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I was 20 years old when I read it. I come from a family of die hard democrats. I remember my dads disgust at Reagan being elected Governor in 1966. Needless to say I absorbed a lot of that contempt of conservatism.
At the time I read the book I had a lot of questions on the "fairness" of capitalism. That book opened up my eyes on the results of socialism and marxism. That, and my husband is a "gun nut" who rivals Bert Gummer.

Wow! What a story! I was raised in an evangelical fundamentalist home by conservative Republicans. My parents weren't really political, but mostly just good Christians who taught me more by their example of love and compassion for others than anything they said. When I was young I found a book in their library called, "I Found God In Soviet Russia," by John Noble. He lived in Russia with his family and because of their politics they were imprisoned in the concentration camps. It made a tremendous impression on me. I guess my life was so idyllic that I wanted to know more about the world, because I knew that it wasn't this way in other places. I went on to learn about the Holocaust and in learning more and more about socialism and fascism, I learned to appreciate my country -- more and more. Also, when I grew up in the 50's, it was a different America. Even when JFK was elected, my parents honored him as their president. I long for those days -- when, despite differences, love of country came first. I hope and pray that the country is moving in that direction again.

Arnold said something to the democrats in the CA legislature recently, and I'd like to think it applies the anti-American left: There's a train that's on the move, and you have three choices: you can either get on the train, watch the train go by, or stand in front of the train, and you know what will happen if you do that." (I paraphrased it as best I could, but you get the point.)