The Political Hydra: Former Congressional Candidate On America's Seemingly Unfixable Problems

In this episode, I sit down with 20-year U.S. Army veteran, former congressional candidate, actor, writer, and speaker Matthew Hasty for an extensive conversation about military service, American politics, political polarization, faith, and whether our current system can still produce meaningful reform. Mr. Hasty reflects on growing up in the Deep South, joining the Army at 19, serving approximately 14 out of 20 years overseas, becoming a warrant officer, and eventually running for Congress in Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District.

Mr. Hasty and I examine both the opportunities and frustrations of military life. We discuss toxic bureaucracy, constant relocation, family instability, poor retention, military leadership, and why many talented service members decide they can accomplish more after leaving the uniform. At the same time, we acknowledge how military service exposed us to different races, cultures, religions, and countries—challenging prejudices, expanding our global perspective, and helping us better appreciate the freedoms and opportunities available in America.

The conversation then moves into Mr. Hasty’s congressional campaign and what it taught him about campaign financing, voter apathy, party influence, political gatekeeping, and the enormous difficulty independent or underfunded candidates face when competing for public attention. I ask him to explain what went wrong, what he would do differently, and whether America’s political problems can realistically be repaired. Together, we discuss political division, free speech, identity-based conflict, the decline of professionalism, media framing, and the growing inability of Americans to disagree without treating one another as enemies.

We also explore Mr. Hasty’s transition into acting, screenwriting, community theater, and other forms of creative expression. We discuss how art can unite people across political and cultural divisions, why adults should pursue creativity even when they are not experts, and why isolation and rumination can worsen mental-health struggles. Ultimately, this episode calls listeners to seek broader perspectives, engage respectfully with people who disagree, serve their communities, develop their faith, and refuse to surrender their responsibility for America’s future.

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Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to A Couple O' Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and I wanna bring up the Hydra, a mythological creature, kind of like a dragon, I suppose, and every time you cut off one of its heads, more grow back in its place. Is that what our political system has become? A system of every time we take care of one issue, more pop up? Are we on a hamster wheel of four-year cycles? Every time we take two steps forward, we take four or five backwards. Is it just a constant back and forth, a tug of war? Are we seeing any progress? And I have to ask you, if we step back and look over decades, we have seen progress, so we know it's possible. But is that progress slowing down? Has it just become a back and forth? We're gonna be getting into military lifestyle, politics, and a couple other topics today here with Matthew Hasty to discuss this stuff very passionately about a couple different opinions, but most importantly, what can we do? What is the hope, and if there is any, and we're gonna be getting into that. So Mr. Hasty, great to have you here. Excited to get into this conversation. A man who served many years in the military, so ready to unpack that, but please tell us a little bit about yourself. Thanks for having me. It's always great to have these conversations, especially with someone who's as well-traveled and experienced as yourself. My name's Matt Hasty. I grew up in the, the Deep South. I was born in Mississippi, raised in Louisiana. Joined the military when I was 19 and then spent 20 years in the Army. I spent about 14 of them overseas. All told between the countries I'd lived in and the countries I visited, it's about 26 countries. A lot of Europe, the Middle East, and then I did a tour in Korea, and then, you know, a few years back and forth to the States. I've got some education behind me. I've got a master's degree from Norwich University and a bachelor's degree from American Military University. I used to have a lot of technical certifications, but they've all expired since then. After I retired from the military, I ran for Congress in Louisiana's 5th District, and I did not win. But I gained a lot of experience and had kind of a religious awakening. Moved to Charleston, South Carolina to become a full-time dad, and in my free time, I got very involved in local, community theater and then some student films, and, I was doing a lot of acting. I've written some screenplays. I've directed a few things. I'm very passionate about America and I'm very passionate about, films and TV. I really love the, the artistic side of that medium and did a little bit of teaching at a local technical college. I've done some volunteering in the local community, and the entire time I've been on social media and interacting with as many people as possible, trying to spread the word about how broken our system really is. I love that you call it a hydra, 'cause to me, that's exactly right. And we can talk more in detail about the progress we've made and not made. But, it's a great conversation to have, because that's kinda what I'm doing now, is using social media, podcasts, whatever I can to get the word out as much as possible and share my experiences and whatever wisdom I might have with the world and hopefully they can understand the things that I understand or educate me on the way they understand things. And, through that interaction, we can together move a little closer toward the truth, because that's what America's based in. It's that, you know, the group coming together and trying to find the best life for each one of us in the long term and, you know, children, grandchildren. So that might have been a little more than you asked for, but, does that just about cover it? No problem at all. You know, one of the things you mentioned there is something I've been discussing. You know, I've traveled internationally, and what I've observed is in most places, with the exception of some radical religious groups or other, you know, politics, you know, most people just wanna have a happy life. They wanna have their family, go to the park with their dog, eat an ice cream, you know, just live a good life. I think where the difference comes is that a lot of us have different foundations for our worlds, specifically, whether God is at the center or whether people are at the center or whatever ideology. And so that is where the big conflict is. And so one of the things you mentioned too, which is so important, is you talk about filming and acting, and that is deeply intertwined with politics. In fact, that's ... The, the film industry has really shifted into a political engine of, indoctrination, one way or the other, and that's a conversation on its own. But yeah, definitely gonna get into a couple different topics here. I wanna go back to the question that you've heard many, many times throughout your career I'm sure. At least when I served, they ask it at every base you go to, every time you have a new command, "Why did you join?" Yeah. I knew that one you said it's the same question that you always get, I knew that was coming. Yeah, I think if you had asked me that question 1,000 times over my career, you'd have gotten 1,000 different answers. But in retrospect, now that I've had time after the military to kind of look back on everything, I think the best answer is I didn't know what else to do. I was raised in a community that wasn't... I don't want to say I was, dirt poor, because there were plenty of people that were poorer than I was. But you know, consider it upper lower middle class, whatever it is, living in a trailer, living in, you know, apartments in not the best neighborhoods. I was doing odd jobs. I worked as a janitor, I worked as a cook, I worked in fast food restaurants, I was a waiter. Eventually I was a maintenance man at a convention center, and as time progressed, I ended up becoming 19 years old and I realized that I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I didn't want to do what I was doing. There was a lot of other stuff going on behind the scenes that I don't really want to talk about, but let's just say I was on the wrong path. Right. And I had some friends that had gone down that same path with me that did not escape the consequences as much as I did. I had some friends go to jail, and that really opened my eyes to the long-term consequences of the path I was on. So a- at first I went to the Air Force, and I didn't qualify for the Air Force, uh, for, for various reasons. And then I thought about the Marines, but the Marine recruiter would not leave me alone. When I say would not leave me, I mean, he was calling me every day, all day, you know, trying to figure out when I was gonna join, and eventually I settled on the Army, and I picked a career in information technology so that long term, regardless of what I thought about the military, I would get some jobs, skill training, and everything that could be useful on the outside. When I first joined, it was all about money, I won't lie to you. It was about finding a path for my life, but it was also about long-term setting myself up so that I could, you know, be making $600,000 a year or whatever it is. That's, when you grow up poor and you start picking a career path, that's what you're really chasing, is money. But so that, that initial instinct, if I had to look back and fi- you know, pin it down to one thing, it would be because I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I couldn't do what I was doing, so I needed something Right, and at that time you weren't as educated as you are now that the military doesn't actually pay you that much. Most of the budget goes to other countries and not to our own service members, unfortunately. Right. So, you know, yeah. But it comparatively it is rich, and we'll definitely get into money conversation, 'cause you talk about running, politically with zero budget compared to a lot of our political system is a money game. You know, who has more funding for their campaign has a huge impact, and people always say, "No, no, Mr. Whiskey, it's based off, you know, if you have a good idea, people are gonna follow." But if that idea is getting suppressed and drowned and pushed out by millions or thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of ads and different events, uh, we'll get into that conversation for sure, especially based on, you running from basically the most difficult starting position. We'll get into that. But I wanna talk about your service first. You stayed in... Why did you stay in? The other question you always get asked, why did you stay in that long? You know What, what was keeping you in there? I was lucky that I didn't have to re-enlist that many times. I think I only had to re-enlist twice, and then when I crossed over to be a warrant officer, you know, you get discharged from the enlisted army and you get re-enlisted or re- sworn in, however the terminology is as an officer. The first re-enlistment I had was to extend so I would not have to be sent to Iraq. Mm. I had just gotten back from Afghanistan in 2000. When I first enlisted I got a bonus, so I had to enlist for six years. And I went to Afghanistan in 2005, and when I got back in 2006 I was within my window, to- reenlist. But I wasn't really crazy about it, but what I knew then was that we were about to go to Iraq. And so I reenlisted... No, I'm sorry, I got, I got that story a little mixed up. When we went to Iraq, I knew that when we got back, I was within my window to reenlist, but they had already told us that we were coming back to Iraq and that my ETS date would fall within the stop-loss window, so I would not be allowed to PCS, I would not be allowed to change my station, and I would not be allowed to avoid the next deployment. At that time, I had two deployments under my belt. So I had extended for two years in order to PCS from Germany, permanent change of station, from Germany to go to Fort Gordon, Georgia, in order to become an instructor. At that time, I got picked up for sergeant first class, and to make sergeant first class in under 10 years is unheard of. It's an absurd... I was very lucky that my promotion started to come up right around the same time as the Iraqi invasion and the surge, so they needed NCOs and soldiers as much as possible, so I got promoted very fast. And once I accepted my sergeant first class, it, it, so the reenlistments really took the form of I'm measuring this 20-year career against what would happen when I got out, 'cause that 10-year mark is really when it starts to look like, you know, are you getting in, are you getting out? If you can stick it out for 10 more years, you get that retirement. You know, can you do it or can you not? And by that time, I had made so much rank that, and I'd gotten so many benefits. By that time I had the degrees and had some great assignments. So I decided to stick it out. By the time I had crossed over to warrant officer though, I knew it was time to, I knew it was time. As I was going through the warrant officer training, I knew I would never, I would never stay beyond my 20 years. So did, did that answer your que- I kinda stayed in because I guess the best way to summarize it was I, I didn't really, I, I w- didn't really want that civilian life yet. I, I... The, the military benefits that I was receiving and the military benefits that I knew I would receive if I made it to 20 years kind of outweighed the desire to get out of the uniform. Mm. But I was frustrated. Within the first five, six years, I was frustrated with the military. It wasn't a, "Hey, the military's so great." It was a lesser of two evils. "Uh, I'm not really sure- There you go ... about the civilian world. I don't really wanna do the military world, but I know the stability and benefits of the military world." Yeah, so I, I get that. If you can... The, the most difficult, for me at least, the most difficult part of the military is you have to be able to shut your brain off. You have to be able to, to just shut up, do what you're told, show, be on time. It do- you know, doesn't matter that you're not going to draw weapons until 9:00. If they say be there at 3:00 AM, you gotta be there at 3:00 AM. And don't expect a good reason. Don't expect an explanation. I can tell you the reason. I can tell you the reason. If you're an E-1, you gotta be there at 3:00 AM, 'cause the E-2s were told they gotta be there at 4:00 AM, because the E-3s gotta be there at 5:00 AM, right? It's just a, it's a- Exactly right ... it, it's a stacking. It's a tier system. Exactly right. But if you can shut your brain off and just deal with the BS, I mean, you can make it. It's just that shutting your brain off sometimes that... 'Cause all of us have rational thought. Yeah. A- a- and some, it's easier for some people because some people don't get kicked as hard as others. So. This is, this is true. That make sense? No, 100%. And I, I will say, now I'm not gonna say whether I agree with this or not, you know. Everyone has their own opinion. There are plenty of people who say the military is a cult, and what's interesting about that is I interviewed a guy who was forced into Jehovah's Witness as a kid, so to speak. I- you know, maybe not forced, but you know, his parents sort of said, "Hey, we're doing this now." He didn't really have a choice. And he would ask a lot of questions. He was intellectually curious, and he would say, "You're saying ABC, but this paper says ABC, XYZ." And they s- this is what they told him. And you made me think about this when you said turning off your brain in military. They said, "You're too smart to learn because you ask too many questions." Now, now hold on a second , you know, uh, and sometimes- Yeah ... it feels that way in the military for sure. Yeah. 100%, you know. I've witnessed- No, the, the shut up and, shut up and push. Yeah. These were the sayings, the sayings in the Army were shut up and push, which, which is that I don't wanna hear your feedback, just do what you're told. Shut up and push. You have to play the game. Don't rock the boat. You know, dog and pony shows and, and we were talking about this a little earlier. You think that when you're lower enlisted and when you're a lower rank that once you get higher things will start to make sense, and it's... No, it's the exact opposite. As you get higher, the frustrations get worse 'cause you're like, "No, this can't be the way things are. We're not operating a military like this." And yeah. Right. That's the way it is. Well, it's one of my greatest heartbreaks. I always say the military has so much potential to be set up to be such an amazing career path, lifestyle, great organization, and there's so much self-sabotage from it. And, you know, what we talked about in a different episode was that the military's such a big organization that change takes such a long time. You have these cycles where people are in charge for 30 years, and then they get out, and then new cycles start. So it's on a major lag time. In fact, a lot of politics can be accredited to these very long terms or continual reelections that keep ideologies still continuing. And so sometimes, but if you look on the opposite side, if you have change too frequently, nothing ever is, is good. The military needs to find, and politics need to find a balance. What is the perfect time for we can make progress. There's always gonna be some backtracking, right? You got different sides of the arguments, right? But how can we make the most progress, the least backtracking, and have the most satisfaction, right? I mean, there is a balance. They call it Goldilocks, right? And so I think unfortunately the military is, one thing we talked about is sometimes you get caught in a four-year political cycle where the military is especially terrible, and all these, you know, new sailors, soldiers, Marines will get out, and then the next four years could've been the best four years of their career under new leadership. But four years is a long time to stick it out. I mean, you're talking about sticking it out for five, six, 10 years, right? Even one, two, three, four years is a long time, especially under certain conditions. So it's a shame because it can be such a great opportunity. Well, and they're, they're the best years of your life. That, that's the important thing to understand about the military, and what too many people that make decisions in the military don't understand is that the, these men and women who are ages 20 to 30, that's the prime of their life. That's when they- Mm-hmm ... they, you know, most people are looking to settle down with a family and establish a community. And build something that carries you through the rest of your life. And if the military is moving you around every two or three years, and you're deploying every six months- Right ... it's very difficult to maintain a stable relationship or to build any kind of a community. Mm. And if your chain of command that's also demanding these things of you cares nothing about the personal problems that are being caused by their decisions- Right it can very quickly, it, you know, when we talk about getting kicked in the teeth, you know, how many times- Mm ... is a grown person gonna take that before they're like, "You know, I wanna serve my country, man, but come on." Right. Right. And I knew so many of the best leaders in the military all got out 'cause they said, "I can do more outside of the military than in it," because of the red tape, because of the moves. And here's the thing, there are people in their 20s, 30s, take me everywhere. I wanna just go explore everywhere. And there are family men and women. Here's the deal. We have enough billets, enough openings, and poor enough retention that everyone could get something that is aligned with what they want. But they don't do that. They, they throw out your dream sheet. They say, "Here, we're gonna play billet roulette. Oh, boy, you got shot," right? You know, we're sorry that we could've given you this great opportunity that probably would've kept you in for 20 years, 'cause you would've been happy, but we're gonna give you this instead." And there are enough billets. And I understand there's a lot more to it. It's more complicated than what I'm saying, but there are so many billets, available. It's the way we fill them that is really determining everything. So it's really sad because, again, you could set it up to have this family life and have the military be not a lifestyle, but a job. But oftentimes it's set up as a lifestyle, where it's following you home on, and you and I talked about this before, on weekends, on holidays, in the middle of the night. And there are times where that's necessary, but there are more times than not when it's not necessary. So I think that's so important. But I don't wanna be all negative. Was there anything you took out of the military that you're really grateful for or appreciative of? And it doesn't mean that people- Oh, yeah ... should go into the military to get it, but just in your personal experience. Oh, yeah. So much. So much. I'm glad and thank you for transitioning, because I'm like you, that I don't wanna just be negative. Right off the top of my head, I learned a lot about racism. I learned a lot about racism because when I say I grew up in the Deep South, I mean, I- I did not consider it to be unusual to be mistrustful of Black people. That was something that everybody in my family was, w- and we were just... And it wasn't just white people against Black people, it's Black people against white people. There was a lot of separation where I was growing up. Right. And when I joined the military, that was the first place that you really start to interact with people on an equal keel. And, you know, you spend enough time in a Humvee or on staff duty with somebody, you real- you know, this is just a guy. He's got the same problems I do. He comes from the same kind of poverty. You know, he's got a butt hole for a dad. He's got, a mom that, it, it, you, very quickly you learn that the things that you have experienced and been taught about people of other races are just, they're BS. They're BS that are coming from, you know, for whatever reason. So that was one of the, the greatest thing I learned. And it goes, I mean, I don't wanna restrict it to Black people, gay people, for- I mean, I went to PLDC primary leadership development course, which is when you get promoted to sergeant, with a guy who was born in Russia, served 10 years in the Russian military, moved to America, went into the American military, and then was a sergeant in the 101st Airborne in the Rakkasan Battalion, which is, if you don't know, that's the most awarded, Army infantry battalion in the Army. And I mean, he was an American soldier. He was great. And those kinds of experiences tell you the greatness that America could be just from looking at the military, how across these cultures we all wear that same flag. So that was, that was one that was great, but another one is the 14 years I spent overseas. And, being allowed to experience European cultures, Middle Eastern cultures, Asian cultures, all of these. And I don't wanna disparage them at all. I love Europe. I'll tell you right now, I love Europe, and even the Middle East is gorgeous in some ways. It's got a lot of ugliness too, but so does Europe and America Asia's beautiful. Yeah. But each one of these places has a history and a culture that helps to dictate the culture of their modern world. And the way that they look at things, the way they experience the world is different than the way that Americans experience the world because we've grown up in different communities. And going overseas and experiencing those different cultures and then coming back to America, it really helps you gain perspective on how, in my opinion, on how great America really is. The philosophy of the founding itself and how I don't consider it offensive to say that it is the greatest nation on earth. And to, to have those experiences, to be overseas and to come back to America and be able to say that is something I wouldn't have, you know, otherwise in the military. And besides those two things, I mean, you know, education, interactions with other people. I could go on and on about the greatness of Amer- I've got friends all over the country, all over the world, and it's a community that we were talking about being able to build a community in those, you know, the years, the '20s and the '30s. I didn't get that geographical stability that helped me build a community, but the good part about that is is that I've got a fri- If I ever wanna go to Arizona, I got friends in Arizona. If I ever wanna go to, you know, Germany, I got friends in Germany. And, the beautiful thing about social media and modern technology is I can stay in touch with all of them. I'm arguing with a friend right now over whether or not I should become a Catholic. He's i- he's in Arizona, and I love that he can, you know, mentor me on how much he hates Catholics, so. There's a lot that I loved about the military, and I'm really glad you asked that question, so. What about, what about you? So I grew up in the same manner where it was a home of xenophobia and racism, where I thought that every country outside of the main ones were war zones and hateful places. And I've traveled now, and I've worked with people closely who have ... Like Paul Waterboy Brown is walking across Africa building sustainable water systems, and he's talked about the countries there. Morgan DeNicola was on the podcast. So talking to these people around the world and in traveling, you see, like you said and like I mentioned in the very beginning, for the most part, outside of those- really political or religious, different groups within a culture. In general, most cultures are looking to live peacefully, to have lives, to do their thing. And like you mentioned so importantly, not only are they trying to get the same things, they have the same issues. They have the same problems. I'm here actually, studying Christianity and suicide in Japan, and loneliness and poverty, you know? Like, there are parts of Japan that have issues that we have in America, that we have in Britain, and I think it really is interesting. I talked the other day about global perspective isn't really taught in America. You know, we are a melting pot culture, yet so many homes grow up having never traveled. We don't really get a world history. When we get a world history, it's not a foc- there's no, like, modern day global education. It's always like, "These are wars we had against other countries in the past." It's never, "Here's where they're at now. Here's our relations now." It's always so much focused on the past. And, of course, with every country has a little biasing in its history what is written. But there's so much focus on America's own history, which many of us neglect or forget, but we don't get enough global exposure I don't think, you know? And that's one of the things that one of the issues with- And, and maybe, and maybe that's behind some of the lack of appreciation of America, because we don't get that perspective. You know? Mm. You, you know? It's important for us to learn our own history, but if we want to be able to appreciate America and why, in my opinion, why it is an exceptional nation, it has to be compared to some of these other nations, and that means you need to teach their history as well. Not as a disparaging thing, but just- Right ... to understand that Europe is built on the history of, you know, kings and conflicts and, that go back thousands of years. Right. And America's a nation that was built on philosophy. So, uh- Right, 100% ... I agree with you. And in fact, what's interesting is every immigrant I've ever interviewed who came to America or visited America appreciates it more than American citizens, because we are so blinded by our own privilege because we grow up with taking all these things for granted. You know, I've interviewed people who, or worked with individuals who don't have clean drinking water, right? We talked about, and a great perspective Paul Waterboy Brown shared that I've shared a lot already is he had a commanding officer who said, "If you go to another country, don't judge them for trash." If you're in the Middle East, South America, he goes, "Because the litter on the streets, they're worried about where's their next meal gonna be or do they have drinking water? Is their government gonna have some kind of political or military violent issue?" He goes, "Litter is such a first world problem when you really think about it. Don't contribute to it, don't do it, but don't judge other countries for having it when they have bigger issues at hand." And that's our issues. And I love Tom MacDonald, one of his song lyrics is like, "People are complaining about how they hate America within America while they're, tweeting on iPhone drinking Starbucks." And that's not to, you know, disparage any of those companies specifically, but the point is that Starbucks is a very... It really, compared to other countries, it's a high-end coffee drink. It's so common in America, we think it's just another coffee. Well, in some countries they don't have that kind of stuff. That would be a specialty. That would be like a once a year kind of coffee, right? And so our perspective- Oh, yeah ... is so skewed and warped, and just the amount of money we would spend on a coffee is what some other countries wish they had just to make do. You know? So it really is just about perspective. And, um, America- If you look at the categories of- ... has lost so much humility If you look at the categories of transportation, education, sanitation, access to food, technology, access to clean water, all, you know, entertainment, whatever categories you, you really wanna look at, Americans, and really people in the West, but Americans live a life that is objectively superior to royalty at any point in human history until about 100 years ago. If you go look at 1,000 years ago and the way that people lived, or even, you know, 200 years ago and the way that people lived, the things that they were forced to do just to survive, and you compare it to the, you know, mod- Go walk into a Walmart, y- you know, and just realize that the idea that you have access to this much food and water is, is so uncommon throughout human history. The idea that you can pick up this phone and you wanna be entertained, how about I give you access to every musician that has ever been cataloged in the history of mankind Right ... you know, right here on this little magic box that you have. And I l- perspective is the way to say it, man. I lo- I love it, Mr. Whiskey. 100%. And so my point with that is as parents, as mentors listening, or as any individual, remember to reinforce that and to teach that, you know? And it doesn't have to be traveling physically. I highly recommend that first and foremost, 'cause those live interactions are so eye-opening. But if you're limited to your travel, I mean, like you said, we have mi- well, we'll spend plenty of time watching millions of movies and binging TV shows and listening to music. You can spend it doing cultural exchange. Now, do that with a spirit of discernment. I'll give you an example. Prior to me coming to Japan, seeing what social media depicts about it on certain sides compared to living here, it's different, right? Every country has either an over-glamorization of it or an over-villainization of it. So when you're navigating that, have a spirit of discernment and really check out all sources, because there are people who are very, you know, pro their country, there are people who very much hate their country. Like, imagine if you had never met an American before, and the first one you meet is burning an American flag saying, "I hate it here." Well, you're gonna think this country is terrible. Or you could meet a guy wearing a cowboy hat with an American flag, you know, bandana wrapped around his head, and be like, "Oh, this country is great," you know? So it really is about, I would say quantity as much as quality when it comes to experiencing different people and exploring cultures. And so as we talk about politics a little bit here, what got you into it that you said, "Hey, I'm gonna try to run for a political position"? Did that start in the military, or was it really primarily afterward? I started paying attention to politics in the military. But I wasn't really... I had always considered the possibility that I might run, but it wasn't something that- When I immediately got out of the military, I did what most people in my job... Well, I was a IT expert, kind of communication security, and I had all these fancy certifications. I had a really high security clearance, and I did what a lot of people did and I became a contractor. And as a contractor, combined with my retirement pay, I... Let's just say I reached my goal. When I talked about making money, I was making more money than I could ever dream of, and the job itself was I don't wanna disparage any of the people I worked with, worked for, or even the contracting company, but the job was a joke. It was an absolute joke. It was very much a retirement job that you go in, and the person I worked with spent most of his day shopping for things online and, you know, designing something he was gonna build, and there was very little work involved in it. And right around that time is when COVID hit, and when the COVID restrictions came in, I have spirited opinions about that as well, but that in a way also opened my eyes about politics and how bad things had become in our country. And right around the same time is when like I said, I kinda had this spiritual awakening. I had been exploring religion in various ways, but I was an atheist for most of my life. At that point is when it, I kind of came to Jesus, and I really did very much feel that it was a calling to run for office because I had such passion for fixing my country and being a leader and going out there and leading by example. Not even necessarily that, uh, you know, 'cause even if you get elected to Congress, you know, if you get to the House, you're one of 435. You know, you're not gonna walk in on day one and be making decisions. Right. You're on the lowest end of the totem pole. And I understood that, but very much I wanted to go to Congress and kind of set an example, put on a body cam, set up a cot inside the rotunda and sleep there. You know, there's no reason we shouldn't work 24 hours a day, 364, uh, 5 days a year. So I had these great ideas and I was motivated, but the, the primary drive for it was really just to fix my country. My American patriotism after my, my love for my family and my love for God is the thing that drives me the most- Mm and I really think that the blessings that God has given me above everything else has been the ability to interact and communicate my thoughts. Now lately, like I said, I'm still working on pairing my grace with my love so that I don't get too passionate and start yelling at people when they don't agree with me which I've had trouble with. But I really want to be able to use my experiences, my education, my skills, all the blessings that I have in a way that serves my country. And me and you both know what it's like to try to serve your country in the military. You know, even if you love America, it's gonna be like trying to grind your head through a brick wall. So I was prepared for doing that in politics, but it didn't work out, and now I mean, it almost seems like a cop-out to say, "This is how I'm serving my country," but, this is how I'm taking that next step on that path. But yeah, I think it was really a desire to serve and fix America, 'cause I'm naive and idealistic. I really do think I can fix America. But yeah. Did that answer your question? It did, and I don't think it's a cop-out at all. I say it's you doing more than most people are doing, right? There's a lot of people that I've had political debates with who never voted or never take the time to vote, who don't voice their opinions, who don't contribute, and it's really sad. You know? And it's really sad, and I've definitely have had some people stereotype me, because I'm a white male and a Christian wearing a cowboy hat. People have accused me of being racist or of hating people or not doing things, and the funny part is I'm out here working with people to make sustainable water systems, to evangelize in different countries, spending time talking about suicide in other countries, doing work, and these people who are hating on me and stereotyping me are doing nothing. A lot of them, for the most part. Now, some of them are out there doing missions, but most of them aren't doing anything, and it's just so interesting. You know, I've literally had it where women, these two women came up to me once at a conference and said, you know, "Couple of nukes, Mr. Whiskey Cowboy Hat. I bet you hate, women, you hate, women of color, you hate gay women of color." Said, "All right, you're throwing everything at me all at once. Let me, let me go one at a time." And I said, "What's so interesting is those statements are stereotyping me." They're technically racist, and there are some people who believe that only certain types of people can be racist. I disagree with that. Anyone can be racist or discriminate, and it's just so ironic sometimes what we see. Now, I wanna backtrack to the political campaign you did and assess a little bit. I'm sure you've spent a lot of time thinking about it. I'm sure sometimes you have dreams in the middle of the night, you wake up in a cold sweat, right? What do you think went wrong, if anything? Was it, hey, other people just had more funding? Was it, hey, I didn't advertise enough? Was it maybe I didn't give a speech well? And like, what was that whole process like? And actually, please break it down for us, 'cause most of us don't know what it's like. You know, when we think of someone running for, you know, any political position, we just think about them waving in a suit and a tie at, giving speeches, you know, having parties, drinking champagne, doing some social media ads. What was the reality of it? What was the hardship and the work that went into it? It's not just these highlight reels we see on social media. I mean, this was your life. Yeah, definitely. When I say I was idealistic and naive, that probably captures what went wrong, very much. I went into it with the idea that the American political system and our elections are designed so that Americans can get elected to office, that you don't need to attend a certain college to be in Congress, that you don't need to be a millionaire to run for president, that you can stand on a stage, give a speech, and be put on equal footing with everyone else who's also running, and that the voters can be informed enough that they can make the best choice based on whoever they want. And- That's the way it's supposed to be ... that right there is kind of a naive, but, um Right from the beginning, my biggest problem was that I was very dead set that, that my ideas would carry everything, that all I had to do was get the ideas out there and that people would, would say, "Hey, you know, body cams for elected officials sounds pretty good. You know, working 365 days a year sounds pretty good. Financial transparency for everybody that gets elected." You know, all these things that I was, I was pushing is what I really thought would carry the campaign. And I had a lot of great people from my community in Louisiana's 5th District, some that knew me and some that didn't, who volunteered to help me with my campaign. And I lost some of them when I, that's one of the things that went wrong when I didn't listen to them as much as I should have. I was very pig-headed, you know, naive about what I thought was going to win the election. But, I did roadside. I had a huge sign that I put beside the road in some of the towns, and I would just stand there and wave and have people pull over. We had a little cookout where we would make brisket and sell it just for a little fundraiser. I did a lot of social media stuff. But the commercials, the flyers, the signs, the money really comes down to getting through to the complacent voter. Besides the money aspect, which I kind of knew, but I thought that the ideas would carry it over, what I was not prepared for was the level of apathy and complacency of the average voter. Most people don't care about these people who are not the major candidates. And I don't really blame them, because once you understand how Congress works, the people who are not backed by the Republican Party are not really gonna get along with the other people who are in the Republican Party, and the people who are not backed by the Democratic Party aren't gonna get along with the people in the Democratic Party. , That was a big eye-opening experience for me, was the understanding of how much power over our elections these two privately operated corporations, which is really what they are, the, the two political parties are not government institutions, they are privately funded, privately operated, you know, organizations. But the level of control that they have over not only our elections, but the government itself, was an eye-opening experience. I mean, if I had $100 million, who knows? Maybe that I coulda got through to more people, maybe if I had enough commercials that I coulda snapped people out of the complacency and apathy, or I coulda hired enough people to go around, knock on doors and, um- And, and maybe my ideas weren't as good as I thought they were. That all of these things are possibilities. But, I'd say the number one thing that went wrong is that I was way too naive about what it would take to win an election. The process itself was not difficult, but it's very much dependent on states. Each state has different, uh... Like running for Senate in South Carolina, I just figured this out, you gotta pay $10,000. It's a $10,000 fee to run for the Senate in South Carolina. Now, I might be getting that, some of those details wrong, but it costs money. You can do it by getting signatures, but you have to go around and get an insane amount of signatures as well. In Louisiana, because there was what they call an open primary, everybody runs together. All the Republicans run together, all the Democrats run together, and the people, if one person gets 51% of the vote, they win outright. But if nobody gets 51% of the vote, then whoever the top two people are move to the runoff, and the runoff election takes place on the same day as the presidential election in 2020, whatever the, the major election is. But the process in Louisiana was not as difficult. It was a really small filing fee. I think it was, it might have been a couple of hundred bucks. But you go to the secretary of state, you fill out a form, you provide them some documentation, you pay the fee, and then that's it. You're in the race. And because of the laws, I'm not sure if it's a federal law or state law, there's a lot that in campaign financing, if you raise more than $1,000 it gets into some of the laws that you have to understand. I never raised that much money. I did it, you know, entirely using my retirement check. And any event that is hosted for the candidates has to involve all candidates. Like, if the local news station interviews one candidate, they have to interview all the candidates. Mm. And that was a, a plus side of it. But, it gave me a lot more experience and wisdom on the things that are broken and that need to be fixed. But yeah a lot of stuff went wrong. Right. And well, the financial gatekeeping is one of the biggest issues of this country. So it's easier for a rich person to run for politics, it's easier for a rich person to get away with crime by just paying fees that are pocket change to them, absurdly high for people trying to make it by. I think this entire system is built for the rich, and maybe it wasn't intended to be that way, but you're talking about, think about a $10,000 fee just to enter, right? And even if that's, every state is different, right? That's big money for some people. For some people, that's a lot of money. It's insane. For some people, that's nothing. You know? So I do think it's a very unfair system. So you've talked about the reflections on it. What have you learned from it? Was there anything that you took away that you've now changed in your life or that you're implementing differently? My beliefs have become hardened. I don't know how far down this rabbit hole you wanna go, 'cause I don't wanna get you in any trouble, but I don't think it's possible to fix America anymore, not in our current system. I think that things have gone so far removed from what was intended that now even the idea of... So if you wanna fix money in politics, here's an idea that we all would agree is a great idea, but we all know it will never happen. Link the amount of money that you can spend on any and all campaigns to the median income of the geographical area that you are hoping to represent. So if you are running for the Senate in South Carolina, whatever the median income is in South Carolina according to statistics, that's how much money you can spend on your campaign all together. Anything over that is a felony. I don't know why that would be a problem. I, I... You can mandate that the Secretary of State for every state put on live stream debates between all the candidates. You can do it once a week or you can do it every night. I don't know why these candidates should be doing anything except interacting with the voters instead of going out and, fundraising and meeting with, you know, all... So it's very frustrating to see how broken things are, but also how far removed we are from even considering methods to fix it. That most of the solutions- Right ... that we come up for our political problems now, I wouldn't even really call them Band-Aids. They're really just, they're kind of the, you know, if you have a flooding in your bathroom and you put up towels at the door so that the flooding doesn't get into your living room- Right. Right ... that's, that's really all we're doing now. And once the, the flooding soaks the towel, instead of trying to fix the flooding, we're like, "No, no, no. We need more towels. We need thicker towels. We need," you know? Right. So, that's the biggest thing that has changed since the campaign, and not just since the campaign. It's a lot of interacting with people on the left. I don't know how far you wanna get into that, but I think that the system is broken beyond repair. I don't think we can do it now using our current system. And- Yeah. It's difficult to care about politics and care about America and reach that kind of conclusion. So that's probably the biggest lesson learned I understand what you're saying. You're a doctor, you wanna make this person, this country, healthy again, but everyone wants to look at symptom management rather than looking at root causes. And when you treat it like that, you're gonna have a continual sickness even if some things improve or some things get worse, 'cause you're not taking care of the root causes. So I agree 100%, and I think it's really sad some of the things that take up so much of our time. I'll give an example. There are billions of people fighting just to have clean drinking water, right? Meanwhile, we're worried about should we put, and this is an example, and in some places it is being debated unfortunately, should we have litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate for those who identify as animals, right? You think about that the weightiness of that issue compared to people don't have water to stay alive. It's like we are spending so much time on issues that are so niche specific. And that's not to say they don't matter, but there's a certain level of nicheness where it's like, "Hey, what, what about these issues that really matter?" Right? Again, people always talk about homelessness, yet we see more policies focused on, you know, how people feel about their identities, whether it's gender or religion, whatever it is, rather than, "Hey, we've got people living on the streets and dying on the streets." I think all issues are important to different people who believe in them or support them or are fighting for them, but how do we really scale and balance this? And I think in America we have... it's not about what politics matter the most, it's about what gets the most attention, and they're not always the same, unfortunately. You know, it's truly unfortunate. And one thing I always talk about working with people internationally is these issues that seem far away do affect us. You know, other countries' ability to get water, to get oil, to get electricity, to have power, all this stuff does affect us in the long run, whether we are impacted directly, whether we are impacted by conflicts, whether we are impacted by economic systems. So I think it's really sad some of the perspective we have in America on what's important. You know, I find it so interesting every time I go to the gym, I'll be on the treadmill, and they'll have CNN and Fox right next to each other, and I try to use my two eyes at once. And same story, two opposite descriptions of the said story, you know? So it's hard when you have such a... What we've talked about on the podcast before is there's no compromise ground. It's just a no man's land in the middle, like in World War where it's just completely dead in the middle. You only have action on this side and this side, nothing happening in between. One of the things we've seen recently with some assassinations, we've seen the destruction of the ability to just sit down and discuss politics. When you have people being killed for just sitting down and discussing politics, for people being attacked for asking questions, people are being offended by questions. I've seen people pushed away and attacked at protests or at conventions or at meetings just for asking questions, questions that are respectful, tactful, and just honest truth. And so when we have the... And this, I mean, the truth has always been under attack since the beginning, but when we have this growing rise of just the freedom of speech being destroyed, you know, where does that lead us? How can we fix a system when we can't even talk about things anymore? Preach. I'm loving exactly what you're saying. And I think a lot of it goes to perspective, and a lot of it ... I was talking about this earlier, but there's a great video on YouTube for anybody who's interested, by a man named Yuri Bezmenov, who was a KGB defector who came over in the '80s, and he came over and explained the Soviet Union's ideological subversion that hoped to demoralize Americans to the point that their morality became tied to their politics to their kind of leftist politics. And one of the reasons that I think that , it ... i'm trying to do a better job of balancing on both sides, 'cause there, we got plenty of crazy people on the right, too. There's some scary racial stuff that's happening on the right that needs to be acknowledged. But in my mind, the reason that leftists or people that are, you know if the shoe fits, wear it, I guess. But the people who are on the left that- Their political beliefs have been tied in with their identity and their sense of self and their sense of community to the point that disagreement over politics is perceived as an attack. That's why they're one of the groups that like to push the idea that words are violence because disagreement with their political beliefs is an attack on them in a way that they feel- Mm can justify violence against people who are using those words. And that believe... All you have to do is look at the polls that come out after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, after the assassination attempts on Trump, is that there are alway- there's an amazingly high number of people on the left side of the political spectrum in America who believe that political violence is justified. And you keep talking about perspective, and I think it's the, the best way to describe it, that Americans have lost perspective on how dangerous people can become when they have accepted justifications for violence. And then that's all it takes, is disagreement for people to justify violence. I mean, that makes that entire belief system dangerous- Yeah in my opinion. So I, I agree with you 100%. And I think if anybody's curious and you're bored and you got time, go look up that video on YouTube by Yuri Bezmenov. It's an hour and a half long. I think it's the full thing. But if you just look up the ideological subversion, you'll see how it, it, it real- And I don't know how accurate this is. I'm not saying that this is happening. It's just a great perspective to add to your understanding of reality, is to see that this socialist, Marxist, Leninist ideology, how it infected universities in the '60s. And you know the people who believed these things in the '60s, they didn't disappear. They passed these beliefs on to their children, their grandchildren, then they became the, they went from the professors to becoming the deans. They went from becoming the reporters to becoming the editors. You know, they became, went from being the staffer to the congressman to the, you know, nominee- Right for president, whatever it is. And that ideology transformed around the '70s into the Frankfurt School critical theory stuff, and arrived at this place where it's a belief system that cannot be questioned. It's a belief system that's tied into so much individual emotions that it can't be challenged without an emotional reaction, and it's very dangerous. If you, this, I'm throwing out- 100% ... reading assignments, but Federalist Paper Number 10 is another great one to read to understand why the emotional factions of democracy were always a concern in America, and I think we kind of ignored those warnings and embraced them way too soon. But yeah. Right. I agree. Things are going crazy. Well, you look at the, the founder of this country or one of them, you know, George Washington, what did he say before he died? Don't make political parties. It'll divide and destroy- Yeah ... this nation. I mean, I, it's so simple. It was put forward for a reason, right? And it's hard not to have political parties because what you talked about hits a personal note for me. My ex-fiance and I split for a lot of reasons, politics being a big one, because it was no longer just political disagreements on things that were more, you know, I, uh, systematic, whatever it was. It was morality, became morality. Became stuff about religious identity and gender identity and all these things rather than, oh, there's tariffs on the nation, right? We, it's easy to separate that from who we are, right? Increasing or decreasing tariffs on a nation doesn't change my, you know, I don't feel like that's an attack on my beliefs. I might say, "Hey, you know, I don't think that's fair to this country," or whatever it may be, a cultural identity, right? But the morality intertwined, and my ex-fiance and I voted for different people, or- In our hearts we did. She didn't actually go vote. So, you know, again, we talked earlier about if you're gonna spend all day arguing with me and then not take action, right? We voted for different people, and I didn't care. You know, she has her right to do that, and I had my right to do that. But, it got to the point where it was my world had a different foundation from hers. You know, mine had God first, people second. Hers was people first and then hopefully God will be okay with that. And so our worlds functioned very differently, and everything we argued about politically was deeply tied to morality or identity. It had become if you disagreed, it was... I, I mean, she even said things like, "Because you don't agree with that political policy, you are hateful and hurting to me and the people I support." And I said, "Well, it's not hateful and hurting. This is where I stand on this because of ABC, XYZ." And there is a war of logic versus emotion here, and I think both are important. You know, God calls us to have emotions for a reason, but there's, emotional control and descriptions in the Bible that also are a guideline for our life. And we've seen people have killed... there was a brother who killed his brother for beating his video game high score. We've seen people get violent and kill for irrational reasons. But like you said, the justification of them becomes dangerous, I mean, we've seen political leaders who justify the killing of entire races or religious groups because of... You can always justify something, and it's not about can you justify, it's about should we? You know, should we justify or should we not? Where does that lead us? We've seen other, you know, assassinations that were completed that people were celebrating. But those same people- Yeah ... if someone on their side was assassinated, would be calling for action against that. And so there is such a double standard. It should be political violence is not justified at all, not when it's only against someone you don't like or you disagree with. And there was actually a news report I saw while at the gym. It's the only time I watch the news is if I've- I'm on the treadmill at the gym. It's kind of- And you don't have a choice, yeah stress-relieving to me. Yeah. And they were talking about, you know, Trump wins the election, breakup rates all-time high, and they were interviewing young men who got dumped by their girlfriend or partner for having voted for Trump, and he won. People who said, "If he had lost, I would've stayed with you," which I think is also an interesting conversation, that I've actually experienced in my own life. People saying, "Hey, if you vote for this candidate and they win, then we're breaking up. But if you vote for them and they lose, and my candidate wins, then it's okay." Right? There's, there's- There's irony to it. I had, I had two- There's irony to it ... I had two good friends block me on social media the day after he won. One of them I was in Iraq with. Two good friends. And we were talking about earlier about cults and about, you know, the military being a cult. But to me, you touched on something that it's exactly why the left is so dangerous in my opinion, that not only have they justified violence to themselves, but they've also, they've reached a point where their beliefs are non-negotiable morality. The people who have accepted a belief system that says, "If you don't agree with me, you are not a moral person. You are not a person who is worthy of, you know, civil treatment because you are immoral, you are evil." That level of intolerance for other beliefs is much closer to a cult than anything else. And, and here's something to think about for anybody else you, you wanted to talk to about. A leftist gay person is more accepted in a room full of Republicans than a Republican would be accepted in a room full of leftist gay people. Mm. Right. At least in my opinion. They would be called a cis male. Yeah, I, I, I know all about that, uh, term. Well, and as s- because as soon as their beliefs become known, like you were saying- Yeah ... it, it's not a, you're not a person who disagrees. Now you're a person who hates me. Right. Now you're a person who is amoral, who wants to destroy me because you support this other side of the spectrum. Right. Well, and one thing to balance out the conversation, I do wanna say that there are some cultist-like people on the right who think that Trump is God or Trump is a deity- Yeah ... or there is a lot of idolization of Trump that I don't agree with. I think he is just a man and a politician. I don't think that he is a god. I don't think that there are certain things that if he does something immoral, oh, well, just because it's Trump, that means we should support it, you know? Here's my thing. I believe in one political leader, which is God, you know? And there are candidates on either side that are sometimes more aligned with that or less aligned with that. And the only thing I can do, number one thing I can do as a believer is to pray for our political leaders. I know and for those who don't know, definitely check out especially the Book of Daniel, there is spiritual warfare going on behind a lot of political parties, right? There are demonic entities trying to invade and destroy nations. There are angelic beings trying to protect and save nations, and you can read about this in the Bible, and it's very real. Not only that, but we've seen politicians been bought out before. We've seen that. And I've had people say, "No, there isn't money and bribery in politics or the medical field." I mean, that's BS. It's in every field, right? There are people who will compromise their character for money. There are great people who won't, and there are people who will be killed for not compromising their character. But we need to understand that. We need to understand that there is so much more going on here. All this to say, you know, that it- And, and, and I don't wanna, I w- just to- Go ahead ... I don't wanna l- gloss over it without saying Trump is an asshat. I have so many problems with Donald Trump, I'll tell you right now. Like I said, I fall on the right side of the spectrum, but I also did 20 years in the military, and I have a great appreciation of what a leader looks like, and Donald Trump is not someone I would consider a leader. He's got some admirable characteristics, and he's got some, you know, I could talk great about him as well, but the behavior of a person who is leading his country, and the lack of willingness to reach across the aisle and be that bigger person, which is, like I said, I'm trying to learn how to partner my politics with grace, and I would love it if- Right my president could set an example in that respect. Just don't fire people on Twitter, man. Don't conduct international foreign relations and threaten to bomb countries on Twitter Well, the whole political system has gotten unprofessional. I watched a- Yeah ... I don't know if it was a congressional hearing, Senate, whatever it was, where women were making fun of each other's eyelashes in the middle of a- Yeah a political debate. That kind of stuff, I mean, there, the level of professionalism has dropped. Yeah. I have seen some name-calling, insulting, what I would call very immature, childish behavior. And even during, I think the, you could look at videos right now, like Trump-Biden presidential debate, you know, like, uh, best roasts. You know, that, that shouldn't be a thing. It should be what were the best political points made, not who called the other one out for sleeping on the job more. But we're so interested in political drama more than political progress. We wanna see all the gaffes of Bush and Biden more than we wanna see, or RFK funniest moments. Now, I'm not saying I haven't watched those compilations. They come across my feed sometimes, but- Oh, yeah. No, yeah ... I mean, there, there's, there's a certain level, and I think people are just- It would just be nice if we could partner the professionalism with accomplishments, 'cause that, that's- Yes ... even as you were talking about, I'm agreeing with you and my, my, the critical thinking part of my mind's coming up with a disagreement because Obama was one of the most professional presidents that we've seen, and he didn't really accomplish that much except to kind of set, in my opinion, to s- to set us up for failure in the future. And you go back to Clinton and, you know, however far back you wanna go, even the professionalism that we saw in Congress, it did not lead to as much accomplishments. And the, the pre- There needs to be a firmness and aggressiveness to it that's still professional but still actionable. Yes. Yes. I would love to see whatever your thoughts about Obama are, whatever you think, he was a professional, charismatic man. And if we can partner that with Trump levels of I'm gonna go out there and I'm just gonna do stuff, okay? And you can stop me in the courts if you can, and if not, then it's gonna happen. And if we could somehow partner those things, it would just be perfect. But I'm with you that the level of professionalism has dropped, and a lot of it, I think, has to do with smartphones and the complacency and- Yeah apathy of the voters, that everybody's gotta have that viral clip. They want that moment they can put onto commercials and- Yeah. So it's another example of why I say I think things have gone, they're so far gone that, you can't... It's one of the reasons that Donald Trump, I think can't fix the things that he has promised to fix. I don't think anybody can because our problems have become so bad that in order to address those problems, you would have to take drastic actions. And when I say drastic actions, I'm talking about if you wanna deport all of the illegal immigrants, you're talking about combat in American cities. There are tens of millions of illegal immi- it would be the largest relocation of human beings to ever happen if we decided to deport all of the illegal immigrants. And even if he bit the bullet and said, "I am going to do that, we're gonna do-" The short-term optics, just look at what's happening just trying to deport the criminals. That they send ICE in there and the, the cities aren't cooperating, and just from trying to deport the criminals, the optics that are coming through on social media and how they're being weaponized by political opposition and the media, it'll transform public opinion away from it. Doesn't matter how logical it is, how reasonable, how many voters support it. Because our politics are based on public opinion and majority rules, the optics refuse to allow the politicians to do it because everybody's gotta get reelected. Everybody's gotta raise money. And if the optics are ugly enough that they lose their support, they can't make decisions that are, they're bad in the short term but beneficial in the long term, which is what leadership is supposed to be. But they can't do that- Right ... because everybody's got an election to worry about. That's why we're, we're kind of- But it's also, it's also very biased and ironic 'cause you can look up Obama and deportation, you can look up other presidents opposite political ideologies of Trump that also did deportation, and the way it was framed or recorded on social media is completely different. It's more about nowadays the social media war, like you said, than the... It, it's sad because you could have two people doing the same thing and it's just projected so differently because of, again, these twisted ideas. You mentioned getting into acting. You know, post political campaign and all that. What moved you into that direction? Well, besides, you can tell how passionate I am about, America, but, , besides that, the artistic, I'm always been kind of a pop culture nerd, and besides comic books and video games, I've always been a film guy. I've always loved great movies and great TV shows, and I love the idea of art being used to bring people together. It's one of my favorite things about going to watch a movie is it doesn't... I mean, if me and you are in the theater and I'm sitting beside the Iranian, the Russian, the Chinese, whoever these soldiers are that are sitting beside me, and we're watching, you know, Avengers: Endgame, we can both feel that moment when Cap picks up Mjolnir. We can both feel that moment when Cap decides to walk against Thanos' army. It doesn't have anything to do with the daily troubles of our lives, but because- Mm ... this artistic medium has pulled us out of those concerns and put us into a new world in which we are emotionally invested, it can inspire those feelings across all of our differences so that we, in that moment, we come together as humans, as people. And I think that it's one of the most powerful things of art to be able to do that. And- One of the many things the military kinda made me comfortable with was public speaking. So I decided one way to use that would be to stand on a stage in community theater, do some acting there, I did some student films, standing in front of a camera and giving speeches here and there. I think everybody in the world should have an artistic medium that even if you're not good at it. That's not the point. Don't, don't try to be good at it, just use it as a method- Mm ... to express yourself in a way that feels real. Right. To try to be honest in ways that you can't put into words. 'Cause it wasn't just the acting. I did some writing, too. Nothing, nothing that ever got picked up. Nothing big. I was an extra on The Righteous Gemstones, that was probably the biggest thing I did, and, placed in some screenwriting competitions but, you know, that and $5 won't get you a cup of coffee. So, but, the reason, after I ran for office and lost and came here and decided to be a full-time dad, I had to find some stuff to keep me busy. I had never in my life had the time to dedicate to that kind of artistic pursuit. And because the opportunity presented itself I kinda threw myself into it. And I love it. I really do enjoy it, but I think any artistic field, especially one that is as collaborative as the film industry, the theaters When you're working with other people, there's a community there, and unfortunately, just like every other aspect, politics has very much infected those communities as well. And if you're in an artistic community, it's very much gonna be on the left side of the spectrum, so didn't fit in there as much as I wanted to. I still have little gigs here and there. I'm about to audition for a voice acting role. But it's not something I can jump in with both feet and be very public in my political beliefs, 'cause those two things are gonna start to conflict after a while. Right. No, I totally get that. Does that answer your question? I totally get that. I've been part of some, you know, creator communities where it was the more you looked a certain part, the more you got promoted on their platforms, or the more, in one political direction your artwork was or themed or felt like, they would promote it more, even if your artwork wasn't political. Just because of certain looks, because those looks attract certain members. And so unfortunately, you know, there are a lot of communities that have been torn by politics. But I do encourage everyone, there are plenty of communities out there where you can find it. There are veteran art communities specifically for veterans on the left, on the right. I think that there are communities for everything nowadays, especially online. So I do encourage everyone to not be hopeless, especially if you feel like you are an outcast, you can't fit in anywhere. There are so many communities that you can find, and if you can't- And every artist, every great artist feels exactly like that, what you just said yeah. Yeah, and if you can't, then make your own. I always suggest that. You know, be a leader, be a creator, and, it can be a uphill battle, but most of the times if you feel like, let's say for example a right-wing, you know, veteran artist, and artwork depicts certain concepts politically that most people don't agree with, there's probably other people out there feeling that way, and it's just a matter of getting them all together, you know? And I think that's really important. So I would always say that while it can be a journey of trying to find that community, it is out there. You know, whether you have to make it or find it. So I think it's important. And rejection is part of life. Outcastment is part of life. Unfortunately you're not just gonna fit in everywhere the first time. Even in the military, people join the military for brotherhood, for sisterhood. There was cliques on my ship. Some of them were based off race, some of them were based off rank, some of them were based off certain ideologies. And there were plenty of times where you could be in the military and still feel like you weren't a part of something. And it's just the way that the world works. But you can always find someone, even if you end up being part of, you know, like DC Suicide Squad, , the outcast group of all these interesting characters who don't fully get along, but you've got each other at least Absolutely. I'm loving what you're putting out there, man. That's 100% correct. Whatever you do, do not self-isolate. Mm. Do not self-isolate. It's one of the most dangerous... I don't know if you wanted to get into the topic of mental health. I had a lot of mental health struggles, and I learned a lot of lessons. And one of the most dangerous things for anybody to do when they feel like they're struggling with mental health is to self-isolate and ruminate. 100%. To just sit around and not do anything except think about your problems. It's the worst thing and it's never gonna improve, anything. But even if, I wanted to get back to what you were saying about artists in the communities, 100%, be bad at it. Even if you wanna write and you hate the way you write, just be bad at it. That's okay. Go get you a block of clay and mold something. Pick up a pencil and draw. Don't try to be good at it, just pick any kind of artistic medium to try to express yourself, and you'd be ama- You, if you go do some therapy long-term, guess what? Eventually they're gonna involve some artistic works, because it allows you to express things that you cannot, you don't even know they're there until you start trying to make art. So- Yeah ... be bad at it. That's okay. 100%. Now, when it comes to podcast guesting, you expressed a little bit, what your mission is, just spreading some knowledge, getting people to network with you and whatnot. Do you have anything that you'd like people to check out in particular, whether that's a social media website or what do you want the, the call to action to be just to connect with you further? You mentioned beforehand, just to refer to people, you're very open to friendly, polite political debates from both sides, you know. One thing you mentioned that we've talked about is we're learning, too. You know, just because we're passionate about something doesn't mean it's necessarily right. Sometimes we haven't encountered something, and there's plenty of people who grew up one way and became another. Sometimes we open our minds, so is that invitation there for everyone, and if so, how can they follow up on that? Probably the best way, I've got a Linktree of all the, the social media stuff, but probably the one I'm the most active on is Facebook and Instagram. And on there it's just matt.hasty and the number's 378. So that's the best way. And I'm on Twitter, I'm on TikTok, I'm on all those things. But if you go to my Facebook, at the top there's a Linktree, and you click on the Linktree and it's got all that stuff. I've got a Substack out there that's Matthew Hasty. I'm on podcast guests. But if you ever wanna, if anybody out there ever wants to have a conversation, I'm very much working on my pairing grace with love so that I can have these difficult conversations with people who disagree with me. I think Mr. Whiskey, for the most part, it seems like we agree, which is great, you know, we had a great conversation. But in order to expand our understanding of the community that we all have to share, we have to learn how to interact with the people with whom we disagree. And I think people on the left have a lot of problem with that. I also had a lot of problem with that, and I still do in some ways, but the only way to get better at it, just like everything else, is to practice. Practice, practice. So please, anybody feels like you wanna have a great, mature, reasoned, intelligent conversation that doesn't involve yelling, which is a challenge for me sometimes, but I'm getting better at it. Um- We're not yelling ... yeah. We're just talking loudly. Yeah. We're, we're very passionate. Sometimes we, as the conversation goes on, we talk more and more loudly. Yeah. But, uh- But I think that it's working out great. Yes, sir. So, just a final message for everyone listening, you know, kind of the culmination of everything we've talked about or that you really want people to take away from any conversation with you. America Is the greatest nation that can possibly exist. Once you understand the founding philosophy itself, and once you tie that founding philosophy back through time, the enlightenment of Europe, all the way back to the, the equality before God that came from Jesus. Once you understand the morality, the philosophy, and the belief system that founded the United States of America by flawed men, but by men who really, really did want to create a just government. If you understand that philosophy, this country is worth fighting for. It's worth serving. It's worth loving. It's worth believing in. And if you don't understand that, that's okay. Not everybody knows everything. I definitely don't. But if you reach out to people who have more experience, more education, more wisdom, whatever it is, or even just a different experience, maybe just a, a different perspective. Maybe they don't know more than you do, but everyone you meet can teach you something. Go into it with an open mind, and you can understand why America is exceptional. Find Jesus and give him your heart. The other side of your surrender to Jesus is the best version of your life How's that? Amen to all that. That was pretty good. That was pretty good. So, thank you for your time today for guesting on the podcast. I mean, I'll come meet you in person under one condition. You gotta make that brisket you were talking about. I don't know if you were making it- I, I, I- ... or you got someone else ... I, I can make you a steak. I'm pretty good at making steaks. I'm not good at brisket. That wasn't my brisket that I made. Oh, okay. But I will- Okay, okay. Brother, you, you tell me when and where and you, right here at this table, I'll make you a steak. Yes, sir. I appreciate that. All righty. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for having me, Mr. Whiskey