STARRS Podcast
STARRS Podcasts includes the series STARRS & Stripes which interviews military veterans, talks about their careers and military service, and their concerns about what is happening in today's military. See our website, starrs.us, for more information.
STARRS Podcast
Matt Lohmeier: Navigating Ideological Shifts in the Military
Matt Lohmeier, Executive Vice President of STARRS, author of the book "Irresistible Revolution" and a public speaker, gave the keynote talk at STARRS Rally for Our Republic in September 2024 in Arizona. His presentation starts with a video introduction of his story, an early preview of his upcoming documentary.
Former US Air Force/US Space Force Lieutenant Colonel Matt Lohmeier (also a 2006 USAFA grad) shares his personal journey from commanding the 11th Space Warning Squadron to grappling with a profound leftwing ideological shift within the military amplified by the events in 2020. His evolving sense of patriotism and deep appreciation for American history sets the stage for a candid discussion on the impact of leftist ideologies on morale and readiness at Buckley Air Force Base and the resulting challenges of military recruitment.
Matt talked about the thought-provoking literature he introduced to troops at Buckley, sparking conversations that challenge and broaden perspectives. Starting with Viktor Frankl's "Man’s Search for Meaning" and moving through historical and political topics, he talks about intriguing links to Frederick Douglass's philosophies amidst today's political movements. This literary journey wasn't just about books; it was about fostering meaningful dialogue in a space often dominated by rigid narratives.
Matt's talk takes a reflective turn as he explores the dilemma faced by conservative Christians balancing faith and societal change. Drawing on lessons from Cleon Skousen's book, "The Naked Communist," he discusses the enduring power of the "Christian Code" as a response to contemporary ideologies. With a call to love, pray, vote, and consider military service, he inspires listeners to engage actively in civic life, championing the values and principles they hold dear, while offering a heartfelt appeal to young men to serve their country in a time of need.
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For more information about STARRS, go to our website: https://starrs.us which monitors and exposes the CRT/DEI/Woke agenda in the Dept. of Defense and advocates a return to Merit, Equality and Integrity in the military.
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It was cold, denver, colorado, mid-november. My wife and kids and I drove down to Colorado Springs for the afternoon and when we came back to our home in the evening we noticed that a side window on our house had been completely crushed into the house. Things like that don't happen on military bases. Mr President, good afternoon and happy Thanksgiving. This is Lieutenant Colonel Matt Lohmeiyer, commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron. The man I'm interviewing today has 1,200 hours of flying the T-38 as an instructor pilot, followed by the F-15C. This is not just anybody we're talking about that served the military. Lieutenant Colonel, thank you so much for joining me. A true hero, colonel Matthew Lohmeyer.
Matt Lohmeier:My wife teased me after we got married. She says you're not very patriotic, because I was still coming into my patriotism and an appreciation for the greatness of the American ideal, learning about American history, learning about the rest of the world. It was learning about our founding. It was learning about the ideas and ideals that shaped the country initially and how, despite all of our failures, we've tried to live up to those ideals that I really began to take some pride in what this country was and is, really began to take some pride in what this country was and is Recruits Recruiting goals, recruiters Every branch of the military is struggling to meet its recruiting goals. The report from Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Chip Roy accuses the Pentagon of weakening our armed forces by pushing leftist ideology on race and gender. And the United States Military Academy is a university and it is important that we train and we understand and I want to understand white rage and I'm white. What is critical race theory? I suspect it's not as major an issue as we've made it out to be in the media.
Matt Lohmeier:I went into command at Buckley Air Force Base in charge of the nation's space-based missile warning and I encounter an active, rabid, radical left-wing base commander. Our Army and my squad come from a diverse background. Inclusion and equality are what's important to us. That's how we'll win our nation's wars. All of the stuff that is already tearing American people and citizens apart and polarizing the nation. He was injecting that into the base culture. That's when I decided I'd pen a formal written complaint about what I was seeing at my base.
Matt Lohmeier:The months that followed as I'd pen a formal written complaint about what I was seeing at my base, the months that followed as I was writing this formal written complaint, from my house being broken into to being spied on at the base, had people taking it into their own hands to tell him hey, we've identified someone who's not complying. I got a phone call from my boss's office. He says I'm going to have to relieve you of your command for being politically partisan while acting in an official capacity and for publicly criticizing your chain of command Hadn't done either of those things. When you take the oath, you sign up to defend your country against its enemies, both foreign and domestic, and when we've got people who are parroting Marxist narratives of American history, that are anti-American, that tends to have as a consequence the detriment of military morale, that tend to have as a a consequence division in the military workplace and that tend to erode our readiness and lethality, I deem that a domestic threat and so I chose to speak up about it. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Matt Lohme and this is my story.
Matt Lohmeier:I felt bad for Tim because we turned the lights off on him while he was still standing here and I hoped he would make it off of the stage safely. Unlike Tim, I charge for my books. They're $20 out there, and in fact I found it ironic that I brought Tim's book with me for my remarks today and not my own, and after I saw that he was going to be speaking about that book and Frederick Douglass for some time, I ran out quickly to the table out there and grabbed a copy of my own book as well, so that I can read you something from that. I think it's only fitting. I'm sensitive to the fact that we've all been sitting here for a long time and I've gotten up in the back several times, and so, for my dad's sake, who's at home watching this on a live stream, I'll invite you for one minute to get up and stretch and get your blood flowing, and I'll let him go get a snack before he listens to our remarks. Uh, next, I've got family here, glad to see family that I don't normally get to see. You have got uh colleagues here. I've got uh. I thought my attorney was here from all the way across the country. Did he dart? This year? Other areas was here from all the way across the country, did he dart? Is he out of here, mike? Oh, there he is.
Matt Lohmeier:It'll appear that I have some random thoughts for you. They're not really that random, but I have difficulty assembling what it is that I think I'd like to say to any audience, and I don't say the same thing really to any audience that I speak to and I give a lot of thought to the audience that I'll be spending some time with and I don't always know or have a good reason for why it is. I'll share certain things, so I hope that some of what I share will be impactful for some of you at any particular time. In my remarks I'm going to read to you a quote from JRR Tolkien. I like that quote from Chesterton and it's come up several times while I've been filming over the past year because one of the producers of the film loves and has read Chesterton's works for a very long time.
Matt Lohmeier:I don't like reading fiction but I do like to read and I found it healing to go and read Tolkien's works. Recently. I've spent the past maybe eight or nine months reading the Lord of the Rings, and the books are just far, far better than what film producers are able to do with a story. I listened to the Hobbit and I loved it so much I went and bought the book so that I could keep it in my library, and then I went to the Lord of the Rings and I've read nearly all three of the volumes of the Lord of the Rings, and I've been doing it slowly, methodically, enjoying every bit, and I recently got to a point in the book, just a couple of chapters from the end when I saw this, and like so many other places in the work, I find that what Tolkien was tapping into is so relevant for me and you as we consider how to wage a war against evil.
Matt Lohmeier:Other evils there are, that may come, for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Plug in whoever you want there, by the way. For Sauron, joe Biden is a good one. Whatever happened to that guy, kamala Harris? I mean, they're almost products of a system and I don't consider them good. I consider them evil. That's a personal opinion, not Starz opinion, although I'm wearing a Starz t-shirt too, by the way. Everything I say today is my own views, except for when I'm speaking about the organization. Then you can say that I'm speaking on behalf of the organization. That's me trying to keep my organization out of trouble.
Matt Lohmeier:For Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule. I really like that. I'm struck by the difficulty we face. There are so many good people the Kim Millers of the world trying to do good in the world, and yet they are one, and soon there are tens of thousands because they use their voice and their charisma, the gifts that God has given them, to try and be a light to the world, and people flock to that because they want leaders who can bring light, who can speak the truth and who can lead them in their behavior and what it is that they ought to be doing next on the world stage, however localized their efforts might be.
Matt Lohmeier:I told Tim that I'd be sharing a story about him up front and that I hoped he didn't mind. It's a story about him that he's never heard before. It's a story about him that he's never heard before, and I need to go back to 2020, to the fall, and I had just come out of a Defense Department strategy school and come into command in what was about to become the US Space Force and the climate I had found myself in at Buckley Air Force Base in the fall of 2020, it was actually summer of 2020 when I arrived was hyper-politicized. Many people in this room who have served in the military know that you don't want to live and work and operate in an overtly politicized military workplace. It's really terribly unhealthy to unity and to morale, a good order and discipline. It ought not matter who the commander-in-chief is although, quite frankly, it does. Now more than ever. It ought not matter who the commander-in-chief is or who the political appointees are, so long as they have, first and foremost, in their sights the military mission in that role. But when you inject politics, it's terribly divisive. The same problem that we're having throughout the country is the same problem.
Matt Lohmeier:I saw rapidly overcoming the military culture in the year 2020 after George Floyd died, and so I show up at a base as a commander in a unit and saw that there was this hyper politicization of the workplace and that my troops were beginning to be disincentivized from service. On the one hand, they believed the lies they were being told about their country and said, well, why would I wanna die for a systemically racist country? Or, on the other hand, they hated the political views that they were hearing and they thought why would I want to serve in a military that's so unlike anything I've ever aspired to participate in? I don't want to show up every day and be told I'm a racist if I'm white or, on the contrary, I don't want to show up at work every day doing my best as a young black man and then to be promoted or selected for some award later, just to have my peers look at me and wonder if I'm a diversity selection or promotion. Think of how demoralizing and debasing that is for our troops. Well, I saw that happening firsthand and in the fall of 2020, I gave feedback to a member of the Joint Chiefs, general Jay Raymond, for whom I had been the aide-de-camp in a couple years previous to my coming into command, and I said, hey, we've got a really big problem at this base and I'm starting to hear from other commanders. It's a problem that exists elsewhere in the Defense Department. And he says, yeah, yeah, this can't be, this is terrible.
Matt Lohmeier:And a month later, president Trump issued an executive order banning critical race theory, banning diversity and inclusion trainings in the federal agencies and in the uniformed services, and everyone breathed a big sigh of relief because we had recaptured in military culture something that we had so rapidly lost in the months before that executive order. Now that's all to change in the months ahead, after the election. I'll get there in a second. So I brought Tim Sandefur's book up here because I had just finished reading this book and didn't know who Tim was. I had never read anything about Frederick Douglass, although I'm a big reader, and I read this book probably. I'm guessing it was September of 2020. And after the executive order from President Trump came out, my base commander was determined to continue to preach diversity and inclusion to his troops, and he did it in the form of book clubs on the base, and I thought well, duke, can play this game. I'll have my own book club and I'm going to read with my troops Timothy Sandefur's Frederick Douglass A Self-Made man.
Matt Lohmeier:So your book showed up and made a debut at Buckley Space Force Base, and the first book that we read, actually in October, was Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, which is a remarkable work. If I remember correctly, the entirety of his manuscript on what's that theory he had. That's part one of the book. Is it psychoanalysis or something else? It was kind of his life's work that was destroyed when he went to the death camps and he had to re-accomplish the work later. But we read that first and we discussed it as a unit. It was non-compulsory. I had a handful of my troops show up. They knew it mattered to me, so they showed up and participated in these conversations and in month two we read this book together. We brought our brown sack lunches and we sat and chatted and I had just come out of this Defense Department strategy school and I thought well, people like to read books and argue about ideas and I'm going to have my troops do that. Well, I was wrong, I was mistaken. Most of them just wanted to go home at the end of the workday and play World of Warcraft or whatever their video game was, and I can appreciate that too. It's kind of a release. But some of these people genuinely appreciated what was in here and I want to tell you why I selected this book, and Tim already hit on it just a little bit.
Matt Lohmeier:Every time I read a book, at least for the past 15 years, I make my own index in the front of and I write all over my books. I learned that from Mortimer Adler in his book, how to Read a Book, and I make these indexes because I want to go back and reference books in my library later and find out what stood out to me and what shaped me, because usually we forget those things. And I had a question written in my index that I thought Tim answered so well in his book, and this is what I have written in my index what would Douglas have thought about the Black Lives Matter movement? And I write as just a personal observation questions like these are sticky, but the Black Lives Matter what we Believe section of their website makes it clear that it is a Marxist organization. Douglas would have considered its views abhorrent. And then I referenced pages 85 and 86. And so one of my aims in having this conversation with my troops was to facilitate dialogue softly, in a non-political way, and to ask them questions. Black Lives Matter was an effort and a movement that my base commander said no one at his base would stand in the way of. So if it's not politically partisan to say that, well then is it politically partisan for me to ask in this book club, what would Frederick Douglass' views been on this movement? Let me read to you what I thought was a good answer to that question what year did you write this, tim? Yeah, so he writes it several years before George Floyd dies and before the Black Lives Matter movement at that time that he writes this in 2016, 17, it was a thing, but you probably hadn't heard of it and if you had, it was fleeting. It became far more a thing in 2020, after George Floyd died, because they resurrected themselves and had a lot of resources coming in to help them resurrect this movement that was to reshape and wreck Western civilization, because it's Marxist. It had very particular aims. In fact, it accomplished what Barack Obama stated were some of his aims, which was the fundamental transformation of American society and you don't fundamentally transform anything that you love but he wanted to fundamentally transform this country. This is what Tim said on page 85 and 86. Stick with me for just a moment here.
Matt Lohmeier:Douglas also occupies a middle ground between the two magnetic poles of 20th century black politics Booker T Washington and WEB Du Bois. On the one hand, booker Washington, like Frederick Douglass, was born a slave. He knew Douglass personally and even wrote one of the earliest biographies of Douglass. Like Douglass, booker Washington focused his energies on self-improvement and self-reliance, and on the responsibilities of citizens and hard work. Yet Douglass would probably have scorned Booker Washington's accommodationist view that counseled blacks to be patient regarding segregation and not to pursue political remedies. I really love this, by the way, because it plays so nicely into this subtitle.
Matt Lohmeier:A self-made man, he wasn't easily categorized as right or left and certainly, in the modern sense, as Republican or Democrat. He had views that he believed were principle-based and he was a hard worker and a student of philosophy and of principles and of the Constitution and the founding of the country. And his views changed radically, in fact, as Tim so well points out in this book, as he applied himself to understanding. I'm going to go on reading, reading. On the other hand, while Frederick Douglass would have had no truck with Du Bois's racial separatism, his renunciation of American citizenship or his admiration of Joseph Stalin, it was the wealthy and refined Du Bois who became, before the ascent of Martin Luther King Jr, the 20th century's foremost spokesman for political activism in the Frederick Douglass mode, compared with more recent black leaders, frederick Douglass stands apart. Like Malcolm X, he repudiated the nonviolence that Martin Luther King Jr embraced, but like King, he would have rejected the black nationalism associated with Malcolm X. Such seeming paradoxes are more an artifact of today's narrow-minded political classifications than of any inconsistencies on Douglass's part. His stern epigrams about self-reliance, as well as his belief that black Americans should devote themselves to well-directed, honest toil and his scorn for the notion of black pride as a positive evil, seem conservative nowadays, perhaps even insensitive, and so forth.
Matt Lohmeier:There's more I wanted to read, but I've got a lot more to say in the last few minutes, so I'm going to stop there. I love this book, so thank you, tim, for teaching my troops. I want to say that after I read that book, the political activism at my base was relatively unaffected by my efforts for one, but I gave feedback to my entire chain of command that what I saw happening in the military was a divisive force and not a united force a uniting force. The presidential election happened and a few weeks later, while all of the confusion and debate about the outcome of that election was ongoing, I filed a formal written inspector general's complaint with the Space Force inspector general's office, detailing in this report what exactly was happening at my base that was both anti-American and rooted in Marxism and divisive. I got a call. By the way, I don't normally share this, because sometimes I just forget all of the details that happened.
Matt Lohmeier:There's a white colonel who was in charge of the Space Force Inspector General's office. He called me and he says hey, when you've got a moment, I need to talk with you and counsel with you about how to handle these things in the future. You're the IG, aren't you? I file a written report and hand it to you and you're supposed to hand it over for investigation. That's how this works. I've listed 24 witnesses. I thought I had a sense for what he meant when he told me that, but later it became far clearer that what he meant was the man against whom you filed a complaint is a black colonel and he's one of three colonels up for promotion to one-star general. And you don't write a complaint against a black man who's up for promotion to one-star general when we've only got one black man up for promotion to general. That's not how you go about this. Tell us privately and we'll make it go away, hopefully, kind of, and that sickens me to think about that. That's the place we've come to.
Matt Lohmeier:He was an activist. He did terrible things as a base commander. He should have been fired and court-martialed. He was teaching people about their commander-in-chief that he was a racist, meaning Trump. He held up pictures of the Trump cabinet and asked only his white employees what's wrong with this picture? The problem is that they're all white. That's punishable by court-martial. It's racist, it's illegal. It's against the Uniform Code of Military justice.
Matt Lohmeier:So I've got some snippets about all this in the movie that's coming out here in the weeks ahead. We've reenacted some things in fact, and I'm pretty certain it's going to cause some waves. Unfortunately and necessarily it's going to cause some waves. I just spent I don't know 70, 80 hours last week in Nashville doing some recreations to insert into the film with the independent film producers. It's a really talented team. In fact, the trailer that you just saw was put together by the director. You've seen what is a Woman some of you. The guy that edited that is the guy that put that piece together before we shot any of the footage over a year ago and we've been around the country shooting footage ever since. They just won't let me share the footage with you yet, so that will be out very soon.
Matt Lohmeier:I filed that complaint in November and the Space Force leadership sat on that through November, december and January. January 6th happened. You remember what happened then. How could you forget? And I got a written response on January. 6th happened. You remember what happened then. How could you forget? And I got a written response on January 7th dismissing my IG complaint. No explanation, no investigation.
Matt Lohmeier:And so I determined to write this book, which got me fired several months later Irresistible Revolution, and I'm going to read from it in just a moment. It is not a political screed. It's an expose on how a hyper-partisan environment was wrecking house in the military and what I had done in there was trace Marxist lineage of ideas, marxist ideology to the current social justice activism that we were seeing, to the Black Lives Matter movement in particular. And it's an invitation for a nation to return to God and repent unless we destroy ourselves. And that was the overarching motivation After I was fired from my command in May of 2021 under the Biden regime for writing this nonpartisan work. It's an academic work.
Matt Lohmeier:I then, in counsel with my attorney, began to show up on various personalities shows around the country, began to travel and speak. I separated without my pension in the fall of 2021. And for three years now occasionally I go speak places. Before that ever got underway, I had a group of military veterans show up at my doorstep on base at Buckley Air Force Base. Unbeknownst to me, they had secretly coordinated with my wife to come and do a roof stomp. A roof stomp is a fighter pilot tradition, but they're too old to climb on my roof so they didn't climb on my roof. They just knocked on my door and brought Jeremiah weed, a terrible drink that fighter pilots drink in the bars on Friday terrible drink that fighter pilots drink in the bars on Friday, and we had shots of Jeremiah Weed. They gave me coins from their time in command. They told me war stories and thanked me for my bravery and courage.
Matt Lohmeier:That group of military veterans are the men who started this organization, stars, and I want to thank them for their patriotism, even though I did not participate in the formation of STARS, for their patriotism. Even though I did not participate in the formation of STARS, I loved the men and women who participated in the founding of the organization and I've been a part of it ever since day one, in a sense, and they've been a part of my life since day one, since before day one. These are people who are comfortably retired and who woke up out of their retirement to take action for a country that they'd served for so long, considering the oaths that they had taken to support and defend the Constitution as not having an expiration date. They love God and they love their country, and so they still serve you, which is what's compelled me to come and join them as a young buck at age 42. Funny that I feel so young around the stars guys at age 42. They say we need young people like you, and I'm thinking I'm not that young, but I still can speak to a young audience, and there are some young people here, by the way. So STARS supported me. The STARS General Counsel, it just so happens, was my attorney who helped me, beginning then all the way to the present day, and they've done so voluntarily, with their own time and resources, which is so admirable to me. So voluntarily with their own time and resources, which is so admirable to me as I spoke around the country.
Matt Lohmeier:There's something that I've noticed about the conservative, relatively activist population in this country. They're largely Christian, not always, but they tend to be religious and they tend predominantly to be Christian. And occasionally I've heard a concern come up among the conservative Christian, and it's one that I've given a great deal of thought to, and it's this that there's this apparent contradiction, apparent contradiction, between their obligation, on the one hand, to pray for and love their enemies and to be a peacemaker Blessed are the peacemakers and, on the other hand, to fight their enemies. It is a contradiction, really, that the founders faced in ways that are unfathomable to the modern man because they were christian and they fought and killed to preserve liberty, and yet it's uncomfortable to us to become activists enough to ruin someone's afternoon Because you're decent conservative people who like staying out of people's business.
Matt Lohmeier:What conservative doesn't want to just get about their lives and live their religion and pay their tithes to the church rather than their favorite politicians and simply keep things the way they were? That's a big part of the spirit of conservatism. It's the love of what has come before, the desire to preserve and to transmit to the future generation that which has been so stabilizing and so permanent. And when you see that under attack and you think you want to raise your hand and speak up and say I don't like what I'm seeing, then you're labeled a racist. Then you're labeled a racist. Then you're labeled something evil. Don't be fearful and concern yourself with the false labels of your enemies. That's a good starting point If you're going to receive in you the courage to take action in your sphere of influence, you have to step out of your shell of comfort and you have to learn a bit more about the issues that are always thrown in your face.
Matt Lohmeier:Otherwise, you'll never have the courage to speak up and to be bold. It's just not possible unless you're okay looking like a fool to speak up courageously about something that you know nothing about. That's why these conferences are so important, but that's why the effort of doing a little bit of homework is so important. There weren't many courageous men or women in history who didn't understand what it was that they were fighting for. Whether you can fault them for their beliefs or not, whether they were right or wrong in your eyes, they understood them and they they were fighting for. Whether you can fault them for their beliefs or not, whether they were right or wrong in your eyes, they understood them and they paid a great price to understand what they believed in. They became believers and they were courageous.
Matt Lohmeier:I want to read something different to you now about this is my way, today at least, of trying to approach a way in which you can resolve this apparent contradiction of your obligations, and I'm going to use the Naked Communist. There's a piece at the very end of this book by Cleon Skousen in which he addresses that topic, and I liked what he said, even though I wouldn't use all of the exact words that he used in how it is that a believer ought to go about conducting themselves in the world, and so let me read that first, and then close by reading you something from my own book At the end of Skousen's work. He talks about what he calls the Christian code. He talks about what he calls the Christian Code, and I love how he tees this up. Last of all, may I say just a few words about the Christian Code.
Matt Lohmeier:Here are a few principles which, if understood and practiced, prevent a person from being a good communist, and that's the first point I really want to emphasize. Your participation in not being a good communist is one of the best weapons we've got against communism. In fact, some of the current dilemma we find ourselves in in modern society is because we've been asleep at the wheel and not living these principles and not paying enough attention. Skousen goes on. As I go down this list that I'm about to read, see if you can determine why. The former Soviet commissioner of education would say we hate Christians and Christianity. And I might add why the United States Department of Education seems say we hate Christians and Christianity. And I might add why the United States Department of Education seems to feel the same way that the former Soviet Commissioner of Education felt Parent terrorists. I mean, the absurdity to which our country has plunged in a short, rapid few years is really remarkable.
Matt Lohmeier:I watched Seinfeld with my wife last year. We went from season one all the way to the end and I was like dang, I know those are Democrats and the things they were joking about in their little TV show was the good old days and no one was offended but a few angry people. And we don't touch any of those subjects anymore. It's really remarkable how we've changed. Here's the list.
Matt Lohmeier:Here are a number of concepts typical of the teachings of Jesus. Do unto others as you would have them. Do unto you. Do unto others as you would have them. Do unto you.
Matt Lohmeier:When it gets right down to it, we're not always very good at these kinds of very simple things. Blessed are the peacemakers. Apparent contradiction. What is the aim of the Marxist revolution? You think about that. How is being a peacemaker at odds with those aims. It is better to give than to receive. These are all out of Matthew, by the way. Do not hate your enemies but do good unto them. Be as humble and teachable as a little child. Be wise, aggressive and alert to promote good and preserve peace. Perfect yourself by overcoming personal weaknesses. Follow God's commandments to increase the value of your life and to blot out the scars and mistakes of the past. Your greatest happiness comes through the greatest service. And last, do good secretly and God, who seeth in secret, will reward you openly. It's so simple and yet so often just doesn't seem to scratch the itch that all of us show up to these conferences hoping to have scratched, which is a big part of the problem. But we're in a church and so I can get preachy.
Matt Lohmeier:Let me read you something from my book and it's one of the reasons why those words from Skousen resonate with me so much. And I put it slightly differently. I wanted to provide advice to my troops that was nonpartisan, that was timeless and that I would look back in 10 years whether we had survived as a country or utterly destroyed ourselves in a civil war. I wanted to look back at what I had written and say I still believe that. And so I'm going to read to you the advice that I have for you, that I wrote to my troops, predominantly at the end of my book, because I still believe it today, three years later, and I think it is timeless advice for all of us. And it's how you can be not a good communist, but instead a real disciple who strives to be leaven in society, who strives to be the salt that preserves society. And, come hell or high water, you can go to your grave satisfied you did your best, living your faith and being a good American. I just got to find it. Oh, and it's in a section of the last chapter called Averting the Wrath to Come.
Matt Lohmeier:What is to be done about all of this? I think this is an appropriate question to ask as we near the end of this conference. What is to be done about all of this? What is our obligation in the face of an ideology that suppresses thought, demands conformity, propounds distortions and threatens to burn down society until it becomes a smoldering heap? Is it possible to avert the looming peril? Is it possible to escape or to flee the wrath to come?
Matt Lohmeier:The optimal way for the United States to curtail its destructive march is by committing to national repentance, but what is optimal is unlikely. True repentant political parties are, in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's words, about as frequently encountered in history as tiger doves. Politicians, of course, can still repent. Many of them do not lose their human qualities, but parties are obviously utterly inhuman formations, and the very object of their existence precludes their repentance, as the kind of collective repentance required to avert crisis seems as an untenable solution to our problems. The burden of repentance and proper being rests squarely upon the shoulders of individuals, families and small groups or communities. Therefore, educate yourself and choose to be the kind of citizen that allows civil society to flourish. I have written this book with the hope that it will become an important part of your education. If the nation remains divided and becomes increasingly polarized, however, then averting the wrath to come may not be possible, and Marxism's goal of conquest will indeed be realized in the very country Friedrich Engels referred to as the last bourgeois paradise on the earth, the United States. Friedrich Engels predicted what the collapse of America would mean for the entire free world it would be the quote snapping of their mainstay, and I believe that and they knew it Averting the wrath to come is up to every one of us. While relative peace remains, be as salt to preserve society by helping teach others.
Matt Lohmeier:Our repentance consists of abandoning the web of deception and the fog of lies in which we all labor. Such a challenge is not impossible, but it requires seeking for and turning to truth. It requires us to abandon our arrogance and to become humble. If you are a Christian, it means turning away from sin and turning to Christ. If you are a Jew, it means turning and facing the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob. Whatever your faith, religion or spiritual ambition, it means turning from evil and pursuing good. Whatever your faith, religion or spiritual ambition, it means turning from evil and pursuing good For the religious and non-religious alike. Repentance also consists in Americans believing in America, in its fundamental goodness. It means believing in and adopting America's founding principles as our best hope, as a country Of healing and unifying.
Matt Lohmeier:Regardless of our religion, creed, politics and race, you and I both have an important role to play as events unfold and as we labor within our own unique spheres of influence. Whether you're a parent, student, teacher, uniformed service member I'll add veteran, elected official, business owner, stay-at-home parent, even lawyers, or radio talk show host, act well thy part. While I cannot pretend to understand the ways in which each person is postured for proper action, I hope that what follows proves beneficial. I'm not going to read all of the sections, but I'm going to mention the highlights. Avoid anger and violence. That might not be possible forever. You should defend yourself and your families, but avoid anger and violence.
Matt Lohmeier:Be courageous. I will read this one. You live in a season of human history that demands great courage. Be grateful for the opportunity that is before you and do not shrink from your obligations. Do not be cowardly. Do not be a cowardly. How did I write that? Oh yeah, there it is. Do not be a cowardly summer soldier or a sunshine patriot. As you courageously stand for what is right, accept the consequences. As others observe your courage, they will learn courage and they will seek to emulate it.
Matt Lohmeier:The rest of the points include these Get educated. I've already mentioned that. Speak up, live not by lies. Get educated. I've already mentioned that. Speak up, live not by lies. Pay attention, and many people, increasingly so, are beginning to pay attention. That's enough of that.
Matt Lohmeier:Let me close by saying a few things and offering an invitation. Where do these go? You're here because you believe that you have an obligation to learn and to act well your part, or because someone really encouraged you to come. My invitation to you is to do your very best with however long you have left on this earth, whether it be 40 years or five, to be an honest soul that turns to God, acts in courage and does your part. Your sphere of influence might be different than mine, and it doesn't matter if it's in the walls of your own home or before members of Congress, getting to testify before Congress. All of us have a role to play, and the health of the body is determined by how each of these actors, who are properly capacitated with light and truth, play their part. Of course there's disease. Of course there are scorpions. Of course there are evil wretched Marxists, and some of them too, I'll admit, are just the victims of bad ideas.
Matt Lohmeier:It is difficult to love and pray for your enemies, but in the world in which you and I live, you should be grateful that nearly every week, you're going to be presented with an opportunity to live your religion and to pray for those that despitefully use you. Try and be more like the Master in doing that, and I think we might buy ourselves a little bit more of a season of peace. And, speaking personally, once again, I don't want to get my organization in trouble. We're a 501c3 nonprofit but you ought to go out and vote Trump. That's not Star's view, that's my view it is. So I'm happy to stick around after and answer any questions, not here, but out there.
Matt Lohmeier:Come buy my book. I don't want to take them with me on an airplane. There's only 20 of them out there, so hurry up, and I'm grateful for all of you. Every time I'm in a room with people like you, especially young men, I love you Because I'm so discouraged by how many young men don't want to serve their country anymore in the military. It's always been a noble country and we need the best men serving this country if we're to preserve it, and there are ways in which you can do that that aren't in uniform. So thanks for coming, thanks for being here with me, and God bless each of you. Thank you.