:25.180 capable men like yourself, uh, leading this country in the right direction.

01:06:29.660 Thanks brother. I appreciate it. I, you know, I, like I tell you, like, I don't know, I'm not always

01:06:33.760 going to have the right answers. You know, I'm not even always going to have the answers, but you,

01:06:37.180 you bet that I'm going to work hard to get them, you know, and, um, you can bet that I'm always

01:06:42.380 going to do right by the people. So, you know, I, I appreciate you having me on, man. I really do.

01:06:47.540 I know that I'm, you know, being running for political office, it's probably not, you probably

01:06:51.240 don't have my kind of guest on all the time. So I appreciate it. I don't know that I ever have,

01:06:55.340 but you know, I'm kind of to this point now where, you know, I get, I guess it's just my,

01:07:00.260 my motive to piss people off at this point, I guess. I don't know. Cause it seems like that

01:07:03.880 seems to be the trend over the past several weeks. So I figured let's just keep rolling with it.

01:07:09.320 Yeah. That's great. That's great, man. But I, I appreciate it. I really do. I mean,

01:07:14.340 you know, and I, I would love to, I love watching your show anytime you need me, let me know and

01:07:19.980 I'll be there for you, bro. Thanks, man. Good. Well, like I said, I appreciate you. Thanks.

01:07:24.500 Thanks for taking your time. I know you're busy and, uh, wish you all the, uh, the luck and success

01:07:29.040 as you lead up to this race, man. Thanks. Thanks, bro. All right. I'll talk to you later, bro.

01:07:34.440 Gentlemen, there you go. My conversation with the one and only Sean Parnell. I hope you enjoyed that one.

01:07:38.460 Sean's such a humble guy, very down to earth, very reasonable in his approach to life and politics

01:07:45.120 and him being a father and a husband, just a member of his community, just a man in general.

01:07:51.380 And I think you'll agree whether you agree with his politics or not, uh, that he's level-headed,

01:07:57.500 that he had some good things to share and got me thinking about, uh, politics in general,

01:08:02.600 because I've always dismissed and rejected politics, but, uh, it's becoming clear to me that

01:08:07.780 maybe this is something that I ought to look into a little bit more and maybe you do too in your own

01:08:13.100 area. Um, I don't, I don't think we can absolve ourselves of the responsibility of leading our

01:08:17.880 communities, our cities, our municipalities, and even the, even the federal government. Uh, it's,

01:08:23.100 it's painful, uh, what we're experiencing now. And I think the way, one of the ways that we impact

01:08:27.700 change is by getting involved. So I hope to spark some thoughts and ideas for you, uh, and got you

01:08:32.840 thinking about maybe you getting involved in the power of, of genuine men who are honorable and

01:08:38.000 committed and dedicated what they can actually do when they throw their hat in the ring, uh, and get

01:08:42.340 involved with their, uh, with their politics and local state and federal leadership. So there it is.

01:08:48.680 Give me some feedback guys. Let me know, uh, hit Sean up on Instagram, on Twitter, I think is where

01:08:52.640 he's most active. I'm on Instagram, mostly in Twitter as well, both at Ryan Mickler. Let me know

01:08:57.400 what you thought about the show and the conversation, uh, and what you're going to be taking away,

01:09:01.300 what you're going to be applying. If you have, uh, recommendations for podcast guests, hit me up,

01:09:06.280 please share this. Take 20 seconds right now. As soon as this ends, just go in, leave a rating and

01:09:11.720 review for the podcast. That goes a long way. I think we have like 41, 4,200 reviews at this point.

01:09:16.720 It should be up over five, even 10,000. And if we can do that, then we're really going to see a boost

01:09:22.180 in the chart, which is great. The boost in the charts is great. I'm very competitive by nature,

01:09:26.740 but, uh, more than that, more people will see it. And that's the goal. More men will see this more

01:09:31.960 men. Hopefully we'll learn how to step up more fully in their lives and their family's lives and

01:09:36.640 the lives of their community members. Uh, and then we'll all be better off for it. And all it takes

01:09:40.960 is you leaving a review. All right. So do that. Check out the legacy event, uh, order of man.com

01:09:45.080 slash legacy and the main event, order of man.com slash main event. All right, guys, I'll be back

01:09:51.360 with Kip tomorrow. We're fielding questions about fatherhood in honor of the upcoming father's day

01:09:56.400 this weekend. So make sure you tune in and we'll see you tomorrow until then take action and become

01:10:01.600 a man. You are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take

01:10:06.780 charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order

01:10:11.420 at order of man.com.

Order of Man - June 16, 2020

Men in Politics ｜ SEAN PARNELL

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript