Weekly Roundup: Joy, Solidarity, and Family - The Revamped Democratic Party
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Brad and Dan are back! They delve into the significant themes and key moments from the Democratic National Convention. They highlight the sense of joy and solidarity portrayed, contrasting it with the fear-driven politics often seen at the RNC. The hosts discuss the refreshing models of masculinity and labor representation, exemplified by figures like Tim Walz and Shawn Fain. Brad emphasizes the powerful, emotional moments that underscore the importance of collective effort and mutual support in American life. The episode also touches on the criticisms around the exclusion of Palestinian voices and the uncommitted movement from the event, highlighting the ongoing challenges and areas for growth within the democratic coalition.
00:00 Introduction and Political Commentary
01:09 Democratic National Convention Highlights
02:00 Hosts Reunite and Catch Up
03:39 Discussion on Masculinity and Friendship
04:15 Analyzing the DNC's Impact
05:51 Kamala Harris and Democratic Strategy
08:02 Joy vs. Fear in Politics
19:48 Michelle Obama's Powerful Speech
25:03 Weirdness in Political Discourse
29:27 Critiquing the 'Weird' Label in Politics
33:17 Understanding Masculinity in Modern Politics
35:08 Contrasting Visions of Masculinity
39:48 Labor and Solidarity in American Politics
50:45 Reflections on Family and Love
01:01:41 Concluding Thoughts and Upcoming Events
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Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs?
That's not...
That's not just my opinion.
That's a fact.
By the way, I got a message for the Republicans and the Justices in the United States Supreme Court.
to comprise this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hat.
And I'm retaining a lot of water, so good luck with that.
you you Thank you.
Those are just a few of the highlights from a week at the Democratic National Convention.
It was days full of joy, nights full of celebration.
A revamped party that has transformed in just one month since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Today we analyze what that joy means and why it's so different from what we saw at the RNC.
We talk about the models of masculinity on display, the ways that labor and middle-class people were a focus, who was left out, and what's to come.
I'm Brad Onishi, and this is the Straight White American Jesus Weekly Roundup.
Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
Back together.
We're back together again, feeling the joy, the love, the collective effervescence.
Dan Miller, who are you?
Where do you work?
I am Dan Miller.
Where have you been?
What kind of shirt are you wearing?
It feels like it's been a really long time since we were both here, but I, since the last time we appeared together, I am still a professor of religion and social thought at Landmark College.
I've been to like multiple metal shows, trolling my friend Brad Onishi.
I'm wearing a shirt from one of them.
Brad, I want you to know I bought two, two Metallica shirts.
I want to clarify.
I think if you go, if you're, no, no, no.
This is important to me.
If you are into a band, I totally get buying a band shirt because you're into that band.
That makes sense to me.
I don't get buying the pajamas that say, Portland Maine on them.
So that's what I don't get.
I I'm all for it.
You got a Metallica shirt on.
I think it's awesome.
You're rocking it.
You're feeling good.
That's great.
I just I want to be clear that I get because like that's particular.
It's quirky.
It's Dan.
Portland, Maine.
He went there.
Who cares?
That's my take.
That's where I'm at.
All right.
Yeah.
We're good.
But it is good to be back.
I've also been in Cancun for a week.
Basically, those who see me know I have the complexion of a soft-serve ice cream cone, and I managed to not melt while I was there, so that was...
That was cool.
I'm glad to be back.
People don't know, but Brad has been sending me these texts for three weeks, being like, man, I really miss you.
I'm excited to sit down together again.
I can't wait until you're back.
I'm glad that we could do that.
We are going to talk about masculinity today, and I think one thing that is- And emotion.
Masculinity and emotion will be things.
Well, one thing that's certainly missing in this country are men and women.
Models of friendship.
So yes, I'm not ashamed to send people texts, men or women or anyone else, saying I miss you.
All right.
We're going to talk about the DNC.
That's kind of the big story for the week.
That is going to include discussions of joy and anger.
It's going to include discussions of labor and masculinity.
It's going to involve discussions of being weird and what that means.
So let's just talk about the DNC, Dan.
Obviously captured the attention of a lot of people who are listening right now.
I can safely say I think it was a pretty triumphant week for the Democratic Party, a party that the last time around had a convention that was by distance because of COVID.
And before that, I will say, and I'll throw it to you just to get your take, but the quick hit I want to get in here before is, eight years ago with Hillary Clinton, don't get me wrong, I think that convention was full of patriotism and American flags and I think Hillary Clinton laid out her, her really case for thinking of her as the right person.
I know a lot of people out there have varying views of Hillary Clinton, but for better, for worse, regardless of how you feel about Hillary.
She was a Clinton and we had endured, you know, Bush dynasties.
She was going to be a Clinton dynasty.
There were just so many folks who couldn't get over Hillary Clinton as American royalty.
That was just really not one of them.
Now, again, don't email me.
You can, you can tell me about Hillary Clinton's upbringing and the way she's fought her whole life for women's rights.
And I, I'm, I'm, I know that story and I'm not discounting it.
I'm not saying it's wrong, but all I'm saying though, is there was a lot of folks who watched eight years ago.
That thought, this is not somebody who knows what my life is like as a regular American.
By contrast, Kamala Harris talked about working at McDonald's.
Tim Walz is Tim Walz.
There's a lot there.
So I'll shut up, get your initial thoughts, and then we can analyze as we go.
I just want to pick up on that.
So one of the big lines, I've been rolling my eyes a lot at times at just sort of, I don't know, political journalism and stuff, because they have a lot of truisms that they say, and I think oftentimes they don't.
I don't know how many times I read, like, Kamala Harris needs to show America who she is.
And that's all true.
But what some also recognize, and I think what you're getting at, is people not knowing her or having a firm opinion of her can also be a strength if you can pull it off.
Like, there was this ability to redefine.
And I think they did.
I mean, like, I'll blow it out.
People are like, well, you know, my reason for hope was really low this week.
It was like, please, Democrats, don't face plant.
Please do not pull defeat from the jaws of victory.
You have great momentum.
You have great things going.
Stop freaking out about whether or not Kamala Harris half a decade ago almost was able to have a successful, you know, presidential campaign and let's just like get through this.
And I think, I think she took advantage.
I think Democrats took advantage of that Opportunity.
And that's an opportunity that Trump just isn't going to have.
Regardless of his policies or anything else, he's not new.
Biden wasn't new.
Hillary Clinton wasn't new.
And obviously, Kamala Harris has been around for a while.
People have known who she is, but not in this way, not as her own thing.
Obviously, detractors want, like the Trump campaign, want to tie her to Biden.
But I think we all know that, I think for the average person, vice presidents or vice presidents, they're kind of unknowns.
They're viewed as kind of Office furniture.
That's not really fair, but that's kind of how they're viewed, I think, in an administration.
So she had a huge opportunity, and I think that really does set it in contrast.
I think that's part of what we've seen with the enthusiasm factor over the last few weeks.
I agree.
I think there's a weird thing here where Kamala Harris is doing a couple things at this convention, and I think the Democratic Party in general.
One is releasing a sense of hope, because for better or for worse, again, don't email me about Biden's track record and manufacturing in the CHIPS Act and inflation reduction.
I know.
I'm talking about a common perception and a common feeling.
There was not a sense of anticipation or hope.
And I think that the word that you and I want to focus on here is joy.
There was a lot of joy at this convention.
There was celebration.
There was togetherness.
And there was a feeling that there's a coalition of Americans who want something, even though they don't have the same background, the same story, the same geographic location, whatever.
This was a convention, whether it was Little John singing for the Georgia delegation, whether it was the Tim Walz speech, whether it was Amanda Gorman, whether it was anyone above, I think there was a sense of joy.
Now, I want to set the table by talking about joy and, by contrast, Trump's politics have and always will be a politics of fear.
And I think you want to jump in on the difference between fear and joy.
But I'll just set the table by going to a book I read a while back by Ross Gay.
It's called Inciting Joy.
Some of you read this book.
It's great.
It's a book of essays.
And there's a quote here from Ross Gay that I think is really wonderful.
My hunch is that joy is a number for our precursor to wild and unpredictable and transgressive and unboundaried solidarity.
And that solidarity might insert further joy.
My hunch is that joy, emerging from our common sorrow, might draw us together.
You know, joy is something we can theorize.
We could write academic papers about it.
I think joy though, Dan, according to Gay, and the way I've been thinking about today, comes in a simple way to find solidarity.
That as human beings, we're thrown into this weird condition of living on an earth.
We didn't choose to be here.
We have to leave, whether we like it or not.
Life is full of vulnerability and pain.
It's full of cancer diagnoses and lost jobs.
It's full of accidents and unexpected frailty.
To be human is not easy.
And it can feel like the best response to that is fear and isolation.
Run and hide so we're safe.
Joy is solidarity.
It could be opening a door for somebody.
It could be striking up small talk on the bus.
It could be sharing frustration.
It's any way that our common sorrow or, in my mind, our common vulnerability holds us together.
It feels good too.
And it doesn't solve everything.
I could be having the worst day and find a way to connect with a human being, whether it's on the bus, at my kid's daycare, whether it's, you know, bumping into someone I used to know.
And that sense of connection sparks joy for a minute.
And the reason I bring that up is.
The solidarity and togetherness feels really good.
And what I saw at the Democratic National Convention were people thirsty and hungry for that.
We don't want to be afraid and we don't want to be isolated.
We don't want to be separated and we don't want to be in in little silos.
We want to find a narrative.
That doesn't require us all to conform, but nonetheless draws us together.
And I think that was on display here.
And we're going to get into more specifics of that, whether it's labor, whether it's religious diversity, racial diversity, whether it's the various constituencies represented.
But that, to me, was the joy part of this.
So I'm curious about your thoughts about the Democratic Convention and joy or fear, anxiety, isolationism on the other side.
Yeah, so people will be familiar with Laura Anderson, right, the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery.
She's been on our show.
We show up on her podcast from time to time, and I was thinking about this because I did an interview for her that'll be out sometime later in the fall.
But it was about the election and emotion and trauma and things like that.
So this is something I've been thinking about, you know, and people pick up on this when they talk about the different vibes.
Like if you just Google around, if people have been reading the reporting on the DNC this week, there are lots of people who talked about just the feel, the feel of the DNC, comparing it to the RNC, not even like evaluating the two, just being like, This is what it felt like.
This is what the messaging is like.
And I mean, that's what they're picking up on.
And as you say, the MAGA movement, I agree with you.
I think it's fundamentally about fear.
I think fear can like manifest in like other like rage, anger, resentment.
I think oftentimes those things you really dig down, it comes from fear.
It comes from insecurity.
Insecurity that doesn't have to have a real cause, right?
Like the right Has been working for decades to convince especially white men in America that they are under threat, that queer people are a threat, that women are a threat, that people of color are a threat.
And so you program somebody long enough for that, and that's what they feel.
And this is the other piece, like you said, you're right, joy feels good.
Guess what?
Raging feels good, too.
For a while.
And that's the key.
How sustainable is it?
You have to have targets of rage.
You have to have an object that you're raging against.
Or you have to have objects you're breaking.
The people have rage rooms, right?
And things like that.
And that's what they're built for.
And everybody from, like, the doctors on down will be like, yeah, that's cool.
But like, that's not good for you over a long period of time.
And it's not good for the people around you and all of that.
But it's a powerful emotion.
That's what MOG is built on and very consciously, you know, I talked about this with Annika a couple weeks ago, very consciously the Harris campaign has built around joy, hope, right?
We heard about that with the Obama campaign and we're going to talk about Michelle Obama here in a while, but she played on those themes in the DNC, talked about sort of finding that hope again.
She said something about like having that feeling in the pit of her stomach for years and, you know, That's what a lot of people have been living with.
So I agree.
I think it's a powerful emotion.
I think it feels good.
But I think it can be more sustainable.
It's not terrible for you.
I don't think I've ever had to... I went to this big concert.
There's 65,000 people.
You're tailgating ahead of time.
Everybody, those strangers you don't know, are all excited about this common thing.
The dude behind me in the stadium is 72.
It's like in his 30s when Metallica comes out.
He's there yelling with everybody else.
I've got my 10-year-old next to me.
We do the supplement.
Maybe we'll have to tell some Metallica stories.
I don't know.
But the point is we're united about that.
And guess what?
It's not about hurting someone.
It's not about fearing someone.
It's not about keeping people out.
It's about inviting people in.
And that can be really, really powerful.
I think that that is what we saw.
In my view, that's what the messaging was about.
It was about, you know, expanding.
They always talk about having a broad tent and all of this, but it was really about this notion of we're going to talk about, quote unquote, the American people.
Everybody's got a space here.
Everyone can come in and, you know, we could talk about walls and its ability to take progressive principles and actually make them sound like just stuff you do in the backyard around a barbecue because they're good things to do and so on.
But yeah, I think it was a really palpable shift.
I think it's really significant.
I think it's interesting because I think Trump camp doesn't know what to do with that yet.
Let me say one more thing, and then I'll throw it to you for some comments on Michelle Obama, which I know you want to get to.
So Kamala Harris, her speech was presidential.
She has become a really powerful public speaker, and I think she showed us who she was.
She talked about her mom and her dad, the journeys they had, moving.
She's not just a California liberal.
She lived in Wisconsin.
She lived in the Midwest.
She's somebody whose family, her mom at least, really worked hard to own a home.
Those are those are really important stories.
There's a couple of other things, though, that I want to talk about with joy real quick.
And I you know, you and I at heart are theorists, right?
We love philosophy and theory.
And so let me just draw one more connection.
And that is if joy is solidarity, if joy comes from a feeling of togetherness with other humans, and you just talked beautifully about it, that could be in a parking lot drinking a beer before Metallica.
And y'all, that's fun.
You can sit here and tell me that's stupid.
It's not.
That's fun.
That could be drinking that beer and waiting for a football game to start.
That could be in the backyard with your cousins.
That could be wherever.
When you feel solidarity, joy is solidarity.
Solidarity and joy go together.
When you have solidarity, you are for something.
You're inviting people to join something.
And that means that you are standing together, right, for a thing.
The Democrats for eight years have suffered from not knowing what to stand for and how to tell that story.
So in 2016, it was like, I'm Hillary Clinton.
There's a bunch of Republicans that probably don't like Trump.
Do you guys want to come over?
And I think a lot of the other Democratic Party, the left, The labor, the everyday person, they just didn't feel like that was their convention.
2020 Biden ran on democracy and it was a good campaign.
Biden won 87 million votes or whatever it was.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm not here to disparage Joe Biden in 2020, but I think that was a campaign of like democracy.
Yay.
What I saw at this camp convention was, are you just like a normal person who wants a family?
That you can be proud of without people making fun of you for?
Are you somebody who just wants to own a home?
Do you want to find a place in this country where you might be black, you might be queer, you might be, you know, so Michelle Obama talked about The presidency just might be the black job that Donald Trump thinks.
And there, you know, there were just great lines.
You know, you can pry this wedding ring from my dead gay hand.
You know, there was, you know, Sean Fane, who we'll talk about saying that Donald Trump's a scab.
The message here was like, you know what we're for?
We're just for a life of people trying to love and care for their families and make a living in a world that's really just not easy.
Are y'all into that?
Are you black?
Are you gay?
Do you have learning disabilities?
Are you neurodivergent?
Are you the gay father of two children like Pete Buttigieg?
That's what we're for.
Do you all want to get in on this?
Because that's what we're going to build.
And I think that joy, Is, is, is different than perhaps 2020 or 2016 because it's a joy that's like, we hope for something together and we're going to stand for it.
And the reason I bring that up is because Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, who by all accounts made a, you know, penis joke about Donald Trump.
The Obamas were markedly different.
This was not the Obamas of they go low, we go high.
This is not the Obamas of like stayed.
Elegance and etiquette.
These were the Obamas of like, we stand for this.
I think y'all stand for this.
Let's go get this together.
And we're not going to let anyone attack our families, our neighbors, our identities anymore.
And we're going to be really happy to do it all together.
Let's dance.
Let's sing.
Let's celebrate.
Let's cheer.
The standing for something gives you a way to attack back, not in a way that's inhumane, but in a way that's like, we're just not going to sit here with a kind of general vacant appeal to the American electorate.
We're actually going to invite you to a family barbecue where not everybody looks the same, but it's super fun over here.
And we're not going to let anyone attack us for doing it how we're doing it.
That's different.
You know what I'm saying, Dan?
So wondering about your thoughts on that.
And then we can go to Michelle Obama.
Yeah, so I'll sort of lead you, because I think that's the transition, right?
There were lots of, as you say, lots of great lines, lots of speaking.
I think the kind of thing you're talking about was the overarching theme.
I don't know.
I don't really have a behind-the-scenes view.
It'd be interesting to know, like, Exactly what kind of coordination goes on and how much with all these different speakers and stuff like obviously they've got some direction but they're not all like reading each other's notes.
But I think that that was that was kind of the theme.
So I want to use Michelle Obama to illustrate that because if there was one speech and I'm not obviously very like insightful in this if there's one speech that seemed like it just like made you want to just be like all right we can drop the mic and just go home now we're done it was Michelle Obama But one of the things that she said in that speech was the part she said out loud and clearly in a way that I don't think she could as First Lady, what everybody knows about MAGA, when she attacked Trump for trying to get people to fear the Obamas.
Why?
Because they're black.
And then she said, and everybody's heard this line, if you haven't heard the line, Google it, watch it, because Michelle Obama's going to deliver it in a way that's a lot more powerful than I'm going to do here.
She said, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be black.
And I mean, the room just blew up.
Everybody's going crazy.
And to put the theory hat on, the philosophy hat on, what this is about is radically competing visions of what America is, of what the social body is.
I talk about this all the time, that within the MAGA world, within that world that's afraid of people of color, that's afraid of — you know, I was talking to somebody the other day, and he was talking about his sister being terrified because she hears people speaking Spanish around her.
Like, They're not doing anything.
They're like in Target shopping, but they're speaking Spanish.
And you know, it just creates anxiety.
They want a social body where everybody's in the right place.
And that right place is to be sort of properly ordered and subservient to other people.
And what I think Michelle Obama was saying out loud is, we want a social body where everybody belongs.
I think that's what you're talking about, right?
That's the nation we're building and everybody can have a place.
And that doesn't have to, like, your having a place is not a threat to me.
My having a place doesn't have to be a threat to you.
And then she got into that, I think that's that really powerful line that you alluded to when she said, and again, if people haven't seen it yet, go watch it because it was amazing, where she said, you know, she said, who's going to tell him, that's Trump, that the job he's seeking just might be one of those black jobs?
And I mean, that was a powerful statement on a number of levels.
That was a statement that said, that's the America, that's the body that we want, the social body we're going to be a part of, where everybody can have that, where, quote-unquote, Black jobs are just jobs.
Everybody has a place.
Everybody can be in the same space.
Everybody can have a shot at those.
And I think that that, to tie into what I thought was one of the most powerful speakers, Ties together all the points that you're making of this contrasting vision of America, but in a way that I feel like really resonated with people, attempt to resonate with people.
We'll see how that goes over the next, what's like 73 days, 77 days, whatever it is.
But that was really powerful.
And so for me, and I think that's the other point of this, is it took what I'm going to say in political and theoretical terms, but put it in really concrete terms that move people.
And I think that's what Walls does, really, effectively.
And I think that's what they're trying to do.
And this, rewind, God, all the way back to before the 2020 election when, I remember Brad Onishi saying a lot, like, tell us what you're going to do for people.
How are you going to help regular people?
What are you going to do for regular people?
And I feel like that's what it was, but there was an emotion behind it.
And as you say, a positive vision that I think was really powerful.
And for me, Michelle Obama, who's one of my spirit animals, I think, is Michelle Obama, really just nailed it.
And it sort of, you know, encapsulated all of that.
One of the things I learned hanging out with memoirists, there's a bit of memoir in my book, Preparing for War.
I'm not going to claim that I'm a memoirist, because I don't want to Insult us, you know, those who write memoir in the strict sense.
But, you know, one of the things I learned, Dan, like through going to storytelling workshops and writing workshops, is memoir is powerful because it takes somebody's life, which is so singular and unique.
Like, you know, when you read a memoir, you're reading about this one life that has all of these bumps and particularities and marks.
And somehow, The deeper you go into the particularity and the singularity, the more universal and relatable it comes.
And it's not because we all have the same bumps and the same marks and the same experiences and the same trauma.
It's because we all have marks and bumps and trauma, and we can start to share those even though they're not the same.
And that's the solidarity part.
That's the joy part.
But it's also from that joy comes A willingness to fight back.
And so I want to talk more about that.
Let's take a break and we'll get into some other aspects of the DNC.
Okay, Dan, let's talk about weird.
Let's talk about masculinity.
Let's talk about labor.
And I know folks are like, how does all that work together?
I'm just going to start with a little bit about this weird label going around, and then I'll throw it to you to talk about labor.
And then I really do think masculinity is going to tie it all together.
And some of you are like, good luck landing that plane, but we're going to do it.
We're professionals.
Okay.
Yes.
Dan's been to Mexico.
He's had time off.
He's ready.
Okay.
Don't doubt.
If there's anything I've ever learned, don't doubt Dan Miller.
Okay.
Here we go.
Tim Walz started calling the Republicans weird like a month and a half ago, and he's now the VP nominee.
And I want to comment On why the weird labels feels like it's sticking to Republicans and why it does not feel like it's sticking to Democrats.
So here's some of what's happened over the last couple of weeks.
You start calling Republicans, I should say, weird because they're really into like what kind of genitals people have.
They're really into like policing people's bedrooms.
They want to stop a woman on a on a highway and be like, are you by chance on your way to get an abortion, ma'am?
That's weird.
And that's that's the label.
OK.
JD Vance is always talking about breeding.
And if you're a childless cat lady, you don't get to vote or it doesn't count very much.
That feels weird.
Some of you, this is more like a niche, but some of you were on Twitter and you saw the videos this week.
So one video was Charlie Kirk was at the DNC and he gets approached by this really young Democratic gentleman who's like in his 20s.
And he's like, what are you doing here?
You're an anti-democratic force.
You tried to like help Trump steal Georgia.
And he just destroys Charlie Kirk like in 30 seconds.
And it's really clear Charlie Kirk's not used to being out in open water.
Where there's like no protection and no handlers and no one like moderating the questions from the audience and no crowd booing anyone who dissents with Charlie Kirk.
And Charlie Kirk's only response is like, okay, okay, you said what you said.
Now let me ask you a question.
What is a woman?
And the dude is just like, bro, that is so weird.
What's wrong with you?
And he's like, go find a woman and maybe, you know, and Charlie Kirk said, well, I'm married to one.
And I was like, bro, are you 13?
You sound like, And another example is Jack Posobiec is walking around in disguise, trying to talk to people outside the DNC.
And he ends up talking to Amanda, who's known as No Turtle Soup on Twitter, who I've interviewed on this show.
And Jack Posobiec is like, asking these questions of Amanda and Comrade of like, so are you going to get an abortion today?
Since the DNC is offering that?
Are you going to go and stay?
And they're totally like, Jack Postabic's no match for them.
And they're like, I'm going to get on stage and get an abortion tonight.
Yeah, it's going to be televised.
And Jack Postabic's brain seems to break and he's like, how many abortions have you had?
You can't even think straight because all you do is get abortions.
And you're like, dude, you sound like a fifth grader.
You look like a weirdo walking around and you sound like a fifth grader.
I'll give you one more example.
Mike Lindell, my pillow guy, shaved his mustache.
Put on a disguise where he looked like Roger Stone and was walking around the DNC too.
I'll give you one more example.
Matt Walsh was in disguise, walking around the DNC with like a weird hat and wig and like showing up behind the camera all week.
Here's the thing, Dan, is like there, I want to give you two kinds of weird, okay?
And then I'll shut up and I'll throw it to you.
And I'm serious about this.
You know, the English language has all these, like, words, but we say love for everything.
And you can do that with weird.
Weird can mean many things, but I'm going to do two kinds of weird here.
There's weird as in creepy.
Right?
Like, you're being weird could mean you're being creepy.
You're asking me questions that are not questions you should be asking about me, my life, my privacy, my desire, my sexuality, my something.
You're being weird!
Hey!
Don't ask me that.
That's creepy.
J.D.
Vance showed up and, like, was on the same tarmac as Kamala Harris at one point, like, two weeks ago.
And his whole entourage, like, walked down and did, like, a bro stare at her.
And everyone was like, dude, you're being weird.
Like, why?
Why do you?
This is like a bro entourage creep menace march.
Like, what are you all doing?
Bunch of white dudes in, like, suits.
Do you think this is, like, attractive?
This is weird.
You calling people childless cat ladies, you saying that the the purpose of the postmenopausal woman is to care for her grandchildren.
That's what J.D.
Vann said.
That's weird.
Do you know why that hits?
Because creepy hits and they're acting creepy.
So in response, Charlie Kirk is like, look at Tim Wall's daughter hugging him.
Well, Doug Emhoff speaks.
Isn't that weird?
And everyone's just like other people are pointing to Ella Emhoff, who has like tattoos and was wearing a Walz Harris camo hat.
And I was like, this is weird.
And it's and most of America sees that.
And they're like.
I don't think it is a lot of folks, and we'll get into this more later down about masculinity.
And Colter and Crispy and many others talked about Tim Walson who stood up and said, that's my dad.
And Dan, I like, I'm probably going to start crying right now.
Like, God, dude, can you imagine having a kid like thinking of you that way as your dad?
That's like, you want to talk about joy?
That like, God.
And they're on Twitter saying, this is weird.
He's a beta boy.
He's, you know, all kinds of words.
They're using like the word retarded.
And you know why that doesn't hit?
Is because you're pointing to human beings and you're saying, these are families.
These are individuals with learning disabilities, with tattoos, who don't look like the woman that you think Ella Imhoff should look like.
And all of us have families like that.
All of like, I am neurodivergent.
I have like a super list of learning disabilities.
I can show everybody.
And I think about them every day.
I am like mixed race.
And I think about race every day.
Cause I got a white mom with blonde hair and I got a Japanese dad and like my life is built around all of that.
You have your family, Dan, and we could go down the list of all the challenges, expected and unexpected, that you have faced.
Every American family has those.
So when you want to make weird into, like, you have unique challenges in your family, it doesn't actually hit and it makes you look even more creepy.
So that's my take on why weird is working for the Dems and why weird is not working for the Republicans.
Sorry, that went on longer than I thought, so I'm gonna get some tissues, wipe my eyes here, but, like, thoughts on that, and then take us into how this plays into either masculinity or labor or anything else.
Yeah, so I think it's not probably a dictionary definition of weird, but I think you're picking up on something real.
And I think if that one sentence is creepy and so forth, I think another sometimes is in colloquial use, when people use weird sometimes, it just means it's you.
It's all the idiosyncrasies that make you you.
And we all know people, I'm like, I know it's kind of weird, but I'm really into this.
And you're like, all right, that is, that's different.
That's cool.
That's like part of what makes you, like, there's that piece of it.
And I've said for years that when the Republicans talk about individual liberty and whatever, they don't mean it.
They don't care about individuals.
They care about conformity.
That's right.
They care about categorizing people and putting them in boxes.
They care about making sure they stay in the right place.
If you guys go stand over there, you're okay.
But stay over there.
Don't come into my space.
Weird is about transgression and things that are hard to define and people who are like, Yeah, I'm a vegetarian, but man, I love bacon.
I don't know what to do with that, but that's how I am, and just accepting that and living with it.
I think that's the piece of it as well.
I think it's also about ... I guess I'll dive into masculinity from this, because that's part of what that Just real quick though, when you're weird creepy, that's bad.
Universally bad, okay?
When you're weird quirky, like Dan, you're- Yeah, quirky versus creepy is like the perfect- Right?
There it is.
I've known you for 20 years now, and I know some of your quirks, right?
You love metal, you hate the beach, you don't like summer, right?
Those are the things, if any of us have A life partner, if you've ever gotten to know somebody like in a new relationship, if you've ever gotten to know your kids or like your siblings, you know that to be human is to have those quirks.
And that's one of the most beautiful things about getting to know a person is like realizing how they're weird like that.
And it's like, oh, that's adorable.
That's charming.
That's inviting.
That's like, oh, I would have never known.
That's quirky is a part of being a human.
Creepy?
That's universally not good.
It's just not.
So anyway, I apologize.
Let's do masculinity.
Yep.
Yeah, just a tiny one, and this is going to come into the masculinity piece as well.
I think the other thing is that people who can own that quirkiness about them, like, just acknowledge it, right?
That it's there.
It's us.
It's what makes us us.
That, to me, speaks of self-acceptance and security.
Those who demand conformity, that's insecurity.
That's the world of the hardcore MAGA people who just, I guess, never got out of middle school psychologically or whatever, and the fear and the terror of having somebody point at them and be like, oh wow, you're different from me in way X, Y, or Z, and just can't handle it, cannot live with that.
And I think that that ties in in part with, you know, we talk about the different affects, we talk about quirk, we talk about weirdness.
I think that one of the things that Walsh is putting out there, and I think the DNC put out there, and we're going to see how this plays out, is a really contrasting definition of masculinity to what has dominated in the MAGA world.
And I mean, we've seen this.
We've talked about this.
We talk about Kirsten Dumais all the time.
She's the one who really comes to mind right now for me many times as the kind of militant masculinity that comes out.
Trump channels it every chance he gets.
His weird fascination with military stuff until the generals don't agree with him.
The valorization of the military.
Hulk Hogan at the RNC ripping his shirt.
Remember the weird poster with Sylvester Stallone's Rambo body and Trump's head?
And you're like, this has got to be the dumbest thing.
But people were really into it, right?
Speaking of weird, that vision of masculinity.
And what you have with Walls, I think it was on play, is this kind of, I don't know what else to call it than dad masculinity.
And a certain kind of dad, I get it.
Walls is a straight white guy and he exudes a certain straight white guy dadness.
But it's a straight white guy dadness that is also a form of masculinity I think lots and lots and lots of Americans can identify with.
You ask that question, you know, if your kid stands up and says that, I think a lot of dads will take that over the authoritarian parent, my kids do what I say, they've pleased me, or whatever, whatever that, whatever the hell kind of relationship Trump and his kids had, or Trump and his dad, or whatever.
I think it's, it's a different kind.
Excuse me.
You've got the dad who, you know, lots of lots of parents, right?
They coach soccer on the weekends.
They have to haul the kids around to their events and whatever.
And so the guy that was the high school football coach who still has his players like talking about that.
I think there are a lot of people in America and a lot of dads specifically, right?
That's a kind of masculine demographic we're looking at here who will look back and be like, yeah, I had a high school coach made a huge impact on me.
Maybe my own dad wasn't around or maybe like, you know, I don't know.
I don't know what it was.
Maybe I got picked on in school and I discovered sports, whatever, but that was really, really foundational.
He had the jokes about the flannel shirts, which I laugh about because that's another one of my things, and the guy that does stuff around the house.
And I'm hearing him and I'm like, yeah, I, you know, sometime in the fall, I got to haul out the damn ladder and go clean out the gutters and do all that stuff.
And like, There's another kind of masculinity that I think is for millions of Americans, and this is clear, right?
They're not aiming at the MAGA folks.
Early on in the Biden years, you had this talk about trying to win over MAGA people, and I think they've recognized that's just not going to happen.
But a lot of people who maybe are persuadable, or the people who said, I don't want Biden or Trump or whatever, a lot of men who will say, yeah, I get that.
I get that.
I want to be a good dad.
I want to be a good father.
I want to be a good husband.
I want to play those roles.
But I don't want to be a D-bag to do it.
And I don't want to just be angry all the time.
And I don't want to have to, like, I don't know, talk about whether my kids, like, whether I'm proud of them or they disappoint me.
I just, I just want to have my kids and, you know, try to be cool enough that maybe they'll be seen in public with me when they're in high school and, you know.
That's all part of that vibe, I think, that touches on that different emotion, different affect.
A son who will cry in public, and that's awesome, and a crowd full of people that will affirm that.
A guy that can go hunting and drink a beer and whatever and still say, you know what, like, yeah, I've got neighbors, but they should have the freedom to do what they want to do, even if it's not what I would do and I'm going to mind my own damn business, to kind of paraphrase the way that he phrased that.
I think it's a really strongly contrasting vision and model of masculinity.
I don't think it's rare, but I think it is one that really, really goes against what MAGA envisions as masculinity.
And I want people to not hear me wrong on this.
I know there are lots of other identities in that Democratic coalition, right?
But I think that that was on real display.
It's going to be significant.
We've got the biggest gender gap polling shows that they've had.
And I think that there are probably a lot of walses in the world, if that's how you would say the plural of his name.
You have a lot of them in the world, a lot of people who will identify with that, who might say, you know what, I'd rather have my kids respond to me like that than maybe what I've seen from some other people.
I don't need my kids to respect and fear me.
I don't need that Christian world some of them come through where obedience is always the highest kind of virtue.
And maybe there are other virtues that we want to cultivate as fathers, as parents, Whatever.
So, I think there was a lot on display with that that ties in with everything we've been talking.
I want to keep on this and I want to tie it to labor.
So, let's take a break and then we'll come back and we're going to put all these pieces together.
So, see you in a sec.
All right.
So here's what I take from from what you said, Dan, about Tim Walz.
I think there's a couple of things that we should notice.
I think there's there's a lot of folks, whether it's Charlie Kirk or anyone else, that will tell you you can't be a white man in America because you're you're you're just by existing.
You're the woke left hates you.
OK.
And I think the Tim Walz pick is a pick that says.
Here's the model.
This is a white, straight dude.
He's, he's powerful.
He's, he's, he's a governor of a state.
But the way he conducts himself is everything you just said, right?
I'm going to fight for my neighbors.
I'm going to include everybody.
I'm going to recognize who I am in the world.
And just, I want everyone to be on my team.
As long as you are for liberty and equality, as long as you're not hurting others, then come on in.
Let's be on my team.
Let's, let's, let's be neighbors.
I think the coach part of this is really important in terms of masculinity.
If you think of the way masculinity is represented in the American right, in right-wing masculinist movements across the world, whether it's Andrew Tate, whether it's the misogynist pastors like Mark Driscoll, you know what they're always searching for is a Superman, right?
This is why fascism and masculinism often go together, because they're always looking for a Superman.
So let's put Trump's head on Rambo.
Let's get to the GOP convention and have Dana White, the UFC guy, talk.
Let's get, let's get Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt off because we want to represent Superman.
That's what you're supposed to be.
You're supposed to aspire to being a UFC fighter with a big ripped physique who can hurt people or, or Hulk Hogan, who can do the same.
We're going to imagine that that's what Trump is, despite the fact that he's 78 and he doesn't seem to, to be that guy and never, never fought in combat, whatever.
Tim Walz.
I'm not going to lie.
I think if we put Tim Walz together and Sean Fain, the UAW leader who spoke, and we'll talk about here in a sec, we might get Dan Miller.
I don't know.
Do you feel like a mashup of those two?
Like, you know, Sean Fane and you have the same haircut and Tim Walz and you are both into football and, and, you know, flannel.
So I just kind of feel like if I merged them two, I'd get Dan Miller.
I don't know if that's offensive to you, but I think it's a compliment.
So.
Can I tell you about coach Walz invites you to a team?
Yeah.
And when you're invited on a team, we've all, not all, but a lot of us have played on teams.
You're going to have the guy or the gal or the human who's the best player.
It's fine.
But you know what a team teaches you?
We all contribute.
We all make a contribution somewhere.
And we're not going to win unless we all contribute.
The masculinity I see is directly related to solidarity and joy.
Tim Walz is inviting you into solidarity.
Let's do this together.
Let's be together.
Let's find a union in our common vulnerability and sorrow.
And if we do that, life will be pretty meaningful and rich.
So when I see Coach Walz inviting you to that, or, and I'll throw it to you after this, when I see Sean Fain, the labor leader, speaking at the, at the DNC, if everybody goes in back and compare the side by side, Sean Fain is wearing the same black that Hulk Hogan is wearing, and he's got a red shirt underneath.
And he really consciously did a Hulk Hogan side by side.
But his shirt said, Donald Trump is a scab.
And instead, y'all hang with me.
Instead of being a singular Superman, like Hulk Hogan, who used to walk out to a song that went, I am a real American.
You remember that, Dan?
Yeah.
Sean Fane is like, I'm a labor leader.
You know what, guys?
I'm not the buffest.
I'm not 6'6".
I don't have six pack.
I drink six packs, but I don't have a six pack.
I'm a normal guy.
Most of you are me.
Most of you are not creatine-taking, supplement-inducing, six-foot-six UFC fighters.
Most humans are you and me.
Balding, glasses, 40s, 30s, 20s.
We're trying to find a meaning to our life, a reason to get up, people to do it with, a community that cares, and a way to teach our kids something that's useful.
That's me, Sean Fade.
And I happen to be a mainline Christian doing it.
That's solidarity.
What is labor other than solidarity?
And the masculinity there is like, why don't we all do this together?
Rather than either be a Superman or be a beta blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Like, that's the masculinity that I see on display with Walls and Fane.
And that's why I think that the side-by-side of Fane and Hogan has not gotten much play, but it's offering you two visions of America, two visions of masculinity, right?
And two ways of thinking about what it means to be a real American.
And I think it's really important.
So, thoughts on that.
Off to you about more on Labor and Harris and what they're doing to reach out to the, you know, the blue-collar person, the common-sense person, and so on.
Well, first, you drove home the comparison of Miller and Fane with the balding glasses in the 40s.
So, like, you know, there we are.
We got it.
No, I mean, everything you're talking about is.
It's also, I know we're mixing metaphors here, but it's the lone wolf versus the pack.
It's the recognition of needing others and that others don't have to be threats.
It's all of that stuff.
It was on clear display when you had, you know, what was it, I think the leaders of like six unions like endorsing Harris at the DNC.
You have Trump who has, what's his name, O'Brien.
Sean O'Brien speaking at the RNC, Teamsters Chief, who's another rope-a-dope for Trump who somehow thinks that they're going to gain by showing up at the RNC and make inroads for labor and instead he just becomes another set piece for Trump.
What does Trump do all this going?
He interviews with Musk and praises him for being a union buster, basically, right?
I mean, that's the same thing that's going on.
It is that model.
These things all tie together, the masculinity.
Labor, and by labor and solidarity, I think we mean both the labor unions.
We know that for years, for decades, labor unions, organized labor, blue-collar workers, were a mainstay of democratic politics.
We know that one of the primary groups that Trump has made inroads with and where Biden slipped was with some of those people, working-class white men in particular, We saw Biden on picket lines and trying to shore that up and, you know, it sort of wasn't.
And we've seen Harris, you know, sort of making up some ground there.
But I think what we see and the key with this is this notion of solidarity, right?
That together, we are more than what we are individually.
We are more than just a bunch of individuals in a space or on an assembly line or on a factory floor or in a service industry.
We can work together.
And I think where this ties together, you mentioned this earlier and others have noted this, was this notion that the Solidarity is not just about unions, it's not just about organized labor.
You also had this discourse about McDonald's.
And for people who don't know, they might have been like, well, that seems kind of weird.
Harrison Emhoff, her husband, both, it turns out, have worked at McDonald's at some point in their life.
Guess who else has worked at McDonald's, Brad?
Like 13% of Americans have worked at McDonald's.
That was my first job.
And I know some of you out there are like, McDonald's is terrible, factory farming.
Yes.
Okay?
This is not a... I think the point, Dan, is so many of us work... I just was 16 and needed a job to pay for stuff.
Yeah.
And tied in with that, let's just say, I mean, that becomes not... It's not about McDonald's.
It's about service industry.
It's about people who are on their feet all day getting screamed at by other people who often have more money than they do, and they're underpaid, and they're overworked, and on, and on, and on, and on.
And you have a party that is saying, we're not just about labor factory workers, that's part of it, but we're about all you regular people out there who that's what you do, and consciously making the contrast with Trump who got the quote-unquote very small loan from his father to help him out to start.
Somebody wants to give me a very small interest-free loan for a million dollars, I'll take it.
I could do a lot with that.
The emphasis on Trump with the silver spoon, I think it did so many things.
Different model of masculinity, a model of solidarity, a model of a social body where we can all belong.
And as you said, you talked about teams, right?
Teams have all these people.
They've got the people who are the starters, they've got the people who are the JV players, they've got the people who are literally carrying the water or they're the equipment manager or whatever, but it doesn't work if everybody's not doing their thing.
Trump's economy, the economy of the right, has always been about the rich and the powerful.
That is the model of so-called Reaganomics, you know, trickle-down economics and so on, is that economies should benefit the wealthy because the wealthy are the ones who create jobs and put it in, you know, whatever.
And it's a model where fundamentally the vast majority of us are there to serve the wealthy.
Versus what they're saying is, no, we've got a place for all of you and we see all of you.
We see all of you who are getting somebody their coffee on their way to work that day.
We see all of you who are taking the job that they can because they need to.
Whether you're the 16 year old who just needs that first job or you're the single parent and that's what you could get was the night shift at McDonald's to try to make that extra money.
Whatever it is, we see you and we're all in this together and we're going to try to build a society where all of us matter All of us fit together.
And again, I think all of that was on display.
And I'm with you.
I see the connections here between the emotion, a different model of masculinity, a different social model, and the emphasis on labor, which was predictable, right?
Of course, they're going to try to emphasize labor, but I think the sort of symbolism of it and what it really communicated was powerful.
I remember when I worked at McDonald's then.
I was 16 and I met people there who worked at McDonald's 40 hours a week and they worked at KFC 40 hours a week because they were just trying to feed their family.
That was a light bulb for me because it was like, wow, the folks I'm side by side with serving food here are just doing everything they can to make a life.
We need to wrap up.
I'll just say two more things before we go to reasons for hope.
I think we have to mention that there was no speaker from the Uncommitted Movement and no Palestinian speaker and that's a big deal and it's important and we're not going to overlook that.
That there was a sense of family joy inside this convention center.
There was a lot of people very disappointed and hurt and felt betrayed by the fact that people, you know, somebody from the Uncommitted Movement was not allowed to speak in Dan, that's an ongoing issue.
It's an ongoing issue because Kamala Harris needs to, for justice sake, recognize their perspective and the perspective of so many of us who think that what's happening in Gaza is an ongoing tragedy and humanitarian crisis.
It's an issue electorally because that still remains a part of this whole narrative arc that we've been laying out here for the last couple of months.
So I think that's really important to say.
It's also the morning after now.
And I think that sometimes the morning after can feel like, all right, what do we do now?
Whether you, Dan, you and I went to summer camp as teenagers and you got to go home and no longer at summer camp and on fire for Jesus.
Now you got to live it in your everyday life.
Could be the morning after of a big Metallica concert where you, you know, had a bunch of iced tea and are a little bit tired because you stayed up way later than usual.
I think we all know what the morning after means in various ways.
What happens now?
And what are the ways that we see that?
I think any sense of apathy is misguided.
And any sense of feeling like this isn't the bag is really misguided.
We're really kind of at a place in the polls where Biden was in 2020.
Like for all the work Harris has done, we're kind of at a place where Biden was going into 2020 at this section of the election.
Not like she's way ahead of where Biden was.
If you think about it that way, this race is still somehow incredibly close.
So just wanted to get that in there before we go.
Anything else, Dan?
And then what is your reason for hope?
I'm going to say this, and I don't know, this might be my reason for hoping.
I said earlier, the Democrats just kind of pulling it off, right?
Not stumbling, not having this be a sort of deflationary exercise, right?
You got all this momentum, you go in and you kill it with a bunch of lackluster speeches or, you know, even Harris keeping her speech short, I thought was like really, really smart, but things like that.
But I think tied in with that, That I'll just comment on and then throw it over to you is that it also, I think, continued to defy GOP expectations.
We've read all these things about the GOP thought Biden stepping out would mean a contested convention.
And like, there's these analyses coming out.
And like, it's just, it's kind of weird to me.
But they really thought there would be protests and violence in the streets.
And there's this part of me that's like, why?
Why would you like assume that?
And then they hit me.
I'm like, that's what they think American cities are.
That's what they tell us all the time, the Democratic Party is, and I think they thought, literally, that's what it was going to be, that Kamala Harris was going to be everything she, you know, let's say just a much less mature political actor in 2020 than in 2024, that she was going to be the same, that it would be contested, that there would be violence in the streets, and so forth.
And not only did that not happen, but I think it continues to catch the GOP off guard, because I don't think they know what it is to feel joy That doesn't come from picking on somebody else, right?
Or that doesn't come at somebody's expense, or cannot imagine these different constituencies coming together around a common cause and purpose.
So I think all of that continued to feel hopeful for me, and I think that that was a key, is does it feel like there's still forward momentum coming out of this?
Or does it feel like we peaked at the DNC and now, shoot, we've spent all of our energy, what are we going to do?
I don't have that sense, and I find that hopeful.
I think the mainstream media was disappointed there was no chaotic 1968.
Because, I mean, I think they were seeding for, like, great.
This is going to be great for ratings.
CNN's going to do great.
They kept trying and, like, kind of rooting to find problems, and you're like, they're not really there, folks.
Yeah.
I think for me the reason for hope is is seeing on display a couple of like not couple like more like a half a dozen families in public eye in American view on the grand stage who represent the peculiarity the singularity.
The nuance of what it means to be an American family.
So, whether it is Pete Buttigieg, you know, talking about being a dad, a gay man who's a soldier and a civil servant saying, you know, I'm also a dad who's trying to get a three-year-old to eat macaroni and cheese at night.
Do you know how hard that is, Dan?
I try that every night.
I do.
Yep.
And it is terrible.
I'm just going to say, I have a fifth grader who still will not eat macaroni and cheese.
Yeah.
So, yep, we're still fighting the battle.
If you said, translate this chapter.
Jacques Derrida, from French to English, or get this child to eat two chicken nuggets tonight.
I might choose the former.
I don't know.
It depends on the night.
Which is going to happen first.
Good Lord.
So there's that.
I think there's also Michelle Obama talking about IVF.
Yeah.
Okay.
I think there is reproductive rights activists saying, what grace is there in forcing a child to carry the child of their parent?
And that's a devastating line.
Yeah.
There's also Doug Emhoff's kids, Ella and Cole, who are clearly so proud, and his ex-wife, who's like along for the ride, right?
Kirsten Emhoff.
And so You know, I don't know.
There's a lot of... I come from a divorced household, right?
There's a lot of ways divorce is just... It's something that requires so much work for everybody involved to, like, make family happen again, integrate new personas, right?
Adjust to changing structures.
And that's a reality for so many Americans.
And then you get to the Wall's children.
And, you know, I already cried once.
I'm going to do my best not to cry again.
But I just think, Dan, that, like...
That moment, unscripted, is a reminder that having love like that in your life is worth more than having any of the money that Donald Trump or Elon Musk have.
I think it's a really good reminder for the American people of like, we can all try to be billionaires who kill each other to get to the top.
We can all try to be UFC fighters who have the best physique and the most testosterone.
Or we can realize the joy that comes from having any sort of love, like Tim Walz's son standing up, Gus Walz standing up and saying, that's my dad.
And so I'll just give me one more minute here because this is, this is something I think is really cool.
Last year, actually a year and a half ago now, E.M.
Tangi won American Idol, and he's from Hawaii.
And he won because his audition tape was a song by James Blunt, and James Blunt's version of the song didn't really go very far.
It wasn't a big hit.
But if you all haven't done it, you should just go to YouTube right now and write an E-M-I-A-M, Tongi, T-O-N-G-I, Monsters audition for, and he gave this audition weeks after his own dad had died, right?
He's like 18 years old.
And the lyrics of Monsters are, some of them go like this.
It's, so let me back up.
James Blunt wrote this in response to his own father's death.
So this is why E-M-Tongi.
Saying the song.
But part of the song goes like this.
He says, I know your mistakes, and you know mine.
And while you're sleeping, I'll try to make you proud.
So daddy, won't you just close your eyes Don't be afraid.
It's my turn to chase the monsters away.
and I get- God.
I don't think I've ever cried twice on this show.
I don't know.
We've done this 600 episodes.
This is twice.
I get broken up about that verse for a couple of reasons.
One, my dad is 75 and I anticipate the moment when he's no longer here.
So that's one.
But two, I can't think of A better articulation of what it means to be in solidarity with other humans, not just parents, not just kids, but all of us working together somehow, whether it's in church or synagogue, whether it's in a community fighting for justice, is that we're going as long as we can to try to keep the monsters away.
That's what we're going to do.
And when I saw Gus Wells stand up and make that gesture, it reminded me of the people, including my dad, who've worked really hard to keep the monsters away from me.
And the ways that we do, we do that for others.
And I just, I just can't think of any more meaning to being human than that.
Gonna have to edit this, Dan.
It's a lot of editing today.
I'm going to have to edit it all out.
I just can't think of anything more significant.
And, you know, I got little kids.
I know, I know most of you have a lot of you out there have kids, not most of you, but some of you.
And like every day trying to get those kids to like get in the seatbelt or like go to bed, man, they just want to like get so frustrated and to arrive somewhere with that 18 year old boy.
Like making that gesture is a reminder of like, why we try.
So I clearly haven't slept enough and I'm very emotional today, but that's my reason for hope.
All right.
I'm going to go get a stiff diet Coke.
Maybe do some boxing in the garage.
Remind myself of how masculine I am.
All right, Dan, say anything at all, just take me off the mic and then I'll close this out.
Go ahead.
So I'm going to say it, and I don't know how I feel about saying it, but you talked about love versus money, and I'm just going to invite folks to compare that response of a child to Musk's own transgender child who has been very vocal about wanting nothing to do with him.
And I don't know, I think there's a real contrast there, I think there's a real contrast of Masculinity and authority and acceptance and creating the space to affirm your children and who they are.
I think there's an awful lot there that I think it's a real display that can be drawn, a real contrast.
That's right.
All right, friends.
August 26th, this coming Monday, I'm going to be speaking at the Star King Seminary Symposium.
It's online.
You can check it out on our Instagram if you'd like to.
We got some other events and things coming up that you can see on our Instagram.
Going to be up in Sonoma on September 7th.
If you are anywhere near Nebraska, come hang out in Omaha September 6th.
So a couple of those things coming up.
We have some big plans for some new content and also for a big event in November that we're hoping we're going to be able to pull off.
We will see.
For now, we'll just say, Dan, great to be back on the mic with you.
The solidarity and joy of doing the show with you is real, so it is nice to be here and not to do this alone and be flying solo.
We'll be back next week with this in the code with the weekly roundup and some great stuff on Monday.
