Well FRiend, for some of us it came a lot earlier. Having read the link @ post 29, for some it may have been the early 60's.
Point is, the economic destruction of America was my first step toward the smelling salts. In 92, Geo H.W. seemed too establishment for me, B.J. Clinton gained popularity way too fast (no internet then to learn about he and Hillary's past), so I joined the Perot bandwagon (again, mostly on economic terms). If he hadn't of withdrawn late summer of that year, he might have won.
Sure enough, one of the first major pieces of legislation that came up in 93 was NAFTA. Fought tooth and nail against getting that passed. The only way to "communicate" with the masses was Letters to the Editor of the local. I wrote dozens. Wore down the editor too, in a editorial just before the NAFTA vote, he meekly admitted the bill was a "weak patchwork quilt" of new rules and regulations, but hey, we want Mexico's standard of living to raise up....even playing field... world-class competition.... [yeah, where are you now]. Even Rush Windbag was in the NAFTA camp. All opposition silenced by a collective yawn from the electorate, or so I thought.
After the astounding victory of the '94 "Republican Revolution" there was a glimmer of hope. GATT loomed. B.J. Clinton called an "emergency session" of congress after the November election. The ratbastard lame-duck democrats who had been voted out - voted for GATT. Ratified by the Senate. That day, moments after watching the traitors final vote on C-SPAN, I flipped over to the the local ABC affiliate. Within MINUTES, Peter Jennings smirked about the passage of GATT ... but it was far overshadowed by the "news" of the day: Jeffery Dahmer had been beaten to death in prison. That's all the sheeple cared about on that day. We handed over our sovereignty of trade negotiations to a world body, that would never ever find in favor of the U.S. -- say goodbye to tariffs and hello higher taxes. It's been a downward spiral ever since. Macro-economic policies take a good 10 years or so to have an effect on the economy (fast forward to 2004 - empty factories abound).
A good pastor at a church I attended in the late 90's warned of the moral decay that loomed on the horizon [here we are]. By then I found this website. Thank God! Others were awake as well! Then the towers came down. A bittersweet hope that more would awaken. Some did. But at that time I backed off FR as it seemed to become an altar to the Rushbots and anything W.
My hope now is that enough people are finally waking up en masse. This Obamacare is hitting them directly in the pocketbook. Some still can't believe they've been lied to. It's a natural reaction to most any trauma -
first step is denial.
Then anger.
Then bargaining.
Then depression.
Then acceptance. Or, if we're lucky, the people will decide this is NOT the America we want.
http://www.conventionofstates.com/media/mark-mecklers-speech-alec-conference-0
Only the state legislatures have a chance to save our Republic. Washington is toast.
Article V. ping
Oh, I think most of us realized decades ago that the Democrat party was slowly moving toward some form of ideology that resembled Communism.
For me, the realization that they were headed in that direction, came during Carter’s term in office, although it still took me a while to realize that they were never going to stop ratcheting left until they achieved a fundamental and complete transformation into full blown Socialists, untethered to our founding precepts, our history, or even our country.
As a young twenty-something Democrat, I’d voted for Carter out of a knee jerk allegiance to the party I’d been raised with. After his one and only term in office, I was left baffled and disillusioned the party, and politics in general. When he ran against Reagan in 1980, I didn’t even bother to vote.
Over the next eight years, I witnessed the great Ronaldus Magnus bring this country out of the doldrums, and reignite something in our people that I hadn’t seen since I was a small child. I had to admit that everyone seemed to be doing better, and that there seemed to be a sure hand at the wheel, which provided a deep sense of security and stability. My lot, and the lot of everyone I knew improved during his time in office.
Still, I remained fundamentally uneducated about the true ideological differences between the major parties, so I didn’t run right out and register as a Republican. I didn’t bother to vote in 1988, and was perfectly happy for Reagan’s VP to (hopefully) keep the country on the same comforting course.
In 1992, I had decided that there was no way I could give my vote to the Democrat nominee. I was thoroughly unimpressed with Bill Clinton, but still wasn’t quite ready to vote for the (gasp!) Republican. Ross Perot was speaking my language, and I threw right in with him. When he later backed out of the campaign, only to try to get back in it, I was done with him too. I wound up sitting out the presidential election yet again.
The next several years of the Bubba & Hildy show caused me to withdraw permanently from the Democrat party. I became very open to a new direction. Sometime during Clinton’s second term, I found talk radio, and thus began my emancipation and eventual reunion with my true political brethren.