Are you a liberal?

Question

If so, why? How old are you and what part of the world do you live in? Be specific (New York, California, etc.)

Have you always been a liberal? If not, when did you start to become one?

The same question goes for conservatives. How long have you been one, where do you live, and why are you a conservative?

Thank you for your answers.

Answer 1

I am now 61+ years old. For the first 19 years or so, I guess that you would say that I was a member of a very liberal family. My mother was a Democrat committeewoman (a party office, not a government office) for our election district.

In 1964 I went to the Democrat National Convension in Atlantic City, NJ. It was for a "Young Citizens for Johnson" rally. The DNC then nominated LBJ for Prez.

Then I went to college, my first extended experience away from my family. (Fall 1964). Other than a small student loan offered to future teachers, I was receiving no government benefits. My family wasn't rich and I was working my way through school.

Sometime in 1965 (maybe early 66), I was sitting in my dorm's lounge, watching a local news program. One of the stories was about a rally for welfare recipients. They interviewed one of the people there. She said, "I demand an increase in my welfare benefits. It's my RIGHT."

Well, I just sat up straight. I was astounded that someone thought that she had a RIGHT to other people's money. Remember, I was in college and working 20 hours/week. It made me think, "Who believes as she does?" The answer was mainly Democrats. If that was so, I couldn't be a Democrat any longer.

Since then, I have been a fiscal conservative, a libertarian with strong limited government tendancies and a believer in the strict interpretation of the US Constitution. For example, nowhere in the Constitution do you find a "RIGHT" to EXTORT money from some people to GIVE it to someone else based on need.

When it comes to social policies, I range from extremely conservative (very "Pro Life when it comes to abortion [the Supreme Court has no role in the abortion debate, it's a state's issue] and very against government transfer payments [e.g., welfare]) to quite liberal (I'm not bothered at all by 'same-sex' marriage and I wrote a memo to the Human Resource VP at my very large company to provide benefits to same-sex 'life-partners' of employees). Personally, I donate to a number of organizations such as the Salvation Army and volunteer at my community soup kitchen.

As to where I grew up, the first 3 1/2 years in Brooklyn, NY and about 58 years in Central and now Northern New Jersey.