Ask your average conservative how he came to be Republican, and he might say he reached an epiphany after reading Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics.” Maybe she remembers watching Charlie Kirk on YouTube or witnessing the likes of Ben Shapiro destroying leftists in debate. For me, I attribute my path to conservatism primarily to Pokémon.
It all started when I was gifted by one of my friends a trading card of the Pokémon Fletchinder. I remember holding that worn cardboard card in my hands, cherishing the delicate beauty of its artwork. From that moment on, I was determined to make an impressive card collection. Thanks to the generous support of my grandparents and aunts, I was able to amass a collection that would make any other 10-year-old jealous (I recently appraised it and found it to be worth up to $2,000).
Before my Pokémon craze, I was a recovering public school student. I spent a year in the local elementary school, where I was brainwashed by my leftist elementary school teacher. I was taught not to talk about my faith in Christ — in order to not be seen as hateful — and to be more germaphobic than Dr. Fauci. My mom recovered an essay from that time in which I parroted the teacher and said that if I were president, “I would focus on science and make everything free.” I was the poster child for the perfect Democratic youth.
After that ordeal, our family started homeschooling. Every Friday, we went to a local homeschool co-op, where I found a small but passionate group of fellow card collectors, who would congregate and trade every lunch. Seeing many of my rare cards (especially my $150 full-art promotional Pikachu EX card), they happily welcomed me into their group.
Within a few years, the Pokémon trading card community I joined grew to impressive levels and I met many of my friends through the hobby. Even today, my friends joke that I was the “Godfather of the Pokémon cards” in that group. I fondly remember welcoming in students new to the co-op to the trading card game, appraising the value of their cards for them, and chatting about my favorite Pokémon.
The beginning of the end happened when my co-op leader saw the thriving card market and was filled with worry and disdain. She was likely concerned about Pokémon cards being a distraction during class hours and the fact that younger children could get scammed by older students.
These were points I agreed with, and I was willing to work with the higher-ups to make sure the Pokémon market was properly regulated. I commanded the love and obedience of the other collectors, and I could make sure they did not let Pokémon become a problem.
But the co-op leader’s main argument was that Pokémon was satanic — not because of any designs, but because the Pokémon card game has “energy” cards. That energy reminded her of chi from eastern spirituality, which she saw was directly from the devil himself. She walked up to the front of the auditorium at lunch break one day, and told the co-op’s 200 or so members that Pokémon would be illegal from then on.
When she announced her Pokémon ban, I felt disheartened. It wasn’t just about the cards; it was about the community we made around them. I knew that the culture of the co-op would wilt because of her decision, and as the de facto leader of the thriving Pokémon industry, I knew something had to be done.
So I made a petition, going to each of my peers trying to get signatures. A few said that I should just listen to the co-op leader and not rock the boat. But many of them, even those I’d never met, said they liked what I was doing in trying to get the community back and signed their names.
I proudly delivered the petition to the co-op leader to her surprise, but she ignored it. Even worse, she forced me and my friends who helped with the petition to spend the next few lunches being reeducated on why Pokémon was evil. I tried crafting a logical defense, but I was unskilled then in research and debate. I only later learned Pope John Paul II gave Pokémon his blessing, saying that Christians should not worry about “any harmful moral side effects” with the trading cards and telling parents the game was “based on ties of friendship.”
During the whole adventure, I learned major tenets of conservatism.
The destruction of civilization comes from people who think they are more enlightened than the average person, who have a hatred for the values normal people espouse.
Rule by enlightened, unelected experts is tyranny. It doesn’t matter if they come with good intentions or from an ostensibly religious high ground.
We will always have to legislate morality. When we pass laws, we indicate what we believe is right and good. However, moral issues must be deliberated within families and churches, and the government in place must take heed to follow the moral sentiments of the people. Tyranny happens when a ruling body imposes a foreign idea of what is right and wrong.
Tyranny also exists when a government tries to save people from themselves. Tyranny relies on the stifling of free expression, the labeling of organic movements as destructive, and the imposition of words and ideas as “hate speech.”
Free markets are one of the greatest methods of creating human flourishing and liberty. The capitalistic system isn’t inherently good, and it requires some guidelines for the protection of buyers and sellers. But in the long run, an economic system built on voluntary transactions will make everyone happier.
Virtue-signaling exists. People use it to gain favor with those in power or do it out of fear of punishment from the powerful.
Lastly, to save civilization, we need a group of self-governing citizen activists who actively monitor the government for tyranny. It is a government by the people, for the people, for a reason; we will not get representation unless we act as an active check on state, local, and national officials. Citizens must be educated on civics and have the ability to winsomely defend their ideas.
I was determined from then on to be equipped to defend what is true, good, and beautiful the next time the need came around. To be a better speaker, I went through homeschool speech and debate for two years. I then signed up to intern at the Convention of States: Emerging Leaders Program to learn with other interns about how to become a more self-governing citizen.
For me, Pokémon is not just a children’s game, but a symbol of the beauty of free markets, the good of self-governance, and the need for resistance to tyranny. Leftism focuses on ungrounded ideals of goodness and truth that ruin civilization when applied. My Pokémon journey taught me that conservatism provides a logical road map for the realities of human nature and life.
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