Officers Eat Last

My military service began during the Cold War, back when the governing paradigm was a bipolar world split by two superpowers. It was also a time when the hollowing out of the middle class and Wall Street’s “greed is good” ethos took hold. 

The tax code changed to ensure the upward conveyance of wealth. Trade deals helped industries thrive while jobs moved overseas. Labor unions came under attack, and corporate focus shrunk to the next quarterly earnings report. 

The wealth and income disparity has escalated without restraint. For much of corporate America, there are no stakeholders, only shareholders— and executives with bonuses linked to their company’s stock price, which can be boosted by a stock buyback. 

Growing up in North Dakota, I witnessed a world where we prepared for external threats, only to find ourselves blindsided by internal ones. Our neighbors were 150 buried Minuteman missiles, poised to retaliate against foreign aggression. But it turns out the real destruction came not from the skies but from the halls of Congress.

As the video above shows, the fallout wasn’t nuclear — it was economic. Our wages dropped, a small group got very rich, and everything else got expensive. The very people who were supposed to protect us abandoned ship, leaving hard-working folks like you and me to bail out the sinking vessel.

In the Marines, we lived by a simple rule: Officers eat last. I carried that mantra throughout a career that taught me a lot about service: discipline, attention to detail, and how to sleep anywhere — which is handy because running a campaign means you catch your shut-eye wherever you can. 

From bunking down in oilfield camps to engaging disinterested teenagers in the classroom, my career has been a tour of duty in the trenches of American life. It’s been a wild ride, and now I’m trading in my hard hat and grade book for the equally perilous landscape of politics. 

You might ask, “Why would a sane person do this?” Well, there’s nothing sane about running toward the sound of gunfire, but some things must be done. The U.S. House of Representatives is too important for us to just shrug our shoulders and let the lunatics run the asylum. 

This isn’t the America we dream of, where the sweat of our brow yields only crumbs from the table of the rich. No, we dream of a land where everyone eats, where hard work pays off, and where faith in the American dream is more than just an illusion.

Republican Ken Buck remarked about his fellow House Republicans, saying, “All they know is how to use social media to burn the place down.” It’s like watching toddlers with matches in a fireworks factory—spectacular but terrifying. Meanwhile, the moderates are bailing out like sensible folks on a sinking ship. What we need now are the grownups to step in and steer us back to calmer waters. Luckily, the grownups are here. They’re called responsible citizens. They’re called you and me.

If this message resonates with you, please share the video on Facebook and Twitter, spread the word. Your voice is crucial in reaching more people who feel the same way. And if you’re able, please consider donating to the campaign. Every dollar, every cent, is a step closer to building a government that serves its people. Thank you for your support and for believing in the American dream.