If so, which direction? And at what age (roughly)? Did anything in particular contribute to your shift?
No. If anything I’ve probably become more liberal. I used to score in the Democratic-Centrist region on the various political tests, now I’m just as likely to hit Democratic-Progressive.
No, I started out extremely liberal and there I remain.
In a relative sense, no, I’ve always been around the bottom of the most liberal quartile and still am. I’m probably more liberal in an absolute sense, but so is America in general.
I was a bleeding heart liberal as a kid, and my parents assured me that everyone becomes more conservative as they grow up.
Now I’m a socialist.
I started out very conservative. Over time, there are some issues on which I’ve become more liberal, but there are other issues I’ve still remained as conservative as ever.
**More liberal: **I now favor legalized marijuana, and hold a more favorable view of single-payer healthcare, welfare, and unemployment assistance. I’m also very environmentalist - within reason, that is. And when it comes to the banking or finance sector regulations/oversight, I’m right up there with Elizabeth Warren in terms of strictness of regulation. I’ve also come to see America as a over-incarcerated country and think that incarceration should be a last resort and that we need more rehabilitation. I think that an America without guns would survive perfectly fine. And I also think that many illegal immigrants are just decent, good people who are trying to find a better life. I’ve also become more and more anti-American, seeing many American actions in WWII and elsewhere as war crimes/atrocities.
**More conservative, or still the same: ** I still firmly oppose appeasement or military disarmament - Neville Chamberlain’s ideas are just as wrong today as they were 75 years ago. I am still as firmly opposed to affirmative action and political correctness of the “emperor’s new clothes” type as ever. I still want to see the national debt reduced or eliminated, favor arms sales to US allies abroad, favor private schools, vouchers, and homeschooling. I think voter ID is perfectly reasonable. I also think freedom of the press has gotten way out of hand, and that fake news or malicious news, or life-changing-mistake-error news should be punished as severely, or nearly as severely, as outright slander or libel.
My zoris are apolitical.
Nope. However, even in my youth I was a classic New Deal liberal. It was strange then, and it’s strange now.
If you think people automatically get more conservative when they get old, just say the magic word “Medicare.”
I’ve moved left over the past 10 years. I was always fairly moderate, but leaned conservative. Seeing the obstructionist efforts against Obama, and the government shut down fiasco, pushed me over the edge. I think my views have shifted a bit leftward, but the conservatives have also shifted way to the right.
Heck, I flip flop politically with topic. Nevermind age.
Absolutely. I was a conservative for years, flirted with no-con-ism in the early 2000’s, initially backed the Iraq war.
By 2010 I was exploring libertarianism pretty hard.
That was apparently a transitional phase, as I find myself now pretty firmly liberal in most areas, with some vestigal libertarian leanings.
Started out Libertarian, thinking that socially liberal/fiscal conservative was a pretty good ideal. Then I recognized that ‘fiscal conservatism’ is a scam in service of hereditary wealth and power. I’m happy to carry water for liberals on major issues, but I wish sometimes they weren’t so… well… loony, hyperbolic, and distractable.
So I guess in the final analysis, I flip-flopped myself out into a lonely political cornfield somewhere by myself.
My best answer, with a caveat or two: I have gotten more liberal.
I was pretty liberal through about the middle of my teens, because my parents were pretty liberal (well, my dad was pretty liberal; my mom was very liberal), and it was what I knew. I didn’t think all that much about the issues, but I was delighted when Jimmy Carter won in '76 because it was a victory for our team.
Over the next three years I began thinking about the issues and decided I was actually a conservative. At least, a libertarian. I agreed, in general terms, that the best government was the one that governed least. I didn’t see anything wrong with the death penalty and had my doubts about affirmative action and thought that taxes were too damn high. I read a lot of George Will and James Kirkpatrick. I wrote a couple of short stories that were very grounded in conservative thinking. My mother was vaguely scandalized.
I did hold on to a number of more liberal ideas. I was in favor of gun control, for instance, and I believed that the military budget needing cutting. I didn’t see a particular contradiction here; I was fond of saying, “Well, I’m a conservative, but…”
Until one day I realized that I was saying that a lot. I toted it up and realized that there were at least as many things I favored that were leftish things as things I favored that were rightish things. Hmm, I said to myself, and started referring to myself as a moderate. Then Reagan was elected and I was appalled and started calling myself a liberal. Since then, if anything, I’ve drifted increasingly leftward.
So my Conservative Period was bracketed nicely by the beginning and end of the Carter presidency. Take out those three years, though, and I’ve been pretty consistent!
Nope. Liberal as always.
Grew up Liberal (Carter-ish) and couldn’t understand how anyone could think otherwise.
Went to college and started to believe the attitude of the party was you’re either with us a hundred percent, on every issue, or you’re a traitorous, unthinking fool.
The black and white of thought started to bug me.
Continually moved independent as I got older and then moved conservative as the party I initially thought had my back and represented what I believed and thought, no longer did so. They moved to the fringe, instead of more to the middle, mainstream.
Now I consider myself a Rommney-esque Republican. I’d give anything to have had him in office but will back Trump given the (mostly) similar platforms.
Not full party supporter on every issue, but getting closer to it the older I get - for instance abortion. Believe it should be an option and a woman’s choice but disagree on the length of time it’s allowed. On the other hand I believe marijuana and a variety of other drugs should be legalized, or at least decriminalized, with a healthy, well funded option for those that want to quit, can’t handle it, or want to stop.
For legalized prostitution but hard core against crime and those that commit it.
A little bit of a mix but mostly Republican. Moving more right by the day.
I have switched from a Republican to a Democrat. I feel I’m the same political moderate I always was but the Republican Party moved to the right and the Democratic Party moved to the center to fill the void.
I’ve always been a Chicago Democrat. My parents voted mostly Democrat, but otherwise were pretty conservative. I’ve always been liberal, though I will vote for a Republican candidate if they are better than the Democrat on the ballot.
My core beliefs haven’t changed much; I still identify with libertarians in many ways. I’ve become more pragmatic with time and hence have come to believe that universal health care is a good idea and basic income may be a necessity.
My party affiliation has strongly flip-flopped, though. I used to think that “fiscal conservativism” was something that resembled a free market. Surprise: it doesn’t, at least as implemented by the Republican party. So if neither party is going to offer that, then I’ll vote based on social liberalism. And in that area there is no ambiguity at all.
Whatever positive values I ever ascribed to Republicans were half illusion, and half abandoned on the road to Trumplandia. There’s nothing left.
On the topic of climate change specifically, I was not fully convinced when it first became a political topic. But the data kept coming in and now there’s no question that it’s happening and a real threat. The Republicans continue to be in denial, as if the past 20 years of research and data never happened. Sad.
At one time, I was a liberal/Democrat because my mother told me I was. Then I grew up and realized that my mother is one smart lady.
I’ve gone from communism to mere socialism of the Bertrand Russel style.
Not really a politically active communist, but a sympathizer who couldn’t understand what was so bad about it. After all in those days, most capitalist countries were brutal pathological one-party puppet tyrannies, too, usually just appointed by the American corporations instead of the Soviets.