I am a conservative Republican who has had many influences in my 62 years on Planet Earth, growing up in California and now residing in Utah.

First and foremost was Ronald Reagan, whom I voted for in my first presidential election, when I turned 18 in 1979.  I have long been a proponent of Reagan’s “three-legged stool”: peace through strength, supply-side economics, and faith-based social conservatism.

I stumbled across Rush Limbaugh some 25–30 years ago and made an effort to listen to his show as often as possible.  He was concise and informed, and he fully understood the leftist mindset.  He never wavered from his beliefs and articulated his thoughts as to appeal to the common man, of which I certainly was and am.

In this same vein, I became a listener to the “Great One,” Mark Levin, and read each and every one of his books.  While an acquired taste to listen to, he never shied away from telling it like it is.  His books — Liberty & Tyranny, American Marxism, and The Democrat Party Hates America — are seminal works that every conservative should seek out and read.

Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul have seldom disappointed in their quest to pursue a conservative agenda.  While no “representative” is perfect, and I believe in the Dan Bongino rule that one shouldn’t “fall in love with any politician,” they are “tools” one can use to advance one’s agenda.  When they do, they are to be lauded.  When they don’t, they deserve criticism.  Ted and Mike are as close to “constitutionally conservative” Republicans as have graced the halls of Congress.  As more a libertarian, I was never on the Ron Paul bandwagon, but Rand Paul stepped up in response to Anthony Fauci and the tyrannical left when the COVID sham befell us.

I have read and been influenced by the writings of the great Thomas Sowell.  Basic Economics and Black Rednecks/White Liberals helped inform much of my thinking on race relations and how the Democrat party uses (the suppression of) black people to expand its hold on power.

While not necessarily articulating conservatism, Ayn Rand thoroughly described an anti-conservative statism, in Atlas Shrugged and Anthem, that helped cement my belief in limited government and self-governing conservatism.

F.A. Hayek and Frederic Bastiat heavily influenced my thinking with The Road to Serfdom and The Law, respectively.  Paul Johnson’s treatise Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Comsky helped formulate my opposition to perennially bad liberal ideas and thinkers.

Milton Friedman, Antonin Scalia, Eric Metaxas, Mark Steyn, C.S. Lewis, Dan Bongino, Margaret Thatcher, John Paul II, Pastor Jack Hibbs, and others deserve honorable mention.

Throughout my life, I can count on one hand conservative pols who, once granted power, successfully moved the needle in a conservative direction.

Donald Trump is one of those men.  Brash?  Yes.  A morally righteous man?  No (is any of us?).  But America was better off under his leadership, both at home and abroad.  Our economy was bustling until the China/DNC virus was unleashed on our shores.  Trump stood in defiance of the leftist social justice warriors who have since debased our culture.  America was respected around the globe, with some countries liking our “taking charge of our own destiny” while others were “put off by it.”  Like or dislike Trump’s America, they respected it.

We are truly at a crossroads in America.  We reclaim normalcy through conservatism, or allow progressivism/Marxism/fascism to destroy our once-great Republic.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.