'Fire From the Heartland' Premieres Tonight in DC

Filmmaker Steve Bannon and Citizens United Productions are following up “Generation Zero,” their film about the financial meltdown, with a powerful movie about the ascendancy of women in the conservative movement. “Fire From The Heartland” features the distinct and diverse voices of fifteen women who have had an ever-growing impact in government, social media and the Tea Party movement since the 2008 election.

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My good friend Lori Byrd wrote an excellent review for Big Hollywood earlier this week, covering many of the aesthetic and production details along with her remarkable insight. This frees me up a bit to focus on the message of the film not only from a male perspective, but also as one who has been with the Tea Party movement from the beginning and has had the good fortune of working directly and indirectly with some amazing women.

I saw the movie with a large group of people at last week’s Red State Gathering in Austin, TX. The screening took place only a few hours after I’d gotten to meet and interview Nikki Haley, the mercurial candidate for governor from South Carolina. As we settled in to watch the movie, I looked around to see how many women were in the room. Let’s just say that under-representation wasn’t a problem.

Female voters have long been a demographic that’s been treated like a group-think voting bloc by the Left, with any woman who doesn’t fit the mold (see: Sarah Palin) getting roundly excoriated. As the movie begins with the women describing their backgrounds, a rich variety of experiences and influences emerges immediately.

What unites the distinct voices and personalities becomes apparent when they all begin talking about the Founding Fathers, the Constitution and their views on the role of the federal government in the lives of everyday Americans. The hallmarks of identity politics melt away and it’s clear that these women are all fiercely individual but share a common vision of what this country was intended, and no longer seems, to be.

Having grown up in the supposed age of feminism, I couldn’t help but think that this is probably what it was supposed to look like: strong, independent and successful women who have no interest in hand-wringing victimhood. The Left has Hillary Clinton, a woman who rode her husband’s coattails for a couple of decades before trading her Aggrieved Wife Victim Card for elective office. The Right has Phyllis Schlafly, who still commands attention in the way few men can.

It also has Reps. Michele Bachmann, Jean Schmidt, and Cynthia Lummis working hard within the system. Bachmann’s famous grilling of Timothy Geithner is one of the highlights of the film (and featured in the trailer on the website). The film also features Ann Coulter, Michelle Easton, Michelle Malkin, Deneen Borelli, Janine Turner, Dana Loesch, S.E Cupp, Jenny Beth Martin, Jamie Radtke, Sonnie Johnson and Michelle Moore. These women represent old and new media and a cross-section of the Tea Party movement. In short, they’re everywhere.

I experienced a quiet mix of embarrassment and gratitude during the screening. It occurred to me that one of the reasons these women have taken such a prominent role in recent years is that so many of the men who were left in charge of the conservative movement failed it and us miserably. Many readers will no doubt say “Conservative men didn’t fail us, Republicans failed us.” The simple fact is that many elected Republican conservatives have been screwing things up since the late 1990s. Now we’re faced with the prospect of having a great November but keeping the good ol’ boy network intact and basically suffering through the same congressional leadership that drove Barack Obama and this Democratic congress into power.

My gratitude is due to the fact that I know so many of these women who are out there having the guts to change the GOP from within and remake it into a conservative party once again. They don’t have the time for third party nonsense and aren’t interested in just sitting around and complaining about the Republicans, like so many men I know on the Right these days. They just want to get something done.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet two of the women featured in “Fire From The Heartland” and work through social media with a couple others. But this movement goes far beyond the fifteen voices in the film. This is a strong, ubiquitous movement that isn’t going away. What’s clear after watching “Fire From The Heartland” is that the women of the Right are very no-nonsense and in the mood to get things done both in the short and long runs. They are taking the quiet strength that American women have always had and giving it a clear, powerful voice. While each is a strong individual, the motivation is selfless and passionate because of deep and abiding patriotism.

“Fire From The Heartland” premieres tonight in Washington, D.C. and is a wonderful glimpse into a nascent political power that may do more to help this country than we can even begin to imagine at the moment. Conservative Americans should be grateful for the work these women have done and will do.

And we should be very, very thankful that they’re on our side.