Bruce A McIntyre · Follow Citizen of the United States for over 70 years, and learning all the time.
What turned you from a conservative into a liberal?
Originally Answered: What turned you from conservative to a liberal?
The GOP turned me from conservative to liberal.
Well, actually that isn’t true. Way back when I was firmly a conservative and a Republican, in the days of Eisenhower, being a conservative meant that you were truly fiscally conservative, meaning you wanted the best value for your money, and you were socially liberal meaning you should mind your own business and not try and make everyone believe the same as you. Leave people alone to live their own lives.
Those days are very long gone. Really starting with Reagan, being conservative became something very different. It meant that life was a zero-sum game, and if anybody else got anything, you got less. It also was the beginning of turning the GOP into a theocracy, insisting that everyone must follow a certain restrictive set of Christian values. And those values were decidedly not the values of Jesus.
One day I woke up and discovered that while I hadn’t changed, the GOP had changed dramatically. So I say the Republican Party left me, I didn’t leave the Republican Party.
My social liberal values hadn’t changed either. I see no reason why everyone has to adhere to the specific dogma of Evangelical Christians, with their fear and hate and requirement for everyone to think the same way they do. I would follow the actual teachings of Jesus, even though I now declare myself an atheist.
Love your fellow man, feed the hungry, provide shelter for those without. Take care of those who cannot care for themselves. Do not cast the first stone. Don’t judge others lest you be judged. Protect your family, but help others wherever you can. If I have two dollars, give one to someone with none. And when they have two dollars, they will pass it forward to someone else.
To me, those are the basic teachings of Jesus.
So I didn’t change from Conservative to Liberal, I am still the same. Shit, now even the Corporate Democratic party is to the “right” of me. I stand with the Progressives. I supported Bernie and AOC, and now support the youth of Parkland and Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ people.
