Conversion is different but the same…

Scott Kirwin posts on Dean’s World about being a recovering Democrat that is now a Republican:

…I broke with the Democratic Party after Sept. 11, 2001, when the President prepared for war in Afghanistan and the anti-war Left summoned Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore and Ted Kennedy from the 9th Circle of Hell. The Democratic lurch to the Left after 9-11 was so hard, so anti-populist, that it got me to thinking deeply about what that party means and why it exists.

I grew up as a Democrat. My parents spent the Depression trying to survive, and as late as 1954 they were still making decisions about who got fed and who didn’t (my parents skipped meals so that the kids didn’t have to). FDR was viewed not as just a president, but as a kind of savior of the family since my father did CCC and WPA work. JFK was the first American Saint for Irish-American catholics, and I still remember his portrait next to and just slightly below the painting of the Virgin Mary. My dad was blue collar - and union - and even though his kids got educations and became white collar, I don’t think we’ve ever crossed a picket line.

However, thinking back, after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in ‘68 the Democratic Party and my parent’s view of it seemed to change. Sure we voted straight tickets, but we did more in homage to the party of Kennedy than support of its policies.

9-11 changed all that. I realized that there was one issue that trumped all others: war.

And…

I realized that there were people who were happy to kill me and my family simply for being Americans. I realized that these people were single-minded in their determination and so brainwashed in their beliefs thatit had to be us or them - and I will do everything to make sure we survive.

The Democrats didn’t seem to understand this, or perhaps they did and just didn’t care. After all, they had lost power, and the further from power they got the more they entertained the likes of Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky.

I’ve read a sizable number of blogs where a former Democrat is now a Republican based on 9/11 and the increased “leftism” of the Democratic Party afterwards. Sometimes the stories are interesting. Sometimes not. Other times they are light-hearted and other times dead serious. Either way, I always find myself chuckling slightly and shaking my head. Not that I disrespect what the former Democrat went through or still going through. I just always say to myself:

You really think a Democratic president would have handled 9/11 differently?

9/11 always seems to be at the crux of the Democrat now Republican story. I’ve always believed that any President of the United States, regardless their party affiliation (with the exception of some novelty, yet strangely lovable third parties), would not have just sat back after 9/11 and done nothing militarily. I think it is nuts to believe otherwise. When you ascend to the Office Of The Presidency, there are some things that are accepted. One of those things is if you are attacked on your homeland, you retaliate and retaliate strongly. Politicians are screwy bunch of mofos but they aren’t that stupid.

The Republicans have done a super duper and most stellar job of defanging and neutering the Democratic Party. I do think they will regret going so far (although the Democrats made it easy). But I think people flip-flop in American politics as things go. That’s the ways and wiles of a democracy.

Now for a Mystic Negro with dictator tendacies such as myself, I prefer to raid Congress and The White House, spray all the congressional folk with whip cream and Cheez Whiz (heavy whip cream for the Prez and Cabinet), wrap ‘em in a doughy shell, and make him pay homage to me or be baked at 350 degrees into mystical, yet disgusting cannolis. Revolution has never smelled so sweetly repulsive. Joy!

[zing! to Scott Kirwin at Dean's World]

3 Responses to “Conversion is different but the same…”

1. In Search Of Utopia says:

   August 8, 2005 at 8:35 pm

   Some words of Wisdom…

   From Mystic Negro: I’ve read a sizable number of blogs where a former Democrat is now a Republican based on 9/11 and the increased “leftism” of the Democratic Party afterwards. Sometimes the stories are interesting. Sometimes not. Other times they…
2. Kevin says:

   August 9, 2005 at 12:43 pm

   Nice rant! The notion that a Democratic President would have responded to 9/11 substantially differently is absurd. Me thinks those folks either were never Democrats or else they were simply looking for any excuse to switch sides… as if an excuse was needed. Either way, it says more about them than it does about Democrats.

   This from a former Republican and long-time Independent, btw.
3. Lynn S says:

   August 10, 2005 at 10:33 pm

   You make a lot of sense. For a long time after 9/11 I thought, “Thank goodness we don’t have a democrat in the White House.” But after a while I slowly came back to my senses and realized that what we’re hearing from the democrats is the exact opposite of the way the democrats are voting in Congress and that makes me even more pissed off at the democrats. We need them, dammit, and they just kept on saying stuff that would insure that they lost in ‘04.