“I’m a Marine Corps veteran. 9/11 was my [high school] senior year. I decided that the Marine Corps was the branch I wanted to join. I was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraqi War) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan War). I feel like it [now]gives me a little more clout than somebody else going up [on stage] and saying, ‘Hey, conservatives don’t own the military,’ and  “Hey, there is a military veteran who is a progressive liberal that is up on the stage demanding our rights.’’ Think about that. 

“I told myself that this time around I wasn’t going to allow at least the people in my circle to keep their head in the sand, and so I just started posting excessively on social media. And then I heard that Ro Khanna was coming to Bakersfield because the current incumbents wouldn’t hold a town hall meeting. I got pretty motivated because it was a packed house.

“Later, I found out there was a protest in downtown [Bakersfield] at the Liberty Bell on April 5th. Then, another protest at CSUB, but it was Easter weekend. It seemed like we’d only gotten a 48 hour notice that it was happening. Of course there were only maybe 150 people that showed up, and so I was a little frustrated. And I thought, You know what? Next time I go to one, I’m going to find where the leadership is and talk to them.  I went to a VA protest and asked, ‘Hey, do you know the leadership who’s organizing these things?  I’m a big extrovert. I have no problem with public speaking. However you guys want to use me, let’s do it.’

“This is the problem that I see:  we’re just not  getting the awareness out that these protests are happening. And when you do give somebody 48 hours, people have lives and it’s really hard to set this time aside to participate. So, now I’ve helped organize a monthly protest. It’s difficult right now because everybody’s social-media based. The last protest that we had here, and we really pushed it, advertising on every platform we could. And when people showed up and it was small, maybe 160 people showed up. Fifty other protests across the US had people saying, ‘We only heard this about two days ago.’  I thought, Dude, did we get suppressed on that platform? Like, did this just happen? You can’t control that. 

“The two [congressional]districts that we have here in the valley [CA-20, CA-22]are known for being red in California. The veteran community [a large part of is just so conservative. But also, loyal to the Republican base. And it’s just like, why? Where is this loyalty coming from?  I’m looking at these policies and it’s just like every time they vote in, you know, maintain an incumbent who has a big narrative behind him like, oh, he’s pro-vet and pro-this. I’m like, how? What is this guy doing? I don’t understand. What are the policies that he’s pushing? What legislation is he introducing? What is ‘pro-vet’ about this guy other than showing up at a VFW meeting for 30 minutes? And so I was, you know what, I’m gonna pay attention to these things. I just started looking at this like, man, the new VA secretary is trying to get rid of 80,000 VA employees. How is that pro-vet? 

“Also, The VA’s program to help veterans avoid foreclosure on their loans was canceled in April, then reinstated in July. This reversal, which didn’t retroactively help those affected during the interim, feels like a cynical political game. Many veterans aren’t paying attention, even reacting negatively to protests about VA healthcare cuts, highlighting a critical need for awareness, and I aim to be that voice.

“The other obstacle we have is that it’s difficult to maintain an engaged anger because we’re telling people, ‘It’s not the finish line. We have to get to next November. Get to the midterms.’ And that’s difficult enough to keep people motivated and keep them angry for a significant amount of time. I think this administration is doing us a favor because they are creating daily and weekly chaos. So you always have something new to grab onto to be upset about, to throw your fist in the air. So I think that has actually made it a little bit easier. I do, however, see the exhaustion that’s coming with it is getting to people. We’re not seeing the results that we want because they’ve passed the BBB. But I try and go up there when I speak and explain, ‘We are getting beat up, but we knew that going into this. They control everything. So we should be prepared to get socked in the mouth a bunch of times. But we’re also getting wins. You know, the ACLU just kept the Border Patrol office from just randomly pulling people over in Kern County. These are small wins that we really need to tell people, hey, it’s because you guys are here and we can talk about it and we’re putting awareness to it. And our Representatives know that. And it’s all across the US. And so we’re getting these small wins. It is happening. But right now we just can’t expect to have these big giant knockouts. Our knockout is going to come in next November. As long as I can keep you guys engaged. Well, it feels like small waves. I feel like the stone’s been thrown into the pool and the ripples are starting to go out. It’s just slow, you know. And we’ve got to get some bigger stones.

“Most of my conversations are on social media. I try and get people to engage. I really try. I mean, I was trying really hard in the beginning to just try a question and answer format. I’m trying to get back into that to possibly get people to engage me on things. I did have one where it didn’t end like, you’re an idiot. That’s a small win. I don’t go that direction because I feel as if you’ve lost the argument when you start name-calling because you have nothing else. 

“About the deportations and things like that, I was talking to somebody who says, ‘You know, all the other presidents were worse, and they deported more people.’ And it takes a lot of effort on my side because they’re not willing to bring up facts or cite anything. So the onus is basically on me. I’m the one who started the conversation. So, I guess that’s a little bit fair.  However, it’s important to distinguish between individuals who are deported and those turned away at the border. When these two categories are combined, the resulting figures often appear inflated. For instance, the numbers observed during the Biden, Obama, and Clinton administrations were significantly higher than those under Trump. However, if you separate these figures, you’ll find that a substantial majority of the larger numbers were individuals turned away at the border, even though they were often counted as deportations. Add that to the due process issue, and all of a sudden now everybody’s getting educated. 

“I have a legal background. And so I’m trying to explain facts to people who claim that unless the person is a U.S. citizen, he/she doesn’t get due process. That’s not how the Constitution was written. That’s not what it is. And even down to Justice Ginsburg and Scalia. They were definitely in contrast to each other. They were on mainstream broadcasting channel like NBC in the mid-90s and were asked about it and both of them said if a person comes to this country and they are on this land, regardless of the citizenship status they have, they get the benefits of our laws because they also get the punishment of our laws. And that’s just the fairness that we have in our justice system. To explain to people that, if a person comes here, the moment that he gets pulled over and he gets ripped out of his car and he gets detained, he is now under our laws, the punishment portion of it. He then also gets the benefit of that, which means he gets an attorney, he gets a court date, he gets hearings, he gets due process. That’s just how it works. A lot of people are just struggling with that concept. I don’t know why those guys are struggling with that because it’s been around for centuries.

“I try to do my best to be engaged with everything. It’s difficult because there is, you know, you can’t be an expert in everything. So I definitely try to stay with the veteran community stuff. And because I think it is such a huge thing in Kern County. And there’s a reason for that when I go to these protests, you know, I wear my Marine Corps desert digital cami blouse because that patriotic and that’s why I went in. 

“I was born and raised here. I graduated from Stockdale High School. I joined the military because my friends were doing it and I wasn’t a great high school student. So it made it easier to join after 9/11. I wasn’t college material right then anyway. There was a lot of turmoil in the world. Patriotism was crazy high at the time. So it just made sense. And I don’t regret it. I would do it again. No problem. Later, I went to Bakersfield College, got my AA there. I went to CSU Bakersfield. I got my bachelor’s degree there. I’m in the local law school, Kern County College of Law. I go to their online campus through Monterey College. As soon as I get barred through California, I’m going to be a criminal defense attorney. 

“I’m trying to fight to get the 20-year-olds and the early 30-year-olds to show up. 

“I’d tell them, ‘Do not be afraid to come out here with us.’ We have peaceful protests. We’ve had some counter protesters, but, you know, I’ve been in lockstep with BPD and talking to them and making sure that, you know, they’re on the lookout. At the No Kings protest, we had between 3,500 to 4,000 people, and we had BPD and we had Kern County Sheriff at our back who were patrolling. They had my phone number. I had the ability to call them because I know a lot of people are a little tepid in coming out because of the violence that happened in L.A. Just come out, I tell everybody, show up with your signs, bring your voice. We have some actionable items that we have on our agenda that we want to start doing. 

“I really believe that if ICE becomes more prevalent here, I really see Kern County bucking them out because we are an agriculture community. You know, we’re like the oil, oil and gas and ag. That is what we live off of. And if you come in here and you screw with our farm workers, then you’re screwing with the farmers. And then you’re, you know, you’re screwing with our economy here. You’re going to see that ripple effect come back. And I really, truly, hopefully believe that we wouldn’t let it get crazy. We would shut that down. I definitely let the UFW folks know that, hey, there’s a Marine Corps white guy over here who’s on your side. 

“A lot of people see Kern County on a map. It’s just this bright red thing. But I’ve been a poll worker for years since Obama, and I’ve seen the voter rolls as we’re sitting there and have people come in and vote. It is 49 percent Democrat, 51 percent Republican. And it’s moving the other direction. And a lot of people would have thought it was like 75 percent registered Republicans. 

“The only reason that it’s red is because conservatives are really, really good at coming out and voting. I don’t know why the Democrats won’t do it. They’re just not as active. Despite all of the things that I can say bad about the conservative movement, they are so, so good in social media. They have the Charlie Kirks of the world. They’ve had podcasts. They’re good at social media. There’s kids that were 13, 15 years ago and that’s all they were pounded into their brain as this stuff was coming on. And so the Democrats were just never into doing that and they missed a massive vote on doing that. And we’ve been doing better just the last year or so that we now have the Meidas Touch and the David Pakman show, these podcasts that are now overtaking Joe Rogan. That’s big. That is big.”