I was talking, today, with a person that follows my Constitutional exploits, and originally went through my Constitution Class I teach four years ago when she was a senior in high school. She was asking about the foundation of who I am, and how it was that I came to become the "Constitution Guy."
The Constitution became important to me early on, with episodes of Schoolhouse Rock urging me to learn more about the American System from an originalist point of view. I studied original writings, and by the time I was fifteen, I had a pretty good handle on early American History, figured out that we are being taught a bunch of myths regarding our history as a nation by the academics in the public schools and colleges and leftists in the entertainment industry, and I was becoming quite the expert regarding emergence of our exceptional system here in the New World. During that time of my life, however, I was still a brash young man, and I was still experiencing the hormonal chaos of youth, from lanky awkwardness to fierce rebellion.
After a tumultuous move from the Los Angeles zone to the much more conservative Inland Empire, specifically a town called Corona, and a very chaotic 7th Grade year in a new school filled with a busload of kids on the way there and back each school day who wanted to hassle the new kid, I was searching for an identity and a gang (North Long Beach taught me how important it was to always be in the middle of a large group of trusted individuals that will be willing to fight for the group, and as a group). I didn't want to be "that new kid" anymore, in this new place. I didn't want normalcy, either. "Why be normal?" I used to jest.
In the 8th Grade, during my Metal Shop class, I discovered Punk Rock. The pair of fans of the new music revolution in 1979 became my "other" set of friends. They were quirky, yet respected. Feared, and fierce. Just what I needed. And then, when I took a test-drive of the music, largely by listening to KSPC (88.7 FM out of Claremont, which played nothing but punk and punk-related music, back then), I was hooked. Rebellious, and anti-establishment. Just what I was looking for.
So, punk rock entered my life during the dawn of my snotty nose, pimple infested, growth spurt, age of rebellion. As a political junkie, even at the age of thirteen, I was disgusted with what I was seeing. The path the Founding Fathers had set for us was nothing like what we were in the middle of. We had just finished with Vietnam and Nixon's Watergate, the fumbling of Ford's presidency, and we were smack-dab in the middle of the madness of the Jimmy Carter administration. Then, when the hostage crisis in Tehran exploded, and our President showed how inept he truly was, the rage and anger through punk rock was something I embraced.
The anger lasted for a few years, but by 1982, a ray of hope began to shine through, both politically, and as I matured as a young adult. I began to recognize the hope for the future. Optimism seeped into my being. I got back into sports, this time joining the Cross-Country team rather than playing baseball, and I got a varsity letter (actually, two). During this time, I also formed new non-punk relationships (while my steady friendship with my buddies Nacho and Robert maintained), and I became a Reagan-baby. Ronald Reagan was different than the other politicians. He was not just another ruling elitist dictating to the people while separating us into warring groups, but a man that spoke to us all as Americans. I voted for him the year I turned 18 in 1984. I debated in defense of his policies in high school during his first term, and even though I will probably love punk rock until the day I die (I'm strangely funny that way), at that time my musical tastes changed. Oh, I stayed a slightly rebellious youth, but I ditched the punk attitude, and moved into a more "preppy" style of dress and aura, with a dip into metal, punk encouraged New Wave, and some of the pop rock that was around.
College had been a goal, but I entered the military in 1984, right out of high school, instead of going on to higher education. Dad had been a United States Marine before he entered my life, so I was familiar with military demeanor and posture. Looking back, the United States Navy was the best choice I could have made. College would have opened up the opportunity to follow the lifestyle of a partying student, but in the Navy I was shaken out, stood back up, and made into a person that understood the necessity for order and initiative in my own life. I became an American with a purpose, which was a good thing, since I was a young man with a new wife and child.
Having a new family led to new careers, from becoming a banker and city employee out of the Navy, to construction and truck driving. Politics, however, remained a mainstay in my life. Then, when 9/11 happened, my political involvement increased. I called recruiters to see if I could re-enter the military, and perhaps move over to the Marine Corps, but my discharge from the Navy due to injuries I incurred during my service, kept me from "re-upping."
In February of 2007, I began a BlogTalkRadio program. Internet Radio came naturally, but I did not know it would eventually lead to AM Radio in 2011.
May of 2007, while I was explaining that the idiotic leftist concept of the Separation between Church and State is not in the Constitution, a gentleman named Tim called into my broadcast. He later went by the moniker "Loki," and he opened doors regarding the Constitution that I had not fathomed existed, prior to my online meeting with him. We became friends, and Loki became my constitutional mentor.
In 2008, with the advent of the presidency of Barack Obama, my political involvement hit high gear. If ever there was a President that abhorred the U.S. Constitution, Obama was that guy. He was even worse than what I could remember about Carter. America under this new kind of statist that claimed to wield hope and change, while promising destruction between the lines, frightened me greatly. Political Pistachio, and the radio program, increased in popularity. I began Constitution Classes in early 2008. I joined the local TEA Party. After walking for candidates in 2007, I ran for City Council in 2010. Locally, I was beginning to get noticed.
In December of 2013, Loki passed away, nearly a year after my dear friend, Paul Young, died. Loki discipled me on the Constitution, and Paul was a Christian friend who discipled me in my Christian Faith as I moved from political junkie to political pundit. My mom said to me, after the two deaths of these dear friends, "Now the training wheels are off."
She was right.
Now, I have been on AM Radio for nearly four years, I teach three Constitution Classes, write articles on this website (and many others) with Political Pistachio receiving (with the help of other writers like the unbelievably active JASmius) over 2,000 pageviews a day, I am a public speaker on the Constitution (I will be at Weber State University in October, along with numerous local gigs in between), I have three books available for purchase (two specifically on the Constitution), I am locally active in politics, and I have been on national television a number of times (Fox News four times, al Jazeera America three times, One America News, etc.). And, it all began with a hunger for American History thanks to an old afterschool cartoon in the seventies, and an attitude that began to take shape during my rebellious years as a punk rocker.
It's amazing how the Lord shapes our paths, even when we go off on quirky tangents during the journey.
Now, as I figured back during the seventies in the middle of the Carter presidency, it's time for a revolution. . . but now I understand it's not an anarchistic revolution like we sometimes demanded as punkers, but a revolution to restore the republic, and revive the virtues that made this nation rise to levels the Founding Fathers knew we would, if only we adhered to the principles and philosophies of the United States Constitution.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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