Balancing Politics, Community, and Personal Activism: A Conversation with Tyler Miller

Feeling overwhelmed by the current political climate? Join me as I sit down with Tyler Miller to explore how we can stay engaged without burning out. 

Check out The Hazardous Liberty Homestead on YouTube: (28) Hazardous Liberty Homestead - YouTube

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you ever feel super overwhelmed by the political climate in America today, to the point that you just want to tune it out altogether and ignore it completely and just go about life without even thinking about it? Yeah, well, that's been me lately, and so I invited my friend Tyler Miller to come on the podcast to chat with me a little bit about things that we can do when we're feeling overwhelmed, and still making a difference in a positive direction for our country, our state and our local community. Hi, I'm Julie Barrett and you're listening to the Women's Planing Podcast. I'm also the founder of Conservative Ladies of America, which started in Washington state as Conservative Ladies of Washington. We are an organization of like-minded ladies and gentlemen who are working to make real change in our local community, in our state and on a national level. You can learn more about Conservative Ladies of America by going to our website, conservativeladiesofamericacom.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Well, I've taken a little bit of a hiatus from podcasting just because my schedule has been super busy and there's been so much going on and I just haven't had the time or the bandwidth to record episodes. And I reached out to my friend Tyler Miller, who has been a guest on the podcast many times and he is someone that I really admire and look up to. He's someone I chat with about different issues that are going on, someone that I like to bounce ideas off of, and I asked him if he would come and chat with me about. I've just been feeling really discouraged about the political environment at large and just wondering how do I make the biggest impact in what's going on and how do I use my skills and abilities to make a difference without completely burning out. And so we had a really great conversation and we're just going to jump right into it here and I hope that you enjoy it and I hope that you will share it with your friends as well.

Speaker 2: 2:21

What I've learned living in Arkansas is that, for the last two years, people don't identify their values with politics. Really, they don't identify with being Republican, they don't identify with being conservative, which is why, you know, 20 years ago or more like 30 years ago, arkansas produced Bill Clinton as our president. They don't identify their values with the politics. They just they vote for whoever they think is reflecting their values. If anything, their values identify with their church, being a Christian, their local community and their family. And you know it is kind of cliche, but everyone down here is family.

Speaker 2: 3:09

I mean, we live on LaRue Ridge Road because the LaRue family settled on that road and there's still a gaggle of them down there and some of the offshoots of the road are Fred LaRue road and John LaRue road. So there's there's that sense of um, my values are what I identify with and I will attach myself or surround myself with people who share those values. Um, and there's a with people who share those values and there's a. There's still a disconnect between what my values are and identifying that with a political party, which is one of the things that I think attract people to Trump.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Right.

Speaker 2: 3:56

I don't think anyone, when they first think of Trump, thinks Republican. Honestly, they think Trump Right. Trump transcends that typical right, left, red, blue, republican democrat divide because he simply the thing that gets him in trouble. His mouth is one of the things that people most identify him he. He speaks his mind and it's unfiltered. It's it's almost like peter griffin from family guy. It's completely unfiltered.

Speaker 1: 4:30

He, whatever he's thinking, it comes out and it's crude and it's rough, unrefined, and people say that's me, that's what I feel yeah, and I think people, um, whether they come right out and admit it or not, I think there's a level of respect that people have for that, because they want people deep down inside. People want to be able to do that too, and we've been so silenced.

Speaker 2: 4:58

Yeah, they're sitting in their workplace break rooms wanting to share their thoughts, but afraid to because it's the workplace and, you know, don't want to get into a fight with somebody, especially if you know somebody is ideologically you know on the opposite ends and so and so trump provides provides that visceral outlet for people. He's saying the things a lot of us want to say every day in various conversations that we have in various settings, and I think ultimately that's what's going to draw people to him and the fact that the Democrats are going absolutely nuts, trying to imprison.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Right, I want, I want to come back to this, but before we we go down that particular road, I want to circle back to what you started off saying about, you know, identifying not necessarily with a party or conservatism, but as a Christian and you and I are both Christians and when I got involved in I wouldn't even say I got involved in politics, I just started paying attention in 2016,. Um, because of Trump, you know, and I was, I would say I was apolitical, if anything. Um, I just knew what I believed and, um, I, you know, I saw him speaking up and I saw him trying to expose the corruption in politics and I was attracted to that. And then, you know, of course, he unexpectedly won, which was a huge deal, right, and so I think there were a lot of people like me who started paying attention to things. And then, of course, in 2020, you had COVID happened, but it was Trump was a conservative, right, that's what you would hear, you know, on the, on the news and in the media and stuff.

Speaker 1: 6:52

He was a conservative, and so I'm like, okay, well, I'm a conservative then, because you know, that's everything he's talking about. I agree with that and those are my values as well, but I think over the last eight years the term conservative has been hijacked. Right Like I, I guess I would have thought of it as being, you know, in alignment with my Christian values. But now you have a lot of conservatives who are not Christian or don't share our Christian values, like I saw on Twitter the other day a conservative drag queen. Well, to me those don't go together.

Speaker 2: 7:36

I would tend to agree. So the fight over terminology right, it's always the. To be conservative means this, to be Republican means this and if you don't check every single box under that heading, you can't claim to be that heading with okay, but if you don't check any of those boxes, you can't claim it either. And so it's finding that balance between being, you know, so broad, such big tent that you have no definition, versus being so stringent with what your definition is that no one can possibly be it. You know it's that.

Speaker 2: 8:28

I wrote a blog post about this a couple of years back. You know that the political purity test you know the word, the political purity purge, is what I called. It was going to happen, and I think I wrote it right after the 2020 election because it was going to be this, this claim that you know. Oh well, see, not everyone's mega, not everyone's conservative. We need to be more moderate and everything like that. And and or you know, we need to be more conservative, more you know, whatever, and I would not see under my what I understand to be conservative in the way that I believe things. I wouldn't see where a drag queen would fit into that. However, I will say I would still talk with that. They're still a person. They're still most likely a citizen, I don't know but let's assume they're a citizen. But let's assume they're a citizen. They have an equal standing before the law, just as I do, and they have an equal political state, just as I do.

Speaker 2: 9:30

So I'm going to look at them and I'm going to say, well, first of all, I don't agree with this. Okay, so let's put that in a box and set it aside. We know we're not going to come to any agreement on it. What can we agree on and what? And can we agree on enough things that we can? We can move the, the football, in a direction we want? That is, that we agree is good, and let's work together on those things and those other things when they come up best to to not antagonize each other, you know, because, honestly, that thing is not, nine times out of ten, gonna be the thing that's really gonna cause us to butt heads. Now, if you're, if you're a drag queen that's insisting that you go do story time and that you, you know, shake your butt in front of kids and all that stuff, okay, well, well, that's, that's where we got to. We we can't have any agreement there, we can't do anything, we can't work together.

Speaker 1: 10:31

I totally agree with you on the drag queen thing, right Like, and I think the conservative drag queen is like the old school drag queens that just were, you know, gay men that like to dress up like drag queens and then perform for other adults and so, um, you know, that's different than what we're seeing today with the, you know, radical left, and so, um well, and it's just, it's the same.

Speaker 2: 10:56

You can make that same distinction between you know, like the, the old school drag queen or female impersonators but they also oftentimes actually called. You know, you could see the distinction between what that was and what you know is persistent today. You say, say that scene, see that same distinction between the people who were advocating for gay marriage who just you know, know, quote, unquote just want to be treated equal. Well, look at what that opened up. And and the distinction between people who are fighting. You know, for that um have. No, in fact, they're the one, they're in large numbers, opposing all the trans nonsense today. You know they're like wait a second.

Speaker 2: 11:45

No, that's not what we were that's not what we were fighting for, but that's it is because you didn't understand your arguments being taken to that next step and that next step in the next degree. And so now, if that drag queen wanted to run for public office, even if I agreed with 80% of what they were saying, I don't think that I could support them, because it's that other 20% that is important enough to me to say you're not my ideal candidate, and so I'm going to see if I can find another ideal candidate to run against you in a primary and let it shake out. I think what you look at Washington state, for example, what has become personal, that the open jungle primary system, is what really, in my mind, causes so much of the issue. Where you don't you don't have an actual nominating process, you don't have an actual primary, you have an election and it's a popularity contest right and so you've got people being cutthroat when it's not supposed to be a cutthroat process per se.

Speaker 2: 13:05

It's supposed to be. Well, it's supposed to be. If you're going to do a primary system, get a field of candidates present, the ideas present, why you think your ideas are better or how, why you would do a better job and let it shake out. The problem is in the jungle. Primary system it's always well, we got to get through it, we got to get in the top two, and so we've got to be cutthroat and you end up with a lot of that infighting, so and so. I have, for at least the last five years, been a big advocate of I want to get the state. I don't think taxpayers should be funding the primary process. I don't think there should be a primary process. I think political parties need to fund themselves and organize and figure out how they want to choose their nominees and they stick to that process. And if you don't like your party's process, then go with a different party yeah whenever I had that conversation with people.

Speaker 2: 14:25

A lot of times the reaction is oh, you want the, the good old boys in the back room with the cigars selecting candidates. No, I want a nominating process. I want one that's written out, that the representatives in the party discuss and agree on and follow, and I don't want them doing last minute you know, executive committee power plays. I want them to have an actual nominating process. The way, in some respects, the way that the presidential nominating process goes in theory, you know I mean in theory you have your state primary elect delegates and those delegates are bounded to nominate whoever wins the state's primary.

Speaker 2: 15:13

I'd like to remove the primary process. I'd like to see the GOP start with PCOs and you have those PCOs make up a county central committee. That county central committee has a county convention. They select delegates that go to the state convention. The state convention selects delegates that go to the national convention and they nominate a candidate. And you go all the way up up the chain and people, for some reason, they're so beholden to the way things have not been done, they find that so chaotic, and I sit there and go well, wait a second. That's republican right, that's representative government. That's what we're supposed to believe in.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Right Exactly, are set up and how things are supposed to be, because they've been indoctrinated and conditioned to think that the way things are is the only way that they can be so, and they may have like the way things are going now is the only way that they've ever known things to go, and so, to you know, revert back to a true Republican way feels very uncomfortable to them it does and it it goes against Again.

Speaker 2: 16:51

it goes against the condition Right. Every time you hear the word democracy, that's a conditioning statement, that's a. You're conditioned to think that, oh, if it's not democracy then we. A conditioning statement, that's a you're conditioned to think that, oh, if it's not democracy then we're not ourselves. It's like, well, wait a second. No, most people didn't get to vote in the early republic. Most people, you know, if you didn't have property. You know, in a lot of states you didn't get to vote. You know, democracy was the furthest thing from our founders' minds. Democratic institutions, yes. Democracy, no. What's crazy is that people think that their vote has any more or less power than it would if we didn't.

Speaker 2: 17:42

a truly represented way right but I think people are scared. I think people are scared with representative government, the idea that I'm going to choose somebody that may not do things exactly the way that I want them to be done and yeah, but how is that any different from how it is right now?

Speaker 1: 18:15

they're not usually the most ethical people, and so you know, they realize that, gosh, I've been electing these people and they haven't been representing me well, but also, at the same time, those people haven't been engaged in in the process, right Right. So they haven't been paying attention to what the issues are.

Speaker 2: 18:36

Right. And when they do pay attention, they they basically go find the top three articles on google about it and they take that as gospel truth right that's. That's as far into it as they get, because if they go any further than that, then they're going to start to feel uncomfortable. They might reevaluate their life choices, and no one has the time for that right now I don't know if you if you paid, paid any attention.

Speaker 1: 19:01

But Washington state GOP this year did their first well, I don't know if it was the first first that I was aware of where the delegates they did like a nominating committee and then they, you know, voted on their endorsed candidates for statewide races, their endorsed candidates for statewide races and, um, all of them, you know people who, uh, did not, um, appreciate the results of that process. You know called it chaos and the extreme, you know the right wing extremists, took over the party and, um, it was interesting to hear just from you know, kind of the moderate Republicans as well as media. And then I noticed in other states I know in Utah and I think it was Idaho, had similar kinds of media articles and and chatter on social media about their processes as well. So it's, it seems like it is, you know, organized chaos.

Speaker 1: 20:05

I would say I don't know that I would consider spirited debate and you know people getting excited and and that sort of thing. I don't know that I would consider that that chaos. But people are, you know, kind of going back to. People are scared of change. People want everything to be really organized and really structured Right.

Speaker 2: 20:30

They do. They want to be organized and structured. They, in reality, they want their view to predominate, and so anything that doesn't result in that is going to be, you know, attacked from them, you know. But so, looking at the why I? I I kind of kept a half open eye on what was going on there. Just the nature of my facebook page most of the people who follow it are still in washington and just started there, so kind of like with conservative ladies, washington, you know, that's where it started, so that's where a lot of your, your feedback comes from. Looking at that, you've got the number one obvious challenge how are you getting information? What are the sources that are telling you? It's chaotic, right, you know, and so you got to filter it through. Number one where, where and how are you hearing about?

Speaker 2: 21:26

and then you got to evaluate, okay, well, what's feeding that um, and who you know? And and you look at some of the interviews that were done with certain people and you say, I know that person and I know that what they're saying is probably BS, right? Or you say, well, I know that person and there's what I I'm usually good with what they say, so and they're saying something opposite of what is being said over here. So what's the real story? So that's that's the first, first and second real hurdles you got to overcome whenever you're looking at stuff like that and then that goes for every state.

Speaker 2: 22:06

you know where and how. Are you hearing about it with what the Washington GOP did this year goes back to the fact that it's an endorsement. Your own people are saying, yes, it's not a nominating process, and I see the distinction in that. A nominating process you need to win people over An endorsement process, in my opinion, is what are you doing for me? And that's the distinction that I see. A nominating process is I'm choosing somebody to be my representative, at whatever level it is, whereas an endorsement is saying yep, I like that person.

Speaker 1: 22:57

Right.

Speaker 2: 22:58

Now some would say that's a distinction without a difference. To me it's all the difference in the world and, like a lot of people reported about the Washington GOP convention and the process is it was meaningless in a lot of ways. People who value endorsements um are going to disregard it because they're going to they're, they're prominent predominantly going to be the people who criticize the process and the people who don't give a rip about endorsements well, they don't give her endorsements, right. So so it kind of went through all that, all that action for very little output, and I have a hard time believing that it was chaos, but I also have a hard time believing that it was as well run, as some people say. I'm seeing two sides of very filtered opinions. It was, you know, I'm seeing two sides of very filtered opinions, but to me it comes down to.

Speaker 2: 24:05

The fundamental flaw is that jungle primary system and as long as that's in place in that state, you're going to have the same problems over and over and over again. Now, in closed primary states, you're still going to have some of that. You're still going to have that infighting. That does happen because you are going to have a battle between much more conservative elements, much more moderate elements um, pull out rhinos. Um, you know, all vying for power but, like glenn morgan says, the future belongs to those who show up if you don't get your, and that's. That's the other thing that came down to. The washington state gop thing that really kind of crawled up my spine when I was hearing about it is you're out there beating the activism drum. You know the the gop, you're out there beating the activism room. Get involved, get involved, get involved.

Speaker 1: 25:04

Oh, but the wrong people got involved, right which I, you know, when I started conservative ladies it was, you know, 2021 and uh, when people saw how many women were in our group, they wanted to recruit PCOs out of it. And you know, when I learned about what PCOs do, and particularly the precinct strategy, I thought, well, that sounds like a good idea and a great way for these ladies to get involved in their local community and have a voice in the state party. And so we worked really hard to help recruit PCOs. And so a lot of those people that were creating the chaos at the state convention and I use all that in quotes, by the way, because I don't consider it chaos, but, you know, a lot of those people were people that I encouraged to become PCOs, you know. And so it's like we're we're we're recruiting people and saying get active, get involved, make your voice heard. Oh, but not like that.

Speaker 2: 26:07

Right and and again, I, I can see both sides.

Speaker 2: 26:13

I saw a lot of people get involved activism wise, and they had a lot of piss and vinegar, but they didn't have any patience to learn how processes work.

Speaker 2: 26:26

Yeah, um, and you know it's a fair criticism maybe the processes themselves are part of the problem, and I'm not I'm not here to say that they're not but at some level, if you're going to get in the, you have to get in the game as it exists. If you want to change it, you can't you can't stomp onto the middle of a football field and demand a rules change. You need to be a player, you need to be a coach, you need to be in the system that you want to change before you can start demanding changes of it, and I think that's where you lose people. Um, you, you get the activists very energetic and enthusiastic, wanting to get in there and make the change, and then they learn that's a long, long process and I've said it before, conservatives are not natural activists. We want to live our lives. We have interesting lives, we have worthy pursuits that have nothing to do with politics, and that's what we want to be doing.

Speaker 1: 27:40

Right.

Speaker 2: 27:41

And so that's a natural anathema to politics, to being an activist. You know, I I want to. I want to work my homestead. I want to. Every, every moment I'm not at work, I want to be working on my homestead fixing a fence, building another chicken tractor tractor, doing stuff with my family, important things in life. I don't want to give that up, to choose to go and do activism, but but it needs to happen yep you know, um, now I've I've taken a a different.

Speaker 2: 28:19

Now I've taken a different view on what effective activism can look like, and I feel like I still am being an activist within my community, because I am sowing deeper friendships, deeper relationships with my local communities, and those provide opportunities to have conversations with people that do make a difference. Activism isn't always just carrying the billboards and the signs and waving the flags and beating the streets. Activism is very much how you choose to live your life and how you you know whether or not you choose to make the most of every opportunity that presents itself, and that's that's where that's where I'm trying to put a lot of my energies into is cultivating relationships that can help to create those opportunities and go from there.

Speaker 1: 29:19

I think that's really an interesting way to put it, because, you know, I'm all I'm constantly telling people there's, you know, activism looks different for everybody, there's, you know, depending on how much time you have and what your gifts and talents are. And you know what you enjoy doing, because it's not like you said, it's not wearing a billboard or going to a rally, or, you know, standing on the corner um waving campaign signs or flags. There are a number of different ways you can do and, and, for me, the those ways that I just listed are not things I enjoy doing.

Speaker 1: 29:54

Um, as you know, I I like to be involved in in legislative and policy. I like to read the bills and, you know, write to legislators and try to influence policy that way, and, and, um, you know, share my, my findings with other people. That's that's what I've found, is what I like to do best, and sort of feel like that's what God has gifted me with. But you're really, um hitting on something that I've been thinking about a lot lately is, you know, really, your immediate community, because that's really what we need to focus on and develop develop those relationships with you know, your neighbors, and you know your city leaders, your county leaders, church leaders and all of that, because those are the people that you're going to need to band together with. You know, as we keep going forward with this nation, that is in a very unpredictable place right now.

Speaker 2: 30:56

I would say Absolutely, and so I'll put the tinfoil hat on.

Speaker 1: 31:00

And.

Speaker 2: 31:00

I think I, I think I and this is going to be such a pessimistic. I think the United States is done. I don't think it's going to continue for very much longer as it is. I don't know what it's going to morph into.

Speaker 2: 31:20

I think we're headed down a very unknown path and regardless of how any of that plays, out regardless of if I'm right about the United States, you know being done or not the just the challenges of the world are going to press down upon us to the point where one of the reasons we decided to do homestay is because we wanted to, uh, be more secure, as you know, with our, our food and how we make and how we survive. You know just how we live, and I keep trying to point people. No matter how you think the future is going to play out, there's no scenario in which local community does not play an important part, a paramount part. Honestly, and think that everything's going to pot and we're going towards Armageddon and Doomsday, you can eat your local community, aren't you?

Speaker 1: 32:29

Right.

Speaker 2: 32:30

You know, I can tell you firsthand, it's very, very difficult to be completely self-sufficient, to have everything you need all on your own property, and completely survivalist um, depending on the, the lifestyle you want to live um, and the more you add people to that, the more difficult it becomes. You know, if it's just you surviving, well, yeah, the human, human body is a capable of amazing things. The ability of an individual to survive under extraordinary circumstances is well documented through history. Add your family to that, add your friends to that, yeah, people that you care about to that it becomes harder and harder to go full-on survivalist mode in those situations. You have to, you have to um, have a wider array of resources. And so I'm developing my community, I'm developing my local relationships through my church, through my neighbors, uh, through the people who you know are in the, in the you know, wider area around me, the township, trying to get to know the local constable, the fire department. With all the time that I have between traveling every week and in Homestead, I'm trying to see if there's a way that I can do volunteer fire department work, because we have a volunteer fire department and that's part of being involved in that community, and so maybe I'm not the person who can respond to every call, but I can be the person who helps clean the stuff up when it needs to happen.

Speaker 2: 34:15

You know there's ways you can get involved in your community and you spread that load out and what you find when you do that is your circle spreads. You know, you, you start with yourself and you start with your family and and you spread that circle out. And if you've got your neighbors on your right, your neighbors on your left, and then they've got their neighbors on their right and their neighbors on their left and in, you're not necessarily talking politics, you're doing politics. You're doing the things that politics are supposed to be all about uh, building a community, building a safe, secure society, um, and coming together on the things that you have to come together on. You know, leftists all the time like to throw in our face. They say, oh, you don't like socialism. That means I mean you don't like fire departments or police departments, or because that's all socialism. No, that's not social, that's never been socialist. Right, coming together and deciding to do things as a larger community is not socialism.

Speaker 2: 35:17

That's, that's just, that's human nature right you know and you can, you can band together and do things collectively without being a collectivist. You know, and that's what I want to encourage people to do, and that's the level of activism that I think is really easy to get into, because you're not even really being an activist, you're just living your life. You're just doing the things that you would normally be doing, things that normally bring you joy with other people, and you're sharing your lives with them and you're sharing your values with them. And when you do that, and you make it personal in that connection, then when stuff really hits the fan and you need to make hard decisions, you already know where each other's coming from, and so, if there, is that bond and respect with each other, that even if you do disagree on something you have that mutual respect, that it's all okay, but you know you can work past it.

Speaker 2: 36:19

Right, I was just going to say that that if you even do have disagreements, it's not I hate you, you're an immoral person, it's a OK. Well, we're not seeing eye to eye on this and that's OK. We will revisit it at another time or we'll continue to talk about because you built up everything else behind it to say, you know, it's actually kind of fortuitous. We're having this conversation today. I took the opportunity, while I was here I'm in New Jersey right now with my work and about an hour away was a theater I worked for before I joined the Navy, so I drove out there to see, you know, to visit it and see if anyone was still around. And the director was still there, and he and I could not be more polar opposites, especially these days, um, as far as politics and you know. But we were still able to have a good conversation, have, enjoy actually seeing each other and we even could talk a little bit of politics. And, even though we're diametrically opposed on some certain, some really key issues, there was never an I hate you. There was never, uh, you're evil. There was never, uh, any viciousness. It was. I can't believe you think that. Oh well, come here, give me a hug Right and we and we parted on good terms.

Speaker 2: 37:49

Now he did ask me you know, you know if I was on Facebook? And I said you know I love you, stan, but I don't think it's a good idea that we'd be friends on Facebook. He says, why is it? I just don't think it's a good idea that we raise each other's blood pressure like that all day, every day. And he said, oh, you're probably right. Okay, well, come back and visit in another 20 years and okay, great so, but I mean it's, it's stuff like that when you build and I was listening to another podcast today and they were talking about this idea too uh, you know people on the left.

Speaker 2: 38:30

They have, you know, they care about feelings. How do I feel about something and do I care about something? And so I think you can reach people who are predisposed that you and you don't have to say are predisposed that you don't have to say, oh, I care about that, you don't have to, you know, hang a rainbow flag or display, you know, an equal sign or any of that. You just reach out to them and share life, experiences, beings. Then, when you do come to those points where you have friction, you see the humanity in the other person and it makes it really hard to call them, even when that happens when you have a shared connection me or, and stuff over the years really hurtful to me because I'm still going. Really you're gonna take all everything else that we went through, everything else that we shared, and you're just gonna wad that up and throw that away because we're having an argument 3 000 miles away on facebook yeah, I, you know that that's happened to me a lot as well over the last eight years.

Speaker 1: 39:47

One of the saying that I have come to say often is it's not personal, it's politics, and like to. What that means to me is you know, I think about this mostly with elected is you know I think about this mostly with elected officials? Is you know, because I'm trying to build a relationship with them but I'm not going to agree with them on every policy. And if I don't agree with them on a policy, it doesn't mean I don't like them as a person. But sometimes I feel like in in my exchanges with, whether it's a politician or just another, you know, citizen like myself, it's if I don't agree with you, I must not like you. You know, and and we've gotten to that place where we have to agree, if we're going to like each other, we have to agree with everything, and that's just not. That's not how it works and it's okay to not.

Speaker 1: 40:43

And you and I don't agree on everything, but we agree on a lot of things and you know, if we don't, you know if we disagree, you know, just like you said, we have a mutual respect, that you know we're not going to hate each other or, you know, think the other is evil if, if we don't see eye to eye on something and, um, I just wish that you know, and and I see it a lot here in Southwest Florida, you know, in in it's different than in Washington, but it's it's the same, right, cause here it's red, so you've got like the, you know the bright red, and then you've got the crimson, and then you've got the, you know, blood red, whatever you've got just these different shades of red and um, you know they're just they're, they're not nice to each other and it's scary, quite frankly, because I'm like we're all, we're all on the same team, we all want American values and um, so I think you know there's so much value in what you're saying about.

Speaker 1: 41:42

You know, meet your neighbor, get out there and talk to them and, you know, build a relationship so that, when you know the rough times come whether it's just a disagreement or it's a literally a rough time in society, rougher than now that you guys can work together now that you guys can work together, yeah, and and kind of circle us back to what we started with.

Speaker 2: 42:12

You get people involved activism and you get people um, you know, who decide to become pcos or decide to get involved in formal party politics in some measure, um, and I think you do genuinely get you know, say, 98% of people showing up wanting to find that common ground and wanting to move that football in the right direction. Unfortunately, there's that 2%. There's that 2% who show up with very nefarious ulterior motives, personal in nature. Some of it's just personal vendetta. They just like to cause trouble. Some of it is they want to use this to get rich. Some of this is they have a personal agenda that they want to use this to get rich. Some of this is they want to have a personal agenda that they want to advance. And it's really unfortunate. But I see over and over again that 2% commands, you know, damn near 50% of every meeting, every encounter that I see in that organized effort. And that's really what I was seeing and why I left and why I stopped getting involved in the formal party politics.

Speaker 2: 43:39

I've gotten to the point now where I can almost see it a mile away. I can almost walk into a room and point out it's like you're the grifter, you're the grifter, you're, you know, and just be like all right, I. There's no point in me coming here because no one wants to get anything done. You guys want to do, you, you want to do whatever it is you want to do to make yourself feel important and lose. And OK, I don't need to be a part of that. I don't need to waste my time. I'm going to go pick up my girls at gymnastics.

Speaker 1: 44:12

Yeah, and I want to point out for the people listening, you were back in Washington. You were a huge activist. You were probably one of the, you know, most most active activists. I mean you had huge rallies at the Capitol, you did these big events. You were a huge voice for the conservative movement and you know. So you have been, you've been around and you've done the things and you've been a PCO and you've been involved in the party.

Speaker 1: 44:45

And that was one of the reasons I wanted us to have this conversation is because you're sort of a year ahead of me in um, in your well, a little more than a year in your exodus from Washington, but also sort of uh, reframing your role as an activist. And you know, I've been discouraged by what I watch around the country, what I see here locally in Florida, what I watch back home in Washington, and I think that I'm not alone. And so I want people. I don't want people to get discouraged and throw up their hands and tune it all out. I want them to have other and throw up their hands and tune it all out. I want them to have other ways to be an activist. And I think you've given some really good, good advice and ideas here.

Speaker 2: 45:35

Well, I appreciate that and I guess I'll share on that note. Maybe a little difficult for people to understand I'm a recovering alcohol addict. I've got almost 14 years of sobriety and one of the things that I've learned and this isn't exclusive to addiction, although you see it a lot there but you see it in various professions as well, especially in the military the people who are vocal the most tend to be the people with either the least experience in whatever it is or they're the worst at it, the people who are silent or withdrawn. They're the ones who know something, they're the ones who have experienced it and get it. Now I'm not saying that to say that I'm one of the. With alcoholism I am. I'm definitely one of those. I don't speak about it a lot because it's kind of one of those when you know, you know and you don't need to speak about it, except AA means.

Speaker 2: 46:54

But with politics I guess that would be another encouragement for me to, like you were saying, be informed, know what's going on, but you don't necessarily have to be out there waving the flag about it. Be informed enough to have the conversation with the person that's in front of you. And maybe that's the challenge you have is just work on the courage to have those conversations, bring up the uncomfortable ones or, when the uncomfortable ones present themselves, have the courage to be like well, that's not true, or that you know. Let me give you my perspective, because I think that level of activism will do far more to change people's minds and their voting habits than waving banners, speaking, you know, on television, on the radio, eating podcasts, you know. One on one, personal conversations with people Are the way to go, and so that's just. That's a thought that came to my head is just, the people who are out there, being the most flamboyant, the most rambunctious, tend to be the ones that I look at with the most skeptics.

Speaker 2: 48:22

And those people typically aren't.

Speaker 1: 48:24

Those people typically aren't like, effective in their community, right, they're loud in the echo chamber, but they're not out in the community.

Speaker 1: 48:33

And you know, one of the things I've been doing is, you know, with policy and educating people about policy so that they understand, you know, these laws that they're living under, or the proposed laws that they're going to live under, and there's a lot of these policies that are that concern all citizens, regardless of your political affiliation, that you can talk to your neighbor or another parent at the, you know, soccer game or whatever, and it's not a polar. You know, you can choose non-polarizing issues to talk to people about and and, just, you know, educate, educate other citizens and and use your voice. And, of course, um, you know we need to be, we need to be vocal about the issues that are polarizing because, you know, as far as I'm concerned, our children should be our biggest um and this is a whole other podcast topic but our children should be our biggest issue, our biggest focus right now. Um, you know, because if we, if we can't save this, the, these kids in this generation, um, you know, it's all it, nothing else matters really, so it yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2: 49:47

Well, like you said, this is a whole nother podcast it's. It's one of those things of I I cannot.

Speaker 1: 49:55

I cannot implore people enough get your kids out of government schools yeah and tyler and his wife are homeschooling their daughters and um yeah, save I, that's save america. Homeschool your kids.

Speaker 2: 50:08

Yeah, or find, and you can do it. Community too. Homeschooling does not have to be, alone.

Speaker 2: 50:15

There's lots of homeschool support groups. A lot of communities have homeschool co-ops that you can join where you share that load around and stuff. The point is get them out of the government indoctrination, get them out of that government pipeline. Private school is still a good, viable option. Find a good Christian private school, but don't let your guard down Right, because there's a whole big difference between going to a conservative Lutheran, christian school versus going to a whacked out Methodist Christian school these days, right, completely.

Speaker 1: 50:54

Yeah, we'll have to do another episode just on education and kids and what's going on with the kids.

Speaker 2: 51:01

Cause you guys are all of the department of education there. Yeah, exactly, I am for that.

Speaker 1: 51:08

Who's is that? Thomas Massey, that's, he actually has a bill to abolish the Department of Education, which I support that 100 percent.

Speaker 2: 51:16

But to put a good button on what we've been talking about. Thomas Massey is a great example of someone where I do not agree with everything he does. I did not agree, and this might be a point where you and I have some disagreement I didn't know where you're going with him joining in that latest kick push to kick speaker johnson off.

Speaker 2: 51:39

Thought it was completely wrong, but he's so right on other things ran paul's the same same way oh, I thought you were going to bring up the tiktok bill oh well, there's the tiktok bill too, but I mean, but those are good examples of we don't have to agree, right to say you're still a great representative, thomas massey, you're still one of the best representatives that are out there, because on so many things you're spot on. Ran paul, same way I love him as a senator. I don't agree with everything that he wants to do. I don't agree with his stance on Israel, but everything else. But at least it'll logically understand what his position on Israel is and where it comes from, and I can respect that. Yeah, I don't agree with it, but I can say, okay, well, that's at least a principled position. I don't agree with it but I can say, okay, well, that's at least a principled position. What's Chuck Schumer's principled position on anything?

Speaker 1: 52:34

He has none. He just does what he's supposed to do. Well, this was a good conversation. It was good to get back with you. It's been a few minutes since we've done a podcast together and I have a couple other topics on my list to talk with you about, so hopefully we can do this again soon and kick out a couple more episodes and any last words that you have for you. You gave a lot of great like advice and tips and ways people can get involved.

Speaker 2: 53:07

Oh, I would just say'll just say follow our YouTube channel for our homestead.

Speaker 1: 53:13

I'll drop that in the comments. I'm going to pull up that article you talked about and I'm going to drop that in too.

Speaker 2: 53:21

I'm not doing that just for self-aggrandizement. It's a lot of things we're doing in that. A lot of things we talk about, we put into practice there, you know, and we're we're making, we're building our community, starting with our family and growing out, and and that's exactly how I mean. If you really want to get back to the history of our country and how it got started, that's it. That's it the history of our country and how it got started, that's it. That's it. Families seeking freedom coming here to start brand new lives in the wilderness, cutting through, surviving, building community, and those communities grew into towns. Those towns grew into counties. Those counties grew into states that formed our country, and so maybe we have to do that all over again. The nice thing is we don't have to move anywhere to do it.

Speaker 1: 54:14

You can start where you're at, yeah, and even if people aren't, you know on a huge piece of property, if they're out in the suburbs, you know in a you know subdivision or something. There's something you can do and at least you know if you if you can't, you know you can at least watch for entertainment and maybe get some inspiration and ideas and maybe you'll up and move like Tyler and his family did. You never know.

Speaker 2: 54:37

Yeah, Lots of good land down here but only if you're conservative, if you're leftist, whacked out. Go to California they they want you out there.

Speaker 1: 54:46

That's what. I say to people coming to Florida only conservatives, only conservatives. So thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you joining me today.

Speaker 2: 55:00

Well, thank you, Julie.

Speaker 1: 55:01

Thanks for having me always, and it's great seeing you and talking to you and let's do it again you as well. We'll do it again soon. I hope you enjoyed our conversation today and I hope that you will take some of these tips and put them into action, and there's so many different ways that we can be an activist and I hope that we were able to give you some creative ideas that might help you make a difference in your local community. Please do share this with your friends and subscribe to the podcast, and if you have any tips or ideas that you would like to send in, all of my contact information is in the description of this episode. I'd love to hear from you and I look forward to chatting with you again next time.