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.
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.