The Reagan Faulkner Show: Episode 23 - Interview with David Buzzard

In this episode of The Reagan Faulkner Show, Army veteran and two-time Purple Heart recipient David Buzzard explains why he’s challenging Rep. David Rouzer in North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District, citing rampant veteran suicide, corrupt and self-enriching incumbents, and a political class detached from the realities facing younger Americans. Buzzard denounces the “affordability crisis is just messaging” attitude on the right, arguing that working families living paycheck to paycheck are being dismissed instead of represented, and insists the market must serve citizens rather than destroy dignified work.​

Buzzard and Reagan dive into threats like transhumanism, AI replacing blue-collar jobs, microplastics harming human health and fertility, illegal labor undercutting American workers, and a GOP culture that feels like a social club instead of a movement for action. He calls for term limits, faith-rooted leaders with real honor, and a new style of conservative engagement that energizes Gen Z through visible community work, better messaging, and a serious focus on their future opportunities here at home rather than endless foreign entanglements.

Transcript

0:03

What's up guys and welcome back to the Reagan Faulkner Show. Today is our first episode with a guest. We are being joined by Mr. David Buzzard. He is running for the 7th Congressional District and he is primarying Mr. David Browser. So we are super excited to have him on here talking about the youth, talking about Gen Z and talking about what really motivated him to run and what he's looking forward to doing. So Mr. Buzzard, I'm gonna spout off the first one. You are a veteran stepping into the political arena. So what moment or experience really made you want to run for North Carolina's 7th Congressional District? Well, thank you for that Reagan. I really appreciate you having me on. There's a whole lot really that went into that, but I will tell you, you know, veterans issues are very clean to my heart and so I've been really involved with the veteran community, the health aspects, trying to stem suicide. It's at such a high rate right now and I started, you know, I've had many friends that have committed suicide, unfortunately, that I deployed with, that I served with, and it got me thinking like, why are these guys killing themselves? Essentially, they are kind of, you know, badasses and they're out there taking themselves out of the fight. It started making me go down a rabbit hole and, you know, it's just a lack of accountability, a lack of attention to our young people, to our veterans, from our representation, and it really just drove, it drove me to wanting to enter this race myself. You know, I talk about wanting someone to step up and someone to get out there and speak the values that I believe in, but no one was willing to do it. No one was out there doing it. So I figured, you know, I can keep my mouth shut and, you know, mind my own business and keep these thoughts running through my head for the rest of my life and feel a bit of shame for not actually stepping out there and trying it myself. And then, you know, I was like, no, I can't be a bad example for my daughters. And so I stepped up and I made the risk and now we're gonna go all in. Absolutely, that's amazing. To be honest, that's not a story that I've heard. I feel like they're pretty similar. I saw the way my country was going and I didn't like it. But I love the personal connection that you have to the issue. And, you know, you have a very specific set of goals, I think, that you want to accomplish and that have really motivated you to move into this. Now, looking at our political culture right now, we see many young Americans that are disconnected from politics. What do you think about your background that's going to really engage with Gen Z voters and resonate with them? Well, I'm an oddball, I'm not going to lie to you. I have a lot of energy, a lot of charisma, despite, you know, taking a couple rough ups down downrange in Afghanistan. I was wounded twice. So I have two Purple Hearts. I took some shrapnel on the side face here. But everything's good to go in terms of, you know, I've got my fingers and toes, so I can't complain too much. But that's really I have a lot of integrity and honor. Honor is a big deal to me. It's really what's my driving force. You know, I see these representatives up there making lots and lots of money and just using the time that folks have sent them up there to fight for their values, self enriching. And so, you know, the type of energy that I'm going to bring is it's not self fulfilling. It's not self, you know, it's not just self enriched. It's to actually fight for the values of the younger people. We're losing our country, but not really just our country. We're losing all of humanity. There's a push towards transhumanism right now that's really, I think, demonic. You know, we've got a lot of allies on the right that are helping push this. I love Elon Musk, but man, dancing with transhumanism is absolutely, it's scary. Our way of life comes from things that we do with our hands. A conservative way of life comes from, you know, working a job, feeling fulfillment from, you know, being employed, being able to, you know, reach towards something like buying a house or to, you know, sustain a family, to grow a family. These things come from opportunities, opportunities which we are seemingly throwing to the wind in the name of some AI advancement. I don't think it's the right future for us. Now, you can advance AI in parallel with, you know, other technology, but we're pumping our tax dollars into this industry, private corporations that have no obligation to keep the, you know, the average citizen employed. And it's a scary future. I'm no socialist. You know, the thing is, I get a lot of pushback from the right because I'm talking about infringing on the market. Well, I believe that the market serves us, not we serve the market. The moment the market becomes destructive, we don't engage in the behavior that is being destructive. For instance, you know, this AI in classrooms, kids can barely read already, and now we're pushing AI, which is taking away all of the critical thinking skills. We're raising a generation of kids that aren't going to be able to do problem solving. They're going to lean into computers. And, you know, the computer is a learning model. It's not some entity that's giving you proof. It's through conditioning. And so all you've got to do is condition it the right way to spout out the right propaganda. And now you've got a new pool of the elite authoritarians. And that's something that we should be pushing back against in every fiber of our body. But I don't see it. And I know that probably jumps all over your question, but I'm bringing issues that I think our young people see as the core to their future. And no one else seems willing to talk about it. They all talk about stock market highs or, you know, the GDP. Well, look, those are not the best indicators of health of the of the average people on the ground or the situation. And so just having a better vantage point, being able to discuss the things that I know individuals are really thinking about, I think they like what I have to say. And they're going to resonate with the voters and they're going to see someone like. Um, yeah, I completely agree. I think that I know I saw something in the news a couple of days ago, maybe where Mr. Beast was kind of pushing for I think it's Neuralink. And I was like, oh, and that was the first time I heard transhumanism. I was like, OK, that's that is really interesting and kind of quite scary. They're pushing it in a in a manner that's going to help disabled people, which I think is great. But I also think that it's going to soften people's hearts a little bit to something that they were already opposed to. And then it's going to give this oh, it's going to help people who have, you know, medical issues or disabilities. And it's going to almost make it more accepted, more generally accepted, which is kind of scary for for people that are against it. Or, you know, kind of from a religious perspective, seeing Mr. Beast push push Neuralink is a little interesting, too. But I completely agree with that. Well, the thing is also that's how it's very it's not a willing. It's it's very Aldous Huxley. It's a brave new world. It's they're going to sell us the cure. You know what I mean, like a good Neuralink, you're going to be able to a quadriplegic will be able to walk again. Doesn't that sound like something that's awesome? Well, the thing is, if they can create the ability for a paraplegic to walk, they can stop you from walking. And so, again, it gives technology to the elites. At a level, you know, and another thing they put the right pushes back off technology, both technology and well, the printing press and the typewriter are not the same as transhumanist integration with AI. OK, yeah. Like, you know, they try to make this this. Well, we've gone through this before. No, we've not gone through this. This is this is completely. Alien human existence. And, you know, we've got talent here. We're funding talent here, which is going to be our social justice forces. They're going to use talent to try and prevent crime or or or or pre-crime. Mm hmm. These are these are totally Orwellian things that we're funding with our own tax dollars that if other countries were doing, we would find a problem. But they're they're attaching some catchy slogan that if we're first, somehow it'll be OK. And again, our tax dollars, you know. The opportunities that are going to be lost due to these robots are the jobs that our kids are going to need in order to have a conservative way of life. And, you know, they're telling us, well, we'll just have to be up for everything for us. Well, that's not how you get a conservative mindset. That's not how you get independence. That's not how you get self-reliance. That's not how you get dignity. You know, these are things that that come with hard work and diligence and asking for what you want, not just being handed to you. And that's something that we, you know, we just think that, oh, people are going to be given things and our way of life is just going to continue. No, it's not. We're going to become like those things in Wall-E, those things floating around, drinking the big drink and on the computer. And that's not the future I knew when I was a young person. And so there's that that's going on. We've got corporations that are saying a little loud, not just the environment, but our bodies. I mean, our bodies are plagued with microplastics. At the at the at the cellular level, I mean, this is this is this is going to have impact for generations. If not throughout the rest of human history, if we don't get ahead of it and we've got folks that say, oh, they're paying a couple billion in fines, therefore it's OK. No, it's not OK. We need to shift practices now. We need to stop the ability for these plastics to be leeching into the environment. And I mean, I don't want to get graphic here. I have low testosterone. I mean, I don't I haven't checked it, but I'm sure that I do, because every male at my age seems to have low testosterone. We have microplastics in our testicles like these are things that should not be. And they are happening in our government, which is charged with protecting us from this behavior. This predatory behavior is is is almost enabling it to an extent as long as the GDP goes up. And again, the market is great and all, but the moment it becomes destructive to the to the individuals at the cellular level, that means something needs to change. And like yesterday, not today, not tomorrow, like yesterday. And again, no representatives seem to have that type of urgency. They're all just lollygagging around. And I feel the urgency, I look at my daughters and I'm scared for their future, I'm scared, are they going to be able to have kids of their own? And these are things that that drive. I mean, the whole reason I fought for this nation, that I work a hard job, that I pay taxes, that I do the things that citizens are expecting to do is because I expect the government to do what they were charged to do as well. If they're not doing what they're doing, why am I doing what I'm doing? And so we need to encourage a better leadership, a better representation to encourage a better citizenry. And so there's a lot there. I know. Absolutely. Well, I heard you touch a little bit on being afraid for your daughters and the urgency and kind of just the sense of what's been going wrong. I guess you could say in America, what you really want to do to fix that. So that kind of leads perfectly into the next question, which is what message would you give to Gen Z voters who feel discouraged or who believe that their vote doesn't really matter? Well, that's the wrong answer. Your vote matters more than anyone else's. I would argue more than everyone else's. You know, the older generations are kind of detached. I don't want to be rude, but they're detached from reality. They seemingly think that everything is still 1980 and that, you know, everything's going to be fine. As long as you just pick yourselves up by bootstraps, everything's gonna be fine. And that's just not the situation at hand. You know, again, we need to encourage these young voters to be enthusiastic about getting out to vote, to have their voice heard. And they haven't been because no one's listening to them, especially on the Republican side. We've got terrible messengers on the Republican side. We don't have a mechanism for creating and guiding next generation leadership. We're all stuck on the same guy that we've been voting for. That's inherently a structural issue that we've got to fix with term limits. I mean, I'm a big term limits guy. And I get pushed back on the right from this as well as, oh, what if we get a really good guy? Well, that's the exception to the rule. And so the rule being we need to prepare the next generation of leadership. And so because it's always going to happen. There's always going to need to be a changing of the guard. And we need to make sure that our changing of the guard is not only literate in political history, but also in the things that folks need. Again, we've got elderly Republicans that are cheering on the stock market and all this AI tech stuff because they're the ones that own all the stocks. I don't know a single individual that's 60 or below that actually has stocks, if I'm being honest with you. And so that's not the best indicator of the health of the people on the ground. And so motivating these young people to get out and get enthusiastic about voting. I think I can do that by encouraging a message about their future. We've been talking about market. We, the Republicans, have been talking about markets, foreign problems, all these things, but never our young people's future. And that's the message I think that we went on. That's how I think we're going to motivate a lot of young people to get out there. Another problem is, I mean, we still think we've got a doorknock day and night. Well, I'll tell you that kids don't want a doorknock. They don't want to learn about a stranger to go talk to strangers about a stranger to try and get them to vote for a stranger that they don't know themselves. They want to get out and do things for the community. And so, you know, I've seen a lot of, I've seen a lot of like positive sentiments towards things like community cleanups, getting out there, cleaning up their own, you know, streets or the beach or trying to, you know, show how we're being the change and not just talking about the change. And so that's, I mean, that's what I've seen to that that motivates younger people that get some kind of involved. And I want to do more of that. That's that's my that's my whole bread and butter right there. I want to get the youth stimulated, engaged and active. And so, well, yeah, if you've oh my goodness, as you've emphasized the importance of getting Gen Z involved and really emphasize the crucial and critical role that they're playing in policy and politics right now, what do you think you kind of view as their biggest barrier to wanting to be more involved and from engaging right now? I know after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we kind of saw a massive uptick in Gen Z getting involved. We saw a lot of people speaking out on social media. We saw a lot of new accounts that were made. And then I would say you might see 10% of that that are really left. I know we had close to a thousand people or more show up to our vigil at UNCW. And now there might be generally 100 people where it looks like their lives have actually changed because of it. We're seeing maybe a 10% return or less on this commitment to get involved. So what do you think that barrier is? What's really preventing the other 90% from doing what they said they were going to do back in September and picking up that mic? Why do you think so many really return to their everyday lives? Well, there's a lot there. Well, Pareto's principle is a reality. Unfortunately, you know, 10 to 20% of the group is going to do the majority of the work typically all the time. Unfortunately, historically, that's proven true. I would ideally have those Pareto's principle individuals motivating others to get out there and do things. But conservatives live, we live real lives. We have jobs. We've got families. We actually live the values, the American values that we preach so hard. Which is one of the reasons we don't show up to protests all the time is because we're out working or busy doing productive things for the community. And so, you know, it's tough. A lot of people have families. I'm not going to lie. My daughter was just laying on my chest just now. She's a little sick. And I almost thought about postponing this because I just, I didn't want to get her off my chest. And so there's a, you know, I don't want to say comfort. That's the wrong word. But when we're living our family lives, we don't want that interrupted. You know what I mean? So, but that's the, that's the, that's the problem. I don't want to say problem with conservatives, but we lean into our lives that are comfortable and we don't focus on what needs to happen in order to keep that comfort existing. And we just, you know, we kind of let things fall through, other things come up. And so we've got to maintain some type of vigilance. And, you know, we got to keep the energy high. After Charlie Kirk was murdered atrociously, you know, we did see a lot of people start to get involved and uptick. And then it just kind of fell off again. I think it's a lack of our representation, talking about the things that our kids want them to talk about. They're talking about foreign issues. They're talking about foreign entanglements. They're talking about Venezuela, Israel, Ukraine. I want to talk about Minneapolis. I want to talk about our own country. I want to talk about our own opportunities for these kids once they actually graduate from college. You know, we've got North Carolina, we've got all these illegals driving our trucks. We're about to have a $50 million, they're going to cut $50 million from our transport budget because we're enabling illegals to drive on our roads. These are good jobs. These are jobs that should go for American, you know, I don't want to say children, but American young adults who need these opportunities. I know next they're going to be trying to create robot freaking trucks. And again, I'm no communist or no socialist, but I believe work is a big deal for conservative values. And if we don't kind of create legislation now, which protects those opportunities and prohibits this rise of AI robot takeover, there's not going to be much engagement from the kids because you're stealing their future. And so they're going to check out, they're going to do drugs, they're going to numb themselves, they're going to kill themselves. They're going to engage in antisocial behavior and it's going to get worse unless we have representatives out there talking about their future and something for them to actually fight for. Absolutely. I think that's a great point. Just, I love what you were saying about comfort and not wanting to get out there. I think that's one of the biggest things that we see on campus is this idea of when we're talking to people, they don't have a immediate satisfaction or an immediate ROI. It's we have to go out to win this election so that whoever we elect can legislate our futures. And it's this six month, two year, four year, if it's senator, six year turnover idea. And it's a lot. You have to be really committed. You have to be watching the news and seeing what's happening every day, seeing what's happening in Minneapolis. Obviously that didn't happen overnight. That was a slow buildup. I think that's something that the left does really well is they're able to create these long form agendas and these long form ideas where I think at least our youth on the Republican side really want an immediate change or an immediate ROI. I know right after Trump was elected, we were looking at, oh my gosh, what has he done in the first 100 days? And I know that's historically a great benchmark, but people are like, oh my gosh, every single illegal hasn't been deported in the first 100 days. And just wanting to see that immediate change where it's up to us too to get comfortable with being uncomfortable to say the cliche and going out. Now- Well, right there, Reagan, I want to touch on something before I forget about it. That's another thing is messaging. Shoot, what was I about to say? I'm having a brain fart. I just had it right there. Yes, yes, yes, messaging. The left, the left has destroyed our economy, but then you've got Republicans saying, oh, this affordability crisis is a messaging, is parroting Democrat messaging. Things like that are not how we win our youth, right? Like that's not how we actually win the young people because it's basically saying it's your fault. It's your fault you're not doing good and that's your problem. And it's not the case. We need good messaging. We need to frame things better. The left is so good at framing things, so good at framing things so perfectly that they hit all of their perfect paradigms. They want to get emotional. They want to motivate action and they're able to do that very effectively because of their framing. And again, we need better messengers that are able to discuss the logic behind everything that's happened and point towards something and say, again, using Trump, love Trump, but saying there's no affordability crisis, you're just imagining things, that's not how we win our voters because it's me and my wife. We're not wealthy. We're barely middle-class, but if we're getting by without a savings account, paycheck to paycheck, I know I'm not the only one and I know other Americans are struggling out there and to say that it's just our imagination is not going to win us enthusiasm or vigor out there to fight for the movement. You see what I'm saying? And so we got to be better at that. We have to be better at that. Absolutely. Well, I'm going to close this out with this last question. I think it's something that is going to take a little bit to talk about, which is why I want to kind of pitch this last one to you real quick. For listeners who want to get involved, especially young people, especially college students, high school students, Gen Z, what's really the best way for them to participate in civic engagement or to get involved in politics? I know I've heard on my end, people are like, well, we don't really want to go to the GOP meetings. We want to get hands-on and do things like you were talking about with community cleanups. So really, when we're looking at this group that's either in college or in high school or perhaps even in middle school, they have classwork, they're keeping up grades, they're maintaining families, they might be learning how to live on their own for the first time. What's really the best way, in your opinion, for them to start making those differences, to start reframing things in a way that we can take control of the narrative and to really get out, to push for a red wave in 2026? Oof, that's a lot. That's a lot there. Well, it kind of goes to everything we've said. We got to have representatives out there that the kids actually want to fight for because they're pushing a message that they resonate with. And so they're not getting it if you have the right people to do it. We're seeing divorce today. I think they're getting more blood out of it. The thing is, nothing really changes without changing how and who we're bringing on as representatives to lead the... Am I still there? Yeah, you cut out a little bit, but I think I've got you now. Well, so we need to make sure that we have the right messengers. We got to have the right representatives up there pushing the right energy in order to mobilize these young people and actually get their opinions moving. Without that, we're really just... It's not gonna happen. And so, again, how do we find those leaders? It takes term limits. We need folks that are willing to step aside, say, I've served my time. I've helped guide the next generation of leaders and I'm stepping aside. I'm going to do something else. We need representatives that have enough backbone to do that, that aren't willing to self-enrich themselves while up there. It's just, it turns people off. That's why young people just don't... They don't want to get involved with politics. They don't want to get involved with the GOP. I mean, look, I'm a Republican, but when I go to the GOP meetings, it feels like a socialite club sometimes. Not really attractive for young people to show up to those types of things. Some find it fun, but the majority, they want action. They want to do community cleanups. They want to get out there and see the change. They want to be the change they want to see. And that's how I think that we lead the future is we stop doing these traditional modes of campaign style where we're just passing out lid. We're just doing all the basic stuff. We've got to be visible. We've got to be out there in the community doing high-vis action, getting it framed the right way and posted everywhere. And that will reach far more eyeballs than any door knocking would in a far more effective and positive manner than any door knocking would. And so again, I know that doesn't really answer your question when it comes down to the individual level, but I really don't see much being, like, I don't see much opportunity to change anything without first providing different representation for those folks to get energized behind. And so that's really what we got to do as Republicans. We've got to find the right leaders, folks who have honor, dignity, and integrity, have a vision, are rooted in reality and their faith. And that are willing to push the conservative values even when they're asked, hey, will you take this million dollars? You got to be willing to say, absolutely not, my soul's not for sale. Not many people are willing to do that. I myself am. I've stared down death a couple of times. So that type of thing doesn't scare me. In fact, I look forward to turning that type of thing down because it shows the true strength of the faith that I want to promote. But that's the thing. Again, we need better fighters and that's what I want to be for North Carolina. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. And to everybody listening, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The Reagan-Folkner Show. If you want more, remember to tune into our Instagram, our TikTok, our X, and our Facebook accounts. You can find us at The Reagan Faulkner Show. Visit us on our website, reaganfolkner.com. And also remember to check us out on all those social media platforms minus TikTok at the Wilmington Standard and the wilmingtonstandard.com. Thank you all so much and I'll see you on the next one.