How NPR Made Me a Conservative

Front Page Magazine ^ | March 29, 2004 | Paul Beston

[squidly]

My 'journey' from left to right was not dissimilar. I guess like most kids in their late teens, I tended to be liberal. That morphed into apolitical. It was the '92 presidential election that woke me up. As apolitical as I was, I couldn't help but notice the blatant bias in the media, how they were all for Clinton and against Bush. Having begun college as a journalism major, where impartiality and objectivity were sacrosanct, I said to myself, "What the hell is going on here?" And thus, the rightward move began.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Bump for an excellent article.

[agitator]

Interesting read

[Rate_Determining_Step]

My journey from left to right was pretty simple. From a Gen-X kid with older Democratic parents that lived through the depression, I'd hear stuff like "Don't buy a house, because you can't guarantee that you'll be fully employed for 30 years to make the payments." At about 12 I asked, "but what if you rent like we do. You still have to come up with the money at the end of the month and there's no equity with renting."

Then there was the summerized politics dispensed to me: "Democrats are for the working man and Republicans are for the rich".

At about 16 I decided to start researching and making my own decisions on what was correct. My first ballots were mixed, but by 20 I was casting a straight GOP ticket. Hasn't changed yet. Remember listening to some funny right win guy on AM radio at night 1200 miles away in Sacramento. Don't know what happen to him. Rush something-or-another...

Then I met my wife who was a Libertarian. I moved to Libertarian politics. Then, I started on Ayn Rand. We both dropped Libertarian politics. I voted for Andre Marrou. I'm sorry for that.

My political thoughts: Always crush Lefties. It's a long battle. I don't expect to see lefty ideas crushed in my lifetime. I can live with that. Ronald Reagan was CLEARLY the greatest President of the 20th Century. Rand's ideas will win out in the end. Things will be great again, but it will take a lot of time and we do live in interesting times.

[third try]

ping

[tm22721]

Bork identified American cultural decline with two primary forces: radical egalitarianism, which I had seen firsthand at Legal Aid, and radical individualism

How can radical individualism be a liberal condition ? It is at the heart of entrepreneurial spirit and independence.

BUMP

[SoothingDave]

How can radical individualism be a liberal condition ?

Radical individualism is the antithesis of family, community, country upon which conservatism is based. Where individualism reigns the concept of sacrifice is negated. Why should the sovereign individual give up his treasure or life for the benefit of others?

Also, the conservative mind understands that family, Church, and other free associations that people belogn to serve as buffers between the individual and the all-powerful state. Where there is nothing held in higher regard by the individual than himself (hence, radical individualism) all of these buffers are removed and we are left with each individual, alone and naked before the power of the state.

SD

[Oberon]

How can radical individualism be a liberal condition ? It is at the heart of entrepreneurial spirit and independence.

No; not if the individualism of which we speak is truly radical. You see, entrepreneurship requires a few social conditions in which to work. One is a secure right to property, and another is an established rule of law. Without these things, your chances of becoming a successful entrepreneur beyond a certain minimal level are nil; and yet truly radical individualism shuns them.

[Snardius]

Larry told Steele that he had been mugged twice by blacks and now walked to the other side of the street at night when he saw black men approaching

The most ardent conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.

[swilhelm73]

Well, my take is that liberals often seem to have a belief in "individualism" that allows a favored indidivudal to stamp all over the rights of others.

An artist that creates works that offend the majority for example, has a right not only to create his works, but also a "right" to take money from the majority to make said "art".

Or, a woman has the right not just to do what she wants with her body, but also the "right" to kill her unborn child.

I could go all day with these examples of course, the left is seemingly built on hypocrisy and a lust for power.

[EdReform]

Ping

[MamaLucci]

Great post.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks !

[ArGee]

but old liberals are pitiful.

Old liberals remind me of what one Stephen King character once said about another, "She long ago decided what her opinions were, put a coat of shellac on them, and won't change them."

I'm sure the quote is wrong by now, but the sense is right.

Shalom.

[ArGee]

How can radical individualism be a liberal condition ? It is at the heart of entrepreneurial spirit and independence.

As John Nash pointed out, Radical Individualism is as self-destructive as socialism.

Cooperative individualism is what is required, and the vision of our culture that the conservatives have.

Shalom.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Two words come to mind after reading this article and they
are

Whitaker Chambers

Chambers' conversion from the dark side to the side of light mirrors most other such conversions (e.g. Horowitz) and Chambers is, to me, the Godfather of American Conservativsm. He influenced Buckley, Nixon, McCarthy and others. And he was the lone voice in the wilderness for a long time when it looked like communism was inevitable. He did get a freedom medal fairly recently IIRC, but I still maintain his contributions are under-appreciated.

[backhoe]

Thanks for inspiring a fresh tagline-

[Doc-Joe]

bump for home reading

[Yardstick]

Wow, great piece. *bump*

[lieutenant columbo]

What a great article. The sad thing is that most college students (or high school students, for that matter) will never be exposed to conservative arguments as written by conservatives. Instead they get liberal distillations and distortions.

I made the conversion at around age 29 for many of the same reasons cited in this article...I was working in a liberal enclave (nonprofit org.) and started reading conservative material for an article I was writing. Once I read the arguments themselves, rather than relying on leftist interpretations of them, the conversion was done.

Thanks for posting this.