Former DemocRATS --- check in and tell us your story of your political transformation

dfu | 3-11-05 | dfu

[doug from upland]

This morning, I put up a post about a former liberal who is now solidly on our side -- CHARLOTTE'S JOURNEY.

Many of you have made the same journey. Perhaps most of the transformations took place on 9-12-01. I don't recall a thread where those who have switched sides were encouraged to tell their stories.

Here is the opportunity. It could help create some strategy for us to gently help others come in from the wilderness.

If you used to be on the other side, please share your stories on this thread. Thanks.

[doug from upland]

Ping.

[doug from upland]

Ping

[doug from upland]

Wow. I can see that the momentum is building on this thread.

[Jibaholic]

I grew up in a family of atheist New England liberals. We went to France every summer butnever to church.My mom divorced my dad even though she would be the first to admit that he was a good father and husband. My family was one of those "go your own way" laissez-faire families and I had always yearned for something larger and more loving. I didn't know it at the time, but I was starting to reject my parents values.

Eventually the Lord led me to a beautiful family-oriented woman was a Christian. She led me to the Lord. That probably started the process. But my wife ended out teaching at an inner-city school. We always knew that we wouldn't let our kids watch MTV, but here was a school where most of the kids came from broken homes and 12 year old girls were having babies. This is what liberalism has done.

So I became a social conservative and then gradually started reevaluating all my economic positions. Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman and other economists showed how the well-intentioned Democratic positions deny opportunity and trap people in poverty. The transformation was complete.

[Jibaholic]

My apologies for the typos - I'm on my lunch break and sneaking a peak at my favorite website so I don't have much time!

[doug from upland]

Confessions of a Former Democrat

Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that said 'Repent! Register Republican' and it made me laugh because years ago I had done just that. In the Boston area, where I grew up, we didn't have 'Yeller Dawg' Democrats like in Oklahoma, where I presently live, we had 'Kennedy Democrats.' The Irish Catholics had to fight and struggle for acceptance in the new country and JFK's election to the presidency was the sign once and for all that they had 'made it.' But the dashing young president and his beautiful, elegant, young First Lady also signaled so much more that went far beyond South Boston to the whole world: youth, promise and dynamism; as he said in his inaugural address, 'A new generation of American, born in this century...' I remember the blizzard that raged outside as I sat, a rapt seven-year-old in front of the TV listening to that speech, and understanding it. It was that clear. I also remember sitting in front of the same TV as an eleven-year-old for an entire weekend, plus Monday as the whole nation was permeated by grief in that terrible November of 1963. The magic of those so-called 'Camelot' years is difficult to explain to the generations that came after. (Yes, that's generations­plural.)

This was our heritage. In my family it simply never occurred to us to vote anything but Democratic.

But then something happened. To me, anyway, in three stages. first as a drug addled 18-year-old, then as sex-worshipping, failed ladies man at 27, and finally as a heartbroken and depressed 30-year-old. In these three stages I rediscovered Jesus Christ in the heart of my Catholic heritage, and my life changed quickly and dramatically. In a little over a year and a half, I went from being a listless ne're-do-well high school dropout to being an enthusiastic, successful college student pursuing a theology degree.

But I soon discovered that the new breeds of liberal, dissenting theology being promoted were endorsing things from which I had just escaped and which had very nearly killed me. I saw something else. I had always considered myself a liberal, and what I was seeing on campus in the name of liberalism was ugly. It was unfair and unjust. And vicious. Up till then I was what I now call a 'default liberal.' I had unquestioningly accepted liberalism as morally superior, more compassionate and self-evidently 'nicer.' My liberalism had been a product of non-thought. Like a computer right out of the box, those were my default settings. In my newly rediscovered Catholicism I discovered something True, not merely (apparently) nice, and the True was contradicting the apparently 'nice.'

I faced a moral dilemma on election day 1984. It was part of my upbringing as a loyal Democrat to dislike Ronald Reagan. But a few years earlier, while I was trying to avoid thinking seriously about abortion, I attended an abortion presentation at my parish. I soon found that my head was spinning, I was dizzy and afraid I was going to faint. Finally, with effort, I launched out to the bathroom and splashed water on my face. The presentation wasn't especially graphic, but on reflection, I realized that my body and spirit had a wisdom and revulsion all their own to this terrible evil that had not yet reached my intellect. My 'default settings' were beginning to break down and I was beginning to question the authority of the 'moral high ground' of the liberalism of the Democratic party.

So in 1984, extremely nervous, I drove to the polling place. I was afraid I would have to break with family tradition and vote for Ronald Reagan, although my default settings said I still didn't like him. But everything in me was telling me I could not vote for a candidate who supported abortion. I was feeling a taste what other friends have since described on their growing but dreadful conviction that they must convert to the Catholic Church and face the anger and rejection of family and friends, and the sense of betrayal of all they have ever known as committed Protestants. The latest phase of my conversion had brought me into the Catholic charismatic renewal, where prayer for direction from God with startling results was fairly common. Sitting in the car outside that high school, heart pounding, I prayed, 'Lord, show me what to do. Who do you want me to vote for?' I had brought my Bible in case of a moment such as this. Under the dome light I grabbed it and flipped it open. It opened to Ezekiel, Chapter 22. Here is what my eyes fell on:

'Thus the word of the LORD came to me: You, son of man, would you judge, would you judge the bloody city? Then make known all her abominations, and say: Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the city which sheds blood within herself so that her time has come, and which has made idols for her own defilement. By the blood which you shed you have been made guilty, and with the idols you made you have become defiled; you have brought on your day, so that the end of your years has come. Therefore I make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all foreign lands. ...'

The entire chapter was frighteningly pertinent and descriptive of the American moral landscape. I slammed the Book shut, leapt out of the car, trembling, yet resolved, stalked in and voted for Reagan. It was done. I stalked out, back to the car and drove home resolved, but hoping no one in my family would ask me who I voted for. But I was at peace with God and my conscience.

Twelve years later in November 1996, as editor of a Catholic archdiocesan newspaper, I reprinted Ezekiel chapter 22 in its entirety on the lower half of my editorial page with the headline, 'A Scripture Meditation for Election Time.' I have thought of it ever since as a Catholic voting guide, applicable to other faiths as well.

The question goes beyond what is being done to the individual unborn child, and the rest of her mother's life, as if that weren't bad enough, but also what this almost three decades of outright denial, intelligence-insulting euphemism and callousness towards tender human life is doing to us as a people. We need only look at what it has already done to the Democratic party or read Ezekiel 22.
_______________________

The full story of John Mallon's (religious) conversion alluded to here appears in the book, Spiritual Journeys: Towards the Fullness of Faith (Ed. Robert Baram; Daughters of St. Paul Publications; 1987, 88.)

John Mallon is contributing editor for Inside the Vatican magazine and a member of The Daily Oklahoman's Opinion Board of Contributors.  Reprinted with permission. 

 

[doug from upland]

Thanks for sharing your story.

[agooga]

I've said this before to people on FR who lament that their children have been apparently brainwashed by the left and are lost in the liberal wilderness, perhaps never to return.

Don't give up on them.

My dad never gave up on me. He was a two-tour Vietnam vet and a republican, as were his parents. For the usual, messed up reasons, I became the worst possible rebel-- buddhist, socialist, vegetarian, hippy, poet-- a total goofball.

My dad and I would argue like crazy about politics (around the time of the Reagan era). I'd scream, rant and rave and protest-- saying things ought to be fair and equal. Big companies were killing the worker, polluting the environment, blah, blah, blah.

In every single one of those heated arguments, my dad calmly, rationally and methodically articulated the other point of view. He cited historical examples and gave facts.

It took about a decade for his work to seep in. I left home and moved far away and set up my own life, but his ideas stayed with me. It was like a seed that was planted and eventually germinated.

I was well on my way toward a more conservative ideology by the time of 9/11, but I think 9/11 cemented my course.

I have my dad and a few others to thank for my awakening-- namely my neighbor Rick, also a Vietnam Vet, a Marine, who challenged me in uncountable over-over-the-fence tet-a-tet's.

Rick and I go to gun shows and the shooting range together now and are good friends.

My dad is gone now, and I miss him more that anyone can possibly imagine. In a way I lament the fact that he might have dies not knowing that his found his way out of the wilderness.

[doug from upland]

Wonderful story. I lost my dad about 27 years ago, and I still miss him.

[agooga]

sorry- that last sentence should be:

"In a way I lament the fact that he might have died not knowing that his SON found his way out of the wilderness."


And, yes, I am a guy--despite my tagline. I just thought that New Zealand chick's message was too awesome not to honor with repeated use.

[RushCrush]

I was a vegetarian, anti-establishment, anti-gun, corporation-hating, pro-choice, protesting bleeding heart-idiot when I was in college. I just thought it was cool- I really didn't know any better- I even voted for Clinton in '92 (SHAME)

Then I graduated, got my first job, and saw the income taxes that I had to pay to the government each month.

In addition I think I just basically matured and saw the real world for what it is. I also returned a bit to the Catholic faith I grew up in.

To further illustrate the ridiculous tax oppression we face, I started doing the accounting work for my father's small business. If writing those sales tax checks, income tax checks, and unemployment checks doesn't turn someone Republican, I don't know what would.

Thank God, and thanks to my Dad, I have been a staunch conservative since 1996. I'm just hoping that my siblings see the light too.

[Paradox]

I was raised in a hispanic household with multiple siblings (many, like I said, hispanic). My father is a Democrat, always has been since he moved to the country in the early 60's. I, of course, grew up agreeing with him.

Our family has always prized the more intellectual pursuits, we were all bright, if not outright mensa types. Because of this, were were those typical pseudointellectual types of liberals. Conservatives and Republicans were simply morons and/or evil. One didn't even need to consider their arguments or debates. The fact that they came from Republicans made them wrong.

So I was a smug leftist for many years, until I got involved in a gun control debate online (before the Web) with a Libertarian. I simply could not win. I had always prided myself on being rational, after all, thats what made ME so smart and the conservatives so stupid, right? Who the heck WAS this guy? What was "libertarianism".

I got into libertarianism as a result. It allowed me to see the fallacies of the left, WITHOUT having to say I was conservative/republican, which was virtually impossible for me at the time (emotionally held views are hard to change). As a libertarian, I was able to look down my nose at BOTH parties and feel even yet more superior! A dream for a pseudointellectual!

Over the years, my distaste for the Left grew, as much as my distaste for the Right waned. I realized that the Right was "mostly right", and the Left was, well, dead wrong usually. As I grow older, I become more socially conservative as well, as I realize how important Culture is to the overall state of Humanity.

Today, I am still something of a small-l libertarian. I know there are alot of us here on FreeRepublic. I am not religious publicly, and I can argue conservativism from an athiests perspective, that catches alot of liberals off guard. In my heart, there are still alot of ways that I am a "democrat", I have alot of compassion for the unfortunate people in this world, especially children. I love animals and I will probably become a vegetarian in the future. I dont much like SUV's, but I wouldn't force others to see things my way.

My family basically all voted agains GWB this year, and it is difficult to discuss any politics at all with them, which made the last months of last year a bit tough to get through. A great sadness is to see my father sipping more and more of the leftist kool-aide and sinking further into a DU-like liberal stupor. Maybe its old age..

[doug from upland]

I love animals and I have compassion for the unfortunate around the world. Capitalism and freedom will improve their lives.

[demnomo]

Hey, Doug, I got your ping. Let me get my thoughts together and then I'll post my conversion story. A lot has happened over the years and I owe most of my newly-formed conservative leanings to this forum.

Cheers.

[doug from upland]

We look forward to it, my friend. By the way, I left a message on the machine but haven't heard from our college friend yet.

[demnomo]

I'll check on it.

[Jenya]

My name is Jenya, and I'm a former Democrat. My story isn't exciting or even that interesting. I'm 47 and was never into politics, although I grew up being told by my parents that "We're Democrats". Not surprising since I live in Massachusetts.

The first time I ever voted in my life was in 2000 for Gore *shudders*. I do recall thinking my friend and her husband were jerks for voting for Bush in 2000. I didn't hate Bush. I was never a screaming liberal. I was so uninterested in politics that I didn't even know who was in any President's Cabinet at any given time.

Then came 9/11, and I started paying attention to Bush and he won me and my husband over. Also, I've been a member and moderator of a large entertainment website for years (still am). It had a forum for politics where I never bothered to post. After 9/11, I started to post there, and couldn't get over the shrill and hate of the extreme left. It was impossible to debate with them.

It was during the runup to the war, and the liberals were going crazy at this site. It got so bad that the owner did away with the politics forum. I then discovered FOX News. The 2004 campaign was the first one I ever followed, and I followed it like a maniac. I almost died from anxiety on election night. I found FreeRepublic last March, and I've learned so much from this site. I fell hard for the Swiftvet's story...donated money for the first time in my life for a political cause. I was consumed with Rathergate. I had always thought that politics were boring, but I was very wrong.

I guess 9/11 was the catalyst for my transformation, although I was never a devoted Democrat in the first place. I am a devoted Republican. I know all the political players and stories now. I know all the FOX shows and hosts. I could pass a political test with flying colors.

Living in Mass isn't easy as most of my friends and family are Democrats who feel I've been brainwashed. Democrats don't bother me. It's the looney left that drive me up the wall. The way they sympathize with the enemy and seem to love other countries more than the U.S. boggles my mind.

It's sort of amazing to me that I didn't care about politics at all at one time, and now I'm like Ann Coulter in my thinking.

[doug from upland]

Jenya, we are very happy to have you here. You are among friends. Your story, like so many others, is really encouraging for us. When people know what we believe, they realize we are not the bad guys. The values we generally hold, although we don't agree on everything, are the values that have the USA the great country it is.

[gymbeau]

Hi, Doug.
I'm a Canadian, reluctantly now, and when I was younger I grew up in a fairly conservative household. But growing up in the 60's I fell under the influence of the left, thanks to college and a career after that in the media.
My awakening began when Reagan was first elected and I will be grateful forever to him for that. When he was campaigning, all we heard was how if Ronald Raygun got elected it would be a nuclear World War III. The media said it, the intellectuals said it - pretty well every message I heard said it.

But of course that didn't happen and the world began to get better. So I started questioning conventional wisdom, especially when it came from my supposed colleagues in the media, and I began to notice the disparity between what people were being told and what was actually going on.

Then we had the rise of now, alas, defunct Reform Party here, a true conservative and grassroots political movement. Naturally the establishment and their media buddies laughed at these right wing whacko Reformers.

Then I took a look at the Reform Party and what it actually stood for, rather than what the media told me they stood for. It made sense, common sense. I began to volunteer with them, then eventually became their national assistant manager of communications.

I still dabble in the media, but can't stand most of the people who are there, so I do it on my own terms. I also teach some writing and journalism courses at my local community college and try to bring a breeze of truth and reality to the mush these people have been taught.

Anyway, here I am happily on the right, unhappily still in Canada (because my darling wife doesn't want to move and I'm certainly not going to leave her), but glad that at least I live in Alberta where there's an island of comparative sanity.

Now if only Alberta would become the 51st State, I could actually work for the Republican party and contribute to the great conservative movement that is so important to the world today. I tried to put the Bush campaign's news ticker on my website during the last campaign, but when I asked the FEC if that were kosher they said it would be equivalent to a contribution in kind and since my site isn't American it would be a furriner trying to interfere in an American election (I paraphrase, of course!). So I took it down, knowing that it could be used against a man who I believe will be remembered by history as one of the greatest presidents in history.

Cheers!

Jim

Cheers,

Jim