How many Freepers were once liberals or Democrats?

Slyfox

[muir_redwoods]

My first vote was for George McGovern and I proudly wore a McCarthy button 4 years before that. My next vote was for Gerald Ford and I haven't looked back since

[giobruno]

I was an egghead Marxist until I began to realize that Marxism was a total fraud in theory--worse in practice. Also, I never cared for the general humorlessness of the left, though it was the lack of intellectual conscience on the left that turned me for good.

[BreitbartSentMe]

Checking in SIR! Here's my explanation, from my homepage:

OK, OK, I'll finally post something here: Yes, it's true, I was a democrat when I joined, here, but a true Democrat-In-Name-Only, and a Reagan Democrat. That was the genesis of my name. I had lurked for quite a while, but signed up during those long, evil days of the Florida aftermath, sick in my heart at what the rat's were trying to do to this country. After 9/11, I finally saw the light, and changed my party registration. I posted my first vanity about it here: I Finally Made The Switch (To Republican)

[Let's Roll]

me ... but I outgrew it

[Slyfox]

I was actually a flaming moderate.

Isn't that an oxymoron?

[Busywhiskers]

I tried being a liberal a couple of years ago. I bought some Birkenstocks and tried to grow a pony tail. The problem I had was that the cognitive dissonance was causing terrible headaches so I had to go back to being a heartless right wing Christian fundamentalist.

[palmer]

Grew up in MA, was a member of Handgun Control Inc and MassPIRG fighting evil corporations. I never learned much about conservatism until 1986 or so when a colleague gave me some of Ayn Rand's books. Another colleague gave me her old Commentary magazines. Then I subscribed to Chronicles and have been spiraling backwards into Paleoconservatism ever since.

[Publius]

...even in the deepest, darkest parts of my purple hair and combat boot days.

Back when I was wearing combat boots, if I'd had purple hair, my battalion commander would have shaved me bald.

BTW, read my FReeper home page.

[JerseyDvl]

2004 was the firt year I voted Republican and I will never stray again.
I was born, raised and schooled from Kindergarten through College in the Peoples Republic of New Jersey. I never paid much attention to the news and believed the headlines the drive-by media was feeding me.
Watching Gore act like a baby in the recount, having a child (now have 3), paying attention to taxes, REALLY reading the news stories, and watching the towers fall from across the Hudson have all been defining moments in my change of philosophy.
Subsequently, my eyes are opened and I have had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity.
I have paid penance for voting Democrat and am a changed man since election 2000.
The grass is truly greener on the informed side.

[GeronL]

Nope, but I am kind of lazy

[LibSnubber]

I was a dim but never a liberal. I give bill, hill, and algore all the credit for forcing me to open my eyes.

[mombonn]

When Roe v Wade was first made law, I supported it, believing the lie that it was "a woman's right to choose". Threw that overboard when I learned I was pregnant.

Proud to say I voted against cartbilly twice, and for President Reagan twice.

[humblegunner]

How many Freepers were once liberals or Democrats?

I was never one of those, but I was a dopehead and an anarchist.

I grew up.

I kept all the guns, though.

[LukeL]

I stopped thinking like a Liberal when I was 12.

[SE Mom]

I grew up in a Republican family. One of them voted for FDR once, and another for JFK. Those members of the family were ostracized for years:)

I thought I was a Democrat- though not a liberal- til Jimmy Carter. He finished me. I loved Reagan.

My son started listening to Rush when he was about 10...(I thought they were both nuts!) and he would prod me about what I believed..after a couple of years of this he explained to me that I was a closet conservative ;)

That same son enlisted in the army infantry after 9/11 and both those events completely changed me.

My son was correct. I'm now out of the closet, vocally, happily and earnestly! (And- a great fan of Rush)

[radiohead]

I belonged to the Socialist Workers' Party, even helping on a presidential campaign back in the '70s. I had Mao's Little Red Book and wrote a couple of papers in college about why communism was better than democracy for certain 3rd world countries (not too elitist there, huh?)

I guess the 1st step in my change was the socialists themselves. I never heard people complain more - and these were white folks. I thought of my relatives who, as blacks in segregated America, had it harder than any of these white people ever did, and just decided it was better to do something than sit around and complain about it.

I was still a lib, but I guess paying taxes and running my own small law firm were the 2nd steps toward conservatism.

The 3rd step would probably be talk radio. I started listening to Rush about 15 years ago and realized, yeah, this guy is right. Living in democratic, corrupt, Philly under Rendell put the nail in the coffin on my liberalism, though I admit some of the hippie stuff resurfaces from time to time.

[NathanR]

Kind of, but I found middle ground in both parties. At the time, there were many Democrats that I liked and would vote for.

Those people are all gone now. They have either died, or changed to the opposite to what I liked about them. One of them was Al Gore, before he went all loony, and turned on what I thought was his roots.

[ElkGroveDan]

I took an introductory economics class in high school.

[crazyhorse691]

Never ever!! Texas democrats opened my eyes at a young age and living in Portlandistan for decades has inoculated me for life against that disease.

[Menehune56]

Ditto!