In the sense that experiences that were part of my upbringing prompted contemplations that resulted in my eventual political opinion, yes. In the more typical sense of simply inheriting or perpetuating the political opinions I was raised with, no.
My family were liberal democrats. My father was registered as a Republican, but that was only because Republicans dominated the local political scene; he wanted to be able to vote in the primary, since the Republican primary winner nearly always won the election. However, in most elections, he voted Democrat.
My mother worked on the Stevenson campaign in 1956; I was with her, though I don’t remember any of it. Her mother was an actual Socialist (it was a party in NY, even electing a mayor in Schenectady).
My brother and I are liberal democrats (he ran for local office, but lost. See my comment about the Republicans in my home town).
My other brother has slowly turned into a Republican. He liked hanging out with wealthy people and took on a lot of their attitudes.
My parents were Republicans. My grandmother, while a nice enough woman in some regards, was a racist bigot from Kentucky. My sister and brother were both very far right, as were their spouses. I can only attribute my left-of-center bent to the fact that I left both home and Alaska at the age of 20, traveled to all parts of the world over the next 30 years, saw how truly oppressed poor people had to live, and how badly tyrannical religion-oriented governments treated people. I see a lot of those same intolerant, bully traits in today’s GOP.
My brother and sister were fond of tsking at me and wondering aloud how I could possibly be a liberal, coming from a family of Republicans as I did. In the next sentence would be a joke about “the niggers” or “the drunken Eskimos” or some other hateful comments. I’ve had good friends in my life who were Black, Alaska Native, Filipino, Hispanic, etc., and was always offended by those sorts of remarks or jokes.
Anyway, my upbringing had little to do with my politics, but my life experience played a huge part. The behavior of my family in later years just cemented my belief that I am in the right camp.
Grew up Catholic in a big, conservative family, but my parents’ bark was always worse than their bite. They’d condemn something in a stranger but accept it in a child or friend. And the poor were always a big deal in our home parish.
When I became an atheist, I started realizing that my conservatism was part and parcel of what I thought were my religious obligations. I had to be against X and Y because my religion told me so. When I no longer had religion, my reasons for being against X and Y went away. But I kept the social justice aspects of Catholicism.
So I would say I’m hugely influenced by my upbringing. My father was and my mother was and is incredibly generous, loving, and forgiving people who are trying to meld old-fashioned religion with a new world. When I last challenged my mother on ssm, she angrily told me she has a cousin in a same-sex relationship and that she is okay with it. She’s almost 76 and a conservative Catholic. The world is changing.
My parents never spoke about politics. I think growing up during the Depression in corrupt Democrat Jersey City* soured my father on politics for the rest of his life. The only time I knew who my parents were voting for was for Nixon in 1972 because I made them tell me. That doesn’t really say much about their politics except they weren’t far left. Nixon won in a landslide across the country.
*If you think you have experienced government corruption look up Frank Hague.
I grew up in an affluent town in a very blue state (Montgomery County, Maryland - one of the richest counties in the country, not because many people were filthy rich, but because there were very few truly poor), in one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse areas in the world (Washington DC metropolitan area).
I’m sure it contributed to making me the liberal I am.
My father was an arch Tory, active in local politics etc. I am most definitely not.
I don’t recall my parents being clear-cut, self-identified liberals or conservatives, or party loyalists. I think my dad voted for Reagan in the 80’s, but looking back I think he may have been more of a Reagan Democrat. I think he voted for Bush in 1988, Perot in 1992, and then Clinton.
I gravitated toward conservatism in high school because of the social/cultural aspects. I was a shy, timid, introverted kid, and I felt vindicated in that by a philosophy that said that the cool kids, seemingly having their fun partying, drinking, doing drugs, and having sex, were in fact the real losers. For a time in my twenties, I was a pretty mainstream, Republican primary voting, National Review subscribing conservative. Then I discovered traditionalist conservatism through the writings of the late Lawrence Auster and am now someone who considers the Republican party and mainstream conservatives hopelessly liberal.
My father, meanwhile, continued to grow more liberal, and is now the kind of person who starts gratuitous political arguments by bringing up controversial subjects out of the blue, constantly ranting about Republicans, corporations, Fox News, the rich, the religious right, etc. He’s now a Bernie Sanders supporter, and in the past has expressed a wish that a brave new president would swoop into office, pack the Supreme Court like FDR did, ignore the Constitution, and turn America into a fully socialist nation. We’re virtually estranged at this point.
Try cribbage.
And no teeth.
I can’t say that upbringing had anything to do with it. In the 1968 California Presidential primaries, My father voted for Nixon, my mother voted for Humphrey, I voted for McGovern and my younger sister voted for George Wallace.
Our politics have stayed the same ever since then.
I grew up in a non-political family. We hardly ever discussed politics and I couldn’t tell you if my parents are Democrats or Republicans or neither.
Politically, not much. My father was a Republican from a family of Republicans. (My mother was completely apolitical, although her family back in Arkansas seem to have been Democrats.) Even though he and all his family were decent folks, I despise the Republican Party and have voted Democrat from my very first election.
Religiously, probably quite a bit. I recall we tried different Protestant churches until one day, with no fanfare, my father just decided it was all nonsense and started sleeping late on Sundays. I look down on organized religion as bunk to this day.
Of much greater influence were my close friends as a young adult – hardcore liberals in a conservative society.
Dad was a fan of Rush Limbaugh, and Mom is slightly to the right of Himmler. Yet I think Bernie Sanders is dangerously moderate.
I’m pretty left-wing by U.S. standards, yet still considerably more conservative than my parents. But then I was a red diaper baby ;).
Be proud of it, but don’t take it out in public and don’t shove it down your children’s throats.
My upbringing obviously influenced my politics, but it didn’t push me in any one, clear direction.
I grew up in a blue-collar, New York neighborhood, and was raised in an Irish-Catholic family by two highly intelligent, educated, cultured parents. FDR was a god in my household, and everyone I knew growing up voted a straight Democratic ticket.
I moved rightward for a combination of reasons- not least because New York City’s dilapidation and crime seemed to represent the logical results of liberal rule. No one did more to push me rightward than the inept liberal mayor John Lindsay.
My parents were Nixon conservatives, moderates by today’s standards. Two of my brothers are Reagan conservatives, a third is a racist libertarian (!), and I’m a democratic socialist. So I don’t think home environment is that strong of a predictor.
My upbringing was in a Kennedy Democrat family who moved to the southwest US when I was young. I remember the first time we went to Mexico and my parents showing us the border town shanties and my mom saying “Never question why people who live like this (pointing at the corrugated tin roof shacks) want to live like that (pointing to San Diego)”. I’m now a socialist, but I have 3 brothers, one a Tea Party conservative, one a Ron Paul Libertarian, and one a political agnostic.