Another "Left Behind" Case

Cinnamon Stillwell (yes, it's a hippie name; she addresses that) explains how she found herself rejecting her own leftish upbringing.

So, what happened to change all that? In a nutshell, 9/11. The terrorist attacks on this country were not only an act of war but also a crime against humanity. It seemed glaringly obvious to me at the time, and it still does today. But the reaction of my former comrades on the left bespoke a different perspective. The day after the attacks, I dragged myself into work, still in a state of shock, and the first thing I heard was one of my co-workers bellowing triumphantly, "Bush got his war!" There was little sympathy for the victims of this horrific attack, only an irrational hatred for their own country.

As I spent months grieving the losses, others around me wrapped themselves in the comfortable shell of cynicism and acted as if nothing had changed. I soon began to recognize in them an inability to view America or its people as victims, born of years of indoctrination in which we were always presented as the bad guys.

[Hat tip Solomonia]

I've got it hard enough -- I'm in the media. But she's in the media in San Francisco. Get that woman a flak jacket.

Someone should collect these stories. I've seen them published on the Web from time to time. I've grappled with my own attempts to explain this "9/11 Republican" phenomenon. The current status of it is here. Basically, I don't think I've shifted ground at all. 9/11 galvanized my political awareness. But I have the same values. The left changed, not me.