“I grew up in a home that was very constitutionally minded, I was taught from a young age, that the Constitution is something important and valuable. As I got older, I just I saw these ways that politics could make people better and make people happier.”
“So, I got involved. I had a podcast, and that podcast turned into a radio show. I was going to local caucuses. I was a state delegate. When I got back from my two-year church mission in the middle of 2015, I was just shocked at the political and cultural landscape. I feel like that was a time where everyone wanted to start being vocal about politics, and not always in a healthy way.”
“After BYU, I thought, if I go to law school, I don’t have to be a lawyer. I didn’t even want to be a lawyer. But I can have that credential behind my name, and people may want to listen to me more, because this is a person with a law degree instead of just some dude with a podcast. So that’s how I became a lawyer.”
“I went to University of California Irvine (UCI), which was not a very intellectually friendly place for diverse viewpoints. I was the president of the Federalist Society while I was at UCI and there were some very loud objections to the Federalist Society existing at UCI. I realized very quickly that I was not going to talk about politics with anybody. But I could talk about the Constitution.”
“I was the only outspoken originalist in my constitutional law class. My professor, who was a very good professor, taught that you need to learn how to argue both sides of the argument, you need to make your argument stronger. And so, in that class, I felt like I could be comfortable enough to say, ‘This is what I think the Constitution says.’ And everyone in that class disagreed with me, but by the end of the year, my professor would say, ‘Now, what would Ritchie say in response to that?’ And the students could recite back word for word what I was thinking, because it made their argument stronger, and they took it seriously.”
“After becoming a DA for Orange County and now as a civil lawyer living in Orange, CA, my main goal has shifted away from big political statements and incite to lifting up the people around me. When I first started being vocal about politics, I was trying to have a lot of big political conversations with people on the big, heavy, controversial issues that I think mattered. But people just weren’t willing to go there. But if you start small with things, and you build up a little bit of trust, then you can gradually start moving towards those bigger issues. By that time, you’ve developed a rapport with that person where they trust that you’re coming from a good place, and I trust that they’re coming from a good place. We’re going to disagree, but we can figure things out.”
“I think a big problem in America generally is people, myself included, kind of got out over their skis in wanting to do this thing or that thing. But really, it’s about starting small, finding those areas where you don’t want to be, you know, bashing each other’s heads, and instead, just find little ways to build a relationship with people around you. And then you can start making some real changes.”
Richie Angel
Orange, CA
Richard Angel is a lawyer in Orange, California and a former District Attorney for Orange County. With a long family history in Southern California, he gives back to the community through civil service.
