Purchasing Truth And The Damage To Trust
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There has been a lot of development in Donald Trump’s impeachment that has the world asking just how much loyalty to him his supporters have – especially in light of the writing in Christianity Today that calls out for Trump’s removal from office and stating that “Christians should not be loyal to Trump.” Hosts Bill Stierle and Tom discuss the consequences of purchasing truth to trust. They tackle how it is damaged by the presence of doubt and skepticism that show up in different ways throughout the entire impeachment process, where facts are definitely not on Trump’s side. Get inside this great episode to follow along the tracks of truth being purchased and seeing it stray farther away from what people initially believed in.
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Bill, I’ve said to you, “This has happened in our world. Is this going to change people’s opinions about their loyalty to Donald Trump?” You’re like, “No, that’s not enough. No, that’s not going to do it. There’s been one thing after another.” However, there’s been a bit of a seismic event in the world. That is the writing of this op-ed in Christianity Today by the editor of the magazine that’s telling their opinion that Christians should not be loyal to Donald Trump. They’re calling for his removal from office. That’s a big development.
Would you agree?
Yes, Tom. It is a big development. If you finish that quote off, it’s a shed sentence. It’s got a little bit problem to it. Read the whole thing. It should not be the Ten Commandments.
This is Christianity Today‘s editor-in-chief, and this is the organization that was founded by Billy Graham, the Evangelist. Mark Galli wrote in his op-ed that, “Donald Trump should be removed from office. We believe it’s not a matter of Partisan loyalties, but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.”
You could bring your checklist out and say, “He’s done.” We could do the forgiving God that part of it or that there is a higher purpose for Donald Trump doing that. Putting judges in, in order to have more of a conservative court, which is a belief of many people because if you make the court conservative for years and years, then it doesn’t matter what kind of progressive or liberal thing that comes up. The conservative judge that sits in front of it will overrule it and send it back down and the case won’t be made enough.
They’re building a thing called Precedence that this past judge has done this while this judge was doing it out of different things. It can, and it does have a long-term dampening on how do we do human rights when the end justifies the mean, which is a difficult moral challenge. Does the end justify the meanwhile? There are certain things that I would say yes and does. There are many things that you do something in the short-term and you are paying for it in the long-term. That’s a big problem in dealing with truth in the consequence of trust. That’s why when we’d take a look at Purchasing Truth and the damage to trust, that’s one of the circumstances that we’re facing.
Let’s talk about that because in a way, what Mark Galli is doing, the editor-in-chief there for Christianity Today, is he is speaking facts. He is explaining things to the Christian community, which we have often said, “Explanation doesn’t help and facts don’t help.” I want to read one more quote, because he was interviewed by CNN and he said, “We believe the impeachment hearings have made it clear. In a way, the Mueller investigation did not. President Donald Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see.” It’s no surprise to a lot of people and certainly not to you and me, Bill, that when we saw the impeachment hearings, we thought it did that too.
Except if you watched Fox News, they don’t amplify any of the statements of truth. They covered the right and conservative talking points about how there’s no quid pro quo, there’s no crime here and this doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment. That’s the tapping of the brain that a lot of America hears and they think the impeachment hearings was a big nothing burger. Christianity Today, which is read by an awful lot of conservative Christians is illuminating the truth of those impeachment hearings. Is that going to be effective at the end of the day?
This is where it becomes difficult because a lot of things, Tom, that you and I talk about is the emotional impact when a need of ours is getting hijacked or getting promoted or ranked in a different direction. Truth and trust are struggling a little bit. On a scale of 1 to 10, it’s seven. Those two things are struggling. It’s not quite the 8, 9 and 10 of authoritarians, oligarchs or dictators. Those are countries where 8, 9 or 10, that person has captured and or strangleholds truth and trust. What winds up happening is that two emotions come directly from those needs. Doubt and skepticism.
If something inside your body doesn’t meet your need for truth, then the natural emotion is doubtful. I feel doubt because I need truth. I’m not sure what truth looks like. “I’m going to take the truth that I made up when I was seven. I’m going to take the truth of this one article versus these ten articles, or this one researcher over these ten researches.” I’m taking that truth over those ten truths because that truth makes it easier for me to think. This truth does not and it’s more complex because there are ten of them. I have to figure something out. My brain has to work. Who wants to work? Doubt is a convenient way to not think, but it’s also disempowering. Tom, can you do anything if you feel doubtful and skeptical?
No.
It’s dampening because if you’re sitting around with doubt, the clock is ticking. If you’re sitting with skeptical, you’re not doing much.
You can’t go canvas for somebody. You can’t be a civic activist. You can’t volunteer for something if you’re feeling doubtful about the economy and skeptical about the leadership.
That’s what the Russian disinformation campaign in 2016 did so well is to create so much doubt and skepticism about Hillary Clinton, about her emails. They made up all things about her and that kept people home from voting or it kept people from voting for her. I know what you’re saying about how doubt and skepticism can paralyze you.
Hillary Clinton’s got her problems, but that many? Do you think they would have found out more about her? She testified for eleven hours on Benghazi. It’s like, “What were they doing?” They’re looking for the moment where there’s a phrase that can be spun into doubt and skepticism. They’re looking for a sentence that is not in alignment with the belief structure that they want to cultivate.
When some of the congressmen were asking questions during the investigations, you could see that they were not interested in asking questions about the truth. They were interested in planting phrases and thoughts that would cultivate doubt and skepticism in the process and doubt and skepticism in the motive. Instead of going like, “There’s something that happened over here, are you not going to look at that again?” If there was the opportunity to coach people, you’ve got to call it out, “Thank you, Mr. Gates, for pointing out and creating some doubt and skepticism. I’m glad we’re having this trial so the doubt and skepticism can go away.”
If you call that out and that sentence would’ve been launched 1 to 7, there are fourteen different times that I would’ve picked on it.
You go right after doubt and skepticism, “You’re feeling doubtful and skeptical of this truth at this time?” “Yes.” “Let’s see what the facts will show us.” All of a sudden, you’re back on point. You don’t let doubt and skepticism linger inside the listener when somebody is doing a sentence that is causing the person’s mind to go over here where that hesitancy and bias reinforcing narrative shows up.
The doubt skepticism is key here, but I see it showing up in different ways because Donald Trump on a daily basis is trying to sow doubt and skepticism in the integrity of the Democrats, impeachment hearings, investigation, the articles of impeachment. The process, especially all the Republicans have been calling trying to cry foul at the process because they don’t have facts on their side. That’s one way that doubt and skepticism are used. Somebody from within Donald Trump’s team, editor of an evangelical leading organization and publication is illuminating truth and bringing in doubt and skepticism that staying loyal to Donald Trump is actually in alignment with their faith. He’s throwing some doubt and skepticism out there. It shows up that way. It’s not what he’s saying but he’s saying, “We can’t be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to our faith at the same time. He is not in alignment with our faith.”
Are you going to pick your faith or are you going to pick your politician? With this article and with this magazine doing that. You mentioned, Tom, that they had a spike in subscriptions. What are those people saying over there? We need an off-ramp really bad. If we could have some off-ramp with this guy and the off-ramp is, you pick God over the president, even though there is 1, 2 or 3 things that this guy is doing that our faith believes is valid. It’s not enough to cover the 10, 15 or 25 things that he has done that are outside our faith, morals or ethics because that’s the way we roll. We follow these rules. It’s the Ten Commandments. He’s not done seven of them.
There is an emotional impact when a need of ours is getting hijacked, getting promoted, or ranked in a different direction.
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He’s violated a bunch of them.
“Nobody’s done more for religion then what I’ve done.” Isn’t that like, “Didn’t you put yourself above God there?” I don’t know how you did that. There are some problems there.
Interestingly, one of the Republican representatives in the impeachment hearings in the final debate leading up to the impeachment vote made a statement about Jesus during that hearing and equated Donald Trump with Jesus with what he was doing. He put them next to each other.
What the person left out regrettably is that he had the opportunity to face his accusers, but he didn’t allow any of his people to face his accusers. He didn’t allow anybody to testify and they did offer him the ability to come in here and talk about it.
They offered him the ability.
He did have the opportunity to face his accusers. It’s like, “Jesus, you could talk to the crowd and face your accusers.” Jesus says, “No, I’ll stay in jail. I’ll stay over here. I’m not getting in front of that big crowd.” A lot of our readers, it’s important for us to give away out because many other broadcasts and news organizations, stir the pot. At the end of the show, all you do is get a riled-up person.
Tom, let’s go to the solution and some understanding of what has taken place. First, the understanding is that Donald Trump’s voter has created a lot of certainties, stability, consistency and loyalty that has been backed behind or is supported by their vote. However they got there, I would call it the last 15 to 20-year trickling of hate and anger towards Democrats, for whatever. Those people are bad and we’re going to label them as socialists or communists, which Donald Trump did. If we label them, we don’t like that team because even teams that do well, there’s a group of people that don’t like them very much. We could survey the nation and there’s a whole bunch of people, Tom, that don’t like your Patriots.
That’s very true, they don’t. They think they’re cheaters or they’ve labeled them cheaters.
They’re looking for some good reason why to dislike a talented coach, quarterback and a coaching staff that figures out how to put it together every year. Their defense might get them there again.
They won the conference for the eleventh year in a row.
In our football conversation, notice how certainty, stability and consistency is what I had for the Dolphins in the ’70s when they were winning. I was growing up as a kid cheering for the Dolphins. It’s like, “The Dolphins.” You could do the same with the Cowboys and the Eagles, “Our team is doing good things here.” Notice how the feeling of confidence, inspiration and enthusiasm as you were talking about your Patriots. You could not help burst out, “Eleven straight seasons.” You couldn’t help it because of certainty, stability and consistency. If I put a MAGA hat on and I am doing the same thing inside my narrative, “Those Democrats are this. This guy makes me feel better. He’s a decision-maker. He is a millionaire businessman. God rewards people that are millionaires.” That prosperity consciousness has a lot of problems to it because it does create a type of certainty, stability, consistency and loyalty. “If I do good, I will get rewarded.” This is one of those languaging motivation tricks in our body that we play on ourselves. If I’m a good person, I’m going to heaven. If I’m a good person, bad things won’t happen to me. I’m not sure if that’s fully true.
People have been known to be in the wrong place in the wrong time, have known to go off for war for the greatest reason ever and not to come back. Then later on, find out the war that they went for was over something that they didn’t agree upon, and their family has to deal with the loss of the person and the loss of the reason why that thing happened. Notice how confident, inspired and enthusiasm sounds like a Donald Trump rally and crowd. That means there’s a lot of stability, certainty and consistency. That’s how the brain looks for its dopamine hit to come towards and grab the molecules of emotion that it wants to feel. If my self-worth is not doing good, Donald Trump is a good answer. If my identity doesn’t feel good because I’m wondering what happened to my economy of my small town and I feel better by listening to this guy. I’m going to vote for him because I feel better by it. Not because he’s the most moral person. Not because he’s the most things. It’s one-directional loyalty. Your loyalty to Patriots is one-directional.
I’m sure the Patriots wouldn’t be loyal to me.
It is not coming back in your directions. Here’s our fin, Tom, “We know that he said eleven straight times on Bill’s show. Therefore, we’re going to give him Super Bowl tickets.” It’s not going that way, Tom. People also wonder and need some understanding of the way faith works. If I have faith as a gambler, I have faith that this bet that I placed because I’m a smart person. No gambler thinks they’re a stupid person. They think they’re smart people because they won once several years ago. That could come around. That’s why I played in the Lottery. My neighbor won one time. I feel good about doing that. Human beings want the possibility. That makes for great sales and marketing. Who do we have in the office? A sales and a marketing person, a branding person. All he does is talk sales, marketing, branding over Twitter. People support that even though some of those tweets are completely not understandable at all or say something that might be against a person’s value. I feel better because it seems like he’s speaking to me. The thing that has changed the political environment is if I’m following these messages, this person speaking to me and, Tom, you and I both know that your 5,000 friends on Facebook are not your friends. All of them are not your friends. I’m one of your friends. I’m on Facebook and that’s one, you could put me in the bucket of friends.
I have some that are, that’s true. There are many on there that I barely know from a business networking event. I would agree. They’re not real friends, all of them.
They come to you because they have some certainty, stability, consistency and loyalty that you inspired them somehow and a workshop that you did. The same thing on my Facebook pages or LinkedIn. People are clicking for the search for connection, the belongingness that is missing. We’re not going down to the local optimist club or any place to be loyal to our community and see who’s in it and work with the people that are around us. We’re going through technology to get the connection in multiple ways like texts, emails and stuff. Faith can be redirected and that’s one of the biggest challenges. With this article that we started with is that the faith was redirected for a time towards President Donald Trump. The faith is I have faith and some certainty, stability and consistency that this guy will do better than this woman. They picked this guy over this woman.
It’s a binary choice. That may be an easy decision to make. It’s this or that. It seems that Donald Trump has demonstrated over three years who he is, what he believes and what Christianity Today is saying is that, “Loyalty to Donald Trump is not consistent with being a loyal Christian.” Even though in a binary choice, him versus whoever the next guy is, they’re saying, “You should be removed from office. We can no longer align ourselves with him. We cannot be loyal to him.” That’s a powerful statement on another level. Is this going to move the needle, Bill?
10% of the people that are in this evangelical community will have this off-ramp that says, “I can’t let my other needs and values go under the bus anymore. This is not in alignment with integrity. Most certainly, this person is not in alignment with the majority of my belief structures.” If I was coaching a politician, it would sound something like, “There are a lot of values that the Donald Trump voter voted for but regrettably, most of them, their beliefs are not being honored by him at this time.” Because it’s an all or none binary choice, most of your values are not being honored here. Vote for the candidate that has most of your values. The reason why Joe Biden is staying at the top is that he has most of the values of certainty, stability, consistency and loyalty. Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, he gains here. Pete Buttigieg, the reason why he’s in here is because he has certainty, stability and consistency. He’s not going to change an entire system even though in the next 30 to 40 years, the thing has got to flip over because our economy cannot carry the burden that it’s carrying with the medical things. We can’t keep doing it if people are feeling anxious, nervous, worried and scared regarding healthcare. We can’t live like that. It’s not a viable, functional life experience.
They’re not going to toggle that because they want to win the next battle being the next presidential election. Bill, I want to go back to something you said and I want to propose something and see if you agree with it. There is a large percentage of Donald Trump voters that don’t like him. They did vote for him. They cringe at who he is and what he does on a daily basis. They have been thinking to themselves over the past year or more, “I’d rather he wasn’t our president, but I need to stay loyal because of these things he does.” They’ve been looking for an off-ramp maybe subconsciously, but there’s like, “I have to stay with this guy.” This op-ed gives them an off-ramp. Finally, there’s some relief where it’s like, “I don’t have to remain loyal to this person that I disagree with in many ways. I’m now free to do that.”
I can sit across to my family table and say, “I voted for that guy but I didn’t realize that he was going to go against my values. I’m glad I read that article because here’s what my values are. I agree with him politically here, but I can see that this would be a better way to go.”
“I’m either going to support his removal or I’m not going to vote for him next time.” I do think this could be a tipping point in swaying enough people that voted for Donald Trump that had been on his team and been loyal to him. I don’t know that it’s going to be enough to get the Senate enough senators to turn and remove him from office necessarily. It would certainly be possible. There’s a lot of time for people to talk around the family dinner table about these things to reflect on it. They’re not being bombarded with daily soundbites of senators and representatives, continuing to support whatever agenda they have. This thing landed at a time where it could grow. More people can take that off-ramp before things get going.
The news cycle is down. A news cycle is covering the Macy’s Parade. A news cycle is doing all the wonderful things that the news cycle needs to do, which is playing a wonderful life. The challenge is that time period is a time to reconnect with family. The weird part about it is, if Donald Trump had a little bit of consciousness, all he needs to do is do celebratory tweets. They would say, “He’s not such a bad guy. Look at all these celebration tweets.”
The very fiber of his being is incapable of putting out a tweet without taking a jab at the Democrats or somebody without twisting a knife a little bit. If you read every one of his tweets, somewhere in there, he has to inject something that meets his need for acknowledgment and self-worth. He’s not selfless in his tweets.
If something inside your body doesn't meet your need for truth, the natural emotion is doubtful.
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There is something in there. We’ve talked a bunch about how dopamine rises in the body where there’s a reward, anticipation and uncertainty. He does and has created the experience of uncertainty. We don’t know what he’s going to say next. What has happened inside the news media is that news media is addicted to the tweet. It’s addicted to the next message, whether it’s Rachel Maddow or Stephen Colbert or even Fox News people that get surprised by it. They get a tweet and they go, “There you go.” Stephen Colbert says, “Chopper talk.” What is chopper talk? What is the next thing that he is going to say that it’s going to be outside that truth or normality of things? Rachel says, “We had an entirely different show for you because of this tweet. We’ve had to change the entire show.” She has said that at least two dozen times on her show.
Doesn’t Donald Trump love that? He’s controlling the narrative. They’re reacting to him.
He’s populating the media environment the way a reality show needs to do this right before the break. He’s had training on bringing the person back after the commercial. What is that narrative? To bring the person back. Deliver the line that creates doubt, “I’m not sure if you’re going to make it.” It creates uncertainty. The way truth has been purchased here is through this responsive narrative the Donald Trump advocate is waiting for the next new way to defend the person, defend their vote or defend their self-worth because they voted for the guy. Meanwhile, the thing you said and did is against their value as a human being or their value as a voter or their value as a United States citizen because they have voted the way someone would vote or believe in this leader that is doing damage to trust.
Tom, if you and I are going to get something done, we’ve got to trust each other. If Democrats and Republicans are going to do something, they’ve got to trust each other. The big challenge that they face to where it started was Newt Gingrich. He’s the one that started this noise of divide, conquer, scorch the Earth. It’s like, “If you’re losing, we’re going to let everybody know that you lose and you’re a bad person because you’ve lost. Not because we happen to out-vote you. The thing that we voted you out of is something that would help the country.” It’s never that talk. As a fan on the sidelines and there’s a pass interference called because the Patriots back hit the person early.
Don’t go blaming my Patriots for that. Team loyalty is about to show up here. That was the New Orleans Saints and the LA Rams. The Rams guy was the perpetrator of the passer. It’s interesting how that team let this shows up where you try to throw my team under the bus.
That’s the levity that we need to approach this from. If I can’t sit as a Dolphin fan, don’t beat me up too much. You as a Patriot fan and can’t do that and still have truth and trust between the two of us. Those are the two casualties. I’ve got to give a head nod to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. They do things.
In the ’70s, I will completely acknowledge Don Shula, one of the greatest football coaches of all time. The Miami Dolphins are the only team to go start to finish in a season undefeated. No one else has done that. You have that, Bill.
Thank you, Giants.
That was that painful. The Giants took that party away twice. To those readers who don’t like football are not going to be happy with this diversion.
The theme is solid. Whether it’s Republicans or Democrats, we’ve got to get to a place to where we’re talking over the truth piece. I have no idea who on the Republican side other than Justin Amash, is going to start back down to the truth. There’s a new group of Republicans that are forming called the Lincoln Group or whatever they’re calling themselves, that are going back to truth as a conservative value as an advocacy and going to look to rebuild the party from there because they know the damage that has taken place.
They know their party has been hijacked.
It’s Steve Smith. These are two guys I love.
Is Mitt Romney aligning with these groups or no?
Not yet, but he’ll jump as soon as he can get his off-ramp and the big guy is not in charge anymore.
He’s one of the few senators that is immune to the threat of being primaried by Donald Trump because Donald Trump will be out of office. Even if Donald Trump were to get reelected, Mitt Romney’s term would go through the end of 2024. The people who are talking the most about all of these things are either one who has left the Senate or The House or have announced their retirement.
Anybody who’s still in there is still needing to stay in line and show that loyalty to Donald Trump despite maybe their better judgment.
If four of them said they wanted a real trial in the Senate, it comes down to four. If seven of them said that they were going to vote for the impeachment, which then puts it over the majority, seven of them make a magic number. It’s 22 to have him pack the bags and move out. Can they get to 22? Yes, they could get to 22. It’s those individuals that could move in a way that would make a big difference. Lamar Alexander is there. He’s sitting there in a junky place. His career’s going to end on this particular piece about staying loyal all the end, which is upsetting because of such a high integrity person he is. This is a point where the need for integrity is not checking that box. These senators got to check the box of integrity. All of a sudden, their loyalty to the United States, they put party over a country.
That’s being suggested, they’re putting party over their faith.
That’s great, Tom. I’m glad you looped that back around because it’s the party over faith.
If these senators and congressmen believe in and want to be believed by their voters as being good, faithful Christians, they’ve got a problem in staying in alignment with both. That is going to be a crooked line to walk and not easy for them to do. There are a lot of church services. There’s going to be another church service on Sunday. That’s three in a week. When you get to that Sunday, that’s where some of these priests and ministers, this may weave its way into their sermons. They usually love to take political positions. I would be shocked if this doesn’t get mentioned, especially in a lot of the evangelical churches across the United States. People have to think about this. There’s not as much noise. Even if the 24-hour media cycle doesn’t take a break, people are taking a break from it because they’re exhausted from it.
There’s an exhaustion factor. Tom, if we take a look at having empathy for Donald Trump voters, we have empathy that they feel confident because they have certainty. They feel inspired because they have stability and consistency. They feel enthusiasm because they have loyalty. Inside their bodies, they’re meeting some important things here. The truth, spirituality and faith were not on that list. They do have stability, certainty, consistency and loyalty for Donald Trump based on Donald Trump’s consistent messages of, “I’m here and I’m fighting the good fight. I’m fighting the good fight for you. I’m fighting for the vote that you gave me,” but he’s not. They are only hearing that, “I’m fighting for your vote.” That’s the way it’s filtered. Who doesn’t want to feel confident, inspired, enthusiast about the person that they voted to put in there that finally they’re not listening to a politician walk the line or be politically correct? Be somebody that stays that doesn’t do the full truth because the full truth is too difficult for people to hear straight out. An opponent could take that truth and go, “You said that truth over there and we don’t believe that truth.” That’s why in the past, politicians had to walk the line on immigration, on social programs and money for the wealthy people because the wealthy people are funding their campaign.
Donald Trump goes like, “I’m going to scramble all this. I’m going to take the numbers that I needed to, pick the states that I need to focus on and let these six states elect me as the president.” That’s what wound up happening. If you go into those battleground streets, we’re not seeing half the commercials in California as the rest of the nation is. They’re seeing political commercials all the time. They’re getting pounded in those swing states. Regrettably, those human beings are more traumatized regarding truth and trust. They’re more doubtful, skeptical, bitter, anxious and overwhelmed. Who wants to deal with this all the time? The off-ramp is to have empathy that, who doesn’t want to feel confident, inspired enthusiasm? The certainty goes to, I have certainty in the Ten Commandments. I have stability in my faith. I have consistency in the way I practice helping somebody out rather than taking something away from somebody less fortunate than me. I have a loyalty to my faith and my God. I don’t have loyalty to this person that’s doing the opposite of those things. That’s where the off-ramp is. Have any politicians said it as cleanly as I have? No, not really because they’re not dealing with a needs-based narrative.
I love the example you gave, if you were one of the democratic candidates, how you could then help win over that voter who has all these needs that aren’t being met by Donald Trump? All these values and say, “We have those values too over here.” That would be brilliant.
“If I’m standing for integrity, this is what it looks like. If I’m standing for loyalty, this is what it looks like. Loyalty to the nation looks like this. Loyalty in my faith looks like this. Loyalty to my party only looks like this.” Tom, the Patriots aren’t going to do anything for you unless they win again. You might end the season in disappointment and my Chiefs might get there.
It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. The interesting thing about team loyalty though, which is significantly different and healthy is that every year it resets.
Team loyalty resets. Political loyalty has been generational. The short-term scorched Earth has been great for the Republicans for this short run. The long-term is I got long-term Republicans to go in like, “I’m voting across because there’s no way I’m sticking with these guys.”
Whenever Donald Trump is done, if that’s in 2024, there is going to be a major shift and a big gaping hole that has to get filled of a party that was built around this man that has no resemblance to what the party was in the past. It’s going to be a big identity crisis.
It’s an interesting dynamic in the struggle for identity in that party. It’s easy for me to say, but he came in and hijack the whole thing.
The ability for them to get back to war because the war party brings that up. I feel worried and concerned about our military. In the sense that they’re going to be pressed into service to save a political campaign. I hope that’s not true.
That breeds the deepest loyalty of anything.
All of a sudden, it shifts into the lower part of the brain, which is we need to protect our country and we’re not letting a new person protect our country. We’re going to take this person that we have in place. It’s a little unsettling. I hope that their safety for the environment and in the world stage doesn’t escalate to distract us.
I hope so too. Although interestingly and this is one way in which the president is not in alignment with his party historically. He’s not a big fan of war.
The drone was shot down over Iran and he didn’t do anything about it. Everybody was ready to do something about it, but he didn’t do anything about it.
Probably, pretty much any other Republican President in office would have. That’s fortunate. The way these things seem to happen is when we have a president in office and there is a shift away from that president. Usually, it means the shift away from that party. Certainly, the other party is not going to jump fast into war. That’s one of the reasons why I am somewhat a fan of Pete Buttigieg because he has experience serving in the military and combat situations. He has a perspective of that, that a lot of others don’t. He is not one that wants to rush into conflict either.
Tom, this has been a run, and I feel appreciative of us taking this out for a spin because having empathy for Donald Trump’s voters allows us to sit around the table with them. It allows us to see what they’re up to. They like the certainty, stability, consistency and the strength of somebody making decisions. They feel confident, inspired, enthusiastic about that. Who wants to feel doubt and skepticism? What Donald Trump has done is created truth and trust as a casualty. Therefore, I feel doubtful and skeptical about Democrats. Instead, I feel doubtful and skeptical about what the issue is. That’s what the success has been over the last several years. They’ve created way too much doubt and skepticism on the abilities of Democrats to lead. That’s what the Democrats are struggling with and you can see it in the debates. That’s a whole other thing that we could get into. They don’t know how to create leadership and definitiveness in their language.
That’s another good subject. It would be nice to talk about something a little more positive and forward-thinking, vision setting, all that good stuff. We’ll get more into that.
Tom, more to come.
Thanks so much.
