EX-liberals

I used to be a liberal. Way back. Even voted for Leftist Barry Commoner for President (1980).

Subscribed to one magazine: Mother Jones.

Good grief.

Ronald Reagan cured me. God bless that man!

So... it's been a few decades, but I still remember the mindset. (This is something I'll flesh out later.)

The point of this post is to say "I really enjoy EX-liberals!". They are my kindred spirits.

They are always interesting and passionate. I think their passion comes from the fact that they understand intimately and personally the destructive nature of liberalism.

I compare it to being an "ex" anything... for example: ex-smoker.

Aren't ex-smokers more anti-smoking and pro-clean air and lungs than people who never smoked at all?

Or ex-atheists. Aren't they more anti-atheism and pro-God than people who never made that journey?

I know (because I travelled the path) that it has everything to do with this fact: changing your beliefs is a BIG DEAL, and only comes through a process of consciously analyzing those beliefs, and honestly dealing with their shortcomings.

If you do that and find serious flaws, then the next step is one of intellectual honesty and personal integrity. You change your worldview to reflect the truth you have found.

This is why I like ex-liberals. I find them refreshingly honest and principled. And their principle comes not from some assumed, unexamined set of beliefs about reality, but from a sort of "forging" process by which their old beliefs were burned away (often painfully).

The new beliefs that result are steel.

That said, go read some "neo neocon" linked at the right. She's a hard-core ex-liberal who came to conservatism after decades spent assuming the "truths" of liberalism. Read her story and you'll see it was a thoughtful, purely rational, process. Typical of the process, actually.

Also, go to the American Thinker link and search for "Robin of Berkeley". Another ex-liberal, living in THE liberal center of the American universe. Both she and neo neocon are psychologists with really special insights into the psychology of liberalism and why it can be so appealing.

I should also link Tammy Bruce. Her site is TammyBruce.com. She's a self-described conservative. She's a lesbian feminist. (Yes... conservatives are feminists, maybe the truest ones of all.)

She's also the Ex-President of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization of Women (N.O.W.). Talk about a hard-core EX-liberal!

Tammy is especially hard on liberalism because from her experience liberals are not interested in solving the problems they address. Solving them, after all, means their liberal services are no longer required! Because of this, Ms. Bruce makes no bones about her anti-liberalism. She finds it dishonest and self-serving at its core.

Then there's Ann McElhinny. She's an ex-liberal who did a documentary film on global warming called "Not Evil, Just Wrong". The film was the result of her and her partner studying the issue in hopes of adding to the "truth" of man-made global warming.

Here's a link to the film.

What they found shocked them, and cured them of their liberalism.

Watch her speak for 8 minutes here. She's from Scotland. Sometimes it takes a foreigner to remind an American of how awesome America is! This is her on the film Avatar, and on the indoctrination of our kids going on in public schools today: