Posted on 12/11/2007 4:57:57 AM PST by gridlock
I was looking at a Hillary thread today, which said that if she won the nomination, a lot of Democrats would abandon the Democrat Party. It reminded me of when I finally left the Democrats and "turned to the Dark Side", as my family says. It struck me that FReepers must have a lot of interesting stories about how they came to be here, and that these stories should be told.
Please post your testimony below. I'll start...
Ford vs. Carter
Reagan vs. Carter
Reagan vs. Mondale
GHW Bush vs. Dukakis
GHW Bush vs. Clinton
Dole vs. Clinton
GW Bush vs. Gore
GW Bush vs. Kerry
Our guys were not perfect, but you can definitely spot the trend as to which guys were better!
In Texas though, the former Dims became the Repubs of late. So I guess I understand my family.
September 11, 2001 turn me from an apathetic to a conservative in a flash.
“I like Ike”
(This is a snip-it from my FR Profile)
I AM THE ORIGINAL REAGAN DEMOCRAT.
THE FAMILIES DEMOCRAT ROOTS
I grew up in Tacoma Washington in a very typical Puget Sound area democratic family. My Dad worked for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and my mother was a homemaker. My Fathers family had a true Grapes of Wrath story. In the 1920’s his folks moved from Arkansas to California to get jobs on the orange groves and then in the late 30’s when my Dad was still a young lad, the family moved to Washington State, where my Dad later met my Mom. Now, remember people with southern roots in those days were mostly democrats, though very conservative by today’s standards. Because of this we weren’t liberal by no stretch of the imagination. The folks believed that having the strongest military in the world equipped with the most sophisticated and reliable weapons was the best way to keep America safe from the Soviet Empire. My parents, with five kids to raise and living from payday to payday, hated taxes being raised and would vote against every single tax increase that came up. But yet they would keep voting for those politicians who supported those increases. Go figure. My parents hated the long haired hippy anti-war protestors they saw on TV, and their thoughts on the Vietnam war was that we should “bomb the commies back to the stone-age, and if we would fight it like a war we would win in no time.” Not exactly liberal thought, is it? They loved JFK. I remember my Dad had a record album that contained his greatest speeches that he would often play. Wonder what I could get for that on EBAY today? My parents would preach to us the old mantra that republicans were for the rich and democrats were for the poor and the working class, and with only Nixon and Ford to be examples of republicans we had no reason to doubt them.
THE GREAT CONVERSION
If there was one single person who had the greatest impact on me turning Republican it had to be Jimmy Carter. When I was at age to start finding a part time job there was none to be had. I was very discouraged. I would turn in an application at the bowling alley, McDonalds, the supermarket, etc, and they would all tell me the same story, “we’re not hiring, but we will take your application.” And then it would be placed on top of a pile a foot high. I remember the malaise Carter spoke about. First came the energy crises. I still find it hard to believe he asked America not to put up Christmas lights one year. Young people today could not imagine having to be in a block long line to buy gas, and only if it was your day to do so. On the world front the Soviet military began a major build up and the Soviet communist were influencing governments in Central and South America and in Africa, making the world a much more dangerous place. Then there was the Iran hostage crises to top it all off.
I joined the Navy in 1977 right out of high school. I served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. This was during the time Qaddafi decided to extend the coastal claims of Libya to the waters where American naval maneuvers were conducted. The entire Gulf of Sidra, extended up to one hundred miles from Libya’s coast, and it was proclaimed by Qaddafi to be Libyan water, off limits to our forces. The Carter government meekly rescheduled our maneuvers to stay outside disputed area, ordering us to not cross Qaddafi’s line. True to form, Carter failed to confront Qaddafi over the issue even after a siege on the American embassy in Tripoli in 1979. Prior to the election an Admiral called all the sailors to the flight deck where he gave a speech on how important it was to vote for a President that would stand up for the military. I can’t remember if he actually used Reagan’s name, but we all knew he wasn’t talking about the peanut farmer. I’m not sure he was supposed to do this, but I’m so glad he did.
Within months after taking office, Ronald Reagan took a stand. He made it clear that American maneuvers in the Gulf of Sidra would proceed as they always had before Carter. Anticipating trouble Reagan was asked by the Joint Chiefs what American pilots do if attacked? Would Reagan’s orders allow for “hot pursuit”? Reagan’s answer? “All the way into the hanger.” You know the rest of the story.
I voted Republican ever since and learned about the core values of the Republican party and found they were much closer to the values my family grew up with than the democrats. When I left the Navy in 1982 and returned to the Washington. I was able to find employment right away. The electronics revolution has started and strip-malls, video stores, restaurants, and housing developments were popping up everywhere. Help wanted signs were in store windows for a change, and things seemed so very different than the Puget Sound I left in 1977. All four of my brothers and sisters also changed their preference to republican during my absence. My parents however took a little longer to convert. Sensing Bill Clinton was a flim-flam man my parents voted for Ross Perot in 1992. Clintons two terms proved them right. This was also the time that conservative talk radio was taking over the airwaves, and my Dad began to tune in to this Rush guy and learn the truth about what his party was becoming. They have voted republican ever since. I lost my Father in May 2004, but when I hear Zell Miller speak I’m reminded of him.
My mom has that button
When Bill Clinton declared himself the New Messiah in the 1992 Democratic Convention.
Clinton: “I offer America a new covenant...”
Bob Dornan (paraphrased from memory, expressing my reaction perfectly): “That pot-smoking, skirt-chasing, draft-dodging Marxist isn’t fit to be President; he isn’t fit to be commander in chief, and he sure as Hell isn’t fit to be my Lord and Savior.”
ummmmm... When I first registered to vote, 20 years ago, but I already knew who I was then.
I came to it gradually, incident by incident, until I finally realized that the Democrat party was NOT for the working man, but for its own sense of power. I realized that the libs would use any organization, and any persons, including the blacks, to gain their goal of turning this country into a state of communism.
Then my husband turned me on to Rush! What a relief to discover that we weren’t alone in our political thinking. Finally, my wonderful son-in-law told me about FreeRepublic. Thank you, Jim Rob.
Having gotten here through the revelation of the dishonesty of the Democrat party, I am furious with the faux Freepers who say that because SOME Pubbies don’t do as those Freepers think they should, they will never vote for a Republican again.
I remember being in Mr. Glascok's Social Studies class in the Fall of 1976. After we spent the first two weeks of class snickering, Mr. Glascok spent the next two months extolling the virtues of Jimmy Carter. I remember being assigned Gerald Ford's position in our mock debate, and feeling that I got the bad side of that deal.
Man, was I stupid!
I was raised in a Roman Catholic Irish household in Boston, and remember the Kennedys being referred to in the same reverent tones as the Pope. I graduated high school in 1969 and, perhaps, all that implies. I WAS a hippie, but part of the “90% party” that Abbie Hoffman referred to-I was more likely to be doing the twirly dance on the quad than clashing with police...
I DID believe we were destroying the planet, wanted equal rights for animals and that we were interferring with a peaceful transition in VietNam. Finding out I was wrong was a long process, but started in 1975, watching the news. The sight of all the refugees, the helis being pushed off the deck of the carrier and all those frightened people had a profound effect. I felt responsible for the fall of SE Asia and the negating of 58,000 American deaths. I wondered why my friends didn’t.
I began to read. That’s all. I could never bring myself to consider myself a “conservative”, however. And CERTAINLY NEVER a “mean” Republican. But I found the pat answers and sloganeering of those friends distinctly unsatisfying. Facts are a funny thing...
Then Ronald Reagan happened. I never loved a politician before (and sure as hell not one since) but I loved him. Still do. I am just optimistic enough to believe another man of such brilliance and patriotism CAN happen again. I KNOW, absolutely, it will NEVER be a demonRAT.
He was the great communicator.
Like quite a few posters. Jimmy Carter years turned me while in high school.
Hold back the tide... Use a spoon... Even the GOP doesn't much like the conservatives in their midst these days. Pandering to the squishy middle while abandoning their base and mimicking their political counter-parts are all they do these days.
I became one when I got out of the military in Aug.”68.
I will never forget watching L.B.J. say “ I will neither seek or accept the nomination of a second term”
I wanted to help make sure he made the right decision..
Now we all need to help this nation make the right decision this time. I surely should be Fred Thompson.
I was born a Republican and I can proudly say that since the age of 18, I have never voted for a Dim.
When I see 60 year old socialists that still don’t get it, I’m always reminded that I understood more in three hours as a 16 year old than they every will.
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