I’m speechless. That’s an accomplishment.

I am convinced that if Joseph Smith lived today he would advocate being a Libertarian. (Hold your breath, Walt – there are going to be a million posts ridiculing what you just typed.)

Seriously, with a statement like “…let them worship how where or what they may.” doesn’t that spell it out? It does for me.

I have always had a problem with conservatism for conservatism’s sake; like the more “conservative” you are the better. Starting with the problem that “conservative” is almost completely subjective, I struggle with the idea of enforcing good principles and practices. That smacks of Satan’s approach.

As far as I can tell no political party is the receptacle of all political truth. But a party that believes in limited, constitutionally restricted government appeals to me.

Let the church (and all churches) teach, persuade, and yes, chastise for the sake of righteousness, but let government not be the churches, nor churches be the government until Christ comes.

Br. DV8

ps. That whole Rebecca thing threw me a bit. -

I do not know exactly. The data I have seen suggests that most people grow up and tend to follow the politics of their parents. The number I recall is 80% have similar political beliefs. In an LDS cultural environment when a childs politics differs from their parents usually in 2008 the child is getting more liberal as opposed to conservative leaning parents. That is my anecdotal exp. This is a result of most active LDS leaning conservative so when a child trends away from the political leanings of the parents there is statisticly only one way to go which is more liberal.

The Church used to be a lot more evenly split politically my own family went from being hardcore New Deal Dems to conservatives during the 60′s and 70′s.

As for the larger culture the adults who are married and have kids are a fairly conservative bunch. A good stat to remember is that 63-66% of married white males voted for Bush in 2004. Around 58% for married white females.

So what causes the conservative leaning of the married in the suburbs with kids crowd? Is it that married people with kids have an epiphany and start leaning conservative? OR is it that with marriage rates and family formation rates plummetting that people with conservative leanings are the ones getting married and having babies? I think its probably some of both.

I slightly agree with conservative, small government political inclinations, but have a lot of sympathetic social liberal leanings.

I strongly believe that as long as your religion can provide hope and inspire you to be your best, it is worth while. My home is one that is divided on the topic of faith, but it is one of mutual respect and love.

I look forward to reading more from you!

“…had more to do with meeting a proper Mormon husband…”

Again, I would exhort you to read more than a handful of sentences. I was a flaming liberal when I met my proper Mormon husband, and he proposed to me anyway, Ms. magazine subscription and all. And to this day my husband and I don’t really discuss politics. It’s not a vital part of our marriage. Thank God.

Is your point that the Clinton-Lewinsky thing caused an irrational abandonment of the Democratic party that just happened to precede your (arguably) more rational, intellectual conversion to conservatism?

Yes, that was my point. I really didn’t want to bring the Clinton thing into it at all, for fear that people would fixate on it (which they have–I will trust my instincts better in the future). Truly, I was only trying to characterize the impulsiveness of the initial act. It was somewhat comparable to a leap of faith, though not analogous. I don’t want to have to write a follow-up post explaining the complexities of my relationship with Bill Clinton.

Who’s more common, the L.A. leftist raised in Orem or a latter-day Alex P. Keaton like Rebecca J?

Hahaha. I plan to get a lot of mileage out of that one! Thanks, Tony!