Best Job I Ever Had: Three Years at RedState

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I wasn't always an opinion journalist. Oh, I was always opinionated, and ever since the dawn of the interwebz, I have been openly sharing those opinions online. I've always been a tub-thumper and a street corner shouter, exercising my First Amendment rights to the maximum. But as of last Saturday, I've been doing it professionally, here at RedState, for three years. A job, the best job I ever had, came upon me suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly, but here I am.

Here's how that happened.

To tell this tale properly, we have to go back to the fall of 1977, when I was a sophomore in high school. When I signed up for classes that semester, I was looking for something to fill an hour, and I noted Journalism was one of the electives. That entailed being on the school newspaper, a four-page item published every Friday during the school year as an insert in the local newspaper. I started out doing more or less straight reporting on school and local events, but before long, my opinionated nature asserted itself, and I started writing opinion pieces. That's where the trouble began.

I ended up staying on the school paper all the way through high school; I was having fun, even if expressing my opinions led to a hallway scuffle or two. Then, in my senior year, the journalism faculty adviser made me Opinion Editor of the school paper, which was like giving a maniac a loaded gun. I had a lot of fun that year; I took on every clique in the school, from jocks to gear-heads to the theater geeks; not even the faculty were safe from my blasts of the pen. I had a lot of fun. But soon enough came the spring of 1980; I finally was manumitted from high school, and I walked away, never contemplating a possible return to journalism. The next few decades were busy: The Army, two marriages, a family, a career in the medical device/phamaceutical/biotech industry that spanned 30 years, about half of that time as an independent corporate consultant. I was one of those clean-cut, jacket-and-tie corporate types that always seem to be at the airport on Monday mornings, jetting off somewhere to help someone solve a problem.

Then, COVID. My wife and I had left Colorado for Alaska. I was still available for consulting work, but the doors were all closed, and when the COVID fiasco started to resolve, things had changed. My business model just didn't seem tenable anymore.

But I kept up the one constant: I kept up with my online activism. I started reading more, since I wasn't working, and among my favorite sources for news and opinion became the various sites of the Townhall group, including RedState. As part of that, I started following RedState's own Brandon Morse online, including in his streaming video efforts. Then, one day, I stumbled across a RedState article on guns that got a few obscure technical details wrong. I mentioned it to Brandon; he said, "If you want, write up a guest editorial on it, I'll send it to my boss." I did. It was published. I wrote another guest editorial, which was also published. Next thing you know, I was talking on the phone to RedState's Managing Editor, Jennifer Van Laar, and her Deputy Managing Editor, Susie Moore. They asked me, "How would you like to write for RedState?"

Obviously, I accepted. Here, just for fun, are the first two articles I wrote for RedState as a newly minted contributor.

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Life has a way of handing us things we didn't expect, but as my Old Man was fond of pointing out, things usually work out for the best in the end. That's sure as shooting what happened here. I've come full circle, back as a pro in a field I hadn't worked seriously in since 1980, and it's beyond a doubt the best job I ever had. I wake up every morning in our Alaska homestead raring to go, anxious to get to the desk and find out what's happening today and figuring how best to write about it. RedState's management is great, our contributors and columnists are great, and most of all, our readers are great. And since I've been in this game, I have become personal friends with people who knew and worked with Andrew Breitbart. How cool is that?

So why am I here now, having made this full circle? For you readers. It's always for you readers. Yes, I mostly write just exactly what I think, and I will never do otherwise, but I feel good about sharing my opinions, even if we don't see eye to eye on every issue; as General George Patton is reported to have said, "If two people agree on everything, one of them isn't necessary," and it is around such discourse that we arrive at best solutions.

Mostly, though, I do this because I enjoy it - and I enjoy every bit of feedback I get from you readers, even if my hectic schedule doesn't always allow a quick reply.

So, stay tuned, because I plan on continuing to do this as long as I'm still carrying out metabolic functions. And I'll continue to do it for you readers; it's always for you readers.

Best job I ever had.

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