Zach Lahn

I call it a religion of economic thinking.

I think people have been captured by this religion that says, like, whatever the market says is best is best.

And I'm talking mostly politicians and people in think tanks and all these things that don't spend time in the community.

And I've said something that I think people think is kind of radical.

It's that, look, I'm going to choose community values over shareholder value every day.

Because that's what my great-great-grandfather was here for.

That's why he came here.

He didn't come here to make some company.

And I'm not against business, but the extractive nature of what's happened in business in my state is undeniable, and it's making our state unrecognizable.

Just when you look at the 24 million acres of ground that's in crops and us losing 10,000 family farms over 20 years.

Like, that's life.

That's stories.

One of my favorite stories that I... Talk about this, and I'm bringing this up now because I just mentioned the idea of stories.

Teddy Roosevelt famously said that, I intend to be a preaching president.

To talk about the values of what it means to be an American.

And he did.

I mean, we got man in the arena from him.

Something that I have to find myself reading a lot just to remind myself.

Okay.

It's been a lot, lot harder things.