Why Dan Bongino Is My Main Man

Is Dan Bongino perfect? Far from it, as he would (and does) readily admit. After all, he ran unsuccessfully three times for public office and has been permanently banned from YouTube… although some might consider that latter designation to be a conservative badge of honor. However, there is no denying that no one owns Dan Bongino. In every possible way, he is his own man.

Bongino is also 100% unfiltered in his views, hence the name of his popular podcast and now-defunct FOX News program. It you want someone who “calls them as he sees them,” then Dan is your guy.

Bongino is also rip-roaringly funny. To his credit, much of his humor is self-deprecating. I have lost count of the number of times he has made me smile, smirk, or have to pull my car over because I was laughing too hard.

Passionate? Bongino is the very epitome of political passion. I love the way his voice comes across on the radio, rising and falling and filled with emotion. Simply put, Dan wears his heart, his convictions, and his patriotism on his sleeve.

However, what I like best about Dan Bongino is that, on three different occasions, he put his money where his mouth is by running for Congress. Sure, he got blown away in a 2012 U.S. Senate race in Maryland before narrowly losing a House race in 2014. After moving to Florida in 2015, Bongino placed third in the Republican primary for the 19th congressional district seat.

In many ways, Bongino’s political aspirations mirror my own. As a political novice, I won two GOP primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 and 2010, only to lose the general election both times to an entrenched incumbent in a heavily Democratic district. After relocating to Florida in 2011, I ran for a seat in the state legislature five years later, but came in fourth in the Republican primary.

I am sure that Dan agrees that “three strikes and you’re out.” But at least he had the courage and fortitude to enter the fray and stand up for what he believed in. To me, Bongino is the personification of Teddy Roosevelt’s famous “The Man in the Arena” speech. Here is a short excerpt…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Atta boy, Dan. Keep telling it like it is!