Social:List of former Western Liberals

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List of former liberals

  • Stephen Baldwin, the only actor in the family known to be conservative. Although the evidence is scant that he was formerly liberal, he is worth mentioning, being the youngest of the Baldwin family, generally known as ardent liberals.[1]
  • Saul Bellow, a former liberal, he is now typically identified with neoconservativism. However, it has been argued that he was only culturally conservative, and not economically, making him more of a moderate. However, later in life he was considered a conservative culture warrior. [2] [3]
  • Steve Beren
  • Ray Bradbury, famous science fiction author, was so disenchanted with President Johnson's handling of the Vietnam war that subsequently voted Republican for most of his later life.
  • Tammy Bruce, former head of the L.A. chapter of N.O.W.,currently a conservative radio host and political commentator.
  • Kirk Cameron, actor and former child star. Used to be an atheist, now runs theWay of the Master ministry.
  • Nick Cohen, British journalist and former ardent British socialist, has become a harsh critic of his former ideological home, publishing books such as What's Left?: How the Left Lost its Way. [4]
  • Peter Collier, co-founder of Center for the Study of Popular Culture & co-organizer of the Second Thought conferences for former liberals who have become conservatives. [5]
  • Antony Flew, influential atheist philosopher and anti-theist, later supported intelligent design and theism, and wrote a book on his conclusions entitled "There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. [6]
  • John T. Flynn, socialist who turned against the New Deal. [7]
  • Milton Friedman, an active supporter of the New Deal and Nobel Prize winner, turned libertarian in the late 1940s. [8] [9]
  • William Randolph Hearst, the powerful American publisher in the 1900-1940 era, became ardently anti-communist, and opposed the New Deal. [10]
  • Sidney Hook, widely known as a Cold War liberal and communist supporter in his early life, he later became a philosophical progenitor of neoconservativism, critiqueing totalitarinaism, fascism, and Marxism. [11]
  • David Horowitz, author & cofounder of Center for the Study of Popular Culture, was an outspoken proponent of the New Left. he later rejected progressivism to defend neoconservativism. [12] [13] [14]
  • Willmoore Kendall, political scientist, a Trotskyist in the 1930's who rejected Lockian private property rights early in his career, later became a staunch conservative and Catholic [15] [16] [17]
  • Alveda King, American activist, author, politician, and niece of Martin Luther King Jr, switched her political affiliation from Democrat to Republican, and became an ardent anti-abortion advocate. [18] [19]
  • Irving Kristol, American journalist sometimes called the founder of neoconservativism, began his career as a liberal anti-communist, developed his ideas over time to also reject socialism. [20] [21]
  • Seymour Martin Lipset, leading sociologist and political scientist, left the Socialist party in 1960 and became a neoconservative, though he may have never accepted that label. [22][23]
  • Norma McCorvey, plaintiff in the infamous Roe v. Wade court case on abortion, later recanted her role in the case. [24]
  • Michael Medved, Jewish film critic and talk show host, went from Vietnam protester to self-proclaimed conservative. [25]
  • Dennis Miller
  • Lisa Miller - former lesbian, now born again Christian, who has been ordered by the state to hand over custody of her biological daughter Isabella to her former partner in the Miller v. Jenkins case
  • Zell Miller
  • Raymond Moley, was a "Brains trust" top adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933
  • Bernard Nathanson
  • George Orwell
  • Melanie Phillips
  • Norman Podhoretz, neoconservative writer
  • Dennis Prager
  • Ronald Reagan, a leading liberal of the 1940s; turned right about 1960
  • Evan Sayet
  • Michael Savage
  • Laura Schlessinger
  • Stephen Schwartz
  • Alfred Sherman
  • Ron Silver
  • Al Smith, Democratic nominee for president in 1928
  • Thomas Sowell, notable black American conservative economist, turned from Marxism in his 30's. [26]
  • David Stockman, Reagan's budget director
  • Ivanka Trump, a former liberal Democrat; became more strongly conservative and officially switched to Republican following her father Donald Trump's election to US President in 2016.
  • Jon Voight, actor
  • Burton K. Wheeler
  • James Woods
  • David Zucker, director and co-writer of An American Carol, a conservative film mocking popular leftist figures like Michael Moore

References

  1. Stephen Baldwin: I haven’t spoken to Alec since the election The Hill, April 09, 2017
  2. Bellow’s Kulturkämpfe Society for US Intellectual History, February 11, 2015
  3. Why Saul Bellow didn’t want to be called a ‘Jewish-American’ writer Times of Israel, December 16, 2018
  4. On The Regressive Left, Free Speech, Radical Islam | Nick Cohen | POLITICS | Rubin Report, The Rubin Report, December 11, 2015)
  5. Second Thoughts conferences, C-SPAN, October 17, 1987
  6. There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
  7. JOHN T. FLYNN, 81, RIGHTIST, IS DEAD; Commentator and Columnist Was America Firster, New York Times, April 14, 1964
  8. Thomas Sowell: Milton Friedman, born 100 years ago, Pioneer Press, November 10, 2015
  9. How Milton Friedman Changed Economics, Policy and Markets, WSJ, Novermber 17, 2006
  10. William Randolph Hearst and McCarthyism, PBS, September 13, 2021
  11. Young Sidney Hook, Cornell University Press, January 1, 1997
  12. The Strange Case of Ex-Radical David Horowitz, Berkeley.edu, March 26, 2019
  13. Former Radical Talks On Conversion to Right, The Harvard Crimson, March 5, 1998
  14. A Point in Time: The Search for Redemption in This Life and the Next, Regnery Publishing, August 29, 2011
  15. Maverick Conservatism & Willmoore Kendall, The Imaginative Conservative, January 26, 2013
  16. Willmoore Kendall: Maverick of American Conservatives, Lexington Books, September 10, 2002
  17. The Willmoore Kendall Story, Law and Liberty, November 18, 2021
  18. Alveda King: from abortion recipient to pro-life advocate, Arthdiocese of Indianapolis, October 16, 2015
  19. Exclusive Interview with MLK's Niece ALVEDA KING, Movieguide, January 12, 2024
  20. The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009, Basic Books, January 11, 2011
  21. The Theological Politics of Irving Kristol, National Affairs, Summer 2014
  22. Seymour Martin Lipset (1922–2006), Journal of Demcracy, Volume 18, Issue 2, pp. 185-188, April 2007
  23. Liberalism, Conservatism, and Americanism, Wiley, March 1989
  24. The forgotten story of Jane Roe, who fought for and then against abortion rights, NPR, October 13, 2022
  25. Right Turns: From Liberal Activist to Conservative Champion in 35 Unconventional Lessons, Three Rivers Press, December 27, 2005
  26. The Conversion of Thomas Sowell: It wasn't until his thirties that the economist started to turn from Marxism, Reason Magazine, July 2021