TESTIFY! When did YOU become a Republican?

Free Republic ^ | 12/11/07 | Self

[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...

[Hemingway's Ghost]

My moment of truth came very shortly after I first asked myself “why are they taking this money out of my paycheck?”

Same exact thing for me: a switch went off the first time I took a good long look at my first leave and earning statement.

[dfwgator]

I have to give thanks to Rush Limbaugh for crystalizing my political views. I always kinda sorta leaned conservative, I always liked Reagan, but I was one of those “I vote for the person, not the party,” kind of people. After listening to Rush, and watching his program, I realized that liberalism was inferior to conservatism.

[mpackard]

Great post. It turns out that in my Sr year I had a Govt teacher who made me LOVE that class. It also happened that I was taking this class the year that the Gipper was running for pres. It all seemed to flow into eachother and made me pay attention to politics for the first time. My father was a rabid republican and my step father a union dem but he was pretty socially conservative. Reagan made me feel proud to be American and optimistic about the future. I’ve really never looked back.

[angcat]

someone with a decent reputation

Dems have that?

I can’t imagine being Republican and voting for any Dem. I have neighbors that are Republican and voted for Rendell. I think that is just crazy. Why I asked them did they not vote for Swann they replied “Because he was not someone we know” not popular. Now look what voting for Rendell did to PA.

[gridlock]

Same exact thing for me: a switch went off the first time I took a good long look at my first leave and earning statement.

If we really wanted a Conservative revolution in this country, we would move to ban withholding of taxes from paychecks. If people had to put aside money each paycheck and then write a check to the Federal government on a quarterly basis to cover the taxes they owe, it would be pitchforks and torches time on the National Mall.

[techcor]

I had voted Republican before but it was Bill Clinton and how the press treated him that really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Dan Rather's butt kiss of Bill with the "if only someone was a hundredths as good as you we would all be lucky." It was the most obsequious grovelling a "so-called" journalist had ever done to a politician. "Biased" was definitely not strong enough a description.
Then there is ole' Rush Limbaugh. On his show he showed two clips of overwhelming bias by the press. One was Ron Brown's funeral in which Bill gets caught by the press laughing and when Bill spots the press he gets a tear withing 3 seconds. Another was at the Clinton Whitehouse Easter where Bill yells obscenities at an aide for not having enough eggs. If more people had scene those clips , I don't think Clinton would have been re-elected. Compare that kind of protection with how the MSM will jump on any story no matter how old to try and smear a Republican. I definitely don't trust the MSM.

[BreezyDog]

I guess I’ve always been a conservative. But I think I signed up to be a Republican in my high schrool psychology class when we registered to vote our senior year.

[Bigun]

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.

What have YOU personally done to change that?

Are you an active participant in the party or do you just vote on election day?

[mewzilla]

FWIW, my epiphany began in '98.

The internet, Drudge, FR and access to a boatload of info started me on my way.

But not to being a Pubbie. I'm a conservative.

I have two words for the GOP: Bite me :)

[mpackard]

hahahahhahaha

[Zman]

Born into a family of die-hard D’s; went to college in Boston. Attended George McGovern’s campaign speech in Post Office Square in Beantown where he said about reinvigorating the economy “When I am elected, I will give every American $1,000 to stimulate us out of recession”.

As a college freshman, I hadn’t experienced a lightbulb going on before, but that caused me to think “he’s going to borrow to give us money, which we have to pay back with interest?

That was just downright stupid and the beginning of the end for any liberal economic (and other) beliefs.

[DFG]

I was born a Republican and have never voted for a DemoRAT. My first chance to vote was 1984 and I voted for Reagan. In 1976, I was a young teen and my older sister volunteered for the Carter campaign. She joined the Army the next year and has been a Republican ever since. She apologizes every time I remind her about the 1976 campaign.

I was in the 8th grade when Carter gave away the Panama Canal. We had to write a term paper about something related to current events. I blasted Carter for giving away the Panama Canal to the Marxist that was the leader of Panama at that time. I went to a private school in California so I received an A. I would have been expelled for that paper in a California public school. Still have the paper.

[CT-Freeper]

I think Biden represents, for many people, a responsible and serious politician. Everybody else on the Democrat side is a circus sideshow freak, as far as I can tell. In that field, Biden stands out. Dodd, being from CT, might be too familiar for your father to support...

I guess that makes sense (my parents are actually from New York, but still - same idea). I don't even know if I am going to vote in the Democratic primary in Connecticut next year. I have no idea who I would vote for. There really are not any Democrats I like, so should I choose an easily-defeatable one (Dodd, Kucinich?), or the least-offensive one (whoever that is - Richardson? Biden?).

[rightsmart]

When I was about 8 years old, my parents took me to see President Ford while he was campaigning against Carter. He walked down the line of people and singled me out to shake my hand. That experience “connected” me to the republican party, especially since “my guy” lost. I vividly remember the disaster of the Carter administration, especially the hostage crises, primarily because he was the “bad-guy.”

Reagan came along in my “formative years” of 12-20 and conservative principals were confirmed for me. I remember watching Peter Jennings’ news coverage during jr. high and high school and thinking what incredibly biased it was. I was truly a young Republican; I debated conservative principles in high school debate and argued with my public school teachers.

The first presidential election I could vote, I voted for GHW Bush. That administration taught me that Republican does not necessarily equal Conservative.

[knuthom]

Ronald Reagan changed the way I look at things.

I, too, am a Reagan convert. I used to be a liberal. I did not vote for Reagan in 1980. But, unlike today's liberals, I was able and willing to learn. I listened and watched and decided that Reagan was right.

[FrdmLvr]

I despised Stalin and Communism even then. Anyone who hated Communism had to be ok in my book. Thank you, McCarthy, you made me a Republican then.

I'll bet you felt vindicated when Alger Hiss was exposed by Whitaker Chambers.

I was a college freshman during the 72 elections and a guy I really liked drove a bunch of us to Western Michigan University to hear McGovern. I thought he was pandering to the crowd and was struck by his insincerity. I voted for Nixon. But I was never really politically active or even aware until about 1980 when I was strongly influenced by two things: I read "Atlas Shrugged" after a recommendation by someone I admired, and I started listening to a local conservative/libertarian talk show host named Mark Scott. But what laid the groundwork for my belief systems was having read the book "Animal Farm" when I was in the fourth grade. The Orwellian principles stayed with me all those years, and I quickly recoginized the totalitarian tendencies of the left (Democrats) and the freedom loving principles of Ronald Reagan.

[nutmeg]

I foolishly cast my first vote ever for Jimmy Carter in 1976. That would be Worst. President. Ever. Jimmah Carter. (I was never a registered democRAT, I remained an Independent.)

I saw the Light because of the great Ronald Reagan... registered with the Republican party sometime during his first term, and haven't looked back since.

[mathluv]

I was raised a dim in West Texas. I can remember asking my mom why we had to have two elections - the one in the spring always decided who won in Nov. I did not know what a 'primary' was.

I voted for Carter om '76 - I just did not like Ford. I voted for RR in '80, and have voted 'R' every time since.

The 2000 election certainly convinced me that EVERY vote counts, and that the dims will try to steal any election they think they can.

Rush convinced me that I am a conservative, not a moderate.

Anyone who does not vote R next fall is giving the election to the dims. Stand for you convictions in the PRIMARY, not the GENERAL. Any of you who are one issue voters get what you deserve. Unfortunately, so do the rest of us. 2006 is a great example of what can happen when some stay home.

[gridlock]

I have two words for the GOP: Bite me :)

My mother was a great salesman. She could sell anything to anybody. I remember asking her what she did for a living, so she sat me down at the kitchen table and showed me how she would sell me a disposable salt shaker.

First, she told me to tell her that I did not like that salt shaker, that I hated that salt shaker, in fact. She wanted me to believe that that salt shaker was the worst salt shaker I had ever seen, and that I would not take it from her if she paid me a million dollars.

And then she started in with asking me what was it about that salt shaker that I did not like. Was there anything she could do, as a poor and humble salesman, to change that salt shaker, that would make me like it more? How about the color? What about the shape? How about a glass salt shaker? Would I like that better?

Eventually, we agreed on what would be the perfect salt shaker that I would be happy to buy from her, at a considerable premium

And then she started in with, is that particular feature really that important? Maybe this color might be nicer. Did I really appreciate the convenience of having a disposable salt shaker? Did I realize that the cardboard shaker would absorb moisture so the salt could run freely? And what about sanitation? Until we were right back where we started, except now I was convinced that that disposable salt shaker was not so bad after all.

So, what is it about the GOP that you don't like? Is there anything I can do, as a humble FReeper, to make you like it better?

[Hemingway's Ghost]

If we really wanted a Conservative revolution in this country, we would move to ban withholding of taxes from paychecks. If people had to put aside money each paycheck and then write a check to the Federal government on a quarterly basis to cover the taxes they owe, it would be pitchforks and torches time on the National Mall.

I think Jeff Jacoby, the lone conservative columnist at the Boston Globe, makes that appeal quite frequently. And I think it's a fantastic idea, too. Withholding was an invention of World War Two; it was never supposed to be a permanent thing.

At the time of my "conversion," I was a newly-commissioned ensign, stationed in Pensacola, with a new wife and less than five hundred dollars in my savings account. Yet I paid hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars each pay period in taxes---some of which were destined to go to the "poor." I felt that I deserved my own money more than one of those poor people---hell, I couldn't even afford to buy a $20 pair of Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers.