Dawn's Early Light Podcast Episode 14: Interviewing Nebraska Senator Bob Anderson

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Well, thank you for joining us. Uh my name is Caleb Odin, the one that's been messaging you. Um we had the opportunity to interview Senator Kathleen and uh who's the other one's name? I I'm forgetting blanking. Brian. Senator Brian. And so Senator Kathleen just said you're willing to do an interview with us. Uh Cooper, if you want to introduce yourself really quick.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yeah. Um Hello Senator Anderson. Uh my name is Cooper. I am um uh I'm here as well to uh to gain some more insight on some of these questions that we have, and I'm excited to get started.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Awesome. You uh Cooper, you look a little bit too young to uh to be wearing a Ramon shirt. Oh, you know the Ramones. Yes, I'm considerably older than you are.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

I love the Ramones. Um it's actually my dad's shirt.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Yeah, yeah, that well that explains it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

It is a pass down. Um yeah, I mean yeah, uh the Ramones are uh great punk rock man, one of the best.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yep. Yeah, I grew up uh so uh in Omaha now, uh the Air Force brought me here, but I grew up outside Detroit. So when I grew up back in the uh 70s and 80s, uh Detroit was literally the motor city, it was uh the that's right. Bob Seeger and and Ted Nugent and all of them, it was the uh the rock and roll capital of the world. So it was uh interesting whenever I went in the Air Force, and then I uh my first training station was down in San Antonio, Texas. So I was 19 years old and of course single. So uh, you know, if you want to go meet girls, they want to dance and they didn't really want to dance to rock and roll uh down in Texas. So I learned how to two-step and waltz and and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Little britt little blitzkrieg bop.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah, so uh I ended being pretty diverse pretty quickly. Uh necessity to meet women, I suppose.

unknown 2:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Things never change.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Oh, that's fair. Get some get some moves.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

So you guys are interested in property taxes, huh?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

We're everything, you know, uh an array of um political issues. Um I guess that kind of segues into kind of what me and Cooper do. So me and Cooper, we met in September, um, shortly after the passing of Charlie Kirk, the whole situation kind of took place and me and Cooper met at a turning point event and kind of found the passion to to do a little bit of what of what he did and just kind of explore politics together. And so part of that is this podcast that we've started, and um we've just been trying to get some I I would I would say just some people that have more knowledge than we do, kind of just trying to find smart people and and kind of rack their brain about politics. And I know uh as I was doing some research, one of your big things was state and property tax, and there's some other ones, but yeah, I'd kind of like to hear why you ran what you ran for, and what your big political issues are, I guess, for for lack of a better terminology.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Yeah, so uh I am not a political beast. Uh, I am not a career politician, and I haven't been a city council member or a mayor or anything else. Uh, I literally was uh, and Charlie Kirk was a great man. And uh history will show him well uh in his ability to communicate and his openness to having a conversation. And I told I tell my sons, uh I got two sons, 19 or 20 and 23. And I tell him, you know, don't just talk to people you agree with, but go have an open, frank conversation with people you disagree with. And Charlie Kirk epitomized that to where he had his own personal bias, his own personal belief, he had his North Star, but he didn't discount somebody else. He may not agree with them, but he respected the fact that they could have an altering opinion. Uh, it's only through talking to people you disagree with that you actually get any wiser or learn anything. So uh Charlie Kirk, uh great man, uh sorry, sadly missed. Um, so, anyways, uh on to why I ran. Uh, I was becoming kind of disgusted with uh with politics. I wasn't really happy with the way things were going, and I started paying attention. And once I started paying attention, I started to realize that people that were supposedly representing me and acting on my behalf um were not voting the way that I would want them to vote. So I started paying more and more attention. I actually went down to an appropriations committee hearing uh down in uh down in Lincoln one time because I thought that it was uh they're trying to give $10 million to uh uh the uh Union Soccer Club and the Storm Chasers because of COVID. And I thought it was fundamentally wrong to be giving taxpayer money to to companies made that made made bad decisions. So I went down there and actually met my uh my representative. And when we had a conversation, I realized that uh she believed in the uh the uh transitional gender, she believed in all the woke isms, she believed that children could change their gender day to day, she believed that uh you should have pronouns and you have gender identity, all these things I thought were fundamentally wrong. And then I started listening and looking at the way she was voting, and I realized that although she represented a fundamentally conservative district, she was voting as a liberal activist. And she was one of what they could now call progressives, uh meaning that she was far to the left. So that at that point I realized that she needed to be replaced. Uh, and I really wondered who was going to replace her. So as time went on, uh, kept looking to see who's gonna run against her, who's gonna run against her. And uh, you know, when the deck was cleared, it ended being me. So after a lot of prayer and discussion with my family, and and uh, you know, all of the impediments to my running for office kind of melted away and the road was clear. So at that point, it seemed to me that uh my future was there. And again, a lot of prayer, you know, uh, because it's it's uh I think God has a plan for all of us. It's just we don't always know what it is. So, you know, I had frank conversations with with Jesus Christ saying, you know, hey, it seems like you brought me to this place in life to do this thing, to run for office. If you didn't, I got plenty of other things to do. Just let me know. Just wave me off, and I'll go do something else. But it seems like this is what you prepared me for, uh, and you prepared the way. So when all was said and done, uh I ran against the incumbent and uh I beat her by uh four percentage points. And now I represent uh District 49, uh, that is uh profoundly conservative. And I am a social conservative and a fiscal conservative. Uh my philosophical approach to government is that it ought to be small. Uh, it ought to be in line with the people, and it should only be here to administer for the safety and security of the people, then it should get the hell out of the way. All too often the government inserts itself into things that it really has no place being in, and it starts funding things that most taxpayers probably don't really want their tax dollars going to. Or in some of these cases, like 501c3s and things like that, you know, maybe the people should actually write the check from their own checkbook as opposed to the government taking tax money and giving it to a 501, make it deliberate, make it purposeful, or the individual taxpayer make it their choice as opposed to the government, the government choosing for them. Uh, so that's kind of the mantra that I lead by down here. I'm principled in in not raising taxes. Uh, I'm dedicated to uh uh stopping the problems we have with uh out of control, uh, you know, exponentially increasing uh property taxes. Uh it is causing significant damage to our state, both on the workforce development and economic development. Uh I'll pause there. You guys asked me a short question, a great question, and I kind of kind of went on and on.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

So no, that that's okay. That's uh yeah, that's what this is for. I'll say I've always thought about this. Like me and Cooper, we do episodes where it's just me and him talking. And so whenever we have somebody on, I always like to just let them speak because I think that's uh important. I touched on a couple things. I do like because I I feel very similar to to kind of what you said there. Uh one of my favorite quotes, and I can't remember exactly where it's from, but it's God doesn't send the qualified, he qualifies the send. And that's that's how I feel going into kind of what me and Cooper are a part of right now is that's kind of introverted and like talking to people, and then after our uh turning point meetup, we're like, oh yeah, let's just go public speak to a whole bunch of people that we disagree with, and it was just super, super out of left field. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

But yeah, you know, that's a that's a key, is that especially down here in the unicameral, you know, uh the the political divide is significant, and you have people that are uh far right, and I don't mean not in a bad way, but you have some that are far left and very progressive and and things like that. Some people believe it, you know, some fundamental issues that we can all agree are wrong, like men competing in women's sports, um, you know, like what things that Senator Kalf has worked on, uh keeping men out of women's bathrooms and out of locker rooms, all that. I mean, we we all know that those are the right tenants, but some people refuse to acknowledge that. And that's very difficult. Uh, and at times it it becomes kind of personal, uh, or it feels personal. And at that point, that's when you have to to uh just just realize that just because you disagree doesn't mean you should be disagreeable and have the conversation, or at least not. There's cold times when I came pretty close to to yelling at some people on the floor, and then that's just you know, it's unbecoming. And uh, you know, luckily I stopped short uh because I don't want to be that guy. But have the conversation uh with people you disagree with.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah, it can get um it can get heated quickly, especially on topics that both sides are very passionate about. Um you know, yeah, I think always maintaining that uh higher road, staying on the uh on the more um adult side of uh disagreement. And um keeping people will see that, I think. And they if if um if you always act in a very uh Jesus-like way while uh while you disagree with somebody, I think that uh that's gonna show your fruit and it's going to um people are gonna see that and taste it and see that what you're about is fighting for good.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

It's one of the greater challenges in life now, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Oh yeah, it's a lot easier said than done.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Keep your powder dry. It's not always very easy.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, Cooper Cooper used to say something before we would table uh every once in a while, something along the lines of uh like if I start like yelling or whatever, like if I start having a negative um like speech towards people, that's when I know that like this is just going down the wrong path. Like if I start yelling at somebody, if I start whatever, being incredibly argumentative, that's just not what we're looking to do. So yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

I think it's one of the challenges we have nowadays that uh I know this is a podcast, this is social media, but I think one of the challenges with social media is that um you don't necessarily have the conversation face to face. And when you do that on Twitter or Facebook or Snapchat or whatever, um it it's too many people take too many uh opportunities to say things to somebody on uh social media that they would never say to their face. And that's kind of that's what's is remarkable, is like you always gotta remember would you say that to the person's face if they're standing right next to you? And all too often, some people they just cower and they hide behind social media when they should be doing uh the the right thing and treating somebody like friends, family, and neighbors.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah, that's a that's a that's a big uh point of agreement with me. Uh for a while, especially, you know, we get some comments on our videos, whatever. And I've always told people, and I tell Cooper this a lot, that I've always tried to avoid being a keyboard warrior. Like I'm just gonna say all these things online, but exactly. I I would never say this to somebody's face. And when you talk to people on like we've been going to UNS campus and tabling and having conversations with people that disagree with us or even people that agree with us, and it's it's a lot different to have that like in-person, face-to-face interaction than just you're just a profile on Instagram that I'm yelling at.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Yeah, but uh I've uh I remember one time uh listening to a homily from our priest on Catholic, and uh one of the times most times it resonates. This one really uh struck home for me. And that's when he's talking about people that he meets and when he talks to and people you get mad at. And he says, you always have to keep in mind that when you talk to somebody, you may be catching them on the best day of their life. They may have just gotten engaged, they may have just gotten married, may have just had their first child, you know, any number of fantastic things, but you may also be catching somebody on a worst day of their life too. So what how you act and how you treat them makes a difference. And always stuck with me.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

All right. Um, with uh with the um the legislature, I was curious, um Senator Anderson, what are some of your top legislative priorities for um this kind of season um in the legislature?

SPEAKER_02 13:53

So my number one priority is uh is property taxes, stopping the exponential uh increase in them. Uh for the uh I've gone through two years of a freshman senator uh for a little bit longer. Uh so first two years, my priority bills were on property taxes. Unfortunately, neither of them actually came out of committee and they died in committee. Um but uh although you know they say the definition of insanity is to do the same thing repeatedly and and expect a different outcome. But so maybe I'm insane, but I'm gonna find it and try and find another way to bring a bill uh to to stop the uh uh the damage being done by property taxes. Because when you look at it, it really is. Uh we are taxing people out of their homes. We are uh uh my my two sons, 20 and 23, uh 20 23-year-olds getting ready to get married at some point uh you know in September. But he's getting once he gets married, eventually he's gonna want to have a family and have kids. And they don't want to do that from apartments, they want to be able to get a house. But um, the level of uh exponential growth and the valuations and the unchecked levies by the levying authorities have made it so that the property taxes have increased uh are out of control uh and it's causing real damage. And the real damage means the retirees are leaving uh because they they can find places like South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Florida to go where their money goes a lot further. Uh these young people just coming out of college that want to start a family don't see that ability to do it here in the fashion that they want. To buy a their first-time house, uh a modest home with a small backyard to throw the ball with, have kids and a dog and all that stuff, right? The American dream. Well, we're making that unaffordable. And we're well on the path of making that unaffordable. Uh, and that leads into the uh uh the workforce development problems, where we have a greater outflow of people to the state than we do for the inflow. Uh that uh then bodes itself to the economic development problems that we have in the state. It's hard to continue to expand business when your workforce continues to be decreased. It's hard to convince businesses that they should relocate to Nebraska when the property taxes are out of control and they have to pay their employees significantly amount more in order to compensate for the overtaxation that's happening in the state. Uh, I believe that we need to do uh total tax reform. Um, what I've been trying to do with my uh property tax bills was the uh was the first step and uh just stop the bleeding, stop the uh uh exponential increase in valuations, and then freeze the levies at uh you know, at the rate of inflation or less. And people say, well, why the rate of inflation? Well, because that's that's how you judge what it's gonna cost you to live every year, right? Is a rate of inflation. And people understand, you know, the price of bread and milk and eggs goes up every year at the rate of inflation because goods and services cost more every year because of inflation, right? So that's a great gauge and a great measuring stick to use for how you you could actually do uh reasonably increase the tax obligation without causing damage to the people. So my number one priority will continue to be uh property tax uh reform until we can get it fixed. Do I think we have other problems? Absolutely we do in the state. There's a lot of things tax-based that we need to uh to work on. Uh education is one of them. Uh we uh uh we spend about uh you know five and a half billion dollars with a B billion dollars a year on K through 12 education. And if you look at the number of percentage of children performing at grade level uh for reading, I think it's at 46%, which I don't know where you guys went to school, but where I went to school outside Detroit, that's a that's less than an F, right? That's a bad F. And then today for mathematics, you look at this 38%. So why do we can why do we continue to throw more money at something that has a proven track record of failure? The schools are underperforming. Money is not going to fix it. We we need to completely overhaul the system. In doing that, I think we'll we'll realize uh some uh uh savings and costs, which then translate to lower property taxes as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Yeah, well, I'll say it makes me feel uh it makes me feel good that all three of the senators that we've interviewed have all mentioned affordability in some some regard. I think that's a huge issue right now, especially, I mean, on a on a state level, national level, affordability is just through the roof. Uh, I'm 21, Cooper's 23, so we're both in our early 20s and in that same boat. We want to be able to afford a house and a family one day. And so it's it's it's a good to know that um we have our standards fighting for us for affordability. Um, education is a pretty big passion of mine. I'm glad you brought that up because I think school choice would really help uh in in the overhaul of the education system. That's one thing. I I know there's a million things that we could do to help with that, but yeah, that's a big deal. So I agree. Yeah, it makes me feel good that you guys brought both that you brought both of those things up. And that the Republican senators are fighting for affordability because I think that's one of our biggest uh issues right now, is just people can't afford homes, can't afford groceries. So yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

I agree, and and uh I'm a big fan of school choice. Uh, I think the parents should have the ultimate, they have the ultimate uh responsibility for the education and the the welfare of their children, but we don't give them the authority. And that's what school choice gives you is it gives them the authority to uh put their child in the school, the educational system that's best for them. Uh if you have a child that's very introverted, uh maybe they should go to a smaller school that is better for small classes, or maybe homeschooling is better. You know, when you look across Nebraska, it's a very diverse state and you look out west. Maybe some of the farmers would rather have uh homeschool their children and not send them, you know, 45 minutes each way to a school in another town. But if you did school choice, you could then give them the money uh that it would uh take to educate the child. I mean, what incentive if you're on a farm and you have three children, you say, I want to homeschool, and guess what? You're gonna get paid $10,000 ahead to educate your kids. Now you're bringing in $30,000 a year, just educating your own children in your home, the way you want them to be educated, with your beliefs, without any of the uh external woke issues and all the other stuff that uh you know keeps seeming to creep into our schools. Uh, if that's the way you choose it, then why shouldn't you be paid for your time and your services? I think the answer is they should be. So I'm a big fan of school choice.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Absolutely. Yeah. And the way that I see it, we we live in a capitalist uh society. I mean, America's claim to fame is capitalism, but I think I think it works incredibly well. But you you take the capitalism out of school. I mean, there's no, I feel like you take away the competition. And that really drives so my mom's been a teacher for 20 plus years. She's worked two master's degrees, like she's always been a teacher. And she's always told me that yeah, it's uh it's a it's a career path, that's for sure, because I mean they don't get paid nearly enough. But I think a big thing is just the lack of competition. I mean, you're you're forcing parents to say you have to go to this school, you have to go to that school. So schools look at that and they say, we're gonna meet our quota, we're gonna get enough kids no matter what. So why focus on our teachers and we can just have this upper echelon of highly paid people that don't do much? And uh and then I I feel like you know, again, school of choice. If you have the decision between you know a school that pays their teachers incredibly well and they pick the best teachers versus a school that underpays their teachers and and picks, you know, bottom of the barrel teachers, then having that school of choice, that school is gonna excel and other schools are gonna have to look and say, okay, we're gonna have to fix this, we're gonna have to pay our teachers better. So yeah, I think school of choice is just would really help in every way.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

I mean, when you look at your economics. Class, whether that's at high school or college, what did that what did they say about monopolies? They said that monopolies are horrible for the customer. They're great for the monopoly because they can charge and they can underperform and charge what they want. But for the actual customer, it's horrible, right? Monopolies are bad, right? And that's what we have right now in the education system is a monopoly. I'm a I'm a free market guy, uh, I'm a small business owner. Uh, I think that uh you have to let capitalism run. Uh, that's gonna right the ship, that's gonna keep things straight. And I'll tell you what, if some people would say, have said to me, Well, you're gonna you're gonna kill schools. And I said, Well, I'll tell you what, if you had school choice and parents could move their children to the best school, that would give positive reinforcement to the good school, they continue to get better, but they would take the bad schools and force them to do one of two things. Either they're gonna have to fix themselves and get better, and then the kids will start coming back, or they're just gonna they're just gonna stop, right? If you can't compete, if you if you don't provide a good service for a good value, guess what? The capitalist and and all of us says, good luck with that. Schools should be no different.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Yeah, very much agree. Exactly. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Um so when it comes to getting you know these things on the floor and getting these things through the legislature, um, what are some of the biggest challenges that you see in the Nebraska um legislature with getting is it is it the political divide? Is it um or is it is it maybe something else?

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Well, that's a that's a great question. Um I think there's a lot of different factors. Uh so my background, I'm retired Air Force, 21 years in the military. I'm still a defense contractor. I worked on it off in the offseason. Uh so I'm used to being in the military environment. And uh as you see, like with Epic Fury and all that kind of stuff, that means that we all have one goal in mind, right? And we're all rowing the boat in the same direction and everything else. But that's just not exactly the case down here because you have people that come from all different sections of society with all different priorities, all different backgrounds. And then you you throw in some of the influences of, well, you know, some people are aspirational about politics. Um, God bless them, I'm not that guy. I'm not starting a political career. Uh, and then you have the influence by by lobbyists. Uh, and uh, don't take that the wrong way. The influence by lobbyists, like uh before I came down here, all I knew was what they talk about, the lobbyists out in DC and the winding and dining and you know, uh, you know, paying lots of money and all that stuff. That's that's not so much the case here. There there is some of that, but uh for the most part, they're they're a great resource, but they do have significant influence over the perspective of the individual uh legislators. So um you asked me a really good question, but I it's a it's kind of a hydra, it's a multi-headed beast in in how it actually operates. Um I'm pretty one-dimensional, good, bad, or indifferent. Like I told you in the beginning, you know, I'm fiscally conservative and I'm socially conservative. Say the government's here for safety and security, and then get the hell out of the way. Um, we had one time when uh uh somebody proposed a bill for online sports betting. And I talked to a number of different people just said, I'm not a better because I'm not good at it. It's no fun doing something that you're you're not good at. So I don't I don't gamble, I don't bet. But at the same token, somebody said, well, but you're a good Christian, and and you know, with the online sports betting, you're gonna have people that are gonna lose their house and lose their family, lose their cars, lose everything. And what I told them was true, but I can't, my job is not to legislate somebody's lifestyle. If you want to go to go gamble everything away and lose your house, lose your cars, lose your family and your wife, you have the right to do that. You have the right to be an idiot, right? And I'm not here to legislate that out of you. You have free will. If you want to do something that is uh destructive, you can pick any number of different things, whether you know marijuana, excessive drinking, drugs, gambling, all that's you have the right to do those things. It's not my right to come take that right away from you. Um, but again, uh not everybody shares the same mentality or methodology or philosophy on on what legislators are here to do. Yeah, that's true. I'm not sure I really answered gave you a good answer to a very good question, but well, no, I think I think you did.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

When when you say that people have a different um outlook on what our legislators are here to do, I think that's a that's something I haven't really thought of before, but I think that that that really kind of sums up the the disconnect, I think, that a lot of people have when it comes to what we're doing this for. Um a lot of people, I think, you know, you and I are are socially and physically conservative. And um I I would say I'm maybe a little bit more physically moderate, but definitely socially conservative. And when it comes to what I think a legislator should do is safety and security and then stay the hell out of our way. While a lot of people that I know would say, well, no, I think the government is there to take care of us and should be like a a parent to us, and I couldn't disagree with that um really anymore. Um so yeah, I think that's kind of where a lot of that disconnect can can come from.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

I think some of the one of the challenges we have nowadays, and I use an example from uh oh, I don't know, probably uh a month and a half ago. I had uh four ladies come to my office. I happen to be in the office, we were on lunch recess, and uh they were mad about medical marijuana. And I said, Well, what about it? And she said, Well, you're you're not adhering to the will of the people. Now, how many times have you guys heard that? Legislature's not adhering to the will of the people, right? You're not doing what the people want. And I said, okay, come on in and close the door and sit down. I said, let's let's talk about this. So when it comes to medical marijuana, what did the people really vote for? They voted to legalize medical marijuana, which is which is now the case, and they they voted to actually create a uh a medical marijuana commission, uh, and then and we did that. Uh, and the uh governor nominated uh commissioners, and we went through the uh uh uh the process of reviewing them, inventing them, and then we actually confirmed them and the commission was set up. So I I told these ladies, I said, you know, so if you go back and look at the two different uh ballot initiatives and what they said and what you voted for, we have done exactly what you said. Well, but that's not what I've heard. Uh-huh. Well, that's the problem. Is that there's people out there that because they don't like, they don't like the way it ended up, they want to take and say the process is screwed up and that the people are corrupt and that I'm uh whatever you want to call me, right? But it's like, no, we we did what you asked us to do. And just because you pass pass a ballot initiative, um, there's a lot of uh right and left margin that goes into it because it's a very macro level approach. Then you have to figure out how you're gonna actually execute and administer these kinds of programs, right? Uh and then the last thing I I got with them, I showed them from a different hearing. I I brought a bill forward that uh uh makes it illegal for foreign money coming into ballot initiatives into the state. Uh, they they it it's illegal, they have to declare it. Uh, there's a whole different thing to it. And I showed them this this uh chart that I was given by the uh governor's office that shows a Swiss billionaire and how he was moving money into the United States and into Nebraska and then pushing money into different ballot initiatives. Well, that's minimum wage or medical marijuana, any number of different ballot initiatives. So I didn't said to the ladies that said, okay, so with this kind of money coming in from out of country influencing the ballot initiative, how do you know what the will of the people really was? Or was it the fact that somebody spent a quarter million or half a million to barrage you with things that say this is what you need to vote for? Oh, save the baby, save the seizures, save this and save that. When you look at what the FDA has done, and I'll try to try to say a marijuana conversation, but you know, you look at the FDA, and there are no medical situations that marijuana is uh has any scientific proof, preponderance of evidence that it treats. And then you wonder why doctors aren't prescribing it while they're not making recommendations. Well, how are they gonna make a recommendation when the FDA hasn't approved it for anything? And they get back and say, Well, yeah, but you're not doing what we told you to. No, no, we did exactly what you asked us to. So I think that's a challenge. You know, I think one of the things for your listeners would be uh, and this is probably one of the toughest things to do of all, uh, and that's to be engaged. Um, understand the issues. You know, if we we get a plethora of bills. I think this uh in the short session, I think we had over 500 bills that are submitted in the first 10 days. They all get a hearing. Everybody that wants to speak on a bill gets time gets at least three minutes uh to speak on a bill. So it takes a lot of time. So you can't possibly keep track of all of them, but look at what your top three or top five are and track those. And then write to your to your senator and tell them say, hey, I'm Billy Bob, and I I'm really in favor of this. And here's why. Um, I have uh staff and they do a great job of sorting through emails. And I'll tell you what, it's easy to see which ones are the bots and which ones are the Nationalville people. So for your listeners, uh, get engaged and and tell people what you think. You can go make comments online. You can come down here and that's stuff to do, good field work, right? But you can go online and make comments and advance the hearings that you know now your opinion is actually part of the record. But uh get involved and let the senators know exactly what you think.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

That's good. Yeah, that kind of segues into a question I had for you. Um, so I know you kind of mentioned earlier that you weren't super involved in politics until uh you kind of looked at your politicians, you know, like they're not doing what I what I would want to do. So I need to fill that role. And so that's kind of where at least I fell into politics. I think Cooper uh was kind of in the same boat, the idea that when Charlie Kirk passed away, I always beforehand looked at that and was like, oh, there's already somebody out there doing it. I don't need to get involved. He's way smarter than me, you know, what am I gonna do? But then after that, it kind of was like, okay, well, maybe now we should get involved because there's no one else filling that role right now. And so um, what would you kind of say to people? Because you know, politics isn't for everybody, but I still feel like everybody should at least have the knowledge or kind of look into politics. So, what would you say should people uh do kind of like you already said, but in addition to what you said about coming down and and letting their voice be heard?

SPEAKER_02 33:07

So I think a lot of times before I actually started paying attention, I paid attention at the national level. But but the reality is what uh affects you most in your life are the are the are the the politics at the at the closest level to you, right? Um it's hard, it it's it's hard to pay attention because everybody's so busy, especially you guys being younger, you've got friends, you go fishing, you go hunting, you go to the bars, you go to concerts, you're chasing girls, you get a lot of things on your plate, right? But before I started paying attention, I I had no I had no right to bitch about what was going on in the Nebraska legislature because I didn't pay attention. So if if you don't pay attention and you don't get involved with what's going on, whether that's the city council, school boards, or the state legislature, um how do you how do you sit there and say I'm really unhappy and you guys and you guys stink when you're not paying attention, you don't know what's going on, you're not voicing, you're not sharing your voice. You know, when I would tell people when I was knocking doors, I knocked an o 11,000 doors in 17 months, and I would walk up to uh I'd walk up to a house and you know, uh I'd tell her who I am, she'd say you're Republican. Say, I am. And sometimes they'd say, Well, you're not gonna want to talk to me. Like, why is that? Well, because I'm I'm I'm Democrat. Like, listen, I said, I won't represent everybody. I don't represent Republicans, just Republicans or just Democrats. I said, now don't kid yourself. My job is to represent the majority of the people in my district. So if you agree with the majority, you're gonna love me. If you don't agree with the majority, probably not so much. But I still want to hear what you think. And I'll tell you what, dude, uh kind of circling back to the uh previous part of the conversation, is when I would, you know who I would spend the most time talking to when I was out knocking doors? It it wasn't people that had the same, same philosophical approach as me. It was people that were mad about Donald Trump, or they're mad about uh the Republicans, or you know, they felt left behind or whatever, or they're just mad because they don't agree, right? And I would sit there and just have the conversation. And more often than not, at the end of the conversation, you know, we sit there joking about something. We would joke about Iowa or Missouri, you know, compared to Nebraska, you know, but you found that there's common ground. And by having the conversation, you can find that common ground. But if you never have that conversation, don't be surprised when you're always at odds with people. And that's the thing, is the conversation is the most important part of all of it.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yeah, absolutely. That's what that's what we are all about at God bless you.

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Yeah, I'd say that's pretty much exactly what we've experienced. I mean, when we're on campus having conversations with people, if if they agree with us, they come up and we're like, yep, we agree. All right, so yeah, you know, it's it's very service level most of the time. Some people like to get into the nitty-gritty, but when it comes to people that disagree with us, that's when we have significantly longer conversations, and it's always good when they can end with some joking or you know, just having a good time or whatever. But yeah, I agree with that quite a bit.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Yeah, that's classic Charlie Kirk, right? I mean, what he what he'd tell people when he was on campus, he'd say, if you don't agree with me, go to the front of the line. Right? Because that's who he really wants to talk to. He was he was a very he was wise beyond his years, educated beyond his schooling, uh, you know, just all the great positive influences that that he generated uh throughout his short life. But you know, he was smart in that when somebody would ask a question, he would put the mic down, right? Because the tendency when you when you talk to people for a living, or you talk to people a lot, is that they get started, you're like, okay, I know what you're gonna say, and let me tell you what the what the deal is, right? And Charlie was smart when he said, you know, go, yeah, throw it at me. He set the mic down and just listen to them, and that's invaluable. Sometimes, but again, knocking doors uh when I was campaigning, it's amazing how many people just want to be heard. Um, they don't necessarily have any expectations that things are gonna change or you're gonna be able to change things or whatever, but they really cared and thanked me for actually coming up and knocking on their door and coming and just talking to them because nobody has really done that before. Just talk to them, but just listen to them. They just want to be heard.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Absolutely. Yeah, and I I remember quite a few tablings, and I know you kind of mentioned uh earlier that like political polarization where it's like you're either Republican or Democrat, there's no between, and you can't agree with the Democrat at all or Republican at all. And I think that's what meet the social media and you know the news has done. But I I can recall multiple conversations, and there's one in particular where I was talking to a young woman and she brought up that she was a Democrat, and so we started talking, and she's like, Well, actually, I agree with everything the Republicans believe in, and just my only thing I don't agree with is immigration. And it's like, okay, you're a Republican, you just disagree with immigration, you know what I mean? And so I I always like having that um discourse because I I feel like people are a lot closer than the media, the news, whatever that likes us to think we are.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

I agree with you. I I had the uh I had that on a number of occasions on uh knocking doors, was that people would say, Oh, yeah, I'm a I'm I'm a Democrat. Okay. Well, you they well, they tell me, Well, you don't understand. Okay, well, what what don't you like about Republicans? Well, they they throw out an issue and say, Well, actually, you know, it it's not just one answer, it's a range of answers because we're not all created equal. You look at you two, and you guys all have disagreements on on an issue where you one may be more uh centrist and the other one's you know more conservative and back and forth. We're not all cooking each other the same. Um but I found that once you actually have the conversation and you realize, oh yeah, there is a lot more in common than then then we're divided over.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

Absolutely. And that that brings up that idea of like, I feel like um, especially people in our generation and maybe younger have this idea that they want very simple answers to very complicated questions, or they want like one here's the right, here's the wrong, to something that just has so much gray. I know me and Cooper can agree with that quite a bit with I mean uh the one right now, the war in Iran. I mean, that's not a here's the right answer, here's the wrong answer, there's so much gray area. And so it's good to have that human connection interaction where maybe you talk to somebody for half an hour, an hour. And you really get to the the meat and potatoes of what you guys disagree with, because sometimes it's it's very minuscule things. But if I come out online, I go, ah, you know, abortion is wrong, period, and somebody else says it's not wrong, period, then you're never gonna get anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

So yeah, and like the the war in uh Iran, I I I agree with you, and I think sometimes um we don't see the forest of the trees. Um we look at it very myopically about the straight horror moves. We don't look at what's uh the revolution of what's going on in Iran, and we don't look at the implication on the Gulf countries and the Gulf states and the alliances that are now being made with the United States, those that are peeling away from uh what their traditional beliefs were and now want to be aligned with the United States. And they uh you put it then in the context of what lesson is learned by by Russia, and don't think that China's not watching when they see how we are executing at an extremely precise, high rate, um, complete redundancy over and over again, and ability to completely regenerate uh war power and air power uh consistently, you know, it has to give them cause uh to stop and go, hey, wait a minute. Maybe I don't want to go into Taiwan because if the United States, if this aircraft carrier comes in, we've seen what it's done to you know Iran and their ability to generate sorties and drop ordnance and and replenish, right? So sometimes we get very myopic in our view, and we look at the count of the number of oil tankers that have been turned around, or the single digits that have actually passed through, and we forget to back up and look at it from the 10,000-foot level and go, okay, so what impact is this operation having at the macro level on a grow a global level? I mean, and you look at what happened in Venezuela, you know, with taking Maduro out. Who was a who was a criminal, right? And actually not occupying the country, but helping them to rebuild and regenerate because they are good people. They were good people before you had uh, you know, uh the uh uh dictators take over. So yeah, I I I think the the conversation all well-rounded, uh I think people are much better served because a lot of times you just don't stop and think about it.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Yeah, being able to kind of zoom out and to think about things on multiple different layers is is key to really understanding uh a situation or attempting to understand a situation to its to its full depth. A lot of people that I've talked to, you know, we bring up kind of these um these other layers to them. We get a lot of, oh, I didn't really think about that. I'll have to think about that more. And that's kind of uh I think that's a a consequence of our generation's um short attention span and our inability to focus on a topic for uh uh a very long time. And uh we we see a TikTok or Instagram of it, and you know, we scroll past and we just retain that little 60-second clip of what was going on in this you know, singular layer of this conflict or whatever political issue it was, and we lose sight of the fact that these are more I mean it's it's like a ripple, it's a ripple effect. These these ripples get bigger and bigger as they go out, and there's different, it's not just the splash, right? It's what happens um around it. And um yeah, it's just important to to keep in mind that there is uh more going on than your 60-second TikTok clip.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

Yeah, I agree. And the challenge is is is actually realizing that and just you know uh stopping and smelling the roses, so to speak. Uh when I went in the Air Force, uh it was at a height of the Cold War. So I understood exactly what was going on with the Cold War and the uh the effects of what uh President Reagan did and everything else, and strategic view that he took and what the the benefit that uh uh certainly benefited the the the whole world. And then you watch how things evolved over time. And when you stop and you sit there and you look back at it, you're like, wow, that was uh that was actually pretty smart. Didn't seem like at the time. I mean, if you look at what President Trump's With Iran, I mean, there's a reason why he hasn't destroyed their infrastructure, including the oil, right? He he he doesn't, and I don't speak for him, obviously. We don't have a telephone conversation, but from what I see, you know, he doesn't want to destroy the people of Iran. He wants to destroy the people that are threatening uh globally terrorism and everything else and regionally, destabilizing in the region. He wants peace, right? So you have to leave something behind, just like what happened in Venezuela, right? They didn't destroy anything. Their infrastructure is in place, they have oil companies that are helping them to rebuild, get back on their feet, and then re-establish themselves as a peaceful, you know, uh democratic uh country, right? Um, same thing in Iran. He wants to leave something behind. But at the end of the day, I think that if they force his hand and they say we will not give up the uranium and the nuclear uh uh materials and nuclear aspirations, um, at some point he's gonna have no choice. But I think if you look at how much restraint he's used up until now, I think it bodes very well for his long view, the strategic view, and the fact that he does care about the people. He does care about the country. He's not there to destroy Iran. He's there to stop the threatening of our people and our allies.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

Well, absolutely. It would have been incredibly easy for him to just say, you know, screw it. We're just gonna carpet bomb him and and in and out and not deal with anything else. Uh but I think, yeah, and I I think uh people would be ignorant to assume though that obviously the media that they're consuming is gonna spin it one way or another, uh, no matter what he does. Um that's a big thing that me and Cooper talk about quite a bit is the the Trump hate syndrome where you know you could cure cancer and it doesn't matter. You're gonna you're gonna find something wrong with them. And so just that idea that agreed. I I feel that's kind of what politics has like digressed into now is people really like to just zoom in on those 60-second TikTok that they saw in the morning when they were drinking their coffee, and that's their opinion for the day, and they're gonna ride or die on it, doesn't matter. Um, because so and so on on YouTube said it. So I I I do think it's very important right now to really focus on that zooming out, trying to get the whole picture and understand it. Because yeah, the way that you put it, I mean, it it would have been very easy for them or for President Trump uh to just get blow Iran out of the water and just say we're done with it. But they obviously care about the people and they they want to see peace just like they did in Venezuela. So yeah, I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

You know, it's uh frustrating for me uh nowadays. So I still work on base and off as a defense contractor in the offseason. Uh and I sit uh next to uh two people that are Democrats, liberally minded. And one of the frustrating things for me was early on was we were both retired Air Force, both retired military. Uh, we both used to fly the RC-135, we used to do same deployments and everything else. So we we grew up in the same kind of environment, right? But it's amazing to me that because I have one source of information, and my colleague has a different one, that our viewpoints are completely different. And what we believe to be reality doesn't resemble each other. And it's like, how is that possible? That just because you know, he he listened to CNN and I listened to Fox News, that we see the world so completely different. And to me, uh that's it's disheartening, but it's also embarrassing because it means that we have we have a problem because we have created you know uh a bifurcated uh uh culture based on the news source. And and to me that's that's that's disturbing.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

It is, and and people like to just sit in their their echo chamber and just hear what they almost want to hear in a way. They don't want to hear a differing opinion because it might change their mind or might make them think critically. And I know that's kind of blunt, but it's true that people sometimes just want to sit and hear whatever makes them feel good inside or feel happy and anything that disagrees with that, they just kind of throw their hands up and say, I'm done with it. And that kind of goes, there's that other like kind of third sect where you have people that just kind of cut their hands over their ears and sit in the corner and say, I just don't want anything to do with politics and I just want to be left out of it. And so, but I think that kind of goes uh to your point earlier, where if if that's your choice in life, then you can't really complain about anything because you're you're not trying to get involved, you're not trying to uh impact politics in any way.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

Right, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Yeah, yeah. Um out of respect for your time, Senator Anderson, um this is uh is it okay if we ask you one more question?

SPEAKER_02 48:47

Yeah, absolutely. I'm enjoying the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

Wonderful, awesome. So when it comes to um society right now and the kind of the political divide that we're seeing, um specifically at the state level and kind of in our local communities, what do you think is the best way that we can go about uh having these conversations and um approaching them in a way that reflects Christ and reflects um the way that uh we ought to behave? What is kind of what would you say is your advice for people who are looking to to to get involved?

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Well, you ask great great questions. Um in my prayers, when you talk about Christ, in my prayers, I ask that that I be kind and be just in what I do. We always need to remember that just because we can do something doesn't mean that we should do something, right? You can you can do something that would harm somebody, but you shouldn't do it. Um one of the things I like uh enjoy most is uh some of the uh HOA or SID meetings. I get invited occasionally or at the county level, uh, and I'll come in brief the results of the the uh unicameral session or going into what my priorities are, and we talk about some of the things that happen. I I purposely bring up some of the more um I guess uh agitated bills, things that cause more controversy and talk about them. For example, medical marijuana, I talk to them and say, okay, let's talk about this will of the people and you know, because I know you're gonna hear it straight from me, from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Um, so I think inviting your legislators to come to your events, I go to as many as I can. And I I try to bring information because I know before I took this job, um, I wasn't educated and I didn't know where to get education. Um, and it's just it's impractical to think you can go to the legislature's website and try and sort the wheat from the chaff. It just it's a great website for resources and all that stuff, but for giving somebody, you know, a three-page uh snapshot on whatever the subject is, it's just not really there. So I I would invite, I would ask people to invite the legislator to go to come to meetings to come speak to people. Uh and then, you know, I've had uh some people reach out to me and say, hey, I've never been involved in politics. Uh I want to, I think I should run for office. And one of the classics is I had a uh a woman one time ask me, and this is by O a year ago, and she asked me, uh younger lady, she said, Hey, I think about running for the legislature, and what do you think? And, you know, okay, so you have the devil and the and the angel on your shoulders, right? Well, how do you answer that question? It's like, well, as a good Republican, I said, Well, yeah, you should run for office. You're conservative, uh, you know, we need more of you in the legislature, all that kind of stuff. But my answer to her was, um, do you have children? And she said, Well, yes, I do. I said, How old are your children? And she told me the youngest one was uh eight years old. And I said, Well, then I would not encourage you to run for the legislature because in order for you to campaign, it's a significant investment in time. And then when you actually get down here, um, the job is not a nine to five job. So you will miss a lot of your children's lives. And I said, you know, um, I, as I told you guys early on, I'm not a political beast. I haven't been in politics. This is really the first thing other than being on a SID, HOA, right? Um, my told her is like, you know, there's a lot of ways to start. Um, there are the NRD boards, there's OPBD boards, there are uh school boards, there are county commissioners, there are city councils, there's all number of things. And I said, if you want to do this, yeah, one, you have to get your name out there to begin with, but there's ways to ease into it. You know, I said, like uh, I'm meeting a gentleman on Thursday at the Sarpee County Republican meeting, and this is gonna be his first time coming. And I said, hey, if you want to get involved, I'll meet you there. I'll take you in, I'll introduce you to people, and you can sit there and listen and listen to what they have to say, see how it runs, see if this is something that you're interested in. And then there's always ways to get more and more involved if you want. But uh start out with just going to see what it's about, and then figure out how do I, if I meet this Bob Anderson guy and he's running for office and I believe in what he says, how can I help him? Well, maybe it's uh this summer that you end up coming out to a parade. I'm not running for office, I'm just using myself as an example. Um, you can come out to a parade, you can hand out candy to kids, or you can go distribute literature, or there's any number of different things you can do to try and help candidates that you believe in their message. Uh, because a lot of times candidates, they just they running for offices weird. It's just it's not like anything I've ever done before. Because I mean, uh you go knock doors, it's like you walk up to the house. Hi, I'm Bob, how do you like me now? Right? It's just not, we don't do that. It's just weird, right? To go talk to people that you just don't know. Now, over time you get used to it and it becomes pretty interesting and and really worthwhile. Uh also fundraising is hard. You know, making phone calls is uncomfortable. So there's any number of different things that anybody can do to help candidates uh try to move forward, even at the school board level. Uh, the uh conservatives are outnumbered many times over by um by the liberals. And that's why we have a lot of problems with some of the in the past have had some problems with curriculum and and that was inappropriate and things like that in the schools. So I uh you asked me a very short, good, succinct question. I'm giving you a long answer because um getting involved, whether that's inviting uh a uh a candidate to come talk or a sitting uh uh senator to come come chat with your group, or whether that means come to the county and figure out how do you sign up to volunteer to help somebody to put signs in yards, you know, and and that's we you don't have to talk to anybody, right? So I you know I'd knock on the door and say, Hey, can I put a sign in a yard? They're like, okay, you know, I have a list. Well, I can't do everything all the time. So yeah, I could give somebody and say, here's 20 signs and need to go in these 20 yards. Could you put them up for me while knocking doors over here? So you don't have to go talk to somebody, but you could do any number of different things to help candidates. Is that is that an answer to your question?

SPEAKER_01 55:32

Time to sort of absolutely, absolutely, yeah. Uh thank you so much, um, Senator Anderson. This has, I think, been a wonderful chat. Um, Caleb, do you have any any any last things?

SPEAKER_00 55:45

No, just uh wanted to comment on that last part because I agree. Uh it's similar to your callings uh biblically, where not everybody's gonna be called to go to Uganda and and be a missionary, but God calls us all to spread his word. It's it's very similar. Where when you when you talk to people about politics, it doesn't mean they have to run for Senate or they have to run for the president or start a podcast or whatever, but it does mean that there's other things you can do, like go and help with campaigning or whatever that might be. So I I agree with that message a lot because I try to emulate that to people, that it's more than just having to be the face of something or this or that you can do behind the scenes work, that that kind of thing. So yeah, I I really like that.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

Yeah, I uh yeah, it's it's one of those things where it's like in my prayers, you know, I don't ask for specific things, I ask for strengths that I need. Like sometimes when we're doing full daily debate or whatever, I ask for uh uh intellectual agility because sometimes when you're going one-on-one with somebody, when they want to play something dummy, uh you have to think on your feet pretty quickly. Uh so that's a great attribute and a great blessing from God. Um, but mostly it's I pray that when he talks to me, I listen and I realize what he wants and I go and do what he wants. Because all too often we get busy in our lives and we don't realize that he's actually sending you a sign and different things. So um just being able to hear and listen and and uh and follow his teachings, he has a he has a place for all of us. I mean, look at you guys. Is this where you thought you were gonna be? Um, probably not. But he's got a plan for all of us. We just gotta be smart enough to listen and and uh and follow his teachings. I agree. Yeah, thank you. I enjoy the chat, fellas. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

Yeah, thank you so much for for joining us. We we appreciate it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:34

It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

Have a great rest of your day.