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My parents campaigned to serve as precinct delegates for George McGovern in the heart of Michigan's George Wallace country (Macomb County, the birthplace of the Reagan Democrat). They gave money and time to Focus:Hope and the ACLU. My dad was part of the second March on Washington. Then, from the time I left for college in September 1980 to Thanksgiving the same year, there was a huge metamorphosis, during which my dad began spouting RNC talking points 24/7. Today their home is filled with a steady stream of verbal garbage from Rush, Tony Snow and all the other FNC ass clowns.
Can't speak for others but, in my parents' case, I think their converrsion actually ties to subconscious racism. SE Michigan was a hotbed of racial tension in the late 70's and early 1980s (and race relations haven't improved much since then). My parents had been active in the civil rights campaign and I think they expected an outpouring of gratititude for their "sacrifice" every time they encountered a black person. They were also resentful that, by their way of thinking, too many blacks were drug addicts and criminals (and responsible for "a change in the neighborhood" when a black family bought a house on our street) after "all that had been done for them." Talk radio was there to validate - and exploit - their disappointment.
Today, my mom and dad live in an affluent Florida retiremment community where everyone gets their news from the same conservative sources, turns out for W rallies and makes donations to Jeb from their government-insured pensions and social security checks. When we visit, I fight the urge to expose my parents' liberal past. Instead, I take comfort in the fact that, at least during my impressionable years, they set a decent moral example.
