RateItAll: The Opinion Network

The most interesting case on this list, IMO. Unlike most of the people here, who 'switched' out of pure opportunism, Kevin Phillips seems to have moved to the left (he's not a Democrat, though he's a left-leaning Independent) out of conviction. I can't add much to Drummond's impressive summary, except that his recent book, American Theocracy, goes into great detail on the transformation of the GOP into a party dominated by Southern fundamentalists and oil/defense/financial interests. Kevin Phillips might claim that he didn't move to the left; the GOP moved south.

Kevin Phillips was the architect of Nixon's "southern strategy" aimed at seizing the south from the Democrats by taking advantage of white southern voter anger over the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act (ironically, more Republicans voted for the CRA, but it was "liberalism" that was the engine behind it). He wrote about it in a book entitled The Emerging Republican Majority. He remained a staunch conservative until the 1980s when he became disenchanted with Ronald Reagan's treatment of the working class people who voted for him. While employment was up, real buying power of the average worker declined during these years, though many of these voters hardly seemed to notice or care. By the early 1990s, Phillips became so cynical about conservatives that he began a swing to the left. He has since written American Dynasty, and slamming of both Bush administrations. He is currently on tour pushing his most recent book American Theocracy, in which he argues that an apocolyptic mentality has seized American foreign policy, and documents the extreme religious influences on and in the administration. He is known for very accurate research and foundation for his arguments. Ironically, while writers who move from left to right gain fame, his journey from right to left has actually cost him what used to be his regular spots on the Sunday morning talking head shows. You are now much more likely to hear him on Democracy Now, or perhaps Terry Gross's show.