Benj,

I often mention myself as an ex-Leftist because I want it known that there are thinking people who were at one time thinking Leftists who continued to think and followed evidence and logic. That’s all. I’m not alone in this experience. I’m sure there are people who used to be on the Right who have now gone over to the Left. I’d be curious to know how, based on reason and fact, they did so. And I’d love to engage such a person in a civil and interesting dialog. I left the Left because, primarily, it betrayed some of the foundational principles of Western culture. In the mid to late eighties I began to pay attention to the reality of socialist regimes in the world. I also caught on to many lies being bandied about on the Left. And lots of other reasons besides.

And at present I still find myself of two minds on a score of topics, the legacy of my Catholic upbringing which had a healthy dose of the social teachings of the Church down through the centuries. But, overall I think socialism has been a failure everywhere it’s been tried. There are reasons for this beyond the excuses for it that I’ve heard from the Left over the years.