Conservatives in LA: Not Welcome – Not in Polite Company
A Conservative In Los Angeles
Nancy Morgan
RightBias.com
Conservatives are not allowed in Los Angeles. At least not in what is termed ‘polite society.” I found this out the hard way.
I spent 33 years calling Los Angeles home. Most of those years were spent blindly accepting the assumptions portrayed by the spare headline or sound bite on the nightly news: Christians are bad, government is good, and America is the cause of all the world’s woes.
Advocating the spending of tax dollars for any and all social problems was the mark of a good and moral person. Professing concern for those less well off was mandatory for financially successful people and it was de rigueur to have a least one ‘best friend’ of color. Wearing an AIDS awareness ribbon, at that time, signaled your inclusion in the community of man.
In return for inclusion in this community, members had a free pass to substitute intentions for actions. One was free to indulge in hedonistic behavior under the guise of empowerment. Discovering one’s ‘inner self’ validated what used to be termed sexual promiscuity. Labels were confining so members had license to create their own. Who wouldn’t prefer being labeled a free spirit instead of a selfish tramp? And in LA, labels, not substance, determined the social pecking order.
Any opinion at variance with the herd was considered judgmental, which was a definite no-no. Debate was redefined as argument, which was also a no-no. These rules were made clear to me only in the breach.
At age 39, six words spoken on TV changed my life forever. In 1992, I chanced to see H. Ross Perot on TV one night. He was holding up a toilet seat as he said, “The military paid $700.00 for this.” OK. Then he said the words that would change my life forever. “And this is all public knowledge.”
Public knowledge?
Not where I lived. For some reason, this motivated me, for the first time in my life, to investigate and question all the ‘public knowledge’ I had absorbed over the years. The results shocked and angered me. The good news, however, was that my days as a ‘useful idiot’ came to a screeching halt.
Somehow, I found National Review, then Human Events, then the Washington Times. Their message was new to me. I was amazed that I had managed to live my whole without any glimmer that there was another, more valid, point of view out there. The conservative point of view.
I assumed that my friends, family and co-workers would be just as outraged as I to find they had only been exposed to one side of most issues. That was my first mistake. My second mistake was believing that facts counted.
I lost business and friends before I realized I had to keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself. I remember having dinner one night with Eric and Brenda in their beautiful Bel Air mansion. This couple had the best our country has to offer. I’ll never forget Brenda exclaiming over her shrimp cocktail, “America? 150 years of slavery!” By challenging her, and others like her, I slowly lost my membership in the LA community of man.
After a few years, the only place I could be myself in public was while attending conservative functions held by the few conservative organizations that were based in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, my (one and only) husband of three years left me, due in large part to my inability to stifle my opinions. (He owed his living to the very liberal trial lawyers and his friends made clear to him my views were not welcome) I also found it increasingly hard to attend family functions, as the barely concealed tolerant patronizing of my out-of-bounds views started to grate.
The final straw was an ordinary news article. Our government schools, under the guise of ‘safe sex’ and ‘tolerance’ hosted a “Leather Fest” in San Francisco. Attended by seventh graders, some of the exhibits actually taught these kids how to fist. I won’t go into details, except to explain that it is a homosexual practice…having nothing to do with tolerance or safe sex. And my tax dollars were paying for it.
Enough. After 33 years, I decided to leave Los Angeles. In 2002, I sold my business, my home, everything. I set off to find a place in the world where I could be myself without ticking everyone off. I found it in a small fishing village, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. It was the best decision I ever made. The few times I’ve looked back, I feel only regret that I spent so many years of my life allowing others to define me.
by Nancy Morgan
Right Bias.com
Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina.
Article may be reprinted, with attribution.
It’s getting worse here in Upstate, NY but I’ve often wondered what it must be like in LA. I don’t know how you stood it as long as you did.
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Sounds much like my own story,…..except I’m still here in LA.
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It’s amazing how obstinate people can be and how hard it is to share factual information that just doesn’t fit people’s pictures. The attitude that unless you drink the leftist cool aid you are a bad person and must be exactly like George the despicable Bush. Can it actually be that people not on the left are lovable, live a compassionate life style and even do yoga and meditate?
I spend a great deal of time in the “awareness” community where progressive is not about better quality of life but about upholding the party line; no matter what. There is such a lack of interest in facts that “I don’t want to discuss it any more” is the common mantra of leftists who finally suggest; “well I don’t know the details,” and want to discuss something about the industry.
For me growing up progressive meant open minded, having the ability to see things fairly and evaluate things based on the facts, now facts scare progressives. Look, it’s easy to label Bush, I don’t place him at the top of great leaders list; but can a political discussion go from start to finish without bringing in all his baggage?
I can’t tell you how many times I have asked Obama believers to explain what policies Obama has presented that they support only to find out they don’t know any of his policies. I can tell you it’s been quite embarrassing for me to sit there in the silence waiting for them to say something besides; “he is a great uniter.”
At the end of the day I would just like to meet some “progressives” that can stay in their loving consciousness without resorting to sharing how much they hate Bush and how the world been screwed up by America. Maybe they can say something nice about what the US has done for some country somewhere. Maybe they can express a little gratitude for the blessing of living in this generous and free country. Maybe they just need Clint Eastwood to ask them if they feel lucky?
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As one of the last of the ‘hippies’, my nephew recently told me that I was the first of them he had ever known who had ‘gone over’. And I live in the heart of the midwest, South Central Wisconsin. Go figure.
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