how did you become the way you think politically?

[myspace.com/jessenoah]

im curious, what brought you to where you are today as a political thinker?

 

-I consider myself a moderate conservative, mostly out of frustration with complete airhead liberals trying to get my autographs on some kind of petition for a leftwing cause

-I also believe that the constitution, like the bible, is not up for interpretation

-I think that traditional conservative values, like self sufficiency, combined with compassion makes for a healthy body and mind

 

 

 

like i said, I wouldnt fit in with the neo-nazi "young republicans" who make fools of themselves @ my local college, but i do feel closer to being a republican then a democrat

 

 

why do you guys think the way you do?

[wicked1]

Well, I came about my current philosophy by growing up and meeting new people.

 

I used to be much more conservative, but the more people I met who were not "like me," the more I started to question my own beliefs.

 

The Constitution, to me, is a living document that is purposely vague. The founding fathers could not have anticipated the issues that we have come upon as a country. Without some ability to try to interpret that document, we cannot apply it to new ideas and cultural norms.

 

For example, the whole idea that we have a "right to privacy" is central to the ability to acquire birth control. In 1776, they could not have possibly anticipated the development of "The Pill." It took a movement to actually make it available even to married couples. I see *no* reason why the government should be involved in questions of which procedure or medicine should be available to a person.

 

Most other countries around the world regularly change their constitutions. We have not--and I believe part of that reason is because we are willing to look at the *intent* of the writers and extrapolate that to modern day.

 

For matters that do not affect the public at large, I think the government should just stay out it. But I also see nothing wrong with taking care of those who can't take care of themselves. And that comes from my experience in the health care sector.

 

When I was much younger, I was much more conservative. I could see no reason why anyone would *need* an abortion or a gun or any number of other things. I've seen enough in my years since then to understand the ramifications of those beliefs. Wait 24 hours before you get an abortion. Ok. Wait 3 days before you get a gun--no problem with that either. Odd thing about medical school is that it tends to sway people hard left or hard right. I don't think either position is "wrong" or "right," but I can definitely see how a person who is deeply conservative can survive quite happily in a more liberal society. The reverse is not true.

 

So, I guess to answer your question---I became much more liberal as I met more people who were hurt (in some way) by conservative policies. Those same experiences have led me to believe that certain "progressive" policies are probably more cost-effective than others. Putting money into a national health care plan allows us to focus on preventative care rather than paying more once those same individuals end up on Medicaid and needing dialysis. That gives us a productive work force that can actually pay into the system rather than suck it dry. Same for education. The more disparity we have in educational resources, the more we risk having a large population that *needs* public aid because they don't have the ability to get a job.

[pauline]

That's really easy to answer:

 

personally experience!

 

Look what all politicans promise before they're chosen

and compare to what they really do.

IMO that's the same all over the world.

 

Peter

[Duende]

It is not rock music or football to me (in terms of team/band loyalty) , where I have to support the last party I voted for no matter how they 'played'

I have voted three different ways so far..next election probably Conservative.

 

They are all *** munchers though!! LOL

 

Not even worth getting heated about on a forum.

[wicked1]

It is not rock music or football to me (in terms of team/band loyalty) ' date=' where I have to support the last party I voted for no matter how they 'played'

I have voted three different ways so far..next election probably Conservative.

 

They are all *** munchers though!! LOL

 

Not even worth getting heated about on a forum.[/quote']

 

Yep.....I was just saying to Homz that there aren't enough current politicians who aren't "liberal enough" for me.

[AXE®]

Because I am.

Therefore I be.

[pippy]

Meeting and talking with, and reading about, people from different 'classes'/countries/continents/cultures/creeds, and listening carefully to what they had to say.

[The Fool on The Hill]

To you i am a Liberal to me i am the Loyal opposition.

 

I don't consider myself part of any ideology but according to Conservatives i am not a Good American because i like to form my own opinions.

[cookieman15061]

I see *no* reason why the government should be involved in questions of which procedure or medicine should be available to a person.

 

For matters that do not affect the public at large' date=' I think the government should just stay out it. But I also see nothing wrong with taking care of those who can't take care of themselves. [/quote']

 

I'm confused do you want the government involved or not?

[Twiz]

My political beliefs are constantly evolving based on what I see, hear, and read, and people I meet.

 

As with many things, I don't think there's only one path.

[MikeRom]

By living life and observing then drawing conclusion based on what makes sense to me.

 

Also I have a very well developed bullsh*t alarm in my head.

[grampa]

I was aware of politics at an early age - I remember the '52 elections when I was 6 - and my parents were political. My left leanings are probably the result of the fact that my father was a union organizer in the steel mills of northern Indiana in the early 30's which pretty much meant that he could have been considered a "commie". The civil rights struggle from the late 50's got me involved in leftist politics and the war in southeast Asis even more. I've always been a lefty and will be until I'm gone. And where ever I end up when I die, I'll probably be politically involved.

[The Mick]

Commies beat it into me.

[RichCI]

Like a lot of other things, my political ideals were formed over time from various influences.

 

I'm an independent voter (the kind that frustrates the hell out of those who believe you should always vote for a particular party) in that I look at what's going on, who the candidates are then pick who I think is going to do the best job for the current circumstances this time around. For the past few years, I felt that the country had gone way too far to the right and it was time to steer things back towards the center a bit so I voted for Obama. Depending on what the country looks like in another three years, I might vote for him again or, if I feel that things have swung too far to the left, I'll look at what the right wing side has to offer. Ideally, I'd like someone who is financially conservative and socially liberal but that seems to be a tall order (particularly the financially conservative part no matter who you vote for).

[EVOL!]

It's a combination of my childhood, my travels, and experiences. I went to a pre Vatican II Catholic school until 5th grade. Corporal punishment and talk of mortal sin was the norm. Thought I was going to hell more than once for eating meat on Friday during lent. At home, my father was a hard working, union man who showed me the value of hard work and taught me to be skeptical of authority. He was a bad MF. Since college I have been a world traveler. Getting out and seeing other cultures gives you a perspective on humanity you cannot get by staying at home and watching tv. Helps you understand that there is more than one way to do things correctly.

[KSG_Standard]

I have never belonged to a political party, I have been a registered independent since I registered to vote in 1978. I voted for Carter, Reagan, Perot, W and McCain. I used to be much more liberal in some of my ideas. I used to think how unfair it was that so many people were poor and suffering while a few other people were getting rich and I was pissed about it. I used to think that the country couldn't survive with the gap between rich and poor being so great.

 

After graduating from college and getting a career job, I began to pay attention to how much I was paying in taxes and where my money was going. I started to pay attention to waste in government and the lies of the polititicians, I started to see that many (but not all) of the people that were poor, homeless and downtrodden were in the shape that they were in because of personal decisions that they made, not because the system was unfair or that the "rich" were out to get them. I wondered how I could succeed without gov't assistance or rich parents and others could not and I came to the conclusion that our individual choices and actions had consequences.

 

I studied history in college with the intent of becoming a teacher. I learned alot about our founders and what they were trying to accomplish and I started to think about how far we'd strayed away from the original ideas behind the founding of this country. I can see that while many of the "liberal" plans to help "level" the playing field in America were failing, the intent may have been good in the original plans, but the outcome of the programs was failing. Intent doesn't equal good policy, a good outcome equals a good policy. Government by emotion and feeling seems to be dangerous and unpredictable.

 

To those who think that the US Constitution is a "living" document, it is! It can be changed, the authors and signers of the constitution gave us a way to change it...it's spelled out in the constitution itself. It's called amending the constitution, it's been done in the past and it can be done again. But the constitution is not a living document in the sense that we can just interpret differently for each subsequant generation, that would be the same as a living contract and would invite chaos.

 

These are my opinions and may not be shared by anybody else, but these are the opinions that I have formed on my own during my 49 years of living, learning and observing life around me. I resent the fact that many on the left think that they are smarter or more enlightened bcause of the views that they hold. I read some of the other posts, where people say that they came to their left leaning opinions because they learned to think for themselves...what a crock of poo! I think for myself, I am educated, I've been supporting myself for 31 years, I've been supporting a family for 13 years. People on the left might disagree with me, but to insinuate that I don't think for myself because I'm a Christian and a conservative is just stupid, narrow minded and wrong headed.

 

I follow my own convictions and thoughts, nobody thinks for me or tells me what to do. I have always had the idea to question everything, not to believe what people tell me to believe, research and study and think for yourself. I do not follow the crowd, I never have and I don't think I ever will. Good luck to each of you!

[milod]

Me?

 

A lot of travel as a kid opened my eyes to a broad range of people and cultures.

 

Then starting to cover politics as a 20-year-old journalist made me learn to analyze what I was hearing.

 

I started off as a young adult probably more as a pragmatic centrist who initially registered as a Democrat largely because that's the only way I could have a "say" on candidates in the county where I resided.

 

Then I began increasingly to realize that the "left" was decreasingly pragmatic and urban-oriented and the right (I'll include Democrat LBJ as a "rightist" in today's terms on those lines) generally more pragmatic although with a tendency to dismiss the need to do a very good PR job.

 

As the left leaned increasingly toward socialism as tools for social control by government have increased, I leaned increasingly toward my own version of "right," albeit more rural-libertarian oriented. As a result, I've been registered GOP for years. Where I live now, I'll add that my Democrat friends tend to be far, far more to the "right" than most of my Republican friends who tend to have a broader world view.

 

But again, regionalism and revisionism are major factors in politics that we on this forum tend to ignore.

 

As a journalist, I'd say that the left today doesn't like questions of their foundation belief that government knows best and if you disagree you're an idiot. The right doesn't like questions of their foundation belief that their religious beliefs know best and if you don't agree you're immoral.

 

Both feel that government should be involved in social engineering, something I dislike immensely. It's long-term rather unrealistic and I see problems ahead as more people fail to connect with either of our current political parties and the two parties' base becomes increasingly polarized.

 

An example: The Gingrich revolution in the early 1990s for the first time in some 30 years the GOP was ascendant in Congress. Just the hatred of the "winners" on one side and arrogance on the other side exemplified in moving Congressional offices to reflect that change revealed what was happening to our body politic. It's gotten far worse today except now it's the Democrats again in the ascendant and the GOP showing hatred toward the "winners" and the arrogance of the Dems.

 

The bottom line is that as the parties increasingly polarize, the growing group that feels little connection to either side drops out of the process and that creates a closed feedback loop for the parties.

 

The results incline me increasingly toward a degree of social libertarianism with a strong rural bent and a decreasing faith in good legislation at the federal level.

 

It's my observation that people in the US today feel on a personal basis far less secure overall for their future than 40 years ago. That brings some real difficulties and on both poles of politics, an increasing tendency to have "government" handle solutions and flipflops that aren't good governance.

 

So... whatever. Perhaps it's my background that's made me increasingly cynical.

[EVOL!]

I resent the fact that many on the left think that they are smarter or more enlightened bcause of the views that they hold.

 

I would say that I am sorry that you are resent the fact that I am more enlightened than you, but I won't because I am not sorry.

[Bruno690]

Mine is based upon my personal experiences as well. I come from a Military background, (Father, Uncle and Grandfather all military) therefore I am probably more conservative than most. I have been on my own since I was 18; my views have not changed much since then. Since then, I put myself through college (took 12 years), married and have teenage kids now.

 

I travel the world in my current capacity, and I have conversations with my foreign counterparts. It seems they complain about the same issues that we do. Taxes, Inflation, Politicians (telling less than the truth) In Europe they are even complaining about immigration.

 

I have come to realize that neither political party holds a stranglehold on integrity or solutions. We all (conservative and liberal) seem to agree on most of the problems, but are diametrically opposed on how to solve them.

[milod]

I think Bruno hit one valid point, that of increasing immigration to European nations that heretofore have been much more homogeneous in population.

 

I ran across comments along those lines as much as 40 years ago when I was in Europe to do a series on northern plains US trade with Europe - which is, I'll add, far less than prior to the fall of the iron curtain.

 

Even then it was noted that even when a Frenchman moves to Germany or vice versa, there's a relative degree of cultural commonality regardless of shadows of longtime "wartime" prejudices. But Turkish and North African immigrants were said to be very little interested in joining the majority culture and were, therefore, a major social problem.

 

Given that the US has had some degree of similar problems through immigration, I find it interesting that most groups have made solid attempts in the second and third generations to "Americanize" their behavior patterns even as, especially third generation, they may tend to idealize certain aspects of their grandparents nation or origin.

 

But on the other hand, it seems the song of "multiculturalism" has brought an unwillingness for immigrants to acculturate.

 

I wish I knew what all might be factors in that latter. Is it just because in my part of the world a large segment of the population is only three or four generations removed from Northern Europe where there is a significant degree of shared culture? Or is there something within some cultures that make a desire to be part of the majority culture simply too difficult emotionally?

 

I dunno.

 

I do know that having lived very, very closely with the Korean-American community for quite a few years the desire is largely to become acculturated and yet show great pride in achievements and history of their own native culture. That seems nearly ideal to me...

 

As for taxes...

[Homz]

This is an easy question to answer.

 

Answer part 1) I can't stand to be around stupid people.

 

Answer part 2) Neoconman.

 

 

 

=D>

[Corrosion of conformity]

Most of my political views just come from what I just feel is right. For instance, I think killing people is a bad thing, so I oppose all types of war, the death penalty, and abortion. I suppose some of the music I listen to (System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine) has affected my political views, because I tend to agree with a lot of their music.

[FirstMeasure]

Hmmm. I watched Music and Art leave the Schools under Reagan and Bush 41. That was very important to a Young Me, so I went Democrat. As I watched Clinton turn the desperate economy around, I stayed a Democrat. As I watched Bush Destroy our Credibility and Economy, I became a Vocal, Involved Democrat.

[cookieman15061]

Commies beat it into me.

 

Thats why your a Black Eye on society.

[cookieman15061]

Hmmm. I watched Music and Art leave the Schools under Reagan and Bush 41. That was very important to a Young Me' date=' so I went Democrat. As I watched Clinton turn the desperate economy around, I stayed a Democrat. As I watched Bush Destroy our Credibility and Econly, I became a Vocal, Involved Democrat. [/quote']

 

and a bad speller.