I first knew I was a liberal during the Clinton years, before that I thought I was an Independant.
I had not paid too much attention to politics till those years, and when I saw that amazing man come on the scene, I was thrilled, but still saw myself as independant.
Then as the times passed (it didn’t take too long at all) and as the attacks began in earnest, I started to really pay attention.
I was frankly disgusted with all of it, all that went on for the entire 8 years and still continues to this day, somewhere, someplace.
As I saw his friends and business partners, everyone connected to him held under suspicion of one kind or another, conspiracy theories bouncing everywhere, I knew I was no longer an independant.
I had to align myself with the Democrats. They seemed the most sane, the most balanced, the most concerned about their fellow man and the least vindictive and obstructive.
The impeachment proceedings further cemented my postion as I watched in horror that sad day in our nations history.
That is when I first began to see the Republicans, not as the party of the people as I was told as a young child in the 50’s, by my very republican family, but as a active, living, breathing, dragon that was not looking out for the best interests of this country or of me as an individual.
Then the Bush years, well that speaks for itself, doesn’t it.
Well there’s a lot more to this story but I’d like to hear yours. When did you first know you were a Liberal and why.
Let’s hear your story.
I realized I was a liberal last year.
I’ve been a Democrat all my life, a blue collar Democrat. I come from a union house and my parents always voted for the candidate endorsed by the union.
So, why did it take me so long to realize I was a liberal? Because until last year, when I really started getting into politics, I figured I was a moderate. You know, willing to listen to the other side, etc, etc.
And personally, I’m pretty “conservative” — one marriage (10 years), had kids AFTER I got married (which mattered a lot when I was younger, etc. So I always associated “liberal” with how you lived your life, not on how you saw the world.
But the more I thought through all the issues. The more I realized I’m a liberal. And now I’m “loud and proud” to borrow a phrase from Josh Marshall.
I did the NPR test on “which candidate are you most aligned with on the issues” and came up with Kucinich. Just to give you a sense of how liberal I am.
I was a “Young Republican for Goldwater” when I was 15. Catholic schoolgirl, and I totally bought into the rabid anti-Communism of the Catholic Church.
When the Vietnam war started, I thought it was a wonderful thing – let’s go save all of those poor Vietnamese from the horrible Communists!
To do my part for the war, I started writing to a Marine stationed there – you know, cheer him up and all that. One night when I was home alone, he showed up on my doorstep. This was in 1966, the early days of the war, and I was 17 by now.
He was home on R&R, pretty drunk and pretty stoned, and headed back. He talked to me for hours. I’m pretty sure talking was not what he had in mind when he decided to look me up . . . but, Catholic schoolgirl, he figured out right away that his original intent wasn’t gonna happen, and just talked.
He told me about what it was like to live with 24-hour shelling at Da Nang. He told me of the horrors he had seen. He told me that people back home had no idea of what was really going on there. He told me of his dream to go live in Italy and renounce his American citizenship and apply for Italian citizenship because he no longer wanted to be part of a country that could do what we were doing there. But he was going back, because he was afraid if he deserted that he couldn’t get Italian citizenship.
I never heard from him again. I have no idea if he survived the war, if he did move to Italy.
But I’ve been a liberal ever since.
August 9, 1987
Until then, I was a fairly moderate republican (fiscally conservative, but socially liberal)
It was a warm day in the Persian Gulf. We were escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers through the straights of Hormuz (or however you spell it). It started with a man overboard drill.
Unfortunately it was no drill, we didn’t know it at the time. Aviation Ordnanceman Martin Sturdy, 19, of Phoenix AZ was missing. Actually. He was dead.
I didn’t know him, perhaps I had bought some cold sodas from his workshop where they sold them next to the flight deck. But after the drill, and no sign of him, pictures were placed all over the ship. After all these years and the deaths of eight sailors I knew, my memories of their faces have merged into that one picture of 19 yr old Martin Sturdy.
About midmorning the general quarters (GQ) alarm sounded. Usually it is piped with an anouncement, but this just sounded and wouldn’t shut off. A sailor running in the passageway next to my workshop tripped on the kneeknocker (lower hatch cover) and hit his head on a fire station. Blood was everywhere and he was unconscious. We tried sending for an emergency medical team, but the GQ alarm would not shut off. We applied pressure and he eventually came to. They cancelled the GQ with no comment.
Up on the flight deck, one of our planes came back with fewer missiles than it left with. It turns out we fired some missiles at an Iranian F-4 that was getting uncomfortably close to some tankers.
That night rumours were flying that they had arrested two sailors for the murder of Sturdy. He had won some money playing poker the night before and they killed him and threw his body overboard.
And then I thought. Iraqi missiles hit the USS Stark (just a few months earlier) and 41 sailors die. But that’s ok, the Iranians are our enemies. We are there to bring peace, but we can’t even keep our own people from killing each other.
Reagan gave an elequant speech at the memorial for the Stark in May of that year. I recommend you read it before going to the rest of this post.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1987/052287a.htm
And I looked back on those words, and realized. It was all bullshit. It’s all about the oil. Forty one sailors then, over 1,500 military now. If we had gone after Saddam then, I would have been fully for it, but to ignore everything until 2003, and then say that we are shocked, shocked at what he was doing strikes as the height of hypocracy and cheapens the sacrifice of all who have served and suffered.
And that was when I ceased to be a Republican.
I became a liberal in 1969 in high school. After several years of living in the Seattle area my family moved back to Utah. I left pre-teen and arrived back in time for high school. After spending some formative years understanding that girls could be smart and their opinions counted it was shocking to find a place where they didn’t.
In HS several teachers were open to differing opinions and the Equal Rights Amendment was in full swing. I found myself as a tiny minority arguing in favor of the ERA. The more oppressed I found myself the more outspoken I became!
Amazing to argue in favor of something logical and fair and be a vocal minority!
nasty pictures I drew of Reagan during the 1980 campaign. I was 9-10 years old.
Somehow, I knew that he was bad news.
Plus, my mother told me that she didn’t trust Poppy Bush that year…she said there was just something about him.
Boy, was she right!
Post some.
Hmm, maybe better not. I’d probably wreck my computer screen trying to choke him. š
Born one.
and old enough to remember when the word was universally recognized as something good…
but
“We wanna go somewhere else. We’re not threatened by people anymore. All our insecurities have evaporated. We’re in the clouds now. We’re wide open. We’re spacemen orbiting the earth. The world looks beautiful from here, man. We’re nympholeptics, desiring for the unobtainable. We risk sanity for moments of temporary enlightenment. So many ideas. So little memory. The last thought killed by anticipation of the next. We embrace an overwhelming feeling of love. We flow in unison. We’re together. I wish this was real. We want a universal level of togetherness, where we’re comfortable with everyone. We’re in rhythm. Part of a movement. A movement to escape. We wave goodbye. Ultimately, we just want to be happy. Heh, yeah…hang on, what the fuck was I just talking about?”
— Jip, Human Traffic (1999)
I became a raging left wing moonbat on April 8, 1994.
http://www.cnn.com :
I had always considered myself an independent before and even considered voting for bush in Jan of 2004 after bush’s famous mars BS (hows that going anyway?:). The argument with my mom was pretty heated when I told her that. Then I seen Condi’s testimony in front of the 9/11 panel and everything changed. I got so pissed watching her ducking questions, especially the Bin Laden PDB, that I started looking to see what else I was missing. After bypassing the RWCM I found out a lot that I didn’t know and grew even angrier. I soon decided that I wanted no part of a party that wanted bush and his cohorts as their leader.
So I did, I just assumed that Bush changed everyone, but that may have been an assumption of mine that was not correct. I am going to try to add his name to the poll.
And then I tried and it didn’t work, anyone know how to change it.
One of my first political memories is really wanting Dukakis to win. I was 6 years old. I basically thought the other guy was mean and scary-lookin’ and I liked the way Dukakis spoke. My only memory of seeing him was at some point when he was on stage with cheerleaders and he looked happy. I thought that was cool, and I’ve been liberal ever since!
(I also remember not understanding the Iraq War at age 8 and really not liking Newt Gingrich at age 12.. I guess I can think GHWB and big Newt for my political views!)
Had the advantage of a great liberal upbringing, mostly all by example. Never even really knew the terms “liberal” or “conservative” until I started chatting and and posting online years ago and was told by a number of people that I was a “flaming commie pinko lib”. Such a compliment š
Born one also- been questioning everything from the get go-just plain curious and like diversity- sometimes too liberal to even wear the Dem hat
Since I was old enough to have ideas:
-Save the elephants and the tigers
-Don’t tell me what to do!
-Girls can do anything boys can do
-Share
-Look out for your little brothers
Just became:
-Environmentalism
-Civil liberties
-Feminism
-Economic justice
-Community responsibility
thats some really smart shit. thanks.
When JFK was shot I was just a kid. My parents pulled me out of school, and my dad came home from work. Until then I wasn’t aware politically. It was the only time I remember my dad crying openly.
A few years later we moved overseas to Pakistan. When you get outside the propaganda bubble we live in here, you see things you never expected, and it changes you. Our government treats others like shit. That’s when the scales really fell away. I came back and told my grandmother I hated America (teenager rant). I thought she was going to faint.
Now I fight for the only decent thing in politics, liberalism, in the hope that we can make our country a little more decent…and compassionate…and just… and fair…and so on.
I am dual national. My local politics are quite different from my US politics.
Once upon a time, I could have considered voting for a Republican.
Then I lived through Reagan.
Now, the ultra-conservatives here are like US moderate Republicans and I am as likely to vote for them.
Cheers and goodnight.
It is past six am here and though tomorrow is a holiday (Independence Day) and I should get some sleep.
I can remember when as a student at the University of Dayton, I went downtown to see John F. Kennedy as he campaigned for president in 1960. (Yes I’m THAT old!)
The newspaper said there were 35,000 people there in courthouse square for JFK. I can’t believe how inspiring he was! I was there with some friends from campus. He was late so we were late getting back to campus for ROTC drill. In those days ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) was compulsory for all freshman and sophomore males. We all got 5 demerits for being late. (Each demerit cost you 1% on your average unless you worked them off. So we worked 5 hours to get them removed.)
A couple weeks later Vice Pres. Nixon (GOP presidential candidate in 1960) came to Dayton, and some Republicans were late getting back from his appearance but got no demerits. We went and complained about the injustice. The army officers on campus said it was because Nixon was VP. God, we were angry! We got a petition signed by hundreds of students and presented it to the ROTC officers. They were NOT happy with us. A few days later they said the GOP guys had to work off their demerits too! That was our first victory as liberal Dems! And Kennedy carried Dayton in November!
So I’ve been a liberal ever since JFK and the civil rights movement! Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was the most awesome speech I’ve ever heard. I remember several of us on campus crying as we watched it!
I was born into a Canadian Liberal family in 1959 and have been one ever since. I’ve never pondered moving over to the other side. I only place I waiver is between supporting between the big L Canadian Liberals and the further left NDP (New Democratic Party). I have always voted Liberal, but that may be changing…
I became a liberal.
I suppose we’re all born anarchists. We eat. We poop. Gradually, as we become aware of the ‘other’, we transition into being conservatives. It’s about me me me. As faces become familiar and we establish a sense of family we become libertarian. Eventually we evolve into liberals. Our families teach us not to hit, to share, to give kisses, to say please and thank you.
Then we go out into the dominant culture and get devolved.
Thanks partly to the popularity of Dr. Spock and his influence on my Roman Catholic conservative single-parent mother, four out of her five children were able to resist this devolution and are lifelong liberal dems.
It’s interesting to read all of your comments, though.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for coming here and posting, very nice comment. I would be interested in hearing how and when you became a neocon and I think others would be too.
What say?
Second that request. Always nice to hear from, well, another perspective! Balance in the diet is good.
I always have been. I think it’s because of my kind and gentle father. But I think my mother, the straight ticket-voting Republican, is one but does not know it yet.
I was born a liberal, but I chose “The Reagan Years” and here’s why:
Although I was a normal “take care of the world” child, I had very Republican parents. They tried to bang views of Racism, Elitism and Corporatism into my head for years. In my first election, I didn’t know any better and I followed my father’s advice to pull the lever for Reagan. All through Reagan’s presidency, I really didn’t pay attention, and didn’t know how he had screwed up this country. But it was during those years that I began to realize the Republican indoctrination that my parents were brainwashing into my head and I came out so to speak and said “NO!”.
When Bush 1 ended up in office, I hated him. I didn’t vote for him and something about him seemed very slimy to me. When he left office, I celebrated that whole day.
When Clinton was going through the Newt Gingrich crap and the impeachment, I saw my father in those Republicans faces (although he was already dead).
When Bush 2 was selected, I looked at my husband and said “we’re in trouble now”. I had no idea how right I would be.
My first awareness that we even had such a thing as a president was January 20, 1977, when my second grade teacher switched on the TV so we could watch Jimmy Carter be inaugurated. By fall 1979, I was watching ABC News with Frank Reynolds et al (he had a black co-anchor in Chicago or someplace, and Peter Jennings also co-anchored from London) every night, as well as “America Held Hostage” (later to become Nightline) with Ted Koppel. (Funny how I became a freeeeak in just a little over two years! LOL) In 1980, I avidly followed the Republican primaries–but I knew all along that I wanted Carter to be re-elected. I was pretty disheartened when he lost, and even more disappointed when Mondale lost only a week or so after I got to shake his hand at a rally.
My first vote was for Dukakis as a college sophomore; circumstances resulted in my missing voting in ’92 and ’96 (though I did vote in ’94 and saw everyone I voted for lose). Then I voted straight Democrat in ’00, ’02, and ’04, and we all know how that went. If I were more superstitious, I’d think maybe I should not vote next time and see if I’ve been a jinx!
My parents were always there on the left, though they didn’t seem to try too hard to indoctrinate me (I’m exercising no such restraint with my kids <g>). My dad was a Marxist anthropology professor who had been a ROTC Marine lieutenant in college but then started protesting the Vietnam war and resigned his commission. My mom was from an old lefty family. My grandad, her dad, was part of the socialist movement of the Depression era, and though he worked for the government as a civil engineer, claims he told the McCarthyites in the ’50s to “shove it” when they asked him if he had any association with the Communist Party; yet was not fired (which is why I say “claimed” as that seems hard to believe).
Anyway, I guess I’ve always been a liberal/progressive/leftist. But over the years, I saw what I perceived as flaws in the “party line”, and those led to my current “maverick” status.
Alan
Maverick Leftist
Bought for our video store, always kept in a clear hard plastic case that is yours when you purchase the video, barely or never rented.
Born and bred. Irish Catholic – I was taught that
we definitely are “our brother’s keepers.” Over the
years I’ve left the Catholic Church behind with all
its dogma and obsession with sex. But the idea that
we should care for each other will never leave me.
Also the music, incense and candles.
At a very young age, influenced by my Grandfather. He was a wonderful man and his gentle, persistent questioning of the status quo helped me see things in a different light. He had gone into the Marines at a very young age, seen action in France and occupied Germany in WW1. He came home sickened by violence and became a vegetarian, a Buddhist and a self taught philosopher. He taught my example and while it took the lessons time to sink in they have stayed with me all my life.
I have a flame tattooed on my back.
Before I heard Mueller dreaming of fires, I dreamed of fire tattoos?
That was when I learned what the word “liberal” meant.
in a political context.
But, let’s see if I can trace the chain of causality…
I’ve been a reading geek all my life (yes, I was that 8-year-old who checked out 15 to 20 library books at a time — one librarian even thanked me for singlehandedly improving the library’s circulation). Reading that much, unless you’re reading conservative propaganda, tends to produce a liberal outlook. At least it did with me.
Seventh grade history was the history of New York state, with Ms. Hart. We spent a lot of time studying the Iroquois nation and what happened to the component tribes as a result of the American Revolution. It made an impression.
Also, for Ms. Hart, I had to do a 10-page (handwritten) paper. My topic? To compare the Shakers to the Oneida Perfectionists.
Basically, that meant comparing one utopian society that preached no sex whatsoever to another that said that every male community member was the husband to everyone, and every woman the wife to every male.
I ask you, in today’s public school environment, can you imagine a 12/13-year-old being assigned this topic? I can’t, and I think it’s a damn shame.
After public junior high, I went off to a Quaker high school. It was an intellectually stimulating environment but it wasn’t that the school was preaching liberal values (Quakers don’t preach in any case). On the other hand, I don’t know of many high schools where I could have taken a semester-long history class entitled Third World Studies.
I do remember two incidents that started me on the path towards thinking conservatives = idiots, though. Or at least “intellectually dishonest.”
Our school would invite people to address two sides of a controversial issue. Two of these issues were “choice” and “nuclear weapons.” I should say that these two incidents took place in the early 80s — probably 83 or 84.
The pro-nuclear guy actually said that if you heard that a nuclear weapon was on its way you could walk 5 miles and hide behind a bush and you’d be okay. Aside from the fact that you couldn’t know which direction to walk in order to be 5 miles away from the blast, I knew as… either a 9th or 10th grader… that that was crap.
The second incident was when they invited pro and anti-choice speakers. In response to the question “what about a pregnancy that was the result of rape” the anti-choice speaker answered “what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is their own business.”
I actually left the assembly soon thereafter, with at least one other friend (a big no-no and since we were caught, I know I should have gotten a detention. Except, this guy had so disgusted the staff because he’d shown the anti-abortion video, complete with fetus parts, directly contravening his agreement with the administration).
So my definition of conservatives also included “rule breaking when it suits them” from a very early age.
(Note: the speakers were never invited to debate one another. Each speaker got equal time on different days.)
A large part of me defining myself has a liberal has also been reactionary (heh). There were divestment protests on my college campus that took place, essentially, outside my dorm room window freshman year. While standing on the fringes watching I heard so many asinine, ugly, vicious comments that I joined the protesters, not so much because I was knowledgeable, but because I wanted to be on the opposite side of the idiots.
Huh. I could go on, obviously, but I think that’s quite enough from me…