Jocko Willink Talks About His Political Convictions

Jocko, I don't even know how you stand politically, which is hilarious because you're one of the few guys that's just not defined politically online because people think of you as such a savage, they leave all the politics out of it. They just go, I don't know what, he just gets up at four o'clock in the morning, leaves a puddle of sweat. He's America, he's Team America. That's what I'm saying. Like, it seems like you don't have this thing with like left or right, you don't have this right or left distinction. Yeah, and what's really interesting, if you look at the demographics of like the people I meet when I go and speak, it's everyone. It's everyone from every different spectrum. And I can, I'm just talking, my political beliefs are like, hey, I believe in individual freedom. Well, that seems to me, it's kind of hard to argue against that, right? I believe in individual freedom and with that goes some level of individual responsibility. Mm, yep, okay. I don't think the government is a great solution to a lot of our problems, you know? So for me, it's like, you know, smaller government, probably a better thing. And I think probably why you get this impression from me is I actually have a balanced, I believe that the solutions are somewhere balanced. And in America right now, that doesn't really get a lot of traction because everything is broken down into such little tiny sound bites of you're either pro this or you're against it. You're in the area. And by the way, if you believe this, you know, if you believe yes, and I believe no, I actually hate you and I'm going to attack you. And that's why when I started going back and forth with Tulsi, like, I kind of get a gist of what she thinks. And I'm like, oh, cool. Guess what I think? She surfs, she trains martial arts, she plays, she plays ukulele. Oh, I can hang out with her. Even if our political beliefs aren't 100% aligned, which my political beliefs aren't 100% aligned with anybody. Does that mean that I hate her and I'm never going to talk to her and call her out? No, actually, it's like, oh, cool. That's an interesting perspective. Because one thing that gets tied into all these things nowadays is our ego, right? Our ego, we pin ourselves into a corner where it's like, I believe this. And now the last thing we can do is say, oh, actually, you know what? That's a good point, Joe. You know, you want to never thought of it from that perspective before. And also just thinking of what other people's perspectives are. Because you just talked about single moms. Well, you've got to take that into perspective. Because it might be easy for me to say, because I've got kids, but I've got a wife, and we can make things happen. But, oh, single moms over here working two, three jobs. You always talk about me getting up at 4.30 in the morning. And I always say, look, there's single moms out there that are getting up at 3.30 in the morning to go work their first shift at the diner so they can get to their second shift at the grade school or wherever they're working so they can do their third shift at some other restaurant at night. Like, okay, that's going on. I got to understand that perspective, and we all have to understand that perspective. And the last thing, when you talk about this 60-second answers, which is insane, and I've been interviewed on TV before a bunch as well, and it's actually crazy. When you compare it to a podcast, it's completely crazy that you have to fit your thoughts into one sentence, maybe two sentences. And the 24-hour news cycle that we're on, every news story that comes out is the end of the world, right? It's like the end of the world. Something that happens is, hey, Trump did this or Pelosi did that. This is the end of the world. Just like when, if Hillary got elected, it's the end of the world. If Trump gets elected, it's the end of the world. You know, I had early on, right after Trump got elected, somebody, I was doing a Reddit AMA. And as soon as I signed on for my Reddit AMA, up pops this question. And it's clearly the guy had spent a lot of time writing it, and it was this sort of breakdown of the Russians and Trump and all this negativity. And I basically took this whole paragraph and I answered it in one sentence. I said, America is stronger than one man. And that's the truth. Like, hey, America is stronger than one man. One man is not going to take down this country. That's the way it is, right? It's hardship to turn. Look at what Trump's got accomplished. He's working as hard as he can to get stuff done, and he could barely move the needle, right? That's the way it is. On top of that, look at what happens with our political system. You know, we had Carter. Oh, there's a backlash against Carter. We have Reagan, right? Oh, you know, these things go back and forth. We end up with Clinton, then we end up with Bush, you know, and then we end up with Obama, and then we end up with Trump. So there's a balance that happens out. So when I think of my political beliefs or where I stand politically, it's like, oh, I stand, you're not going to be able to place me very well because I'm going to listen to what different people have to say. I'm going to try and understand what their perspectives are, and then I'm going to say, oh, not what's best for me or what satisfies my ego, but what's good for America. Well, it actually makes sense for America, and that's what I would move forward on.