Well said, Mitch... from someone who put up a "Impeach Reagan" sign in my dorm room window the week before the Iran Contra story broke. It's not better to have started on the left and veered right, although with my family and public school background I don't know how I could have started anywhere but on the left. Neither is it worse. I think all the stories of 'I used to hate Reagan but now I admirer him immensely' are partly a function of the demographics of the blogosphere. A lot of bloggers and blog readers were around college age during the Reagan years, and are now professionals, family people, and well versed in history and current events. The facts we have seen in the intervening 16 years contradicted many of our long held assumptions. I did a project for high school social studies which was a series of anti-Reagan political cartoons. I got an A+ from an ecstatic teacher. My work as a 15 year old puts Ted Rall's current work to shame for artistic ability (then again my 5 year old daughter puts Rall to shame for artistic ability). And they make me cringe to think of them now. Unfortunately it took me longer to change sides than you, but at least I got here!

I heard this somewhere, and now cannot find it (someone out there is getting ripped off):
When you are young, if you are not a Liberal, you have no heart. When you are older, if you are not a Conservative, you have no brain.

When someone you loved dies, you tell stories about your experiences with him. For many of us, it was Reagan who first made it clear to us that liberalism wasn't about compassion, it was about power and the manipulation of the poor for political ends. And that Communism was just as bad as our grandparents had said, darn it. So we tell those stories. That's what Reagan meant to us. And frankly, JB's article offended me. I particulary disliked his use of the term "having religion". The only people who use that phrase are people who don't "have it".

Well said, Mitch. I too felt a certain sting after reading J.B.'s post. Since Elder mentioned you, me, and Lilek's in his "converts" post, I figured our buddy must have been aiming that cheap shot at us.

I had sent some birds up North to retaliate for the attack. Unfortunately, it appears they targeted the wrong Frater's blogger and ended up assaulting the Atomizer by mistake. (http://www.fraterslibertas.com/2004_06_01_archive.html#108684558680965316)

Your comment about legal immigrants making the best Americans reminds me both of my Armenian grandmother -- still the greatest patriot I've ever known, since I never met the Gipper and he never met my grandmother -- and your picking up the Ed Crane line (from PJ O'Rourke's Age, Guile and A Bad Haircut...):

"Damn it, these people [Cuban rafters and Haitian boat people] get on board things made out of oil drums, orange crates, balsa wood, and cardboard boxes; they cross hundreds of miles of shark-infested ocean, suffer hunger, thirst, and exposure, and brave treacherous currents, high seas, and storms just to come to America. I say they're citizens. Give them their passports right on the Florida beach -- no oaths, no exams, no forms to fill out. These are the kind of people we want in America!"

I cast my first vote at the age of 18 for Ronald Reagan and never looked back. The old liberal heart / conservative head canard(Churchill, I believe) sounds good, but this heart beat true-blue for Ronnie at a young age, despite that.

I didn't have to eat the spoiled tofu in the back of the fridge to know it would make me sick. Maybe my roommate learned something by puking for 2 days straight, but I figured my brain and heart were on the right path even if I didn't experience those intestinal cramps first-hand.

Leftism is the e. coli of the body politic.

I was always a _social_ conservative. But back in the Cretaceous Era when I was growing up, it was possible to be against abortion and to consider homosexuality deviant, and still vote Democrat. It had been explained to me by college teachers that Christian ethics demanded high taxes and a welfare state, and I had believed those things. During the Reagan years, although I still voted "D", I found myself more and more frequently agreeing with Reagan and being offended by my allies. It gradually dawned on me that I was a Republican. Meanwhile it was dawning on the Democrats that all evangelical Christians are sociopaths. The parting was inevitable.

Wrooongg!!!

Mitch this is exactly what JB and I were talking about that lead up to his post. It's okay that you and many other present day conservatives once had a liberal past. But you're not better people nor better conservatives for it. We're glad that you've come to your senses and seen the light. You were on the wrong side of history at one time. Thankfully you realized the error of your ways and won't be relegated to its ash heap.

But please don't wear the fact that you once were card carrying liberals, Trotskyites, or even communists as some kind of badge of honor. It should not be a part of your past that you take pride in. Rather you should admit that you were wrong and that those of us you opposed, ridiculed, and condescended to in your more "enlightened" days were right. Look, we were manning the ramparts and fighting the good fight when y'all were off being seduced by the siren song of the left. All we're looking for is a little thanks and an acknowledgment that...

You were wrong.

P.S. Knowing Atomizer as well as I do, I don't believe that the bird attack was organized by Joe Carter. In fact the bird did not attack Atomizer in order to harm him. It was probably thinking that it could carry him back to its nest and feed its youngins. A sparrow could probably handle that kind of load.

I originally intended for the first line to be delivered in the voice of John McLaughlin and the "You were wrong" line in the voice of John Kerry by using HTML brackets(><), but apparently this comments software interprets text as HTML code. Sorry for any confusion.

The conversion from the left to the right is important. Whittaker Chambers is the best example I can think of. It should not be surprising that many of the converts were raised in liberal households and educated by liberal teachers, so your whole worldview is liberal: that describes much of the US in the 1960s.

And so you become one yourself. Orwell recognized this problem in those generations raised in a socialist state who do not notice the absence of liberty, and do not miss it.

It takes a series of events that cast doubt on one's belief system to bring rise to the necessary epiphany. Reagan and the fall of the USSR was such an event. Be glad for it.

"I was country before country was cool" may have some idiosyncratic appeal, but it strikes me as the same sort of complaint that people have when their favorite indy band got popular. And they seemed to be not as good anymore, simply because of the loss of exclusivity.

I was a "Reaganite" as a kid when he was My Governor. I take great pride in the fact that I knew truth from fiction and had an understanding of history at an early age. We appreciate that it took others time to make that journey out of the darkness and out of liberalism and appeasement, and finally see the light, but those of us who figured it out early deserve credit for making The Reagan Revolution happen. Everyone else is, as Mitch would say, a "Fair Weather Fan"

But there's a point here, Elder. Two of the most eloquent speakers against the Left are reformed leftists themselves, raised in Lefty families -- David Horowitz and Joshua Muravchik. I took a course in Marxian philosophy specifically to learn why it was wrong -- that's part of what took me into graduate work in economics. People who know how the Left argues are better able to argue against it.

Sounds like a third-hour topic.

JB - sure you can't make it to town next weekend?

If it were not for Reagan Republicans,
there would be no Reagan Democrats.

Without converts to conservatism, there'd be no Reagan Legacy, and there wouldn't have been any landslides in the first place.

But I'll tell you what; you go back to the womb, and come out in a Democrat family. See whether you're all conservative from birth.

Deal?

Mitch,

If you can arrange it so I can start my life over, you got a deal. If not, I will just have to be happy with my sanctimonious, self-righteous "I was conservative before conservative was cool" attitude.

What about all those who have now converted to the right who were raised in solid conservative families, yet sought the solace of the left as a way to rebel against their parents? The ones who went off to college and "learned" about the evils of America, capitalism, and religion. Most of the people raising kids in the 60's would probably not be described as liberal, and yet that is what many of their kids turned out to be.

Pogo's "I was country before country was cool" analogy is not applicable in this situation. People who once embraced punk rock (the opposite of country?) and then became country fans did not think themselves better than those who loved country all along. And us long time conservatives are not disappointed to be part of a wider popular movement as fans of indie bands are. We say the more the merrier and welcome aboard to all those who want to join our cause.

Kings is right about Horowitz in that he is one of the most effective critics of the left because of his understanding of where leftists come from. But he is also willing to admit how wrong he was. To repudiate his past and seek no comfort in it. I believe one of the motivations driving him to this day is the guilt he feels for what he did during his radical days.

This topic must be a hot button for people. Mitch has six posts up today. The only other one to even come close to reaching double digits in comments concerns an attractive, bisexual young woman and speculation as to whether she actually exists. You have to love the 'net baby.

El-dar,

For starters:

"What about all those who have now converted to the right who were raised in solid conservative families, yet sought the solace of the left as a way to rebel against their parents? "

What about 'em?

"People who once embraced punk rock (the opposite of country?) and then became country fans did not think themselves better than those who loved country all along."

a) Punk is not the opposite of oountry.

b) Er, that's a distinction that exists only in JB's head. I don't know a single convert from the left who thinks themselves "Better" than people who claim to be lifelong conservatives (when you leave out jocular hyperbole).

I turned against Reagan for a few years in the mid-eighties. It was because his administration, trying to reduce the deficit, had eliminated a lot of the deductions used by the middle-class. Consumer loan interest, car loan interest. They also made unemployment benefits taxable which still strikes me as an incredibly stupid move. "I know -- let's tax the people with no jobs!" Grrr. I voted libertarian in '88 and '92, but by '96 I was back to voting GOP. Clinton made me realize that voting libertarian was a cop out.
Which reminds me. How can the left get away with saying W is running too far right for a guy with no mandate in 2000 when the same folks had no problem with Clinton trying to socialize medicine and get gays in the military after he won the '92 election with less than 50% of the vote?

I unabashedly say that I have been a conservative as long as I can remember.

My very first election was Reagans and I layed on the floor in front of the TV and watched him win along with my dad. He was conservative and Mom was apathetic. We never discussed politics in the house.

The thing that most comes to mind as I read these posts is that it seems turning conservative is part of a process that stems from people honestly looking at their assumptions about the world and seeing the truth and aligning themselves with it.

For those of us that did that early on, we have always been conservative. For those that didn't do that until later in life, they were democrats first.

Maybe by letting people know you used to be a liberal, you'll encourage others to assess their status as well. It's just a matter of knowing what you believe and avoiding the dreaded groupthink. Democrats are (for the most part,) a party of followers who believe that The government should take care of you and in so doing, you are then abdicated of personal responsibility for your actions. Republicans are (for the most part,) a party of leaders, who take that responsibility for their own and refuse to be under the yolk of victimhood that so many espouse.

I say, welcome to the fold. Well met.

Well met, indeed.

I think that there is something to be said of someone who has fought in both trenches having a unique view of things. Having argued both sides of an issue in a lifetime has the obvious benefit of fully knowing and understanding an issue and where the other side is coming from. Not only that, but for those who made the transition, they more than anyone fully understand the weakness and errors of their prior positions, and truly grasping the truth that changed their minds, something that those who are diehard on one side their entire lives rarely enjoys. Keeping your frinds close and your enemies closer rings true when trying to grasp a concept and when debating someone of opposing viewpoints.

JB and Elder are right on. Let's take JB's religious metaphor one step further. Who was the greatest convert ever? None other than Saint Paul (the original one, not the one who occasionally appears on your program under the pseudonym Burt Ward).

How did Paul rate himself, a convert, among the other apostles who believed from the beginning? From I Corinthians 15:9 : "For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."

Case closed.

Garrison Keillor did some extrapolating on St. Augustine (how's THAT for covering the intellectual waterfront); the line he came up with was something like "it's the sinners that get all the good work done. They have their guilt and their lost time to make up for. Those without sin - they just sit there and act perfect. It's the people who have sinned that sit on the committees and do the footwork".

In short - I don't care how long you've been a conservative; it's all good. And the fact that I started late doesn't mean I *wont't* put my conservatism against yours, and win. I will.

Not that I want to. Because I'd really rather focus on the real opposition, here. If we're focusing on the squabble between the Mayflower Republicans and the Immigrants, it only wastes energy we need for the real battle.