FORMER LIBERAL FReepers...I have a theory.

bigjoesaddle

[bigjoesaddle]

I am a former Liberal that voted for Clinton the first time (head droopong in shame), and I wonder how many other people like me there are out there.

Also, I have a theory to discuss. I have NEVER met a person who grew up a Conservative, then switched to the Democrat Party AFTER COLLEGE! Many switch during college, because of the rebellion aspect of going against their "Dads politics", etc, but after entering the real world, a person NEVER switches to Liberal. The theory basicly is that many Liberals, no matter how old they are, are STILL rebelling, and basicly can't see that their ways never succeed.

There is also the belief that "I am a good person, and all I want to do is good for the world and the people in the world, THEREFORE EVERYTHING I BELIEVE IS RIGHT, BECAUSE IT IS BASSED ON "GOODNESS". They don't realise that, just because you are "good", doesn't mean you're "right".

[Dakmar]

I'm all better now.

I'll say! :-)

[Sally II]

Hi! I grew up conservative. I've never voted Democrat, but for a short period in college I did try to act like a liberal. And I've given this a lot of thought, and based on my own experiences with liberals (especially since 9-11) I've come down to pretty much the exact same conclusions! My oldest brother is a Bay Area liberal, and I swear that even at age 45 he has the emotional maturity of an adolescent. He's still trying to find himself. He spends hundreds of dollars a year taking classes at Esalen. And he still thinks our parents owe him the world, simply because they chose to give birth to him.

Also, after 9-11 I did have a few lengthy debates with progressives. And I had one really interesting conversation with a Canadian who believed that religion was the cause of all evil and wars in the world and he really believed that George Bush was evil. After several fruitless exchanges, I asked him what his basic beliefs about the world were. His reply: "It all comes down to good intentions."

What's the quote? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Anyhow, I can't say this for all Liberals, but from what I can tell I'm willing to bet that the majority of "progressives" believe that humanity is evolving toward a higher spiritual consciousness, and that through sheer will and good intentions mankind ---excuse me, "humanity"-- can acheive world peace, equality, goodness, and end hunger and suffering, etc. Basically, they ignore what thousands of years of history tells us about human nature. And personally, I don't see much difference between Progressives and any other religious cult. It takes a huge leap of faith to believe that humanity can will itself to become something that so many thousand years of history has proven it is not.

[bandleader]

Didn't Mr.Churchill say something like:"Show Me Someone Who Isn't A Liberal At Age 20,And I'll Showw You Someone With No Heart!On The Other Hand,Show Me Someone Who Isn't A Conservative At Age 40,And I'll Show You Someone With No Brains"!!!(or words to that effect...............

[bandleader]

Is There Any Other Kind???Perhaps You Are Just Being Lenient With The Ones(Liberals)That Aren't Foaming At The Mouth??????????

[bandleader]

1972 was the first time I could vote(aged 22).I(though having been raised in a Roosevelt-DemocRat household)cast my first for "Tricky Dick".I didn't understand at that time how Ford really did do the right thing by pardoning Nixon and thus preventing The DemocRat"Attack-Dogs"from feasting on his carcass,so I voted for"Jemmy Cahtah".I apologize for that!!!Since then I have been on the "straight and narrow"!!Reagan,Reagan,Bush,Bush,Dole,and "W"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Grit]

But having lived through the antics of Bill & Hill, and the media's excusing their every deed, I turned hard right. Even my parents (moderate Republicans) are shocked when I mount the soapbox.
Hence my freeper handle. -- KoestlersRedFiat

I just figured you had a crappy Italian car.

[Grit]

Xenalyte: "I was a goth too but that's for another thread..."
B4B: "Tease."

Do you have a link to that "other thread"? :)

[Uncle George]

"I try not to discuss anything political with her because it is useless". I have found out the same thing; A Democrat has a shell over them like a turtle, the truth cannot penetrate because they won't let it. This has to be the "unforgivable sin" mentioned in the Bible which is "A closed mind that cannot recieve the truth to free itself".

[PLK]

This violated every sound and reasonable economic principle I was studying at the time.

Exactly. That's why I find it so hard to understand how a college econ or history prof can be a liberal!!! I once took a grad level course in health economics. The prof was a flaming lefty and spent most of the course soap-boxing for socialized medicine. It was truly amazing.

And how could a person who studied history be a left-wing socialist? Surely they, more than anyone, understand the misery that socialism has wrought upon the world over time????

[bankwalker]

That's why over the past 30 years or so there has been a big push toward getting every chald a college edumacation. There is a method to the liberal madness.

[GunsareOK]

I was a liberal, in that I parroted my parents' liberal views, until junior year of high school (36 years ago).

Long before that, during junior high (now middle school), I was disturbed over the atmosphere of hooliganism at the school. The thug element was openly disrespectful to teachers and I wondered why adults accepted the kind of behavior that would have gotten me the back of my father's hand at home--the inmates were running the institution.

It took two years for the light to go on--for me to realize that the atmosphere of permissiveness, even during the early '60s, spawned and encouraged this type of behavior, both in (public) school and society.

I would have voted for Kennedy in 1960 and Johnson in 1964, but by 1968 I favored George Wallace. In 1972, the first year I was eligible, I voted for (former) Congressman Schmitz from California. I believe he died only very recently.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

during my stint at (get this) Houston Baptist University, I turned hideously liberal. (I was a goth too, but that's for another thread.)

So... what you are saying is, you were a Liberal -- but you did not have entirely bad taste?

With the fire from the fireworks up above me
With a gun for a lover and a shot for the pain at hand....

[IoCaster]

I rebelled at a young age. The most surprising part of this is that I was born and spent my first 17 years of life in NYC. I dimly remember being conservative in grade school. I even had a Nixon sticker of some kind on my looseleaf binder. Of course, I didn't understand anything about the issues, but I was certainly put off by the radical late 60's and early 70's hippie freaks. They didn't seem to make any sense with their counterculture idiocy. At the time my older half-brother was in Vietnam fighting for our country, while these sh!theads were tripping on LSD and spouting commie propaganda on TV. I despised them then and hold them in deep and utter contempt to this day. I hate socialists/commies/liberals with a deep and abiding degree of passion.

< /rant >

[SoDak]

My house wasn't very political, although my parents tended to vote dem. I first became aware of politics while Carter was busy destroying the country, and Reagan came on the scene to run against him. Reagan instantly became a hero to me, so I've never voted for a democrat for anything. My whole family is registered Republican now, however my sister married into a prominent Dem family 5 years ago, so she may have gone red, I don't bring it up much.

[adam stevens]

I guess I considered myself liberal up to September 11 but I wasn't active in politics at all. In 88, I voted for Bush, 92 Clinton, 96 Clinton, 2000 Bush.

[SoDak]

I felt the same way as a kid. I despised hippies because they hated my country. I knew that already as a 6 or 7 year old.

[stylin19a]

I'll tell ya this right now.
When I'm on my death-bed, I will resign as a Repub and register as a RAT.
It's better that a RAT dies, than a good Rrepublican.

[MrB]

sound and reasonable economic principle

I have had another enlightening experience re: economic theory while reading Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone.
It explains why some things work, why some things don't, and why politicians support things that (they know) don't work.

[KoestlersRedFiat]

No, I had a crappy American car...a 1989 Ford Tempo.

Thanks for the pic.