I Was a Card-Carrying Libertarian: Confessions of a Black Sheep Republican
Stephen,
I had no idea I was amongst so many fellow travellers until I read your essay and the comments. I read “Atlas Shrugged” when I was 14 in ’69, and was immediately captivated at the joyous, rational, and liberating spirit of Rand’s worldview, in stark contrast with the degrading, bleak, clownish spirit of the times. I still have the first copies of the Objectivist and Reason magazine in a box somewhere in the attic (any collectors interested?) and campaigned for Ron Paul’s first bid back in the 70′s before I could vote. By the end of that sorry decade, I had come to terms with the reality of evil – in myself and in others – a very hard lesson to learn. My worldview took on a simultaneously more bleak and more hopeful turn at discovering the message of Jesus Christ. My first vote, like so many hundreds of thousands of simularly awakened youth at the time, was for Ronald Reagan.
And so, here we are a few decades later in a far worse crisis than the sordid 60′s and 70′s represented, fools to the left of us, jokers to the right….
Let us pray.
