Clarence Thomas is widely considered the most conservative member of the Supreme Court, but he wasn’t always that way.
Thomas describes his journey from radical leftist to staunch conservative in a new documentary “Created Equal,” which details the justice’s life story. In the documentary, Thomas described the drastic changes in his political views, including the moment he decided to cast his vote for President Ronald Reagan. (RELATED: Ronald Reagan Gave His Famous ‘Tear Down This Wall’ Speech 32 Years Ago)
“In the fall of 1980, I had decided to vote for Ronald Reagan,” Thomas said. “It was a giant step for a black man, but I was distressed by the Democratic Party’s promises to legislate the problems of blacks out of existence.”
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Thomas went on to favorably contrast the conservative icon with the Democratic Party, and the “social engineering” that had occurred in the decades leading up to Reagan’s election. (RELATED: Clarence Thomas, Shamed By The Media, Is Going Public With His Own Story)
“Reagan, by contrast was promising an end to the indiscriminate social engineering of the 60’s and 70’s,” Thomas said. “For the first time in my adult life, Washington was full of serious talk about the possibility of getting government off the backs of the poor.”