[Irish_Thatcherite]

I am not a girl, which by default means I'm a man!

I don't know what to think of Brock to be serious - he did the exact opposite of everyone else. I mean, I believe myself that the majority of us on the Right are converts from adolescent leftism, I myself was on the left when I was a teen, and gradually swung rightwards when I approached adulthood. When I say 'gradually', it was fairly quick, I am 26 now and a full blown conservative, I started my conversion at about 18 years old! I say for myself, there is no going back - this ideology makes infinite more sense than anything else that was thought of!

So, I'm glad I brought up Brock - I'm dying to know what others think of him, why is it that his mental maturing went into reverse? Why did he start conservative, and become a liberal? The only thing I can think of is simply he was insincere and unprincipled to begin with, that he was a pundit, a hack and an activist for purely career reasons, not because of something he truly believed in! If that is so, we are better off without him, and let's be glad the liberals have another phony in their movement!!

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Brock isn't an isolated example.

I can rattle off the names of several dozen former conservatives-or individuals who were largely apolitical, but inclined towards conservatism-who for one reason or another embraced the left.

-David Stockman

-Glen Loury

-Garry Wills

-Kevin Phillips

-Betsy McCaughey Ross

-Congressman Michael P. Forbes

-Paul Craig Roberts

-Michael Lind

-Kevin Phillips

And to a lesser extent, Stephen Carter.

The reason you don't hear as much about them is because, with a few notable exceptions-such as Garry Wills-most of these folks experience their political awakening when their careers are on a downward trajectory.

[MNJohnnie]

I am not a girl, which by default means I'm a man!

In which case I hold you in the highest esteem instead.

I don't know what to think of Brock to be serious

I think Brook is the perfect House Conservative. He is perfectly willing to be the token in his environment. And YES, being a "House Conservative" is the same thing as being a "House N...". He is more then willing to lick the hand that swats him with only the mildest of defenses of Conservatives so his masters can pat themselves on the back about how "opened minded" they are since they have "A Conservative on staff". He is a political enabler of the worst sort. Even worst he is such an inept one in addition.

I have much greater respect for Christopher Hitchens, a moderately reformed Trostskite, who I disagree with mightily but has the intellectual stature to actually defend the truth even when it means spitting in the eye of his fellow travelers.