Join Robert and Dave on this special political series to help shake ourselves out of a state of denial and electrify ourselves into action to enable sane voices to prevail in this upcoming election. Most Americans are in a state of shock because of Trump and the MAGA faction proliferating corruption and lies. Robert and Dave make a clear distinction that MAGA Republicans are seemingly caught up in their unconscious anger or are simply supporting a dominating power grab. The vast majority of Republicans and Independents are good human beings and this podcast is in support of you and asking you to see what’s needed to support the quality of life for you and your children’s future.
Many people have been misguided to operate from gut feelings that are frequently the source of denial. Robert too had a gut feeling early on about Trump. He wanted him to be someone that stirred up both the Democratic and Republican parties. However, he was rooting for somebody he wasn’t. Looking at that gut feeling, he realized that what Trump was saying revealed a character disorder that was so severe it was Hitlerian. He was rooting for something that was a reflection of his stored frustration and anger throughout his life of wanting politics to be sane. These gut feelings misguide us in so many areas that it bears consideration to examine your own gut feelings and say, is this really true? It is so outrageous to imagine the US allying with Putin and North Korea but this is the reality we face if Trump and his supporters move into power. It is easy to want to tune out or withdraw. Alternatively, we need to get inspired, involved, vote, and donate because our very existence depends on it. This is not an election you can sit out.
Mentioned in this episode
The Global Bridge Foundation
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Transcript
Announcer: (00:00)
The Missing Conversation, Special Political Series, Part One.
Robert Strock: (00:04)
In this partisan time, so many elections are so close that literally every vote matters. Today we’ll start to introduce the massive importance of each of us facing reality about the immense danger facing us in this election and beyond, and the potential of Independents, mainstream Republicans, and passive Democrats most vitally getting involved, including finding their voice through voting.
Announcer: (00:34)
In this podcast, we will propose critical new strategies to address world issues, including homelessness, immigration, amongst several others, and making a connection to how our individual psychology contributes and can help transform the dangers that we face. We will break from traditional thinking. As we look at our challenges from a freer and more independent point of view, your host Robert Strock has had 45 years of experience as a psychotherapist author and humanitarian, and has developed a unique approach to communication, contemplation and inquiry born from working on his own challenges.
Robert Strock: (01:13)
A very warm and passionate welcome back to The Missing Conversation. In about a month, we’re gonna have one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, perhaps aside from the rejection of Trump and the election of Joe Biden in 2020. The goal of these next few missing conversations will be to discuss the importance of doing whatever you can to not only vote but help to get out the vote in this partisan time. So many elections are so close that literally every vote matters, supporting organizations directly or indirectly too. Today we’ll start to introduce the massive importance of each of us facing reality that we will reveal the details we perceive about the immense danger facing us in this election and beyond with the MAGA Republicans and the potential of Independents, mainstream Republicans and passive Democrats most vitally getting involved, including finding their own voice through voting. Like to start out by introducing Dave, my partner at the Global Bridge Foundation and my best friend for over 50 years.
Dave: (02:30)
Robert, thank you. I, without delay, just wanna jump right in.
Robert Strock: (02:34)
So, I wanna give what might amount to a disclaimer that my passion might very well sound like anger. And if you just hear my tone, it’s very intense, but I want you to understand that it’s really rooted in a plea for our shared love of democracy and our shared love of the part of America that is the hope for democracy. So I’m asking you to assume the goodwill and the message whether you are a Democrat, whether you’re a Republican, whether you’re an Independent, there’s a plea for you to hear the sincerity of the urge that it lives inside all of us and that the passion not be misheard as anger but heard as a passionate plea to really support democracy not only for a country but for the world as well. So this is not only about being a Democrat, it’s about seeing clearly enough, but seeing as we will attempt to make clear, it’s a vote to allow our very way of life to continue to exist.
Robert Strock: (03:45)
We’re really looking at seeing that our very way of living is being threatened. Have any of us really let in that our very way of quality of life is profoundly threatened? It’s almost unfathomable, even after all we’ve been through, all we’ve seen, all that looks like comic books and horror stories. Most of us are in a state of shock and it’s important to recognize that you’re in a state of shock. I’m in a state of shock and that we shake ourselves out of it and we need to electrify ourselves into action. This is about democracy and breaking free from the denial and fairytale stories that we implore you, and all of us, to get involved. This is really because of the Trump MAGA domination of the GOP that this is such a crucial time. Trump’s corruption, lies, especially the big lie and the 2020 election being fraudulent, and authoritarian ambitions, which are very well documented.
Robert Strock: (04:57)
I wanna make it very clear, and both Dave and I wanna make it very clear, that we are making a big distinction between MAGA Republicans and Republicans. There are plenty, the vast majority even of Republicans that are good quality human beings, and we’re talking about the 20 to 25% of hardcore MAGA Republicans that seemingly are caught up in their unconscious, or are simply supporting a dominating power grab. And so please hear this, those of you that are Republicans, that this is in support of you and support of your quality of life and the quality of life for your children.
Dave: (05:44)
Yeah, I think you’re underestimating, I think it’s more like, um, over 50%, maybe as much as two thirds of people that identify as Republicans. That number is larger is because a lot of people that were identifying themselves as Republicans are now identifying themselves as Independents. And so it is a scary time. It’s as much turning away and being in denial, as it is shock. I wanna scream out loud throughout this entire podcast.
Robert Strock: (06:16)
Go for it.
Dave: (06:17)
I just did, and I will, I’ll continue to.
Robert Strock: (06:20)
All right. The reason why I say 20% is because I am really assuming that there are a lot of people that are acting in a certain way but have a private awareness that they realize that a part of Trump is insane and are making an appeal to those that are there that appear to be hardcore MAGA Republicans, but actually they have at least some kind of fleeting awareness. So making an appeal to there, it doesn’t matter, I wanna assume the larger percentage possible of people that are reachable. So relating to those of you that are asking for proof that Biden won the election or believe he didn’t, and even with the enormous amount of Republican judges that voted against fraud in 60 plus cases he brought. Of course there was also Barr who validated that the election was fair, and again, more denial and denial.
Robert Strock: (07:20)
Who of you can deny that Barr was hardcore in support of Trump and even he was someone that would not go along with it cuz he found a level of integrity, which kind of furthers what I was saying earlier. There are a lot of people that appear to be hardcore MAGA Republicans but they know somewhere, somewhere in their semi-conscious, they have a fleeting awareness this guy could be insane, this guy could be a dictator, this guy could end our democracy. Can you see that and say that to your friends, and your friends of friends, and spread the word to others and be a mouthpiece to get others to vote and act. Based on pictures and innuendo, conspiracies, which is all the MAGA conspiracy theories have. The news that they give is based on as they would say, fake news, and so much of our fate is in jeopardy.
Robert Strock: (08:16)
They operate from gut feelings that are so frequently the source of so much denial. It’s like our relationship to money and death and power and control. It’s all gut feelings. There isn’t a witness, there isn’t a seeing that what is going to serve our world to survive. It’s like going into the past and seeing the source of war and seeing how much anger is out of control, and allowing ourselves to see that we can’t operate from these gut feelings anymore. Even if your gut feelings are for Trump, you’ve got to take a look at a lot of the things that we will be presenting to you, and will be buried in global warming, and will be in threat of nuclear war, time and time again. And also a loss of our democracy.
Dave: (09:06)
I think it’s important to elaborate, if you would, a little bit on gut feeling. Gut feeling is something, it’s a term that people also honor getting in touch with. It does have its place and I don’t think you mean it in that way.
Robert Strock: (09:21)
So many people have been misguided and frankly I think it started in the sixties where gut feelings were viewed as the truth. But I’m talking about gut feelings that are just emotional reactions that—I feel it in my gut—as if that’s some kind of sacred place, as if that’s some source of wisdom, and that is the source at this point of moving us toward the death of our democracy. They have a gut feeling about Trump. I actually will confess in the early days before Trump got elected, I had a gut feeling that I wanted Trump to be someone that was gonna stir up both the Democratic party and the Republican party, and I was rooting for him to be somebody that he wasn’t. And then I looked at that gut feeling and I realized after I heard what he was really saying that he was really clinically having a character disorder that was so severe that it was Hitlerian. That it was, it was like Idi Amin, it was like rooting for something that was a reflection of my stored frustration and anger throughout my life of wanting politics to be sane.
Robert Strock: (10:32)
And so this gut feeling misguides us in so many areas that you’ve got to look at your gut feelings and say, is this really true? And not allow yourself to go with what we’ll be talking about a lot later, which is that many of our gut feelings need to be looked at with our clear awareness and say, is this based on the truth? Trump is a would-be Putin. Didn’t you see in the meeting with Putin in Helsinki when he was questioning the intelligence agencies about whether there was interference with the elections. Those famous words, “I don’t see why he would,” and implying lie. Are you kidding me? As it’s so outrageous that we can tune out, withdraw, or, or that we can’t be inspired and get involved. Vote, give time, and if we have money, money. It’s our whole life, that almost all of us have known, that is in jeopardy.
Robert Strock: (11:34)
How many of you saw this when he acted like he was a unintelligent four-year-old? I can’t see any reason why he would lie; I can’t see any reason why the intelligence agencies would be telling the truth. Only because that’s their whole job, and it’s what we’ve relied on throughout our country’s history, and it’s led us to be the beacon of light for the world, even with our imperfections. Even more extreme, the support of the neo-Nazis and their racism on top of it, the history of racism, misogyny, and law-breaking on an industrial scale by President Trump. The examples are so numerous and the most current are the subject of investigations into January 6th—the election fraud by Trump with the fake electors, the taking of classified and other documents, and the sheer magnitude of the corrupt Trump organization that’s existed way beyond his presidency and all the way through his father’s life.
Robert Strock: (12:41)
The rationalizations of the soft end of the MAGA party, who I’ve heard think like this, this is an appeal to you. I don’t like a lot of things he says, but I like his policies. Now I’ve heard that from the most, let’s say open end of the MAGA party because I do have some people that I’ll get into later that are a part of my life that live there, and they rationalize by saying this: No, I don’t really like his attitudes, I don’t like the way he appears, I don’t like that he lies, but I like his policies. Well, they’re overlooking the insanity that he’s only interested in himself and taking down the democracy. You can only see how much he’s gone after almost every agent, state department, and we’ll get into it more later. How he’s torn down the fabric of our society and the leading edge of who we are as America through this point in time and throughout our history.
Dave: (13:41)
I just want to be really clear with you about this one point and it hearkens back to the beginning of this episode. The audience we’re speaking to today, and as I hear what you’re saying and it so resonates, the people that have what you call before the gut feeling, the people that identify as “MAGA Republicans” are not our audience. There may be that sliver of people that have not become Independents, that are people that are Republicans that are tolerant, that are saying, I’m gonna vote Republican regardless. There is that narrow sliver. But really what we’re trying to do, what I believe I’m trying to do, is activate people. Activate people to get out there, activate people that are that sliver of Republicans, are Independents, are Democrats that are apathetic, get them off their butts and get myself off my butt to do what’s possible, to get out there to vote, to make a difference so that we don’t have to go down this road.
Robert Strock: (14:43)
What you’re saying makes me wanna scream too; I mean it’s like I could primally scream. It’s like I look at his love letters with Kim Jong Un. Who among you that’s listening right now, how can you possibly tolerate it? This guy’s got concentration camps, this guy is a Hitler, and he’s talking about love letters. How is that not enough? How is not that not an indicator that we are a part of, whoever is a part of supporting Trump, is a part of supporting King Jong Un. He’s claiming to be in love with him. He’s living as a delusional four-year-old, and his ongoing obsession with pleasing Putin. His authoritarian drives are so apparent, culminating in what we see Putin doing now in Ukraine with war crimes, annexations that are completely bogus, and threats of nuclear war. Can you pause and take that in?
Robert Strock: (15:41)
Threats of nuclear war, intimidating the world, not caring at all about the impact of, if he makes threats doesn’t that lead to others making threats of nuclear war? Doesn’t that mean our whole world is endangered when he claims annexation, when more than half the people aren’t for Russia, significantly more people than half are not rooting for Russia? Can you not see the protests? Is that one of those things that you say, well I don’t really agree with it but I still like his policies. Yeah, he may make you more money that’s that’s the one thing he may do for rich people. But beyond that, he is in it for himself. He’s into making money, he’s into being stronger and more in power than Putin. He’s into being stronger and more in power than Kim Jong Un. Is that not obvious to you? It obviously is not obvious to you, but this show is an attempt to try to make it more obvious to you,
Robert Strock: (16:39)
and as Dave said, more obvious to the passive Democrats. This is not an election that you can sit out. If Trump were president, as all MAGA Republicans and many other Republicans think it should be the case now and later, he’d be fully on board with Putin. Is that not obvious to you by how much he’s kissed his ass? Is that not obvious? How can he dare to criticize? How can any Republicans even have the gall to criticize Biden for not doing enough when they would be doing the exact opposite? Just pause and think about it. If Trump were president right now, he would be supporting Putin. He would be passive. He would be talking about how well he is just trying to get back what he had originally with original USSR. He wouldn’t be going after him, and the rest of the world wouldn’t be able to support it as much, and we’d be in a danger of setting off a trend toward nuclear powers that were dominant, taking over lands that they want to grab.
Robert Strock: (17:49)
If Biden were not there, really heroically in getting strength as he’s gone along, supporting the militarization and the defensive abilities of Ukraine, we would be fucked. Hearken back to a few, just a few things that he has said. Have you let that in that Ukraine would be the first and then there would be the enticement for more, than China, and other rogue powers that have nuclear weapons. It really is like the appeasement of the second world war’s beginning. Can you really let that in? And if that doesn’t light fire in your belly, then you honestly are a part of someone that’s supporting. If you don’t get out there and vote—every single person that’s hearing this and beyond—if we aren’t voting in this election, we are doing our part in supporting a Nazi Germany in the formation.
Robert Strock: (18:45)
Tucker Carlson in his statements, “Why is it disloyal side with Putin versus Zelensky? The party of Putin taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions, it’s a pathetic display by Zelensky.” It’s important for all of us to watch Fox News to see how they portray the lie in all the denials. Tucker Carlson is basically saying that Putin is a better guy than Zelensky. Again, there’s a denial of all the deaths that are being created by Putin. There’s all this unconscious anger and power, which I wanna make clear that one of the things that isn’t understood psychologically, that in these people that are supporting Putin and are supporting Trump and all the MAGA Republicans, are filled with unconscious anger, which is part of what I was referring to at the beginning before Trump really formally announced who he was. And I have to acknowledge I didn’t really know Trump’s history when a part of me was rooting for him before the elections.
Robert Strock: (19:53)
And what I realized is I have a lot of anger in me too. I’m angry that there’s been war throughout history. I’m angry at that our politicians aren’t following common sense. I’m angry that our politicians and Democrats and Republicans are not using their own money to help the poor. That we as Americans are not doing that. I have plenty of anger. That anger goes into the unconscious and I fully believe that you need to understand that what’s happening in the unconscious of MAGA Republicans, so for that matter all dictators that have ever lived throughout history, is a blind anger that forms as a philosophy and a rationalization that the world would be better off if I lead, cuz I know better than anyone. As Trump said, I know better than the Generals I know better than the State Department, I know better than everyone.
Robert Strock: (20:49)
I’m the best person to run the world, I’m the one that should be in control, the Attorney General should be my attorney. I should be supported because I’m the visionary of the world, I’m here to save the world. These blind instincts or these gut feelings are transferred to Trump and the mega Republicans that are extreme as being a power broker that will completely break up our system and our way of living. As he said, no one can lead like me. I own the Supreme Court, I own the CIA, I own the Department of Justice, I own the intelligence community. Or if I don’t own them, I should own them. I should be in charge because I know better than they.
Dave: (21:35)
Just want to express a view to put this in a context and the context is cult. The context is blind belief. The euphemism for that is gut feeling, but really it’s blind belief. It’s saying, okay, I’m seeding my decision making, I’m seeding my discrimination of what’s right, of what’s wrong, of what makes sense to this—in this case megalomaniac to this narcissist, which is what’s going on here.
Robert Strock: (22:09)
I so appreciate the reference to cult. And frankly, it’s the biggest cult in the history of mankind along with Stalin and Lenin and Genghis Khan. This is one of the biggest power grabs of all time. He will, I fully believe he will start to wanna own the world. He will start to conspire with other power leaders like Putin and like Kim Jong Un. Although he will wanna be the leader, he will conspire with them. Our very way of life in this world will be a nuclear threat at every step of the way. As he said to conservative podcaster, Buck Sexton, “This is genius,” upon seeing news that Putin had declared the independence of two eastern regions of Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk and mobilized troops to the region. Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So I ask you as we’re winding up this first episode to feel the passion in your belly and to question your belly and your gut feelings, and look and see that if we are headed in this direction, we are headed to the end of democracy on this planet.
Robert Strock: (23:36)
The world cannot survive the United States going down. So I’m asking you to take this fire in your belly, replace the other gut feelings if they’re there, and really go out and not only vote but also get involved for the rest of your life. This is a big part of the purpose of our lives, to fight for our democracy that gives us the opportunity of all being our best selves, giving us the opportunities to really serve in equality for all peoples, and the best vision of America, of equality and liberty for all. So I ask you, please really take this in and don’t be passive at this time. If you’re a Democrat and if you’re a Republican, to rethink, what is really saying, what is really gonna serve the Ronald Reagan end of your party, and what’s gonna really serve America in the future and the country as a whole. Thank you for your time.
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