Latest / Breaking The Meta / Marine Corps Vet Turned Tech Bro Turned Democrat: Anthony Aragues for GA House 21
Transcript
- Breaking The Meta: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Wins and today we are sitting down with Anthony Arguez who's running for Georgia State House District 21. Hello Anthony, how are you doing today? Anthony Aragues: Do it good, thank you. Breaking The Meta: Glad to have you here. Let's start off quick, just because, especially with state district, most people don't even know what district they're in. Could you just give a quick, what part of Georgia is encompassed in District 21? Anthony Aragues: Yes, of course. And I learned it as I applied. it's fairly normal. A lot of these, know, the House districts, the Senate districts, the Congress district, none of them have any matching borders. So it's all over the place. My area is the east side of Woodstock, Holly Springs, Hickory Flat area. And we're starting to get really into some areas that only locals are going to know. goes all the way up to the 20 in Macedonia, 100 % contained within Cherokee County. Breaking The Meta: Okay. Is that mostly country, like rural area? Anthony Aragues: Besides the parts of wood stock, yes. Breaking The Meta: Okay. So let's go down to the base, down to the beginning. Let's learn a little bit about you and why you decided to run in the first place. Anthony Aragues: Yes. So me, I'm actually a long time career technical person. know, tech bro is I think the latest term. That's Breaking The Meta: Hahaha Anthony Aragues: right. I started that in the Marine Corps. You know, it an interesting place to start technology as a career. But Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Anthony Aragues: you know, that's the basics of me. So besides technology stuff, I've done martial arts for 25 years. maybe half a dozen different martial arts. it's, know, to me at this point, it's a fun way to exercise and, you know, occasionally I do self-defense seminars for people and stuff like that. Why I decided to run, I have never had any political ambitions. It's just, I was asked if I would run and I felt like there's a, a certain duty or responsibility that if you see something wrong and you are able to help improve it, that you have that responsibility to help improve it. So, you know, I did a speech the other night and somebody asked me afterwards if I was excited for this. And I was like, no, it's more like a sense of duty. It's like, Breaking The Meta: Yeah Anthony Aragues: you know what I mean? It's excitement is not really the term for it because like I said, I never thought I would be Breaking The Meta: Especially in 2026. I'm pretty sure excitement when it comes to being a politician is nowhere. Anthony Aragues: Yeah. so I see myself as a leader type person who, on, in my career, I go to bat for people and stuff. And that's kind of the same vein that I am running under is to go to bat for people, especially when things are difficult. Everybody can, everybody can be a cheerleader and things are great. It's when it's, it's when you have an opposition and there's something at stake that you find out who's actually a leader, right? Who's willing to risk their, their power. in order to make a stand. Right. So, I mean, that's why I'm running. And then why I'm running as a Democrat is because I feel like it's the only party that has empathy as an asset. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: Right. So lots of issues with the party. Right. Breaking The Meta: Yes. Anthony Aragues: But I think that's true of every political party. I don't care if they're the smaller ones. Breaking The Meta: true of every person. Anthony Aragues: Yeah, you start one tomorrow. but I feel like the Democrats are the only one who, who hold empathy as, as a trait that that's a positive thing. And that alone is good enough for me to call it my party. Breaking The Meta: So if you wouldn't mind, I would love to learn a little bit about your district in general. If you could just give us some information, some background on just some, if there's some interesting things about your district that people who aren't from Georgia may be interested to know about, but then also what are the pain points? What are the things that as you're walking around talking to people, most of them are looking for help? from someone like you in Georgia State House. Anthony Aragues: Yeah, sure. For Breaking The Meta: Ahem. Anthony Aragues: anybody who doesn't live in Georgia, we're just considered an Atlanta suburb. And I guess how much you are part of Atlanta depends on how much you're willing to commute. So we're anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour away Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Anthony Aragues: from parts of Atlanta. Breaking The Meta: And with Georgia traffic, could be even longer. Atlanta traffic, it could be even longer. Anthony Aragues: Yeah, there's always a joke that any part of Atlanta proper is about 30 minutes away from Atlanta proper still. It's Breaking The Meta: you Anthony Aragues: always going to take you that long to get within between two different destinations. So that's where we're at. And we are in an affluent, very nice area, I'd say. Our denser populated. areas are still they're fairly diverse they're at least middle class and then our more sparsely populated areas are very large lots nice homes some Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: people have owned those homes for generations and some of them have been demolished and gentrified and turned into giant mansions and and that kind of thing all right so A bit of a mix there. We're all connected to Atlanta in some way, but we still have areas that feel like farmland and kind of nice countryside feel. Still got some cows and stuff, which is cool. Breaking The Meta: There you go. Anthony Aragues: There's the concerns of the area. there's definitely... things that happen at a federal level that we can't have too much impact on. Then there's the state and then there's the real local. So I'll start the most local. Everybody is mostly concerned about development and infrastructure. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: And those two staying on track with each other. When I talk to the mayors and I talk to the current representatives, they always talk about how we have these huge binders full of all the planned infrastructure updates, and we're gonna update this when this happens, and we're gonna update this when that happens. And that's all great. Apparently we are ahead of the curve on planning and everything shovel ready, but they've also been saying this for decades. And we're now decades behind. I remember when I moved to Georgia 26 years ago, some of the same projects were on the books, right? So at some point, You have to realize that the development is not in sync with the infrastructure. And you can't just say, well, it's planned and we don't have money for it. And then just continue with the development unchecked. I expect us to grow, but there needs to be some things that go along with it. Otherwise, you end up with what we have. It's a lot of... backlogged infrastructure projects. Here, Breaking The Meta: Right. Anthony Aragues: one of my gripes on that is we keep getting extra taxes. We call them the T-splost dollars to do these infrastructure projects. And then they start doing the road work and they put the signs everywhere saying, your T-splost dollars at work. Awesome. I'm glad that the money set aside specifically for infrastructure was used for infrastructure. Why does it always take an extra tax to do one of those things? It's ridiculous. I know we're getting the growth, we're getting additional income. So we should be able to have non-T's plus dollars still apply to infrastructure. And we should be able to say maybe not no to development, but not yet. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: So I think that's the... the biggest concern besides something very specific to my district lately is one of the cities gobbled up some neighborhoods and Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Anthony Aragues: said, you're part of our city now. And they didn't adhere to some predefined or agreed upon borders of expansion and stuff. And that's... Not cool, but the main thing that everybody was concerned about is that came with some municipal taxes. Right. So people who previously did not have municipal taxes were gobbled up by the city annexation, were given some municipal taxes and they're like, no, this is not what I signed up for when I moved in. you know, that is something that, that has been corrected by my opponent. Good job. I don't know if it should have got that far. You know, I'm not, I'm not criticizing on that, but, that has definitely been a big thing in this area. Nobody wants to be annexed and told that you have to pay taxes, you know, surprise without, without your permission is like, Hey, you know, there's, there's things going on in our area with, Breaking The Meta: No. I moved here for a reason. Anthony Aragues: yeah, with, a city called Milton where, you know, they would try to neighborhood by neighborhood, ask them if they would join Milton and Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Anthony Aragues: there are extra costs and stuff associated with that, at least that was, they were given the choice. And so, so what happened in our, in this district was pretty sketchy, but beyond that, it's always the development infrastructure. Nobody wants their, their neighboring property that has 10 acres demolished and turned into apartments, you know, for example, that's the kind of stuff people care about most locally. Breaking The Meta: Gotcha. One of the other things that I think a lot of voters struggle with, especially when it comes to politicians, regardless of the party that you consider yourself, is this idea of accountability of the lack thereof when it comes to our representatives. So my question is, what does accountability... mean to you and what is being held accountable by your district look like? Anthony Aragues: Yeah, that's a good question. I feel like people are just basically getting disenfranchised from their representation. If you're in someone's party, you might feel like you're better represented. But a lot of people are just getting stonewalled. There's not even evidence that you've had a discussion with somebody. Breaking The Meta: and Anthony Aragues: So from a individual constituent perspective, would say, feeling heard is probably the start of the process of accountability. And then on the extreme other end, if you've dropped the ball, if you've made a mistake, if something could have gone better, admitting it. Politics seems to let people get away with never admitting things and it's always the other guy's fault and Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Anthony Aragues: that doesn't fly as well in most careers where, you know, Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Any career? Anthony Aragues: yeah, and the places that do accept those kinds of politics, they're pretty toxic, right? And that's the kind of stuff that, you know, I would follow for myself, but I would like to see in our leaders in general. You know, if you made a mistake, admit it, improve it. You can't improve things until you admit that they're problems. And so that's the start of it. And then obviously, once you do admit something, OK, how are we going to fix it? And then acting on it, because talk is cheap. So all those things are very difficult to get lately. Breaking The Meta: That is true. That is true. Obviously, Georgia as a whole is quite purple state. There are Republicans and Democrats. But obviously as well, this administration has done a lot to hurt a lot of Americans with tariffs and and just a lot of decisions that have been made, the loss of the ACA subsidies for a lot of people, et cetera, et What has been your experience talking, going around and talking to people who may have been historically conservative? Have they been more open to listening in a way that they may not have two years ago after everything that has been going on and the increased costs all over the place? Anthony Aragues: Hmm. I don't think there's a blanket answer to that one. It varies on topic. Breaking The Meta: Okay. Anthony Aragues: I have heard multiple times that people have lost their fandom for Trump over between the handling of the upscene files and the war stuff. Breaking The Meta: Mm-hmm. Anthony Aragues: One or both of those is finally disenfranchised them. I've also experienced some areas where people still are on this extreme anti-woke, anti-DEI, and preservation of culture kind of things that basically all translate to bigotry. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Anthony Aragues: And so people are more open to that. in this area, we have more of a history of racism and current problem of racism and other types of bigotry. But I feel like those things at the country level have emboldened people to be more outward on those things now that they have these creative terms to put it under. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Right. Anthony Aragues: I think that is resurging as a problem. We're kind of going backwards in those areas. Breaking The Meta: If If you are voted in and you are sworn in in January of 2027, are one or two things that you would like to do first? Anthony Aragues: I know exactly what that is. Breaking The Meta: Okay Anthony Aragues: So a couple of things we haven't talked about yet. Most of the things that I'm running for already have bills that are proposed at the state level. Nobody ever hears about them. They hardly have any support. We don't have enough Democrats to support them. those I would support. So specifically the ones that I'm looking towards are the things that protect, that basically resist the bullshit that's going on from ICE Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: at state level. Breaking The Meta: Yep. Anthony Aragues: You never hear about what's happening here because we just let them do whatever. And I know at a city level, we're saying, we're just going to follow state law. Okay, great. We need to update our state law, apparently, to say you have to, you have to be accountable. You have to follow the laws of the country and the state. You Breaking The Meta: Hmm Anthony Aragues: can't do warrantless searches and disappear people, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. And so there's already bills for all of those things. They need more support. I'm not sure if you're aware, we have a Democrat contesting almost every state position Breaking The Meta: Yep. Yeah. Anthony Aragues: in Georgia, and some of them it's first time in 30 years. So I know we've got at least 70 house seats contest. That has to, just by the numbers, get us some more impact at the state level. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Anthony Aragues: So I hope that I am going to be one of those people and the protecting Georgia from ICE initiatives is one of the first things I want to help with. One of the other ones that I'm big on, I'm big on personal freedoms and I use this as a guideline for across topics. We are behind as a state. in allowing lot of that kind of stuff. I don't know if you look at things like allowing the use of psychedelics for PTSD treatment, know, for veterans and anybody else who has traumatic issues that they want to try treating with it. This is one of those issues that people have decided that the government will make the decisions rather than getting allowing it to be between a patient and a doctor. And I'm I am opposed to any of that. allow things be chain patients and doctors. And so, you when I look at the voting record on that, cause it's, that's what I've been following. It's actually all over the place. There's, there's both Democrats and Republicans aren't voting necessarily on party lines. don't know if it's based on lobbyists they know or, or what's going on there, but that is definitely the kind of stuff that I want to help. And let me mention one thing that I don't think is actually in currently proposed legislation. And that is when it comes to personal choices, we always need to know. We always need to get the information to make those choices. Right. Like, for example, if you choose to smoke cigarettes, you should know what their dangers are. Maybe not be lied to and told they're healthy, you know, that kind of stuff. Similarly. Um, I want everything that is AI to be labeled as AI. I don't care if Breaking The Meta: Mm. Yes. Anthony Aragues: it's an image, if it's a video, if I get a phone call, if I call somewhere else, if I'm doing online chat, if it's AI, I want to know it's AI. Only then can I choose how to ingest that, that image, that video, you know, put it within context. Okay. Hey, this is, this is AI generated video. It's a parody. Great. Not a problem, but don't ever pass AI off as something. Genuine don't pass it off as a person right and We are just in a wild west of that kind of stuff right now and I think the very first step that we need to do is have it all labeled so that we can make that choice on how to interact with with AI media and calls and online material Breaking The Meta: Speaking of AI, I think I remember in a different interview with other people that have been running in Georgia, I've actually had the honor of interviewing quite a few people running in Georgia, which is great what you guys are all doing there. if I remember correctly, you guys are also getting a real surge of AI companies trying to data centers. Anthony Aragues: data centers. Breaking The Meta: in there and that's become a pretty huge issue for a lot of different areas of Georgia. Anthony Aragues: Yes, definitely more in our rural areas where it's Breaking The Meta: Okay. Anthony Aragues: cheaper to do it, but This goes along with development AI and AI isn't the only reason for data centers. It's the, the, the more we use cell phones, the more we go online. Breaking The Meta: Right. Anthony Aragues: Our cars are using, are using online connections and stuff. but our biggest issue with the data centers is people should not have to subsidize them. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: Right. These are huge companies. They pay billions to create. the data centers and then they get government grants, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, so pay for it. Pay for it all. They should pay for the electricity, the building, the cooling, any of the environmental concerns and just don't make everybody else subsidize it. If you're a successful business and we're supposed to be a free market, et cetera, then that should be expected. Breaking The Meta: I'll wait until you sit down. Anthony Aragues: Yeah, had a weird reflection on my face from the TV over my head. Hmm Breaking The Meta: What? I have found that especially in a lot of states like Georgia, are some, and there probably is with all of them, but I think you hear about certain states more. What are some things that you would like to change about the way the Georgia legislature is working currently that you think would make it work better and serve the people better? Anthony Aragues: This is one I haven't thought about. My initial thought, so I've been going to all the town halls. I've been participating in the county political groups and all that kind of stuff. I listen as much as I can. I probably listen and observe more than I ever speak. The major thing that I notice, and I mentioned it before, is people feel disenfranchised. They don't feel heard. I do want to try to improve that. People should get responses. They should be able to at least, let's say if you say I'm opposed to... whatever this latest bill is that's gonna reduce voting or whatever, there should at least be a record of it somewhere. And you Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Anthony Aragues: can see, hey, the tally went up. Me Breaking The Meta: Ahem. Anthony Aragues: as a verified voter has put the entry in there. And it feels like as little as it is, I've made that impact. Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: And I would... I would value that as a elected official to see, okay, people within my district, this is how they would, how they feel about these various things. And I'd like to think that I could be influenced by that. I won't go against my principles, you know, when it comes to things like personal freedoms and, and some of the other things we talked about, but that doesn't mean that people can't at least convince me that a bill is more towards those principles than fighting against the bill, right? Or, and that's the kind of interaction I want to see is where people feel like they can participate. Every, Breaking The Meta: Mm. Anthony Aragues: at every town hall I go to, people are asking, what can I do? And Breaking The Meta: Mmm. Anthony Aragues: the answer that they constantly get is, well just, just keep coming to town halls and vote. It, it, and Everybody's frustrated. They don't feel like Breaking The Meta: Yeah. Anthony Aragues: that's enough. You know, that's why we have protests Breaking The Meta: and Anthony Aragues: and stuff that never feels like enough. Right. And we need to give people more of a way to have a civil impact. Right. Otherwise, they regress to not civil impact. And we would like to not have that. Breaking The Meta: Yeah. So, Anthony, for everyone that has listened all the way up until this point, heard everything that we've talked about, that you've said about what you hope to do for your district. What are one or two things that no matter what you would want anyone listening to come away with knowing about you and your campaign? Anthony Aragues: I think the main thing is... If you understand my core beliefs, the main things that I stand on. It's not this, the whole scary liberal radical left thing goes completely out the window. Right. Most people who meet me or, you know, I've known people for years that didn't know I was even a Democrat because I don't have to preach it. I'm not in a cult. I don't have to, you know, wear hats that say it or anything like that. I'm just a person who cares about people. If you want a representative who is motivated because they care about the people rather than the whims of the political party or anything that's going on in the culture wars, then that's a good reason to support me. Breaking The Meta: For anyone that does want to learn more about you and support you, where can they find you? Anthony Aragues: My campaign website is peopleoverpolitics.vote. Breaking The Meta: Okay, yeah, Anthony, thank you so much for sitting down and letting us get to know you and what you hope to do for your district. appreciate it. Anthony Aragues: All thank you for the opportunity. Breaking The Meta: And for everyone who listened so far, the to all the and for everyone that has listened up until this point, thank you so much for being here. Please like, subscribe, share, hit all the buttons down below. It makes it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is interviewing amazing people like Anthony here who want to fix the problems that we have. Some of these problems are things that we've been talking about for decades. And we have people across Georgia, across the country that want to actually fix these problems and not just talk about it. So please watch their stuff, watch this, share it, watch their stuff, share it, get to a point, give these people the visibility and name recognition to actually have a chance to make the changes that we keep saying we need. And for those people that may be new to this podcast, just so you know, Breaking the Meta is about having hard conversations when necessary, fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender or identity, get rights, respect, dignity and safety. Anthony, thank you again for being here. everyone else, I'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.