A Republican in Hollywood

Professor Bainbridge links to a humorous piece by Ben Stein, who relates what it's like to be a Republican in Hollywood:

This is the way it is here. We meet in smoky places. We give the high sign, we nod knowingly. We are like members of the Maquis in Occupied France. Or early Christians emerging from the catacombs in Caligula's Rome. We are the GOP in Hollywood, and on the West Side of L.A. The culture here is so dominantly left-wing, PC, vegan, hate-America that many of us feel we have to behave as if we were underground.

At a self-help meeting where men and women confess to drug use, betrayals, thefts, homicides with cars, at a break, a woman stealthily came up to me last Saturday and motioned me into a corner outside the room in Malibu. "I want to tell you there are some of us who agree with you. We have to keep it quiet because we want to get our kids into the right schools, but we're there. We're there. And there are more of us every day." Then she scuttled off into the night. Slamming crack can be spoken of with a smile, but not voting GOP. That could be dangerous.

I have some friends who moved out to Los Angeles last summer. One of them grew up in East Tennessee and has struggled with the different attitudes towards Christianity and sometimes just life in general. I can partially relate, as I went through a similar adjustment when I moved to Knoxville, although I think my transition was easier.