At what age did you become interested in politics? What factors influenced your decision?

Question

Have you changed affiliation? Sorry for all the questions but had to squeeze in a few between all the name calling going on here. It wasn't like this when I first joined the site. Thanks for you replies.

Thanks for all the thoughtful answers. It's refreshing to see these type responses here.
I grew up in a family that was politically indifferent or at least I wasn't aware of my parents' views on the subject. I can't decide were I fit in. I've had liberal and conservative views and would probably fit somewhere in the middle....if such a place existed.

Answer 1

I became interested at the age of nine, when my cousin lost a state senate race by 9 votes. He later ran for Congress, won, served three terms before running for Senate and losing the primary by 4% points to John Kerry.

My cousin is a Democrat, and he is a super guy, down to earth, really cares about people and he's smart and funny.

I've always been a John Stuart Mill kind of guy when it comes to individual rights - actually I would go some steps further than he. And the Democrats' positions on gay rights and to an extent, abortion, made sense to me. I just took the economic arguments on faith.

But I switched affiliations as I got older, the more I learned about economics.

I became academically interested in economics and finance, and in incomes, income mobility - the stuff of "class warfare" debates. Also, someone gave me a Cato Institute article about the 1980s saying it was all BS and I said "that's not right, that doesn't reflect anything I've heard." Instead of either changing my mind based on an article by a group with an axe to grind, or dismissing it because of what I'd been told by people with an axe to grind, I decided to research the question on my own - - consider the raw data and what economists without an agenda had to say about it. I quickly discovered that the raw data doesn't support the class warfare argument, professional economists don't agree with it, and those with a class warfare agenda play deceitful tricks with the numbers - they take stats that clearly show one thing, that the Census Bureau abstract says say one thing, and then they turn around and carefully craft a sentence that, while technically, if you read it one way, is accurate, is meant to be read the opposite way, which is inaccurate but supports the class warfare agenda. An example is "the share of the national income received by the bottom 20% fell in the 1980s." But "the national income" in nominal dollars more than doubled, in real dollars rose by over 50%, and the real income of the bottom 20% grew by over 6%. Moreover, 85.8% of households in the bottom 20% at the beginning of the decade were in higher "quintiles" by the end of the decade - in fact just under 2/3 were in the top 60% and 15% - more than remained at the bottom - were in the top 20%.

So the leftists were taking numbers that said almost everyone was better off than that you realize most of the improvement in the middle of your career and telling people that the numbers said that half the country was haves, half was have nots and the haves were grabbing a larger share of a fixed pie, at the expense of the have nots.

What's more, I learned that every cite in the Cato article checked out and that it wasn't a matter of cherry picking - the specific page or reference they cited was in line with the overall picture presented by the Census Bureau or DOL data set and abstract as a whole.

So I became a conservative on economic issues but kept my allegiance to the Democrats.

Then came the Anita Hill hearings. That woman changed her story so many times in 48 hours my head was spinning, yet these people, motivated 100% by politics, said they believed her. It was totally dishonest.

So I registered Libertarian.

That said, the Libertarians don't usually have a chance to win or even score a strong showing, and so if my vote doesn't count anyway, I vote for them, but if it does, I vote Republican. They're not perfect, they're not much better on individual rights than the Democrats, but they're better with respect to the rights that concern me, since I'm not gay and not a woman but am a straight male with a decent income who occasionally likes to go to the shooting range.

Also going back to first political memories, at 10 I remember the Iranian hostage crisis and how paralyzed the country was - I was embarrassed, even at that age, that a student protest in a two-bit middle eastern country could render the US powerless. I knew about nuclear bombs and I didn't understand why we didn't drop one on Iran - I remember the "Bomb Iran" song, sung to the tune of Barbara Ann, on the radio, and I basically agreed with it.

That's a sentiment that hasn't changed since my childhood - I'm not saying there's a reason to do it now but if I woke up one day and put on CNBC and they said we'd nuked Iran and Syria, I really wouldn't feel bad.

Answer 2

I first became interested in politics when I was seven. That was during the election involving Dukakis and Bush 41. I remember asking my parents what it meant to be a Democrat, or a Republican. That was a pretty HOT election. I remember the commercials in which Bush was accused of being racist (over the whole Willie Horton thing), and how Dukakis was RUINED because of what he did with letting a convicted murderer out on furlough.

I still haven't actually chosen a political affiliation, though I have become a bit more conservative. My parents were/are Republicans, though.

Answer 3

I listened to the adult members of my family discussing politics from the time I was about 7 years old.

Sometimes the discussions were quite livid.

It seemed that those who opposed my parent's views treated us kids the worst.

They were the ones who never brought any Christmas presents for us kids but brought plenty for their own.

I grew up seeing that some party members were very stingy while others, of the opposite party, the one my parents belonged to, were quite generous.

When I was 18, I voted in my first presidential election, and sadly, my guy lost, but there was a horrible smear campaign run against him.

I also found out, that the fact is, that it's not really important who is running for office.

It's the party, and their platform that really matters.

Thus, I have never changed my party affiliation.

Answer 4

I became interested in politics when I was 8 or 9. My grandfather followed politics and government very closely and wanted the same for me so he handed me a Newsweek one day when I was about that age. At the time, I was obviously interested in the plight of people who were poor or lived in war torn countries. I was also terrified that we were going to get nuked given the state of politics at the time. I went from extremely conservative as that was the belief of my household (although my grandfather was a liberal dem and yes he did serve in WWII and Korea). I slowly questioned everything and did not connect with conservatism or the Republican party. I am now an Independent liberal but not unreasonable enough to be so far to the left that I can't see straight or appreciate another persons perspective. Thanks for asking, though.

Answer 5

I'm not so sure I'd say that I am "interested" in poltics, so much as I find them a necessary evil. I started becoming aware of various political candidates when I was about six years old, during the Kennedy/Nixon campaign. My parents always took me with them to vote, and that was an important influence for me. I have largely been a person with moderate-to-liberal views throughout my life.

Answer 6

I first became interested in 1980 during the Carter/Reagan presidential race. I was 6 at the time. My grandmother later explained to me that the Democrats were for the common people and the Republicans were for the rich people. I know that that sounds very simplistic, but later on as I got older and I came to learn more about the party platforms, I came to realize that the Democratic Party platform is more in line with my way of thinking.

Answer 7

I thank you for this question. I woke up in the year 2000. I was 56. Shame on me but I was busy being a good slave. What woke me up and interested me was George Bush's first decisions after taking office. My ears perked up like a dog as I wondered who he really works for. Certainly not us! I have since become a dem and now and independent. I don't trust either party to have our best interest at heart. Finally I'll say that the only thing our government fears is our uniting. So they do a good job dividing.

Answer 8

I first became interested during the Carter presidency. I was reaching my teenage years at that point, and I couldn't help noticing all of the criticism he got, much of it justified. By 1984, I had registered to vote as a Repub but I chose Mondale in my first presidential election. I would've called myself a moderate then. I have become more conservative with the passing of time, however.

Answer 9

At 15,Kennedy/Goldwater,I was a rabid democrate.
At 20,after a tour in Viet Nam, with R.O.E.'s that favored the enemy,No BOMB Zones and ammo rationing.
I was a Republican.
Under the Johnson Administration a BUM on the street got more per month than a soldier in combat.

Answer 10

in 1980, when I was 6! My dad is very interested in politics. I have changed affiliation 3 times, the last time realizing I am independent. Interesting side note, my dad worked for Dick DeVos for 15 years. DeVos is EXTREMELY republican. He laid my dad and step mom off in the same year, both making over 150 K each. Now my dad works for Frederick Meijer...the biggest SOCIALIST in Michigan's history! lol...funny what you'll do for a job, right?