TBD on Ning
Why I Became A Conservative
In early 1992, I heard five words that were to drastically alter the course of my life. H. Ross Perot was on TV. He held up a toilet seat and said "The government paid $700.00 for this toilet seat." He then stated, "And this is public knowledge." Huh?
Perot then went on to outline more fascinating nuggets of information I had absolutely no knowledge of. He pulled out charts and graphs and proceeded to inform me of a world of facts to which I had never been exposed.
Having long prided myself on being informed, I decided to educate myself on all this "public knowledge." What I found appalled and angered me. And changed my life forever.
For the first time in my life, I picked up a National Review magazine and started reading. I moved on to the Washington Times, American Spectator and various other conservative publications I had never been aware of before. The more I read, the angrier I got.
I had always assumed that if something was on TV or in the newspapers, it was correct. I always assumed that our elected officials knew better than I how to address the problems of our nation. I always assumed that my friends' opinions were more valid and informed than mine. I was 39 years old and just finding out how incredibly naive I was.
Having lived in Los Angeles since my teens, I was never exposed to any other than the liberal point of view. I made the mistake of assuming it was the only valid view, just as millions of other Americans still do.
I had adopted the views of the herd, assuming that since everyone felt that way, it was the right way to feel. Besides, I was too busy living my life to spend the time necessary to form my own views independently of my peers. I had taken the easy way out, accepting and spouting the currently fashionable talking points as my own. And patting myself on the back for being informed and knowledgeable. Ouch.
After reveling in government approved and politically correct self esteem for so many years, the descent into humility was painful. How naive was I to have blindly accepted so many premises without question? How ignorant was I to have advocated certain positions based on face value and cheap sound bites? How stupid was I to have allowed others to manipulate and exploit my ignorance? The answer: Pretty darn stupid.
The anger I felt stemmed from finally realizing that no matter how thin the pancake, there are always two sides. And I had only been exposed to one. That didn't set right. I felt I had been lied to my whole life. I responded by making it my mission to inform everyone I knew of the astonishing revelations I was finding on a daily basis. That was another big mistake.
I assumed everyone in my world would be just as appalled as I to find that things were not as they seemed. I studied, I amassed facts, I quoted sources, and I lectured. And I got yet another lesson in humility. Instead of applauding my efforts, my family, my friends, my husband and my co-workers sent me to the woodshed.
I soon realized that my facts took a back seat to their emotions. I found that the conservative point of view had been judged invalid years before I became aware of it. The case was already closed. Hadn't I heard?
I persisted. "But how can you dispute these facts?" I railed. I quickly found out. Liberals demolished my factual arguments by demonizing me, thus relieving themselves of the need to entertain or debate any facts that challenged their world view.
Being stubborn as well as stupid, I continued my quest to inform one and all of the error of their way of thinking. With predictable results. Soon, everyone in my world informed me that there must be something wrong with me. Eventually, I started to believe them, and finally decided to keep my opinions to myself.
I tried. For three years, I consciously tried to keep my mouth shut. I tried to go along to get along. I failed. Long story short: I lost my husband. I no longer speak with my feminist mother and my liberal siblings.
Having continued to read voraciously about all things conservative, I was exposed to the role Christianity played in our country's founding. After further research and soul searching, I eventually became a Christian. Learning to have faith in Christ enabled me to have faith in myself - and faith in my traditional and conservative views.
Eight years after my epiphany, and 33 years after moving to Los Angeles, I sold my home and business. I said good-bye to the few friends and family I still had, and left Los Angeles for good. I knew there had to be a place in the world where I could be myself without ticking everyone off.
After a lot of searching, I finally found it. Its called Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Here in this little fishing village, I have found peace and happiness. I can identify myself as a conservative without having to go stand in the corner. Here in South Carolina, I am normal. I am also the luckiest of women.
Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina
Perot then went on to outline more fascinating nuggets of information I had absolutely no knowledge of. He pulled out charts and graphs and proceeded to inform me of a world of facts to which I had never been exposed.
Having long prided myself on being informed, I decided to educate myself on all this "public knowledge." What I found appalled and angered me. And changed my life forever.
For the first time in my life, I picked up a National Review magazine and started reading. I moved on to the Washington Times, American Spectator and various other conservative publications I had never been aware of before. The more I read, the angrier I got.
I had always assumed that if something was on TV or in the newspapers, it was correct. I always assumed that our elected officials knew better than I how to address the problems of our nation. I always assumed that my friends' opinions were more valid and informed than mine. I was 39 years old and just finding out how incredibly naive I was.
Having lived in Los Angeles since my teens, I was never exposed to any other than the liberal point of view. I made the mistake of assuming it was the only valid view, just as millions of other Americans still do.
I had adopted the views of the herd, assuming that since everyone felt that way, it was the right way to feel. Besides, I was too busy living my life to spend the time necessary to form my own views independently of my peers. I had taken the easy way out, accepting and spouting the currently fashionable talking points as my own. And patting myself on the back for being informed and knowledgeable. Ouch.
After reveling in government approved and politically correct self esteem for so many years, the descent into humility was painful. How naive was I to have blindly accepted so many premises without question? How ignorant was I to have advocated certain positions based on face value and cheap sound bites? How stupid was I to have allowed others to manipulate and exploit my ignorance? The answer: Pretty darn stupid.
The anger I felt stemmed from finally realizing that no matter how thin the pancake, there are always two sides. And I had only been exposed to one. That didn't set right. I felt I had been lied to my whole life. I responded by making it my mission to inform everyone I knew of the astonishing revelations I was finding on a daily basis. That was another big mistake.
I assumed everyone in my world would be just as appalled as I to find that things were not as they seemed. I studied, I amassed facts, I quoted sources, and I lectured. And I got yet another lesson in humility. Instead of applauding my efforts, my family, my friends, my husband and my co-workers sent me to the woodshed.
I soon realized that my facts took a back seat to their emotions. I found that the conservative point of view had been judged invalid years before I became aware of it. The case was already closed. Hadn't I heard?
I persisted. "But how can you dispute these facts?" I railed. I quickly found out. Liberals demolished my factual arguments by demonizing me, thus relieving themselves of the need to entertain or debate any facts that challenged their world view.
Being stubborn as well as stupid, I continued my quest to inform one and all of the error of their way of thinking. With predictable results. Soon, everyone in my world informed me that there must be something wrong with me. Eventually, I started to believe them, and finally decided to keep my opinions to myself.
I tried. For three years, I consciously tried to keep my mouth shut. I tried to go along to get along. I failed. Long story short: I lost my husband. I no longer speak with my feminist mother and my liberal siblings.
Having continued to read voraciously about all things conservative, I was exposed to the role Christianity played in our country's founding. After further research and soul searching, I eventually became a Christian. Learning to have faith in Christ enabled me to have faith in myself - and faith in my traditional and conservative views.
Eight years after my epiphany, and 33 years after moving to Los Angeles, I sold my home and business. I said good-bye to the few friends and family I still had, and left Los Angeles for good. I knew there had to be a place in the world where I could be myself without ticking everyone off.
After a lot of searching, I finally found it. Its called Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Here in this little fishing village, I have found peace and happiness. I can identify myself as a conservative without having to go stand in the corner. Here in South Carolina, I am normal. I am also the luckiest of women.
Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina
Tags: conservative, liberal
Views: 10
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by HAVE_A_HEART on
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Oh Nancy...are you ever going to get a write up from all of the liberals around here today! LOL! By the way....I sure as heck miss Ross!
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Permalink Reply by Mother Sanity (JackieRodzinski) on
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Now I understand about the $700 toilet seat, and the big wooshing sound and all that; infact I'm rather conservative myself. I like to see the role of government severly limitted....but (and please dont be offended, I mean no harm) when 'The Lord Jesus Christ' enters the scene, I'm out of there. Inevitable this leads down the road to gay discrimination, Bible quotes and senseless Bible thumping no thinking just do it morality. That's not conservative, it's nuts.
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Permalink Reply by Nancy Morgan on
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Jackie,
I wrote that article months ago and never posted it. I finally figured out why. I was embarrassed to acknowledge my Christianity. 33 years in LA taught me that religious and/or Christians were radical nuts and totally beyond the pale. I also associated them with all the negatives you mentioned.
All I can say now is that I was wrong. I hope you might consider that both religion and Christianity are held up by the media as something nasty. You might want to question that premise, as I did.
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Actually, I have personal experience, but I am happy for you.
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Permalink Reply by Bull on
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It might seem that either the author has a bad memory, or reworks her blogs and reposts them under a different name. At any rate I think this should bring her credibility into question.
Jackie,
I wrote that article months ago and never posted it.
http://thereaganwing.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/a-conservative-in-los...
A Conservative In Los Angeles
August 19, 2008 by nancyvideo
Conservatives are not allowed in Los Angeles. At least not in what is termed ‘polite society.” I found this out the hard way.
I spent 33 years calling Los Angeles home. Most of those years were spent blindly accepting the assumptions portrayed by the spare headline or sound bite on the nightly news: Christians are bad, government is good, and America is the cause of all the world’s woes.
Advocating the spending of tax dollars for any and all social problems was the mark of a good and moral person. Professing concern for those less well off was mandatory for financially successful people and it was de rigueur to have a least one ‘best friend’ of color. Wearing an AIDS awareness ribbon, at that time, signaled your inclusion in the community of man.
In return for inclusion in this community, members had a free pass to substitute intentions for actions. One was free to indulge in hedonistic behavior under the guise of empowerment. Discovering one’s ‘inner self’ validated what used to be termed sexual promiscuity. Labels were confining so members had license to create their own. Who wouldn’t prefer being labeled a free spirit instead of a selfish tramp? And in LA, labels, not substance, determined the social pecking order.
Any opinion at variance with the herd was considered judgmental, which was a definite no-no. Debate was redefined as argument, which was also a no-no. These rules were made clear to me only in the breach.
At age 39, six words spoken on TV changed my life forever. In 1992, I chanced to see H. Ross Perot on TV one night. He was holding up a toilet seat as he said, “The military paid $700.00 for this.” OK. Then he said the words that would change my life forever. “And this is all public knowledge.”
Public knowledge? Not where I lived. For some reason, this motivated me, for the first time in my life, to investigate and question all the ‘public knowledge’ I had absorbed over the years. The results shocked and angered me. The good news, however, was that my days as a ‘useful idiot’ came to a screeching halt.
Somehow, I found National Review, then Human Events, then the Washington Times. Their message was new to me. I was amazed that I had managed to live my whole without any glimmer that there was another, more valid, point of view out there. The conservative point of view.
I assumed that my friends, family and co-workers would be just as outraged as I to find they had only been exposed to one side of most issues. That was my first mistake. My second mistake was believing that facts counted.
I lost business and friends before I realized I had to keep my mouth shut and my opinions to myself. I remember having dinner one night with Eric and Brenda in their beautiful Bel Air mansion. This couple had the best our country has to offer. I’ll never forget Brenda exclaiming over her shrimp cocktail, “America? 150 years of slavery!” By challenging her, and others like her, I slowly lost my membership in the LA community of man.
After a few years, the only place I could be myself in public was while attending conservative functions held by the few conservative organizations that were based in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, my (one and only) husband of three years left me, due in large part to my inability to stifle my opinions. (He owed his living to the very liberal trial lawyers and his friends made clear to him my views were not welcome) I also found it increasingly hard to attend family functions, as the barely concealed tolerant patronizing of my out-of-bounds views started to grate.
The final straw was an ordinary news article. Our government schools, under the guise of ’safe sex’ and ‘tolerance’ hosted a “Leather Fest” in San Francisco. Attended by seventh graders, some of the exhibits actually taught these kids how to fist. I won’t go into details, except to explain that it is a homosexual practice…having nothing to do with tolerance or safe sex. And my tax dollars were paying for it.
Enough. After 33 years, I decided to leave Los Angeles. In 2002, I sold my business, my home, everything. I set off to find a place in the world where I could be myself without ticking everyone off. I found it in a small fishing village, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. It was the best decision I ever made. The few times I’ve looked back, I feel only regret that I spent so many years of my life allowing others to define me.
Nancy Morgan posts on theReaganWing.com as “Nancy Video” and is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
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Permalink Reply by funesthememorious on
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Why I Became A Socialist
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Permalink Reply by blondie 11 on
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there must be a " rest of the story" on this one. You have lost your husband and your family because of your politicial views. This whole thing is pitiful.
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That's mean.
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Permalink Reply by Sarge! on
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Nancy good for you, I don't have much time as I have to be off about the business of being selfish and self centered in working hard at my own business to provide for my family. But I'll be back later..... :-)
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Permalink Reply by darroll on
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What a person should do is to not talk about religion or politics with your family.
I have noticed one thing, the liberals trash CEO’s and corporations and then bitch when they move to another country. Look at Exxon, they are leaving, can we blame them all for one drunken skipper.
Big business creates jobs, why badmouth them?. We are beginning to learn the hard way.
This will all end with a "you sell me an insurance policy", "and I will sell you mine".
Boy, we got even with those evil companies.
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