"Can anyone think of current "under-30" celebrity that is actively pro-military or morally conservative in their political views?"
Ummm ...NO. And there's good reason. You CAN NOT become successful in that industry and publicly be a "conservative", or a "traditionalist" if you like. I once heard Bill Cosby say that he knew something had gone terribly wrong when writers on his show were privately confessing their more traditional political views, but swearing him to secrecy so that they could still work in town. From the studio moguls (and they still exist), to the brand names in film making there is a "Stalinist" smell in the air - you will be ostracized, there own version of a blacklist ironically enough, if you confess to being politically right of center ... or even a practicing Christian for that matter. You can portray a serial murderer and be applauded, even win awards, but talk about Christ in positive terms and your reward is unemployment. Buddha and Allah are probably still acceptable, but not Jesus.
I could add to that list off the top of my head - Gary Sinese (Forrest Gump, etc), Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, Jon Voight (and his greatest contribution to the world of film is having that SMOKIN' hot daughter, Angelina "Tomb Raider" Jolie) . But think about that list, yours and mine. Each and every person, outside of Willis and Eastwood, have seen their careers drop off the radar as soon as they visit the troops. Sinese is a better actor then 90% of Hollywood and what's he doing now? Silver? I haven't seen him since a Jean Claude Van Dam flick, and he's another classically trained actor (Silver that is). The Robocop guy speaks for itself - ROBOCOP. You have to have reached "untouchable" status like a Willis, or Eastwood, or Swarchenegger, and even a Gibson to some extent , in that you can make movies out of your own pocket, and people will go and see them, otherwise you kill your career by copping to being a troop supporting conservative - they've instituted a de facto blacklist whilst simultaneously claiming that Dubya supporters are trying to censor their criticism of the war (I'm talking to you, Dixie Broads).
There's a syndicated conservative radio host based here in Vegas, Jerry Doyle. He was a main character on Babylon 5. I've never seen the show, but if you have he was the bald guy. At any rate, for several years during the running of that popular Sci-fi show he was pulling down 50k a week! Now, he was a Wall Street investor for 10 years before he tried his bit at acting, so he used that tremendous salary wisely and set himself and his family up so that even if he never worked another day in his life, they could live like kings ..... and he did this for a particular reason, outside of it just being smart. As that show was going off the air he decided to run for Congress instead of further pursuing his acting career ... as a Republican, and a conservative Republican at that. He knew this would end his acting stint, thus the estate had to be in place to fall back on in the event he lost the congressional bid. He of course did lose, badly (he was running in CA after all), and subsequently went into the AM radio game where he's found some success. And he sums up Hollywood's attitude towards politics quite succinctly ... "You can come out of rehab, you can come out of the closet, and they will embrace you. But if you come out as a conservative, they'll give you the Corleone kiss of death, and order the hit."
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I think I explained why North is "cool" in conservative circles, but I'll extend briefly on those comments since Jambo posed the question. One, Ollie is a brand name linked to Saint Ron, period. You can go on all day about it being linked in a negative way, say it was the proverbial "black eye" all you want, but we're talking an emotional connection, by definition it is "unreasonable." And by your own admission, the Democrat congress went on a political witch hunt rather then prosecute crimes, so Ollie represents Reagan in essence "beating" those who came after him in the only vulnerable moment of his presidency. Also, I think one can NOT underestimate the "respect currency" that North has accrued in his devotion to the current troops, getting out there story of success, rallying - using his brand name - much needed and much deserved attention to their many good deeds (this entire book that I got signed for my mother is the troops in theater from cover to cover & his entire bit on stage was about them). Name me another popular name, with a recurring news spot on a major cable network, that does that. So, you add these all up and while on paper it doesn't make sense, the Ronnie/pro-troop/we defeated the Soviets overall lens that one can use to look back on North, does in fact garner him a great deal of affection.
And let me add, we like him in spite of his failings that the judge pointed to, not because of them. I was in that line as the gold star moms thanked him for supporting their sons and daughters, and highlighting their wartime successes in an otherwise hostile media. It's not like we were in line shouting out, "hey Ollie, that was GREAT when you shredded those documents and all!" They were there to thank him. That was what I heard uttered the most as people passed through him in that line .... "thank you."
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