My ears always perk up when I hear about a lifelong liberal suddenly experiencing a profound change in their political beliefs.

Like many of us, liberal author Dr. Naomi Wolf, a one-time advisor to former President Bill Clinton, watched Tucker Carlson’s presentation of excerpts of previously unseen surveillance footage from Jan. 6, 2021 on Monday night. To say she was moved by what she saw is an understatement. What followed was a 3,150 word apology to conservatives. Her full remarks can be viewed on her Substack site, “Outspoken with Dr. Naomi Wolf.”

It begins:

Dear Conservatives, I Apologize:

There is no way to avoid this moment. The formal letter of apology. From me. To Conservatives and to those who “put America first” everywhere.

It’s tempting to sweep this confrontation with my own gullibility under the rug — to “move on” without ever acknowledging that I was duped, and that as a result I made mistakes in judgement, and that these mistakes, multiplied by the tens of thousands and millions on the part of people just like me, hurt millions of other people like you all, in existential ways.

But that erasure of personal and public history would be wrong.

I owe you a full-throated apology.

I believed a farrago of lies. And, as a result of these lies, and my credulity — and the credulity of people similarly situated to me – many conservatives’ reputations are being tarnished, on false bases.

…

I don’t know all that much about Wolf. According to her bio, the 60-year-old author was born in San Francisco and educated at Yale University.

It appears that her embrace of the dark side – conservatism – didn’t happen in a vacuum. Wolf’s conservative leanings began to show during the pandemic. Her opposition to the COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates drew intense criticism from her former liberal friends.

In a March 2021 appearance on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s podcast, “Truth,” Wolf said she had lost many friends over the past year because she chose to speak out against the “encroaching tyranny” that was threatening to engulf our once (relatively) free society. At the time, she saw a growing “biofascism” and said “it’s led by Dems. I wish it wasn’t true.”

Wolf also said she had been studying the end of democracies for twelve years and feared that’s where the U.S. is headed.

An interesting woman and a “full-throated” apology.