I’ve been a conservative since I was a little kid. My mom let me play with toy guns all the time, my brother took me out to the country to shoot bb guns, and dad taught me how to shoot real ones. And I learned the differences. Mom often told me stories about being a little girl during World War Two: The parties her big sisters would throw for the GIs in training nearby, the rationing, and the air raid drills (now called “tornado sirens” these continued to be tested every Saturday afternoon of my childhood to the present day).
The couch was my bed back then and I often fell asleep watching the ceiling reflect dueling colors from the television screen. I enjoyed watching Dukes of Hazzard and the A-Team. On HBO it was Eddie and the Cruisers, The Outsiders, and Red Dawn. By the age of seven I began to think of myself as a rebel and at twelve a fan of Rush Limbaugh.
In college, I enjoyed deflecting my professors' liberalism with my conservative values paired with my passion for rebellion as a hardcore skateboarder. The combination of these traits must have been the secret formula for my graduation without indoctrination.
That summer, I drove to New Mexico. It was here that I began going to church and also where I discovered The USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos. Written in Dos Passos’ Depression-era socialist years (He later saw the light- became a conservative and regular contributor to National Review- this is the reason why he was long ago excommunicated by liberal academia.), the trilogy nevertheless left me with two ideas: As much as things change they stay the same and we can never be so arrogant to think that it can’t happen to us- “it” being tyranny.
A few years later on patrol in Jalula, I was breaking through the language barrier with a couple of Iraqis. My buddy was trying to compliment one on his impressive pompadour. The other Iraqi understood, smiled, and said “TITANIC!” I recall this story often of the potential Iraq has to be as good a friend to the US in forty years as Japan is today. The young Iraqis love American culture- movies and actors like Leonardo DiCaprio- just as much as the Japanese teenagers loved James Dean and rock and roll in the fifties.
Situational awareness has always been a major factor in my life. Back when I was in basic training, my Drill Sergeant would explain that, “The reason why the Army is the single most winning-est military force of all time is because we hate to lose. And when you get down to the root of it WE’RE THE MOST UNDISCIPLINED GROUP OF !@#$^^%!@#&*^!(*^ THERE EVER WAS!” This was his way of saying that everyone from the youngest private (to door-to-door walker or phone bank manager) on up is conditioned to adapt and to assume leadership should the ranking officer go down.
During the 2004 Presidential Election, upon the passing of Johnny Ramone who was one of punk rock’s most famous conservative Republicans, we held a memorial party at the Victory Center. I put the word out to all my friends in the College Republicans, we put The Ramones on the stereo, made thousands of phone calls to get out the vote, and we stayed pumped for the duration of the campaign to victory.
In what some have dubbed a “culture war”, the years ahead will bring many challenges and opportunities. There is a pressing need to find and recruit more foot soldiers and colonels in the effort to influence pop-culture in a positive way. To that end, I encourage my friends to stay active locally, nationally, and electrically. New media in the toolbox is key in reaching the millions of voters needed to maintain American liberty, national security, and individual rights.