Welcome.
Please understand that its very rare that we get a liberal who is civil and doesn't use a lot of profanities.
Its actually kind of refreshing.
Tour tips:
1. Avoid vanity posts, especially when you're new here. We get a lot of hit and run cowboys.
2. Find linkable articles and post them for discussion. Choose areas that interest you, or those in which you wish to gain insight into the "conservative mind"
3. Participate in threads, but have a thick skin.
My vantage point:
I was always conservative, except when I started here I was what some might consider liberal on gun control and the death penalty.
Gun Control - I learned, through the Free Republic, that I was ignorant on gun control. I've received quite an education on guns, legislation and crime, simply by reading the discussions here. I rarely participated in these threads because my knowledge of the subject was really weak.
Separate what you know from what you feel.
Death Penalty - I've learned that the death penalty issue is really not a conservative/liberal issue. Probably 30% of the posters here are against the death penalty (although most everyone here is against the relatively posh ammenities that murderers are granted during incarceration). On the liberal side, Bill Clinton and Al Gore are for the death penalty. I have not changed my opinion about the death penalty, but I've learned a lot of pros and cons about it.
Allow your beliefs and knowledge to be challenged.
They sure are...just ask Ed Willey, Susan Coleman, Jerry Parks, Gandy Baugh, Kathy Ferguson, Ron Brown, Bill Shelton, Paul Wilcher, Parnell Walker, Vince Foster...etc..etc.
Thanks.