Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome back to Mallory's Weird World Adventures, the podcast. I'm your host, Mallory, and I'm here to show you just how weird and wonderful this world of ours really is. I am very excited today because I have. Mike, I'm. I might butcher your last name. I'm so sorry if I do Bedenbaugh
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Beaten Bob, but that's close enough here with me today.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: He wrote the wonderful book Reviving Our Republic, which I will show here, and I read it and loved it. And I have so many questions. But first, Mike, did you want to give everyone an introduction to who you are and what it is that you do?
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Well, I was born here in Prosperity, South Carolina, a little town in South Carolina in 1961.
And I've watched my community change from a place where Jim Crow ruled to where things opened up like, thankfully they did for the folks that used to live on the farm that I grew up on.
And after growing up here, I joined the Navy and then I went in and back to college. After I dropped out of college, I joined the Navy. Then I went and ran a marketing company out of New York City. We came down here to South Carolina, had the headquarters opened up in LA. I did marketing for films with DreamWorks and RCA Records and all of those things in that life. And then after that, I went and ran Preservation South Carolina, which is a statewide preservation organization. Now, during all of this, I was civically minded and I was on town council. I believe it's important citizens get involved in things, and so I contributed in that way.
And long story short, I retired from Preservation South Carolina fixing old buildings and realized the structure that needed fixing the most was our republic.
So I took all my life's knowledge and experience and my love of history, and I dumped it into this book as a recipe for hopefully getting people inspired to pick up the challenge and be involved to where we can fix the governing system that we need to work properly for us. That's not working very well right now.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Right.
I have to ask, how long were you in LA for? I also lived in LA for a decade.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Wow. Well, we were. We opened up.
Well, our office was here in South Carolina and we had clients in LA in, in Burbank. And our first office we opened up was in Sherman Oaks and then in Encino.
And we did film marketing for Universal. I did the three dimensional marketing for Shrek and Gladiator and Chicken Run and all of those things. And we also ran the studio store for DreamWorks Animation Studio, which is in Burbank. I don't know if it's still there or not, but that's where we were.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: I was in Sherman Oaks for many years. I lived in Sherman Oaks and then I moved out to Santa Clarita years later. But I spent most of my time in Sherman Oaks.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Oh, very, very good. Where are you now?
[00:03:19] Speaker A: I'm in Virginia now. So I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and now I'm. I'm back here. Once everything became digital during COVID I was like, there's no reason for me to be here anymore. I'm gonna go back home where I'm comfortable and have my family and friends. And then I can do everything I'm still doing just digitally.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Well, that's good. Virginia is a beautiful state. It's one of our favorites. I mean, when we take vacations, weekends, we always head to Western Virginia.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Shenandoah Valley, Woodsville, Staunton, all up through there. We just love that area.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Shenandoah is one of my favorites.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: So I have to ask, speaking of reviving our republic, that was a great intro. Thank you.
What inspired you to structure your book as 95 Theses? And what historical connection did you see between Martin Luther's theses and the current American political system?
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Well, one. I'm a history nerd, and I grew up in a Lutheran area, and I understood, I've always understood the power of the 95 theses that Martin Luther. You know, I just imagine this individual monk that just learned what he needed to know. He observed on his own individual way of looking at the world and realized the indulgences. And the way the Catholic Church had migrated away from what he saw as a core purpose for the church had been corrupted.
And I just like that idea of a lone man standing and nailing a piece of paper on a door that he probably expected it would be a death sentence.
It was for John Huss 100 years before in Prague.
And so luckily, he had somebody protect him. But I like the allegory of that. I think that's important. I think it's important that we look at. We can see as knowledgeable human, sentient human beings. We can see what's wrong, and we have a responsibility to stand up and say, so the 95. That's where I refer to. But that's pretty much where it ends, except I also construct it in a thesis form, which is kind of an academic exercise of. Here's the proposal. Now give me an answer. And so I did that. But the. But the basic concept and the. That's kind of the hardware Right. The framing of the knowledge. The software is based on George Washington's farewell address.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: That's. That's what it's based on. Because George one George.
This nation would not exist if it hadn't been for a man named George Washington that did what he did. We had a lot of founding fathers. We had Franklin and Jefferson and Madison and Adams. All these guys were vital. But it was George Washington's leadership, opportunities of leadership and service that helped steer the ship that all those other guys were riding on into a way that ensured the revolution of ended in not a civil war where these people were killing each other, but actually a constitutional republic that would delay what I think was an inevitable Civil war. Four store in seven years.
Right.
That's what it was. Absolutely vital and important.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Have you. This is a little off topic, but have you been to the spy museum in Washington D.C. no.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: And I always want to go. I've never had a chance to do it.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: It's great. And they actually have a letter from George Washington and he's orchestrating the first spy network to kind of get that in against in the Revolutionary War. So that's a great thing you get to see there.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Oh, it's. It's amazing what he did, the depth of that man. I mean, people don't understand how he was stood on the verge of. Of sacrificing his life for everything when he stood on the shores of the Delaware river and he sat there and read to his men in the middle of the night of Christmas Eve.
These are times that try men's souls. Where Thomas Paine wrote about, you know, this is something we have to sacrifice for. He went across that river expecting it not to work and sacrifice that intention. When he stood at Long island before all of this happened and 400 ships, the largest armada, invasion armada coming over the horizon on the ocean.
Did he run? Did he bail? Did he say, let's get out of here, this isn't worth it? No.
He held everything together through that. And it's just somebody that I think we need to remember to admire. So that's why I really embed this in this book and the purpose with his. With his vision.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Can you share the moment or some experience you've recently had that made you feel like now is the time to write this book? Something that happened that you're like, I need to do this now.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Well, I've been thinking about it for a while, right. For 20 years I've been trying to think.
I don't know. I was always inspired by Bill Moyers had a PBS with, with Joseph Campbell called the the Power of the Myth.
And, and I always liked that name, Power of the Myth. So I had a sense of, I had a sense of our nation was a myth, kind of had a mythology about it that people weren't really getting. And so I've been thinking about forever. But what really jailed that I realized the book was going to be written was 11 years ago in August 2015, I had just come back from Washington. I went to the bookstore near Dupont circle in Washington D.C. and I picked up Ron Chernow's new Washington's biography.
And I picked it up and I was reading it and I watched the Republican debate on August 2015, the first one where President Trump was there with all the other people, the first one where they were going to try to, you know, have the Republican nominee for, against, you know, after Obama had left the White House.
And what I heard and what I saw was the bellwether of what we're living now, the ultimate expression of vulgar consumption, name calling of.
And I also know enough about my people here, where I grow up, to know how this is going to resonate with them, because he's speaking directly to the fact of how corrupted it is with a taint that I can deal with it and make this, make this place work.
But I also heard, you'll make it the way he needs it to. And that concerned me. And so that was the gel of it there. And when I finally, you know, life happens. You're busy, you're making whatever you have to do to live, and you don't have time to sit around, write a book all day long.
And when I decided to run for Congress in 2023 as an independent, that's when I said all this stuff I've been thinking about, put it to paper. And that's what I did.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Amazing.
That's great. I mean, most people don't actually get there to that point where they sit and write the book and get it out.
And you did it.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: It's just such an accomplishment in itself and it's so, so inspiring. And I have to ask. Thank you.
Why do you think the Founders principles can be misunderstood today? I feel like a lot of people quote them and reference them without actually understanding, like the intentions behind our Founding fathers, George Washington included.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Well, it's been, you know, there's a lot of elements of American history that people have a hard time kind of capturing and contextualizing. Again, there's that word again. And when I talk about the power of the myth. There is a mythology that built around these holy men that came forth with a golden piece of paper that made our republic. Well, you know, the man who wrote, all men are created equal, held people enslaved. Not only held them enslaved, but had enslaved children that were his servants.
So that shows a complexity in colonial society here that can't just be explained away with myth.
And. And that sometimes gets in the way of people trying to delegitimize what they had to do and what they said. And I don't think that's fair. You know, we have to look at history within the context of what they did and what they were able to rise above.
And, you know, Washington, one of the many things what people say about Washington was, well, he was the only founding father that actually released his slaves.
He didn't do it till after he died, which shows two things. One, he wasn't brave enough to make the leap while he was alive.
He was also a pragmatic person that understood if he was to do that, then the mobism within the south and fearful of what would happen if all these descendants from Africa would be unleashed on the southern landscape. It will destroy what they believe would destroy the European culture they had built.
And so that's that complexity that happened. But on the flip side of that, these people happened to coincide at a time when. Where they were able to build a society of libraries and learning at a time when the Enlightenment was at its peak and they were an ocean away from the armies destroying each other in Europe to where it could.
It was like it could develop and grow and mature here. Yes, Britain came over to try to stop the revolution.
If America would have been a third the distance away from England, we would not have won, potentially. But the distance and all of those elements coincided to make it work. But it worked because these people had a perspective that was really unique in time, and it was brilliant. And you sit there and listen to Washington, when you read his words in his farewell address, is as if he's a prophet talking about what we're living right now. It's absolutely amazing.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: The parallels from history repeating itself just never cease to amaze me.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: When I was in Russia, Speaking of that, when I was in Russia, I
[00:14:17] Speaker A: was gonna ask you about Russia, because I have your note here. I wanted to ask about that.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah, good. Yeah. So when I was in Russia, it was an amazing time. I was there in 1990, and I was living with people in their home. So I was in Leningrad, Moscow and Crimea, Yalta.
And I was sitting down, and of Course, anytime at night you're in Russia, there's a vodka bottle on the table that's open, and it is being used with a lot of people around you. And so this guy looked at me, after about half a vodka bottles emptied, he goes, you Americans know nothing of a history.
You think history is a ladder that you climb.
No, you foolish Americans, history is a wheel that keeps returning back on its cycle, that keeps perpetuating the pain. It's very Russian, but.
But every time I think of that history, does the, The. The. The. It. You know, the wheel does go in a certain direction, but the memory of things in the past do constantly come back until they're purged in whatever way they are, preferably through forgiveness and acquiescence and letting it go.
But if you constantly fight stays, and we're still fighting our history,
[00:15:49] Speaker A: definitely we're very ashamed of a lot of our history, and that forces us to look away, but that's the worst thing we can do.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Well, it is. And people that are ashamed of the history haven't studied it enough to understand.
It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's. It's what to learn from, to understand.
You know, I. When I taught school during the time period I divorced from, when I ran my marketing company to, before I did preservation, South Carolina, and I taught school and, you know, I talk to people about the complexities of history. My last name is Beaten Ball, which is a German name. My German ancestors showed up in 1752.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Well, by 1770, when the powdered wig dandies of Charleston were fussing about their tea being taxed too high, my German ancestors were fighting with each other and Scotch Irish up here, and they were saying, why should we rebel? A king that gave us our land, that speaks German, that brought us over here. So my Beaten Ball ancestors were loyalists, and. And I empower that to show there's a reason why. And in fact, the reason was so strong and justified that after the war, the people here forgave them as long as they swore an oath of allegiance, and it was fine because they fought honorably.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: You know, and so that nuance is something we're forgetting right now, especially with the protein shake machismo that's coming out of Washington right now.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: Right.
I agree. I. I like to look back at history, and sometimes it's inspiring to see how far we've come. And one of my favorites to point out is I love the book Dracula, and it was written in the late 1800s. So when you read it, Van Helsing to say that Nina is compassionate and intelligent. He says she has a man's brain and a woman's heart. And it's something that people take great offense to today. But I'm like, no, this is just how things were. And with that context and seeing how far we've come, I find that fascinating to me. I'm like, this isn't something to be offended by. This is a nice slice of almost cultural anthropology. Now I can see where we were in the history and how far we've come, and I just love that.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Oh, cultural anthropology. That's a perfect phrase because that's exactly what we have to think about all of these things. I mean, I grew up where I had.
My family, had two black families living on our farm at the pleasure of my father and grandfather, right?
And one of those ladies raised me.
The one of the men drove the tractors for my dad and drove mules for my grandfather.
And the world they lived in then and the world we live now, just 40 years, it's nuts. It's amazing how well our society has adopted to change and to. To growth. But it's also what we're seeing now, right now, is the death throes of some of the reaction to so much change so quickly. And that's what's happening.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Yes, definitely.
Speaking of change, I know your book called for changes to the electoral system, and I wanted to ask, because I agree, I'm fully in support of that. How would you like to see the Electoral College change for those who haven't read the book? And then how would these reforms kind of help to revive democratic trust?
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Well, the Electoral College is a very interesting institution that a lot of people want to say we just got to get rid of it. Because it's kind of weird. You could tell the. The. The architects, and I call them architects, the architects of our Constitution were trying to create kind of like a parliamentary system where it's where representatives vote in the president, you know, and not because they were afraid of popular will and how it could be corrupted through powerful leaders.
They understood that could happen. And at the time, they feared the most popular demagoguery could come from a president. So they wanted to put two firewalls between it. Not only the representatives, but then representatives of the representatives to decide. You know, that's the Electoral College. They reflect the number of people to the representatives and senators from each state. And plus they saw the states as electing.
That was who was electing the president, because the states were the members of the federal government and equal an equal part of the citizenry who elected representatives directly in the House Representatives.
So I think the electoral college has problems, but I'm definitely not for throwing it out because I'm just not one to feel like you destroy anything and build anything out of it.
I think the instincts of it were correct. What I'd rather see is instead of winner take all, which is corrupted with the electoral college, it should. Each vote should represent each vote percentage wise of whoever was voted for in the state.
Right now, another part of my reforms calls far smaller districts. When the Constitution was written, House representative districts were in their 30,000, 35,000 people.
That's all a district was then. Now they're over 750,000. Wow. Now it's been fixed where it cannot, where we can't get any more representatives. Right now it's 400 something representatives.
I forget the exact number.
What I propose is we need to go back to a smaller district and we need to keep them small. Now that's going to mean how many, what, an assembly of 2,000 people? I don't know, but that's a discussion we have to have. But the point is if the electoral college is reflected in multiple representatives. So right now we have, we have nine electors in South Carolina, seven. Five. Five representatives and two centers. Seven.
If we had smaller districts, we could have potentially 20 electors.
And what would that do? As far as the number and especially if each elector, it'll give an opportunity for multiple party systems so other parties can rise up. So you have a third electors for Republican, 10%. Well, in South Carolina, 10% Democrat and then other percentages. And then they can build up and collect around the other states. So I think that's a reform that I think is a safest route. I'm always being a preservationist.
I'm always wary of people who want to tear something down first and think rebuilding it would be better.
That's, that that's concerning to me.
So let's reform. Let's tweak a few dials before we throw it out.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Right. I love that.
So restoring true federalism is obviously a major theme in your work.
How should states and local communities play a bigger role within the balanced republic?
[00:23:19] Speaker B: We never will until the taxation gets righted. Okay. Because right now.
Well, originally the states held the power with taxation and the feds received, you know, through tariffs and all those other issues of how the feds got funds and the states were able to tax property and make their income here with the income tax going directly to the feds.
What that created was an opportunity for local representatives and governors who were really in the green room to become president. Or a representative could say, oh, I'll lower your taxes. Federal government was more than willing to raise taxes because then they could not. Not more willing to raise taxes, but more than willing to put more responsibility on the feds to send money back to states.
Right. And so we, because oh look, we're, we're giving grants, we're helping fund not only Medicare and all these other social services, but whenever you bring resources back to the states, you have guaranteed voter lock in.
When I ran for Congress, the most disturbing conversations I had were with mayors in the small towns in my district who first thing they would ask is so what money are you bringing back?
And it's a legitimate question because they don't have the income on the it.
You know, we send so much, 2/3, 3/4 of our tax money goes to the feds. Smaller percentage comes here.
In the long run, we have to invert that.
You know, we, we need to invert that does for the states have to ask for help from the feds means it's failing. So that's how the states can take more responsibility. Being in South Carolina and you being there in Virginia, we understand the, the third rail of the concept of states rights. It's a corrupted system that, that, that is a stain on our history.
The way states rights was used by people like Strom Thurmond during Jim Crow. However, I call it state responsibilities.
I'm so sick of, of generations of people in this country that, that consume rights without any responsibilities that supposed to pay for the legitimacy of those rights rights.
And that's, that's a huge problem.
And so that, that's how I couch it. We have to have state responsibilities and that's how they'll be able to be more of good federal partner.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: What role do citizens have outside of voting, in community leadership or in local governance, for instance, what role do they have in contributing to, to this, paying
[00:26:17] Speaker B: attention, not jobbing it out, not walking to the voting booth and hitting the button and then blaming everybody else if their person doesn't win and just not do anything except complain, you know, and unfortunately we have outlets now where people can fuss and moan without any responsibility. What they say on their laptop or on their phone, it takes responsibility.
And every reform that this nation can make will come out of a reaction of a paying tension that will be created by something that's like this is not good. We have to change this.
And we're, we're seeing that rising now we saw it happening in Minnesota. We, and we're going to see a lot more of that, unfortunately, because a lot of people still don't get it and, and know that they can make a difference.
You know, that that's why I wanted to elevate Martin Luther. I mean, here's a monk that just said, this is wrong. I mean, he was a knowledgeable guy and he was respected within the monastery where he was. But still, it's amazing, you know, what can happen just with the intention of one person and the collective of that going in the same direction can move the universe.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: I think something that stops a lot of people is feeling, I'm just one person, what can I do? And it's important for them to see all the instances in history where one person surely did a lot.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: One person surely did a lot. I mean, there's, there's instances throughout history where if there was not for one, well, George Washington is one of them. If it was not for George Washington, we would not have the United States that we know today just wouldn't have it.
So one person can make a huge difference. And I'm hubris enough to think, well, I'll write a book, let's see what this does. Let's throw this into the mix. And I tell you what really inspired me.
I already written the book. But then this started getting in the news, right?
Look at that.
Look how big this thing is.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, yes.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: And that's why I started talking about Project 2026. I kind of threw that out there just as a little rhetorical, little play on words, on this monstrosity, which assumes the only way to fix America is to put more power in the executive, so he could just make it happen.
And it's absolutely the most absurd, un American thing that could be done. But when you then take that and then wrap it in Christian nationalism and all of that, which is, I, I interviewed one of the architects of all of that, a childhood friend, Chad Conley.
I have an interview with them that I did last week and I just put it up, a 40 minute interview, and we had a very good discussion. He's a dear friend all the way back from the fourth grade. I mean, from four years old I've known him.
But we are on the opposite side of how we revive our republic on this stuff.
And there's a lot of those folks out there that need to be educated and engaged with.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: Right.
So how do you respond, speaking of, to critics who see calls for decentralization, that see what they see Calls for decentralization.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: They see cause for it. Yes, well that's kind of what I call for in the sense of the federalism. Right. Because.
We have to give the ability of local. That's the genius of how the Constitution was constructed. Right. The, the ability of local cultures. Rural South Carolina is nothing like suburb of Boston and Massachusetts or LA or whatever. And so local culture should be able to express themselves within the bounds and rules of positive civic engagement as outlined in the Constitution.
But things like zoning laws and how rules are organized and how voting is done.
One of the greatest strengths the states have, our federalism is the states control the voting.
Some dictate from fear mongers about coming out from. So it's very, very, very important that it stays that way. And unfortunately a lot of people are going down the Pied Piper route of we won't safe elections. Well, we've had safe elections, but people love indulging into the fear and unfortunately it's driving where there's. Remember in Star wars there's much fear in him. That's the dark side. So I rely on that a lot. As an analogy, a lot of people,
[00:31:36] Speaker A: there's a lot of people on the other side that say that federalism is potentially fragmenting national unity.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Well, good. When national unity is led by a flag waiver that just kidnaps sovereign nations leaders and just without any discussion sends carrier groups off the coast of Iran, which is the heir to Persian empires that fought back Rome, you know, these people don't know what they're doing. Right, they do that. You know, they've read too many storybooks.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: And, and looking, and not looking self critical enough to think, oh we're America, we could do anything. Well, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's very concerning. So yes, we do need national unity for one thing, to swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. That demands working together within a union. That gives each member of the union room to be themselves, to have their own responsibilities.
That's the type of nation we are. And unfortunately that's been corrupted in communication and rhetoric over the past 60 years.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Right.
So going back a little bit to writing the book, what was the most challenging part for you of writing the book, either intellectually or emotionally or just physically demanding?
[00:33:12] Speaker B: No, it wasn't because it was coming out of a sense of love and duty and it just kind of wrote itself. Honestly, the biggest thing was, okay, I've stuck with this theme of 95 theses. So let me think of what I'm Going to put in 95 things.
I had to. I had to break some up. That was. That was the. That was. You know, that was the main thing I had trouble with is. Is.
So, you know, 55 of the theses are more argumentative talking points to say, you know, like when you read a contract, whereas this and whereas that. So, you know, you read the book. So you see how I did that. And then had the answers in 40 policy points. And then people telling me, okay, you're doing 95, then you got 40 policy points. What the heck are you doing? What? What, What, What? Just. Just say term limits. So, you know, we have to be who we are.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: And I think the complexity of this is important because we have complex problems, and I couldn't sacrifice any of those things. There's several things I was thinking of. There was something I wish I'd put in, but I can't remember what it is now. And these sort of things would change. But really, this is about starting a discussion.
That's the whole point of it.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: And I get that. I feel like I'm a writer by trade, primarily. And I get hung up on the structure, too. And then. But it has to be like this. And very recently, my husband and I co authored a cover piece for Skeptical Inquirer about the movie Wicked and kind of framing it as a parallel to today's society and kind of social structure and how.
And I just got so hung up on, well, we're going to have this be broken down in the framework of the song Defying Gravity, and these headers are going to be this. I mean, complete chaos. Right. And I have it all laid out like, I've got this. And then it was the cube of filling it in, though. And this still has to be digestible for everyone. And that's always the hardest part for me.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: Well. Well, it is. I mean, once I figured out, you know, 95 theses and once I really dissected Washington's farewell address and. And broke out the primary themes and then realized he didn't cover corporatization, so I threw that in there as a fourth one.
Then I just kind of split it up, broke it out and said, gee, I hope people like it this way, but here it goes.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: I love that.
And looking ahead, what gives you hope for America's democratic future?
[00:35:49] Speaker B: The monks walking for peace.
I was here.
My wife was telling me about them, and I was looking online because, like, gee, I'd love to drive wherever they are, because she was following. I kind of wasn't.
And I've always. I've always been fascinated with Buddhism anyway, so, you know, it wasn't like I didn't want to. It was just work and all this stuff. So anyway, I looked up online and all of a sudden, oh, my gosh, they're coming within 20 miles of me.
Oh. Oh. I surprised her. She got home from school. I said, we're going and I'm taking the camera. Let's go. And I don't know if you saw the. The interview I did with them.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: No.
Oh, I gotta go watch it now.
[00:36:32] Speaker B: You gotta go and look at it. I've gotten 250, 000 views.
And it is. It was amazing because here. Here we are in the buckle of the Bible bell, and at the same time, the young lady got shot in the head in her car and the chaos that was happening in Minnesota, and at the same time, I'm driving through rural red Bible buckle belt, South Carolina, and the road is lined with cars.
I get emotional thinking about it of all these little Buddhist monks, barefoot, with bloody feet from walking and people tearing up, standing there, several hundred in the middle of nowhere in McCormick County, South Carolina. And I held my wife's hands. I said, this is the foundation of how we make it through this.
Absolutely. And that buttressed me more than anything that's happened in the past two months. It was really amazing. I was hoping it would become a new march on Washington.
But being monks and Buddhist monks, they.
No, no, no, no. We don't. We don't say no, but here's the chance.
Hundreds of thousands of people, you say no, no. Just breathe. Just breathe. This is your peaceful day.
It was amazing, though. It was amazing to see, and it showed the. The.
The depth of need that people have for a peaceful life. Far as for wanting to have faith in each other, that's the hope that that gave me.
[00:38:17] Speaker A: That's amazing.
Well, is there anything else you would like to say about reviving our republic or any of your experiences before we ended here?
[00:38:27] Speaker B: No, I just appreciate the opportunity, Mallory, to sit down and talk with you about it, share it with your audience.
I see it as an opportunity for people to gather around it and hopefully elevate it as a.
As a. As a third way to go into a Buddhist analogy, a third way to get to where we can get to the nation that we have always aspired to be. Not without react, not with a reaction, but just a system.
When I ran for Congress, I had as many liberals as conservatives in the room, and they all agreed with 80% of it.
Sometimes it was a different 80%. But the point is, we have a lot of shared values. If we can learn how to tone down the noise, get the demagogues out of the room, and just start having faith in each other as citizens, we can do this. That's my hope. I have my first grandchild being born in May, and I will not accept the fact that this child will be growing up in a world where we don't have the same liberties and freedoms that I grew up in, and. And that we develop. So that's my. That's my aspiration, definitely.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: That's so amazing. So beautiful. And where can people find you online?
[00:39:48] Speaker B: Have RevivingouRepublic.com you can go there and see all my podcasts and all the goodies there and all my shenanigans and. But on Amazon, too. Go to Amazon and look in Reviving our republic. And there it is. I've gotten some great reviews, and for a while there, I was in the top 20 for civic history.
So anyway, it's. It's picking up, it's doing some things, so that's where you can find it.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Amazing. Thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: Well, Maui, thank you so much for having me. Look forward to coming back whenever new things happen. You never know.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: That sounds great. And until next time, everybody stay weird.
