Perhaps???

Perhaps we will be able to kick out the professional politicians and a new breed of leaders will emerge.

Nick Popaditch is an American hero who has spent his life in service to our country. He first enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1986, serving with 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division. During Operation Desert Shield, he served as a tank commander before being honorably discharged in 1992. In 1996, he reenlisted with the Marine Corps, and once again served as a tank commander. From 1998 to 2002, he served as a drill instructor before returning to 1st Marine Division in 2002. He rose to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant and deployed to Iraq. The 1st Tank Battalion pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein, and his face became known in April 2003, when an AP photographer took a photograph of Popaditch grinning, smoking a cigar, with the statue of falling in the background.

He was serving in Fallujah as a tank commander when he was hit with a rocket propelled grenade in the head. Miraculously, he survived, something he attributes to the actions of the Marines serving with him. Popaditch was blinded and temporarily deaf, he was treated in Fallujah and then medevaced to Germany. He lost his right eye, his sense of smell, and hearing in his right ear. His nose was also broken, and he had to undergo several surgeries to remove shrapnel from his head, eye, and face. He was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry, and the Purple Heart. He was medically retired as a Gunnery Sergeant.

"Serving as a Marine, you see people in Iraq, you see people who have never known freedom, and over there fighting it made me realize that a guy like me, I’d always known it. I’ve always been American, I’ve always had freedom and liberty here, prosperity, everything that those generations before mine have built — the greatest economy on Earth, and all that freedom that I’ve been born into. So I looked at my government once I got home, and, you know, what are we going to pass down to the next generation? And I didn’t like the answer. So, I know General Mattis, he was my commanding general, and he said “You ask a Marine to move a piano, you gotta start by pickin’ up the bench”, and so I decided to get involved. I decided to run for Congress. I looked at my congressman, and I said, you gotta figure out if this is something the people want, is it constitutional, is it moral, and is it ethical? And I felt my congressman was getting the answer to every one of those questions wrong. So I decided I could do a better job, it’s the time to do it, and it’s basically the chain of custody with all that freedom and prosperity that generations before me handed down to me. What are we going to hand down to the next? If we don’t get involved, we’re not going to hand the same things down. This current administration is handing away liberty, selling out our prosperity, on a daily basis. So, yeah, it’s time to get in there and make a stand."

"God Bless America. I love my country, and I am proud to be an American."