If I had to describe the virtues needed in a person to clean up our constantly decaying society, I would describe someone who was honest, had a critical eye for the truth, could articulate themselves well, was rebellious enough to go against the stream, and most of all – gave a damn. These things all describe Tammy Bruce.

I vaguely heard of Tammy Bruce in spring of 2001, and she was described as a feminist who critiqued the left. That was nice, but it wasn't a real convincing sell to me - not even to pick up her book, The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds.

I finally came in contact with what Tammy was all about from an article of hers on www.frontpagemag.com called, “The Doctor Is In.” In it, she commented that when a society has contempt for people of honest and integrity, like Dr. Laura, but praises people of dishonesty and scandal, like Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson, something was going seriously wrong. I immediately contacted her to see if she would come to Penn State to speak. This was a woman that could speak my language!

Tammy came to speak at Penn State on October 30, 2002. And boy, can that woman talk! (She is a better speaker than she is a writer). First, she lent her wisdom to a college radio talk show. Then, she went out to dinner with us. Then she gave a speech, which with question and answer period went over 3 ½ hours long. Then she went out with us to a bar with us, just to talk. Every single person who met her was enamored with her. She came in contact with many different people that night, from radical leftists to fundamentalist Christians. One young Christian man told her during Q&A that if she were heterosexual and 20 yrs younger, he would marry her. After I brought Tammy in, I never had a problem with the leftist university again (not students anyway). They loved her and her message so much that they just associated my club with her. And, I'd like to brag: I saw her first.

So, when I see articles - and there are plenty of them - which seek to smear this woman, I feel the need to speak up. These people aren't just criticizing someone I personally admire, but a fiery gemstone - one of our best weapons against collectivism. I am writing this article in defense of Tammy Bruce not as a duty: it is an honor. One that is made effortless because praising Tammy Bruce is easy. And, on top of that, by talking about the life of Tammy Bruce, one can learn many invaluable lessons.

The smear all ideologues seem to employ against Tammy is that she is a former radical leftist/socialist who turned conservative just to cash in on all the book sales.

I'm not really sure which Tammy they are talking about. Are they talking about the Tammy that voted for Reagan in 1980 and 1984, and then voted for Clinton in 1992 and 1996? It seems Tammy is going the opposite ways of their charges.

I am familiar with all of Tammy's activism. From the time when she was a president at Los Angeles NOW to this day, I find all of her work to be respectable. I don't agree with all of it, but almost all of it can be defended, if not downright supported by conservatives.

Tammy has always been a person that wanted to do something for other people. To this day she is a registered Democrat, “the party of the people,” but won't vote Democrat with its current leadership. When she was 20 years old, she was a young lesbian who grew up with a single mother. Why wouldn't she have been enamored with the cause of feminism? Of course she felt it was for her. Tammy was always Tammy. She was doing what Tammy does best: she gave a damn.

Then Tammy got caught up in the jungle known as feminism, especially of the NOW variety. Tammy, naively thinking that feminists actually cared about women, eventually came to realize different. It was epitomized in Tammy's battle over the OJ Simpson case. Tammy, a classical feminist, wanted to defend and provide justice for a genuine victim of abuse: Nicole Brown Simpson. The beasts at NOW commanded her to be "sensitive to race issues." She found out something many of us know: these so-called advocates of women do not care about women.

Tammy started out as many naïve people do, believing the left was there to help people. Until she became familiar with the left. Tammy did not come to an ideological realization, but a factual realization. She realized who the real enemy of the people was.

Some charge against her, like Cathy Young did in her article, “Tammy Bruce’s Journey,” that Tammy had some pretty feminist beliefs. Yes, she did, and I disagree with many. But, guess what. She still has those beliefs today. Cathy complains Tammy "lambasted" against a judge who would not let firefighters have nudie magazines at their job. This was taken as proof that Tammy used to be a feminist, but now is not. But Tammy will tell you the same thing regarding the firefighters today. There was no conversion. One only has to browse her articles at frontpagemag.com to realize Tammy is still a feminist (although some seem to be too intellectually sloppy to do that).

Cathy Young wrote that Tammy was a hypocrite because she started a very public boycott against the book American Psycho, but also criticized the gay establishment for trying to ruin Dr. Laura's career. Let us look at the content of these two events.

At first, I also personally thought Tammy was being a radical feminist for boycotting American Psycho, until I read what was in the book (which was not the same as the movie). The book describes a man who sends rats up women's vaginas and electrocutes women. It had promise of being a bestseller. Do you consider this something only a radical feminist could be offended by?

Tammy started a one-year boycott of retailers who sold the book. She did not get the government involved. Many people, radical feminist or not, appreciated her crusade. Like I’ve said, I always found her work respectable, when she was with NOW or not.

Now let us look at the campaign against Dr. Laura. I won't even mention the fact that their tactics did not just involve a boycott of a store, but death threats to her house. I'll just focus on the dishonesty. Everyone was led to believe Dr. Laura said homosexuality is deviant. Here is what she actually said, in reference to a letter a person sent to her show.

I read the entire report from the Catholic Church, and that’s exactly what is said: that people with a homosexual orientation are to be loved, nurtured, helped, protected, not hurt in thought, word or deed. I’m paraphrasing, but they say that it is quite possible to believe that a sexual behavior is deviant and disordered and not wish to have any harm come to that person; moreover, to have spiritual and psychiatric help come to that person. But the radical activists do not allow that; they just jump on the bigotry word. And that is so offensive.

Commanding love, nurturing, help and protection for homosexuals while reminding people what the Catholic Church believes, how dare Dr. Laura! Dr. Laura also made another reference to homosexuality being a biological error, but she it was in reference to the sexual orientation, not homosexual themselves.

It is obvious the gay establishment went after Dr. Laura not over one statement, but because they hate her ideological message. The thugs of the left do not want you to hear opposing ideological viewpoints. As Tammy calls them, they are thought police.

How a person cannot see the difference between pressuring a smutty book, which glorified the murder of women (of which Cathy Young was too intellectually dishonest to mention in her smears), out of existence versus ruining a woman's career because of her ideological views is beyond me. Giving only half accounts of the two events, however, seems to aid in that.

I'm proud of Tammy's work in boycotting American Psycho. I don't approve of that smut being in our culture. They have a right to print it; we have a right to criticize it. Taking a moral position is not going to threaten civil liberties, like so many seem to believe. Tammy is a true and enduring voice against the intellectual and moral swampland our culture has become. You could argue that this activism of Tammy's, back when she was a supposed radical feminist, was actually a conservative move.

Indeed, if you talk to Tammy today she will tell you she is proud of her work at NOW. The supposed “new” Tammy still admires what the “old” Tammy did. She is not like David Horowitz, who apologizes for what he did as a young radical communist when he protested the Vietnam War. She does not strike in any way whatsoever as a person who had some type of conversion, other than a factual conversion. In which case, she was independent and intellectually honest enough to call things like she saw them.

I can tell you right now why these malicious people feel the need to destroy Tammy – especially with such dishonest smears. If you spent one hour with Tammy, you would know why. Tammy speaks the truth. She is a formidable thinker and debater. Tammy has a clear, rational brain, and when she speaks, you do not get a shred of nonsense. And, not only that, she is undeniably popular and loveable – wooing people of every ideology. Anyone who has met her can attest to these things.

Tammy offends ideologues everywhere. And by ideologue I mean people who are enamored with their Utopian ideologies – be it libertarian, feminist, equalist, or a host of others – all of which never seem to find their way back to reality, They are blinded by it, and Tammy gets under their goat when she reminds them how their ideas eventually materialize in the real world. She reminds people that homosexual men near teenage boys in the Boy Scouts is not a good idea; that smut has a negative impact on the culture; that sexual education is harming our children. She reminds us that ideas matter, because people matter. Advocates of “choice,” advocates of “equality,” advocates of blind ideologies don’t like hearing it.

Instead of taking her toe-to-toe, they write smear campaigns against her, such as that she is a manipulative former radical leftist turned conservative just for the money. This charge against Tammy is simply ridiculous. Too feminist Tammy is (to this day). A manipulative sellout she is not.

Tammy has been involved in activism for decades. She has met thousands of people, all of whom she gave the honesty and respect to that they have not always return to her. Her wisdom and experience, combined with her ability to critically look at issues makes her an invaluable asset. If I had to describe her, I would say she has - and always has had - a conservative mind with a liberal heart. Navigated by reason, driven by compassion, she has come to solid, real, no-nonsense conclusions regarding the world we live in. All of us can learn something new and interesting from her years of experience. Tammy Bruce's journey, indeed.