Latest / Coconut Justice / CJP #19 Matt Gromlich Interview
Transcript
- speaker-0: Hey, what's good? Matt Gromlik is a military brat, he's an educator, and now he's running for a seat in the House of Representatives. But not just any seat. He's running for the one held by the one and only Mike Johnson. Yes, folks, Matt is campaigning for a seat in the House of Representatives for Louisiana's 4th District. C4 Explosives joins us as we speak to Matt about. His life, his political ambitions, and we almost got into some good old-fashioned fun. Calculus. This is my conversation with Matt Gromlich. Before we get into it, remember to go to Coconutjustice.com to get you some clothes that I think would look good on you. Let's go. Hey, welcome back everyone. I wanted to take a second to give this younger generation such an incredible shout out because I say this often. When I was a kid, I was told things don't change, government doesn't change, and we're we were meant to sit down and shut up. But one of the things that this younger generation is doing, not just being way more informed and leveraging the internet to I mean the way that I think we should be leveraging the internet. But they're also using all of that knowledge to to lay the path for their future. And one of those young people, and we're seeing that a lot of the younger that the younger generation is taking it upon themselves to run for office. And that's why we wanted to introduce you guys to Matthew Gromlich from Louisiana. Woohoo. Welcome, Matt. How you doing? Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm doing excellent this morning. Excellent. Excellent. And as always, you guys know. You guys hear him back there. speaker-1: Get up here to the front of the class. Get up here to the front of the class. speaker-0: For explosives, y'all. speaker-1: Yes, sir, as always. speaker-0: Welcome. So how was everyone's how was everyone's Thanksgiving break? Thanksgiving was good. I was talking a little bit before we started recording that unfortunately I only got Thursday Friday off for Thanksgiving. So had to stick around a little bit, but got to relax, eat some good food, you know, hang out. It was great. Nice. What part of ⁓ what part of or what district or what part of Louisiana do you live in? Yeah, so I'm in the northwest part of Louisiana. It's district four, right outside of Shreeport and including part of Shreveport as well. Okay. There was a there was a ⁓ big animation house or or I guess media house that I wanted so badly to work for. Red is it red giant or red robot or something like that out there? ⁓ that I don't know, but a lot of things are Red River, so maybe. I'll find it. I'll find it. but yeah, what so basically I wanted to see how close you were to Louisiana or ⁓ not Louisiana 'cause you're in Louisiana, but how close you were to ⁓ you know what I'm thinking of. ⁓ The Saints play there? Help me. ⁓ Yeah, I've been to New Orleans and the food there is incredible. It is. I wanted to see how you get down for Thanksgiving. ⁓ so unfortunately, ⁓ New Orleans is a little ways away. It's the other end of the state. But we still celebrate, still have amazing Cajun food up here in northwest Louisiana. ⁓ still celebrate Mardi Gras. It's ⁓ yeah, fun. speaker-1: New Orleans. speaker-0: Some coffee spoils. speaker-1: Do you put any Dustin Poori hot sauce on your stuff? speaker-0: I'm kind of a wimp, but I'll do a little bit. ⁓ speaker-1: It's all good, man. More information. speaker-0: Yeah, there you go. speaker-1: So you're you're not too far out of Lafayette though, right? speaker-0: ⁓ not not too far, a few hours. speaker-1: Got the next district over. Is that how that works out or like speaker-0: It is. I mean, the districts are are pretty ⁓ gerrymandered. So like the district four kind of it goes around Shreveport. And if you like drove from, you know, the top of the district over to where I am and down, it's like a seven hour drive. So it's a pretty large geographical area, excluding a lot of the large cities. Yeah. speaker-1: Terrible. Yeah. They they seem they seem to have taken their ⁓ their Sharpie. speaker-0: And they definitely have and that's the thing, like besides besides just like legalized cheating, like why would anyone ever want gerrymandering like that? Let and I again I understand right why, but I just don't understand why we continue to let people get away with silly stuff. We're gonna move things, we're gonna move these arbitrary lines so we get so we get and and and the my comparison is don't we get upset when you when you finally move into your apartment or your new house or whatever and you only have one selection for cable? Right. This is it's the same thing. Cable companies and politicians gerrymander areas to benefit themselves. ⁓ speaker-1: What are some of the things you're doing to combat that? Like, 'cause I know it's gotta be hard, man. You're running up against Mike Johnson. Or you will be, right? You gotta you gotta run in ⁓ preliminary first, right? speaker-0: Right. Yeah. So this is actually the first time Louisiana has a primary, ⁓ party primary. Beforehand, it was a jungle primary. Everybody goes up, top two people in November, and then there's a runoff in December. So this is the first year that we have a party primary. They've already changed the date once from April. Now it's May 16th. They could potentially change it again. So we're running into kind of issues with that. But overall, I mean it is. Trying to get the word out in as many ways as we can. Like I said, it's a really large geographical area, but I have volunteers that are popping up all over the district and people from within Shreeport who are not technically a part of the district because of the gerrymandering. ⁓ you know, talking to friends and family, getting the word out. So we're trying to do everything that we can and any support like you guys is super helpful. speaker-1: What are what are some of the things that ⁓ I guess some of the the obstacles other other than you know you're dancing around a bunch of lines trying to, you know, if you cross the street, you're in a different district. Like what what is what is are I guess there's there's a lot of this going on across the country. So what what are some of the the things that you've you you're you're able to see that ⁓ you're doing well and maybe some things that are a little bit more difficult just to since we talked to a lot of candidates ⁓ You know, and and as we gather information from other candidates, we'll share it with you too, man. We just wanna, you know, try to try to help, you know, bridge some of these gaps. speaker-0: Yeah, I think one of the hardest things just being in this district, being in such a Republican stronghold, is when anybody thinks about or sees a D next to your name, there is a bias. There's an idea of what you are and what that means. And there is hesitancy to support a candidate that is Democratic. Although I will say that, you know, I'm a professor here in Treeport. And when you talk to people one-on-one, then you realize that there's so many. Commonalities and so many things that are similar between you. And the D and the R doesn't matter anymore. And so it's really getting in those spaces. It's, you know, connecting, communicating, being able to talk about our real problems that we have in our district. And it doesn't matter what is next to your name. Everybody's facing the same challenges and the same problems. speaker-1: Especially when you're when you when their your opponent is Mike Johnson. What are some of the things that you're you're hearing when you say, Hey, I'm running for Congress against Mike Johnson? speaker-0: I mean, the good side of things is a lot of people, a lot of ⁓ people in my district, students, colleagues, people that I have interacted with who are more moderate Republicans, don't like Mike Johnson either. I mean, he has been in office now for 10 years from our district and he really has abandoned the fundamental values of Louisiana. He is not fighting for us. He doesn't vote. for minimum wage increases. He isn't voting for healthcare changes. And a lot of people are frustrated, upset, and angry that he has abandoned his values and his district. And they're looking for alternatives. Steven does he live in the area? He does. So that that is a good thing. Yeah. He is good job, Mike. You got one job, yes. Yeah. Because what we're what we're learning is there are a lot of And it's more Republican side where they just think that they don't even have to live in the area. So then if you're not here on the day-to-day, how are you gonna make rules on the day-to-day? Absolutely. Yeah, and I think he's been so so far removed from the populace for so long that he really doesn't understand what we're facing right now currently and he doesn't understand how the laws that are being passed and the one big beautiful bill ⁓ has impacted or will impact his constituents with you know potentially millions of ⁓ millions of Louisianans and tens of thousands of people specifically in district four losing healthcare access. speaker-1: What percentage of the population is on like ⁓ Medicaid? speaker-0: So in my district, it's roughly 25 to 30% is on ⁓ Medicaid and about 10 to 12% is on Medicare. What's your what's your what's your you said that you're an instructor. what's your specialty? What do you teach? Yeah, so I was actually a middle and high school math and science teacher first. And so I taught everything from like sixth grade math or earth science all the way up to calculus. And then I went and I got my ⁓ I was just joking around that we weren't gonna think right. Hey Mike, right before right before we started talking, I said, you know, the conversation might go towards algebra and and geometry, but it probably won't. And he just said, ⁓ I teach calculus. I'm like, ⁓ well, here we go. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ and then I went, I got my PhD in Las Vegas ⁓ at UNLV. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: And now I teach future high school math and science teachers and future principals. ⁓ nice. Yeah, it's amazing. It's so rewarding. speaker-1: You posted something up where they ⁓ if the if you if you broke down the funding from what they're giving ICE and you divided it up into fifty states, break that down for me 'cause that was that was that was a great that was a great breakdown in how that money could be placed where it's actually needed. speaker-0: Sure. Thanks. Yeah, my goal for this campaign is I mean, I'm an educator. That's what I do. That's what I love. I love talking to people and I love talking about numbers. And what happens a lot of times is numbers are so large that people aren't able to, you know, comprehend like what is a million versus a billion. And they sound the same, but exponentially, you know, it's a thousand times larger. And so what I really want to do in some of my videos is just break down if we have this tax money already, which we do, how can we take it? And if we applied it differently, what would those outcomes look like? And so one of my videos, I break it down 50 states, we take that $75 million, ⁓ sorry, $75 billion increase that they're giving to ICE over the next four years in addition to what they already have. And if Louisiana got $1.5 billion. I mean, that is a huge amount of money. I looked at the ⁓ House Bill two for 2025. And for my district, 1.5 billion would cover pretty much every single infrastructure need in my district for the entire twenty twenty-five year. And I mean, losing is bigger than just the district, but it's it's insane how we have this money already. It's not even talking about taxing people more, which we could get into as well. But the money is there. It's just prioritizing and allocating our resources more efficiently, effectively, and helping our people more than helping or allocating it to something else. I'm gonna ask you a very difficult question. Okay. Would you rather take these funds that are already there? Would you rather take those funds and try to improve the infrastructure? Try to improve the educational situation that's happening in Louisiana, or would you rather bomb a country? Absolutely. We need to make sure that we have our infrastructure settled first. Yeah. How are we going to go out into the streets and tell people how to run their house when our house is sloppy? Yeah, exactly. I mean, think about it like your personal budget. How are we at deficit? How do we not think that that is long term a problem and then how do we not look at what we're taking in and what we're spending and where we're putting our money? I mean just on a a fundamental level, the money is there. How are we going to use it? And we can use it in so many different and better ways. speaker-1: You you you ⁓ you had it to where ⁓ like ⁓ every child that was three and four years old would be in in daycare, right? Or free ⁓ free pre K, right? Is that what it was? speaker-0: Yeah. So even better than daycare. If we had because you can have ⁓ universal pre K. So for every three and four year old child, ⁓ Warden School of Business. Basically they put out a self study a few years ago. And if you look through, it's about like thirty one billion dollars over two years to build all of the pre K infrastructure. Yeah. And I mean we're spending of the jobs, you know. Think of the jobs. Yeah. So The short-term job growth on all the building, all the all the construction, all the electricians, everything there. And then it's like twenty billion a year. That's just the entire country. And all three and four year old kids who get then a school with teachers who are trained. So it's not just like you're putting them in daycare, you're putting them in a pre-K system that has people that are teaching them how to read, teaching them how to interact and communicate. of the soft skills as well that that you get from going to school and interacting with other kids and a teacher in those positions who's trained and knows what they're doing. Yeah. It's so possible. So we have like the short term benefit of infrastructure and the the building and then the long term benefits to our country to the next generation and then providing jobs in terms of everybody that's required to keep a school up and running. And let me I'm gonna keep stacking on top of that. Because this is this is my dilemma. My dilemma is I came from low funded schools. Well, yeah, I came from low funded schools. ⁓ and then I went to the military, then I went to college, and then I went into the workforce, and you work, work, work, work, work, and then you get to Silicon Valley, and then you realize that it's a different. People are complaining that people from Central and South America are coming to take the jobs, and I'm banging my fists on the table saying our kids aren't ready. Our kids aren't ready. And that's why it looks like we don't qualify for these jobs that are building, literally building tomorrow. I would like to think that. Because I have fun doing algebra and I have fun doing like being creative and designing software and all that. I find that fun. But when you don't even give me a chance to walk through the door to make a paycheck. Now I have to take a look at me and I take a look at my story and I take a look at how I maneuvered. And I think to myself, we need to improve the education. Period. Period. Because what's happening is these rich folks are trying to convince you that. We're dumb and we're lazy. You've heard it on TV. We're all those things. But then they're giving all the jobs to people that don't live here. And we're giving the jobs to people that are going to send money back to their home. And again, my argument is not with the people who show up to work. That's not my argument. My argument is the people who continue to give those jobs to. Whether it be a contractor that doesn't live here, who's writing software, whether it be a dis software designer, whether it be a designer in any, whether it be a special effects person, because that's why Halloween, that's why ⁓ Hollywood is struggling, because all those jobs are going overseas. And then you turn around and you tell us, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and bitch, you have never given us boots. So For me, that's why I am so excited to be able to have an educator here that can that can help amplify amplify that story because everyone is hell bent on the the Mexicans taking apple picking jobs. Fuck those apple picking jobs, let those go. I was making six figures. I was making six figures a year. And now come to find out, you can get three developers for the price of one of us. And all I've done, all I've ever done in my whole life was play against play according to the rules that you set forward. This is what you said to do. You said get an education. You said go to the military. You said get degrees. You said to work real hard and pull yourself up by the bootstraps. And then when you get to where the cream is rising to the top. You realize you take a look around, you're like, the game is fixed. The game is fixed. Absolutely it is. We should be, we shouldn't even have there should not even be an argument as to what jobs we qualify for and not qualify for. Everyone brags about ⁓ the internet came out of America. Well, yeah, but nobody at no Americans is working on the internet. speaker-1: What what are the conversations do you have with with with all the defunding of the educate of education? What are some I know you run into parents, you run into students that are concerned. Like what what are on the daily? Like how do you how do you how do you reconcile some of those issues? speaker-0: I mean, to be honest, there's a lot of fear right now. There's a lot of anxiety around education, around the future. The department of education is currently being led by somebody who doesn't believe that the department should exist at a federal level, which is insane. ⁓ the but not more insane than other things that we can talk about too. ⁓ lots of parents with students with disabilities have you fears in trepidation because of potential ⁓ overturning of like IDEA disability, American with disabilities laws, student access. I mean there there's so much that is being talked about that it it is it's scary for sure. The I mean defunding of NSF grants was really tough on institutions. Especially like research-based institutions. So I mean, we've we've had to figure out how to still go to work every day, teach our students, get everything that we need, and then be able to continue on with our jobs. But people are scared and people are angry. And that's why I decided that I needed to at least step up, at least bring myself and my experience, my expertise forward and say, Hey, this is what's happening. If we can educate more people as to what's going on in our country, then at least there's an outlet and there's some information and people can put their their focus behind that instead of being like paralyzed by fear. And how are you how are educators leveraging AI? ⁓ that could be a like a man. speaker-1: Or D itself. speaker-0: I think that there kind of two two paths, two trains of thought that people are under right now. I mean, our university just created a whole AI use policy that basically said you don't use it. Yeah. As students, I think I mean AI is not going away. It's only getting better. And my job as an educator, what I have done my entire career, which is I believe this is my 14th year teaching, is like we have to teach. people how to be problem solvers, creative thinkers, and then how to take information in and be critical of it. And AI is no different. So instead of saying, okay, we're not going to use AI, we're not going to touch this topic, we have to be able to say, okay, what is AI giving you? What is this outcome? How could we use it? And then does that make sense? So for example, my students this semester, we're wrapping it up. They have to present a 15-minute lesson demo to the rest of the class. And instead of making them write their own lesson plan, I had them go on chat GPT and say, okay, here's the standard, create a lesson for me. And it did. And then we walked through, okay, here are the good parts because some of it is good. I mean, it's an iterative learning tool, but here's what it's missing. And so we as teachers are not going to be replaced by AI because. You have to think about your students, the context, the examples. What should they be learning? What doesn't make sense for your geographical area or your students' backgrounds? And how can we infuse that into what AI created in a way that is meaningful and in a way that ⁓ allows us to utilize our time in the best way possible? speaker-1: Yeah, 'cause you got like my kid, like I got two kids. So like and they don't learn the same. One's very hands on, one can take one could take a book and just look at it and be she's got it, right? So you have to find a way to adapt and evolve and and find a way to get to the end result in different different paths, right? Absolutely. And the the biggest frustration is when they're taking well, first of all, they're since they're they're just stripping away and they don't they don't show value for education in this country. Right. And Yeah. And it's it's it's defeating for I could see for teachers, it's defeating for parents, and I know it's defeating for students because they can't get the the necessary tools that they need to survive. Right. And as as in and if what you're saying they can reallocate that money from the ground from third three and four years old, you're you're giving them a runway to where they can take off and absolutely do everything using and harnessing AI. using and harnessing the tools that you're able to provide them and and and you know the things that we go through we try to pave a way for them to let them know that you don't have to necessarily do the things that I've done, but I'm I'm making a way for you so it's better for you. So now you can make it better for you the ones that are coming after you. So like I my I the the it hits home man because one of my son is on the spectrum. And there's a lot of programs that are getting stripped away. There's a lot of programs that aren't even in place because he didn't get diagnosed until he was twelve. So he aged out of all the programs before we knew they existed. So like there it's a very broad spectrum that we have to we have to cover. And they're they're they're setting fire to every area of life right now. And it's a it's a wildfire. And where do we put the fire out? Where do we where do we start first? And we it's it's speaker-0: And that's my question. My next question to both of you would be do you think this is a ⁓ A perfe a purposeful push towards dependence on AI. They've taken away money from education, they've taken away money from all these programs, but they're pushing everything into AI systems. So it would be, would it, and this might be conspira conspiracy theories-ish, but does it make sense that? They're taking money out of educating the people to putting it into a computer so we are then not just addicted but dependent on technology. I'm gonna say yes. But if you if you think about the American education system from its inception, it was forced compliance. It was to go to become literate in only the religious aspect of American society, and that you know you learned how to be a good Christian mostly and and follow through. It's only recently that in education in America we have developed that to be. Good citizens in general. And I think that you're seeing regression in all of these aspects. And education is the same, that they want people to not be able to think critically, to not be able to ⁓ use skills and to become dependent and compliant beings, like worker bees who who can't think for their own. That's how the larger regime ⁓ gets to continue to be in power. And So absolutely. I mean, if you look at our average reading level in America, it's like sixth, seventh grade. That's on purpose. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And it's scary because those are the folks that are so convinced that they have all the answers. It's a sixth grade reading level people. When you get into those books with the big words and no pictures, those books, those are the po those ⁓ there's a lot there's a lot more for me to learn. Mm-hmm. Probably more but better said. ⁓ but yeah, those those sixth grade level reading folks, those are the ones that get convinced to climb on the Capitol. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's why if you analyze ⁓ Trump's speeches. In general, they're at like a fourth, fifth grade reading level, whereas previous presidents, ⁓ all like Republicans and Democrats included, were at like a seventh, eighth, ninth grade reading level on average. And so yeah, there there's definitely a a push to not pursue higher education and critical thinking. speaker-1: That that next grade level included groceries, ⁓ what other words? Whatever whatever whatever word whatever gigantic word. speaker-0: Groceries and a new term. Didn't he didn't he invent that word? That new word grocery? Just just heard of it. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ affordability. That's right. That's right. speaker-0: Yes. No, that's the hoax. It's a scam, yeah. Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: This guy just building when I speaker-0: So Matt, what was it? What was it that that the one thing that you said you had to put your foot down? You said, That's it, man. I can't do this no more. I gotta, I gotta make a run. I don't know if it was one thing in particular. Yeah. But you know, I was around in 2016, lived through that, thought thought that we had congratulations for making it through. Yeah. Some days, didn't know for sure. we then we hadn't Biden and it looked like the tide was turning ⁓ until election night. And I mean, on I I cried election night. I knew it was coming. And I think I've in the last year just been waiting for people to step up. And it is so disappointing the that there's so few people who are stepping up, especially from the Democratic Party and Democratic leadership. And I've been waiting, I've been waiting and it wasn't happening. And I was talking to my mom on the phone at one point, who is a you know, fairly conservative Southern woman. And she's like, Matt, you keep talking about this over and over again. I know you like why aren't you running? Like, why isn't this happening? Why aren't you changing? You you're an agent of change. You have done so many different things in the school system to to allow change and encourage change. Like Why aren't you doing it? If you you can't just wait for somebody else all the time. Sure. You know why why am I not doing it? So shout out, mom. Thank you, mom. Yeah. And let me tell you, when your mom when when someone as important as your mom says this is something you can do, like tell me you weren't ready to put a cape on. Right? Tell me you weren't it had those. Well not the sexy white ones like DeSantis wears, but you had you know, you had your super and boots, you had your he had his go go boots on. Yeah, so that that's where we are. Awesome. Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Mom. Yeah. speaker-1: There's a lot of candidates like yourself, man, that and you know I didn't when I started when we started talking with all of them, they we don't realize how many there actually are until you start seeing faces. Right and and and then seeing the districts and seeing how small the districts are on this giant large scale map. And there's a lot of fights out there, man. There's a lot of there's a lot of red tape, there's a lot of ⁓ hate, ⁓ there's a lot of ⁓ ego. And there's even even amongst and even amongst your own party. And it's a lot of ⁓ yeah, you know what, you're doing great, but you need to tone it down a little bit in certain areas. Have you have you have you encountered some of those conversations amongst your amongst your own party if you're able to disclose that type of information? speaker-0: I'm pretty on it. You're my students will tell you, like I'm a pretty open book. I so know it's kind of been a year-long process of of thinking about running and and what to do. And I'm an educator, I'm an educational researcher, so I know how to research, but I don't really know much about like the running for politics. I've always been involved in politics on some level. But the running is completely different. So I did I reached out to Louisiana Democrats and just, you know, hey, I'm thinking about running. here's what I've learned. What should I be thinking about? And basically the response that I got was, Well, we already have somebody who's running in the Democratic primary. So we don't really need you. So don't do it. It's a lot of work. It's too hard. And we keep hearing stories like that. Keep going. Yeah. And I mean, ⁓ my my opponent seems like a great guy. And democracy means that you have options. So why wouldn't you encourage more people to run? Why wouldn't you encourage the field to be open, to share ideas, to learn from each other, to be able to have these discussions, and then people can vote for the candidate that they believe is the best candidate in whatever their criteria is. This this idea of like stifling opposition because it's not convenient is ridiculous. And that's what the Republicans have been doing. Why are we doing that too? That's insane. speaker-1: Yeah, there's a lot of plants. There's a lot of ⁓ plants that are that are there. You you you re you start doing research and realize ⁓ the one that's running in the Democratic Party was just a Republican a year ago. Or, you know, who giving who's actually could put ⁓ putting this money up? ⁓ I see where the dark money's coming from. There there's a lot of speaker-0: That one too. Or even more egregious was the ⁓ what was it? I saw this morning that Trump gave a pardon to a Democratic House member from Texas. Mm-hmm. And then he was upset that the Democratic House member didn't flip to Republican. Mm-hmm. And he went on some he went on some tirade. He went on some tirade on Truth Social, talking about how, you know. Next time, next time you're probably not gonna get help because you didn't help me this time. Yeah, I'm like I'm pretty sure that's quid pro quo, like pretty sure that's kind of illegal. But no more illegal than other things. speaker-1: And ⁓ so for those are those are ⁓ hoaxes as well. speaker-0: Yeah, and that's like what what recourse at the end of the day, what recourse does Trump have, with the exception of throwing a tantrum saying don't vote for this guy? Well, I think they have not yet tested if you can revoke a part in. So maybe maybe. That'd be crazy. That'd be fantastic. That'd be crazy. Cause to me, the only thing that really the only thing that really well, one of the things ⁓ for for example, ⁓ Marjorie Taylor Green, ⁓ Jasmine Crockett said She was against Trump for two whole days and she had to drop out of Congress because she couldn't take the heat. And it was basically she was talking about these death threats. So let's just say you're in Congress and you put your phone on mute and you don't check your emails. Like what recourse does this dude have with the exception of sicking his sixth grade reading level violent monkeys at you? Mm-hmm. We've already we've already learned that you can what is it? You can win a primary with him, but you can you can't win a general with him. Was that is that the saying something like that? Yeah, depends. Depends on where you are. Yeah, depends on where you are. But if he's not on the ballot, I don't see yeah, yeah. People turn out for him, but if he's not on the ballot, people don't tend to turn out for other candidates that he may or may not petition for. speaker-1: How motivating was it to see ⁓ the Tennessee vote? It like being so close. speaker-0: You know, so I'm gonna like lump Tennessee but also ⁓ Zoran in New York. I think that both of those candidates I was I mean I was already in the process of running, getting everything together, but it just affirmed my decision seeing those outcomes because these are young candidates around my age who are in an area like mine that people would not think is competitive for that type of candidate. And in Tennessee with Afton, I mean, took it from it was like R plus twenty two to about nine point difference. People have counted these areas out for a long time. A Democrat has not run against Mike Johnson since 2020 here in District Four. He ran unopposed in 22. And I'm here to say that, okay, we'll see what happens. I do think that there's a possibility. There's a lane, there's a chance here in 26, but it's not just about this next election. It's about the election after that. It's about the election after that. It's about showing that when When you talk to people and you communicate with each other and you you discuss the challenges that we're facing as a community and you discuss potential solutions, they're people that will vote for you. I mean, you had triple triple Trumpers vote for Zoron. About I think nine percent is what I saw. Like that's huge. Yeah. And I'm I live in this community, I'm from this community. I've taught hundreds of students in this community. And what I know about this community is that overall, everybody here wants what's best for our community. They want what's best for their family. They want to come home at the end of a hard day's work and not feel trapped under bills. They want to be able to put money away for their future and their children's future. And they're candidates that can do that. If they if we have these conversations, if we meet people where they're at, if we approach people. with empathy and with understanding, then like there is a chance for real change, whether it's 2026 or beyond. This is my frustration with America First and MAGA and all of these anything that has anything to do with Americans. And now that I'm about to say this, something else just clicked in my head. But if you are in America and you are America first. And you see all of this silliness unfolding. They would rather spend more on ice than on fixing infrastructure. They'd rather spend more on bombing countries than giving you health insurance. And this is why health insurance is important. Because if we are going to continue to be the leaders of the world. Invention, innovation, all those wonderful things. The investment needs to be in us. Mm-hmm. Now, that being said, I understand that there's some folks out there that don't like my face possibly being the face of what an American's supposed to look like. I understand that. But bitch, you have to shut up. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, I think if I could push back a little bit. Tell me. People, I mean, yes, there is support for immigration reform. I think a lot of people do not want what's currently happening with ICE. And I think People vote for an administration for a president. And then that president, this current president, especially, like is enacting things that are going far beyond what the average American actually truly wants. And our responsibility is to say, okay, this is what they've done. They took a a good idea, a good policy proposal, and they've gone so far with all of this money and They've made a decision that this money is going to this location. When instead it could be going here, here, here, and here, and hear the benefits to that to the American people and to our communities. I don't think it's ever it's not often laid out that way as kind of these trade-offs in priorities and money. And I think if you do, and if you you frame it in that respect of, The money could be here or it could be here. Here's what you would get in option A, here's what you would get in option B, option C. Then a lot of people would come around to different ideas. speaker-1: Think I think what happens is when When you when you when you when you ⁓ when you say there's an issue, right? And you want to address the issue, you you weaponize the issue, and then the next thing you know, you're your gun's blazing on everything and you're you're throwing you're throwing whatever moral or ethical ⁓ continuity you have inside of your being out the window, right? And you're you and you're and If you're on the if you're on the on his on his support team, you get to a point where you're like, I'm so far on that side that it it could take me decades to come back to even something that resembles, you know, a human being. Right? That actually you know what I'm saying? And I don't wanna de ⁓ and there there I I live in a community there where ice is everywhere. ⁓ There's a detention, there's a there's a facility right in the in the thick of where I'm at right now. And I'm seeing a neighborhood get decimated, right? And these people have been here for decades. Now I understand that there's there's policies or there's laws and there's things that are being that's that are broken, right? The whole system's broken in as a whole. And there's ways to reform. There's pathways that you could take to get people that are that are here, that have been here. a pathway to stay here. They're they've been paying billions and billions of dollars in taxes and not getting anything from it other than a finger, a finger, ⁓ but just many, many, many FUs. And then you're kill you're destroying generations of people to come. and if if they if they could find a way to say, hey, all right, this is the problem. Here's several solutions. Let's find let's find it out. But when you're when there's inflammatory statements, when you're when you're calling people ⁓ you know, you they're eating cats and dogs, they're they're they're scum, you're using ⁓ Nazi rhetoric, you're using all all these terms and derogatory statements, and not just immigrants, but women, ⁓ people of color, ⁓ poor people, veterans, children with disabilities, like like come on, like it's like there has to be a point where like I could see you on that far right side. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah, and that's just it. There's people that all that stuff is fine and good, but there's some folks out there that they look at your face, they look at my face, and they don't want us here. And a lot of those people are in positions of power. Yes. That's what I'm saying. Yep. We as minorities, we will not move forward in this country. Unless we get more people like Matthew running for office, folks that aren't afraid, folks that can actually take a look at the facts. The facts are look at the show that this moron is putting out there, and all he's doing is spending money to rough us up to make white people feel safe. Absolutely. Right? Period. Yep. Period. We are not going to move forward until the ⁓ and and and going back to going back to Trump and his ⁓ show, he is showing his voters that he can rough us up because that's what they want to see. But at the end of the day, Trump supporter, Barack Obama kicked out way more illegals, so did so did Biden. But they didn't have to put a show, they didn't have to make the United States into fucking cops. Yep. It's not an episode of cops. So now that they are in the streets treating, I'm sorry, but my dad came from Cuba. My mom's side of the family came from the other islands. My people aren't from here. And I'm not even gonna get into ⁓ they're not from here either. We're here, bitch. We're here. It's all for show. And the fact that I know it's for show is because they are not in the streets of Chicago pulling up. And I'm sorry for saying this. So my my Polish family in Chicago, they're not fucking with you the way that they're fucking with us. From what I understand, there's a whole bunch of illegal Russians in New York that nobody's fucking with. That's my understanding. But no, they want to go into Florida, they want to go into LA. They want to go into Chicago. They want to do all this stuff. Why? Is the flex is the show. They didn't need to they didn't they didn't need to invest all this money to to to hire fucking ICE members. They were doing it already. They were doing it more efficiently. But this is the show. So now that I know where you stand, and that's against me and what in my face. Now I have to. Now I have to. My first line of defense is voting. And actually, my first line of defense is coming out here and getting to know people like Matthew. So he can, so he can, so he can spread the word to let other folks, because white folks don't listen to anybody but white folks. Black folks don't listen to anybody but black folks. And Spanish folks are busy listening to white folks because they think they're half of them think that they're fucking white and the other half don't think that it's worth it. That's the reality. The fact is that the fact that this man is turning this country into an episode of cops. And then we're supposed to be like, yeah, I'm proud to be an American. Why? Why would I cosign to this? You don't these people aren't ⁓ these ⁓ I am d I am dropping bars that I have a song coming out. Hey hey Mike, I already I already I already warned Matthew he plays the keyboards he's gonna he's gonna be on the Yeah these are speaker-1: These are the bad. Do you wear sunglasses? speaker-0: I have I've been working on I've been working on this song that that like it's all it addresses all of this. How are we supposed to cosign to that when you're telling us that we're not part of the team? Enough for anything, but I'm smarter than most of you guys out there who voted for this knucklehead. Didn't spend not one day in jail. Not one. But then you're gonna tell me that I'm poisoning the blood of this country? How dare you? speaker-1: And you fought for the country. speaker-0: And I fought for the country. And you're and you're and you continue to vote for this dude who constantly proves to you that he doesn't want you. He's building up ⁓ this this dumbass room that you're not gonna be invited to. speaker-1: Looks like shit. speaker-0: Gaudy. My girl is my girl is an interior designer and I showed her showed her the picture. She said, What the fuck is this? I said, That's the White House, babe. She said, Why? speaker-1: It's the it's the name of the gold house. It's the gold house now. Matthew, what do you what do you what do you what do you think when you hear all all this, man? What do you what's on your mind? speaker-0: Yeah yeah, I it's I mean show performative for sure. It's really strategic. Like, I mean, we don't think of Trump and the administration as strategic often, but it is because it it plays into our our fear and the part of our brain that all you can think about is like preserving your own. So we take these like policy proposals and make them into ⁓ it's you or me. It's ⁓ if I don't do this, if I don't go along, then my family it will, you know, die. My family will not be able to survive. My family won't be able to succeed. And like it's a really purposeful, purposeful ⁓ framing and it works because fundamentally we are animals and we've evolved over time and we have a rational brain, but we also just have ⁓ a lizard brain as well. And and fear is a is a huge motivator. Yeah. And so we have to understand that like that's what they're doing and it works. So to combat that it's gonna take two, three, four, five times the energy, the conversations, the emotions. It is going to be moving people, ⁓ I think I mean overall it's just it's really upsetting and sad and that we've allowed this type of administration to get into power. And then Congress has abdicated all responsibility and all checks and balances because they could, if they wanted to, actually keep him more in line. They're just choosing not to. speaker-1: This is the first time around. speaker-0: Right. Yeah. And the people that he surrounded himself with administratively the first time around were a lot better ⁓ in terms of keeping him in check. But I mean this is not the okay, I mean I mean I I'm Southern. Like I was born in North Carolina, raised in North Carolina. my mom's southern. I moved around a bit because my dad was military, but I consider myself pretty pretty southern raised. And going to church on Sunday, front row with my whole family. I mean, I was proud to be an American because military, church, like we my church was able to reach out to the poor and and single mothers, and there was a community that was built around being an American and providing for the people around you. And I loved that. And now We have this environment where it's not built on empathy and compassion and caring and the fruits of the spirit that the Bible talks about. It's completely opposite and it's built on hate and it's built on ⁓ pitting your you know countrymen against each other. And it's just so sad. Right. That's not the America that I I grew up in. That's not what people fought for. That's like it's speaker-1: It's all it almost feels like it's ⁓ domestic abuse, right? And the Americans are being abused. And what happens is there's going to be that time where you know you f you find your safe space and you have to heal and you you're very defensive and you don't want to believe anybody that says anything that sounds good because you're feeling feeling like you're being tricked again, right? Like Matt comes along and like, man, I'm telling you all these great things, but I don't believe them because I've been hurt before, right? So that's why it's so vital to to like you said, to go into the communities, talk to the people, find out what their what their concerns are, listen to them, address them, say, This is what I what I want to do, this is what I can attempt to do for you. If I don't have an answer, I'm gonna come back to you and I'm gonna give you an answer. And then you s you that engagement is gonna gonna, you know. you know, the the the shell, the hardened shell of people is is gonna start to, you know, diminish a little bit and they're gonna accept you. You know, and and these these you're teaching children. You're teaching people's kids, right? You're teaching the future. You're you're it you're in an environment where you're able to say, you know what, I'm teaching your child to to do to to be better for themselves. Right. Like you're you're in a position right there where you're in you're in a vulnerable position in their lives, right? And you you can harness that and like you can get to you can get to the center of of all this all this this fucking chaos that's going on and you can really be like, I'm going to do better. And you have you it's it might be hard to believe me, but just trust me for a little bit. You know, and and that that's how you you you're getting into the you're getting into people and you're you're you're warming up to them, you know, and and that's that's a beautiful thing right there, man. speaker-0: And just having more educators in Congress, I think. 'Cause boy, let me tell you. ⁓ Matthew, no no shade your way, but Katie Porter has been putting on a show. I love it when she 'cause she's she's an educator and she she she she's the one that puts up those boards. ⁓ huh. ⁓ yeah. She's like, Y'all going to school today. Break it down, break it down, huh. Yeah, it I was just having this conversation a few days ago, but you know, so many of people in politics are lawyers. And I think a lot of that is because politics and law are, you know, intertwined ⁓ to some extent. And then also because of how lawyers function, you have the time to kind of take off of work or to adjust your schedule to run. And we have, I mean, a crazy overabundance of lawyers in Congress. Some lawyers, great, but we do need people from all different walks of life, all different backgrounds. I mean, not only should Congress represent us by how they look and ideas, but also based on education and different career paths and opportunities. And I think we're so we've swung so far onto the lawyer side, which I mean we kind of always always have ⁓ in America, but we really need a lot more representation. I just did a quick search that said what percentage of USA are lawyers? There are four lawyers per every 1,000 residents. So that's point four percent of the US population are lawyers. There are more trans people. No, trans people is what one percent of the population. I think I was trying to make that connection anyway. I was trying to be cute and it's just not working out. So we're we'll keep pushing.4% of the population of US population are lawyers. So point four percent of people are making the rules the of which or they influence the rules of which you have to live under. So Me, this is my brain starting to break shit down. I'm I'm I'm so excited that you're here, Matt. So we can talk about like researching this stuff. So ⁓ not for anything, but that point four percent. They're chances are they're going to be taking a look at what's good for them. Chances are they're going to if you're a lawyer, you're at a certain tax bracket. So something tells me that maybe just maybe you guys don't fully understand what it's like being a single mother of three in the streets, not in the streets, but like living in the inner city. Mm-hmm. Something tells me that you have a little more patience for time and waiting for something to happen than than that single mother of three who doesn't have enough money for groceries. Yeah, or or even just Have you ever worked a typical nine to five job? Yeah. Like how this is ⁓ something that I have thought of for you know research videos and stuff. Like, how many people in Congress currently are lawyers and like how many of them, how many people in Congress have never worked a standard nine to five job? Yeah. And I think it would be surprising. I don't know. I haven't done the research yet. So we'll see. But if you don't know what it means to have to wake up five days a week and commute to work and work a full shift or more. I mean, but even just one job and and then commute back home. How I mean that is the average American's life. How do you think that you can represent them? speaker-1: Right. ⁓ yeah, you you could see how you could see like, ⁓ well my son is you're a judge and like all of a sudden my son's gonna be running, you know, it's in the bloodline, you know, you're and then you're just kind of keeping the status quo, you know, and everybody's aligned with their views and this is how you get and everybody knows everybody that's in in the power in the power game, and then all of a sudden then you're redrawing, conf configuring, gerrymandering lines, and then the next thing you know, then your your whole state is red. How? speaker-0: Let's tilted your way, yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, I know that I'm privileged now being a professor where I'm not working nine to five anymore. That's how I have the ability to run in this position. But when I first started teaching, I was and I was making 33,000 my first year teaching in 2012. And that was not enough to pay for food. And yeah. And I remember like going into school every every day. And I didn't have enough money to make my own lunch or to pay for lunch. And I was hoping that one of the students would be sick that day because if they were sick, they prepaid for lunch, the lunch would go to waste. The lady in the front office knew that I w couldn't eat and then would give me that student's food. And then I was working at night on top of that, bartending to get some money for something. Like You know, but hey, when I was going through college, I was bartending too. You know how many times for dinner I had olives and cherries? Many times. And we had we had popcorn to ⁓ pop behind the bar free for people. So like popcorn, olives, cherries. Yeah. That was my dinner. speaker-1: Yeah. get your vegetables and fruits and and in your diet there. It it sucks when when people that are supposed to be ⁓ they have careers, they're professionals, teachers and you know, nurses and you know, just nine to fivers and they have careers and they can't afford to live. So then they have to have s second careers, parallel careers. And you know, you still need to side hustle on on TikTok or, you know, and and sell speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. speaker-1: Whatever whatever you can do. You know, like it's it's it's infuriating. speaker-0: You know what's even even more frustrating than that is and Matt, if you ever want to pick up this research project, I am down to help. Let's figure out. Let's figure out. Take a look at all the presidents, all the senators, all the everything. Let's figure out who went to Yale, who went to Harvard, and then let's figure out that pissing contest of those of those learning institutions. Yeah. The The number of people in Congress and presidents that are Ivy League educated is like so disproportionate. Mm-hmm. And these are folks that have everything that they need. These are the cool kids. This is the cool kids club. And they are making decisions off of what's going to be better for Yale versus Harvard versus whomever. And it's these those those people that go to all these parties, they're building all the You know, networking and all that stuff. Mm-hmm. That's what they're doing, y'all. Yep. speaker-1: And you know what we're doing? We're taking all the people that weren't invited to those parties and we're getting them together. speaker-0: Right. ⁓ yeah. Making our own party. Yeah. speaker-1: That's what it's all about, man. And that's that's the That's the You guys have all the olives though. Olives are terrible. ⁓ man. So Matt, what's what's what what's your next what's your next stage of of this plan? Because I know you gotta get through some stuff right now to to get to head to head with Mike Johnson. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, so like I was saying, we do have a primary for the first time. I don't know if I was saying this here in the pre pre-show. ⁓ so I'll just repeat. But first time ⁓ ever in Louisiana for this level that we actually have a primary, which is really cool, a party primary. Before it was just a jungle primary. So I do have an opponent who's running, seems like a cool guy. ⁓ to me, not doesn't have the fight, doesn't have the The motion behind. ⁓ so that's in May. May 16th is ⁓ our actual primary date. We have some early voting beforehand. Although this is the one we can talk about too. Supreme Court, you know, they worked in or they overturned the Texas redistricting thing. So now Texas has the maps that they drew. ⁓ potentially, depending on how they vo ⁓ vote on the voting rights act. ⁓ case that's going to be in front of them that could redraw our districts completely, which is crazy. And they're saying that they could move the primary again or they could cancel it or they who knows. So so it it's a little challenging because this might not be the final district that I run in. These might not be the final people. So the speaker-1: Jesus. speaker-0: The best thing is just getting the word out to as many Louisians as possible, regardless of district, because we're all working together towards the same goal. It doesn't matter if you're in district four or not. We can all make positive substantive change together. And so next few months, lots of door knocking, lots of media appearances, hopefully. Thank you again for letting me come on here. This has been amazing. yeah, just trying to to get out and do as much outreach as possible. And now that the semester is ending, then I'll have a little bit more time too. speaker-1: It's gotta be tough to s like you're preparing for like all right, you're ramping it up towards a like a date and then the next thing you know, you're like, Here's the dates f further away and then that that doesn't give you much time to, you know, recalibrate and like go guns blazing against Mike Johnson either. speaker-0: Yeah, which I I think is the goal, you know. speaker-1: Right. Like everybody's like, you know, not not saying that you would, but everybody starts pulling out, you know, starts, you know, saying stupid shit and like, you know, trying to s you know, tarnish people's names or reputation, throwing dirt on your name and then the next thing you know, you gotta you gotta endorse somebody after that, you know, like you know, and then you gotta get everybody you gotta rally up all the troops together to try to, you know, be a united front. That's gotta be really tough. ⁓ yeah, especially with that moving target, man. But like you I think you're you're right. You hit the nail on the head when you're like, it's not just about your district, it's about the the entire state. You know, because you know, for here, like when we lived in Chicago, me and Carlos were both from Chicago, you know, the every there's all these neighborhoods and they're they make up they make up Chicago and then you got all the surrounding suburbs, but everybody lives and intermingles around around with everybody else. You know, it it's not you do you stay where you're at and that's it. You know, ⁓ families everywhere, you know, so is if you can and draw drum up that excitement, you know, and that that con those conversations. ⁓ and then you're planting seeds everywhere and your harvest will will hopefully grow and you know, your district and the state could reap the benefits, you know what I'm saying? ⁓ so it's it's it's getting in there and and just having those genuine conversations, man. And then 'cause there's not many genuine, transparent conversations that are happening nowadays. And People need that. So damn if I lived in Louisiana District Four, I'd be all about it. speaker-0: I am looking up the ⁓ the state rankings of education. ⁓ because from what I understand, you guys aren't not not the best. No. What's it like being an educator in in a situation where maybe the resources just aren't quite quite up to par. Yeah, I'll I'll answer that in a few ways maybe. So I taught in North Carolina first and then went to Nevada as I was ⁓ doing my PhD, was teaching high school there as well, and then moved here to Louisiana. And not only do we not have some of the resources, it also seems like we're five to ten years behind, even in educational theory and research, and then the application of it. So coming here, I teach a STEM education class, and there's some new ideas that are being talked about that we did in Nevada five, seven years ago. So there's there's definitely ⁓ underfunding of literal resources and then an underfunding of personnel resources and ideas in this region. That being said. I mean, the the teachers here are doing amazing work. Yeah. And the the people that are in my program that I'm preparing to go into the communities, the feedback that we're getting is really, really great. That they're, you know, interacting with students in a way that hasn't really been seen before, that they're providing supports for students. ⁓ but the amount of resources and the like emotional energy that it takes on our end at the you know, secondary ed level has been a lot. I don't know, it's it's challenging, but it I I see benefits and I see ⁓ potential and the students that I interact with are making changes. It's just kind of slow to start from almost nothing and then have to build it up. Sure. speaker-1: I guess a lot of it has to be like that it's who you're who's in front of you is what you could control, right? ⁓ you can't you can't reach everybody but you know like you try to you try to do what you can do with what the resources that you're given where you're at. And and you try man, there's there's gotta be used leveraging y you know, social media and and stuff like that just to to for educational purposes. I mean I I've said it on the show before, you know, like we're content creators. ⁓ but we as content creators there has to be a level of responsibility. ⁓ that we have to to educate to ⁓ speaker-0: We let the net we need to let kids know that it's not cool to eat Tide Pods, go read a book, come dumb. speaker-1: Go read a band book, you know. You're gonna learn something. Start a you know, just the man, you know, it's not yeah, don't just be positive people. But in a negative world, you gotta be a beacon of light somehow. Find a way to leverage that, you know. ⁓ and I think I think if we all do good in the world then the good things will happen, right? ⁓ more or less. And we we just gotta keep pushing. speaker-0: Mm. That's a nice that's a nice thought. But but like honestly, honestly, like and shout out to all my religious folks. Like I love you. I love you with my whole heart. I really do. And I'm I'm it makes me feel good, Matthew, that you talked about having that influence in your life as a kid, going to church, being in the front row, and all that stuff. But it's that thinking that, you know, if you leave it up to God, things like this happen. Right, so it's not it's not that I it's not that I want people to I don't I don't want ⁓ religious folks, spiritual folks, you're in this too. I don't want you guys thinking that you need to be out in the streets burning things. Yeah, Jesus was a table flipper, but he was flipping tables, he didn't set the synagogue on fire. He him and his disciples didn't climb on said building. To try to steal an election. It's not it's not that, but at the same time, you just cannot continue to roll over and think that God is gonna make it better. Look at where we are. Look at where we are. There's there's Jesus got pushed and he was flipping tables. He was telling you, this isn't the way to do it. This is not it, right. So you can take the influence of Jesus and the person that God wants you to be. You can take that and you can you can say enough is enough. And sometimes like the like I tell like I tell C four all the time, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, but I think right now God needs someone who would who drop an F bomb at the drop of a hat. Cause you need to realize we get to live here too. There's improvements that need to happen. Just plain and simple. That's why again, I'm so excited that people like Matthew, I'm so excited that people like Bernard, I'm so excited that people like Russell, Cleveland, I'm so excited that all of these folks that that can see the game being played and you guys are trying to take over the system. I don't think the system is racist. I think the people that are in control of it is racist are racist. I think if we took the same system, we don't need to tear it down and all that dramatic stuff. We just need to fill it with people who actually get it. You know what I mean? speaker-1: I just told my buddy ⁓ because he he's struggling right now, right? And he he does he he's struggling with his addictions right now. And he there's he goes through highs and lows, right? We you know, I see him come out and you know he's doing good and then all of a sudden he drops down again. And I told him and I had to write it down. Actually he w we we both said we had to write it down, but ⁓ I told him that when you're on the brink of a breakthrough, the devil's gonna try to break you. Right? speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: So he's gonna try to take you and he's gonna he's gonna give you the things money, power, all the things that you think that you need, and you're gonna think they're God's gifts, right? But in reality, you have to see through all that and say, This is not what I it's not about what I want, it's but what I really need. So what we really need right now is we need leaders in position. We need people that are like us that are that are table flippers, man. speaker-0: Thank you. speaker-1: Ne we need people that are gonna kick doors down at not just knock on them. We're gonna need people that that are gonna get in your face. We're gonna need people to all play all positions, right? And those are all, you know, Jesus had all of his disciples and they were all different. Right? They all wanted one walk down water, he fell as soon as he didn't believe. It's like, ⁓ man, what the hell? Why is Jesus sleeping in the boat? What's going on right here? He's trying to teach you a lesson, right? What are you gonna how are you gonna play your role? And we're all playing our parts and and Matt, man, like you're playing your part. And and your your part is crucial. You know, and we're trying to play our part to make sure that your your part is isn't going un ⁓ we we all have to we're all arm in arm, we're all lock lock locked in, you know, and we all gotta we all gotta fight this fight together. speaker-0: Absolutely. speaker-1: Flip table. speaker-0: Yeah. Well, and I mean, I'd like to make an appeal to religious people because you know, religious, spiritual, whatever you subscribe to, I mean, look at Jesus himself and the actions and the and the stories. I mean, the story of the Good Samaritan, talking about clothing the poor, giving food to the hungry, that immigrants are people who are should be invited into the the circle and the conversation. I mean like if we you look at what Jesus actually said and did in the recording of the Bible our actions currently are not that. Correct. And the current administration is playing on our fears, our anxieties and our spirituality in ways that It's to get you to act in a way in a certain way. And I'd encourage everybody go back. If you're spiritual, if you're religious, read your Bible and like actually read the words of Jesus, the ones that are in red in the New Testament. Like what does what does he say? And if we truly are Christians, then are you following the words that are written in red? And if you aren't, or if you don't know, or if There's a hesitation, like really be reflective. Pray, think about it, and then decide how we can make changes. Because our society should be helping other people. Like, and I know I know that most people are inherently good. 100%. It's just that we have been lied to and manipulated and tricked into s thinking and doing certain things. we can come back from that one hundred percent one hundred percent and and you know since we're part of nature and we have learned through people don't realize just how much we've learned about nature because of covet when we took a break from the world from the planet yeah the planet regenerated itself So you can't tell me that the planet can't regenerate itself in such a quick amount of time. And we can't do that to the government. It's not it, you know what? Every every ⁓ from what I understand, it's every weekend there's a new there's a new something that we have to vote on that feels like every week now. So you can't tell me if we don't continue to communicate in commune. To get back to, you know, like where a lot of our beliefs come from. If you are a person of faith and you look at what's happening in this country, and you are scared in any way, it it's time for change. It's time for change. And everyone says, ⁓ it's only a two party system and all this other. Yeah, but We've seen grassroots efforts take off. You can't tell me that AOC wasn't up against it and she figured it out. You can't tell me that mom Donnie did wasn't up against it and he figured it out. You can't tell me that Matthew Mf and Gromlik is out here. We didn't connect with him and we about to we about to set his wick on fire. We're but we're introducing you to Sergeant ⁓ Rhodes. We're introducing you to all those folks. Because there is an effort that's happening. It's all those noisy people that you see on Instagram, all those noisy people that you see on TikTok, that the folks that are tired of this two party system and blah blah blah blah blah, all that stuff. Yeah. Let's take a look at them. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Let's take a look at them. What's your stance on Citizens United? Terrible. One of the worst Supreme Court decisions. Do you want to expand? Yes. speaker-1: Let's go. The name sounds so like beautiful. speaker-0: ⁓ I mean, yeah, marketing, branding. Yeah. We're gonna do this together. Insane how much money goes into politics and how an individual person there's a cap on how much money you can donate as an individual to a campaign. But there's no cap for a a business, or if you donate to a pack or super pack. Are you kidding me? Yeah. It it yeah. How is that democracy? Yeah. Let me explain something to you guys. Trash people with money hide the fact that they're trashy with their money. Period. Period. Period. I know a lot of folks that are trash people, but they're throwing the money out just like that. They hide it. They hide behind their money. So when you have someone again, like a Matthew, like some of the folks that we talk to on this channel. They're coming from grassroots. That means that they are literally up against the system. Yes, Matthew is running as a Democrat, but we have learned on this channel that Democrats play against Democrats as well. Right? So we have to take a look at these guys. We have nothing to lose. Exactly. We have nothing to lose. And everything to gain. Everything to gain. If if this two party system is driving you crazy and you say that there's nothing to do, there's nothing to do, it don't take you ⁓ watch this video. speaker-1: Maybe they'll inspire you to run for office. Get off your ass. Do something about it. speaker-0: Or so or if you know someone that wants to come and talk, and and again, we don't even care. You're left leaning, right lean. I don't care. I don't care. To a certain extent, it all makes sense to me, but I think it's the it's the timing of your ideas, right? It'd be wonderful if we could all just put pull us up by the bootstraps and we all start a ⁓ business. It'd be wonderful to do that. Yeah, society is not ready for that. That's the Republican way of doing things. Once we are all Let's let's let's use right leaning terms. If you are billable. Where was I going with that? If you are billable, you're living in a society. If if all of your society is billable, meaning there's no homelessness, people are educated, da-da-da. If you are billable, that means that we can live in a society that the Republicans want. But we're not ready for that. We have to live in a democ democratic society so we can build people up and change the culture to be able to move like that. But we can't. But we can't. We're just not there yet. We have to fix education. We have to fix infrastructure. We have to fix the fact that ⁓ a guy can trick a bunch of people to get him into office so he can be richer. We have to fix that. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Yeah. And Flan is neckyna. Sorry. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. So what's it like what's it like ⁓ growing up as ⁓ as basically a was your dad in the army or coast guard Coast Guard? What's it like living in a ⁓ in a military family? Growing up in a military family? Very strict. Yeah. ⁓ was your dad the kind that said you had to call him sir? Was he that strict? No, but that's part of southern culture anyway, so ⁓ We did. yeah, I mean the f family's good. I mean my parents and I are great. They're fairly conservative, like I said. But not in MAGA. They're in North Carolina still. ⁓ but we moved around. I've lived in I think nine different states in my life. Whoa. Yes, every two or three years, moving somewhere and starting over and meeting new people and I I mean it was really great for personal growth and development going from the South to I was in Massachusetts, ⁓ Oregon, Indiana. And look at you, you're talking to us and you're not afraid at all. Am I? Yeah, I didn't I didn't yeah, no, you're super comfortable and you didn't grab your purse not once. It's crazy how exposure to brown kids. Yeah, huh. Who would have who would have thought? Ha ha ha. Yeah, ⁓ really really good upbringing, lots of people, lots of ideas, cultures. It's so necessary. I was in ⁓ Europe ⁓ a few months ago and it's interesting because a lot of European people speak a lot of languages because there are so many different countries really close. Whereas in the United States, just geographically we're fairly landlocked. We have Canada, we have Mexico. But depending on where you are in the US, I mean you may not ever go to those countries. And so it's interesting that our not interesting, it a fact that like we just don't necessarily have access to other cultures and languages and people like they do in other countries. And I think that is part of ⁓ where we are right now as well. Yeah. That If we don't have that access and you don't make a point of going other places and interacting with other cultures and other types of people, then how would you how would you know? How would you grow? Exactly. speaker-1: You're living in a box. Getting outside your neighborhood. And learn learning with other people. Like why do why do other people think the way they think? You know? And you know, I don't know. It's it's important. It's it's for for personal growth, but people people are okay with not doing that at all. And they're they're quite all right with saying that, hey, everything that I see in my My Fox News and my truth social is is is the gospel. speaker-0: And that's because it's easy. Like people don't people are like water. People are like water. They just go the easiest way. And I don't, you know, I don't blame you. That's why TV remotes, one of the greatest inventions. You're looking at you're looking at my family's first TV remote, this guy right here. So let me tell you, the little wireless one is incredible. Sure, I lost my job, but you know, that's fine. speaker-1: ⁓ man, I lost my aluminum hat. Where's my tinfoil hat? I'm gonna have the Jedi here in a minute. ⁓ Matt, what what message do you have for someone that is tired of the same old same? Who who wants change but is afraid of change but wants they they want they want something better than what's going on. What's what's your message for them? speaker-0: My message is that change is not only possible, change is inevitable. And so if you don't make a stance and vote for the change that you want, change is going to happen around you no matter what. So I know that people are scared. I'm scared. It is a scary time in America. It's a scary time in the world. But if you don't put your effort and your emotion and your energy into something, the world is going to change around you. So let's work together to make change. that we want it. And even if it's scary and even if it it doesn't fit our timeline or it doesn't completely 100% align with exactly what we're wanting to do, we need to move in the positive direction. Preach. I love it. I love it. ⁓ hey, real quick, we'll wrap up right now. ⁓ Matthew, ⁓ if people are looking to catch up with you online on social media and stuff like that, go ahead and give them a shout out, understanding that we're gonna have the links to everything that he says in the description of this video. But go ahead and and ⁓ if people are looking for you, where can they find you? speaker-1: What's up, man? speaker-0: Sure. So I think the best way, go to my website, it's fightersforarfuture.com. And from there, if you click contact, there's the link tree that has all the InstaX, Facebook, Blue Sky threads, all of those things. They're all a little different. so you know, something with Matt Gromlich, LA for Matt Gromlik for Congress. But if you go on fightersforarfuture.com, then there's everything there, including ⁓ volunteer. page, which would be amazing. Even if you don't live in Louisiana for, I mean, we need volunteers for anything, any of your skills. ⁓ the form is great. Just let us know how you can help and what your interests are and we'll get in touch with you. And then anybody who wants to donate to the campaign, then there's a button on there as well. And we'll gladly take donations to to keep this rolling and to make sure that as many people as possible hear this information and our Looped into the conversation. Real quick, last question. ⁓ when you take this seat, yeah, what what's your vote as far as Epstein files? Epstein files. Let's release the Epstein files. Let's go. Let's make it happen. I don't care who's in it. If you did something bad and illegal, then you should be punished for it. Everybody should have to answer for all of the choices and decisions that they've made. Come on. Always makes me wonder. It always makes me wonder how many lawmakers are in that list. Probably quite a few. And how many of those lawyers, the point four percent of them that are in? I wonder how many of those are in there. speaker-1: It's a game changer. Bring him up. speaker-0: I don't know about you, but I it's been I I have yet to hear of any teachers being on this list. So far. I don't know any. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: All right, Matthew, thank you so much for taking time to come and chopping it up with us. I am so happy to have met you. Me and I'm I'm excited for the future of the country because again, when people like you have ⁓ come out to say enough is enough, we can't continue down this trajectory. I love that people like you are standing up and just being like, Nope, not today, Satan. Thank you. This has been amazing. Alright. We out. speaker-1: We'll see what