It was funny and got a lot of attention, and then when it was revealed it was a bunch of constitutional conservatives behind it, suddenly we started getting taken seriously about our support for a liberty agenda.
This was a huge opportunity for these conservative entrepreneurs—that’s what I saw them as: entrepreneurs! Some succeeded, and some failed, but we had a huge return on investment!
Oh, the liberals were furious that I was supporting conservative visual artists, which merely encouraged me! See, politics was only a part. Aiming money at culture was key.
Brad Fields (Insurance Salesman)
I don’t want to ban any entertainment—I like a good action scene, and I’m not too old to appreciate a shower scene either. But I don’t want to pay to watch something where I’m called “a hater” or “an idiot” or any of those other things they portrayed conservatives as in the past. I just stopped spending my money on liberal crap. When stuff that treated us with respect came out, I started to go out again and I’d see that.
I guess Hollywood finally noticed when we conservatives started to hit it in the wallet.
Tony “Gator” McCoy (Chief Advisor to President Carrie Marlowe)
The president recognized that Hollywood was a threat, so she sent me out to California as the designated “bad cop” to confront the power players. They just didn’t get it—they didn’t know any of us constitutional conservatives and apparently bought their own propaganda that we were a bunch of inbred, slack-jawed, barely literate racists.
I listened to this one little twerp lecture me for about five minutes on what the Marlowe administration needed to do vis-à-vis their industry, like we owed them anything at all after they savaged her during the campaign. He shut his sushi hole, smirked, and then I asked, “Why again should we do jack shit for you?” They were stunned.
I went on. “You give the other guys money, your shows portray us as assholes and dumbshits, and now you talk to me like I’m one of your latte-fetching flunkies. Listen up. You don’t have friend one who can do shit for you inside the Beltway anymore. My guys don’t owe you squat—in fact, screwing you is gonna make their voters cheer. So, tell me again why I don’t make kicking you in your nutsacks my hobby for the next eight years?”
Now, these guys were all used to hardball, but I was playing dodgeball, and when I play dodgeball I throw wrenches instead of balls.
“I just talked to the Speaker. Guess what we decided to bring up next session? Copyright reform. Yeah, you know how you get rights to your little cartoon characters and songs and videos for umpteen years now? We’re thinking 10 years is plenty. How do you like that? Because we’re just getting started.”
They were silent—not a freaking peep. They figured out there was a new sheriff in town.
“Okay,” I said, “Now that we understand each other, I think we’re ready to discuss our future working relationship. And I have a feeling this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
Chis-El (Rapper)
The old-school rapper runs his music and lifestyle empire from a Florida high-rise. The walls in his office are lined with gold records and photos, as well as two portraits: Booker T. Washington and Ronald Reagan.
Seated behind an enormous oak desk, he wears a blazing white suit and dark black glasses. However, his manner is friendly and open—he has just returned from a visit to a youth home his charitable foundation runs in downtown Miami.
The hip-hop impresario was first noted for his infectious 2016 hip-hop smash “Cuz I Split Tha Rock” and a string of other huge hits. Today, he is a full-blown entrepreneur, with clothing lines and other ventures besides a music label that boasts a formidable lineup of talent. He offered a visiting reporter one of his Chis-El Mac cigars, grown and rolled at his plantation in Cuba—Chis-El was among the first businessmen to flood back in after President Marlowe ordered the 2026 surgical invasion that liberated the imprisoned isle from the tyranny of the doddering relics of the Castro regime.
I saw firsthand how welfare poisoned my community. When you make the government the man of the family, you don’t leave room for the real man. I take nothing away from the ladies who struggled to raise kids alone, but I was lucky. I had a family with a father. I have a family now, and I am there with them.
I always saw myself as conservative. Most black folk supported the Democrats and things were always getting worse—that made no sense to me. So when I hit it big I was asked on a television interview if I’d be campaigning for Hillary Clinton and I just said, “Hell no. I’m a Republican because I don’t believe in welfare. I believe a man supports himself and his own.”
A lot of people started talking smack about me but I went right back at them. I don’t have to explain myself to fools, but I wanted to make sure my fans understood. And when I asked why it made sense for me to work my ass off so some lazy punk can sit on his ass all day collecting a check, a lot of folks understood.
My biggest selling jam was “Get Your Ass a Job.” I told it straight up—if you aren’t supporting yourself, you’re a punk-ass bitch.
That song blew up. I heard that back in the day, when he was Senator Patel, he had it as his ringtone. People were saying it in the street—it was a catchphrase. I turned on a TV show once and one of the characters said it to some bum. I couldn’t take the Katy Perry cover version, though.
I started producing and a lot of folks who thought like I did would expect me to back them, but if they sounded like shit I threw them out. You need to show some talent—it’s not enough to agree with me. I wouldn’t call a lot of rappers conservative even now, but there are more diverse views. Conservatives upped their game and the good ones made records.
Sammy Honda (Hollywood Producer)
“Hey, babe, we’ll do lunch!” producer Sammy Honda says as he pats a noted situation comedy star on the shoulder while moving through the chic West Hollywood restaurant to his reserved table. “That lady is super beautiful, super talented. Love her work. Love it! I mean, she’s a damn commie, but you know, it’s a free country. You want to be liberal? Hey, you can even be liberal in Hollywood. This is an open-minded community!”
Honda, the producer of such conservative favorite shows as Deadbeats! and Normal Family, remembers when talking about Hollywood as tolerant of liberals would have gotten him a recommendation that he replace his current psychiatrist. “When I got here in 2010, I said nothing about my politics. Nothing! You couldn’t unless you were some sort of leftist, because it seemed everyone was leftist and you’d never work again. But it only seemed that way. This town, then and now, runs on money. If you made money, you generally worked even if your politics would have made Genghis Khan need a hug.”
We are seated, and without bothering to consult the menu Honda orders an off-the-menu lettuce salad with chicken, quinoa, cashews, and tomatoes, then double-checks that the tomatoes are organic. “My life coach is very strict about my diet. The tomatoes have to be organic or my chakra gets unbalanced or something. Where were we? Oh, right…”
Anyway, there were always a fair number of conservative folks in town, most off screen. Crews were often largely conservative. A lot of business folk and producers too. Some stars were too. Adam Baldwin was very open about his views, and he worked all the time. So was Nick Searcy, who left television to found the Nick Searcy School of Acting and coached I don’t know how many Oscar winners—though anyone who comes out of his school is a total prima donna for some reason. Anyway, we always had a few conservatives around.