Thanks for bringing the issue up with your class.

Today at the university I teach at, politics briefly came up. Its a very small class and one of my students voted Republican. He said he doesn’t discuss politics at school because there are so few conservatives. I was a little surprised he was conservative since he’s majoring in something that is a den of liberalism (I’ll just leave it at that) and he seems just… well… very, very liberal.

However, he was in the military for six years (he’s almost 30) and worked in government in civilian life for several years. I told him about your blog (without mentioning you or the blog by name) and the message exchange we had.

He commented that even though the military has adopted more liberal policies the vast majority of people (in his experience anyway) that are in the military are conservative. And that experience sort of contributed to his conservatism. And he had the same experience as a government employee. The conservative government employee (which is the only kind of government employee I know) always makes me chuckle. My conservative government employee friends will rant and rave about smaller government without a trace of awareness or irony.

Anyway, my student is the perfect example of conservative military and civilian government employee. That being said, he apparently has the same experience you do; more of the people in his life are liberal.

Hmmm… maybe you and I should swap friends and family. Yeah… that’s the ticket!!

I am probably the only registered Republican among my 30 Facebook friends. I have stopped talking politics since I got into an ugly row with a high school friend over Israel, but much of the activity of my 30 friends is progressive. When I lived in Delaware my car was vandalized for having a McCain/Palin sticker on it in the parking lot of the bank I worked at.

As for the unions, I see what you are saying but I don’t get why that would be. All the attack ads this election cycle against Republicans were funded by unions, and the unions trumpet their progressive causes on their websites. So why are the rank and file putting up with it? Probably because they have no choice – which is why I’ve turned against unions.

The upper echelon of many institutions and organizations, such as labor unions and government employees, as you state, are liberal, but that’s meaningless. You have to look at the individual employees themselves.

Every single blue collar union worker that I personally know is politically conservative. Every. Single. One. Every single local, state, and federal employee that I know is politically conservative. Every. Single. One.

Granted, you might say that’s anecdotal evidence, and it is, but it’s significant. And I know hundreds of people. The vast majority of this country is conservative. Pretty much every government worker and every blue collar worker. That idea that if one is in a union they are liberal is laughable. They might vote democrat because they support the unions but it absolutely stops there. In every other category they are conservative.

Hollywood and academia aside, the country is mostly conservative. Being conservative in our society is the easiest thing to be. The vast majority of my friends are conservative. My entire family is conservative. And even the vast majority of my colleagues in the film industry (the filmmakers themselves aside) are conservative. That might come as a shock to you but it’s true. It’s not a shock to anyone who’s actually IN the business; only to the uninformed outsiders.

The few liberal friends I have are pariahs at their places of employment. For a conservative, I think life in this country is pretty easy.

And the military… One would think that the military was still conservative – and it is to a degree. But even the military is becoming increasingly politically correct – and I’m not talking about Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell the repeal of which I support. I’m somewhat troubled by the counterinsurgency strategy that sees us accepting human rights abuses as “cultural differences.” We accepted them during the Cold War as a matter of expediency but today it’s the philosophy of PC that demands that all cultures are equal that stays are hand. I have a problem with cultures that sew their women in bags and kill gays.

Then there’s Hollywood. How many conservative actors are there? Clint Eastwood? Dennis Hopper RIP? Then consider the legions that support the Democratic Party – and don’t get me started on Oliver Stone. Granted the man hasn’t made a decent movie in 20 years but seeing him and Danny Glover kissing Hugo Chavez’s ass only reminds us how liberal Hollywood is.

Being a conservative in our society isn’t easy. The Bush jokes. The Palin jabs. The constant rain of ideologically-based abuse; one has to laugh it off and wear a thick skin because the only other choice is to grab a gun and move… to someplace…. like where I am now…. Hmmm…