For JMCFST, who asked (And anyone else who cares) LONG!!!

[Torie]

Fantastic story, thanks JS. The chapter as to how you became a "liberal" rather than a moderate is yet to be written, however.

My life experience was totally different, and we are so influenced by our experiences.   The only "soft"  bigotry that my parents had was regarding Catholics, and that faded really over time, as for upper middle class secular WASPS that seemed increasingly just so detached from reality, as Catholics assimilated as they did, and moved up the SES scale, and became more independent minded, thanks in part to Vatican II. Jews and blacks were never an issue, because my dad was in the entertainment industry, and he knew and was friends with many of them, but personally and professionally. In any event, when sometime during college, that emotional ember about Catholics died in my emotional makeup, I did feel kind of liberated.

In the end, I didn't have much to rebel against. And I tend to have a moderate disposition, and am just too skeptical, to really swing from one pole to the other. My training reinforced that - so many shades of gray.

And I never cared about Evangelicals one way or the other. I just don't come into contact with them, and they don't impact my life. They are more of a curiousity than anything else. And in my world, they have no political influence. If I lived where they did, I might feel differently.