Assistant Managing Editor, Investigative Journalist with 20+ years experience. I don’t create content, I tell stories. Florida Native☀️Baseball Mom ⚾️ Rescuer of very old dogs 🐾 Collector of vintage cookbooks 🥘
Most people I talk politics with are quite surprised that I’m a conservative Republican, because all journalists are liberals, right? Well, I’m kind-of a different breed of journalist. First off, I never went to J-school. In fact, journalism was my Plan B, as I’d hoped to work for the state, prosecuting criminals, but in 1991, assistant state attorneys earned $26,000 a year so law school was cost-prohibitive. My first reporter job paid $26,000 without six-figure law school debt. I have a political science degree with economics as a minor, plus a year towards a master’s in theology, along with a year of undergrad in biomedical science - an atypical mix of disciplines. I’ve been covering government — government budgets, government boondoggles, government bad behavior and government bungling — since 1993. Try doing that day-in and day-out while remaining a liberal. I’m also a Roman Catholic and socially conservative. I am staunchly pro-life and pro-parental rights. My son has attended Catholic school on a school-choice scholarship since the 7th grade, and don’t even get me started about what goes on in the public schools. But only about 1 in 7 journalists in the U.S. is a Republican or identifies as conservative, and only about one-third claim a religious affiliation, so I do fully understand the misconception that I’m a liberal Dem.
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1moSo, conservative republican, not libertarian? The libertarian always has the challenge, which party they want to align with, and which limited government powers are higher priority for them I sort of feel like a moderate "left-bertarian" 🤣