Sorry, but I was around for the whole transition, and aware of my surroundings too, so I can’t claim ignorance. As a boy, I watched the TV in a store window the day JFK was shot. The Democrats were more conservative then than now, but only because culture constrained them. We who were conservative way back then, when it wasn’t cool, still saw them as pulling hard in the wrong direction. The Democrats, with their inherent susceptibility to Wilsonian progressivism, have long been a corrupting influence, since well before FDR, and I am surprised that you, with your assertion of other’s ignorance of these things, would make such a claim yourself. Furthermore, Reagan did change his positions over time on some key conservative issues, even after he became a Republican, because these transitions don’t always happen all at once.
And I categorically deny any intent to deceive, and I think you should withdraw so reckless a charge. What I’m saying is simply this: We should trust, but we should also verify. I don’t want RINO-corruption any more than you do. Seriously, I’m from Illinois, and I know how bad it can be. But I do want a constitutional freedom to be observed here, the freedom of association. If someone has a conservative epiphany, and sincerely so, we want that person fighting with us, not against us. Think Othello, not chess. Wars of attrition are losing propositions for both sides. We need to claim new human territory, not just new geographical territory, if we are to win the longer conflict.
Well said and thanks for clearing things up.
Exactly, trust, but verify.
Thanks for putting that fact on the table for others to see. The comparison that others made between the Democrats of that time to today's Democrats simply isn't accurate.
Seriously, I’m from Illinois, and I know how bad it can be.
So am I, welcome to the People's Soclialist RepubliK of Illannoyed.
If someone has a conservative epiphany
The same way Arlen Specter did, only to go back to the Democrat party to try and survive politically? No thank you. If they truly had an epiphany, they should stay in their own party and clean up their own mess, not drag it into the Republican Party. I don't believe for one second that any of these Democrats really gives a rats behind about advancing Conservative ideas, rather I think they're all about surviving the next election so they don't have to go back to the private sector and find a real job!