CTP (S3EMaySpecial12) What Does It Mean To Govern By Truth

CTP (S3EMaySpecial12) What Does It Mean To Govern By Truth
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond - all in Biblical perspective
We hand off to Ed Bondarenka’s interview with Michigan governor candidate Ralph Rebant as he argues he is being targeted through a ballot signature challenge and vows to fight it through the courts. We also press into his Christian worldview on governing, from taxes and budgets to prisons, infrastructure, guns, and even a gold-backed depository concept. 
• rebroadcast setup and why this interview airs 
• claim of ballot access obstruction and critique of unelected election staff 
• election integrity concerns tied to record retention and accountability 
• Rebant’s background as pastor, entrepreneur, and former union member 
• moral case against expanding casinos and gambling 
• faith-based prison reform and recidivism outcomes 
• truth as a unifying message and the lighthouse symbolism 
• 2022 campaign lessons and resistance from party leadership 
• questions on lieutenant governor selection and constitutional process 
• Flint water crisis priorities and Line 5 framed as international 
• proposal to eliminate property tax and restructure school administration 
• budget cutting plan, privatization, and a “REBA” audit approach 
• Second Amendment support, constitutional carry, and repeal of red flag laws 
• gold and silver legal tender proposal through a state depository model 
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A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

Host Intro And Handoff

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, welcome to another episode of Institutional Podcast. I am your host, Joseph Linder. That's L-E-N-A-R-T at the 2900. Thank you for tuning in. As Gram Norton used to say on his show. Let's get on with the show. Hello, today is Saturday, May the 23rd. I am recording this intro segment for Wednesday, May the 27th, when the show will air. This is gonna be a bit odd. I will be having on Ralph Rebant for Governor of Michigan via Ed Bondaranka and the Your American Heritage Show, which airs on Lam Radio. It aired 1 p.m. Today, Saturday, May the 23rd, re-airing today. Yeah, when this airs, Wednesday, May the 27th airing, 2026, season three of May Special 12, it will be. So without further ado, let's get to Ed Vandarenka's Your American Heritage show featuring Ralph Rebant.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Alrighty. Well, welcome to Your American Heritage. And I actually saved the wrong clip to open the show with.

Ed Opens With Prayer And Stakes

SPEAKER_01 1:45

A day of technical errors here at Wham Radio. Live radio, that's how it works. Once again, my name is Ed Bondarenka, and I am a white Christian cisgender male. I'm proud of it. Producing the show is Derek Stone. Derek's a Swiss Army Knife of Radio, and he's the host of Stone Cold Sports Truth. Sundays right at noon 30, right after my friend Sean Todd hosts the intersection at noon. So you want to listen to those shows? Listen to all the Wham shows. Your American Heritage is on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and now Google Music, and you can and should subscribe. So find a link to the podcast by going to whamradio.com, W-A-A-M, We Are American Made. Whamradio.com and click on the podcast tab at the top. So once again, there's a war going on for control of America. And uh you might wonder how do we engage in the fight? Well, we get organized, preferably in a good church. We go to court, we educate our neighbors, we support those who take the battle to the enemy. We support those who are running for office that support godly values, and then we make sure they do. And we encourage each other. You know, I think the Bible speaks about encouraging the brethren. Well, that's one way of doing it. And we arm ourselves intellectually. We learn the facts for ourselves so we can make wise decisions and explain them to others. No, we do that a lot by listening to this show, hopefully. We arm ourselves physically. Get a gun, learn to use it, be prepared to defend yourself, your family, and your nation. And then spiritually, once again, read your Bible, find a good church, join with others in prayer for our nation. Like this. Father, please lead us and guide us as we seek to protect this nation. Please help us protect our heritage and the rights that you have given us from evil conspirators, thieves, traitors, and tyrants. Please bring these enemies of good and sound morals to a place of repentance. And if they will not repent, please remove them utterly from our presence. Amen. Amen. Well, folks, thank you. Folks, we are down to five candidates for the Republican nominee for governor: Mike Cox, John James, Perry Johnson, Eric Nesbist, and Ralph Rabant. Okay? And uh frankly, I have no use for John James. I'll be frank about that. We interviewed him a few years ago on um um um Derek, what's the show I used to do before with Gary Wellins?

SPEAKER_05 4:08

The Daily Drift.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

The Daily Drift, thank you. Wow, speaking of brain farts, and um, yeah, and and he just he just was, you know, he wasn't there, and he had ringers call in to ask questions. We knew it. So I'm I'm not a fan. But joining us today is candidate for governor of Michigan, Ralph Rabant. We've had a number of Guber tutorial candidates on, and that that word gubern tutorial just rolls off my tongue anymore. And the ones that we've had have not been elected, so I must apologize to our guests right now. It won't be my fault, but I think we're gonna have the next governor of the state of Michigan here. I wanted Ralph to come on because I'm curious as to his positions and thought you might want to hear more about him. Hi, Ralph. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_06 4:52

Thanks, Ed. I'm looking forward to this whole discussion. I've been looking forward to it for a couple weeks now.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Oh, good. I'm glad to hear that. Me too. I've been uh uh prepping as best I can. So why don't you tell us about your background to start out with?

SPEAKER_06 5:06

Well, I uh I was born in Windat, Michigan, grew up in Woodhaven, uh downriver, uh, went to Bates Elementary

Ralph Rebant Background And Family

SPEAKER_06 5:14

School, then off to Intercity Christian School in Allen Park. I met my wife there in seventh grade. Uh we I had a crush on her in seventh grade and then ended up uh proposing to her um graduation day from high school. So we were 18. Uh we got married six months later. Um I went off to college for the first semester and then came back and got married in December, took her back to Pennsylvania with us. We lived in Pennsylvania about 10 years. Uh Adam, our first son came around about two years later, Amy about 15 months later, and then after we moved back to Michigan to start uh Oakland Hills Community Church, we had two more sons uh in 86 and 88. So if you add all that up, Ed, we've got uh four grown kids, wonderful spouses, and 21 grandkids.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

May I ask quickly, where was InterCity uh Christian school located?

SPEAKER_06 6:04

4700 Allen Road, Allen Park, Michigan, between Southfield and Outer Drive.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

I understand that. I used to, it's next to a creek, and I used to walk by that in the mornings on my way to uh St. Mary Magdalene. So I was born in Wynat, like I said. I was born in Wynot, raised in Allen Park, and until I moved to Carl, until we moved to Carleton and Flat Rock. So uh yeah, we have that in common. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 6:30

So, in terms of uh things, uh I've done everything that you can imagine uh one would do in a work career. I've been everything from a janitor to a plant manager. I've sold car wax, built homes, restored one Mustang. That was a big project. Uh but restore the Honda 70s, you know, those little Honda 70s and 50s from the 1970s, uh, we've got some of those. And uh it's just fun to get out and do those kind of things. But I think the biggest uh joy I have is knowing that my kids love Jesus. Uh they're raising their kids to be godly kids, love our country, love Michigan. It's just that's my biggest uh I really can't even claim it. My wife's amazing. She helped raise those kids. We give the Lord the credit for all the good that comes out of it.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Well, that's great. Well, I've I've once again I've I've done janitor work and uh I haven't sold car wax, but I've rebuilt Mustangs and uh I've ridden Trail 70s, and actually they're selling new Trail 70s these days. My brothers had them when they were when we were kids, and now they're selling a brand new retro, a retro mod Trail 70 Honda. I just can't imagine why, but they're popular.

SPEAKER_06 7:38

They are with our generation. Some of those that are really in mint condition, they sell for five to ten thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

That's amazing. Yeah. I preferred my Honda 750 super sport, rather. But that's off the subject. We're really off the subject here, but we're getting to know you, and that's good. Along the campaign front, uh Benson is trying to scuttle some popular Republicans again. Now they pulled this trick, I believe it was the last

Signature Challenge And Bureaucrat Power

SPEAKER_01 8:04

election. They got James Craig off the ballot and a number of others. Sandy Pensler, and I can't remember the the others they they bumped off.

SPEAKER_06 8:11

Kind of Brandenburg, Michael Markey.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

You weren't bounced off the ballot that time, right?

SPEAKER_06 8:16

No, I was not. And that's what's interesting because we turned in about the same amount of signatures that we turned in in 2022, and we weren't bounced off. We're still not off, but technically, because we have an opportunity to appeal on the 28th. But if you look at the stuff, and this is what just drives me crazy, we turned in 18,217 signatures. They did a sample, a sample of 750 signatures, and of that sample, they said that there are 218 that are bad. We just got the file yesterday. I was going through it uh this morning, and the the ones that they say are bad are people that I know that live in the, you know, one one guy uh donated to my campaign, he's been living in his house for 10, 15 years, uh, hasn't moved, he's registered to vote, and they say he's not registered to vote. We have to go through all their signatures to be prepared on Thursday to present our case. That there's no way on the planet a staffer who's looking at these things, only 750 signatures, making an extra uh you know, extrapolation that we don't have enough to get on because of what they've looked at. Because we do that, we're not 218 short, number one, on their number. And we went through them all. Ed, we we went through all of our signatures, made sure that people didn't put their birthday down. If they did, we crossed them out instead of the date of signing. We made sure they were in the same county that they were signing it, they lived there, and those are some of the things that they were complaining about. And we know because we we took out about 1,500 to 2,000 just because we didn't want this problem. I'm gonna be looking tonight later about at the rest of those signatures. We will be on the ballot. We have more than 15,000 good signatures.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

I trust you. This is another I mean Benson's corrupt. That's just all there is to it. Benson's a corrupt Democrat from way back in Yeah, with it. I guess she's trying to uh thin the field that she'll run against, right? That's a conflict of interest right there.

SPEAKER_06 10:20

Indeed. And that I'll tell you what's interesting about it. They've left me off of polling, so they have no idea how my uh how I would stack up with her. And that's just the games that the Republicans play uh when they do their polling. I'm the X factor in her world. She thinks, according to the polling, that she will beat every other candidate, but I'm the guy she doesn't know anything about or if I would beat her. And so the best way to not even face that is to just eliminate me. It's not gonna happen. I I we're gonna take this all the way to the Supreme Court. I'm gonna fight for this uh because this should not happen. And basically, what's happening at if you boil it down, there's one person in the Secretary of State office that's saying 18,217 signatures mean absolutely nothing. That's what that one person is saying. If the board, uh the Bureau of Educ Bureau of Elections sides with them, then it's four people that think that 18,2617 signatures mean absolutely nothing. The problem with that is these people are unelected bureaucrats, they are not accountable to anybody, and they can do whatever they want. And so that's why we're going to take it to the Supreme Court because uh it's not right. They they shouldn't have that kind of authority. Uh, unelected bureaucrats making that kind of a decision, it's too much power. There's no check and balance. I mean, your your show is called Your American Heritage, and our founders understood checks and balances. That's why we have three branches of government, and that fourth branch of government absolutely has no check and balance, and we are going to get rid of uh this whole concept. In fact, it come up for here in just a minute. The uh this whole rule of 750 signatures, it was instituted in 2023 by themselves. So it's just it's it's a ludicrous rule. And Jocelyn Benson, as you probably know, had three rule sets in 2025, and the most egregious one was going against federal election law, which says that you have to retain the election records for 23 months. She ordered people, the county clerks to destroy them after nine days after the election was certified. Nine days, not 23 months. So this is the kind of uh corruption we're dealing with.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah, and uh actually more famously, uh well, not famously enough, actually, uh Stephanie Scott and Stephanie Lambert just won in Hillsdale County, and I was talking to my friend Dave Coleman about it, and it seems that uh they were actually every other um elections official that did, as Benson said, violated the law because these two actually well Lambert was her lawyer, but Stephanie Scott is like uh Tina Peters in in in um Colorado, who Colorado, thank God, is uh at least going to have her uh sentence commuted so she can leave jail. It's not a pardon or clemency, but uh she can at least be free, which was ridiculous that she'd be imprisoned like that. And then Benson was trying to do the same thing to Stephanie Scott here for actually fulfilling her uh uh legal role as an elections official, retaining the records. Obviously, Benson has no um regard for uh election integrity. Uh our friend Pat Kolbeck's proved that a number of times. Uh when the I think it's the Justice Department came in and said we'd like to see the record, she says, No, you can't. Wait a minute, that's our job. No, you can't. Am I reading that right?

SPEAKER_06 13:55

Yeah, that's exactly what she said. And that's why the corruption is really deep in Lansing, and I wouldn't be surprised that Jocelyn was behind this.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Well, folks, uh Derek, what's the phone number? We're gonna take some calls. Uh depending on how this goes, I may hold you over to the second half hour if you're available.

SPEAKER_06 14:13

I could do that, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Okay. We're talking to gubernatorial candidate for well, actually for the uh Republican nomination in August's primary, which I believe is August 4th, and uh it's uh uh Ralph Rebant. And uh if you have any questions for Ralph, uh feel free to ask. I'm going to be asking a few questions, but I may miss a couple, and I just want to give him an opportunity to make himself known um to our listeners. And we've got a few of them, it seems. So um you've described yourself as a pastor, an entrepreneur, and a former union member. How have those experiences shaped your political philosophy?

SPEAKER_06 14:59

Uh very, very deeply. Uh, you know, if we talk about uh entrepreneur, I understand what it's like to start businesses. I've owned small uh small businesses, um construction uh related stuff, carpentry, masonry, concrete. Uh I've uh been, as you said, a part of some unions, um, uh three unions actually. And um, you know, that it it was a good experience to to say, wow, I'm making some good money. I mean, back in 1977 when I was working at Fermi 2 nuclear power plant, I was making $10 an hour, and overtime was $20 an hour. Back when I was in Pennsylvania, I'd made that during the summer, and I go back to my job in Pennsylvania and I was making uh I think it was $327 an hour. So it was uh it was a big boost to help us pay for our you know education because nobody else paid for it. I mean the government didn't pay for it, Biden wasn't around then, and that's a joke, by the way. Um he was around, but uh, you know, just eliminating people's college debts, that wasn't even thought a thought

Pastor Entrepreneur Union Member Worldview

SPEAKER_06 16:03

my thought. I mean, in fact, there was what was called B E O G Basic Education Opportunity Grant. Uh that was available to me because of our income, but I didn't take it. I said the government should not be paying for my education, I have to pay for my own education. So we never we never took that. But yeah, all those things have worked that, you know, and being a pastor most importantly, um, you know, I I mentioned in Ottawa County, which I don't know if you tracked that ad uh two Fridays ago, I think it was, I was uh uh in a debate in Ottawa County and actually came in first. And I had 57% of the vote uh and came in first. I think Perry was a um what I want to say, I I don't know. But anyway, you add the other three up, and they didn't even come close to 57. So my point is one of the answers I said, you know, they asked if we were Christians, and I said, I'm a born-again, Bible-believing evangelical who has a biblical worldview and understands God's solutions to the problems we're facing here in Michigan. Everybody clapped and it was crazy. But the the reality is, how does that shape decisions and things that I I would decide? Um, I'll give you a couple examples. Uh I was asked about a new c new casino. So let's they gave a hypothetical hypothetical. Let's say that there's a casino opening up in uh in western Michigan. Would you do that? And it was it was kind of a forum, so all the other candidates had the opportunity to answer, and this was in 2022. Um, you know, one guy said, well, if it fits in the zoning, yes. Um Skegan needs work, sure, we'll give him that. And it came to me and I said, Absolutely not. I would not sign to open up another casino. I said, as a police chaplain for 35 years, I know for a fact that people commit suicide every day in Michigan because they've gambled their money away. We have way too many ways to gamble money away. And so I said, Absolutely not. And I said, I know a situation in Farmington Hills that there was a man who went down to Detroit, gambled his estate away, came home, shot and killed his wife, shot and killed his kids, and then shot and killed himself. That happened in Farmington Hills. And when you see that, yeah, when you see that, it affects you. You're not there's no way. I mean, why would I want to anyway? So then I said, and then finally,

Casinos Gambling Harm And Public Policy

SPEAKER_06 18:20

the Bible says that there are three ways to get money. One is a gift, another one is to earn it, and another one is to inherit it. And I said, gambling doesn't fall into any of those categories. So I would absolutely say no to that. And again, the whole room erupted because there's like, okay, so here's somebody who understands God's word and how it affects life, and this is how he would apply it. So that's what I'm doing. Um, I give you another quick example in terms of uh the prison ministries or the prison situation. Right now, uh 50% of the people who are released from prison are back in within six months. That's that's the national average. And it's a failing system. The state system is a failing system. And so what I have suggested in my terms of my prison reform is that I would use faith-based prison ministries, alpha prison ministries out of Grand Rapids, the Reach of the Forgotten Man, Prison Fellowship, Chuck Colson. These are all groups that understand that in order to rehab somebody, it's not you just lock them up for 10 years, but it's a heart change. And when those people come out out of those Christian faith-based programs, at 80% never, never come back, never go back to prison. 80%. So we keep we keep funding failing systems, and that's why I'm running because career politicians, businessmen and women, and attorneys who've all sat in that governor's seat have not fixed Michigan. We just have higher

Faith Based Prison Reform Pitch

SPEAKER_06 19:51

budgets, worse roads, worse education, more mental health issues, and no one's fixed it. So bringing God's principles back to culture will definitely change Michigan and its future for the good.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

You mentioned, yes, amen. You meant you mentioned uh uh prisons, and you've been to Pennsylvania, you've lived in Pennsylvania. If I recall, that's where penitentiaries were first established by the Quakers in order to actually bring prisoners to a place of penitence, penitentiary. And so actually there was, yeah, uh there was a religious aspect to those that kind of got lost with secularism, but there was a an effort to restore the prisoners, uh pretty much so like Chuck Colson and his group uh came about doing. Of course, he gained the impetus for doing that after having spent time in prison himself. So we have a call from Joe from Why Not Joe Leonard. Um we'll see what Joe has to say or ask. Joe?

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Yeah, I I always like the theory of the outsider, but unfortunately in Michigan, the one dumb nerdinator kind of ruined that you know whole point of philosophy. But I wanted to ask, are you still using the lighthouse because of the symbolism of it?

SPEAKER_06 21:11

And if not, why not? Yes, I am still using it in speeches. Um, but I was uh we we chose not to go with that theme this time. In other words, it's still an overarching umbrella concept in what we're doing. But if you look on the billboards, it says Michigan's turning point. And the reason why we went with that is because we did legal research, we can use that phrase, even though Charlie Kirk's organization was called turning point. But we want Christianity and Christ to be the turning point in Michigan, and just more convinced that what people

Lighthouse Symbol Truth And Gen Z

SPEAKER_06 21:51

need is truth. They have a lot of opinions out there, they have a lot of expert opinions, but we're not hearing truth. In fact, uh someone made a comment that was so profound. The Gen Zers who are pursuing truth hear a lot of information, but they need to be able to sort out truth, and they need to be able to sort out what wisdom is, because there's a lot of information, but they have neither truth nor wisdom. And so that's why.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

You're absolutely right. It's like the old IT statement. I'm a former IT guy. And the issue, gigo, garbage in, garbage out. You can be flooded with information, but if 90% of it is bad, how are you supposed to reach a good conclusion?

SPEAKER_06 22:33

Right. That's good, Joe. And you know the other thing, Joe, I was on a this is an interesting thing. In Le Pierre County, the youth committee for Le Pier Republicans had a governor debate. I was the only candidate to show up. Other people said they were going to come, then they backed out at the last minute. No one showed up. I mean, the the Democrats and Nugan, they they were all invited, but I was the only one that showed up. So it was a basically a a question and answer from the audience. There was a moderator there, and the moderator asked me, he said, Ralph, how are you going to bring Democrats and Republicans and Muslims and you know all these people together as a governor? You're you're a pastor, you're a Christian. And I said, I thought for a minute and I just said, truth. People resonate with truth. And truth always rises to the top, truth always wins, and that's all I have to do is convince people of the truth. And that's that's where I'm where I'm coming from, Joe, and I appreciate that. Um yeah, the lighthouse imagery is still powerful, still powerful. I appreciate that question.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Thanks, Joe. You know, I've I mentioned it in an interview with somebody last weekend. I think it was with the one of the most famous questions is what is truth? You don't get your truth, I don't get my truth. There is the truth. And uh exactly the question was asked of the guy who was and is the truth. So it's a very profound question. Well, welcome back to your American Heritage. And uh joining us this afternoon is uh Ralph Rabant, and he's on the ballot, uh the primary ballot uh so far for the Republican nomination for governor of the state of Michigan. I think he's gonna make it. Uh there's a good chance he could be our next governor. I I I look over the you know the s the ballot uh of the remaining five, and I actually prefer Ralph above the others. It's uh Perry Johnson, I think, is a Johnny Cum lately, and I think it's just I don't know. Uh I'm not knocking him, but I just it just it doesn't appeal to me. Uh I don't know who Eric Nesb Nesbitt is, uh and I I'm not not kindly uh oriented towards John James. So I thought we'd have Ralph on to talk about his candidacy and find out more about him. And you're enjoyed uh you're invited to uh listen in. So uh Ralph, uh you ran in 2022, we alluded to that earlier, and uh how did that inform your campaign this time?

Lessons From The 2022 Campaign

SPEAKER_06 25:01

It really informed us. Um I tell people that in 2022 it was boot camp, but now we know we're in war. Um we were fighting against the Republican establishment at the time uh when Ron Weiser was the chair. He had made a comment in front of the entire uh state committee, Republican state committee, that I don't want Ralph to become governor because I'm afraid he'll listen to God more than he'll listen to us. So that was a that was a real problem. And so they left me off of emails to governor candidates. They did not invite me to write-to-life interviews uh uh when they were considering candidates. They didn't invite me to meet with the big dollar donors. I wasn't at that event. Um a week after I was uh it was announced that I would be on the primary ballot. They the Republican Party sent out a a mail, a mailer. If the election were today, who would you vote for? Now, mind you, my name is on there with all the other candidates, but they left my name off of that. So there's just they played games that first time, and when we saw it coming up this time, we called it out, happened in Midland first, and uh we're just not letting them get by with it this time. You know, the whole thing about Now we have to buy Jocelyn.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Yeah, exactly, exactly, like we spoke about the first half hour. And uh the whole thing about listening to God, as you were talking to me about being informed, uh what informs you earlier, it struck me as those are all um qualities that our founders had. And people talk about uh Jefferson was a deist. No, he wasn't, and that uh uh Franklin was a uh a wastrel. There's a word, look it up, W-S-T-R-E-L. And uh actually uh towards the end, he was very, very committed religiously. Uh, these people were informed by biblical principles, and the people they read were informed by biblical principles. So, you know, Adams would not have made that uh famous statement that I have a recording of here somewhere of him saying, but I'm not gonna look for it right now. Uh this government is only fit for a moral and religious people. And by religious, he meant Christian. He wasn't thinking of any other religion than Christian at the time. We have a call, Rob from Wayne. We asked for calls, we got one. Rob, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Thanks, fellas. Uh, I want to propose something to uh Rebrant for governor, if he would accept if one of the other two candidates, which we won't mention, if they asked you to be lieutenant governor right now, would you accept that?

SPEAKER_06 27:36

I I would ask my team, number one, thank you for that question. I would ask my team that, and then I would basically ask um all of our supporters, the grassroots people that have been behind me since 2022. Um I I think I would, uh, but I want to have their opinion. I want them to weigh in on it. Um the reason why I would potentially say yes to that is because we have a plan on our website, rebandforgovernor.com. We don't have talking points, Rob. We have actual action items. And those actual action items will totally reform government in Lansing. And if

Lieutenant Governor Question And Party Rules

SPEAKER_06 28:18

I was Lieutenant Governor, I would be in charge of the Senate and uh I would be in charge of bills that come through, and I could make sure that the principles and policies that are godly and righteous would come into purview and get voted upon. So those there's some reasons why I would do that, but as I said, I would want to ask my team that's been behind me 100%, as well as uh people like uh uh like yourself potentially, and what what do they think about it? Because I don't want them to think that I'm just abandoning you know our conservative Christian grassroots principles. I I would want people to know that I'm if I go in, I'm going to be in just as strong and to fight for those principles as if I were governor.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

I suppose it might matter who was the actual governor you'd be serving with, right?

SPEAKER_06 29:08

Yes, that that would be that would matter as well, yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Well, we we can see that maybe that's how some of these governors actually get somebody in their back pocket that's not who we would really want as lieutenant governor. And if we follow the Michigan State Constitution, we go to Article 5, Section 21. This has kind of been bugging me as a precinct delegate since 2009. It says at the convention, party convention, so that means both parties should be selecting a lieutenant governor at this convention. And I'm saying if that would have been proposed, let's go through Robert's rules and everything, and and they said Ralph Rebrant for lieutenant governor, I would have voted for that right then and there, and you'd be on the ticket with somebody, we don't know who, and maybe that would be a better way of actually being in the republic in Michigan. Follow the Constitution of the State. Right. Well, you know, that um team and see what you know, find it in the Constitution. Maybe this is something that's gonna have to be brought out as you guys continue forward to the August primary, and maybe one of them will actually ask you that, and hopefully the team is gonna say, uh, sounds like a good idea. Uh, you know, if you're getting the support from the grassroots out there, let's go with what we who we watch to be on the ticket, not somebody that we don't know who's gonna be selected thereafter. And then uh the other thing is if you're gonna go all the way to the Supreme Court, I heard someone uh I think Ed name dropped an attorney, and I'm thinking, okay, well, maybe he works with uh Cardano, and I've seen some of his uh work with some of the plaintiffs of the state of Michigan, and he sure loves to use that word usurpation. I think he had it like 16 times in this complaint. And you know, that's the same word that's in the declaration, I think two times, maybe three, and maybe that'll hammer home the trouble that we're in in Michigan. Thank you, fellas, for taking the call.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Oh no, thank you for the call. Very well informed. I appreciate it very much. And uh yeah, it was Dave Coleman, and he's done a lot of great work here. And I should say, uh, hopefully we want to elect perhaps uh Judge Warren to the Supreme Court, so we'll have years there.

SPEAKER_06 31:32

He's awesome. Yes, yes. He's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

So we have another call, Mike from Ann Arbor, before we get on to some of my questions, if we ever get there. I'm I'm happy to take the calls. This is good. Mike?

SPEAKER_04 31:44

Yeah, uh Mike and Le Pier. Um, I'm just a uh Mike the Carpenter. Uh I was gonna ask Ralph, you know, uh a simple man wants to know self explanations about the Flintwater crisis in the line five, you know, situation. How would you explain that to us? And uh why do you want to be governor?

SPEAKER_06 32:14

Good call.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Thanks, Mike.

SPEAKER_06 32:16

All right. Well, Mike, thanks for calling. Um, why do I want to be governor? Number one. Um, as I mentioned, nobody has fixed Michigan in my lifetime. I'm only I'm 68, 67 years old right now, and no one has fixed Michigan. We have higher budgets, as I mentioned, uh, worse problems, whether it's the roads, whether it's the water, whether it's infrastructure, no one has fixed it. Um I'm also running because I am not looking for the next election. I'm looking to save Michigan for the next generation. The the people that are number three, the people that are running right now, they're connected to the establishment. And, you know, there are people who are running that are saying we're gonna take a blowtorch to the budget, we're gonna take a blowtorch to bureaucracy. Well, they've been in they've been in politics for 15 years for crying out loud. Why didn't you do it then? When when we had the House, when Republicans had the House, Senate, and the governor's seat, and the Attorney General, why didn't we do something about it then? Uh it's not gonna happen. Um you know, there's complaints by one candidate about the higher uh taxes, the higher uh cost of energy. Well, he's voted in favor of all those. And I it's it's like just telling people what they want to hear

Flint Water Line 5 And Why Run

SPEAKER_06 33:32

in order to get votes. So that's why I'm running. As for the issues that we're concerned about, um yeah, the Flint water crisis should never happen in Michigan. And what I've told people is that we will go to those areas that have the most worn-out infrastructure, and whether it's bridges, whether it's uh you know, water lines, whatever it is, we are going to hit that first because that's uh that's obviously important. My job as governor is to protect the safety of the citizens, and water and bridges and all of that is part of that safety protection. So um that that's what I would be looking to do to solve those problems. As for line five, that is not a Michigan issue, that's an international issue. That agreement was made between DC and Canada. As much as Whitmer and Nessel want to waste your tax dollars, my tax dollars, on trying to fight that, they have no standing in it because it was an agreement internationally. So um that that's where we are on that.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Thank you very much for that. Yeah, it that gets very, very blown out of proportion there. Um so speaking of taxes and funding of government, uh, you've proposed eliminating property taxes. I'm all about eliminating property taxes. I I came on strong for axh matax uh under Carla Wagner, and then I think she kind of torpedoed the movement by starting to run for governor on that and making it her issue, which meant that, well, if now if you're for axma tax, you're actually for Carla Wagner for governor. And now she's bowed out, and I have no idea where that's going. But I personally see, and I think I've said it on air before, I think it's a constitutional issue. I don't care where the funding comes from for the schools and the fire departments and the police locally. I mean, I do care, but that's gonna have to be made up because the broader issue is if you can confiscate my property because I haven't paid a tax, then I don't own the property. The state owns the property, and that's not what the founders had in mind when they talked about the pursuit of happiness. Would you like to respond to that?

SPEAKER_06 35:50

Well stated, brother. Well stated. You know, you talked about the founders, and we were in Williamsburg. I'll make this really quick, uh, going from the visitor center into old town, the old town of Williamsburg, and as you go over the bridge to the village, there was there are blocks that have state statements on it. And one statement said, Our founders did not believe in property tax. You walk a little farther. Uh, the reason why you walk a little farther and you see uh a Bible verse that said they believed that the earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, and you can't tax what God owns. So they never had property tax in the founding of our country. In fact, I think it only came around in early 1900s to pay off World War I. But here's my point They never go away.

Ending Property Tax And Funding Schools

SPEAKER_06 36:33

That is exactly right. That is right. Uh, and that's why you know we were told that the uh the lottery would take care of the schools, it's not taking care of the schools. You know, I mean, just so many lies. And and again, that previous question why am I running for governor because I'm tired of the lies. Um, but in terms of uh the the property tax itself, I I supported Carla Wagner as well, uh, even before her she she got in involved in all this. She was running around in 2022, 2023, uh getting petitions signed. They canned her on that. But the bottom line is I'm in favor of removing property tax because it helps everybody. If you are on a fixed income, if you're getting Social Security and you're not paying income tax, you will not get 47, 47. It won't help you at all. In fact, removing income tax really helps the wealthy immensely. Uh removing property tax helps everybody. If you're a renter, your landlord won't have to charge you that money and roll it into your monthly rent. It'll your three your rent will get lowered. If you're trying to buy a home for the first time, it'll make it much easier. If you're a business that wants to start and you're going to buy a piece of property to start and build a building and start all that, you won't have to pay property tax. And of course, as you mentioned, um, I think it's a crime that the government takes people's homes. And I think Carla had mentioned that it was 180,000 foreclosures started last year. 180,000 here in Michigan. Now that doesn't mean everybody lost their home, it just means that that's the threat of what's going on. There were a lot of people who lost their homes. But one of the phrases she said, you lose your spouse, you lose your house. That's that's the reality of it, and that's criminal. You never own your home until the tax man stops sending you a bill.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

It's never going to the Supreme. Go ahead. Sorry.

SPEAKER_06 38:27

Yeah, in terms of the budget, let me just say this. If you've watched commercials, and uh, you know, I like Perry Johnson, he's a great guy. Uh he's got a lot of good ideas, but he talks about this mega audit. And uh what I've been saying to people, I've already done a Reba audit, you know, the first four letters of my last name, R-E-B-A. And it stands for Ralph's Emergency Budget Audit. And the uh I'm not waiting for day one to do this. We've already done it. We've already identified the areas that we will cut. And our budget, right now, the the budget in Michigan is 80,000, 80 billion. Our our budget would be 69 billion. We were gonna we are going to cut almost uh 12 billion dollars from the budget. And the point is we've already identified where we know the areas where there's we can cut. Um and and it's it's out there. And I have a I show people I have a veto pen. And uh everywhere I speak, I give it away to somebody or several people, and one lady from the audience said, Well, I hope it has a lot of ink in it. There's a lot of veto.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Where is you're gonna cut funding, you're gonna cut the budget, right? And so we cut property taxes. So where does the money come from for local schools, fire services, police services?

SPEAKER_06 39:54

Good question. Here's how I look at it. I I'm like uh Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis on the news last week said Florida is a low tax state, and therefore it's a low budget state. When we cut the budget, we don't need that extra revenue. But here's what here's the plan. The plan is to privatize everything that government should not be involved in. We all know Secretary of State, the post office, U.S. Post Office, they're all disasters and they're owned by government. And even trying to get on to uh the Secretary of State office to get my uh petitions that they're saying I have bad signatures, it took me hours. It took me an hour to even pay the bill to find out a tab where you click to pay the bill. But here's the point government should not be involved in a lot of things. They they shouldn't own uh grave sites, graveyards, they shouldn't own golf courses, they shouldn't own splash pads. These are things that government will get out of when I'm there. So we're gonna privatize everything. We're gonna lower the budget as well for that local tax or that, you know, what we're talking about. The property tax locally helps pay for law enforcement and fire and police and schools. So we're going to remove or totally change and restructure from having 537 school superintendents because there's so much overload on the administrative end. We'll remove that and have 83. This is a real possibility, and this is how we would do this. Um, most of those school superintendents are making over 100,000. Most of them probably the average is $150,000 a year, and some of them are upward near $500,000 a year. So my point is if we limit it to $85, $83,000, one per county, it'll totally change the financial need in that local area. And then finally, uh, we're we have a form that government, local government would have to work through, and we're not going to pull the rug out from under anybody. It probably would be a year process, maybe two-year process to work through all this. But we have to ask, what is government there for? And Ed, government is there for public safety, which means police fire EMS. It's there, secondly, for infrastructure. I've never seen a Republican road or a Democratic drain. Everybody uses that. Everybody uses that. Elections, if we don't have secure elections, we don't have a country anymore. Education, we have a constitutional demand for education, and we're going to restructure that as I've already said in terms of the superintendent. So it's a combination of things. It's not like just, okay, we're going to take this out and then say, where are we going to get the extra money? No, we're going to remove stuff so we don't need as much extra money. And if there is something locally, I guess to finish this statement, let me come back to this. I would be looking at a constitutional amendment for state revenue sharing on the educational part of it. We we are already doing that in law enforcement. We're already doing that in other areas. That would be that would make the most sense to have a state revenue sharing. Because right now, when Lansing sends down their uh administrative rules that are burdening local government, you know, it's like uh a quick story, uh Lake Odessa uh received a letter, and every fire department did, and I know this because I'm a chaplain, and I by the way, Ed, the Southeastern Michigan Chiefs of Police have unanimously endorsed me for my run for governor. But in Lake Odessa, they get this letter from Lansing. It says you have to change your tires on your truck every three or four years, blah, blah, blah. This great list. And the chief came out and he said, We can't do this. This is not going to work in our community. It would double our budget, and we can't afford to do that, and we're not going to tax our people higher to make it happen. So he stood up against it. But that's the kind of stuff that if we get government, you know, get back to local control, get the Lansing out of our pockets, get Lansing out of our lives.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

I've got to interrupt you because we've only got a couple minutes left. What I've heard people complain about is that if we're dependent on state funds for our schools, we lose local control. That's that's and actually I d I want to drop that at this point because I I have another question I want to ask you, okay? Okay, unless you can give that 30 seconds can you give that 30 seconds?

SPEAKER_06 44:18

Well, you know, the the bottom line is government Sorry, government doesn't have to money have to follow the money. It doesn't have to follow the money. In fact, that's where the money comes with local control. Has well 4027, 4028 Alexander is in the house right now. That's what I'm looking to do.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Okay, I like that. Firearms. What do you want firearms?

SPEAKER_06 44:51

Well, obviously, I'm a big supporter of the Second Amendment. That happens to be something that I love. I've hunted my whole life. Uh I um remember when Obama became president and went out and bought an AR-15.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

I want an AK.

SPEAKER_06 45:05

There you go, there you go. And you know, I I'm for constitutional carry. I know that all all of these uh red flag gun laws that they passed uh last year, we're we're gonna repeal those.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Thank you. Those are the answers I wanted to hear. I don't know about the rest of my audience, but I'm I'm sure they're all nodding their head vigorously at that. And oh in the last minute. What's this about Bitcoin? What what I mean, you I've I'm reading that you're for a gold standard for Michigan? How does that work? I'm just hoping to misrepresent misread that.

SPEAKER_06 45:39

Yeah, um the gold standard is uh Article 1, Section 10 of the US Constitution states that uh says that states can use uh gold and silver as legal tender. Uh a body of mine in Texas uh named Kevin Freeman started what he calls transactional gold. Texas, Florida, um, Arkansas, Georgia's talking about it. Uh those three that I just mentioned, and I think there might be another two states that have already passed it. Basically what it means is that the state would have a depository where people can put their gold and you use a debit card to help um or to just like a credit card for a bank account, but you're using it against your gold. And the reason why I want to do this is because I want to protect generational wealth. As the dollar continues to sink, gold continues to go up. And if your money's sitting in in invested in your gold in a state depository, and you can access it just like you had a credit card, you could buy a pizza, you could buy a car with it, depending on how much money you have in there, your

Guns Red Flag Repeal And Gold

SPEAKER_06 46:40

your money's worth more money because it's in that. And the Constitution allows that. So that's what that's all about.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

All right, we've got 40 seconds left. Thanks, Jarek. So we're talking to Ralph Rebant. Ralph, tell people how they can uh um contact you or uh your links.

SPEAKER_06 46:57

All right, uh Rebant4governor.com as F-O-R Governor. Actually, we bought both of them. So if you type in a four or number four, or let's spell it out, it's still there. Rebant R-E-B-A-N-D-T for governor.com.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist politics podcast and share episodes. We need your help.

SPEAKER_07 47:30

God shares his message every day and night. Please feel freedom of making a choice for shed his message over all the earth. God stands strong and God bless you.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Life isn't a straight line. It twists, it soars, it drops without warning. But it's in those heart-pounding moments, the climbs and the falls, that we discover who we truly are. Available now on Amazon.

SPEAKER_08 48:26

Sunday thoughts, coffee steam and quiet streets, headlines, hands, people breaking when no one sees.

Where To Follow And Final Ask

SPEAKER_08 48:40

So I lift their names up. Every burden I can't fix, let it rise like kisses, every herd into your hands.

SPEAKER_09 48:52

I'm sending thoughts and friends to heaven over every broken heart, every family, every soldier, every shadow and a star. When this world crowns its pretenders, I remember what they preached. Our fathers wrote it down forever. No kings, but King Jesus over me.

SPEAKER_11 49:39

Still the answer to our cries. From the fields and valley force

Tough Love Gospel Outro

SPEAKER_11 49:47

To the pure feeling in Same confession on our list, same open presence, Jesus foundations of Judeo Christian beliefs, and our public decrease, no king. But King Jesus over me.

SPEAKER_10 51:12

Warm hands, soft words, and pretty choirs. From the story, I'd be dressing up a gravest glory. This is tough love gospel. If I stand down the edges, I turn truth into a lie. Reality or delusion. I can't serve both sides. I'm not here just for the choir. I'm here with a hurt hard tide. Yeah. Some pages bleed red in the margins. Hard lines, hard calls, hard bargains. Define skip older stones for your comfort. In your house, it's washed in the flood waters. This is the gospel. Not just can't fire. I stand on the edges. I turn to a lie. Reality. It's the full side. I'm here with a hurt heart. I don't know. Do you want a dream or do you want a mirror? Do you want a drop or do you want a clearer? If the truth cuts deep, let it cut through feel. Better small bad heel than a sweet lie in your ear. This ain't cotton candy truth. Ain't a campfire, something along the can't sell sweet dreams while the house burns behind. If it never cuts deep, it was too good all along. If you skip the hard pages, you just rewrote the song. Not rambles on the wild. If you have the hard word, you're just fanning the fire. Just to make it sound like to the quiet. You can hung all the feel good aligns while your neighbor breaks inside. Quote hold like a slogan. Look away from the crime, but a bandage on the bullet. It's a pretty little eye. It's a truth level. Do we have a five I'd rather lose that crowd? I'd rather stay alone. That's the way. Don't let's wait to go. Because the call the fire fire. I'm a liar.

unknown 55:21

Not a rider.

SPEAKER_10 55:23

Tough love. The Bible isn't just rainbows and lollipops. Singing combire around the campfire. You cannot ignore the harsh reality drops. The pedal sludge makes you a liar. Reality versus delusion. Speaking not just to the choir. This, that, and in all things transpire.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.