The evolution of a conservative

When I was in college in the early 1968, I was taking Speech and was doing pretty well. I was attending Grossmont Community College in La Mesa, a fairly conservative community in the San Diego Area, but most of us kids were still leaning liberal.

I was leaning Republican, because I had met Ronald Reagan a few years before, in 1966 when he was running for Governor of California, and he took time after a campaign event in the Imperial Valley where I was born and raised to talk to several of us high schoolers and he really impressed me. Also, by 1968 I was deadly against the Vietnam War, which I considered a Democrat war, promoted most by President Lyndon Johnson.

So here comes speech class. For my final speech project, I was assigned "abortion." I needed to discuss my plans for the speech in advance with my professor. We met in his office and he asked my opinion of abortion. I said I was torn, between a girl/woman having the ultimate choice because only women could become pregnant, but I was opposed to abortion as a birth control device or if the baby could survive on its own outside the womb. "That's an interesting position," said my teacher. "But if you take that position in your final speech, I will give you a "C" at best because it is such a wrong position." I asked him what is the
"right" position, and he gave me a copy of the "Playboy Philosophy" on abortion, which, as we all know, was abortion on demand at any time. I took that position, gave a real strong pro-abortion speech and got an "A." I was open to diverse thoughts at that age -- as I hope I remain open to a diversity of thought and opinion to this day and for the rest of my days as well -- but in that classroom, there was no room for any diversity of thought. That was and still is a shame, and hasn't changed today. It is certainly worse and has spread -- if it hadn't already spread by that time, to classrooms with students of all ages.

We need diversity of thought, then let Americans pick and choose which ideas best suit them. But first, they need a choice of thought and this is especially important on campus and in the classroom.

This was when should have begun to realize that I wasn't in college to receive an education; I was in college to be indoctrinated into the liberal/progressive ideology. I went on to vote for George McGovern in my first Presidential election in 1972 and, despite my continued loyalty to Ronald Reagan, remained fairly liberal until Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976 and led our nation through four discouraging years.

I hope the Obama Presidency, and these past four discouraging years, has the same impact on a lot of young people today as the Carter Presidency had on me what seems like a lifetime ago.

Yes, I "evolved" into a conservative, but I think it was in my DNA all along. With the help of President Carter and Ronald Reagan, I found myself as the conservative I remain today.

By the way, I still don't regret my first Presidential vote was for George McGovern. He recently passed away, and I enjoyed looking back at those younger days of mine as I watched the funeral ceremonies on CSPAN. I did then and still do believe he was a better man than Richard Nixon, who I also met earlier in life, when he was running for Governor of California and was attending a campaign rally in the Imperial Valley in 1962. In fact, it was a the same place, the Imperial County Fairgrounds, where I met Ronald Reagan four years later. After the 1962 rally, we walked through a greeting line and got to shake hands with Nixon. On the way home, I was sitting in the back seat of our car and was, unusual for me, very quiet. My parents asked me if something was wrong. I said "nothing," but something was bothering me. I felt something creepy about Nixon. I was just just 13 at the time, but I felt something was wrong with this man. I was right, just as I was right about the positive "vibes" I got from Reagan four years later.

I have never met Mitt Romney or Barrack Obama, but I can't help but feel that Romney is simply the better man. I am certain he will make a better President. It, of course, has nothing to do with Romney being a Mormon (which I am not) or Obama being black (which I am not). It is about all three of us being Americans. I am among the millions of their fellow Americans who will help choose who will be our nation's President the next four years.

This American feels strongly that Romney will serve our nation better as our chief executive, our President. I hope I am right, again, and I hope enough of my fellow Americans agree with me enough to give Romney the chance to prove it.