I cannot say that I became a card-carrying conservative, and advocate of free markets, limited government, and individual liberty, until recently. However, the viewpoints which I advocated leaned me further and further to the right.
I can definitely articulate that I formulated opinions on specific issues, which all align themselves under the conservative rubric. I was a staunch opponent of drug decriminalization. I also supported the death penalty without reserve. When I learned about the immense cost and the lack of punitive efficacy.
As a matter of research and learning, especially perusing the stacks at UC Irvine, I found the conservative argument on issues far more compelling than the liberal line of thinking. I noticed time and again in history how attempts to centralize government power to make everything inevitably made things worse. I realized that a fantastic mode of thinking was prominent among liberties, the mindset that interventions, regulations, legislation to micromanage everything "should work", yet never does.
The concept of scarcity, the limitations of time and money to pursue justice, was also quite compelling. Thomas Sowell's extensive arguments on the failure of affirmative actions laws.
My religious upbringing informed many of my political views. Because I trust in Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, I found the arguments regarding the primacy of individual faith more convincing than state-sponsored power. USA Today ran an article outlining that individuals either believe in God or the State. Because I have read and witness the extent of the damage that the state can do to people, places, and things; because I accept the sobering reality that human beings are not basically good, that power indeed corrupts, that individuals have a great capacity for good and evil– these views war against the leftist mindset altogether.
Sociological and legal journals confirmed the wisdom of permitting individuals to possess a firearm. Gun control creates more crime.
I remember reading Milton Friedman's obituary in the LA Times, December 6, 2006. I remember that he was 96 years old when he passed away. The obituary
He advocated views and political positions which I also championed: decriminalization of drugs, liberating markets from the control of the state.
It was when I read Friedrich Hayek's book "The Fatal Conceit" when I learned about the Austrian Economists, and the role of free markets, free of constraints.
I had read about the failures of socialist and centralized markets. When I read Rush Limbaugh's work "The Way Things Ought to Be", he provided a historical account which repudiated the socialist model of the Common Store. Free markets, privatization, less government work very well. Just look at the way things are, and one cannot dispute that liberal ideas and ephemeral and unsupportable, to say the least.
I do not like public sector unions, for the intimidation which they practice, taking dues from teachers, without their permission. Like Kierkegaard, I find that the crowd, the masses, are a source of untruth in our world.
Conservative thinking recognizes that state-sponsored reforms, reforms that want to upend everything, always fail. The French Revolution is the most stark example of secular reasoning forming a state. The cult of Reason as good creates monsters by the millions. How many people were killed in the name of liberty, equality, and brotherhood? And why has no one as of yet pointed out that these three concepts are increasingly contradictory the more that a state, a community, or even and individual attempts to implement these views.
I noticed also that the state was the greater sponsor of segregation than "The White Man." I was offended time and again to hear Marxist ideology spouted in classrooms, a set of thinking which arrogantly repudiates God, assumes that we can control the means and ways of the economy.
I refer again to the compelling, albeit to some subjective, arguments of Friedrich Hayek, who not only railed against socialism, but effectively pointed out that centralization is impossible, not just immoral.
The facts of free markets, of the preeminence of culture, custom, and faith as greater than reason and speculation, have furthered prompted me to accept and promote the conservative view of the world.
High taxation as a rule has always offended me.
When I was a public school teacher in Los Angeles Unified, I was appalled that the union, for my protection, took a small portion of my paycheck, without my permission and supported candidates and causes which I did not support.
From 1992, when I found myself forming opinions on political matters, I was dead set against Bill Clinton, a politician who supported abortion. I did not like President Bush, because he had pledged not to raise taxes "Read My Lips", then he went back on that promise.
I also remember despising Democrats in Congress, who were writing themselves checks backed by taxpayer dollars. 1994 was a landmark year for me, one in which I learned that Republicans had been out of power in the House of Representatives for years.
I like the idea of less taxes, too. Why should the state be taking so much of my money, I thought.