I've often mocked conservatives for embracing any celebrity who'll pay them any attention (see my criticism of Ted Nugent). But according to National Review's Michael Taube, the man born James Brian Hellwig, and known to his fans as The Ultimate Warrior, was a sincere, if rough around the edges, conservative:
He appeared at CPAC in 2004 and gave a rousing speech about his personal views on conservatism to an eager audience. He toured university campuses, discussing everything from politics to human sexuality.
I have no reason to believe that Warrior didn’t study politics, economics, and philosophy. His recommendations to [Dan] Flynn of books for young conservatives to read, including Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind, Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative, and Dinesh D’Souza’s Letters to a Young Conservative, seem legitimate. His views on political and economic issues appeared to be genuine. [National Review]
There is, of course, another political connection. Linda McMahon, wife of WWE boss Vince McMahon, twice ran for the Senate as a Republican.
Like so many of his contemporaries who worked for McMahon (and on the heels of his having been inducted into the WWE's Hall of Fame), The Ultimate Warrior died far too young.
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