Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
It's really saying something that New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez only gave the third best speech of the evening. One of the lines that resonated with my parents came at the end of this bit:
I fear some of our leaders today have lost the courage to stand up.
What we have now are politicians. They won't offer real plans, and only stand up when they want to blame someone else.
And I don't say that just because a Democrat is in the White House. I was a Democrat for many years. So were my parents.
Before I ran for District Attorney, two Republicans invited my husband and me to lunch. And I knew a party-switch was exactly what they wanted.
So, I told Chuck, we'll be polite, enjoy a free lunch and then say goodbye.
But we talked about issues-they never used the words Republican, or Democrat, conservative or liberal.
We talked about many issues, like welfare - is it a way of life, or a hand-up?
Talked about the size of government — how much should it tax families and small businesses?
And when we left that lunch, we got in the car and I looked over at Chuck and said, "I'll be damned, we're Republicans."
My Dad used to be a Democrat. His story about how my mother converted him is probably too long and convoluted to go into. He became a Republican back when Reagan was just a governor, but he would fit into the Reagan Democrat category.But did you used to be a liberal or a Democrat? Did you have an "a-ha" moment like Gov. Martinez did? And, if so, can you tell us about it?
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Apr '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
A former subscriber to The Nation and the Utne Reader! It was a series of small cuts - all of the Clinton messes and not a single Dem willing to break ranks, Earth First moving from just saving trees to Marxist social justice causes, opening a small business and dealing with city and state taxes and regulations, and oddly enough the final straw was listening to Ken Hamblin, the Black Avenger, talk one night, on a midnight drive from LA to SF, about Section 8 housing...Done.
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
I voted for Walter Mondale. It was my first presidential election.
There. I said it.
And here's what happened: the Berlin Wall fell, the economy grew, and I realized that pretty much everything I had been taught -- Reagan was going to kill us all in a nuclear holocaust; trickle-down economics was doomer -- turned out to be a lie.
So the next time around, my second presidential ballot, I punched for Bush.
Jun '10
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
Rob Long: I voted for Walter Mondale. It was my first presidential election.
There. I said it.
And here's what happened: the Berlin Wall fell, the economy grew, and I realized that pretty much everything I had been taught -- Reagan was going to kill us all in a nuclear holocaust; trickle-down economics was doomer -- turned out to be a lie.
So the next time around, my second presidential ballot, I punched for Bush.
Hey, I voted for Mondale too. But I'm from Minnesota, so that's my excuse. Becoming conservative was a very gradual process for me. I remember being extremely disappointed with the choice of Dukakis in 1988. I was also changing my mind about abortion, becoming prolife. Meanwhile, President Reagan (among others) had convinced me that communism was not just an inferior political system--it was an evil system. It was a type of slavery. And if Democrats could be so comfortable with both abortion and communism, well, they weren't my kind of people. I was a conservative. And then, to finish off the process, I found Rush Limbaugh on the radio. Never looked back.
Aug '12
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
Her "used to be a Democrat" is also what resonated with me. Coming from a long line of Democrats, including both Mom and Dad, I naturally registered as a Democrat when I turned 18.
In my second year of college I got an internship with the Democratic incumbent in the U.S. House of Rep. from my district in Michigan. My brother-in-law, the only Republican I knew, started questioning...what did I really know about Mr. Wolpe's policies? About Democratic policies in general on key economic issue and social issues that did resonate with me as a Christian? I truly hadn't considered—it was a moment of becoming my own person. Never, ever underestimate the power of logical discourse on the actual issues, leaving out labels. I really was a Republican and never knew it.
I jumped ship, eventually, landing an internship with Wolpe's opponent in that election (1990), Brad Haskins, and it was a terrible internship, unfortunately, because who would trust a young intern who used to be with the enemy?! But that was the moment where it began. I soon registered as an Independent, and within about two more years, a Republican.
Jul '10
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
I knew growing up that both major political parties were badly broken. I read the Washington Star at one grandparents house and the Washington Post at the others. DC is a company town, and the product is power. The notion that these people have a clue with regard to good and prudent governance does not survive a week of serious, informed study. The notion that someone who did have a clue could arrive on a white horse and put things in order was, and is, laughable.
Going in to cast my first ballot, I always thought Carter was an idiot, but I had no faith in Reagan beyond the faith of the confirmed clueless that he was an idiot, and John Anderson of Illinois was a faithful Republican going all out to defeat his party's nominee. (There is no honor among thieves.) Hobson's choice.
By my second voting Presidential election, it had been proven that Carter was an idiot and John Anderson of Illinois was a vain clown. But Reagan at least tried to put things in order and may have understood my country better than any President since Silent Cal. Not a Republican, but voted for Ronnie.
Apr '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
My first election I voted for Carter. Watergate: Republicans = Bad. By 1980 I hated Carter but couldn't vote for Reagan because I thought he was an fascist dope. I voted for the Libertarian.
Over the course of the 80s I was introduced to Friedman's Free to Choose. He made so much sense. Gas prices came down and the economy recovered just like Reagan said it would.
A friend turned me on to shooting pistols and I noticed everything that I read in the papers about guns and gun owners seemed to be intentionally wrong.
I listened to liberals rant about "racist white males". Feminists - some of the most pampered, privileged people to walk the earth - complain about "oppression". I realized that these aren't people I'm going to get along with.
I changed my mind about Reagan in the mid-90s. He was the only one who really thought the USSR would go away and he was right on the economy.
I voted Libertarian, mostly as a protest, up until 2000 when, after reading Gore's book, I decided that there was no way this man should be president so I voted Bush.
Apr '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
I was effectively brainwashed in high school, but I don't recall if I registered as a Dem back then.
I do have an embarrassing old journal entry from my first semester at college in which I longed for Jimmy Carter to run for president again.
However, not long after that I stumbled across Rush, along with some other events.
My Dad something of a Gerald Ford Republican. When I went to college I was to his left and when I came back for winter break I was waaay to his right.
Dec '10
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
Until 1992. Then I realized that the Democrats would never have defended Kuwait. And I realized that meant they'd never defend our other allies either. That's when I realized I was a conservative. And I was sadly proven right when Clinton bugged out of Somalia, completely undoing the work GHW Bush had done in restoring America's reputation for military might.
Mar '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
I have been right wing my entire life. But now I live in such a blue city and state that the only election is the democratic primary. So now I am a registered dem.
May '10
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
In my former life I used to be a linguist and the title of this article struck me as odd. I would say "did you USE to be ...". Am I the odd one or is this in free variation in modern American English?
Oct '10
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
I've always been a Republican. I had a brief period (couple of months) when I was younger of feeling interested in Democrats, but it didn't last. I care about gay rights, and--from a totally uninformed view--the Democrats looked attractive. Luckily I made the effort to get informed, and it didn't take me long to discover the, shall we say, ineffectual and self-destructive nature of the Democrat's civil rights model. Anyway, I stayed a Republican.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 1:00pmDec '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
Listening to NPR cover the Clarence Thomas hearings started me down the path the way my conservative father, who was forever smacking down my liberal arguments with facts and figures, could not.
Jun '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
You're the odd one.... Pretty certain Mollie got it right.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 1:13pmJun '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
As president of university Demoocrats my senior in college, I watched with horror as Reagan defeated Carter. I truly believed the world was coming to an end.
I continued to vote D for president through Clinton's first term. I had been on a gradual move towards conservatism -- mostly due to trying to raise daughters in a world polluted by Progressive values -- but I believed Bubba when he said he wanted welfare to be a hand up, not a handout, and that abortion needed to be rare in addition to being safe and legal. He actually sounded conservative.
By 1996, I had become completely disillusioned with the whole D enterprise and realized that "conservative Democrat" was truly an oxymoron. To let you know just how disillusioned, I enthusiastically voted for Dole.
Apr '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
Never was an out and out Dem, although I was on the fence through college. I studied econ at USC from 85-88 and a funny thing happened after I graduated and into the mid-90's that cemented my position as a fiscal conservative: all my liberal profs were 100% wrong with their economic doom scenarios complete with charts if the US stuck to Reaganomics. The few more conservative profs had a different story to tell about unleashing tech and the entire economy and they were 100% correct (yes, USC in the mid-80's was still a fairly conservative school both in terms of the staff and student-body)! This has had a very lasting impression on me.
Marriage and children have cemented my social conservatism.
Sep '10
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
I enthusiastically voted for Dole.
This is one of the most jarring sentences I've read this year.
Apr '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
I was raised Lib and was a typical Feminist-lib through gradschool.
Then came Paula Jones right on the heels of Anita Hill.
I remember settling into my couch for a good weep with my fellow womyn and to my horror saw what happened to her. How the "Compassionate, ProWomen" institutions (media,NOW etc) closed ranks around Clinton.
It was like ripping a blindfold off. I started seeing all the hypocracy - everywhere!.
Initially I was a snooty "not a Rush Limbaugh" republican .
Now? I'm All in.
Mar '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
Did you walked the dog yet?
It sounds a little funny to me too. The "did" is giving the past case, and...
Oh heck. We probably covered this in school, and while we were, I was probably programming my calculator to compute pi via the Monte Carlo method.
I wasn't registered as anything other than as a source of woe for my parents for my first election in 1978, but I was voting against incumbents, so that made me practically, if not technically, a Democrat. In Illinois, Percy won reelection to the Senate, and Thompson to the Governorship, so that was a bust. In 1980, the "anybody but this twerp" meme hadn't run it's course yet, so I voted for John Anderson, because Reagan was so clearly a threat to peace and freedom and motherhood and fluffy puppies...
Then a witch turned me into a newt. I got better.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 2:06pmJun '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
Pseudodionysius:I enthusiastically voted for Dole.
This is one of the most jarring sentences I've read this year. · 21 minutes ago
I know. It was that bad.
Dec '11
Re: Did You Used To Be A Democrat?
No, I have always been very aware of the discrete nature of "I"