Essay:Conservatives of the Decade

It's time; in fact, we have only three days left to identify the top ten conservatives of the decade. The criterion would presumably be the best and longest lasting influence. For example, Ronald Reagan would be a leading candidate for "conservative of the decade" of the 1980s.

The best of the public is welcome in this list of nominations:

Nominations

Top Ten Candidates

• Ann Coulter
• Ben Stein
• Bill O'Reilly
• Charlton Heston
• Club for Growth
• D. James Kennedy
• Dick Cheney
• George W. Bush
• Glenn Beck
• Jerry Falwell
• Jim DeMint
• John Bolton
• Karl Rove
• Matt Drudge
• Michele Bachman
• Mark Levin
• Michelle Malkin
• Proposition 8 supporters
• Ron Paul
• Rudy Giuliani
• Rush Limbaugh
• Samuel Alito
• Sarah Palin
• Tea Party Movement

Honorable Mention Candidates

• Antonin Scalia
• Art Robinson
• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Charles H. Bronson
• Christopher Monckton
• Clarence Thomas
• Condoleezza Rice
• David Petraeus
• Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe
• Homeschoolers who captured all the finalist positions in the National Bible Bee
• James Dobson
• Joe Lieberman
• Joe Wilson
• John Howard
• John Roberts
• John Thune
• Jon Voight
• Marco Rubio
• Mike Huckabee
• The Minutemen Project
• Mitt Romney
• Pat Robertson
• Paul Ryan
• Sean Hannity
• Tom Coburn
• Zell Miller
• Chuck Norris

(add more, or suggest ranking; maybe we should name a "Conservative of the Year" also)

(no more than 10 in final honorable mentions category, those in top 10 can be moved to Honorable Mentions, vice-versa.)

Quotes of the Decade

• "You lie!" (Joe Wilson about Barack Obama)
• "You know babies have finger nails!" (reference to an unborn child in the movie Juno)
• "from my cold, dead hands" (Charlton Heston in 2000 dramatically referring to the only way liberals could take his rifle from him)

Story of the Decade

• September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
• The taking, for the benefit of a corporation and higher tax revenue, of the long-held homes of Susanne Kelo and others in New London, Connecticut, decided against the homeowners by a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court. Forcibly ousted and their homes destroyed, the residents moved elsewhere at great disruption to their lives. Then, four years later, Pfizer abandoned the project for its own reasons, leaving a useless eyesore in the wreckage.
• The Ramos-Compean incident that began in February 2006 with actions by agents Ignacios Ramos and Jose Compean and did not end until their sentences were commuted by President George W. Bush in January 2009.

Looking forward

What will be the most influential trends for the next decade? Here are some possibilities:

• collapse of the newspapers
• shifts in education away from bricks-and-mortar institutions
• reduction in influence of "experts"
• parent trigger legislation
• 2010/2012 Conservative Revolution
• decline in evolution syndrome in academia
• Communists admit that Fidel Castro is no longer alive
• conservative social networking
• current climate models undergirding global warming hysteria continue to be proven incorrect by a global non-warming weather pattern

(add more)