"I never want to see a child ever run away from our own government ever again"

Part of my theory of change is to share the words white men need to hear, spoken by white men. This is because creating defections is crucial to stopping authoritarianism and democratic backsliding. This is because almost everyone else is already off the Trump train.

Also, I want to help people stay angry and hopeful. And how could you not be after watching this guy? He’s dead on. And if you’ve read this far, you probably sync almost entirely with his morality. And that might be a surprise to you based on how he presents, because you know the numbers of what MAGA looks like.

What does a good man do?

In this video, there’s a subtle yet strong appeal to the right’s strict father mindset about the duty of the strict father, as explained by George Lakoff, to protect children, putting the Trump regime exactly at odds with how their model tells them the world should behave. 

Here’s how that worldview looks if you need a reminder:

• God above Man

• Man above Nature

• The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak)

• The Rich above the Poor

• Employers above Employees

• Adults above Children

• Western culture above other cultures

• America above other countries

• Men above Women

• Whites above Nonwhites

• Christians above non-Christians

• Straights above Gays

It’s pretty clear. The government shouldn’t hunt children, not children who are doing what the strict daddy expects, like dutifully going to school.

Now, of course, this gets complicated when you project race into it, which he never does. If this is about maintaining the hierarchy of white, all, you could see how a right-winger would argue this is about protecting “the kids, the women…” Only that’s not what is being expressed here. Instead, he’s invoking a nurturing parent model to draw more like-minded others into the job we must all do: protect the kids from those who have usurped the proper order, which the regime has done. And does. And will do worse as they fill concentration camps with even more children who just want to go to school.

How care for kids gets weaponized

You could easily imagine some white guy—not this one, of course—but with his same hat and demographics, giving a speech like this in 2024 against trans athletes in high school sports. And he might even be equally passionate—as if a trans boy wanting to play lacrosse is the greatest and possibly only threat kids in America face, except for Toni Morrison or The Diary of Anne Frank.

And if you saw him ranting about the sanctity of girls’ sports, you’d wonder how he could be so passionate about what is entirely a constructed moral panic, given that we know that it’s almost entirely bullshit. We know that differences between students are best handled by local schools, educators, and parents. And we know that because they were handling it just fine until the far white right decided to weaponize the way trans people disrupt typical hierarchies, to no actual harm except, perhaps, to themselves. And you would have to know that, of course, he’d be likely to spew some garbage about the danger of one of the most bullied groups in America to everyone, as Republicans gut kids’ schools, health care, food stamps, planet, and everything else that will make life better for 99% of them.

Why might this hypothetical bro spew hate? Because that’s what he heard from the media and people around him. And as he started to repeat it, everyone around him probably lit up because they got the same BS served to their lobes directly.

You can’t avoid Trump’s dogshit

This speaks to a topic I keep returning to and will eventually write about in depth: how Trump's being in power temporarily solves many of the Democrats’ immediate problems communicating through the media.

You know by now that the right wing has built up a vast media machine across all domains, as the forces of ill and money have effectively destroyed journalism.

That has led to an information environment where 20-30% of us seek news that primarily sends our existing worldviews, Nurturant parent or Strict Father, into overdrive. And then we try to share this with our friends and feed, because we know they’re like-minded and/or need it. Meanwhile, most Americans actively avoid the news; they only get it from friends, family, and feeds. This is obviously something the right loves because you know an uninformed populace is much easier to loot. And they especially loved it in 2024 when Trump won low-information voters handily.

And now we know that this worm has turned. Those voters are now turning on Trump.

Several factors feed this flip. Foremost? Trump is a dogshit president. So even people who avoid the news are hearing that a lot, even if they happen to come across media that professes his greatness. But also, these are people, fundamentally, who don’t want to know who the president is! They’d rather not think about it. Trump won’t let them. And since he’s constantly on their minds, asserting his centrality, he becomes the target of all their angst and frustration with America in 2026. And there is so much to be frustrated about. The cost of anything—especially being a good parent—grows constantly as daycares, schools, camps, health insurance, and college swell into burdens past generations didn’t have to contend with. Plus, we have masked goons chasing our kids if we’re unlikely and mass shooter drills for everyone else.

Trump wants to make all of that worse. And he can’t even hide it. He’s too proud.

So what do we do?

Everything we can. We persuade ourselves and everyone who is already with us to do more. And we try to win everyone else over.

But here’s what this video reminds us: We will never be as persuasive as the horrors committed by this regime revealed through a moral lens. And, sadly, few ways to spread that are better than a white man who looks like he’s a strict father in training putting it in the moral terms he could not ignore.

So let’s share it. And make some more of this guy.

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