Common Sense Values in US House Race: Nick Begich’s Conservatism
Jun 19, 2024
Kelly Tshibaka and Niki Tshibaka
Can America afford to lose its conservative principles? Today, we sit down with Nick Begich, a passionate candidate for the US House in Alaska, who provides a thought-provoking analysis of the current political climate and the critical importance of the upcoming election. We explore Nick's insights on the transformation of the Democratic Party, the pivotal role of conservative values, and the foundational principles of our constitutional republic. This episode addresses the real challenges everyday Americans are facing, the overreach of the regulatory state, and the impact of radical left ideologies. We also discuss the enduring significance of Donald Trump's message to the general populace and the necessity of unwavering leadership to protect core American values.
Raised by conservative, Christian grandparents in Florida, Nick Begich's upbringing offers a unique perspective on American politics. Despite common assumptions about Alaskan voters, Nick's formative years in a Republican household have significantly shaped his belief in limited government and a strict adherence to the vision of America's founders. We delve into his major endorsements from Capitol Hill and presidential candidates, drawing a sharp contrast with the record of the incumbent. Tune in for an engaging discussion that promises to redefine what it means to be a conservative in today's America and highlight the pivotal issues at stake in the upcoming election.
Can America afford to lose its conservative principles? Today, we sit down with Nick Begich, a passionate candidate for the US House in Alaska, who provides a thought-provoking analysis of the current political climate and the critical importance of the upcoming election. We explore Nick's insights on the transformation of the Democratic Party, the pivotal role of conservative values, and the foundational principles of our constitutional republic. This episode addresses the real challenges everyday Americans are facing, the overreach of the regulatory state, and the impact of radical left ideologies. We also discuss the enduring significance of Donald Trump's message to the general populace and the necessity of unwavering leadership to protect core American values.
Raised by conservative, Christian grandparents in Florida, Nick Begich's upbringing offers a unique perspective on American politics. Despite common assumptions about Alaskan voters, Nick's formative years in a Republican household have significantly shaped his belief in limited government and a strict adherence to the vision of America's founders. We delve into his major endorsements from Capitol Hill and presidential candidates, drawing a sharp contrast with the record of the incumbent. Tune in for an engaging discussion that promises to redefine what it means to be a conservative in today's America and highlight the pivotal issues at stake in the upcoming election.
Welcome to Stand where we help make courage contagious. I'm your host, Kelly Chewbacca, former US Senate candidate in Alaska and the current chair of the Trump campaign in the state, and I'm joined today by my amazing husband, Nikki Chewbacca. So glad that you're with us.
Speaker 2:
Glad that you're here too, kelly Chewbacca. Glad that you're here too, nikki Chewbacca. So glad that you're with us. Glad that you're here, too, kelly.
Speaker 1:
Chewbacca. Glad that you're here too, nikki Chewbacca. We are so excited to have you today as one of our standouts. You can join our standout community at standshoworg. That's where you can find all of our amazing podcast stations and our social media channels. We'd love for you to hit subscribe, follow us and see all of our cool past episodes, like the one we did with Bill O'Reilly. Be amazing to have you join us. We'd see you there. Stanshoworg. Speaking of amazing things, today's episode is sponsored by Lertzema Communications. If you're looking to sway voters, build your company brand or persuade audiences, lertzema Communications is for you. Every project they've done for me has been awesome, and they've also done an excellent job for every single client I have sent to them. I could not recommend them more highly. Lertzma Communications.
Speaker 2:
That's right, and I'd also like to let our audience know about a really exciting event that's coming up Dershowitz Alan Dershowitz, the legal legend himself will be with us here in Alaska, in Anchorage, in person on June 27th at 730 pm. That's a Thursday. We're inviting you all to come out and hear him talk about the fight for freedom in America and in Israel and also give us his insider scoop on Trump's New York trial, because he was there and saw it all. So come on out June 27th, 730 pm. You can get your tickets on standshoworg. That is standshoworg.
Speaker 1:
We will see you there, and we've got an exciting episode for you. Today we are joined by our friend and candidate for US House in Alaska, nick Begich. Nick was running for US House last time, in 2022, against the candidate, mary Pultola, who is a Democrat, and ultimately won. This is one of the toss-up seats in America this cycle. The Democrats are fighting for their lives to keep this seat because we have such a narrow majority for the Republicans in the House, and in Alaska we have more Republicans than Democrats. There's a recent poll that actually shows that right now, if Alaska was to vote, nick Begich is just as likely to win this seat as Mary Pultola, our incumbent. So today we're going to jump into all the ins and outs of this race, because it's not only relevant to Alaska. It is relevant to the balance of power in the US House across America. Nick Begich, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you on stand today.
Speaker 3:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here, ready to dive into the topics of the day. Talk about the nation, talk about Alaska, talk about the dynamics of this race.
Speaker 1:
We're so excited to have you, so we just want to start out and ask you what do you believe and what do you stand for?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's a great question. Look, I mean, I believe that the JFK party of the past, the JFK Democrats, are gone. The left, the hard left, has hijacked today's Democrat party and what we see we all see it is a polarized society where there's very little overlap between the two parties because the ideologies are fundamentally different. When you think about what it means to be a conservative, what are we trying to conserve?
Speaker 3:
Well, we're trying to conserve 5,000 to 10,000 years of recorded history where we've tried different forms of governance and government and we've tried different ways to instantiate our rights, our natural rights as individuals, and we've come up with a fantastic way to do that. It's a constitutional republic. Our constitution enshrines the rights that we have been given by God right, and they protect our rights from the government. And it's the left, it's the radical left today, that is trying to deconstruct that constitutional republic, that form of government that we so value. And every time that you see the right compromise on those core values, we're taking another brick out of that wall, another brick out of the institution that protects us. And we've got to have people that will take a stand. We've got to have people that will not just draw lines in the sand. They'll chisel them into the stone, because those values are timeless and they shouldn't change.
Speaker 1:
What do you say? Those core values are Nick.
Speaker 3:
Yes, so the core values. First of all, as I mentioned, we have the rights for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Government should be as small as possible.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Government should not be controlling our lives. The private sector should be allowed to flourish. The regulatory state should be greatly diminished. I believe that people want to be left alone. I mean, when you look at the environment that we have today, regular folks out there who are working hard sometimes two and three jobs just to make ends meet, are having to take time away from their lives, from their kids, from growing their families, and focus on a political discussion that they really wish they wouldn't have to be involved in. And I think the problem that we've got is we have a religious activist left, right. They've got religion around their ideology and they will stop at nothing. They're almost missionaries going out trying to change the environment that we live in and regular people are sick of it.
Speaker 3:
And I think that's part of why we've seen Donald Trump do so well over the last several years, because he resonates with people. He's speaking to regular people and I think you know we talk about. What are those core values? Common sense values. It's about protecting the family, protecting kids, protecting young women from competition from men in sports. It's the fundamental, basic American way of life that is at stake in this election and I think that you know it's common sense values that are on the ballot in this election, and I'll tell you every time that you see an election cycle come up, you hear some politician tell you that this is the most important election of your lifetime. This actually is. This actually is.
Speaker 1:
It really feels like things just keep escalating right, and I agree with you on those values.
Speaker 1:
And two that I would add to the ones you mentioned and I know that you share these as well the support for law enforcement, public safety and national security.
Speaker 1:
What they're doing at the border, the invasion that the Biden administration and the far left have allowed in order to infiltrate our country and absolutely destroy our cities and communities, is a tantamount to an act of war. And then also, I would add to it resource support for resource development in America, and I would say resource dominance, but I'm not sure that everyone in the in the Republican Party agrees with going that far, but at least we would support the development of resources here in America, rather than being absolutely dependent on foreign adversaries that can just cut us off, like some of them are currently doing, where we've now drained our strategic petroleum reserve and we're dependent on people who want to take us out as a country to supply our basic energy needs. Like to me, like you say, these are common sense. It is surprising, I agree with you, surprising that these are even falling on party lines anymore. We used to disagree about how to implement these principles. Now we even disagree whether these are principles.
Speaker 3:
Yes, you are 100% correct, and I tell people this all the time. I say look, if you ask the average five-year-old in a city where does milk come from? They're going to tell you the grocery store right, Milk comes from a cow. Right, Gasoline doesn't come from the gas station. Right, it comes from oil that gets refined, that moves through the supply chain and arrives at a gas station where you can purchase it.
Speaker 3:
We have become so disconnected, disassociated with the origin story of the resources that we have in life that we think that they're always going to be there. And so you get these crazy ideas that come out of the left that are anti-resource because they think somehow that that resource will be there no matter what policy they have. Well, that's just not true. If they raise the cost of those resources, if they diminish our ability to develop those resources, we're not going to have them.
Speaker 3:
The one thing that we have in America that other nations do not have economically we have the US dollar. We have the world's reserve currency. When you go into your kitchen, when you go into your garage, when you go into a Walmart, tell me how much of that was made in the United States. We have hollowed out our manufacturing and we rely on the value of that dollar. And so when we talk about some of the issues that are on the ballot, this is a critical issue that's on the ballot, and I'm sad to report that it's not just Democrats that have this spending problem, it's Republicans as well. We need to get people in Congress who will have fiscal discipline, help balance that budget, reduce the deficit at a minimum so that we can protect the value of that dollar, Because if we lose that reserve currency status, the things that we consume because we don't produce them, we won't be able to continue to consume them and our American way of life will suffer dramatically.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you're right. Yeah, that's absolutely right. You know, I really appreciate that picture that you gave Nick about conservatism being about those bricks in the wall, and there's this misconception that conservatives oppose progress. We don't oppose progress, we embrace progress, but we understand that it has to be built on something, something solid, right, and so we agree that there are fundamental principles that form a solid foundation upon which progress can be built.
Speaker 2:
But what we're seeing right now, and to the points that you and Kelly have been making, is that everything's getting torn down. Institutions are getting torn down by the left, the rule of law is getting being torn down by the left. The nation's borders, nations are getting. Even the idea of a nation is getting torn down by the left. We're seeing our resources and our ability to produce and manufacture within the country getting torn down by the left, and they call that progress and somehow they have enough people fooled that that's actually leading us into a better and brighter future, that they've somehow managed to cling to power. However, people are waking up to this and we're beginning to see to your point what is Trump's going on around the country? And we're beginning to see to your point as Trump's going around the country and we're seeing African-Americans go his way. I think we're seeing Democrats begin to wake up to the reality that these ideas are not progressive.
Speaker 1:
Well, they're not resulting in the outcomes they want. Nick, I want to follow up on a line that you just said the origin story. Would you share with us your origin story, so to speak?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we've got about a minute and a half in this segment.
Speaker 3:
That is a great question. That is a great question. You said a minute and a half left in this segment.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Go for it.
Speaker 3:
All right, I'll be brief. So I'm from Alaska, which people automatically assume. But what a lot of folks don't realize is my parents split up when I was young and I ended up being raised by my grandparents and they moved us as far away from the activity that was happening in Alaska. We grew up down in Florida, my sister and I, with my grandparents. They are hard conservative Christians from the South and I was raised in the church. I was raised conservative. I was a young Republicans in high school. So I'm a baggage which in Alaska for those who are maybe outside of Alaska don't realize is usually associated with a Democrat name. I was raised conservative, I was raised Republican. I came back to Alaska about 20 years ago and it was a shock actually to find that many people had believed that I would automatically have been a Democrat, but it turns out, and I'm not a biologist- but it turns out that people have two sides of every family and my other side of the family is hard red.
Speaker 3:
So that's how I was raised and I have endorsed and supported and adopted those values, not simply because I was raised that way, but because I think that's what makes the most sense. I think that's the closest to our founders vision and I think that you know it's a vision we've just talked about it in a segment but it's a vision that recognizes that that America does best when government is small, kept in its lane and the people are left alone.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I want to also pick up on the other side of this segment and talk about your big endorsements from Capitol Hill and some presidential candidates, and we want to talk about the incumbent's current record and how you contrast with that. So stand by and we'll come back with Nick Begich, candidate for US House in Alaska, right after this.
