January 7, 2024 • 47 mins
Have you ever wondered how veterans continue to shape our political landscape post-service? Join me as I sit down with Pablo Capistrano from the El Paso County Democratic Party Veterans Outreach Committee to unravel the depths of veterans' political activism and the pressing need for their voices in today's democracy. Pablo sheds light on the importance of dispelling myths about party allegiance, particularly the notion that military support is a Republican hallmark, and urges voters to align their ballots with their personal values.
Our conversation doesn't shy away from the tough questions, as we examine the challenges of engaging constructively with conservatives who don't subscribe to extremist ideologies. I share anecdotes from my own life about the delicate art of discussing politics with friends and family who hold different views. These stories highlight the transformative power of empathy in political discourse, hinting at the potential to bridge divides and foster understanding through respectful conversation. Furthermore, we dissect the worrying trends within the Republican Party, drawing parallels with examples of democratic backsliding internationally and underscoring the crucial role of independent and unaffiliated voters in pushing back against these trends.
The episode wraps up with an exploration into the deepening influence of right-wing extremism on local issues, such as school board elections and cannabis legalization movements. Through my discussion with Pablo, we spotlight the significant impact that local community action can have, especially when it comes to protecting the integrity of public education and supporting veterans' needs. If you're looking for a thought-provoking listen that combines personal insights with an impassioned plea for civic engagement, this is the episode for you.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And joining me today is Pablo Capistrano.
He is with the El Paso CountyDemocratic Party Veterans
Outreach Committee.
He is a Colorado Springsresident and a 20-year veteran
of the US Navy.
He moved here after hisretirement to work in the
defense space industry.
Pablo, thanks for joining metoday.
Thanks for having me thisVeterans Outreach Committee that
the Democratic Party has.
What is the purpose of it andwhat's your vision for it?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, it's kind of serves two purposes, right?
So, first off, the VeteransOutreach Committee is exactly
what it sounds like.
We're looking to reach out tothe veteran and military
community.
That includes folks who were inthe military, folks who were
dependents, you know, people whohave friends and family that
are currently active duty andlet them know what the track
(00:44):
record is on the DemocraticParty when it comes to voting
for veterans issues and votingfor veterans benefits and voting
for a strong national securityand a strong military.
The second thing that we do iswe try to keep the Democratic
Party here honest, right.
We try to make sure that theparty and the candidates are
(01:05):
knowledgeable and sensitive toissues that affect veterans in
the military community mostright Things like veteran
homelessness, the suicide rate,status of benefits, whether
that's through the VA, orwhether or not reservists get a
full retirement at age 59 and ahalf or if we can get it to them
sooner Things that matter themost to the veteran community In
(01:26):
El Paso County.
We try to keep front of mindfor all the Democratic
candidates as well as the partyleadership.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
That's an interesting take on it.
Just, accountability is a bigthing in the military and making
sure that our Democratcandidates know the information
are accountable so that whenthey're out there speaking it's
critical to get the message out.
I think Democrats in generalhave done a poor job at
highlighting how much theysupport the military, because
(01:56):
people when you're out in thepublic they still think that, oh
, republicans, that's yourmilitary folks.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That's been the brand , right, and unfortunately, I
think, a lot of that brand.
It doesn't bear real truth whenyou look at the voting records,
right, but unfortunately, whenfolks think of Democrats they
think it's the 80s again.
I've got Ronald Reagan whowants to build a 300-chip Navy
and I've got Walter Mondale whowants to surrender to the
Soviets.
None of that was true then.
(02:25):
None of it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Now, right With that perception, though, people need
to start realizing theRepublican voting records, and
they need to compare that totheir own values, because if
their votes don't match up withtheir values, they need to look
elsewhere.
For other candidates andDemocrats, I always have a lot
of good candidates across theboard, from local seats to state
(02:50):
and federal seats, but thiselection cycle is going to be
crazy.
Oh yeah.
It's like we never left the2020 election cycle, like for
the last three years, four years, election denials.
I get Facebook posts every day.
I get calls every day frompeople that just want to yell at
me about a stolen election andstuff like that.
(03:11):
It's pretty rough.
It is.
What are some of the signs andthings like that that we've got
to look for going into thiselection cycle and things to be
keyed up on?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, I think, from the VETS outreach committee
perspective I think PresidentBiden covered a lot of it in his
recent speech from Valley Forgeand I'm sure folks have seen it
in the news as well theRepublican Party, as necessary
as it is to have a two-partysystem and a loyal opposition
(03:43):
and real, distinct, tangiblechoices in our elections for now
the Republican Party seems tohave abandoned democracy as a
principle.
I'm talking a little bitdemocracy, right.
I'm talking governance byconsent, the things our founding
fathers fought for, the thingsthat you, me and the listeners
of your podcast sworn oath touphold and defend.
(04:10):
I think it's not a surprise toanybody that Donald Trump is
going to be the nominee Like.
He's far and away the mostpopular guy on that side, which
is mind-blowing.
I know it's completelymind-blowing.
Trust me, as a McCain voter, Itold him to get a former McCain
voter, I know where you'recoming from.
He obviously has no respect forthe rule of law or constitution
(04:31):
, right?
His 90 plus felony chargescertainly are proof of that.
He attempted to engineer aviolent overthrow of the
government through subverting afree and fair election.
But despite all that, like yousaid, he's like the guaranteed
nominee.
Like Nikki Haley, ron DeSantisthey're not even close.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well, I think it's scary.
In the Republican Party anybodythat you know was speaking up
because, like Liz Cheney, shewrote that oath in honor book
and if you haven't listened toit it's great.
She reads it on audible so youactually get to hear some of her
tone and stuff like that.
I think she's officially not inthe Republican.
Party anymore right, yeah, shegot the boot because she stood
up for our constitution.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, lisa McCromney, mcc whatever, threw her out
because she was disloyal.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Right, yeah, she didn't follow the king and you
know she paid the price for it.
You know so when they'rechasing good people out and I
mean even you know Ken Buck inthe fourth district here you
know him retiring probablybecause he's sick of the BES.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And not to say Ken Buck's, my favorite, but I, you
know, tip of the hat.
This guy, this is apparently aman of principle.
He looked, he surveyed thelandscape and he saw the company
he was in.
He said I can be a part of this, yeah, and even during the
election.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
He was in charge of our elections here and he
repeatedly said like no, like,these are safe.
This was a loss.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Like you know Guys like Ken Buck, guys like Adam
Kinzinger right Guys like MittRomney and Liz Cheney.
You have these people ofconscience who you know.
I personally disagreevehemently on with policy, but
that's fine.
Let's have that discussion.
Let's have that debate, let'shave that argument within the
(06:09):
construct of a representative ofa republic, within a democracy
right.
What Trump and the current GOPare advocating for right now is
the opposite of that.
They don't want to have theargument anymore, they just want
to do it their way.
And if you don't want to do ittheir way, stand by for death
threats and bomb threats.
They think political violenceis an acceptable outcome, maybe
(06:30):
even a desired one, and I gottabe honest, that scares the hell
out of me, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You know, because we know he's gonna be the nominee.
I mean, he lost by seven, eightmillion votes last time.
I don't think he's endeared anymore people.
I think he was gonna losebigger this time, but they've
already shown us what they'regonna do.
They're gonna do and theyprobably won't wait to another
January 6th I mean at theelection if things start going
bad.
I think people are gonna dieLike I think there's gonna be a
(07:00):
huge emotional reaction when heloses by 15 million votes this
time and then it's really rigged, you know, and I think people
are gonna have an emotionalreaction and go out and there's
gonna be a lot of violence andit's terrifying, yeah and I mean
, I certainly think there'sgonna be an emotional reaction.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna predict or
anything like that and the levelof violence that could happen,
but I do believe it's gonna benot zero.
Right?
The information environmentthat Trump supporters live in is
not conducive to peacefulresolution.
Right, like, if you tune intoAM Radio, listen to Ben Shapiro,
(07:38):
you know even listen to JoeRogan and folks like that,
they're talking as if A civilwar is a given and B.
The only thing left to do isprepare.
And again, it shouldn't be thisway, it doesn't have to be this
way.
And I think folks have a choice, right, yeah, and that's why
we're here with the OutreachCommittee.
Right, we wanna talk toveterans in the community,
(08:01):
especially progressive andliberal ones, and let them know
like, hey, you've got a job todo.
Right, like I'm kinda here witha call to action right that we
can tell the people who maybeare a little downhearted, maybe
a little bit cynical, maybepeople who aren't quite paying
attention, that it's not toolate, this is not a fayah
complete and in fact you, theprogressive voter, the liberal
(08:24):
voter, the voter, even if you'renot progressive and liberal,
even if you just believe in theconstitutional value of
governance by consent, right,you can help us.
And we don't have to agree onpolicy.
God knows, I don't agree withJoe Biden on every policy he's
ever come out with, but I atleast wanna have the argument in
a political arena, right.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And that was one of Liz Cheney's big things.
You know, when there was adispute, you solve it in the
court systems, and 60 out of 61cases got thrown out.
That's the end of it, and theone case that won in
Pennsylvania wasn't enough tooverturn the results.
There was a very insignificantnumber of election for all that
(09:08):
happened.
But you work it through thecourt systems how our finding
voters attended.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, unless you live in the right wing fever swamp.
I don't think there's any doubtthat the 2020 election was free
and it was fair and probablyone of the most efficient
elections run, given the levelof threat and political violence
that was out there, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And I think it was a good job of flexing the year of
COVID to be in more mail-ins anda lot more of that stuff too,
and certainly mail-in ballots onthe military side is how we do
business.
And for people to sit there andtry to either take away our
rights to vote or not count ourvotes for them coming in on the
day of the election things likethat when they're getting
(09:54):
shipped from overseas, themtrying to take those away from
vets is pretty upsetting whenpeople start bashing mail-in
voting because that's the onlyway I could participate for 20
years.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, exactly, and I remember our voting officer
sweating every election cycle,having to get our ballots on,
having to collect them again.
That was a pain for him.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I appreciate it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'd probably appreciate him alittle more.
Looking back, we talked aboutTrump's.
You know his right-wing baseand again blows my mind that
they support some of his had somany indictments and even before
(10:32):
he was president he had so manylegal proceedings from the 70s
and his first divorces withviolence and things like that.
He's had so much stuff thatfollows him but he still has a
huge following and when we lookat his base, they're not all
white supremacists and racistsand everything like that.
Like, I have a lot of friendsthat still support and will
(10:55):
still vote for him, even afterall the night, like when he was
in the office.
I remember waking up everymorning because I was still in
the military then and looking tosee if World War III started.
Yeah, you know the level ofanxiety that that person just
created by being there, becauseevery day was a new line of
bullshit.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I won't say where I was stationed at the time, but
suffice it to say I wasstationed at a place where I
didn't expect I was gonna haveto deploy, and for a while there
, under Commander-in-Chief Trump, it was looking like I was
gonna have to go to Osan.
Yeah, that was like a verynerve-tingling time.
I don't remember that as well.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
What was that one?
The Little Rocket man comments.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, it was Fire and Fury and we thought, oh, ulti,
focus Guardian is gonna kick offand that's gonna be for some
placement for a defensive of thepeninsula.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, so the people that aren't the white supremacy
races and they're just votingbecause they wanna toe the line,
how do?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
you reach those folks ?
You know that's a greatquestion and it's kind of one
that hits close to home for metoo.
Because I agree, right, themega crowd, trump's base, is one
thing and I'm not saying thisis everybody, but I think it is
uncontrovertible.
(12:18):
Right, it's uncontested thatthere are strong elements of the
white supremacist movement, ofnot just your casual Sunday
morning races who just doesn'tlike his Vietnamese neighbors
that moved in across the streetbut people who are politically
engaged.
They're part of that coalition,right, christian nationalists.
(12:39):
And I'm not talking people offaith and good intentions who go
to church on Sundays, I'mtalking about people who want
the Christian evangelical churchto take over the government and
have America govern by theprecepts of their particular
belief.
They are part of that coalition.
That is undeniable.
(13:00):
Also part of that coalition ismy father-in-law, right, who I
love dearly.
He's a great man.
He's the best grandpa to mychildren.
He raised a hell of a woman inmy wife and couldn't be a nicer
guy.
Right Accepted me into animmigrant boy who kind of swept
(13:22):
his daughter off her feet inIowa, accepted me with open arms
into his family.
That's awesome.
And also a lot of my friendstoo, right, because I think if
you're in the military, guesswhat?
You've got a lot ofconservative friends.
Yeah, that's just the way thatrolls right.
So how do we reach these people?
And how do we kind of not somuch separate the wheat from the
(13:46):
chaff, but how do we get topeople who can be persuaded,
people who can be, who we cantalk to, who we can debate, who
we can have open, good faithdiscussion with?
And then how do we identifythose we can't right People who
just believe what they believeand there's nothing we can do
about it and we should not wastebreath with them?
I think that's the first step,right, deciding, excuse me,
(14:08):
deciding who we can talk to,deciding who is open for the
conversation, right, and thenfocusing all our efforts there,
and not so much concentrating,you know, not so much just
getting into a knockdown, dragout, shouting, match in the
ready rumor in the TV room justbecause it makes you feel good,
because that doesn't help, right?
I like the rule of three.
(14:31):
Somebody taught me the rule ofthrees once.
It was kind of a campaignoutreach trick of hey if you
can't give money, hey if youcan't volunteer your time, hey
if you can't donate, I want youto talk to three of your friends
, three of your friends andfamily, people who maybe haven't
been keeping up on the election, maybe you're undecided and
then talk to them about theissues, talk to them about
(14:51):
what's at stake in this nextelection and don't lecture
people, right?
That hasn't worked out too wellfor me and you know, as a
retired naval officer, I lovedlecturing people.
It doesn't work.
Nobody likes it.
What worked for me?
What works for me, is I tellpeople how it affects me and
(15:14):
what I feel and what I think.
Like, hey, I voted democraticthis last cycle because of the
following reasons right, this ishow it affected me personally
and that way you're humanizingit.
Right, because, at the end ofthe day, I think what most
people want, especially thosepeople, everybody, even the
Trump supporters, even thediehard maga folks they just
(15:37):
wanna be heard, they wanna beseen, they wanna be heard.
They want their truth to beacknowledged.
So do that when you talk topeople.
Right, be open, acknowledgetheir truth, meet them where
they're at and then let themknow.
You know, then that's a goodtime to maybe drop a couple of
truth bombs in there and be likeoh, by the way, here's how
Democrats voted on the PACT Actright.
Here's how Democrats have votedon funding the VA and making
(16:01):
sure you get disability paymentson time and that they are not
taxed.
Right here's how the Democratshave voted on keeping the
government open so that we canmaintain our national security
posture around the world.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, those conversations are necessary.
I think in the last 40, 50years we've done a disservice to
everybody by, you know, we havea cultural norm now that you
don't talk politics and don'ttalk religion, and I think by us
being afraid to have thoseconversations at the dinner
table has made us apathetic tothe whole process.
Sure, you know, because we'renot used to having those
(16:37):
conversations and we're afraidof offending people because we
don't know how to talk to eachother.
You know, when I haveconversations with Republicans,
like you said, you can tellpretty quick if they're coming
from a place of hate.
Yeah, and when they come from aplace of hate, I just kind of
end it and move on.
But you know a lot of myfriends, we can sit and have
(16:59):
really good conversations andyou know they show me some
things that I didn't see.
I showed them something, youknow like these conversations
have to happen.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And I'm sure you've seen it too, right, where you
initially square off withsomebody, you sense you know the
political discussion coming andyou start going through your
roll of decks of, okay, here aremy top three talking points,
right, and I'm gonna get themout there.
And then they put out their topthree talking points.
Okay, great, I'm gonna tell younot to do that, because you're
gonna do that, right, yeah, I doit too, but when we're doing
(17:28):
those things, we're notlistening to the other person,
we're just waiting for our turnto talk, right, so do it, get it
out of the way.
And then if, like you said, ifthis is somebody who is just
they're coming from a place ofhate, they wanna troll the lip
or whatever, right, breakcontact, right, just get out of
there.
That's not gonna do anybody anygood.
But if it's somebody of goodfaith, right, somebody who wants
(17:50):
to discuss the issues in goodfaith, that's when you open up
and you listen, right, okay,what is it?
What are your?
What is it that you areconcerned with?
What is it that you are worriedabout?
What are you advocating for?
And then make sure you hearthem, make sure you see them,
and again, it's not, it may besomething you disagree with, and
(18:11):
that's fine, and they're gonnadisagree with you too, but I
gotta believe, and I'm sureyou're the same way.
I gotta believe there's a wayto have political discussions
while maintaining civildiscourse, being respectful,
being civil about it, cause atthe end of the day, this is the
double edged sword of the systemwe live in.
(18:35):
You are given great privilege asa voter.
Everybody who is a citizen inthe United States of America has
a piece of governing thiscountry, right, right.
So it's not just your right tovote.
I see it also, as this is yourobligation, to vote right.
This is your responsibility,not just to vote, but to vote
(18:58):
responsibly, to be knowledgeableabout the issues, to have a
general idea of where the taxmoney you're paying goes to and,
if you don't like where it goes, to get involved and get it to
go somewhere else right.
And there's a million differentways you can get involved.
But, like you know, I'm anaturalized citizen.
I'm one of those kids whodidn't understand that I wasn't
(19:19):
a citizen until I was like 18 or19 and wanted to join the Navy.
And then it was one of thosehey, mom and dad, where's my
citizenship papers?
And they're like, yeah aboutthat.
Ooh, right, turns out you onlyhave a green card.
You gotta go actuallynaturalize.
So because of that, it was, youknow, kind of ingrained early
upon me that this is not just aprivilege and a right, this is
(19:39):
an obligation, this is a duty,and I try to treat my
citizenship as a duty, right andpart of that duty, for better
or for worse.
Even if you're not like apolitics guy, even if you're not
a politics nerd like us, youneed to know what's going on and
you need to guard againstmisinformation and
disinformation and, as much aspossible, you need to see
through agendas of this mediaoutlet or that media outlet and
(20:01):
distill a certain truth that youcan base your voting decisions
on.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, I find it really valuable to jump media
sites and, like you know, go toFox News, go to OAN and like
read other things, just so thatyou can see what they're saying
and kind of get a pulse.
You know, like reading only,whatever your choice is, reading
only one choice, just leads toextremism.
(20:27):
You have to open your aperture,you have to look at the whole
picture and see what theirarguments are, because sometimes
it's a lot of noise but there'san intent behind it, sure.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
But I would be aware, obviously, that and not to say
that left-wing media biasdoesn't exist.
But like OAN, fox News, oneAmerica I'm sorry, newsmax,
things like that they aredeliberately coming from one
side, right?
I mean, it's not even close Tome.
(21:00):
It's not.
Like Fox News is the mirrorimage of MSNBC, right?
No, there are significantdifferences.
No, you know, I try to,actually I try to look at like
four news outlets, right, theBBC Actually, like LGZ, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
LGZ.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
LGZ, france 24.
Did they put information outlike?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
straight up.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Obviously NPR, propublica, outlets like that.
They do great journalism andbecause there's not a lot of
corporate influence, rightespecially state-run media
organs like the BBC they mostlyplay it down the line.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah.
So we kind of talked about theRepublicans out there that we
can reach to and talk to, thingslike that.
But then there's the other side.
There's that white supremacistside that really kind of drives
the MAGA agenda and during hisfirst term, trump was pretty
(22:00):
incompetent in getting thingsdone.
He would just kind of saythings with no real clear
direction and hope people gotthings done.
You saw it on his speech onJanuary 6th at the lawn.
He didn't specifically saylet's go down and let's burn
this thing down, but he guidedthem there.
He led them down that path.
(22:20):
He's not going to be asincompetent this next time
around that.
There's things in place rightnow that the white supremacist
movement are trying toinstitutionalize into the
Republican Party Project 2025,agenda 47, things like that.
What is for our listeners?
(22:41):
What is kind of the gist of?
Like a Project 2025 from theHeritage Foundation?
Right, yeah, from the HeritageFoundation.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
So, you know and this is just my opinion, right I
think, like you said, we weresaved in 2016 by the Trump
administration's incompetenceright, that their incompetence
greatly outweighed their malice.
We were saved by a combinationof that and the few
(23:08):
institutionalists that decidedto still serve in his
administration.
You know, they had lines thatthey could not cross, right.
The gematises of the world,right, and I think what saved us
back then was obviously anybodywho serves as president of the
United States.
They don't do all the chops inthe executive branch.
(23:30):
They have to have staff, theyhave to bring people in, right.
They have an administration,and, because Donald Trump was
such an outlier, a lot of theestablishment Republicans, the
professional political class,would not participate in that
administration, and then, as awar on, it looked like a poison
(23:50):
pill.
It looked like you don't wantto be in a Trump administration.
You don't want to be on hislegal team, right?
The joke is, MAGA stands formake attorneys, get attorneys,
right.
Most of his lawyers, I think,are in serious political trouble
, right, or are going to be thistime around, though I think
that same political class youknow people who maybe don't so
(24:11):
much believe in a causeconservative or liberal.
They just want to get in powerand stay in power.
They see an opportunity withDonald Trump.
They see how strong his base isand they see that if they sign
on and use their expertise inhow government works to form
government their way, that theyhave an opportunity to win and
(24:33):
to cement their win permanently.
Going back to our previousconversation, they don't want to
have the argument anymoreBecause, quite frankly, when you
look at the few policypositions Republicans have,
they're pretty unpopular.
Right Forced birth is prettyunpopular.
Picking on transgender kids forno reason is pretty unpopular.
Right Book bans arehorrifically unpopular.
(24:54):
So they don't want to have thatconversation anymore.
They don't want to have theargument anymore.
They want to set up agovernment that on the outside
looks like a democracy but inreality, nobody has any chance
of getting any Republican out ofoffice.
They want to set us up likeHungary, right Like Viktor Orman
.
So that's the danger this timearound is they are actually
(25:16):
planning to do things likeProject 2025.
Were they could fire as many as50,000 federal government
professionals.
The people who actually run ourgovernment right, the people
who actually make sure your foodgets inspected and that drugs
are safe and that GPS satellitesrun, you know, stay in orbit,
and that the atomic clock runson time.
The everyday governmentprofessionals, who are
(25:40):
tremendously smart, sometimeswent to very you know elite
universities and could bemillionaires, but instead chose
to be GS13s and make 120 grand ayear in the DC area, which is
almost poverty.
They're going to fire all thosepeople and they're going to
replace them with conservativeshills and people who maybe
don't know how to run agovernment, but are certainly
(26:02):
politically loyal and will dowhatever they want.
So, instead of last term or thelast election, where Donald
Trump institutes a Muslim banand pretty much every lawyer in
the Department of Justice islike you know, that's not a
thing.
So he's going to replace allthose guys with people who got a
(26:22):
lot of degrees from God knowswhere, probably graduated law
school, like a month ago yeah,Trump University Exactly and are
just ready to toe the lineright.
Agenda 47, you mentioned thatthat's the closest thing he has
to a policy platform, but whenyou really look at what's in
there, it's pretty terribleright?
He's looking at basicallydismantling the Department of
(26:43):
Education and introducing overpolitical indoctrination to our
children, the Project 1776 stuffthat has worked out so well
down in Woodland ParkDismantling regulatory agencies,
right, Like the things thatforce businesses to keep our air
clean, to keep our water clean,Agencies that keep our food and
(27:08):
drugs safe, like I previouslymentioned.
And then he's talking about amass incarceration, roundup and
deportation of migrants,refugees and dreamers, without a
whole lot of regard to who hasa legitimate claim or not, Like
he frankly doesn't care, Right.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, his terms, that he was going over you know the
vermin and the poison in ourblood and things like that.
Those are scary comments to becoming from somebody that's
looking to run a nation.
How can?
It's just always because, like,as you dive into the things
(27:46):
that he says and does, and likehe's clear about it, like he's
not hiding this information.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
He's telling us who he is.
We should believe him Exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
So.
But that's our problem is thatnot enough people do believe him
, or they don't care, and theywant that.
Yeah, or they don't take itseriously, they think it's a
troll, right?
Yeah, oh, I'm just joking whenI tell Russia to attack the
DNC's.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I was just joking when I took $8 million from the
Chinese government while I waspresident.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, before the two billion his kids got from Saudi,
exactly, yeah.
So with all of these, you knowAgenda 47, project 2025, he's
got big think tanks and you knowpeople behind them trying to
push these narratives in orderto establish that.
You know white Christiannationalist view.
Even you know the new speakerand private settings.
(28:34):
He said he wanted us to be athey call it biblical republic,
and it blows my mind wheneversomebody says something in
private and can't say it outloud.
Yeah, you know, like thatshould go a long way.
Like that's one of the firstthings you learn when you're
going through.
Like leadership training islike ethical decision making.
If you can't say it in front ofyour grandma, probably
shouldn't say it.
Yeah, you know, but we havepeople throughout our government
(28:55):
that are like this and it's abig problem.
What do you think we need to befocusing on now in order to,
like, help work through thisproblem?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Well, I think, obviously, that you know we come
at you with a lot of bad newsright Right On the podcast so
far, and I don't want todownplay the problem but at the
same time I don't want toportray this like there's no
solution at all.
There's stuff we can do,certainly, right.
Some of the stuff we can do andsome of the things we're trying
(29:31):
to do in the outreach committeeis we're trying to reach folks
who are not politically engaged.
Right, el Paso County itself,there's, you know, x amount of
Democrats, y amount ofRepublicans, registered
Republicans.
Obviously the registeredRepublicans outnumber the
registered Democrats in thecounty, but you know who
(29:51):
outnumbers both of us isunaffiliated and independent
voters, right, and I think a lotof that goes to kind of the
independent streak, theapolitical streak that a lot of
us pick up while we were inservice.
So me and the Veterans OutreachCommittee we see a lot of
unaffiliated, a lot ofindependents, registered
independents, who were alsoveterans, and that makes sense,
(30:14):
right, I think some independentsthey don't want to get involved
in politics just because of theapolitical tradition they grew
up in while they were in.
Right, like, I'll be honest, Ididn't pay a whole lot of
attention to politics.
When I was in and that was mychoice I saw my job.
I saw our job as, hey, we'reinstruments of foreign policy,
right, we execute the nationalsecurity.
We are the national securityestablishment.
(30:35):
So I don't want to have a wholelot of say.
I don't want to have a vote asto whether or not I go to Iraq.
That should be somebody else'sjob.
I think a lot of folks who wentup independent, who were in,
they saw firsthand a lot of therace, the bureaucracy, the
inefficiency that went on whenthey were in the Department of
Defense or in their particularservice and it probably
(30:58):
frustrated the hell out of them.
And I get it.
It frustrates the hell out ofme too.
It frustrates me to this day asa defense contractor now.
But I think sometimes thatfrustration leads them to throw
the baby out with the bathwater,thinking that, oh, because our
imperfect system is notfunctioning the way it should,
we should just burn it all down.
So to hell with it.
(31:19):
Let's just vote in Trump, justfor the laughs, and I'm going to
watch Roomba.
I don't think that's a greatidea.
I think the system works a lotbetter than you think.
It does a lot better than a lotof us realize.
It's just we don't know it.
And that's the strength of thesystem is.
We live in a country wherethings just kind of go right.
We all get our paychecks ontime, traffic lights, work, cops
(31:41):
, for the most part can't bebought off.
That is a result of goodgovernance.
And then, finally, I think a lotof our fellow veterans and I
know you and I are in this boattoo we're really busy.
I got to take the kids to JiuJitsu and allergy shots and this
birthday party, and we're goingto go see the Nutcracker
(32:03):
because my son is going to be init.
You have these day to daythings where, on top of that,
you have to worry about politicsand you have to watch news that
bums you out and you have topay attention.
And it's a lot to ask, right.
But we're asking.
I'm asking now, right.
The Outreach Committee isasking because, like I said
(32:24):
before, citizenship is not justa right, it's a duty, it's an
obligation.
And I think in the veterancommunity it's especially
heartbreaking, because you guyshave done your time, you have
served your country and you'veearned the right to not care,
frankly.
But I'm calling on you guys andgals to honor your oath and to
(32:48):
defend us against all enemies ofthe Constitution, especially
the domestic ones.
The stakes are too high for usto take a knee this year.
So here's some of the things wecan do right, obviously voting.
What used to be the ceiling isnow the floor Vote.
If you're in a position to doso, donate.
(33:09):
Right, and I'm not talking.
You don't need to make likesome big $3,000 donation.
Even if you donate like 20bucks a month to your favorite
campaign or to vote blue orsomething like that, that
actually works out better,because monthly steady income of
a known quantity can bebudgeted around.
And so just kind of sporadiclike I'll give you 50 bucks
(33:29):
today and five bucks next monthand whatever Better right,
whether it's with a campaign fora candidate you believe in or
whether it's with us down herein El Paso County Democrats, or
if you're interested in veteransissues as well, join
progressive vets right.
Come to lunch at the Black IT,get involved, because
(33:54):
unfortunately for us orfortunately for us the
Democratic side is going to be agrassroots side, especially in
El Paso County.
Whether it's the school boardelections or whoever's going to
run in Doug Lamborn's place inCD5, or any of the House
districts.
You're facing an uphill battlewhen it comes to money, because
(34:15):
a lot of the corporate interests, a lot of the billionaire
interests, a lot of the highmoney interests are served by
the Republican Party.
Yep, they're served by divisiveand confusing culture, wars
right, which sometimes are redherrings.
So on the Democratic side,since we're more of a grassroots
movement here, you're going tobe facing down a lot of money
and the way to do that is byvolunteering your time, if you
(34:37):
can.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And a quick plug on that.
Yeah, the 27th the DemocraticParty is hosting a training for
campaign volunteers.
The location still has to beTBD, but keep an eye on the
Democrat blast to get thelocation and time for that.
It's great.
It's going to be good trainingto get this cycle kicked off, so
(34:59):
I just want to throw that inthere while we're talking about
volunteer opportunities.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, and as the year progresses, if you get a hold
of us at the party or if youstart joining progressive vets,
you're going to seeopportunities to go in Canvas
right, knock door to door, talkto folks, distribute literature,
do phone banking, do textbanking.
A lot of the volunteer drivenstuff is really what makes a
(35:24):
difference in a campaign.
And then I think you weretalking earlier about how you'll
get in political conversations.
Right, and I know a lot of usdon't want to get in political
conversations and I get that andI understand that.
But in the civilian world,unfortunately, when veterans
(35:45):
speak out fortunately, orunfortunately, when veterans
speak out people take usseriously.
Right, we have a measure ofauthority, we have a measure of
gravitas that maybe somebody whodidn't serve has.
So when one of our brother orsister veterans who happens to
be a Trump supporter speaks up,it sounds authoritative, as if
all veterans, all militarypersonnel, support Trump.
(36:06):
Right, I'm going to ask you tostep in politely, right, if you
feel safe, and say, no, that'snot the case.
Right, and drop a couple truthbombs if you can, just, if for
nothing else, to let them know.
Hey, not every veteran supportsTrump.
In fact, most of us don't right.
You can use your voice, you canuse your position of authority,
you can use your privilege andyou can use your status to help
(36:31):
and to be a force for good.
And although it seems like it'ssmall potatoes, you never know
who's listening Exactly, right?
Yeah, there could be like threeor four bystanders who take
something away from you at thevery least of hey.
I heard a veteran today wholoves Trump and I heard a
veteran today who doesn't loveTrump.
It seems like it's maybe apretty mixed bag.
I better go do my own research.
(36:53):
I better go do my own educationon who I should vote for.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
It reminded me of one time up in we had a booth up in
Cripple Creek during donkeydays and a guy came up to me and
started to kind of yell at meabout what a progressive veteran
is and what a disgrace I was.
And that had to feel good.
Oh yeah, and I just told himlike, hey, we're out here and we
(37:16):
have a right to be heard too,and so he kind of went off and
his wife actually came back alittle bit while later and put
money in the donation jar.
Oh wow, yeah, and she's like Idon't support Trump either, oh
my gosh.
And she put the money in it andwalked it like when he was away
from.
(37:37):
But it's just like that If youstand up and say something, odds
are percentage wise, likeyou're going to hear somebody
that wants to hear what you haveto say.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, and look as a do's paying member of the
international brotherhood ofintroverts.
Right, I get it.
I don't like putting myself outthere as well, but this year is
not the year to be shy, right?
And then the final thing we cando, right?
If you've done all those thingsand I know this one's near and
dear to your heart is run forsomething right.
(38:07):
Don't just don't be the guy whoyells at the news every night.
Don't be the person who justsits in their barca lounger and
yells at the news every nightand shakes their fists at their
TV.
Get off your ass and dosomething Right.
If you feel like you've gotmore in you than volunteering,
(38:27):
if you feel like you have anissue, if you feel like you want
to advocate for somebody orrepresent those and be a voice
for people who are not heard,run for an office.
Don't let any of theRepublicans in Colorado run
unopposed.
Don't let anybody in El PasoCounty run unopposed.
I'll tell you right now, asidefrom the CD5, the US House seat
(38:48):
right which, by the way, thatseems like that's going to get
spicy here.
Yeah, we'll get excited, youknow?
If you didn't know.
State House 14,.
State House 20,.
State House 21,.
State House 22, state House 56,state Senate, district 10, cu
Regent for CD5, all of these areopen seats.
You know we need candidates andif you can be a candidate, come
(39:11):
see us at the party and ifyou're the right fit or even if
you're not, we'll find a rightfit for you we will find a way
to use your contributed time andeffort.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yeah, when people I was talking with someone
yesterday who was thinking aboutkind of stepping back.
We can't train passion, right?
No, the people that arepassionate about it, we need
them here and if you have apassion for it, come and we will
take advantage of that passion.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Yeah, exactly, those are the best candidates right
Like I don't want somebodywalking and be like well, I need
a job.
Right, yeah, okay, if you needa job, monstercom is on the
internet.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Go check that out.
Right, we got pizza hut rightdown the road here.
But if you feel strongly, aboutany of these issues.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
if you want to help us defend democracy and you
think you have a voice, come andrun for an office, yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, and, like you said, there's so many local
state positions that are stillup for grabs.
You can find them and then youknow when we start talking with
school board here after thiselection cycle to you know the
next school board electionscoming up.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
You know those are huge billets and that's the
first line, and yeah again,right like when we, when I
retired and we moved out herefor the job, I did not plan on
getting involved in politics.
The thing that got me involvedis we were up in district 20.
And you know this is during theCOVID crisis.
We had no kidding militia folkslike, with matching t-shirts
(40:38):
and stuff, show up to our schoolboard meetings and it was scary
, and it was.
It was.
It was a real wake up call forme of the amount of money and
the amount of effort and theamount of influence that these
folks on the right want to exertin relatively, you know, small
elections, like for the firsttime ever, six figures was spent
(41:00):
on a school board election,which is unheard of.
And then this last round ofelections, I think they'd numped
about a half a million dollarsinto this one, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah for a local race like that, and it goes back to
what you were saying before.
You know they want toindoctrinate kids earlier and so
if they get there, they get ridof the books they don't agree
with.
It just gives them a path toindoctrinate.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, and it's not just marginalized communities
too right.
It's not just LGBTQ folks, it'snot just minority kids.
It's hey.
If your kid has special needs,if your kid is developmentally
delayed, a lot of the servicesfor that, for special education,
they're going to get cut aswell.
School counselors are going toget cut.
They're trying to do it now indistrict 20.
(41:41):
I mean, these are we've putpeople in charge, or people have
been put in charge who don'tbelieve in public education.
So guess what they're going todo to public education?
They're going to cut it.
The stakes are too high.
We got to get it out there.
We got to get involved.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Absolutely.
Let's give a little blank here.
So do you have anything elseyou want to throw in there?
No, thank you, I'm going to cutall this out right here, okay.
Okay, do you have anything elseyou want to cover or anything
like that?
Okay, was that good for you?
Yeah, absolutely.
So what I'll do is I'll just doa little close and then you can
say thank you and stuff likethat.
Cool, all right.
(42:20):
Well, pablo, thanks for joiningme here today.
Very informative.
You gave me a lot of stuff tothink about here, and all of us
a lot to think about.
If you guys are interested inbeing involved, like Pablo's
called you to be involved for,you can reach out through our
website.
Send me an email at info ateppccpvcom, check out the
(42:41):
website at eppccpvcom and youcan drop us a line on there too.
But, pablo, thank you forjoining us today.
I really appreciate you comingout and doing this for me.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Hey, thanks again for having me, Adam.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Right on.
And once again that was PabloCapistrano with the Democratic
Party Veteran Outreach Committee.
Really appreciate him takingtime out of his schedule to do
the podcast with me today.
One thing I did notice as I wasdoing my read, listen and
editing is that I screwed up onthe email address and the
website address.
(43:13):
It's actually info ateppccpvorg and eppccpvorg for
the website, so notcomorg.
Apologies for that.
One last thing I want to talk toyou guys about before we cut it
here is our larger sponsor,native Roots, also has a call to
(43:35):
action for us.
They are looking the cannabisindustry is looking to legalize
recreational cannabis here inColorado Springs.
I'm a huge proponent of this.
There's multiple ways to thinkabout it.
You know, from the libertarianside of me, I don't think the
government should be telling meI can't do something like that.
(43:58):
That's on par or safer thanliquor and alcohol.
I don't think the governmentshould be involved in that
personally.
And then you look at the taxmoney that we're letting walk
out of our city to go to otherplaces.
You know that could be going tofund the training academy for
the police and other things tohelp you know better our
(44:20):
communities.
And then, on the veteran side.
Recreational cannabis can helppeople with PTSD.
It is easy to get a medicalmarijuana card here in Colorado
Springs.
It's not difficult at all, it'sa couple hundred dollars.
So you know that kind of thatkind of hurts you there, but
it's not that hard.
(44:41):
The hard part is asking forhelp, and then that's where
something like this could helpveterans out, because instead of
having to raise their hand andsay that they're struggling
mentally or physically, theirstudies that show it helps on
both sides.
They don't have to raise theirhand.
(45:01):
They can experiment, try it youknow we are adults now Use it
for a little while to see howthey feel with it and then, if
they want to continue treatment,they can use it to bridge a gap
and get their medical card andhopefully get some.
You know psychotherapy or youknow, see a psychiatrist and
(45:23):
things like that, ourpsychologist.
It's just another tool for usfolks and that's what's
important is we can't turn ourback on these tools that can
help the communities out and,like I said, from struggling
people that have PTSD to justbeing able to fund
(45:44):
infrastructure projects aroundtown with it, it makes sense.
So if you are interested inhelping with that drive, let me
know we're going to be gettingsome petitions going.
I do need some people living inColorado Springs veterans.
If you're interested in beingthe petitioner that you know
submits the paperwork for andstuff like that.
(46:05):
There will be media appearancesand some training to go along
with that.
So if you're interested in that, or if you know somebody who
might be interested in that,again use Pablo's rule of three
Talk to folks, talk to me, reachout and let's try to do
something good for our community.
With that said, I will wrap upthe all things military and
(46:29):
veteran podcast for this week.
Thank you for joining me.
I hope you got something out ofit.
If you have ideas for the show,please reach out.
We can.
We have a lot of leeway here totalk to folks here, so let's
give you a platform.
Get your ideas out there.
If you need me for anything,reach out at info at e-p-c-c-b-v
(46:50):
dot org and I'll help where Ican.
All right, everybody.
Take care of yourselves andeach other.
And joining me today is Pablo Capistrano.
He is with the El Paso CountyDemocratic Party Veterans
Outreach Committee.
He is a Colorado Springsresident and a 20-year veteran
of the US Navy.
He moved here after hisretirement to work in the
defense space industry.
Pablo, thanks for joining metoday.
Thanks for having me thisVeterans Outreach Committee that
the Democratic Party has.
What is the purpose of it andwhat's your vision for it?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, it's kind of serves two purposes, right?
So, first off, the VeteransOutreach Committee is exactly
what it sounds like.
We're looking to reach out tothe veteran and military
community.
That includes folks who were inthe military, folks who were
dependents, you know, people whohave friends and family that
are currently active duty andlet them know what the track
(00:44):
record is on the DemocraticParty when it comes to voting
for veterans issues and votingfor veterans benefits and voting
for a strong national securityand a strong military.
The second thing that we do iswe try to keep the Democratic
Party here honest, right.
We try to make sure that theparty and the candidates are
(01:05):
knowledgeable and sensitive toissues that affect veterans in
the military community mostright Things like veteran
homelessness, the suicide rate,status of benefits, whether
that's through the VA, orwhether or not reservists get a
full retirement at age 59 and ahalf or if we can get it to them
sooner Things that matter themost to the veteran community In
(01:26):
El Paso County.
We try to keep front of mindfor all the Democratic
candidates as well as the partyleadership.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
That's an interesting take on it.
Just, accountability is a bigthing in the military and making
sure that our Democratcandidates know the information
are accountable so that whenthey're out there speaking it's
critical to get the message out.
I think Democrats in generalhave done a poor job at
highlighting how much theysupport the military, because
(01:56):
people when you're out in thepublic they still think that, oh
, republicans, that's yourmilitary folks.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
That's been the brand , right, and unfortunately, I
think, a lot of that brand.
It doesn't bear real truth whenyou look at the voting records,
right, but unfortunately, whenfolks think of Democrats they
think it's the 80s again.
I've got Ronald Reagan whowants to build a 300-chip Navy
and I've got Walter Mondale whowants to surrender to the
Soviets.
None of that was true then.
(02:25):
None of it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Now, right With that perception, though, people need
to start realizing theRepublican voting records, and
they need to compare that totheir own values, because if
their votes don't match up withtheir values, they need to look
elsewhere.
For other candidates andDemocrats, I always have a lot
of good candidates across theboard, from local seats to state
(02:50):
and federal seats, but thiselection cycle is going to be
crazy.
Oh yeah.
It's like we never left the2020 election cycle, like for
the last three years, four years, election denials.
I get Facebook posts every day.
I get calls every day frompeople that just want to yell at
me about a stolen election andstuff like that.
(03:11):
It's pretty rough.
It is.
What are some of the signs andthings like that that we've got
to look for going into thiselection cycle and things to be
keyed up on?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well, I think, from the VETS outreach committee
perspective I think PresidentBiden covered a lot of it in his
recent speech from Valley Forgeand I'm sure folks have seen it
in the news as well theRepublican Party, as necessary
as it is to have a two-partysystem and a loyal opposition
(03:43):
and real, distinct, tangiblechoices in our elections for now
the Republican Party seems tohave abandoned democracy as a
principle.
I'm talking a little bitdemocracy, right.
I'm talking governance byconsent, the things our founding
fathers fought for, the thingsthat you, me and the listeners
of your podcast sworn oath touphold and defend.
(04:10):
I think it's not a surprise toanybody that Donald Trump is
going to be the nominee Like.
He's far and away the mostpopular guy on that side, which
is mind-blowing.
I know it's completelymind-blowing.
Trust me, as a McCain voter, Itold him to get a former McCain
voter, I know where you'recoming from.
He obviously has no respect forthe rule of law or constitution
(04:31):
, right?
His 90 plus felony chargescertainly are proof of that.
He attempted to engineer aviolent overthrow of the
government through subverting afree and fair election.
But despite all that, like yousaid, he's like the guaranteed
nominee.
Like Nikki Haley, ron DeSantisthey're not even close.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well, I think it's scary.
In the Republican Party anybodythat you know was speaking up
because, like Liz Cheney, shewrote that oath in honor book
and if you haven't listened toit it's great.
She reads it on audible so youactually get to hear some of her
tone and stuff like that.
I think she's officially not inthe Republican.
Party anymore right, yeah, shegot the boot because she stood
up for our constitution.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, lisa McCromney, mcc whatever, threw her out
because she was disloyal.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Right, yeah, she didn't follow the king and you
know she paid the price for it.
You know so when they'rechasing good people out and I
mean even you know Ken Buck inthe fourth district here you
know him retiring probablybecause he's sick of the BES.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And not to say Ken Buck's, my favorite, but I, you
know, tip of the hat.
This guy, this is apparently aman of principle.
He looked, he surveyed thelandscape and he saw the company
he was in.
He said I can be a part of this, yeah, and even during the
election.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
He was in charge of our elections here and he
repeatedly said like no, like,these are safe.
This was a loss.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Like you know Guys like Ken Buck, guys like Adam
Kinzinger right Guys like MittRomney and Liz Cheney.
You have these people ofconscience who you know.
I personally disagreevehemently on with policy, but
that's fine.
Let's have that discussion.
Let's have that debate, let'shave that argument within the
(06:09):
construct of a representative ofa republic, within a democracy
right.
What Trump and the current GOPare advocating for right now is
the opposite of that.
They don't want to have theargument anymore, they just want
to do it their way.
And if you don't want to do ittheir way, stand by for death
threats and bomb threats.
They think political violenceis an acceptable outcome, maybe
(06:30):
even a desired one, and I gottabe honest, that scares the hell
out of me, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You know, because we know he's gonna be the nominee.
I mean, he lost by seven, eightmillion votes last time.
I don't think he's endeared anymore people.
I think he was gonna losebigger this time, but they've
already shown us what they'regonna do.
They're gonna do and theyprobably won't wait to another
January 6th I mean at theelection if things start going
bad.
I think people are gonna dieLike I think there's gonna be a
(07:00):
huge emotional reaction when heloses by 15 million votes this
time and then it's really rigged, you know, and I think people
are gonna have an emotionalreaction and go out and there's
gonna be a lot of violence andit's terrifying, yeah and I mean
, I certainly think there'sgonna be an emotional reaction.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna predict or
anything like that and the levelof violence that could happen,
but I do believe it's gonna benot zero.
Right?
The information environmentthat Trump supporters live in is
not conducive to peacefulresolution.
Right, like, if you tune intoAM Radio, listen to Ben Shapiro,
(07:38):
you know even listen to JoeRogan and folks like that,
they're talking as if A civilwar is a given and B.
The only thing left to do isprepare.
And again, it shouldn't be thisway, it doesn't have to be this
way.
And I think folks have a choice, right, yeah, and that's why
we're here with the OutreachCommittee.
Right, we wanna talk toveterans in the community,
(08:01):
especially progressive andliberal ones, and let them know
like, hey, you've got a job todo.
Right, like I'm kinda here witha call to action right that we
can tell the people who maybeare a little downhearted, maybe
a little bit cynical, maybepeople who aren't quite paying
attention, that it's not toolate, this is not a fayah
complete and in fact you, theprogressive voter, the liberal
(08:24):
voter, the voter, even if you'renot progressive and liberal,
even if you just believe in theconstitutional value of
governance by consent, right,you can help us.
And we don't have to agree onpolicy.
God knows, I don't agree withJoe Biden on every policy he's
ever come out with, but I atleast wanna have the argument in
a political arena, right.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And that was one of Liz Cheney's big things.
You know, when there was adispute, you solve it in the
court systems, and 60 out of 61cases got thrown out.
That's the end of it, and theone case that won in
Pennsylvania wasn't enough tooverturn the results.
There was a very insignificantnumber of election for all that
(09:08):
happened.
But you work it through thecourt systems how our finding
voters attended.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, unless you live in the right wing fever swamp.
I don't think there's any doubtthat the 2020 election was free
and it was fair and probablyone of the most efficient
elections run, given the levelof threat and political violence
that was out there, right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And I think it was a good job of flexing the year of
COVID to be in more mail-ins anda lot more of that stuff too,
and certainly mail-in ballots onthe military side is how we do
business.
And for people to sit there andtry to either take away our
rights to vote or not count ourvotes for them coming in on the
day of the election things likethat when they're getting
(09:54):
shipped from overseas, themtrying to take those away from
vets is pretty upsetting whenpeople start bashing mail-in
voting because that's the onlyway I could participate for 20
years.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, exactly, and I remember our voting officer
sweating every election cycle,having to get our ballots on,
having to collect them again.
That was a pain for him.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
I appreciate it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'd probably appreciate him alittle more.
Looking back, we talked aboutTrump's.
You know his right-wing baseand again blows my mind that
they support some of his had somany indictments and even before
(10:32):
he was president he had so manylegal proceedings from the 70s
and his first divorces withviolence and things like that.
He's had so much stuff thatfollows him but he still has a
huge following and when we lookat his base, they're not all
white supremacists and racistsand everything like that.
Like, I have a lot of friendsthat still support and will
(10:55):
still vote for him, even afterall the night, like when he was
in the office.
I remember waking up everymorning because I was still in
the military then and looking tosee if World War III started.
Yeah, you know the level ofanxiety that that person just
created by being there, becauseevery day was a new line of
bullshit.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I won't say where I was stationed at the time, but
suffice it to say I wasstationed at a place where I
didn't expect I was gonna haveto deploy, and for a while there
, under Commander-in-Chief Trump, it was looking like I was
gonna have to go to Osan.
Yeah, that was like a verynerve-tingling time.
I don't remember that as well.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
What was that one?
The Little Rocket man comments.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, it was Fire and Fury and we thought, oh, ulti,
focus Guardian is gonna kick offand that's gonna be for some
placement for a defensive of thepeninsula.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, so the people that aren't the white supremacy
races and they're just votingbecause they wanna toe the line,
how do?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
you reach those folks ?
You know that's a greatquestion and it's kind of one
that hits close to home for metoo.
Because I agree, right, themega crowd, trump's base, is one
thing and I'm not saying thisis everybody, but I think it is
uncontrovertible.
(12:18):
Right, it's uncontested thatthere are strong elements of the
white supremacist movement, ofnot just your casual Sunday
morning races who just doesn'tlike his Vietnamese neighbors
that moved in across the streetbut people who are politically
engaged.
They're part of that coalition,right, christian nationalists.
(12:39):
And I'm not talking people offaith and good intentions who go
to church on Sundays, I'mtalking about people who want
the Christian evangelical churchto take over the government and
have America govern by theprecepts of their particular
belief.
They are part of that coalition.
That is undeniable.
(13:00):
Also part of that coalition ismy father-in-law, right, who I
love dearly.
He's a great man.
He's the best grandpa to mychildren.
He raised a hell of a woman inmy wife and couldn't be a nicer
guy.
Right Accepted me into animmigrant boy who kind of swept
(13:22):
his daughter off her feet inIowa, accepted me with open arms
into his family.
That's awesome.
And also a lot of my friendstoo, right, because I think if
you're in the military, guesswhat?
You've got a lot ofconservative friends.
Yeah, that's just the way thatrolls right.
So how do we reach these people?
And how do we kind of not somuch separate the wheat from the
(13:46):
chaff, but how do we get topeople who can be persuaded,
people who can be, who we cantalk to, who we can debate, who
we can have open, good faithdiscussion with?
And then how do we identifythose we can't right People who
just believe what they believeand there's nothing we can do
about it and we should not wastebreath with them?
I think that's the first step,right, deciding, excuse me,
(14:08):
deciding who we can talk to,deciding who is open for the
conversation, right, and thenfocusing all our efforts there,
and not so much concentrating,you know, not so much just
getting into a knockdown, dragout, shouting, match in the
ready rumor in the TV room justbecause it makes you feel good,
because that doesn't help, right?
I like the rule of three.
(14:31):
Somebody taught me the rule ofthrees once.
It was kind of a campaignoutreach trick of hey if you
can't give money, hey if youcan't volunteer your time, hey
if you can't donate, I want youto talk to three of your friends
, three of your friends andfamily, people who maybe haven't
been keeping up on the election, maybe you're undecided and
then talk to them about theissues, talk to them about
(14:51):
what's at stake in this nextelection and don't lecture
people, right?
That hasn't worked out too wellfor me and you know, as a
retired naval officer, I lovedlecturing people.
It doesn't work.
Nobody likes it.
What worked for me?
What works for me, is I tellpeople how it affects me and
(15:14):
what I feel and what I think.
Like, hey, I voted democraticthis last cycle because of the
following reasons right, this ishow it affected me personally
and that way you're humanizingit.
Right, because, at the end ofthe day, I think what most
people want, especially thosepeople, everybody, even the
Trump supporters, even thediehard maga folks they just
(15:37):
wanna be heard, they wanna beseen, they wanna be heard.
They want their truth to beacknowledged.
So do that when you talk topeople.
Right, be open, acknowledgetheir truth, meet them where
they're at and then let themknow.
You know, then that's a goodtime to maybe drop a couple of
truth bombs in there and be likeoh, by the way, here's how
Democrats voted on the PACT Actright.
Here's how Democrats have votedon funding the VA and making
(16:01):
sure you get disability paymentson time and that they are not
taxed.
Right here's how the Democratshave voted on keeping the
government open so that we canmaintain our national security
posture around the world.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, those conversations are necessary.
I think in the last 40, 50years we've done a disservice to
everybody by, you know, we havea cultural norm now that you
don't talk politics and don'ttalk religion, and I think by us
being afraid to have thoseconversations at the dinner
table has made us apathetic tothe whole process.
Sure, you know, because we'renot used to having those
(16:37):
conversations and we're afraidof offending people because we
don't know how to talk to eachother.
You know, when I haveconversations with Republicans,
like you said, you can tellpretty quick if they're coming
from a place of hate.
Yeah, and when they come from aplace of hate, I just kind of
end it and move on.
But you know a lot of myfriends, we can sit and have
(16:59):
really good conversations andyou know they show me some
things that I didn't see.
I showed them something, youknow like these conversations
have to happen.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And I'm sure you've seen it too, right, where you
initially square off withsomebody, you sense you know the
political discussion coming andyou start going through your
roll of decks of, okay, here aremy top three talking points,
right, and I'm gonna get themout there.
And then they put out their topthree talking points.
Okay, great, I'm gonna tell younot to do that, because you're
gonna do that, right, yeah, I doit too, but when we're doing
(17:28):
those things, we're notlistening to the other person,
we're just waiting for our turnto talk, right, so do it, get it
out of the way.
And then if, like you said, ifthis is somebody who is just
they're coming from a place ofhate, they wanna troll the lip
or whatever, right, breakcontact, right, just get out of
there.
That's not gonna do anybody anygood.
But if it's somebody of goodfaith, right, somebody who wants
(17:50):
to discuss the issues in goodfaith, that's when you open up
and you listen, right, okay,what is it?
What are your?
What is it that you areconcerned with?
What is it that you are worriedabout?
What are you advocating for?
And then make sure you hearthem, make sure you see them,
and again, it's not, it may besomething you disagree with, and
(18:11):
that's fine, and they're gonnadisagree with you too, but I
gotta believe, and I'm sureyou're the same way.
I gotta believe there's a wayto have political discussions
while maintaining civildiscourse, being respectful,
being civil about it, cause atthe end of the day, this is the
double edged sword of the systemwe live in.
(18:35):
You are given great privilege asa voter.
Everybody who is a citizen inthe United States of America has
a piece of governing thiscountry, right, right.
So it's not just your right tovote.
I see it also, as this is yourobligation, to vote right.
This is your responsibility,not just to vote, but to vote
(18:58):
responsibly, to be knowledgeableabout the issues, to have a
general idea of where the taxmoney you're paying goes to and,
if you don't like where it goes, to get involved and get it to
go somewhere else right.
And there's a million differentways you can get involved.
But, like you know, I'm anaturalized citizen.
I'm one of those kids whodidn't understand that I wasn't
(19:19):
a citizen until I was like 18 or19 and wanted to join the Navy.
And then it was one of thosehey, mom and dad, where's my
citizenship papers?
And they're like, yeah aboutthat.
Ooh, right, turns out you onlyhave a green card.
You gotta go actuallynaturalize.
So because of that, it was, youknow, kind of ingrained early
upon me that this is not just aprivilege and a right, this is
(19:39):
an obligation, this is a duty,and I try to treat my
citizenship as a duty, right andpart of that duty, for better
or for worse.
Even if you're not like apolitics guy, even if you're not
a politics nerd like us, youneed to know what's going on and
you need to guard againstmisinformation and
disinformation and, as much aspossible, you need to see
through agendas of this mediaoutlet or that media outlet and
(20:01):
distill a certain truth that youcan base your voting decisions
on.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, I find it really valuable to jump media
sites and, like you know, go toFox News, go to OAN and like
read other things, just so thatyou can see what they're saying
and kind of get a pulse.
You know, like reading only,whatever your choice is, reading
only one choice, just leads toextremism.
(20:27):
You have to open your aperture,you have to look at the whole
picture and see what theirarguments are, because sometimes
it's a lot of noise but there'san intent behind it, sure.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
But I would be aware, obviously, that and not to say
that left-wing media biasdoesn't exist.
But like OAN, fox News, oneAmerica I'm sorry, newsmax,
things like that they aredeliberately coming from one
side, right?
I mean, it's not even close Tome.
(21:00):
It's not.
Like Fox News is the mirrorimage of MSNBC, right?
No, there are significantdifferences.
No, you know, I try to,actually I try to look at like
four news outlets, right, theBBC Actually, like LGZ, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
LGZ.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
LGZ, france 24.
Did they put information outlike?
Speaker 1 (21:20):
straight up.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Obviously NPR, propublica, outlets like that.
They do great journalism andbecause there's not a lot of
corporate influence, rightespecially state-run media
organs like the BBC they mostlyplay it down the line.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah.
So we kind of talked about theRepublicans out there that we
can reach to and talk to, thingslike that.
But then there's the other side.
There's that white supremacistside that really kind of drives
the MAGA agenda and during hisfirst term, trump was pretty
(22:00):
incompetent in getting thingsdone.
He would just kind of saythings with no real clear
direction and hope people gotthings done.
You saw it on his speech onJanuary 6th at the lawn.
He didn't specifically saylet's go down and let's burn
this thing down, but he guidedthem there.
He led them down that path.
(22:20):
He's not going to be asincompetent this next time
around that.
There's things in place rightnow that the white supremacist
movement are trying toinstitutionalize into the
Republican Party Project 2025,agenda 47, things like that.
What is for our listeners?
(22:41):
What is kind of the gist of?
Like a Project 2025 from theHeritage Foundation?
Right, yeah, from the HeritageFoundation.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
So, you know and this is just my opinion, right I
think, like you said, we weresaved in 2016 by the Trump
administration's incompetenceright, that their incompetence
greatly outweighed their malice.
We were saved by a combinationof that and the few
(23:08):
institutionalists that decidedto still serve in his
administration.
You know, they had lines thatthey could not cross, right.
The gematises of the world,right, and I think what saved us
back then was obviously anybodywho serves as president of the
United States.
They don't do all the chops inthe executive branch.
(23:30):
They have to have staff, theyhave to bring people in, right.
They have an administration,and, because Donald Trump was
such an outlier, a lot of theestablishment Republicans, the
professional political class,would not participate in that
administration, and then, as awar on, it looked like a poison
(23:50):
pill.
It looked like you don't wantto be in a Trump administration.
You don't want to be on hislegal team, right?
The joke is, MAGA stands formake attorneys, get attorneys,
right.
Most of his lawyers, I think,are in serious political trouble
, right, or are going to be thistime around, though I think
that same political class youknow people who maybe don't so
(24:11):
much believe in a causeconservative or liberal.
They just want to get in powerand stay in power.
They see an opportunity withDonald Trump.
They see how strong his base isand they see that if they sign
on and use their expertise inhow government works to form
government their way, that theyhave an opportunity to win and
(24:33):
to cement their win permanently.
Going back to our previousconversation, they don't want to
have the argument anymoreBecause, quite frankly, when you
look at the few policypositions Republicans have,
they're pretty unpopular.
Right Forced birth is prettyunpopular.
Picking on transgender kids forno reason is pretty unpopular.
Right Book bans arehorrifically unpopular.
(24:54):
So they don't want to have thatconversation anymore.
They don't want to have theargument anymore.
They want to set up agovernment that on the outside
looks like a democracy but inreality, nobody has any chance
of getting any Republican out ofoffice.
They want to set us up likeHungary, right Like Viktor Orman
.
So that's the danger this timearound is they are actually
(25:16):
planning to do things likeProject 2025.
Were they could fire as many as50,000 federal government
professionals.
The people who actually run ourgovernment right, the people
who actually make sure your foodgets inspected and that drugs
are safe and that GPS satellitesrun, you know, stay in orbit,
and that the atomic clock runson time.
The everyday governmentprofessionals, who are
(25:40):
tremendously smart, sometimeswent to very you know elite
universities and could bemillionaires, but instead chose
to be GS13s and make 120 grand ayear in the DC area, which is
almost poverty.
They're going to fire all thosepeople and they're going to
replace them with conservativeshills and people who maybe
don't know how to run agovernment, but are certainly
(26:02):
politically loyal and will dowhatever they want.
So, instead of last term or thelast election, where Donald
Trump institutes a Muslim banand pretty much every lawyer in
the Department of Justice islike you know, that's not a
thing.
So he's going to replace allthose guys with people who got a
(26:22):
lot of degrees from God knowswhere, probably graduated law
school, like a month ago yeah,Trump University Exactly and are
just ready to toe the lineright.
Agenda 47, you mentioned thatthat's the closest thing he has
to a policy platform, but whenyou really look at what's in
there, it's pretty terribleright?
He's looking at basicallydismantling the Department of
(26:43):
Education and introducing overpolitical indoctrination to our
children, the Project 1776 stuffthat has worked out so well
down in Woodland ParkDismantling regulatory agencies,
right, Like the things thatforce businesses to keep our air
clean, to keep our water clean,Agencies that keep our food and
(27:08):
drugs safe, like I previouslymentioned.
And then he's talking about amass incarceration, roundup and
deportation of migrants,refugees and dreamers, without a
whole lot of regard to who hasa legitimate claim or not, Like
he frankly doesn't care, Right.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, his terms, that he was going over you know the
vermin and the poison in ourblood and things like that.
Those are scary comments to becoming from somebody that's
looking to run a nation.
How can?
It's just always because, like,as you dive into the things
(27:46):
that he says and does, and likehe's clear about it, like he's
not hiding this information.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
He's telling us who he is.
We should believe him Exactly.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
So.
But that's our problem is thatnot enough people do believe him
, or they don't care, and theywant that.
Yeah, or they don't take itseriously, they think it's a
troll, right?
Yeah, oh, I'm just joking whenI tell Russia to attack the
DNC's.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I was just joking when I took $8 million from the
Chinese government while I waspresident.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, before the two billion his kids got from Saudi,
exactly, yeah.
So with all of these, you knowAgenda 47, project 2025, he's
got big think tanks and you knowpeople behind them trying to
push these narratives in orderto establish that.
You know white Christiannationalist view.
Even you know the new speakerand private settings.
(28:34):
He said he wanted us to be athey call it biblical republic,
and it blows my mind wheneversomebody says something in
private and can't say it outloud.
Yeah, you know, like thatshould go a long way.
Like that's one of the firstthings you learn when you're
going through.
Like leadership training islike ethical decision making.
If you can't say it in front ofyour grandma, probably
shouldn't say it.
Yeah, you know, but we havepeople throughout our government
(28:55):
that are like this and it's abig problem.
What do you think we need to befocusing on now in order to,
like, help work through thisproblem?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Well, I think, obviously, that you know we come
at you with a lot of bad newsright Right On the podcast so
far, and I don't want todownplay the problem but at the
same time I don't want toportray this like there's no
solution at all.
There's stuff we can do,certainly, right.
Some of the stuff we can do andsome of the things we're trying
(29:31):
to do in the outreach committeeis we're trying to reach folks
who are not politically engaged.
Right, el Paso County itself,there's, you know, x amount of
Democrats, y amount ofRepublicans, registered
Republicans.
Obviously the registeredRepublicans outnumber the
registered Democrats in thecounty, but you know who
(29:51):
outnumbers both of us isunaffiliated and independent
voters, right, and I think a lotof that goes to kind of the
independent streak, theapolitical streak that a lot of
us pick up while we were inservice.
So me and the Veterans OutreachCommittee we see a lot of
unaffiliated, a lot ofindependents, registered
independents, who were alsoveterans, and that makes sense,
(30:14):
right, I think some independentsthey don't want to get involved
in politics just because of theapolitical tradition they grew
up in while they were in.
Right, like, I'll be honest, Ididn't pay a whole lot of
attention to politics.
When I was in and that was mychoice I saw my job.
I saw our job as, hey, we'reinstruments of foreign policy,
right, we execute the nationalsecurity.
We are the national securityestablishment.
(30:35):
So I don't want to have a wholelot of say.
I don't want to have a vote asto whether or not I go to Iraq.
That should be somebody else'sjob.
I think a lot of folks who wentup independent, who were in,
they saw firsthand a lot of therace, the bureaucracy, the
inefficiency that went on whenthey were in the Department of
Defense or in their particularservice and it probably
(30:58):
frustrated the hell out of them.
And I get it.
It frustrates the hell out ofme too.
It frustrates me to this day asa defense contractor now.
But I think sometimes thatfrustration leads them to throw
the baby out with the bathwater,thinking that, oh, because our
imperfect system is notfunctioning the way it should,
we should just burn it all down.
So to hell with it.
(31:19):
Let's just vote in Trump, justfor the laughs, and I'm going to
watch Roomba.
I don't think that's a greatidea.
I think the system works a lotbetter than you think.
It does a lot better than a lotof us realize.
It's just we don't know it.
And that's the strength of thesystem is.
We live in a country wherethings just kind of go right.
We all get our paychecks ontime, traffic lights, work, cops
(31:41):
, for the most part can't bebought off.
That is a result of goodgovernance.
And then, finally, I think a lotof our fellow veterans and I
know you and I are in this boattoo we're really busy.
I got to take the kids to JiuJitsu and allergy shots and this
birthday party, and we're goingto go see the Nutcracker
(32:03):
because my son is going to be init.
You have these day to daythings where, on top of that,
you have to worry about politicsand you have to watch news that
bums you out and you have topay attention.
And it's a lot to ask, right.
But we're asking.
I'm asking now, right.
The Outreach Committee isasking because, like I said
(32:24):
before, citizenship is not justa right, it's a duty, it's an
obligation.
And I think in the veterancommunity it's especially
heartbreaking, because you guyshave done your time, you have
served your country and you'veearned the right to not care,
frankly.
But I'm calling on you guys andgals to honor your oath and to
(32:48):
defend us against all enemies ofthe Constitution, especially
the domestic ones.
The stakes are too high for usto take a knee this year.
So here's some of the things wecan do right, obviously voting.
What used to be the ceiling isnow the floor Vote.
If you're in a position to doso, donate.
(33:09):
Right, and I'm not talking.
You don't need to make likesome big $3,000 donation.
Even if you donate like 20bucks a month to your favorite
campaign or to vote blue orsomething like that, that
actually works out better,because monthly steady income of
a known quantity can bebudgeted around.
And so just kind of sporadiclike I'll give you 50 bucks
(33:29):
today and five bucks next monthand whatever Better right,
whether it's with a campaign fora candidate you believe in or
whether it's with us down herein El Paso County Democrats, or
if you're interested in veteransissues as well, join
progressive vets right.
Come to lunch at the Black IT,get involved, because
(33:54):
unfortunately for us orfortunately for us the
Democratic side is going to be agrassroots side, especially in
El Paso County.
Whether it's the school boardelections or whoever's going to
run in Doug Lamborn's place inCD5, or any of the House
districts.
You're facing an uphill battlewhen it comes to money, because
(34:15):
a lot of the corporate interests, a lot of the billionaire
interests, a lot of the highmoney interests are served by
the Republican Party.
Yep, they're served by divisiveand confusing culture, wars
right, which sometimes are redherrings.
So on the Democratic side,since we're more of a grassroots
movement here, you're going tobe facing down a lot of money
and the way to do that is byvolunteering your time, if you
(34:37):
can.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And a quick plug on that.
Yeah, the 27th the DemocraticParty is hosting a training for
campaign volunteers.
The location still has to beTBD, but keep an eye on the
Democrat blast to get thelocation and time for that.
It's great.
It's going to be good trainingto get this cycle kicked off, so
(34:59):
I just want to throw that inthere while we're talking about
volunteer opportunities.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, and as the year progresses, if you get a hold
of us at the party or if youstart joining progressive vets,
you're going to seeopportunities to go in Canvas
right, knock door to door, talkto folks, distribute literature,
do phone banking, do textbanking.
A lot of the volunteer drivenstuff is really what makes a
(35:24):
difference in a campaign.
And then I think you weretalking earlier about how you'll
get in political conversations.
Right, and I know a lot of usdon't want to get in political
conversations and I get that andI understand that.
But in the civilian world,unfortunately, when veterans
(35:45):
speak out fortunately, orunfortunately, when veterans
speak out people take usseriously.
Right, we have a measure ofauthority, we have a measure of
gravitas that maybe somebody whodidn't serve has.
So when one of our brother orsister veterans who happens to
be a Trump supporter speaks up,it sounds authoritative, as if
all veterans, all militarypersonnel, support Trump.
(36:06):
Right, I'm going to ask you tostep in politely, right, if you
feel safe, and say, no, that'snot the case.
Right, and drop a couple truthbombs if you can, just, if for
nothing else, to let them know.
Hey, not every veteran supportsTrump.
In fact, most of us don't right.
You can use your voice, you canuse your position of authority,
you can use your privilege andyou can use your status to help
(36:31):
and to be a force for good.
And although it seems like it'ssmall potatoes, you never know
who's listening Exactly, right?
Yeah, there could be like threeor four bystanders who take
something away from you at thevery least of hey.
I heard a veteran today wholoves Trump and I heard a
veteran today who doesn't loveTrump.
It seems like it's maybe apretty mixed bag.
I better go do my own research.
(36:53):
I better go do my own educationon who I should vote for.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
It reminded me of one time up in we had a booth up in
Cripple Creek during donkeydays and a guy came up to me and
started to kind of yell at meabout what a progressive veteran
is and what a disgrace I was.
And that had to feel good.
Oh yeah, and I just told himlike, hey, we're out here and we
(37:16):
have a right to be heard too,and so he kind of went off and
his wife actually came back alittle bit while later and put
money in the donation jar.
Oh wow, yeah, and she's like Idon't support Trump either, oh
my gosh.
And she put the money in it andwalked it like when he was away
from.
(37:37):
But it's just like that If youstand up and say something, odds
are percentage wise, likeyou're going to hear somebody
that wants to hear what you haveto say.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, and look as a do's paying member of the
international brotherhood ofintroverts.
Right, I get it.
I don't like putting myself outthere as well, but this year is
not the year to be shy, right?
And then the final thing we cando, right?
If you've done all those thingsand I know this one's near and
dear to your heart is run forsomething right.
(38:07):
Don't just don't be the guy whoyells at the news every night.
Don't be the person who justsits in their barca lounger and
yells at the news every nightand shakes their fists at their
TV.
Get off your ass and dosomething Right.
If you feel like you've gotmore in you than volunteering,
(38:27):
if you feel like you have anissue, if you feel like you want
to advocate for somebody orrepresent those and be a voice
for people who are not heard,run for an office.
Don't let any of theRepublicans in Colorado run
unopposed.
Don't let anybody in El PasoCounty run unopposed.
I'll tell you right now, asidefrom the CD5, the US House seat
(38:48):
right which, by the way, thatseems like that's going to get
spicy here.
Yeah, we'll get excited, youknow?
If you didn't know.
State House 14,.
State House 20,.
State House 21,.
State House 22, state House 56,state Senate, district 10, cu
Regent for CD5, all of these areopen seats.
You know we need candidates andif you can be a candidate, come
(39:11):
see us at the party and ifyou're the right fit or even if
you're not, we'll find a rightfit for you we will find a way
to use your contributed time andeffort.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yeah, when people I was talking with someone
yesterday who was thinking aboutkind of stepping back.
We can't train passion, right?
No, the people that arepassionate about it, we need
them here and if you have apassion for it, come and we will
take advantage of that passion.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Yeah, exactly, those are the best candidates right
Like I don't want somebodywalking and be like well, I need
a job.
Right, yeah, okay, if you needa job, monstercom is on the
internet.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Go check that out.
Right, we got pizza hut rightdown the road here.
But if you feel strongly, aboutany of these issues.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
if you want to help us defend democracy and you
think you have a voice, come andrun for an office, yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, and, like you said, there's so many local
state positions that are stillup for grabs.
You can find them and then youknow when we start talking with
school board here after thiselection cycle to you know the
next school board electionscoming up.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
You know those are huge billets and that's the
first line, and yeah again,right like when we, when I
retired and we moved out herefor the job, I did not plan on
getting involved in politics.
The thing that got me involvedis we were up in district 20.
And you know this is during theCOVID crisis.
We had no kidding militia folkslike, with matching t-shirts
(40:38):
and stuff, show up to our schoolboard meetings and it was scary
, and it was.
It was.
It was a real wake up call forme of the amount of money and
the amount of effort and theamount of influence that these
folks on the right want to exertin relatively, you know, small
elections, like for the firsttime ever, six figures was spent
(41:00):
on a school board election,which is unheard of.
And then this last round ofelections, I think they'd numped
about a half a million dollarsinto this one, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yeah for a local race like that, and it goes back to
what you were saying before.
You know they want toindoctrinate kids earlier and so
if they get there, they get ridof the books they don't agree
with.
It just gives them a path toindoctrinate.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, and it's not just marginalized communities
too right.
It's not just LGBTQ folks, it'snot just minority kids.
It's hey.
If your kid has special needs,if your kid is developmentally
delayed, a lot of the servicesfor that, for special education,
they're going to get cut aswell.
School counselors are going toget cut.
They're trying to do it now indistrict 20.
(41:41):
I mean, these are we've putpeople in charge, or people have
been put in charge who don'tbelieve in public education.
So guess what they're going todo to public education?
They're going to cut it.
The stakes are too high.
We got to get it out there.
We got to get involved.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Absolutely.
Let's give a little blank here.
So do you have anything elseyou want to throw in there?
No, thank you, I'm going to cutall this out right here, okay.
Okay, do you have anything elseyou want to cover or anything
like that?
Okay, was that good for you?
Yeah, absolutely.
So what I'll do is I'll just doa little close and then you can
say thank you and stuff likethat.
Cool, all right.
(42:20):
Well, pablo, thanks for joiningme here today.
Very informative.
You gave me a lot of stuff tothink about here, and all of us
a lot to think about.
If you guys are interested inbeing involved, like Pablo's
called you to be involved for,you can reach out through our
website.
Send me an email at info ateppccpvcom, check out the
(42:41):
website at eppccpvcom and youcan drop us a line on there too.
But, pablo, thank you forjoining us today.
I really appreciate you comingout and doing this for me.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Hey, thanks again for having me, Adam.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Right on.
And once again that was PabloCapistrano with the Democratic
Party Veteran Outreach Committee.
Really appreciate him takingtime out of his schedule to do
the podcast with me today.
One thing I did notice as I wasdoing my read, listen and
editing is that I screwed up onthe email address and the
website address.
(43:13):
It's actually info ateppccpvorg and eppccpvorg for
the website, so notcomorg.
Apologies for that.
One last thing I want to talk toyou guys about before we cut it
here is our larger sponsor,native Roots, also has a call to
(43:35):
action for us.
They are looking the cannabisindustry is looking to legalize
recreational cannabis here inColorado Springs.
I'm a huge proponent of this.
There's multiple ways to thinkabout it.
You know, from the libertarianside of me, I don't think the
government should be telling meI can't do something like that.
(43:58):
That's on par or safer thanliquor and alcohol.
I don't think the governmentshould be involved in that
personally.
And then you look at the taxmoney that we're letting walk
out of our city to go to otherplaces.
You know that could be going tofund the training academy for
the police and other things tohelp you know better our
(44:20):
communities.
And then, on the veteran side.
Recreational cannabis can helppeople with PTSD.
It is easy to get a medicalmarijuana card here in Colorado
Springs.
It's not difficult at all, it'sa couple hundred dollars.
So you know that kind of thatkind of hurts you there, but
it's not that hard.
(44:41):
The hard part is asking forhelp, and then that's where
something like this could helpveterans out, because instead of
having to raise their hand andsay that they're struggling
mentally or physically, theirstudies that show it helps on
both sides.
They don't have to raise theirhand.
(45:01):
They can experiment, try it youknow we are adults now Use it
for a little while to see howthey feel with it and then, if
they want to continue treatment,they can use it to bridge a gap
and get their medical card andhopefully get some.
You know psychotherapy or youknow, see a psychiatrist and
(45:23):
things like that, ourpsychologist.
It's just another tool for usfolks and that's what's
important is we can't turn ourback on these tools that can
help the communities out and,like I said, from struggling
people that have PTSD to justbeing able to fund
(45:44):
infrastructure projects aroundtown with it, it makes sense.
So if you are interested inhelping with that drive, let me
know we're going to be gettingsome petitions going.
I do need some people living inColorado Springs veterans.
If you're interested in beingthe petitioner that you know
submits the paperwork for andstuff like that.
(46:05):
There will be media appearancesand some training to go along
with that.
So if you're interested in that, or if you know somebody who
might be interested in that,again use Pablo's rule of three
Talk to folks, talk to me, reachout and let's try to do
something good for our community.
With that said, I will wrap upthe all things military and
(46:29):
veteran podcast for this week.
Thank you for joining me.
I hope you got something out ofit.
If you have ideas for the show,please reach out.
We can.
We have a lot of leeway here totalk to folks here, so let's
give you a platform.
Get your ideas out there.
If you need me for anything,reach out at info at e-p-c-c-b-v
(46:50):
dot org and I'll help where Ican.
All right, everybody.
Take care of yourselves andeach other.
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