Latest / Reborn w/ Antonio Boutros / From Navy to Congress: LD Powell's Unstoppable American Dream 🇺🇸

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From Navy to Congress: LD Powell's Unstoppable American Dream 🇺🇸 · Reborn w/ Antonio Boutros

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Reborn.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Today we have a distinguished guest with us, Lonnie LD Powell, who is running for U.S.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Congress in Indiana's 5th district in 2024.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Lonnie, thank you so much for being here.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Please give our listeners a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to be in the world of politics.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Tony.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for hosting me today and this opportunity to talk a little bit about my background and why I'm running.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: My desire to jump in this race has several factors in it.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: One, I kind of, not kind of, I have an ethic of service.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: I joined the Navy when I was 17, volunteered, and signed on the dotted line to go defend my country.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Served on the aircraft carrier for four years, USS Constellation.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think now it's probably razor blade, it's been cut up and decommissioned.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Came out of the Navy, went to college, got a degree in business, and met my future wife when I came out of college at the first job I had, which was in banking.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Got married.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And while I was in college, I interned for Congressman Dan Coates, and who was kind of a model for me in politics.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just a very ethical man, Christian, and I got to watch and observe him in the political arena for several years.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And a dream was kind of born back then that if someday I had a chance to run for Congress, I would.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But it's, you know, it's uh it's not the easiest thing to run for office, and many times timing and a lot of other factors can come into play, and it just didn't quite come together for me.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I got married, went on, had a wife, three kids.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so the dream of running for Congress kind of went to the wayside.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um about 20 years ago, I uh woke up one morning, terrible pain in my chest, not a heart attack, taken to the hospital.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Turns out I had pancreatitis.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was put on a morphine, I got pneumonia, spent 10 days in the hospital on painkillers, came, got the pancreatitis cleared up, the pneumonia cleared up, came out of the hospital, those issues solved, and another one started.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, an addiction to powerful painkillers.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I was old school thinking as a Christian.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought, I you know, you're a good guy, I mean just stop this, just just stop.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I tried to stop on my own and wasn't able to.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I uh stayed in that stuck in that situation longer than I had to, and it took me further um down the road down uh than uh uh I probably had to.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually someone introduced me to a place called Fairbanks Hospital here in Indianapolis, which is a recovery hospital, and I had enough pain and enough uh uh I was fed up, sick and tired of being sick and tired, as we like to say, and I eventually checked into Fairbanks Hospital.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: In Fairbanks, I learned about the disease of addiction, alcoholism, and I met people from all walks of life.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I met CEOs from billion-dollar companies, grandmothers, uncles, teenagers, people from every economic area.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so my eyes were opened.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: That, and also we were educated by Dr.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Kelly at the time about the disease of alcoholism and addiction, and how uh an addict's brain is different than someone who's not uh affected by this disease.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you think of it kind of like an allergy, if you were had an allergy to strawberries, you wouldn't eat strawberries because it creates a problem with you.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um certain drugs uh cause a problem with my.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned about uh the disease of addiction, got the help, uh came out of Fairbanks, eventually uh moved to Fort Wayne, where I helped start one of the largest recovery ministries in northeast Indiana called Celebrate Recovery at the Chapel.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: So for the last 18 years I've been living in that world helping others get free from addictions, yeah, hurts, habits, hangups, um, using the principles of the 12-step and a Christ-centered recovery program.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're up to 2023.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this seat here opens up.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: The current congresswoman had announced she was not running for re-election.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of caught that, my attention, and that dream that I had years ago of running for Congress all of a sudden kind of popped up again into me.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um so I kind of tried to ignore it.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, ah, you know, that's right, you know, that's a that's a tough road of hoe to go run for office.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: But the more I ignored it, the louder that little inner voice got.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, all right, I'm gonna explore with some friends.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I talked to my pastor, I talked to some friends, I talked to family, and I talked to my employer at the time.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everything was green lights.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, go for it.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So in October of 2023, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and run for office.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the passion for me, the premier issue for me to securing our borders.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: After 18 years sitting in the rooms of recovery and watching the damage happen to our people, uh, it's it's clear as a bell to me that we need to stop the bad stuff, the bad poison coming into our country that's hurting our people.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: On the other side of that coin now, I think our government can do better and make an amends to the people that have been hurt, and we can use the power of our federal government not only to stop the bad, but to initiate some good programs to help people recover, get better, get back into the mainstream as healthy contributing uh citizens again.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of uh the trajectory of my my life and my story and how I kind of wound up being here uh running for office today.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for sharing.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like in the beginning of your career and your life, you kind of lived the traditional American dream.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, would you say?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and after that you hit some road bones with the pain meds.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think that showed you ultimately?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And do you think that shifted the course of your life?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Where would you be today if you had not been to Fair Banks in that recovery program?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, one of the biggest lessons it taught me was humility.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was uh again, I think, uh, of that um harder mindset that people who are, you know, a homeless person or a person who's got an issue with drugs or alcohol, it's just morally bad.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I don't believe that anymore from my own experience and from the people I've met.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, some of the drugs that are coming out today are super addictive.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and once they grab a person, sometimes they need help.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And once they get help, they get better.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's my experience.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I got help, I got better.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've been a uh contributing member of society again for the last you know 20 years.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so there's uh there's hope for people.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we don't have to just let them flounder on their own.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been one of the big issues is humility.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I need help, asking for help is a good thing, and um you know, yeah.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that I think is that's one of the key lessons.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious, your inability to give up the drugs at that time.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Did that shift your perspective on God given that you had the traditional um perspective that, like, hey, I'm a man of God, I can give this up.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's not something really that you know, I people like me have problems with.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Your inability to give it up on your own and having to go to Fairbanks, did that shift your perspective on God at all?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think initially there was some confusion because you know, um, I just tried prayer, you know, uh just thinking that prayer alone would do it.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why can't just prayer handle this?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I have to talk about this?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why do I have to ask for help?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is shameful.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is, you know, um, and so I think that the shift in my change or of my view of God expanded in the fact that uh my eye was open to a lot of good people who were out there willing to help.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that help is good and accepting help and not trying to do life on my own.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when I get stuck now, I reach out and ask for help very quickly.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, in a way, it helped develop my character uh and my ability now to uh remain humble, kind of keep that beginner's mind.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when I get stuck, ask for help immediately.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there's uh good people out there that want to help.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you could go back 20 years or 15 years and change that, would you?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Good question.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was I wish I could have learned what I learned differently, but I think it took what it took.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in a way, my kids actually got a better father today than they had before recovery.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did I learn how to you know stop using the drug, but I also learned a new way to live.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um I gained a whole new uh set of friends, and my faith even grew deeper uh as I walked that recovery journey.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So um I'm gonna say no uh because of what how I am today, and the growth in my character and me as a person uh happened.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's because I made some choices to embrace the program and do the work.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so over these first few minutes, it's become clear to me that you're a man of the people, both your family, the community in Indianapolis and Indiana as a whole, and also the country, given that you were in the military.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, your website, I thought it was really interesting.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: You were mentioning being a father, a veteran, a Christian, a businessman, and a pilot, and a pilot trainer.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: You said, I'm not a politician.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: What I think a lot of politicians usually are after power, after fame, after money, and so on.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you plan to go into Congress while being a Christian, a family man, a businessman, abiding by your core values while impacting the community in the way that you envision?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, let me start off by saying I don't plan to be a career politician.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I've um I've had a career in business.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have a specific mission and goal.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I'm not uh of the opinion that I can go and change everything about Washington.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to change one thing, and that's securing our borders.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very focused and mission-driven on securing our borders so that our people can be secure and safe again.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Our communities can be secure and safe again, and we stopped losing people to these deadly drugs.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I have a very clear focus on what I want to go there and do.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: I recently attended the National Prayer Breakfast, and that was an eye-opening experience for me as well.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a whole different uh dynamic there in DC.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, on the news, you know, the typical news outlets, you they just kind of give us the view of all the fighting and the fussing that's going on in Washington, D.C.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was a different experience at the National Prayer Breakfast.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: These were Christians from both sides of the aisle that had come together for the joint purpose of praying for our country.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe there are like-minded people of faith where we can find common ground to make a difference.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the people I will seek out.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's what recovery taught me, too, is uh you know, community and getting with the right people, the winners, is a good thing.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll seek out those people in DC who are like-minded.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know they're there.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've heard uh and followed some of them, and I think that you know we can make a difference as a team.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned with the border being your main your main core problem that you want to help solve.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: What specifically with the border issue?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know you mentioned you know drugs coming in, that, but then um what do you think can be done, and what ultimately began what what opened your eyes to seeing, hey, this is a massive problem that needs to be solved?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what opened my eyes again was being in the rooms of recovery and helping others and families, and then witnessing people die from some of the drugs.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Fentanyl is a killer.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when I was a young man, you know, if you drink a beer with some friends, maybe drank one beer or two many, the next day you wake up, you have a you have a hangover, you sleep it off.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: No big deal.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Today, kids go to a party, they do what foolish young people do, they get the wrong drug, and they're dead.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: The consequence is deadly today.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I've had friends uh die, and children of friends die.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that to you know, and it's not getting any better.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: The rooms are still filling up, people are still dying.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: We lose over a hundred thousand Americans a year to overdoses, and um, you know, that we need to change that.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do I want to do specifically, and what can I do from Congress, a physician in Congress?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: One is we can bring leverage, we can use the leverage of our trade power agreements to uh get countries like China and Mexico to put pressure on the manufacturers and distributors.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if they don't do that, it's gonna cost, it's gonna cost them dearly.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: We can put that pain in place at the trade level.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we can continue to build the wall.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: HR2, which is the House bill, um to continue for border security, includes provisions to continue to build about 200 miles of southern border wall a year.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: I support that.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then those who come over, instead of making them peanut butter sandwiches and putting them on a bus and shipping them somewhere or paying for their flights to ship them somewhere, we detain them and we return them.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't detain them, let them loose, and give them a court date 10 years from now.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's just nuts.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then, now I am pro-immigration, so uh I don't want to eliminate all immigration, but we do need to have a system that sets people up on both sides for success.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um about a couple of months ago, I was in Fort Wayne getting ready to move to a restaurant.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: This young kid rides up on a bicycle, he's obviously of South American descent, has his cell phone, and has Google Translator typed out, Do you know where I can get a job?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I just got here two weeks ago.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I didn't.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, I mean, check with this restaurant, did they need a dishwasher?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: He types in, do they need papers?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Probably, you know, if they want to be illegal about it.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to send him away, you know.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So here's this young kid coming across, and I don't blame him, wanting a job, wanting a better life, but now he is not set up for success, and he's gonna run around our country trying to find work, and then some employer will probably hire him and take advantage of him and not pay him a fair wage or exploit him.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: I actually had, you know, being someone who's not of you know traditionally American descent, I was born here.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: My dad is a first-generation immigrant from Egypt, and the first few years he was here, he worked for free uh as a waiter, and so he worked just on chips, they're like, we can we can't pay you, which legally they can't, but you know, it was also somewhat unethical.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then also my my grandpa actually was from Mexico and he was deported when I was about two years old, so unfortunately I was never able to uh develop a relationship with him, but you know, that's yeah, I can't really speak too much on that because like I said, I never really knew him too well.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: But so the issue of surging crime in America is a significant concern.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think your website mentioned it.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: I know we're securing the US border, we we spoke about building the wall, but overall, how do you how do you intend to secure the US border with the wall, but also combat drug cartels and support law enforcement to make communities safer?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, law and order has been a long time value of the Republican Party and platform and me as well.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think there needs to be very tough consequences for dealers.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Users are different category, yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: But dealers, these these guys uh are a different league altogether, and we need to prosecute, and there's legislation for um federal manditated sent mandated sentencing that if you um sell a certain amount of fentanyl, you're going away.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's no ifs, ends, and buts about it.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to stiffen the penalties and put these people away and lock them up.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: They are uh aiding and abetting in the destruction of our people.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very uh committed to supporting tougher crimes.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for local law enforcement, Congress has the ability through grants to supplement and enhance local law enforcement.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's going on in this district.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've had a chance to talk to a few law enforcement people and drugs and now violent crime with drugs is beginning to go on.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: They've told me that in the past you may just have the drug issue and somebody using, you know, maybe marijuana or selling a little marijuana, but now you're starting to see a combination of drug dealing with weapons and violent crime is now increasing in this district and across the country.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: The type of criminals that are coming across, they're more vicious.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're seeing the gangs now start to come across the country from South America, and they're vicious.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, we're gonna have to deal with that.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have to get tough on that, crack down, lock them up, whatever.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um but that problem's getting worse.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think that would look like putting that putting a plan of action into place?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: How long would it take to shift the legal system to where they are you know taken more seriously?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I do agree that those who are users should not be seen as the same as those who are uh dealers, manufacturing, dealing, distributing, yeah, preying on people.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think in some cases, I feel like the first the first time you're doing it can be different than the second time.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: The first time it might just be, hey, I am broke, I need to you know pay for my mom's medical bills, and I have no I have no idea how to make$20,000 in two weeks, and this is the only way I know it's just ignorance.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like once you've been in jail or prison for and I think they should still go away, you know, for a few years, teach them that lesson, but then if you do it again, then it's it's not a few years, it's the same as like murder.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because you could also be potentially that I mean that that's essentially uh in trying to murder someone is is what that end result can oftentimes be.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah, it's um the consequences of a deadly dose of fentanyl, you know, is death.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's killing people, yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got uh, you know, it's not like the old days of you know, people selling marijuana, yeah, and worst that happens is you know they got high and got munchies, or uh, you know, uh but they weren't dying from it.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, this is a different game.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: People are are dying, and and now.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Was another drug that's even more powerful than fentanyl starting to hit the streets.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't recall the name of it, but supposedly it's multiple times even more powerful than fentanyl.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the game continues to get more and more deadly.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we have got the we've got to come back and send a strong message that you come here and deal this uh stuff, you're gonna pay a heavy, heavy price.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, Wana, you're a strong advocate for family values.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Having children who are entering your adulthood, becoming the men uh and and and people in this world that they are becoming.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I don't know about you, but it seems like it wouldn't be hard to be scared in a world like this.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Can you delve into your commitment to pro-life legislation, first of all, but also how you pres how are you planning to preserve education education integrity for you know, probably not for them right now, but you know, their their children uh and protecting parental rights?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's another thing that was mentioned in in your uh campaign.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then how as a father are you, how can you protect your children in this day and age when they're on their own independent?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, first with the pro-life issue, I am pro-life, have been pro-life um since I can remember, even as a as like as a young man.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: My mom was a single mom.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, she was 18 when she had me and was not married.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of uh happy that she chose life, you know, and um and so I do believe life begins at conception, and I'm pro-life, and that's just a core value of mine.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad now that the pro-life issue has come back to the states.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we as Republicans have been arguing for years, is that it's a states' rights issue.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Supreme Court finally agreed and gave back the the um the states the power to decide uh how what laws to implement.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um as far as education, uh, I went to our schools to get back to teaching children how to think, not what to think.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so critical thinking has fallen by the wayside, and our schools and our universities have become more of an indoctrination uh place, yeah.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then parents are being disincentivized and even intimidated to uh from participating and being the eyes over the shoulder of what the schools are uh teaching and advocating for.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, so we've almost made a necessary relationship between parents and the school systems that their kids are in.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's gotta change.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, parents have every right, they are the primary caregivers and primarily responsible for the education and development of their children, not the state, not the schools.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: The children don't belong to the schools or to the state, belong to the parents and the family, and that's where those family values are caught and modeled over time.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I don't want schools interfering with that.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um then protecting my kids today.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, my my kids are are grown, you know.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: My oldest is 30, my next is 28, and my oldest is 25.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So they've already kind of gone through the system.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, we had good schools here in Carmel.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the recent DEI, you know, uh, and um uh CRT uh teachings, critical race theory were not present at that time.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't think uh it's a good thing to be teaching those, teaching children to kind of view each other on racial grounds, you know, that one race is oppressing another race.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Kids come into school, they don't see color, they tend to judge people on their character just naturally, yeah.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Which was Martin Luther King's dream.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah that we would judge people based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden we're getting back to you know trying to create divisions based on color.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not good.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um school choice, uh vouchers, allowing parents to take their children out of a school system that's failing and put them in a school system of their choice that giving a good outcome will help uh, I think, uh, keep that tendency for um uh lowered expectations and some of the other nonsense in check if parents have the ability to move their kids and not participate in that.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I would uh definitely support and guard uh parents' rights.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh those are just a few of the ideas.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: From your perspective, what do you envision as being the tangible outcomes of if the education system stays the way it is today for the next five, ten, fifty years?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we will have, we will continue to struggle to compete in the world.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um you need people with engineering degrees who can uh the world is becoming more dependent on technology.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you need people who can be critical thinkers, creative thinkers.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if we don't uh keep the standards of education high, we're gonna we're just gonna produce uh people who are not gonna be able to be compete in the world economy.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we as a country again will fall behind to countries that do like China.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: When I think of compete, I think of military a lot of times.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: And as a veteran, you prioritize a strong military.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: How do you plan to maintain a robust military, eliminate wasteful spending, and support our veterans?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a big that's a big challenge.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Wasteful spending, um, you know, or I last I heard they tried to audit the Pentagon, and there's trillions missing that they can't account for.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know what it's gonna take.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it takes power to purse.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: All right, if you can't account for it, we're not gonna spend it.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um or we get some people in there, uh, we change leadership and people who will be accountable for the spending that's going on.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: But we do need a strong military, and from the reports I've read, we're at an 80-year low in terms of military preparedness, and we're being stretched already uh in the world, and you know that leaves us vulnerable here at home as well.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm for pro-military, I want a strong military, uh, and I'm also not happy with the DEI that's going on in the military.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just read that West Point changed their mission from duty honor country to something else that is just made me uh just really flinch when I heard it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like education and something else, but they removed that duty honor country from their mission statement.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So there's just some stuff going on in our military that makes me uncomfortable, probably also driving down the numbers in recruitment and retainment from when you've seen the uh critical race theory and DEI creeping into the leadership of the military.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I've heard you mention in your in your candidacy free speech becoming an issue, democracy becoming an issue.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: How do you how do you plan to preserve democracy and stop judicial abuse and defend freedom of speech?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's supposed to be one of our human rights here in America.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's why people come to America that you mentioned it not being so much today.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so judicial appointments, it matters who we put on the bench.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the House isn't as involved in that as the US Senate, and um so but uh we need to have conservative uh constitutionalist judges on the bench, originalists they call them.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, they're not gonna go in and and create legislation from the Constitution, they're going to apply the law that's already in the Constitution.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I would you know uh support whatever I can from the House to make sure that we're putting good people on the bench.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, speech has been chilled in our country.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're all kind of like check ourselves these days around politically correct, incorrect, am I gonna be attacked?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna be um what's the term when they uh cut you off?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um cancel.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Cancel, cancel culture, right?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, uh that's that's chilling.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not trying to be uh intentionally offensive, but I have found that you know it has impacted me.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really you know a little more careful about what I say, who I say it with, and I don't know that that's good for our country.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's some things that inherently just go directly against your perspective as a Christian man, especially.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I have a Christian worldview, and um I you know I I think the Bible is uh God's word, and uh it's got some great instruction for living and guidelines, and um and uh tells us how to do a life and make life work well for us.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um I think one of the favorite, one of my favorite things I've heard from you today is that you know, oftentimes on the news we see this conflict from uh Democrats and Republicans, but you you know, you you're fine with Democrats, you're genuinely trying to do what is best for the world, and if a Democrat can do that, then so be it.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: So while discussing these issues, with that said, it's important to consider the opposing viewpoints.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: How do you respond to the critics who may have different differing perspectives on these matters, both from a political standpoint but also again from a from a spiritual standpoint?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, first of all, I you know I respect people, uh, respect their right to have a different opinion, different background, come from different cultures.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And um I know just from my work in in business and life that uh those different perspectives can can be valuable.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and I assume that everybody, I didn't suit positive intent, right?
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I assume you love the country, Democrats love our country, I have our country.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um they want our country to do well, I want our country to do so.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: The what is our common ground.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: We both love our country.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: How we do that now is where we kind of get into uh the debate, and that's why we have a democracy, you know, and the marketplace of ideas.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And let's get into the marketplace ideas and let's um you know work this out.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: We also have 50 states, which were like 50 laboratories where you can, you know, we have liberal states, we have conservative states.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see how these ideas play out in these different states, who gets the best outcomes and which ideas are actually working, and then we can adopt those across other states.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, that free speech, uh, the marketplace of ideas, respecting each other's perspective, but assuming positive attempt, yeah, and then trying to reach across and have honest um debate and gain understanding from each side on, and then maybe we from from there we can kind of craft some way to move our country forward that both sides can live with.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're not probably each gonna get 100% of what we want, but maybe we both get enough of what we want to move forward.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Before we can conclude conclude, what are the key actions or changes you hope to bring as a congressman that can positively impact the lives of your constitutions and all Americans?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you could give us maybe the one thing, I know that's you know, securing the border, but what would that look like in action?
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um passing a border security bill is goal number one: securing our borders, uh, and then um getting the bad guys who are here, who've come across, identifying, finding them, and getting them out of here.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's the immediate thing.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want to be able to feel safe when I walk out on the street.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want my uh kids to feel safe, my friends, you know, and there's a bit of concern now.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: People are uh a little worried about what's going on and who's coming into our country.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I think without security and a secure country, uh, you know, all the other issues uh you know become almost secondary.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Still important, but secondary.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um we gotta be safe and we gotta have a secure country.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: No borders, no country.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this is America.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: We have a unique culture and it's worth protecting.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to protect it, and I want to give a country, hand down a country to my kids and their and my grandchildren that is safe and secure and has preserved the American dream, and uh where they can go too and build a life and have a happy life.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, one one last thing before we wrap up.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: I have a few quick personal insightful questions for you, just rapid fire questions.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so starting off with what is your favorite book that has influenced your political beliefs?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe De Tocqueville's Travels, where he kind of it's a story of him traveling across the country and kind of seeing how the market works and how um people live and operate and negotiate and build lives and wealth in the country.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very much uh on uh the free market dynamics that are going on in the in the United States, which have set us apart from a lot of other countries.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: What is one word that describes your leadership style?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: Collaborative, a piece of advice for aspiring politicians.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh get involved in your local party, get involved with a local candidate you like and experience the process.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your vision for the American dream in one sentence, safe, secure, with opportunity, um economic opportunity for all.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that wraps up our insightful conversation with Wani LD Powell.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Lani, thank you for sharing your perspectives and aspirations with our audience.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Tom.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: To our listeners, if you found this episode thought-provoking, get involved by supporting Lonnie's campaign and making your voice heard in Washington.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed the episode, I always, always, always recommend sharing with someone who can also take value.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: You never know the impact you can have on someone's life.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and I always like to say your network is your net worth.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: So why not be a valuable part of someone else's network?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Share this episode if you enjoyed it.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for watching.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.