Who made you a liberal?

[Reverend_Smitty]

Was it someone you personally knew or was it a politician? For me it was not someone in my family per say, but he is my dad's best friend. My dad could be best described as a Republican but his best friend Ted was a stone cold liberal with a radio show to boot. I think that is where I got it from. When I was a child and he came over to visit, Ted would always ask me "Who's the best president?" and I would respond loudly "Kennedy!" and then he would ask "Who's the worst president?" and I would respond "Reagan!" (this was the mid 80's and I wasn't even in grade school yet). That would always spark a "what the hell are you teaching my kid" by my dad. I think it started there, and because of his influence when I got older I was aware of other political views (not just the Republicanism in my family). Plus whenever he got into a political debate with my family, he was so passionate and so knowledgeable (he actually backed his arguements with fact) about what he was speaking, I couldn't help but follow his lead.

[calico1]

1. Selfish, idiot, greedy Conservatives. n/t

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. Whoever stocked

the brochures explaining the Religious Right's attack on the right to choice.

They were displayed in the lobby at the clinic in Dallas where I went for an abortion in 1994.

I had never voted before that. The experience scared the hell out of me.

The first time I ever voted was for Clinton in 1996, when I was 30. That's why I have targeted young women in my voter registration efforts. I don't want them to remain ignorant as long as I did.

FSC

[mairceridwen]

15. thank you

as a college instructor, I am amazed at how little young women to day know about reproductive health.

[fudge stripe cookays]

25. I'm doing my best....

but it's always hard to judge which of them have been indoctrinated by fundamentalist parents.

I've begun saying "I don't care what your views on abortion are. That's your business. But did you know they're coming after your birth control? That they want to send women back to the beginning of the century? If you are unmarried and you use birth control, you had BETTER pay attention this election, because this is going to affect YOU."

Most girls' mouths fall open from the shock.

reprehensor and I found 2 new girls last night at Boston Market (I was wearing my Bush/Alfred E. Neuman button). They wanted to know (curiously, not maliciously), "What's so wrong with Bush?" So we told them what I said above.

They were REALLY interested. Unfortunately, when we hosted "Bush Family Fortunes" the other night, my voter reg cards didn't get put back in my purse. But reprehensor gave them the "Bush Flip Flopper" flyers we made up. We're going back tonight to get them registered to vote, and giving them copies of Gloria Feldt's book to pass around.

FSC

[mairceridwen]

33. you're doing GREAT

I'm teaching reproductive rights next week and the whole history of Birth control and birth control under attack is all in there

Are there any websites that you would recommend? Anything you can think of in ten seconds or less is good

I like catholics for choice, because they frame it in terms that I think students can relate to

Not like my: "IF I RULED THE WORLD I WOULD MAKE EVERY STARBUCKS A PLANNED PARENTHOOD" ranting

[fudge stripe cookays]

53. Obviously, anything on the Planned Parenthood site

or NARAL site is valuable.

www.plannedparenthood.org

www.naral.org

But if I were you, the ABSOLUTE MOST VALUABLE tool I would recommend is getting a copy of Gloria Feldt's book "the War on Choice" and READING it. Cover to cover. Make notes, Tab the pages that have extra important info. That's what I did.

It's an easy read (albeit infuriating); easily chunked. I finished the entire thing on a flight from DC to Dallas. It will arm you with the ammo you need to counter any argument (even the religious ones!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/miselainis/untitled.bmp

Also, rent "If These Walls Could Talk". It's very moving. I hosted a watching party at my house recently.

Fight the power!
FSC

[ComerPerro]

3. Every conservative asshole I know

I kept thinking, "These people are _________ (choose: insane, bigoted, psychotic, scary, assholes, fascists, jerks, morons, self absorbed, mindless, etc)"

And then I thought about their views, and I started seeing some major inconsistancies.

For one, I knew who Rush Limbaugh was, because a lot of my family (extended, uncles and aunts, cousins) listened to him. And I knew he was full of shit.

So it inspired me to do some research on my own.

I looked at both views, the vaules that both sides hold (supposedly, i don't know what conservatives stand for anymore, but I know they sure as hell don't stand for traditional values, morality, and integrity) and I realized that I was a liberal.

[demnan]

4. Hearing John F. Kennedy speak

as a young child was so inspiring. His death was so tragic, and so soon. I loved him very much and will always have a place in my heart for JFK.

[AFSCME girl]

66. What a beautiful thing to say..

Thanks for sharing :yourock:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

5. Jesus - He changed my heart

[GreenPartyVoter]

31. What a beautiful sentiment ;^)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Critically examine everything. Hold on to the Good." 1 Thessalonians
5:21

Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. i read a lot as a child as was encouraged to question everything

[judge_smales]

7. The NeoCons did.

10-15 years ago I was considered a Moderate. The discussion has shifted so far to the right in the last few years that, without me moving at all I've gone from being a Moderate to a Liberal.

[veteran_for_peace]

8. It was Africa

I went to Somalia in 1994. I saw what real poverty really means to people. I saw with my own eyes the reality of war. It made me question the beliefs that I had held about the role of government. It made me believe that government has to play a role in helping people.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

9. My own tendencies

to place the overall good ahead of my own self interests. I think a good way to distinguish democrats from repubs is that the democrats care about other people, while repubs care mostly about themselves. b

[mairceridwen]

10. me mum

Though my family wasn't very political. But mum set me straight when I came home spewing some republican nonsense I picked up from friends in junior high. I was really socialist in college, now I am still pretty left-wing but more open-minded (read: realistic) on economic issues. So it was mostly professors. I still hold some of my socialist ideals though around things like funding education and the arts and healthcare and so forth.

Nowadays my mother identifies as a moderate liberal, but if you press her ideals, rather than her expectations, she's pretty left especially on things like education, reproductive rights, and the environment.

[nikatnyte]

11. Healthy, unobstructed bloodlow to the brain

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. lmao!

[FunBobbyMucha]

12. Dick Nixon.

I was ten when Watergate was unspooling. I was only marginally aware of what all this meant, but it confirmed that the ruddy-faced creep on TV was a bad guy. I was 12 or so when Carter took office and he was everything his two predecessors were not. Then Reagan proved all my biases correct.

Grew up in rural Ohio, raised by politically-apathetic parents ("They's all crooks!") in a redneck town that nonetheless had a good number of old hippies, communes, and druggies (though not the case today, in the mid-70's, if you smoked pot, you were a liberal. It was much easier back then).

[Bluzmann57]

14. The parents

My dad, while a Democrat, was, and is, still somewhat conservative, especially where it concerns homosexuality. My mom, on the other hand, is an all out Liberal. She punished me when I was a youngster for dropping "N" bombs in our small lily white town, she has never backed down from what she believes. They both worked for the McGovern for President campaign in 1972, and I, as an impressionable teenager joined them because it looked like they were having fun. They knew a guy, a real good man, who is a rock ribbed righty and I can remember him and my dad sitting in the living room arguing politics. So it's my birthright to be a Liberal, I guess. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if(gasp!) I had registered as a Republican. Well no sense in worrying about that, because it'll never happen.

[LincolnMcGrath]

45. I went to see McGovern with my grandfolks

at the (former) Moline Airport as a youngster.

[pagerbear]

16. Feeling and compassion for others

Not only that, but growing up gay, one learns to question the dominant paradigm(s). If one is fortunate, one learns to think for oneself. (Alternatively, one choose better people to do one's thinking for one.)

Sure, my parents were/are Democrats, but also social conservatives. Although I think having a gay son has made them question a few assumptions of their own, as well.

on edit--sorry, that's not a person.

[mulsh]

17. God made me a liberal

actually every one I ever admired encouraged me to make educate myself and make up my own mind, even my conservative relatives and friends.
a life spent in the sf bay area didn't hurt either.

[WoodrowFan]

77. God, Matthew 25:31-46

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, "I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (NIV)

http://www.right-wing-pseudo-christians.com/matthew-25.htm

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

93. That's beautiful.

[WoodrowFan]

104. thanks, but

I'm not the author. ;)

[dumpster_baby]

18. Chomsky

he laid out the evidence and it was plain to see how we have been manipulated.

[quisp]

19. My Mom...

She was the most generous, caring soul I ever knew. Some of my first memories are political ralleys. She taught me that we were Democrats because Dems were optimistic, trusting and hopeful and that is the best way to live.

I've got 3 kids of my own now and the oldest (7) is asking questions about the campaign,the Kerry yard sign, and the bumper stickers. I'm teaching her what it means to be a Democrat, just as I'll teach the others when they're old enough.

My Mom died 11 years ago and I still think of her every day.

[Fleshdancer]

20. I honestly think I came to it mostly on my own

Both my parents were Democrats but I can't remember any deep political conversations with them early in life. I became interested in politics when I was 7 but really didn't start grasping my personal beliefs on specific issues until I was 12.

From age 12 to present, I have relied on rationalism and my personal sense of ethics to guide my political ideology. 9 times out of 10, this has always brought me to the left.

[stray cat]

The last 3 years of George W. Bush's reign.

nt

[RebelOne]

21. George W. Bush

Until he was selected in 2000, I was just a Democrat. Ever since he has been in office, I have become a hard-core liberal.

[The Great Escape]

22. Jerry Falwell

It made sense to me that whatever he was, I wanted to be the opposite.

[judge_smales]

24. I often wonder

if "regular" Chrisians know just how many potential converts this guy completly turns off from thier faith?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

34. do regular christian care about converts

is that not an evangelical thing?

[On the Road]

23. Chomsky and Zinn

[blackcat77]

26. Bobby Kennedy and Gene McCarthy nt

[JimmyJazz]

27. I hesitate on this one, but it's too tempting not to answer...

When I was 20, I met the man on my avatar. I was raised in a conservative family and didn't really have that much interest in politics. After talking with him, I realized just how parochial I was in my beliefs. I began to pay attention to what was happening in Nicaragua and what had happened in Guatemala and Chile. Twenty four years later, I am still studying these things. It's because of him that I knew about Chile's September 11 and about Victor Jara.

I envy people who were raised in democratic homes. I was raised in one where political views were not expressed and who one voted for was private. Then again, I'm still waiting for my sex talk with my mom!

[tigereye]

52. so it's not Joe Strummer

that didn't quite fit, anyway. Who is it?

[JimmyJazz]

70. What do you men? Of course it was Joe.

Without having met him, I'd probably be apolitical. I don't think I would be a Republican like my family, but I don't think I would have cared about politics either.

[tigereye]

72. from your post, I thought it was a SOuth American politico....

whoops.. or a poet..

[JimmyJazz]

80. Joe was a great poet and had a passion for the people of

South and Central America. I thought you would recognize the picture, but because he's older in the photo, I guess it's not as obvious.

[tigereye]

84. well I did, but then I thought the above...

did he spend a lot of time in South and Central America? I rembember the Clash' Sandinista period well. Boy it is very sad not to have him around.

[JimmyJazz]

89. I don't think he spent any time there before Sandinista was recorded.

I do know he spent some time in Nicaragua during the "wilderness years." He just read and absorbed everything and had such a passion for life.

I recently saw a young girl (about 15) in Border's and she had a CD of the Clash's first american release together with NME's collector's edition of Clash articles in the other. I had to ask how that came to be. She said, "I heard my Dad's tapes and I really like the music." Joe would have like that a lot.

He really loved his fans and at the end of each show, the band would wait for most people to clear out and then Ray Jordan would go outside and walk around and ask people if they wanted to come in and meet the band. They had beer and sodas backstage and shared them with their fans. What other band can you say that about?

"The world is a sad and beautiful place." -- JS

[JimmyJazz]

71. Sorry for the lovely spelling error in the last post - it was

clearly written this morning without the benefit of coffee! :donut: Ah, that's better.

[Gildor Inglorion]

28. My wonderful parents...

who lived through the horrors of the Great Depression and saw FDR as what he really was, the savior of this nation. Maybe it would be just as well if the Repukes actually "elect" Bus**t. The last time the Repukes had total control, the damage they inflicted kept them in the minority in both houses of Congress for 60 years, give or take.
;)

[GreenPartyVoter]

30. My parents, too. :^)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Critically examine everything. Hold on to the Good." 1 Thessalonians
5:21

Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

[skygazer]

29. I was born with a brain

My parents were very conservative. I never followed their lead. I have been a liberal since I could first think coherently - my first act of civil disobedience was to sit in a blue chair in kindergarten rather than the pink one my teacher tried to put me in. She had to call my mother in to resolve it (and my mother, bless her, simply said, "why can't she sit in a blue chair?").

[fishnfla]

32. Rush Limbaugh

i used to listen to him all the time, then i realized what a douchemunch he is

[AlFrankenFan]

110. He made me a liberal too!

Actually it's mostly cause I always had to (and still do) listen to him when I was visiting my father, from age I think 4 or 6 on. When I was nine I was absolutely SICK OF IT and my grandfather recommended Al's book, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot". Which lead me to discover Al Franken and later on in "Why Not Me?" the brief mention of Paul Wellstone.

[alexisfree]

35. my grandmother...

I am from Mexico we don't trust the government my entire family is liberal...so, is in my blood.

[miss_kitty]

36. i came out that way

i was born one...my parents were active Dems and I grew up around WA st movers and shakers-local and federal, executive (state), legislative and judicial (the latter two, state and fed)
I am much further left than they ever were now. My dad drifted right as he aged, which, as a young adult drove me further left. and my mom was headed left, too.

[carolinayellowdog]

37. My 5th grade teacher Ann Johnson, 1964

I spouted some anti-Civil Rights b.s. I'd heard at home (states rights blah blah) and she asked me "How would you feel if you were black?"

A moment I'll never forget.

[regularguy]

38. Ayn Rand, my Mom, and various Deadheads.

I was a really into Rand as a teenager until I decided one day that it was all just horrible bullshit. Also, I remember my parents voting for McGovern (my Mom voted for Shirley Chisolm in the primary).

[MsConduct]

39. No one, I was born this way. n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

40. I was born with the ability to perceive reality. (nt)

[lgreen]

41. My mom.

I have always been a liberal! I come from a long line of Democrats (except for my dad who had a sharp right turn a few years back) She raised me with liberal values from day 1. She took with her to work on President Clinton's first campaign when I was 17. I got to meet him, too! I always voted Democrat, but I didn't begin to get really involved until after * was selected.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

42. My parents, Bologna, moving to the U.S., extreme RWingers

My parents: always have been free-thinkers and progressives who taught me and my sister to think for ourselves, even if it went against the grain of what "acceptable" society thinks

Bologna: a great multicultural progressive city with great food to boot. It was great growing up there with the university and people from all countries. It was not a shock for me to see people of different colors and different languages, as well as homosexuals. I always embraced its diversity.

Moving to the U.S.: because I ended up in rural NC as a non-English speaker, I learned fast the meanness of right wing republicans. My first friends were black girls, and then the outcasts (i.e.: drama club, band, actors, artists, etc.). I learned quickly how mean and nasty certain people were and, coincidentally, they all voted for the same party (on the other hand, I have also met pre-1960's southern Democrats who had not yet converted to the dark side... they too were scary people, primarily for their abysmal view on race relations...yikes!)

Extreme RW: a.k.a. religious zealots. Even though I am an agnostic, I have nothing against people of faith as long as they do not force their beliefs on me. Instead, lately there is this noticeable effort on the part of these people to make everyone conform to their brand of morality and spirituality in all facets of society.

[underpants]

43. Jesse Jackson and Pat Buchanan

those speeches in '92 did it for me.

[annabanana]

44. The Army-McCarthy hearings

Ok, I was VERY little at the time. But my Dad was teaching at Harvard (you know, pinko central) and he and his colleagues were VERY concerned. I remember a bunch of people in the living room watching the TV very closely and I could pick up on the tension in the room, in spite of the fact that I had NO comprehension of what was going on. I knew that there was something stong and dangerous, and that it should be stopped.

[mark414]

46. my parents

they never talked to me about politics while i was growing up, they just taught me that we are all in this world together, that i am better than no one no matter how much money or power or fame i have, and that caring about others is a virtuous thing and should be greatly admired.

so naturally, i became a liberal.

[ismnotwasm]

47. My life

Long, long story, but I know what ignorance, poverty, drugs and a life of crime does to a soul. And then to fight to get an education, change, evolve, and watch while old acquaintances die or are in prison or worse. So I've kind of come up through the ranks, I'm almost middle class now. I have, I guess, a little different perspective on a lot of topics, but my experiences have made me very, very liberal.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

48. God (nt)

[sniffa]

49. bush soLidified it for me

prior to 2000, i had aLmost never voted for a dem (i've never voted for kerry - not even in the primaries - november wiLL be my first). since 2000 i've compLeteLy accepted who i am and fight against the right.

i've seen the Light.

[NashVegas]

50. My Apolitical, Republican Mom

Who, whenever as a curious kid I asked a question on a social topic would say something along the lines of, "well, this group of people says ______" and this other group of people says, "____________." But she never bothered to tell me what she herself thought, which you could say either forced or enabled me to come to my own conclusions.

She also said other annoying things like, "if everyone was jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you also have to?"

[tigereye]

54. my mom - Dem with pretty rad views

The Catholic Church, back when it acted as it should, from compassion,
Carter, and hearing Jesse Jackson.

[alexisfree]

51. you guys are making me hardcore liberal

[VOX]

55. Eugene McCarthy, 1968.

He was the peace candidate. If Bobby Kennedy overtook him in the primaries, I was fine with that.

Everyone knows what happened.

Liberal ever since.

[Gothic Sponge]

56. RayGun!

[johnnie]

57. Not any one person

I remember when I was about 5 years old and knowing my uncle was in Viet Nam in a war, and seeing it on TV made me sad. I got sick feelings when I saw anyone being hurt or killed...just because...it wasn't right.
As a child my heart went out to anyone who was being picked on and I tried to help them as much as possible. I was just a tiny guy and I got picked on a lot, but it didn't really disturb me as much as seeing others picked on. I was that way for as long as I can remember.
I was never a materialistic person and never really had a lot of "stuff", so I never really stabbed people in the back to gain anything for myself.
I could never figure out why some people would laugh at someone who thought it was wrong to hurt the environment, kill for the sake of killing and destroy the Earth so more money can be made.
My parents raised me to think for myself and never forced any beliefs on us really. They weren't hippies or even really liberal, they were just people who grew up in the 50s and had no hard core political beliefs. My father worked as a government employee and was also a Marine for 25 years. When we discussed politics he would listen and make a few comments, but he never discouraged me.
I guess I was born a liberal and never questioned my love and compassion for mankind or the earth that I live on. It's a no-brainer to me and I don't feel any shame.
I will say, that I am not extreme in my thinking and sometimes my views and opinions lean further right than some people, but most of those views come in to play when I feel it better serves my fellow humans.

[Eugene]

58. Nixon and Vietnam

... and parents who taught me to be skeptical
about flag wavers and zealots.

[ronnykmarshall]

59. I was always a liberal

But when I was 15, I heard Ronald Reagan speak and I knew right then and there I would registar as a Democrat when I turned 18.

[NewJeffCT]

61. I think I always have been, too

I was born in 1966 and when I was young in the 70s, I remember hating Nixon because his Watergate hearings interrupted my afternoon cartoons.

On a more serious note, I remember when people were arguing about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), I thought it was silly that anybody would oppose women having equal rights and wondered why they didn't alerady. I mean, I was a kid and I knew it was only fair.

[ronnykmarshall]

63. I wrote an essay about the ERA

when I was in high school.

I couldn't grasp why people would oppose it. I still do.

[serryjw]

121. I'm 54.....and I was opposed to it ....THEN!

The why is complicated. I don't think it is FAIR to ask woman who 'bought into' the world of motherhood to be placed in the big bad world without an education to go it alone. How would have felt at 50 in 1965 if you had to?

[GumboYaYa]

60. Two people: Lester Thurow, made me serioulsy question Reagan's

tax cut and spend policies. Reading his book "The Zero Sum Society" in high school had a giant influnece on me becoming a liberal from an intellectual standpoint.

The day I knew that I was a liberal from an emotional standpoint was the day I saw Reagan's press secretary making offhand gay jokes when questioned about AIDS. I remember seeing a clip of that on a day when I had visited a close friend who was dying of AIDS. I knew then that I could never ever vote for a Republican.

[Radical Activist]

62. Saul Alinksy made me a radical

I think I was always a liberal

[HEyHEY]

64. Me - I was conservativish then one day I slowly began chaning

Then one day I said "holy shit, I'm a liberal"

[goddess40]

65. My grandmother and mom

By the way they treated other people, my Grandmother would be having an absolute fit if she were alive today and knew my sister was voting for Bush.
She was a good Catholic and she never let that get in her way of doing the right thing.

[no name no slogan]

67. My mom. Bring her some yarn, and she'll make you a liberal, too (n/t)

[AFSCME girl]

68. I was born a liberal..

I think my Dad (former Nixon Republican)thought I had been switched with another baby in the hospital }( But, alas, I am his only daughter who happens to be a very PROUD LIBERAL :bounce: Although, I think I've finally managed to have an impact on him - he is voting KERRY/EDWARDS on Nov. 2nd!!! :kick:

[Aristus]

69. Probably MAD Magazine, believe it or not.

My mother is a liberal, and my father is (or used to be) a left-leaning moderate. But it was MAD Magazine that got me to see how utterly debased and corrupt American political conservatism is. I used to love their articles about Reagan, Bush and the Moral Majority. MAD provided the same sort of intelligent, reasoned and yet wacky satire that 'The Daily Show' does today.

[tjdee]

73. The cooler people are ALWAYS liberals.

I have always been a liberal. To this day I don't see how anyone who has ever smiled at a child or smelled a flower can be a conservative, although I've met many Republicans who confirm that they have indeed done those things. Eh, potatoes, potahtos.;-)

Also, most of the people outside my family I've respected/looked up to have always turned out to be liberals/Democrats. We'd study the depression and FDR--and he was a Democrat! Learned about JFK--and he was a Democrat!
Still happens today.

[hyphenate]

74. No one, per se

I suppose I could count on my mom for making me outspoken, though. But it was the late 60s, and I was reading The Feminine Mystique, and realizing that I didn't have to become someone's wife and someone else's mother, that if I wanted to live my own life, thinking of myself, I could do that. I was also brought up in a lower class upbringing, urban setting, and it was almost always a hand to mouth existence. The fact that I was brought up in both Brookline, Mass, and Jamaica Plain, Mass, which are both very progressive areas, didn't hurt either.

A friend of mine from high school and I went to Government Center to register to vote just before our 18th birthdays--that was a great feeling, though it would be another two years before I could vote for president, which was 1976, when I voted for Carter.

[Kid_A]

75. The doctor didn't drop me on my head after I was born.

That played a big part.

[redqueen]

76. spirit

that which is in all of us

[mac56]

78. My grandma.

God bless her.

[Commendatori]

79. I'm not a liberal, but what made me a DEMOCRAT was

the George H.W. Bush administration. I actually voted for him in 1988 and for Reagan in 1984 (I was a registered independent back then), but became so disgusted at Bush during his administration that I voted for Clinton in 1992 (and 1996).

The current president-select makes me even more ill, and things like certain aspects of the Patriot Act and his failure to offset tax cuts with less spending enrage me (for the record, I am never against tax cuts, but they do have to be offset). I wasn't against deposing Saddam , but his timing (I thought Clinton should have done it in 1998) and handling of this war is inexcuseable.

I'm not a Democrat because I think all of their policies are great - in fact, quite the opposite, I don't like all of their policies. I'm a Democrat because the Republicans suck peanuts and corn out, of shit, through a straw.

[Rabrrrrrr]

81. Jesus and some mighty fine ministers

and then the whole Reagan-sucking-satan's-cock debacle I was able to witness as a teenager and realize that there's a lot of evil bullshitters spewing Christian hate, which made me more determined to live the way Jesus wants us to live.

Also, seeing the movie Gandhi.

And I had two amazing social studies teachers in high school, real dedicated liberals in the truest sense: taught us to get information, as much as we can; question everything, even ourselves; never be too sure; always leave room for dialogue; and if you're gonna claim something, you better damn well be able to eitehr footnote it or explain how you came to that decision.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

82. My mom...

She's a freeper, and I knew that I didn't want to be anything like her ever. I can't stand hypcrite, so I just did some research and I'm like, this is so me...and this didn't happen until 2001. Before that, I was very misguided. Now I'm on the right path and very nearly socialist in my views. Also, my dad was a staunch Democrat, saying that it said in the bible (where?) that it was a sin to be a republican. He was a hoot, let me tell ya.
Duckie

[ghostsofgiants]

83. Me...

My first experience with politics was in, I think, 5th grade. The province was eliminating all religious based schools, and I had gone to a Pentecostal school since kindergarten.

Because of this, my family was a strong supporter of the Progressive Conservative party, and at the time, I was too, because of the school situation.

In 8th grade I started at a non-religious school and couldn't have been happier about it. As time went on, I started shifting to the left, since I no longer had the whole religious right influence pressing on me. I think a lot of the music I enjoyed influenced me as well, such as Rage Against the Machine and the like.

By 10th grade I had a somewhat left-leaning world view, not to mention a healthy dislike for Dubya. Then, during the first week of 11th grade, the WTC/Pentagon attacks happened.

I heard Bush on TV talking about all this "they attacked us because they hate freedom" and shit like that and thought to myself, wait, that sounds a little simplistic to me.

So I started reading up on all of this stuff and saw the kind of bullshit that conservatives fed us.

So as I kept rading on political subjects, I shifted further and further to the left. Now I'm pretty far left (-7, -7 area on the political compass) and damn proud of it.

These are also the same reasons I am majoring in Political Science in university.

[JohnKleeb]

85. too many people

[Cozmosis]

86. George Bush n/t

[Hobarticus]

87. REAGAN!

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

88. Someone made you a liberal?

If I get them the wool will they make me one too?

But seriously--I think it was two comic books, Mao for Beginners and Ecology for Beginners, that really shaped my political outlook. That and my folks' stories of fighting in Paris '68. ;)

[grace0418]

90. I don't remember being anything but a liberal

My family is pretty liberal and I've always had friends who were artists, actors, musicians, homosexuals, multi-ethnic, etc. so being liberal was what came naturally.

I didn't get super political until Dumbya came onto the scene though. He pushed me over the edge.

[St. Jarvitude]

91. Eric Carlson. You out there?

He, unfortunately, moved away after 6th grade after I knew him for only a year. But I'd say he was the single greatest influence in my political belief-system.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

92. My stepfather.

He is and was a horrible alcoholic, BUT he had many good qualities and he raised me in such a way that I couldn't help but become a liberal.

He told me stories of his mother losing her entire family in the Holocaust. He never allowed racist comments or jokes in our home, including on TV. He told us all the time about treating EVERYONE the same. He worshipped MLK Jr. Told us stories about MLKs courage during the Civil Rights movement. My stepfather went to Alabama when he was in college to help register black voters and was spit upon by other whites.

He took us every Saturday to pick up aluminum cans (he saved them for the money) and trash all over the city. I found it embarrassing (especially as I got older) and a pain in the ass at the time, but it taught me a lot about taking care of our planet. He was a true environmentalist. He pointed out all kinds of plants to us and we were constantly digusted by all the trash we found in creeks and rivers and fields. He was a conservationist, too.

He talked a lot about how what people do in the privacy of their own homes is their own business, as long as they aren't hurting others. He was for repealing all drug laws. Completely and totally liberal on all social issues. He even thought prostitution should be legal.

But I guess the biggest way he raised me to be a liberal was through his own actions, not what he said. I watched him treat everyone exactly the same, from the bum panhandling on the street (he ALWAYS gave them money) to Ross Perot, who did business with him. He would have put those two men on the same level.

He told me Jesus was the biggest liberal ever and that I should look to Jesus' words instead of how humans have twisted what he taught.

He was a bleeding heart when it came to animals. We got a reputation for being the house that would take in strays so people would drop them off all the time and we acted as a foster home for many dogs and cats before we found permanent homes for them. We had seven dogs and four cats at one time and one year he figured out we spent $4000 in veterinary care and food that year. He didn't care. He would have gone broke taking care of homeless dogs and cats.

JFK and FDR were his heros. He was raised in the United Methodist Church in the 50s when you were supposed to go out and turn all that talk into action and really help your fellow human beings. He stopped going to church when he noticed no one was much doing that anymore and people got really judgemental.

He got a Master's in math after graduating with a bachelors because he wanted to avoid Vietnam but he cried his eyes out at the funerals of his buddies who were drafted that he went to high school with. He still gets bitter over that.

The drinking has almost ruined him. But he has a heart the size of Montana. He just loves people. And he taught me all that he knew.

[jus_the_facts]

94. DAVID DUKE when he ran for Gov. o'La......

....my Dad said...register because he needed my vote...I said yeah I'm gonna register and negate YOUR vote for his racist criminal ass...and I did...as a democrat FOR LIFE! :thumbsup:

[Character Assassin]

95. The lack of intelligence to any other argument other than libertarian

Oh, hold on, wait just a sec'......

[hiphopnation]

96. George Carlin

Who had help from Lenny Bruce, I beleive. When I heard his early comedy and then later his more politcal stuff I knew that those rants best fit my political feelings, which was all that I had at the time.

[nini]

97. My Grandma - & Bobby Kennedy

She got involved and made her voice heard and talked to use about issues when we were little even.

Bobby Kennedy was the first politician that reached me and I was only 11 years old when he was murdered. I will always mourn his loss for this country.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

98. Hitler. I saw holocaust photos when I was six years old in 1967

when a playmate showed me his father's WWII photo album. His father had been one of the GIs liberating the concentration camps.

I saw what groupthink and hate produced. Then my folks took me on anti-Vietnam protests in 1968 when I was seven years old and I saw the connection.

Listening to Frank Zappa since age twelve solidified my instincts about religion, fascism, and war.

Grandpa was a blue collar fundamentalist unionist Democrat who left his wife and kids on the farm to go fight the Nazis when he heard what they were doing to children.

Guess my roots go back to my mother's Baptist-yet-all-forgiving-nonjudgemental-and-nurturing parents. Y'know-the kind of Christian that Jesus Christ represented. One who believed in both kindness and justice.

[Guy Fawkes]

99. Darwin made me a liberal...

Pat Robertson made me hate creationists.

[Marxdem]

100. Carter

nt

[SmileyBoy]

101. My parents, and the circumstances in the world.

I wouldn't say my parents MADE me liberal, but I would say that they made me see the real things going on in the world and told me to only take the things that the right-wing said with a grain of salt.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

102. My father

My dad has always been a liberal/democrat. My is also a liberal/democrat, but my father was far more out spoken about his political ideas. My mom didn't seem to get too riled up about politics.

[Endangered Specie]

103. Curious thing is...

I developed my liberal opinions well before I was exposed to the word "liberal"...

I had never really expressed them until High School years, and, lo and behold, I got called various names, usually containing liberal in them ;).

[name not needed]

105. George W. Bush

[Zero Division]

106. I had a very odd, long political evolution

Grew up in a very socially conservative (mostly just extremely anti-abortion or anti-choice) Catholic family that also believed more in liberal economic policies and liberal foreign policy.

I've always been a fan of science fiction, and in high school I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, which got my mind thinking long and hard about the detrimental effects of overly-powerful corporations on our freedoms and social equality. But still I clung quite strongly to my anti-choice beliefs on abortion and though I was troubled by the sometimes violent anti-homosexual sentiment on the right, I still refused to see that homosexuality is a sexual orientation that poses no harm to anyone.

In my last years of high school I began a sharp turn rightward under the influence of a Rush Limbaugh-loving teacher who also shared an interest in scientific topics. This period is rather painful for me to admit nowadays, of course. I actually started listening to that lying blowhard and believing a lot of what he said. Still I was skeptical of things like trickle-down economics and the Republican enthusiasm for agression in foreign policy issues. I've also been anti-death penalty since the day I was born (that never wavered). I hated Clinton with the worst of them, even wondering if he really killed Vince Foster and believing all of those idiotic conspriracy theories about the Clintons. At the time I regarded most liberal politicians as "baby-killing scum" (not that I didn't know many staunchly liberal people whom I liked and shared interests with--a factor that helped speed my transition to hardcore liberal). That's about the mentality with which I entered college. Frightening, I know.

In the second-half of my freshman year of college, I'm not sure what happened, it was my interest in the early history of Christianity that brought my Conservative Catholic beliefs falling down like a house of cards. I became convinced that Christianity's foundations were too unknown and frought with politics and prejudice to be trustworthy. I began to acknowledge the cruelty and immorality of the actions of the Old Testament god. It was an extraordinarily painful ideological transition. This eventually utterly destroyed my social conservatism. I could immediately see why I should speak up for the rights of GLBT people, many of whom I would get to know personally in time. My anti-choice beliefs held on strongest, but they fell as well in due time.

The thing that made this transition much easier was that so many people I knew and like were staunch liberals and I had so many other interests like music tastes in common with them.

I could write a whole lot more on my political evolution but this is going on too long and that about sums it up.

[UrbScotty]

107. My parents and DU. (nt)

[NamVetsWeeLass]

108. Freedom

Let's see, what made my Views Liberal..... John Lennon, John Kennedy, a Love of this Country, Happiness with the choice of being able to choose my OWN religion (Pagan loud, Pagan proud...)Saturday Night Live, Watching my Dad die without the proper care from the US Government (it was the Army after all that made him Suicidal), Looking at my son and his inexplicably and impossibly Green eyes and knowing he needs a Better future. Looking at my Beautiful Baby girl and knowing that the world better take notice, cause she might take over. I could rant on and on, but in the end you know what made me a Liberal? I DID!

[Elginoid]

109. jesus christ- even tho' i later realized he was as fake as Santa Claus

nt.

[Panda1]

111. Me. I read. I think. nt

:bounce:

[ulysses]

112. my folks.

They didn't have to work too hard, though. It's who I am, and socially, I'm well to their left.

[sundog]

113. The girl who sold me my first hit of LSD

Plus being gay, it was bound to happen... you know who's on your side when you come out :7

[Lizzie Borden]

114. my father...

who though white, fought hard for Civil Rights.

[LoZoccolo]

115. Reagan.

Scary-ass nuclear war shit.

[TexasLady]

116. It was probably Dad

all of my worst and best influences generated from him.

As a young'un he was grizzly adams, hard core liberal type..from eating wheat germ to hiking mountains..

At fifteen, I saw him turn 180 degrees. He found religion, and it was all downhill from there. He became a superfundie Jehovahs Witness, and though he does no politics now, he is like most fundie conservatives.

Oh, I tried the lifestyle. When I finally started thinking for myself, and had kids and a divorce under my belt, I realized I was liberal all the way. Well, most of the way. Im not a hard core liberal, but I hate the GOP enough to maintain my status as a Democrat.

Besides, my heart feels so GOOD when I listen to liberals. And my heart is a good one. Dang it.

[orpupilofnature57]

117. PATRICK HENRY Give me liberty or give Asscraft and rover.

Besides NATHAN HALE, who gave the most for the cause of liberty.

Ben Franklin was the coolest liberal ever.

[Spider Jerusalem]

125. Um...Patrick Henry wasn't a liberal...

in fact, he wanted to establish theocracy in Virginia (he was a strong proponent of an established church). Jefferson wrote in a letter to Madison re Henry "It seems that the best thing we can do is pray devoutly for his death."

[orpupilofnature57]

127. LIBERALS ARE GUIDED BY LIBERTY...SO

YES HE WAS,Jefferson hated henry,henry's views on church proved that.

[AgadorSparticus]

118. by nature, I question everything--esp. authority. my sociology

professor help me put all my unpopular ideas together in a cohesive manner. But it wasn't until the 2000 election that I got a jolt of reality. When my basic rights were suddenly threatened, I became concerned and started educating myself politically.

[Digit]

119. Born liberal

It is just the way my heart and brain work.

[serryjw]

120. I am a straight, liberal, female

It's just me. I never consciously DECIDED. I always was. It's an outlook on life.....probably why I also adopted Buddhism.

[Rhiannon12866]

122. 9/11 inspired me

I realize that I was probably always was a liberal and I usually voted Democrat, but it took the terror I felt on 9/11 to force me to find out what was really going on. I didn't like what I found out and have supported liberal causes and candidates, ever since.
:scared:

And you are certainly right. Liberals are generally in possession of the facts and can back up what they say. Conservatives seem to just follow a party line and can't articulate why they're doing it or what they believe. I'll back the informed over the sheeple, every time.:shrug:

[MisterP]

123. mom, Pat Buchanan (the early years), Foulwell

turnleft.com (before his conversion to Fuhreropoly)

[Bombtrack]

124. Bill Maher, George Carlin, and Michael Moore

I really started watching PI after the Selection. I decided I was "probably" a democrat after the GOP primary electorate chose Bush over McCain. I decided I hated Bush with a true unadulterated passion after he stole the election. I decided I was a liberal after really getting into Politically Incorrect, which caused me to read "Stupid White Men" and really get passionate about politics. I've gotten more moderate since I first really got revved up and pissed off, but I'm still a liberal and those guys really put alot in perspective when I first started paying attention.

[oregon_dem1]

126. Family, college, *

In fourth grade, I remember voting for Ronald Reagan in our mock election. I voted that because I wanted to vote for the likely winner of the real election. I wanted to be right.

That is the only time in my life that I will vote for a republican presidential candidate. I've learned too many lessons from my family and college friends about what it means to be a good person. To me, being a good person means being a democrat.

[Still_Notafraid]

128. For me it was

the party lines,I saw adds on TV about both party's and wondered which one i belonged to I already didn't like republicans because there adds were pretty vicious i knew that stuff just could not be true,so i looked up and studied there policy's and party lines and was just shocked that anyone could passably vote republican and thats based on there PR stuff,I have been a Democrat ever since.

[timtom]

129. JFK

And his murder made me a radical liberal.