David Rutherford Show: Wisconsin vs. Marxism: This Green Beret's Fight To Keep The State Free
2/16/202643 mincomplete
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0:34It's 2026, and this is an election year.
0:37And I'm proud to welcome former Special Forces Operator Nick Pulse, who's running for Lieutenant
0:45Governor of Wisconsin, today on The David Rutherford Show.
0:58All right, Nick. You know, one of the things that I take a lot of
1:03crap for is not having more Green Berets on the show.
1:09And, you know, I want to make sure that I pay tribute to all my
1:14Green Beret brothers, because I am an 18 Delta officially, right?
1:18And so having you on is such an incredible opportunity, and I'm really excited to
1:24hear what you have to say about running for Lieutenant Governor, man.
1:28All right. Thank you. I appreciate you having me on, and I'll try to represent
1:32the regiment to the best of my abilities here and not let anybody down.
1:37Awesome. Awesome. Because we know Big J is going to be watching for sure.
1:41Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right.
1:43Let's just jump right into it.
1:45Obviously, you know, a lot of people, in particular operators, are stepping into this battle
1:54space, you know, for many reasons.
1:57We've had Jared Hudson, who's running for Senate down in Alabama.
2:01You know, we're in talks to have a couple more guys that are in contention
2:06and are going to start throwing their hats in to run here soon.
2:08Let's just ask you, how long did you serve, and why are you taking that
2:17deep dedication to serving the nation and continuing it to want to serve the great
2:23state of Wisconsin? Sure. Great question.
2:26So I spent a little over a decade in the Army, a little over 11
2:29years. And my backstory is I was a senior in college when the towers came
2:34down. And that was a pivotal moment in my life and much of our, we'll
2:39call it the GWAT generation's lives.
2:41And it was a pivot point.
2:43And so I chose at that point that I wanted to join.
2:46I wanted to join specifically to get into the special operations community because I wanted
2:50to go overseas and take the fight to America's enemies.
2:52So from the time that we had that tragic attack on 9 -11, September, I
2:58graduated in May. And then I was on my way to basic training in October.
3:02And then from that point, I got the opportunity to serve with some of the
3:07best of the best. Like I said, it's been over a decade doing that.
3:11And then that, living that, walking that, watching the decisions that were made by some
3:17of the folks in the political class or some of our elected officials and how
3:22they had affected us on the ground.
3:24It prevented us from doing certain things.
3:26It caused unnecessary injuries. Some folks didn't come home.
3:30That, carrying that and learning from that is what I'm carrying forward now into my
3:37campaign here for lieutenant governor in Wisconsin.
3:39And I decided to jump in.
3:41My why is my little guy, my nine -year -old.
3:44He drives me. He's why I'm doing what I'm doing.
3:47And it's because of him.
3:48And I don't want him to grow up in a state that he cannot afford.
3:51I don't want him to grow up in a country he cannot afford.
3:54And I wanted to feel safe in the United States.
3:57And so those are the things why I got into the race.
3:59It's so fascinating to me, especially from GWAC guys who do feel the continued call
4:05to push through and get into politics.
4:07Because, you know, we often look at the battlefield as, you know, hey, that was
4:12the most, that was the place in our lives that always made the most sense,
4:17right? There was the good guys and then the bad guys, right?
4:22And it was pretty linear.
4:24You knew where the battle space were.
4:27You had your mission objective.
4:28You had your boys around you.
4:30And things seemed to make sense.
4:32But when I take a step back and look at the political craziness that's going
4:37on across the country right now, for me, because I actually considered running for Congress
4:43down here in South Florida and for the 22 session.
4:46And I talked to Brian Mast about it and some other people.
4:51And after doing those discussions, I was like, this is crazy.
4:56Why would I want to go and subject myself, one, to the whole campaign and
5:02running and the assaults and the attacks?
5:04And then, two, getting into government and getting, you know, into what seems to be
5:11a greater space of, let's just say, lack of accountability, lack of responsibility.
5:20Why do you think that you can go and make a difference now?
5:26No, that's a great question.
5:27And you do the research and it sounds like you talk to a lot of
5:30some real knowledgeable people. And at some point, so for me in Wisconsin, I think
5:36a lot of ways Washington, D .C.
5:38is not a lost cause.
5:41It's so far gone that to me, the states is where we can fight, we
5:46can preserve, we can protect and eventually rebuild and try to hold the country that
5:52we have, that we grew up on, that's given so much to us at the
5:57state level. You have more control.
5:59It's closer to the problem set.
6:02And usually those closest to the problem set are best able to solve the problem.
6:06And so my focus is on the state right now.
6:10Great. You had talked about Republicans losing elections in Wisconsin pretty regularly for a while
6:19now. Can you just give us a brief history of that?
6:23And why do you think now is a good time for you to run for
6:27lieutenant governor? Sure. So in Wisconsin, at the statewide level, you've had Ron Johnson and
6:33President Trump are the only ones that have won the state since 2014.
6:37Prior to that, you had Governor Scott Walker, who won in 2010 with that Tea
6:41Party revolution. He won a recall in 2011, and then he won for a re
6:46-election in 2014. But since then, the GOP here, we haven't run a statewide race
6:51that we've won, with the exception of the two guys that I mentioned.
6:55So the why, in my assessment, is I look at the messaging.
6:59One, I look at the messaging.
7:01And the messaging that won in 2010, that won in 2011, that President Trump ran
7:06on, that Senator Ron Johnson ran on consistently, is one of a populist, of one
7:11on focusing on the working class, focusing on the individual American.
7:15And when we run on that messaging here in Wisconsin, we can win.
7:20And when we stray from that, we're racking up losses.
7:23So I look at the messaging here as one of the main reasons why, at
7:28the state level, the Republican Party has not been able to win since 2014.
7:33Awesome. All right. So when I go to your website, which is nicholaspols .com, and
7:42look at, you've got this great list of initiatives.
7:46And so the number one is unleashing the Wisconsin economy.
7:51What does that look like for you, and what would you do as soon as
7:56you get into office to try and facilitate some of that economic growth to take
8:02place? Sure. So let me first talk about the role.
8:05So as a lieutenant governor, there's not very much outlined in the constitution, the state
8:09constitution here, for their role.
8:11Essentially, it's a couple of things.
8:13One is if the governor leaves the state, he or she can authorize you with
8:18certain powers. If something happens to the governor, then you step up and you become
8:22the leader of the state, and then you're in charge of the senate.
8:26Short of that, there's not much outlined in the constitution as to what the lieutenant
8:29governor can do and should be doing daily.
8:32So I look at this role as one of being an advocate and one of
8:36being a robust, proactive lieutenant governor.
8:38Because you have a platform, right?
8:41As the number two elected official in the state, you have a platform, and you
8:45have the power to convene.
8:47What does that mean? You get the opportunity to bring people together, whether they're business
8:51leaders, whether they're folks in education, whether they're folks at the lower levels of government,
8:56the county or state level.
8:57You can bring people together.
8:58You can have conversations. And you can be an advocate for Wisconsinites across the state.
9:04So that's what I look at as my role.
9:06All right, so now specifically as it comes to some of the economic items, Wisconsin
9:11is one of the most over -regulated states in the Midwest.
9:15So when you have a whole bunch of regulations, you're decreasing freedom.
9:19Business owners aren't able to do certain things.
9:21Employees aren't able to do certain things.
9:23There's less of risk -taking in those situations.
9:26We also have property taxes that are increasing.
9:29We had our governor here that signed a 400 -year property tax increase.
9:36And most recently in December, we've felt that for the first time since he signed
9:40it. And there was a lot of sticker shock.
9:43So when you combine high regulations, you combine high property taxes, we have income taxes,
9:48and a variety of other little taxes and rules regulations.
9:54That creates a lot of restraint.
9:55And so when I talk about unleashing the Wisconsin economy, I want to create freedom.
10:00I want to talk about freedom.
10:02I want to crisscross the state, preach in freedom, because humans are naturally yearning to
10:07be free. And we should unleash them and allow them to have the economic freedom
10:11here in the state, much like what President Trump is trying to do at the
10:15federal level. Now, I understand that most states have very substantial health care costs, including
10:23Wisconsin, i .e. Madison and Milwaukee, for sure.
10:27And, you know, one of the things that we're seeing recently is the corruption or
10:34manipulation of health care issues through corruption or federal spending going into the wrong places.
10:42The Somali population in Minnesota, we've got the other illegal immigrant in Maine.
10:50We saw Sean Ryan deliver.
10:52Maine reporter has been diving into that.
10:54We've seen it in California.
10:56We've seen it all over.
10:58So healthcare obviously is probably going to be a big one on the ticket.
11:03How are you going to address healthcare?
11:06And what is your message to a lot of people that rely on subsidies?
11:13No, that's a great question.
11:14So specifically in Wisconsin, there are a couple of things that the state can do
11:18separate from the federal government to help drive down costs and then also increase competition.
11:25So one of the things that we have here is we have a limited amount
11:28of health insurance companies that can sell into Wisconsin, one.
11:33That doesn't take any laws changing.
11:35That just comes out of the executive branch in Madison of the insurance commissioner changing
11:39and allowing other insurance companies to sell into Wisconsin.
11:43So one, you can increase the amount of insurance companies selling here, which should we
11:49have more supply and demand stays the same.
11:51We should see prices coming down.
11:53The second thing we can do again at the, at the state level, I mean,
11:56there's many things, but the second thing that we can do is there's mandates, meaning
12:00that we have a laws here in Wisconsin that mandate certain health insurance companies have
12:05to sell plans, meaning they're putting a floor in place.
12:09So no matter what I have to buy a certain plan, you have to buy
12:13a certain plan. You can't go to insurance company and pick and choose or the
12:18insurance company can't sell you a plan that you may like because of the mandates.
12:22So there's a couple of things we could do right away to help drive down
12:26costs in the state. Now, as it relates to a lot of the fraud, one
12:31of the things I'd like to do, and I think that we can do it
12:33at my level, if not in different parts of the government here is audit.
12:37Before we talk about raising taxes and before we talk about any additional spending is
12:41auditing where the money's going, because I'm pretty sure if we do this audit, we're
12:45going to find money, a lot of money there that's being misspent.
12:48You mentioned a couple of examples across the country of a lot of fraud that's
12:52popping up. And I'm on the bet that if we audit, we're going to find
12:56a whole lot of money that we then can decide how to allocate for Americans,
13:00for Wisconsinites and not have it go to fraud, waste or abuse.
13:04Great answer. All right. So one of the things that obviously some of I think
13:10you look at really what's triggered your one of your neighbors there in Minnesota and
13:17this the craziness that's happened on the streets of Minneapolis is the fraud was exposed
13:22and and all that attention came crashing down.
13:26I remember seeing a video just the other day, Dr.
13:29Oz standing in front of an old giant warehouse facility and there were over 400
13:34fraudulent health care companies or daycare companies set up in that.
13:39Obviously, the Nick Shirley investigation to Somali daycare centers and all this funding to the
13:46tune of eight billion was going in.
13:48But the real problem, the problem of that, and I think fraud and that is
13:53a different thing. The other is is illegal immigration.
13:57Now, when I looked up the statistics on on Wisconsin and I, you know, I
14:06didn't see Wisconsin ranks 20th in total population with approximately 5 .96 million residents racial,
14:15you know, the demographics, mostly white, aging seniors overall.
14:20You know, but one of the interesting thing, you know, was the illegal immigration numbers.
14:27It said there's an estimated 70 ,000 undocumented immigrants as of recent data and that's
14:33primarily from 2023 estimates representing 1 .2 of the state's population.
14:40You know, I I but I'm sure what's going to emerge is this immigration stance.
14:48And we'll talk about the main Democratic challenger have and maybe a little bit of
14:53the Republican in a minute.
14:53So what where's what's your stance on what's taking place in Minnesota, as well as
15:01the grander context of the immigration issue in the United States?
15:06Let's start with Minnesota. Now, I would separate from the illegal immigration problem, the fraud
15:13that you mentioned there, the fraud that you mentioned in California, the fraud that they
15:17found in HUD. What I see and we'll come back to immigration just a second.
15:21What I see is incentives when it comes to government programs are all wrong, meaning
15:26the incentive when you're in charge of a government program or when you're running a
15:30government program is to spend all the money because you go back at the end
15:35of the year to whether it's at Congress or whether it's at the statehouse and
15:38go to that assembly and say, hey, I spent all my money, so you need
15:42to give me more money.
15:43What happens if you go back and you don't spend all your money, then the
15:47representatives say, hey, oh, you got extra money.
15:50Great. We're going to give it to the people that that spent all their money.
15:52So within government programs, there is an incentive to not really watch where anything's going,
15:58to not really care much about the accountability because your incentive is to spend all
16:03your money. So that is a problem that I would like to see addressed.
16:07And that's one of the things that I will be working on addressing when we
16:11win is working on how we can change that incentive model, period, to get at
16:15the fraud, to get at the focus on being frugal and being accountable with.
16:20our money in Wisconsin, money across the United States.
16:24Now, backing up to the illegal immigration.
16:27Here in Wisconsin, Fort McCoy was one of the bases that the Biden administration brought
16:34a whole bunch of Afghani folks in.
16:37I don't remember that several years ago, but Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.
16:42So that was one of the major staging grounds when they were bringing folks in.
16:46And then there was all kinds of news articles and there were different accounts of
16:51walking off the base, having problems with destruction, variety of things.
16:55And then wherever they went after that, Minneapolis, large Somali population.
17:01And we saw the results of that was American intervention in Somalia made famous by
17:08the Black Hawk Down movie and how those great Americans, so many of them gave
17:13their lives or came home injured.
17:15Well, a lot of our intervention in Somalia caused that part of the immigration people
17:21leaving Somalia. A lot of them settled in Minneapolis.
17:24There's also some communities in Wisconsin on the western side of the state, specifically in
17:29Barron County. And they're here.
17:32And it doesn't appear, based off of their actions, it doesn't appear that there's a
17:36whole lot of assimilation. It doesn't appear like there's a whole lot of wanting to
17:41be Americans, of wanting to join America for our values and for why we're living
17:47here. And it doesn't appear that's happening.
17:49All right. And so those are just a couple of things I want to talk
17:52through right now. And the last thing you talked about, the fraud.
17:56Back to my comment originally with the incentives.
17:58It appears that a lot of folks that have come as immigrants, whether illegal or
18:04illegal, there's incentive for the state to be putting them into programs.
18:10And then the lack of accountability, transparency leads to opportunities for waste, fraud, and abuse.
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20:08I think you're spot on.
20:10I think it is an incentive circle, right?
20:12I absolutely agree. And then I think the asylum programs were really interesting.
20:20And if you look at where the distribution took place, a lot of the distribution
20:25of asylum -seeking immigrants were distributed to purple states, right?
20:32Swing states. And I think that makes sense.
20:37When you're struggling with your core base, and I think the Democratic Party has struggled,
20:43started to fractionalize its core base.
20:45We saw that with Democratic males, in particular Hispanic and African -American males started going
20:53more independent and actually voted for Republicans the last time around because of, I think,
21:00the opportunity, the economic opportunity that has been diminished as a result of probably government
21:07handouts or however you wanted, the incentives, right?
21:10That incentive structure. And I think for all NGOs that have exploded over that, they're
21:18also incentivized, right? They're incentivized to continue to keep that circle going.
21:24And then now there's a couple people I'm following on X who are talking about
21:29how that structure works, right?
21:31You import a large number of asylum seekers, immigrants, right?
21:37Coming over, you put them in a purple state, you put them on state funds,
21:43right? That are fostered through NGOs that are also getting state funds.
21:48federal funds. And then you just, you know, recycle those people.
21:52And then, you know, they help devise economic incentives, too.
21:56And then they fund the politicians that keep them keep the money train going.
22:01So it is it is an interesting cycle of corruption.
22:06We go back to that.
22:09You know, you have listed on on your initiatives about government spending itself.
22:16Um, what about Wisconsin, Wisconsin government spending?
22:21Do you want to try and address with that advocacy as lieutenant governor and to
22:26get a better discussion going on?
22:28Sure. Well, and just in the last eight years, we've seen the spending at the
22:31federal or the state level here go up about 50 percent.
22:34And we haven't gotten 50 percent better services.
22:37We haven't gotten 50 percent better, 50 percent better quality of life.
22:41Right. So the spending is continuing increasing.
22:44And the thing about government spending is at the state level, it only comes they
22:48can't print money like they can at the federal level.
22:50Like I can't. There's no Federal Reserve in Wisconsin that can just turn on the
22:53printing press. So it either comes from taxes or fees or there or there's borrowing
23:00or the state's borrowing. And when we're looking at the constant increase of spending, spending,
23:06spending, it means we're taking or extracting more and more money from our citizens here.
23:12And my focus is on keeping more of your money in your pocket because you
23:18know best how to spend your money for your family, for yourself, for your community,
23:22rather than somebody, a bureaucrat in Madison who just has a budget and they're incentivized
23:26to spend it all. That makes a lot of sense.
23:30All right. Um, at the bottom of your initiatives, you talk about election integrity.
23:35Now, I don't know where you stand.
23:37Um, I've been doing a lot of shows on election integrity and particularly about the
23:412020 elections. And, you know, there's, there's, uh, you know, Scott Presser, uh, who does
23:48the amazing, you know, voter registration for Republicans.
23:51He, you know, he helped New Jersey out Pennsylvania.
23:54He flipped in 2024, which was an unbelievable flip.
23:58Um, you know, he's, he's, he's brought some attention to the Wisconsin 2020 elections.
24:04Um, you know, obviously there were, um, a couple reports about, uh, the printing of
24:12additional ballots. Um, um, John Solomon reported on some of that.
24:18Um, there was a guy that was a whistleblower for, uh, the United States post
24:24office or office. His name was Ethan, uh, peace.
24:27Um, but he saw some, uh, substantial abnormalities in terms of, uh, ballots that came
24:34in. Um, you know, as a part of your duties as Lieutenant governor, you will
24:41be assisting in the implementation of elections in Wisconsin.
24:45What are your thoughts thoughts about voter rolls, future elections, and reinstilling confidence, you know,
24:54in, in a state that, uh, was considered to have some abnormalities in 2020?
25:00Yeah, that's, that's still a big issue here, here today.
25:04And there's a lot of items that haven't been resolved yet.
25:06One of the main issues we have here is the way that our elections are
25:09run. We have a, it's called the Wisconsin election commission.
25:12And so rather than elections run out of a constitutionally elected office, like a secretary
25:17of state, the Wisconsin election commission, which is bureaucrats that are appointed, uh, by party.
25:24So there's a couple of Republicans, a couple of Democrats, and they've been running the
25:27election. So I am not in favor of that system.
25:29I'd like to abolish the Wisconsin election commission.
25:32I'd like to return the power to run elections to the secretary of state constitutionally
25:37elected official. That's one thing.
25:39The second thing is verifiable.
25:40We want verifiable elections and verifiable ballots.
25:44We had a problem in 2020 and it was less of a problem in 2024
25:48with absentee ballots, right? So in Wisconsin for a long time, it was very few
25:53people that were requesting absentee ballots.
25:56It was only if you couldn't leave the house, if you really small circumstances where
26:01you would absentee. COVID changed all that.
26:05The rules got expanded. The, there was a lot of relaxation in some of the
26:09rules. And so there were, there was a transition to a lot of absentee ballots.
26:14And as you know, if you've been studying it, when you have a lot of
26:16absentee ballots flooding the system, it makes it easier to be able to get the
26:22outcome that you want in an election.
26:24Because once the ballot is separated from the envelope, it's, it's near impossible to figure
26:30out if that is legitimate and verifiable, verifiable ballot tied to a person.
26:36So, so the verifiable election is another thing that I'd be working on here in
26:40the state. And you mentioned voter rolls.
26:42So voter rolls back to, back to the WEC, the DOJ, Trump's DOJ has sued
26:48Wisconsin to get a look at the voter rolls to help clean up.
26:52Wisconsin's fighting that. Well, why would you fight trying to clean up voter rolls?
26:59It doesn't make any sense unless there's something that you potentially are trying to hide
27:04or you try to make it easier to get the outcome that you want in
27:07an election. So we have to, and back to the advocacy piece, right, is talking
27:12about that, talking about solutions that I just gave you a couple of.
27:15from here and clean up the voter rolls is a high priority as well.
27:20So I've been paying attention to a guy on X right now who's been posting
27:24constantly about voter rolls and the additions to voter rolls, being able to register online,
27:31no proof of ID. Is that a part of Wisconsin elections is no voter ID?
27:38And if it is, I mean, obviously a grand majority of the population nationwide, like
27:4478 % believe voter IDs are accurate.
27:48How would you try and bring that back to the state?
27:52So we do have a voter ID here.
27:55We have a pretty robust system in place to allow people to vote, also to
28:00have some security in place related to voter ID.
28:03One of the things that I would change and I would push for a change
28:05is the way that the Wisconsin elections focus on college kids or people that move
28:12here from out of state.
28:13So within about 30 days, if you move to the state within 30, I think
28:17it's 30 days of the election, then you can vote in this state.
28:22And so there, I would change that because what happens is if you're say living
28:27in Iowa, you move to Wisconsin within 30 days of the election, then you can
28:32vote here in Wisconsin, college kid or, or something like that.
28:35I would that. I would, I would make that a longer time.
28:38Or if somebody does move in here within the 30 days, they have to vote
28:42and the state that they came from rather than change their residency and voting within
28:4830 days of the general election.
28:50So that's one of the things I would change.
28:51In addition, we have the voter ID, we have a variety of different, not just
28:55driver's license. There's, there's the passport and there's several other ones.
29:00I did work a couple of elections in Milwaukee County.
29:03And so I got to see it firsthand as a poll observer, the whole process
29:07from the beginning to the end on, on how that works.
29:10Well, that's good news. Sorry.
29:12I made that mistake to my, my listeners.
29:14All right. Um, let's shift now to who you're running against.
29:18Um, the woman you're running against is, is I'm going to butcher last name, Sarah
29:23Godalowski. Is that correct? Godalowski.
29:28Now she's seems to be, uh, a person that has been kind of, you know,
29:36moving towards politics and, and, and political activism for a long time.
29:42Um, give me a little bit of a description about why you think her policies,
29:48uh, don't, uh, get in line with what Wisconsin, uh, the people of Wisconsin want
29:55or need. Sure. So, so she's been, she prior to running for Lieutenant Governor, she
30:00was Secretary of State. And then she also has ran, or she did almost run
30:05for, I believe it was Senate, uh, in 2022 as well.
30:08So her, her vision and her, her policies, uh, align with what I'll call the,
30:12the collectivist mindset, which is increasing government control of your life, increasing government spending, which
30:18means taxes have to go up, uh, increasing regulations that they want to turn Wisconsin
30:24into a sanctuary state. The one of the Lieutenant Governor, the current Lieutenant Governor, who's
30:28running for governor, uh, she's already come out and said, I want, I don't want
30:32to have, uh, ice enforcement.
30:34I don't want to be sharing with ice.
30:35And that would be absolutely terrible if, if we, if Wisconsin turned it to a,
30:39uh, sanctuary state. And so those are a few of her positions and her policies
30:44that she would support in the, with the next Democrat governor as Lieutenant Governor.
30:48And those to me are, are exactly the opposite of what we need for Wisconsin.
30:52What do you think, uh, people in Wisconsin, not outside of Madison and Milwaukee out,
30:58out where the farms are out where, you know, the people that, I mean, cause
31:03you know, my, my aunt and uncle, uh, lived in Wisconsin for 40 years.
31:08My cousins went to, uh, went to, uh, University of Wisconsin's great big 10 school.
31:16And, and man, I just remember going there as a kid and it seemed like
31:21it was just the state where people like to be left alone and nice people.
31:26And they, they just want their liberty and their freedom.
31:30Um, why do you think the state has pushed so hard to the left?
31:35Is it really because of the focal centers of Madison and Milwaukee?
31:41And, and why don't, you know, people in rural areas recognize kind of this collectivist
31:47mentality to kind of really, uh, jump in terms of, uh, their voter turnout.
31:53Well, I think that we do that.
31:55That's pretty, uh, that's pretty neat that you got the history here with, with Wisconsin.
31:58As I've been getting out, uh, crisscrossing state talk on all over the place, uh,
32:04urban areas or rural areas.
32:06I think that there is that mentality that you mentioned, which is want to be
32:09left alone, want to live our life.
32:11Uh, we have a lot of freedom here, uh, history of freedom in the state.
32:15The two counties that are the largest voting block for Democrats are Dane County and
32:20then Milwaukee County. And there's a little bit up in, in Green Bay County.
32:24Those are the two, really two and a half where they drive the most turnout.
32:28And those are the highest population centers.
32:30And those are the areas that you see the most radical ideas, the most, the
32:36hard and harder push into collectivism, the, the attempts to try to disrupt ICE.
32:41You see most of the protests there.
32:42And as those. My opinion, as those urban centers have grown, when they turn out,
32:48they can offset a lot of the voting in some of the rural counties, some
32:53of the more counties that are focused more on freedom.
32:55That makes a lot of sense.
32:57You know, as I've watched this, I mean, from, you know, my last deployment was
33:03in 2011. I spent a lot of that year in Pakistan with the agency, you
33:10know, and I got home.
33:11Really, I saw this kind of collectivist mentality, as you describe it.
33:16I call it straight out Marxism.
33:19You know, I've noticed that a lot of this is led, you know, in these,
33:27you know, blue city centers or in college towns, right?
33:33And it is really kind of taken hold of, I think, you know, the 35
33:40and younger generation. And those generations are considerable now, you know, in terms of size,
33:46i .e. the, you know, the Gen Z is going to be bigger than the
33:49boomers. And, you know, as, as you're leading into the primaries, what do you want
33:57to say to those younger voters now?
34:00Like those people that have been since, you know, they were in middle school, junior
34:05high and high school. And in college, they've been, you know, there's been this bombardment
34:11of, you know, I don't want to call it anti -American sentiment because I believe
34:16they love their country. I just believe they think a socialist formula is the way
34:22we get out of whatever they perceive this unbridled, oppressive, fascist, imperialism, or whatever you
34:29want to describe it, right?
34:30There's a new word for it every day.
34:32One day you're Nazi, the next day you're a fascist, next day, you know, whatever
34:36it is. So, you know, what do you have to say to those young voters
34:40that are looking to, you know, and again, I don't want to come across as
34:48presumptuous, but, you know, what I see with friends of mine that have served and
34:53do have legitimate voices, whether in politics or in podcasting or whatever, you know, you
35:00see there's a gravitational pull towards young people within that because there's a, I think
35:07there's a respect that takes place from your service, right?
35:11Obviously, 10 years going down range in the GWAT and at the level that you
35:15do it, at the highest level, you know, there's a built -in respect.
35:19But the language that these kids are used to is very different than the things
35:24that inspired you in that senior year of college to go out, raise your right
35:29hand, join, and go serve for 10 years going down range in the GWAT.
35:33So what, how are you going to approach those young people and what message do
35:37you want to tell them?
35:38No, so here's, so here's what I hear a lot in that, in that demographic,
35:42in that generation is, is a feeling like they're, they're not able to chase the
35:46American dream for whatever reason, whether it's housing costs are out of control, whether I've
35:51graduated college and I have this, this weight of debt that's hanging around my neck,
35:56job, H -1B visas, right?
36:00That, that whole process where we're not hiring Americans, those are a couple of the,
36:05the core issues. So as I approach it, I share my story and I share
36:09that I want to be your voice.
36:12I'm running for my nine -year -old and I want him to have a, be
36:15able to chase the dream that I was able to chase, you know, cause I
36:18stood on my dad's shoulders and like he stood on his father's shoulders.
36:21And so that, when I talk about my son in this race, I'm talking about
36:25the next generation and it comes to millennials and it comes to, to Gen Z
36:28and a feeling like they're hurt.
36:30Like, I hear you, I, I hear you on some of your challenges and, and
36:35Frank, quite frankly, we, as madness us and then our, you know, maybe the generation
36:40above us, they've taken action and they've taken, made choices that are affecting, you know,
36:45are affecting our kids and our, and our grandkids.
36:47And we got to turn that around.
36:49And the last thing I'll say, you mentioned socialism and that it sounds so good,
36:54right? And I see this election as a very stark contrast between, on the one
36:59hand, you got the collectivism, the socialist, the Marxist, whatever, like you said, whatever label
37:03that we want, they want to call themselves that day.
37:06And, and the folks that believe in freedom and we're seeing, and they got an
37:10election in New York, they had a Seattle elect, a mayor that got elected in
37:14Seattle, uh, here in the state of Wisconsin at the government candidate level.
37:20And, you know, at the Lieutenant Governor candidate level on the left, a Democrat side,
37:23their policies and their positions are pushing harder and harder to left into that socialist
37:30mindset. And that's going to be terrible for any generation, unless you're the, the small
37:36percentage of people that's in charge, right?
37:38Because in socialism, the small percentage of people that are in charge, they're the ones
37:42that get paid. They're the ones that have all kinds of wealth and the rest
37:45of us don't. And so that is, that's what I talked earlier about wanting to
37:50preach freedom and wanting to, to take that on head on.
37:53That has to happen. We have to be able to take that mentality head on
37:57and explain why it's no good.
37:59Not only in the heart, but we have to take it.
38:01We have to focus on the emotional level too, when we're battling against socialism, because
38:05they try to capture the moral high ground and we cannot let them capture more.
38:11high ground because nowhere in socialism do they ever get to capture the moral high
38:15ground never works well that's that's the the the greatest illusion of of how people
38:21are professing all of this to young kids right who do you go after you
38:25go to that disenfranchised 22 year old kid who like you said has got a
38:29mountain of debt because they said if you go to college you'll you'll you know
38:34double your annual income and you know it'll it'll do this and you know and
38:39and then you know they when they get out they realize man they've been lied
38:44to a lot by the same people that are then projecting the socialistic views right
38:49vote for people that'll give you free stuff and I just think it's it's kind
38:54of comical that they you know young people get get caught in that kind of
38:59propaganda trap over and over so I appreciate your answer there Nick all right give
39:06me some final thoughts on kind of where we're at with the temperatures in America
39:13right now when the vitriol amongst people what do you hope to see in your
39:19campaign not only in your primary against other Republicans but then when you win that
39:25you go on to campaign against uh you know your your democratic opponent and at
39:32the end you know at the end of the year uh for the lieutenant governorship
39:36what do you hope to see well I like to see a dialing down of
39:41the rhetoric I like to see a dialing down of the of the what appears
39:45to be a march towards more and more aggression more and more violence and I
39:50I would hope and I pray that that is not the case it does appear
39:54like we talked a little earlier about Minnesota and some of the actions there appear
40:00to be insurgency based or folks that have studied manuals on how to develop an
40:05insurgency and and it appears to be that they're employing it there which is which
40:09is which is is no good at all so I I would love to see
40:12a dialing down of the reddick I'd love to see a dialing down of the
40:15of the conversation and and a dialing down of the demonization of people on different
40:20issues and you call them names so you can demonize them and then once you
40:24demonize them and once you dehumanize them then it becomes easier to do other things
40:28that's another lesson of history so I like to see us focus on how do
40:33we solve problems what's going to be the best for in my state here in
40:36Wisconsin and then how do we execute on those items to make it better for
40:41Wisconsinites here and and that's what I keep talking about we talk about solutions we
40:45talk about the hows to get things done as we're crisscrossing state and and try
40:50to avoid any type of that dehumanization and that that anger focus on individual because
40:56it's very hard to talk to somebody when you're when you're calling them names or
40:59when you've decided that they're not worth the conversation outstanding outstanding all right Nick where
41:04can people uh find you follow and then how can they help you with your
41:09campaign sure fantastic so uh on x we're at nick pulse wi on facebook we're
41:18at nick pulse for lieutenant governor and then our website is nicholas pulse .com please
41:24sign up please share with all your friends and family absolutely donate if you believe
41:29in me if you believe in our team if you believe in our mission donate
41:32us so that we can continue to spread the word across the state as we
41:36push towards the primary in august and then ultimately the election general election november nick
41:42uh i i just uh there's a part of me that's like man you're crazy
41:47i can't believe you fought 10 years into g watt at the level you did
41:51and now you want to go into this battle but then there's a part of
41:54me that says shut up wuss he's doing the right thing you don't have the
41:58courage to do it so i i just want to offer you uh you know
42:03um um um you know it's just cool to see another operator uh step it
42:09onto the battle the the new battlefield which is for the battle of america and
42:13the soul of america and i just wish you the best man good luck to
42:18you right thanks again thanks for having me on and i appreciate that support this
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