CEO of @dyadstrategies, student affairs expat, former comms director @tndp. I tweet about higher ed, social psych, politics and the Tennessee Vols
Knoxville, TN
Joined November 2012
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We need to do a better job addressing "h"azing before it becomes "H"azing time.com/4805920/fraternitie…
Gentry McCreary retweeted
Jon Stewart: "Remove that system of seniority from Democratic politics, it is a bullshit system... They're already like 'Chuck Schumer deserves a lot of credit for putting together this--' Chuck Schumer fought tooth-and-nail against half of these fucking people."
Amen.
I have been holding my tongue about something that happened during the Ohio gubernatorial race. I refused to speak while the election was underway because I did not want my words mistaken for an attempt to influence anyone’s vote.
But now that the election is over, I have something to say.
For nearly twenty years, my ministry has taken me among the homeless, the abused, the exploited, and the forgotten. I have sat with victims of sexual violence and witnessed the lifelong wounds of childhood trauma.
What Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign did to Amy Acton was among the most morally repulsive things I have witnessed in American politics.
They took a woman whose stepfather was indicted for raping her when she was twelve years old and featured her mother, from whom she had been estranged for nearly fifty years, in a political advertisement attacking her credibility.
The advertisement challenged Acton’s account of her childhood without mentioning the sexual abuse allegations or the circumstances of that estrangement. When people expressed their horror, the campaign defended it.
Imagine examining another person’s childhood suffering and fractured family relationships, then deciding those wounds might help win an election.
Anyone who has worked with survivors of childhood sexual abuse understands the painful realities of denial, betrayal, shame, and estrangement. A child growing into a successful adult does not erase what happened. Nor does a parent’s denial make that suffering disappear.
I find it equally disturbing that an elderly mother, whom Acton herself described as unwell, was brought into this spectacle. Whatever her own struggles or responsibility for the past, exploiting that fractured relationship was grotesque.
To everyone who defended this, consider the message you sent to survivors. To the young woman whose family refuses to believe her. To the man who has carried the shame of childhood abuse for forty years. To the frightened child who has yet to tell anyone.
What did you teach them about the value of their suffering?
I am a priest. I believe in repentance, forgiveness, and redemption. But none of those things requires me to pretend that deliberate cruelty is anything less than a grave moral failure.
Your political allegiance does not absolve you of moral responsibility. You do not get to set aside your conscience during an election and retrieve it afterward.
If your loyalty requires you to defend the exploitation of a childhood sexual abuse survivor, your loyalty has become an idol. And if your conscience cannot recognize the wrong here, examine what political tribalism has done to it.
This is not about Republicans or Democrats. We have a choice as a people: continue excusing cruelty from our preferred political camp, or summon the courage to condemn it wherever it appears.
Amy Acton deserved better. Every survivor who watched this unfold deserved better.
And God help us if we have reached the point where winning an election matters more than protecting the dignity of a wounded human being.
Gentry McCreary retweeted
We've crunched the numbers. And I talked to the smartest data person I know. And based on the scale of this loss, the answer is opposite.
Folks, we've just got to do opposite.
And I want to be VERY clear: I only believe in opposite where I think the base wants opposite. Do NOT listen to the foolish, craven morons who say opposite where the base might not want opposite. That is bad opposite.
We must defeat bad opposite.
The future belongs to good opposite.
One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.
So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."
Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.
There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.
But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.
Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel
Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)
In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.
The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.
If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.
But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.
I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.
Gentry McCreary retweeted
Vance posting as if he’s an online pundit or commentator and not the vice-president in the administration that launched this war and then defended this war.
One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.
So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."
Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.
There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.
But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.
Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel
Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)
In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.
The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.
If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.
But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.
I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.
Gentry McCreary retweeted
JD Vance will be remembered for standing behind Vivek and his ad.
A man who wrote a book about Catholicism.
It’s a disgrace.
Gentry McCreary retweeted
if you’re in line to give Jd Vance a swirlie in the gender neutral bathroom stay in line
I swear to God it feels like we’re living in a simulation.
"If the pool was finally operating as the administration always hoped it would, it’s not clear the president was," @Kevinliptakcnn reports.
"His speech, billed as his final message to the electorate before a new Congress is chosen this week, was not the high-level contrast with Democrats some Republicans had hoped for. It was instead a subdued, very granular accounting of all the problems Trump said he fixed in the plumbing of the 2,000-foot-long pool, including rusty pipes, old joints, regraded rebar and 'tremendous algae.'"
cnn.com/2026/11/02/politics/…
Gentry McCreary retweeted
Shame on Alaska Democrats for recruiting candidates who will draw support from people who’d otherwise vote Republican.
by Jill Stein and Cornell West
Gentry McCreary retweeted
Obama tonight on his Cheesecake Factory line: "They mobilized a whole of government response to that joke. Not to inflation, but to that joke. The White House even called the Secretary of the Treasury. This is the man who is in charge of the economy. The person who's supposed to be figuring out how to make your life more affordable. The guy who's supposed to be figuring out how to lower inflation. And reduce interest rates. They told him he should hold a press conference in front of the Cheesecake Factory."
Gentry McCreary retweeted
What part of the Pat McAfee Polymarket Draft King Game of the Week Presented by the Save College Sports Act isn’t attractive to you people?
Gentry McCreary retweeted
For the umpteenth time: Quit trying to analyze Trump. Quit trying to figure out why he says and does the things he says and does. I’m so fucking sick of listening to some panel on CNN try to discuss his latest bizarre pronouncement like he’s some normal human being. Stop that. This isn’t complicated- He’s not a normal human being. He’s a sociopath. He lies as he breathes. He’s an idiot. He’s a Russian asset. He gets off on being cruel. He’s never been held accountable for anything he’s done his entire life. He’s a horrible person. And he’s the biggest fucking crybaby who’s ever lived. That’s it.
Gentry McCreary retweeted
John Mateer and the NCAA would like to remind you that 98% of collegiate athletes go pro in something other than sports.
Gentry McCreary retweeted
Even if LIV golf carries on in some crumbly state, its die was cast before any shot was ever hit.
Someone once said that the path to complacency is paved with complacent companions.
The marrow of the LIV tour, a reimagined golf competition, was eaten out by the cancer of complacency. The players knew what they were doing had no meaning and their insensate and perfunctory passion was like a bad smell, the source of which you couldn’t find, but you knew it came from sh*t.
Gentry McCreary retweeted
I can't breathe the air, I can't eat lettuce, I can't afford gas, and my kids have measles. But at least now our soldiers will have enough testosterone.
Not calling his book “The Seven Figure Mountain” was a real missed opportunity.
I’ve been writing this book for a long time, and I’m honored to finally be able to share the full story with you all. Communion is about my personal journey and how I found my way back to faith.
It will be available in June, but you can pre-order today: a.co/d/0cTpceI7
