Salvation From Conservatism - Democratic Underground

ReformedChris

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Wed Jan-30-08 02:22 PM
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Salvation From Conservatism

Edited on Wed Jan-30-08 02:27 PM by ReformedChris

Before this I apologize deeply if this in the wrong place or forum or arena!

This is actually a very hard first post for me to write. I’m a 27 year old college student that has gone through some serious political and emotional soul searching to reach this point. Growing up in Florida, my parents were true Reagan Conservatives, convinced the Evil Empire was poised to take over the world and the Republican Party was the salvation from big government invading our lives. We weren’t your typical conservative family; my parents were unwitting victims (as I know now) of the Reagan Revolution. My father was an industrialist that couldn’t hold a job that didn’t get sent overseas and my mother was a simple waitress in a diner that suffered without health insurance (both passed away in their early 50’s from cancer that could have been detected early). We were right on the poverty line and we were certainly not religious zealots; we went to church on rare occasions. But Reagan Conservatives they were, keeping their allegiance to the Republican Party well into the 90’s and into the presidency of George W. Bush.

Growing up, my parents were intent on having me be politically aware of the world around me. I remember endlessly long trips in the car listening to talk radio. First it was just local talk, but it grew into countless days listening to The Rush Limbaugh Show. I heard that blaring voice pierce my ears with endless hatred for the Democratic Party and constant praise for the Newt Gingrich Republican Congress. Day in and day out of constant indoctrination that forged me into what that blithering lapdog Sean Hannity would call a “Great American”. I was ready to go to war to crush all opposing viewpoints in the arena of ideas. The Clinton Presidency was a skid mark on the clean underwear of American democracy and George W. Bush was going to lead it back to the Promised Land in my mind at the time. But fate had its way and gave me a reason to look at the world differently very slowly.

My mother first got sick in 2001 and got consistently worse. Due to her lack of medical coverage (it was food on the table or insurance) and my father’s lack of a steady job, there was constant medical gridlock. I can still see the looks of pain on my parents face when the hospital billing department rep came in to tell them what they would have to sign off on in order to have procedures done. Her death in 2003 and my father’s death in 2007 under the same circumstances was part of the tipping point. I knew I had to open my eyes to new ideas and possibilities for a while now, but I didn’t have the courage to take that next step. I have to say that this website played a very large role in that change.

I started visiting Democratic Underground years ago after I heard a conservative commentator complain about it on his radio show (I forget who it was now) and I started going through and reading the posts on the website. I was generally impressed with the intelligence of the posters brought, but I completely disagreed with them and I said to myself “if only they knew”. My indoctrinated hatred faded away one day when I found a post dedicated to a DU member that passed away (I completely forget the name and it pains me not to know). I remember the outpouring of grief and sympathy. I remember someone made a very nice place to rest this person’s ashes and it was simply touching and beautiful. This completely flew in the face of everything that I had been indoctrinated with (Liberals are uncaring, soulless, and are only out to destroy individuality.). I moved on after that with a different outlook but still stuck to the principles that were given to me.

I constantly kept up to date on the war (one that my father was completely against) and the breakdown of the American way of life. I saw George W. Bush and Republicans slowly erode the freedom of this country through the Patriot Act and every one of his war power “rights” (Guantanamo, Wire-Tapping, and other heinous acts). I always thought that it was meant to keep us safer and to protect Reagan’s “City on a Hill” from destruction. I could not have been more wrong.

I finally decided it was time to look at myself in the mirror and research my entire life’s indoctrinated facts myself. I went out of my way to check multiple sources and find the truth. I was never more shocked in my life at what I discovered! I found the Reagan Revolution was built on the carcass of the American worker and propped up the elitists of the world (Jack Welch’s and so on). I found that the Republican Party WAS the party of individuality: one where you have nowhere to go but down into the pits of poverty alone with no safety net to save you! Even Reagan’s “victory” over the Soviet Union in the Cold War had more to do with the Soviet system falling apart from the inside then our wasted weapons buildup in the 80’s. I found George W. Bush to be the biggest failure in the history of the United States of America, a man that destroyed individuality, stabbed the American people in the back, and senselessly murdered thousands of Americans (not to mention untold innocent deaths!).

It has been a long and painful journey for me to reach this point and it truly is an honor to post here at DU. Coming here for as long as I have as a lurker has been interesting and I look forward to contributing to this message board. Liberalism is something to get used to, but it feels like a pair of well broken in jeans that I should have been wearing from the start. Thanks to everyone to makes DU possible, it is a wonderful website!

Chris