{"id":8363,"date":"2002-11-19T18:18:48","date_gmt":"2002-11-19T23:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/2002\/11\/19\/jimmy-carter-made-me-a-conservative\/"},"modified":"2002-11-19T18:18:48","modified_gmt":"2002-11-19T23:18:48","slug":"jimmy-carter-made-me-a-conservative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2002\/11\/jimmy-carter-made-me-a-conservative\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Carter made me a Conservative"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former United States president Jimmy Carter says the
\nUS, which has taken the lead in urging such countries as Iraq and North Korea to
\ndestroy their weapons of mass destruction, should also disarm.
<\/font><\/p>\n

“One of the things that the United States Government has
\nnot done is to try to comply with and enforce international efforts targeted to
\nprohibit the arsenals of biological weapons that we ourselves have,” Mr Carter
\ntold CNN.
<\/font><\/p>\n

“The major powers need to set an example,” Mr Carter
\nsaid, as the US confronts Iraq over its possession of such banned
\nweapons.<\/font>
[Full story<\/a>] <\/p>\n

Dylan’s post<\/a> on Sunday about what made him a Republican and this
\narticle reminds me of the factors that lead me to become a Republican.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a heavily politically charged liberalized family and environment
\nin Oregon where I learned the gospel according to Doonesbury. As a kid I had a
\nlemonade stand that at the top of it said “Spiro of 76” and I thought that
\nRichard Nixon was the secular version of the antichrist. I read books on
\nBerkeley’s Peace Park, marched in antiwar demonstrations, admired hippies, and
\nthought that the pinnacle of society was Woodstock. As a senior in High School I
\nwas an emotional mushy bleeding-heart liberal and I voted for Jimmy Carter. I
\ncouldn’t have given any non-emotional reasons why I voted for him, except that
\nhe was a Democrat and a underdog.<\/p>\n

After graduating I joined the Navy and learned first hand under Carter’s
\ntutelage that being sincere and desiring to do good is not enough, you must also
\nhave realistic and good ideas to be sincere about. His hand-wringing with the
\nIran Hostage situation and his weakening of the military and lack of will to
\ndenounce evil I believe lead to the Russians deciding to invade Afghanistan.
\nJimmy Carters political answer was to cancel our participation in the Olympics,
\nas if that would really show them. Reality started to intrude on my liberalism,
\nI started to see that appeasing words and lack of action were extremely
\ndangerous.<\/p>\n

Ronald Reagan becoming president was the next most decisive
\nstep from me. I didn’t vote in that election since my indoctrination on Reagan
\nhad not yet been broken. I couldn’t believe the change in the country as a
\nresult of his leadership. Moral in the military skyrocketed and the economy
\nstarted to recover from double-digit inflation of the seventies. This was a man
\nwho called evil evil and took decisive action when required, I gladly voted for
\nhim when he ran again Walter Mondale.<\/p>\n

The next step was listening to
\npre-Rush Limbaugh talk radio where what I heard resonated with what I had
\nlearned. Reality had shown me that human nature was fallen (though I wouldn’t
\nhave used those words then) and that for society to work better this had to be
\ntaken into account. Government programs handing out funds to people did not prod
\nthem on to excellence but brought them into an addictive reliance. People
\nbelieved that government is the answer to every solution and start to willingly
\nwear the shackles of dependence. I don’t know how to express the competitiveness
\nin human nature, but where there is competitiveness there is a striving for
\nexcellence. Every system that takes advantage of this competitiveness is usually
\nsuccessful but where there is a status quo and dumbing down of standards the
\nopposite occurs. When the Saints are held up as the standard of holiness we
\nstrive towards that perfection, and when cultural elites are held up as the
\nhighest level to emulate we sink to that level.<\/p>\n

I now identify myself as Catholic first and foremost and where that
\nintersects with modern conservative philosophy I also call myself a Republican.
\nI am greatly thankful to conservatives for starting to open my hardheadedness to
\nChrist. One day on the G. Gordon Liddy show I heard a caller challenging him on
\nthe existence of God. He replied explaining the five proofs as identified by
\nSaint Thomas Aquinas. I had never heard a rational explanation for the existence
\nof God, I had never considered that it was possible. There were still a lot of
\nrocks in the soil for me to respond to Gods grace, but this was a tiny crack in
\nmy atheism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former United States president Jimmy Carter says the US, which has taken the lead in urging such countries as Iraq and North Korea to destroy their weapons of mass…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}