How I became so conservative so fast

I get asked by readers all the time: how can you go from left to right at such a rapid fire pace? Were you a conservative all along? Are you just yanking our chain; you're really still a liberal in conservative clothing?

Now that I look back, I had the seeds of both a conservative and a liberal in me all along. On the liberal side: I was raised a secular Jew, and, for some God forsaken reason, most of us are Democrats. My upbringing lacked meaning and substance, which propelled my devotion to social causes. Of course, arriving in Berkeley in my 20's only hardened my liberal propensity.

I became a therapist, made friends with therapists, and spent tons of money having shrinks dissect my psyche. So my life was focused on problems, complaints, and kvetches. As Milton said, our minds can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell. My preoccupation with the darkness put me in a liberal state of mind.

But the conservative was alive and well in me too: My grandparents came from Russia with only the shirts on their backs. Yet they never complained about the hardships or expected any government help. My parents, in their own wacky way, were devoted, dutiful, and fiercely patriotic.

I was also victimized early on by do-gooder liberal politics (though I didn't put two and two together until last year). I attended public schools with forced busing that ignited tremendous animosity and racial violence. As an adult, I've been harassed and molested innumerable times on urban streets both east coast and west, and was mugged several years ago in broad daylight.

I have been asked a lot recently about the differences between Conservatives and Libs - mostly by Libs.

I stumbled upon one example that has worked well with several of them. The difference between two TV shows. "Whale Wars" and "Deadliest Catch". Whale Wars is all about feeling good about what you are doing and being "committed" to the "cause". The Steve Irwin is crewed by the biggest bunch of incompetent boobs to ever sail the seas. Every episode they almost maime or kill someone because of their incompetence. Then you flip over to Deadliest Catch and the Time Bandit is opie fishing in 45 foot seas with 50 knot winds and it is 8 degrees and they are having a blast - even after 40 hours of nonstop agony. Why? Because they are making money and living the dream of adventure.

Free market at it's best with dedicated competent crews and feel good at it's best with a drug addled Captain who is dedicated to promoting himself using the whales as the vehicle. Makes me sick.

“... Obama came on the scene. He felt creepy; and I saw before my eyes that the sick, evil fringe of the far left had invaded the Democratic Party. As though I'd been slapped across the face, I snapped out of my trance. The last vestiges of my liberalism flew the coop...”

Robin's journey to Conservatism is pretty typical of most Conservatives who themselves started out as Liberals. However, he took a little longer.

Myself, I was a college student when my professor took up all our class time bashing the U.S., its policies and (the clincher) the Military. At that time I was not real close to my dad…but I had (still have) the most unalloyed respect for him as a man and as a former soldier.

Bashing the Military (and in wartime) was the ultimate anathema for me-altogether apart from the abjectly unprincipled and unprofessional advantage this professor was taking with the students. I was instantaneously a Conservative... and immediately began educating MYSELF about all the points of divergence between Liberalism and Conservatism.

I almost feel I ought to thank that guy for the ‘slap in the face’ he handed me. But, I still feel a sense of betrayal and resentment at what he was doing… A man in a position of accountability…a grown man who should have had the sense to know better than forcing his personal bias on students for whose educational development he was responsible.

Every time I recall that moment, it seems that the event is happening again, right now! The shock has NEVER diminished for me. It lives in my memory like one of those indelible snapshots we carry with us to our graves…. The moment we leap from one understanding of ourselves and the world to the next.

He was ONE dishonorable man! That was ONE dishonorable institution. I lost all respect for the University and for him in one instant!

In elementary school when we did group projects I heard the words "We want Karl in our group so he'll do the work" as the real life version of that story. Those same words now echo in my head every April 15th.

I had a similar experience in group projects in high school. Then when I was out in the working people's knowledge of what you can do is reflected in their expectations almost instantly, but reflected in your salary much more slowly, if ever. Every one was extremely nice to me, but I was often the only one in the office who knew how to do 60% of the tasks that might arise, yet was paid below the median for the office. So I quit and went to work for myself.

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