Lonewolf Diaries: Being 21, Conservative and Marginalized (Thanks Obama)!

Steven – You are to be admired for the clarity of thought that you possess at such a young age. Please continue to try and reach people your age via YouTube, etc. Even though I can only imagine how tough it to read or listen to your critics, your efforts are greatly appreciated from this side.

I think if we are ever going to be able to bring the US back to the “right” side, we definitely need younger voices such as your’s and Alonzo “Zo” Rachel’s leading the way in the electronic realm that so many live their lives within.

Keep up the good work.

Just went to see Dennis Miller perform last month. He was pretty awesome, Muslim jokes and all.

I became a conservative when I went through ROTC in college in the late 80’s. Pretty easy to stay conservative when you stay in the Army life for 22 years (not counting ROTC).

God Bless the USA.

I became a con when a friend of mine caused me to rethink my life. I asked him: “What sentence would you use to describe me?” His reply: “Pigs don’t know pigs stink” God Bless you Dave. May you rest in peace.

BTW: Why are you surprised about getting bounced in The People’s Republic of Austin? Austin gave us Molly Ivins, LBJ, and Ann Richards. ‘Nuff said.

BTW2: You think your alone, try being black and convervative in ATX.

Hi my name is June, and I’m a conservative. (Hi June!)
I was brought up right by two hard working blue collar parents that did everything in their power to put three daughters through college. They instilled in us morals and values… things that many liberals “think” that they have, but they are fooling themselves.
I am married to a Lt. Col in the Air Force who comes from a severly disabled, I mean liberal family.
We are attacked pretty much every time we talk to any of them for our beliefs… which is a pretty good reason to not talk to them.
Just the other day my husband’s uncle yelled at him for not voting for Barry because my husband is Puerto Rican and therefore “he is pretty much black.” True story. That is what his uncle said to him. *Shudder*

I am telling you… that kool-aide that Obama is making is strong.

God help us.

Glenn Kenny, if you can’t understand the cult like following Obama has going right now and what he plans to do, then yes, I agree 1000% with Rush that Obama’s vision of America fails. A man who puts in place socialists that are answerable only to him to run the EPA and naming Eric Effing Holder as his Attorney General and having a tax cheat run the Treasury…we should just sit by and not say a word?

I am a classic Reagan conservative. Was liberal through college but once in the real world and away from the liberal echo chamber, I became a conservative on my own through reading and reasoning. But please don’t think that all conservatives have to believe in god nor that all those who don’t hate those that do. Cheers and keep up the good fight.

great idea for the confession in the comments.

I became a conservative during the second year of my PhD work. It was the late 90’s, I was in my mid-20’s, and I was in a well-funded scientific research dept at a large state university.
As a guy who has always prided himself in being pragmatic and questioning dogma, I was amazed at the completely emotionally-driven and illogical political/social stances of my professors and colleagues — and surprised at their inability to engage in an open discussion without getting all emotional, bent out of shape and resorting to name-calling. I couldn’t believe that the supposed intellectuals could not hold a civil and thoughtful discussion on these subjects ON A UNIVERSITY CAMPUS.
And, in EVERY case, they were knee-jerk liberals. So I discovered that as a reasoned thinker, I must be conservative. If I have to wear a label, I’d call myself a free-market, tiny government libertarian.

I grew up in a very strict religious household, and spent my whole childhood and adolescence rebelling against it. So, in 2004, when my older sister found out that I voted for Bush, not Kerry, she was pleasantly surprised.
I explained it to her thusly: “My mischievous nature pushes me to take the contrarian view to the establishment, and in academia, the establishment is totalitarian liberal.”

Slight typo in my first post: That would be “Franklin Delano Roosevelt”. Sorry, historians.

My parents were conservatives, so I grew up with that point of view. When it came time for me to register to vote, I became a Republican. I have since learned through thought and experience that conservatism is the intelligent way to think. I have several liberal relatives with whom I cannot converse on anything political because they become too hysterical. I listen to Rush Limbaugh as often as I can because he often agrees with my opinions and I enjoy his humor. Right now I am nearly in despair over the state of the country, but just knowing that there are other people out there just as worried as I am, helps a lot. I find that on the political spectrum, I am right of the current Republican Party leadership and members of Congress, but I am not a libertarian.

I grew up in a small town full of cows and cowboys in the 80’s. I was the only guy in high school wearing Z Cavariccis and skinny ties. MTV showed music videos. (Boy George was gay??!!) My history teacher was a consertive who led the young republicans meetings after classes. (I never did go though, too busy perfecting my Duran Duran John Taylor hairdo.) He brought a lot of his thinking to the clasroom, (only acceptable now if you are a history revisionist and bleeding heart, I love parenthesis), and it gave a lot of color to his lectures. I thought “I hope I’m that smart when I’m his age”. I grew up and went to college in the big city and realized if I’m gonna be a smart adult, then stop listening to these college professors whine about Reagan and remember high school history. Been conservative ever since. I’m sure these days he’s unemployable as a teacher, but I thank him for for encouraging me how to think sensibly rather than emotionally.

54 years old, knowingly conservative about 29 years.
Someone above said they were conservative because they didn’t fall in with the statas quo when they were in high school. I must have been conservative longer than I know because I specifically didn’t go see Star Wars for example, when it first came out because everyone else was. I thought and acted that way about a lot of things.
So much to say….. I decided to post something when I see this Glenn Kenny guy, classic liberal. I mean, don’t confuse him with the facts now….. (referring to his having read Limbaugh’s interview then claiming Rush doesn’t mean it). Obviously this guy is fooled.
I started listening to Rush back when some of these posters were still residue on their daddy’s hankies. Some liberal lightweight arts and croissant film critic or whatever this guy is isn’t going to wrankle him.
Despise him, ridicule him (liberals like that, it doesn’t require substance), call him names, stomp your feet or whatever. Limbaugh knows what he believes and where he stands. He doesn’t need to be in “the crowd”.
I agree, I want Obama’s “P O L I C I E S” to fail, not the guy so much. I actually feel sort of sorry for the beloved leader. Not for the arts and croissant guys though. When they’re losing their homes and livelyhoods because beloved leader can’t provide for everyone and taxes are still going up, don’t say we didn’t tell you so.

I was pretty leftie in high school. I was apathetic politically, but was big into music, skateboarding, bmx, all the usual fun ways of hurting yourself. The kids who shared these pursuits tend to be leftward. I thought what they said made sense, outside of abortion and guns (I was all for redistribution of wealth, welfare, wimpy foreign policy, because that’s what everyone else believed. Until then, I had never heard the other side, mainly because I never heard it through school).

After that, I fell in love with cars. I became a major gearhead and purchased a late 60s Mustang. This was my first schism with the cool crowd, who immediately saw me as some major league threat to the environment. Given, my Mustang ran great because it was tuned up, was low mileage, had a rebuilt carb and new exhaust. All the while they piled into Volkswagon minibuses that burned more oil than Iraq in the Gulf War. Nothing says environmental awareness like a 30-year-old minibus, leaking every fluid possible, all at 10 mpg with a “Keep Mother Earth Clean,” and “GREENPEACE” bumper stickers adorning the back door. The lurch right starter there but the full realization came later and gradually.

The years after that, I watched a lot of John Wayne. I worked in a gas station with a guy who watched a lot of John Wayne, a former vet, who set me straight on quite a few things. I had a lot of positive male rolemodels who worked real jobs and were real men. What helped was I was willing to listen. That earned their respect.

The moment it all finally came together, I was innocently flipping channels early in the Clinton years. Rush Limbaugh was on Phil Donahue or whatever and had the audience seething. Listening to Phil and his acolytes, then listening to Rush I saw the defiance, common sense, the confidence – everything that public schools had tried beating out of me for years. That moment I became a rugged individualist. It wasn’t so much Rush’s ideas that people were upset about, it was him. He was confident. He didn’t hate, he didn’t feel victimized. He was his own man, in control. I didn’t know better, you would almost think it was jealousy. I saw myself in that.

Since then, I’ve been in the newspaper business. The next fellow reporter that tells me they are conservative will be the first. Lonely? Not really. I can go to bed at night knowing I’m in control of my life, that I can do what I want and that I can do it in a country, thanks to brave men better than me, who made it possible. I’m not a victim, I don’t have a boogey man after me. The world isn’t going to end tomorrow and I don’t have to lose sleep because of some crisis. I don’t need the government. To me, that’s peace of mind, something no liberal can give you, but you have to give yourself.

No question, being a liberal is a lot easier. That’s one of the reasons why I hate that whole type of thinking

Stick to your guns, kid. I was a lifelong liberal Democrat activist. UC Berkeley grad (class of ‘66). The town I came from was very conservative, so most of us went somewhere else to be with our fellow liberals. After college graduation, we drifted off in different geographical directions. In the past couple of years, I have somehow run into old friends from those days. Imagine their shock when I didn’t agree with them on very much of anything politically anymore. Two years into the Clinton administration, I switched parties. It’s taken me some soul-searching to realize that my goals never changed. I had just stayed in the Democrat party out of inertia without realizing that the party had turned sharply to the left,and had become good at talking the talk without walking the walk. I had some really serious answers for my old friends when they asked me why I changed parties. But I found it easier and much more plausible simply to admit “I sobered up.” Back then I had Nixon and Ford and Dole to parody. You have much better material available to you in the first President who can walk on water. Don’t let the bastards get you down. America will wake up from its coma and realize that Obama is not only easy to make jokes about–he IS a joke. The photo negative of Alfred E. Newman. Now THAT’S funny.

I forgot to open the invitation to those of yall stuck on your blue islands…come down south! We have lots of sun, gorgeous women (spend a weekend in Dallas I promise it’ll blow your mind) and conservatism is like oxygen, we’ve been breathing it since birth. Just learn to say “yall”, flatten your “I’s” out a little bit when you talk (just speak kinda slowly in general, like its 100 degrees outside cause it most likely IS), and you’ll fit right in. Bring it on. We want you (even if you are a yankee).

Perhaps, Steven, it wouldn’t hurt if you did do some waitering…the idea being to learn a little of life and people firsthand.
The thing about ‘conservatism’ is that one should, and usually does, come to it later in life, after having tried on the other -isms.

To talk of Conservatism at your age is to speak without really knowing..

I became a conservative in my early 30s when I moved to San Francisco. At the time of my move, I was still such a lefty that I registered as a member of the Green party. However, as I began to look around my new city, I saw the consequences of the things I had been preaching for years. I discovered that if the government simply gave people cash, there was little motivation for many of them to do anything but hang out and do drugs in the park all day. Meanwhile, the rest of us were just expected to support such “lifestyle choices.” Add to those circumstances the Clinton impeachment that was happening at the time (and which, as a lawyer, I supported). The bloated government, the lies, and the general filth of San Francisco soon worked their magic, and I moved over to the right.

Oh, and if you think being an actor/comedian and conservative is difficult (and I don’t doubt that it is), try being gay and conservative sometime. I’ve found that “tolerance” and “diversity” evidently do not include conservative philosophy.

I stopped trying to debate with my leftist friends at an early age, because they so seldom made any attempt to use logic. When the default response to your reasoned argument is “You’re sick.” you quickly get the idea and just stop talking about politics.

Since then I just pretend that I have no politics and treat encounters with the ideologs and atheists with scientific detachment; as a kind of anthropological study. This is advantageous as it allows you to poke and probe at the libs basic assumptions while not triggering their defense mechanisms.

The best encounters of this type have taken place on the train -it’s a pleasant environment and nobody can run away. I had dinner with a couple of dyed in the wool New England socialists. The next day we had breakfast together and the husband told me that he had stayed awake all night thinking about what I had to say.

I never had a “moment” where I knew I was conservative. Mine was a process of steadily moving away from the Democrat party.

I grew up in The South where Democrats were often not Liberals.

As a teen and early college student in the 1980s, I was quickly drifting away from the Democrat party over foreign policy issues. Liberalism seemed way off the mark when it came to the Soviet Union and the “revolutionary struggles” in third world countries the world over.

But, my self-awareness as a conservative came in stages as I realized that the Democrat party had decided increasingly to speak for fringe elements in the society. It went, in my view, from being the party of the working man to the party of elitists (like the Hollywood sect) and special interest groups.

They still managed from time to time to talk like they had the common man’s interest at heart, but it became obvious this was condescension (and that they actually dislike the common man).

Their inability to understand the lessons of the fall of global communism and socialist ideals eventually pushed me to the point of thinking conservatism really needs to get off its ass and jump back into the arena in defining what Americanism(s) is all about. They did so during the Cold war but have given up pretty much the last two decades.

As for difficulty in being conservative, there hasn’t been much for me. Except for living abroad and in Hawaii, I’ve spent most of my life in The South where conservatives make up a fair portion of the society.

I did see problems in higher education as I worked my way up the ladder in graduate school, and the grind of knowing I was always going to have different ideas on a whole range of issues from pretty much every professor in any department I studied in was one factor in deciding to stop working for a Ph’D. But, I always spoke my mind and wrote the research papers as I saw fit. It was a grind always finding myself on the opposite side of so many profs – even when I tried to pick safe topics to work on – but in the graduate schools and departments I studied in, there were enough moderate to conservative grad students to hang around for moral support, (and no matter what level of extra difficulty I’d encounter when trying to write a paper I knew my prof disagreed with, you were always assured to make an A or B).

Jimmy Carter was my defining moment. I realized that I was sick and tired of having a president who shambled around apologizing for our country and talking about malaise. Then it became very clear to me that someone who is pro-life like me has no place at all in the Democratic party. They would throw me under the bus without a qualm. Then came Reagan, and I was converted.

Katie-O: My dad used to buy 25 cent used paperbacks of Atlas Shrugged and keep them in the trunk of his car, to hand out to people he thought would learn/enjoy it. He always said, “This book will change your life!”

I clearly remember him giving a copy to my babysitter (what was I, maybe 6?) and she wrote him a long letter thanking him.

My dad passed away in July of 2000, and four months later, with the November presidential debacle, I was missing him sooo much. He would really have enjoyed it.

cheers.

I remember arguing, in grade school, that Nixon would be a better president than Carter. I joined the Marines in 1981 and I haven’t had to prove anything to anyone ever since. Have a great day!

My first real thought about conservative thinking came when my grandfather told a joke at one of our families’ Thanksgiving dinners.Gramps asked his liberal Democrat brother “you know when a liberal becomes a conservative?”, Uncle Bud says “no”, well Gramps says “when you begin to make a little money and want to keep some for yourself”. Then around 1979, I tried to buy my first home, interest rates were double digits and had to put the purchase on the back burner.Then a vote for the “Gipper” and the rest is history.

Been conservative ever since 7th grade. My Dad was wrapped up in an affirmative action suit that was tried (true story) in the following manner:

The city’s affirmative action enforcement team (Human Relations Board) sent testers to apply for jobs, then they sued anyone that didn’t offer to hire the tester. The tester they sent to my Dad’s office wanted a job as a long haul truck driver. He had no CDL, no verifiable driving record, a felony record for manslaughter, and a chronic and unstable low back injury. To be a truck driver, you need to pass DOT requirements (healthy back and 1 year verifiable truck driving experience) and you need to be bondable (no felonies). Dad didn’t offer him a job.

The trial had three judges, two were members of the Human Relations Board, and one was a law professor from Creighton. The trial was prosecuted by a member of the HRB. After the first day of the trial, my Dad was calleld a racist on the local news. After the second day of the trial, the kangaroos at court admitted that my Dad did nothing wrong and dropped the matter. Surprisingly, the TV station didn’t cover that part.

I told this to my social studies teacher who shrugged it off and implied that my Dad was probably racist and that black people shouldn’t have to live by the same rules that everyone else had to.

It was that day that made me hate journalists and liberals.

I became a fiscal conservative during pre-med when I worked summers in a lumber yard. We had a wet spring so the construction season was delayed. We had a week of insane OT. I pulled 20 hours of OT that week. I soo looked forward to that check. When it came, I opened the envelope, checked the hours, and the gross, both correct. I looked at the net, and it was about $20 more than normal. All of my OT went to Uncle Sam. That point made me realize why we need simpler and fairer taxes.

I began my evolution into conservatism as a freshman in college when I picked up a copy of Alexander Solzhenitzyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago” in the early 1970’s. Solzhenitzyn was at the time still a darling of the MSM; shortly after, he condemned Western society for “turning away from God” at an Ivy League commencement address, and disappeared from the view of our “free” press like a Soviet apparatchik in a Stalin-era group photo.
I could only read “Gulag” in short chunks, as the information therein was such a shock to my liberal system of beliefs about how the world operated. Those who think that all we need to do confront evil is to sit down and talk out our differences with our enemies need to read how well that turned out for the Kerenskyites and the Social Revolutionaries who tried that approach with Lenin and the Bolscheviks.
It was a lonely time to be a conservative. Ronald Reagan had just left the Governor’s mansion in California, and would not reappear on the national stage for eight years.
Fear not! This time we won’t have to wait that long.

Loved the Alfred E. Newman joke. That’s better than my desciption. I always thought of Obama as “Jimmy Carter with Shoe Polish”.

I checked out your youtube channel. You are great! I am going to turn all of my freinds on to you.

Regards,
Tralfazzz

My son, like you , is a smart, articulate conservative. He struggles with this everyday at college, so I am sending your column to him.

I and 55 and grew up in a Republican household. But at about 20 I changed my registration to Democrat, probably more to be unlike my parents than anything else. I was not far left, but followed the mainstream liberal thought during my 20’s.

But during my 30s I matured and had to be honest with myself. I could not accept the liberal lines any more. The turning point was the OJ criminal trial, and the LA NOW president Tammy Bruce’s vigil against domestic abuse. NOW fired her for being racist. Racial politics trumped women’s rights on abuse.

Once I believed this was wrong and hypocritical, all of the left’s mostly bumper stick positions quickly fell for me as well. I changed my party affiliation and voted conservative since.

For me being liberal is the easy way of dealing with life. It takes some principles and discipline to be conservative, because it is based on personal responsibility.

Steven, I think became a conservative when I saw those (in the pop culture) who opposed my developing Christian beliefs as a teenager. My first vote was for Reagan in 1984, and I haven’t looked back. I spent 10 1/2 years working as a letter carrier as part of a very Democrat-leaning union, and received a great deal of abuse my last few years, because of some coworkers’ hatred for George W. Bush. It always struck me how miserable they were. I wasn’t miserable when Clinton was President, so it didn’t make sense to me, except perhaps that their close-minded liberalism contributed to their misery. Even with Obama in the White House, I will choose to be happy. God bless you, and if you get a gig in the Minneapolis area give a shout.

Quote by
“srgntpoliteness – January 28th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Steven,

I can guarantee you, with 100% certainty, that your comedy career is going no where. Your lack of success in that field make you feel all sad because nobody cares/doesn’t agree with what you say. Now you come on this slanderous website and post a little rant about having to protect your right to go to the NASCAR race or jaw on about how George W. can’t protect us from the Al-Qaedas no more. I would recommend a McDonald’s application in your particular situation, because conservative, Caucasian, males probably don’t want to be seen at Taco Bell. If you want to brush up on your supposed craft and try your hand at some real comedy/social commentary, listen to some Bill Hicks or George Carlin. Those names are probably blasphemous to your little conservative ears and all, but anybody bold enough to stand on stage and try to make a joke about somebody being a photo negative you jaded racist, you would do yourself well to take some notes from them. It could do nothing but help you, if there is any hope for you at all. But, you can get an application at any McDonald’s. They are on every corner and they won’t ask you to impress them with your jokes or pick on you for your beliefs. They just need somebody to make fries, flip burgers, answer the drive through and clean up the lobby. You will make a better living. You are not funny, yes, nobody cares about your past, present or future no matter how much you video blog or post on the irrelevant and bitter excuse of a website.

Thanks, but no thanks,
SrgntP.
Peeeaaace

” Unquote

This, is a pure example of the ‘useful idiot’ (see above). Liberalism will rally around, use complete negativity, try to denouce and demolish someone rather than try to help them. Oh, and to this useful idiot, you have no idea about conservatism. George W Bush WAS AND IS NOT a conservative. Because you have been programmed that way, makes you blind in the fact about the late great George Carlin. He, was about 80% conservative (given you understand what conservatism is). Conservatism is about using reason, logic, and language, which that is exactly what George Carlin was about. So, again, the useful idiot making reference he knows nothing about. Syntax error in your programming maybe?

Steven and to many others reading/posting on here, I have a message for you: continue to be true to yourselves. Conservatism is only a dirty word for those immersed in filth, because, it threatens to clean them. Only through continued faith and resolve in yourself, can you maintain your sanity and your identity. That, is the last great deception of liberalism: the lies of self worth and identity. This is exactly what liberalism does not want to see. Why? You aren’t part of the ‘in crowd’ anymore.

If any liberal wishes to debate me further on this, reply to me. I’ll then post my email address, and feel free to debate-that is, if you are sufficiently prepared to meet me. I’ve extended the same offer to thousands of liberals throughout the years. If you haven’t heard of Hause, consider it your introduction. I am one conservative that does not back down or himmmmhawwww at any gauntlet.

I was never really into politics up until about the end of my undergraduate years. My mother and her family are all liberals; my dad and his family are all conservatives. I got no clear message on politics except, “People yell at each other because of it.” It registered as kind of a vague amusement or annoyance, depending on the situation.

Growing up, I took the anarchist line–not out of any real conviction, but as a strategy, I suppose, of not having to agree with anyone while still being cool. I just didn’t like or care about politics.

But clearly, as an anarchist, I was never comfortable with lefties. Righties never really bothered me; but then again, I never knew any (I grew up in California). In any case, temperamentally, I was always inclined to fall back on the lame “They’re all the same, etc.” line, which is really a rationalization of thoughtlessness and apathy presented as proper thoughtful cynicism.

My awakening, such as it was, came as a result of two incidents in college. First, a debate was staged between the three conservatives at my small liberal arts school and a handful of lefties. From the audience, I watched as the audience hurled invective at and shout down the conservatives (one of whom was actually a liberal acting like a conservative, because there weren’t enough conservatives at the school to fill the panel–go figure. I was disgusted, on principle. The next day, one of the conservatives had the tires on his car slashed.

The next experience was another debate put on by a friend of mine who was a Resident Advisor. One of the kids made reference to Isamic terrorism, and people in the audience were hurt and started to cry. They complained, my friend was summoned, and promptly fired from his RA position.

That was it for the Left as far as I was concerned. But it made me no more inclined to conservatism.

Conservatism came simply when I decided to learn about things. It was a relatively smooth process, and I had basically no ideology to lose or defend. As Obama says, I just went with what “worked.”

Thomas Sowell played a big role; Victor Davis Hanson; and my classical education–especially Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle. I think Theodore Dalrymple sealed the deal for me (“Life at the Bottom”).

Oh, and I almost forgot–reading about Communism. Yeah, that was probably the biggest thing, in retrospect. Reading Richard Pipes and Robert Conquest put a scare in me something fierce. Fierce. Strange to say, but my conservatism began in 2004-ish as anti-communism.

That then segued into learning about totalitarianism in general, Islamism, and the collusion of the Left in modern anti-semitism (“Anti-Zionism”). David Solway wrote a really good book on a similar path taken, if anyone’s interested (Hey, why isn’t he on bighollywood by the way?).

Thanks for reading.

test

Ronald Regan

Need I say More.

I was born in the 70’s so Regan was not really something I understood. However now, it is something I see as that way I like things run, looking back. I was raised by conservative parents, but was always told to explore and understand things on my own – [absolutely no indoctrination, my parents bought me a Green Peace book once...] When I was younger, I remember once asking who they voted for. My mom told me, voting is a private thing, and that it was not really anyone else’s business. That answer angered me at the time, but honestly now… I get it. Really though, I doubt my mom could ever vote democrat, she would probably keel over.

So as I grew older, I generally voted republican, have voted democrat a few times in local or state elections, but never for president. I always voted republican there, until this year [no, not Obama]. I was fortunate; I went to one of the Concordia’s, a private Lutheran college, so being what I would call a moderate conservative was never a problem.

After school, when I started paying taxes and fending for myself, and in turn dealing with some of rather daffy liberal friends [Teachers], I came to realize I am one of the worst kind of conservative out there: the Conservative/Libertarian Scientist [Geneticist]. I thrive on logic and reason, and I can tell you now if you call a liberal’s emotions into question during a debate and make them squirm, it is really amusing and entertaining. Please try it, you won’t be disappointed.

I was raised in a conservative home, went through the typical rebellion in my teens in which I drifted away from the core values that were taught, but in my early 20’s I returned to conservatism. My brush with liberalism (and a moderate one at that) was restrictive – not following party lines was unthinkable, not falling in line with every DNC party platform was treated with disdain, ridicule, and mockery. These people were suppose to be my friends, but my pro-life stance was like leprosy.

I rather like thinking for myself. Conservatism gives me that freedom. I do not toe the party line, but that matters little to my friends and family with whom I openly disagree on a few hot-button issues. I am not looked at with disdain, I am not mocked. Open and lively discussions end with a shrug and a ‘live and let live’ attitude.

In my experience, conservatives are the ones who truly honor the spirit of the first amendment. There were no calls from politicians to stop listening to Air America. There were no organized attacks from Capital Hill against, say, Randi Rhodes or Al Franken or Daily Kos when Republicans were in control. President Bush never openly derided Alan Colmes, no matter what he may have thought privately. President Obama and his fairness doctrine minions apparently don’t hold the same belief in the first amendment as I do. It is why they will never get my vote.

The truest test of one’s belief in the first amendment is the lengths that you will go to do defend someone with whom you do NOT agree. Defending those you agree with is easy. My liberal friends (the few that I have left after saying that I wasn’t voting for Obama – yes, I lost friends over that, thanks for the tolerance) should be disgusted and ashamed about Pelosi’s fairness doctrine rejuvination, yet they are not. Last time I checked, dissent was still patriotic. Funny how that’s not the case anymore.

Chowder, you’re a joke.

The guy goes on humourless rants raging against elitist lefties but the second someone challenges him on his YT page he bans them. He can dish it but like most right-wing infants, he can’t take it.

He’s not an entertainer cause he’s not entertaining and he’s definitely not funny cause he’s too bitter.

In 1976, our class had a mock presidential election. I was the only one who stood in the Republican corner. After the teacher cajoled some, a few others came over. Many booed me as I stood my ground.

I don’t do groupthink, hate the false cheering or boosterism and won’t do halleluahs either. I was looked down upon at a fair for not standing up for the “Proud to be an American” song. It doesn’t change much even today.

To Todd Robbins: Enjoyed your story, but just to be nice you should probably apologize to CCFK. Not just for exercising your free speech, but for existing. I’d be willing to bet you a cup of coffee that CCFK wears a beret. People such as this tend to make me question my anti-abortion views. As Arsenio Hall used to say: “Things that make you go Hmmmm….”.

Regards,
Tralfazzz

I became a conservative after 20 years of being a pretty serious liberal democrat on 9/11/2001. Bill Clinton did ZERO to prevent it, despite the two attacks during his adminstration and despite the CIA warnings – and yes, there were warnings – check out Kofer Blacks testimony at the 9/11 Commission hearings. It was a pretty cold shower when I realized that my belief system was completely backwards. I know it’s horrible to credit 9/11, but honestly, you would think there would have been millions of converts after that. The democrats have everything wrong, particularly why muslim extremists hate the US. (note to the left: It’s not Bush’s fault)

And, like any good convert to anything, I’m completely fanatical. My husband, a somewhat liberal Republican, finds me pretty amusing. Note to Bob’s Kid – my husband graduated Cal in 1969 and was in Naval ROTC and went on to do three tours in Vietnam. Anything is possible.

Little late posting on this thread, but here goes.

I’m lucky enough to have always been conservative. My Dad came back to America after WWII (he had been living on the family farm in Ukraine), and initially was a Democrat. After being here a number of years and surveying the scene, he became a Republican. Run forward to the early 70’s when my brother and I were born. My Dad’s greatest worry was that liberalism would lead to socialism and communism and he had done that. He’d been in the underground and had friends killed and blown up by the Soviets simply because Ukraine wanted her freedom; he met people who had been starved in Stalin’s great famine; he had been in a German labour camp and the pictures of him as he arrived in America are startling. My handsome, strapping dad was almost a skeleton, with his belt cinched so tight to keep his trousers on that there were folds of extra fabric around his thin waist, a hunted look in his eyes. He truly feared the rise of socialism, and he and my mother listened to the news (WINS in NY a lot), and talked politics. He was so pleased when Ronald Reagan was elected; here was someone who really understood the lie that is communism. My father was extremely bright, and hard working; he could do complicated calculations with ease, had a beautiful trained voice, (low bass), spoke several languages, was a great chess player (to say nothing of the Risk games where he could wipe us all out with ease) and was great with carpentry, fixing cars and welding… he even painted and sketched. In short, there wasn’t much he couldn’t do or attempt, but socialism… I think that was the only thing that he really feared and worried about. I’ve read some Solzhenitsyn and the few stories my dad shared were chilling, as Solzhenitsyn’s are.

I grew up in NJ, and I was definitely in the minority. Being a bit precocious about current events, more so than my otherwise occupied fellow school mates, I was often ridiculed when I would argue that no, Ronald Reagan wasn’t going to lead us to nuclear war with his rhetoric against the Soviet Union. Sadly my father died suddenly in 1984, and the first hand wisdom and stories I should have enjoyed and taken to heart when I was older – about communism and totalitarianism and Ukraine – died with him.

Although I have softened on some social issues (I used to think drug users should be executed; I am a bit more libertarian in my views about that now!), I haven’t changed my mind about who I am, what’s important and why I’m a Republican. I live in Washington state now, another liberal infested state, and even some of my very best friends haven’t spared me from jabs or thoughtlessness concerning my views. Recently, the maid of honour at my wedding, a close friend of mine for over 16 years, cancelled definite plans at the last minute to come over and see us, (just 2 hours before we expected her), so she could be up early and at a friends house for Obama’s inauguration, even though months ago she strongly disliked him. Party affiliation is the thickest blood of all, I guess.

I’ve been to parties where people, knowing my politics, have loudly stated how they think anyone who is a Republican should be prohibited from voting. The ironic thing is that these people, including my maid of honour, (we’ll call her ‘Denise’) think they are far more educated about politics than I am. “People ask me for my opinion on current events”, ‘Denise’ said to me last year with a straight face, “because they know I have a subscription to ‘Time’ and read it religiously.” When she called to cancel our plans however, and began talking about the inauguration, she admitted she didn’t know the process necessary to get to that point (certifying the results, the Electoral college process, etc). And, despite the fact that she and her husband are always marveling at the history and general knowledge my husband and I seem to have (we read a LOT, about nearly every topic you can imagine, and my husband’s father had a PhD in history), she’s never interested in how it is that two people she apparently has admiration for can be Republicans. The few conversations we’ve had about politics over the years have generally been along the lines of how she thought it was awesome that Clinton went on MTV, while Bush the First showed he was out of touch with his response. When my husband mentioned my blog site at one point, she commented she wouldn’t go read it, because it ‘would make her mad’. Oh well. What’s ironic that that they’re considering a private school for their near school-age son. Her husband has made some noise that he finds libertarianism interesting, so we’ll see.

To me, being a Republican has always been about personal freedom and choice; the opportunity to make errors and learn from them and to take risks and reap rewards – it works both ways. My husband says liberalism is a luxury and he’s right; liberalism operates almost entirely in a made up world called utopia. It doesn’t deal with real problems, people or desires; to liberals all people are the same, to be fitted with the same options, healthcare and results. I utterly reject that.

There’s more to the story and I could go on, but this is already too long so I’ll just say this…

The only person you can rely on is yourself and placing trust in government is a fools errand. Being a Republican means you’re in charge of your destiny; being a liberal means you are subject to the whims of your government. I chose the former, for better or worse.