[jim35]

"Its a beautiful thing to witness a Liberal opening his/her eyes.
Its happened to many of us here on the FR."

It happened to me, and then later to my wife. Our eyes were opened by Bill Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, my dad, and a friend who was a conservative. During political arguments, I found that I couldn't justify my positions, logically. Ever. I can't believe I was ever a liberal. Mostly, I attribute my past liberalism to ignorance. I thought the Democrat party was the party of freedom. What a fool I was.

[annyokie]

Been there. It was the indoctrination of the California public schools in my case. Fortunately, I fell in love with Ronald Reagan and there was no turning back!

[Coop]

Mostly, I attribute my past liberalism to ignorance.

That's why so many protesting liberals out on the street are high school and college students. They really don't know any better. I applaud their enthusiastic involvement, although I often abhor their positions. Most will get smarter, though. The remainder will probably end up in Hollywood.

[ClancyJ]

You had the wisdom to look at what you had historically believed and realize that the party had changed.

So many just hold to what they knew the party to be as they grew up. Sadly - that party has been taken over by what I believe are socialists.

[driftless]

Congratulations on leaving the Dems. Better late than never. My own evolution was a thirty year process starting with reading Solzhenitsyn's Gulag trilogy and finally being pushed over the fence by Clinton. But the Dems are also not the same party they were forty years ago. Until Carter, most Dems prez candidates tried to out-hawk the Republicans. Abortion, Gay rights, and food-nazism weren't even on the table. I firmly believe many Dems, like my parents, still think that their party is the party that looks out for the common man and cares for the underdog. They simply do not understand how far left their party has tilted.

And many more realize it, but don't have the courage of their convictions to change. My 83 year old father is a devout Catholic, pro-life, pro-gun, anti-affirmative action, pro-military (he's an ex-Army drill sergeant), pro-death penalty, and even anti-union. But he votes for Dems every election. I've told him he must think FDR is still the president.

[Paradox]

During political arguments, I found that I couldn't justify my positions, logically. Ever. I can't believe I was ever a liberal. Mostly, I attribute my past liberalism to ignorance. I thought the Democrat party was the party of freedom. What a fool I was.

There are many of us with basically this same story. A Democrat at birth, I was one of those smarmy, pseudointellectual Liberals. I always dismissed the Right as a bunch of mean old Stupid people. I hardly engaged in real debate with any of them, I just ASSUMED they were wrong because, well, they were mean and stupid, as I saw on TV shows and the movies.

Then one day, I engaged a conservative (libertarian actally) in a gun control debate, and, I actually LOST. That is, for once, I tried to use Reason and Logic (I was always a fan of Spock), and I LOST!?

I felt sick, physically ill. Was it the humiliation? Was it the sheer SHOCK of having my world view challenged? I dont know, but that day began my slow metamorphosis.

Sometimes, getting over the cognitive dissonance is an exceedingly difficult thing to do.