I was twenty-five years old. I was drunk, ignorant, morally bankrupt and intellectually non-existent. I had barely graduated from high school, and failed at college. I worked for the government as a prison guard. Had it not been impossible to get fired as a state and union employee, I would have been jobless too. I was lost and I didn't even know it. My goals in life were never more than a week out and they were all about me and my good time. That's the funny thing when I look back, I thought I was so good, so virtuous. Casting my vote for the correct party and thinking the correct way gave me clearance on the rest of my pathetic life. At least that's what I thought then.

I can remember going out of my way to spout the same three lines about atheism. The same Michael Moore assertions about President Bush and the gun lobby. My knowledge was paper thin, but it didn’t matter, I was on the right side. The echo chamber of my union workplace and circle of college aged friends made me as sure in this ideology as I was in gravity. Any other stance was simply unthinkable.

But then it changed, pretty suddenly. At the tail end of a six day bender, I realized that I had a serious drinking problem. As I found out later, at the age of twenty-five, I had the liver of a fifty-year-old alcoholic. I was always ahead of schedule! I was an alcoholic and I was finally facing it. I admitted myself to a thirty day, inpatient treatment facility, and it turns out that was the best decision I had made in my life to that point.

At this facility is where I had the revelation that changed my life forever. Up to that point in my life, my mind had been stuck in low gear. In the twenty-five years I had spent on this earth, I had yet to truly take personal responsibility for anything, ever. It was always someone or something else’s fault. Every negative event in my life was not my fault. Every negative thing in the news was the result of the Bush family or just the Republican policy in general. My entire existence was in the background and powerless to the whims of others. That was my sole mindset to this point.

It happened in a group therapy session and hit me like a ton of bricks. It took me a couple days to fully understand it. It felt as though I’d been half asleep for my entire life. I alone was responsible for me. It seemed so clear. Blaming others and finding ways to shirk responsibility for things had been the root of almost all my problems.

In all honesty, it was frightening. This may be difficult for someone who hasn’t undergone this transformation, but I had spent my entire life in the protective cocoon of believing other people were responsible for my well-being, my living, my failures and my victories. Revelations are great, but completely changing your mindset in an instant is a shock to the system. This was the beginning, but I had a road ahead to get to where I am now.

After thirty days, I left treatment. I didn’t know what I was going to do for sure, but I wasn’t going back to work as a prison guard and I sure as hell wasn’t going to impose on someone else. Within a day I had quit my job at the prison and secured a new job selling home security systems. That job turned out to be a lot more about dishonesty than security, so I moved on. I decided I needed an education and took a job at a local factory that allowed me to work the weekend shift and had tuition reimbursement.

This is when I found conservatism. I hadn’t thought a ton about political ideology to this point in my new life, but college forced me to confront it pretty quickly. At first, I didn’t realize that my preconceived political views were incompatible with my new mindset on life. I tried to force it, but the square peg was not going through the round hole. Maybe I’m just an all-or-nothing personality, but I could not reconcile this disparity. That's when I reached across the shelf and started reading things I thought I would disagree with. Hazlitt was the one that finally broke me with Economics In One Lesson. Beyond economics, the other issues came without too much outside influence. Once I started really, critically thinking about issues like abortion I was, frankly, disgusted with my former self.

But thank God for the revolution that is the conservative media. There are too many to name, but there are really world class publications, columns and podcasts out there. There are now several conservative voices out there that are intelligent and important. With all my might I still reach back across the shelf. I force myself to follow the lefties on Twitter, watch MSNBC and read New York Times articles. I actually read the Communist Manifesto a couple months back.

The point to all this is to tell you how conservatism saved my life. To me conservatism is more than just a political ideology. It is a movement and a way of life to a certain extent. We live in the single greatest country on this planet, and it isn’t even really close. I believe with all my heart that conservative principles have and can be the fuel that keeps this engine going for generations to come.

What my change in mindset has led me to is simple. As a man, I have responsibilities. They are pretty absolute when you break them down. Take care of myself and my family. Seems really easy, but when you take it seriously, it's not. You see, to me there is no other choice. I live in a place where I am in control of such destinies. At least in theory, there is no one in my way but me.

What conservatism has done is channel what I know to be true about being an American and living my life as a self-sufficient, successful man. I had taken the first steps toward being a man, but it wasn’t until I realized that there was as group of people, with a set of principles that so perfectly encapsulated what I know to be just and moral that I became a real man. I work hard, I provide for my wife and child and I don’t ask for anyone’s help. I cringe when I pay taxes, but I help those who help themselves.

I’ve come a long way since that factory job. I work for the same company, but now I create the orders that get made there, rather than fill them. My income has quadrupled in the five short years since I came around. I found and married my wife and we have a beautiful baby boy. It really seemed impossible that I could find this in my life.

I know that some people will blow this off and think I’m saying that only conservatives can be moral and just. While that’s not what I’m saying, you can draw any conclusion you like. What I am saying is that there is really no other ideological group that commands me to be my best. Modern liberalism allowed me to be a worthless loser and asked for nothing but my vote. In a world that is losing its morality and making fewer and fewer good men, there is a movement that seeks to reverse our course. I know, because in at least this case, it has made a selfish boy into a responsible man.

Brian Hanson is a 30-year-old father, husband, corporate account manager, regretful former liberal and passionate current conservative.