Being a conservative can be difficult, but being a young conservative with dreams of one day becoming president can be even more difficult.
In the new film, “Follow the Leader: Politics Isn’t Just Child’s Play,” filmmaker Jonathan Goodman Levitt follows the lives of three like-minded young conservatives to see how they grow ideologically.
“I met thousands of boys and girls and thought the most interesting story would be about three guys that represent the traditional leaders of our country,” Levitt told Red Alert Politics. “I wanted people to talk about where the country really is, instead of putting forward where I think personally the country should go.”
He hopes that his film will encourage Americans to engage in stimulating political conversations, something he thinks there isn’t enough of today.
“I don’t think that Americans have the thoughtful discussions about our present as we should,” Levitt said. “If we’re going to be a political system, we really have to see what the realities of it are and talk about facts.”
For David Beauregard, Jr., one of the film’s main characters, a life in politics was all he had ever imagined. But growing up and working in deep-blue Massachusetts, Beauregard quickly learned that his conservative ideology was doing him more harm than good.
“I came to the conclusion that if I was ever going to be successful in Massachusetts, I could not hold to these [conservative] principles and win,” Beauregard told Red Alert Politics. “That’s when I started to strategically align myself with candidates who were Democrats that I didn’t agree with.”
Beauregard said he ended up sacrificing his own beliefs and integrity to make a name for himself in Massachusetts, but ended up bowing out of politics completely after three years and Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential bid. Now married and in law school, he says that he is taking a break from politics because he had strayed so far from where he ideologically began.
“I can still make a really good impact in my country and those around me instead of running for political office. You don’t have to be a president, a governor, a senator to change things. You can do other things too,” he added.
Levitt wanted to show in his documentary that people like Beauregard shouldn’t have to justify their beliefs to follow their dreams.
“This film is quite rare in that it appeals to people regardless of political beliefs,” Levitt said.
Despite planning on filming the documentary during an 18-month span, Levitt ended up spending five years following the lives of Beauregard, Nicholas Troiano and Benjamin Trump. The film will make its digital debut on iTunes on June 25.
