I grew up a very right wing conservative in the Maryland Suburbs of Washington, DC. I was actually known as \u201cMr. Republican.\u201d It helped that I wore a tie as a conservative statement. I also wore a Bush\/Quayle button for much of 1992 and carried around Rush Limbaugh\u2019s books. After President Clinton took office, I attached an \u201cImpeach Hillary\u201d button to my backpack. I also had pro-life stickers on my binders and was kicked out of a high school sociology class for wearing a shirt with a fetus on it.<\/p>\n
After entering college, I began to feel uncomfortable with my own extremism. I no longer found talk radio very satisfying. However, I was still very much a Republican. I ran successfully to be a vice-president in the College Republicans and I was very excited about the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress.<\/p>\n
I spent the eight months between my freshman year and leaving on my mission working for a very conservative organization that claimed to monitor the activities of the \u201cliberal media\u201d and \u201cliberal academia.\u201d They were defending the truth against \u201cliberal bias.\u201d I soon realized that the \u201cconservative truth\u201d did not seem so true to me. I started to think of myself as a moderate. I was hopeful when Colin Powell was touted as a presidential possibility. Then I witness first-hand the conservative backlash against him. Their racism no longer could be contained. Conservatism was not for me. Could I still find a place in the GOP? I was not sure when I went on my mission to California in Dec. of 1995.<\/p>\n
In the California Anaheim Mission, I worked with Vietnamese immigrants. I was humbled by my struggle to learn Vietnamese. I was also introduced to real poverty. The assumptions I had made about the poor, no longer made sense.<\/p>\n
Having rejected social conservatism and having warmed up the idea of social welfare, I returned to Ricks College in early 1998 unsure of my political future. I did serve as a vice-president in the College Republicans that semester. Yet, I had lost all enthusiasm for the right. Conservatism had become the opposition. In August 1998, shortly after marrying in the Salt Lake Temple, I became a Democrat.<\/p>\n
As my prior posts testify, I am now an avid and committed liberal. I practice and advocate liberal political philosophy with a passion. I am also now back in Rexburg, as a political science instructor.<\/p>\n