*As a former liberal Democrat I totally agree with the notion people generally become more conservative in their ways as they get older!*
Agree. Then there’s always a but. In this case the left learned well from Carter’s failures. I’m talking the ability to sweep things under the rug and changing the subject. The Clintons were good students.
As a proud 18-year-old I voted for George McGovern. 12 years later I voted for Reagan’s reelection. I learned just like you did. but the bigger change was turning 30 years old. That was in-between 2 votes for Carter.
I was apolitical and hung around leftist girls as a young man, because, frankly, they were much easier and "open minded." I'm not proud of it now.
So I attended a few Noam Chomsky lectures, a couple Anti-Apartheid protests (the fashion at the time), etc... I quickly found the people there, especially as a collective group, annoying, illogical, unthinking, and often, just plain dirty.
Thus began my conversion.