Pulse Check Wisconsin-Insights from a Milwaukee, ER Doc
Welcome to Pulse Check Wisconsin-Insights from a Milwaukee, ER Doc. A podcast about Emergency Medicine and healthcare designed to inform and educate the people of Milwaukee and greater Wisconsin.
Hosted by Christopher Ford MD, FACEP, an ER physician in Milwaukee and advocate for public health and social justice.
In each episode, Dr Ford will share stories of presentations to the ER, and delve into preventative health tips and social determinates of health. Guests from allied healthcare, public and private sectors will join to provide invaluable insights.
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Pulse Check Wisconsin-Insights from a Milwaukee, ER Doc
From First Responder to Congress! Discussion with Bernard Taylor
Welcome to pulse check, Wisconsin.
Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. This is Dr. Ford post check Wisconsin. We got a good episode today we have, uh, with US candidate for Florida's 21st Congressional district, Bernard Taylor, who is a social media star. He is an EMT a firefighter as well. It's very rare that we get the opportunity to speak to candidates who are advocating for change, advocating for healthcare for all, uh, as well as being a voice for first responders in their community. So really interested, really looking forward to speaking to my friend Bernard Taylor here. And with that being said, let's go ahead and get started. Alright, so appreciate you being with us. We got Bernard Taylor here with us. Been a big fan of you, bro. Uh, I've been following you on social media for a while. Most of the videos like firefighter, you know, paramedic stuff, you know, we all got the same kind of sense of humor, first responders. Uh, but then the last couple months I've been seeing some stuff out for you, Bernard Taylor for Congress. So I said I had to get'em on the podcast. We gotta talk about it so appreciate you being with us, brother.
Bernard:No, thank you very much, man. Appreciate you having me.
Absolutely. So you spent years serving as a firefighter, as a paramedic, you also have had this, huge social media prescence across the board, man. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey? Absolutely, man, it all started honestly, man, as an outlet, like you said, as a fellow first responder man, you know, we. We see a lot of things in this field. We deal with a lot of people's trauma and pain and emotions and carrying that weight. For some of us, man, we see it in our field. Some of us don't deal with it too well. It costs some people their lives. Unfortunately. Um, it costs people's families relationships. You know, our divorce rate among first responders is one of the highest in the country. So my whole social media journey really just started as an outlet for me to be able to, um, express myself kind of, um. You know, make fun of some of the things that we see in a lighthearted way.'cause again, man, a lot of things can be heavy, you know? Mm-hmm. Those I'll never forget the, uh, images of the first time, you know, a mom came with their lifeless baby and like. Was just the, the scream that a mother hears that you hear from a mom when they're handing you their child and asking you to save it. Man, that's a, that's a sound you don't never forget. Mm-hmm. Or the first time you see a multi-trauma incident where you got body parts all over the place, like movies don't do that stuff justice, man. Nah, bro. Just because you see, you know, you see Michael Myers, you know, lic somebody up, you think you could handle it. But until you see that stuff in person and the smells and, and all that stuff, man, it all stick with you. So.
Bernard:Social
media just started as an outlet for me to be able to channel for my emotions and express myself and thing led to another. Started off very small and here I am today. Man, it's, it turns out it's a lot of people that need to laugh, especially in our field, and it is, the biggest thing I love about it is all the young men and young women that have started in this field and. You know, I get messages all the time. I've been watching your content. How do I become a firefighter? How do I become a MTE paramedic? That's the greatest thing that has resulted from this man. Just being able to touch a lot of people and, and, you know, be a role model for a lot of people. Yeah, man. And, and you know, like you said, your reach has gone from, you know, like you said, being a smaller, now you got, 190,000 on Instagram, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. And so you're touching many lives in that respect. And like you said, we need more of us. As first responders. We need more of us in the community caring for the community. We talk about that all the time on the show too. But one of the things that you talked about too, I mean, you, you now, you're running for congressman, right? In Florida's 21st, uh, congressional District. Can you tell us a little bit about that? How'd you get involved with that man? Again, that stemmed from some social media stuff, man. So, honestly, I'm kidding you not man. I made a video. For those of you who aren't familiar, there's a representative Congress in right now. His name is Byron Donalds. Those of you who are not familiar with Byron Donalds. Byron Donalds is a congressman outta Southwest Florida. I made a video after he got on Fox News, I believe it was. And he got on Fox News and he was going on a whole diatribe about, you know, uh, president Trump winning the election. So I said, if he announces that he's running for Governor of Florida, then I'm gonna run for Governor of Florida. And true enough, man, he, he decided he was gonna run for governor. And I got on the internet, I say, well, I'm a man of my words. Um, somebody point me in the right direction so I can run for governor. And the comments and responses I've gotten. To that video, just like, yeah, you should do it. Yeah, man, we, we, I was like, hold on. Y'all really think I should be a politician? Mm-hmm. So one thing led to another. I started really looking into, you know, aspects of being a politician, what it takes to qualifications, and I've always been very in tuned, um, into the things that are going on around me, especially in the area of politics. Again, I just never really looked into it as far as like being a candidate. So as I started looking into the qualifications and I saw what was needed, and I really reached out to some, some people in my community who have been community leaders who are in the school board and county commissions who have done this stuff for years. And, you know, I talked with'em about it. You know, they gave me, you know, the, the go ahead and encouragement to actually really do it. They said, um, mm-hmm my temperament, my character, everything that's. That's needed to be the person that I need to be in order to represent the people I already had. So I said, all right, let's get us a whirl and see how it goes. So I started my campaign Instagram, TikTok pages. I started all those from zero. I didn't tell my personal page about it. I wanted to build this thing up from scratch to see if I can get actual support and not just people migrating over from our already established platforms and having those platforms. And being running for about two months now, getting my message out there and things that I want to do. I started from zero two months ago. The Instagram account, I believe is at 120,000 for the congressional page. The, no, excuse me, 160,000 for the congressional page on Instagram, 123,000 on TikTok. We got 2000 followers on Facebook. So again, just the amount of support and people that are resonating with the things that I'm trying to do, it's just encouraging me. And again, you know, just the amount of money we raised so far, all these things have been encouraging me to, again, just keep the fight going and keep being the person that, um, people want me to be. Yeah, man. And more power to you brother. I, you know, this is, this is, like you said, it's an uphill battle whenever one of us comes from the trenches, so to speak, and then try to make it into this realm of career politicians, especially like the individual you running against Brian Mass too, who's been in multiple times, you know, another congressional district and now in the 21st with you now and you know, making waves, man. So I appreciate you. Absolutely man. What kind of experiences from, you know, like your background growing up, being a firefighter, being an EMT, what kind of experience from that life has shaped the kind of leader that you're gonna be in Congress? Well, thinking about it from, uh, just a macro perspective, you know, I try to educate people as much as I can to get, make sure that they're understanding the people that are representing them. Now we have 435 US representatives in the house. We have a hundred senators, so we have 535 total people that are supposed to represent. 370 million people in the go in in the United States. Out of 535 representatives, 11 of them come from a working class background, 11 of them out of 535. So how do we have a government that represents the everyday average American when they only 11 of them. Really know what it's like to be on Medicaid or have a family member on Medicaid. 11 of them probably know what it's like to be on food stamps. Be a paycheck away from not being able to pay your rent, pay your mortgage a paycheck away from being homeless. You know, not, not knowing where your next meal's gonna come from.
Bernard:Mm-hmm. You know, all
these different things that I've experienced over life and that's my people still experiencing, even in my own family. So I'm not disconnected from the struggles of the American people as most people in Congress are. You know what I'm saying? I'm not disconnected from the fact that there are hardworking people out here just trying to get by that rely on these programs. You know, you get these talking points, how you have a whole bunch of people on Medicaid, you just sitting at home in their basement. I say, all right, you obviously have never applied for Medicaid before because that's not how this goes. You that aint had work, bro, who stands before? That's not how this work at all. Like we got people that got full-time, 40 hour a week jobs that lead these programs just to continue to stay afloat. You know what I'm saying? You don't know what it's like for your mother to look at you and be like, I can't eat, but I gotta make sure my kids are eating. So she has to sacrifice eating, so to make sure her babies are eating. And seeing that growing up as the oldest child, all these things still resonate with me. So those experiences and then my experiences in my field, again, I'm still attached to a lot of these different communities. You know, man, we first responders mm-hmm. People call 9 1 1. I don't know what, um, environment I'm about to walk into. I don't know where I'm, I'm going into a 7,000 foot man, 7,000 square foot mansion. I'm going into some hole in the wall. Mm-hmm. I don't know what you believe. I don't know who you believe in. I don't know you. Black, white, yellow, red, or white. All I know is. You call 9 1 1. I have to go in and give you the best services possible, and you're trusting me to come in your home and take care of you at the most stressful part of your day. When you call 9 1 1, ain't nobody happy to call nine one one. Man. You call 9 1 1. It is always a bad situation for someone to experience all those bad situations and to see how everyone is living, not just certain demographics. Again, it keeps me, it keeps. Keeps me grounded and it keeps me focused on, on the main thing. You know, I'm not removed from. The people that need me the most. That part right there. And one of the things too, looking at it from the perspective, so we're post check Wisconsin, but we interview people like yourself, people from all over the country because all these issues are conjoined at the hip. Right. And so one of the things that we see. Right. Especially as first responders, you know, in the hospital systems too, you know, there are those of us who, who are on the side of, we want Medicaid expansion, we want this safety net for our communities that was promised to, our children, to our grandparents, to our parents, right? But then you run into the situation where you got a lot of conservative folks, especially, you know, in our cohort too, especially as the first responders as well. And then on top of that. You running into Florida where most people, you know, I know, I know the district you're running in now is different in, in, in, from the 2020 census. But, how do you approach that, like both professionally, uh, from people who deviate from you and how they're looking at you now, and then how, how will you approach that for your district and going forward? What's the beautiful thing about our, our industry man, like you say, we're, we're a lot of times in the minority in more ways than one. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? Right. See a lot of our thought processes and our policies, so gaining that experience of being at the dinner table, at the fire station. Sometimes being the only person with a quote unquote liberal aspect. Mm-hmm. And being able to argue, articulate your point, not really argue, but kind of articulate your point and bring everything kind of back to the middle. Even if it's out of, you know, six people at the stable, five verse one. And by the end of that conversation, if it's three to three, I think I've done a good job. You know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. I've been able to change some minds and, and convince some people to kind of see both sides, and I get it as well, man. I understand not as far as like the extreme parts of their party, but I get some of the things that. You know, they're concerned about, you wanna make sure that, you know, people are out here, you know, working and, and mm-hmm. And trying to make something outta theyself and not just, um, living off the system. And I get that. But at the same time, you need to understand that people are working and still need the system. Right when I, you know, when we having those conversations and we're able to break things down and kind of put everything in perspective and get everybody out of their echo chambers and just bring up the facts and the numbers.'cause we all know man, numbers don't lie. You can't, don't lie. These numbers. The numbers, this is what the numbers say. Mm-hmm. And at the end of the day, again, you're not gonna win everybody and. If your goal is to try to get a hundred pinch a hundred percent of people on your side, you're going to fail. Right? You need to just be true to yourself. Like I am. When I announced that I was running, I was very surprised that the brothers in my department like, Hey man, you know, I'm a registered Republican, but I'm voting for you. Mm-hmm. And I was like, for real. Like, Hey man, I know your heart. I know your character. I know you going to be the right person for it, so don't even worry about it, man, we, we got you. So that was, um, very encouraging to hear. And again, it's just like with my regular profile when I started the congressional page, like my inbox is from people that are in our industry, just like mm-hmm. It's just so nice to have someone with a voice expressing the things and the, you know, on our side.'cause again, you feel overwhelmed by the conservative movement, whether it's in mm-hmm. The fire unions, police unions and any of these type of industry. You, you, you almost feel like you don't want to say anything.'cause you don't want to be that person in a crew. Exactly. Exactly. You don't wanna be ostracized. So, you know, I, I won't, I don't put them out of public or anything like that because I want them to still be in their life comfortably. But at the same time, it is a lot of people that have reached out to me just to say, you know, thank you for being our, my voice. Because it's, it's so rare to see someone with our thought process in our field. Mm-hmm. And we're kind of, we're just happy to see you out there. Yeah. That's just another thing that keeps me. Encouraged and motivated and lets me know I'm doing the right thing. Yeah, that's what's up man. And, and you know, you brought up a couple good points there and like we talked about on our last episode, we were talking about how do we reach out to folks, right? Like how, how do we get away from. The divisive, partisan politics that we are dealing with right now. And a lot of it is, like you said, just sitting down at the dinner table with folks at your fire station right at the firehouse. So, you know, sitting down to somebody, uh, you know who you're working with, a coworker in the medical field, right? Getting to know you. And getting to know your story, like I know Bernard is, you know, it, it comes from this community. I know that he worked to be at the same place that I'm at right now. I know that I can trust his point of view when he is telling me this, this is what it is. Versus you get a sound bite from, you know, whatever media source. And it is, it, it is built to divide us, right? And so I feel like that's the only way forward, bro, is having people in your position and people in position like we are in right now to push, these, these initiatives. That essentially, I mean this, this is all selfless stuff, right? We want to make sure that mom is, it doesn't have to choose between, you know, is she going to eat or is her child going to eat, or is she gonna be able to afford those medications, you know, for herself or for her child? Or is she able to put food on the table? Right? These are the realities, these are the real people that we're dealing with. Day to day, and we see it every day, bro. Every day, man. Like it's like you said, it's crazy, man. You go into some of these homes and you see how some of the kids are living. Mm-hmm. You know, one of the things, again, you know, when you, when you talk to people and they listen for your ideas and you know, you tell'em, well, I believe that children should have, you know, free and free lunch and breakfast at school. Because again, I've been to communities, I've been to these houses where that's all they have to eat sometimes during the day. Just because I see this and. Who am I to, wanna punish the kids for the situation that they're born into? I don't choose, we don't, we don't be, we don't choose to where we get born. I didn't, I didn't choose to be born in the projects. You think if I had a choice, I wouldn't have got, you know, born in Beverly Hills somewhere. Mm-hmm. With the silver school. Like we don't get those choices. Who am I to say? That these kids now should have to pay for choices that they don't get to make. Man, like I say, sometimes breakfast and lunch at school, breakfast and lunch programs over the summer. That's all they have to eat. And if it costs me an extra$6 in my taxes to make sure a bunch of kids are eating, I'm fine with that. As opposed to costing me another a hundred dollars in taxes to make sure some CEO somewhere can get another yacht or can afford his next vacation or some$50 million wedding. Yeah, about you, Jeff. Um, but, um, yeah, so, and that's the, that's the kind of thing again, just getting in front of people and explaining these positions and kind of putting things out there to where people can chew. I think that's a lot of thing when you talk about messaging, what gets lost in politics is people think the smarter they sound, the more articulate they sound. Mm-hmm. The more people are just gonna be like, oh, well, you know, I think he knows what he's talking about. He sounds, you know, very intelligent and articulate. He's, you know, he's communicating in the way that I don't really understand, but he sounds like he knows what he is talking about. Mm-hmm. But to other people who actually know what he's trying to say, and you realize he said a whole bunch of nothing.
Bernard:Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Again, it's just giving people these types of scenarios and giving it to'em to where they can chew on it and actually really think about what you're trying to talk, what you're trying to relay, and the message that you're trying to relay. And when you tell people like, look, I'm trying to just, would you rather have$6 of your taxes go to kids eating, or a hundred dollars of your taxes going to some CEO to subsidize them? Exactly. 90% of people going to pick the children, you know? Mm-hmm. You still have those 10% of people who just evil and we can't, again, you're not gonna, and you know,
Bernard:change everybody, but.
Again, it's just being able to communicate our message like that man, and making people see the good and what we're trying to do. Yeah, man. Well, let's talk about Florida 21st, congressional District, man. What, what part of Florida do you guys represent for, just for listeners who may not be as familiar so, Florida's first district is in the, so. Portion of Florida. So you have Miami-Dade County, Broward County, those are the su, the southernmost counties in the state. My district represents Palm Beach County, Northern Palm Beach County, which is the next county up north of Broward and Dade. So Northern Palm Beach County, Martin County, and St. Lucie County, Florida. So that's what's known as the Treasure Coast. So if you look in the southeastern part of the state of Florida on the coast, that is Florida Congressional District 21, across those three counties, St. Lucie Martin. In Northern Palm Beach County. Yeah. So it include cities like Fort Pierce and for St. Lucie, Stewart, uh, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, uh, those are the main top five cities. And then a bunch of little cities are also included as well. And that recently changed, like I said, with the, with the new maps that were drawn in 2020. That put, your current congressman now, Brian Mass that put him in a new. Demographic. Right. That put'em in a new, congressional district put'em in a very, very Republican led mm-hmm. Demographic. If you look at the map in 2018, before 2020, you can kind of see the difference, like when they change the lines. If you look down at the southern part of the district, so at the top part of the district, it's a straight line. It stops between St. Lucie and River County. As you get to the bottom of the district, you start to see the jigsaw puzzle. You start to see where they.
Bernard:Cut out, started
cracking in. Yeah, they cut out Riviera Beach, which is a predominantly African American community. They cut out, um, parts of West Palm Beach that had African African, so you could see how. They gerrymandered the district to try to give him the best opportunity to maintain this seat. And again, ever since 2020, I think he's been winning this seat by no less than I wanna say, seven or eight points. Mm-hmm. So it used to be a blue democratic seat. He won in 2018. They gerrymandered the district and now he's had a pretty strong hold over the district, which again gives him a level of arrogance, I wanna say, unfortunately. Mm-hmm.
Bernard:Mm-hmm.
That he doesn't really have to be beholden to the people because it's such a heavily Republican leaning district. However, being out here on the ground talking to people mm-hmm. I know that this district can be won regardless of the fact that it was like an R plus 15 victory. Last, I wanna say last election cycle. Mm-hmm. The fact that the people are telling me that it is an opportunity to win. I'm in the community, I'm, I'm gathering support and I know that if we turn out certain parts of the community that did just didn't turn out last election. Like in our underprivileged areas, um, predominantly minority areas. We had very, very low voter turnout. Cannot win any election, especially running under the Democratic ticket if you have low minority turnout. Right? So my whole job over the next year, because we got a long way away, is to galvanize the people. Make the people believe in me, make the people want to leave their homes to go vote for me. And again, by this time next year. We want to make sure that that momentum is in full swing. And you know, you brought up a good point there too, because, you know, he, Brian Mass has been largely hip and hip with, with Trump policies, right. Voted about 90% of the time, you know, at a congressional level with his bills and, and with his agendas. And that's one of the things that, you know, we're seeing over the country. Democrats, republicans, independents, everybody. Really polarized over this, this big beautiful bill. Right. We talked about it last episode, specifically on healthcare, and you've emphasized this in the past, you know, protecting Medicare, protecting Medicaid, uh, in this instance, and expanding, you know, some resources, especially in Florida 21, urgent Cares, telehealth and mental health services too. Um, you know, what, how do you think folks in your district are, are responding to this and how do you think that, you'll address it? In your campaign and going forward? Well, this majority of this district is elderly. Mm-hmm. So these people are not happy. They're not happy about the potential of not having their healthcare. And on top of that, again, we have a hospital here on Longwood Regional Medical Center. 70% of their income is Medicaid. Is Medicaid funding. So, and it's the only trauma center in this district. If that hospital were to have any kind of inconvenience, any kind of, um, shutdowns, if the trauma unit was to shut down, you're talking about the next closest trauma facilities being 50 miles south and 50 miles north, and don't let it be raining and you can't get a trauma hawk in the air. You and I both know, man, 50 mile drive and a traumatic scenario. That's the difference between you being here. And, uh, we planning for your funeral life or death, bro. Mm-hmm. It's, it's little things like that that I'm relaying to the community and showing, Hey, even if you not on Medicaid or Medicare, you're a young person, you think it don't affect you. You don't know what can happen to you. You don't know what can happen to you on the highway. Mm-hmm. And now, mm-hmm. Your life might've been saved because this hospital pill has the capabilities to save it. But because these programs got cut, that hospital's no longer there. Mm-hmm. So just again, relaying those different, those messages to people, making sure they understand how these things affect you, even if you don't think they affect you. You know, all the nursing homes in the area that depend on Medicaid. Uh, I, I try to explain to people my age and even a little bit older than me, you know, millennials and Gen X. Like if your parents or grandparents are in a nursing home and they, their only income is Medicaid and social security. And they don't long, no longer have the funds to be able to fund that nursing home or to pay for, they stay that nursing home who they come to live with. Right? You ready for your grandma to come live with you? Mm-hmm. You ready for your mom to come live with you? Do you have the capabilities? If you can't afford a nurse outta your pocket now, who's staying home to take care of grandma?'cause she needs 24 hour care. So not only are you adding an expense to your house, you're taking away money out your house because now you gotta stay home because you can't afford to care that day. Mm-hmm. And again, continuing to make these connections, connect these dots because we all see the news and we see social media. We just get these big, broad generalizations and we think these things don't affect us, and all this stuff trickles down to us one way or another. Mm-hmm. So expanding Medicaid and Medicare, making sure that these programs are here for us when we get to be at age, because that's another thing, like we ain't gonna be young forever. And I wanna make sure these same programs that they have now are going to be around when I get there. You know, fortunately for me and you, you know, we are in career fields that set us up for that time to where Right. We ain't, you know, we ain't gonna be bad. We ain't gonna be hurting, but we ain't going, you know what I'm saying? We gonna be, we gonna be all right. Right. But again, I didn't get into this field to just worry about myself, man, and, and, and getting into politics. It's not just about worrying about me. I, I know I'm going to be a right field for the people that I know haven't prepared for what's gonna happen later on in life. Mm-hmm. That I know. Work jobs that don't know what a pension is or, or retirement plan is, or don't even give them healthcare right now. And you're talking about once they hit 60, they done work at this same dead end job. Now it's time to retire. And it's like, wait a minute. All I get is this little check from Social Security. Mm-hmm. Good luck. And hopefully Medicaid's still there and Medicare.'cause if they not still there now you don't even have health insurance. So that's my whole mindset. I'm always thinking ahead like. Thinking years, years, years ahead because again, my mother's about to hit that age. She's 55 right now. She's 10 years away from that age. And I've seen how hard she's worked her whole life just to make sure that we were all good to, and at least I knew that when she got that to that point, she was going at least be able to rest comfortably. Now with the cuss that they're making, I don't know. And exactly, I haven't prepared. You know, I'm working, I'm working now, but I haven't prepared to see what would happen if my mom needed some extra help. You know what I'm saying? Right. I still have my own family that I gotta take care of. I'm thinking these programs will be here for her at least to help take the burden off myself and the burden off my mother. Mm-hmm. But now, with all things going on with these cuts that they're proposing, who knows? So it's something us to get into these offices, man, it's up to us to look out for the, the everyday average American. And again, not look out just for the. 83 or so billionaires and the people with all the money that got more than enough, that's gonna be fine. They gonna be fine. Hundred percent. One of the things that you talked about on your platforms was, uh, pledge support for congressional term limits. Right? So we're talking about three house terms, two senate terms. The person that you're going up against in your district right now has been multiple rounds, I believe fourth or fifth term that he's on right now. Yes, sir. Why do term limits matter to you and, and, and how will they improve governance if we have'em in place? Term limits matter to me because I always believe you need fresh forces. Mm-hmm. You need fresh insight onto what's going on in the country. You know what I'm saying? You need a fresh pair of eyes to kind of look at and give a, a synopsis of everything that's going on around. My experiences in this country may be different from somebody else's experiences in this country. They may have a better idea of how to fix certain things or address certain areas. So I believe that, again, it's always good to have a fresh pair of eyes. We can't have the same eyes from 30 years ago trying to figure out. Mm-hmm. What's the best course of action? Um, for the country now, as we see, we got an 80-year-old in the White House who think that coal is still a good energy source. Yes, ma'am. We, we ain't been in the coal mines, you know, saying we ain't been doing that, but, and, and that's what I'm talking about, man. It's just like mm-hmm. Making sure we got young, fresh faces and fresh voices that are connected to the modern world to be able to make decisions as it pertains to the modern world. And I also believe that with term limits. It gets the, um, it gets money and the citizens united the super pacs, it gets their influence. Mm-hmm. Out of politics because again, you can't just buy somebody, buy a seat for 25 years. Mm-hmm. Eventually, every, you know, three terms, every six years. If you're talking about a congressional seat, every six years gonna be somebody different, so mm-hmm. That gives you more freedom as a person. You know, I can't expect everybody to have my morals and not want of, you know, fall victim to them. Them big checks that start to come. Mm-hmm. Everybody's not, um, I live in the real world. Everybody's not gonna turn down no money. I'm fortunate enough for me, I'm a simple dude. I just like video games and chilling that don't cost a lot of money. I can protect my morals and my character. Um, and I believe mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It makes it easier to be able to, to do that man to, to not be less, you know, to be less influenced by all these, uh, money coming into politics and these. People trying to buy these seats. Yeah. And we talked about it a little bit before we came on, you know, about your grassroots movement that you're doing right now. You know, before 2010 when, you know Citizens United pushed through by the legislation to allow that dark money to come in. You know, we only had about$3 million a year, you know, 2008 that came from these corporations came from, you know, these pacs that you know are under the table, right? So now after that legislation, we had about$300 million a year and growing. Right. Right. And so, right, right. And so, like, you know, these, these are all gonna influence your politicians. They're all gonna influence who's representing you at your level in your campaign. Like you said, most of it's grassroots, right? You're getting that transparency as well, you know, how will you ensure, you know, that continued accountability when you're in office? Like, what, how, how do you promote that to your, uh, your, so I tell everybody, and I encourage everyone. To go to the FEC website body that you want to know what they finances are, who's donating them money, who, where they getting their financing from is public record. You can always go check and see, Hey, lemme see who's funding this guy to see, you know, if he's really for my best interest or is he for the best interest of. Who's putting money in his pockets right now. Mm-hmm. So I always encourage people, I put a direct link on my website to make sure, anytime you want to check to see where this money is coming from, I ain't even gonna make it hard. You click this link and you can see where, um, everybody that support me is coming from. And also when I get in the office, I'm speaking that thing into existence like LeBron. Mm-hmm. Let's get it. Let's get, and I get in the office. So I plan on making sure that one of the things that I always do is have quarterly town halls throughout the district. I wanna make sure I'm reporting back to the district every three months just to make sure we, we are all on the same page. If I'm about to make a decision, I want to make sure I go over it with my kid before I make a decision, because again, this seat is not mine. This seat is Florida Congressional District Funds representation. So we wanna make sure that the people's vote and the people's concerns are represented when we do make these choices and make these votes in the, uh, house of Representatives. Absolutely, man. And you know, you mentioned on one of your, one of your platforms that you wanted to leave the country in a better place like we've been talking about here, for the average American from the true average American. What specific achievements would you say, like from your administration? What make this term a success in your eyes? So one of the things I wrote, actually wrote down, my first bill that I want to introduce is going to be called the A Steps Act. And basically what it is, it is a program to provide federal funding to every state for every high school in the country to be able to provide a trade program upon graduation. So when you would hit your junior year in high school, those last two years, not only would you get your regular education, you would also get an elective of a trade that you can pick up and learn. So when you graduated high school, you had a skill. So not only could you. Continue your education, if you decide to go to college, if that's what, not what you wanted to do.'cause you know, we grow up man. Not everybody may for college. Mm-hmm. At least if you graduate high school with a, with a HVAC license, especially here in Florida, you 18 years old HVAC license, you start your own business. So you good bro. You run a corporation by noon. You be
Bernard:saying.
So I just, I, I really believe in that program, ma'am. I believe in that program. We are behind in skilled workers. I think we gonna need like something like a hundred thousand electricians over the next, uh, decade. Like, uh, 50,000 plumbers. We are so behind in skilled workers. I believe if we can have that program put in place and that bill plans to be able to at least provide that opportunity for the kids once they graduate high school, you ain't gotta worry about. Going to a trade school after you graduate, because as of now, trade schools, you can't even get Pell grants to go to trade school. They only apply to colleges, so mm-hmm. Paying for trade school came all the way out your pocket, and that's just another expense that people don't have at the moment. So figure if you can get that in high school, man. Get those trades, whether it's hvac, electricity, construction, something in your pocket, CNA. These are all programs that I had when I was in school back in 2007. And to hear that that wasn't even a nationwide thing that was just in my high school was like crazy.'cause I really believe that that helped a lot of people. I know a lot of people that graduated with CNA licenses and all these different things. Mm-hmm. You know, with a CNA license at 18 being home health aid, like you say, you start your own business. Good bro. Man, you can do. All right. So that's one of the main things I really want to get accomplishment to be able to. Have that program put in place because again, I think it helps, um, start a lot of small business. I think it helps a lot of people get started on the right foot and it, it helps the country because again, we're putting these skilled workers that we need back into the country. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And like you said, you know, a lot of these, a lot of those certifications, right? CNA specifically, I can't tell you how many people that I know. They got their CNA that are now, you know, registered nurses that are now nurse practitioners, that are now physicians that are now EMTs. Right. Paramedics that are all working at that level. Just to get your foot in the door, bro. It, it is different from just, you know, graduating from high school and then you out here. Right. Like it gives you something, ma'am. I'm telling you, bro, it gives you something that you, you can, you know, you can earn some bread bro. You can, you can make it so that you got a roof over your head, you can eat right. So that, that will change man. Absolutely, man. So let's talk it into existence here, brother. So you said you emphasize over and over again citizen leadership, over career, politics. This is the people seat. You know, you are just an instrument of the people. Let, let's get'em going right now. What should voters know in your district and people all throughout the country, how can they get involved with your campaign? First and foremost, man, I wanna say in advance, thank you to any and everyone who has already shown their support for this campaign that has followed me anywhere on social media that has donated. Any kind of money to the campaign. First and foremost, wanna say thank you? Thank you to each and every one of you. If you guys want to get involved with the campaign, you can go to my website. It's www.bernardtaylorforcongress.org. You can sign up there on my volunteer list. You can volunteer to do things like phone banking. Phone banking can be done anywhere in the country. Doesn't matter where you are. You can sign up to phone bank. You can sign up to Canvas if you are in the area. Um, we go do door to door door, uh, we go to do door door knocking and canvassing these neighborhoods and getting our message across. We also do things like, so social media blitzing, where you just get on the internet and just start sharing out all my content mm-hmm. And comment and repost to get these algorithms to continue to share my, my content and get my face out to as many people as possible. Also, you want to make sure that, um, you signed up for the newsletter so you get updates on any events that I might be doing. Things of that nature. And as always, man, you go to the website, there's a donation link. I try to tell people all the time, man, instead of playing the power balls on that day, them little$2. Go ahead and shoot'em my way. Man, you, you ain't gonna hit that day. I promise you ain't. It ain't gonna be you, bro. Invest in, invest in your future. That's what's up man. Uh, man. Oh man. To close you out bro, for some of these listening,'cause we hear it a lot, especially all the people that we take care of, some people that are feeling like they have no more options, bro. People that you know on the rock bottom, the average person listening today is frustrated with politics, right? Especially as you see it on the news media cycle. Politics as usual, career politicians. We got like 50, 60 million weddings going on with our billionaires who are running the show here. Right. Why should people turn out? Why should people get involved? Not only with your campaign, but just get involved in general in 2026? Nothing doesn't change if we don't change it. We don't, we can't just sit here and complain about the status quo. If we don't get involved, if we don't try to get the status quo changed, if we don't try to get career politicians about to paint. Mm-hmm. Like, I don't, I, I'm a firm believer and I don't complain about nothing if I don't try to. Do something about it. So what I'm saying, you gonna complain about politicians, but you never vote. What are we doing? You know what I'm saying? If you gonna complain about the conditions in your community, but you've never been to a county commissions meeting, what are we doing? You, you don't like the way the school is operating, but you've never been to a school board meeting. You know, like, what are we doing? So it starts locally, then it works its way up to the state, then it works its way up federally. But if we want things to change, we need to actually take the time to research these candidates who is actually going to be looking out for us. We need to take the time to get involved in our communities, read what's going on, understand. How these laws and how these policies are affecting our communities. And until we do that, man, we'll continue to ride this same rollercoaster we've been riding of these career politicians and these seats that get bought and just being at behest of people that don't really care about us. Mm-hmm. To be quite honest with you. So you want things to change. Stand up now, get involved and put leadership in place that's going to be held accountable and going to actually serve. Us the people. Mm-hmm. I agree, brother and, and, and, and for those of you who have, you know, the drive light like Bernard does here, man, run for these positions too, man. We need more of us in these positions. Like you said, Bernard's working his way up, but my man, blessings to you brother. Uh, I wish you all the luck in the future. I already picked up my shirt here, Bernard Taylor for Congress. I had to pick up a, I gotta pick up a hoodie too,'cause it's cold up here. Man. I wanna say thank you for having me on, brother. I really appreciate it, man. It's the platforms like this that are going to be the difference next year. I truly believe, man, we can't rely on the same media that we've been consuming over all these years, man. It's gonna take voices like yourself and other independent voices out here to give the people the truth. Give'em the facts. And again, encouraging people that you know, we need good quality people to run for these seats. Man, if you want to get involved, please get involved, man. Look in your local state for the qualifications, what you need in order to run for election and just do it. I didn't ask nobody's permission, you know what I'm saying? I didn't. You can't wait. I didn't, I didn't go around, you know, being timid about it. I said I wanted to do something, I figured out how to do it, and then I threw my name in the hat.
Bernard:Mm-hmm. So if
you out there waiting for somebody's blessing or somebody to anoint you to be the next great po it ain't gonna happen, man. You gotta get out here and take what you want and get out here and put your foot in. Somebody ain't gonna say it. We on the podcast, but you what you want, man, man. And make, make it happen. All right. That part brother, that part. Well, I love to have you on again, man. Uh, we'll keep updated with you as we go on, man, and, and blessing. See you, brother. Absolutely, man, you stay careful.\ I think I speak for all of us when I say that it's not infrequent that all of us who are in the first responder realm in the healthcare realm feel powerless to help the patients in front of us. A lot of the decisions have been taken out of our hands in terms of the medications that we're able to give, the treatments that we're able to provide, even the procedures. And also addressing the systemic issues that we know to be barriers to healthcare throughout our communities. That's why it was important to bring Bernard Taylor on to talk to us about how he's taking the next step, how he's stepping up to the plate to be the representative for his community on a national level in order to be just that, be that healthcare provider. In the trenches, in the field, being able to make decisions for his community that he knows needs to be made. It takes bravery, it takes selflessness, and it takes someone just like you out there who can be that person. Whether at the national level or at the local level, we need more healthcare representatives in these positions in order to make these decisions, because I'm going to let you peek behind curtain here. Some of these representatives, some of these folks in these leadership positions don't know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to what we need to do in order to push our communities forward to. Promote public health. We need to continue to push evidence-based medicine. We need to continue to push for access to healthcare for all. Again, thank you to Bernard Taylor. You all can go out and check out his website. Uh, he can get a t-shirt like I did, get a, he's got hoodies. He is got a whole bunch of stuff, but we need to continue to rally behind folks like Bernard. Looking forward to our next episode. Um, hope you'll join us next time.
