Fortitude: American Resilience | Dan Crenshaw | EP 214

This episode was recorded on September 30, 2021.

Congressman Dan Crenshaw and I discuss the fallout of withdrawing from Afghanistan and the details of the 20-plus-year conflict. We talk about life as a US congressman and his experience as a US Navy SEAL. About social media and politics–especially in relation to modern conservatism. And about climate change. On that note, we also examined Dan’s recently-published ”Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage.”

Dan is a retired Navy SEAL with five deployments overseas during the Afghan and Iraq wars. While in Afghanistan, an IED blast led to Dan losing his right eye. Crenshaw was elected to Congress in 2018, where he serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee (broadest jurisdiction out of all legislative committees). Dan also serves on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

Find more Dan Crenshaw: @DanCrenshawTX

Or on his website

Check out "Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage":

[00:00] Intro

[02:30] Dan Crenshaw explains the situation in Afghanistan over the last 20 years

[4:15] “We decided that the Taliban should no longer be in control of Afghanistan. That was day one” - Dan Crenshaw

[9:00] Exploring the details of the new Taliban rule

[11:45] “I come from the Special Ops community. I also come from the intelligence community. You have to work with shady characters sometimes but this wasn’t one of those cases, this was a time to put your foot down and refuse to let this happen” - Dan Crenshaw

[13:00] Crenshaw talks about all the common-sense failure of the planned withdrawal and the politics that made a reasonable exit impossible

[13:45] “Do you know what ‘slogan’ means? It's from Welsh. It literally means ‘battle cry of the dead’” - Jordan Peterson

[16:30] The nature of an endless war against the Taliban

[20:45] Life as a US Congressman

[26:25] “The Majority rules absolutely in the House. Nancy Pelosi only has a 4-vote majority and they just kick our buts all the time. We [Republicans] have no power” - Dan Crenshaw

[32:30] Social media in politics

[34:45] “The job of a representative is to explain things [clearly]” - Dan Crenshaw

[37:00] How are conservatives engaging with the youth? What’s the current message?

[50:00] Jordan outlines what he sees and the inherent diversity in the political world as per human psychology

[51:30] “Well, you let these diverse people be free so they can have ideas that might be appropriate for the next problem and then you let them talk, which is why free speech is so important.” - Jordan Peterson

[54:30] The complexity of climate change politics. Capitalism and the free market as testing grounds for what’s actually valuable. Highlighting the anti-capitalist sentiments that seem to come mixed with climate change beliefs, making solutions like nuclear power less likely

[1:03:00] “I'm much more afraid of the people dealing with climate change than of climate change itself” - Jordan Peterson

[1:13:30] “Cheap energy means wealth–directly, with virtually no intermediation” - Jordan Peterson

[1:14:00] Overview of new proposed climate change legislation in the US. Pros and cons of the infrastructure project. How Biden’s economics will hit business in the upcoming years, according to Crenshaw

[1:26:00] On Crenshaw’s book Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage

[1:39:00] Wrapping up

#Politics #Conservatism #Republican #NavySEALs #Congress

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