How many people here on DU were once rethugs/conservatives?

[The Genealogist]

58. I was a conservative/republican til I was a junior in high school, 17 years old

I guess I could call myself a conservative; I wasn't old enough to vote, and was never in any kind of Republican organization. But my father, his parents, his brother and sister-in-law, and my adult first cousins were all Republicans. My mother's mother was a Dem (ULTRA conservative). I was brought up to hate, fear, and consider purely criminal anyone who was a Dem. I was convinced a Mondale presidency meant sure nuclear war. I thought Reagan was a great man. I was taught to believe that Jimmy Carter had nearly destroyed the US, single-handedly.

Then I had to take Civics (called "Liberty and the Law" in my district. My teacher was unbiased, and just taught the facts. Reading about what politicians actually STOOD FOR for the first time was eye-opening. That was fall 1990. By the time the 1992 election happened, I was in college, and a Democrat. I never looked back.