[GOP Poet]

Concerning my own transformation from lib to conservative (a process of many decades), I regard it as somewhat going from darkness into light ala St. Paul. Naturally libs firmly believe they have everything figured out. The truth is they know very little about what makes America tick.

Wonderful analogy. It is so true, as are your words that follow it.

[driftless2]

My own feeling is what most separates libs from conservatives is not one particular issue but a belief in the ultimate goodness of government over the belief that government should be the last alternative to solving problems. When Reagan was elected and made his comments about government being a negative influence, I was offended.

Nevertheless at the time I had a lot of conservative beliefs. In fact a majority of my stances were conservative. For instance I believed in a strong military, was anti-abortion, anti-affirmative action, and anti-radical feminism. But I believed in government and it's ability to solve the nation's problems. I can see Reagan's wisdom now, but at the time decades of leftist influence had left me with no confidence in the idea that most peoples problems are personally created and had little to do with government "solutions".

So to me if you can explain and convince a person that his life's destiny is in his hands and not the government's, you have created a conservative. Not that he or she has to agree with every particular issue or idea, but that they realize that government can never make a person happy. They have to do it themselves.