POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Birth of a Neocon

I don't suppose my story is really all that unique; raised in a household loyal to the Democratic Party.  "Loyal" may be an understatement, perhaps "devoted" is a more accurate term.  I was at least a 4th generation Democrat, starting at least as far back as my great grand father during the Great Depression; judging from the stories my Grandmother tells of her Daddy.  Her husband, my grandfather for whom I was named, was a union leader at his John Deere plant.  My father started working there a few years before my Grandpa retired, and my younger brother has been there for more than 10 years now.  Union politics run in my family, so I was raised to believe that Republicans were evil, intolerant hypocrites who hated poor people and kicked puppies in their spare time. 

I read stories of conservative students attending colleges dominated by liberals, but I had the opposite experience, which only served to reinforce the beliefs of a stubborn 18 year old kid.  At a small college that was, roughly 90% GOP, I reveled in being a Christian Democrat among friends who didn't understand how that was even possible.  I may as well have shown them a round triangle. So voting for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 came natural, as did voting for Tom Vilsack in 1998. 

By this time, however, I was deeply involved in listserv discussions with newfound internet friends across the country, and I was slowly discovering that these Republicans didn't hate poor people and they weren't just trying to hoard their money.  They honestly believed government was getting in the way, and that if that trend could be reversed, the lower class would have access to more and better jobs.

At the same time, Monica Lewinsky hit the headlines, along with all of his defenders on the left.  All those powerful women on the left, who championed the cause of feminism, were all falling in line defending a man who, at the very least, had abused his position as the most powerful man in the world for personal gratification.  That shattered my idealism, I no longer believed my political heroes (ie Tom Harkin) were so true to their beliefs, so I started questioning their beliefs.  This led to me questioning everything. 

If Democrats weren't the stallwarts of Truth, Justice, and the American Way, as I'd beileved, perhaps Republicans really weren't the living embodiments of Lex Luthor. As I started rethinking things, the 2000 election was approaching and I started, for whatever reason, to think of Bush as a Republican I could actually vote for.  I also started realizing that I was, in a lot of respects, already conservative.  Aside from the social conservatism I'd been raised with, I was coming to grips with the fact that government programs, high taxes, and arbitrary regulation were all hinderances on the economy, and thus job killers. 

When my daughter was born in 2000, and we were considering daycare and other job-related expenses for my wife, I finally understood how the costs of working (and risk) would reduce the incentive to actually engage in financial risks that are inherently necessary for economic growth. Finally, Al Gore made it easier and easier to vote Republican that year, and Tom Harkin's disingenuous attacks on Dick Cheney's lack of a military record pushed me over the edge.  At that time, I not only decided to vote for Bush, but vowed never to vote for Harkin again.  Then there was 9-11, and my decision was confirmed in my mind, as the thought that Al Gore could have been president for that scared me.

Adam Wells

Living life at 84 mph and 7000 feet. All I ask is that you don't block traffic, act like a professional, and don't act all surprised when your actions have consequences. Oh, and don't complain about the refs; trust me, they don't care if your team wins or not.