Hi friends, and welcome to the Robcast. This is episode 56, and I'm doing a series called Politics and Guns, and this is part three of the Politics and Guns series, and this episode is called The Power of Policy.

And actually, Chris and I were flying home from New York City today, and so you know, you go through TSA, and they flagged my bag. You know, when they want to do us, when you put it through that conveyor, so they say, is this your bag, sir? And I said yes.

And so they, the guy took it over to that, you know, they say, well, we're going to take it over to this table. Please come with us, and we're going to search it. So then they take out your bag that you actually packed. You know that feeling, and somebody with rubber gloves is going through your bag. And by the way, do you know what they had a problem with? The mic, the mic that I used to record the Robcast. There's something poetic, correct? The guys like, is this your mic? And I was like, yes, that's what that is.

And then I just, we got home, and I couldn't find the cord that hooks the mic into my laptop. So it's late at night, because I've been walking laps around my house, trying to find the cord that was somewhere in the luggage. And of course, eventually I found it with my toothbrush.

And that story just wasn't that interesting. Was it? Anyway, so now here we go. Politics and guns. Part three, the power of policy. I want to talk in this episode about leadership. And then I want to talk about how to talk about politics when it's tense. And there's a certain electricity, almost like you're grabbing a downed power line. Whether it's the old college friend sending you obnoxious posts on Facebook,

whether it's the holidays and you're just, you're like tense, because you know someone's going to bring out politics around the table, and it's just going to get ugly fast. Whether it's that coworker who listens to too much talk radio.

How do you somehow keep your head about you when you're surrounded by, you know, we're all at all these different places with all these different perspectives. So I want to talk about that. But first, I want to tell you about my dad.

My dad after college went to law school. And then after law school, he worked in the prosecutor's office. And then in 1972 in Okamus, Michigan, Ingham County, the very center of Michigan.

In 1972, my dad had a chance to run for public office. He ran for district judge. And he ran against an incumbent, somebody who had held the judgeship for a long time. And my dad at that point, 1972 was 28 years old.

I was two and my dad was 28. My sister had just been born. And he ran and he won. By the way, can you imagine running for public office campaigning at the age of 28.

And so from 1972 to 1978, he was a local district judge. Then in 1978, he ran for circuit court, which is the next higher level of court. So more complicated cases, less speeding tickets, more murders.

But he had actually had a murder in district court. And I'll never forget that murder trial because the woman claimed that she'd been attacked by the man. And she had stabbed this man to death. And in the process of stabbing him, she'd cut off his thing.

She'd literally cut off his manness. And I remember as a kid just being like, whoa, that is a detail. And I remember the whole case hinged around her saying that she was acted in self-defense. But one of the things they noticed in the murder scene, the bedroom, was because the murder happened on a bed, was that there was tons of blood on the ceiling. And they couldn't figure out how if she was in the middle of the room,

how if she was laying on her back on the bed, stabbing him has he attacked her, how there would have there would have been blood on the ceiling. And then it became revealed through whatever forensic evidence that she actually had been on top of him. And the blood on the ceiling was from her stabbing him on top of him. And then jerking her hand back. And the blood flying off the handle. And a whole series of twists sort of in the case revealed that she had actually, it wasn't what it seemed.

And I mean, literally that's a memory I have from like six years old or something or seven years old hearing about this case. Anyway, in 1978, so I would have been eight then my dad ran for public. He was a district judge ran for circuit court. I remember there was a primary and there were a lot of people running.

And I remember he placed high enough in the primary to go to the general election. And we would have parties, we live at a farm, we would have parties in the barn. And they would lay out all the materials to make yard signs, bell for circuit judge. And my dad had this one shade of blue that all of his campaign brochures and signs were this, he called it bell blue.

And the family posed for a campaign photograph of the family that was on the backside of all the campaign brochures. I remember going to like public events, I remember going to an ice cream social with him. And we would go into a place there'd be hundreds and hundreds of people there. And he would shake every single person's hand. And he would remember names of people he'd met, you know, 20 years ago.

So I had distinct memories of what it was like to live in the midst of a campaign of fundraising, of friends writing checks. I remember my dad had a blue pick up, blue, bell blue, of course. And he hand painted these wood signs that said bell for circuit judge. And he stuck them in the slots in the back of the pickup. And we would ride around, you know, back then you could ride around the back of a pickup with these campaign signs on the back.

And I remember election night 1978 in the, we had a tiny little 12 inch television black and white. There was our only television. We had three channels. And I remember watching the election night returns. And the newscasters are bouncing around among they'd say, you know, water commissioner in Mason.

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remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember. I remember, I remember, I spearpper the next morning, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember, I remember for the hard parts and the after the rest. I remember, I remember for the next morning. He stayed up late into the night to Hear the final, final, final returns. I remember the press coming over to our house and inner viewing him. I remember in the morning at Breakfast Team Saying We one, we won, we won. And uh, so you know, I remember when I'm sure that I'm sure как you that I'm sure like you that I'm sure like you that are these memories that sort of seer themselves into your consciousness. And I remember when the following days, coming back I'm sure like you that are these memories that sort of seer themselves into your consciousness. of those memories that

86, there was going to be an opening at the federal district judge level.

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