It's My America Too: A Leading Young Conservative Shares His Views on Politics and Other Matters of Importance

by Ben Ferguson

Overview

With It's My America Too, Ben Ferguson, the voice of America's youth and the host of The Ben Ferguson Show, one of the country's fastest-growing syndicated radio shows, delivers his views on all the issues, from politics to current affairs to popular culture. Everyone wants to know what Ferguson will say next—and here's your chance.

Ben Ferguson is a conservative who is also an independent thinker unafraid to take contrary positions. In It's My America Too, the twenty-two-year-old media star shoots from the hip and the lip on numerous topics. Ferguson tells us why he thinks the voting age should be lowered to sixteen; who the "New Minority" is—the twenty-something men and women who are overworked, underpaid, overmarketed, and drastically underrepresented; why politicians talk about and at young adults, but never to them; how he feels about everything from homeschooling to sex, NASCAR, and George W. Bush; and much more.

Ferguson's message is clear. He is not on a campaign to reform liberals and turn them into right-wing Republicans. He is presenting his views on American society and challenging those who do not agree with him to an open debate. Some will not agree with his political and religious views. What he hopes to accomplish, with both his radio show and this book, is to energize future generations about politics. The way to do this is through open communication. He is encouraging his generation (and even some in previous generations) to get involved and be heard.

Hip and forthright, funny yet never pedantic, Ferguson offers a fresh viewpoint and insights on topics such as "What the Republican Party can learn from Bill Clinton"; "Why anti-Americanism is our problem"; and "Dubya: my favorite redneck." He reveals a positive outlook on the economy, offers his opinions on bias in the media, and also includes chapters on Donald Rumsfeld, affirmative action, and the values instilled in him by his mother and father.

Ferguson's pride in his country, in his religious beliefs, and in his choices reflects his vision of the American dream. He is informed and determined to make a difference. Youthful as he is, he has a unique perspective not only on America and its history, but also on current events and issues. You may applaud his opinions or perhaps you will disagree with them. But for those of you who are angered by this book, Ferguson instructs: "Don't just get mad. Do something about it."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061745447
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/17/2009
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	462 KB

About the Author

Ben Ferguson is the youngest nationally syndicated radio talk show host in the country and has been hosting talk radio programs since he was thirteen. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

Read an Excerpt

It's My America Too
A Leading Young Conservative Shares His Views on Politics and Other Matters of Importance

Chapter One

Falling in Love with Radio

I was always fascinated with radio. I guess I had an overactive imagination, because when I heard people talking on the radio, I would spend a lot of time wondering what they looked like. It was that same curiosity kids naturally have about the unknown. I think I just took it a little further. I would listen to the deejays and try to paint a picture in my head of what they looked like. Were they tall? Or short? Thin? Or fat? A mental picture would pop into my head, based on how they sounded. I would try to imagine the studio, the microphones, every detail I could put together in my head without ever having seen a studio in person.

Having time to listen to radio was one of the big advantages of homeschooling. I am sure I would never have ended up where I am now if I had not spent so much time in the family minivan driving around town with my mother while other kids were stuck in boring classrooms, staring at the walls or ripping apart their paper, piece by piece. If my mother would drive to the supermarket, I went with her. If she would drive to the post office, I went along for the ride. We spent a lot of time together, which I think was good for our relationship, and it also gave me plenty of chances to listen to the radio with her as we sat in the car. Sometimes we listened to music, but by the time I was eight years old or so, we started to listen to Rush Limbaugh's show almost every day. We'd be driving to my tennis lessons, or taking my sister to horseback riding, and along the way we would be tuned into Rush Limbaugh, who became a big influence on me.

Rush was just starting to make a splash around that time. He worked in music radio for a Pittsburgh stations in the early 1970s and even had a show for a while as "Bachelor Jeff" and "Jeff Christie," but he quit radio for a while and went to work for the Kansas City Royals baseball team as director of group sales. He was doing political commentaries on Kansas City radio but was fired from that job when they decided he was too opinionated. Imagine that! Rush daring to express his opinions! I bet those guys who decided to fire him felt like real geniuses a couple of years later when Rush was the talk of every living room in America. He moved to Sacramento to start his first talk show and did well out there. It was July 1988 when he moved to New York to start his national show, and, not much later than that, my mother and I started listening to him and other talk radio a lot.

I was pretty young, so I don't remember being impressed by his opinions, or his ideas, or his arguments. I just loved that he could keep talking and talking and talking without ever slowing down, no matter what the subject was. That was kind of my dream. He was my hero and not because I thought he was so fascinating. I was just amazed at the way he came on the air every day, and he could talk about anything he wanted. I remember thinking that I would love to do that, too. I just knew right away that it would be great to have the chance to talk about whatever I wanted to talk about every single day and have people listen to me. That idea intrigued me.

I also remember loving the fact that here Rush was, basically an un-known at that point, and he would go after anybody, no matter how big they were. That to me was cool. It wasn't like he was famous back then. It wasn't like he was a movie star. He just seemed real to me, like someone you would talk to when your parents had a bunch of neighbors over for a Fourth of July barbeque, or something like that. It's hard to explain, because now everybody knows Rush Limbaugh. But back then he was just starting out, and even then, there was this sense that you knew him, even though you had never met him. I think that's what made me feel such a strong connection to him. He was just a totally different kind of personality than the famous people I was aware of at that time, who seemed remote and untouchable somehow. You couldn't really connect with movie stars. Maybe you see them in a movie, and on the cover of People magazine, but you never feel any immediate sense of connection.

Don't get me wrong. I am sure I absorbed more from Rush than I will ever know. If not for him, I might not have developed such a love of undressing liberals in public by pointing out all the flaws in their arguments. I might not have learned to have quite so much fun making jokes about all the stupid things people in Washington do and say. I was always a very opinionated kid, so I was that much more interested in hearing Rush express his opinions, and I guess his enthusiasm for what he did rubbed off on me.

He was able to do what I wanted to do. I couldn't back talk to my parents out of respect. But I always tried to have a quick comeback, and I always wanted to have the last word. That was part of why I enjoyed listening to Rush so much. He was able to have the last word, and it was okay. He could be brassy and cut people off. I was impressed with the way he could control the conversation. That made a big impression on me because, when you're a kid, the older people around you establish rules and you have to play by those rules or face the consequences ...

It's My America Too
A Leading Young Conservative Shares His Views on Politics and Other Matters of Importance. Copyright © by Ben Ferguson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	xv
Part I	Son of the South
Chapter 1	Falling in Love with Radio	3
Chapter 2	Making a Splash	13
Chapter 3	The Importance of Family--Homeschooling	23
Chapter 4	The Importance of Family--My Parents	31
Chapter 5	Always Up to Something	41
Chapter 6	Adventures in Radio and Television	47
Part II	Telling It Like It Is
Chapter 7	Gun Control Means Hitting Your Target	57
Chapter 8	What's Wrong with God?	65
Chapter 9	If They All Had Their Way	71
Chapter 10	Fat America	81
Chapter 11	Who Will Stand Up for Old People?	89
Chapter 12	Anti-Americanism Is Our Problem Too	97
Part III	A Political Virgin
Chapter 13	Why I'm a Virgin	109
Chapter 14	Give Kids the Vote	119
Chapter 15	You Gotta Serve Somebody	129
Chapter 16	NASCAR, the Next Big Thing	137
Chapter 17	What Boomers Didn't Learn about Family Values	147
Part IV	Heroes and Anti-Heroes
Chapter 18	President "Rhymes with Witch"	157
Chapter 19	Newt Gingrich, Role Model--Not!	165
Chapter 20	My Favorite American	175
Chapter 21	What Republicans Can Learn from Bill Clinton	185
Chapter 22	Donald Rumsfeld, a Hero for Our Times	197
Chapter 23	Dubya: My Kind of Redneck	205
Chapter 24	Where Is America Going?	215

Interviews

An Interview with Ben Ferguson

Barnes & Noble.com: What made you want to write this book?

Ben Ferguson: My story is living proof that the American Dream is still alive. I wanted to stand up for the average American and say that we still have a say-so in this country. You don't have to be a multimillionaire and hang out with the political types to have influence on what happens in this country. This country is ours, not theirs to run. Everybody told me I couldn't do it -- that there is no way a major publisher would allow a 22-year-old to write a major book on politics. But you can make a difference at any age in this country and that is what drove me to write the book. Normal people in this country can be heard. That is what inspired me -- that my generation be heard, because I don't think my generation is heard.

B&N.com: How did you become a conservative, and how do you define one?

BF: People say, "So you are a Republican, and I say, no, I am a conservative." The Republican Party and being a conservative are two very different things. People like John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger are not conservatives and in my opinion should not be Republicans. But they are accepted by the Republican Party with open arms. Arnold blew up people in movies and says he is for gun control. That is a conflict of interest when you make millions that way and now say you are against it. McCain ran for president as a conservative Republican in 2000 and then entertained the idea of running for vice president on a Democratic ticket -- that is not conservative. When I was 13 I didn't understand what conservative and liberal meant. But I knew what my values were, and they revolved around my faith. If you keep it simplistic, you usually make the right decisions. I follow conservative ideals. I agree with them more with than John Kerry and Michael Moore. The problem for the two-party system is that people won't stand up to their parties when they don't agree.

B&N.com: You are a radio prodigy. How did you ever get on the air at 13, and what were the circumstances? How old were you when you got your own show?

BF: When I was 13, I was calling syndicated talk shows and I called Ken Hamblin, who went by the name The Black Avenger --he was a black conservative in Memphis. He dubbed me "Young Master Ben." A lady from Memphis called me and asked me to come down to the radio station for ten minutes, and I was on an hour and a half, and next day the same thing happened. And then she offered me my own show.

B&N.com: You want to lower the voting age to 16. How can you rationalize this?

BF: I just think America has changed. We are going to be fighting terrorism for the rest of my life. If you expect 18-year-olds to fight, let them vote before. They haven't been able to vote until they go to college. They get their driving license at 16. Give a 16-year-old the right to vote, the parents are talking politics at home and the teenager hears it. They will get in the routine of voting before they leave home. They will realize it is not so much of a hassle to vote. People say they are not old enough. But are you really going to equate signing up for five years and holding a gun with voting? I don't.

B&N.com: You certainly have your own take on family values. Do you feel parents don't want to parent anymore?

BF: Parents have taken the easy way out. They want kids but they don't want to raise them. They pass them on to schools. Parents in dual families, tired when they get home, don't want to tutor them. Women are looked down on if they are stay-at-home mothers. Women look down on it, too. It starts in the home and ends in the home.

B&N.com: What is your take on President Bush in this post-9/11 world?

BF: He has taken a lot of heat for being the leader he has become. I think he went into Iraq too early. He didn't go for political gain but because it was the right thing to do. We got sucker-punched in 9/11. He saw Saddam was a threat. Win or lose, he'll say, "I did the right thing." The sign of good leadership is doing the right thing. You can say this about him, whether or not you hate him or love him -- he has convictions. He is not looking at polls.

B&N.com: What are your plans after college?

BF: I've been speaking to leadership conferences for young people and will expand the radio show to Monday to Friday. I'll continue writing my column; I'm hoping to syndicate it while I'm a senior. I would love to host a TV roundtable show. Some say my goals are unrealistic. I dedicated the book in part to those who wanted me to fail.

B&N.com: Do you have any desire to run for office yourself?

BF: When I saw what politics were really like, I didn't want to do it.

B&N.com: What will your next book be?

BF: My next book will be about where American is going. I will look at the challenges faced in this country in "taking it back."

Editorial Reviews

Having gone from a weekly stint on a major Memphis radio program at age 13 to 120 stations and counting for the Ben Ferguson Show at 22, the syndicated conservative wunderkind takes a stab in print at being the voice of conservative youth. On a host of political issues (gun control, school prayer, etc.), Ferguson's approach is "telling it like it is." His positions are to the right of center (for school prayer, against gun control), but Ferguson presents himself as a contrarian. As proof of his independence, he criticizes Republicans for their complacency and lack of concern for average Americans and even urges them to learn from Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" populism. A light polemic, Ferguson's book is not closely argued; the writing is unsophisticated and the ideas are simplistic. But the book-dedicated in part to "those who hope I fail"-is just as much about pointed revelation ("Some people laugh when I tell them I am twenty-two and have never had sex," begins the chapter "Why I'm a Virgin") and Ferguson's stocktaking of his career so far, which will be of just as much interest to fans. Agent, Lisa Queen at IMG. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

He's young (22), he's conservative, and he's syndicated on 120 stations. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Spatter some pimples on Rush Limbaugh, substitute Kit Kats for OxyContin, rev up the sense of entitlement, layer in a high-pitched whine, and you have this thin primer: conservatism for tots. To judge by both title and contents, young right-wing radio host Ferguson believes that there's no room for conservatives in America. He's under other misapprehensions, too, apparently not knowing that Bob Dornan lost his political office for reasons other than the enmity of "lesbian spearchuckers," seemingly unaware (though he's from Memphis) that white folks catch a few more breaks than do nonwhite people, presumably undaunted by the fact that he's not very funny-as when, for instance, he assails affirmative action with the ham-fisted demand that the airwaves carry "a transgendered Eskimo paraplegic rapper, and a ninety-year-old Arapaho dwarf rapper, and, what the heck, maybe a pair of Honduran conjoined-twin rappers," presumably to balance him and Rush and their pals. That's actually one of the more coherent moments, a taste of salt to offset the sugar-sweet patriotism of the rest of this screed, which has all the analytical power of a greeting card. Elsewhere, for instance, Ferguson complains about how amazing it is "that so many liberals could condemn the NRA after Columbine without stopping for one minute to ask if the valueless, immoral swamp that our culture has become is part of the problem," reckons that "What scares me . . . is the fact that we as a nation are allowing bitter, hateful people to get rid of God," and frets that "some kids who do home-schooling really suffer because they don't have any social interaction with other students, and that makes them awkward and nervous aroundother kids. That's really sad." It all gets even more pathetic when Ferguson pitches a case for lowering the voting age to 16. A Bill O'Reilly for the braces and knee-socks set, as if we needed one. Agent: Lisa Queen/IMG

Kirkus Reviews