Advantages of Living in the Swamp

I never thought I would write a column titled “Advantages of Living in the Swamp,” especially as the stranglehold that the permanent bureaucracy has on our government has become more obvious than ever in the era of Trump.  However, I could not have predicted how much I enjoyed myself over the past 85 days living in the Swamp. 

For the past three months, I have not technically lived or worked in the Swamp, if you define the Swamp as the city limits of Washington, D.C.  If you define “the Swamp” as the Washington Metropolitan Area, also known as the series of blue dots around the Nation’s Capital on an electoral map, then, yes, I have lived in “the Swamp.”

In terms of percentages, the swamp leans overwhelmingly Democratic.  But in terms of raw numbers, the swamp has more conservatives than Rhode Island, where I have lived for the past decade or the Southern Tier of New York, where I spent my early childhood.  And the conservatives in the Swamp tend to be more actively engaged in politics than their counterparts in other parts of the country; since many of them came to the swamp to write for conservative publications or work for conservative organizations, such as Young America’s Foundation. 

For the past twelve weeks, I have participated in the National Journalism Center’s Spring 2018 Internship.  The NJC, a project of Young America’s Foundation, places applicants at conservative media outlets in the Swamp four days of the week, while they spend Fridays at NJC Headquarters (synonymous with YAF headquarters), hearing from a variety of speakers who hold various positions in the field of journalism and the conservative movement.  Many of them kindly gave out their business cards; I have accumulated more than a dozen over the past three months. It took me nearly half a year to find the NJC after several unsuccessful attempts to find paid employment in my field following my graduation from college.  The NJC boasts a host of distinguished conservative alumni, most notably Ann Coulter, Katie Pavlich and Greg Gutfeld; all of whom have gone on to enjoy enormously successful careers.    

The NJC provides breakfast and lunch to the interns, including on field trips; where we occasionally ate at restaurants I could not afford to eat at by myself, let alone take a girl on a date to.  My fellow interns, most of whom are still in college, interned at a variety of news organizations including C-SPAN, The Daily Caller, WMAL, Independent Journal Review, Townhall, NBC News and The Washington Examiner.

On the first day at NJC, I got to meet the fellow interns in person (I had already become friends with them all on Facebook.)  We also posed for a group picture and had an orientation session explaining the ins and outs of the program. 

On the second day, we took a tour of the Capital City, better known as “The Swamp.”  We visited a wide variety of landmarks including the World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Jefferson, Lincoln, MLK, and FDR Memorials.  While I had the opportunity to see some of these landmarks during my last field trip to the Swamp (in high school), I certainly did not mind refreshing my memory.

  


I got to meet a lot of people during my internship, including Brian Kilmeade, David Bossie, Second Lady Karen Pence, and her daughter Charlotte Pence.  They all came to YAF headquarters to promote their books.   Kilmeade, who has taken over as Fox News’s Resident Historian in the absence of Bill O’Reilly, came to promote his book Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle that Shaped America’s Destiny.  After meeting Kilmeade, I can now say that I have met two of the three “Fox & Friends” co-hosts. 

 

A month later, Bossie, an NJC alumnus, came to promote his book which he coauthored with Corey Lewandowski, Let Trump Be Trump.

 

 

Just before Easter, The Second Lady and Charlotte Pence came to read their children’s book Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President.  They also happened to bring along Marlon Bundo, who holds the title of the Bunny of the United States, also known as the BOTUS.  The Pences signed a copy of their book for my niece, who turns seven later this month and loves animals.  

 

 

While we spent most of our Fridays at the YAF Headquarters, we continued to take an occasional field trip. We got to meet Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), a passionate conservative who served as Director of the National Journalism Center from 2005 to 2012.  Mooney gave us a tour of the Capitol and we got to sit in the room where President Trump gave his State of the Union address. Following our tour of Capitol Hill, we ate lunch with Newsmax’s John Gizzi, a regular fixture at White House press briefings.

 

 

We also took a field trip to CPAC on the day that President Trump spoke.  I videotaped the entire speech, which lasted for approximately 75 minutes, on my iPhone.  I only updated the first fifteen minutes to You Tube because for some reason I cannot upload anything longer than fifteen minutes.  I obviously still have a lot to learn when it comes to my new iPhone and uploading videos to You Tube.  I know the video comes across as quite amateur but I wanted to capture the perspective of what it was like in the room.  I also got to attend Laura Ingraham’s speech, arriving in the ballroom just as Raymond Arroyo was introducing her.  Prior to heading down to the ballroom, we met with WMAL Host Larry O’Connor in the YAF Suite. 

I managed to run into Dr. Sebastian Gorka in the lobby after the Trump speech, he generously agreed to take a selfie with me:

 

 

I did not get to attend many other events at CPAC because of my internship commitment and the fact that CPAC is way out of the way.  I did manage to attend Reaganpalooza, a CPAC after-party held at a more accessible location in DC.  I met up with some of my fellow interns and we posed for a picture in front of a giant cutout of America’s 40^th President:  

Watching a live taping of Tucker Carlson Tonight was definitely the highlight of the semester.  Guests that night included Hillary Clinton loyalist Richard Goodstein, likeable liberal lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and occasional guest host Mark Steyn.  I spent the first half of the hour in the control room, transferring to the studio for the second half of the broadcast.  Before Tucker started, we all posed for a picture in Laura Ingraham’s studio, which has a window overlooking the Capitol Building.  I did not actually get to meet Laura but I did get a picture of her office:

 

 

I headed back to Capitol Hill as part of my MRC Internship to meet with Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the Media Fairness Caucus.  Congressman Smith generously gave my fellow me and my fellow NJC interns passes to visit the House and Senate galleries.  The passes remain valid for the remainder of the 115^th Congress (i.e. the next eight months.)

 

The MRC Interns and I also took a field trip to the Leadership Institute, where we met with its founder Morton Blackwell.  Mr. Blackwell kindly allowed me to kill two birds with one stone, as the NJC had assigned us a video project as part of our “video bootcamp.” For my project, I did a profile on the Leadership Institute, securing an interview with Mr. Blackwell and capturing video footage of the Campus Reform office. (Side note-biggest regret of my life so far: not finding out about Campus Reform during college).     

 

Living in the Swamp has given me access to a variety of conservative networking events, especially the book signings at YAF headquarters. I also have access to two of the largest airports in the country, which would allow me to fly to 40 different states and several foreign countries on direct flights.  These airports have infinitely many more destinations than Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport.

The biggest disadvantage to living in the swamp is the cost.  To use a phrase popular in New England, living in the Swamp is “wicked expensive.”  I had to give up soda for lent, primarily because it costs so much money (For the record, it would cost more in “enlightened” cities that issue taxes on sugary beverages while pushing for the legalization of marijuana.) 

 

For now, my time in the Swamp has sadly come to an end.  I would like to thank the men and women who contribute to the NJC and YAF; without them, my internship would not have been possible.  I would also like to thank the team at Newsbusters for allowing me to intern with them and for helping me grow and develop as a writer. I remain optimistic about a possible return to the Swamp in the near future.