How did you become a left-wing liberal or a right-wing conservative?

Question

What specifically caused you to go from nonpolitical/nonpartisan to what you are today? What were the influences? Your parents, Rush Limbaugh, your preacher?

For me, it was yahoo message board and facts. Prior to yahoo, I considered myself a Democrat and had a general sense in what I believed in, but I did not become a full fledged anti-con liberal until I visited yahoo. People were very partisan. I considered myself a moderate for a while, but after some time, I gravitated toward liberalism. I did so because one side would say one thing, the other side would say another. To see who was telling the truth I visited third party sites, and suprise, suprise, liberals were usually right.

For example, to this day, conservatives pass around the lie that one volcanic eruption spews out more CO2 then all human activity combined. Check out the U.S. Geological Survey website and it will tell you human activty actually produces more then 150 times more CO2 then all volcanic activity combined

So far only a couple of people actually answered the question. One guy become a conservative after getting a job. Another became an independent (what does that mean? I was talking about ideology not party) after Vietnam.

Ok. Now we're getting some good answers from captain, mathew, aztrain, and daniel (although a con). Pretty interesting answer from aztrain. I remember being on the yahoo message boards a few times and have these 14, 15, and 16 year olds come up with great political posts. I wasn't even thinking about politics at that younge of age. My parents were not very political at all and because of that neither was I. I majored in engineering in college, so I didn't get my views from school either. Maybe a tad from friends, but again we didn't really talk politics in college.

Answer 1

For me it was education and a very keen interest in politics.

Before I begin, I should state I'm from Alberta, Canada, and not the United States... so Conservativism and Liberalism may be defined a little differently. In Canada, Liberals are moderates, while New Democrats are left wingers.

In my province, everyone is Conservative. So when I was young, I was also conservative becuase that's all I ever really knew. However, looking into policies I began to question Conservativism a little bit. I studied history and political science, and Native American Studies at two Universities since I was a young man. My studies (which included lots of research and philosophies.. as well as quantitative evidence), convinced me to swtich stances.

Some reasons I disagree with Conservativism... mostly having to do with quantitative evidence:
1) Conservativism tends to leave people behind in society. Cutting social programs and government functions for that matter usually results in privatization and higher actual costs for the most part. This can be seen in degregulation of several industries including airlines, rail, and power in Canada.

2) Due to slashing in social funding, disparity increases. Not since the INdustrial Revoltuion has the Western World seen such disparity growing at such a fast rate. Real wages are dropping, while real inflation is rising. Lots of people are getting left behind.

My own moral judgements would assume that Conservative policies generally are aimed to the "elite" of society, while pretty much ignoring the rest. I belive society is only as strong as it's weakest link. Therefore, I am Liberal.

Answer 2

Believe it or not I got my political views from the music I listend to. While back in the day (more like 7 years ago) I took what they said a little too seriously (Sex Pistols = anarchy) I eventually began to read up on politics a little bit and soon after I started to get my own point of view. I eventually learned that anarachy couldn't work, and soon became a democratic person.

Another factor was my mom. Not that my mom was a liberal, but she was the most hardcore conservative that I have ever met in my entire life. I never stopped hearing about how the republicans are always right and how liberals are so stupid, and just hearing her rant all the time about how great Bush was tore me further away from from the republican side. I didn't even register to vote for the Bush/Kerry election, despite being the first election that I was 18, just so I didn't have to hear from my mother about who I should vote for.

Soon afterword, I started to believe in higher taxes, that the rich can gie up a little more, that we can do more to help this country because we're not doing enough now.

Answer 3

Before Bush, I usually voted whichever party I thought had the best candidate. Then the 2000 election and Gore got way more votes....and lost. That did not seem right to me. I listened to more and more bull from that party and the more that happened, the more my heart and mind said that it was wrong. That this war was wrong and that Bush was a blatant liar. I became a total liberal after hearing so much about Iraq and hearing his inflexibility and stubbornness. I realized that it is now a contest of wills. He does not care about the people or what they want. He was "selected" to serve the people but he serves himself. I realized that people are dying daily because he does not have the grace or guts to admit his mistake and the way to fix a mistake is not to do more of it and on a bigger scale. I became totally liberal when i heard about the unaccounted for billions that have just disappeared. Before this, I voted as many republicans as I did democrats. No more tho.....if my vote counts at all, it will not be for any of these self-rightous, lying politicians that don't blink an eye when a soldier dies. I don't know how they sleep at night; The "decider" is upset because Congress seeks to limit his blood bath.....geez, this crap has already lasted longer than WW2 or WW1. Republicans are out of touch with the people and they are also out of touch with reality.

Answer 4

Im right-wing. I agree w/ libs on things like environment. However, science has disproved the illigetimacy of birth control abortion, and libs are for that. abortion is genocide, which is unacceptable to me as a human. I also think morals do have a place in politics. Politicians must do the right thing, whether it is popular or not. I became a con due to research and my upbringing in a moral family. I dont think everything under the sun should be legalized. I think pork barrell should be reduced in legislation. And the libs loaded the Iraqi withdrawal bill with stuff that had nothing to do with Iraq. I think there is corruoption on both sides, and I hope it will be diminished one day.

Answer 5

Watergate and growing up in poverty, Watergate taught me I couldn't always trust our national leadership and poverty that was just beginning to get addressed as a national issue (Civil rights movement also had a big impact) I knew that liberalism would become a way of life for me, I'm now 48 own my own business, am an active community volunteer and am proud of the bulk of the work Liberals address in their agenda like anything in life it's not 100% perfect but for my life it's better than what the conservative movement offers

Answer 6

Most of the influences for my generally-liberal thought came from my parents, but they only took me so far to provide me a framework for my beliefs. I filled in the rest on my own, by talking to friends/strangers/teachers and reading newspapers and participating in (online and offline) discussion groups and message boards. These served to further reinforce most of the positions that I already held, but also to change my mind on a few of them.

The smartest thing my parents ever did was read a newspaper (sometimes a news magazine) with me every day, and ask me to choose an opinion article and discuss it. I would ask them questions on what I didn't understand, and I would tell them what I thought and why, and they would often play the devil's advocate to help me. By doing this, they taught me to see all points of view and break it down into smaller parts, enabling me to think for myself and disseminate facts from opinions.

We do disagree on a number of issues, but thanks to their parenting I can at least defend what I have to say with logic, background, and evidence.



Edit: I also majored in engineering in college and my parents are both pharmacists, but I made the effort to take plenty of diverse courses in other subjects that interested me, including political science and history; I didn't want to spend all day around science nerds (you know the stereotypes are true). I didn't get into message boards until college, but much of my influences in high school also came from history teachers, and I wouldn't have voted for Bush (wasn't 18 for another few months) the first time around.

Answer 7

You become a left wing liberal when you believe capitalism bites, that everyone else should pay taxes and the government should use that money to solve all your problems.

Your become a right wing conservative when you believe only capitalism can work, the church should guide our personal lives and the government should nearly be eliminated for taking too much of your hard earned wealth.

Answer 8

The Vietnam conflict did it for me, voted as soon as I turned eighteen. As an Independent I don't consider myself either of your choices.

Answer 9

As soon as I got off my rusty dusty and got a job, started paying taxes I became a conservative.

Answer 10

I'm neither, I'm a cranky libertarian. I support the end of welfare and the legalization of drugs so drive both the demopublicans and republicrats nuts.