From Proud Democrat to Embracing the Right: My Teen Journey to Conservativism
Bethany Huang /
I have a confession to make.
If you told me five years ago that I’d be an intern at The Heritage Foundation, the most influential conservative think tank in America, I would have been stupefied.
I’m a Californian born and raised, so inevitably, I was a very passionate liberal for most of my teenage years. I even had a shirt with a cat on it that said, “Proud Demo-cat.”
After reading Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” in my high school U.S. history class, I was convinced that the United States was a country built on racist ideals designed to imprison “people of color.” I dreamed of becoming a civil rights lawyer so that I could take down the “white oppressors” who led the country and dismantle the “systemic racism” that—I was told—plagued American institutions and government.
My obsession with the cult of so-called social justice had no empirical or factual foundation; it was only a flurry of emotion mixed with abstract morality. I wasn’t capable of having a constructive or reasonable dialogue with anyone that disagreed with me ideologically—not even with my own parents who fled communist China in search of a better life.
Every time I would talk politics with my conservative friends, they would send me Heritage’s articles to read. At first, my feelings didn’t care about the facts, so I stubbornly refused to open a single article.
I am thankful today that I caved in when a friend sent me a Heritage article titled “Asian Americans Should Be Skeptical of the #StopAsianHate Campaign,” which piqued my interest as I was very passionate about this movement at the time. I opened the article, ready to tear it apart as I expected unsubstantiated claims, but I was only met with reason and empirical evidence. The more I read about how the Left weaponized crimes against Asian Americans for its own political agenda, the more I started to think, “Hmm … I never thought of that—you got me there.”
In my progressive echo chamber, I was told that every individual should be evaluated by his or her skin color and not by merit. This was supposedly the only way to fight past discrimination and systemic racism against people of color. After being exposed to the conservative idea that individuals were not the sum of their race or other identity, but were endowed with rights by their Creator, I realized that the progressive racialization of individuals completely contradicted the U.S. founding principles of equality and freedom enshrined in the Constitution.
Slowly but surely, I understood that the racially driven social justice movement was instead a political ploy by the establishment Left to sow greater conflict in an already divided nation. I no longer wanted to be a pawn in its game.
Throughout the rest of my time in college, I continued my quest for truth by engaging in fruitful discussions with friends and teachers on both sides of the aisle. My previous political beliefs lacked a firm foundation; that much was evident in these discussions as I struggled to understand why I still stubbornly clung to those beliefs.
These discussions culminated during my time at The Heritage Foundation. I was excited to join the fight to promote conservative public policies, but I still held on to some of my previous political beliefs. I found great joy in the process of having my beliefs reshaped through engaging discussions with the many brilliant scholars at Heritage.
I can now confidently say that conservative principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, and traditional American values are crucial to the flourishing of our nation. In fact, I find myself now writing those same Heritage op-eds I used to avoid reading, aiming to persuade other misguided Californians about the undeniable merits of conservative values.
As a daughter of Chinese immigrants, I have witnessed firsthand how the principles of freedom and equal justice enshrined in the Constitution have provided my family innumerable opportunities. I am deeply grateful for the tireless efforts of organizations like The Heritage Foundation and many others who ardently fight to protect those ideals for future generations.
Amid our nation’s increasing polarization, I find hope in the enduring power of truth. Just as I experienced a transformation from being a “Proud Demo-cat” to a proud conservative, I trust that many others will also embrace the truth when they ultimately open themselves up to it. So, let us stand unwavering in our defense of America’s foundational principles and fervently champion policy solutions that benefit all Americans.
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