I grew up and started out conservative (though more from the libertarian side, to be honest about it.) But I loved Rush Limbaugh through my last couple years of high school and first year or two of college. And then I met a rather loud argumentative blue-collar liberal from Queens in college, and we sparred head-to-head many nights over political philosophy, and, in the end, I started drifting towards the liberal side of the argument. Ever since, I’ve been various shades of left. I’ve always been a strong social libertarian, and economically I’m somewhere in the middle. So I’m a solid Democrat, but with a bit more progressive of a bent than the Democratic party.
All in all, I don’t think my core values really changed much at all. I just think I came to different conclusions about what the best way to express these values was.
In my late teens and 20s, I fancied myself a “moderate.” Both my parents encouraged political debate, without being overtly “political.” They were both Clinton supporters, and so was I. They weren’t fans of Reagan. And neither was I. However, I did vote for several down-ballot Republicans in the 90s, mostly to hold on to my “moderate” button.
But then I began to realize that picking a side wasn’t a bad thing. I couldn’t believe my eyes with GWB being elected, and continued to swing harder and harder left over the 00s. In my early 40s now, and I’m more progressive/lefty/socialist than I’ve ever been.
Complete “Flip to the Flop to the Flippy-Flippy Flop”.
Grew up arch-conservative. Went to a far-right college (Hillsdale). Was a Reagan backer.
But then I read the New Testament (seriously, that Jesus guy was not a neo-con). And some of the “conservatives” on this board have been so disingenuous with their straw men, and the Republican politicians so dishonest, that I’ve seen the moral paucity of their positions and find myself much more liberal as a result…
To the point of campaigning and designing posters for Obama and Hillary. And any impeachment campaigns coming up…
The issues I care about have changed with time; the first conscious political decision I took was at age 8, at that age you don’t give much of a shit about national budgets But the basic principles are and remain the same. Personal responsibility, social duty; true discipline is personal discipline (or as my school teachers used to put it “this girl has a problem with authority” - no, I have a problem with taking orders from morons); in any negotiation, the ideal situation is win-win; if you can’t find a solution which leaves everybody happy, either someone isn’t playing right or y’all lack imagination; if you don’t like a law, work to have it changed; any legal system needs to include in itself the mechanisms to be changed, to be legitimate.
I enjoy making people’s heads explode when I point out things like “when it comes to things as basic as their basic concept of Man, the sides of the Spanish Civil War were crossed: Comunists and Fascistas are authoritarian and have a negative view of the individual, Anarchists and Carlistas are individualists with a positive view of individuals”. Or “oh, I’m a Traditionalist; traditions are so much easier to change and adapt than written laws, no paperwork required.”
In my case, I think it was a matter of seeing how awful the party I was in actually was, and getting (belatedly) educated. But yeah, it was really in my late twenties that I abandoned the GOP, and in my early thirties I swore them off completely. If they were dumb enough to nominate GWB twice, they weren’t as smart as they told me they were.
There’s also a sense in which my basic conservationist beliefs remained, and I finally decided to leave a party and subculture that actively sneered at them.
I was raised in a liberal Democratic household. FDR and Eleanor were up there with God.
Then I went to college in the '60s, and became a Libertarian/Objectivist/Randroid. I even knew Rand for a while after moving to NYC.
But then I started getting involved with LGBTQ politics. Went to a few meetings of a gay libertarian group, and began to realize that I didn’t believe the dogma as much as I thought I had. But the big change happened with the AIDS crisis. All my friends and lovers were dropping like flies… my entire generation was being wiped out… while the crisis was nothing but a joke to so many politicians. Reagan sent GHW Bush out to talk about AIDS, and he mentioned the “giggle factor”. I had joined ACT-UP, and participated in many protests in NYC and Washington.
After that, I held my nose and voted Democratic (I actually voted for only one Republican for president: Ford), while still keeping one foot in libertarianism. It wasn’t until 2008 that I actively campaigned for Obama, then Hillary.
I can still see things from a libertarian point of view, seeing all issues in the light of “individual rights”, but it doesn’t change the fact that, for all practical purposes, I’m a {gasp!} liberal. I now prefer to see things in terms of an “evolved society”, one that respects ALL the rights of the individual… those rights having evolved beyond those espoused by libertarianism. But I still struggle with some issues, and suppose I always will.
^
You said in an earlier thread that you initially supported the Vietnam War? Why and how did you change your mind? Did that mark you as the odd man out in your social/political group?
On topic. I honestly don’t know where my politics are at 32. You can probably chart my changes looking at my posts here for the last 9 years, almost a third of my life :eek:
When I was younger I was quite big on feminism and feminist theory. Nowdays, although I retain my earlier views on the necessity of women’s welfare, rights, access to a level playing field, reproductive autonomy, I find most feminist writings to be nonsensical, based upon the concerns of the middle classes with no regard for the experiences of other social groups.
I was quite big on the whole law and order and tough on crime; these days after spending waaaay too much time with criminals, I am rather less so, I feel prison is just a pl,ace where society sends its undesirables to rot; out of sight out of mind, and make no effort to fix them. I don’t think harsh punishments deter crimes.
I am supportive now of big government spending on infrastructure and socials programme, the younger me would have balked at the fiscal cost.
In other ways I have remained more of less the same.
I don’t think my overall position has changed much - I’m still somewhat-left-of-center by most reckonings - but my views have changed on some issues, both in where I stand and what I think is achievable. Over the years I’ve been a registered Republican (back before the GOP became officially batshit crazy) and a registered Democrat but have been independent for a long time now as I find both parties extremely disappointing (albeit not for the same reasons).
When I was 10 or 12 years old, I leaned toward the meritocratic, Ayn Rand-esque end of the spectrum (e.g. people on welfare are leeching off of society, affirmative action is just promoting mediocrity, etc.). But once I had more contact with the real world and I saw that life is more complicated than that, I started leaning towards being more socialist. I’d probably label myself a pragmatic liberal now.
In college I was very liberal/progressive. After getting my first real job - and paying real taxes - I became a staunch conservative. Today I am a “libertarian conservative.”
I’d always thought I was a Republican since my youth in the Reagan era, but I came to realize that the party and I were differing in our alignments. About seven years ago I realized I was mostly just a libertarian. I’m not fully aligned with 100% of the Libertarian party (but I pay my dues!), but they’ a lot closer than any of two other major parties.
Some of my views have changed, but I think they’re mostly apolitical views anyway. For example, I used to doubt that global warming was conclusive. This is entirely apolitical, despite the fact the politicians try to use it for political gain. It’s either happening, or it’s not. I used to be anti-gay-marriage, and while I’m not going to march to demand it, I see that society isn’t falling apart and so I’m much more of a “whatever makes you happy” kind of guy now. Philosophically, I’d rather get government out of marriage altogether, but it’s also not something I’d join in a march for.
Republican to Libertarian isn’t really a flip-flop, though; it’s kind of like going off on a vector.
I was raised a patrician Tory. To my father, Thatcher was The Divine Margaret who could do no wrong. The idiotic actions of the socialists in the early 80s did not help. My views were expanded upon going to university in 1986, and I realised that no one party has a monopoly on the right way forward. Since then I’ve voted for all the major UK parties except the SNP. Last time around, I voted for Dame Anne Begg, the Labour candidate and the then MP.
My political views have probably gotten more nuanced with age (I describe myself as a free-market socialist), but they’ve always been somewhere to the left of center (in some cases, rather far left).
But the basic principles are and remain the same. Personal responsibility, social duty; true discipline is personal discipline (or as my school teachers used to put it “this girl has a problem with authority” - no, I have a problem with taking orders from morons); in any negotiation, the ideal situation is win-win; if you can’t find a solution which leaves everybody happy, either someone isn’t playing right or y’all lack imagination; if you don’t like a law, work to have it changed; any legal system needs to include in itself the mechanisms to be changed, to be legitimate.