February 5, 2025 • 42 mins
Join Cameron and Stew tonight as they talk about what has taken him from the combat battlefield to the battle for a political office representing the fine people from the Virginia 7th district.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode three twenty one
Stewing the nun You Got Stu here None is still
down running his phenomenal red Rum Sport fishing business in
Cabo San Lucas, having just survived another hurricane hit last weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So he is very busy down there and still can't
join us.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
But I am joined by my newly made good friend
through through mutual contacts, mister Cameron Hamilton, who is running
for the Virginia seven District seven in the state of Virginia. Cameron,
I want to thank you so much for joining me
and I am really looking forward to this interview.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, Mortan, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, awesome. So hey man, we are big supporters here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We have had over our years on this running this show,
so many vets running for political office.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
What I've said to a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Of them is, you know, hey, you know, when you're
in the military, you don't get paid to have an opinion.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Right, you do.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
You get your orders, they're lawful, they're what you get
told do, and you march toward that objective.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You don't get the question why or this kind of stuff, right.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
But I think it's awesome when when you know, we
retired and some of us grow beards, we do all
that kind of stuff, and then we're like, hey, I've
earned a right to this.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Opinion and I can now express it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And and better and even better is I can start
to get back through my community, whether it's through some
kind of civil service and politics or local.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Law enforcement first responder.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And to me, that's just that's just awesome when when
someone already makes already checks the block, gives their part
to the country and says I'm not done yet and
keeps on giving. So I want to thank you for that.
So obviously you're a military I mentioned that. So I
want to open up with you, going to going in
your background a little bit, letting our viewers and listeners
know kind of who you are, Okay, where you came from,
(01:45):
and then who you.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Are absolutely so I uh, I grew up in northern California. Lie,
it's called Sonoma County, and uh, you know, we California
was a very different animal back in the day. I
think back in the in the seventh eighties, there was
a lot of the peace, love and hippie movement that
came through there, but most people who identified as Republicans
(02:06):
in California were kind of just they're more libertarian focused,
sort of a live and let live. That was a
lot of the mantra of that state, and that's very
much the climate I grew up in. You know, you
don't have to ask people to agree with you, but
just treat everyone decently and be civil. And so we
were old school, just kind of libertarian Reagan Republicans, if
you will. Growing up, I was really active in sports.
(02:30):
I did a lot of competitive wrestling, did grappling, jiu
jitsu and other martial arts, and also played competitive soccer.
Had an opportunity to play competitive soccer on an amateur
team overseas, and ultimately, one thing I couldn't shake was
this unwavering sense of service I needed to serve in
the United States military. I didn't know how, didn't know what,
(02:51):
but I knew that I needed to serve and give
back to this country that I thought had given me
so much. In every opportunity in the world. As a
high school kid, I will I had several opportunities to
go overseas on different trips and see some of the
depravity of more primitive parts of the world, and it
gives you a great sense of gratitude for what we
have here and the uniqueness of this nation. So after
(03:16):
high school, well during high school, actually, I enlisted in
the delayed entry program for the US Navy. My father
was in the Air Force. He served as a personnelment
during the Vietnam War, and both my grandfather served in
the Navy. They were CBS construction Battalions. Well John Wayne
and CB can do so they actually both serve in
(03:36):
the Pacific building jews, building runways, building barracks, building dining
facilities for marines that were going from island to island,
setting up operations. Really remarkable, remarkable job. So very much
service has been a part of my family, and I'm
a fourth generation service member. Again, it goes all the
(03:56):
way back to my great grandfather, and we even have
records going back to the Camerons and the Hamilton's coming
before that. Specifically, the Camerons came over during the time
of the Civil War from Scotland and decided to fight
for the North. I'm in Virginia, so that's a hot
topic for some but either way, so service has always
been a part of my family and I knew it's
(04:17):
what I wanted to do. I had an opportunity to
join the Navy. I chose to become a seal and
to be a medic. So I went to course school
up in Great Lakes, Illinois, and then went to Basic
Underwater Demolition Seal Training Class two six's one made it
straight through with no recycles in buds. Then that went
into SQT, got my trident, reported to Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
(04:40):
from medical training at the schoolhouse down there, the Joint
Special Operations and Medical Training Center. That's where we have
a lot of the Green Beret medics and the range
of medics, the Civil Affairs medics. Well, the pjs had
just separated a couple of years prior three or four,
I believe, so we were just after iteration. They had
their own schoolhouse. But before that, yes, they would come
(05:03):
to that same schoolhouse and force riecan Corman, you name it.
So I went there as a seal graduate with my trident,
became a medic, went through the long course, the SOIDC course,
which is the equivalent of the latter half of the course,
the eighteen delta course that's traditionally only reserved for senior medics,
and then reported the seal teammate while at Seal teammate,
(05:25):
I deployed four times, two to Afghanistan, two in support
of OEF, and then really just traveled all throughout. Came
back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina as an instructor. When
I was there as a student, I met my wife.
I stole the best thing out of Fateeville, North Carolina,
brought her with me to Virginia Beach, and then came back,
(05:45):
which was a good R and R time. Was an
instructor there for about four years, and then ultimately I
had an injury coupled with kind of an opportunity to
work at the State Department. So I worked the State
Department for about five years under what we call Project Guardian,
that's within the Director of Operational Medicine. Think of it
as a repurposing of an eighteen delta type individual for diplomatic.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Affairs oversetates in places.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Like Yemen, like Somalia, like Libya, you name it. That
was the mission set that I signed up for places
where there's really limited infrastructure, but personal protection coupled with
medical provision is integral. So protecting ambassadors, protecting dignitaries, congressional delegations,
things along those lines. I actually left the Department of
(06:35):
State in twenty twenty, right when the pandemic had started,
and came over to DHS. Some of my last days
at DOS was actually coordinating the Wuhan flights, the first
one that came back, you know, bringing all the Americans
from Wuhan, China into the United States actually yep into California,
and then further over. Very interesting time worked at DHS
(06:57):
as a Division director for Emergency Medicals Services, overseeing standards
of about four thousand EMTs all scattered throughout the Department
Homeland Security. These are principal law enforcement officers that are
also empt qualified. And then over time I will say,
I don't want to give the spoiler. My campaign video
probably summarize it pretty well, but essentially, over time, the
(07:20):
more and more I worked in government, the more and
more I became exposed to some of what I call
the bureaucratic sickness of government. I became exceedingly frustrated at
seeing the resources being squandered of this nation haphazardly and
fiscal irresponsibility, as well as practices that are completely not
in the best interests of the American taxpayer. So ultimately,
(07:44):
a good friend of min Nick Fretus, who is a
state delegate here in Virginia. He's actually my delegate. Nick
approached me and Nick had said, look, we've been praying
for someone like you to run for a long time,
and I really think you should give this a good consider,
which is ironic because God had been putting this on
my heart for quite a while. So there's lots of
other things that occurred, but the long story short is,
(08:05):
through successive layers of confirmation and prayer, it became abundantly
clear that this was the next pathway and the next
the next hilltop I needed to advance to, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
So, yeah, that's interesting. You took right in.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
One of my next questions was you know, did you
ever you know what was the tipping point? I'm glad
to hear it was. God was putting it on your
heart and you listen to him. I mean, is probably
the initiator of the trigger of that, and then and
then other folks.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
But also sadly seeing some of the ineptness.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And probably fraud, waste and abuse and everything else of
that you saw in the freederal government. I'm sure it
was just so like, I can't let this stand was
it just it was just it sounds like from your
from bringing on, it was just that that core part
of your DNA. It was like, I just can't sit
back and do nothing and watch and complain about this.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's exactly it. Yeah, it's hard to describe that characteristic
until you meet people who just have it. And so
I'd like to think that that's part of the intrinsic
nature that God gives to certain kinds of warriors, of
just this calling, this sense of virtue in wanting to
restore something that's greater than yourself. And so I love
this country. I believe that this is the greatest nation
(09:14):
on the face of the earth. And with the freedoms
and the liberties and the foundation so unique in how
the American Revolution was all about restoring justice, the restoration
and affirmation of appropriate justice defended by biblical reasoning and precepts,
whereas many other revolutions that you found within our counterparts
(09:35):
of Europe, like France and others, was very much class warfare.
It was very much usurping and completely flipping the political
spectrum on its head because of perceived grievances, and that
the system of government itself was inherently unjust, whereas in
the United States it was very different. We believed in
restoring the appropriate justice that the King and ultimately Parliament
(09:58):
had infringed upon self governance. Things along those lines, so
really unique, very very.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I mean the writings of Thomas Paine, right, I mean,
that's that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So let me ask you real quick.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I mean to catch up, but I want to I
want to kind of capture on that for a second.
When you look at where we are today as a country,
and you look at where our country was birth from
and how we came together of what we left, we're
pretty much how the articles of our constitution and everything
we're put you know, we all, I'm sure you and
I share the same view of why they were. You know,
the the amendments were written the way they were. What
(10:33):
is your thoughts when you look at where we are today,
go back to seventeen seventy six, and you go back
to how this country started before that. In the similarities
or differences, there.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Are definitely similarities, I think what we see now, at
least at that time, you had a lot more intent
for states to check and balance federal powers and federal oversight.
You know, the United States when it was formed into
an early nation, was not homogeneous in its political philosophy
about what was the role of a federal government, what
was the role of state government? What was who had
(11:06):
what authority and power? Could it be removed? Could it
be rescinded, was it temporary? Was it permanent? These were
all really complex arguments that were being debated in a
novel way here in this nation. You can read about
it in the federalist papers. You can also read about
it later on in some of the Congressional House files
that you find with all these different compelling ideas about
(11:26):
what this country would look like. But one thing I
will say that we have found is over time, the arguments,
the Republican arguments of the day, the Jeffersonians, the Monros,
the Madison's, and many others were very concerned about the
expansion of federal powers so as to completely so as
(11:47):
to completely override the authorities of state autonomy.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Do you feel that's happened? Do you feel that's happened
a lot?
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Absolutely, in many respects. I mean, we see the epa
versus West Virginia, a recent Supreme Court case that's a
priming example of a regulatory agency that was not given specific, appropriated,
or even enumerated powers in Congress to then execute its
oversight of a law or a legal action that a
(12:14):
state declared was unconstitutional and was within their jurisdiction and sovereignty.
We need so to hit that threat a little bit more.
In the Founder's day, states very much reserved the rights
of autonomy, and the Tenth Amendment had particular emphasis. It
was not put there haphazardly. It was very intentional, and
the coalition of states was not completely unified. It was
(12:38):
it was a very thin balance that was held, and
so in many states threatened to completely remove themselves from
this federation if the Tenth Amendment as well as other
provisions were not placed therein And so the point being,
now what we see is the federal government has become
so massive and so intrusive of different characteristics of our
(13:01):
daily lives, and the authority of state and local governments
has really suppressed. It's really kind of it's been removed
from the authority that it should have. So I think
we are at a point where jurisdictionally and politically we
have an imbalance. We have a significant imbalance where the
federal government has become exceedingly large and intrusive in the
(13:24):
daily lives of Americans, whereas the state and local government
has not. Now the answer is not just simply well,
elevate the state government. This isn't necessarily a zero sum game,
but you do have to suppress activities of the federal
as well. So it's this seesaw teetering effect, and we
have to find that sweet balance. So, in my opinion,
(13:46):
I think examples like what we saw with EPA versus
West Virginia is one of many examples that we should
see more of. If states believe that the federal government
has engaged in activities that it's not clearly defined that
have the authority to be, states should aggressively challenge those
efforts aggressively. And so that's kind of to break down
(14:08):
my philosophy of what politics should be. I believe in
the elevation of state and local authorities, because why will
they set your local taxes? You know your bard of supervisors,
you know your school boards, you know your local sheriff,
you know your your state legislature, your state laws. We've
withdrawn a lot of those and put a heavy emphasis
(14:30):
on Congress because it's good show whethy it's controversial, they're loud,
they're well funded, but it's not where the appropriate emphasis
should be. We should care more about what's going on
within their state and jurisdiction than they should what's going
on the federal level.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
You would think, you would think after the twenty twenty
election that people would realize where the state, how important
state and local elections are, right all the way down
to your local town board or whatever represents your local area.
Because obviously we saw laws changed and things down overnight
and all that kind of stuff that you know, and
I've said this a few times, if you want to
get involved with politics, if you want to have an opinion,
(15:05):
to be out there, be loud, you should start literally
done at your school board and work your way up
from there. Right now, when you talk about this in
Balance of power's interesting you mention that because it's something
I've talked about a number of times. Is you know,
obviously there's a number of plate ways you could look
at how the federal government has done it via whether
you know highway laws you know, or school or or
(15:27):
things that they want done in states. It's all about
the power of the purse, right, they.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Withhold, they withhold funds or give funds.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Eh, you know, if we want you to have your
speed limit a this, or we're not going to give
you highway funds. We want you to do this, get
rid of these programs in your schools, or we're not
going to give you those funds. It's almost to me
that imbalance of power has become is largely contributed to
states and lower local governments being on the government teat
(15:54):
and being so dependent on the government that they are
beholden to them. I mean, it's to me, it's like
it's like extortion, right, I mean, look at how gun light.
You know, gun laws are enforced not through anything that's
provided in the constitution, but through interstate commerce.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Right, that's they regulate mand it.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
They mean that they that's why some states have like
Texas and Montana or Wyoming have you know, created made
guns and built guns in their states. They sell to
their citizens and say federal laws don't apply to us
because we're not allowing them to be sold or transported
over state lines. But the government regulates guns pretty much
through interstate commerce law because that's what's guaranteed by the
count or what's what's called for in the constitution. So
(16:32):
to me, it seems like the state litw governments have
allowed this to happen because they've gotten so they're on
a smack.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
They can't get off the smack.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah, no, you're you're spot on. That's that's the thing
that sucks about culpabilities. We have to really take a
good look in the mirror and realize, oh, this sucks. Yeah,
but we're partially responsible ourselves for this environment. Which the
difference is when we know that, when we realize that
there can be empowerment there. Okay, so let's get off
we were ends and fix it them.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
A lot of times we placate about, you know, complaining
about government and this and that. You know, it's so terrible,
it's so corrupt, there's things going on where it shouldn't belong.
And we've got this you know kind of you know,
priorities that are totally out of balance, that aren't serving
the American people. We've done this. We've done this because
of the people we've sent to DC. We've done this
because we've not been as active in our state and
(17:23):
local government as we should be. We've done this because
we don't have people going to school board meetings, town
council meetings, board of supervisor meetings the way that they
should be. So it you know, we have really good, amazing, patriotic,
god fearing people in this country. But when they don't
show up to some of these local events, what do
you expect to happen? The yamany is going to gain ground.
(17:43):
And so it's think of it like a battlefield. I
hate to say it that way, but it's true. Right,
we need to be civically engaged. And so all things
being said, what I think, what I think is going
on right now, we are we are had a very
delicate point where we potentially can correct course, but it
(18:03):
requires a lot of investment. And so it's really funny
you mentioned Interstate Commerce clause. That's a prime example a broad,
sweeping legislative action that gives the federal government almost unfettered jurisdiction.
It's really I mean, and there's some legitimate concerns about
it too. You start rationing supplies during.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
The World War or a pandemic, yeah, or well yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
So at least the founders back in the day understood
that there may be good things that can come from
expanded federal powers. But there's a lot of bad too.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well when you think about back then, you know, interstate
commerce was you know, not a common thing, right. Things
were you know, just the nature of our country at
that stage, right, things were grown and built and stuff,
and it was like, you know again, it was almost
like an international commerce. I think, in my opinion, I
think it was thought of like we do today think
of international commerce. It was like, hey, one state's going
to sell and trade over to another one and back
(18:59):
and forth, and they don't want people to jack prices up.
So I think that's why the founding fathers put that
in there. But today, obviously, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
We were terrif fors early within colonies, right, yeah, right,
I mean that we're really legitimate. New York was one
of the biggest defenders of them.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
So it's it is, uh, you know, to think of
it today, that's it's we're global economy, and that's that
no one even thinks about that, right but they But.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Again, like you said, broad sweeping use of that.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Uh to do that, you sound very much like, ah,
a constitutional or libertarian conservative, so called constitutional libertarian.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Would you kind of classify yourself that way.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I mean, you talked about being a Reagan Libertarian, but
you're you're hitting on tenth Amendment, which is big to me.
I mean, I'm and it sounds like you're definitely for
smaller government.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Oh yeah, Well I like to think of myself because
I've been asked, you know, what's who's your ideal legislator.
I'm like, okay, look, I'll be transparent. The more I've
gotten to know about certain people of Congress, the lesser
respect I've had for them. Because you see people on TV.
You're like, Wow, this guy's amazing, this lady's unbelievable. Then
you find out who they really are and you go, oh,
this is gross.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Like so, I will say there's been some kind of
I won't call it hero worship, but there's been some
people that I thought were amazing that I found out
their personal lives and I realized, oh, wow, that is
incredibly underwhelming or disappointing. Having said that, I'd like to
say that I line up very similar to like a
Thomas Massey Rand Paul Ronald Reagan. This like interesting merger
(20:29):
of all these different characteristics. There's there's a lot of
great legislators. You know, Bob good has been doing some
amazing stuff recently. Eli Crane. I'm a huge fan of
Eli Crane. But I also like, you know, some of
the decency that you find with with many other more
moderate members of Congress, with how they have good decorum,
their their their they're humble. And so it's I guess
(20:50):
my ideal form of legislator would be fierce like a lion,
but charismatic like Reagan, you know, like a like a
southern cowboy. You know, that's what we need more of.
We need that southern gentleman kind of persona to come
back into be decent, to be good. That doesn't mean compromising.
It just means being good to others, showing our faith,
(21:11):
showing the goodness that God has given mankind when we're
appropriately governed, and walking in the ethics that He gives us,
and defining our character by his ways. So this is
where I get into the argument of I am very
much a constitutional conservative. I'm a limited government constitutional conservative,
believing that the federal government has exceeded its authorities has
(21:34):
gone into a variety of areas that are unchecked. And
it's one thing particularly that I get really irked about
is executive agencies and or departments which have regulatory authority
not explicitly defined either in the Constitution or through appropriations.
My concern about bills, for example, government organization X shall
(21:57):
create a program that shall do X, Y and z,
and it shall have this much budget and this much
time to do it. That's it. You don't see the
specific self kit. Well, what's that program achieving by by
launching a new program a new like. So let's say
that the Department of Justice, they have this new program
they want to use for managing content online. Right, Congress
(22:22):
needs to very specifically define what's the end state objective
with this bill, not just hey, we're going to give
you money for this project that kind of does these
things sort of, and here's the time frame you have
to deal with it, and we'll figure out whether or
not this is going to be a lasting authority. That's
a huge blank check.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Not only that, but we give so much deference to
the executive, to the executive branch of our government on
execution and on their interpretation of the legislative action. That
is completely unbalanced.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And we've seen, we've seen where they have win and
no one holds them accountable.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
And you early see states or local authorities coming back
requesting before a magistrate or a judge saying no, no, no,
you've exceeded your constitutionally granted authorities. Here. Now there's a
there's a couple of there's a couple of unique circumstances
where those powers have been appropriately checked. For example, I
signed on with FEDS for med freedom. When the vaccine
(23:21):
mandated come out against a lot of federal employees. So
executive order what was it? One four zero four to
three by the President mandating that all federal employees had
to be vaccinated against SARS Kobe two. That was appealed
to the Fifth Circuit. A Fifth Circuit judge ruled it
was unconstitutional the order. An appeals court overruled the initial judge.
(23:45):
Then an en banc ruling overruled the appeals court said no, no, no,
this does exceed executive authority. And that was the big argument.
Did Congress grant the President of the United States or
the executive branch of government the authority to execute oversight
of certain personal health decisions? Did they actually have that
(24:05):
authority constitutionally? The argument was no, can they Well that's
very subjective, but no, they were never granted the authority
to execute that. Now, this is where it got sticky,
because the DoD and specifically the Secretary of Defense does
have different authorities that not other federal agencies have. He
(24:26):
does have the authority of oversight for the physical readiness
of service members. So that argument, as it pertains towards
service members and the vaccine mandate unfortunately had to take
a different pathway. Congress intervened, though. What did they do?
They stripped that language from the appropriation bill and threatened
to withhold funding if they continued to enforce the mandate.
That was exactly what the founders would have wanted. The
(24:49):
founders would have said, Aha, you saw an area where
the executive the executive branch in some manner, was exploiting.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And they checked and balanced them exactly, which has been
rarely done since two thousand and eight. Really since two
thousand and eight has been rarely done. That's what I've
talked about.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
We have not had three branches of government.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It has pretty much been too because Congress and whole
regardless of who's in charge, even when there was a
mandate on one side or the other, has has just
not kept the executive branch in check right.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Any Ironically, that Fifth Circuit case that I was talking
about with FEDS for med freedom now it's FED for
Freedom that was appealed by DOJ to the Supreme.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Court, which falls under the Executive Right.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Case from twenty twenty, is still ongoing with litigation.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, hey, so I want to keep So let's talk
about the District seven.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
It's a swing district.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I guess the incumbent there she is looking to possibly
run for governorship because of Virginia, the Commonwealth has you know,
term limits of two, which is awesome. We'll talk more
about term limits another time for sure, but.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I've signed the term limit's pledge.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Oh I know, Yeah, I want to talk. I'm definitely
going to hit on that. The Uh, what do you
think your chances are? Are you facing other conservat in
that race? I mean, obviously that's reaching up north of
Culpepper in that area. You're right at the edge of Fairfax.
Probably include some of fairfacts. But what do you think
your chances are there?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
I think my chances are very good. Everywhere we've gone,
we've gotten great receptions. I think the people are hungry
for constitutional conservatism, especially with what's going on now and
also fiscal responsibility. The three main platforms that I'm running
on that I talk to people about is number one,
we have to engage in better, more secure fiscal practices.
Number Two, we have to maintain appropriate oversight of federal
(26:33):
and executive actions so as to check and potentially eliminate fraud, waste,
and unjustified actions that are at the expense of the
American people. Number Three, we have to secure the southern border. Ironically,
all three of those topics I have worked extensively within,
and so there's a variety of other topics as well.
Everywhere we go. People are hungry for that. People just
(26:54):
want the federal government off their back. People are sick
and tired of taxes coming up, and I also to
be to be honest here, people are also sick and
tired of donating to conservative causes, feeling like they're getting
targeted by the I R. S, or by the DOJ,
or by many other entities. This is a very prevalent. Sorry,
I got a train going by. It's I don't know
(27:14):
if you can hear it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That's the Interstate Commerce working his thing.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah exactly, yeah exactly. But people are exceedingly frustrated at
what seems like a federal government and a federal bureaucracy
that doesn't serve them, that's very much at their expense.
So this district is a D plus one. It's classified
that because of some recent polling. But we have to
remember Governor Youngkin won this district when he ran for
(27:41):
governor in twenty twenty one. Now Trump lost this district
by a few point well eight points, I believe, but
governor one can or Governor Youngkin won by a larger margin,
So that's optimistic. Number two. This is a seat that's
been held by Republicans and conservatives for a long time,
and especially not only that but constitutional conservatives. We had
(28:03):
Eric Canter for quite a while. He was unseated by
David Brett. After David Bratt, we had Nick Fredis who
ran in twenty twenty. He didn't win, but he's a
strong constitutional conservative and he's actually my campaign chair and
has endorsed me. Then we had yesli Vega, strong constitutional conservative,
limited government conservative. And so people are hungry for a
(28:24):
new kind of Republican to come and represent this district
in a real and tangible way, but also with goodness
and decency. So the district encompasses Green Madison, Culpeper, Orange, Spontsylvania, Fredicksburg, Caroline,
King George, Stafford, and the eastern half of Prince William
And there's also a slivel of Evermarle down just north
of Charlottesville. I think it's twenty twenty houses or something
(28:46):
along those lines. Seventeen houses I think is actually what
it is. So it's a really broad kind of coalition
of rural with suburban environments. It shows quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Is a suburban very left leaning you think or typically?
And is it still today?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So it's definitely it's definitely on the moderate element, I'll
put it there. Okay, Stafford still still leans Republican, but
it's definitely moderate for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Are school is still an issue in Virginia. I mean,
you really won in the school thing. Okay, you don't
hear obviously, you don't hear about in the news. There's
a lot of other stuff in the news. But backward
before you when Younkin was running and everything we saw,
we saw parents getting arrested and yanked out of school
board meetings and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And I kind of my personal.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Opinion is that was a big reason why you know
he won, and I'm just wondering if that's still a
hot time.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It absolutely is, it one hundred percent is. And that's
where I'm running for a congressional seat. There are limited
powers and authorities that the Congress has over education, but
I will say what I would love to see the
Department of Education reformed into is instead a consortium of
state representatives. They're educational representatives, where the federal government sole
purpose is really to be facilitators. Hey, we're just going
(29:56):
to arrange for quarterly meetings, monthly meetings. The federal government
shouldn't have any actual executing authority over education, in my opinion, Instead,
we should lead a coalition of states that partner together.
Let Oklahoma talk to Colorado, talk to Alaska, talk to Texas,
talk to Mississippi. Let the states work out their standardized
ethics and practices and learn from one another. Let the
(30:19):
federal government just be in the role of taking notes,
ensuring everyone can attend meetings, and facilitating exactly that that's
not just working with the anya president exactly and the
Union not exactly. We should be facilitators of appropriately working
state educational programs. And so that's where Oklahoma is very
(30:41):
different than Alaska, and it's very different than California. We
should expect their state educational profiles to adapt their practices appropriately.
That's also a big incentive for kind of enhancing. If
you have a state that has really sound educational practices,
what's that going to do. You're going to drive tours.
You're going to drive people to move there. People are
going to want to come there because they want their
(31:03):
kids to.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Succeed, you know, like I do.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
When people have a family and they're looking to move,
there's you know, they look at they go look at
that new area, right, They're looking at the education, they're
looking at crime, they're looking at job opportunities. Obviously you
know what the housing market looks like real estate too, right,
But education is always one. When I moved everywhere we moved,
it's been like what are the schools like? You know,
where do they rank? All that kind of stuff. You're
(31:27):
obviously trying to place your kids in a good place
to be, you know, grow and become.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Sorry, so that that's awesome, I mean, that's uh.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It sounds like you share a lot of the same
beliefs and fundamentals as Governor Unkin so that should definitely
contribute to you doing very well.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Now, this election is next November, right, this is the
one that's.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
That's correct, the primary in June of twenty twenty four,
and uh and then a general election in the primary,
which I believe we can and we will, then the
general election will be in November of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
How many other candidates have their naming on this right now?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Right now we have, I believe for my primary. So
it's probably gonna get a bit more crowded now that
the incumbent is likely not to run for reelections. Everyone
under the sun feels led to run for Congress, So
it's it's gonna get a little more crowded most likely.
That being said, I'm running as the constitutional conservative candidate.
I'm running very much as the style, the Freedom Caucus
(32:21):
style candidate that believes in limiting federal government intrusion, cutting
spending dramatically, and just pushing the federal government back into
its original intent and role and elevating the authority and
autonomy of state and local governments. So I think I'm
pretty much we'll see how the primary plays out. This
possibility we have more that join, but either way, you
(32:43):
know it's this isn't about me versus the other primary opponents.
This is about us giving a compelling message for what
the people of Virginia seven need, and what they need
is something a heck of a lot better than what
they've been getting right.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Right the did you ever I mean, we talked about
your upbringing, in your background and kind of what led
you to this, But when you were younger, when you
weren't thinking about it, I want to be a fireman
or a navy ceo or an astronaut. Did you ever
think that you may be in politics? Was there anyone
in high school that said, man, you argue, great, you
should be a lawyer or politic, I mean anything like that.
Did you ever have an inclination at all your parents
(33:16):
or anyone to say, this guy, this kid's going to
be in politics, Well, he's going to be, you know,
up there one day.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
The long story short is yes. One of my friends,
one of my best friends, his father used to actually
say this over me and him that one day he
thought I was going to be in the House of Representatives,
which when you hear at thirteen, you're like, okay, I
don't I have no interest in doing that whatsoever. But
it is kind of funny how God has a sense
of humor. I think so. Yes, I've had quite a
(33:43):
few people along the way that have told me that
they believe that that God has a unique purpose for me.
That might sound arrogant, I don't mean to say it
that way in any way. I want to be of service.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
He has purposes for all of us, right, We just
got to figure he's got to listen to him and
pay attention to when he tells us.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
My role and my ultimate objective in this is to
be of service to my maker as best I can,
and then secondarily to be a defender of common action
for the people that are here within my district that
I'm seeking to represent. We need selfless leaders, We need
servant leaders to come back into the forefront. We need
leaders who are willing to sacrifice so much of their
(34:20):
comfort and their time and their stability. And that's exactly
what I've done. I believe I've been called to do
this not because it's my job, but because I see
service as an honor. And I have seen so many
people working in government, acting as representatives or senators or
public officials that have no idea about the implications of
their decisions and how it impacts others. And I can't
(34:43):
sit by and watch it anymore. I'm a father, I'm
a husband, I'm a Christian. Those things will stay with
me no matter what. The only way we fix government
is by putting people in power with better character. That's
the only way this fixes. The answer to bad government
is not less go less government, but still bad can
be just as destructive. And so the argument here is
(35:05):
we need to put people in power who have better character,
stronger resolve, who say and do what they mean, who
actually fulfill promises that they make. That's the only way
we fix this problem. So that's the path that God
has me on right now. I firmly believe that I
believe that we're going to triumph. I believe that we're
going to represent this district very well. But it will
(35:28):
absolutely be an uphill battle. I have no illusions about
that whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
You've fought a lot of battles in your time.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I know that's true establishment type candidate, and so I've
already been making a few enemies, which is unfortunate, but
it's reality. I will say though. One of the unique
things it's missing from a lot of politics is just
decency and humility. So we're willing to fight, We're willing
to fight like lions, but we're also willing to be humble.
(35:57):
And we need legislators who have and embrace that humility
to truly represent the people. And so that's what I
believe I'm called to do.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
You you and I share a lot of the same facets.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Because I was going to mention earlier, was you know,
obviously you're you're a great leader, been that in the
military and probably a lot of other aspects and in
civilian service. But uh, you know, I've always said one
of the most overlooked traits of.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
A good leader is humility and humbleness. Right. It's it's
I tell people, no one can argue that Jesus.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Christ was the greatest leader of all time and this
was a guy that got down and washed the feet
of those that followed them. If that's not an e
sign of humility, right, And it sounds like from some
of your earlier comments, I mean you share the same thing.
Is you got to be humble. That's what people look
at people. It's too easy to find someone that is
a hypocrite. I mean, you can too many people put
stuff on social media. You can find me in a hypocrite.
Like you said, there were people that you admired and
(36:48):
elected reps and then you learn more about them.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
But but leaders that that that exude humility and are humble, uh,
but still are are are focused on what they're what
they're leading towards.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Uh. I think are much more effective.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
And in today's time, I think people are waking up
and looking at that. Whether they know they're looking at
that trade or not.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
People are hungry for it. Absolutely, I will say with humility.
The only way we can be humble, The only way
we can properly express humility is when we have gratitude.
And so when we live in a culture, in a
society now that inculcates you with selfishness and all these
terrible and destructive practices, it's no wonder we have a
(37:28):
lack of humility because no one's grateful for what they have.
They almost expect it exactly, and so we have this
entitlement era. We saw it in the seal teams. It
was the weirdest thing. It was my generation of frogmen
that came into the seal teams that started to have
a very different perspective. We felt like we were entitled,
We felt like and I will say, as a younger man,
I was guilty of some of that, and I needed
(37:50):
to have kind of my face smashed and I needed
to have my ego checked really early on by people
who said, look, you got to serve and do your
time here. You got to definitely got to. You gotta
be willing to put some scars on the body before
you have any standing and before you know we're going
to give you that kind of autonomy that you're seeking here.
You got to show that you're able to do the job.
(38:11):
And I think people need to focus more on kind
of doing the work, getting down to business. Stop complaining,
let's get to work if you don't. And So there's
a book that I love. It's called As a Man
thinketh It's been my man named Alan. Remarkable book. It's
it's one of the few books I keep extra copies
on my shelf just because if I have a great
conversation here, take this book, change my life amazing. I
(38:33):
mean not as much as the Bible, of course, but
but it's a great book about human culpability. And Alan
talks extensively about if you don't like the circumstances you're in,
what are you doing and endeavoring to fix it with?
And if you're not, you deserve to remain exactly where
you are. And it's a he's harsh with some of
his criticism, but man, it is a breath of fresh
(38:56):
air when you realize every human being has worth in
the side of our maker. Every human being has capability
in ways that are unique. Now there are people born
with abnormalities. I wasn't born colorblind. A friend of mine
was who tried to go to Buds and become a seal.
His father was an old ud t from back in
the day. That sucks. He was disqualified and could never
(39:19):
join the seal teams. That's the lot he was dealt.
But you know what he didn't do. He didn't complain
about it. He didn't say woe is me, He didn't
throw his arms in the air. He thought like hell
to get a waiver. He was not granted a waiver.
It's not I'm sorry, it's this is not a waverable
condition by the military. So he picked up and he
did something else, and he found another way to serve,
(39:40):
and he did it with a smile. On his face,
grateful for the opportunity that kind of resolve, That kind
of strength of character is what we desperately need more of.
And it's it's funny because we need that in DC,
because DC should be a reflection of the people that
they serve. And so on my website, I said our
government should reflect the character of the people of our representatives.
(40:03):
And the ultimate point there is if we elect people
with poor character, what do we expect. We should expect
poor results.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
And that poor character just like you know, they say,
you know, you your reflection the people you hang around with, right,
you you like someone like that up there, that's a
reflection of their constituents, Like, hey, you're the ones that
put him in off or him or her in office,
right regardless of why. So, yeah, hey, I want to
wrap up this episode. We're gonna we're this gonna be
a couple of part one, but uh uh, we're gonna
(40:31):
get into a lot of current topics and things on
the other one. But one thing, like I talked about,
We've talked to a lot of vets that have went
to become politicians or or try to or have and
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
You talked about this character.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
You talked about this humility uh and people stepping up
the sirve Obviously that's not exclusive to vets because they're good.
They're good and good character vets and bad character vets.
But what are your thoughts on on veterans who you know,
we see a lot of we call entrepreneurs that go
and start businesses. But what are your thoughts on veterans
that are stepping up, trying to give back and uh
and do that kind of thing. You think that's a
(41:03):
calling or something that vets should should look to or
just if they feel led to.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yeah, I think it's amazing. I think I think more
vets should. I think because they know about discipline, they
have focus. I think vets make some of the best entrepreneurs.
You look at society back during World War two and before,
I mean a huge, a huge portion of the American
people had served at one point or another. I think
we need more of that. So the answer is yes,
I think every VET should try to open a business
(41:29):
or try to find ways to excel in advance an industry.
I think it's great because they have the right mindset,
the right experience, and they know exactly what they fought
for good.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Good.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yeah, so that's uh, that's a good one. That's a
good one to wrap up or say, we're gonna do
a second part. We're gonna talk about your term limit pledge,
uh and a number of topics. But for now, thank
you so much camera for for joining me, Thank you
for coming on.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
This was a great episode.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I think it is Hopefully this is one where a
lot of people get to know you and uh, you know,
where can where people are interested learn more about you?
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Donate your campaign? Where can where can they find all that?
Speaker 3 (42:05):
So you can go to my website at Cameronhimilton dot com.
C A M E r O N Hamilton h A
M I L t O N there. What I would
ask people to do is there's a four minute video.
It's an intro of who I am, why I'm running,
and meet my family in that video. That's what I
would ask people to do. Go to my website, watch
my campaign video, and then decide am I someone that
you'd like to partner with? Am I someone that you'd
like to support? Because ultimately, this is a job interview
(42:28):
for me, That's the way I call it. I'm trying
to work for you, right.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Awesome, So Cameron Hamilton dot com. We'll definitely put that
on our socials and get that out there again.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Want to thank you so much for giving me some
of your time, and thank you to all of our
listeners and viewers for tuning in and stay tuned for
part two coming up the next tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Thank you very much, Cameron, have a good one.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Thank you really
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode three twenty one
Stewing the nun You Got Stu here None is still
down running his phenomenal red Rum Sport fishing business in
Cabo San Lucas, having just survived another hurricane hit last weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So he is very busy down there and still can't
join us.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
But I am joined by my newly made good friend
through through mutual contacts, mister Cameron Hamilton, who is running
for the Virginia seven District seven in the state of Virginia. Cameron,
I want to thank you so much for joining me
and I am really looking forward to this interview.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, Mortan, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, awesome. So hey man, we are big supporters here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We have had over our years on this running this show,
so many vets running for political office.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
What I've said to a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Of them is, you know, hey, you know, when you're
in the military, you don't get paid to have an opinion.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Right, you do.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
You get your orders, they're lawful, they're what you get
told do, and you march toward that objective.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You don't get the question why or this kind of stuff, right.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
But I think it's awesome when when you know, we
retired and some of us grow beards, we do all
that kind of stuff, and then we're like, hey, I've
earned a right to this.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Opinion and I can now express it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And and better and even better is I can start
to get back through my community, whether it's through some
kind of civil service and politics or local.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Law enforcement first responder.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And to me, that's just that's just awesome when when
someone already makes already checks the block, gives their part
to the country and says I'm not done yet and
keeps on giving. So I want to thank you for that.
So obviously you're a military I mentioned that. So I
want to open up with you, going to going in
your background a little bit, letting our viewers and listeners
know kind of who you are, Okay, where you came from,
(01:45):
and then who you.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Are absolutely so I uh, I grew up in northern California. Lie,
it's called Sonoma County, and uh, you know, we California
was a very different animal back in the day. I
think back in the in the seventh eighties, there was
a lot of the peace, love and hippie movement that
came through there, but most people who identified as Republicans
(02:06):
in California were kind of just they're more libertarian focused,
sort of a live and let live. That was a
lot of the mantra of that state, and that's very
much the climate I grew up in. You know, you
don't have to ask people to agree with you, but
just treat everyone decently and be civil. And so we
were old school, just kind of libertarian Reagan Republicans, if
you will. Growing up, I was really active in sports.
(02:30):
I did a lot of competitive wrestling, did grappling, jiu
jitsu and other martial arts, and also played competitive soccer.
Had an opportunity to play competitive soccer on an amateur
team overseas, and ultimately, one thing I couldn't shake was
this unwavering sense of service I needed to serve in
the United States military. I didn't know how, didn't know what,
(02:51):
but I knew that I needed to serve and give
back to this country that I thought had given me
so much. In every opportunity in the world. As a
high school kid, I will I had several opportunities to
go overseas on different trips and see some of the
depravity of more primitive parts of the world, and it
gives you a great sense of gratitude for what we
have here and the uniqueness of this nation. So after
(03:16):
high school, well during high school, actually, I enlisted in
the delayed entry program for the US Navy. My father
was in the Air Force. He served as a personnelment
during the Vietnam War, and both my grandfather served in
the Navy. They were CBS construction Battalions. Well John Wayne
and CB can do so they actually both serve in
(03:36):
the Pacific building jews, building runways, building barracks, building dining
facilities for marines that were going from island to island,
setting up operations. Really remarkable, remarkable job. So very much
service has been a part of my family, and I'm
a fourth generation service member. Again, it goes all the
(03:56):
way back to my great grandfather, and we even have
records going back to the Camerons and the Hamilton's coming
before that. Specifically, the Camerons came over during the time
of the Civil War from Scotland and decided to fight
for the North. I'm in Virginia, so that's a hot
topic for some but either way, so service has always
been a part of my family and I knew it's
(04:17):
what I wanted to do. I had an opportunity to
join the Navy. I chose to become a seal and
to be a medic. So I went to course school
up in Great Lakes, Illinois, and then went to Basic
Underwater Demolition Seal Training Class two six's one made it
straight through with no recycles in buds. Then that went
into SQT, got my trident, reported to Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
(04:40):
from medical training at the schoolhouse down there, the Joint
Special Operations and Medical Training Center. That's where we have
a lot of the Green Beret medics and the range
of medics, the Civil Affairs medics. Well, the pjs had
just separated a couple of years prior three or four,
I believe, so we were just after iteration. They had
their own schoolhouse. But before that, yes, they would come
(05:03):
to that same schoolhouse and force riecan Corman, you name it.
So I went there as a seal graduate with my trident,
became a medic, went through the long course, the SOIDC course,
which is the equivalent of the latter half of the course,
the eighteen delta course that's traditionally only reserved for senior medics,
and then reported the seal teammate while at Seal teammate,
(05:25):
I deployed four times, two to Afghanistan, two in support
of OEF, and then really just traveled all throughout. Came
back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina as an instructor. When
I was there as a student, I met my wife.
I stole the best thing out of Fateeville, North Carolina,
brought her with me to Virginia Beach, and then came back,
(05:45):
which was a good R and R time. Was an
instructor there for about four years, and then ultimately I
had an injury coupled with kind of an opportunity to
work at the State Department. So I worked the State
Department for about five years under what we call Project Guardian,
that's within the Director of Operational Medicine. Think of it
as a repurposing of an eighteen delta type individual for diplomatic.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Affairs oversetates in places.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Like Yemen, like Somalia, like Libya, you name it. That
was the mission set that I signed up for places
where there's really limited infrastructure, but personal protection coupled with
medical provision is integral. So protecting ambassadors, protecting dignitaries, congressional delegations,
things along those lines. I actually left the Department of
(06:35):
State in twenty twenty, right when the pandemic had started,
and came over to DHS. Some of my last days
at DOS was actually coordinating the Wuhan flights, the first
one that came back, you know, bringing all the Americans
from Wuhan, China into the United States actually yep into California,
and then further over. Very interesting time worked at DHS
(06:57):
as a Division director for Emergency Medicals Services, overseeing standards
of about four thousand EMTs all scattered throughout the Department
Homeland Security. These are principal law enforcement officers that are
also empt qualified. And then over time I will say,
I don't want to give the spoiler. My campaign video
probably summarize it pretty well, but essentially, over time, the
(07:20):
more and more I worked in government, the more and
more I became exposed to some of what I call
the bureaucratic sickness of government. I became exceedingly frustrated at
seeing the resources being squandered of this nation haphazardly and
fiscal irresponsibility, as well as practices that are completely not
in the best interests of the American taxpayer. So ultimately,
(07:44):
a good friend of min Nick Fretus, who is a
state delegate here in Virginia. He's actually my delegate. Nick
approached me and Nick had said, look, we've been praying
for someone like you to run for a long time,
and I really think you should give this a good consider,
which is ironic because God had been putting this on
my heart for quite a while. So there's lots of
other things that occurred, but the long story short is,
(08:05):
through successive layers of confirmation and prayer, it became abundantly
clear that this was the next pathway and the next
the next hilltop I needed to advance to, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
So, yeah, that's interesting. You took right in.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
One of my next questions was you know, did you
ever you know what was the tipping point? I'm glad
to hear it was. God was putting it on your
heart and you listen to him. I mean, is probably
the initiator of the trigger of that, and then and
then other folks.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
But also sadly seeing some of the ineptness.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And probably fraud, waste and abuse and everything else of
that you saw in the freederal government. I'm sure it
was just so like, I can't let this stand was
it just it was just it sounds like from your
from bringing on, it was just that that core part
of your DNA. It was like, I just can't sit
back and do nothing and watch and complain about this.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's exactly it. Yeah, it's hard to describe that characteristic
until you meet people who just have it. And so
I'd like to think that that's part of the intrinsic
nature that God gives to certain kinds of warriors, of
just this calling, this sense of virtue in wanting to
restore something that's greater than yourself. And so I love
this country. I believe that this is the greatest nation
(09:14):
on the face of the earth. And with the freedoms
and the liberties and the foundation so unique in how
the American Revolution was all about restoring justice, the restoration
and affirmation of appropriate justice defended by biblical reasoning and precepts,
whereas many other revolutions that you found within our counterparts
(09:35):
of Europe, like France and others, was very much class warfare.
It was very much usurping and completely flipping the political
spectrum on its head because of perceived grievances, and that
the system of government itself was inherently unjust, whereas in
the United States it was very different. We believed in
restoring the appropriate justice that the King and ultimately Parliament
(09:58):
had infringed upon self governance. Things along those lines, so
really unique, very very.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I mean the writings of Thomas Paine, right, I mean,
that's that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So let me ask you real quick.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I mean to catch up, but I want to I
want to kind of capture on that for a second.
When you look at where we are today as a country,
and you look at where our country was birth from
and how we came together of what we left, we're
pretty much how the articles of our constitution and everything
we're put you know, we all, I'm sure you and
I share the same view of why they were. You know,
the the amendments were written the way they were. What
(10:33):
is your thoughts when you look at where we are today,
go back to seventeen seventy six, and you go back
to how this country started before that. In the similarities
or differences, there.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Are definitely similarities, I think what we see now, at
least at that time, you had a lot more intent
for states to check and balance federal powers and federal oversight.
You know, the United States when it was formed into
an early nation, was not homogeneous in its political philosophy
about what was the role of a federal government, what
was the role of state government? What was who had
(11:06):
what authority and power? Could it be removed? Could it
be rescinded, was it temporary? Was it permanent? These were
all really complex arguments that were being debated in a
novel way here in this nation. You can read about
it in the federalist papers. You can also read about
it later on in some of the Congressional House files
that you find with all these different compelling ideas about
(11:26):
what this country would look like. But one thing I
will say that we have found is over time, the arguments,
the Republican arguments of the day, the Jeffersonians, the Monros,
the Madison's, and many others were very concerned about the
expansion of federal powers so as to completely so as
(11:47):
to completely override the authorities of state autonomy.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Do you feel that's happened? Do you feel that's happened
a lot?
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Absolutely, in many respects. I mean, we see the epa
versus West Virginia, a recent Supreme Court case that's a
priming example of a regulatory agency that was not given specific, appropriated,
or even enumerated powers in Congress to then execute its
oversight of a law or a legal action that a
(12:14):
state declared was unconstitutional and was within their jurisdiction and sovereignty.
We need so to hit that threat a little bit more.
In the Founder's day, states very much reserved the rights
of autonomy, and the Tenth Amendment had particular emphasis. It
was not put there haphazardly. It was very intentional, and
the coalition of states was not completely unified. It was
(12:38):
it was a very thin balance that was held, and
so in many states threatened to completely remove themselves from
this federation if the Tenth Amendment as well as other
provisions were not placed therein And so the point being,
now what we see is the federal government has become
so massive and so intrusive of different characteristics of our
(13:01):
daily lives, and the authority of state and local governments
has really suppressed. It's really kind of it's been removed
from the authority that it should have. So I think
we are at a point where jurisdictionally and politically we
have an imbalance. We have a significant imbalance where the
federal government has become exceedingly large and intrusive in the
(13:24):
daily lives of Americans, whereas the state and local government
has not. Now the answer is not just simply well,
elevate the state government. This isn't necessarily a zero sum game,
but you do have to suppress activities of the federal
as well. So it's this seesaw teetering effect, and we
have to find that sweet balance. So, in my opinion,
(13:46):
I think examples like what we saw with EPA versus
West Virginia is one of many examples that we should
see more of. If states believe that the federal government
has engaged in activities that it's not clearly defined that
have the authority to be, states should aggressively challenge those
efforts aggressively. And so that's kind of to break down
(14:08):
my philosophy of what politics should be. I believe in
the elevation of state and local authorities, because why will
they set your local taxes? You know your bard of supervisors,
you know your school boards, you know your local sheriff,
you know your your state legislature, your state laws. We've
withdrawn a lot of those and put a heavy emphasis
(14:30):
on Congress because it's good show whethy it's controversial, they're loud,
they're well funded, but it's not where the appropriate emphasis
should be. We should care more about what's going on
within their state and jurisdiction than they should what's going
on the federal level.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
You would think, you would think after the twenty twenty
election that people would realize where the state, how important
state and local elections are, right all the way down
to your local town board or whatever represents your local area.
Because obviously we saw laws changed and things down overnight
and all that kind of stuff that you know, and
I've said this a few times, if you want to
get involved with politics, if you want to have an opinion,
(15:05):
to be out there, be loud, you should start literally
done at your school board and work your way up
from there. Right now, when you talk about this in
Balance of power's interesting you mention that because it's something
I've talked about a number of times. Is you know,
obviously there's a number of plate ways you could look
at how the federal government has done it via whether
you know highway laws you know, or school or or
(15:27):
things that they want done in states. It's all about
the power of the purse, right, they.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Withhold, they withhold funds or give funds.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Eh, you know, if we want you to have your
speed limit a this, or we're not going to give
you highway funds. We want you to do this, get
rid of these programs in your schools, or we're not
going to give you those funds. It's almost to me
that imbalance of power has become is largely contributed to
states and lower local governments being on the government teat
(15:54):
and being so dependent on the government that they are
beholden to them. I mean, it's to me, it's like
it's like extortion, right, I mean, look at how gun light.
You know, gun laws are enforced not through anything that's
provided in the constitution, but through interstate commerce.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Right, that's they regulate mand it.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
They mean that they that's why some states have like
Texas and Montana or Wyoming have you know, created made
guns and built guns in their states. They sell to
their citizens and say federal laws don't apply to us
because we're not allowing them to be sold or transported
over state lines. But the government regulates guns pretty much
through interstate commerce law because that's what's guaranteed by the
count or what's what's called for in the constitution. So
(16:32):
to me, it seems like the state litw governments have
allowed this to happen because they've gotten so they're on
a smack.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
They can't get off the smack.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah, no, you're you're spot on. That's that's the thing
that sucks about culpabilities. We have to really take a
good look in the mirror and realize, oh, this sucks. Yeah,
but we're partially responsible ourselves for this environment. Which the
difference is when we know that, when we realize that
there can be empowerment there. Okay, so let's get off
we were ends and fix it them.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
A lot of times we placate about, you know, complaining
about government and this and that. You know, it's so terrible,
it's so corrupt, there's things going on where it shouldn't belong.
And we've got this you know kind of you know,
priorities that are totally out of balance, that aren't serving
the American people. We've done this. We've done this because
of the people we've sent to DC. We've done this
because we've not been as active in our state and
(17:23):
local government as we should be. We've done this because
we don't have people going to school board meetings, town
council meetings, board of supervisor meetings the way that they
should be. So it you know, we have really good, amazing, patriotic,
god fearing people in this country. But when they don't
show up to some of these local events, what do
you expect to happen? The yamany is going to gain ground.
(17:43):
And so it's think of it like a battlefield. I
hate to say it that way, but it's true. Right,
we need to be civically engaged. And so all things
being said, what I think, what I think is going
on right now, we are we are had a very
delicate point where we potentially can correct course, but it
(18:03):
requires a lot of investment. And so it's really funny
you mentioned Interstate Commerce clause. That's a prime example a broad,
sweeping legislative action that gives the federal government almost unfettered jurisdiction.
It's really I mean, and there's some legitimate concerns about
it too. You start rationing supplies during.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
The World War or a pandemic, yeah, or well yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
So at least the founders back in the day understood
that there may be good things that can come from
expanded federal powers. But there's a lot of bad too.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well when you think about back then, you know, interstate
commerce was you know, not a common thing, right. Things
were you know, just the nature of our country at
that stage, right, things were grown and built and stuff,
and it was like, you know again, it was almost
like an international commerce. I think, in my opinion, I
think it was thought of like we do today think
of international commerce. It was like, hey, one state's going
to sell and trade over to another one and back
(18:59):
and forth, and they don't want people to jack prices up.
So I think that's why the founding fathers put that
in there. But today, obviously, yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
We were terrif fors early within colonies, right, yeah, right,
I mean that we're really legitimate. New York was one
of the biggest defenders of them.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
So it's it is, uh, you know, to think of
it today, that's it's we're global economy, and that's that
no one even thinks about that, right but they But.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Again, like you said, broad sweeping use of that.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Uh to do that, you sound very much like, ah,
a constitutional or libertarian conservative, so called constitutional libertarian.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Would you kind of classify yourself that way.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I mean, you talked about being a Reagan Libertarian, but
you're you're hitting on tenth Amendment, which is big to me.
I mean, I'm and it sounds like you're definitely for
smaller government.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Oh yeah, Well I like to think of myself because
I've been asked, you know, what's who's your ideal legislator.
I'm like, okay, look, I'll be transparent. The more I've
gotten to know about certain people of Congress, the lesser
respect I've had for them. Because you see people on TV.
You're like, Wow, this guy's amazing, this lady's unbelievable. Then
you find out who they really are and you go, oh,
this is gross.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Like so, I will say there's been some kind of
I won't call it hero worship, but there's been some
people that I thought were amazing that I found out
their personal lives and I realized, oh, wow, that is
incredibly underwhelming or disappointing. Having said that, I'd like to
say that I line up very similar to like a
Thomas Massey Rand Paul Ronald Reagan. This like interesting merger
(20:29):
of all these different characteristics. There's there's a lot of
great legislators. You know, Bob good has been doing some
amazing stuff recently. Eli Crane. I'm a huge fan of
Eli Crane. But I also like, you know, some of
the decency that you find with with many other more
moderate members of Congress, with how they have good decorum,
their their their they're humble. And so it's I guess
(20:50):
my ideal form of legislator would be fierce like a lion,
but charismatic like Reagan, you know, like a like a
southern cowboy. You know, that's what we need more of.
We need that southern gentleman kind of persona to come
back into be decent, to be good. That doesn't mean compromising.
It just means being good to others, showing our faith,
(21:11):
showing the goodness that God has given mankind when we're
appropriately governed, and walking in the ethics that He gives us,
and defining our character by his ways. So this is
where I get into the argument of I am very
much a constitutional conservative. I'm a limited government constitutional conservative,
believing that the federal government has exceeded its authorities has
(21:34):
gone into a variety of areas that are unchecked. And
it's one thing particularly that I get really irked about
is executive agencies and or departments which have regulatory authority
not explicitly defined either in the Constitution or through appropriations.
My concern about bills, for example, government organization X shall
(21:57):
create a program that shall do X, Y and z,
and it shall have this much budget and this much
time to do it. That's it. You don't see the
specific self kit. Well, what's that program achieving by by
launching a new program a new like. So let's say
that the Department of Justice, they have this new program
they want to use for managing content online. Right, Congress
(22:22):
needs to very specifically define what's the end state objective
with this bill, not just hey, we're going to give
you money for this project that kind of does these
things sort of, and here's the time frame you have
to deal with it, and we'll figure out whether or
not this is going to be a lasting authority. That's
a huge blank check.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Not only that, but we give so much deference to
the executive, to the executive branch of our government on
execution and on their interpretation of the legislative action. That
is completely unbalanced.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
And we've seen, we've seen where they have win and
no one holds them accountable.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
And you early see states or local authorities coming back
requesting before a magistrate or a judge saying no, no, no,
you've exceeded your constitutionally granted authorities. Here. Now there's a
there's a couple of there's a couple of unique circumstances
where those powers have been appropriately checked. For example, I
signed on with FEDS for med freedom. When the vaccine
(23:21):
mandated come out against a lot of federal employees. So
executive order what was it? One four zero four to
three by the President mandating that all federal employees had
to be vaccinated against SARS Kobe two. That was appealed
to the Fifth Circuit. A Fifth Circuit judge ruled it
was unconstitutional the order. An appeals court overruled the initial judge.
(23:45):
Then an en banc ruling overruled the appeals court said no, no, no,
this does exceed executive authority. And that was the big argument.
Did Congress grant the President of the United States or
the executive branch of government the authority to execute oversight
of certain personal health decisions? Did they actually have that
(24:05):
authority constitutionally? The argument was no, can they Well that's
very subjective, but no, they were never granted the authority
to execute that. Now, this is where it got sticky,
because the DoD and specifically the Secretary of Defense does
have different authorities that not other federal agencies have. He
(24:26):
does have the authority of oversight for the physical readiness
of service members. So that argument, as it pertains towards
service members and the vaccine mandate unfortunately had to take
a different pathway. Congress intervened, though. What did they do?
They stripped that language from the appropriation bill and threatened
to withhold funding if they continued to enforce the mandate.
That was exactly what the founders would have wanted. The
(24:49):
founders would have said, Aha, you saw an area where
the executive the executive branch in some manner, was exploiting.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And they checked and balanced them exactly, which has been
rarely done since two thousand and eight. Really since two
thousand and eight has been rarely done. That's what I've
talked about.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
We have not had three branches of government.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It has pretty much been too because Congress and whole
regardless of who's in charge, even when there was a
mandate on one side or the other, has has just
not kept the executive branch in check right.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Any Ironically, that Fifth Circuit case that I was talking
about with FEDS for med freedom now it's FED for
Freedom that was appealed by DOJ to the Supreme.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Court, which falls under the Executive Right.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Case from twenty twenty, is still ongoing with litigation.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, hey, so I want to keep So let's talk
about the District seven.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
It's a swing district.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I guess the incumbent there she is looking to possibly
run for governorship because of Virginia, the Commonwealth has you know,
term limits of two, which is awesome. We'll talk more
about term limits another time for sure, but.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I've signed the term limit's pledge.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Oh I know, Yeah, I want to talk. I'm definitely
going to hit on that. The Uh, what do you
think your chances are? Are you facing other conservat in
that race? I mean, obviously that's reaching up north of
Culpepper in that area. You're right at the edge of Fairfax.
Probably include some of fairfacts. But what do you think
your chances are there?
Speaker 3 (26:11):
I think my chances are very good. Everywhere we've gone,
we've gotten great receptions. I think the people are hungry
for constitutional conservatism, especially with what's going on now and
also fiscal responsibility. The three main platforms that I'm running
on that I talk to people about is number one,
we have to engage in better, more secure fiscal practices.
Number Two, we have to maintain appropriate oversight of federal
(26:33):
and executive actions so as to check and potentially eliminate fraud, waste,
and unjustified actions that are at the expense of the
American people. Number Three, we have to secure the southern border. Ironically,
all three of those topics I have worked extensively within,
and so there's a variety of other topics as well.
Everywhere we go. People are hungry for that. People just
(26:54):
want the federal government off their back. People are sick
and tired of taxes coming up, and I also to
be to be honest here, people are also sick and
tired of donating to conservative causes, feeling like they're getting
targeted by the I R. S, or by the DOJ,
or by many other entities. This is a very prevalent. Sorry,
I got a train going by. It's I don't know
(27:14):
if you can hear it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
That's the Interstate Commerce working his thing.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah exactly, yeah exactly. But people are exceedingly frustrated at
what seems like a federal government and a federal bureaucracy
that doesn't serve them, that's very much at their expense.
So this district is a D plus one. It's classified
that because of some recent polling. But we have to
remember Governor Youngkin won this district when he ran for
(27:41):
governor in twenty twenty one. Now Trump lost this district
by a few point well eight points, I believe, but
governor one can or Governor Youngkin won by a larger margin,
So that's optimistic. Number two. This is a seat that's
been held by Republicans and conservatives for a long time,
and especially not only that but constitutional conservatives. We had
(28:03):
Eric Canter for quite a while. He was unseated by
David Brett. After David Bratt, we had Nick Fredis who
ran in twenty twenty. He didn't win, but he's a
strong constitutional conservative and he's actually my campaign chair and
has endorsed me. Then we had yesli Vega, strong constitutional conservative,
limited government conservative. And so people are hungry for a
(28:24):
new kind of Republican to come and represent this district
in a real and tangible way, but also with goodness
and decency. So the district encompasses Green Madison, Culpeper, Orange, Spontsylvania, Fredicksburg, Caroline,
King George, Stafford, and the eastern half of Prince William
And there's also a slivel of Evermarle down just north
of Charlottesville. I think it's twenty twenty houses or something
(28:46):
along those lines. Seventeen houses I think is actually what
it is. So it's a really broad kind of coalition
of rural with suburban environments. It shows quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Is a suburban very left leaning you think or typically?
And is it still today?
Speaker 3 (29:03):
So it's definitely it's definitely on the moderate element, I'll
put it there. Okay, Stafford still still leans Republican, but
it's definitely moderate for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Are school is still an issue in Virginia. I mean,
you really won in the school thing. Okay, you don't
hear obviously, you don't hear about in the news. There's
a lot of other stuff in the news. But backward
before you when Younkin was running and everything we saw,
we saw parents getting arrested and yanked out of school
board meetings and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And I kind of my personal.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Opinion is that was a big reason why you know
he won, and I'm just wondering if that's still a
hot time.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
It absolutely is, it one hundred percent is. And that's
where I'm running for a congressional seat. There are limited
powers and authorities that the Congress has over education, but
I will say what I would love to see the
Department of Education reformed into is instead a consortium of
state representatives. They're educational representatives, where the federal government sole
purpose is really to be facilitators. Hey, we're just going
(29:56):
to arrange for quarterly meetings, monthly meetings. The federal government
shouldn't have any actual executing authority over education, in my opinion, Instead,
we should lead a coalition of states that partner together.
Let Oklahoma talk to Colorado, talk to Alaska, talk to Texas,
talk to Mississippi. Let the states work out their standardized
ethics and practices and learn from one another. Let the
(30:19):
federal government just be in the role of taking notes,
ensuring everyone can attend meetings, and facilitating exactly that that's
not just working with the anya president exactly and the
Union not exactly. We should be facilitators of appropriately working
state educational programs. And so that's where Oklahoma is very
(30:41):
different than Alaska, and it's very different than California. We
should expect their state educational profiles to adapt their practices appropriately.
That's also a big incentive for kind of enhancing. If
you have a state that has really sound educational practices,
what's that going to do. You're going to drive tours.
You're going to drive people to move there. People are
going to want to come there because they want their
(31:03):
kids to.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Succeed, you know, like I do.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
When people have a family and they're looking to move,
there's you know, they look at they go look at
that new area, right, They're looking at the education, they're
looking at crime, they're looking at job opportunities. Obviously you
know what the housing market looks like real estate too, right,
But education is always one. When I moved everywhere we moved,
it's been like what are the schools like? You know,
where do they rank? All that kind of stuff. You're
(31:27):
obviously trying to place your kids in a good place
to be, you know, grow and become.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Sorry, so that that's awesome, I mean, that's uh.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
It sounds like you share a lot of the same
beliefs and fundamentals as Governor Unkin so that should definitely
contribute to you doing very well.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Now, this election is next November, right, this is the
one that's.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
That's correct, the primary in June of twenty twenty four,
and uh and then a general election in the primary,
which I believe we can and we will, then the
general election will be in November of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
How many other candidates have their naming on this right now?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Right now we have, I believe for my primary. So
it's probably gonna get a bit more crowded now that
the incumbent is likely not to run for reelections. Everyone
under the sun feels led to run for Congress, So
it's it's gonna get a little more crowded most likely.
That being said, I'm running as the constitutional conservative candidate.
I'm running very much as the style, the Freedom Caucus
(32:21):
style candidate that believes in limiting federal government intrusion, cutting
spending dramatically, and just pushing the federal government back into
its original intent and role and elevating the authority and
autonomy of state and local governments. So I think I'm
pretty much we'll see how the primary plays out. This
possibility we have more that join, but either way, you
(32:43):
know it's this isn't about me versus the other primary opponents.
This is about us giving a compelling message for what
the people of Virginia seven need, and what they need
is something a heck of a lot better than what
they've been getting right.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Right the did you ever I mean, we talked about
your upbringing, in your background and kind of what led
you to this, But when you were younger, when you
weren't thinking about it, I want to be a fireman
or a navy ceo or an astronaut. Did you ever
think that you may be in politics? Was there anyone
in high school that said, man, you argue, great, you
should be a lawyer or politic, I mean anything like that.
Did you ever have an inclination at all your parents
(33:16):
or anyone to say, this guy, this kid's going to
be in politics, Well, he's going to be, you know,
up there one day.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
The long story short is yes. One of my friends,
one of my best friends, his father used to actually
say this over me and him that one day he
thought I was going to be in the House of Representatives,
which when you hear at thirteen, you're like, okay, I
don't I have no interest in doing that whatsoever. But
it is kind of funny how God has a sense
of humor. I think so. Yes, I've had quite a
(33:43):
few people along the way that have told me that
they believe that that God has a unique purpose for me.
That might sound arrogant, I don't mean to say it
that way in any way. I want to be of service.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
He has purposes for all of us, right, We just
got to figure he's got to listen to him and
pay attention to when he tells us.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
My role and my ultimate objective in this is to
be of service to my maker as best I can,
and then secondarily to be a defender of common action
for the people that are here within my district that
I'm seeking to represent. We need selfless leaders, We need
servant leaders to come back into the forefront. We need
leaders who are willing to sacrifice so much of their
(34:20):
comfort and their time and their stability. And that's exactly
what I've done. I believe I've been called to do
this not because it's my job, but because I see
service as an honor. And I have seen so many
people working in government, acting as representatives or senators or
public officials that have no idea about the implications of
their decisions and how it impacts others. And I can't
(34:43):
sit by and watch it anymore. I'm a father, I'm
a husband, I'm a Christian. Those things will stay with
me no matter what. The only way we fix government
is by putting people in power with better character. That's
the only way this fixes. The answer to bad government
is not less go less government, but still bad can
be just as destructive. And so the argument here is
(35:05):
we need to put people in power who have better character,
stronger resolve, who say and do what they mean, who
actually fulfill promises that they make. That's the only way
we fix this problem. So that's the path that God
has me on right now. I firmly believe that I
believe that we're going to triumph. I believe that we're
going to represent this district very well. But it will
(35:28):
absolutely be an uphill battle. I have no illusions about
that whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
You've fought a lot of battles in your time.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I know that's true establishment type candidate, and so I've
already been making a few enemies, which is unfortunate, but
it's reality. I will say though. One of the unique
things it's missing from a lot of politics is just
decency and humility. So we're willing to fight, We're willing
to fight like lions, but we're also willing to be humble.
(35:57):
And we need legislators who have and embrace that humility
to truly represent the people. And so that's what I
believe I'm called to do.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
You you and I share a lot of the same facets.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Because I was going to mention earlier, was you know,
obviously you're you're a great leader, been that in the
military and probably a lot of other aspects and in
civilian service. But uh, you know, I've always said one
of the most overlooked traits of.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
A good leader is humility and humbleness. Right. It's it's
I tell people, no one can argue that Jesus.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Christ was the greatest leader of all time and this
was a guy that got down and washed the feet
of those that followed them. If that's not an e
sign of humility, right, And it sounds like from some
of your earlier comments, I mean you share the same thing.
Is you got to be humble. That's what people look
at people. It's too easy to find someone that is
a hypocrite. I mean, you can too many people put
stuff on social media. You can find me in a hypocrite.
Like you said, there were people that you admired and
(36:48):
elected reps and then you learn more about them.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
But but leaders that that that exude humility and are humble, uh,
but still are are are focused on what they're what
they're leading towards.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Uh. I think are much more effective.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
And in today's time, I think people are waking up
and looking at that. Whether they know they're looking at
that trade or not.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
People are hungry for it. Absolutely, I will say with humility.
The only way we can be humble, The only way
we can properly express humility is when we have gratitude.
And so when we live in a culture, in a
society now that inculcates you with selfishness and all these
terrible and destructive practices, it's no wonder we have a
(37:28):
lack of humility because no one's grateful for what they have.
They almost expect it exactly, and so we have this
entitlement era. We saw it in the seal teams. It
was the weirdest thing. It was my generation of frogmen
that came into the seal teams that started to have
a very different perspective. We felt like we were entitled,
We felt like and I will say, as a younger man,
I was guilty of some of that, and I needed
(37:50):
to have kind of my face smashed and I needed
to have my ego checked really early on by people
who said, look, you got to serve and do your
time here. You got to definitely got to. You gotta
be willing to put some scars on the body before
you have any standing and before you know we're going
to give you that kind of autonomy that you're seeking here.
You got to show that you're able to do the job.
(38:11):
And I think people need to focus more on kind
of doing the work, getting down to business. Stop complaining,
let's get to work if you don't. And So there's
a book that I love. It's called As a Man
thinketh It's been my man named Alan. Remarkable book. It's
it's one of the few books I keep extra copies
on my shelf just because if I have a great
conversation here, take this book, change my life amazing. I
(38:33):
mean not as much as the Bible, of course, but
but it's a great book about human culpability. And Alan
talks extensively about if you don't like the circumstances you're in,
what are you doing and endeavoring to fix it with?
And if you're not, you deserve to remain exactly where
you are. And it's a he's harsh with some of
his criticism, but man, it is a breath of fresh
(38:56):
air when you realize every human being has worth in
the side of our maker. Every human being has capability
in ways that are unique. Now there are people born
with abnormalities. I wasn't born colorblind. A friend of mine
was who tried to go to Buds and become a seal.
His father was an old ud t from back in
the day. That sucks. He was disqualified and could never
(39:19):
join the seal teams. That's the lot he was dealt.
But you know what he didn't do. He didn't complain
about it. He didn't say woe is me, He didn't
throw his arms in the air. He thought like hell
to get a waiver. He was not granted a waiver.
It's not I'm sorry, it's this is not a waverable
condition by the military. So he picked up and he
did something else, and he found another way to serve,
(39:40):
and he did it with a smile. On his face,
grateful for the opportunity that kind of resolve, That kind
of strength of character is what we desperately need more of.
And it's it's funny because we need that in DC,
because DC should be a reflection of the people that
they serve. And so on my website, I said our
government should reflect the character of the people of our representatives.
(40:03):
And the ultimate point there is if we elect people
with poor character, what do we expect. We should expect
poor results.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
And that poor character just like you know, they say,
you know, you your reflection the people you hang around with, right,
you you like someone like that up there, that's a
reflection of their constituents, Like, hey, you're the ones that
put him in off or him or her in office,
right regardless of why. So, yeah, hey, I want to
wrap up this episode. We're gonna we're this gonna be
a couple of part one, but uh uh, we're gonna
(40:31):
get into a lot of current topics and things on
the other one. But one thing, like I talked about,
We've talked to a lot of vets that have went
to become politicians or or try to or have and
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
You talked about this character.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
You talked about this humility uh and people stepping up
the sirve Obviously that's not exclusive to vets because they're good.
They're good and good character vets and bad character vets.
But what are your thoughts on on veterans who you know,
we see a lot of we call entrepreneurs that go
and start businesses. But what are your thoughts on veterans
that are stepping up, trying to give back and uh
and do that kind of thing. You think that's a
(41:03):
calling or something that vets should should look to or
just if they feel led to.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yeah, I think it's amazing. I think I think more
vets should. I think because they know about discipline, they
have focus. I think vets make some of the best entrepreneurs.
You look at society back during World War two and before,
I mean a huge, a huge portion of the American
people had served at one point or another. I think
we need more of that. So the answer is yes,
I think every VET should try to open a business
(41:29):
or try to find ways to excel in advance an industry.
I think it's great because they have the right mindset,
the right experience, and they know exactly what they fought
for good.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Good.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yeah, so that's uh, that's a good one. That's a
good one to wrap up or say, we're gonna do
a second part. We're gonna talk about your term limit pledge,
uh and a number of topics. But for now, thank
you so much camera for for joining me, Thank you
for coming on.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
This was a great episode.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I think it is Hopefully this is one where a
lot of people get to know you and uh, you know,
where can where people are interested learn more about you?
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Donate your campaign? Where can where can they find all that?
Speaker 3 (42:05):
So you can go to my website at Cameronhimilton dot com.
C A M E r O N Hamilton h A
M I L t O N there. What I would
ask people to do is there's a four minute video.
It's an intro of who I am, why I'm running,
and meet my family in that video. That's what I
would ask people to do. Go to my website, watch
my campaign video, and then decide am I someone that
you'd like to partner with? Am I someone that you'd
like to support? Because ultimately, this is a job interview
(42:28):
for me, That's the way I call it. I'm trying
to work for you, right.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Awesome, So Cameron Hamilton dot com. We'll definitely put that
on our socials and get that out there again.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Want to thank you so much for giving me some
of your time, and thank you to all of our
listeners and viewers for tuning in and stay tuned for
part two coming up the next tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Thank you very much, Cameron, have a good one.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Thank you really
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