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Walker Wildmon We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are.
We quit.
Rick Green Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
Don Wildmon We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope.
This is At the Core on American family Radio.
Rick Green is America's constitution coach and speaker at Patriot Academy
Rick Green Welcome to At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's constitution coach, coming to you live from the Patriot Academy campus in the legislative hall. So it's very noisy. So all that noise in the background. We've got, I, think it's 115, maybe 120 young people on the house floor in the legislative hall At Patriot Academy in Constitution City, Texas. And they are learning the constitution, but they're actually living it out on the house floor. And so you can hear the activity as they're working on some bill. I don't even know what bill they're trying to pass, but seated here with me is Thomas Umstadt, Patriot academy grad from, Wow. 20 years ago. What year did you first come? 05.
Thomas Umstattd 05.
Rick Green 05. Wow. And then you were speaker of the House. 06. Yes. So you've actually had that gavel in your hand.
Thomas Umstattd I still have that gavel in my office, yeah. Prized possession.
Rick Green I love it. Well, Thomas came all those years ago and then began to speak At Patriot Academy. And I remember you telling the story one time about the first time Rick gave me a speaking slot. It was like 10 minutes, I don't know. And then it was 20 minutes, and then it was an hour. I don't remember the progression, but eventually you were doing half the talks, it seems like. So, but it's been a few years. We are thrilled to have you back, man. I know you're going to do two talks this afternoon. what are you hoping these kids get? Kids, they're adults, young adults. But now you can actually.
Thomas Umstattd This is my first time where they feel like kids. I'm like, oh, my goodness. This is a different generation. so I think the number one thing is having an attitude of victory. I, think that it's time for us to repent from retreatism. I think for a long time, when things got hard, the response was we'll just retreat and build our own thing. And it's time to start eating from vineyards that we didn't plant and eating from fields that we didn't plant the grain. And taking land from the enemy.
Rick Green Yes.
Thomas Umstattd And that shift in mindset, I think if nothing else gets across, I want that change.
Rick Green I love that you've always been a master of words, man. I don't know how many quotes, jokes, everything else I still use today that I stole from you 20 years ago.
Thomas Umstattd Well, to let you know, I steal a lot of your stuff still.
Rick Green Oh, man.
Talk about how you're helping authors and all the other things you're doing
and actually, speaking of that, actually, let's sidetrack for a second. So tell us what you're doing now. Talk to us about how you're helping authors and all the other things you're doing. because I think that's important for people to realize, too, that we need more voices and we need more people to step into the debate or even just. Just the culture conversations going on.
Thomas Umstattd Yeah. So I am a professional podcaster, if you can believe it. It was not a real job, when I was in Patriot Academy. Still don't feel like it's a real job right now. But, I have three, podcasts. the old one is Novel Marketing Podcast. It's the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. And it's just a bread and butter. Here's how to market your book. And then I have the Christian Publishing show, which is about how to write good books and how to honor God through your writing. But my newest show is Author Update, which gets into the culture and gets into polit, but how it affects the kind of stories that resonate with readers. And so in some ways, I feel like I'm out of the game, but in another way, I feel like I'm influencing the influencers for the long term because Elon Musk is this big asset to the movement now, and he's a big asset now because of the books he read as a teenager. Getting beat up in South Africa, reading Asimov, reading Heinlein, and encountering those ideas through fiction that got him to start asking different questions and coming to different conclusions than everyone else around him.
Rick Green No. That's so good. And were you as shocked as when Elon Musk starts, you know, sharing videos of Milton Friedman and, you know, because he even called himself Kind of a left winger, you know, four years ago, five years ago, Kind of like Joe Rogan. Same thing. Just a few years ago. And then all of a sudden, he's become one of the greatest advocates for the principles that, I mean, he's kind of like Franklin. Right? We'd have to call. He calls himself a cultural Christian. He's certainly not where we come from in terms of the faith aspect, but he's pushing the right principles. And what you're saying is that goes all the way back to seeds that were planted in him and his teens.
Thomas Umstattd That's right. He's actually a lot like Franklin. There is an archetyp, American. That's Franklin, Edison, Musk, which is the Electric Man. The man who's a little outside of politics, but who's very smart.
Rick Green Wait, what'd you call it?
Thomas Umstattd The Electric Man.
Rick Green The Electric Man.
Thomas Umstattd All three men had major breakthroughs in electricity.
Krish Dhanam Wow.
Thomas Umstattd and they were all very smart and they all changed their era. Right. Franklin, his inventions completely transformed America from a backwater to, by the time he died, we were more advanced than Europe in many categories. Like the very best rifles in the world were being made in, like, backwoods Tennessee, partly because the guild system in Europe was so broken. but we had a lot of breakthroughs. And then Edison, of course, is obvious. And then, Musk is that same sort of outsider voice. And I think that's one of the wonderful things about the American system is that it has a room for non professional politicians in kind of the political discourse. And, you know, Franklin wasn't a professional politician. Right. That wasn't his goal or driving, energy, but he was really good At it. Edison, I think, was the least involved of the three politically. although we will see how. I think Musk realized just how toxic it is. He burned himself on the stove. Yes.
Rick Green No, I felt the same way. It was like so much good stuff. Right. He's bringing such a good voice into all the Doge stuff was great. Uncovering his stuff so fast in a matter of weeks, and then just hit the brick wall of the swamp and he's going, wait a minute.
Bobby Roza You.
Rick Green the very people that brought me here are now saying no to the thing that they asked me to do.
Thomas Umstattd That's right. And Musk represents.
Kamala Harris: Elon Musk runs his companies like a monarchy
We're in this like, epochal shift. So most nations only last 250 years. And this is a, like, law of history almost. There's a few exceptions. And we are modeled after Rome, which is one of the exceptions. So the Roman kingdom lasted almost exactly 250 years. The Roman Empire lasted two sets of 250 years as it went from the principate to the dominant. But the Roman Republic, which is what we're actually modeled off of, lasted 400 years because it was able to self reform and self model, break the cycle
Rick Green from within, break that natural cycle of getting lazy because you've had it so good. Exactly.
Thomas Umstattd And so like they added the tribune of the plebs as like this core constitutional shift where now the plebs had a bigger voice in government. And by that 250 year timer we have just hit. So this is the like big question of will we continue for another 250 years? What will that transformation be? Because we'll need a change.
Rick Green Yes.
Thomas Umstattd And Musk runs his companies in a way that represents a key shift and that is he doesn't run his companies by committee. So all of the American government and almost all organizations, your church, my church, everyone's churches, they're all run by committee. Musk's companies are not run by committee. He runs them very much like a monarchy where people come into the throne room and give a report and they're held directly accountable and then they go and do the things. There's no committee that they move very quickly. And it's why in every single sector he's able to outperform his competition. That's I think, why he struggled with Doge. Because you can't just transform the American government into that model of direct authority, which is the Nebuchadnezzar head of gold approach to government, where I give you all the authority and if you win, I cover you in gold and if you lose, I put your head on a spike.
Rick Green We can't sell that in D.C. no,
Thomas Umstattd in D.C. everyone's allergic to that level of radical accountability. In fact, the whole approach to success is to avoid as much accountability as possible. Whereas Musk only hires the best people. And it gives him authority and it gives him accountability.
Rick Green And he expects way more than anybody else, he demands more than anybody else. And maybe that's why he can do that because it's bottleneck to one person. It's easier to hold them accountable. They want to rise to the occasion. I mean, I've never thought about it that way, that kind of. Because I've always wondered how in the world is this guy doing space, you know, Tesla doing all of these things that if you just did one of those things, you'd be one of the most successful people in history. And he's doing, like five of them.
Thomas Umstattd Yeah, it's very similar to Edison. Edison's biggest invention was not the light bulb or the phonograph. It was the research industrial process of putting a bunch of smart people in a room and saying, I expect you to invent a new thing every week. And every R and D program in every company is modeled after Edison's innovation of that process. And so far, no companies have the guts to copy Musk's radical accountability approach. But if you're willing to get rid of the committees and just give a person authority, you can beat all of your competitors who are still running on committee.
Rick Green Would you say, this is so interesting, man, we got to get back together? Because I would love to dive a lot further into this one, would you say? But let's go down that rabbit hole just one way. Does the executive branch have. Is it more likely that we could do that there? If you apply, appoint a secretary of that agency and give them blanket authority. And maybe this is the whole battle. The Supreme Court just ruled. Yes, he can't. The president can hire and fire. Like, if the president had the authority to hire and fire everybody in the federal branch that is under the executive branch now you can hire a secretary of that particular agency and say, clean house. Make this thing work the way it's supposed to work.
Thomas Umstattd This has always been the dream. Like, presidents have been creating czars for a long time with this hope of, like, I'm going to put a person in charge, I'm going to make Kamal Harris in charge of the border, and she's going to fix it. Right. So part of the problem was Kamala Harris was, low IQ person, as Trump would say. And so even if she didn't have to fight a bureaucracy, she probably couldn't have fixed it. But even if she was really smart, she doesn't have enough authority because being able to replace the people At the top isn't powerful if those people don't have the same authority. It's the centurion in, the Book of Matthew, right? I am a man under authority, and I have authority. And so you, you can't give somebody authority if they don't actually have authority. And so you have to be able to fire all the way down. So we have to make bureaucrats, jobs, insecure, which requires a core fundamental shift in how bureaucracies work and the core social contract with bureaucrats. Because bureaucrats have, up to this point, operated very much like artificial intelligences, where they don't have a lot of agency. They're just an extension of the machine. And so 2001 A Space Odyssey wasn't about A.I. nobody in the audience when they watched that movie had ever encountered a computer. This is the 1960s. But they had all encountered a bureaucrat who said, I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. All of the AI movies, from the 80s are the different views of government. Right. The Terminator is not about AI it's about the government. And it's about. Because we hadn't encountered AI that you can talk to until very recently. And none of the fiction is actually about that. And so we've all been to the DMV where they say, you need this form. You've got to get it from somebody else to go to the other person. They say, no, you need the form. You go back and forth, back and forth. And they both say, I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. That was what was resonant about that scene and why audiences in the 1960s loved it so much.
Rick Green Interesting, man. Oh. So, yeah, we got to come back to this one. We'll do this again for sure.
Patriot Academy gives you character training and skills training, Rick says
Okay, back to what's happening now. The leadership Congress out on the floor. and you came 20 years ago. How did your experience Patriot Academy affect you?
Thomas Umstattd It was a core defining moment, for my life, really, because Patriot Academy gave me several really key things. It gave me some vision that I could make a difference in the world. And that was important 20 years ago. I think it's even more important right now because there's a lot of young people who feel like they're a victim of fate and they've been dealt a bad hand. And they have been dealt a bad hand.
Rick Green Right.
Thomas Umstattd young people look At their parents lives, and they look At where they are when their parents were their same age, see that they're behind. See that their parents maybe were behind their grandparents. And it's very discouraging. And then it's easy to say, there's nothing I can do. And Patriot Academy is like, no, there's all kinds of things you can do and you can do inside of yourself. So Patriot Academy sells itself as this constitution training. You've probably heard Rick say constitution a million times, but what it secretly gives you is character training and skills training.
Rick Green That's good. This is a marketer, man. This guy knows what's really happening here.
Thomas Umstattd Yes. So it's like, here's how to give a good speech. Here's how to Contribute your emotions. because that is not a concept that's popular, right? It's like, oh, I want to get in touch with myself. It's like, no, actually you can control your emotions. You can have self control. In fact, you need to have self control if you want to be effective in a political, environment. You can't let your fear control your greed or your anger. All of these emotions can destroy you. And you can control them, you can control yourself. But it requires discipline. And that discipline is what's required for free people.
Rick Green Yeah, exactly, right. No, you can't self govern. I mean the free people, that's not going to last if those people aren't self governing. And that's the core of what we're teaching here.
Thomas Umstattd will give two talks to students at Patriot Academy this afternoon
Okay, you're doing two topics this afternoon and tell us just a 30 second overview of each of those topics that you're going to cover with the students.
Thomas Umstattd So I'm a big believer that a talk is not worth giving if it's not risky. So my first talk is on compromise and it is all about what when to listen to wise counsel. Because to never compromise is to assert that you're always correct and nobody is always correct. So we all need to compromise, but we don't want to become compromised. So how do we navigate that? And I'm looking At Benjamin Franklin and the founders predominantly, but there's a lot of proverbs snuck in and some Star wars references.
Rick Green That's a Thomas Umstattd presentation if I've ever heard one.
Thomas Umstattd Which again with Gen Z, I don't know if they like Star Wars. I will say Mike kids, Gen Alpha, they find Star wars very boring. They'd rather watch Dude Perfect do a Star wars sketch than watch a Disney or a Lucasfilm Star wars film. So it's a big, we're going through a big generational shift. And then my second talk is the even more risky talk. and that's on AI.
Rick Green this is going to be a hot topic for sure. And I want to learn how to argue this one because I'm dealing with that politically all over the state of Texas.
Thomas Umstattd So, I'll be giving a talk to a group of armed Gen zers who all hate AI but they've been going to Patriot Academy and they've learned self discipline and listen and learn. And they'll have just heard my talk about how to disagree agreeably. I'm prepping them ahead of time.
Rick Green So you plan this appropriately in, in the order. Thomas Umstead. a website where people can learn more and catch, all three of your podcasts. AuthorMedia.comm AuthorMedia.com Thomas Umstead it is so good to have you back At Patriot Academy. Stay with us, folks. Quick break. You're listening to At the The Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green,
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Elias Coop Gonzalez attended Patriot Academy when he was 16
Rick Green Welcome back At the The Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach, live At the the Patriot Academy campus in Constitution City, Texas for the National Leadership Congress. All the noise you hear in the background is an actual legislative simulation taking place with young people from across the nation. And they are debating all the major issues of the day and having an incredible week. And, here with us, Elias Coop Gonzalez, who came to patriot academy, what, eight years ago? 10 years.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Eight years ago.
Rick Green Eight years ago for the first time, but now serves in the West Virginia House. So he's an actual legislator. But, Elias, now you're getting to coach these young people on what you actually do in real life, but giving them a, simulation so that they can learn how government actually works.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah. Just to, give your listeners a little bit of background, I came to pa, like you said, eight years ago when I was 16, and it was that very same year that my neighbor from across the street was elected to the state legislature. And he's a very liberal guy, very much against family values. And so even though I didn't know At the time when I was 16 that I was ever going to run for office, now looking back, I can see that God was preparing me. And so when I was 19, I saw this opportunity to run for office, and obviously I prayed about it. I talked to, some of my most respected, mentors, you included, and I made the decision to run and I won, got elected, and it's.
Rick Green And you were how old?
Elias Coop Gonzalez I was, 2020 At the time.
Rick Green And then elected as a state legislator. Yep.
Elias Coop Gonzalez So I was, the youngest member of the West Virginia legislature. And I still am. It's been really cool to see. See myself come full circle, just as a student here At PA Becoming a legislator and then coming back to PA to help the students here, it's been an incredible blessing for me, honestly.
Rick Green And, yeah, how important was your Patriot Academy experience to then, even deciding to run, but definitely in how you served or how you. How you were a part of the process.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, Patriot Academy played a huge role. I, mean, in two ways, really. First, Patriot Academy prepared me in my philosophy. so when I was here, I was really challenged to think about what I believe and, why then I think that just having the community of people, At Patriot Academy was the other big thing that helped me be a good legislator. Because when you learn the right stuff, sometimes you go out there and you try and make a difference, and then you get discouraged and beat down, and then you just become part of the process. But when you have that good community of people that hold you accountable and keep you down to your roots, you can be a good legislator, because
Rick Green when you get there, there's a lot of opposition even within your own party. Right. I mean, I found when I was there, some of my worst opposition was in the same party. It wasn't even from the other party. So you need folks that you can count on and they can lift you back up. Iron, Sharpening iron.
Bobby Roza Right.
Rick Green That's what it literally is. how do you teach? How do you then transfer that to this generation that you're teaching out here? I mean, these are actually your peers. Some of them are just as old as you. but how do you get that across to them what you've learned in the legislature, actually serving in West Virginia? What do you really hope they remember from that and take with them?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, I think, it depends a little bit. you know, some of the students come, and At first they're a little more timid, just like I was. And in that case, I just try and reinforce them and show them that this is actually something that they can actually reach. Right. Yeah. because that's where I started. And then you have some other students that are actually very talented and they're very zealous. And in that case, sometimes you just need to polish them a little bit and remind them to stay humble and a little hone.
Rick Green It's like sharpening a sword.
Elias Coop-Gonzalez Right.
Rick Green I mean, you're literally honing them.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, but what's good about that is it's always better to reign someone in who's A little overly zealous than trying to motivate someone who doesn't really want to, you know, be in there. And so, personally, those are. Those are my favorite kind of students. They're a little difficult to deal with At first, but when you get them just on the right path, like, they're just unstoppable.
Rick Green I'm laughing because I remember my junior, my junior year of high school, the, guy that was my coach in mock trial, and I'd gone through all this stuff. And anyway, he joked about the fact when I tell other teachers that this kid's likely to do something they aren't so sure about because I was a little bit of a troublemaker, but he was iron sharpening me, and he saw some of those things. I mean, you see that in some of these colleagues that you're talking to and training. are they. Do they come in here grounded, or do they. I mean, most of them have At least a belief in God. They've got some level of constitution, constitutional respect, but they don't really know a lot of those things. I mean, do you see growth in them in the course of a week?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Oh, yeah, definitely. I definitely saw a lot of growth when I came to Patriot Academy. I attended in Delaware and Texas my, first two years. And. And really, the quality instructors that you have here are second to none. You have David and Tim Barton here, you have Krish Dhanam, and they absolutely just jam pack as much stuff as they can. And, yeah, I mean, it helps you so much.
Rick Green A little bit overload.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Almost like kind of an overload. But I can even say, as a legislator now I'm coming back to Patriot Academy, and it helps refresh my memory on certain things. And I'm still learning from them, the process.
Rick Green Okay, so we're teaching them Constitution, teaching them biblical worldview. So they're getting the philosophy. Philosophy, but the process itself, actually. How to get a bill through committee, how to debate on the floor, how to, you know, convince people to join your side. That's something that's really unique, in what we do. And it's a bit of a fire hose. They go through a lot in that first year. You came back, what, four times? I think, multiple years. Did it start sinking in a little bit more each year? I mean, did that help to have the multiple opportunities to learn those things?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, just kind of in the legislature, the first time you show up, you're really learning the entire time. but when you come back, you're actually, partaking the Process, it actually becomes kind of fun. But I will say that having gone through Patriot Academy several times before going into elected office, I had an advantage over other freshmen, because pretty much every legislator that gets elected, when they first get there, they've never done anything like this. And so when. When they go to a committee or they see someone make a. A motion to move the previous question, they have no idea what that means.
Students should be critical of everything being thrown at them
Rick Green But these are actual legislators.
Elias Coop Gonzalez These are actual legislators. Yeah. But again, when I showed up as a freshman, I didn't know everything, but I had a pretty good idea of how things work. I knew that I needed to talk to my chairman. I knew what a point of order was. I knew all these different things, and I wouldn't have known it if I had not gone to Patreon. Cat.
Rick Green Yeah, it makes a big difference. Huge, huge difference. what do you think are the most important issues for these students to be paying attention to right now? There's a large percentage of their generations bind into socialism. There's just a, There's a shift right now where Americans are trying to figure out what it means to be an American. What are you trying to get across to them while you have a week with them?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, I would say be very critical of, everything that's being thrown At you. So, you know, that that could be a danger. But I think a big opportunity is that for the past 50 years, especially young men, but just young people in general, we've been taught to go against our nature. And I think young people are rebelling, really, in a good way, and we're trying to find that truth. We're trying to do the things that God intended us to do. and my encouragement to other young people is just to find that and to do it. Yeah.
Rick Green Amen. And I think there's a lot of these students out here that are doers. Like, they want to latch onto something. They don't want to sit around and wait. So we just have to make sure we give them something good to work on and to latch on to.
Elias Coop Gonzalez served two terms in the state legislature
So tell us about you. So you've done. Is it two terms or three terms now? Two terms in the legislature. And you, decided not to run again. So what's next for Elias?
Elias Coop Gonzalez I want to join the military. not exactly sure what I want to do, but, I have to say joining the military is what I've wanted to do my entire life. And actually running for office was kind of like a side quest. And so now I'm going back to my Original career trajectory, but that's what's next for me.
Rick Green So you've got, what, six months left, but you served through end, of December, end of January? Yeah, something like. Okay, well, man, thanks for your time. Thanks for coming and helping us sharpen these young people, as you said, and, look forward to getting you back. Elias Coop Gonzalez. Thank you, Rick. Appreciate you, man.
Lydia Covey is the current Lieutenant Governor of Patriot Academy
That was Elias Coop Gonzalez, former Patriot Academy student, now in the West Virginia legislature. Now with me is Lydia Covey. She is the Lieutenant Governor of, Patriot Academy this year. Governor, thanks for coming on.
Lydia Covey Absolutely. I'm so glad to be here.
Rick Green First year Patriot Academy was when.
Lydia Covey First year was in 2023.
Rick Green So this is your first. Fourth. No, wait, this year. Yeah, fourth year. And last year you got to run as a candidate, won the race for Lieutenant Governor. So what do you do as Lieutenant Governor At Patriot Academy?
Lydia Covey So Lieutenant Governor is all about mentorship. So I look At the new students who are coming to Patriot Academy, and I assign them to alumni, who will then mentor them to the process to prepare for Patriot Academy. Because it's quite a process. To even get ready for this, you have to write a bill, you have to go through prep material, all sorts of things. And so our alumni actually mentor our freshman students. And I'm inside, in charge of getting all of them connected because it
Rick Green would be a bit of overwhelm to not have that right.
Lydia Covey Even. Even with a mentor. It's pretty overwhelming for freshmen. So they definitely need kind of that hand to help them, get through that.
Rick Green How, you know, fourth year for you, how much does it not necessarily get easier, but, like, you start to understand the process. The second year you come back, it's like, okay, now it's not so much of a fire hose. I can enjoy this a little bit more and comprehend what's going on.
Lydia Covey Yes, I would say second year is just a huge improvement on your understanding of the process. You're ready then to be up At the mic more, you know what to look for in the language. When all the craziness is going on in the House floor, you can actually follow it and then participate in it. So I would say first year to second year is just like, a massive improvement on how, how much you participate in the actual.
You recently got elected to the state Republican Executive Committee
Rick Green Well, you don't just do the simulation here At Patriot Academy. You're involved very much back home. You, just recently got elected to the state Republican Executive Committee. So you're doing this for real At home, which you've done for a long time. Your family's very involved. How have you been able to use some of the things you learned At Patriot Academy in. I hate saying the real world, but you know what I mean?
Lydia Covey Yes. I would say, one huge thing is knowing the rules.
Rick Green Yeah.
Lydia Covey A lot of the rules that we learn here, there's specific for the legislature, which helps me to watch our own Texas legislature. I can under. I can read a bill and understand it. I can listen to the testimony and understand. And listen to a committee hearing. I can listen to the floor debate. I know what's going on. But then also, those rules are used in just, the Republican Party meetings that I go to or the city council meetings that I go to. I can understand because they're all based in. Robert. Rules of order. Right. To some extent. They all, you know, they have their own modifications, but for a lot of. A lot of freshmen that come here, they're not familiar with that At all. And so learning just those basic principles and, those basic rules, they can take that to any kind of civic meeting and understand what's going on. To me, that was super valuable. And then also, just the public speaking and the confidence and how to think through things. That's been invaluable to me because you now have.
Rick Green I mean, as a state Republican executive committee member, you've got a huge area, huge district. What is 15 counties, something like that?
Lydia Covey It's 18 counties.
Rick Green Eighteen counties.
Lydia Covey Yes. The senate district.
Rick Green So you work with the Republican leaders in that entire 18 county area. That's huge.
What do you hope students get after they spend a week at Patriot Academy
talk to me about what you. After four years now, what you hope students get after they spend a week here. What do you want them going home with Saturday?
Lydia Covey I hope that they know they can make a difference. And they don't just know it, but they go home and do it.
Krish Dhanam Yeah.
Lydia Covey And that can start really small because some of these students, I mean, they're 15, some of them are 16. And so, you know, some of them don't even have a car to drive yet. But there are things that everybody can do. And so I hope that they go home and actually do something with it and, of course, absorb the knowledge, but then also applying the knowledge. Yeah, that's what I hope they get. Because one person truly makes a difference. Yes, absolutely. And there's such a need in our nation, in our state right now, for young people to actually get plugged into the really nitty gritty of politics, like go to your local political party or go to your, you know, county commissioner, your local political club or whatever. There is things for you to do. If a young person shows up At a group like that and says, hey, I am here. I love America. I'm here to learn, I want to help, they will immediately get plugged in and they'll have just a host of people get around them and give them all sorts of opportunities. And I wish young people would know that because they think they're going to go in there and have to figure it out all by themselves when there's, like, people just waiting for young people to come to them. So if they go and get plugged in. I have experienced that as a young person. Like, I know that as a fact. I've been given so many opportunities and mentored by people who just want to see me succeed. And other young people will, I think, receive that same thing.
Rick Green Yeah, I think we have a perception that, well, if I'm a young person and I go to that meeting where everybody's over 50, they're not going to want me there. They're going to, but it's the opposite. They really want you there. They're looking for young people like you.
Lydia Covey Absolutely.
Rick Green So that's part of why they've welcomed you with open arms and said, hey, we'll give you 14 assignments.
Lydia Covey Yes. And sometimes you don't feel ready for it, but they're like, but we'll help you. It's like, okay, we'll try. We'll give it a try.
Rick Green Now we need more of that. No doubt. And not just here in Texas, but. But all over the country. It's a big reason why we want people to come. Patriotacademy.com if you want to learn more. This is our last leadership congress of the summer for this year, but we're already gearing up to do this all over the country next summer. So make sure you get on the website, get on the email list, and start thinking about young people in your life that you can send here, to the Patriot Academy. Just a couple of minutes before we go to break. what would be, you know, as you watch the.
Lydia Covey The.
Rick Green All the different things. We do process, we do philosophy, we do skills, all these. All these different things At the. At the academy in that. In that one week on the philosophy side, sort of the, just how these kids see the. I'm sorry to say, kids, you're one of them. I'm old, okay. But how these young leaders see the world, what would be one of those things that. That you want them to take home on Saturday? I mean, we're dealing with social. You know, they're Facing a generation, their generation, like socialism now, you know, all the different issues. What's one of those hot topics that you really hope they get a hold of this week?
Lydia Covey I don't, I don't think about, like, a specific topic right off the bat, but I would say the biblical principles.
Rick Green More of a paradigm.
Lydia Covey Yes.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah.
Lydia Covey The biblical principles can apply to anything. And that you can make a, a biblically based argument in a reasonable way to somebody. you don't have to quote the Bible to make it, but there are, you know, there are principles that God has put the laws of nature, of nature's God that you can argue from a secular standpoint with biblical values. And I don't think there's anything wrong with bringing up those biblical values specifically as well, but you can do both. And there's a time and a place for both. And so I just want the young people to understand that. And I think they do. I think they really grasp it, and then it gets them thinking through that lens when they view any issue. And I think that's the most important.
Rick Green Oh, that's, that's even better than one hot topic. I mean, that's literally, literally a worldview.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Literally.
Rick Green How do you see the world and applying your worldview? So good. Lydia, God bless you. Governor, thank you for coming on the program. Thank you for serving this week and helping these students have such an incredible experience. That's Lydia Covey. Thanks for being with me.
Lydia Covey Glad to be here.
Patriot Academic Academy helps young people find their purpose in life
Rick Green All right, folks, before we go to break, back in studio here just for a second, I, wanted to encourage you to be thinking about young people you can send to this program. They can get the training, the communications training, the process, training, even just finding their purpose of what it is that God wants them to do with their life, figuring out what to do for college or their career, all of those things. We spend a lot of time on that. It's a really great experience for the young people and the iron sharpening that takes place to be around these other sharp young people from across the country. I remember when I was 19 years old, I went to a program called the Young Conservative Student conference in Washington, D.C. young Americans foundation put it on. And it was the first time for me to be around other young people from across the nation that were passionate about the country, passionate about learning these things and being leaders in this area. And I finally felt like, I mean, I knew I was a little bit weird, but At least I didn't feel weird anymore. I felt like there's other people like me, across the nation, other young people that I could iron sharpen with. It was, it really changed my life in many ways. And when, we started Patriot Academy seven or eight years later when I was in the legislature, I was thinking a lot about that week that I spent in D.C. and I wanted to create an environment where young people could have that same experience. And I see it every single time we do a leadership Congress. I see these young people, their eyes light up. There's such a joy that they have found other people that are passionate about this, that have a biblical worldview, relationships that last forever. It's one reason we've had, now 48 weddings out of Patriot Academy, because they find somebody that they really want to do life with. So that's another side benefit of sending somebody to Patriot Academic Academy. But anyway, check it out today. Patriotacademy.com patriotacademy.com we're going to take a quick break.
We'll be right back.
Rick Green You're listening to after four,
Bobby Roza friend.
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Podcasts are [email protected] now back to At the The Core on American Family Radio.
Rick Green: America's Constitution coach conducting national Leadership Congress
Rick Green Welcome back At the core. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. Thanks for staying with us. We're At the Patriot Academy legislative hall At the Patriot Academy campus in Constitution City, Texas, conducting our national Leadership Congress. It's quiet right now because they're having some sort of point, of order ruling. But it's about to get really loud because they are debating on the House floor and we're just sitting up in the in the balcony enjoying it. And Krish Dhanam is back with us. He was just on a few days ago talking about the Patriot Institute today.
Rick Green: Krish, the Patriot Academy Leadership Congress has been remarkable
Krish, let's talk about the Patriot Academy Leadership Congress. The one week that they get At the campus. You've been doing this with me for over 20 years now. And so you've seen where they come in and they only have a few days with us, but in that few days a lot happens. First of all, thanks for coming back on.
Krish Dhanam Appreciate that, Rick. And yeah, the journey has been remarkable. We've been doing this for 20 years and I've seen it as a bit player, just popping in and out to someone who is now for the last couple of years, had an active parole from the beginning to the end. And yeah, you're absolutely right. Even the posture, the physical nature of how they stand and how they look At each other and the constant, the confidence they exude in just their, their gait, the way they walk, the way they talk, I think it rubs off on each other. And my prayer has always been the same. I said, I hope Washington stops whatever they're doing because we do believe good reinforcements are on the way.
Rick Green I like the picture you just painted too, because I was just thinking this morning as I was watching them on the House floor how different, even physically they move around the room because they're sharpening each other and they're literally in a grown up role of being an actual legislator on a House floor like this. and that matters that, you know, it literally is shaping them to think, I can do this, I can be a leader.
Krish Dhanam Yeah. And when you look At the very history that we teach them, and of course you, I've learned a lot of it from you and David. the people who framed this nation were about their age, maybe a little older than them and you know, 10 years past their age as a man, the man authored the Declaration of Independence. So, I think they see that they do not see themselves as young people without an opinion because we give them a chance to be big in all areas, to be big in thought, to be big in action, to be big in activity, to be big in particular, participation. So I think they grow beyond their years, as Mr. Zigler often said. You know, they, they come here with the, to seeking the knowledge. But I think very quickly they get the wisdom of why that knowledge is important.
Rick Green That's good, man. Yeah, yeah. And then, doing multiple years matters too. Right. So you see some of these students like we just had on Lydia Covey as her fourth year, obviously shines with, with an incredible example. Oh, they're voting. See how close it is. how much does that matter to have that building, that constant improvement and getting them to think like that for the rest of their life? Not just that they're going to continue to improve while they come to Patriot Academy, but getting them to study and want to improve for the rest.
Krish Dhanam Yeah. And as you were talking, the only analogy I can think of is, you know, when Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile, he didn't do it by trying to run the entire mile by himself. He hired the best quarter mile lappers who could then compete with him for a quarter of a mile and that kept his pace. So I think year one, they get the first quarter of a mile with one set of people and then the pace increases and their desire to come back is not so much that they get to run the race. They want to finish well and they want to finish ahead. So I think each time they come, they seek out a new group of people who move them faster. And I think that's the best analogy I can give.
Rick Green That's good. I Love that. Okay. Patriotacademy.com to learn more. This is our last one of the summer. We will have some programs throughout the year where you might can come to the campus and do a two or three day program with us. But Krish, we're already starting to gear up for next summer. We're going to be doing these regional Patriot Academies around the country. they can start with that just a three day in the Idaho capital or one of these other capitals that we go to. It's not as much as this National Leadership Congress, but it's a great way to get started. And you've seen these beautiful capitals where we do this around the country. Talk a little bit about those regionals.
Krish Dhanam I think, you know, when you go to the regional like Delaware, you know, know when you look At the first state and you look At the history of that capital, I think when they go into a state capital, they don't just understand the political process. They can actually go back in history to see what formed that particular body. And I think, I've met some people here who have been to multiple regionals, which means they, they left their own geography Their own locale and went to a multiple different areas and so they bring that experience here. And I think that the well rounded nature of our regionals because invariably, I mean, as we say, yeah, the regionals are good. you know, we'll whet your appetite and we'll quench your thirst, but if you want living water and continuous food, you got to come to the seven days. So this almost becomes the pilgrimage that they aim for after we wet their appetite.
Rick Green And then while they're here, we convince them to come for the whole year and do the actual.
Krish Dhanam And we're doing those, we're starting those interviews this afternoon.
Rick Green Oh, excellent, excellent, excellent. Last thing. The skills to be able to come and learn, I mean the speaking skills that you and I learned from Zig Ziglar. The just work in a room, just having the, you know, being able to, deal with adults and just have the social skills that they need. Talk a little bit about that and the importance.
Krish Dhanam Yeah, and it's one of the things I shared in my talk yesterday. As I said, you know, the world has an abundance of confidence in certain group of people and they have an abundance of competence in another group of people. One thing we try to do is merge that will and skill make confidence and competence come together so they become a true 24 hour champion.
Rick Green Will and skill. That's good, man. So the confidence and the confidence allows
Krish Dhanam them to become the 24 hour champion that God intended them to be.
Rick Green Oh, it's so good. Oh, so good. All right. That's the kind of stuff you get when you come to Patriot Academy. Krish Dhanam, the dean of the Patriot Institute. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks for coming on.
The Patriot Academy campus came under significant attack in the last few weeks
Krish Dhanam All right.
Rick Green So appreciate Krish and all that the students have been learning from him for the last 20 years, let alone just the, you know, the depth of literally master's level training is what these students are getting. Some of them, you know, 16, 17 years old and they leave a Patriot Academy understanding the world and knowing what to do. Being men and women of Issachar that understand the times and know what to do, that's the training that we provide. It makes such a huge difference. I hope you've enjoyed getting to hear from some of those folks from Thomas Umstattd who, you know, 20 years later is here teaching, the students and many of the things that he learned 20 years ago At Patriot Academy. But then so many of the things that he's done as an author, coach and as a podcaster now, taking that knowledge and instilling that into the young people. to Elias Kub Gonzalez, a state legislator in West Virginia, and taking that application of what he learned At Patriot Academy years ago and teaching the new, group of students here to Lydia Covey is someone who's here for the. For the fourth time and, and already has gone from being the student that's being mentored to being someone who's mentoring the others. And then of course, Krish Dhanam and what he does here, not only At the academies that we do around the country in the summer, but our one year institute that you heard me talking about on Tuesday with him, if you were listening to At the The Core on Tuesday, if you missed that, it's on our website. Make sure you go grab that program. There was also a very important message At the end of that program that I want to just update you on in our final minutes of, of the program today. If you missed Tuesday's program, the 32nd version here is that the Patriot Academy campus came under significant attack in the last few weeks. We had a, significant effort of a large and dangerous Islamic group trying to get the, It used to be part of the Patriot Academy campus. It had become basically an Airbnb operation. It was the cottages that we built over the last few years and due to some contractual disputes, we ended up terminating that and, and deciding to build our student housing elsewhere. All of that to say, it was a significant, significant, challenge and threat, existential threat to the existence of Patriot Academy and is very much what's happening across the country with this Islamic invasion. And, we were about to experience that ourselves literally right next door. And so for the last two weeks we have been, raising money and working out a contract and being able to lock down those cottages. So the, the good news that I want to share with you today is that after asking for help just two days ago here on the program and on Flashpoint and on WallBuilders, people, have responded incredibly well. And we've, already had several more cottages get sponsored. I basically got till, August 31st to close on the property. And so we were able to get the auction pulled down. We were able to get a contract just last Saturday. And, now we have, you know, roughly 30 days to raise the rest of the money and close on the property. So I'm down to 12 cottages that still need to be sponsored and, no, I'm sorry, 11. 11 cottages that need to be sponsored. I think Tuesday we were, down to 16. five of those got sponsored just in the last 48 hours. And a lot of people have sent in smaller donations that will add up to a cottage. So really we're probably down to 10 in terms of what we need to raise to be able to close. So if you'd like to help with that, you can go to our website, Patreon patriotacademy.com and learn more or you can just go straight to the donate page and make a donation. There's a drop down menu for the Patriot Student cottages, so you can donate directly to those. If you would like to actually sponsor a cottage, that's a significant donation. It's $100,000. And you get to name the cottage after a founding father or mother of your choice. And of course we will honor you inside that cottage with a plaque as well. And it's just a huge, huge help and it will for generations pay off in terms of training up the next generation. So students will be staying in that cottage, some for the one week that we're doing right now with the Leadership Congress and some for a whole academic year. So they'll spend an academic year with us really getting grounded. As I said earlier in master's level training and education that there's just nothing like it. I mean there are similar, I guess, slightly similar programs around the country. There's nothing quite like the Patriot Institute and the Patriot Leadership Congress and what we do. So your investment is helping to train thousands and thousands of young people who by the way, graduates are now doing, you heard some of them today on the program. But we have graduates, a significant number of graduates in the White House right now At the highest levels helping to make policy. We have graduates who are serving in Congress as members of Congress, as staffers, in state legislatures across the country in the arts, literally making music and movies and documentaries. we've got some of our graduates gone into comedy. I mean they're doing everything and of course business and ministry and education and most importantly of all, family. And so we basically just train them to be good citizens, biblical citizens for the rest of their lives, effective biblical citizens. As Krish was talking about, how to have both the will and the skill. That's what we do. We train them to be ready to answer first Peter 3:15, be ready to answer for the hope that is within. Whether they're a mechanic, talking to the mechanic next to them, or they're, you know, a teacher or preacher, whatever they go into. We've trained them how to communicate well. We've trained them to know truth, but then how to articulate that truth as well. So if you want to be part of saving these cottages to be student cottages for the, for our Patriot Academy students and not be used by, folks that are very much against the American dream and against American values, if you want to help us do that. Like I said, we've got about 30 days left, so we're not as under the gun as we were last week, but we are, definitely, you know, definitely have a deadline here and need to raise significantly more, to close this deal. You can help with [email protected] and we, sure appreciate it if you want to just see more of what we do. I know sometimes people just listen to the program and haven't ever really seen what Patriot Academy is about, then be sure and visit that website. There's some great videos on there where you can see the kids in action, see the debating on the house floor. You can see what we do with pastors and other grassroots groups like, Moms for Liberty, Moms for America, Liberty, Pastors Turning Point. We serve all of these organizations. We actually equip them with the constitutional education that they use in their programs. and we train their teams when they come to the campus for one of these trainings. So there's a lot more than just what you might be perceiving as a kids camp or something like that. We do a lot more than that. And, we'd love for you to be a part of it. Love for you to not only, not only help us in this time of need, which, as I said on Tuesday, I don't think I've ever asked for folks to financially help us before in the five years of doing this program At the The Core. but this is an existential threat in a serious situation. And that's why I am asking for your help. So I am asking you to go to patriotacademy.com today and make a donation of any amount. If it's $10, if it's $10,000, if it's 100,000. Sponsoring a cottage, whatever you can do, please consider being a part of the solution and, help us, not only save the cottages and the housing for the campus, but to pour that into these young people, invest in these young people that will pay off for generations to come. We see it now, I mean, like the kid that was. I still call him a kid. But Thomas upstad on, opening the program today, 20 years later, he's still having a significant impact in the culture now, training up hundreds and hundreds of other people to be authors and podcasters and everything else. So the ripple effect of what your investment in Patriot Academy does, it's impossible to describe. I wish I could, paint that picture effectively for you today to know that this is an investment that pays off, for generations. It's huge. Patriotacademy.com patriotacademy.com Watch the videos, see what we're about, pray about it, and pray for us. Pray that over the next 30 days that this, this gets closed, that we get this taken care of, and then pray for discernment for, for myself, for my wife, Kara.
Pray for discernment as Patriot Academy prepares for 250th this year
We, you know, our board, our executive team, pray for discernment for us because in the 250th this year, we have so many opportunities. The Lord has opened so many doors for us to be able to influence the culture and what's going on. everything from getting the Bible back into public schools to training our 35,000 constitution coaches out there to be able to, start brush fires of liberty in their communities, to these leadership congresses with the students, to the Patriot Institute and then working with the White house on the 250th celebrations around. There's just so much going on, so much to do. And so I covet your prayers to be a good steward of, of the opportunities that he's given us. So pray that we will have good discernment in knowing exactly which areas that he wants us to invest in and spend our time in. and then specifically pray for us to know which students to accept to the Patriot Institute this year. We've got scholarships available. If you've got a, you know, 17 to 23 year old in your home or in your church that you think would benefit from having nine months on the Patriot Academy campus in Constitution City, Texas, learning apologetics and biblical worldview and communication and all these things. Have them apply because we've got some scholarships to give away. they're significant scholarships. So it's a $20,000 is what it cost to do the year, and we have $15,000 scholarships. So that means the student only has to raise $5,000 to cover their year. If you know anyone that you think would benefit from this, have them go to the website that today and get their application in. As Krish said, we're doing interviews right now to select these students. It's a very selective process. These are very much the Navy Seals of civics. They are the tip of the spear for this movement to save the culture. So if someone wants to come to this, they're going to go through a rigorous process, to be selected as a part of that student body for this upcoming year. But we have openings. We are making those decisions now. Pray for our discernment to choose the right students so that we have the right atmosphere. or we're creating that atmosphere, but have the right students that would thrive in that atmosphere. So check that [email protected] make that donation today At patriotacademy.com and pray for us that At Patriot Academy we honor the Lord in everything we do. Everything we do, we do the best that we can. As in a God not unto men. So important for us to live out that scripture in Colossians. I sure appreciate you listening today. I appreciate all the folks that have have come on the program today and helped to share the story. Thanks so much for listening to At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green.
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the views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
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Walker Wildmon We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are.
We quit.
Rick Green Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
Don Wildmon We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope.
This is At the Core on American family Radio.
Rick Green is America's constitution coach and speaker at Patriot Academy
Rick Green Welcome to At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's constitution coach, coming to you live from the Patriot Academy campus in the legislative hall. So it's very noisy. So all that noise in the background. We've got, I, think it's 115, maybe 120 young people on the house floor in the legislative hall At Patriot Academy in Constitution City, Texas. And they are learning the constitution, but they're actually living it out on the house floor. And so you can hear the activity as they're working on some bill. I don't even know what bill they're trying to pass, but seated here with me is Thomas Umstadt, Patriot academy grad from, Wow. 20 years ago. What year did you first come? 05.
Thomas Umstattd 05.
Rick Green 05. Wow. And then you were speaker of the House. 06. Yes. So you've actually had that gavel in your hand.
Thomas Umstattd I still have that gavel in my office, yeah. Prized possession.
Rick Green I love it. Well, Thomas came all those years ago and then began to speak At Patriot Academy. And I remember you telling the story one time about the first time Rick gave me a speaking slot. It was like 10 minutes, I don't know. And then it was 20 minutes, and then it was an hour. I don't remember the progression, but eventually you were doing half the talks, it seems like. So, but it's been a few years. We are thrilled to have you back, man. I know you're going to do two talks this afternoon. what are you hoping these kids get? Kids, they're adults, young adults. But now you can actually.
Thomas Umstattd This is my first time where they feel like kids. I'm like, oh, my goodness. This is a different generation. so I think the number one thing is having an attitude of victory. I, think that it's time for us to repent from retreatism. I think for a long time, when things got hard, the response was we'll just retreat and build our own thing. And it's time to start eating from vineyards that we didn't plant and eating from fields that we didn't plant the grain. And taking land from the enemy.
Rick Green Yes.
Thomas Umstattd And that shift in mindset, I think if nothing else gets across, I want that change.
Rick Green I love that you've always been a master of words, man. I don't know how many quotes, jokes, everything else I still use today that I stole from you 20 years ago.
Thomas Umstattd Well, to let you know, I steal a lot of your stuff still.
Rick Green Oh, man.
Talk about how you're helping authors and all the other things you're doing
and actually, speaking of that, actually, let's sidetrack for a second. So tell us what you're doing now. Talk to us about how you're helping authors and all the other things you're doing. because I think that's important for people to realize, too, that we need more voices and we need more people to step into the debate or even just. Just the culture conversations going on.
Thomas Umstattd Yeah. So I am a professional podcaster, if you can believe it. It was not a real job, when I was in Patriot Academy. Still don't feel like it's a real job right now. But, I have three, podcasts. the old one is Novel Marketing Podcast. It's the longest running book marketing podcast in the world. And it's just a bread and butter. Here's how to market your book. And then I have the Christian Publishing show, which is about how to write good books and how to honor God through your writing. But my newest show is Author Update, which gets into the culture and gets into polit, but how it affects the kind of stories that resonate with readers. And so in some ways, I feel like I'm out of the game, but in another way, I feel like I'm influencing the influencers for the long term because Elon Musk is this big asset to the movement now, and he's a big asset now because of the books he read as a teenager. Getting beat up in South Africa, reading Asimov, reading Heinlein, and encountering those ideas through fiction that got him to start asking different questions and coming to different conclusions than everyone else around him.
Rick Green No. That's so good. And were you as shocked as when Elon Musk starts, you know, sharing videos of Milton Friedman and, you know, because he even called himself Kind of a left winger, you know, four years ago, five years ago, Kind of like Joe Rogan. Same thing. Just a few years ago. And then all of a sudden, he's become one of the greatest advocates for the principles that, I mean, he's kind of like Franklin. Right? We'd have to call. He calls himself a cultural Christian. He's certainly not where we come from in terms of the faith aspect, but he's pushing the right principles. And what you're saying is that goes all the way back to seeds that were planted in him and his teens.
Thomas Umstattd That's right. He's actually a lot like Franklin. There is an archetyp, American. That's Franklin, Edison, Musk, which is the Electric Man. The man who's a little outside of politics, but who's very smart.
Rick Green Wait, what'd you call it?
Thomas Umstattd The Electric Man.
Rick Green The Electric Man.
Thomas Umstattd All three men had major breakthroughs in electricity.
Krish Dhanam Wow.
Thomas Umstattd and they were all very smart and they all changed their era. Right. Franklin, his inventions completely transformed America from a backwater to, by the time he died, we were more advanced than Europe in many categories. Like the very best rifles in the world were being made in, like, backwoods Tennessee, partly because the guild system in Europe was so broken. but we had a lot of breakthroughs. And then Edison, of course, is obvious. And then, Musk is that same sort of outsider voice. And I think that's one of the wonderful things about the American system is that it has a room for non professional politicians in kind of the political discourse. And, you know, Franklin wasn't a professional politician. Right. That wasn't his goal or driving, energy, but he was really good At it. Edison, I think, was the least involved of the three politically. although we will see how. I think Musk realized just how toxic it is. He burned himself on the stove. Yes.
Rick Green No, I felt the same way. It was like so much good stuff. Right. He's bringing such a good voice into all the Doge stuff was great. Uncovering his stuff so fast in a matter of weeks, and then just hit the brick wall of the swamp and he's going, wait a minute.
Bobby Roza You.
Rick Green the very people that brought me here are now saying no to the thing that they asked me to do.
Thomas Umstattd That's right. And Musk represents.
Kamala Harris: Elon Musk runs his companies like a monarchy
We're in this like, epochal shift. So most nations only last 250 years. And this is a, like, law of history almost. There's a few exceptions. And we are modeled after Rome, which is one of the exceptions. So the Roman kingdom lasted almost exactly 250 years. The Roman Empire lasted two sets of 250 years as it went from the principate to the dominant. But the Roman Republic, which is what we're actually modeled off of, lasted 400 years because it was able to self reform and self model, break the cycle
Rick Green from within, break that natural cycle of getting lazy because you've had it so good. Exactly.
Thomas Umstattd And so like they added the tribune of the plebs as like this core constitutional shift where now the plebs had a bigger voice in government. And by that 250 year timer we have just hit. So this is the like big question of will we continue for another 250 years? What will that transformation be? Because we'll need a change.
Rick Green Yes.
Thomas Umstattd And Musk runs his companies in a way that represents a key shift and that is he doesn't run his companies by committee. So all of the American government and almost all organizations, your church, my church, everyone's churches, they're all run by committee. Musk's companies are not run by committee. He runs them very much like a monarchy where people come into the throne room and give a report and they're held directly accountable and then they go and do the things. There's no committee that they move very quickly. And it's why in every single sector he's able to outperform his competition. That's I think, why he struggled with Doge. Because you can't just transform the American government into that model of direct authority, which is the Nebuchadnezzar head of gold approach to government, where I give you all the authority and if you win, I cover you in gold and if you lose, I put your head on a spike.
Rick Green We can't sell that in D.C. no,
Thomas Umstattd in D.C. everyone's allergic to that level of radical accountability. In fact, the whole approach to success is to avoid as much accountability as possible. Whereas Musk only hires the best people. And it gives him authority and it gives him accountability.
Rick Green And he expects way more than anybody else, he demands more than anybody else. And maybe that's why he can do that because it's bottleneck to one person. It's easier to hold them accountable. They want to rise to the occasion. I mean, I've never thought about it that way, that kind of. Because I've always wondered how in the world is this guy doing space, you know, Tesla doing all of these things that if you just did one of those things, you'd be one of the most successful people in history. And he's doing, like five of them.
Thomas Umstattd Yeah, it's very similar to Edison. Edison's biggest invention was not the light bulb or the phonograph. It was the research industrial process of putting a bunch of smart people in a room and saying, I expect you to invent a new thing every week. And every R and D program in every company is modeled after Edison's innovation of that process. And so far, no companies have the guts to copy Musk's radical accountability approach. But if you're willing to get rid of the committees and just give a person authority, you can beat all of your competitors who are still running on committee.
Rick Green Would you say, this is so interesting, man, we got to get back together? Because I would love to dive a lot further into this one, would you say? But let's go down that rabbit hole just one way. Does the executive branch have. Is it more likely that we could do that there? If you apply, appoint a secretary of that agency and give them blanket authority. And maybe this is the whole battle. The Supreme Court just ruled. Yes, he can't. The president can hire and fire. Like, if the president had the authority to hire and fire everybody in the federal branch that is under the executive branch now you can hire a secretary of that particular agency and say, clean house. Make this thing work the way it's supposed to work.
Thomas Umstattd This has always been the dream. Like, presidents have been creating czars for a long time with this hope of, like, I'm going to put a person in charge, I'm going to make Kamal Harris in charge of the border, and she's going to fix it. Right. So part of the problem was Kamala Harris was, low IQ person, as Trump would say. And so even if she didn't have to fight a bureaucracy, she probably couldn't have fixed it. But even if she was really smart, she doesn't have enough authority because being able to replace the people At the top isn't powerful if those people don't have the same authority. It's the centurion in, the Book of Matthew, right? I am a man under authority, and I have authority. And so you, you can't give somebody authority if they don't actually have authority. And so you have to be able to fire all the way down. So we have to make bureaucrats, jobs, insecure, which requires a core fundamental shift in how bureaucracies work and the core social contract with bureaucrats. Because bureaucrats have, up to this point, operated very much like artificial intelligences, where they don't have a lot of agency. They're just an extension of the machine. And so 2001 A Space Odyssey wasn't about A.I. nobody in the audience when they watched that movie had ever encountered a computer. This is the 1960s. But they had all encountered a bureaucrat who said, I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. All of the AI movies, from the 80s are the different views of government. Right. The Terminator is not about AI it's about the government. And it's about. Because we hadn't encountered AI that you can talk to until very recently. And none of the fiction is actually about that. And so we've all been to the DMV where they say, you need this form. You've got to get it from somebody else to go to the other person. They say, no, you need the form. You go back and forth, back and forth. And they both say, I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. That was what was resonant about that scene and why audiences in the 1960s loved it so much.
Rick Green Interesting, man. Oh. So, yeah, we got to come back to this one. We'll do this again for sure.
Patriot Academy gives you character training and skills training, Rick says
Okay, back to what's happening now. The leadership Congress out on the floor. and you came 20 years ago. How did your experience Patriot Academy affect you?
Thomas Umstattd It was a core defining moment, for my life, really, because Patriot Academy gave me several really key things. It gave me some vision that I could make a difference in the world. And that was important 20 years ago. I think it's even more important right now because there's a lot of young people who feel like they're a victim of fate and they've been dealt a bad hand. And they have been dealt a bad hand.
Rick Green Right.
Thomas Umstattd young people look At their parents lives, and they look At where they are when their parents were their same age, see that they're behind. See that their parents maybe were behind their grandparents. And it's very discouraging. And then it's easy to say, there's nothing I can do. And Patriot Academy is like, no, there's all kinds of things you can do and you can do inside of yourself. So Patriot Academy sells itself as this constitution training. You've probably heard Rick say constitution a million times, but what it secretly gives you is character training and skills training.
Rick Green That's good. This is a marketer, man. This guy knows what's really happening here.
Thomas Umstattd Yes. So it's like, here's how to give a good speech. Here's how to Contribute your emotions. because that is not a concept that's popular, right? It's like, oh, I want to get in touch with myself. It's like, no, actually you can control your emotions. You can have self control. In fact, you need to have self control if you want to be effective in a political, environment. You can't let your fear control your greed or your anger. All of these emotions can destroy you. And you can control them, you can control yourself. But it requires discipline. And that discipline is what's required for free people.
Rick Green Yeah, exactly, right. No, you can't self govern. I mean the free people, that's not going to last if those people aren't self governing. And that's the core of what we're teaching here.
Thomas Umstattd will give two talks to students at Patriot Academy this afternoon
Okay, you're doing two topics this afternoon and tell us just a 30 second overview of each of those topics that you're going to cover with the students.
Thomas Umstattd So I'm a big believer that a talk is not worth giving if it's not risky. So my first talk is on compromise and it is all about what when to listen to wise counsel. Because to never compromise is to assert that you're always correct and nobody is always correct. So we all need to compromise, but we don't want to become compromised. So how do we navigate that? And I'm looking At Benjamin Franklin and the founders predominantly, but there's a lot of proverbs snuck in and some Star wars references.
Rick Green That's a Thomas Umstattd presentation if I've ever heard one.
Thomas Umstattd Which again with Gen Z, I don't know if they like Star Wars. I will say Mike kids, Gen Alpha, they find Star wars very boring. They'd rather watch Dude Perfect do a Star wars sketch than watch a Disney or a Lucasfilm Star wars film. So it's a big, we're going through a big generational shift. And then my second talk is the even more risky talk. and that's on AI.
Rick Green this is going to be a hot topic for sure. And I want to learn how to argue this one because I'm dealing with that politically all over the state of Texas.
Thomas Umstattd So, I'll be giving a talk to a group of armed Gen zers who all hate AI but they've been going to Patriot Academy and they've learned self discipline and listen and learn. And they'll have just heard my talk about how to disagree agreeably. I'm prepping them ahead of time.
Rick Green So you plan this appropriately in, in the order. Thomas Umstead. a website where people can learn more and catch, all three of your podcasts. AuthorMedia.comm AuthorMedia.com Thomas Umstead it is so good to have you back At Patriot Academy. Stay with us, folks. Quick break. You're listening to At the The Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green,
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Elias Coop Gonzalez attended Patriot Academy when he was 16
Rick Green Welcome back At the The Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach, live At the the Patriot Academy campus in Constitution City, Texas for the National Leadership Congress. All the noise you hear in the background is an actual legislative simulation taking place with young people from across the nation. And they are debating all the major issues of the day and having an incredible week. And, here with us, Elias Coop Gonzalez, who came to patriot academy, what, eight years ago? 10 years.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Eight years ago.
Rick Green Eight years ago for the first time, but now serves in the West Virginia House. So he's an actual legislator. But, Elias, now you're getting to coach these young people on what you actually do in real life, but giving them a, simulation so that they can learn how government actually works.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah. Just to, give your listeners a little bit of background, I came to pa, like you said, eight years ago when I was 16, and it was that very same year that my neighbor from across the street was elected to the state legislature. And he's a very liberal guy, very much against family values. And so even though I didn't know At the time when I was 16 that I was ever going to run for office, now looking back, I can see that God was preparing me. And so when I was 19, I saw this opportunity to run for office, and obviously I prayed about it. I talked to, some of my most respected, mentors, you included, and I made the decision to run and I won, got elected, and it's.
Rick Green And you were how old?
Elias Coop Gonzalez I was, 2020 At the time.
Rick Green And then elected as a state legislator. Yep.
Elias Coop Gonzalez So I was, the youngest member of the West Virginia legislature. And I still am. It's been really cool to see. See myself come full circle, just as a student here At PA Becoming a legislator and then coming back to PA to help the students here, it's been an incredible blessing for me, honestly.
Rick Green And, yeah, how important was your Patriot Academy experience to then, even deciding to run, but definitely in how you served or how you. How you were a part of the process.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, Patriot Academy played a huge role. I, mean, in two ways, really. First, Patriot Academy prepared me in my philosophy. so when I was here, I was really challenged to think about what I believe and, why then I think that just having the community of people, At Patriot Academy was the other big thing that helped me be a good legislator. Because when you learn the right stuff, sometimes you go out there and you try and make a difference, and then you get discouraged and beat down, and then you just become part of the process. But when you have that good community of people that hold you accountable and keep you down to your roots, you can be a good legislator, because
Rick Green when you get there, there's a lot of opposition even within your own party. Right. I mean, I found when I was there, some of my worst opposition was in the same party. It wasn't even from the other party. So you need folks that you can count on and they can lift you back up. Iron, Sharpening iron.
Bobby Roza Right.
Rick Green That's what it literally is. how do you teach? How do you then transfer that to this generation that you're teaching out here? I mean, these are actually your peers. Some of them are just as old as you. but how do you get that across to them what you've learned in the legislature, actually serving in West Virginia? What do you really hope they remember from that and take with them?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, I think, it depends a little bit. you know, some of the students come, and At first they're a little more timid, just like I was. And in that case, I just try and reinforce them and show them that this is actually something that they can actually reach. Right. Yeah. because that's where I started. And then you have some other students that are actually very talented and they're very zealous. And in that case, sometimes you just need to polish them a little bit and remind them to stay humble and a little hone.
Rick Green It's like sharpening a sword.
Elias Coop-Gonzalez Right.
Rick Green I mean, you're literally honing them.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, but what's good about that is it's always better to reign someone in who's A little overly zealous than trying to motivate someone who doesn't really want to, you know, be in there. And so, personally, those are. Those are my favorite kind of students. They're a little difficult to deal with At first, but when you get them just on the right path, like, they're just unstoppable.
Rick Green I'm laughing because I remember my junior, my junior year of high school, the, guy that was my coach in mock trial, and I'd gone through all this stuff. And anyway, he joked about the fact when I tell other teachers that this kid's likely to do something they aren't so sure about because I was a little bit of a troublemaker, but he was iron sharpening me, and he saw some of those things. I mean, you see that in some of these colleagues that you're talking to and training. are they. Do they come in here grounded, or do they. I mean, most of them have At least a belief in God. They've got some level of constitution, constitutional respect, but they don't really know a lot of those things. I mean, do you see growth in them in the course of a week?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Oh, yeah, definitely. I definitely saw a lot of growth when I came to Patriot Academy. I attended in Delaware and Texas my, first two years. And. And really, the quality instructors that you have here are second to none. You have David and Tim Barton here, you have Krish Dhanam, and they absolutely just jam pack as much stuff as they can. And, yeah, I mean, it helps you so much.
Rick Green A little bit overload.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Almost like kind of an overload. But I can even say, as a legislator now I'm coming back to Patriot Academy, and it helps refresh my memory on certain things. And I'm still learning from them, the process.
Rick Green Okay, so we're teaching them Constitution, teaching them biblical worldview. So they're getting the philosophy. Philosophy, but the process itself, actually. How to get a bill through committee, how to debate on the floor, how to, you know, convince people to join your side. That's something that's really unique, in what we do. And it's a bit of a fire hose. They go through a lot in that first year. You came back, what, four times? I think, multiple years. Did it start sinking in a little bit more each year? I mean, did that help to have the multiple opportunities to learn those things?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, just kind of in the legislature, the first time you show up, you're really learning the entire time. but when you come back, you're actually, partaking the Process, it actually becomes kind of fun. But I will say that having gone through Patriot Academy several times before going into elected office, I had an advantage over other freshmen, because pretty much every legislator that gets elected, when they first get there, they've never done anything like this. And so when. When they go to a committee or they see someone make a. A motion to move the previous question, they have no idea what that means.
Students should be critical of everything being thrown at them
Rick Green But these are actual legislators.
Elias Coop Gonzalez These are actual legislators. Yeah. But again, when I showed up as a freshman, I didn't know everything, but I had a pretty good idea of how things work. I knew that I needed to talk to my chairman. I knew what a point of order was. I knew all these different things, and I wouldn't have known it if I had not gone to Patreon. Cat.
Rick Green Yeah, it makes a big difference. Huge, huge difference. what do you think are the most important issues for these students to be paying attention to right now? There's a large percentage of their generations bind into socialism. There's just a, There's a shift right now where Americans are trying to figure out what it means to be an American. What are you trying to get across to them while you have a week with them?
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah, I would say be very critical of, everything that's being thrown At you. So, you know, that that could be a danger. But I think a big opportunity is that for the past 50 years, especially young men, but just young people in general, we've been taught to go against our nature. And I think young people are rebelling, really, in a good way, and we're trying to find that truth. We're trying to do the things that God intended us to do. and my encouragement to other young people is just to find that and to do it. Yeah.
Rick Green Amen. And I think there's a lot of these students out here that are doers. Like, they want to latch onto something. They don't want to sit around and wait. So we just have to make sure we give them something good to work on and to latch on to.
Elias Coop Gonzalez served two terms in the state legislature
So tell us about you. So you've done. Is it two terms or three terms now? Two terms in the legislature. And you, decided not to run again. So what's next for Elias?
Elias Coop Gonzalez I want to join the military. not exactly sure what I want to do, but, I have to say joining the military is what I've wanted to do my entire life. And actually running for office was kind of like a side quest. And so now I'm going back to my Original career trajectory, but that's what's next for me.
Rick Green So you've got, what, six months left, but you served through end, of December, end of January? Yeah, something like. Okay, well, man, thanks for your time. Thanks for coming and helping us sharpen these young people, as you said, and, look forward to getting you back. Elias Coop Gonzalez. Thank you, Rick. Appreciate you, man.
Lydia Covey is the current Lieutenant Governor of Patriot Academy
That was Elias Coop Gonzalez, former Patriot Academy student, now in the West Virginia legislature. Now with me is Lydia Covey. She is the Lieutenant Governor of, Patriot Academy this year. Governor, thanks for coming on.
Lydia Covey Absolutely. I'm so glad to be here.
Rick Green First year Patriot Academy was when.
Lydia Covey First year was in 2023.
Rick Green So this is your first. Fourth. No, wait, this year. Yeah, fourth year. And last year you got to run as a candidate, won the race for Lieutenant Governor. So what do you do as Lieutenant Governor At Patriot Academy?
Lydia Covey So Lieutenant Governor is all about mentorship. So I look At the new students who are coming to Patriot Academy, and I assign them to alumni, who will then mentor them to the process to prepare for Patriot Academy. Because it's quite a process. To even get ready for this, you have to write a bill, you have to go through prep material, all sorts of things. And so our alumni actually mentor our freshman students. And I'm inside, in charge of getting all of them connected because it
Rick Green would be a bit of overwhelm to not have that right.
Lydia Covey Even. Even with a mentor. It's pretty overwhelming for freshmen. So they definitely need kind of that hand to help them, get through that.
Rick Green How, you know, fourth year for you, how much does it not necessarily get easier, but, like, you start to understand the process. The second year you come back, it's like, okay, now it's not so much of a fire hose. I can enjoy this a little bit more and comprehend what's going on.
Lydia Covey Yes, I would say second year is just a huge improvement on your understanding of the process. You're ready then to be up At the mic more, you know what to look for in the language. When all the craziness is going on in the House floor, you can actually follow it and then participate in it. So I would say first year to second year is just like, a massive improvement on how, how much you participate in the actual.
You recently got elected to the state Republican Executive Committee
Rick Green Well, you don't just do the simulation here At Patriot Academy. You're involved very much back home. You, just recently got elected to the state Republican Executive Committee. So you're doing this for real At home, which you've done for a long time. Your family's very involved. How have you been able to use some of the things you learned At Patriot Academy in. I hate saying the real world, but you know what I mean?
Lydia Covey Yes. I would say, one huge thing is knowing the rules.
Rick Green Yeah.
Lydia Covey A lot of the rules that we learn here, there's specific for the legislature, which helps me to watch our own Texas legislature. I can under. I can read a bill and understand it. I can listen to the testimony and understand. And listen to a committee hearing. I can listen to the floor debate. I know what's going on. But then also, those rules are used in just, the Republican Party meetings that I go to or the city council meetings that I go to. I can understand because they're all based in. Robert. Rules of order. Right. To some extent. They all, you know, they have their own modifications, but for a lot of. A lot of freshmen that come here, they're not familiar with that At all. And so learning just those basic principles and, those basic rules, they can take that to any kind of civic meeting and understand what's going on. To me, that was super valuable. And then also, just the public speaking and the confidence and how to think through things. That's been invaluable to me because you now have.
Rick Green I mean, as a state Republican executive committee member, you've got a huge area, huge district. What is 15 counties, something like that?
Lydia Covey It's 18 counties.
Rick Green Eighteen counties.
Lydia Covey Yes. The senate district.
Rick Green So you work with the Republican leaders in that entire 18 county area. That's huge.
What do you hope students get after they spend a week at Patriot Academy
talk to me about what you. After four years now, what you hope students get after they spend a week here. What do you want them going home with Saturday?
Lydia Covey I hope that they know they can make a difference. And they don't just know it, but they go home and do it.
Krish Dhanam Yeah.
Lydia Covey And that can start really small because some of these students, I mean, they're 15, some of them are 16. And so, you know, some of them don't even have a car to drive yet. But there are things that everybody can do. And so I hope that they go home and actually do something with it and, of course, absorb the knowledge, but then also applying the knowledge. Yeah, that's what I hope they get. Because one person truly makes a difference. Yes, absolutely. And there's such a need in our nation, in our state right now, for young people to actually get plugged into the really nitty gritty of politics, like go to your local political party or go to your, you know, county commissioner, your local political club or whatever. There is things for you to do. If a young person shows up At a group like that and says, hey, I am here. I love America. I'm here to learn, I want to help, they will immediately get plugged in and they'll have just a host of people get around them and give them all sorts of opportunities. And I wish young people would know that because they think they're going to go in there and have to figure it out all by themselves when there's, like, people just waiting for young people to come to them. So if they go and get plugged in. I have experienced that as a young person. Like, I know that as a fact. I've been given so many opportunities and mentored by people who just want to see me succeed. And other young people will, I think, receive that same thing.
Rick Green Yeah, I think we have a perception that, well, if I'm a young person and I go to that meeting where everybody's over 50, they're not going to want me there. They're going to, but it's the opposite. They really want you there. They're looking for young people like you.
Lydia Covey Absolutely.
Rick Green So that's part of why they've welcomed you with open arms and said, hey, we'll give you 14 assignments.
Lydia Covey Yes. And sometimes you don't feel ready for it, but they're like, but we'll help you. It's like, okay, we'll try. We'll give it a try.
Rick Green Now we need more of that. No doubt. And not just here in Texas, but. But all over the country. It's a big reason why we want people to come. Patriotacademy.com if you want to learn more. This is our last leadership congress of the summer for this year, but we're already gearing up to do this all over the country next summer. So make sure you get on the website, get on the email list, and start thinking about young people in your life that you can send here, to the Patriot Academy. Just a couple of minutes before we go to break. what would be, you know, as you watch the.
Lydia Covey The.
Rick Green All the different things. We do process, we do philosophy, we do skills, all these. All these different things At the. At the academy in that. In that one week on the philosophy side, sort of the, just how these kids see the. I'm sorry to say, kids, you're one of them. I'm old, okay. But how these young leaders see the world, what would be one of those things that. That you want them to take home on Saturday? I mean, we're dealing with social. You know, they're Facing a generation, their generation, like socialism now, you know, all the different issues. What's one of those hot topics that you really hope they get a hold of this week?
Lydia Covey I don't, I don't think about, like, a specific topic right off the bat, but I would say the biblical principles.
Rick Green More of a paradigm.
Lydia Covey Yes.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Yeah.
Lydia Covey The biblical principles can apply to anything. And that you can make a, a biblically based argument in a reasonable way to somebody. you don't have to quote the Bible to make it, but there are, you know, there are principles that God has put the laws of nature, of nature's God that you can argue from a secular standpoint with biblical values. And I don't think there's anything wrong with bringing up those biblical values specifically as well, but you can do both. And there's a time and a place for both. And so I just want the young people to understand that. And I think they do. I think they really grasp it, and then it gets them thinking through that lens when they view any issue. And I think that's the most important.
Rick Green Oh, that's, that's even better than one hot topic. I mean, that's literally, literally a worldview.
Elias Coop Gonzalez Literally.
Rick Green How do you see the world and applying your worldview? So good. Lydia, God bless you. Governor, thank you for coming on the program. Thank you for serving this week and helping these students have such an incredible experience. That's Lydia Covey. Thanks for being with me.
Lydia Covey Glad to be here.
Patriot Academic Academy helps young people find their purpose in life
Rick Green All right, folks, before we go to break, back in studio here just for a second, I, wanted to encourage you to be thinking about young people you can send to this program. They can get the training, the communications training, the process, training, even just finding their purpose of what it is that God wants them to do with their life, figuring out what to do for college or their career, all of those things. We spend a lot of time on that. It's a really great experience for the young people and the iron sharpening that takes place to be around these other sharp young people from across the country. I remember when I was 19 years old, I went to a program called the Young Conservative Student conference in Washington, D.C. young Americans foundation put it on. And it was the first time for me to be around other young people from across the nation that were passionate about the country, passionate about learning these things and being leaders in this area. And I finally felt like, I mean, I knew I was a little bit weird, but At least I didn't feel weird anymore. I felt like there's other people like me, across the nation, other young people that I could iron sharpen with. It was, it really changed my life in many ways. And when, we started Patriot Academy seven or eight years later when I was in the legislature, I was thinking a lot about that week that I spent in D.C. and I wanted to create an environment where young people could have that same experience. And I see it every single time we do a leadership Congress. I see these young people, their eyes light up. There's such a joy that they have found other people that are passionate about this, that have a biblical worldview, relationships that last forever. It's one reason we've had, now 48 weddings out of Patriot Academy, because they find somebody that they really want to do life with. So that's another side benefit of sending somebody to Patriot Academic Academy. But anyway, check it out today. Patriotacademy.com patriotacademy.com we're going to take a quick break.
We'll be right back.
Rick Green You're listening to after four,
Bobby Roza friend.
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Rick Green: America's Constitution coach conducting national Leadership Congress
Rick Green Welcome back At the core. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. Thanks for staying with us. We're At the Patriot Academy legislative hall At the Patriot Academy campus in Constitution City, Texas, conducting our national Leadership Congress. It's quiet right now because they're having some sort of point, of order ruling. But it's about to get really loud because they are debating on the House floor and we're just sitting up in the in the balcony enjoying it. And Krish Dhanam is back with us. He was just on a few days ago talking about the Patriot Institute today.
Rick Green: Krish, the Patriot Academy Leadership Congress has been remarkable
Krish, let's talk about the Patriot Academy Leadership Congress. The one week that they get At the campus. You've been doing this with me for over 20 years now. And so you've seen where they come in and they only have a few days with us, but in that few days a lot happens. First of all, thanks for coming back on.
Krish Dhanam Appreciate that, Rick. And yeah, the journey has been remarkable. We've been doing this for 20 years and I've seen it as a bit player, just popping in and out to someone who is now for the last couple of years, had an active parole from the beginning to the end. And yeah, you're absolutely right. Even the posture, the physical nature of how they stand and how they look At each other and the constant, the confidence they exude in just their, their gait, the way they walk, the way they talk, I think it rubs off on each other. And my prayer has always been the same. I said, I hope Washington stops whatever they're doing because we do believe good reinforcements are on the way.
Rick Green I like the picture you just painted too, because I was just thinking this morning as I was watching them on the House floor how different, even physically they move around the room because they're sharpening each other and they're literally in a grown up role of being an actual legislator on a House floor like this. and that matters that, you know, it literally is shaping them to think, I can do this, I can be a leader.
Krish Dhanam Yeah. And when you look At the very history that we teach them, and of course you, I've learned a lot of it from you and David. the people who framed this nation were about their age, maybe a little older than them and you know, 10 years past their age as a man, the man authored the Declaration of Independence. So, I think they see that they do not see themselves as young people without an opinion because we give them a chance to be big in all areas, to be big in thought, to be big in action, to be big in activity, to be big in particular, participation. So I think they grow beyond their years, as Mr. Zigler often said. You know, they, they come here with the, to seeking the knowledge. But I think very quickly they get the wisdom of why that knowledge is important.
Rick Green That's good, man. Yeah, yeah. And then, doing multiple years matters too. Right. So you see some of these students like we just had on Lydia Covey as her fourth year, obviously shines with, with an incredible example. Oh, they're voting. See how close it is. how much does that matter to have that building, that constant improvement and getting them to think like that for the rest of their life? Not just that they're going to continue to improve while they come to Patriot Academy, but getting them to study and want to improve for the rest.
Krish Dhanam Yeah. And as you were talking, the only analogy I can think of is, you know, when Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile, he didn't do it by trying to run the entire mile by himself. He hired the best quarter mile lappers who could then compete with him for a quarter of a mile and that kept his pace. So I think year one, they get the first quarter of a mile with one set of people and then the pace increases and their desire to come back is not so much that they get to run the race. They want to finish well and they want to finish ahead. So I think each time they come, they seek out a new group of people who move them faster. And I think that's the best analogy I can give.
Rick Green That's good. I Love that. Okay. Patriotacademy.com to learn more. This is our last one of the summer. We will have some programs throughout the year where you might can come to the campus and do a two or three day program with us. But Krish, we're already starting to gear up for next summer. We're going to be doing these regional Patriot Academies around the country. they can start with that just a three day in the Idaho capital or one of these other capitals that we go to. It's not as much as this National Leadership Congress, but it's a great way to get started. And you've seen these beautiful capitals where we do this around the country. Talk a little bit about those regionals.
Krish Dhanam I think, you know, when you go to the regional like Delaware, you know, know when you look At the first state and you look At the history of that capital, I think when they go into a state capital, they don't just understand the political process. They can actually go back in history to see what formed that particular body. And I think, I've met some people here who have been to multiple regionals, which means they, they left their own geography Their own locale and went to a multiple different areas and so they bring that experience here. And I think that the well rounded nature of our regionals because invariably, I mean, as we say, yeah, the regionals are good. you know, we'll whet your appetite and we'll quench your thirst, but if you want living water and continuous food, you got to come to the seven days. So this almost becomes the pilgrimage that they aim for after we wet their appetite.
Rick Green And then while they're here, we convince them to come for the whole year and do the actual.
Krish Dhanam And we're doing those, we're starting those interviews this afternoon.
Rick Green Oh, excellent, excellent, excellent. Last thing. The skills to be able to come and learn, I mean the speaking skills that you and I learned from Zig Ziglar. The just work in a room, just having the, you know, being able to, deal with adults and just have the social skills that they need. Talk a little bit about that and the importance.
Krish Dhanam Yeah, and it's one of the things I shared in my talk yesterday. As I said, you know, the world has an abundance of confidence in certain group of people and they have an abundance of competence in another group of people. One thing we try to do is merge that will and skill make confidence and competence come together so they become a true 24 hour champion.
Rick Green Will and skill. That's good, man. So the confidence and the confidence allows
Krish Dhanam them to become the 24 hour champion that God intended them to be.
Rick Green Oh, it's so good. Oh, so good. All right. That's the kind of stuff you get when you come to Patriot Academy. Krish Dhanam, the dean of the Patriot Institute. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks for coming on.
The Patriot Academy campus came under significant attack in the last few weeks
Krish Dhanam All right.
Rick Green So appreciate Krish and all that the students have been learning from him for the last 20 years, let alone just the, you know, the depth of literally master's level training is what these students are getting. Some of them, you know, 16, 17 years old and they leave a Patriot Academy understanding the world and knowing what to do. Being men and women of Issachar that understand the times and know what to do, that's the training that we provide. It makes such a huge difference. I hope you've enjoyed getting to hear from some of those folks from Thomas Umstattd who, you know, 20 years later is here teaching, the students and many of the things that he learned 20 years ago At Patriot Academy. But then so many of the things that he's done as an author, coach and as a podcaster now, taking that knowledge and instilling that into the young people. to Elias Kub Gonzalez, a state legislator in West Virginia, and taking that application of what he learned At Patriot Academy years ago and teaching the new, group of students here to Lydia Covey is someone who's here for the. For the fourth time and, and already has gone from being the student that's being mentored to being someone who's mentoring the others. And then of course, Krish Dhanam and what he does here, not only At the academies that we do around the country in the summer, but our one year institute that you heard me talking about on Tuesday with him, if you were listening to At the The Core on Tuesday, if you missed that, it's on our website. Make sure you go grab that program. There was also a very important message At the end of that program that I want to just update you on in our final minutes of, of the program today. If you missed Tuesday's program, the 32nd version here is that the Patriot Academy campus came under significant attack in the last few weeks. We had a, significant effort of a large and dangerous Islamic group trying to get the, It used to be part of the Patriot Academy campus. It had become basically an Airbnb operation. It was the cottages that we built over the last few years and due to some contractual disputes, we ended up terminating that and, and deciding to build our student housing elsewhere. All of that to say, it was a significant, significant, challenge and threat, existential threat to the existence of Patriot Academy and is very much what's happening across the country with this Islamic invasion. And, we were about to experience that ourselves literally right next door. And so for the last two weeks we have been, raising money and working out a contract and being able to lock down those cottages. So the, the good news that I want to share with you today is that after asking for help just two days ago here on the program and on Flashpoint and on WallBuilders, people, have responded incredibly well. And we've, already had several more cottages get sponsored. I basically got till, August 31st to close on the property. And so we were able to get the auction pulled down. We were able to get a contract just last Saturday. And, now we have, you know, roughly 30 days to raise the rest of the money and close on the property. So I'm down to 12 cottages that still need to be sponsored and, no, I'm sorry, 11. 11 cottages that need to be sponsored. I think Tuesday we were, down to 16. five of those got sponsored just in the last 48 hours. And a lot of people have sent in smaller donations that will add up to a cottage. So really we're probably down to 10 in terms of what we need to raise to be able to close. So if you'd like to help with that, you can go to our website, Patreon patriotacademy.com and learn more or you can just go straight to the donate page and make a donation. There's a drop down menu for the Patriot Student cottages, so you can donate directly to those. If you would like to actually sponsor a cottage, that's a significant donation. It's $100,000. And you get to name the cottage after a founding father or mother of your choice. And of course we will honor you inside that cottage with a plaque as well. And it's just a huge, huge help and it will for generations pay off in terms of training up the next generation. So students will be staying in that cottage, some for the one week that we're doing right now with the Leadership Congress and some for a whole academic year. So they'll spend an academic year with us really getting grounded. As I said earlier in master's level training and education that there's just nothing like it. I mean there are similar, I guess, slightly similar programs around the country. There's nothing quite like the Patriot Institute and the Patriot Leadership Congress and what we do. So your investment is helping to train thousands and thousands of young people who by the way, graduates are now doing, you heard some of them today on the program. But we have graduates, a significant number of graduates in the White House right now At the highest levels helping to make policy. We have graduates who are serving in Congress as members of Congress, as staffers, in state legislatures across the country in the arts, literally making music and movies and documentaries. we've got some of our graduates gone into comedy. I mean they're doing everything and of course business and ministry and education and most importantly of all, family. And so we basically just train them to be good citizens, biblical citizens for the rest of their lives, effective biblical citizens. As Krish was talking about, how to have both the will and the skill. That's what we do. We train them to be ready to answer first Peter 3:15, be ready to answer for the hope that is within. Whether they're a mechanic, talking to the mechanic next to them, or they're, you know, a teacher or preacher, whatever they go into. We've trained them how to communicate well. We've trained them to know truth, but then how to articulate that truth as well. So if you want to be part of saving these cottages to be student cottages for the, for our Patriot Academy students and not be used by, folks that are very much against the American dream and against American values, if you want to help us do that. Like I said, we've got about 30 days left, so we're not as under the gun as we were last week, but we are, definitely, you know, definitely have a deadline here and need to raise significantly more, to close this deal. You can help with [email protected] and we, sure appreciate it if you want to just see more of what we do. I know sometimes people just listen to the program and haven't ever really seen what Patriot Academy is about, then be sure and visit that website. There's some great videos on there where you can see the kids in action, see the debating on the house floor. You can see what we do with pastors and other grassroots groups like, Moms for Liberty, Moms for America, Liberty, Pastors Turning Point. We serve all of these organizations. We actually equip them with the constitutional education that they use in their programs. and we train their teams when they come to the campus for one of these trainings. So there's a lot more than just what you might be perceiving as a kids camp or something like that. We do a lot more than that. And, we'd love for you to be a part of it. Love for you to not only, not only help us in this time of need, which, as I said on Tuesday, I don't think I've ever asked for folks to financially help us before in the five years of doing this program At the The Core. but this is an existential threat in a serious situation. And that's why I am asking for your help. So I am asking you to go to patriotacademy.com today and make a donation of any amount. If it's $10, if it's $10,000, if it's 100,000. Sponsoring a cottage, whatever you can do, please consider being a part of the solution and, help us, not only save the cottages and the housing for the campus, but to pour that into these young people, invest in these young people that will pay off for generations to come. We see it now, I mean, like the kid that was. I still call him a kid. But Thomas upstad on, opening the program today, 20 years later, he's still having a significant impact in the culture now, training up hundreds and hundreds of other people to be authors and podcasters and everything else. So the ripple effect of what your investment in Patriot Academy does, it's impossible to describe. I wish I could, paint that picture effectively for you today to know that this is an investment that pays off, for generations. It's huge. Patriotacademy.com patriotacademy.com Watch the videos, see what we're about, pray about it, and pray for us. Pray that over the next 30 days that this, this gets closed, that we get this taken care of, and then pray for discernment for, for myself, for my wife, Kara.
Pray for discernment as Patriot Academy prepares for 250th this year
We, you know, our board, our executive team, pray for discernment for us because in the 250th this year, we have so many opportunities. The Lord has opened so many doors for us to be able to influence the culture and what's going on. everything from getting the Bible back into public schools to training our 35,000 constitution coaches out there to be able to, start brush fires of liberty in their communities, to these leadership congresses with the students, to the Patriot Institute and then working with the White house on the 250th celebrations around. There's just so much going on, so much to do. And so I covet your prayers to be a good steward of, of the opportunities that he's given us. So pray that we will have good discernment in knowing exactly which areas that he wants us to invest in and spend our time in. and then specifically pray for us to know which students to accept to the Patriot Institute this year. We've got scholarships available. If you've got a, you know, 17 to 23 year old in your home or in your church that you think would benefit from having nine months on the Patriot Academy campus in Constitution City, Texas, learning apologetics and biblical worldview and communication and all these things. Have them apply because we've got some scholarships to give away. they're significant scholarships. So it's a $20,000 is what it cost to do the year, and we have $15,000 scholarships. So that means the student only has to raise $5,000 to cover their year. If you know anyone that you think would benefit from this, have them go to the website that today and get their application in. As Krish said, we're doing interviews right now to select these students. It's a very selective process. These are very much the Navy Seals of civics. They are the tip of the spear for this movement to save the culture. So if someone wants to come to this, they're going to go through a rigorous process, to be selected as a part of that student body for this upcoming year. But we have openings. We are making those decisions now. Pray for our discernment to choose the right students so that we have the right atmosphere. or we're creating that atmosphere, but have the right students that would thrive in that atmosphere. So check that [email protected] make that donation today At patriotacademy.com and pray for us that At Patriot Academy we honor the Lord in everything we do. Everything we do, we do the best that we can. As in a God not unto men. So important for us to live out that scripture in Colossians. I sure appreciate you listening today. I appreciate all the folks that have have come on the program today and helped to share the story. Thanks so much for listening to At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green.
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Show Notes:
(00:00) Preborn needs your help to provide ultrasounds for pregnant women
(01:08) Rick Green is America's constitution coach and speaker at Patriot Academy
(03:14) Talk about how you're helping authors and all the other things you're doing
(06:41) Kamala Harris: Elon Musk runs his companies like a monarchy
(12:03)Patriot Academy gives you character training and skills training, Rick says
(13:48) Thomas Umstattd will give two talks to students at Patriot Academy this afternoon
(16:11) Elias Coop Gonzalez attended Patriot Academy when he was 16
(22:35) Students should be critical of everything being thrown at them
(23:54) Elias Coop Gonzalez served two terms in the state legislature
(24:31) Lydia Covey is the current Lieutenant Governor of Patriot Academy
(26:07) You recently got elected to the state Republican Executive Committee
(27:33) What do you hope students get after they spend a week at Patriot Academy
(33:02) 80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing baby on ultrasound
(34:36) Rick Green: America's Constitution coach conducting national Leadership Congress
(35:04) Rick Green: Krish, the Patriot Academy Leadership Congress has been remarkable
(0:15) The Patriot Academy campus came under significant attack in the last few weeks
(48:08) Pray for discernment as Patriot Academy prepares for 250th this year
(50:38) Preborn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion
https://www.thomasumstattd.com/about/
https://www.wvlegislature.gov/House/lawmaker.cfm?member=Delegate%20Coop-Gonzalez
https://www.patriotacademy.com/about/our-academy-leadership/
https://www.patriotacademy.com/our-team/
https://afr.net/podcasts/at-the-core/
https://www.patriotacademy.tv/series/NlzmnklZ9LO7-the-tavern?channel=shows
https://www.patriotacademy.com/institute/
https://www.patriotacademy.com/build/
https://www.patriotu.com/pages/home/d/patriot-academy
https://www.patriotacademy.com/the-patriot-experience/
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