Have the conservatives changed you?

[burythehatchet]

I believe that human beings always have an obligation to live by the principles to which they abide. A core set of values should not be altered because of the actions of others. This does not mean that we do not evolve, it means we should not react reflexively and betray our beliefs.

Over the past few years I have found my self doing exactly the opposite. For example, I do not believe in the death penalty under any circumstances, but now I find myself entertaining terrible thoughts that involve wishing for the demise of certain people. This is not me...is it?

Have you too found yourself, in moments of clarity, lamenting how your principles are being assaulted? Do you feel like your feelings and thoughts are somehow improper, but you harbor them anyway?

[Birthmark]

1. Haven't changed my principles a bit.

Of what use are principles if one can't live up to them?

What *has* changed is that I think that America is headed for a rather bloody chapter of its history. But that has nothing to do with my principles.

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Yes, they have. I no longer think that all firearms should be banned.

[burythehatchet]

5. with you on that one. that position has changed for me as well

I just can't bring myself to go buy one

[NorthernSpy]

11. me, I think I've always been pro-rkba

Never saw any contradiction between that and Left values.


(FWIW)

[warrior1]

3. They haven't changed me

But I feel more despair than ever before.

[burythehatchet]

6. That shows your strength

someone once said, between stimulus and response, man has the ability to choose. our collective despair is a healthy sign that we are governing our response. what makes us liberals is the ability to reason. I'm sure you've also noticed that there have been many more little victories for our side. I don't see revenge as a motivating factor, but they say it is a dish best served cold.

[Gyre]

4. yes. It's called "being pissed"

Politically, I've gone from moderate to far left because of this admin. Back to my roots as a teenager.

[burythehatchet]

7. feelin kinda like you been duped, huh?

I feel like a backstage extra in someone's sick fantasy

[solinvictus]

9. Me too..

Back in the day, I used to consider myself an ultra conservative. Don't get me wrong, I'm still considered very right wing on immigration issues, but otherwise, I've become far FAR left on most social and economic issues.

[NorthernSpy]

8. my principles are firm, and I believe in them without reservation

My feelings, however, are all over the map -- human being that I am.

Maybe that's similar to what you're experiencing?

[Selteri]

10. They made me flee them once I noticed their pattern

They speak highly about a lot of things I care about, yet they don't follow through or live by them in any form or fashion.

Many conservatives love to ask "What would Jesus do?" then do the opposite.
Many Democrats don't ask, but _do what Jesus would do_. There's a huge difference.

[OnionPatch]

12. They have a little

I'm a lot more concious as to whether or not people I interact with on a daily basis are left or right. Before, it didn't matter to me that much because things were (seemingly) going ok and I didn't feel they were much of a threat to my freedom or anything like that.

Now, I wonder about the local small business people. (Buy Blue!) My neighbors with flags and such plastered all over are the ones I don't ask to our BBQs. (Not that I want to snub them but why ruin a good evening?) I worry that my daughter will be influenced by them at school. We didn't go to the mother's day tea they had Friday because the other mothers snub me (Kerry sticker on the car) and it just doesn't make it enjoyable. (We celebrated with our real friends instead.)

Yes, I'm very angry at my fellow Americans that are stubbornly standing for this asshole president merely because he has an R after his name or that he talks about God a lot. The right wing is ruining this country and I find myself angry and blaming them. I never used to be this way.

And by the way....I've always been pro-gun. Granny taught me we must always keep our guns just in case "they" ever try to come and get us. I used to think this was a little alarmist but now it seems totally within the realm of possibility.

[burythehatchet]

14. I hate that I have to know what a persons politics are

when I meet or do business with them.

[zanne]

13. We're yelling "fire" but people are staying where they are.

There's a sense of panic and emergency that I've never felt before. We're genuinely desperate to save our country, but it's like telling a herd of buffalo to run before the people with the guns come. I think we want to be BELIEVED about the dangers of Bush and Co., but Republicans have the country living in a state of altered reality. The government and the media lie to us daily. I do feel changed in the sense that I'm more political than ever and I look for ulterior motives more than ever before. I'm sensitized.