How have you come this political point in your life? How has it changed thru the years?

Answer 1

Very good question! I've been asking myself this same question lately - because it seems that over the past 3 years I've become more involved in politics. I can't quite pinpoint why, but I'll tell the different things that have crossed my mind.

I think the Iraq war peaked my interest in politics. There was something not quite right about going into Iraq in lieu of finding Osama. I felt an urge to start paying attention - hoping to find the reason why we were doing this.

I also think that getting older has something to do with it, and having children. I have a 3 year old, and the responsibility I feel towards her has made me think of the future - and care about the world that she is going to live in.

I suspect all of these factors have contributed to my newfound political interest, but I can't help but wonder if I would be as interested if things were better with the world; or if I didn't have a child - would I care as much about what is going on?

Here's how I think it has changed through the years for me: I've always had some interest in politics. Enough that I majored in government in college - but not enough that my emphasis was on political science...I chose an emphasis in law instead. This led me to become disillusioned with the political and legal system to a degree that I chose to ignore the news and politics, because it was just too depressing. I was young and had better things to do than worry about the worries of the world.

As I've gotten older (and I'm only 31 - so I'm not old yet), I've begun to have a renewed interest in politics. My disillusionment has not deminished, but I do not feel the desire to ignore it. I think my interest will wax and wane, and there will come a time when my interest will shift to something else. For right now, I feel a need to focus on current events.

Answer 2

As a business owner, I am a bit more appreciative of fiscal conservatism, but only to a point. Socially, I am probably as liberal as ever, but I find my rationale for the positions I hold to be based more in pragmatism than in the strict "rights-based" reasons I argued a decade or so ago.

I've never missed voting in a national general election, but am now voting in local elections and primaries as well (voting in a local primary tomorrow, in fact).

The most fundamental change in perspective I have undergone has to do with what I feel my relationship as an American is to my government. Regardless of political persuasion, I would hope that any American who has read and considered the Constitution feels we should more fully be the inheritors of, as President Abraham Lincoln said "...government of the people, by the people, for the people..." Increasingly, the political processes of our government seem to fail each of these three standards. It's very sad and maddening - as a busy person I am frustrated but also understanding of the overwhelming apathy of my countrymen towards all but the most vulgar attempts at politicians to gain our attention through pandering to the most emotional controversies (most of which are not the business of our government as it was originally conceived in the first place).

Ultimately, I think I see the process of government and politics more clearly than I did 10 years ago. I'm definitely more jaded than I was then and less likely to believe that politicians actually give a crap what I think (or that they feel deeply about the majority of what they say). But I'm not yet to the point of giving up entirely.

Answer 3

I was watching a local newscast when I was in college. (They DID have TV back in the 60's). They showed some woman who was protesting for an increase in her welfare benefits.

She said "I DEMAND an increase in my welfare benefits. It's my RIGHT." At that moment that I realized that I had to abandon my family's Democrat roots and switch to the Republicans.

While I haven't been totally happy with them, it's the best chance I've got to get the government I'm looking to get.

By the way. That sentiment holds for any Federal transfer payments. The federal government shouldn't take money from A to GIVE it to B, unless B did something to EARN it. The holds for giant corporations, mom-&-pop stores, farmers, people who live in flood plains, senior citizens or babies. If you haven't earned it, don't expect Uncle Sam to give it to you.

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Recently I've started my on political party. Click on SPLATT [on the left] to get my platform.

Answer 4

In my youth, I bought into the idea that we should help everyone and give them money and they would be better. They would start working and lead honest lives. I was a liberal. Then I grew up and realized that if you give people things they only want more and don't appreciate what they are given. I realized that when I started earning things for myself. Those things I earned were more important than anything I was given.

Answer 5

My father is a politician and I worked for a Senator. Also have a few college degrees and have worked in a field involving people less fortunate than me and some who have had everything handed to them on a silver platter.

Answer 6

Zell Miller said it best and it goes for me to, I didn't leave the demoratic party, it left me. the demorats base are the WAY left wing liberals who want to see America as we know it, destroyed and turned into a socialist based country

Answer 7

I find my self becoming more fiscally conservative, yet socially more liberal.