The Confession, Part II
By Lauri Ringer
In Part I of this article, I made a shocking confession: Robert Ringer’s daughter voted for Barack Obama. How was this possible? How was I Hypbamatized? To be sure, it didn’t happen overnight. Like the drip from a leaky, rusting faucet, it slowly and insidiously seeped into my brain.
Whether it was from my upbringing, my liberal arts education, or my influences from living on the West Coast, I have always prided myself on being open-minded and nonjudgmental, always interested in the views and experiences of other people and cultures. That didn’t mean that I didn’t have opinions. But, over time, I learned that expressing them came with a price.
In a national survey released by The Anti-Defamation League in November 2008 — “American Attitudes on Religion, Moral Values and Hollywood” — 59 percent of Americans agree that “the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans.” I was in the vortex of that cultural current, and trying to escape its pull was a virtual death knell – both personally and professionally.
People in Los Angeles are arrogant enough to refer to the entertainment industry as “The Industry” – as if it reigns supreme over all other industries. And in The Industry, the unspoken message is clear: “Play by our rules or don’t play at all.”
What does that mean? Time magazine noted, “It is hard to dispute the contention that [Hollywood’s] creative community, on the whole, has a liberal bent.” But it’s worse than that. The Industry’s culture permeates the entire city of Los Angeles.
Early on in my profession as an event planner, I learned to keep my political and cultural viewpoints to myself. At one event in which Al Gore was to be the honored guest before a Hollywood “A-list” crowd, the printed menu featured “free-range lamb.”
When I found the chefs giggling in the kitchen, I asked what was so funny. “Do you really think we’re serving free-range lamb?” they chuckled. To appease their Hollywood clientele, they had taken poetic license with their menu. Sorry, Al … the joke’s on you.
When my sons started school, I attended a Moms-Night-Out during the presidential race of 2000. I enjoyed our camaraderie … that is, until the conversation turned to the election and I mentioned that I was considering voting for George W. Bush. Talk about a conversation stopper!
After an uncomfortable pause, the other moms picked their chins up off the ground and aimed their liberal lasers at me: “How could you even consider doing something like that?” I voiced my reasoning, and one mom angrily responded, “Do you know all the horrible things he wants to do, including an overturn of Roe v. Wade?”
I respect the right of a liberal to her opinions, especially if she is consistent with her beliefs. But I do not concede her the right to impose her beliefs on others through sheer intimidation.
For example, I had a girlfriend who chastised me for driving an SUV. “You need to do something to make up for driving a gas-guzzling car,” she shrieked. My assigned reparation: Beach cleanup with “Heal the Bay.” To make a long story mercifully short, my girlfriend declared, “We need to part ways. We simply do not share the same values.”
Then there was the popular television actor and his wife. When we socialized, I was tolerant of the wife’s priorities. “With invitations for fundraising events, listing my name as an honoree is just as important as having my husband’s. Who do you think decides which causes he supports? And who do you think reads those invitations? Other Hollywood wives!”
Clearly, the Hollywood pecking order was very important to her. She pointed to a national magazine article that featured Laurie David on her efforts to “stop” global warming. Ms. David, at the time, was the wife of Larry David, creator and producer of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Never mind that Ms. David’s activism was at odds with the fact that she owns homes on both coasts and flies in a private plane when traveling back and forth. That is simply An Inconvenient Truth — which, by the way, she produced!
To say the least, the Hollywood liberal bias spills over to the political arena as well. I once dined with a travel buddy of a college girlfriend. He had run presidential and gubernatorial races for Democrats, and he was determined to expose my political preferences.
Though I tried to be convivial, when he learned I had voted for George Bush, he went on the attack. It was like he had discovered I was the evil mastermind of a homegrown terrorist cell. I was truly taken aback by his viciousness.
As I stated at the beginning of this article, I consider myself to be an open-minded, nonjudgmental person. And it is in that spirit that I look at the political and philosophical views of others. Unfortunately, most liberals are not reconciled with that perspective and exhibit little or no tolerance for other peoples’ viewpoints.
So, the question I need to come to grips with is: Did I vote for Barack Obama as a result of the inherent pressure that the L.A. culture exerts? If so, shame on me for allowing myself to be (gasp!) intimidated. If I did it for any other reason, perhaps I should voluntarily commit myself to a month of hard thinking in the Ayn Rand Objectivist Rehabilitation Camp.
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Copyright © 2012 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
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We forgive you. Quite interesting articles. Begs the question: is objectivity possible as a human? Obama (and others like him) thrive on malleability of us all (even those like myself that like to think of ourselves as consistent, objective, clear-thinking, etc.) During the campaign, my wife was mesmerized by one of Obama’s speeches. She brought it up one evening as a lead in to what she hoped would be a topic of conversation. But I snapped back at her so abruptly that she has never attempted to talk with me about Obama again. Being too rigid has often hurt me and I know rigidity is far from clear-thinking. Thanks for the articles. Your sharing your thoughts gives insight into the ways of the politicians such as Obama.
Lauri,
I would not be too hard toward myself. There was loads of people taken in by our current President during his campaigning for the office. Unfortunately, there are so very many that are still not seeing what is so clear once one takes that step back and notices the direction of travel of the country today.
I have two grown children, and I am still amazed they have kept their willingness to think about matters before jumping in and taking some nonreversible action. I confess I, too, erred many years ago. I voted with my supposed intellect rather than with my common sense. It happens, and we will just need to recognize the outcome, think about it clearly in the light of day, and then move on with a resolve not to take hasty actions in the future.
At least now you can choose to NOT vote for this particular BUM the next time out. See, progress already.
I enjoy reading these commentaries by your father, and it appears he has done a remarkable job demonstrating focus and clear thinking in his daughter.
While I appreciate your exercise in soul purging, you really shouldn’t feel so bad. I’ve been voting (and sometimes working) Libertarian since 1980. “Restoring the American Dream”, along with the extensive recommended bibliography, sent me firmly in that direction.
So what do I do in 2000? Vote Bush, the first non-Lib vote in 20 years. Why? (a) Clinton fatigue, (b) Gore. I didn’t want to hear that stentorian lecturing tone of his for another 8 years; (c) Bush came off as an approachable, humble guy – a caretaker, and that’s what I was looking for. The LP was doing it’s usual 1% (+/-) no matter what, so i figured they wouldn’t miss me this one time. Boy was I wrong, and I’ve been kicking myself ever since. I was taking the man at face value, swallowing the kool-aid whole.
In ’08, I voted for Ron Paul in the primary, and wrote him in in November. I won’t get fooled again.
I started to comment on Part I but then decided to wait for Part II … I’m a little disappointed with the big finish, somehow I expected more than “the devil made me do it.”
I, too, uncharacteristically voted for Obama but I know exactly why I did it — I couldn’t entrust the Republican Party one more time. It was a hard choice and after the whipping this country took in the last 8 years in the name of conservatism, I’m willing to give liberalism, progressivism, socialism, or whatever horrid ism brands our current governing, more than a halfyear’s chance before I regret my vote.
The fascist behavior of the Hollywood “elite” and the media “literati” is neither surprising nor rare. I don’t call these abhorrent examples of the human race “liberals” because they are not, by any stretch of the imagination. What they are is totalitarian socialist fascists. Their specialty is the sniveling character assassination of anyone that does not toe their totalitarian ideological line. Their defining trait is self-hate; something they constantly project to others. Thus their desire to exterminate any and all opposition to their line of “thought” (and I use the word with reservation). Hypocrites to the core, they will bray incessantly and indignantly when they perceive that their “vision” (which invariably includes some form of enslavement for their betters)is not being blindly applauded, specially by the intended victims. But then they will turn around and violently, viciously and savagely attempt to squash ANY expression of thought that varies from their “party line”.
When Barak Hussein brayed “four legs good, two legs bad” to gain favor and votes, they would repeatedly bray “four legs good, two legs bad”. Now, that the braying has changed to “four legs good, two legs better”, they are engaged in their current rhapsodic repetition of the “new” slogan. This must have been what B. Hussein was referring to when he cynically spoke of “change”.
The ways of fascism are not secret, or mystic, or strange. The methodology has been explained and examined repeatedly. There are excellent works in English, Spanish and other languages detailing the nature of the beast. But in the process of America’s deterioration, all references to that have been lost. The word “fascist” was, in fact, usurped by socialist fascists to “describe” those who opposed them. Talk about Orwell’s 1984! Doblespeak reigns.
Word “talismans” are used by the left to drive the thinking of the lemmings who refuse to read, use common sense (as your father rightly suggests) and understand that the media and “the Industry” as they refer to themselves, is dominated by ideological hacks, self-centered arrogant fools, whose only purpose is to let their own stupidity drive them to support those who will enslave them and eventually toss them aside as excrement if they then don’t respond to every pull of the leash, like they do now. But by then, it will be too late anyways, as too many people all over the world have found out the hard way. And the unfortunate part of this is that it will be too late not only for the “Industry” fools, it will be too late for the population as a whole.
I can’t remember who said that a people deserve the government they get.
If we are so weak as a people that verbal and forceful intimidation gets us to “support” a fascist; if we are so weak as a people that we constantly ignore the signs before us telling us that we are headed towards enslavement; if we are too weak as a people to take the time to really understand identity and purpose of our internal enemy (which will be more deadly than any external threat); if we are so weak as a people that we can’t understand that B. Hussein, Pelosi and the rest of that gang are in FACT, TRAITORS, traitors to liberty and the founding principles of this nation; if we are so weak as a people that we become too afraid to “offend” those who would seek to destroy a way of life based on life, liberty and the belief that ALL men are created equal (and yes, we’ve made our errors, but that doesn’t make the principles wrong); then, my young friend, I have to say that a people deserve the government they have.
In our generation, there were many who became deeply involved in the fight to preserve our way of life… even while others were sowing the seeds of its destruction… right here, on our own soil. It is terribly saddening that it is your generation that will pay the horrible price that the growth of those seeds will bring upon us as a people.
You now have tremendous forces arrayed against you. A presidency, an executive bureaucracy, a congress, a legislative bureaucracy, a printed media, an entertainment industry, ALL PUSHING FOR SOCIALIST FASCISM.
Are you up to the fight? Or will the fear of “offending” those who would enslave you stop you from fighting the fight that has to be fought?
Well, maybe it doesn’t have to be fought.
Maybe we can just meekly give in to these socialist fascist and play their game… at least while they let us live.
And in the process, we can BURN the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights as stupid, worthless documents with nothing of importance in them in the first place.
Wow, very interesting, Lauri. Los Angeles is horrible, and I know because that’s where I live. Throughout the entire election period, I saw thousands and thousands of Obama bumper stickers (I wonder, is there a Prius or Clown Car in L.A. that doesn’t have an Obama sticker on it?), whereas regarding McCain, I saw only ONE, and, interestingly, that was on a car being serviced by the same mechanic that I use (happened to be a big car like mine). Democrats and liberals are involved with “entitlement” in every sense of the word, a concept that entails a strict hierarchy or caste system with a they-think-they-deserve-it “elite” at the top running everything, down through the proletariat, and ending with an elite-beloved servile class that has no motive power of its own and therefore must be taken care of, like domestic animals (taken care of by the proletariat, of course). Hollywood feels that they are an aristocrat class and therefore need to keep this hierarchical structure in force; otherwise, they are nothing but moving billboards and clothes hangers. Their going along with Al Gore, etc., is a way of keeping the barnyard clean and, of course, none of their hoped-for strictures will apply to THEM at all. It’s very definitely an “us” versus “them” mentality.
Regarding voting for Obama, I did not, as I clearly saw that he was a political opportunist with a strict Marxist and racist background whose ambition clothed in a multi-cultural, multi-racial shell made him the perfect puppet to appeal to an ignorant and unhappy multivariate populace while globalist masters pulled the strings. But don’t despair at your having voted for him, the other choices weren’t much better. What’s important to understand is that the system is rigged to get us somebody like him no matter which puppet you vote for. But we must not make the mistake of thinking that he has some kind of a popular mandate. He’ll do as much harm as he can before the gig is up, and then he will be replaced by somebody else with a different voice but the same agenda. This is perhaps why Ayn Rand’s ultimate solution was for Atlas to shrug…in other words, get the hell out of here. Unfortunately, she had to use a science fiction solution (an invisible enclave)…what REAL solution do WE have?
Hi Laurie,
My hope is that other Obama voters will have the courage and honesty that you do. Thanks.
Dear Lauri,
Can I recommend a book to you. It is by one of those famous politicos – It is called “To Be or Not to Be Intimidated”, which is an updated version of the original “Winning by Intimidation.” Great stuff!
As for your vote for the Social Party of America’s star candidate Obama . . . my kids did too. Everyone will learn.
Lauri – You need some new friends. I suggest that you start an organization which shares your your fundamental values. Forget about needing to fit in with the “old” crowd.
Can’t fine enought like-minded people? — Move!!
It’s OK, Lauri. We all make mistakes.
But it’s too bad this one is hastening the decline of Western civilization!
Perhaps you should read “The Battle For Your Mind; Persuasion & Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public Today” by Dick Sutphen from:
http://www.dicksutphen.com/html/battlemind.html
This eye opener is written by someone who really knows what is going on.
Ahh, Lauri, your biggest mistake wasn’t voting for Obama (not that that wasn’t pretty big) but it was buying into the two-party myth that tells us we must choose from category A or category B.
Honestly, do you really believe you would feel any better now, if you had voted for McCain? This country is run by the Republicrats! It doesn’t matter which one you choose. BTW, I voted Libertarian, knowing full well that there was no chance of a win. Standing by one’s principles is often the only reward one needs, in order to avoid embarrassing apologies later.
GWB. Strike one. BHO. Strike two.
An interesting and candid account, although I missed the part where it explained the vote for Obama.
It is true that many people were taken in by Obama during the campaign who would not have voted for him had they known his actual agenda as it has played out.
But…there were background articles on the guy. _Why_ were any advocates of freedom taken in? The unveiling of Obama’s socialist bent with Joe the Plumber, to whom he sang the praises of “spreading the wealth,” came too late to change the course of the campaign. But it did come, and it did explicitly affirm what was already clear from Obama’s track record, past statements, and many leftist and not accidental affiliations. I don’t believe that any degree of slick shysterism, no matter how charismatic, nor any degree of sneering contempt for one’s values from colleagues or friends, wipes out the ability or the responsibility to think.
As for the mammoth bias of the MSM, was this not evident well before election day?
I don’t assert that McCain was the only alternative. One could have abstained from voting for either. But if one had decided to vote for one or the other, the determination had to be made on the basis of which choice would be better for the future of freedom and the security of the country. There were some who claimed that we needed to be subjected to the chastening destructiveness of Obama before a genuinely more palatable more pro-capitalist alternative could find enough support among the Appalled Disillusioned to be viable. Such calculations represented a big, big gamble, but at least the goal of those who made this argument was to advance freedom while fully recognizing that Obama is indeed horrific. I prefer being mashed to death slowly rather than being mashed to death quickly, because it seems to me the slower the death trap, the more time one has to escape it and to explain to others that it’s a death trap.
But it is not, in any case, responsible to allow oneself to be swayed by the cadence of words or the giddiness of a historical moment as if the meaning of the words and what happens after everyone has thoroughly dunked themselves in the moment do not matter.
I’d like to read Part I, again.
Great self-examination Laurie; I applaud your honesty.