>fixed reasons why so-and-so becomes who they become.
>But I was talking about the Young Right, primarily
>those who came of age under Reagan/Bush. And in my
>experience, many of them, as teenagers, felt
>inadequate and put-upon (by "liberals" and "liberal
>culture") and this fueled anger
>and resentment and a need to tap into state power.
>You certainly see that in Coulter.
>
>DP
I second Dennis. Both extremes of the political spectrum attract people who use politics to play out their own psychological turmoil. That's why people like David Horowitz switch so easily. As Henry Miller says in the movie Reds, "People who want to change the world usually either have no problems of their own, or lots and lots of problems." But probably because left-wing politics has so few inducements to offer these days, most of the psychos seem to be ending up on the right. (Not that we don't have a few; they just don't get to be on TV.)
A few years ago I had several long conversations with an up and coming young conservative female pundit. She kept on talking about John F. Kennedy being conceited and how Democrats thought they were all so great. It was weird, like someone in junior high talking about the cool kids.
Interestingly, when I asked she was willing to admit that the government has funded basically all technological breakthroughs in the last 100 years. Nonetheless, she still fervently believed in free market economics.
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