Dear Reader,

I don’t remember The Reagan Revolution of 1980. I was six at the time and politics didn’t have a whole lot of meaning for a kid interested in exploring, riding my bike, and getting into a whole lot of mischief. I do remember Reagan’s reelection in 1984. I asked my father who he was voting for?

“Reagan,” he replied.

My mother, a life long Democrat, was aghast. “He’s going to start a war; he’s going to blow up the world.”

All I knew at the time was that The Soviets were the enemy and I liked a guy who could stand up to bullies both personally and politically. A Republican was born in that fleeting moment.

As the years passed and I became more educated on the subject, I realized there was a reason why I leaned this way. The ideas of fiscal responsibility, a strong military, secure borders were just a few issues that were the pillars of my political opinion. One party advocated this; the other advocated appeasement and social anarchy.

The 1990’s filled me with disgust as Bill Clinton took office. I couldn’t believe Bush The elder had been defeated to this licentious womanizer and his band of worthless idiots. 1994 offered me some hope as Newt and company were voted in and did some great work. I voted for Dole in 1996 and watched in disbelief as the liar, philander, and felon was reelected. However, the reality was I was bogged down in college at the time and politics was an obsession I often didn’t have time for.

In 2000, a very good friend called me up. We chatted for a little while and the conversation took a turn to politics as Bush and Gore battled nationally for the right to be president. My friend, a former Republican, had taken a drastic turn in his political beliefs. I always attributed it to the liberally biased college we attended (SDSU) at the time. He swore up and down that wasn’t it. He bashed Bush with a hatred that was as hot as the fires of hell itself. And I think after all that hot air, he expected me to say that Bush sucks as well.

For being friends as long as we were, he should have known better. I told him I was voting for Bush. The conversation was a fiasco from there up until the point he uttered an expletive at me and hung up. He called back a little later and apologized but the point had been made—there was no tolerance for a differing opinion.

Fast forward, 2004, Bush and Kerry were locked in a vicious and ugly campaign. Over the years preceding this election I had started to reevaluate and research the issues and the arguments. And when I did this I started to shift more and more towards the “right” way of thinking. I'll argue a point when the right buttons are pushed. I have a hard time tolerating people who espouse The Bush is stupid theory. I was sitting in the break room with a co-worker, ex hippy and liberal, arguing some point with him when he stood up and screamed at me some liberal nonsense. Before I could react he stormed out of the break room. I sat there stunned for a second or two and then laughed it off. Later, he apologized as well. There were no hard feelings; it’s tough being “right” sometimes.

There was no debating with these people.

In 2006 I was furious with The Republican Congress, I was furious with Bush. The spending, the scandals (Foley being the big one), the seemingly endless fighting in Iraq, and the amnesty bill they tried to shove down America’s throat topped it off. I had for the past year started to reconsider my allegiance to The Republican Party. I knew by this time I could never vote Democrat. The very thought would make me ill. However, I didn’t like blindly guaranteeing my support to a party just because they pretended to be Conservative.

Months before the election, I officially became an independent. It was the death of a Republican but the birth of a Conservative. There is a difference—John McCain is a Republican but he’s no Conservative. I vote Republican but my allegiance is to my ideals that this country is still the greatest place in the world to be—and that it can be even greater if Conservative social and economic principles are applied to governing. It’s a dark period for Conservative thought but it’s also a time to rethink what we need to do individually and as a movement to win the hearts and the minds of the I Pod generation and the generations beyond that.

Tidbits:

The Supreme Courts decision to give terrorist access to our civilian legal system is an outrage. These un-elected judges are beyond reproach and a threat to national security. Like Pelosi and The Democratic Congress one wonders when they will put the security of our sons and daughters above that of their political and ideological aspirations.

However, it’s nice that one Constitutional right is still protected. A slim majority declared The Washing DC handgun ban unconstitutional. Charlton Heston must be smiling from the pearly gates.

Anybody see the current “Rolling Stone” with Obama on the front? I wonder who they want to win?

Tags: Wevoteright Conservative Republican

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