fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

A Fearless Millennial at Fox News

Pundit Kat Timpf is both tenacious and principled.
Katherine Timpf

She’s brainy, she’s beautiful, she’s hilarious, she’s logical, she’s sassy, and she’s conservative. She’s our future.

Last year, while living in Colorado, I had the pleasure of lecturing on the current state of conservatism. When I proved to be a little too Pollyannish, overly enthusiastic, and not atypically Kansan, one of the older members of the audience exclaimed in some frustration, “That’s fine for folks your age and mine, but what about college students and kids in their 20s. They don’t even know what liberty is.” I answered without hesitation, “Kat Timpf is our future.”

Certainly, I’m not a huge fan of Fox News. When I watch—which is not often—I tend to think of it as the network of plastic people, all yelling slightly louder than the person next to them. Of course Fox doesn’t hold this distinction alone. Nearly all news in the present world is indistinguishable from sports. The graphics are the same, the language the same, the end result the same. But, then, there’s Kat Timpf, making Fox a lot more intelligent, a lot more logical, and a lot more interesting.

Timpf was an undergraduate student of mine when she attended Hillsdale College. From the first day in class, she distinguished herself as someone not only thoughtful, but, vitally, also comfortable with herself. I never saw arrogance, but I definitely saw a lot of well-placed and well-earned confidence. She knew who she was, even as a teenager, and she was ready to put her ideas forward even at the risk of being alone in her views. Since then, she has grown in every good way.

Immediately after college, Timpf tenaciously pursued her interests in both journalism as well as in stand-up comedy. In each, she excelled. Her comedy routines, not surprisingly, were as iconoclastic as one might imagine, not PG, but certainly not without taste and class. She often mocked herself with a hangdog expression, her slightly gravely voice, and her young looks. Her comedic timing proved uncanny and perfectly suited to her own humor.

In online journalism, she actively inserted herself into awkward situations, absolutely and sometimes brutally satirizing group think. She especially loved reporting on politically correct moments on college campuses and among politically-charged protestors or academics.

Playing the trickster, a petite Polish-American sprite from the suburbs of Detroit, she usually shocked those around her, disarming them with her own intelligent brashness.

Over the last year, Timpf’s reputation has increased exponentially. She’s seemingly everywhere in conservative and libertarian circles. She not only appears regularly on Fox, but she is also writing full-time for National Review. In every way that matters, she has become the voice of 20-something non-leftists. Her image: a pretty, young blonde (natural) with hipster glasses, dressed quite professionally but also utterly feminine. Her look is exactly the opposite of her feminist counterparts in the academy.

Mischievous and beholden to nothing but what she sees as truth, Timpf has earned as much enmity as she has accolades. After mocking the Star Wars-obsessed and their “nerd sticks” on Fox, a number of those same fans threatened Timpf on Twitter with bodily harm, rape, and death. “I have never had any interest in watching space nerds poke each other with their little space nerd sticks, and I’m not going to start now.” Not surprisingly to those of us who have the privilege of knowing her, she refused to apologize. With dripping sarcasm lost in our humorless culture, she noted that she had been too busy as a teenager being pretty. “I wasn’t familiar with Star Wars because I’ve been too busy liking cool things and being attractive.” The horrific rape and death threats laced with the most disgusting language imaginable appeared on YouTube as well as Twitter, many of the angry going into grotesque details about what they would do to Timpf. They also bombarded her email.

Timpf, truly a woman without fear, simply ignored them and continued to live her life normally, walking around New York City and showing up at Fox Studios.

Most recently, Timpf has crusaded against Hillary Clinton, noting that the presidential candidate’s claims to feminism reveal nothing but just how corrupt and hypocritical the former secretary of state is.

Hillary Clinton claims to be pro-women, yet has actively worked to ruin lives of so many of them. She’s running on a ‘feminist platform’—she’s even dared to say that sexual-assault survivors have a ‘right to be believed’—despite the fact that what she did to the women who accused Bill went far beyond not believing them. She attacked them. When allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during Bill’s 1992 presidential run, she’s reported to have said ‘Who is going to find out? These women are trash. Nobody’s going to believe them.’ Multiple people also report that she called the women ‘sluts’ and ‘whores’—you know, for daring to be raped.

Again, not surprisingly, the feminist left has torn into Timpf, claiming she’s only reporting “old news.” And, equally unsurprisingly, Timpf has refused to back down. Indeed, the attacks on her have only increased her own crusade against Clinton.

For those of us older than Timpf, it’s well worth remembering that those in their twenties were only children, at most, during the Bill Clinton years. “Old news” is not old. It’s quite astonishing to them that someone so corrupt 20 years ago could even be considered for the presidency now. Rather than the news being old, Timpf is making it fresh again, reminding all of us just how important integrity and honesty are.

Now she’s earned the wrath not only of the Star Wars nerds but of all leftist feminists as well. With Star Wars, Timpf merely offered an opinion. That a relatively trivial opinion led to threats on the author’s life speaks volumes about the charisma she exudes and wields.

With her articles and exposes of Clinton, however, Timpf offers hard facts, hard argumentation, and, for all who support Clinton, a hard mirror into which they must view the intensity of their own hypocrisy. Timpf has rather successfully reminded all of us that those who proclaim feminism on the left may speak a moral language, but at the heart of it, they really just espouse power. The moral righteousness of the left is merely a façade, and one that has not worn well. Timpf has called their bluff, and they know it.

Yes, Timpf is exceedingly smart and exceedingly pretty. What’s most attractive about her, though, is her tenacity and her integrity. Whatever appearances might exist, Timpf is most concerned with truth, not with popularity. Next time you see her on Fox, look beyond the obvious and focus on Timpf’s wrist. If you look carefully, you’ll see a medal of St. Benedict. Once you see that small and unostentatious adornment, you’ll never look at Timpf in quite the same way.

Bradley J. Birzer is the author of Russell Kirk: American Conservative and co-founder of The Imaginative Conservative website.

Advertisement

Comments

Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here