A Day in the Life of Two Struggling Young Conservative Artists

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Sam puts an arm around her, adding, “Yeah, but I’ve seen you play crowds of 5,000 people, and you see fans that traveled hundreds of miles to hear you sing….”

“I know, you’re right,” Ellie says with a smile.   “Yeah, that’s when I know I’m doing the right thing.”

I ask them about politics.  They are very passionate about their conservative values and equally passionate about what Republicans are doing wrong.

“Young people are fed up of with hearing ‘left and right’, ‘Democrat and Republican’—all of it gets tossed up like a salad and ends up just making you angry and confused,” Sam says.  “You guys have to find a way to get the message across that this is all about our money. All of it comes down to money, and who exactly is taking our money away from us.”

Sam believes all the conservative-speak about taxes and small government is lost on most young people today.

“Talking about their future and how their ‘grandchildren will have to pay’ is pointless when you don’t believe you have a future to look forward to in the first place,” Sam says.

“When I’m in restaurants I talk to the real people—the waiters and busboys– and ask if they’re doing better now than they were four years ago,” he says.  “Almost every time, they say ‘no’.  They tell me about someone in their life, either themselves or their parents or their friends, who are either homeless or jobless and looking for work.  This is the worst it’s ever been in my life, and I’ve had a very rough life.”

Ellie adds, “My friends love Obama.  They talk about how he’s going to save us all.  They say he’s the only politician who’s ever cared about them…”

Sam animatedly says, “And that’s the problem, right there!  Obama’s got ‘the message’ and it’s very, very simple:  ‘I will help you.’ It doesn’t matter whether he can actually do it or not, and it doesn’t even matter if he’s the reason their lives suck—he comes across as the only person who can or will help them … [Conservatives] ha[ve] to find a way to get the message across in simple terms, without a lot of words and rhetoric – that [they]’re the ones who can actually help you … But so far no one’s been able to do that.”

“The old-school Republicans are what turned so many people our age off,” says Ellie.  “After the Bush years, people hated Republicans.  Hated them.  They hated anyone that even looked like a Republican.”

“We know who the Democrats really are, what they stand for, what they’ve done,” Ellie says. “But most kids our age just don’t know these things—no one is telling them in a way that makes them listen.”

Sam says, “Look at the Occupy Movement and what a screwed up bunch of people that was—even they couldn’t explain what they wanted.  They’re hearing so many mixed messages, so many lies on TV and in college and they don’t know who or what to believe anymore.  And until someone finds a way to get through to them, they’re unfortunately the future—and this cycle is going to keep going on and on until there’s nothing left of our country.”

When Sam and Ellie leave, I feel a combination of sadness and hope for them.  They have more than most because they have each other; their love exudes all around them.  But can they make it in such a crazy, backwards town and in this grim, volatile economy?  As they drive away I notice a “Who is John Galt?” bumper sticker on their car.  I smile.

With kids like this in California, I have hope that things are not as lost as they sometimes seem.

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  • PhillipGaley

    We are spiritual creatures; life is set up to yield to thought, . . . to desire; penultimate goodness is love, G0D is love. For those who believe G0D is, if that’s their desire, so be it; for them, there is a G0D. For those who desire to live their few days in a desolate universe, with no hope, why then, for them, there is not G0D: FOR, “He who would see G0D, must believe that, HE is and that, HE is a rewarder of those who seek Him so.”.

    Although it all boils down t’whatever yer a’wantin’, . . . G0D is a person, too. G0D has desires; He want’s to show His nature in the beauty of your uniqueness, . . .

  • Daryl L Hunter

    As a nature photographer I know how difficult it is to operate in a liberal world, my big mouth and activism has cost me many a dollar – good luck to these kids :D

  • Lou Brown

    Your best work yet. This is an excellent summation of the entire Obama fascination, still the only thing the young people have left. You have painted a real snapshot of the victims who are so clueless that it will come as a real shock to thoses who finally regain consciousness and have to face the future. I hope and pray that the skull and crossbones that I see when I look at the false president is not all that is left for our young people when he is finally gone. The truth always comes out, and Mr. Bush was demonized more than any good man should have to suffer. Truth is the only real hope left.

    • Robert Patrick

      I agree Lou!

  • Lou Brown

    those, not thoses. My error.

  • "gunner"

    i'd love to know who "ellie" is, so i can support/buy her music, but like the author of this piece i would not want her "outed" as a conservative and ruin her chances of success in a business dominated by leftist liberals.

  • Ghostwriter

    Wow! Whoever Sam and Ellie are,I wish them good luck in their chosen career and I hope things improve for them.

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  • Centrist Moderate

    If Obama is so wrong then why are these two in the minority and have to live in fear of expressing their "correct" interpretation of Obama's policies?

    California was ran by GOP governor from 2003-2011.

    While I empathize with their struggle, it's part of what moving out to LA is all about in the quest to "make it." But to blame Obama for state GOP rule from 2003-2011 and Federal rule from 2000-2008 is just really insane.

    • Rainer

      You funny. It's almost as if there is no legislature or entrenched bureaucracy captured by public sector unions in California. Just a one-man dictatorship.

      But I guess that would be how a "centrist moderate" views political rule.

    • kparsels

      Arnold wasn't a Conservative. His life style and life choices proved that.

  • Schlomotion

    A rightist, a true rightist, would say that Sam and Ellie have chosen nonessential professions and deserve to eat Top Ramen until they can figure out how to earn Top Dollar with their avocations.

  • gary

    "centrist moderate",in other words,no identity at all.If you are trying to paint Arnold-Kennedy-Shriver as a conservative,you have pitifully failed!He was another ignorant liberal in conservative clothing who infiltrated our system dishonestly due to the fact that it`s the only way he could get elected.There`s no doubt that his untalented gonads (if he even had any after all the steroids)were in Maria`s jar somewhere,maybe in ole drunk,pervert Uncle Teddy`s den.Wake up and smell the reality,you pin head!

  • Ghostwriter

    What is that? This website has nothing to do with manga.

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    SPAM ALERT!