'I remember thinking I was a Communist for a short nano-second during my youth, that does not mean I am a Communist now.'

Thank you for that brave confession pelican. Denial is not a river in Egypt.

I bet you feel so much better having gotten that off your chest. It's something most OLO members have long suspected. Just like a drug addict thinks about drugs every day, I've no doubt you pine to sneak a look at that Chairman Mao poster behind your bedroom door.

No wonder you jump so stridently to the defence of communist Kerry.

Maybe there is a support group for recovering lefties. Can anyone suggest a 12 step program?

Houlle, one can't help but bite.

What is brave about making such a confession. Having been raised in a Liberal voting (anti-Labor) family, when I was about 15 I pondered on how anyone could be dumb enough or misguided enough to vote Labor. Is that a brave confession too?

Point is we think all sorts of things in our youth and that is how we get to where we are now. Malcolm Turnbull once thought he would join Labor in fact many in the ALP would probably fit right into the Coalition.

If you do find a 12 step program please join as methinks your past left leaning is causing some sort of identity crisis and now you see red under the bed wherever you go.

:p

Dear Pelly,

"All governments tend towards totalitarianism.
The road to the left leads through the
caring-supportive-human-welfare society
administrated by a bureaucratic compassion industry.
The end result is the pocket-money society in
which the government takes all our money and then
returns some of it in the form of the social wage.
The road to the right is signposted with such
slogans as "private enterprise" and "freedom of choice."
The end result is another pocket-money society in
which wages are adjusted to the lowest level the
market will bear without civil disturbance."

(Dennis Pryor, "Political Pryorities: How to get on
top of Australian Politics.").

Very true Foxy. Or pocket-money to bail out banks and other corporates or to stimulate the economy. We have certainly made a noose for ourselves.