Today, I will be voting in the blowout victory of Republican candidate for governor Bob McDonnell, and it’s highly likely that I will be voting for pretty much the entire Republican ticket.
Only nine years ago, I voted for Al Gore and the straight Democratic ticket in New Jersey—line A all the way, as the slogan went. (Funny how even though the position of Line A was a coin flip, the Dems had Line A almost every single year I voted in NJ.)
The question is, who changed: Me, or them?
Well, I’ve changed. I have become more centrist, and less willing to part with my hard-earned dollars because a politician says he can spend my money better than I. I’m definitely tired of state-run charity programs for the perpetually unemployed. Or the state wanting to run my healthcare. (Or, for that matter, auto companies and banks.)
But there were two major turning points in my march towards the center. The first came on September 11, 2001. The second came in the bloody Israeli spring of 2002. That was when I realized that the left-leaning crowd that I ran with didn’t think that Israel had the right to use military means against the Palestinians to stop the terrorists. That was when I realized that the left-leaning crowd that I ran with were justifying Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis by using the excuse that the Palestinians were oppressed. That was when I realized that the left-leaning crowd I ran with was full of anti-Semites who call themselves anti-Zionists.
They didn’t really change, though. Their thoughts on Israel were always there, just never in evidence, as it wasn’t an issue until Yasser Arafat waged his terror war after turning down the Clinton peace proposals. That was Israel’s fault too, of course. Just like many people thought that we brought 9/11 down on ourselves. I couldn’t stand that line of thought.
So I started frequenting the right-leaning blogs, because at least there, I found people who were willing to call a terrorist a terrorist, and who don’t think that Israel is to blame for all the world’s ills.
I was embraced by the right, even though I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m still pretty much a social liberal, and even though I am an avowed feminist. But I have more in common with Michelle Malkin these days than I do with Al Gore, and I do not agree with everything Michelle says. I don’t think she has a problem with my disagreement. The crew at Michelle’s and Hot Air have been linking my posts for years, and have given me access to The Green Room. My liberal blogger friends are mostly gone, still horrified that I’m a Zionist and that I voted for George W. Bush in 2004. And especially that I haven’t come back to the fold, and returned to voting Line A all the way.
Yeah, not gonna happen. I don’t want my taxes raised. I don’t want socialized healthcare. I don’t want more regulations. And I don’t want this nation turning into a nanny state. The status of the U.K., with its 24-hour surveillance cameras and lack of individual rights, horrifies me. You are not even allowed to defend yourself against an intruder in your home in Great Britain. A year and a half ago, watching the neighborhood I lived in go to seed, I bought a handgun for protection. I couldn’t do that I’d have to get a permit for it in New Jersey, but Virginia is a much more sensible state. No permit required.
I’ve gone against my New Jersey upbringing on about gun control, too. And I’ve moved toward the center on so many issues that I no longer consider myself a liberal. So let’s just say it’s Line B for me, unless the Dems have a revolution and move towards the center and give me reason to vote for them again.
I won’t be holding my breath.
Cross-posted on Hot Air.
I very much know how you feel.
On issue after issue, I lean toward the liberal left, but the voices driving the discussion around I-P on the left tend to despise the Jewish state.
So, where does that leave me?
Furthermore, I’ve been warning them that they will drive Jewish people, and supporters of Israel, out of their ranks, but my warnings have been met with contempt.
Well? If they will not support us, how the hell can we possibly support them?
I may not vote Republican, but there is no way that I can continue to support a movement filled with anti-Zionists and ideological Israel haters.
Fuggedaboutit.
…and the NJ owners permit requires fingerprinting, and a long wait. Then you have to have your local police dept issue you a purchase permit, one per handgun. Then you can buy one.
I’ve seen your name a lot on the right-wing websites I tend to frequent. Your summary of your journey certainly is interesting. Given my own journey (lib. upbringing, Marxist (anti-Leninist) young adulthood, present orthodox Jew and conservative), these always fascinate me. You’ve obviously been through a lot of changes, but your feminist identity seems very important to you. So, I’m curious, how do you define feminism?
Equality, for the most part. Not judging women by a different standard than men. Not paying women a lower salary for the same job a man does. Not telling a single, unemployed woman that she can’t get unemployment funding for re-education because the unemployment office was saving it for the married men with children. (That happened to me. I was a typesetter; industry was dying due to desktop publishing, and I was refused funds for a DTP class for that very reason—in the early 1990s.)
Not judging Hillary Clinton by a different standard than the male candidates. Look at the language you see thrown at women in all sorts of public positions—Michelle Malkin, Hillary, Sarah Palin—where is the equally filthy condemnation of the men in similar positions? There is none. Women are disparaged sexually at every turn; men, not so much.
I’m about the only woman I know who regularly calls men dicks when I dislike/disapprove or want to insult them. How many times are women called the c-word for very little reason?
There’s much, much more, but it’s dinnertime.
What you said, Meryl.
I reached that point in the fall of 1969, when as a freshman I was told by the student
radicals that all good radicals supported the oppressed Palestinians against the imperialist,
colonialist Israelis, blah, blah. It took me another ten years to get to the point where I
could vote for a Republican – actually Ronald Reagan in 1984 was the first Republican I
ever voted for – and I’ve never looked back. To my mother’s horror (she’s a New Deal,
Roosevelt-worshipping, old-line, Jewish Democrat), her three children all turned into Republicans,
for the reasons you summarized so well.
And oh yeah—women in leadership roles in Judaism. I attend an egalitarian Conservative synagogue. I get to lead services if I so desire, get an aliyah, or even chant Haftorah or read Torah if I want.
I’ve never been fond of inequality in religion.
My journey from 100% dem ticket to 100% Republican is very much the same, 911 started the change, and the left wing constant demonization of Israel solidified my attitude. My question is simply, if the dems can be so twisted about Israel, then how can I trust anything else about their ideology?
Many in my family feel exactly the same as I do. I see a major shift in the Jewish vote ahead, especially if the dems continue their hatred against Israel! This has really become the litmus test for me, and many others.
Aside from the religious aspect, I would have to agree with you. I would say that your definition of “feminism” makes you a “Michelle Malkin conservative”. Unfortunately the left has changed the definition of “feminism” to be something totally different. Of course, based on the standard hypocrisy of the left, I do not think that anyone can come up with a logical and consistent definition of “feminism” of the left.
Actually, I would say that your definition is actually the normal conservative viewpoint for everyone. It is the viewpoint that racism or sexism is wrong because it is dishonest and does not treat human beings as they are supposed to be treated, not because the “victims” have special “rights”.
FYI the crossposting ling should be here in the GreenRoom
The left is your best friend when you’re down and out. As soon as you pick yourself up and try to take control of your life, though, you become something far worse than a right-winger to them… you become a traitor, a Zionist, a NEO-CON.
I’ve also noticed they’re often as closed-minded and doctrinate as the most rabid religious fanatic that can exist in their own imaginations. Indeed, the strawmen they gleefully set up and bash down are often so blatantly projected from their own personalities that only the leftists themselves can’t see the similarities. Typically the only difference is that these projections divide the entire world into “God” and “Satan,” instead of dividing it into “victims” and “oppressors” as the left wingers do. Most of the bizarre actions they take, attacking people who protect them and willingly surrendering themselves and others to those who want them dead, are easy to understand in this context. The protectors deprive them of their precious victimhood, and oppress other people in their name; while the murderers are willing to grant them the holiest position the left wing can imagine: martyrdom.
I linked to your site through HotAir and I wanted to say “welcome!” I grew up in a liberal Jewish household and am still the only conservative in the family so I can certainly relate to your frame of reference. As I’m sure you have found so far, those of us on the conservative side prefer dealing in ideas rather than orthodoxies and while we do not all agree we mostly agree to be agreeable. Over here you will find people who are very much interested in what you think and why you think it and are open to being convinced by fact and rational thought.
We’re proud and pleased to have you with us. Please make yourself at home, wherever you’re comfortable in our tent!
I followed you here from HA also. Came to look around, and to tell you I appreciated your comments. This is a interesting journey we are all on, and hopefully we can make a difference in the world, because of it. I think we are in for a wild ride. But we are in it together. Shalom…
Meryl, I always figured you for a political right-winger who was Conservative by the standards of your religious tradition.
Tatterdemalian, my experience of lefty blogs is usually pretty much my experience of righty blogs: demonisation of opponents, utter blindness of the defects of people on their own side, etc.
But there is one feature of Left blogs that I cannot stand. Whenever they offer a political nostrum, they always claim it is “moderate” and/or “mainstream” and/or “tolerant”. By implication, I’m Tim McVeigh or a raaaaacist if I don’t buy into the Left’s whole package. When the Right blogs offer an idea, they manage not to passive-aggressively threaten and insult me at the same time. When they insult me they do it directly. I respect that more.
Ditto to your journey. The central catalyst for me was the bigoted treatment of Israel (code for Jews everywhere) in the media and amongst the self-styled supporters of the “oppressed”. Originally I thought they were simply misinformed, then misguided, until I eventually saw they were simply Jew haters.
Those on the political left, in my experience, were the most self-centred, hypocritical hate-mongers it has ever been my misfortune to have associated with. Hence, the very rapid spectrum shift once the reality dawned on me – circa 2000. There’s so much that’s positive contained in the philosophy of individual responsibility – and so much negative in the nanny (we will run your life better than you) State. Those cannibals deserve each other.
Your blog remains a breath of fresh air. Yasher koach.
I didn’t vote Republican for president until last year; I even voted for McGovern.
I was never much of a leftist but I stopped being one altogether when I realized that the authoritarianism in leftism is not an anomaly, it’s inherent in the system. Anyone who doubts this should take a look at university campuses and ask what would be left of genuine freedom of speech and ideological diversity if such people ran the government–actually,w e’re getting an unsubtle hint about this from the people who just now are running the government.