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CJP #30: Kyle Wilson (CA-1) · Coconut Justice

• speaker-0: Hey, what's good? Kyle Wilson was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California. He went to Columbia Law School and became a labor attorney to help people. Now he's taken it to the next level by running for office to represent California's first congressional district, which covers parts of Sonoma County. This is my conversation with Kyle Wilson. 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, everybody. I wanted to introduce you to one of the guys that's running for office here, Northern California. He's trying to represent District One, which is in Santa Rosa. Everyone, please meet Kyle Wilson. speaker-1: Hi, Carlos. Thank you for the introduction. ⁓ so excited to be here and really excited to be in this race and hopefully bring a voice to the people of Northern California. speaker-0: Yeah. So are you originally from Northern California? speaker-1: Yeah, so I was born and raised here in Santa Rosa. My family's been here since ⁓ really since the Great Depression. So my my great grandfather came over from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. ⁓ they were apple farmers. And so they settled in Sebastopol, which is ⁓ sort of a neighboring town here that's known for its apples. And ⁓ yeah. No, no, very much not hippies. No speaker-0: Hippies, no? speaker-1: No, I mean there's ⁓ I think the old school, the really old school Sebastian like from that era are are ⁓ a little bit different than the modern ⁓ sabbatical duties. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah, my family's actually all very conservative for the most part. Yeah. So I'm sort of the the lone progressive voice trying to move things forward. speaker-0: Can we pull on that string a little bit? Cause I think everyone thinks that, you know, California is just a bunch of liberals and we just sit around braiding each other's hair, I guess. I don't know what the hell they think we do out here. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean braiding hair is definitely a very small percentage of my time, at least. But ⁓ yeah, you know, I grew up in a a very conservative household here. So I live actually in an unincorporated area of Santa Rosa outside the city limits, ⁓ surrounded by trees and ⁓ by vineyards and and that sort of stuff. And ⁓ yeah, I mean I I all my family voted for Trump. I am sort of surrounded by people from both sides of the political spectrum. You know, obviously me personally, I'm I'm much further on the left than Than my family, but ⁓ I do think now more than ever, it's really important to be exposed to these different viewpoints and not just be living inside of our own echo chambers and to really listen and understand where the dissatisfaction is coming from that these Trump voters are expressing. And to me, it really all comes down to sort of the same things that people on the left are talking about as well. It's just a matter of getting everybody to understand that. You know, this failure of the government, this failure of the economy, it really comes down to ⁓ the corporate oligarchy and the control of our politics by the the super elite. And I I I really think that's sort of the unifying message that I'm trying to lean on. And I I think it's something that connects people across the political spectrum. speaker-0: And coming from a more conservative family, aren't they tired of corporate corruption and that stuff too? speaker-1: They are, yeah, absolutely. You know, that that's sort of a ⁓ a common theme, you know. They talk about it in maybe slightly different language. They like to phrase it as like elites, you know, like the coastal elites, right? But really they're all talking about the same things. Like when the left is talking about the corporate oligarchy and ⁓ the right is talking about these elites, these, you know, whatever, however they want to describe it, it really comes down to the same thing, which is corporate control, you know. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And I think we all want to see a society where small businesses can thrive, where local communities can really be back at the forefront, where we can connect with our neighbors and where we're not just sending all of our money out to, you know, the Amazons and the Facebooks and the Googles of the world, but we can actually build up wealth here locally inside of our neighborhoods. speaker-0: That's one of the things that I absolutely adore about this. So just to give you because everybody we literally just met a couple minutes ago. ⁓ I've lived in Chicago, in Miami, in LA, San Diego for a hot second. I lived in Germany, I lived in Oklahoma for a minute for basic training, stuff like that. But one of the things that makes Northern California unique is what you've been kind of kind of talking on right now is the fact that buy local. Stop eating processed food. You know, grow your own stuff. So there's this attachment to nature up here that makes it so attractive to me. Do you get that same vibe? speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I grew up surrounded by nature. A lot of people I know really nature is a big part of their lives. And I think people here really do understand that to live your best life, you have to be living in harmony with the natural world, with the environment, with their communities. ⁓ I actually lived in Hawaii for a little bit and it was a really similar energy there. Yeah. Yeah. A tough way to stem COVID for sure. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: But ⁓ but it's sort of the same thread where you know I I think people here are very tapped into ⁓ this idea of living healthy lives, living local lives, and really supporting our communities. ⁓ and that is why I I you know I went to law school in New York City, I went to undergraduate in ⁓ Los Angeles, and I ended up coming back here to Santa Rosa just because. To me, what's really important is to live a healthy life, to live a life ⁓ in harmony with nature, to live a life surrounded by my family, and to live a life of integrity. And those are things that I think are really valued here locally and and especially like ⁓ up north a little bit. And it's something I'm really proud to be a part of. speaker-0: Yeah. going back to the fact that California might be a little more red than people might might want to admit or even realize. we get to interact with a lot of right leaning folks. It's not that hard to find. speaker-1: No. speaker-0: have you ever had to convince someone super hard that your way of thinking is not that drastic than from what they're expecting or they're even wanting? speaker-1: Yeah. So ⁓ you know, pretty recently actually I was having a conversation with ⁓ my stepfather. And he's very much ⁓ a Trump voter and ⁓ you know, been supporting the MAGA movement. ⁓ but really, you know, when I talk to him, what I see underneath all of, you know, there's a lot of policies that he supports that I just frankly don't agree with and I never will agree with, but underneath all of that. I see this frustration with the status of the economy and with the inability of people to provide a better life for their children and to really create ⁓ the American dream for themselves, right? And I I think that's what it comes down to. And you know, I by framing the issues in that way, by really trying to understand where people are coming from, like what is this fundamental insecurity that they're reacting to. Rather than taking sort of a such a reaction, ⁓ a reactive approach to the conversation. And you know, I think that's where our politics has been at for a lot of the past 10 years, is it's been a very divisive, ⁓ reactionary sort of approach. And to me, that's not productive, right? Like as much as I disagree with somebody, I'm not gonna change their mind by calling them a bigot or or you know, ⁓ by Demeaning them or degrading them. It's really by finding out what brings us together and and finding out what drives them and then saying, like, look, like I understand where you're coming from. This issue isn't caused by immigrants, though, right? Like that's that's sort of where the MAGA movement is putting the blame, is is on immigrants. So my job really has been trying to pull back the curtain and and show them like, no, this this isn't caused by immigrants. This is caused by the billionaires, by the corporate ⁓ oligarchy by the businesses that aren't paying you a fair wage. speaker-0: Let me let me add to your argument, and you can hopefully use this while you're campaigning. Now you have a friend that moved to the San Francisco area, and I had a few jobs designing software and programming and doing that stuff. But then I found out about this H1B visa thing. So they're they're doing to technology creators, technology people. The same thing that they're doing with the people south of us. Instead of taking all the apple picking jobs, they're also taking all the jobs at Apple. You know what I'm saying? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. That's a good line. I like that. speaker-0: So it's so it's there the only commonality between what's happening at our border and what's happening with technology. ⁓ the the common thread is corporations trying to get labor as cheap as possible. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Absolutely. That's just another example of their shenanigans. speaker-1: Yeah. And you know, I'm a labor attorney. I do class action lawsuits ⁓ throughout the state of California. And one of the big things that I see is the way that immigration is approached right now, like we're not going after the big companies that are actually hiring these immigrants, right? We're all we're doing is scaring the existing immigrants into being unable to come forward and ⁓ stand up for their labor rights, which makes it just so much easier to get away with ⁓ Taking those rights away from other workers as well. It's so much harder now. Even in the past six months, I've seen how much harder it is for me to get declarations, to get statements from people that are immigrants working in these industries like agriculture, ⁓ hospitality, cleaning, ⁓ because they're scared to come forward because of immigration enforcement. And and yet these companies that are actually hiring the immigrant forces workforce, ⁓ there's no enforcement. ⁓ against them. So so really it's just it's theater, right? It it's creating an enemy and not actually trying to solve the problem, but really just finding a scapegoat. speaker-0: Yeah. And then leveraging media to point the finger at at people that haven't it's not their fault. It's the corporations that are giving the jobs. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. ⁓ and you know, it it's a tough job to be able to convince people that that's actually what's happening because there's so much propaganda out there, frankly. Fox News and and social media, the algorithms. ⁓ but to me I I think the way around that is to to really focus on building up relationships and using relational power to gradually but ⁓ you know, ultimately like Very forcefully change the mindset of a lot of people. speaker-0: Yeah. what's your stance on the education system? speaker-1: Yeah, so I mean Frankly, we just need ⁓ I mean locally here in Santa Rosa, it's a mess. ⁓ I don't know if you've been paying attention to the what's happening here. Yeah. speaker-0: I have. They're closing. Let me I'll I'll give me two minutes and then you can take over. Here in Sonoma, they're closing down one of the schools. And I know some people that are trying to open up a new school. So they're trying to so the the local government is closing a school and combining the two schools. So now you're gonna have classroom sizes of like 30 kids, and one poor teacher is gonna have to deal with 30 kids. speaker-1: Yeah, that's insane. And like with so many of these issues, whether it be education or healthcare or housing, it's not a matter of whether we have the money to fix these problems. There's the money like available. Like if we wanted to tax the super wealthy, we could have more than enough money to fund our education system, to make sure that we have reasonable student to teacher ratios, to make sure that we're not closing schools. ⁓ speaker-0: Let me refine that. Let me and I'm let me refine that a little bit. Cause I like saying this too. billionaires, I understand that it sounds like we're coming after you. I understand that we're trying to put our hands in your purse. I get it. So instead, what we do is we don't bomb one country and we're gonna have plenty of money. speaker-1: Yeah. I mean, I I don't know the exact amount of how much it costs for us to do our military operation in Venezuela, but certainly there's money there to to fund some schools or to give people help. speaker-0: Venezuela, in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Nigeria. You know what I'm saying? speaker-1: Yeah. For sure, and it's just a matter of priority. But you know, we're we're in this military industrial complex that's been going on since Dwight Eisenhower. You know, he saw it what, eighty years ago? And and warned us, and yeah, here we are. speaker-0: Warned us about it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So tell me about your ⁓ scholastic career. Did you start going to school down in ⁓ Santa Rosa? speaker-1: Yeah, so I ⁓ grew up here, attended public school in Santa Rosa. I actually lived in Nevada for most for middle school and most of my high school in a small town called Spanish Springs. It's outside of Sparks, Nevada, which is outside of Perino. ⁓ huh. ⁓ very small population. So I was there until my junior year of high school. And then I came back and I graduated from Annalee High School here in Sebastopol. Yeah. So ⁓ you know, went through the public school system ⁓ and then ended up going to UCLA on a scholarship. I was the first in my family to go to college. speaker-0: Did you go as a athlete or a smart person? speaker-1: As a smart person. speaker-0: Had a boy. speaker-1: Yeah. You know, people always told me I should have played basketball 'cause I'm six three, but ⁓ you know, I was I was mostly just ⁓ in the library. Didn't have much time for ⁓ for shooting hoops. speaker-0: Yeah. Ha ha ha. speaker-1: But ⁓ yeah, I I went to UCLA, I studied there. I was actually a neuroscience major. ⁓ that was what I graduated with. I planned on going to medical school. But ⁓ you know, someone coming from a middle class family, the prospect of being in school for that long, not having basically like really an income for most of my twenties, ⁓ wasn't really an outcome that I I thought would work for me. And so I I decided to go into ⁓ law instead. And so then I went to Columbia Law School. Cool. And that was the first time I had gone to to private school. It was a a much different experience than than most were you more in speaker-0: Okay. Were you more excited about living in LA or New York? speaker-1: ⁓ LA for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, New York has its appeal. I I really loved ⁓ like the food and just the exposure to all of these different ideas and cultures and communities. But I'm also much more of a ⁓ you know, I like my open spaces. I like to speaker-0: Nature's important. speaker-1: Be able to see the horizon every once in a while. speaker-0: Yeah, sunsets are beautiful, aren't they? speaker-1: Yeah, they really are. And ⁓ didn't get a whole lot of that living in Manhattan. speaker-0: I grew up in Chicago. I'm originally from Chicago. So yeah, I get it. Cause like in the big cities you're surrounded by buildings and it's light and then and then it's dark. And you don't always get to get to get a peek at that sunset. speaker-1: Yeah, you know, it was really like wild to me the first time I came home after being in New York City and just feeling feeling like the open space again for the first time. And just how what it does psychologically to actually have that physical space. ⁓ to me it just it's something that I really ⁓ operate best in is having sort of that environment. speaker-0: I try to explain people that feeling that you just got done explaining or describing. And for me, when I go to Mere Woods, that's that's the clearest point where I feel that, like nature's is like excited that you're there. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, that's it's evolution. Like we grew up in that. And and that's what our bodies and our minds are really designed to be functioning in. So it it only makes sense. speaker-0: Have you ever done the zip lining through the wetwoods? speaker-1: No, I haven't. That sounds fun. speaker-0: ⁓ dude, that is so fun. So fun. Yeah, my sister from ⁓ Chicago came to visit and we went zip laning through the redwoods and boy, that's a good time. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, I I bet you know, I go hiking up there every once in a while, but I've never done the the zipline, I'll have to check that out. speaker-0: Yeah. And apparently now they have I don't know if it's the same company or not. I wanna say that they have camping. So I don't know if it's like I don't think it's tent camping. I think it's like treehouse camping kind of thing. ⁓ cool. Yeah. So yeah, it's pretty neat. speaker-1: Nice, yeah, yeah, I have to check that out. I ⁓ I haven't really done ⁓ done a whole lot of camping up in the Redwoods. ⁓ but I mean it sounds like an amazing opportunity for sure. speaker-0: good time dude. It's a good time. How much how much do you get down to ⁓ San Francisco? speaker-1: Every once in a while, ⁓ you know, I'll I'll go and ⁓ meet a friend or sure have dinner or something. ⁓ but I mean especially Yeah, there there are some great ⁓ great restaurants, some great bars. ⁓ nowadays I really have to to budget my time super carefully. So speaker-0: Out there. ⁓ not like you're doing anything important like running for office or anything. speaker-1: Yeah, running for office and also ⁓ working full time as an attorney is is not really super conducive to making it to San Francisco that often. But ⁓ I try to to build in some time for myself to go and enjoy myself every once in a while. speaker-0: Yeah. Explain to me the process that you went through or the thinking when you went to college and and when you decided to become a lawyer and how does someone think or how what's the process that you went through to become a labor lawyer? speaker-1: Yeah, so I've always really had an interest in government and politics. ⁓ going back to to high school speaker-0: One of those kids that ran for class president and stuff. speaker-1: No, definitely not. So I'm actually I'm a pretty introverted person. And so I've never really hasn't been a big draw to me to be the face of like anything like that, student by the president. ⁓ but I've always had an interest in politics and government. You know, that was one of my ⁓ my big things in high school was speech and debate as well. Actually entered an essay contest in high school. They want a trip to go to Washington DC. Nice. go and tour all the monuments, ⁓ go to Gettysburg. speaker-0: And they see cool. speaker-1: Yeah, it's so cool. Yeah, there's so much history there and just so much ⁓ you know, like especially the Lincoln Monument was the one that really got to me just because he was such a such a different kind of leader where he was not always doing what was immediately popular, but he just had this moral vision of what needed to happen and just just kept fighting to speaker-0: Ooh, that's the nickel. speaker-1: To make it happen. And I think that's where we're at right now with our society. ⁓ so that was a really formative moment for me. And then ⁓ you know, I made it to law school. ⁓ I had never really had much of an interest in doing the traditional pathways. Like most of the people that I went to school with go and they work for the big law firms that represent the corporations. That was never really something that appealed to me. to me, law has always been about. How can I use my talent and my skill to be a voice for the people that can't speak for themselves? And so I've always really had more of an interest in public focus law. And I did some work at Legal Aid of Sonoma County here in Santa Rosa. I did some consumer class action cases right out of law school against Joule e cigarettes. Yeah, because they were marketing to minors on Instagram. speaker-0: ⁓ okay. Yeah. speaker-1: So there's a big class action lawsuit. So I was involved in that as one of my first jobs out of law school. Nice. And then yeah. And then I just sort of naturally, you know, I found a job in employment law and I really ⁓ it really connected with me in in terms of like You know, it's almost like a Robin Hood type thing where we're we're literally just taking money from from big companies and giving it to working people. So of all the ways to make a a living as a lawyer, it really seemed like one of the ⁓ the best ways to do it. speaker-0: Yeah. No. I wish I would have known you. I wish I would have met you just just a couple of years ago, man. I have been going since 2017. I have been trying to get my money from this company. And now this guy is like ducking and dodging. I think he started a new company in DuPai, all kinds of stuff. speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. I mean, it's impossible if you don't have representation and you're just trying to do it on your own. speaker-0: It is tough. speaker-1: Yeah, it's really tough. I mean, it's tough for me and I have a law degree and you know, a whole team behind me. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ I won the case, but I'm not gonna say it was the prettiest thing you've ever seen. But now I'm I'm waiting to get my money and again he's hiding. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean that's the thing that they don't tell you is you get a judgment and all that is is a piece of paper and then that's the real work is actually getting the money out of them. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad you made the decision that you did because I have been through that and it's terrible. It's a it's a waste of time. But unfortunately, and and hopefully you can you can shed some light on this, or maybe if there's a way to fix this situation. ⁓ I had enough money or I had ⁓ I was owed enough money to not give up on it, but it wasn't enough to make it profitable for the lawyers. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: Right. ⁓ is this a situation where laws need to be changed, or is it a situation where lawyers might need to just help? Like speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Hearing stories like that, how would you how would you and this is not really legal advice? This is my story is already done, and the for folks that are listening to this that are probably going through the same thing. This is not paid legal advice. This is just kind of giving you a hint. how would you tell a normal person that doesn't have the money to go get? this money. speaker-1: Yeah. So, you know, my law firm specifically, we do a lot of class action cases. So all of my practice is class action. And those cases typically revolve around ⁓ like meal break violations, ⁓ overtime, not being paid properly, not being paid for all the hours people worked, or even reimbursement. If you're using your cell phone on a job and you don't ⁓ get reimbursement for that, that ⁓ is also a class action claim. And so ⁓ you know, contingency fee cases like that, ⁓ where if we can bring someone in, even if their individual claim isn't the strongest on itself, if they are working for a company that's big enough, then a lot of firms like mine want to take it just because it's usually easy to find some sort of violation in the the records that allows us to go after it as a class, which then does make it profitable for the business. So in terms of like what's existing now, I think that's ⁓ Typically the way to go is try and find a class action firm that can dig into the records and ⁓ and potentially represent you. Like in terms of the solution broader about like how do we make it so we don't have to have like your case doesn't have to be profitable to make it be able to be prosecuted, right? ⁓ I think one of the big failures is, and my boss is gonna hate this, but I think ⁓ speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: You know, the government has outsourced this work to private companies, right? So like my law firm is a private company. It has a profit motive. My boss wants to make as much money as possible. speaker-0: Rightfully so. Rightfully so. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. I mean it makes sense, right? Like just how business works. But ⁓ the issue then is exactly what you said, where where if it's not profitable, then a firm's not gonna take it. And so really what I think needs to happen, particularly in labor law, is we need to have governmental agencies really, really ramp up their own enforcement of these cases and bring in these cases on their own. So I actually the the statute that we sue under is called the Private Attorney General's Act. So we're essentially acting as private attorney generals and prosecuting these labor cases. And we need to have the actual attorneys general be prosecuting these cases because they don't have to worry about turning a profit. speaker-0: Make sense to me? speaker-1: Yeah, but you know, that would require ⁓ a legislature that's responsive and ⁓ making changes and actually ⁓ legislating, which hard to find nowadays. speaker-0: ⁓ I've heard stories about how judges have gotten in trouble for using Chat GPT to help figure out their cases and stuff. Is there a situation or is there a way where you can see lawyers benefiting from something like a chat GPT without ⁓ without getting in trouble, like responsibly using something like that? speaker-1: Yeah, so I have seen that as well. Actually, in a case I was working on, the opposing counsel submitted a brief and all of the citations in the brief were completely made up by AI. ⁓ there were fake cases. The judge noticed, and actually the funny thing is ⁓ the judge said in his opinion, one of the fake case names appeared to just be the names of two soccer players mashed up. ⁓ my god. So wild. ⁓ speaker-0: ⁓ speaker-1: ⁓ so yeah, I mean as an attorney, you have a duty to do your own legal research and to verify all the citations you're using. I will say in my practice, what I do use AI, our firm relies ⁓ decently on on AI. What I use it for would be for like drafting emails, ⁓ like changing tone, or like if I already have an argument and I just want ⁓ to polish it. And to make it a little bit more ⁓ make it flow better. Yeah. That is where I see AI being useful in the legal practice. But it is dangerous that people are just outsourcing their professional judgment to AI. And and that's not just an issue in the legal industry. That's an issue across society. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I I'm I come from the creative end of things. And so, you know, like it is what it is, I guess, until until the laws catch up to what's happening. And I think that's why it's important for us to get a new crop of ⁓ lawmakers like you in here, folks that grew up with technology. With as much love as I have for something like a for someone like a Maxine Waters or or a Nancy Pelosi. She's iffy on me just because the insider trading stuff, but that that that's a blanket statement. ⁓ We need a younger crop of folks making rules because you guys understand technology. You've had technology with you pretty much your entire life. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that really is one of the big failures of having this Congress where the average age is in the sixties is and they don't understand the magnitude of the problems we're facing. And this isn't just an AI thing. This is an economy thing. It's about housing, it's about healthcare. They are not living the same experience that everybody else is. They're living in a world that doesn't exist anymore. speaker-0: It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And not just that, but they have all the comforts of being a lawmaker and all the money and all the everything, right? So there's that addiction to to power. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: But you gotta you gotta come down from the throne, son. You're you're you know, if you're eighty, there you should you should be on a beach somewhere. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, to me, my style of leadership and and how I look like how I would want to be a politician is it's not about what I can just do for myself. It's about bringing other people up too and creating a sustainable ⁓ system where where there's other voices and there's other people that can step up and do the work. And it's not just about me or my ego. It's about how are we building up a society where everybody feels empowered. speaker-0: Yeah. And and that's what's unfortunate is I think American culture is has been changed so much to the me, me, me mentality that we forget about us. You know? It's it's it's United States of America, not a United States of one dumbass. It's just not. speaker-1: Yeah, it it's not. And really that divide is why we're seeing so many problems across our society. And not even just like in the legal realm, but on like a really like almost a spiritual level and emotional level, the the disconnect we're seeing is that we don't have these personal connections anymore. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: To me, that is really the first thing that needs to change if we're going to actually make our country function again is we need to to think about something that's happening beyond ourselves and really get back and connected to our communities and our neighbors. speaker-0: Yep. And leveraging social media for the right things. You know, having conversations like this instead of instead of, you know, goofy cat videos and whatever things that don't and I'm not saying that that doesn't, you know, trash TV has always been around. ⁓ so you're always gonna have that stuff that kind of distracts you, which gives you a nice break from reality, whatever, whatever. But The more of us that come here and have conversations like this and and having I open dialogue to figure out how to make it better for everyone, you know, instead of instead of whatever that places the heritage foundation that does the same thing, but to tear us apart. speaker-1: Yeah. And really that's how the corporate oligarchy sustains itself is by keeping people divided. Because the moment we start coming together and and fighting for the things that unite us, like fixing the healthcare system and making sure that housing is affordable for everybody. That moment that we are able to actually unite and focus on moving forward is the moment that they lose their power. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And so they're doing everything they can to stop it. And that includes using the the media, whether it be social media or whether it be traditional media. speaker-0: Yeah. You brought up housing. Everyone knows that houses out here are crazy expensive. What are your thoughts on how we got here and how can we fix it? speaker-1: Yeah. So this is a really complex problem and there's a lot of things that I think need to be fixed. To me, looking at sort of the biggest picture issue is that housing has become primarily an investment vehicle instead of a place for people to live, right? Like people buy houses not because they want to raise a family there, but because they think that they're gonna be able to sell it for twice as much as they bought it for in 10 years. Right. And part of that is because our tax system rewards the purchase of real estate as an investment. So if you buy real estate that you don't live in, you actually get an additional tax break, like the depreciation write-off, for that property that's not available to someone who's living in a house as their primary residence. So you actually get a tax benefit for having real estate as an investment. We need to change that. Like that is just creating the system where the prices just keep going up and up and up because there's this ⁓ this influx of people into the market who are just buying up all the supply, and especially big companies like BlackRock buying up the supply. So we need to rewrite the tax system to make it so we get rid of that. Like it doesn't even make any sense economically. Like, why are people being able to take a depreciation write off on a house that's increasing in value year over year? speaker-0: That they're barely even living in. speaker-1: It just doesn't make sense. Yeah. ⁓ and all that does is make it impossible for people who actually want to buy a house to live in, and especially for younger people, to ever have that be an opportunity. So we need to end that ⁓ that tax structure. We need to reduce corporate ownership. ⁓ you know, we also need to go after the building supply of manufacturing companies that have consolidated, and this is again a story that. doesn't just apply to housing, but it applies to across the economy where we've seen this concentration of capital, this concentration of wealth in a few companies, and then they can set the prices whatever they want them to be, because we're all a captive audience. We don't have other options. So busting up those monopolies, I think, would also go a long way towards easing the ⁓ the issues on the supply side as well. speaker-0: Yeah. I read somewhere where Black Rock bought a bunch of houses for three hundred thousand dollars or something like that, and then they sold it to themselves for seven hundred thousand. Something like that. speaker-1: Yeah, I I didn't see that, but I mean they speaker-0: Before I go talking up my let me see. ⁓ I'll I'll do a search while we talk. But yeah, it was something like that. Like they they bought a bunch of houses at a certain point, but then they turned right around and like doubled. They said that it was worth speaker-1: Yeah, I mean it's because our tax system is entirely ridden by and ridden for the the hedge funds of the world and the super wealthy and they use every advantage they can to to really extract more and more wealth. ⁓ I can't hear you if you were talking. speaker-0: ⁓ there go. No, I was doing a I was doing a search because I want to make sure that I'm that I'm not that I'm not sharing bad information. It says here, ⁓ Black Rock buying how ⁓ numerous single family homes and doubling its profits from them is a widely debunked conspiracy theory. ⁓ okay. Well maybe I'll We'll have to do a little more research on that, but I could have sworn that they did something goofy playing with the papers because we know that it happens. Trump got busted for playing with papers, financial papers. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Yes, if you if you were to ⁓ fudge numbers on a document, what do you think would happen to you? speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, I'd go to jail straight away. speaker-0: I'm just saying. speaker-1: Yeah, I I mean that's really the thing is like, you know, you go to law school and you find out that the legal system is really just about who has power and who has the ability to hire a lawyer and write their laws and get away with things and who is gonna be the subject of that and and be put in jail and ⁓ Often for much more minor offenses than really the big like corporate theft that's going on widespread across the country. speaker-0: How crazy was it for you to hear like when Trump got busted for fudging numbers? And then you heard what's his name, Mr. Miracle, Mr. Mr. Fantastic, the guy from Shark Tale. Mr. Wonderful. Well, he said, Everybody does that. speaker-1: Mm Mr. Wonderful. Yeah. ⁓ speaker-0: Crazy was that for you to hear that. speaker-1: You know, honestly, it wasn't that surprising to me because I went to Columbia and I was surrounded by sort of that culture and that environment. But I I I think it's just He's right though. Like everybody does do it. And it's that's not how our system should be. And the problem is that we've allowed that to go and allowed it to happen because people have checked out of our democracy. Yeah. And if we if we ever want to change that, we need to actually stand up and and do something about it. speaker-0: Yeah, that those are very important words. That thought was very It it yeah. We need to tap back in. speaker-1: Yeah. And I get why people are checked out. It's so easy to be cynical when you wake up and you look at the news and there's just something happening. speaker-0: Ding after ding after ding. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's awful. ⁓ but to me, sort of the breaking point was like, okay, I can sit here and I can wake up and I can be cynical every morning, or I can say, what can I do today to make a change that's going to push things in the right direction? And that's how I sleep at night, is because at the end of the day, all we can control is our energy, our actions, and our power. And If we don't tap into that and we just are passive and we, you know, react and ⁓ allow it to just keep our keep our society just depressed, that we're not gonna get anywhere. So it's tough. It's much harder to to look at the situation, understand how shitty it is, and still decide that you're gonna do something about it than it is to just accept it. But that's the fight that we need and that's really the spark that we need from people is to say, you know what? This is shitty. I don't like our government. I don't like our political system. But instead of complaining about it, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna change it. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. And and and the more younger people I'm I'm older. I'm I'm in my fifties, right? So I w when I was your age and when I was, you know, growing up and doing all the things, ⁓ I was told sit down and shut up. You can't change government. And after years and years and years and years of hearing that, you kind of believe it. Because you see it doesn't ever change. Like we've been telling you, black and brown folks have been getting messed up by the cops in the streets, and nothing changes. And we're telling you that there are financial people that fudge numbers on contracts, and everybody does it, even though it's illegal and then is still, you know what I mean? And it's frustrating. So it's great to see a younger generation who has had information at their fingertips. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And you guys go out and you educate yourself and you get well spoken and you and you know how to express yourself and you're like, now we have to go change the rules. I love that. speaker-1: Thank you. Yeah. And I love it too. And it's so inspiring to see so many campaigns across the country doing the same thing that I'm doing, stepping up and really saying, you know what? I don't care what the odds are. I don't care how hard this fight is gonna be, I'm gonna step up and I'm gonna do what I can to change it. And that's what we need from everybody. It's not gonna happen, you know, I'm one person. I can't make change happen by myself. But if I get a community to rally around me, I get my neighbors to support me, I get my friends to to start getting activated, that's how we make change happen. And ⁓ it just takes people willing to look at the odds and say, ⁓ you know what? This is gonna be hard. This is gonna be a fight, but I'm in it. speaker-0: Yeah. How much exposure have you had to the House of Representatives, like all the way in Washington? How how have you have you visited? Have you talked to anyone? speaker-1: Yeah, so I visited when I was ⁓ on my trip in Washington DC back in high school. ⁓ you know, I went and I observed. ⁓ I keep a a pretty close eye on the house as well, ⁓ just in my day to day you know, I I think really what we've been seeing from the house lately has been a lack of action and a lack of legislation. And speaker-0: Been crazy. They worked what, all of forty seven days last year? speaker-1: Yeah, it's wild. ⁓ it's like, wow. Find me up. speaker-0: Ask your boss, ask your boss if he can take all the days except forty-seven off this year to see what he says. speaker-1: I'm sure that'd go over really well. speaker-0: When you when you visited, did you go on a on a tour group and poop on the walls? speaker-1: ⁓ It didn't poop on the wall. speaker-0: No, bada boy. January sixth action. speaker-1: No, no insurrections, ⁓ unfortunately. but ⁓ you know, that was also back in like twenty ten. So things were a little bit more normal. ⁓ you know, we hadn't quite reached the the craziness that we're at now. ⁓ but I mean even then, you know, like I grew up in the Bush presidency and speaker-0: Which one? Round one or round two? speaker-1: ⁓ so George W. Bush. Yeah, so ⁓ most I mean I was born in ninety two, so you know, most of like the my childhood that I remember was was the Bush years. ⁓ speaker-0: That's when I that's when I came back from Germany. I I was at the I was in Germany for the beginning of desert storm and all that stuff. Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ wow. ⁓ what branch were you in? speaker-0: in the army. Cool. Field field artillery. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ wow. Yeah. That's intense. ⁓ but yeah, you know, I like even back then there is you know, we see what happened in Iraq and in Afghanistan and these wars that we entered into for bad reasons, really for oil, ⁓ to support the the big corporations back home. ⁓ and so many people needlessly died. And we spent so much money that could have gone to so much better things. speaker-0: So many better things. speaker-1: And yet, you know, you look back and the the Iraq war was authorized by both parties in Congress, right? It wasn't just a Republican thing. There's only a very small minority of Democrats that stood up and said, you know, we're not gonna be okay with this, Bernie Sanders being really the big one. Yeah. and To me, that's just so emblematic of this isn't just a Republican issue. This is a a government issue and a systems issue. speaker-0: Yeah, which which leads perfectly into what's your stance on Citizens United? speaker-1: I think Citizens United is the single worst Supreme Court decision in my lifetime. speaker-0: It's amazing how many people say that. It's amazing how many people consistently say that. Not one of the worst, the worst. speaker-1: Yeah, it is the absolute worst. And that is actually a big focus of my campaign as well is campaign finance reform. and really it's gonna take a an amendment to the constitution, which is very difficult to do. Yeah. But like you said, this is such a popular issue. And this isn't a left versus right issue. This is a like a everybody issue. Yeah. You know, nobody wants that to be the law. Yeah. ⁓ speaker-0: Even if all you want is less political commercials on your TV, this will affect that. speaker-1: Yeah, right. That's a great great pitch. ⁓ I'm gonna have to take that one. ⁓ yeah, but ⁓ it is the root cause of every other problem that we're seeing because when politicians are bought off by big corporations, Democrats and Republicans. We shouldn't be surprised that there's not any progress happening and that people aren't willing to fight and aren't willing to take bold positions on any of the issues. Yeah. ⁓ you know, like it's To me, that is the big change that needs to happen. And that really is why I am so focused on being able to have these conversations with people, not just Democrats, but also Republicans, because we're gonna need support from people in red states to be able to pass an amendment to overturn Citizens United. And you're not gonna get that by talking down to them. ⁓ you're gonna get that by saying, look, like whatever differences we have. We can agree on this and we need to make this happen. And so Citizens United is something I'm very passionate about, overturning it, at least definitely not passionate about speaker-0: keeping it around. Yeah it has been proven to suck. speaker-1: Yeah, and like it it's amazing to me to hear that it's only the grassroots candidates that are talking about this. Like even you know, the the establishment democrats don't talk about Citizens United because they benefit from it now. Like once the system's in place, they're playing the same game too. And it's ⁓ it's sad to see, but I think more and more people are waking up and seeing pulling back the curtain and seeing what's happening with political contributions and how that affects our democracy. And so I'm hopeful that we're starting to enter an era where there's gonna be real political pressure to make that change. speaker-0: Yeah. From your lips to God's ears, man, because that stuff. And and the thing that just drives me baddie about This argument left versus right. Everyone is consistently saying they're on the take, they're in it for the bag, they just want the money, they're paid off, and all this stuff. And we're like, we're looking at this one thing. Everyone knows what it is, everyone knows what it does, but people vote against their own best interest. And all we have to do is take out this one thing. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. I know it yeah. It's maddening sometimes. speaker-0: Go ahead. And I think that's why people that's why people disengage with with government because it it just never works for them. speaker-1: Yeah, it it doesn't. And people are cynical and people think that's just part of the system and it you can't change it. you know, I had a conversation with somebody when I was gathering signatures to be on the ballot, and they were like, okay, well, like if you get an office and someone gives you like offers to give you whatever ten thousand dollars, a hundred thousand dollars to change your vote, like are you gonna do it? And you know, I obviously said no. And ⁓ This person he just like found it who's so skeptical, right? He thinks that it's just like if you're in politics, you are always gonna take that money, you are always gonna screw over the people. speaker-0: Up to this point, yeah. That's been status quo, yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, because that's been what's happening. But it it's really about rebuilding that trust that that doesn't need to be our system. We can't elect people that have integrity and that that aren't gonna take that money. ⁓ and we can show people that there's a different way. But when all you've ever seen is corruption and dysfunction, it's hard for people to even imagine a different world. speaker-0: I know ⁓ again, that's why I get energized with you guys, because you guys are coming in and I can tell that you look at money in a different way. We're coming out of a situ, we're coming out of generations, like if you think about it. All these old candidates were around when their parents were in in the the Great Depression or whatever. You know what I'm saying? So there's this mentality around money, like we gotta hoard it. We gotta hoard it. Because you know, like the you they know these idiots are gonna pop off another war in any minute now. speaker-1: Mm. Yeah, it's ⁓ it definitely I I think you hit the nail on the head. It is a different relationship to money. Now I look at money as a tool. And it can be a useful tool, it can make life easier, but I zoom out a little bit and say, What am I trying to do with my life? Like what is the purpose of my life? My purpose of my life is to serve my community, to live with integrity, to ⁓ support the people around me and to live a life that I'm proud of. And money can help make that easier and help get me there. But money is not the end goal. Money is a tool and that's all it is. Mm-hmm. ⁓ so I think that really is the philosophy that that younger people see and identify with in a way that the older generation just doesn't understand in a lot of ways. speaker-0: I see young people, they do things that lead to them going outside. This van life movement, the camping movement. I want to they say, I want to work to live. I don't want to live to work. And you got some of these greedy dudes that are sitting there, they don't care. They just want money. And then they sit in the same grubby office and they want money and they want the same grubby office. They don't go out van lifing, they don't go camping, they don't go ziplining. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, I mean you see you see that in ⁓ I I think younger people have looked at their parents' lives unfolding or their grandparents' lives unfolding and seeing where that gets you, like when you're in your fifties and your sixties and you spent your whole life just grinding for money and not living your life, right? Like speaker-0: They're giving now they're giving our jobs to other people. Harder. speaker-1: Yeah. but I I think I think we see like the real dissatisfaction that a lot of older people have with the deal that they got, right? And it w also we don't have the same deal that they even had access to anymore. Yeah. Right. Like at least the older generations, the boomers and ⁓ Gen X, you know, there was sort of this unwritten rule where if you put in your time and you put in the work, then you can buy a home and you can raise a family and Can be prosperous. But that's sort of out the door for people my age, and especially for Gen Z and and the like really younger people. ⁓ you know, my younger brother is 26, and he is just so he's so disillusioned because he doesn't see a path where that's even like realistically obtainable. And then you look at Like, you know, thirty years ago, people could go to college on a part time income and then buy a house for, you know, like a hundred thousand dollars. Mm-hmm. ⁓ it's just a different world. And we shouldn't be surprised that young people are so disillusioned and so cynical. speaker-0: Yeah. All you have to do is go to, you know, any of these real estate websites and just know that especially if you come from a blue collar family like that, it's crazy. And now they're coming out with 50 year mortgages. speaker-1: Yeah, it it's insane. and this is again an issue, like you said, it especially like blue collar families or or you know, middle class, lower middle class families are hit so much harder because really the big barrier is the down payment. and it's so much easier to get a down payment when your family confronted to you than when you have to to save up all that money on your own. Yeah. And so we just see the same system. perpetuating itself over and over where if you already have money then you can get more money and if you don't have money then sucks to suck. speaker-0: Pull yourself up by the bootstraps. ⁓ Bitch, we were flip-flop. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. Ha ha ha. ⁓ speaker-0: What are some of the what are some of the ⁓ big issues coming out of Santa Rosa that that your constituents are gonna want you to to take a look at? Housing obviously is one of speaker-1: Yeah, so I mean housing and healthcare I think affect everybody. You know, it's a yeah it's a local issue, but it's also a national issue. ⁓ in terms of specific to Santa Rosa, you know, immigration is a huge issue right now. ⁓ especially after what we saw happen in Minneapolis this week with the Yeah, it it is wild. and that's again like I'm trying to get people to like reconnect with our humanity and and say, Look, like I don't care what your policy on immigration is, we can't have our government running around and executing people. Like, I mean, that's what happened. Like speaker-0: Isn't it weird that you have to say that? speaker-1: It is. And it's like this isn't a political issue. This is a moral issue and a human issue. Like that was a mother. That was a woman that she had a right to live. And you can't just slap a badge on somebody and say that they're allowed to go out and be judge, jury, and executioner. Mm-hmm. But that's what's happening. ⁓ so I think really building up the local infrastructure to be able to support our immigrant communities and to to really if push comes to shove, make sure that we are able to to resist against that. ⁓ because it's frightening. speaker-0: Let's talk about that a little bit. Because I know in Chicago there was a lot of immigrants. You know, when they were sending the immigrants with the buses and stuff like that. Along those same lines here in California, there was either a program or a law, whatever, that were that was intended, I think. And if you know what I'm talking about, please correct me. But speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Something about making it easier for immigrants to buy a house. Do you remember that? speaker-1: ⁓ I don't remember that specifically. speaker-0: No, okay. Maybe we'll pass it because I don't remember and I don't want to take the time to look it up, but I thought it was a program that was gonna help immigrants ⁓ buy a house and whatever. Anyway, we're gonna move on. ⁓ so we talked about health care, we talked about housing, we talked about immigration. ⁓ What else is happening in Santa Rosa? speaker-1: Yeah, you know, fire is obviously a big one. The environment, you know. speaker-0: The environment. Were you living around were you here when ⁓ when the big fires and what was it twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen happened? speaker-1: In twenty seventeen, no, I was in law school. So I wasn't here for that, but you know, I grew up really close to Coffee Park. ⁓ I'm in northwest Santa Rosa. I came back for winter break and I saw the neighborhood just leveled. speaker-0: Wasn't that just it was l scary. speaker-1: It was scary and and it was like a bomb had been dropped. It was Yeah. So I mean my grandfather was a firefighter here in Santa Rosa. and my brother is a cow fire firefighter. So I've sort of ⁓ you know, firefighting has Yeah speaker-0: To them. To them. It's not it's not an easy job. speaker-1: No, it's not. ⁓ my grandpa's been retired for ⁓ for a while now, but ⁓ he was definitely ⁓ he was the battalion chief of the Santa Rosa Fire Department and also the president of the firefighters union. ⁓ so he's he was in that world for a long time. ⁓ but in terms of like what we can do about it going forward, ⁓ I've talked to the Sonoma County Green Party and on the environment, they said the most impact you could do as a congressman is to end oil subsidies. to me, I'm shocked to find out that we still pay out so many subsidies to oil companies in the year twenty twenty six. Like it's wild to me. Like we don't have money to give people health care. But we have Yeah, it it's insane. It like it really is insane. And it's just we just need to stop that. Like it's speaker-0: It's like giving money to the guy that continues to pee in the pool. Can you stop? Stop. speaker-1: ⁓ please, please. It is bizarre. And ⁓ you know I speaker-0: I do do you think do you think Trump's idea of of ⁓ raking the forest floors is a good idea? speaker-1: You know, I think we do need to invest in forest management. ⁓ I don't think that's the solution by itself, but ⁓ you know, I I do think we really need to invest resources into forest management and like learning from ⁓ you know, indigenous tribes that have practiced forest management for a long time before we were here. and prioritizing that, even though it's not It's like very long-term project, right? It's not like you're gonna get the immediate headlines, you're not gonna get the recognition for it. It's the quiet behind-the-scenes work, but it's really that type of work that we need to make things more sustainable. So, you know, managing the forest, ⁓ and not just like clearing debris, but we also need to like manage the ecosystems there, make sure one of the big issues is that our forest. Aren't retaining water as well as they used to because of the soil distribution. ⁓ there's a lot of science, ⁓ environmental science that goes into it. And it's not an easy task. ⁓ but that's a big one. ⁓ and then I I also just think ⁓ you know, really making sure that we So like this is like applies to the entire government, but we really need to take a look at like all of our practices. You know, so many of our government policies and procedures and systems are so outdated. And we live in a world where we have so much technology at our fingertips. We have the ability to, you know, like take satellite images of anywhere in the world at any time, right? Just by going on Google. So I think we need to be looking at ways that we can use modern technology. to be solving some of these problems, like scanning for threats, right? Like that seems like a to me a perfect utilization of AI is use AI to look at images of forest and and predict where we should be managing, right? Like ⁓ that's sort of like a a running theme is, you know, a lot of Democrats tend to be very attached to the bureaucracy as it exists. And and to me, I understand that we need to have agencies, we need to have bureaucracies. But I also think it is important that they're efficient and that they're modern and that they are using all the tools available to address the problems and not just relying on these outdated frameworks. so that's where some you know, like obviously what Elon Musk did was just stupid, where he's going through with a chainsaw, ⁓ you know, like with no knowledge. speaker-0: But yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole right now. But ⁓ agreed. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: But at the end of the day, like there is a point there where we do need to modernize our government and we do need to but we need to do it in an educated way and in a thorough way and in a deliberate way and not in a haphazard right you know city sh speaker-0: Move fast and break things type of way. You can't do that. There's too many people's life on the line. Their livelihood is on the line. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. And and you know, frankly, like I think we we should be hiring a lot more federal workers, but we should be putting them to be working in areas that matter and making sure that we're using them in the right way. Like we should be building housing on a large scale social housing to solve the homelessness problem. Right. Like there's an easy way to at least substantially decrease the number of homeless people and that's to give them houses, to give them a place to live. speaker-0: I'll go as far as to say not because this is where we start to lose a conservative people. So conservatives, you get upset that we have homeless people and you get upset that we have junkies in the streets. If we took take those people, put them in a house. ⁓ and and if we had ⁓ universal health care and we actually gave them ⁓ People that actually want to do this job, if you gave them a a ⁓ livable wage, there are people that will be the social workers for those homeless people and we can get those people back up on their feet. speaker-1: Yeah, exactly. You know, it's ⁓ are you familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Mm-hmm. Yeah, so so that's what I always go back to, right? Is like if you want people to be contributing members of society and you want them to you know, not just be a drain on society, which is I think an understandable position, you need to give them security at a basic level. You need to give them shelter, you need to give them food, you need to make sure that their basic needs are taken care of. So then they can start to develop the resources and the skills to actually go out and ⁓ be contributing members of society. Right. And and and I don't think I think it's really ⁓ comes down to a different of belief where I don't believe that most people or really almost anybody in the world wants to be in a situation where they're not working and they're not contributing. I think we all feel some sort of drive to be contributing and to be using our energy in a way that ⁓ makes us feel good about ourselves and makes us feel like we're ⁓ we're being productive. And ⁓ I think the way to make sure that we support that is by giving people the basic necessities of life. And we have the resources to do it. it's just speaker-0: And if you think that and if you think that society is too dumb to do this, then then that's where the education part kicks in. You set people up for success, they're success driven. But how can you how can you expect anyone to want to be a part of society that knocks them down and leaves them literally in the in the streets? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I ⁓ you can't. And we just it's so sad to me that we've gotten to the point where we just sort of accept that this is okay to have so many people living on the streets. And it's just become just taken for granted now at this point in a lot of ways. We've given up on even trying to solve it. speaker-0: And these folks are complaining, and and and we can do something about it except complain. We have we have ideas. speaker-1: We do, and and we have the money and we have the resources, but it's all being hoarded by a small group of people. and so really, you know, it's we have the opportunity to design a society that we want to live in and that is gonna be the most optimal for everybody. Like we don't have to accept that the system that we live in now is you know, like we ha we don't need to put it on a pedestal and enshrine it like We can design our society, that is the beauty of America, is that we have a system that allows us to change and to grow and to adapt and to make our society function in a way that serves everybody. And speaker-0: We went from horses to trains to cars. Look at us change. speaker-1: ⁓ Yeah, I know. It's like, you know, you realize the constitution has twenty seven amendments, right? Like you can you can change that. You can you've not a new one in there. Yeah. but ⁓ but you know, it's ⁓ it's very cyclical, I think. You know, people grow up and things are easy and they take government for granted and then that's exactly the conditions that allows it to start Falling apart is because people don't pay attention. ⁓ and then that compounds on itself. ⁓ and now we're sort of on the other end of the pendulum where things have gotten so bad that people are finally starting to say, What the fuck? And yeah, no, like speaker-0: People straight up moving out of the country. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Moving out of the country. I mean, even in California, like we have so many problems here locally. People are are moving out of state because they can't afford to live. ⁓ especially in the Bay Area. speaker-0: Yeah. And again, we can if you stop giving our jobs away. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: It's not really that tough. speaker-1: Yeah, it it's not. And ⁓ it's it's really just about getting people activated enough to to say, you know what? We need change and I'm gonna be a part of that change. ⁓ because look, I'm in this political race, I see firsthand all of the advantages that the incumbents and that the the establishment picks have, right? They have so much more money. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: They have all of these networks. And if you try to get into that network and you're not already part of the club, guess what? You're not getting in. speaker-0: It's like trying to break into a rich people party. speaker-1: Yeah, exactly. It is. speaker-0: They're not gonna let you in and even if you do get in, if you don't act right, they're gonna ask you to leave. speaker-1: Yeah, you know, you can't rock the boat. ⁓ you you fall in line and and you wait your turn. And ⁓ And at the same time, that's why it's so important for us to build power outside of those structures and to build our own source of power and not rely on the institutions to to really be the ones that are the only force in politics, but to say, no, like we are gonna build people power, and that is how we're gonna win. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Because it takes a team. It's it you don't even need everyone to buy in. You don't like if we leave MAGA behind and the MAGA mentality, I'm good with that. We're not we can't bully our way through everything. However, I do, you know, this America First thing, if it has nothing to do with Trump and Trumpism. It wouldn't I wouldn't, you know, take the racism out of there and we're good. Yeah. I want America I want America I want the United States to spend its money on the United States first. speaker-1: Yeah, you know, you look at it's like just when you're on an airline, right? Like you you have to help yourself before you help anybody else. Right. If you're pouring from an empty cup, you're never gonna be able to to do anything. And so speaker-0: I say if we if we lived and we built a society that is good for everyone and everyone else around the world is looking at us, we won't have to drop a bomb. They're gonna want to be like us. speaker-1: Yeah. And that's really what we saw like in the nineteen sixties, why we saw so much social change and so much ⁓ progress back then is because we were in this cold war and the only way to actually maintain credibility as a nation was to take care of our people and to make sure that they had their needs met. ⁓ otherwise, you know, it's gonna have the opposite thing where where China's looking at us and say, ⁓ look at these Americans, they can't even take care of their people. You know, like what is going on? speaker-0: We make it easy to have people not like us. speaker-1: Yeah, we do. speaker-0: bigger than just you know, the brashiness and ⁓ and ⁓ the the the People from the United States are very what's the word along I'm looking for? Egotistical? Not egotistical. What's the one that it's a Greek, a Greek person. ⁓ anyway, I woke up early today. ⁓ anyway. There's a certain personality trait that that it seems like we don't care about the rest of the world. speaker-1: Yeah, narcissism. speaker-0: Narcissism, thank you. That's the one. And so we we we go around the planet with this personality. And people are like, Who are you? You have homeless people. You you you know, we we have all this stuff. We we put out into the world nothing but violence and greed. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And to the rest of the world, that's not who we are. There's a lot of us who are tired of that mentality and we're tired of that culture and we're trying to change it to be more like what you've been saying, Kyle, is more just like Coming from a from a mindset of abundance. speaker-1: Right. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it really at the end of the day, it comes down to taking care of our people. Right? Like we're in this together and we need to make sure that everybody is taken care of. And that it's a political philosophy, but it's so much deeper than that. I think it really comes down to what are our duties to other human beings as we move through life. And and to me, it's to to live your life in a way that doesn't just build yourself up, but that builds everybody up and make sure that everybody's taken care of. Because we're all in this world together. And if somebody else succeeds, that means that I'm succeeding. I like if if I help somebody else and their life is better, that's gonna come back to me one way or another. Mm-hmm. ⁓ speaker-0: And let me give you proof that it'll work. I went to a handful of years ago. I went to Dubai. And you know, that place is it has so much money. If you are from Dubai, you get what we consider universal basic income. So if you are from Dubai, you don't necessarily need to work. The people that like to work, they go to work. The people that might want more stuff, you go and work. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: But you make enough money where you don't need to work. Yeah. Because that's how much oil they have. So it's possible. Now for everyone to say, ⁓ boy, they have a ruler. Yeah. Well, we have a president and we have, you know, a a government that would make a situation like that better, but it is possible. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. You know, a a however you want to structure it, whether it be UBI or whether it be through direct services and and like giving people housing and food and making sure their needs are taken care of. ⁓ yeah, I I think really it's time to like renegotiate the contract of of what we're willing to accept as the American people and what we're saying is the bare minimum that. speaker-0: About the ruler. speaker-1: we should all be guaranteed as Americans living in a society, you know, this is a big thing that I point out to people that say it's unfair to tax the wealthy, is and especially like the mega billionaires, is that these people don't exist in a vacuum. They only have their wealth because they're operating within our society and because they have an educated workforce and they have roads and they have laws and governments that enforce them. speaker-0: And they have people that they're that do the work. It's not Elon Musk doing the coding. speaker-1: No, it it's the workers and like the the people on the factory floors that are building the Teslas, right? Without those people, he has nothing. And really without the society, like money doesn't have any value at all because you need a society to even have value on money. So There is no like inherent right to this money. This money only comes from society. It comes from the wealth of the people that their work, their labor that they're putting into it. And it's about saying how much of it is fair to go to the person that started out with $10 million versus the people that are grinding and busting their asses every day. speaker-0: That's it, that's one of the things that drives me crazy. I'm from Chicago, from, you know, single mother of two, la la la la la. And I've been working, working, working, working, working, working. Why, you know, went to edge got educated. I went to the military. I did all the things and I come and I'm working, working, working. And then I finally get here. And then to hear someone with a silver spoon in his mouth, like a Elon Musk, saying, You guys are too dumb and lazy. speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓ and speaker-0: It's speaker-1: It's outrageous and it is at the same time so many people buy into it because they don't really understand how much of an advantage it is to be born with a a dad that owns a sapphire mine. Like God, I wish I had one of those. speaker-0: Yeah, me too. Do you get to spend much time in Sonoma at all? speaker-1: Ha ha. ⁓ Sonoma the Town. Yeah, yeah. One of my ⁓ my best friends from college actually lives in Sonoma. ⁓ my former roommate. Yeah. So I I'm out there every once in a while to visit him. Yeah. speaker-0: The town, yeah. Do you guys have a do you have any like favorite restaurants or wineries or anything? speaker-1: Yeah, you know, I know he's ⁓ a big fan of it's in the square. I can't remember the name. It's like on the corner. There's like a little ⁓ like a fig in the name is yeah, that one that yeah, so so he likes that. been there with him a few times. the cider ⁓ yeah. speaker-0: Girl in the fig? Yeah, that that place is great. ⁓ is wonderful. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's great. ⁓ is it the Sunflower Cafe? I I've some understanding. speaker-0: Is wonderful for breakfast. Their breakfast is so good you have to be careful with the lines. ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, it's ⁓ a poppin' place for sure. Like the first time I went there I spent, I don't know, like twenty minutes trying to find parking just because ⁓ but ⁓ yeah. there's a lot of cool places. And I also didn't know that you can open carry in in the Sonoma Plaza, so that's pretty cool. Yeah. ⁓ alcohol, not ⁓ not guns. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. And and they prefer you open carry wine bottles. Yeah, no guns. ⁓ but definitely wine. Yeah. If you ⁓ if you ever decide to swing into town, let me know. I'll Yeah. We'll c we'll hang out. speaker-1: Yeah, that sounds great. Well, you know. speaker-0: Cool. Yeah. ⁓ let's do ⁓ let's let's land the plane. So give people your your best pitch for why you want them to vote for you and what your plan is for them, and then finish up with giving all of your social media ⁓ accounts and how they can find you online. speaker-1: Okay. I'm running for Congress because I think it is finally time for us as Americans to say we have had enough of this bad deal that we've been given. I'm a labor lawyer, and really I think it's time to renegotiate the terms of that deal. ⁓ we need to guarantee that people have housing, we need to guarantee that people have health care, and we need to guarantee that people have fair wages and are taken care of. And the only way to do that. Is to elect politicians who are not funded by big companies, who maintain their independence, and who are responsible to the people and not to these big corporate donors. So I'm running to be a part of this broader movement across the country that we're seeing of younger people standing up and challenging this establishment, challenging the status quo, and saying, I am not going to take big corporate money. I am going to fight for the working people like I do every day in court. So If you want to be a part of that, I would love your support. My ⁓ my website is Kyle the number fourcongress.org. My socials are all linked on there. My Instagram is Kyle underscore four F O R underscore Congress. And ⁓ my other social links are on my link tree as well as on my my website. ⁓ if you're in the area locally, I would love to have you sign up to be a volunteer. Obviously any fundraising is immensely helpful because I am not taking corporate donations. So I rely on grassroots to really come and support and be able to help me fund this race. So that's what I'm trying to do. I can't do it alone. I need your help. And I am so appreciative for everybody that's willing to do that. And to you, Carlos, for having me on here to be able to talk about it. speaker-0: I appreciate that. ⁓ yeah, Santa Rosa, Northern California. If you're looking for change, this is one way to do it. speaker-1: Yeah, and the district actually goes all the way up ⁓ into Chico and ⁓ actually ⁓ over into Susanville as well. So if you're you're pretty much anywhere in the inland Northern California, ⁓ good chance that you're in the district and probably help out in some way. speaker-0: Awesome. Thank you so much for taking time. I know you're it's the more ⁓ people I talk to that are actually running for Congress, I know that just running for Congress is a beast of a task, let alone having a full-time job, let alone defending people on the daily basis like a lawyer would, you know. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Incredible. So thank you for taking time to come and hang out and spreading your message. speaker-1: Yeah, thanks Carlos. I I appreciated the opportunity and really, you know, these conversations are what's gonna make the world change. So I was glad to be here and I appreciated the dialogue. speaker-0: Awesome. Nice to meet you. And with that everybody, we're out.