I left on a long tuna trolling trip as a liberal, and returned several years later as a Conservative. My reading list was Winston Churchill's History of England, The Gulag Archipelago, the entire Patrick O'Brian series,and many many more books on all sorts of subjects plus thousands of hours on deck pulling in fish, or working on maintenance projects, and still going in the hole financially. A very independent existance for my husband and I. When you own the boat, and realize every fish landed means a few more pennies in the kitty, conservatism grows...out of hard work and from being away from NPR, Seattle Times, and the trifecta of mainstream TV. Our longest trip away from home was 6 months. Back to basics. The only news was Sideband radio BBC. We heard about the blue dress and Monica 800 miles south of Dutch Harbor. My next project is to re-educate my 20 something kids about their country. Liberal moms raise liberal kids alas so I have alot of work to do.