Have you changed political party affiliation in your lifetime?

Question

What influenced your decision?

Answer 1

Yes. From Independent to Republican. I wanted to vote in the primaries.

Answer 2

Yes, I have, twice. I was raised in a Union Democratic family and you didn't go against the grain. Much to my grandfather's lasting anger, I turned Republican in my early twenties. I realized I liked the economics of Republicans more than the Democrats. I was more liberal on social issues, so in later years I became an Independent. I was finally happy because I am a person who votes on the issues and not the Party. Right now I am disgusted with the Republicans, and haven't felt this way about them since the Nixon years. I ended up voting a straight ticket - Democratic - in the midterms, something I hadn't done in ages.

Answer 3

Yes, I have. I use to be a Democrat. That was what my parents were and I followed in their suit. Then when Jimmy Carter was in office the party started moving in the wrong direction and I wasn't so sure anymore. But the further out left they got the more I realized they no longer stood for the things I believe in. The Clinton/Gore era did it. I'm an Ind. now.

Answer 4

Yes. I used to be a liberal and now I am a conservative republican.

It's hard to pin down exactly what did it for me. It seems to me that life experiences and knowledge over time have led me to the conclution that the right is right and the left is wrong. I am not afraid to admit that I was very wrong back when I was a liberal.

I believe that when you are young, you must put yourself #1 on the priority list. And while #1 on that list, not only must you survive, but you must do whatever makes you feel good and comfortable at the time, regardless of the consequences. When you get a little older and wiser, logic takes over your brain and something else kicks in that makes you realize that there are things in life that are more important than yourself. Like, your kids, or even children in general. You start to think about the long term consequences of your every day actions, and those feel-good endulgences don't feel so good anymore. You start to see the forrest for the trees. For example, you don't just take from the rich and give to the poor, instead, you realize that you strengthen the entire economy so that everyone benefits that is willing to participate.

I could go on for hours. But instead I will leave you with a quote (I forgot who it was)

"Anyone under 30 that is not a Democrat has no heart. Anyone OVER 30 that is not a Republican has no brain."

Answer 5

i grow to be raised in a liberal relatives, and my grandmother's part of the relatives were staunch Labour supporters doubtless continually, so those are the perspectives I followed from an early age. on account that then, regardless of the indisputable fact that, age has extremely soured my idealistic naivete. regardless of the indisputable fact that i'm nonetheless nominally a Labour supporter, it truly is in hardship-free words because not adequate different people vote for the Lib Dems to make it well worth my at the same time as helping them. at cutting-edge, i ought to say i'm a socialist, if in hardship-free words because each political get jointly that receives into potential in a democratic governmental structure has a tendency to slowly swing farther and farther to the right the longer they stay in potential (in the journey that they are not there already).

Answer 6

Yes. The first president I admired for his courage was JFK. Thought that made me a Democrat. Then when the Democrats started putting up liberal types I voted Republican. Then I decided I was an Independant. Now I am going to vote Republican in the primaries something I've never done before. So I guess I have finally settled on being a Republican.

Answer 7

really... I grew up in a poor neighborhood in the south that was mostly Republican... and not knowing much about it, I was conservative too...

but, the thing is... Republicans never did anything for anyone there... in fact, from what I could see, if anything, they made it harder...

cuts to social programs... programs that I saw help people with my own two eyes... poor schools made poorer

and many people don't leave there... they grow up there, go to poor schools, their families don't value education and it just goes from generation to generation... and no one cares...

but so many of them work so hard... very few are lazy and on welfare... far too proud for that... but they are dirt poor and stay dirt poor until they die...

I guess I want to help people like that... help them realize the value of education... and the value of helping others...

so growing up there and I went to college and got a good job... but so many didn't... and so many came from families where it would have been almost impossible for them to make it... I don't think I could have in many of those families... too much abuse, too much history... too much repression...

I know that there are hard working people out there that are poor... that are almost stuck in poverty with almost no chance to get out in a cycle of poverty and abuse...

the smartest get out... the top 3-5 percent... but the remaining 95 percent never had a chance from birth to death... and I don't think that's right...

in college I noticed many people from wealthier families with horrible work ethics succeed because they had a friend in the business or their dad owned the business...

I mean how is that fair... how could I not want change?

I'm not exactly a democrat now... but I lean that way...

Answer 8

Yes, more than once. I voted Republican once in my life, for Reagan and I've regretted it ever since. I've never voted Democrat. I've voted independent or Green ever since 1984. And, I'm in the Democratic party now because I don't want Hilary or some other corporate hawk as my only choice against another corporate hawk from the GOP. If Hilary gets nominated, I'm voting Ralph Nadar.

Answer 9

Having both parents as conservative Democrats, in my youth I was also a democrat and somewhat conservative. As my education, experience and spiritual path has evolved I've become very liberal and I'm registered as an Independent. I like to think outside of the box of the status quo and conservatism does not allow that. I like progress and conservatism does not allow that. I'm abstract and creative and conservatism does not allow that unless it conforms to their idea of abstraction and creativity. I'm compassionate and believe in human rights and conservatism does not allow that. In my opinion, conservatism opposes progress and is bound by traditions that no longer serves the advancement of humanity.

Answer 10

Yes. I started as a Democrat. The Democratic party "left" me a long time ago.