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There are no topless photos floating around of the new Miss America, Erika Harold, because she'd never put herself in that position — she is a leading advocate of abstinence and embraces her own virginity with enthusiasm. Miss Harold is a collection of contradictions: A Miss America who refuses society's conventions about beautiful people basking in promiscuity, an intellectual who communicates simple messages free of condescension, and a conservative who embodies the "compassionate" without forsaking the "conservative." It is easy to understand why the USA Today last week dubbed her "the smart one"; I learned this firsthand meeting her earlier this year, when she was an in-studio guest on a nationally syndicated talk-radio show. Her graceful eloquence on a wide range of political topics is uncommon for a 22-year-old, but then again, that probably helps explain why she's headed to Harvard Law School next year after her reign as Miss America ends. Ironically, Harold thought of quitting pageant life a year ago, convinced that judges would never crown an outspoken conservative as Miss Illinois. She told me two months before the state pageant that she strongly doubted she would win the state title, let alone the national one. Aside from her work promoting abstinence to teens through the group Project Reality, Harold has dabbled in politics already. She worked for the Illinois gubernatorial campaign of Republican state senator Patrick O'Malley, whose primary passion is defending the unborn, and she is just as strongly pro-life as the candidate. But Harold eschews fire-and-brimstone conservatism, and instead opts for offering positive messages that people can actually act on. Although she shuns racial spoils that could benefit her — the media has already hyped the fact that she fills out "other" on the race question on the Census despite being part black and part Native American — she does not rail against affirmative action. While sparing no criticism of the racial elites, she emphasizes the steps necessary to achieve true colorblindness. There is no stronger proof to her commitment to principle than her platform for the Miss Illinois pageant this June. Though some liberal judges at past pageants had acted with borderline hostility toward her stance on abstinence, Harold stuck to her guns and maintained her platform that openly challenges the politically correct safe-sex orthodoxy — a move that she anticipated would hinder her chances for victory. For reasons owing to internal pageant politics, Harold signed onto Illinois's violence-prevention platform for the national contest. While it's not as trite as pushing "world peace," it's certainly not as gutsy as telling teens to resist their unbridled sex drives. But here's why Harold will shine as a politician: She is cunning enough to know that you can't talk to teens about violence without discussing the risk factors that contribute to dangerous behavior: drugs, alcohol — and teen sex. If the Miss America pageant is serious about reclaiming its lost luster, it should grant Harold wide latitude in delivering her message to the nation's youth. But if the media ignores her "politically incorrect" abstinence message, the three million teens who acquire a sexually transmitted disease each year will be the ones who lose out. — Joel Mowbray is an NRO contributor and a Townhall.com columnist. |
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Saturday night, more than ten million people watched the crowning of the
best woman to repair the tarnished image of the nation's premier beauty
pageant. The new Miss America may soon do the same for conservatives.
