General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo the extent you were political as a kid - were your politics then similar to what they are today?
I have had an interesting experience on Facebook connecting in the past year with people I knew from my elementary or junior high days which would have been in the mid to late 60's. With a couple of exception people who I remember as being more or less liberal politically then are for the most part liberal politically now. People who I remember as politically right-wing then are for the most part politically right wing now. An elementary school friend who was the first person to ever tell me about this wonderful governor from California named Ronald Reagan is now a gun tooting right-wing extremist who lives in a trailer park in Eastern Georgia. Conversely people I new from the same mid to late 60's era who identified with Bobby Kennedy or Eugene McCarthy or Hubert Humphrey or LBJ are for the most part liberal Democrats today. I wonder if this is most peoples experience?
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20 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited | |
To the extent I was political - I was pretty much a liberal or progressive as a kid and I am pretty much liberal or progressive now | |
14 (70%) |
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Actually, I was raised in a right-wing atmosphere and to the extent I was political because of family influence I was right-wing as a kid but I am more liberal now. | |
4 (20%) |
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To the extent I was political - I was moderate or centrist as a kid - but I am more liberal or progressive now | |
2 (10%) |
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To the extent I was political - I was pretty much liberal or progressive as a kid - but I am more moderate/centrist or conservative Democrat now. | |
0 (0%) |
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I miss the old style candy counters they had in 5 and 10 stores back in the 60's | |
0 (0%) |
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0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided. | |
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rgbecker
(4,832 posts)Found out people have less influence on how things turn out for them than the typical right wing nut would have you believe.
Funny how you can work your ass off for 50 years and still not have a place to stay or a buck for a cup of coffee. Don't start me on the gamble of having a kid turn out normal.
Freddie
(9,267 posts)They voted for Nixon twice and were scared that the dirty hippies would come to our sleepy town. Two things--the possibility of my brother going to Vietnam and Reagan's screwing of unions--pushed them leftward and they became faithful Dems in their later years. Growing up female in the 70s made me see the light more than anything.
FSogol
(45,488 posts)d_r
(6,907 posts)We had to write a letter to a public official in our typing class. I wrote ronald reagan and made an incredibly naive, but earnest and forthright, request not to open anwar for oil drilling.
abq e streeter
(7,658 posts)They'd moderated somewhat from that but still liberals. My dad is now 95 and watches Rachel Maddow and Lawrence ODonnell every night and refuses to even refer to the republicans as a political party; calls them a criminal front group.
Meanwhile, I was reading Karl Marx (I've moderated from that ,lol) by time I was 12. Right now I feel more radical than any time since my 20's (I'm 62) .Happy to report that the vast majority of my liberal friends from college etc and younger, whose views I still know, have remained progressive. Not all, but large majority; probably 90 %.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)albeit not an official one, Trotskyist in 2013, but I'm now OFFICIALLY a card carrying Red. And people say you get more conservative as you age?
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)- Eugene O'Neill
canoeist52
(2,282 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)TheKentuckian
(25,026 posts)shenmue
(38,506 posts)Then Iran Contra happened, and I lost all respect for them.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)so while I was political, my experience of politics as a kid as very different. For god sakes, my sociology instructor in my senior HS year was a member of the Central committee of the Communist Party, so yes I know what is a communist, a marxist. a socialist and a social democrat, none are the same.
PDJane
(10,103 posts)I am a progressive now. Part of that comes from listening to my father; he was a professed liberal who was a bigoted, conservative man in practice. I found that tolerance and socialism lead to a better quality of life.
doc03
(35,348 posts)parents always voted Democrat. They lived through the Great Depression and loved FDR and would never vote for a Republican.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)... Ebony, U.S.S.R Today (later Soviet Life), Ramparts, Garbage, Science, and, of course, more mainstream publications like National Geographic, Natural History, Time, etc. This material was necessary to counteract the prevailing views in the smallish Idaho town in which we lived until I was 17, where the population was over 50% Mormon (and is now 71% Mormon). It worked, I was appropriately indoctrinated as a child and remain so.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)giving to him in a box. My parents liked Reagan and I was a disgusting little suck-up.
Now I'm a socialist and my brother thinks all politics are hopelessly corrupt.
TBF
(32,067 posts)a flower child ... we were raised to be liberals.
I did go through a period for about 5 years when I left for college, graduated, and started working - I felt like maybe there was something to Reagan's trickle down and if I just worked hard enough I could be a millionaire too. I got over that notion pretty quickly when I entered the workforce and found out my salary for the year was $15,500 starting out. You need a lot of raises to get to a million from there ...
I ended up doing well in my career and married someone who similarly did well - but we both remain democrats and I am far more socialist. Once you've sat in the board room there is no way you can honestly talk about anyone caring about workers. The goal of capitalism is profit and that's it (if anyone gets helped along the way it's incidental - the goal is always growth and more profit). I have two siblings and they are both also socialists who vote dem.
LumosMaxima
(585 posts)But I was always a liberal. I was never in step with my family's interests or what they consider "values."
Adding: I'm not really sure what happened to my parents. All of my grandparents were Democrats.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)"Moral Majority".
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)I would have liked to have thought of myself as being a republican, but truthfully I don't think I was much of a right leaning kid on any issues other than our military/foreign poilcy and fiscal policy. Socially I was always a centrist/moderate and probably would have leaned left.
Fighting in a war was an eye-opener for me and forced me to reevaluate a lot of things. Combat had the unexpected consequence of softening me up and was a very humanizing experience for me. I would say that I lean HARD left/progressive on almost every issue.
clyrc
(2,299 posts)They didn't like Reagan, and my grandpa vocally hated him with a white hot passion. Possibly that example helped push me to go more and more left as I grow older.