Essay:Conservatives of the Decade

It's time; in fact, we have only two 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
• Dick Cheney
• Glenn Beck
• James Dobson
• Jerry Falwell
• Jim DeMint
• John Bolton
• Michele Bachman
• Michelle Malkin
• Proposition 8 supporters
• Ron Paul
• Rudy Giuliani
• Rush Limbaugh
• Samuel Alito
• Sarah Palin
• Sean Hannity
• Tea Party Movement

Honorable Mention Candidates

• Alan Keyes
• Andrew Schlafly and the students that founded Conservapedia
• Antonin Scalia
• Art Robinson
• Bart Stupak
• Benedict XVI
• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Charles H. Bronson
• Christopher Monckton
• Chuck Norris
• Clarence Thomas
• Club for Growth
• Condoleezza Rice
• D. James Kennedy
• David Cameron
• David Petraeus
• Doug Hoffman
• George W. Bush
• Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe
• Homeschoolers who captured all the finalist positions in the National Bible Bee
• Joe Lieberman
• Joe the Plumber
• Joe Wilson
• John Howard
• John Paul II
• John Roberts
• John Thune
• Jon Voight
• Karl Rove
• Marco Rubio
• Mark Levin
• Matt Drudge
• Michael Savage
• Mike Huckabee
• The Minutemen Project
• Mitt Romney
• Oral Roberts
• Pat Robertson
• Paul Ryan
• Sun Myung Moon
• Tom Coburn
• Tony Snow
• Zell Miller

(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.)

Conservative 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)
• "The best of the public is better than a group of experts." -Conservapedia
• "I can hear you! I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" - President Bush to the rescue/recovery workers at Ground Zero
• "Justice will be served / And the battle will rage / This big dog will fight / When you rattle his cage / And you'll be sorry that you messed with / The U.S. of A. / 'Cause we'll put a boot in your a** / It's the American way" -Toby Keith singing "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American)" (edited for Conservapedia)
• "I'm just a singer of simple songs / I'm not a real political man / I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you / The difference in Iraq and Iran / But I know Jesus and I talk to God / And I remember this from when I was young / Faith, hope and love are some good things he gave us / And the greatest is love" - Alan Jackson singing "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)"

Stories 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.
• The unsuccessful attempt by liberals to change the outcome of the 2000 presidential election by reinterpreting ballots and examining "chads".
• 9/12 March on Washington

Looking forward

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

• collapse of the newspapers in favor of web-based information
• shifts in education away from bricks-and-mortar institutions
• reduction in influence of "experts"
• repeal of health care bill of 2009
• rising taxes to pay off escalating national debt
• parent trigger legislation
• 2010/2012 Republican recovery in Congress
• decline in evolution syndrome in academia
• conservative social networking
• global non-warming weather continues to provide proof that current climate models undergirding mass-global warming hysteria are in truth maniacally mistaken if not willfully wrong

(add more)