Hey Twitchy VIP readers! My name is Angie. I have been writing for Twitchy as a freelancer for a while now and I thought it might be time to introduce myself to all of you and talk about HOW I became conservative. Some of you may follow me on Twitter. My handle there is the same: @Artist_Angie, if so, you already know a little about what I am about to tell you but stay with me anyway.
I grew up in a very small town in Virginia. When I say small I mean we had 2 stoplights. I grew up in the kind of town where at age 9 or 10 your Daddy takes you to the side and teaches you how to check your oil, change a flat, shoot a gun, and you are expected to go fishing and bait your own hook at least once. People there tended to lean Democrat because you either worked in a factory or for a Union and Democrats were supposedly 'for the little guy'. For some reason, I never quite bought that and I have a few ideas why.
Let's start out as a small kid and give some credit to my Dad. Dad was not very into politics. He was an alcoholic who completely turned his life around after accepting Jesus Christ. I only know him as the most humble and kind man I have ever met. I do not remember him when he was drinking, I was very small when he changed his life. He loved sports and Jesus and he still does. He was a member of a union and has retired very well because of it. He was also an ordained minister who did fill-in and revivals and Adult Sunday School classes.
I tell you all of that history so you understand how great he was and how he helped lead me to the path of conservatism at a very young age. I was kicked out of Sunday school for asking too many questions. Literally. The teacher told him I asked too many questions and was disrupting the class. You would think my dad would have been upset with me but he wasn't.
I was about 6 or 7 and he came to pick me up and I was in the hall. After talking to the teacher he came out and said: "Never stop asking questions, no matter if it is at church or anywhere else. Keep asking, keep seeking, it doesn't matter if anyone agrees with you or if they do not have the answer. If they get mad it is probably because they are embarrassed for not knowing. If that person does not have an answer, ask it somewhere else until you find it. It is okay to not know something. It is okay to say you don't know and keep looking until you do know. "
I listened to him. I kept asking questions. I kept looking and I am still very comfortable telling people I do not know something and looking for answers. This single trait I think sets a lot of conservatives apart from others. We do not just go along to get along. Most of us ask a lot of questions and want to know why the Government does what they do and what the consequences of government involvement in anything will be.
Next up is my Mom. My Mom was my best friend. She passed in 2019 and I miss her every day. She was a little wild and you never quite knew what she was going to say or when. She once told a policeman to 'Shut Up and get off her property' because they tried to talk to my MINOR nephews without an adult present. So you can see where I am going here. She did not suffer fools. She did not automatically trust anyone, not even the police.
When I was about 14 I was in a speech competition for our Church. I had a line that I messed up and I said OH CRAP into the mic at church in front of a large group of people in the middle of my speech. I ran off the stage. My Mom came to me and told me I had to go back and start over and do it again. I said NOPE. She said "Yes, because if you do not you will never have a voice, and you will never speak up, because you will be afraid to get embarrassed. You will be afraid to make a mistake. You will be afraid to stand alone when there are times you have to stand alone.' I did go back. I won that competition and I made it all the way to the national competition where I did not even place but I was so proud of what I accomplished.
I listened to her. I spoke up when I saw things I did not like, I never automatically trusted anyone, not the government, the police, a pastor, or a teacher. I was never afraid to take the chance to be embarrassed. I was never afraid to not fit in. She always encouraged me to be an individual. I learned that individuals are better than a collective all day every day.
Next, we are going to give a big thank you to Rush Limbaugh. When I was a teenager I had a little piece of junk Chevette I drove around to school and to get back and forth to work. It only had an AM radio for quite a few years. I used to listen to NPR and all that stuff and I found I did not agree with them very often. One day on the way home from cheer practice with about 4 other girls in my car, I stumbled across a show called 'The Rush Limbaugh Show', and from that point on I was a conservative. I am pretty sure I was one before that as well but I did not know what to call it. I listened to him. I did not agree with everything he said all of the time but he definitely built a political foundation in my 16-year-old brain. Yes, I was a strange teenager. A cheerleader with a nerdy brain who listened to political radio.
I also had one teacher in high school that I have to give credit for many of my conservative views. She was a Democrat. I did not know that when she was my teacher. She taught me civics and government, and in my senior year she had a dual credit class in economics that she taught and I got college credit for it. The fact she taught us all of those classes with me never knowing she was a Democrat until after I graduated says everything you need to know about her. She was and is still awesome.
I used to ask so many questions in those classes it would be enough to drive a Nun to murder. She was a Democrat and never discouraged me, never told me to stop, never shut me down, I have to give her credit for part of who I am today. She actually still follows me on Facebook to this day and laughs when I tell her she helped make me a conservative by always giving me a place to work out ideas, ask questions, and compare solutions.
Last, as an adult I have to give myself some credit. I never followed the group just because I wanted to fit in. Even today as a conservative on Twitter, I do not always agree with the large group and often describe myself as Libertarian-ISH because I have a streak but do not agree with Libertarians as a whole either. I still ask questions and I am not afraid to be wrong or change my mind.
My name is Angie. I am a conservative. I am happy to meet you. I hope you enjoy my perspective in my work here on Twitchy and if not that is ok, I am not everyone’s cup of tea and I had a lot of people teach me along the way that it is okay.
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