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Liberal? Get over it
Orlando Sentinel ^ | 5/20/06 | Matthew Melone

Posted on 05/22/2006 9:03:27 AM PDT by qam1

There's good news for the young and hopelessly naive and liberal: You'll get over it.

It's common knowledge that young people become more conservative as they age. Generation X followed this trend, and indicators suggest Generation Y will be no different.

I understand what life is like on a typical college campus and have gripped with the misplaced mental energies of youth. I can empathize with the temptations of liberal cynicism, the appeal of academic elitism and an almost embarrassingly idealistic view of world affairs.

But I fought the urges, and so can you.

For all the graduates of 2007, soon you will begin being mugged by reality. As you grow more distant from the ivory towers and struggle to root yourself in the middle class, your liberal tendencies will become but a memory.

Perhaps you'll look back on these days and laugh.

Maybe you'll even wise up and realize that if you weren't so scared of the military, you could have signed up for the armed forces and done something worthwhile.

But in the meantime, to avoid embarrassment down the road, it may be prudent to stay quiet until your liberal urges pass.

For example, I've noticed a handful of columns in student newspapers and in "New Voices" that advocate the U.S. pursue unilateral disarmament in order to defuse tensions with Iran.

I enjoy a good laugh as much as the next guy, but this is a joke I've heard one too many times. If you're liberal and feel like shooting your mouth off about unilateral disarmament, I beg you to reconsider. A potential employer could Google your name, read that column, find out what a bonehead you are and not hire you.

If you don't realize how stupid unilateral disarmament is, don't worry. Just wait a few.....

(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: genx; geny; growupalready
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1 posted on 05/22/2006 9:03:28 AM PDT by qam1
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To: qam1

Kids, a mortgage, saving for retirement, are but a few of the things that can change ones view.


2 posted on 05/22/2006 9:08:54 AM PDT by cardinal4 (Kerry-Mcarthy in 2008!)
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To: cardinal4

I used to be left of Mao when I got out of college. Then I realized that if I can take care of myself and others then anyone can.


3 posted on 05/22/2006 9:13:04 AM PDT by SeanOGuano
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To: qam1; cardinal4

My awakening began with fetology. It continued when I realized how stupid gun control was, after my brother-in-law challenged me to name a gun control law that had reduced gun crime and I couldn't do it.


4 posted on 05/22/2006 9:13:25 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, the devil will always take you back.)
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To: cardinal4
Kids, a mortgage, saving for retirement, are but a few of the things that can change ones view.

Paying income taxes - seeing how much of that first salary I "didn't get" was the "nail in the coffin" for me.

Of course, I was working part-time jobs since 13, so I was already well on my way . I knew what was coming, but reality has a way of forcing you to pay attention when it actually comes to pass.
5 posted on 05/22/2006 9:15:58 AM PDT by CertainInalienableRights
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To: Mr. Silverback

The Unilateral Disarmament crowd are usually proponents of Unilateral Personal Disarmament, as well.

It's foolish both corporately and individually.


6 posted on 05/22/2006 9:15:59 AM PDT by Disambiguator (Unfettered gun ownership is the highest expression of civil rights.)
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To: qam1

The big problem resides with the liberals in a state of arrested development. Most of the older ones still have the attitudes of young teenagers. Go figure.


7 posted on 05/22/2006 9:16:29 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot
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To: qam1
It's common knowledge that young people become more conservative as they age.

If they are mentally and emotionally healthy. But if you are mentally and/or emotionally stunted, you end up like Cindy Sheehan and Ted Kennedy.

8 posted on 05/22/2006 9:17:07 AM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: SeanOGuano

There was a huge thread a couple of years ago posted by Slyfox about how many Freepers were once liberals, and how they were "awakened" from it.


9 posted on 05/22/2006 9:17:42 AM PDT by boop (Now Greg, you know I don't like that WORD!)
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To: SeanOGuano

I used to be a big time Deadhead growing up. Nuclear Disarmament, Farms Not Arms, the whole berkeley scene. But then I got a job, got married and bought a house. And then....Clinton happened..


10 posted on 05/22/2006 9:18:46 AM PDT by cardinal4 (Kerry-Mcarthy in 2008!)
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To: qam1
Maybe you'll even wise up and realize that if you weren't so scared of the military, you could have signed up for the armed forces and done something worthwhile.

How true, I wish I had. The biggest regret in my life.

11 posted on 05/22/2006 9:19:34 AM PDT by mikemach5
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To: qam1

I was a flaming liberal until I got my first job.

I began my turn toward the Right in 1995.


12 posted on 05/22/2006 9:20:28 AM PDT by Xenalyte (Anything is possible when you don't understand how anything happens.)
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To: qam1

I grew my hair long in college, and those who didn't know me presumed that meant that I was a liberal. The truth is, I grew my hair long to get chicks. It was a successful ploy.

I was born a conservative, I was raised a conservative, I went to college as a conservative, and I expect I will die a conservative.


13 posted on 05/22/2006 9:22:39 AM PDT by SittinYonder (Ic þæt gehate, þæt ic heonon nelle fleon fotes trym, ac wille furðor gan,)
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To: eyespysomething

ping


14 posted on 05/22/2006 9:24:21 AM PDT by SittinYonder (Ic þæt gehate, þæt ic heonon nelle fleon fotes trym, ac wille furðor gan,)
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To: qam1; oldglory; MinuteGal; JulieRNR21; mcmuffin; sheikdetailfeather

Looks like the kids that grew up on Limbaugh for the past 18 years he's been on the air, are coming of age. Look out! :) bttt


15 posted on 05/22/2006 9:24:57 AM PDT by Matchett-PI ( "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." -- Dwight Eisenhower)
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To: boop
There was a huge thread a couple of years ago posted by Slyfox about how many Freepers were once liberals, and how they were "awakened" from it.

Three words did it for me - Michael Stanley Dukakis. When that happened, I took a good look at my life and political views and found that I was more of a "poser" liberal than anything else - in other words, I was anti-nuke, anti-gun, anti-Reagan, anti-America because I thought I had to be, and it was cool. Not because of any real beliefs I had. Dukakis getting nominated made me realize that I was actually quite conservative. Living in Mass, I knew what kind of shenanigans he'd been up to, what he stood for, and what he would do as POTUS. And I was against all of it, every last point. That's when I realized I was really conservative pro-America.

16 posted on 05/22/2006 9:26:03 AM PDT by mikemach5
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To: qam1; Phsstpok

One day you'll wake up and think to your self, much like Larry Niven's character Phssthpok from the Book titled 'Protector' "I've been stupid".....


17 posted on 05/22/2006 9:26:25 AM PDT by roaddog727 (eludium PU36 explosive space modulator)
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To: qam1

I guess I consider myself lucky...

I was a conservative from childhood. The first election I was REALLY interested in (at the age of 10) was the 1968 election, and...yes I was for Nixon all the way. Hippies and antiwar protestors pissed me off. (Of course, my dad was a 30 year Navy vet...so I tended to side against anyone who disparaged what he did for a living...)

LOL...I remember thinking as a junior in High School that John Dean should have been hung for his part in bringing down Nixon, and when I hear him speak today...I realize I was actually right!


18 posted on 05/22/2006 9:27:37 AM PDT by rlmorel ("Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does." Whittaker Chambers)
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To: boop

I thought someone had come up with a "Former Liberal Ping list". Not sure though. I'd be one of the members, for sure.


19 posted on 05/22/2006 9:28:14 AM PDT by Paradox (Removing all Doubt since 1998!)
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To: rlmorel
The first election I was REALLY interested in (at the age of 10) was the 1968 election, and...yes I was for Nixon all the way.

Same here, except I stayed up that night and cried with my father that night, when Nixon won. Ah, memories..

20 posted on 05/22/2006 9:30:23 AM PDT by Paradox (Removing all Doubt since 1998!)
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