The difference between ex-right wingers and people who still are right-wingers is simply critical thinking skills. You (and others here) were willing to criticize right wing orthodoxy (either that or they were not REAL right-wingers to begin with). Most right-wingers are not willing to do so. For that you deserve a lot of credit.

As far as I know I have always been a liberal. First I became an atheist after having been forced to attend church (Catholic) for many years. At first it was just because I was rebellious. For example, the church (my church anyway) was very anti-nuclear war. So I was pro-nukes just to be contrary! I figured out later that it was okay to agree with the church on some things- they may be misguided and wrong on a lot but on the nukes thing at least they were correct.

Anyway it is strange how our belief evolve. I became a liberal in large part as a rebellion against my raising. My dad was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican (although mainly for fiscal and tax reasons- he voted for Kerry last time around and thinks we need a Canadian-style health care system, if only to control costs. But then he also thinks teachers get paid too much. Go figure.)

The first time I realized I was a liberal was in high school. I wrote a paper on acid rain and started to realize the kind of damage we were doing to the environment. I also did several reports in history on various topics that had a decided anti-establishment point of view.