When I got a flattering note last week from one of the founders of the new Freedom Conservativsm movement inviting me to write about my decision to sign on, I knew it would be hard and would piss off several friends who work for Donald Trump. It’s extra hard because I’m writing to a list of friends and colleagues who make up the nascent movement who are much smarter than me. Alas, I try.

The freedom movement was born of people like me. People who have been working in the trenches forever and hope to win our movement and our country back again. 

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 And now, having thought it through from a hotel room on a beach in Costa Rica, I’m ready to spill.

My history with our movement is well known, fueled by bosses like Bill Dannemeyer, Jesse Helms. and David Keene. Also, mentoring by the late Mike Long of the New York Conservative Party. Frankly, it has lost me along the way. I dare anyone to judge my credentials. But the freedom movement is a bit of a savior. This is why I write.

Along the way, I’ve discovered It’s not about me, who played with libertarianism for a minute until now. I’m going to defend the very thing I’ve worked my whole life to enrich. It’s about beating back a hostile takeover that we must work together to stop. Reagan conservatism — true conservatism with an American values first and human rights a close second — is walking dead and we must resuscitate it.

 This is why I joined.

 I co-wrote a book a few years ago about Donald Trump. Having known him for a while, at the time I thought he would rise to the presidency and be great. And he actually was off to a great start until he went off the rails about his anger with Tony Fauci. Perhaps deserved, but more perhaps kept private. He could have fired him at any moment. But he beat the hell out of him, one of the most impactful public servants of our time. Say what you will, but there is no longer an AIDS crisis in our nation and that traces straight to him. 

So why did I join? It’s not that we have great alternatives, but Donald Trump will ruin the conservative movement—Ronald Reagan’s signature movement—permanently if he is reelected. 

 And I want to do my part to not let that happen.

 We can do so much better. So let’s. And that is why I joined the Freedom Conservatives.