Grand Canyon Times

The executive director of the American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU) and former Congressman Lt. Col. Allen West said he wants to see people discuss “very in depth about the Constitution, these issues that we’re facing, and make the connection to everyday Americans who are suffering.”

“I mean the inflation is still very bad, the gas prices, the food commodity prices,” West told host Leyla Gulen on the Grand Canyon Times Podcast. “and we don’t see wages keeping up with that.”

“So we have a lot of challenges and I think that the person that can articulate those the best will do well,” West said.

This full episode is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

West joined the podcast to discuss the political climate in Arizona and the movement to enact “Ranked Choice Voting” in the state. 

The ACRU was founded in 1999 to fight against unconstitutional ideas and movements and protect the rights of all Americans. The nonprofit organization is headquartered in Florida, and is also led by CEO Lori Roman. 

West represented Florida’s 22nd Congressional District from 2011 to 2013. He served in the U.S. Army for 22 years, during which time he received a Bronze Star, three Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, one with valor device, and a Valorous Unit Award.

__________

Full, unedited transcript of this episode:

Leyla Gulen [00:00:02] Welcome to the Grand Canyon Times podcast. I'm your host, Layla Goulet. In this episode, we welcome our guest, Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. Allen West retired from military service in 2004 after serving his country for more than two decades in the Army. This opened up doors to a successful bid as congressman having regained Florida's 22nd Congressional District for his party in 2008. He has served as Texas's Republican Party chair and as the executive director of the American Constitutional Rights Union, the ACLU Action Fund. Alan, welcome. 

Allen West [00:00:38] Good to be with you later. Thank you. 

Leyla Gulen [00:00:40] Well, first of all, combat veteran congressman, author, you do not let the grass grow under your feet. You recently wrote a really interesting column for townhall.com titled Cowards and Communists. Well, first, I wanted to start with the Cowards. Who are they? 

Allen West [00:00:59] Well, I think that we have had a real difficult time as the Republican Party as a whole, being able to stand up and really against these progressive socialist leftists that we see. For whatever reason, we have such a timidity in our actions, even though everything on our side that we stand for what is right and true by the Constitution. But for whatever reason, we cannot wholeheartedly apply that. And we cannot message that all the violations of the rule of law that we see happening. So I think that for whatever reason, they need to put on their big boy big girl pants, and they really need to understand that you can't bring a plastic spoon to a gunfight. That's what we're in here in the United States of America. And if you think about look at what is going on in our streets where you have people taking to the streets and actually lending support to a terrorist organization that just recently on October the seventh killed almost 30 Americans. And we know that Hamas is holding Americans hostage or that 200 some odd that are there in Gaza. But yet we're allowing this to happen and we just don't see a strong enough voice from the Republican side. And I'm not just talking about up there in the House or the Senate. I'm also talking about at the gubernatorial level and at the mayoral level, local level of governance. So I think that that's causing people a lot of consternation because they really want to see people that fight for the rule of law and fight for making sure that we protect our safety and our security. 

Leyla Gulen [00:02:28] And let's talk about just in Congress and the vote for speaker. So they they kicked out McCarthy and it was not an easy position to fill. Why is there so much in-fighting within the Republican Party? 

Allen West [00:02:45] Well, I think the difference is that for whatever reason, the Democrat Party will all be on the same sheet of music, even if they're all totally wrong. But we do like to see varying thoughts, perspectives and insights on our side. But there comes a point in time when you get most of the same as in a football game. When you break the huddle, you're going to go out there and you're going to execute the called play. And even if there's an audible, you're not going to see the right guard or the left tackle on the offensive line stand up and say, I don't want to run that audible. It was not a smart thing to vacate the chair with Kevin McCarthy but not have a plan. And that's the thing that I think is most disturbing and disconcerting is that there was no follow up Plan B, Plan C or whatever. So they had to go through three weeks of iterations and machinations before they finally got to. Someone is a good guy. I mean, I know Representative Mike Johnson and he's going to do very well. Very highly principled individual. And that's why you saw people coalesce around him. So, Kevin McCarthy, I mean, if he had gone back and looked at the fact it took him 15 votes to get to be speaker, I think that he should have realized that, hey, look, I've got to follow up with the things that I have said that I was going to do. And I think, number one, when you say that you're going to get back to, quote unquote, regular order, the only thing that the Constitution mandates, the Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate to do is to pass an annual budget every year. That means 12 appropriations bills. But you cannot tell people in the House of Representatives where you have the majority and Republican majority. Hey, everybody, let's go home for 30 to 40 some odd days, even though we're nowhere near close to having these appropriations bills done and then come back say, well, we'll just kick the can down the road, we'll pass a continuing resolution. So he kind of put that put himself out there as a target. And when you allow one person to be able to bring forth a motion to vacate, you became a very easy target. But again, when I speak of Matt Gaetz, he should have had a plan. He did not have a plan. He was just a disruptor for. 

Leyla Gulen [00:04:51] Yeah, 15 votes to become speaker. That was a long night. And that speakership really made history on a number of levels. Why do you think Jim Jordan had such a tough. Time? 

Allen West [00:05:02] Well, I think that there were some people that were concerned about Jim Jordan. And I guess this is the more, quote unquote, moderate Republicans or the GOP establishment Republicans, however you want to categorize that, which I don't understand what a moderate person is, because my dad taught me that the only thing in the middle of the road is road kill. I think that you have to be very clear about who you are, what you stand for and your principles and values. But for whatever reason, I don't think that Jim was able to bring everyone together, like a person, like a mike Johnson has done. And Mike is justice principles. So I think it was more of a personality thing than anything else. And I think it was also a concern about would this be someone that would put my congressional reelection in jeopardy in some of these very narrow districts that are out there? 

Leyla Gulen [00:05:51] Right. Right. Well, let's move on to the communists. As part of the cowards and communists back in 1952, they call that the Red Scare. So why has communism socialism gained so much traction and is less taboo than it was more than a half century ago. 

Allen West [00:06:07] Because it's been mainstreamed? I mean, I called it out, I think, 11 or 12 years ago when I was in Congress. When you look at the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the types of policies that they put forward, the types of things that they stand for, when you have people like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, when they are talking about wealth redistribution, they're talking about nationalizing economic production, expanding a welfare nanny state, this equity, which is really social egalitarianism and equality of outcomes and the secular humanism, those are all tenets of a socialist economic model in theory, and that is really Marxist in every way. When you hear people that are really repeating the words of Karl Marx when he said from each according to their ability to each according to their needs, that's where we are. And I think it's very important that we understand that and we articulate that. And again, it comes back to the we can't be cowards in being afraid to say that this is their philosophy of governance. This is not based on rooted upon our fundamentals of a constitutional republic and our constitutional values that we have here, which really elevate the rights, freedoms and liberties of the individual as opposed to this collectivism that we see from the left. So I think that it has really done an incredible job in infiltrating our college and university campuses. I don't think that can be debated anymore, but is now starting to step down into our high schools and middle schools. And that's what this cultural Marxism ala known as critical race theory is also is not Marxism. And communism was about dividing people based upon socioeconomic status. But now the left is looking at dividing this by any means that they can. And it is going to be a racial division as well. And again, look at what's happening on our streets right now with all of these pro-Hamas protests. 

Leyla Gulen [00:08:02] I mean, when you think about what's happening on college campuses, what's the point of going to college if it's just going to be a communist state anyways? 

Allen West [00:08:09] Well, and that's why they want to have free college, because they want more young people to get into the cauldron of indoctrination. That's why they don't want to have school choice, because they want to keep more of our children in the public school education system where they're not getting educated. I mean, think about the amount of kids that we have in the United States of America, not reading or doing math at grade level. And most of that happens to be in the inner cities with young black children and now with young black children being told, is it math is racist. Two plus two equals four is against you is not about the objective truth that two plus two equals four. But if you can't figure out math is because white people came up with it and they're against you now. When I think of that movie Hidden Figures with the black females who was so instrumental in the Nasser Apollo program. Math was a racist to them. It was something that they learned and they took advantage of, and they had great opportunities to go out there and and contribute to this country through their education. So we've got to get back to that now. 

Leyla Gulen [00:09:15] Well, looking ahead to the 2024 elections, I'm sure you have many thoughts on both the hopeful and anticipated events as it relates to the GOP. I just want to get your thoughts on who you think should be the nominee. And if there is a place in that cabinet for any of the other candidates. 

Allen West [00:09:31] Well, look, I mean, whoever the nominee ends up being, I'll do my best to support them, because I would think that anything would be better than what the other side is offering us. I just saw recently a Democrat member of Congress, Dean Phillips, I think is name out of Minnesota. And Minnesota is not exactly one of the bright shining beacons of liberty and freedom in the United States of America. But he's going to run on the Democrat side. Gavin Newsom is not someone that we want to have. And Layla, you shouldn't. I mean, you just recently escaped from the state of California there to down south in South Carolina. You see the difference in those two philosophies of governance. But I think is so important that on our side, the Republican side, if you want to call it that, we have to get back to constitutional conservatism. We have to get back to honoring the rights and freedoms of the individual. We have to get back to having a strong free market economic system. And we have to get the federal government back into its constitutional box. So we don't see these trillions of dollars of debt that we're in the to threatens the future of our children or grandchildren. We've got to restore energy independence. We got to restore our national security. Our foreign policy is abysmal. It really would show a weakness on the international stage. So that's why you see such an incredible inferno going on across the globe. But we've got to secure our border. I mean, that's a constitutional duty and responsibility to the federal government. Article four, Section four, and this current administration is not doing it. So what I want to see people talk about very well and very in-depth about the Constitution, these issues that we're facing and make the connection to everyday Americans who are suffering under this. I mean, the inflation is still very bad with the gas prices and the food commodity prices, and we don't see wages keeping up with that. So we have a lot of challenges and I think that the person that can articulate those the best will will do well. And again, when you look at President Trump, no one can argue against the policies that he put forth. I think what hurts President Trump more anything else is a little bit of his personality in that New York manner by which sometimes you just don't know when to be quiet. 

Leyla Gulen [00:11:41] Right. I lived in New York, too, and I he's not the only one. He's not the only one. And I want to get back to border security in a moment and how you relate to it living in a border state. But you also have an event coming up in response to what's called ranked choice voting. So we're talking about the 2024 election. A big component of that is election security. Mm hmm. Just ensuring that we have secure elections that for people who are unfamiliar with ranked choice voting, what is it and why are you opposed to it? 

Allen West [00:12:15] Well, ranked choice voting really does undermine our representatives democracy and ranked choice. Voting is supported by the same entities that are trying to undermine the Electoral College with this interstate compact that they're trying to put together that says that no matter who wins their state, they're going to still send their electors, whoever wins the popular vote. Our founding fathers did not want us to have a popular vote system. Our founding fathers did not want us to have a pure democracy. They wanted us to have a representative democracy. And so when I think about this ranked choice voting that has come along, the best way that I can explain to it is that if you had an election coming up and you had several different candidates and let's say it was George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Adolf Hitler, Mao Tse tung and Abraham Lincoln, and someone told you that in this election you had to rank each and every one of those candidates? Well, if you came back and said, I don't want to vote for Adolf Hitler, I don't want to vote for Mao Tse tung, well, then the person would tell you that, well, then your ballot will be spoiled. It'll be canceled out. You have to ranked choice every one. And the thing is that if there's not a clear majority winner, then someone else gets to come around, decide how those percentages are adjusted to go to some ballot. And you don't get to make a choice on the subsequent ballot. So to me, it is a system that really you don't have individual control of. You don't have a good means by which you can audit this system. And as a matter of fact, there are two states that use it right now, Alaska and Maine. And Alaska is trying to retract their use of ranked choice voting. Now, what some people will say is that ranked choice voting takes the quote unquote, partizanship out of it. But if I know who I want to vote for, I don't want to be forced into casting any type of electoral support to someone else that I don't want to vote for, but that is the guise by which they're trying to push this through. So I would tell people to study it, understand it, be very careful of it, and it's kind of like filling out your March Madness bracket. And once you make that initial selection of your March Madness bracket, you have no further control over it. And that's what ranked choice voting ends up being. 

Leyla Gulen [00:14:34] And now it sounds like it's masquerading as a popular vote. 

Allen West [00:14:38] It is. It absolutely is. And again, that's not something that our founding fathers wanted us to have. And that's why you see in the House of Representatives, the House of Representatives is based upon a population with congressional districts. Certain states have more congressional representation and others are. Texas has 254 counties. So we're pretty large state. California is a much larger state. So they have even more members of the House, but everyone has two senators. That's the balance, because that's what the founding fathers want to make sure that happens. And so when you talk about the electors, I mean, when you win that state, you get those electors, those quote unquote, House and Senate members that you had. That's what the electors made. But when you want to just try to do this by popular vote, guess what ends up happening, Lila, is the major urban population centers that will always be the ones that have the weighted influence is the major states that have the weighted influence and the more populous states, rather. So I don't like this thing where you try to render certain states irrelevant. Really, that's what you are. So in areas like the rural areas, you're rendering them irrelevant. 

Leyla Gulen [00:15:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rhode Island wouldn't stand a chance. 

Allen West [00:15:58] No, forget about. I know why you show up to vote. 

Leyla Gulen [00:16:01] Right. Right. Now, in another recent article, you talk about the pitfalls of identity politics. What is what does that mean exactly? 

Allen West [00:16:10] Well, I mean, the left does everything based upon identity politics. They got these characteristics out there and they check off boxes. And if you check off certain amount of boxes, then you're good to go. So let's look at the most recent person that Gavin Newsom put up to replace Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate. She's a black, she's a female, she's a lesbian boy. She checked all the boxes. Doesn't matter where she lives in Maryland. She's still going to be a senator from California. And so what the left does is they look at this identity politics. And I think that right now, the pitfall that they find themselves in, I don't think they want Joe Biden to be their nominee in 2024. But the fact that they played identity politics with Kamala Harris means that they run the risk of if she is not part of the 2024 ticket, what happens to that electoral base that they did not have supported them in 2016 with Hillary Clinton because they saw that their black electoral base fell off and even in 2020, they saw a degradation and that electoral base with black men. And so everything is a calculation for them, and it is about the identity politics. And the more the boxes that you check for them, except for someone like myself was Joe Biden said that if you don't vote for me, you're not really black. So they don't see me as black in the first place, which is kind of condescending, offensive and racist in nature. But that is their calculus that they use. And again, it comes back to their Marxist nature. It is not about representing this country. It's about representing demographic groups that gives them an electoral advantage. 

Leyla Gulen [00:17:52] What do you think about those who were not offended by that comment that you mentioned? Joe Biden saying if you don't vote for me, you ain't black? 

Allen West [00:18:02] Well, I just think that they're part of the 21st century economic plantation of the left. I just think that they bought into that because you just imagine if someone on the Republican side had said anything anywhere near that. As a matter of fact, when President Trump said to the black community, what do you got to lose if for voting voted for me? And when you think about the policies of President Trump, I mean, who did better to support historically black colleges and universities, HBCUs? Who took the black unemployment level to an all time low? Who came up with economic empowerment zones to try to get economic stimulus and small business growth in the black communities? It wasn't Barack Obama. It was the policies of President Trump. But yet this whole polarization against Republicans, which is kind of silly how the left and the Democrats will always throughout the word racist and systemic racism. Because when you study the history of the Democrat Party, they are the purveyors of systemic racism. And that comes back to the first thing that you asked me. Powers versus communists. There are so many Republicans that don't understand the history of the Republican Party, and they, for whatever reason, are reticent and recalcitrant in going out there and professing it. The largest state Republican Party in the United States of America is the Republican Party of Texas that had the honor of being the chairman of well, the Republican Party of Texas was founded on Independence Day of 1867 by 150 black men in Houston, Texas. Most Republicans don't even know that. And at the same time, that 250 black men are helping to establish the Republican Party of Texas, the Democrat Party is helping to establish the Ku Klux Klan. So there's a clear delineation and juxtaposition that we should be using out there so that we can see the comments of someone like Joe Biden as racist as they truly are. 

Leyla Gulen [00:19:53] Yeah, recalcitrant. That's an excellent word, by the way. 

Allen West [00:19:56] My wife adding that my wife has a Ph.D., so she. Makes me learn one big word a week. 

Leyla Gulen [00:20:01] Oh, I love that. Oh, keep giving us all on our toes. I appreciate that. Yeah. In that same article, though, that you wrote about identity politics, really fascinating tidbit, is that you grew up in the same ward in Atlanta as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And I wanted to know if you could offer your thoughts on what impact that has had on your life and and if that made any impact at all. 

Allen West [00:20:25] Well, it did. It had an absolute impact. I went to Our Lady of Louis Catholic School, which is at the intersection of Boulevard and Auburn Avenue. So the front side of our little elementary school was Ebenezer Baptist Church. And on the back side of our elementary school was Martin Luther King Jr's boyhood home where he grew up. And when you think about the quote that has the greatest impact on me and my life and my dad, mom drilled into me. It was about the content of the character, not the color of the skin. My mother and father taught me that. Never see your scan as something that will hinder you or is an obstacle. My dad's most memorable quote to me was that in life you find out what the standard is and you exceed it. And I think that is what equality of opportunity is all about. So that's what I learned growing up in that neighborhood. When you walk down Auburn Avenue where I learned how to swim and play basketball and box at the historic Butler Street YMCA, and you went past the Southern Christian Leadership Convention headquarters. You went past black owned businesses, doctor's offices, lawyers offices, all of these things. That's what I saw. And that's what formed my opinion in life in that you can't go out there. As the Army once said, as his motto, Be all you can be. But when I look at the policies of the left and it is not about be, all you can be is about be all what we say you can be. And that's a very different sentiment and a very different ideal that they have, which again is rooted in that Marxism socialism type of philosophy as opposed to what this nation was all about. And I've seen the left in their policies how they decimated the foundation of the black community, which is the black family. And look at the second, third and fourth order effects from that. The crime, the killers that they'll have mothers and fathers in the home, the lack of good quality education, the failing schools, all of these things. So I learned a lot by just being there in that neighborhood and that environment, which was the birthplace and the cradle of the civil rights movement here in the United States of America. 

Leyla Gulen [00:22:31] Indeed, you are a Bronze Star combat veteran. You've served in the United States Army for 21 years. Why did you decide to enter military service? 

Allen West [00:22:41] It's very simple. My dad was a World War two veteran and it was very touching. I was just recently down in New Orleans at the World War Two National Museum. And to just walk through the exhibits of the European Theater of War, my dad started off in North Africa, Italy, Sicily, and then Italy. And remember the stories he used to tell me. And here was a man that went off to answer the call of duty and call the service for his country when this country did not see him as equal to other men. But yet he knew that he had to stand on freedom's ramparts. So he was a World War Two veteran. My older brother was a United States Marine veteran, Vietnam wounded at a place called Caisson. And at the age of 15, my dad challenged me to be the first officer in the family because he and my older brother were both enlisted man. And so 31st July 1982, at the University of Tennessee, he penned on with my mom and on my second lieutenant bars. And it was the only time I saw my father cry. And it was very special to me because I lived up to the challenge that he gave me in life when I was 15 years of age. And I went into high school, Junior ROTC, ROTC at the University of Tennessee. And I fulfilled his challenge. And sadly, that was the only time he ever saw me get promoted, because I got promoted to first lieutenant when I was in Italy. And he passed away while I was stationed over in Italy. 

Leyla Gulen [00:24:04] Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I know he would have been very proud to have learned of all the other honors that you've achieved. But that wasn't it for you. You've returned to military service as a member of the Texas State Guard. So why did you decide to come out of retirement to join? 

Allen West [00:24:19] Well, I mean, it's just the same as continue to serve by seeking to serve in the United States Congress. The oath that we took to the Constitution doesn't have a statute of limitations. And when I look at what has happened here in Texas, especially along our border, I wanted to continue to lend myself as a resource to to be able to go out and make sure that we could do the right things in protecting the border and also protecting Texans and certain natural disasters and things of that nature. So it's about a heart of service, sacrifice and commitment. And I think that with a lot of our young people, I mean, that's something that they're missing out on in life instead of worrying about what the next iPhone or iPad or ticky tacky videos is going to say. So it's about continuing to honor Miles. 

Leyla Gulen [00:25:08] And the military is, I'm sure you would agree, has certainly undergone some changes just in the last decade. You're pretty vocal when it comes to wokeness in the government. So what are your thoughts on what's happening in our military today? 

Allen West [00:25:20] It's horrible. Our military is not focused on its core competencies. As a matter of fact, I just read an article about how the United States taxpayers pay for the gender transition surgery of a member of our military. That's not what the taxpayers are paying for. They're paying to make sure that we recruit the best, that we train them, we prepare them, we deploy them. They're able to fight to win, and we take care of their families. But we're not focused on that. We're focused on this cultural Marxism. How can you have an effective fighting force when you're telling one part of that force because of their skin color, their oppressors, and the other because of their skin color? They're oppressed. They're victims. You cannot have a cohesive fighting force if that is your goal and objective. And being focused on this gender dysphoria similar to Summerville is absolutely right. And standing up against the fact that we're using taxpayer funded moneys to kill unborn babies in the womb by dismemberment, that's not what taxpayer funds should be used for. I thought when I was a commander that we wanted to grow military families, but instead we have this administration wants to kill future servicemen and servicewomen to our military. So we're completely on the wrong track. And this started back in the Obama administration and the president. Chopp If I could say one thing he did not do well was he did not go deep until even the Department of Defense and clean out some of these ideological generals and definitely people in the bureaucratic administrative state of the Department of Defense who are continuing to pursue these leftist policies. 

Leyla Gulen [00:26:53] A lot of voters, citizens here in the United States that think of America as just having inherited just a really strong nation that when pitted up against another country around the world, that will win no matter what. I don't think a lot of people give credit to other nations who have bolstered their military ranks. So. So where do you see our military ranks right now? Is it dismal? Is it promising? What do you see? 

Allen West [00:27:21] This dismal? As a matter of fact, every November, October and November, the Heritage Foundation puts out their index of military readiness. And last year they rated it below marginal. So we are in a very tough way. Hey, look, the China Layla has a greater surface warfare fleet maritime fleet than we have with our United States Navy. We know the CNO of the chief of naval operations earlier this year testified that the Navy doesn't have enough amphibious shipping to move our United States Marine Corps. And we've cut down the levels of our United States Marine Corps and look at a lot of these places, especially what we see happen in the Pacific. We need to have that amphibious capability to be able to get to some of these places where we see the China making threats. We have now, not just near Pier. We're behind many of these these forces out there, especially when you look at some of the new technologies that are that are coming in about some of these hypersonic missiles and also some of the the land capabilities they have with tanks and armored personnel carriers. So we're going in the wrong direction with our military, but yet we continue to expand the welfare nanny state with $33 trillion in debt. The net interest of our debt is basically greater than the budget that we have for our Department of Defense. And we continue to not invest where we should. I mean, most of us in the military have deployed to other countries to help protect their borders and their borders, but yet we see our border being wide open. And when you think about 1000000 to 1000000 and a half people that have come to the United States of America that are categorized as gateways, we don't know where they are. And the single military age males that we're allowing that number is greater than the combined active duty strength of our Army and our Marine Corps. And that should be very concerning to every American. 

Leyla Gulen [00:29:19] That's frightening. Okay. I got to ask you this question. What are your thoughts on bringing back the draft? Should we do it? Could it be done? 

Allen West [00:29:28] No. Look, I've never been an advocate for the draft because as a former commander, I want to have troops that want to be there. And I think that if we did better in taking care of our military, when you have members of our military that see people coming here illegally and they are getting free benefits, they're being put up in five star hotels in New York and having food out of the wazoo given to them. But yet at Fort Hood, Texas, where I finished up my last duty assignment recently, you had a report where single soldiers are not being fair properly on Fort Hood, Texas, because they don't have enough chow halls, They don't have enough dining facilities. Navy. Federal. Online solicitation, asking for $5 for people to donate so that our own troops can be fed. Our veterans are not being taken care of properly. Our active duty military are not being take care of properly and their families. But yet we see here people here illegally getting all kind of taxpayer benefits. And we just did what was right by our men and women in uniform. If we never put them into the cauldron of debacle like we saw in Afghanistan, where 13 of them unnecessarily lost their lives and the commander in chief is there checking his watch during the coming home ceremony, there are those remains. That's why you are not meeting your retention and recruiting goals right now in the United States military. So we don't need the draft. We just need to get back to our basic blocking and tackling duties and responsibilities for our military. 

Leyla Gulen [00:31:02] For the layperson, it seems like there's a growing lack of interest in a joining the military and also just basic pride in being an American. And you see it in youth all across the country there. The obesity rate is rocketed. They don't work. They don't contribute to society sometimes when there's a lack of opportunity. Having that mandatory military service or influence, if you will, kind of gets people shipshape and ready just to take on life. It just seems like a lot of our youth, they're so consumed by video games and other mindless empty calories that the world has to offer them, that they're not maybe getting to society as they could and should. 

Allen West [00:31:58] Well, there there are some other things. There could be some type of mandatory service program for us to service. I mean, Peace Corps, all type of things here in the United States of America. But I think you want to have your best that is there. And the volunteer force has always been successful. It's just in these last five years where we've seen this drop off in recruiting and retention because they see how they're being treated. They see how veterans are being treated. So I would say that if we can get back to first and foremost having better discipline our homes, parents got to be parents once again. And for me, it all started back in 1976 when I joined high school, Junior ROTC. That's an incredible program. My instructors, I will never forget their names. Lieutenant Colonel Pagonis, Major Heredia, Master Sergeant Buchanan, Strong, First Class McMichael. All four of those gentlemen had served in combat Korea, Vietnam, some of them both. Master armed man, had been a P.O.W. And when you have those type of men in your lives and I remember that when they had cafeteria duty, the cafeteria was quiet because people respected them and they had a way of ensuring discipline. They didn't have to yell and scream. They just had that look. And so I think that we need to restore that. And to many of our institutions out there in combat, we talked about they're undermining a sense of pride in America. And so we've got to restore that and we've got to restore that sense of honor, integrity and character to our military and not have these ideological leaders that are in our military. We're not think that we've got to get back to the the basic hometown love of this country, which, again, that's something that my father taught me and my home and my mother, she worked 25 years plus as a civilian with the six Marine Corps district headquarters. So I got it from both sides of the aisle, if you want to put it that way, from my mother and father of the discipline and the honor and the desire to serve my country. So I think it starts at the home, if anyplace else. 

Leyla Gulen [00:33:59] And I know you endeavor to do that with your speaking engagements. You travel around the country on behalf of the American Constitutional Rights Union. So if you can just tell us briefly about those engagements and where you've headed and what's been the response? 

Allen West [00:34:14] The response has been incredible. We just recently had events in Wisconsin and North Carolina. We're trying to focus on a lot of the battleground states. But I'll be happy to come to see you in South Carolina. Yeah, we have got to get back to understanding that when I hear elected officials talk about America being a democracy, they get a F in civics. They obviously did not listen to Schoolhouse Rock back in the day on ABC in the morning Saturday mornings, because we're a constitutional republic and we've got to get back to understanding who makes laws and the three branches of government. They're separation of powers, co-equal branches, all of these things. We've got to get back to understand the importance of the local level of governance when you to talk about election integrity. A lot of those things can happen right there at the county level because that's the level that elections are executed at. The processes, the procedures, they're are determined there. So the great thing is to get out there and talk to people about the Constitution and getting them to once again fall in love with it and understand that they live in the longest running constitutional republic that the world has ever known, but then empower them to be able to go out and articulate these things in their homes and their communities. Even in their churches, because that is really, to me, the greatest enemy that America faces. It is ourselves and not understanding who we are. And now the messaging that is coming from the progressive socialist left is Marxist status. Individuals that are taking us down a very dangerous path, and it's a road to perdition. So it is very rewarding to get out there and share the passion I have for the Constitution that I took an oath to support and found on 31st July 1982, and to inspire people to believe that this was not the darkest of our days, that once again, the light can be before us. And I don't think it's a train at the end of the tunnel. I think that it really is. This moment can help us to achieve a greatness that this country has never had. And all countries go through this moment of redefining and re understanding who they are. And I think this moment has come to us. 

Leyla Gulen [00:36:23] Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, thank you for your service and thank you for joining us. 

Allen West [00:36:27] It's my pleasure. Leyla and I look forward to seeing you in person. 

Leyla Gulen [00:36:30] Thank you. Likewise. 

Allen West [00:36:32] God bless.