{"id":5976,"date":"2026-02-18T23:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/can-the-state-guard-save-our-democracy-w-adrian-bonenberger-independent-veteran-for-governor-of-connecticut\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T23:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:05:00","slug":"can-the-state-guard-save-our-democracy-w-adrian-bonenberger-independent-veteran-for-governor-of-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/can-the-state-guard-save-our-democracy-w-adrian-bonenberger-independent-veteran-for-governor-of-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the State Guard Save Our Democracy? w\/ Adrian Bonenberger. Independent Veteran for Governor of Connecticut."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=\" width=\"100%\" height=\"210\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Reviving the Citizen Soldier Ethos. War Face vs Society. Remembering the Founder\u2019s Vision. Lessons Learned in Ukraine and Afghanistan.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>Army Ranger Adrian Bonenberger has just thrown his hat in the ring for Governor of Connecticut \u2014 as an independent. In a wide-ranging conversation with host Paul Rieckhoff, Bonenberger unveils the centerpiece of his campaign: reviving the Connecticut State Guard as a voluntary, citizen-soldier force that would decentralize defense, create meaningful service opportunities for ordinary Americans, and counter the overreach of a federal government that has increasingly turned law enforcement into a militarized tool against its own citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The two combat veterans pull no punches on ICE \u2014 comparing its enforcement culture to the military&#8217;s &#8220;warrior ethos&#8221; and explaining why deploying a kill-or-be-killed mindset against civilians is not just dangerous, but a fundamental betrayal of the founders&#8217; vision. Bonenberger draws on his experiences training troops in Afghanistan and volunteer fighters in Ukraine to make the case that America&#8217;s civil-military divide is a national security vulnerability \u2014 and that a voluntary state guard is the constitutional remedy hiding in plain sight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Bonenberger also reflects on post-industrial New England, why Congress is effectively unfixable, ballot access hurdles facing independent candidates, and why he believes the governor&#8217;s office is where real change can happen on day one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>About Adrian Bonenberger:<\/b><span> Adrian Bonenberger is an Army Ranger, Afghanistan combat veteran, journalist, and author. He co-founded American Veterans for Ukraine alongside Paul Rieckhoff and Bonnie Carroll and has lectured at Springfield College in Massachusetts. He is now running for Governor of Connecticut as an independent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-WATCH <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/cR6T5hIA-Zg\"><span>video of this episode on our YouTube channel<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Learn more and support <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bonenbergerforgovernor.com\/\"><span>Adrian\u2019s candidacy for Governor of Connecticut here<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Learn more about Paul\u2019s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/independentveteransofamerica.org\/\"><span>Independent Veterans of America<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>-Learn more about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/americanveteransforukraine.org\/\"><span>American Veterans for Ukraine here<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Connect with Independent Americans:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Subscribe on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@independentamericans\"><span>YouTube<\/span><\/a><span>, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0F1lzdRbTB0XYen8kyEqXe\"><span>Spotify<\/span><\/a><span>, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff\/id1457899667\"><span>Apple Podcasts<\/span><\/a><span>, and all podcast platforms<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Read more at<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/independentamericans.substack.com\"> <span>Substack<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>Support ad-free episodes at<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/independentamericans\"> <span>Patreon<\/span><\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Connect: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/IndependentAmericansUS\/\"><span>Instagram<\/span><\/a><span>\u00a0 \u2022 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/indy_americans\"><span>X\/Twitter<\/span><\/a><span> \u2022 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/indyamericans.bsky.social\"><span>BlueSky<\/span><\/a><span> \u2022 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/IndependentAmericansUS\/\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PaulRieckhoff\"><span>X<\/span><\/a><span>, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/paulrieckhoff\/\"><span>Instagram<\/span><\/a><span>, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.com\/@paulrieckhoff\"><span>Threads<\/span><\/a><span>, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/rieckhoff.bsky.social\"><span>Bluesky<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8211;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/independentamericans\/posts\"><span>Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community<\/span><\/a><span> of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8211;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/independentamericans.us\/merch\/\"><span>And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch<\/span><\/a><span> now in time for the new year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/righteous.us\/\"><span>Righteous Media<\/span><\/a><span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And now part of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bleav.com\/shows\/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff\/\"><span>the BLEAV network<\/span><\/a><span>!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href=\"https:\/\/pcm.adswizz.com\">pcm.adswizz.com<\/a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Army Ranger, combat vet, and author Adrian Bonenberger just declared his candidacy for Governor of Connecticut as an independent \u2014 and he&#8217;s bringing a bold, historically-rooted idea to restore citizen-soldier democracy from the ground up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-episodes","entry"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444.jpg",1400,1400,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444.jpg",1400,1400,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444.jpg",1400,1400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444-1024x1024.jpg",750,750,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444.jpg",1400,1400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444.jpg",1400,1400,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ia-promo-square-ep444.jpg",1400,1400,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/category\/episodes\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Episodes<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Army Ranger, combat vet, and author Adrian Bonenberger just declared his candidacy for Governor of Connecticut as an independent \u2014 and he's bringing a bold, historically-rooted idea to restore citizen-soldier democracy from the ground up.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.righteous-media.com\/IndependentAmericans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}