Redefining Conservatism: Leadership, Values, and Bridging Political Divides

In this episode of Our Life Beyond, Scott and Connie sit down with Paul Weddle, a passionate advocate for conservative values and a unique perspective on American politics. Paul shares his personal journey from a traditional Republican background to developing his current libertarian views. He discusses how his experiences have shaped his approach to leadership and his understanding of what it means to serve the nation.

Throughout the conversation, Paul reflects on the importance of fiscal responsibility, national security, and the role of values in shaping public policy. He opens up about the challenges of navigating today’s divided political landscape and stresses the need for respectful discourse and understanding across ideological lines.

This episode offers an insightful and thought-provoking discussion, as Paul’s journey provides a fresh lens on the complexities of American politics and the values that guide his beliefs. Whether you agree or disagree, this episode encourages meaningful dialogue and invites listeners to think critically about the issues that shape our nation’s future.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Our Life Beyond the podcast where we explore how

(00:12):
to navigate and hopefully thrive through some of life's biggest transitions. I'm your
co-host Scott Dibben and I've teamed up with my great friend and mentor Connie King to
share some stories, strategies and insights that helped us adapt to the ever-changing
seasons of our life. Whether your life transition is divorce, death of a loved one, switching

(00:34):
careers, moving to a new city or just trying to figure out what the hell is next, where
with you every step of the way. But always remember we're not therapists, just fellow
travelers with a knack for finding humor in the chaos and maybe some untraditional method
of overcoming what life dishes out to us. Hopefully you'll have fun embarking on this

(00:55):
journey. So now let's get started.
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(01:17):
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(01:38):
Well hello Connie.
Hello Scott, how are you?
Doing good today, how about yourself?
I'm doing good. I am really excited about our episode today.
And I'm excited too.
Yeah, we're diving into a dynamic and thought-provoking conversation as we bring you the opposite
perspective in our ongoing exploration of political views. So today our guest is Paul

(02:03):
Weddle, an Army veteran, a proud conservative, and advocate for traditional values. He's
here to share his views, experiences, as a counterpart to the discussion we had with
our Harris supporter last week. So here's the deal, our goal is not to debate, but to
create a space where we can understand and appreciate the variety of viewpoints shaping

(02:24):
the world around us. We'll be discussing everything from Paul's vision for America's
future to the principles that guide his decision-making. This promises to be a fascinating conversation,
so let's get to it.
Paul, welcome and thank you so much for jumping on this.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I've been looking forward to this.

(02:45):
So I think we typically, we start off these, Paul, with just giving you maybe 10 minutes.
However long it takes for you to just kind of tell us your story, maybe a little bit
of background, get to know you a little bit before we start kind of the questioning. So
if you want, we'll just turn it over to you and you can start your story.
Okay. Well, I grew up a very staunch Republican religious right Republican, the quote unquote

(03:12):
God's party. We had that mindset of, they call us the right because we're correct. We're
correct on all of the views. That's how I was always raised. I followed politics from
the very early age, Kim interested in the entire political system, but I started becoming

(03:33):
disenchanted with the Republican party in general. And shortly after 9-11, we were living
overseas, we come back home and then we were there during the event, and whenever we come
back home and you start getting different details of what happened.
And yeah, I'm a conspiracy. I call it a conspiracy realist. We were not going to talk about that

(03:55):
today, but a conspiracy realist. And so things didn't add up. And so I really started becoming
disenchanted with the Republican party. We've always been told there's two sides to every
story. And I've said for a long time, there's actually three sides. There's one side, two

(04:15):
side, and then there's the truth. These stories can be aligned perfectly, which rarely happens,
or they can be intertwined in some way, but the bottom line is what's the truth? And I
really felt like we weren't getting some of the truthful things on this event, and certainly

(04:36):
events in the past as well.
So over the years, my views and positions started to change a bit. I'm still very conservative
on most everything, but I do have some views and ideas that do lean more on the liberal
side. If I had to classify myself as something, I would say that I'm a libertarian. Little

(04:59):
L, the libertarians' capital L, the libertarian party, honestly is a joke. They can't organize
on anything. I think they have some really good ideas, but they really aren't a formidable
force in American politics. When it came to the presidential race in 2016, I was very

(05:20):
big fan of Ron Paul, and I don't know how many of you people know who Ron Paul is. He's
a congressman out of Texas, very smart-minded individual. He got into politics. He's a doctor,
not a lawyer politician. I've just seen a lot of things that he really felt strongly
in. A lot of the things that I believe in, small government, not a lot of government

(05:46):
interaction and interference and just personal liberties. When I was researching for the
2016 election, I looked at everything I could see. I watched every video I could find on
Ron Paul, and there was a clip that came up. I don't know if you guys remember the Morton
Downey Jr. show. Yes.
He was the ultra-conservative talk show host late night. His insult was what was it? Pabble

(06:14):
and puking liberals. Anybody that was not who he was, you were a pappling puking liberal.
There was actually an episode where Ron Paul was on there and saying the exact same thing
that he was saying in this campaign. His message showed his values. His message showed that

(06:35):
he wasn't swayed by the political topic of the day. That was really what drew me to Ron
Paul. Then obviously he didn't get the nomination. Donald Trump got the nomination for 2016.
I wasn't a fan of Donald Trump's at all. I thought he was an arrogant, I didn't know
him personally, but he certainly came across as an arrogant asshole. I just didn't like

(06:56):
him. Of course, I thought it was a joke, just like everybody else thought it was a joke.
But then I noticed something within this campaign. Not only did the left despise him, but now
a lot of people in his own party didn't like him. These are the career politicians. When
I started noticing that, they all hate him. You have to ask why. Why? What is so wrong?

(07:21):
Because maybe he's an asshole, maybe he's arrogant. How many other politicians are
arrogant assholes? There's a bunch of them. I started looking into it. I looked into it
more and I started, did the same thing that I did with Ron Paul. With Donald Trump, I
started searching every single thing I could find. I watched hours and hours and hours

(07:42):
of videos of different people, different interviews, way back even into the 70s with people like
Oprah and Larry King and all of these different ones. His message stayed the exact same as
well, which that was a plus to me. I'm somebody that I like substance. I like consistency.

(08:03):
I was seeing that in him. Then I listened more to what his message was way back when
everybody loved him. I remember there's a clip of Oprah saying, you should run for president.
He says, no, I don't want to do that. I said, I really enjoy my life. I don't want to do
that. On that episode, the exact same thing that he said, well, if you would, what would

(08:24):
you do? He talked about cleaning up corruption starting with the city of New York. That's
what he said. Of course, they loved it. Oh, yeah, yeah, you really should run. You really
should run. Well, it's kind of like saying, if somebody's injured and I say to them, hey,
if I would take your pain if I could, but I know deep down, I can't really do that.

(08:49):
So it's easy for me to say that. So that's all of these liberal friends that he had that
were telling him that he should run. Well, they knew at that point he wasn't going to
run. When he gets to the point to where he is, they remember what he said he was going
to do in cleaning up the corruption. And so then that seems to be what has turned everybody

(09:10):
against him. And ever since then, I didn't vote for him. I would have, but I was actually,
I had the job that I work. I had to go out of town at the last minute and I didn't get
a chance to vote before I left. But I would have voted for him the first time, but I didn't.
But I didn't vote for anybody. But yeah, I just ever since then, you know, is he perfect?

(09:32):
Absolutely not. Is he, you know, the savior that, you know, the, and the religious right
is still strong. You know, Christian nationalism is a big thing. And you know, is he that godly
person that they make him, that they want him to be? No, I don't think that at all.
But certainly from what I'm seeing and what I, you know, what we've seen in the, in the

(09:53):
past four years, I mean, he did some really great things for, for the economy. He did
a lot of things for international security around, around the country, around, sorry,
around the world. You know, he restored that, that respect for America. And, you know, just
the, the idea that he's, you know, the, one of the big things that talked about doing

(10:16):
was, you know, having all the other United Nations paid their, their fair share of, of
the bill to, you know, the United Nations and, you know, that he, you know, he brought
that about. And so, you know, it's just, I'm just really pleased with what I've seen.
Again, he's not perfect. I don't, you know, I'm not looking, not looking through rose
colored glasses, but yeah, that's, that's why I voted for him. That's why I will continue

(10:41):
to, to support and, and be optimistic about our future.
So in 2016, you didn't vote for him. What did you see during his presidency that you
really liked in that time though, after he had won? What were the things that really
made you go, oh, hello?
A lot of that is, you know, just the bringing us to a better, you know, other countries

(11:06):
respecting us more, the national security, you know, I know the, the open borders is
a big deal, you know, closing the borders, you know, getting our borders secured, you
know, and it's something that, you know, immigration is a really hot topic and, you
know, everybody wants to beat him down on immigration, but, you know, he's, he's not
against immigration. He just, you know, says, if you're going to do it, come in, come in

(11:30):
the right way, you know, don't, don't come across the borders illegally. And so securing
the borders was big, you know, and they're just the things that he was doing with the
economy where, you know, the inflation was low, gas was very low, you know, down into,
you know, one point got near a dollar, a dollar a gallon, you know, so.
First of all, that was a great story. And I, some of that I knew, Paul, some I didn't,

(11:54):
you know, it was interesting. I had forgot that during 9-11, you were, you were basically
on your way back into the country. Is that correct?
No, we were actually in South Africa. We were living in South Africa. My mom and dad were
visiting us. I think they got in, into the country, into South Africa on like the 9th
or 8th or 9th of September. And when it was happening, it was actually at the border going

(12:17):
from Swaziland back into South Africa. We had, we had taken the parents around and, and we
were actually standing at the border whenever the second tower fell.
So it was interesting. I had forgot that you were basically out of country when this was
happening. So I'd love to know a little more about being out of country during 9-11, I

(12:38):
should say. And did that sway your views toward maybe a Republican party? Because I believe
the Republicans, if I'm not incorrect. And the thing is, I haven't done a lot of research
on military when we look at Republican parties versus Democrat, but did it sway your view
possibly for Republican being over there and knowing that, that what was happening over

(13:02):
here in America?
No, I don't, I don't think so. When I was in the army, was under, started off under
George H. W. Bush. And right after the first invasion of Iraq, you know, after Desert
Shorm was over, you know, we started a military drawdown. And so there was a lot of, you know,

(13:23):
they were reducing the size of the military back then. And that was under a Republican
president. So, you know, I don't think that that really, you know, being a Republican
or Democrat really affects the military strength in numbers as much. But I think it, you know,
there's just a level of respect, I think that, you know, that Trump brought back. You know,

(13:45):
there's one instance that, you know, if you read anything about his foreign policies,
you know, he met actually met with the leader of al-Qaeda. And, you know, through the interpreter,
told him that he, that if there were any Americans who died in that region while he was in office,
that Trump, you know, Trump tells him that he's going to hold him personally responsible

(14:08):
and he's going to kill him. The interpreter was hesitant as the story goes, the interpreter
was hesitant to even say that. And, you know, they, he finally did. And then Trump pulls
out a satellite photo of the guy's house and gives it to him and leaves, you know. And
so, you know, the result of that, there were no Americans killed in Afghanistan from, you

(14:29):
know, from al-Qaeda strikes, you know, the entire time that Trump was a president was
the president. So, you know,
Interesting. Yeah, I didn't know that story. And, you know, I've always heard just, it's
one of those things that you hear as you grow up and you don't know if it's true that Republicans
are going to grow the military, Democrats shrink the military. So, I didn't know what

(14:50):
your thoughts were on that.
Well, yeah. And I was, I was in the Army, you know, I started off with HW and then,
you know, transitioned into Bill's Army. And there were, there were some cuts, but it was,
you know, continuing cuts that had been started from the Republican side. So.
Okay. That's good to know. So, go ahead, Connie. No, I've got so many questions. Go ahead.

(15:12):
Okay. So, mine are a little less probably factual. It's more of an opinion piece on my part.
Okay. So, a lot of times we hear from, from the left, certain, I just, you know, it's
the same thing over. They say, oh, he did this, he did this, he did this. So, if we
go through some of that stuff, can you kind of throw out your thought process? Because

(15:35):
what I'm looking for, I'm looking for our listeners to understand where either you
excuse or agree with or deal with certain things that we've heard from the left. Okay.
So, the first thing I'm going to start with, and most of these are probably going to be
women's issues. The first thing is, you know, grab them by the pussy. These women let you

(15:58):
grab them by the pussy. Tell me your first thought that pops into your mind.
Oh, gosh. You know, from what I understand on that, you know, I think it was kind of locker
room talk. You know, I think as a guy, you know, I mean, there's a lot, we talk big
a lot of times, you know, we say things that, you know, probably wouldn't say in front
of our wives or whatever. Maybe we would. But, you know, I don't know. I heard that

(16:23):
clip and, you know, it may be true, it may not be. I don't know.
Well, did it offend you? Did it, or was it just a thing where you're like, oh, I've
heard this in a locker room. I'm okay with that. Or did you, so I'm going to tell you,
and I'm going to get slaughtered by the feminist. Oh, my first thought with that was absolutely,

(16:47):
there are a lot of women who allow that. There are a lot of, I've seen it. I, you know, so
for him to say something that was honest and true and raunchy is all get out. For me, I
just went, okay, well, that sucks that it's true, but okay. So that was my thought. And

(17:07):
it's funny from a male perspective, you're like, well, it's locker room talk, you know,
I'm okay with that. Where in my mind, I'm like, well, that's truth. If you don't like
it, you're probably ought to talk to some friends around you ladies. You know, that,
that's just my thought. So that's, that's kind of one of my first questions. Yeah. What

(17:28):
do you think about this project 2025 and everything that's going down with that? So can you explain
a little bit about your knowledge of that and how Trump has anything to do with that
or tell us a little bit about that? Well, I mean, quite honestly, I have not, I couldn't
tell you the first thing about project 2025 other than what I've heard the media say that,

(17:51):
you know, if this happens, we're doomed, you know, that kind of thing. I don't know any
details of it. And I've taken a little bit of a hiatus from, you know, really deep diving
on political stuff for a while, just, you know, my whole, this whole past year has just
been crazy. So I honestly, I can't even speculate on anything because I don't know anything

(18:12):
on it. So you know, talking about project 2025 or anything that Trump didn't say himself,
what I don't like, and this is both parties, Republicans do it, Democrats do it, if they,
they tie them to certain people, they've tied Trump to, I'm gonna, like you said, I'm gonna
get crucified, but they've tied Trump to every redneck out there. If some redneck does something

(18:36):
and has a Trump sticker, Trump believes that Trump thinks that, you know, that's appropriate,
you know, storming the Capitol and that may be something we could get to. I don't know
that he had a strong enough statement to not do it. But I don't think he said, let's go
do this people. Yeah, no, but he's going to take the blunt of that because those are his

(18:59):
people and that's what's really going to be tough for Trump even this year is because
some shit's going to go down. I still believe this term and he's going to get blamed for
anything that any of us or anybody does that they think has voted for Trump.
Right. Yeah. And I mean, I've listened to that whole deal, you know, the whole J6 deal.

(19:20):
And you know, it's, it's a farce. There's, I mean, even, you know, even the weakest argument,
I don't think holds water for, you know, did he, was he not strong enough? You know, I
would, I would agree with you that probably he wasn't strong enough in what he said, but
I mean, he was very clear that he didn't want, you know, he wasn't seeking violence. And

(19:42):
so, you know, sometimes if, you know, you can get blamed when you're not clear enough,
but yeah, it's that side of the stuff is frustrating.
So do you feel like Trump is, because again, we heard the, you know, grab him by the pussy
we heard. What was the other thing? The micro microphone thing.

(20:03):
Oh, sorry. Okay. That's probably stuff that you'd see me do. So I can't even see that.
I must be the raunchiest woman on the phone because this just made me laugh. And I actually
had a discussion with Jeff about this because there are a lot of things where I know that

(20:24):
a lot of women especially are very fearful of what Trump says because it is raunchy.
It is rude. It is some of those things. Do you believe he believes that based on, because
I'm an action person, you know, your actions show me exactly who you are, not your words.
Do you believe his actions show different than what he's saying?

(20:47):
Yeah, I think it does. Just everything that I've seen. I don't think that, you know, again,
I think a lot of this stuff is just talk, you know, the crudeness and, you know, he
talks about Franklin Graham. And if for those of you who don't know, he's the son of the
evangelist Billy Graham who, you know, Billy Graham was connected to every president. I

(21:14):
forget the first one, but I mean, he was he was an advisor to, you know, probably six
or seven presidents. And this is his son. And so, you know, obviously Billy Graham's
passed away. So now his son is taking over the mantle there. And, you know, his good
friends with Trump. And, you know, he I heard a speech from Trump where he said something

(21:36):
about, you know, Franklin asked him not to cuss, you know, because, you know, in Trump's
stuff, you know, he'll doesn't get really vulgar in his speeches, but, you know, he'll
he'll say, you know, damn, and hell, and, you know, all of that. And so, you know, he
just, you know, I think it's just it's just who he is. So I've got a question now. And
we probably should have started with this in a president, whether they're a Democrat or

(22:00):
Republican for you, Paul, what's the core value you're looking for? What do you want
that president to be able to achieve in four years? What's the most important things you
think a president could keeping our nation safe? Honestly, you know, I don't care if
you know, I don't care if he's, you know, having an affair with somebody. If he's keeping

(22:20):
our nation safe, he's probably doing a good job. Okay. And that's fair. And you know,
I've said so I go all the way back to, I think it was 92 and 94 when Ross pro was going
to trying to, you know, he was trying to be the nominee. I think he yeah, he was third
party is what he was. But either way, you know, he he was very big because he was a

(22:44):
businessman. Of course, he was trying to run the nation as a business. And I think some
of that needs to happen. I do that. I do that understands a big business, understands are
really complex system a lot better than somebody that's never been in business. So that is
something big for me. Now also, you know, you do need to look at their track record
where they good at business, did they suck at business? But what's terrible is if you

(23:06):
look at some of our greatest business minds out there, probably, they would not touch
going for president because they don't want all of their skeletons brought up because
let's be honest, I'm 53. Everybody here is in their 50s. You've probably done some stupid
ass shit when you were 18 19 20 21 and some have done more than others. And if you come
from a prominent family or family with money, you probably even did a lot more. All of that

(23:32):
will be drug up and during your face because that's the only way they know how to fight.
Yeah, I hate it. Yeah. Yeah. And I was actually had a conversation with my brother a little
bit earlier today. And you know, he a point in the sound, you know, the Democrats are
are just absolutely ruthless on their attacks to the Republicans. And you know, the Republicans,

(23:58):
they don't really fight back. I'm not saying, you know, I'm not taking saying we're taking
the high ground. Well, they just don't do it. They just don't, you know, drag people
through the mud. And you know, seems like, you know, we lose gracefully, you know, as
yeah, it's just, no, I totally get what you're saying. You know, and go ahead. I was just

(24:19):
going to say, I, you know, if we want, everybody has to decide how they want the country run.
And I agree with you. Safety. I mean, we don't even have a, you know, we don't even have
a country if we don't have the safety and we don't have people that respect us. So I
agree with that whoever can do that. That's great. You got to have safety. And then you've
got to know how to run it. And you know, if you think about it, a big, big company, they

(24:42):
have HR, they do have to worry about what they say when and how and how they treat people.
And they have all these aspects. They've got accounting, you know, they've got people that
are trying to figure out what's next for, you know, whether it's products, whatever, a
lot of that fits into our country. What are we going to do next? How are we going to balance
our budget? HR, how are we going to have social, you know, how can we fund these social programs

(25:02):
which are the most, you know, which are the most needed in our country and which can we
kick the can down the road? And I know that sounds bad, but we cannot fund everything.
Right. Yeah. That's, that's exactly right. I mean, we just, you know, everybody talks
about, you know, things that they get free. Well, you know, I mean, nothing's free. You
know, you, you guys both understand that. I mean, there's absolutely nothing is free.

(25:25):
You know, is when tax season comes around, you know, you, you hear people who, you know,
don't understand the system, which I think is corrupt by the way. But that's another
topic. You know, they talk about, you know, oh, hey, you know, I got $4,000. The government
gave me $4,000 back, you know, well, first of all, you know, they don't understand the
system. It's what they have already paid for, you know, they've overpaid, but it even goes

(25:51):
further than that. Now, I mean, there are a lot of systems where people are getting
money back that they didn't, you know, they didn't even, they're getting way more back
than they ever even paid into. And so, you know, this stuff comes from somewhere and
it comes from, you know, the others who are paying taxes, you know, not saying they're
not paying their taxes, but, you know, we see that a lot. And, you know, the second

(26:12):
thing, if you would have asked me what the second thing was, it would have been the financial
because those two, yeah, I mean, I mean, to me, top priority security next is financial.
And, you know, I'm really excited about, you know, this, this new government efficiency
department and Elon Musk heading this up. I just, I just, I just get goosebumps thinking

(26:35):
about it. I'm really excited to see what's going to happen. And, you know, this is obviously
somebody who's very intelligent business, I'm very intelligent in general, but certainly
in business. And, you know, he's talking about how we can cut government waste and how we
can stop wasting taxpayer money. You know, I'm a generous person. I always try to help

(26:56):
people out. And, but at the end of the day, I can't help everybody. And so, you know,
there are things that are going to have to be cut. And, you know, I'm looking forward
to seeing how this plays out for, for our economy.
So with that, with those cuts, do you think, or do you even agree with certain social programs?

(27:17):
So let's say healthcare for all, or I'm trying to think of some other things. I think that's
the biggest one that I know of, you know, do you feel like if they cut some of those things
that that could start benefiting the whole country even more if they could cut some of
the waste and use it for its citizens, or is that not something on the radar?

(27:38):
I think it could. I don't know if that's their plan or not, but I think it certainly could.
And, you know, I, I really think that our medical system is, is really bad. I mean, we've got
people that can't afford needed medical procedures. And yeah, I mean, look at, you remember when
the EpiPens went up to like, was it $2,500 a piece or something like that, just like

(28:01):
overnight, this stuff that were, was just greed. And, you know, hopefully, you know,
hopefully a lot of that will change. But yeah, it very well could be that, you know, money
can be shuffled in a different direction to help people who generally.
Oh, sorry. You're not totally against help for social programs. It's just wastefulness

(28:24):
and the spending. Yeah, my mom was a, she was a buyer for the government. And I remember
a purchasing agent for the government. And I remember one time, I think it was September,
and she goes, yep, I got to go spend the money we have in our budget. And I'm like, what?
That, you're just making shit up to spend. And later she clarified that and was like,

(28:47):
well, we had the must haves and the, you know, haves. But what it sounded like was the must
haves and the wants. And then they went back and, you know, spent the money on the wants.
But I was thinking, just think if you have a million dollars in your budget that didn't
get spent, and then you're trying to spend it in September, that's a lot that could go

(29:07):
to a different program that's really needed. Yeah. And a lot of, not just government, a
lot of, you know, companies have that, you know, if you don't spend it, you're not going
to get it next year. And, you know, instead of taking that surplus, and I'm not, I'm not
a, you know, financial master, but I understand the concepts. And, you know, if you, if you

(29:31):
could take that, that money that you have left over and, you know, either roll it over
or apply it to departments or areas that, that really have a genuine need that aren't
abusing their, their money. You know, yeah, I think it would, it would be better off when
it would certainly be better off. Going down the half of financials. I did some research

(29:54):
and on a balanced budget, I was shocked to understand this, but it was the, I want to
say the late sixties was the last time we had a balanced budget before Bill Clinton,
believe it or not, Bill Clinton was the only president in, in our lifetime that balanced
the budget. And he actually had, it was called balanced the budget act of 1997. So I liked

(30:19):
that aspect of what he did. And I'll be honest, I don't give a shit the Monica Lewinsky thing.
I seriously don't. That's, that doesn't affect the country as far as I see it, but I understand
some people would see it will. I don't believe it will. But let's go down the path of a balanced
budget. I'm going to say, I don't think we'll ever see another balanced budget in our lifetime.

(30:40):
What do you think, Paul?
Paul I, I would agree with that. I don't think we will. We're, we're so far in debt, you
know, I heard a statistic that I think by, if we keep on this path by, was it 2030? I
think it was, we're going to, our, our interest payments on the deficit is going to be more

(31:02):
than what we bring in. And at that point, at that point, you're, you're bankrupt. And
you know, whoever, whoever you owe money to has every right to call in that debt. And
you know, that's not going to be a good day when it happens.
Yeah. And 30% of that debt is foreign and we'll have to pay that off or wars are going
to happen. So it'll be us internally that foot the bill. But what's interesting, and

(31:25):
this is the reason I wanted to talk on this subject. The reason I don't think whatever
balanced the budget is because it's not that a president gets in and doesn't want to. It's
what are they not going to fund? Because that's the only way if you've only got so much money,
nobody wants it. So do we take money away from social security? And if that happens,

(31:46):
that's going to kill that party. That's going to kill them trying to elect somebody next
time. So nobody's going to get that vote, either Republican or Democrat. If they try
and take it away from social, some, some of the social programs, if they try to take it
away from Medicare, I mean, what I'm looking at, and I agree, I'm interested to see what
Elon finds because I don't think we can ever balance our budget again without one or the

(32:11):
other side taking, I mean, it's going to be a total massacre for doing it because no one
really wants us to balance that budget.
Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, kind of an interesting deal. I mean, just to, you can quote me on
this, if you want, it's not my original quote, but taxation is theft. But there has to be

(32:31):
money to run the country. And I think if, if everybody would, you know, if they had a
flat tax, you know, whatever 10% and everybody paid their 10%, you know, no deductions, no,
no loopholes, nothing, everybody was paying their 10%. You know, I think we could, we

(32:52):
could certainly work that way. But, you know, everybody was, was ragging on Trump. You know,
that was a big deal getting his tax returns. And the way they come out was actually illegal.
You know, it was, they were leaked out. But, you know, when people were saying, oh, he's
not paying his fair share. Well, what people don't understand again, going back to people
not understanding the system, you know, he was able to take deductions and, you know,

(33:19):
all of, you know, because of his businesses, et cetera. And, you know, and that's why he
paid a lower rate than, than everybody else did or others. I mean, it's anybody in business,
if they're smart enough, are going to take advantage of every tax break they get, you
know, and so, but if, if they eliminated all of that and just brought it down to just a

(33:39):
straight, you know, 10%, yeah, I think we could, we could see a change, I think. But,
again, that's been talked about for years and it's nothing that ever happened on it.
And I don't think they'd ever will.
And see, that's where going back to why you won't get somebody in that understands business
because every business follows or will take advantage of those loopholes. I would too.

(34:02):
Yeah.
I mean, anybody that's in business would, I pay, well, I, I think I pay an insane amount.
All these businesses think the same thing. And I'm going to give you another story and
I'm not going to say who it was because, yeah, for obvious reasons. But back when I was in
college, I was in an accounting class and a professor was telling us about, you know,

(34:22):
we were going through accounting and taxes and everything. There was one very, very big
corporation in the US that when it come tax time, they owed, which isn't a lot now, but
back when I was going to college, it was they owed $52 million in taxes. And to just get
around some of the taxes, the CEO or the other, I guess you would say the CEO of the company

(34:44):
bought a credit card company and was able to use a credit card to pay their taxes, the
$52 million bill. And the government had to give him 2.5% back. It wasn't illegal. I
think it's brilliant.
It is.
It wasn't illegal. And he, he did what he thought was right for his company because it's like
we talked about before. Every company is in it to make money. They've got shareholders

(35:05):
expecting to make money. If they're giving all that money to the government, I'm not
going to have, I'm not going to hold their stock because their stock is going to go down.
You have to generate more money every year.
Right.
So you have to find those advantages.
I think that's the difference. Trump actually used that when he was debating Hillary Clinton.
You know, he was, they brought up his tax burden and he was like, of course I use the

(35:29):
loophole so do her, the people who support her. And it's true, but that's I think where
the difference comes in between a person who has corporations, who runs businesses and
a politician who has never done anything like that. The politician is looking at, how do
I get more tax money in here? How do I get more tax money in here where, you know, me

(35:51):
running my own plate, my own company, my own business, I have to look at constantly, you
know, how do I make my bottom line either look as low as possible? Or in his case, how
do I keep that money in people's pockets? That's what's really going to, you know, make
him stand out. And I think that's an interesting, as far as the financial part goes, it's going

(36:16):
to be interesting to see how that flips or if it does because of the mindset of a business
person coming in in comparison to a political person coming in or winning the election.
Yeah.
Yeah. And it's all about driving more revenue in the country. And it would be interesting
if they would do some kind of a financial model to prove this. But if you give me 10%

(36:39):
of my money back, instead of what I'm paying, I get 10% more back because I'm, honestly,
I'm paying above 30% right now. If I get 10% back, I would say at least 8% of that that
I got back, I would use in the economy somewhere. I'm either going to take a trip. I'm either
going to go to more restaurants. I'm going to buy something. So it does, all of that
helps the economy, I believe.

(37:00):
Yeah.
But it's easy for me to also say it helps the economy. I think someone like, hopefully,
Elon Musk or whoever ends up in the Department of Efficiency, I hope that they can model
that out and be able to show the difference because I do think that if you lower your
tax burden, it's going to stimulate the economy to grow your economy to actually pull more
revenue in.

(37:21):
Yeah. And you see back when, anytime they do a tax rebate or something like that, people
are doing renovations to their homes or doing, nobody's taking that money and, you know,
cashing that check and putting it in a Mason jar and burying it in the backyard. They're
putting it back into the economy. And so, yeah, it just...

(37:45):
And when it comes back in the economy, if I go to a department store, I'm automatically
getting taxed on how many you get, they're going to get that money.
Exactly. Exactly.
It's whether I get something with it also or if I'm giving it to them.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's very interesting. So I do like that. So I'm going to go down the path of
a little bit on the social issues.
Okay.
I think that Democrats focus a lot on social issues. Republicans, I don't feel as much

(38:10):
into that. There are some hardcore lines that they, a lot of them, especially conservative
Republicans hit. But Paul, what is your thoughts? And I know that on my two episodes ago when
I was just giving out some figures and what I looked at in politics, I said, I think that
a lot of these social issues should be determined at a state level. Agree, disagree. What do

(38:33):
you think would happen if it was only at the state level?
1000%. The vast majority of stuff should be at the state level. I think that's the way
it was attended. Big government takes over and then makes everything a federal issue.
Yeah. My thought was if, and I'm not saying that this is the right approach, but if you're

(38:56):
living in a state that the social issues don't fit what you want, I mean, I'm not saying
it's easy and I know everybody will criticize me saying, you know, well, it's easy for you
to say that you can just move, but you can. And you can stay in the US, you could move
three states over, you can get another job and you could find and be around people that
are more like-minded, I guess, because if you're going to be in the Bible Belt, we know what

(39:21):
you're going to hear and what you're going to be up against all the time if you don't
believe in that. And I just, I'm all for people having a peaceful existence instead of having
to fight with people all the time. And I think that some of these could move to Minnesota
or down into wherever it would be, Arizona, and maybe live a more peaceful life.

(39:43):
Yeah. And we're seeing in the cannabis issue right now, a lot of states have made it legal.
It's not just for medicinal, but recreational. And I'm not a cannabis user. I'm not against
it. Everybody should have the right to do it, but I don't. But I don't judge anybody who

(40:06):
does. I know, you know, I've got a lot of friends that do. But when, you know, when
something like that is, it's still a controlled substance. And so if I'm going to go purchase
firearm, for example, I can do one of two things. I can either lie on that form. If
I am caught, then that's perjury. So there's, there's a different crime. Or I can, you know,

(40:34):
not apply to get a, get a firearm. And so because it's a federal issue, even though all of these
states have approved it, you know, that's, that's where you have federal overreach.
Yeah. And I agree. I think we have a lot of overreach. And the way they get around that,
of course, they go back to the Constitution and they say, well, you could be at a state

(40:55):
level, you're violating it by putting something in there. It's that over, they are concerned
about, of course, states overreaching. But in the end, I think that when I think we should
figure out what, what are social issues and we should allow, and I think it should be
categorized in states, you determine this for your state. And because we can hire or

(41:15):
hire, we can, we can elect in the mayor you want in your community that helps to drive
it all the way up to your representatives that help drive it all the way up to your
governor. And, you know, that's where the change is happening. I, I agree with you on
one, one thing for sure, Paul. I think that the president of the United States, when I
look at him, I don't look at him to save any individual or state. I look at him or her

(41:40):
to do what's right for the country on a global level. You have to make sure that we look
and can function in the global economy and that we're safe. Similar to what you just
said. Other than that, I don't really want him reaching into the community. I am telling,
telling me what I can and cannot do.
Right. Yeah. You know, and feel free to edit this out if you, if you feel that it's best

(42:04):
that I'm okay with that. But, you know, the, the recent overturn of Roe versus Wade, you
know, it's not making abortions illegal. It's just pushing it back to the states. Now,
a lot of the states have said, you know, this is, and I'll agree. I think it's, you
know, I'm not judgmental at all, but I mean, it's, it's a very barbaric process. You know,

(42:26):
I know people who have had it done and I don't judge it for it. I mean, they had, you know,
whatever they, they felt they needed to do it, but you know, it is a barbaric process,
but it's something that the states should be, you know, they should be making that decision
as illegal in this state. And so, yeah, again, if you, you know, if you are in a, at a point

(42:48):
where, you know, you need or want that, you know, there, there are other states that,
you know, outside of Missouri, there's other states that do that, but yeah, it should be
a state. And actually it did change over in this, this last election, they voted to, you
know, to accept you have here in Missouri. So, yeah, it's just, you know, it's something

(43:08):
that needs to be decided at the state level. Just most things need to be decided there.
Do you have more questions?
All right. I've got another one. So I just, let's see, it was two weekends ago, I went
and sat down with a restaurant owner and it was, it was a really great conversation. I
sat down with this individual that owned, has owned a restaurant for, oh, owned and

(43:32):
managed probably since they got out of high school, but I bet they've owned a restaurant
for 25 years now. And we started talking about, and I know I'll get beat up on this too, but
we started talking about the minimum wage that passed, the increase of the minimum wage.
And we started talking about the effects. And, you know, the problem is right now, it's

(43:53):
so interesting, the lady that I was talking to said, you know, every time I raise my price
on my menu, everybody in this town knows who owns it. And she also works there most of
the time. So you can go see her and, you know, she's very friendly, but she said, you don't
know how much I get criticized if I raise anything on my menu. That's the first problem.

(44:14):
But of course, now she is really going to have to pay people more. But she said, worse
than that, she said, I don't think some of what we do, even at a state level, we understand
and they need to, they need to talk with some of our owners of these organizations. But she
said, now she has to give, if this ends up going into law, she has to give, I believe
it is every 30 hours, she has to give one hour of time off as far as sick pay. And she

(44:40):
said, what's going to happen? I know what's going to happen. She said, within nine months,
she said, I'm going to end up having people that have at least a day, if not more than
that worth of sick pay, that I have to pay them. Two of them could be cooks and just
call in and say, I'm sick tomorrow. She said, what am I supposed to do? Because now I've

(45:00):
got to pay them because they're sick and I do understand. But she said, what's going
to happen? This is going to put her in such a predicament because with the weighting staff
that she has and the cooks in the back and stuff like that, she said, we run a very lean
organization. She said, I can't just hire double the amount of people to cover everybody.

(45:22):
So she said, it's going to raise the price on the menus. And she said, it's going to
cause a lot of these companies to not be able to keep in business because they don't understand
what that impact is going to look like six months down the road.
So right now, is she not paying? I need to understand this because in my head, I'm going
through this. Is she not paying? Yes, she pays minimum wage. But what I mean, so if

(45:46):
they take a sick day, they just don't get paid. Correct. Correct. If you're sick, you
don't get, she gives vacations and a lot of places are set up this way. Most manufacturing
facilities, I believe, are set up this way. Most don't get paid sick pay. If you're sick,
that's fine. You just, you're sick, but you have to take the hit on your check. So you

(46:09):
take vacation days instead? The biggest concern, yeah, you can. So the big concern is people
will really use this as more vacation time instead of sick. They won't use it if they're
sick. They're just going to decide, well, on a Monday, well, I don't really want to
go in. And at least with vacation, you can require somebody to give you notice when that

(46:29):
vacation is so you can schedule properly. They're going to use, and a lot of people will use
this to their advantage. They just decide they had a rough weekend and on Monday, they
don't want to come to work. If they've got enough paid time in, they will be able to
use that as a sick day. And if you've got several people doing that, especially, you
know, in some of these smaller restaurants, that's going to be very, very tough for them

(46:53):
to keep up. Yeah.
But that's part of the risk of being a business owner because here's my thought on it. You
know, I have to be prepared for anything that happens in my business. And if, if I, you
know, if I needed to step in and take over that cooking aspect, that's what's going to
have to happen because we still need to take care of people. I mean, I'm, I think that's

(47:15):
the thing for me that I'm getting really kind of concerned with is I look at my kids who
are 24 and 25. And to make a living wage is brutal in this day and age to get healthcare.
I mean, I, you know, I fought my way to do it at that age, but I was able to. These kids

(47:37):
are fighting their way and they're, they just keep clawing and keep clawing and keep clawing.
And so I think we also need to not only look at the profitability of everything, but we
also need to look at taking care of our, our citizens. And I think that's something that
the hope is that changes in the government that Trump is taking over. And I know a lot

(47:59):
of people are like, well, he's, he screws people. He's been in lawsuits and in my industry,
we have a saying that if you're not in a lawsuit, you're not big enough or you're not doing
your job, right? Because I mean, you know, in the rental business, somebody's always
suing you a tenant thinks you haven't done something right or whatever. So I don't look

(48:20):
at it the same, but I do want to see our citizens start being taken care of. And I think the
generation under us, what are they? The gen X, what are they now?
No, we're gen X. Okay. We're Gen X. It's Gen Z. Yeah, whatever they are. They, you know,
they're having a hard time making it. I mean, my kids don't want to live with me. They don't,

(48:42):
they want to be independent. And yet they have to give up a lot just to be out on their
own. And, and, and I don't know if this is possible or not, but I do believe that there's
jobs that could and should be out there for part time kids that's in college or that is
in high school where they could pay less for these people. Where I'm going, I think there's

(49:07):
jobs that need to be done and should be for those type of individuals that don't require
that. I think that there, there's a point in time when, whenever you hit 24 or 25, do
you have to step up and say, I've got to have, I'm going to say a big boy job. But I'm telling
you right now, manufacturing jobs pay decent wages. They really do. When I say decent,

(49:28):
they pay a wage that you can do that. Now, I can choose to go down here and work at the
convenience store, but come on. I mean, if I'm going to work at the convenience store,
that's in my mindset, I have to think, well, that's going to be a convenient store wage.
It can't be the exact same as if I'm going to be doing the barrels and independence,

(49:49):
Dave, company and everywhere else. I can make that choice. If I don't want to do that type
of work, that's fine. But realize the type of work pays the wage. That's where I'm concerned.
I don't think we're going to have any jobs to where you can have a convenience store
or something like that, be able to keep up with the cost it's going to be with them.
I'm just really concerned going.

(50:09):
Yeah. And I don't know what the answer is because I see both sides of, of that argument.
I'm right.
Everybody's supposed to say yes, dear. That's a yes, dear. Yes, dear. Yeah, it's just, I mean,
it's a tough, you know, and I mean, I'm not a business owner. So I don't, you know, I don't

(50:31):
have to deal with that. But it's, you know, if I were, yeah, I don't know, it's, it's a tough
call. Because certainly you need to be, you know, humane in treating your employees. And,
and, you know, they, you know, as these are people that, I mean, you know, we, you know,
those of us, you know, with, you know, big people, responsibilities and jobs and whatever,

(50:53):
I mean, we, you know, we understand, you know, a lot of the complexities, but, you know,
and that's not to diminish, you know, these, you know, the, the gas station worker or the
convenience store worker, it's not to diminish the jobs because, you know, somebody needs
to do those jobs. We need somebody there doing them. And, you know, like we have a situation

(51:15):
where, you know, we have a sanitation guy that does a lot of our washing and sanitizing
of our equipment. And, you know, that's a, that's a very important job. Because if, if
we, you know, we don't decontaminate our trailers properly, I mean, we could spread salmonella,
you know, or something else. And so we need that job. But at the same time, that's not,

(51:38):
you know, that pay scale is not something that is going to be deemed highly, you know,
a high paying job, you know, it's a menial task, so to speak. And so, you know, not diminishing
the task, but, you know, it's a, yeah, it's, it's a tough call. Definitely tough call.
Yeah. I guess I just think that we are going to have to have some jobs out there that,

(52:01):
that fit into a bracket where it doesn't require that because we do look at maybe, you know,
it's being able to fill that role or something. Yeah. But, but I agree. I mean, I do want
to pay people. I want everybody to be, you know, be able to afford rent and everything
else. So I don't know the answer to that. So I know we're almost out of time. And I
wanted to, for me, my last question, I want you to paint the vision of what, what you

(52:24):
think if Trump was able to do what he says he can do in the next four years, what's the
next four years going to look like in your mind?
I think the next four years, especially, I think the first year specifically, I think
is going to be really tough because we're, you know, he's going to be going in, trying
to undo a lot of the stuff that, you know, redo some of the stuff that was undone with

(52:44):
the stuff he did. If that makes sense, they're not trying to talk, double talk there. But
you know, the first year is going to be tough because he's, you know, trying to make a lot
of these changes that the changes that he's talking about, you know, with the economy,
you know, and then just the interaction of his cabinet, his cabinet members are all new

(53:06):
people that, you know, he wasn't like their holdovers or, you know, from his previous
presidency. So, you know, just working with that and making everything gel, I think, you
know, it's going to be a challenge. But after that, if he can nail down and then start doing
some of the things that he's talking about with the economy, I think we're going to see,
you know, I think we're going to see the respect of other countries in the world towards this.

(53:31):
I think we're going to see that increase. We saw an increase before. I think we're going
to see it increase again. And I think, you know, the economy at some point is going to
level out. And I think we're going to see, you know, dollar fifty gallon of gas again.
Connie. Well, I have no more questions. I mean, you
know, I'm not a political person. I definitely, I'm, yeah, I'm just not a political person.

(53:54):
I probably should do a lot more research than I do. But I really appreciate you showing
the conservative side and your thoughts on that. And yeah, we really, really appreciate
it. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity.
Thank you, Paul. All right, Connie. I think that's it for us for this week. I hope everybody
has a good week. Yeah, you too. Thank you. Bye.

(54:17):
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(54:37):
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(54:59):
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