Guest Author - Linda Sue Grimes

The terrorist attacks on our country that occurred on September 11, 2001, made me start to pay attention to politics. After listening to the two parties discuss this situation, I discovered that the Democrats made no sense, and that the Republicans did. I have discovered that I am not alone; there is a group called the “9/11 Republicans,” consisting of people who were either Democrats or at least neutral about politics but changed their allegiance after 9/11.

Hollywood Liberals Turn Republican
Although some of the newly minted Republicans will remain socially liberal, they are staunchly Republican when it comes to national security. Comedian Dennis Miller has said that he doesn’t care if two gay guys want to marry each other, but he does care if a jihadist tries to blow up their wedding, and he wants his government to “eliminate” the jihadist. And about his change to national security conservatism, he says, "Nine-11 changed me. I'm shocked that it didn't change the whole country, frankly."

Actor Ron Silver expresses a similar belief: "I'm a 9/11 Republican. If we don't get this right, all the other things don't matter worth a hill of beans. I'll live to fight another day on health care, environmental concerns and sensible gun legislation. But this is such a predominant issue that it towers above all others, and I'm not certain both parties are capable of handling it the right way."

Other former liberals turned conservative because of 9/11 are actor James Woods and producer David Zucker.

Cinnamon Stillwell’s “The Making of a 9/11 Republican”
One of the best expressions of the reasoning that results in liberal Democrats switching to conservative Republicans is San Francisco journalist Cinnamon Stillwell’s “The Making of a 9/11 Republican.” Stillwell characterizes her position before 9/11: “Having been indoctrinated in the postcolonialist, self-loathing school of multiculturalism, I thought America was the root of all evil in the world. Its democratic form of government and capitalist economic system was nothing more than a machine in which citizens were forced to be cogs.”

Obviously, Cinnamon had learned well from the school of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and fake American Indian Ward Churchill. But after the attack, she began to see her “comrades” in a different light: “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.”

After hearing much cynicism from the “hate America first” crowd, with whom she had been comfortable for years, Stillwell finally realizes the adolescent nature of such positions: “Thoroughly disgusted by the behavior of those on the left, I began to look elsewhere for support. To my astonishment, I found that the only voices that seemed to me to be intellectually and morally honest were on the right.”

9/11 Neocons - Mugged by Reality
Stillwell created a discussion group at Yahoo Groups with the title 9/11 Neocons. This is a place where like minded converts can share information.

As Irving Kristol put it so well: "A neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality."

Reference:
Dennis Miller
Ron Silver
David Zucker
Cinnamon Stillwell’s “The Making of a 9/11 Republican”