524: Why is This Liberty REPUBLICAN Running to Reclaim his Old State Senate Seat in Maine? (w/ Eric Brakey)

Brian Nichols  0:02  
Passing on winning arguments. We're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, Happy Wednesday there, folks. Happy Happy Wednesday, Friday, turn The Brian Nichols Show and thank you for joining us on of course, that a fun filled episode I am as always your humble host and today, we got a good friend returning to the program. He's been a little busy. But before we get there, kind of go ahead and give a shout out to today's sponsor and that is the expat money summit 2020 to head the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash expat where you can go ahead and grab your free Yes, I said free tickets to this amazing virtual summit taking place November 7 through November 11th. Five days 30 expert speakers hosted by our good friend Miguel thorup, from the expat money show, and he is hosting this year's expat money podcast where he promises if you watch for a week, you will reap the benefits for generations. Folks, I am so excited to have today's guests returning to the program now he's unfortunately coming to us via phone today. Well if he's on his computer, but no video because he's running not on a landline. So that being said, Eric brakey, the renegade States itself. Welcome back to The Brian Nichols Show.

Eric Brakey  1:28  
Hey, Brian, it feels like it's been forever. How you doing, brother?

Brian Nichols  1:31  
I'm doing good. I'm trying to zoom out here and bring up there we go. There's Eric brakey.

Eric Brakey  1:37  
Yes, myelin. Whether even if it's even if it's still.

Brian Nichols  1:42  
We'll make it work. But uh, Eric, my friend, thank you for joining the program. So excited to have you back in the show. You've been so busy up in Maine, you're obviously our favorite renegade statesman, because you are the host of Free America now. The great podcast that it is, but also you're running for State Senate once again, up in Maine. Talk to us, Eric, what's been going on since we last had you here in The Brian Nichols Show?

Eric Brakey  2:03  
Yeah, I've been knocking a lot of doors talking with a lot of voters I am running to reclaim my state senate seat that I held in Maine for I held it for two terms in the past from 14 to 18. And I left, I stepped aside from that to run for US Senate and Congress over two terms. Neither of those races worked out how we hope but we did get the message of freedom out there, I think inspired a lot of new activists who are making a difference today. But yeah, I am running to reclaim my old state senate seat. It's been great to reconnect with a lot of my former constituents. So hopefully, who will be my constituents once again after this election cycle and boy people are hurting out there. Inflation is is is really hurting people. I mean, it's universal from from truckers to soccer moms was I go door to door everyone is talking about the price of gas is concerned about how they're going to afford their next Philip and main we're looking at, you know, gas station just down the road. For me, we're looking at five bucks and 21 cents a gallon for the lowest grade gas. Boy, it's it's all of all of the warnings about inflation and the out of control spending and the printing of trillions of dollars out of thin air that US libertarians have been warning about for decades. Now. It's all coming to a head. And nobody outside the liberty movement seems to have any idea how to talk about this. And, you know, it puts us in a great position where we are the ones with the answers, because we are the only ones who understand how we got here.

Brian Nichols  3:37  
I had a tweet today that went a little semi viral. It was a retweet. That was I'm sorry, it was a tweet that I say I basically retweet it. But it wasn't a retweet as a screenshot of a tweet. But in essence, it was a retweet. I'm getting to the weeds. It was Peter Schiff. And it was back in 2020, march 2020, to be exact talking about what would be the consequence of printing trillions of dollars and oh, by the way, also arbitrarily shutting down the economy. And the answer Yeah, rampant inflation, it might not be right away, but you'll feel it sooner rather than you think. And oh, rather sooner rather than we think happened a lot sooner than I think we thought it was going to happen. And we're talking to my father in law. I think last summer he's like, Do you really think inflation is going to hit that soon? Brian? I'm like yeah, I'm pretty sure. And he goes I don't know everybody every see that CNBC person I hear there. Every Jim Cramer, inflation that's not even on the horizon, but it's real. People are feeling it. And now what what is 8.6% we saw the inflation hit back in May. It's not getting better. It's getting worse this inflation that was supposed to be what was it? It was transitory inflation. It's turned into a pretty stuck in not really transitory at all in any nature hasn't Eric.

Eric Brakey  4:54  
Well, in the long run, it's all transitory. Perhaps it's something John Maynard Keynes would say right? Um, yeah, but no for us who are living in that moment of transition as long as it might go on, and I think what we're transitioning towards is, you know, the the value of our dollars is transitioning out of our wallets and our bank accounts and, and our paychecks. And that way, it certainly is transitory. You Yeah, it's, it's, you know, I think for a lot of folks who are working in the policy area, I mean, the answers are pretty darn clear to me in terms of what you need to do on the federal level to stop inflation. The answers perhaps, are not going to be listened to or taken action upon. But the answer is pretty, pretty simple. Audit, the Federal Reserve, abolish the Federal Reserve, put America and the US dollar back on a gold standard, so that the politicians, the political class cannot manipulate the currency, like they have done over the course of the last 50 years that have brought us to this moment of, you know, we're we're teetering on a currency crisis. That would be the thing that needs to be done on the federal level, they'll never do it, because they will never give up their control over the ability to reach into our bank accounts and take the the value of the money that we earn. But on the state level, it's a little bit harder to talk to people about, you know, what, what, what can we do to protect people from inflation, I say we've got to deliver immediate tax relief for local people. So I would like suspend the gas tax suspend, you know, things, sales taxes on basic life necessities, until inflation is under 4%. That's just a bandaid to be to be clear. But then long term, if inflation is too much money chasing too few goods, because of course, as you said, and Peter Schiff pointed out, we shut down and crippled our productive capacity as an economy to produce goods and services. So there's less to go around, while flooding the economy with all this, these trillions of dollars of newly printed that newly printed money, of course, we're gonna see prices skyrocket. So we've got to tackle the money problem, and we have to tackle the production problem, we have to get people back to work, we have to, we've got to lift the job killing regulatory policies that are making it impossible for people to to produce goods and services like we were before, we need to put work requirements on welfare benefits for able bodied adults without kids pushing them to get back to work and off the sofa we're having. I know, in Maine, we're having huge labor shortages, shortage problems, I'm sure that's not unique to Maine. So these are things we can do on the supply side of the problem. And then on the money side of the problem, we've got to push for on us money. Every state legislature in this country should pass a resolution demanding that Congress audit the Federal Reserve, demanding that their delegations to that their state delegations to the US House of Representatives and to the US Senate, co sponsor and pass an audit of the Federal Reserve. That's where it begins and holding this corrupt monetary system accountable.

Brian Nichols  8:14  
This, this might be like a little bit off topic. But let's just kind of focus on your district in Maine, because I'm, I'm curious, and I'm sure a lot of the listeners are curious as well. Because I'm, I'm wondering if your area is kind of more of like the that kind of purplish area that goes one way or another from year to year. I'm seeing you know, for example, my home district in Northern New York, where I grew up, it was pretty squishy back and forth, you would switch red and blue pretty consistently for a number of years until the past five years, it's been consistently red. So I was wondering, what what does your district look like? And are you getting a positive feedback when you're going out in speaking to people? Or are you getting some pushback? Because I know I had some guests here in the show. And if they're in traditionally blue areas, they are in fact getting some pushback from some some folks that I think we would traditionally think might be empathetic to our ideas and our values, but they just gets stuck in the political discourse of the day. So I'm just curious, what do you see in there, Eric?

Eric Brakey  9:17  
Well, there's certainly always going to be people who believe whatever the talking points are of the Biden White House that this is all Vladimir Putin's fault and ignore the man behind the curtain printing trillions of dollars out of thin air, you know, don't pay any attention to him. There are going to be people who listen to those talking points and take their marching orders there because they cannot see beyond this veil of tribal of political tribalism. And that's a shame. But there are so many folks in the middle who are receptive and trying to figure out what's going on and looking for answers. I will tell you, you asked about my area, my Senate district that I'm running to represent, it is a big swing district in the state of Maine. In fact, it's kind of the swing district in the state of Maine. It's predicted control Have the Maine State Senate in every election for the last 14 years. So whenever Republicans have won the state Senate seat they've been in the majority whenever Democrats have won the state Senate seat they've been in the majority. It's so it's the bellwether. I've, you know, when I've wanted in the past, I've won it pretty handily about 60% Both times because I get out I go door to door, I develop kind of personal relationships with my constituents one on one, I'm doing that again. Knock on. Yeah, well, politics is personal, you know, and, and that actually is encouraging to me that you can kind of override these kind of partisan sentiments by just being a human being with people knocking on their door, listening to their concerns, and talking in good faith about how we might try to develop solutions. And the solutions I'm always proposing are, are based on these principles, these principles of more freedom, more liberty, not more government. So yeah, I'm out doing it. 500 doors in I've got plenty more to do. But But I every single conversation, it's the price of gas, the price of heating oil, the price of groceries,

Brian Nichols  11:09  
you're running with the big are next to your name. Oh, there goes, there you go. I hit the wrong button. I forgot you're not with us, actually on the phone today. So we got the nice picture of you this, by the way, Eric's put her profile picture for anybody who was wondering where this amazing, amazing picture came from. But, Eric, I wonder when you're looking at moving, you're moving forward to like this 2022 election that I feel, I think everybody else feels it's going to be a pretty big red wave, right. And I don't want to count, you know, the chickens before they hatch. However, we're seeing because of all the all the wet dream policies, basically, anybody in the progressive left over the past few years that they've gotten in place, it's yielded not only the exact opposite of what was promised, but it's really turned off a lot of people who would traditionally be on the Democratic team, we're seeing, you know, Hispanics, just departing the Democratic Party in mass and that we just saw here, as we're recording today, down in Texas, I forget the lady's name, but I think she's the first ever Mexican born woman to win a seat and she's a Republican, down in Texas for I think, is a congressional seat. So no state senate Sorry, just like you say, Senate. So we're seeing there is a change, and there is definitely some, you know, we're seeing the red starting to peak out, but is is it going to be enough. And I asked that because we've really taken a hard hit over the past few years, we're seeing and we've gone through the inflation hitting home for so many people, we've seen what it's hitting the gas pump, and now we're seeing the housing market that's gone up a couple of percentage points just in a few weeks. So it's gonna be hitting a lot of different areas, too. And we're going to be going into a looming recession, we're gonna be hitting that plus stagflation. So will the red wave be enough to kind of hold us together as we go through some very tough times over the next few years?

Eric Brakey  13:05  
Well, you know, a red wave is good and all but it really depends on what kind of Republicans are riding in on that red wave. You know, if all if all we do and I'm I am very glad that the progressives and the Democratic Party and just all the politics that they've embraced these last couple of years, several years as they've abandoned pretty much anything that was ever redeemable about them, you know, they love war. Now, they're against civil liberties, like anything that you'd liked about them in the you know, the George W. Bush era is gone. In fact, they love Liz Cheney. Now, they love the war mongers, they love all these, you know, Neo cons, they want them in their party. Well, they can have them and we'll take the regular working class people who are getting sick and tired of this stuff. But if, if, if all that happens in this election, is the pendulum swings back. This is what happens time and again, right? The pendulum swings blue, and then it swings red, it goes from the Democrat establishment to the Republican establishment. And let's be clear, Democrats and Joe Biden in particular, and Nancy Pelosi and those making these big spending decisions in Washington DC right now, are absolutely responsible for the inflation that we're seeing right now. And so are the big spending Republicans who have done the exact same thing. Whenever they've been in charge. If we had just ran Paul's and Thomas Massey's in, you know, the Republican caucus in Washington DC, then, you know, the Republicans, the Republicans on the federal level would be great. But it's so important. That's why it's so important that in these primaries, people have to vote people have to find Liberty candidates and support them. And, you know, if we get more if Republicans take over and we get more liberty folks in there to join Massey and Rand Paul Wonderful. At the same time, I doubt we're going to get such a critical mass of liberty folks in Congress, this go around to have the kind of real disruptive change that we need to have to get our country back on the right track, which is why I think the state capitals are where the real fight is. Because, you know, I experienced this when I ran for Congress and I had a very good shot of being the congressman from Maine's second congressional district. If I'd won that primary, I probably would be today. But the establishment did not want me they spent half a million dollars in negative attack ads against against me to stop me from winning that primary. And we got the establishment candidate who ended up losing in a district that Trump carried, you know, go figure. But, you know, I've realized it's such a bleak guarded fortress of corruption in Washington DC, that it's just so hard to penetrate with enough people to make the the difference there. But we as a grassroots movement, we do have a competitive advantage, and our sheer numbers of activists and people who are willing to run and if we run run people for the state legislative offices, they can't stop all of us and the state and the state legislatures have more power than most people realize. If the state's stood together, in you know, worked with each other to not to nullify the wars with defend the guard to nullify unconstitutional spending and through tax nullification and caught and pushing for an audit of the Federal Reserve and changing legal tender laws. There are so many things we can do from the state capitals, in the in the in the immediate term, to fix these problems. So I think that's where we've got to focus and that's going to be the story that is always under reported because everyone likes to talk about Washington DC, the focus is always there. But look at what happens in the state capitals this November. That's where the fight is.

Brian Nichols  17:00  
Yeah. And thank you for focusing on the importance of talking about the getting involved the Liberty candidates getting involved, especially in a primary level, because that is where the real changes is needed. Because right now, I mean, you want to talk about a real pain in the back it is the GOP and the Democratic establishment they are truly the the pain in the back of America if only America had today's episode sponsor our other episodes sponsor and that is eagles. Yes, I've been using the evils freeze jail for the pain in my back, Eric. You know, no good deed goes unpunished. I had a friend here whose parents house got hit by some tornadoes. Now, thank goodness, everybody was a okay, but we had lots of trees out there that had to be chopped up. And you know, me, I just I'm chopping the trees up one taking the log, I twisted the wrong way. And all it took was that to send my back into a tizzy, thank God, I've been using the evals because it has seriously been saving me from like excruciating discomfort. And I sit all day long. So I'm on sales calls all day. So I don't really get the chance to move too much unless I'm out and about walking around. So being able to have this in the back pocket was great. So folks, if you want to go ahead and get 15% off your order over at eagles and start your pain free day, future today, go to Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Eagles, and when you're at checkout, use code TB N 's. And yeah, you'll get 15% off at checkout one more time. That's code TB, and s. Brian Nichols. show.com, forward slash evals. All right, Eric, I have to ask you, cuz I'm curious, your thoughts. Now we talked about the Liberty folks running in the GOP. And that is important. That's what you're doing. But we saw over the past few weeks here, a couple of changes have taken place in both national politics and also state politics because now the Libertarian Party has been, it's really gone back to more libertarian roots. And we've seen with the election of Angela McArdle in the Mises caucus down the ballot, I know she got 69% of the total vote. But we've seen a big change in the Libertarian Party, especially in terms of messaging. So, hey, we might see the Libertarian Party actually be a vessel that some weary Liberty advocates or liberty, curious folks can now start to gravitate towards. What are your thoughts? Do you see the Libertarian Party being as a viable means now to go ahead and actually get more liberty warriors elected to both state as well as federal office?

Eric Brakey  19:25  
Well, I'll say this, first of all, more power to them. I respect anyone who is getting off the couch and getting out from behind Twitter and Facebook and going out and doing Liberty activism in the world. It's it's a good thing. As far as the Libertarian Party goes, I mean, you know, I had that big debate with Dave Smith about this. You know, hey, it's great. I'm glad to see kind of a more Ron Paul message kind of at the center of the of the LP, but that doesn't really change the structural problems of our electoral system. That disadvantages third parties, it seems like if if the goal is to, if it's beyond just messaging and education, if the goal is to actually get people elected and change policy through, you know, getting Liberty champions elected to state capitals and to Congress and the White House or what have you, the LP is just not a very effective vehicle for that, because it's a rigged two party system. I, I, I really think that where the where the best place where we can make a big difference is is in the primaries for the Republican Party, there are plenty of liberty candidates running around the country. And and they need the support of of liberty voters and liberty activists to win those primaries and go on to win their general elections and then pass more constitutional carry across the country pass school choice. Pass, defend the guard and bring the troops home. There's so many things we can do there. And the GOP is just under the rules under the rules of the road. As they stand right now. The GOP is a more effective vehicle.

Brian Nichols  21:07  
Yeah, we're not gonna rehash that old debate, because if folks really want to dig into it, he does over on line

Eric Brakey  21:12  
the Liberty right. Yeah, that was over on with Mark Clary. Yep,

Brian Nichols  21:16  
yep. Yeah. So make sure folks, if you're interested, go check that out. It was a Dave Smith. And Eric had a great conversation. And I, personally, I think I'm torn. I've been torn. I think good ideas at the end of the day aren't enough. And you do need to use the best platform that's available to you be that the Libertarian Party or the GOP, I don't really see the Democratic Party being a viable means to really advance Liberty based solutions right now. Hopefully, in the future, we'll get better. But with that being said, I absolutely hear you. I am cautiously optimistic, though. And I will tell you why. Because I see a third of Americans who are completely apathetic from the or agnostic, that is from the political infrastructure. And they there's about half of Americans total last election cycle don't even vote. So we have a large group of people I think we could touch base with right now. And as we always talk about meeting them on the issues they care about, and part of the things I think they're really focusing on and caring about is that there's just this exhaustion from the left versus right conversation, and that there is a demand almost a hunger for an alternative, there is a desire for something to be different. We've seen this with the way Elon Musk has been approaching politics, we've seen the likes of Andrew Yang, and his politics. I mean, heck, the Libertarian Party, by the kind of nature of itself is the alternative to the two party system. Now that's not enough, right. There's a lot more that goes into that. And to your point, there's a lot of barriers that have held the Libertarian Party back. But thank goodness, we're at a point I would say that technology has advanced enough that we're overcoming a lot of those barriers and making a lot of those barriers, almost obsolete in their attempt to hold back. Third parties like the Libertarian Party, especially when we're reaching 10s of millions of people beyond the the traditional political infrastructure or the political, corporate infrastructure, that'd be going through the mainstream media, we're having a lot more ability to reach your average person, one on one podcast you what you're doing, going out talking to people face to face, especially in those state and local elections that does so much more than any ad dollar spend, you could possibly do. And that is where we're going to win. And I think it's going to be at the end of the day, a lot of party agnostic, which is a good thing. So that being said, Eric, unfortunately, already hard pressed for time. And, folks, I want them to go ahead and learn more about your amazing campaign up there in Maine. Yes, you're running for State Senate back in Maine, your old seat, and we're looking to reclaim that and put a good Liberty warrior back in the State Capitol in Maine. So Eric, where can folks go ahead and find you, number one, to follow you on social media, but also learn more about your campaign?

Eric Brakey  24:03  
Breakey for senate.com is the website. Go there? Check us out chip and five bucks. It's appreciated. You can also follow me on Twitter at Senator breaky and on Facebook at Eric brakey for Maine Senate.

Brian Nichols  24:18  
Awesome. All right. Well, folks, if you enjoyed today's episode, please go ahead and give it a share. And when you do give Eric a tag and also please go ahead and give yours truly a tag as well. Also remember, please go ahead and sign up for the expat money summit 2020 to Brian Nichols show.com forward slash expat and if you have all those aches and pains and you want to get your Eagles free JL Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Eagles use code TVs at checkout for 15% off Eric Any final thoughts for the audience today?

Eric Brakey  24:51  
Let's restore our freedoms, restore our paychecks restore our Constitution and kick the corrupt tyrannical bums out of office.

Brian Nichols  25:00  
I can't agree more my friend. All right, folks, well, please do me a favor if you're here on the podcast or make sure you click the artwork in your podcast catcher which will bring you to today's episode, where you can go ahead and find all of Eric's social media, please go give him some love and give his contents some shares. Also, if you're interested, please, yes, go ahead and support his campaign. The donations absolutely help us reach more people. And it will help Eric reach more people up there in Maine as he's pursuing his seat. They're back for state senate. Also, folks, if you're here on the YouTube, we'll make sure number one, you hit that subscribe button. So you're not missing a single time that we go live. And to be sure just hit that little notification bell as well. And by the way, did you check out our awesome conversation yesterday, we had Chris Weidner, he joined us he is joining President Trump on the American freedom tour. And we talked about the art of influence how, if you are winsome, you might actually win some and oh, by the way, Eric, I asked the seek the super important question, is President Trump running for president in 2024. If you want to go ahead and find out the answer there, well, you got to click right here. The video will pop up here for our YouTube watcher, so make sure you go ahead and check that out. I'll see you over there. But with that being said, it's Brian Nichols signing off. You're on The Brian Nichols Show for the renegade statesman Eric brakey. We'll see you tomorrow,

Unknown Speaker  26:21  
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