Home-grown or convert?

[shanedawson]

I've always been liberal, even before I knew what liberal meant.

 

[Antiochian]

Used to be conservative and Republican, then things began to change in my mid-twenties. Voted for GWB in '00, and by '04 I'd had quite enough of him, and voted 3rd party. I joined a labor union, figured out that being gay wasn't evil, and my views against abortion softened. In '08, I voted for Obama, was and am proud of that. Probably will again this year. The conservatives are getting scarier and scarier, with all their anti-union stunts, their continual homophobic babbling, and their nonstop attempts to transform religious belief into law.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

I consider myself a moderate and always have been but here in South Louisiana I'm extremely liberal by comparison to the general populace.

 

[Sunstone]

I was raised moderate to conservative on most issues, except liberal on some social issues. But I've grown increasingly liberal on almost all issues as I've learned more.

 

[cablescavenger]

Have you been a liberal ever since you can remember, or are you an ex-conservative/libertarian/other?

Can I ask if it you know if this is the same thing as liberal is in the UK?

I am guessing our liberals might be seen as more socialist, or democrat when social policies are compared, but be aligned more closely to your liberal party on economic policy.

Does anyone have knowledge of both systems of Government that might know the differences between the two across the pond?

(to save me looking it up :sorry1

 

[JacobEzra.]

Have you been a liberal ever since you can remember, or are you an ex-conservative/libertarian/other?

I was a big time liberal when younger. I was influenced greatly by punk rock.

 

[Antiochian]

Granted, there are some things espoused by most U.S. liberals and the Democratic party that I disagree with. There's no single political ideology that I think is going to save the world.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I was a liberal party worker from the 1950's to the 80's I have now retired. but still a paid up member.

 

[SteveGrayFTW]

I grew up in a fairly conservative household, in a fairly conservative area...so I kind of adopted the views of those around me as my own, partly to fit in, partly out of ignorance, and partly as a way to hide the fact that I was gay.

Once I become more accepting of myself, and actually started to think for myself, I started to understand that I was pretty liberal.

I'm just glad that I didn't first vote until I had reached this realization, as I think uninformed voters are a dangerous bunch.

 

[Tarheeler]

I think I'm finally to the point where most would consider me a liberal, even if I'm struggling with the classification myself.

I come from a long line of conservative Democrats, primarily farmers from Missouri and Illinois. Growing up, the mantra was that the "Democrats look out for the farmer". Until his death a few years ago, my great-uncle would still threaten to shoot any Republican who set foot on the farm.

I rebelled as a teen, and went hard to the right. Even now, I think there is lot to be said for the emphasis the Republicans put on self-reliance and personal responsibility. In my late twenties and until a few years ago, I was infatuated with the libertarians; again, I think there are some solid arguments in their corner.

But, between life experiences and actually studying political science, the blinders of ideology lost some of their effect and my outlook became much more pragmatic while my idea of the purpose of government changed. Things are a lot less black and white to me, and I can find merit in most political theories and ideologies (I'm currently finding social democracy very interesting). Rather than basing everything on a single value (such a constitutional intent), I try to evaluate ideas based on their merit and benifits on individual, social, national, and global levels.

And, most of the time, the more liberal ideas win.

 

[Penumbra]

When I was a kid I generally thought I was a Republican since that was what my father was.

When I did research on the matter for my first vote, I determined that I certainly was not Republican. Instead I realized that I believed in very strong civil liberties and moderate fiscal policies.

 

[DanaTheJewishYogini]

I was a liberal, then I was a centrist, then I researched and came back to liberalism.

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

Growing up in the deep south, everyone was a conservative Republican. There simply was no other way to vote, unless you wanted to be ridiculed. In my mid to late 20's, I began my deconversion from Christianity, as my personal philosophy changed; my political ideas also began to change. Now, in my early 30's, I can say I'm a proud liberal, a true liberal, not the type that passes for liberalism in the US. When people ask what I am, I tell them I'm a true liberal, and while this is true, I don't tend to voice the fact that I'm a socialist, because that word still carries connotations of evil here.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

I was never indoctrinated into any political party. However both my parents were very conservative. My mother was an uber conservative overly religious steriotype of every southern conservative mother.

My father grew up in Cali but somehow turned into a republican. He actually was a conservative Democrat for the majority of his life. For whatever reason he started becoming more and more conservative and is now a hard care Republican. Luckily neither of my parents gave to f's about politics till after I reached the age of reason. Though up until about 2008 I was pretty damn conservative. I was questioning my faith and such but never really questioned my "morals". I still hated on gays, though big government was bad and such. I blame fox news for my father's conversion and my partial brianwashing.

But then I got a car and started hanging out with people and learning about the world. I made some friends who were gay and figured out that all I had learned was wrong. I met atheists, pagans, Buddhists, Jews ect and got a big culture shock. I think the big "wow" moment for me was when I was in 10th grade and taking world religions course. I had been doubting ever since I was 13 or so but it never really clicked that it was all ********. And soon as I let go of all the forced religious rooted bigotry I became a liberal within a year. At the root of everything that I once was politically was rooted so distinctly in my religion that without it everything changed. I no longer had a justifiable reason to hate on gays. I began to question the conservative fiscal politics and found out more or less its just "wrong". Fiscal conservatism doesn't work and doesn't work. Its an appeal to ignorance of how economics work. The more and more I learned when I went to school for accounting and economic analysis was just to prove more and more how broken conservative fiscal policy is. And without the religious backing I naturally left the conservative social scene.

And thus I evolved into a liberal.

 

[StarryNightshade]

Well, my parent's are both on the conservative side of moderate. I guess, as a child, I held their beliefs no matter what they were. After all, when you're a child, you're parents are never wrong, right?

Well, as with many things in life, I eventually started to form my own political identify. I know identify, but have not officially registered with, the Green Party.

 

[Nymphs]

Grew up incredibly conservative, went liberal and am on the very far left hippie socialist side of liberal now.

 

[Riverwolf]

I was sort of "indoctrinated" into liberal philosophy, insofar as I was just told it was the right thing by my parents and I believed Michael Moore's propaganda.

I've since come to a better understanding and can be free of that indoctrination. Now I know for sure that liberal philosophies(which have almost no political representation in the US) are generally superior, at the very least because they're more adaptive to the rapidly changing world, but can see past Moore's propaganda.

 

[columbus]

Odd. Why would they go with such a misleading name?

Why have a Democratic party in a constitutional republic?

Tom

 

[Avi1001]

Hi folks,

I just noticed this liberal DIR, and it just so happens that I am indeed....a liberal.

So I look forward to getting to know all you liberals better, and becoming friends with you.

Here's to FDR, John Kennedy, Gene McCarthy, and Hill Clinton.