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TikTok for Politics: The Future of Campaigning? | Isaiah Martin DSH #1420
01:02:37
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- [00:00]
A
Or like it's not really what I expected. So here's what we're going to focus on instead. We're going to focus on modernizing government. Instead, he went out and created a fake Doge clock, claiming of all the savings. He said he was saving so much money, everybody was going to get a check. Are you getting a check? I'm not getting. Nobody's getting a check. So, I mean, what did he actually do?
- [00:27]
B
Okay, guys, we got Isaiah Martin here from Houston, running for Congress out there. Thanks for coming out here today, man.
- [00:32]
A
Absolutely, man. I'm fired up.
- [00:33]
B
A lot going on, lots to talk about, man. Potential World War 3.
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A
It's crazy, isn't it?
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B
Pretty nuts.
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A
I mean, just to see everything that's going on right now, it's honestly nuts. Can't say this is precedent by any means.
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B
I'm actually surprised as someone that's on the right to see all this kind of dwindling down.
- [00:53]
A
Are you really, though? Are you really shocked?
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B
Well, Trump, his big selling point when he was running was anti war.
- [00:58]
A
Yeah.
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B
You know what I mean?
- [00:59]
A
That's what he said.
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B
So to see him last night, there was just reports that a bunch of ships or a bunch of planes are getting sent over as we speak. Yeah, a little concerning.
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A
I mean, you know, the thing is, is that he. He really, his first term, I think, focused on a lot of the neocon stuff that George Bush had focused on when he was president. And I think that this is just more of a continuation of that, you know, I guess time will tell to see what that actually turns out to be. But it's definitely a concerning time to be in America right now, for sure.
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B
Yeah. I can't stop scrolling on on Twitter. There's just so much stuff about Iran, about war.
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A
What's one of your favorite follows on Twitter? Yeah.
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B
Oh, I like Dave Smith right now.
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A
Okay.
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B
What do you think of Dave Smith?
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A
I don't know Dave.
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B
You don't know Dave Smith?
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A
I don't know Dave. I. He might be big. I don't know.
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B
Okay. Yeah, he's a comedian, but he's gone full into politics.
- [01:52]
A
Really.
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B
He's anti Israel guy. Yeah, he's on Piers Morgan a lot. You watch Piers Morgan?
- [01:58]
A
No, not really. I know my friend Harry went on there, though.
- [02:00]
B
Harry Sisson? Yeah, he did, yeah. You should get on there.
- [02:03]
A
Maybe I will. Who knows?
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B
What do you think of the whole debate format?
- [02:06]
A
Well, I do it every night. Right. So I do a lot of TikTok debates per se. So for me, I love it. I Mean, I love being able to go up and, and argue about where I stand on things because I think it's really important. I think conversation is really a big piece of what makes our country what it is. You know what I mean?
- [02:24]
B
I like that. Yeah. You average 30,000 viewers per night calling out MAGA TikTok live.
- [02:28]
A
That's right. Let them have it. Pretty unfiltered, as some would say. Maybe it's not common for a politician or political person, but you know, hey, I think people like honesty and authenticity. So it is what it is.
- [02:42]
B
I mean, I think it's smart, especially if you're bootstrapping. If you don't have the funds to run TV commercials and all those extensive ads, why not hop on TikTok Live, get tens of thousands of viewers?
- [02:50]
A
I mean, and it's also a good way to raise money for our campaign. I mean, we've been able to get a lot of support from people giving whatever they can, a dollar five, a hundred dollars to support our campaign. And it's been a really big piece for us.
- [03:01]
B
Seriously, what does it take dollar wise to win Congress to vote?
- [03:04]
A
Oh, man, it's nuts. At least a million dollars for sure. Isn't that crazy?
- [03:08]
B
That's a lot of money.
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A
It's a wild concept.
- [03:11]
B
Most people cannot even afford that.
- [03:13]
A
Yeah. I mean, just to think about, I mean, put it in perspective, right? In Canada, for the entire Prime Minister's race for the Prime Minister and all of the people in Parliament, One party spent $30 million.
- [03:27]
B
Wow. The whole party?
- [03:28]
A
Yeah, the whole party, the Prime Minister and the candidates.
- [03:30]
B
And that's hundreds of people, right?
- [03:32]
A
That's literally hundreds of people. And the Conservative Party in Canada, same thing, 30 million. Because they have a cap of about $30 million. In the U.S. it's like one fundraiser like Kamala Trump, like that's one night for them raising money.
- [03:45]
B
People pay a million for dinner with Trump.
- [03:47]
A
Seriously, I mean, that's insane that, you know, it costs that much to run elections in the U.S. i think it's one of the biggest problems that we have, to be honest with you. I think we gotta get a lot of this money out of politics. I think we all can agree on that.
- [03:58]
B
You know, what do you think the fix would be though? Cause we're in pretty deep on that.
- [04:01]
A
Yeah, I think personally we gotta talk about spending limits. I'm not gonna lie.
- [04:05]
B
Spending limits?
- [04:06]
A
Yeah. I think you gotta be able to cap the amount of money that one can spend on an election for all sides. Because I just think that these Crazy situations where you got people sometimes spending, you know, 10, $15 million on a congressional race. Senate races costing more than 150 mil. Like I mean, think about it. I mean it costs more than a like a WNBA team. It's crazy, you know, 150 million.
- [04:31]
B
I didn't know that. For senator.
- [04:32]
A
That's crazy. Right? Like governor's race is same thing. I mean that's a wild concept as well. You know, I don't think that we should have it like that.
- [04:42]
B
I hope we can fix that because that to me, when you're receiving big donations, you have some bias.
- [04:47]
A
Yeah.
- [04:48]
B
To that person or that party or that organization. Naturally, of course they're going to want their back scratch.
- [04:52]
A
Well, I mean they. I mean, look, I think that politics is always going to be had these conversations like that. But it's just like the Trilite from.
- [05:02]
B
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- [07:06]
A
You just got to get it out. I mean, because I think we can do it. I think we get it. We got to look at what these other countries are doing, particularly Canada. I think that they do a really good job of keeping money out of politics per se, or at least a heck of a lot better than what we are doing right now.
- [07:20]
B
Right.
- [07:22]
A
Because when you're talking about presidential campaigns costing a billion dollars, that's nuts.
- [07:28]
B
What do you think about Newsom right now making a stand with Trump first Governor, to really do that?
- [07:32]
A
I like it. I like what he's doing. I mean, look, I think personally, look, people have the right to protest. And personally, I'm against violence. I think all of us are. But what we saw was something that the California State Patrol and many others already had under control. So, I mean, personally, I think this is a lot of deflection from Trump, if I'm just gonna be honest. I think he wants to change the subject from Elon saying he was on the Epstein list and, you know, the $800 million. I'm sorry, $800 billion worth of cuts for Medicaid that he's trying to do right now. It's kind of insane. And I don't think that Trump really wants a lot of people to talk about it, to be honest with you.
- [08:11]
B
800 billion. I didn't even know about that.
- [08:13]
A
It's crazy, right?
- [08:14]
B
So he's proposing that.
- [08:15]
A
Yeah, I mean, $880 billion worth is a wild number. I mean, you even had some Republicans calling him out, like Josh Hawley said. This is ridiculous. I mean, I feel like this is a bipartisan consensus. Because here's the issue. When you cut Medicaid like that, it cuts all of our hospitals because our hospitals require or rely on Medicaid to be able to keep themselves open. So you start cutting that. That's how you start to see a lot of the hospitals all around, whether it's rural Hospitals or not just start to close their doors because they won't have the money to function. So, I mean, it's like a whole holistic issue when you start cutting that much.
- [08:53]
B
Yeah. So what do you think about medical debt in general? Do you think it should be wiped? How do you want to approach that?
- [08:57]
A
Well, see, I. Here's my take on it. I definitely want to wipe it out, but I think you also got to fix the root of the issue. I think that health care is too expensive in this country because if you cut. If you wipe out medical debt, which I do support, and you can do this for pennies on the dollar. Some states, like Illinois, has floated the idea, they've done it a little bit, but I think you gotta be able to go forward and say, look, even if you wipe it out, you gotta be able to fix it so you don't end up in this situation in the future. Right. So, I mean, yeah, I think that we should have a government healthcare plan that's available for people if they want it. You know, if you don't want it, you don't have to get it. But I do think that we should reduce something to where it's a percentage of your income. You know, you can go forward and get it. And it's no CO pays, no premium, stuff like that. Yeah. And it'd be available for people to go get as an option.
- [09:45]
B
My friend had an anxiety attack the other day. Guess how much the bill was?
- [09:50]
A
20K?
- [09:50]
B
Yeah. 15,000.
- [09:51]
A
That's right.
- [09:52]
B
Isn't that crazy?
- [09:52]
A
It's crazy.
- [09:53]
B
For one anxiety attack, I could wreck a whole family.
- [09:56]
A
You know what's even crazy? You know how much an ambulance costs?
- [09:58]
B
How much?
- [09:59]
A
Like 2,700 bucks for an ambulance ride? Holy crap. Isn't that insane for an ambulance? I mean, you're talking about $2,700. And some people, it costs even way more than that. I mean, especially for like. I think it's nuts that in this country we pay all this money for like property taxes and sales, all of these taxes that goes towards paying for these services. And you could be having an emergency and thinking to yourself, well, can I afford to call this ambulance?
- [10:28]
B
That's how I was thinking when I was in an ambulance. I was like, can I afford this?
- [10:31]
A
Yeah.
- [10:32]
B
I didn't have insurance at the time.
- [10:33]
A
That's crazy.
- [10:34]
B
You know, I shouldn't be what you're thinking about when your life is on the line.
- [10:37]
A
No way. No way. You know, I mean, especially because we pay so much in taxes.
- [10:42]
B
Yeah.
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A
Why is it that we have to pay for this much for an ambulance?
- [10:45]
B
That's nuts. So, so what do you think about like the whole Maha movement then? How they're going after Big Pharma and trying to get costs down?
- [10:51]
A
You know, I understand why. Right. I understand like what the general premise is. Right. I think the issue that I have is, you know, when Michelle Obama tried to do a lot of this stuff back in the day, you know, Republicans were really against it. I mean, they were really against the stuff that she was doing. So it's kind of interesting to see them make that turn. Now. Look, I think we gotta get, you know, bad stuff out of our food. I think we all can agree with that. Like if you go to Mexico or something or another country, you walk down the street, you smell, you know, great food as you're walking down. They don't have a lot of these preservatives and stuff. So I think the argument is valid. But I think that RFK Jr. Has a lot of baggage with them, particularly like a lot of this anti vaccine stuff I'm not really with and all that stuff. So he definitely has some damage. But you know, if I'm gonna be honest, I think if Republicans were really serious about like making America healthy, which I do support the idea of making America healthy, we should be talking about like, why it's so difficult for a lot of neighborhoods to get access to fresh food. You know, like, I had to do a project, it was crazy back in college about how long it would take someone to walk to find an apple. Like in one of the neighborhoods near Houston, it's like 20 minutes, like 20, 30 minutes just to go walk to go find an apple. And in a city of like 7 million people, which Houston is like, that's crazy.
- [12:15]
B
That is nuts.
- [12:16]
A
So we got a lot of these things. You know, the, the political term for all of this stuff is called food deserts or whatever. But we gotta be able to, I think maybe focus on helping people get access to good food. So you don't. The only thing you have is like preservative or like, you know, junk food per se, but you can get something fresh. I think that would help a lot of people get healthy.
- [12:40]
B
Yes, you're focused on the actual root cause rather than by the time it gets to Big Pharma.
- [12:43]
A
Yeah. And also like, well, now they're an issue too. Now I'm not a fan of Big Pharma. Big Pharma is an issue, but I think one of the more immediate things that we could focus on is, yes. Helping people get access to good quality food, stuff like that. And then a lot of the preventative stuff that I had talked about earlier about the healthcare plan so people can go see a doctor yearly. Because all that stuff, if somebody doesn't have a doctor and they end up getting sick later on, that ends up costing us more money later on. Because if somebody gets high blood pressure, for example, and they don't get their medicine and they have a heart attack and they don't have. I mean, we end up having to pay for a lot of that stuff, you know. So I would rather really focus on like the preventative stuff, you know, the healthy options as well. I think we can do a lot of that stuff.
- [13:31]
B
That's cool. I like that. What's the biggest campaign messaging? I guess since you're running for Congress, what's the biggest changes you're trying to make?
- [13:38]
A
Well, to be honest with you, I mean, there's a lot of stuff. I mean, I always talk about the medical debt thing because it's really personal for me. I mean, I've just seen so many people that have been affected by these things. But, you know, to be honest with you, I'm not really impressed with a lot of the cuts coming out of Trump. And from Washington, particularly, we got a lot of people, particularly at our health department and so many other places that have been their funding cut. You know, we had a lot of flood prevention dollars that were supposed to be there. So I mean, it's really going out there and talking about the importance of some of things, but then also talking about what we're gonna do outside of standing up to Donald Trump. Right. Cause I think that one of the biggest issues that we do sometimes is we talk a lot about the crazy stuff Trump does, which I think a lot of this stuff is crazy, but we don't talk about what we're going to do for people. So that's why I'm really focused on like the healthcare thing. You know, I'm really focused on like the rent problem for a lot of people. I mean, people have been paying so much for rent, it's unbelievable. And we got to be building a lot more housing in this country. We got to do that a lot more than what we are right now. And particularly also go after the corporations that are buying up single family homes all across our country, making a lot of it less available. It's quite crazy. So it's helping people make more of their own money and then also work in.
- [15:01]
B
I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.
- [15:07]
A
Stand up against a lot of the.
- [15:08]
B
Crazy stuff in D.C. rent's no joke, man.
- [15:10]
A
It's nice.
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B
I was renting out here for three years, and I could have used that on a down payment. All the money.
- [15:14]
A
100. I mean, indeed. It kept on going up every year.
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B
Kept going up. Yeah. Nothing crazy for. For me, at least, but I heard other stories of really high.
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A
It was crazy. Like in Texas. Like, it was going up.
- [15:26]
B
Houston must have been nice.
- [15:27]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was just people constantly were even asking if they'd ever be able to buy a house one day.
- [15:34]
B
Geez.
- [15:34]
A
I mean, it's crazy. You got people commuting, you know, an hour, hour and a half, because they're going further and further, further out because they can't afford anything within the city. It's crazy.
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B
What do you think the fix is for that? Just build more houses?
- [15:47]
A
Well, I think that's the biggest fix we can do. We can definitely do that. But I think also we got to make sure that, you know, we gotta stop these companies from buying up a lot of houses inside of our. In our. In. In our cities, per se, because if you got these big national corporations that are buying up large shares of homes that otherwise regular people could go forward and buy, like, you know, that's a big issue. So I think of that. But I think if I had to boil it all down, it's building a lot more housing. And then also there's a lot of stupid regulations, like particularly parking minimums, something that you. I don't. I know we talk a lot about it in Texas, but, you know, it's one thing that they did in Austin. They abolished it. And it was one of the things that contributed for them to be able to see a rent decrease for a lot of people for the first time in a long time. Yeah.
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B
Just from parking.
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A
From parking. From building more. It was a whole initiative, you know, some permitting issues. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that goes into it, but you just gotta make it easier to build more. And then when you build more, you gotta make sure that regular people can get those homes, not just big corporations.
- [16:48]
B
Yeah. Have there been any protests in Houston yet for all the ICE stuff?
- [16:51]
A
Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We had a no Kings protest a couple days ago. It's pretty good. It's about 15,000 people.
- [16:59]
B
Damn.
- [16:59]
A
Yeah.
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B
Were you there?
- [17:00]
A
I was.
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B
That's a lot of people.
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A
It was. It was like at least a mile, mile and a half worth of people marching down the streets of downtown. It was crazy.
- [17:09]
B
It does seem to be going on in a lot of major cities right now.
- [17:12]
A
Yeah, it was, it was, it was. Honestly, a lot of people, because I spoke at the very end and you could see just like all the people, 15,000 people. It was very patriotic. I mean, a lot of American flags, A lot of people that were really, you know, just wanting their country to be better, you know.
- [17:29]
B
Meanwhile, Trump's military parade didn't have the turnout he wanted. Yeah, And I'll admit that, you know, I told you, I'm a Trump supporter. You can't deny certain things.
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A
I mean, but the thing. $45 million price tag, to me is unbelievable.
- [17:40]
B
That is a lot. I'd love to see a line item breakdown on that.
- [17:43]
A
I mean, but it's crazy because you got $45 million spent on that while we've got veterans sleeping on the streets of America. I think that's nuts.
- [17:52]
B
Yeah. For me, I'm all about ROI and that. To me, I'm not sure if there was one on that one. 45 million.
- [17:57]
A
No, I don't. I don't think so.
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B
You also weren't in support of Trump spending 134 million to send troops to LA?
- [18:02]
A
No, I don't, because I don't think that that was necessary. I think that that California State Patrol, I mean, from what I could tell, at least seemed to me that they had things under control. Now, look, the bad agitators, I think we all can agree they need to be locked up and be found in all of that stuff, but that was not the vast majority of the people that were there. I think everybody should have the right to be able to protest if that's. I mean, that's in the Constitution. But the whole idea that you got people that are protesting and these sending, you know, I just don't think it was a good idea.
- [18:35]
B
To me, I just look at it and I'm like, okay, was that a personal move? Because I know Newsom and Trump or beef and.
- [18:41]
A
Well, like I said, I think it had everything to do with. I mean, Trump loves to change the subject. That's his favorite thing to do when things aren't going right. I mean, he's like, ooh, look, look over there. Right, look. Look at what I'm doing over here in, in California. So you're not paying attention to Elon calling him out for being on the Epstein list. I mean, it's a pretty crazy. It was A crazy couple of weeks. Couple days.
- [19:02]
B
How shocked were you when Elon made that tweet?
- [19:04]
A
I was really shocked. I'm not going to lie. I mean, Elon says some crazy things, but, like, this was.
- [19:10]
B
That was next level.
- [19:11]
A
I was. I don't know where I was. I think I was actually eating lunch.
- [19:14]
B
Damn. He deleted it, though.
- [19:16]
A
He did see that. He did delete it, but at the time, I was really shocked. I thought it was fake that he got hacked.
- [19:22]
B
He definitely got a call.
- [19:23]
A
Yeah.
- [19:24]
B
Oh, yeah, that's. He got deleted within a few days.
- [19:26]
A
He said, Trump said, look at your contracts. I guess I'm going to do something about this. And Elon fell in line. I mean, this is what a lot of these guys do. They have no real gumption to stand up to Trump, and I think it hurts our country.
- [19:39]
B
You think Elon's going to go back to the left, Democratic side?
- [19:44]
A
I don't know. I mean, look, I'm not really interested in the whole, like, I'm really against the whole big money in politics thing. Like, if Elon wants to do. That's his own thing, whatever. But I'm against somebody coming in and dumping $250 million to an election, and I just think we got to just ban it. I mean, I just, you know, if Elon wants to change his mind, that's on him. But, like, this whole, like, going in saying, okay, look, I'm a buy a political party. Nah, nah, I'm against that.
- [20:15]
B
You don't support him starting that middle party or whatever he called it.
- [20:20]
A
I didn't even know about this.
- [20:21]
B
I mean, he made a tweet saying the. There's 10% on the right, 10% on the left. He wants to start a new political party for the 80% in the middle.
- [20:27]
A
I don't think that personally, Elon represents the middle. If, I mean, if I'm just, like, looking at his statements and his tweets, I don't really think that he does. But look, if Elon wants to do that, that's on him. But I think that we're focused more on, like, just building a party. That one is authentic, and calling things out for what they are, but then also just focus on, like, regular people and their issues. Like, I mean, it's an issue that, like, you said that you were thinking about the cost of an ambulance while, like, trying to decide if you were going to get treatment or not.
- [21:01]
B
Like, wicked panic attack. Yeah, I didn't know what was going on. I could have died that day for sure.
- [21:06]
A
I mean, Left or right? Nobody, really. I mean, these are issues that I think all of us care about, and I think that our party is going to be focused more on addressing those things and coming up for answers.
- [21:18]
B
You know, has there been anything Trump's done in his second term that you like?
- [21:25]
A
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, yeah, I don't really know really anything of substance that he's actually done, to be honest with you. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think a lot of the things he's done is just semantics per se, but, no, I can't. Nothing comes to mind. Do you have any of your favorites.
- [21:46]
B
That he's done that I like? I mean, I liked the concept of Doge.
- [21:53]
A
Yeah, sure.
- [21:53]
B
Like, I liked if we were wasting money getting rid of that. I pay a lot of taxes, you know, so I like.
- [21:59]
A
You're a pretty successful guy.
- [22:00]
B
Yeah, well, I like that idea of it, but I'm just seeing if the execution is gonna match that. You know what I mean?
- [22:06]
A
Well, but see, here's the thing about Doge, right? I think the idea of modernizing government, I think, should be embraced. The idea that, okay, if there are systems that are older or whatever, we should make sure that we're making government as direct as it needs to be. But what I think Elon found out is that, one, there's not as much waste in the government as he expected. And two, it was a lot of BS Cause he claimed that they were gonna get a trillion dollars worth of savings, and they didn't get any of that. And the government is literally spending more money now than they did last year.
- [22:42]
B
Wow.
- [22:43]
A
So, like, what did they really do? I mean, and my biggest problem with Elon was that he was dishonest about this. I wish Elon would have just went out there and said, look, there's not as much waste as I thought. Or, like, it's not really what I expected. So here's what we're going to focus on instead. We're going to focus on modernizing government instead. He went out and created a fake Doge clock, claiming of all the savings. He said he was saving so much money, everybody was gonna get a check. Are you getting a check? I'm not getting it. Nobody's getting a check. So, I mean, what did he actually do? You know, I think he. I think one of the reasons why Elon is taking a lot of this stuff directly is because made these promises, didn't deliver on a single one of them.
- [23:28]
B
They did cut some stuff, though, right?
- [23:31]
A
I Mean, they fired people, but the people that they fired, I don't really understand how getting rid of food inspectors makes us a better country. Personally, I would like to know if we have slime in ice machines or. You know what I mean? I would like to know that. I think that's a valuable service. I don't think it's a good thing to cut cancer research. My aunt died of cancer. Like, I wanna make sure we can cure cancer, and I think we all do. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, an Independent, you don't even care about government. Cancer sucks. So how does it make our country better to cut cancer research? I don't get that.
- [24:10]
B
What about fema?
- [24:11]
A
Oh, I hate that. I hate that. I love fema, but I hate that Republicans are trying to cut. Doesn't make any sense. Especially because Republicans made a really big deal out of the whole situation in North Carolina.
- [24:28]
B
Right.
- [24:28]
A
Which, you know, they were wrong about because people were not only getting $750. That was a lie. That was just immediate assistance. But anyway, they put that lie out there, and then one of their first actions is that they want to defund fema. Like, to me, that's a pretty crazy concept.
- [24:49]
B
I'm not caught up on that.
- [24:50]
A
Yeah, I mean, look, I think personally, one of the things that should be bipartisan in this country is storm recovery. I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. Like, if a tornado blows through your area, the last thing you need is a politician going on television talking about all these Democrats, all these Republicans. Or if a hurricane comes through, nobody cares about what political affiliation you are, because a hurricane doesn't care if you got a Kamala sign or a Trump sign. It's indiscriminate. It comes after everybody. And I think that to see Republicans try to play politics with this, I don't really agree with. And I don't think the vast majority of Americans would either.
- [25:36]
B
I actually agree with that. Yeah. Why would you want to entertain that if your house just got wood?
- [25:40]
A
I mean, because I think that, like I said, there's so much politics that's played with government. I think people are sick of it. I think they just want stuff to get done, to be honest with you. And if you get your house broken down, you don't need some politician telling you that, oh, well, I'm gonna defund this because I don't like the other party.
- [26:05]
B
Like, crazy. Trump's newest approval ratings, lowest they've ever been, I believe.
- [26:09]
A
Yeah. Isn't it crazy?
- [26:11]
B
It's not looking good.
- [26:11]
A
Yeah. I guess it turns out that blowing $45 million on a parade and defunding the VA is not popular.
- [26:17]
B
Oh, he defunded the VA?
- [26:18]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [26:19]
B
Was that part of Dosh?
- [26:20]
A
Yeah, it's one. Well, I know it was in part of the. It was across the board cut that they've been pushing in this last budget.
- [26:25]
B
Wow, that's surprising because he seems to be about veterans.
- [26:28]
A
Isn't that crazy how that goes?
- [26:29]
B
Damn. Yeah, I'm actually shocked. He always talks about like honoring veterans.
- [26:33]
A
It's crazy kind of how that goes. I mean, look. But that's also another thing that I talk about a lot in our campaign, is that I think that patriotism should be more than just like blowing up like fireworks or like rolling down tanks down the streets. You know what I mean? I think it's gotta be about like, let's go to our veterans, let's do more for them than ever. I think that that's gotta be a big conversation, you know, because they started this country. Why are we playing politics with this? So I think a lot more needs to be done and I think that putting our money where our mouth is very important.
- [27:10]
B
Do you think Biden had a better presidency than Trump's first term? Really?
- [27:13]
A
I do, actually.
- [27:14]
B
Wow. What do you base that off of?
- [27:16]
A
Well, I think it has everything to do with like, look at the state of the economy that Trump inherited the first time. Like Trump inherited economy with like 74 straight weeks of job growth. Things were great. Gas was like less than. I think it was like a $98, like $2.10. It was like very low.
- [27:35]
B
Miss those days.
- [27:36]
A
Yeah, right. Like, but that's what it was when Obama left office. And like Trump takes office, he immediately goes and he cuts taxes for like the biggest corporations on earth. Right. And those companies started to actually invest less in domestic manufacturing than they were when Barack Obama was president. So despite the fact that those companies made record profits, private jet sales for those companies went up. CEO pay for those companies went up. All of these things happen. They still invested less in domestic manufacturing. So I don't really see that to be a success. Because if we went trillions of dollars into debt because he spent more, he borrowed, he approved more debt than any other president ever has in the history of this country in a four year window. He did that in his first term and all he has to show for it was companies were investing in domestic manufacturing less. CEO pay more up. While everyday people, I mean, we haven't even had really think about the minimum wage. Minimum wage is still the federally at 7.25 an hour. Is it? Yeah.
- [28:39]
B
Oh, wow.
- [28:40]
A
Yes.
- [28:40]
B
Thought it was higher.
- [28:41]
A
Yes.
- [28:42]
B
I mean, so it's like you can't live off that.
- [28:45]
A
No.
- [28:45]
B
7.25 an hour?
- [28:46]
A
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You got people in Texas right now that are making 7.25 an hour.
- [28:51]
B
You can't even buy McDonald's without any.
- [28:52]
A
No. I mean, it takes you two hours to get a Big Mac and fries. And don't let you want to get an apple pie or McFlurry or something that's, you know, you're running up a check.
- [29:06]
B
That's your whole day.
- [29:08]
A
That's right. So I think that's really crazy, to be honest with you. So look, and I look at what Biden did, right? I look at Biden from like what he inherited. Now when Biden inherited office, he inherited, you know, economy that was in the trash because we had just came from COVID You had people losing their lives every night on the television. You were watching it, particularly from COVID You had more trucks outside of our hospitals. You had people still that had very high unemployment. Stock market wasn't great. I mean, you had people in a really rough position. And Biden turned us from where he got us to a state of normalcy. We had 2.7% inflation when he left. Stock market was at all time highs. I mean, the economy went from insanity back to a state of normalcy. Now, I agree there's a lot more stuff that needed to be done. And I think even he would tell you that. I mean, because I met him in the White House and talked to him and all that. I think he would tell you that there was a lot more that could have been done. Republicans blocked a lot of his initiatives. But I think at the end of the day, Trump got the country left it in flames. Biden took the flames and he brought us back to a state of normalcy. And look at what's happened ever since Trump's been back in office. I mean, stock market is terrible. I mean, you're in a situation in which, I mean, you got wars breaking out. This time it looks like US Involvement is gonna be there. So, I mean, it's a crazy situation that Trump has now put us in in just a span of a couple months.
- [30:44]
B
What'd you think of the whistleblower that wrote a book about Biden's health?
- [30:46]
A
Did you see that book yet, Jake Tapper's book? I think that that's insanity. I mean, especially because Like, I went to the White House several times.
- [30:55]
B
Yeah.
- [30:56]
A
And I talked to Joe Biden and Joe Biden seemed like a regular grandpa like figure. I mean, and I think it's, it's even more hilarious to see Jake Tapper say these things. While Trump, like, be honest, has his moments where he's saying crazy things, rambling the weave, as he calls it, per se. So I think it's rather interesting to watch Jake Tapper write that book. And I don't think it really worked out well for Jake. I think he only sold like 55,000 copies of his book. So it's not very good in comparison to the Woodward book that sold like 1.3 million copies in a very short period of time. So didn't work out well for Jake, but who knows? We'll see.
- [31:43]
B
He saw the opportunity and went for it.
- [31:45]
A
Didn't work out.
- [31:46]
B
Yeah. A million dollars. I mean.
- [31:48]
A
Well, I mean, it's terrible.
- [31:50]
B
I mean, 20 bucks a book, right?
- [31:52]
A
I guess, yeah.
- [31:53]
B
55,000 times 20. A million.
- [31:55]
A
I think they were expecting a lot more though.
- [31:56]
B
Probably.
- [31:56]
A
Yeah.
- [31:57]
B
Based off what you're saying.
- [31:58]
A
I mean, because he went on a lot of like, runs to talk about this book and it didn't seem like it really turned out to what they thought.
- [32:07]
B
So you didn't see, when you met him, you didn't see any signs of mental decline or health issues because he got stage five cancer later on.
- [32:14]
A
Yeah, but I mean, that was, that's prostate cancer. Right. So that's a little bit different. But like, no, I mean, like when I met him, like, I mean, he just was regular like grandpa guy. Like, I mean, he obviously was an 80 year old man.
- [32:26]
B
Right.
- [32:28]
A
But in terms of like, like, he told me a story.
- [32:31]
B
Wow.
- [32:32]
A
He told me a story about my late mentor, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
- [32:36]
B
Nice.
- [32:36]
A
And about how like, you know, when he first met her and what it was like serving in Congress. So I was like, he was telling me a story like from 30 years ago. So that's why, like to see like some of these things that Tapper's saying. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And like one of the last times, like when I saw him, at least it was towards the end of his, of his presidency. So. So I think it was like July of 2024.
- [33:00]
B
I remember that a bunch of influencers and creators got invited out. Right?
- [33:03]
A
Yeah.
- [33:04]
B
Pac Man, Harry Sisson Dean.
- [33:06]
A
Yeah. I don't know if it was for that thing.
- [33:08]
B
Oh, that was something else.
- [33:09]
A
Yeah, I think so.
- [33:11]
B
I will say you guys do well on TikTok. I think the, the people on the right crush it on Twitter.
- [33:16]
A
Yeah.
- [33:17]
B
And YouTube. But you guys have TikTok on lock.
- [33:19]
A
Yeah. Yeah. The right does a pretty good job, I think. Well, when I say a good job, I mean they're very active on Twitter. But Yeah, I think TikTok is an interesting space because it allows for people to just have conversations with anybody. I can talk to random guy, conservative guy from Iowa, and hear about what he's talking about. I had a conversation the other guy the other day about this guy and he was concerned about his farm and he wanted to ask me, like, okay, well, I don't like Trump and these tariffs. It's like really screwing up my farm. But, like, if I vote for a Democrat, are you gonna screw over my farm? You know, and we had to have get, you know, a good conversation and it really cleared up a lot of stuff for him.
- [34:02]
B
Wow.
- [34:02]
A
And, you know, I've talked to people from, like, Mississippi, Alabama, all that stuff. So, like, and it also, like, opens my eyes to, like, their thoughts and, like, their struggles.
- [34:11]
B
Right.
- [34:13]
A
Because, like, you know, being in Houston. Right. Like, it's a, it's a, it's a big, you know, 7 million plus urban city. You know, you don't really think every day about, like, what people in other parts of the country are going through and how they look at things. So it's definitely kind of like, open my eyes to, like, different people's perspectives.
- [34:30]
B
That's cool. Yeah. We're not talking to people in every state on a daily basis.
- [34:34]
A
And I think that's why we have, like, a lot of divisiveness. I'm not going to lie in politics. I think it's because we don't have a lot of, like, conversations.
- [34:40]
B
Right.
- [34:41]
A
And I think that when people, when we do that, like, people have the opportunity to see, like, oh, well, you know, we're not as apart as what other people would like to describe.
- [34:50]
B
That's a common concern I see with people in Congress because they're in D.C. all day, they just lose sense of reality.
- [34:55]
A
Yeah. And that's, that's another thing, like being a candidate for Congress, like, I take a really, like a big portion of my time just talking to people outside of, like, politics because, like, you get like, you're obviously, you have like, your team of people and, you know, you've got all these people telling you, like, you know, what political position, all of these things. But I like to go run a lot of my stuff through, like, regular people, like school. I just Go to a restaurant, like, just talk to a waitress, like, about, like, her day is, like, what's her life like? You know, I go and I just talk to people, go to games. I go to Astros games. I'm a nice fan.
- [35:31]
B
It's going to be hard to win without corporate funding, though, right? Like, for Congress you're running. It's hard to win.
- [35:36]
A
I mean, but the biggest thing is, I mean, we've been crushing everybody with, you know, just everybody. We've had thousands of people chip into our campaign. I mean, people give them what they can. A$5, 10, 100, you know, and it's when you have enough people that do that, over time, you can overpower anything that comes your way. So I've always made it to where, like, I'm only accountable to the people, you know? And so while other people might have to go to the big, fancy corporate fundraisers and the big towers of town, like, I go on TikTok live every night to talk to my donors, which are regular people, you know?
- [36:10]
B
You'd be one of the youngest if you won, right?
- [36:12]
A
Yeah, I think I would be the youngest.
- [36:13]
B
Wow.
- [36:14]
A
Yeah.
- [36:14]
B
How old are you?
- [36:15]
A
26.
- [36:15]
B
26. Wow.
- [36:17]
A
Crazy, huh?
- [36:17]
B
Well done, man.
- [36:18]
A
Yeah. I appreciate it.
- [36:19]
B
You had to grow up quick, huh?
- [36:20]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Politics is a very crazy game, I'll tell you that. It's a. It is certainly something that you got to be very focused on your why, you know, I'm sure it's like that in business and all that stuff as well, you know, for you. But. Yeah, you know, when you focus on your why is the why you're doing certain things you're really grounded on.
- [36:40]
B
I agree. Definitely agree. You seem to have really good emotional control, too. Yeah, I'm impressed with that.
- [36:44]
A
Yeah. I mean, a lot of times, you know, people will say things to try to get under your skin, but again, like, when you're focused on your why, like, people can say whatever. Like, some do, you know, cat turd saying some crazy. Like, what the hell does that mean? That account say, like, who. You can't fall for the rage bait, you know? Yeah. The one thing I was, you know, the. The right. Loves the rage bait stuff, but, you know, you just can't really fall for that.
- [37:07]
B
They do love that. Yeah, they love it.
- [37:09]
A
Yeah. It doesn't get to me.
- [37:11]
B
So you've never gotten enraged on a TikTok debate?
- [37:14]
A
Ooh, I would say passionate. Definitely passionate. But I've never, like, crashed out.
- [37:19]
B
You never screamed and yelled at them?
- [37:20]
A
Well, but, I mean, I don't I think, like, even if someone, like, yells at me, right. Sometimes they're just passionate, you know, And I get passionate. I'm a very passionate guy. Like, I'm not a schmuck. Right. Like, so, you know, I. I grew up watching sports, right. So I, you know, I. I get being a little passionate, but, no, I've never, like, crashed out. Like, when you lose control, I think is when you, like, crash out.
- [37:44]
B
Jordan Peterson. Yeah, on that one on 25. Yeah, that was hard to watch. I used to really like that guy.
- [37:49]
A
Yeah, he crashed out.
- [37:51]
B
I mean, I grew up watching him on Rogan and really, like, learned a lot, honestly. Like, I feel like 10 years ago he was given some really solid advice.
- [37:59]
A
I didn't. I didn't really watch him.
- [38:01]
B
Oh, you didn't.
- [38:01]
A
So I know of him, though.
- [38:02]
B
Yeah. I don't know what kind of happened along the way, but just. That debate was hard. Did you watch it?
- [38:08]
A
I didn't.
- [38:09]
B
Okay. You saw clips, though.
- [38:10]
A
But I did see the clips on TikTok. He was kind of crashing.
- [38:13]
B
Yeah. I don't know. He's. Couldn't handle it, man.
- [38:16]
A
Yeah, I think a lot of times, like, you know, that's a different type of format when you got all those people there. And that's why, like, I think, like, being on, like, TikTok Live, it kind of prepares you for politics, you know, in a different way, because you're so used to, like, so many different people that are, like, coming in and saying stuff to you, and you got to learn how to, like, control your emotions while people disagree with you. Right. You know, and. Yeah, from what I saw in those clips, he didn't really seem to do a good job of that.
- [38:42]
B
You see the Charlie Kirk clips at Cambridge?
- [38:44]
A
Yeah. It seems like he crashed out, too. You know, that, that, that girl, I think her name was Tilly. She was really. She was cooking him. Yeah, he, he. I don't know what he thought, like, going over to Cambridge. Like, Cambridge is like Harvard, Right. So it's no joke. Yeah. He went over there and just got. I don't think he was expecting what he got, you know.
- [39:04]
B
Well, I think he wanted to challenge himself because he's used to going to these campuses, and those are layups for him. Yeah, he's got experience over most of those kids.
- [39:11]
A
Yeah.
- [39:11]
B
So, yeah, Cambridge was the next test for him.
- [39:13]
A
I don't know. I mean, he's gotten. God, a few times. I mean, because like I said, I mean, Dean Withers got him. I mean, I don't know If Harry's been up against him. But I'm sure Harry would. Would do.
- [39:23]
B
Parker has.
- [39:24]
A
Yeah. I mean, I would like to see Harry go up against him. Personally, I think.
- [39:28]
B
You think Harry could hold his own.
- [39:29]
A
Harry's pretty good. Yeah, I think so.
- [39:31]
B
I like Harry, to be honest.
- [39:32]
A
Yeah, he's joking.
- [39:33]
B
I know he gets some of the most hate I've ever seen online, but I think he.
- [39:37]
A
It's insane.
- [39:38]
B
Like, actually, I think he plays into it too, but of course he does.
- [39:41]
A
I mean, you know, but it's. It's kind of funny to me.
- [39:44]
B
Like, people just don't like him.
- [39:46]
A
The visceral hatred that he gets. It's kind of funny to me. Like, you know, it's. It's. It's insane, like, how much, like, they hate this one guy. And, like, you meet, like, you met Harry. Like, he's a.
- [39:58]
B
Friends with him.
- [39:58]
A
Yeah.
- [39:59]
B
He's coming back on. I'm going to New York in a few months. He's the first person I texted.
- [40:02]
A
He's a chill guy.
- [40:03]
B
Very nice kid. Yeah, I would love to hang out with him. I want to see if he's like that off camera to more.
- [40:09]
A
Yeah.
- [40:09]
B
I don't know him, like, personally, but.
- [40:11]
A
Yeah. Well, I think that. I think that to a lot of people's surprise, I guess if they're conservative, a lot of, like, the Democratic, like, influence of people, like, they're really chill. They're really chill. The people you see on Twitter and all that, like, they're really chill.
- [40:24]
B
I mean, I can see it. I grew up Democrat.
- [40:25]
A
Yeah.
- [40:25]
B
I grew up in Jersey.
- [40:26]
A
What changed?
- [40:28]
B
Entrepreneurship.
- [40:29]
A
Really?
- [40:30]
B
Yeah.
- [40:30]
A
How do you think we could win your vote.
- [40:35]
B
Being authentic? I didn't sense that in Kamala. I thought her interviews were just her reading off a script, and I didn't like that.
- [40:42]
A
Really?
- [40:43]
B
Do you agree with that?
- [40:44]
A
Well, I think she was. I think she was good at, like, communicating her plans, per se. But, I mean, look, I've heard that from some people. I have heard that. But personally, I. I really liked her ideas, her plans. Right. So that's why, like, to me, maybe I'm a little biased, but that's interesting.
- [41:07]
B
I would have liked to see her on more. A few more podcasts. I think her turning bias.
- [41:10]
A
I agree with that.
- [41:11]
B
Yeah. I think I really. I wanted to get to know her more. I feel like I agree with that. Trump just went on so many, and everyone knew where he stood.
- [41:18]
A
I agree with that. Well, I agree that I think we should have done more podcasts. Like, I think the rogan thing. I think she should have went on Rogan.
- [41:25]
B
I think she should have.
- [41:26]
A
But she also did stuff like she did you see this Janet Sharp one?
- [41:30]
B
She went on Shannon Sharp.
- [41:31]
A
It was really good. I'm not gonna.
- [41:32]
B
Oh, wait, I might have.
- [41:33]
A
That one was really good.
- [41:34]
B
I think I did, actually. Yeah.
- [41:36]
A
So I think she, she did do an effort.
- [41:38]
B
She did call her daddy. She did. Shannon. She went on Brett Baer. Right. On Fox.
- [41:42]
A
Yeah. But that's not really a podcast.
- [41:44]
B
That one didn't go well. No, no, that one was. Yeah, I was surprised she went on that one.
- [41:49]
A
Well, like I said. But that's why I really wanted to make a big point of coming to talk to you, because I'm like, I think that we got to have a lot more conversations like this. Um, you know, to be honest with.
- [41:59]
B
You, I'm pretty center. I could go either way on the next election.
- [42:02]
A
Is there a Democrat that, you know, you've seen in the past that you liked, that you would have voted for for president?
- [42:07]
B
I mean, yeah, Obama, probably. My dad voted for Obama. I wasn't old enough, I think, at the time. But no, I definitely could have in the past. Like I said, I grew up in Jersey. Pretty Democratic state.
- [42:16]
A
Yeah.
- [42:17]
B
Maybe moving also influenced me and the friend groups that I've changed.
- [42:21]
A
Are there some Democrats that you like right now that you would vote for?
- [42:24]
B
That I would vote for right now? Honestly, no one I'm really feeling.
- [42:30]
A
Really?
- [42:31]
B
Yeah. I'm not feeling new. Some aoc, I think. Not really feeling that Bernie, I think is too old. But you liked Bernie in college. Yeah.
- [42:41]
A
Really?
- [42:41]
B
I liked him.
- [42:42]
A
That's interesting.
- [42:43]
B
Did you?
- [42:45]
A
I did like him. I did like him. I, I, I, I liked Biden. I will say that.
- [42:49]
B
You liked Biden. I liked young Biden.
- [42:51]
A
That's what I. Well, but I, I've. Maybe this is also, like, a different perspective for me, but like, my family, like, before he was even like, vice president was like, OG Biden fan.
- [43:01]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [43:01]
A
Like, they liked him like, in the Senate.
- [43:03]
B
I've seen some old videos of him in Senate, and he was sharp.
- [43:06]
A
Right, right, right, right.
- [43:07]
B
I like that version of Biden.
- [43:08]
A
Right, right. So, like, for my family, like, growing up, like, we, we always liked. So like, him, like, running for president. We always just don't.
- [43:18]
B
Yeah. I just felt like Father Time is undefeated with him and he wasn't present at his peak.
- [43:24]
A
I think he should have ran in 2016, if I'm being honest. If I, if I had to make my unfiltered.
- [43:29]
B
I think he Would have done better.
- [43:29]
A
I think he would have beat Trump.
- [43:31]
B
You think so?
- [43:31]
A
I do think so.
- [43:32]
B
Wow.
- [43:33]
A
I do think so. I think Biden in 2016 was a different kind of beast. Like, you saw that debate he did with Paul Ryan. Yeah, the vice presidential one back in 2012. Like, he cooked him. And I think if that Biden ran in. In 2016, I think he would have.
- [43:47]
B
Had a shot for sure. What do you think of Vance? You like Vance?
- [43:49]
A
No, I don't really know.
- [43:51]
B
What about him.
- [43:52]
A
Don't you like polic? I mean, I just think his policies are going to send us into so much debt and just to give tax cuts to the richest people in America. I just don't. It's not really something that I think is right, to be honest with you.
- [44:05]
B
Really.
- [44:06]
A
You know, I think we've got to just be more focused. Look, I'm not interested in, like, you know, this whole idea of, like, Bill Clinton used to call it tax and spend, per se, where, like, you're doing an exorbitant route, because we all know government can't solve every problem. But I think what we do know is that good government, right. A government healthcare plan that's efficient, you know, making sure that our schools are good, making sure that we're incentivizing, building more housing so you're not paying as much for rent. Like, I think those are good investments. And I think the other thing that we don't talk a lot about is like, getting trades back in schools. Like, I think that could help a lot of kids grind, like, particularly in, like, high school, if they, for example, want to, you know, go out and get a trade or whatever. I think that we should be able to do everything possible to help them to where they can graduate high school with, like, a diploma and a trade.
- [44:56]
B
I love that.
- [44:57]
A
I think that's a good idea.
- [44:58]
B
I remember I grew up upper middle class, so, like, for me, going to trade school was almost like a negative thing, if that makes sense.
- [45:04]
A
That's so crazy.
- [45:04]
B
Like, it was shunned upon in my school.
- [45:06]
A
I don't like that.
- [45:07]
B
But looking back at it now, the people that went to trade school are actually making more money.
- [45:11]
A
Yeah.
- [45:12]
B
Than the ones that went to college.
- [45:13]
A
Like, electricians are making, like, a lot.
- [45:14]
B
I just paid mine 3k yesterday. Plumbers, electricians.
- [45:18]
A
Oh, my gosh.
- [45:18]
B
Landscaping. My uncle's a roofer. Sold his company for millions.
- [45:22]
A
Yeah. I was talking to a guy from Alabama that was telling me the same thing, that he's got a roofing company. Apparently he's A millionaire.
- [45:27]
B
Exactly.
- [45:28]
A
And so, you know, I think that would be great to, like, go back to, like, really, like, helping our kids, like, learn these trades. But you can't do that with, like, J.D. vance's thought process of just, like, completely defunding education. Like, the whole, like, I don't think a lot of people think about this, but, like, the Department of Education doesn't exist to write curriculum. It exists to take money from the federal government and send that to states to use on their own programs. And so I think the right purpose of the DOE is saying, look, let's use federal dollars to go send to our schools so they can start training kids to learn trades so they can graduate high school. Look, if you don't want to go to college, it's no big deal. It's not a problem. We're going to give you a trade to do that. And I think rethinking how we're doing a lot of these things would really, I think, be able to inspire a new generation for folks that want to grind and make a lot of money. I mean, I don't have no issue with that.
- [46:21]
B
I definitely agree with that. Especially with the rise of AI. You need to learn some physical skills quick.
- [46:25]
A
I mean, and it's happening. I mean, think about what all these other countries are doing, particularly with AI. I don't want us to lose this race. I mean, I think this is honestly like the space race of our times, 100%. And we got to go all in, I think, on training people to be able to go forward and get a lot of these jobs. I mean, if we really were to commit to doing that, I mean, you're talking about wealth out of the tail for so many people. And I think that's where the Democratic Party stands is like, look, we want to make sure that tax dollars. Look, I don't want to go back to the status quo, you know, because, look, obviously I'm against a lot of the stuff that Trump's doing, and I'm going to go work in Congress to go fix all of that. But I don't want to just make things exactly the way that it used to be. I want to be talking about a society that is winning this era, and that means, like, helping kids. Look, if you don't want to go to college, don't. But again, we're going to help you be able to be successful for yourself. And I think that that's something that J.D. vance is just diametrically against.
- [47:21]
B
Yeah, he wants the Department of Education gone, right?
- [47:23]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:24]
B
And Trump.
- [47:25]
A
Yeah, him and Trump.
- [47:26]
B
What was your public school, like, experience? What'd you take away from that?
- [47:29]
A
It was cool. So, like, in, like, high school. It was really cool. Like, I had a really big high school.
- [47:33]
B
Yeah.
- [47:34]
A
Like, we had, like, I want to say, like, 700 people in my graduating class. And so, like, the high school, I think, was about, like, about 28, 2600.
- [47:44]
B
I don't know. Yeah, I had about the same. Yeah.
- [47:46]
A
Yeah. And so it was really cool, like, you know, to go through school. I always knew I wanted to go to college because at the time, I thought I was going to be a lawyer. I wanted to go and go off to college and then go to law school and all that stuff, but, you know, I changed course and all of that. But going to U of H, University of Houston. Go Cougs. You know, it's. I'm just going to brag. Number one. Number one school in the country. You know what I'm saying? With the exception of Florida. I still am mad about that game.
- [48:14]
B
That was a good game.
- [48:15]
A
Yeah, it was crazy. I was definitely salty for.
- [48:17]
B
Were you there?
- [48:18]
A
I was at the watch party.
- [48:19]
B
Okay.
- [48:20]
A
We had a really big watch party in downtown Houston. And you know what was crazy? I let myself go there in terms of, like, thinking about what it would be like to win. And in my head, I had all of these thoughts.
- [48:33]
B
You got a taste of it.
- [48:34]
A
I was like, oh, we're about to go out. It's about to be crazy. Right? Like, the parade's gonna go, dummy. Like, I was thinking about it and then. And then they made that run and I was like, oh. Oh, that's not good. That's not good. And we lost. And it was definitely, definitely a bad series of events.
- [48:53]
B
Good game, though. As a fan of basketball, I liked watching that game.
- [48:56]
A
Yeah. Who's your favorite team, you follow in college? Yeah.
- [48:59]
B
Notre Dame. My dad was a big Irish.
- [49:01]
A
Really?
- [49:01]
B
Half Irish.
- [49:02]
A
Really?
- [49:02]
B
So he's a big Fighting Irish fan. So they're not.
- [49:05]
A
I haven't really met a Notre Dame fan.
- [49:07]
B
Really?
- [49:07]
A
No.
- [49:08]
B
They have the biggest college football fan base, I believe, other than Alabama.
- [49:11]
A
I don't know. That's right.
- [49:12]
B
We'll have to forget, but I think it's millions of people. Yeah.
- [49:18]
A
Really?
- [49:18]
B
Notre Dame over. Wow. Yeah. We'll fact check it after this. But they got a big audience.
- [49:25]
A
Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that. I mean, have you been to a game?
- [49:28]
B
Notre Dame? No, I went to Rutgers. I've been to a Rutgers game. But Notre Dame.
- [49:32]
A
Notre Dame is a really Interesting school, I will say.
- [49:35]
B
Have you been there?
- [49:36]
A
I haven't, I haven't. I'm Catholic though, so, like, I've kind of like followed them, I guess, over the years, but, like, I've never been to a game.
- [49:44]
B
Good school, but very expensive.
- [49:46]
A
Yeah.
- [49:46]
B
That tuition ain't no joke.
- [49:47]
A
Yeah. Back when I was looking into law school, like, I was like, oh, yeah. Like, I was thinking about, like, potentially going there and I saw how much it costs. I was like, no.
- [49:57]
B
50, 60,000? About.
- [49:58]
A
Yeah, I think it's more than that, honestly. Like, it's. It's crazy. Like, think about, like, it's like a bins.
- [50:04]
B
Like I stayed in state. Yeah. I think I was paying 15 or 20, which is still, you know, pretty sizable.
- [50:09]
A
It was a lot cheaper in Texas. I think we paid about 6,000 per semester. Per semester.
- [50:15]
B
Oh, so 12. Is that including boarding or. No, no, no, no, no. Okay, now see, that's reasonable though. Like these days, charging eight, some of them are charging 80,000 a year.
- [50:25]
A
Yeah. But you know what's even crazier about that? Like, I was talking to somebody not so long ago and the guy was telling me about, like, back in his day, like, he could work a minimum wage job all year or I guess all summer to pay for his tuition for the full year.
- [50:41]
B
Wow.
- [50:42]
A
Could you imagine that?
- [50:44]
B
I can't.
- [50:45]
A
No. Like, you can't. Like, that's why, like, a lot of these people, like, when they say stuff like, oh, well, you know, people should just pay their way through college. But I'm like, dog, like, nah, these days.
- [50:55]
B
No way. I was working my ass off in college just to afford liquor on the weekends.
- [50:58]
A
That's what I'm saying. Right. Just to be able to go out.
- [51:00]
B
Just to get food.
- [51:01]
A
Right. Just to go to Chipotle every now and then, like, cost a lot of money. So it's like, that's not even factored with tuition. So, like. And this tuition stuff is crazy.
- [51:11]
B
Yeah.
- [51:11]
A
And it's even more than that. It's like if you want to go to like, be a doctor or something.
- [51:15]
B
Like, I got friends going through that right now and it's. Yeah. Half a million dollars.
- [51:19]
A
Dude. I know a girl already with like 330k and they don't.
- [51:23]
B
And they don't make what they used to too.
- [51:25]
A
No, they don't.
- [51:26]
B
Yeah, it's not.
- [51:27]
A
Dude, it's crazy. There are a lot of issues in this country, man. Yeah.
- [51:31]
B
What do you think about Charlie Kirk saying college is a scam?
- [51:34]
A
Oh, I disagree. Well, look, I disagree with that. Because I think it's all dependent on what you want to do. Like, for me, I got. I enjoy college. It was helpful for me because I got a good chance to learn how to, like, network and meet people and all that stuff. But, like, I just disagree with the notion that, like, you have to go to college to be successful, right? Like, I just think it's a stupid point of view, to be honest with you. Like, you can be successful in anything, right? Like, if you grind, you hustle, like, you can be successful. And, like, I think that, like, Kirk saying, like, oh, you go to college. Like, no, I don't agree with that. If you don't want to go to college, cool. Like, you can still be successful. Gonna go get a trade, whatever. Like, you wanna work hard, you can be great. But, like, nah, I don't. I don't agree with the notion of just it being a scam.
- [52:18]
B
Thank you for saying that. Massive weight lifted off my chest because there was so much guilt and shame when. When it came to college. For me at least. Like, if. If you didn't go, so many people made fun of you or whatever, that's stupid to me. I hope that's changing. I don't know if it has been changing, but that was 10 years ago for me.
- [52:33]
A
Well, I mean, like I said, I mean, I look at some of the people that I know, and it's like, you know, these guys, they're making a lot of money. Like, I know a guy that's a solar salesman. Like, and this guy is pulling, like, close to 200.
- [52:45]
B
I've met a few solar salesmen that are.
- [52:47]
A
I know a guy who is a. A general manager at Bucky's. Do you ever heard of Bucky's, Buc EE's?
- [52:51]
B
No.
- [52:52]
A
Buc EE's is a. Is a gas station, but it's like, the most insane gas station you would ever see.
- [52:59]
B
Is it like Wawa?
- [53:00]
A
Oh, it's different. It's better.
- [53:02]
B
Wow.
- [53:02]
A
Wawa is legit. But Buc ee's is like a. The Bugatti's gas station. Dang. Think about a gas station that's like the size of like. Like a target.
- [53:16]
B
Wow.
- [53:17]
A
Like a regular target. Not a super target, but like a regular target. Right? And they have a hundred pumps.
- [53:23]
B
Holy crap.
- [53:24]
A
Could you imagine that?
- [53:25]
B
No. That's nuts.
- [53:25]
A
And they're all being used. And what Buc ee's is known for is that they have the world's cleanest restrooms. So much so that, like. So, like, if you drive from, like, Houston to Austin, it's like 2 hours and 20 minutes. Ish for me, maybe a little bit quicker. Right. I'm used to going to the Bucky's when I leave Houston. And when I enter Austin, it's on both sides of the journey. And that's just what people do. So a manager, a general manager at BUC EE's pulling 200 and something. K. Holy. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I will never say that college is a scam, because you got people out here who didn't go to college that's making a lot of money. So that's why I'm always for, like, people. They pick their. They pick their grind, they pick their hustle, and they make for it whatever they make for it. I'm just in of the belief that we should be making opportunity for people across the board. And I want to see our investments, our tax dollars go towards helping people get there.
- [54:27]
B
You know, is Houston growing more. More left? Because I know Austin is right.
- [54:31]
A
Well, Austin is. Houston is kind of in like this weird spot right now. But, you know, look, I think people are really frustrated with the Republican leadership, particularly in the state. Particularly, you know, because think about Republicans, right? They always talk about, like, cutting taxes, per se, but in Texas, like, Republicans have ruled the state for 30 years, but property taxes go up every year. They're sitting on a $26 billion surplus. $26 billion. And yet at the same time, the schools don't have enough money to fix the acs. So they're taking their kids and they're paying all this money in property taxes, which I think is number six in the nation. You're paying all of this money for property taxes, all this money for sales taxes, all these things for local whatever, Right? And you're sending your kid to a school that does not have AC where the books are old.
- [55:22]
B
In Texas.
- [55:23]
A
Yes. You know, you got some schools. I've just found out about this recently in Houston. They don't take the kids on field trips anymore. What can you imagine?
- [55:32]
B
That was the best part of school.
- [55:34]
A
We used to go to the art museum, the zoo, the park. We used to go to all kind of different things, and we don't do that. So look, so people are being like, okay, Republicans, I've been paying all this money for all this time. Where the hell is my money going? And so look, I think we gotta personally making sure that our first. We gotta do a lot more to make sure that our kids are in good schools. We gotta give them the best Equipment. We're America, all right? We should be doing that. And so I certainly believe in that. I've talked a lot about, for example, creating a field trip fund for kids in this country. Because think about it like this, right? Some of the most formative experiences for kids is taking them out of their situation and bringing them somewhere else. So like, for example, going to like a state competition. For us, we had deca, right? And deca state competition is something that a lot of times people in lower income areas, they can't afford to take their kids there, right? So I think that we should be talking about how we can help kids go to these state competitions so they can start seeing different aspects. Because then you start to meet people who are all kinds of different backgrounds and changes their perspective on some things. So I'm all for that. I think in Texas, people are really getting sick of Republicans wasting their money on tax cuts for the richest people.
- [57:00]
B
Is there any idea where that money is going to the property tax money? Are they supposed to disclose that? How does that work?
- [57:05]
A
But right now, like I said, we got a $26 billion surplus, which again, I believe in having state surplus, but like $26 billion. Crazy.
- [57:14]
B
That sounds like a lot. That's not sure in perspective to other.
- [57:17]
A
States, but that's a lot. Especially when you got schools that are the situation that they are teachers that are not getting paid what they need to get paid. I mean, you got a lot of crazy stuff. I think that in the United States we should want to be the best. Why is it that we are looking at other countries and we're seeing stuff we're wondering for ourselves? I think we should be talking about how we can make our schools the best. Best. And the Republicans certainly are not doing that.
- [57:42]
B
I wonder if we can do that on a public education level, if we can make all of them that good.
- [57:47]
A
I think we can.
- [57:48]
B
You think so?
- [57:48]
A
But I think we've got to be really focused on the results, right? And I think we gotta be really focused on that. But the other thing is, again, I think we gotta be talking about how we. How what happens when a kid graduates, right? What are we giving them? If you want to go to school, to college, we want to prepare you to do that. If you don't, we want to prepare you for that too. I think sometimes the way of thinking is that, like, we're so focused on like preparing kids for college, right. That we don't focus on the ones that don't want to go to college. And so I think we cannot have that way of thinking. And we gotta be focused on doing both equally, 100%.
- [58:24]
B
For me, there was no plan B. It was just college. I feel like most people are in that situation also.
- [58:28]
A
Yeah. No, I don't agree with that.
- [58:30]
B
Yeah, there should be like a trade school option.
- [58:32]
A
100%. 100%. It'll be a lot better.
- [58:34]
B
Isaiah. I can't believe it's been an hour already, man.
- [58:36]
A
You guys are really.
- [58:37]
B
You're a good talker. Yeah. Where could people support you, man, and potentially donate and all that stuff?
- [58:41]
A
Absolutely. Well, if you want to support our campaign, you go to Isaiah martin.org I S A I A H M A r t I n.org Time to shake things up in Washington. You want to support by donating to our campaign, you can do that as well. Isaiah martin.org Also, for anybody who wants to sign up to volunteer, it's all on the website.
- [58:57]
B
Isaiah martin.org Love it for coming on Isaiah.
- [59:00]
A
Absolutely.
- [59:00]
B
Y Check them out, guys, and I'll see you next time. Thank you.