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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..