There Goes My Social Life (3 page)

I have no idea how they can actually criticize Mitt for being wealthy, but they somehow managed to do it with a straight face.

In fact, I'd say the “Hollywood elite” like the people sitting at Bungalow 8 that night were Obama's main weapon in 2012. But their mindless devotion to him contradicts the way they actually live.

For example, Russell got physically ill over my dead pheasant photo, but do you think for one second he got sick at the ultra violent movies his best friends make? After all, there's more gun violence in an hour on American movie, television, and computer screens than in the entire United States in a year. I think these movies are awesome because they're just one big gun ad for the NRA after another. You'd think these stars would be the most pro-gun, pro-NRA people in the nation. Instead, they hate the NRA with more fervor than they hate al Qaeda—and frequently compare the two. They advocate for tighter gun restrictions, demand terrorists get out of Gitmo, and walk around with armed bodyguards.

And it never occurs to them that what they're doing on screen might actually contribute to the gun violence they claim to hate. (Oh yeah, I should add that Jamie Foxx's movie
Django Unchained
debuted a month after he called Obama his savior. It somehow managed to have sixty-four grisly deaths in a mere 165 minutes.)

And don't get me started on this “green” trend.

The Hollywood elite have gigantic homes, luxury SUVs, exotic sports cars, and live in thirty-thousand-square-foot mansions with infinity pools. They fly in private jets across the globe—sometimes just for lunch. (Oh, and at Bungalow 8, of course, they might have avoided the paparazzi by taking the helicopter home.)
In other words, their carbon footprint is bigger than Sasquatch's, but they get on social media and try to shame average Americans for doing basic things like heating their homes.

Please.

Have you ever noticed how environmentally disrespectful a typical action movie is? When Will Smith is filmed in car chases and explosions that create pillars of black smoke damaging the ozone layer, do you think he is lecturing the producers about their lack of environmentalism?

Of course he isn't.

What's okay for Obama super-bundler Will is not okay for normal Americans. He can do whatever he wants—and earn tens of millions of dollars doing it—but he's supporting politicians who will shame us into so-called “high efficiency” toilets, driving Priuses, and installing solar panels . . . which, by the way, no one can afford.

And here's the most hypocritical thing of all. No one even really films in Hollywood anymore. Sure, sitcoms that can be easily made in studios are still produced in California. But dramas—which sometimes cost $3 million per episode—are being filmed anywhere but California.

Why?

Because the taxes are too damn high.

Everything used to be shot there—the enormous state of California offers so many different types of terrain that almost any type of geography could be mimicked well enough to work on screen. But now only 8 percent of filming is done in California, and even the shows set in California are being filmed in Florida. Why? States have gotten smart and offered tax exemptions and incentive programs to production companies. The production companies have gotten smart and moved their shows to these low-tax states.

As director Michael Corrente said, “Hey, you know what? Studio executives? They'd shoot a movie on Mars if they could get a 25 percent tax break.”
USA Today
writer Sharon Silke Carty wrote, “The gypsy-like movie industry . . . roams from place to place to find the best locations—and best deals.”

But wait just a minute. I thought the Hollywood elites don't mind high taxes? Well, they certainly hire the best tax attorneys in the world to make sure they pay as little to the government as possible. And then, when the rubber meets the road, they know what everyday Americans already know: it's better to put money into business than into the bloated federal government's pocket. The bottom line is that they don't mind if
you
pay high taxes. They just don't want to pay them themselves.

But here's the problem. The people I was hanging with at Bungalow 8 are what the culture deems “cool.” In fact, they even determine “cool” for the rest of America. No one better epitomizes this than Russell, the godfather of hip-hop. As Jason Mattera pointed out, “the only group powerful enough publicly to resuscitate and resurrect Obama's 2008 mass popularity is the mob of Hollywood Leftists who got him elected the first time.”

At Bungalow 8, amongst the “cool” mob of liberal Hollywood elites hell-bent on supporting the Democratic Party, I realized that our nation was in trouble and vowed to do what it takes to fight back.

But not that night. I drained my glass and went back out onto the dance floor. The election was still a month away, and I wanted to have fun during my one night in New York.

THREE

WHY BLACK PEOPLE SHOULD VOTE REPUBLICAN EVERY TIME

An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

—John F. Kennedy Jr., quoting Orlando Battista in the
Montreal Gazette

T
he hallway was decorated for fall.

Artwork tacked on the walls included scarecrows made from corn, lopsided grins on autumn leaves, and turkeys made out of handprints . . . little, sweet prints of hands that won't stay small for long. As I meandered to pick up Lola, I realized my night in New York had been just that—a great television appearance, a night with friends that lasted until the wee hours, and way too much Grey Goose vodka and soda with lime. Now, as I walked through the hallways of my daughter's school back in California, I was back in “mommy mode.” Normal life.

A black woman came up behind me and grabbed my arm, startling me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Don't worry,” she laughed. “You're safe here. We have a secret handshake.”

“Okaaaay,” I said, though I had no idea what she was talking about.

When she saw the puzzled look on my face, she leaned closer and whispered, “I'm a Republican, too.”

If I wanted my party affiliation to be secret
,
I wouldn
'
t have gone on national television
, I thought. I smiled through gritted teeth and yanked free of her grasp.

A secret handshake? Ridiculous.

I went to pick up Lola from class, and she flashed me that bright smile when she saw me. I love that girl. I'd rather spend a lifetime holding her hand and chatting about her days than listening to celebrities self-righteously talk about how they're saving the world by their choice of lightbulbs—before they take off in their helicopters. She grabbed her backpack and ran into my arms.

“How was your day?” I asked.

“I'm going to be in a choir!” she gushed. But before I could hear the whole story, another mom—also black—came up to me.

“I just wanted to congratulate you for speaking out,” she said. “I saw you on television, and you did a great job. We
Republicans
need to stick together.”

She said the word “Republicans” as if she were coming out of the closet, but only to me. I had no idea she was a conservative, though I'd seen her around the school for months. I got the impression that she didn't want any of her uppity California friends to find out either.

But here's the thing. Our black brothers and sisters fought too hard for equal rights for us to sit back and hide. Or worse, to let white people like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Bill Clinton tell us how to think. And certainly our black brothers and sisters fought too hard for equal rights for us to sit back and let black people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson tell us how to vote.

No.

It's time for all black people to get out of the political shackles that have kept us down and to rethink our blind political allegiance to the Democratic Party. In fact, black people should vote Republican every single time. ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith—who was raised in Queens—spoke about the detriment of the black vote belonging to the Democratic Party:

         
Black folks in America are telling one party, “We don't give a damn about you.” They're telling the other party, “You've got our vote.” Therefore, you have labeled yourself “disenfranchised” because one party knows they've got you under their thumb. The other party knows they'll never get you and nobody comes to address your interest. . . . I hate the fact that anyone believes that they have a bloc of people in the palm of their hands. That disgusts me. That's never good for America.
¹

He's right, though he only went so far as to say blacks should vote Republican en masse for just one election . . . to turn over the apple cart, so to speak. That doesn't go far enough, though I confess I had the mentality Smith described—blindly following the Democrats—until the Romney/Obama race.

In 2008, I'd never voted before in my life, but I thought it was time for us to have a black president who could unite us in a profound way. Everyone around me was voting for him, so I cast my virgin vote for a savior who would bring healing and racial harmony. I guess I believed all that shit he shoveled about stopping the oceans' rise and making the world's troubles fade into fairy tales. As it turns out, I was the one believing in fairy tales . . . that a community organizer could change the world? Did we support him because he was black? Because he looked good on the cover of
GQ
and
Ebony
? Because he gave good speeches?

Obama defended the soaring rhetoric he was fed from his teleprompter in a speech about the power of “just words.” He compared his words to those used by great people like Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, and FDR.

But they didn't just give good speeches. They did great things.

Sure Obama is good with words. But in the Bronx where I grew up, what you
do
means more than what you
say
. I've heard plenty of talk from people who want something. Lots of guys have tried that shit on me. I get it. I guess I just didn't expect it from him. I didn't expect this lawyer from Chicago to try to manipulate uninformed black people to vote for him because of the color of his skin. But that's exactly what he did.

When I watched the debates in 2012, I could see it in his eyes—Obama was not being honest, truthful, or transparent. He was always being evasive in his answers. In the Bronx, we call it “talking out the side of your neck.” There, if you want me to respect you and listen to what you say, you look me in the eyes or we're not going to talk.

Also, I started noticing how everything suddenly seemed to be about race. How can that be? We elected a black president. Why are we still talking constantly about race? The sad truth I only learned gradually—after I'd pulled the lever for him—was that Obama was using his race to advance his own progressive agenda. He wasn't being honest about what he was trying to accomplish in America. His strategy was obvious—to take advantage of the uninformed to win. I thought Obama had everyone's best interests at heart, especially the best interests of black people. I figured if anyone would know how to lead us to a better place it would be someone who rose from humble beginnings to become the first black president of the United States. It didn't turn out that way, of course. How could he make things worse for all of America—especially for blacks—and yet we kept supporting him?

Even worse, those who
were
opposed to him—like the two black Republican women at Lola's school—were too ashamed or fearful to admit it?

Please.

We've been deceived by race-mongers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who profit from pretending it's still 1965. We've been fooled into believing that there's still a battle to be fought over race in this country. But here's a newsflash—we won the Civil Rights Movement. We have all the opportunities we could ever need. All we have to do is walk in them. Black, White, Hispanic, Asian—whatever your color and whatever your ethnic background—no one is keeping you down in America but you. Well, you and the Democratic Party that wants to manipulate your vote.

Prior to 2008, black support for the Democratic Party presidential candidate was pretty consistent, between 83 and 90 percent, going back to 1980. But Obama managed to get even more support—95 percent in 2008. Given the historic nature of his candidacy, it's understandable that a record number of blacks turned out to vote. I was one of them. But after four years of seeing how destructive his policies were to minorities, even more of us showed up. I'm ashamed to say that 93 percent of blacks voted for an administration that has only made things worse for race relations in America.

Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me twice? Well, it's my problem if I choose to stay ignorant.

I was greatly influenced by a YouTube video of
National Review
's William F. Buckley debating author James Baldwin in 1965 at Cambridge University. Buckley said to Baldwin, “The question . . . is not whether we should've purchased slaves generations ago, or ought the blacks to have sold us those slaves. The question rather is this: Is there anything in the American dream which intrinsically argues against some kind of deliverance from the system that we all recognize as evil? What shall we do about it?”

In other words, slavery happened. It's time to move on and go beyond what those evil men had in mind when they put shackles on us so long ago. There's no instant cure for our race issues, but we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead of renouncing the American dream, Buckley said that blacks should address their “own people and urge them to take advantage of those opportunities which do exist and urging us to make those opportunities wider. . . . If it finally does come to a confrontation between giving up the best features of the American way of life and fighting for them, then we will fight the issue.”

Buckley was right. Instead of giving blacks cynicism and despair, we should offer people the tools to succeed, point people to the American dream, and see what enterprising Americans can do.

And we black Americans are enterprising. In the South Bronx, I saw it up close. The hustlers, the pimps, the dealers were doing what it took to avoid the shame of welfare. Yes, shame. Anyone who received government assistance was considered to be lazy and second-rate. They were mocked and teased. Because welfare was so stigmatized, people did other things—usually illegal—to make ends meet. In the logic of the streets, hustling was respected because you were working to make your money. The hustlers lived by a strict code of respect, loyalty, courage, and honor. Plus, it's interesting to note that these hustlers, these pimps, these dealers are natural capitalists. . . . They make money, they want to keep their money. They're not giving their money away, and Lord help anyone who tries to take it from them—even a dime.

Most black people are Republicans and they don't even know it, because the so-called black leaders on television try to keep them addicted to the tranquilizing drug of liberalism. But every single person is born with an inherent knowledge that what they earn, they should be able to keep. Most black people don't want the government in their business, meddling in things big or small. Most black people believe in a powerful defense. You better believe people in the Bronx sleep with guns under their mattresses and want a government that's also ready and able to defend Americans.

It's time to snap out of it. It's time to wake up.

I think a lot of black people don't want to vote Republican because they believe the lie that Republicans are racists, that Republicans don't like them. That's completely false. Republicans aren't racist. In fact, they really want to get more black support and don't know why they don't. They look at the results of years of liberal policies in big cities, where poverty is still high, and wonder, “Why do you keep voting for the same people?

I wonder the same thing. Why do we keep voting for people who've failed us, who take us for granted? A lot of black people are rightfully upset by what's happening in our cities. Well, who do you think has been running our cities for decades? The Democratic Party. We keep doing the same things in the ballot box, hoping something will change. Isn't one definition of insanity doing the same thing with the hope of different results? Sometimes I feel like the whole pitch of the Democratic Party is something like this: “Your life may be bad now, but if the Republicans get in power, it will be worse.”

Well, I want to put that to the test. We've tried your way, and now it's time for a different way. I'm ready to keep more of what I earn, free black kids from failed public schools, and think hard about the right kind of prison reform.

And one more thing—if the Democrats are so comfortable that they've got the right ideas, why do so many of them prefer name-calling to actual debate? I've never experienced as much online abuse as I did when I “came out” as a Republican. Debate my ideas. Your insults just tell me you're weak.