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Some conservative pundits say that 9/11 changed them from liberal to conservative

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alp227 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 02:58 PM
Original message
Some conservative pundits say that 9/11 changed them from liberal to conservative
Edited on Sun Sep-04-11 03:06 PM by alp227
Today on ABC's This Week (which I watched because Paul Krugman would be on) one of the political panelists was St. Louis radio host Dana Loesch. I've never really heard of her, so I looked her up on Wikipedia, and it linked to this Riverfront Times article "" where it reports how Loesch had been a liberal from her high school years until her marriage and then 9/11:

At Fox High School in Arnold, Loesch was seduced into political activism by a liberal history teacher. Role-playing Bill Clinton, she won a class debate. "I always told her she needed to be an attorney or a politician," says Eaton, "because she can't stand to be wrong and will research to death to get everything that she needs (for her argument)."

Loesch attended St. Louis Community College at Meramec before transferring to Webster University to study journalism. She dropped out after meeting her husband-to-be, Chris, then a graphic designer who sang in a local punk band, wearing black eyeliner and nail polish. "He was a total Romeo," says Loesch, who sported a pixie haircut and pierced nose back in those days. "I'll sound like a total airhead, but when you meet someone, you just know. I had a lot of ease around him that I'd never felt before."

Chris Loesch was a Republican. Dana didn't care. After a three-month courtship, the couple tattooed their ring fingers with Gaelic letters ("C" for her, "D" for him) and took their vows.

Loesch's mother says Dana, then twenty-two, and Chris, seven years her senior, would debate politics fiercely. Recalls Eaton: "Dana would just be pumping her fist. 'You're wrong, Chris! You're wrong!'"

Soon came the birth of the couple's first son, Liam, an event Loesch gets a kick out of narrating in all its gory, painful detail (and has done so in cyberspace). She did it old-school, sans drugs, with plenty of shrieking and her mother-in-law videotaping the whole thing: chaotic and surreal, she says, "like a Wes Anderson movie." Loesch opted for an epidural when it was time to push out her second son, Ewan. "I've had bowel movements that were harder than that birth," she sums up.

Six months after Liam arrived, the Twin Towers crumbled — and with them Loesch's left-wing leanings. She says she watched her infant playing in front of the television as the second tower went down and thought, What did we bring him into?


I also realized that Loesch does commentary on CNN and is an editor-in-chief for Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism blog.

My guess would be that the post-9/11 pressure to be patriotic and the idea that conservative=good American might've influenced her as well as Cinnamon Stillwell, who described how she decided to become conservative after 9/11 despite a liberal upbringing in the Bay Area in a Feb. 2005 column "The Making Of A 9/11 Republican":

Having been indoctrinated in the postcolonialist, self-loathing school of multiculturalism, I thought America was the root of all evil in the world. Its democratic form of government and capitalist economic system was nothing more than a machine in which citizens were forced to be cogs. I put aside the nagging question of why so many people all over the world risk their lives to come to the United States. Freedom of speech, religious freedom, women's rights, gay rights (yes, even without same-sex marriage), social and economic mobility, relative racial harmony and democracy itself were all taken for granted in my narrow, insulated world view.

So, what happened to change all that? In a nutshell, 9/11. The terrorist attacks on this country were not only an act of war but also a crime against humanity. It seemed glaringly obvious to me at the time, and it still does today. But the reaction of my former comrades on the left bespoke a different perspective. The day after the attacks, I dragged myself into work, still in a state of shock, and the first thing I heard was one of my co-workers bellowing triumphantly, "Bush got his war!" There was little sympathy for the victims of this horrific attack, only an irrational hatred for their own country.

As I spent months grieving the losses, others around me wrapped themselves in the comfortable shell of cynicism and acted as if nothing had changed. I soon began to recognize in them an inability to view America or its people as victims, born of years of indoctrination in which we were always presented as the bad guys.

Never mind that every country in the world acts in its own self-interest, forms alliances with unsavory countries -- some of which change later -- and are forced to act militarily at times. America was singled out as the sole guilty party on the globe. I, on the other hand, for the first time in my life, had come to truly appreciate my country and all that it encompassed, as well as the bravery and sacrifices of those who fight to protect it.

Thoroughly disgusted by the behavior of those on the left, I began to look elsewhere for support. To my astonishment, I found that the only voices that seemed to me to be intellectually and morally honest were on the right. Suddenly, I was listening to conservative talk-show hosts on the radio and reading conservative columnists, and they were making sense. When I actually met conservatives, I discovered that they did not at all embody the stereotypes with which I'd been inculcated as a liberal.


So I became what's now commonly known as a "9/11 Republican." Living in a time of war, disenchanted with the left and disappointed with the obstructionism and lack of vision of the Democratic Party, I threw in my hat with the only party that seemed to be offering solutions, rather than simply tearing away at our country. I went from voting for Ralph Nader in 2000 to proudly casting my ballot for George W. Bush in 2004.


Well...how have 10 years of military presence in the Middle East improved the American economy? And does that mean that Ron Paul, a Republican who voted AGAINST the Iraq War, is NOT a patriot? What is it with this idea that conservatives are the only good Americans, when the Republican agenda is heavily dictated by religious and corporate and military-industrial interests while Democrats actually have WE THE PEOPLE in mind?

And to my fellow American progressives who stayed left before and after the terror attacks, good on you. While Loesch and Stillwell let 9/11 sucker them into the dark side, how did 9/11 reinforce your political views or not tilt them?

(On edit) When 9/11 happened, I was in 5th grade, and I decided to be liberal after the 2008 election, when I was a senior in high school. Throughout my teenage years I read political views from both sides too.
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bighughdiehl Donating Member (284 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
1. Funny....
9/11 had the opposite effect on me.
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
2. So, Bush and the Republicans left us defenseless on 9/11
and she decides DEMOCRATS are inadequate? Sounds like a Republican. :)
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secondwind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. yep...
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
3. Some people just wanted to hit back and didn't think
Democrats with reasoned debate and logic would do much hitting, so they turned "lawnorder" GOP. They were like frightened children and still are.

Pity them.
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givemebackmycountry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:05 PM
Response to Original message
4. What a bunch of pious, self grandizing bullshit....
Dana Loesch.

Give me a break, she's Dennis Fucking Miller with tits.
She didn't have an "epiphany" or a awakening on 9/11.
She just went from zero to stupid in about 4.0 hours as the towers fell.

Jesus...

Conservatives.
You just can't shut these motherfuckers up.
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WingDinger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:22 PM
Response to Reply #4
13. Who EVER heard her be funny?
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secondwind Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
5. Imagine that. The worst attack on our soil since Pearl Harbor, under a Conservative


idiot, who did nothing to prevent it (even with a communique in hand from the France, Germany and Russia, saying "a big one" was coming, and that they "would be using planes")......... and she turns CONSERVATIVE????

Obviously, her 'research' didn't include the events leading up to 9/11.... or she just refuses to believe this.

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tularetom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:19 PM
Response to Original message
7. And the fucking liberal media gives credibility to fools like this
by putting them on their "expert" panels.

It isn't Fox that had this moran on, it's ABC. Of course the decision to put her on was probably prompted by fear that Fox would call them "liberal" if they didn't.

Thanks a lot for media consolidation. Helped along by an allegedly Democratic president.
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Quantess Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:20 PM
Response to Original message
8. Conservative, in what way?
Becoming suspicious of all Muslims, supporting increased defense spending, and supporting the TSA insanity, I suppose.

And you know what? I won a debate in MY high school history class arguing that Andrew Jackson was a great president, and that didn't turn me into a RWer. I was assigned to argue on behalf of that lame-ass president, and I won, because I knew what the RW spin was. My opponent was so angry she had red eyes and she was sweating, listing all the legitimate, sensible reasons why Andrew Jackson was a terrible president. But apparently, my spin was better, and so I won the debate. Big deal, I'm still and always will be a liberal.
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:20 PM
Response to Original message
9. If 9/11 changed you from a liberal to a conservative, you were never really a liberal. n/t
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stuntcat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:22 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. +1
.
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ibegurpard Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:22 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. indeed
it made the "conservatives" even more hateful and pushed me farther to the left
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Mz Pip Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:22 PM
Response to Original message
11. Seems Obama's "vision"
Edited on Sun Sep-04-11 03:22 PM by Mz Pip
resulted in the death of bin Laden. How does she handle that in her black and white brain? What kind of a solution was attacking Iraq?

9/11 didn't change my political tilt at all. It was just a matter of time before we got hit. Terror attacks have been going on in Europe for quite a while. The US couldn't possibly stay immune to such events. While I supported the initial attempts to get bin Laden, it became pretty clear that getting bin Laden wasn't Bush's focus. Iraq? WTF? And what about all the rest of Bush's policies? Tax cuts helped us how?

I do wonder how she justifies all the other failed policies of the Bush administration and the insane policies of the current crop of lunatic Republicans who want to take Obama's place.

Bush and the Republicans politicized 9/11 and it looks like she bought into that crap hook line and sinker.
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Dawson Leery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 05:04 PM
Response to Reply #11
20. +1. Bush and the Republicans politicized 9/11 and it looks like she bought into that crap hook line
indeed
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sabrina 1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
14. Sounds like for some of them it was opportunism.
And not wanting to be viewed as unpatriotic.

Not to mention the absolute lack of logic involved since it was a Republican in NYC and in the WH who failed to protect this country from a terror attack which they warned about.

Typical rightwing logic. I guess they are where they belong.
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Tom Ripley Donating Member (418 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 05:08 PM
Response to Reply #14
23. +1 (n/t)
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The Backlash Cometh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 04:46 PM
Response to Original message
15. What is the name of that creepy guy who was a liberal comedian
and flipped after 9/11? And where is he today?
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TwilightGardener Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 04:51 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. Dennis Miller.
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The Backlash Cometh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 04:53 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. That's the one.
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mmonk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 04:50 PM
Response to Original message
16. Like the Reichstag fire changed people's minds in Germany.
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Martin Eden Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 04:52 PM
Response to Original message
18. "intellectually and morally honest "
"proudly casting my ballot for George W. Bush in 2004"

Sorry, but those two concepts are horribly incompatable.
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Tom Ripley Donating Member (418 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 05:06 PM
Response to Original message
21. Was she employed as a professional liberal?
Like she is now a profe$$ional conservative?

I bet not.
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Dawson Leery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 05:08 PM
Response to Original message
22. Those who were suckered into this jingoistic bull nonsense
after 9/11 are weak.
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Tom Ripley Donating Member (418 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 05:13 PM
Response to Original message
24. So transparent. She just wants to be Coulter without the Ipecac
a girl's gotta eat
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glowing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 05:32 PM
Response to Original message
25. I would have to say that with the influence of her senior Hubby, the landscape,
and the fervor in the air.. she went where the winds blew her... AND if she based her liberal ideology on the Clinton years, then she had a lot of false impressions of a liberal, Democratic Party and what the traditional values of the Democratic base are supposed to be about. President Clinton was DLC; triangulation man. There is a lot that he did that helped to lead us down the road into the Recession/ Main St. Depression we are currently facing. The welfare reform he enacted, is some of the very reasons families today cannot get a leg up or helping hand during these rough economic times. I think people finally realize what the poor realized always; the Govt feeds into the hands of the rich, while decrying a poor woman trying to raise children with a lack of resources, perhaps education, and/ or help with daycare. A family that has lost all, gone through their entire savings, are no longer qualified for receiving unemployment are realizing that signing up for welfare isn't so cut and dry. The food assistance programs don't work. AND it is extremely tough to qualify for Medicaid aid or that there is a sufficient lack of "free" clinics to help them out. People who are experiencing this economic jobs crisis for the first time ever amongst their family, friends, and community are at whits ends trying to get help, and their plight is like a whisper on the wind-- no one can hear them.

President Clinton also allowed for Glass-Steagall act to basically be repealed. This has basically allowed for Wall Street to become like a casino. Little regulation for betting on fancy math. AND instead of helping those on Main St who lost so much money, the bankers received the bucks, no regulations on the money we doled out to them, and subsequently, they sat on the money instead of lending and keeping the country's small businesses afloat. Shoot, the country would have been better off just handing out $20,000.00 to every man, woman, and child. People would continue spending, buying homes, or paying off debts. Some people would have taken the money to start up their own business. Some people would have just bought a new car. College students would have had a nice bit to either pay off some of their student loans (those graduating) or take a smaller loan to begin their college years. Some people would pay down their medical debt instead of filing for bankruptcy. Shoot, some would have bought health insurance for their family (the one's who don't have employee health ins. perks). People would vacation, add an addition onto their home, fix their roof, add environmental upgrades to their property (solar panels on the roof), put a down payment on a first home (so that they have 20% down and don't have to take whacko loans to afford a home in a nice quiet suburb), invest some of the money into the stock market. Essentially, giving money to people at the bottom keeps the economy moving. People who need a paycheck on a week to week basis to pay their bills, put food on the table, fill up the gas tank, and try to set aside a bit of money in their savings account for emergency repairs or for things like a hurricane or tornado destroying towns and people's homes/businesses. What sucks even more is that they have bought our politicians that these greedy bankers actually had the nerve to pay themselves their bonuses while the rest of the country was falling off a cliff. They said that these bonuses were in a contract. Contracts must be honored. However, when it comes to teachers, firefighters, and police officers, the negotiated contracts that the Unions and Employers worked out, needed to be torn up because there was no money. Shared Sacrifice!!! Blah! Blah! Blah! So, the millionaire CEO's and Board members had to have their million dollar bonuses (that really if they had foregone wouldn't be missing any meals or go without filling their medications) had to be honored to the tee, however, teacher's, who have never been in a high-paying profession, were being greedy to ask for their meager raises, healthcare, and pensions be honored.. AND in many, many, many states, counties, and towns, they have agreed to freezing their wages, paying more for their health insurance, and putting a large portion of their pay or taking less money into their retirement accounts. I don't have to go on and on too much more about the sad state of banking, Wall St, or crooked politicians with anyone on DU.. We saw the crash of the housing market when it first started getting ratcheted up under Bush and his "ownership society" mantra.

Lastly, President Clinton, allowed NAFTA to pass. That little funny man, Ross Perot, who everyone laughed at because of his charts, was correct when he stated that NAFTA would create a giant whooshing sound with all the jobs that would be leaving the United States and moving into countries that pay less in wages. NO one is laughing now. The Free Trade Agreements have created huge multinational corporations that have essentially corrupted political leaders around the world to the detriment to the people worldwide along with a disregard for the environment on a whole. Along with our spreading of "democracy" we have created enemies near and far. Was it all to impossible to believe that the United States would see some sort of terrorist attacks? AND of course, 9/11 was awfully convenient for allowing the people to lose their heads, seek retribution, ask few questions, inspire a "Patriotic Fervor", and pull us into one of the longest, costliest wars with people who had either nothing to do with the attacks or whose leaders allowed terrorists to hide within their mountains to live, mastermind, and train. AND it was done with many weapons and money that was given to them by ourselves through the CIA to fight proxy wars with the former USSR . War is a racket and has contributed nicely to the pockets of Dick Cheney and his friends.

So, in the end, how Democratic was she? If she was on the radio, starting her career, with 2 small children, and the country was ratchet ing up the war, war, war mentality. Kill, kill, kill... It would make sense that she would switch into a diatribe about how wonderful Republicans were and how awful and evil Democrats were. Democrats were weak. President Clinton didn't go after Bin Laden when he bombed the naval ship the USS-Cole. Even now, for the most part, people do not know that Iraq and Saddam had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, that President Bush had warnings about Al Qaeda determined to strike, or that PNAC was conveniently realized along with the Patriot Act (eroding civil liberties), was already written long before the September attacks. Perhaps, she stuck her finger in the wind, knew her husband's blowhard Republican ideas enough to spout them off, and went with the trending Rah, Rah, Rah, USA, USA, USA war propaganda. We had a recession going on in 2000- 2001. Rumsfeld had just told the United States that the pentagon had lost, just lost 2 trillion dollars (no idea where it was going to), and the debacle of the 2000 Bush selection was creating a really nuts divide that was making for an uneasy start to the Bush misadministration. She went with the money flow.
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mrmpa Donating Member (707 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 06:07 PM
Response to Original message
26. Picking up on the theme of Rachel Maddow's documentary.................
My 81 year old mother and I asked each other "how did 911 change us?" We both said we had become more liberal.
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