The Neilitist wandered too long in the wilderness. The first presidential election I voted in was because in 1984 a girl I liked in college rushed me to the polls as they were about to close so I could heroically cast my vote for…Walter Mondale?!?! I am quite ashamed to make this admission but it only gets worse, culminating in a 2000 vote for Ralph Nader. In 1984 at Mizzou, nobody in my crowd could countenance a vote for Ronnie RayGun. No, that was for the boobeoisie, of which there were, strangely, a whole lot of that year. I was uncritically left-wing in my politics in my youth. Then a period of apathy preceded my Road to Damascus moment which came in the form of an 8 pound baby girl. During my wife’s pregnancy I began to tentatively lurch rightward, thanks in part to a co-worker who gave me her National Reviews to read. The writing in the magazine was quite good and some of the ideas began to resonate. However, my daughter had already been born when I cast my vote for Nader. Some things die hard, I suppose. The 9/11 disaster proved to be the moment that my conversion was complete. Specifically, much of the left’s commentary that we deserved it. It harkened me back to the defeatist mindset of the Jimmy Carter years in which I came of age. Now it all began to make sense. I began to read from the parallel curriculum. Howard Zinn had it all wong–we had to be the LEAST imperial of any modern superpower in history. There is a difference between arrogance and pride. I realized that I SHOULD be proud of America and its freedoms and its core beliefs, set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and in the course of American history.

Tomorrow, why we should be proud…

Advertisement