How Did You Become Conservative?
Richard Fulmer ·
July 27, 2012 at 2:01am
When I was a kid, it was common wisdom that conservatives were stupid. But I grew up watching Firing Line with my father, so I knew that there were two intelligent conservatives in the world: William F. Buckley, Jr. and my dad. My one ambition in life was to grow up to become the world's third intelligent conservative. Of course, when I grew up, I found that the position had already been filled (along with the next several million positions).
What's your story?
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Comments:
Apr '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I grew up in a conservative household. I remember sitting in the back seat of the car as a kid on our weekly trips to my grandmother's house. It was during the Carter presidency. In between all the bickering and squabbling among us kids, my parents would discuss the horrible state of affairs. I remember a sense of anxiety and unease without really understanding why. The conversations became more optimistic during the Regan years.
I was eligible to vote for the first time in 1984 and voted for Regan. I was an undergraduate from 84-88. I was still not very aware politically, but I remember feeling defensive when many of the lecturers would begin class with a derogatory Regan cartoon. What does Regan have to do with Statistics 101 anyway?
I just evolved from there, becoming more and more conservative the more I grew. First job, professional school, marriage, kids, own business, etc.
Now my kids sit in the back seat during car trips and listen my husband and I discuss the horror of the Obama presidency. If history repeats itself, they will unconsciously soak up conservative values and grow into true conservatives as they live their lives.
May '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Mom and dad were committed liberals in the 60s. Not hippies, but very supportive of the civil rights movement and anti-poverty programs. I did not meet any conservatives or libertarians until I got to college (these were students, of course, not faculty. Don't be silly!) I found them fascinating but would surely never become one.
Family, career and all that stuff kept me uninterested in matters political for many years, but I was slowly and imperceptibly drifting rightward. I finally abandoned the Democratic party in 2008 when it became clear that they would nominate for president a socialist-leaning, big government re-distributor of wealth.
"You see that Republican over there? Well, Mr. President, you made that!"
Apr '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
A silver lining. I can go to sleep happy tonight.
Apr '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Law school did it for me, 25 odd years ago. The class discussions we had in constitutional law (like about the takings clause for example) and criminal law (like whether punishment was actually a deterrent or not) convinced me that what team I was on. It really focused my thinking. Perhaps others who went to liberal schools, or at least schools with liberals in them had similar experiences.
Jun '12
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Two themes turned me into a conservative:
1) I was raised as a Christian, in the mainline Presbyterian church, (before it became very liberal), and learned it is our responsibility to care for those less fortunate than ourselves, ducking that responsibility by saying "Let the government do it" is worthless, only by our own heartfelt charity can one gain spiritual comfort.
2) Secondly, and in someways in tension with the first, in ninth grade I read the Fountainhead, and then Atlas Shrugged, the behavior of the "rotters" in those books, seemed precisely what I observed later through high school, and a first attempt at college (Berkely, 1966-67) where I saw the ideas of the left put into practice, leading to universal lack of respect for the individual and the individual's contributions.
The tension between a christian concern for the well being of those less fortunate than myself, with the selfishness of objectivism, caused me to become a conservative, as the best combination of respect for the individual, and concern for those less fortunate. It was only much later that I read or understood Locke, Burke, or othe conservatives. In school, only Marx was taught.
Dec '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
My Dad's disgust at the election of Jimmy Carter, along with the startling story he shared with me about his Dad's revulsion at FDR-during the depths of the depression-in West Virginia for heaven's sake- all sunk deep into my psyche and carried me through the high school & college swamp.
It was sealed when I finally realized just how much the government confiscated of my paycheck. By 1988, after 2 years of marriage & the responsibilities that came along with being an adult, I was totally engaged in the Bush 41 election and completely conservative. Never looked back.
Mar '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
McGovern
Dec '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I've got probably one of the sorriest reasons for entering conservatism: all the cool kids were liberal, and I hated all the cool kids. In my high school government class we created political parties as an assignment. A few other rebels and I formed the S.N.A.K.E. (Say Nothing and Kill Everything) Party. Everything the "enlightened" parties stood for we stood against. We were pro-gun, pro-life, pro-tobacco, pro-military, anti social programs, and anti-government. Our party symbol was an M-16 with a snake wrapped around it threatening to bite a hand reaching for it. Of course, joining the Navy and having to actually work for every accomplishment for over a decade probably helped cement my conservatism.
Edited on July 27, 2012 at 5:52amJul '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I am not a conservative, I am a moderate. Our Whig Constitution is the unalterable center field pole of American politics, and attempts by a minuscule but sinister Left to pretend they have some claim to relevance just because the people building this great country never took a few moments to run off the feckless crap weasels that write and read the news we ignore with their constant leftmost 10% lean, hardly makes said weasels moderate, representative, or even recognizably American in some cases (yes, Krugman, I'm looking right at you). Tim Grossclose has done the heavy lifting, but even he is just skirting the edges of the real distortion.
I have been gauged by experts in the current political scene now as being firmly in the conservative activist category, which simply makes my point about the skew for me. The radical Parties of Washington are working night and day telling people that more government is the very definition of goodness and those that think otherwise are racists, or at least knuckle dragging neanderthals. Sadly, the net effect of Homo regulus regulus is a panoply of pathological behaviors disconnected from reality. Exhibit one would be the tax code.
Edited on July 28, 2012 at 8:42amMar '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Like many of you, I was reared in a liberal household, and tended to ape my parents’ attitudes. But my first car was a baby blue 1973 Plymouth Satellite with no FM radio. Rush and all the talkers were on AM, so when my 8-track ate Rick Wakeman’s "Journey to the Center of the Earth," I was left with no alternative.
Edited on July 27, 2012 at 5:58amOct '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I grew up conservative. When I was 21, 22 I thought "hrm, I'm probably liberal." That lasted all of three months. At the time, I didn't have any clue what the left was. The only remnant from that time is my belief that gays should be able to marry--but only if they practice monogamy and live moral lifestyles, something I think most liberals would vote against. Because of this I find myself opposing most gay marriage proposals on the table today (stupid social nihilists).
Jun '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Marxist alarm clocks take rich music and redistribute it as loud random noise. Hard to sleep through.
Oct '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I honestly can't remember becoming a conservative. My earliest memory of anything political is arguing in favor of the death penalty as a high school senior. The next year I was arguing in favor of Ronald Reagan as a freshman, and cast my first prez vote for him the November of my soph year at BC. Shortly after graduating I "discovered" National Review, and the rest is (my) history. But I don't remember any epiphany, and I never came over from the Dark side. Must just be in my genes.
Now, I wish I could explain my 2 sisters and my brother...oy.
Feb '12
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I grew up in the Soviet Union. No other explanation needed.
May '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Jimmy Carter repelled me from the left and Milton & Rose Friedman's "Free To Choose" attracted me to the right. There was no looking back from then on, especially as I watched Ronald Reagan in action. What a satisfying and exhilarating journey it has been! It took me almost 30 years, but I've managed to drag 3 brothers into the light of truth, too.
Aug '10
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Virshu, I understand completely. I visited the Soviet Union, and that was enough to convert me.
Actually, I was raised in a conservative household, but had fancied myself an enlightened liberal in college (like Doc, I attended from 84-88). That Reagan, so simplistic!
But then I studied abroad for a semester, and took a class in Soviet Studies, which included a two-week field trip to Leningrad and Moscow.
I can in fact isolate the very moment of my 'conversion': standing in the GUM Department Store in Moscow in January 1987, watching the glorious proletariat lining up dozens deep to buy soap and socks. I knew then, viscerally, that the socialist vision was an evil illusion.
Apr '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Father in the Air Force was the earliest influence toward conservatism, but that's not what made it stick. I considered myself "fiscally conservative" for a long time, but didn't make it the rest of he way until working in DC for the SEC and then 9/11 pushed me the rest of the way. I had some conservative opinions for a long time, like my antipathy for unions. I could not believe that there were people who paid large amounts of money for the "privilege" to strike.
Jul '12
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I grew up in DC during the cold war and in first grade we moved next to the Russian Embassy. The first day in the new house my brother and I got snatched by the Secret Service for throwing rocks at the Russian kids. We honestly thought it was the right thing to do. So I guess I was born that way?
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
I'm embarrassed to reveal how late in life I came to conservatism, but I described my conversion in two of my earliest pieces for National Review Online. Anyone curious can read Part I here and Part II here.
Apr '11
Re: How Did You Become Conservative?
Graduated high school a typical default liberal. First week of college my roommates and I smuggled a keg into our dorm room and were given tickets for underage drinking. On my court date the DA told me that I had to "pay my debt to society," which enraged me as a legal adult doing something in private. On the way home I stopped by the library to research how such injustice was possible. Five hours later I emerged a fire-breathing libertarian.
That fall I stumbled upon Rush's show, and was shocked to hear this supposed fascist speaking directly to my own outrage with government. Then, the '94 Revolution came and I realized that Republicans were actually with me on most issues. I started discussing and debating politics online (IRC, anyone?) and I also discovered Ayn Rand.
Most shameful neophyte mistake? I put an "Arlen Spector '96" sticker on my car because he claimed to be "fiscally conservative/socially liberal." *hangs head*
Remained a Republican voting libertarian until the reality of living in DC on 9/11 forced me to reexamine my foreign policy views. Dennis Prager opened my mind to some more social conservative views.
Whew...200 exactly!