So why are you a Liberal? (Tell your story)

Mine, briefly:

Until 2000, I voted (and thought) Republican, primarily because I was raised that way and not really able to explain my political leanings except for the prepackaged simplistic thoughts provided to me by the right-wing media machine. But something happened in November 1999 that prompted a reevaluation of my politics. It was the WTO protests in Seattle. You remember – about fifty thousand people from all over the world took to the streets to protest the WTO. There was tear gas, water cannons, urban assault vehicles, and fires in the street.



I didn’t even know what the WTO was. But this event interested me. It was like some unrest that might occur in Eastern Europe or Latin America, but it was right here in the USA. So, naturally, I wanted to know what the big deal was. NOT ONE news service would explain why the protesters were there; and I read many trying to find out. Fifty thousand people and NOT ONE comment on why they were so angry. Nor would they explain what the WTO did around the world. After reading the news, you got the impression that these were just a bunch of crazy hippies with nothing better to do (liberal media?). I didn’t buy it. So, I decided to figure it out for myself.

My education would teach me the real state of the world as far as the wealthy elite’s control over our lives, the exploitation of the poor, and the rape of the environment, our health, and our well-being, just so the rich could make themselves a little bit richer. I learned who owns who in our government and the atrocious nature of the campaign finance system of legalized bribery. In short, I started using my brain.

A year later, I voted for Ralph Nader, Kerry in 2004.

What's your story?

That's really the only group that ought to be voting Republican. :D

They like Republicans too.

Err abortions for their girlfriends/wives that is.

i have always been liberal. i guess it comes from my parents. they were never political but always let my brother and me think for myself. they never preached to us or told us how we should think. i have been an feminist and environmentalist since i can remember. my parents never belittled my beliefs or anything. oh, and we were never rich. just lower middle class or upper lower...

strange, i never have thought about where it came from. i think my bro and i were just born this way. everyone else in the family (uncles, aunts, cousins...) are fairly conservative republicans.

It's my morality to speak on behalf of the people who are too poor, too tired from working too damn hard, too sick because they do not have health insurance or because not enough money funds the research of their disease, too frustrated from being turned away because of the color of their skin, too young to demand the proper education and protection that they need to develop into the future of our country, and care too much about their fellow human beings to see them killed at the hands of our country or at the hands of a genocidal regime. Those are MY moral values.

I agree 100%

I've always known beyond a shadow of a doubt that the right has never done a damned thing for an ordinary person beyond loading him down with fear and guilt.

The last 40 years have proven me absolutely correct in that assessment.

I never cared about politics before except that I believed in a form of welfare for those less fortunate. My ears perked up when Newt toyed with the idea of eliminating federal student loans since I was in college at the time with more college to go. My eyes have been open ever since. However, I never voted until 2004 presidential election because it was my own little way of voicing a protest over the electoral college system. Also, I never thought that one vote would make a difference. Boy was I wrong.

They think Trotsky was a bit of a wish-washy moderate. Hounded out of 3 countries in the 70's for being Communists (Egypt, England, and Canada). I went through a short Conservative phase when I was young and thought "screw everyone but me, I'm best, poor people suck, war looks fun." Then I grew up.

it started around 9/11. Keep in mind I am but a young 19 year old college student. After 9/11 I was happy that Bush has pushed the war into Afghanistan to try and capture the supposed guilty party. Then he began building the case for war in Iraq and I wasn't believing a word of it. I knew that our military was already busy where it was and to spread the army out even more would cause horrors unspeakable to those in the service. This was about the time I really started to get involved and interested in politics. I was raised to respect everyone's beliefs and think for myself. Once I began figuring out where I stood on issues I was clearly to the left of center on many issues.

My parents had always voted Dem but did so only on economic policy, but were socially very conservative. So I think they had little influence on my political leanings due to the fact that politics were never discussed in my house.

:cry: :grouphug:

I'm a Progressive.

And proud of it.

NGU.

I think ideally government is mostly just a collaboration of individuals working together to promote a safe place to live with access to dependable resources; transportation, health, energy, water, food, education and jobs.

In contrast, republicans seem to be concerned only about themselves as far as anything will benefit them, and concerned exclusively about everyone else (and their hooter) as far as they can manage to prioritize "morality".

a voice for fairness, justice, good stewardship of the earth. A voice that says stand up for the little man. An educated voice that knows the lessons of history, and the dangers of the concentration of wealth, the danger of the concentration of power and of organizations where that power is unquestioned like some churches.

the Reagan administration joked about the "gay cancer."

There was one press conference that was particularly disgusting and just happened to coincide with a very bad day for my friend. Sorry, but the whole culture of life nonsense is just bullshit when you see how they treat people whoe are different from themselves.

back in the early 80's Even though I was raised by a moderated republican mom and a liberal democratic dad. Both my mom and I have always been liberal with social issues but being also business owners you do want to save money too. We jump ship when the neo-cons started taking over the republican party back in the mid 80's. My dad finds it funny that both my mom and I have become these ultra liberal Democratic. And that my little story.:)

When I was a kid, I loved current events, history, etc. but my political ideology was very, very nebulous. The first Gulf War occurred when I was in sixth or seventh grade and I remember how I unabashedly supported it, because I was a military buff and a kid in pre-internet small town Iowa and was just looking for something cool to watch.

I remember thinking that I supported Perot in 1992 at the age of 14 as I began just supporting the "outsider" and the "underdogs."


I wrote a column for our school newspaper page that was published weekly in our small town weekly and I remember my classmates telling me that their father would call me a Communist after reading my columns. This confused me, I had never read Marx or anything and for God's sake! I thought I was a Republican by now (this is approaching 1994). I have no idea what I was thinking. I was a spazz kid. I remember in the fall of 1994 and early spring of 1995 (before the OK City bombing) during my senior year I became enamored with the militia movement which was just starting to be reported on in one page articles in Time, etc. I was caught up in the romanticism of it all.

In the winter of 1996, being a registered Republican I was looking forward to the Iowa caucuses. And the morning of the caucuses... I woke up and said to myself I am going to vote for Pat Buchanan. I then did something I had never down before. I went to the community college computer lab and said to myself, I am going to look at Pat Buchanan's positions on issues. I looked at his issues and they just didn't appeal to me that much. By that night, I voted for Alan Keyes. (once again, I didn't know why). Then I dropped out of community college because of a really bad binge drinking problem and started to spend more time on teh intenet at this other community college I took classes at in the summer. In a couple of months I was some sort of leftist radical. I had realized now why those parents of my classmates thought I was a Communist. I abhorred inequity and injustice and the suffering and exploitation of others because of others' greed and egoism.

In November of 1996 I cast my first presidential ballot for Ralph Nader. I then quickly kept going down that road and became a "globalist" Not yet educated on the evils of corporate globalism, I thought technology would promote education and education would promote democracy, so I was I guess what you would you call a "neo-liberal"


But then somthing happened that would change my life, political and otherwise for ever. I was FINALLY sent to the shrink and FINALLY diagnosed ADHD and FINALLY prescribed Ritalin. In short, for the first time in my life I could open a book and read more than just the captions to the pictures. I read and read and read. I read Marx, Adam Smith, Noam Chomsky, I became a Marxist. At university (I could go to university now), I joined the Socialist Workers Party but soon realized that they were so dogmatic it was scary and very rigid and kooky.

To wrap things up, as I made a radical turn to the left in 1996, in 2000 I was moving back a little bit closer to the center (from the Coommunist far left) I volunteered for and voted for Nader in 2000. Right away I realized that I had erred. I realized too late how evil Bush would be and how much damage he could wreak. I was no longer politically active until 2002, when the GOP won more seats in Congress I then became a very partisan yellow dog Democrat fighting for Dems tooth and nail and of course I was a Deaniac but fought just as hard for Kerry.

This is too long. I will stop.

I used to be a puny guy. I would read books, play with puppies, and take long nature walks. But I didn't really care about what happens in the world. Then one day a bunch of local neo-cons surrounded me outside of school. Then they taunted me with their conservative dogma and accused me of hating America.

Then they kicked my ass.

After that I decided never to loose another idealogical fight. So I started to read all the great liberal Authors. I listened to Air America. I lurked at DU until I knew enough to post my own rants.

Last week I caught up with the neo-con rethuglicans that had attacked me. After punching holes in their fascist rhetoric I then proceeded to clean their clocks. I left them all in a pile whimpering for their over-indulgent mommies.

I learned I would rather be a bleeding heart liberal then a brain dead conservative. Viva la Revolution!

:hi:

I don't have much of a story myself. But I wanted to extend this welcome and tell you that your post was excellent. :-)

When I was little I was a big history buff, so I paid a lot of attention in those classes. It is clear to me now that history at that age is taught in a very simplistic way (reading Lies My Teacher Told Me showed me that much), but one message still came through loud and clear:

Progress wins, and those who would be called "liberal" are on the right side of history.

I am no longer as naive as I was back then, but I have never stopped believing in progress or lost my desire to be on what I believe is the winning side of history.

on edit: Also, for the first 19 years of my life, I was an atheist,and had no interest in pretending to faith. So demographically, it was practically preordained that I would be a liberal.

By definition:
Main Entry: lib·er·al·ism
1 : the quality or state of being liberal
2 a often capitalized : a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity b : a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard c : a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties

I think I agree mostly with that.

I am a liberal because I feel we should be caring for this planet we live on and helping those who can't help them selves.

But most of all I am a liberal because I could never associate my self with the republicans and their beliefs, I do not have enough money to be in that group and I doubt there would ever be enough to switch.

I have since dramatically altered my positions based on wholesale raping and pillaging of both workers and environment.

I just find capitalism to be a form of enslavement. Call it socialist libertarianism.

Being young (29 yrs. old), I face a lot of discrimination, especially in employment.

The Democratic party has a tradition for standing up for those who are discriminated against, so that's why I vote for them.

She took me to church and Sunday School every week. I learned the teachings of Jesus Christ (love thy neighbor; blessed are the peacemakers) and took the lessons to heart.

I have no idea what God she worships, but it's clearly not the same as mine.

I have pretty much always been an extreme leftist, would never vote for a repuke. But I didn't always know the terms to fit my ideology. I think the first time I ever heard what "liberal" actually meant was - you guys are gonna laugh - on the Larry King show. This is way back when, when he was on radio 5 hours a night, didn't really have guests most of the time, just call-in. I had a little transistor radio I would put by my ear as I went to sleep. Larry would say he's a liberal and why and I would mostly agree. Now, I don't catch Larry on CNN much but whenever I do, his interviews are deathly boring and he is hellbent on asskissing whomever the guest is. Back in the day he had a heck of a show, believe it or not.

I think that if your country is the wealthiest in the world, it owes it's citizens a safety net, and that it is an embarrassment when people starve to death, suffer malnourishment, or get lead poisoning from poor housing standards. I think that the wealthiest country in the world owes it's citizens good schools for it's children. I believe that if someone's rights are being deprived without due process, then the courts and the other branches should rectify the situation.

I was just old enough to be interested in what every sign said (but young enough to not understand some of those words). My parents and I were driving to a military base in the south to see my older brother before he shipped out. On the way we stopped at a restuarant for lunch and right across from the restaurant's front window was a segregated water fountain. When I asked what the sign said, my mother told me in a whisper it was "colored water" I got all excited and wanted to run out of the restaurant and across the street to see what color the water was. Apparently I kicked up an embarassing fuss for my mortified parents who had to explain the concept of segregation in terms a 5- or 6-year-old could understand.

The whole concept of the water coming out of one fountain being exactly the same as the water from another fountain - yet some people could only drink out of one of the fountains - struck me as fundamentally unfair. Ever since then I've had tremendous empathy for the underdog and from that grew my liberalness.

The bulk of my extended family is made up of either southern fundamentalist Christians or northeastern pig-headed fiscal conservatives. Family reunions are a real treat.

My mother is a liberal from way back and if my father hadn't been shipped to 'Nam when she was great with child, she probably would have put flowers in her hair and danced naked in a muddy field. Dad voted Republican for years because he thought he had to, but saw the light in '76.

I can't remember a time when I was not pro-choice. I can't remember having ever been bothered by any difference in color, creed, national origin or sexual orientation. I've never thought the Bible was the literal word of God. In fact, I don't remember ever thinking separation of Church and State was a bad idea.

I have voted Democrat in every presidential primary and general election since I was legally able to pull a lever. The only Republican I've ever voted for in any election was my local sheriff race and that's because both candidates were Republicans and I did have a preference for one over the other.

This is my first post on DU and given the topic, a pretty appropriate introduction. There you have it.

Welcome to DU! Glad that you're here! :hi:

I was always taught that others were not brought up as privilaged as I was. I was also taught that it's more worth paying a little more in taxes to have good roads, good public schools, assistance for the poor and elderly, and all of the other things that government should provide.

My dad also hates the religious right with a passion. Whenever he saw a televangelist on TV he'd tell me, "Son, this is a democracy, people have a right to be wrong."

The first election that I can remember talking to my dad about was 1996. I was 9 at the time and I asked my dad why he was voting for Clinton again. He said, "Look, is there anything that you can seriously complain about? The economy is good, we live in a nice house, we drive nice cars, our streets are safe, the country is peaceful, we're making advances in science and technology, etc. etc." "I don't want any of that to change and that's why I'm voting for Clinton again," he said.

I think I asked him the same question in 2000 about why he was voting for Gore and he gave me basically the same response. Plus he said that he didn't want people walking around the streets with assault weapons and that, that was inevitable if Bush got elected.

I think that ultimately my political leanings have gone even farther to the left of my father's at this point, but he was certainly where I got my start.

it's just who i am i guess - My earliest convictions were to be pro-choice and pro-universal healthcare. I remember debating this with my family at the dinner table as young as 9 or 10. Then as I grew up a little i became pro-gay rights (my best friend when i was 13 turned out to be gay). Then i went to college, and in the course of my studies, i became quite pro-minority rights, and equal opportunity, and anti-colonialism, and then i started dabbling in Holistic Medicine, and developed a strong Anti-Big Pharma/FDA streak, along with a healthy side of envrionmnetalism.....then I worked for the Deathstar (GE) and my deep mis-trust for all things Global Corporatocracy kicked in.

So here I am today. I'm still conservative, or perhaps centrist in some ways - usually the fiscal kind, but i'm a big honking liberal when it coems to social issues.

I went with the side that gives a shit about people and not the bottom line $ margin. My biggest question has always been why can't we just be kind to one another?


All fellow members of the Roman senate hear me. Shall we continue to build palace after palace for the rich? Or shall we aspire to a more noble purpose and build decent housing for the poor? How does the senate vote?
Entire Senate: FUCK THE POOR!

I was raised by my mom, who is a die-hard democrat, so I was basically indoctrinated at a young age.

When I got older, I questioned a lot of her beliefs, and came to my own conclusions, which were that yes, liberalism is the way to go.

We certainly don't agree on everything by a long shot, but we're both happily close enough politically that we can talk about politics and respectfully disagree on things like globalization, gun control, abortion, the minimum wage, environmentalism versus jobs, and other issues. She's more of a socialist in some areas where I am more libertarian, and I am more pragmatic in some areas where she is more idealistic.

I was 12 years old in 1968, and I remember becoming aware -- aware that the war was wrong, and that prejudice was wrong. I went to work at Eugene McCarthy headquarters, heard him speak at Fenway Park. We lost Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK that year. And the election to Nixon, which just confirmed to me as time went on that liberals were on the side of the angels. Better to err on the side of compassion and kindness than on the side of greed and fear.

Those times were very heady and having been brought up with a quasi Leave It To Beaver mentality, when I learned about all the LIES I became very active

However, I will have to say that my father was very political, and a Democrat and he introduced me to my addiction at the young age of 12!

As time has moved on, and having followed this stuff for so long, being a Liberal is just "natural"! I've seen many changes, and hate that BOTH parties are mired in money, but my bottom line comes when you see "corporate greed" and what it's done to this country.

But I will say this, and I know this is controversial... I never was comfortable with Truman dropping the bomb! I just finished reading Howard Zinn's latest book and it's a tear-jerker for the common people. Was going to say "man", but he basically rips the "white man" and how they perpetrated so many atrocities in the name of God & Freedom! The same thing we are seeing right now!!!

You ask why I'm a liberal so that is the story I'll tell...It's a short one. I've been a liberal as long as I can remember, before I even knew what liberal meant. I think, ironically enough, it is because I was brought up in a very Catholic household. The Jesus I learned about told us that we had to worry about and care for those less fortunate than us, that we shouldn't judge people and that we should love everyone, no matter how different from us they were, because we were to see God in everyone around us. The Jesus I learned of ate with tax collectors and lepers and those the rest of society wouldn't touch. I'm not sure what Jesus some of the horribly judgmental and uncaring Catholics learned about but I don't think I'd recognize him.

Thanks for asking.

Glad you saw the light.

Mine story is: My parents were moderate Repubs (voted for Ford and that fuckhead Reagan "because of the economy" but they were socially liberal. when Reagan was elected I was 14. I found myself completely disgusted by his stupidity and his extreme rightwing, anti-women, anti-environmental views. I became a staunch liberal. My parents eventually went Dem. (voted for Clinton).

I'm the daughter of two teachers. However, I live in a conservative, wealthy white Catholic community, so I'm obviously in the minority.

Still, I hung in there...the only one in my class' mock elections to vote for the Democrat (Clinton, Gore, Kerry).

And so it's been ever since. Not a very exciting story, not big conversion experience, but hey. That's life.

Or one of them. Every now and then we have "activism wars" around here -- poor, pitiful, scared people who fear activism, fear street actions, fear rocking the boat. Their argument is often, "we'll turn people off who we would otherwise win over, and whom we NEED to win over."

Well, maybe. But we'll also get the attention of others. My argument has always been, we need BOTH: we need people shaking up the system, rocking a LOT of boats, making some people very, very, VERY nervous, and maybe even getting themselves jailed (for non-violent protest ONLY, of course). AND we need people who are the epitome of mainstream-ity to take the message home, visit and lobby those Congresscritters, write the reasonable LTEs, etc., etc., etc.

This is so perfect:

I didn’t even know what the WTO was. But this event interested me. It was like some unrest that might occur in Eastern Europe or Latin America, but it was right here in the USA. So, naturally, I wanted to know what the big deal was. NOT ONE news service would explain why the protesters were there; and I read many trying to find out. Fifty thousand people and NOT ONE comment on why they were so angry. Nor would they explain what the WTO did around the world. After reading the news, you got the impression that these were just a bunch of crazy hippies with nothing better to do (liberal media?). I didn’t buy it. So, I decided to figure it out for myself.

And btw, now you KNOW why the MSM wouldn't explain why they were doing what they were doing, what their complaints were, and why they were so angry, huh? Can't spread all that Truth around, it might be catching.

As for me, I was born liberal, and just get more so as my life goes on. It's literally who I am. Liberal values are at the very core of my being, inseparable from what and who I am. All of which is why I can't understand romantic liaisons like the Ragin' Cajun (can't remember his name at the moment) and Mary Matalin. I have trouble being FRIENDS with people whose values are so foreign to mine, forget about marrying them. Blech.

Its just who I am. At the core of my being. I wrote on a different thread about when I took politics much more personally. This is a bit different. I can sum up my political philosophy with two quick sound bites 1) property doesn't have rights people have rights and whenever there is any conflict the interests of people must take priority over the interests or property or pretty much the opposite of how it is now. 2) Never, NEVER, stand with the powerful, against the weak, much more important and pretty much the opposite of how it is right now.

I sometimes think one of the differences between liberals and conservatives is the people they knew. The connection that comes into their head when they think of social programs. THEY think of some lazy, take advantage no goodnick out to steal their hard earned money. I think of my friends brother in law. He lived under a bridge. I knew him a couple of years before I found out he was my friends brother in law, I even knew his wife, my friends sister. He had gone to Vietnam, a gentle soul he probably should have known better,but my friend said he thought he should. My friend said he was a really smart and good hearted person. No one really knows what happened and there are various stories but he came back from Nam with his mind destroyed. He once told my friend he had seen two dragons fighting over a local mountain, one spit fire and the other swords. The one that spit swords cut the wings off of the other and killed it. His mind was left in the jungle. We all live in a jungle one of complexity and technological demands. I think it benefits most people but we are fooling ourselves if we don't acknowledge it crushes others under its merciless machinery. Why isn't taking care of those people seen as part of the price we pay for such a society? Anyway when social programs are talked about, my friend that lives under the bridge is who I think about and how could I not want to see him cared for. By the way, I once asked my friends sister why she hadn't divorced him (this was years after he came back and never saw her) She began to cry and said "He was such a good man."

Edited for spelling

at the beginning of your post, what a terrific 2-point Core Principles:

1) property doesn't have rights people have rights and whenever there is any conflict the interests of people must take priority over the interests or property or pretty much the opposite of how it is now. 2) Never, NEVER, stand with the powerful, against the weak, much more important and pretty much the opposite of how it is right now.

I particularly like the 2nd. Never, Never stand with the powerful... Perfect, just perfect.

Thanks for your very thoughtful post.

Kept going that way until 9/11. Something clicked that day...because I had read about project echelon and truly believed that the federal govt spied on all of us constantly. Thought to myself, "How could something like this happen when we're all being watched constantly?"

Wrestled with this thought for about a month, then decided that I was going to go back to college and finish my degree...maybe go into govt to help prevent this kind of thing from happening again (ignorant idealism...just being honest).

Kept this crap up for about a year...then the drumbeat for war in Iraq started...I trusted the president (again ignorant idealism) and thought the "war for oil" crowd was suicidal. Think about it: this guy has WMD, he's not ashamed to use them, he wants to kill us all, etc. Boy was I fucking stupid.

And of course there was a part of me that thought "If W is lying about this, he'll be committing the worst form of political suicide in US history. He'll be impeached and probably imprisoned, since Cheney would go down with him."

So yeah, Mission Accomplished and all of that shit. Then the war just kept going...and no WMD...then the rationale started to change...and I thought "They fucking lied to me." I was pissed, because I don't like being wrong about anything...and I had argued for the war with some of my friends and family...and I was wrong and innocent people were dying. I felt like I had played a part in that lie. I still harbor guilt about that to this day, and I suspect that no matter what I do in life I will never forget the small role I played in this atrocity. I guess that is when I stopped being a Republican, since I was kicked out of the club for admitting I was wrong :)

And here is where it gets really crazy. I've always been a Radiohead fan, and knew they were far left politically...and it always struck me how an artist like Thom Yorke could create such beautiful work yet be so wrong when it comes to politics. Well, they had an album come out in 2003 called Hail to the Thief. While I was trying to find out shit about their album, they happened to have a blind link on their official website that linked to a Noam Chomsky discussion about 9/11. I read it and was floored.

On EDIT:

here's the chomsky article I read

http://www.chomsky.info/talks/20011018.htm

I got into what I like to call the "flow of real information" and have discovered a much more accurate description of the true nature of things.

The clincher for me was an upper level class in my major (Poli Sci) that went into great detail about the history of the middle east under colonialism. Once you get a taste of what the west has done in that region for the last few hundred years, it is kind of hard to justify in your mind the bullshit that is shoveled on tv daily. I mean, hell, just read about British occupation in Iraq post-ww1 and see the parallels...

We're so dumb as a nation because we're bred to be that way. It's amazing that any of us find out what's really going on anymore.

the poor are suckered into supporting the conservative agenda). It wasn't until I joined the military and I saw the fruits of conservatism and meet some true authoritarians that I changed. After three years in the army, I was a rabid leftie.

who enter the military turn even more rabid right wing? What was unique for you?

I believe my conservatism in my teens was partially just adolescent rebellion. My family members (those who were political at all) were FDR Democrats, so I naturally believed that if they were Democrats there must be something wrong with being a Democrat. Also, I believe that I immersed myself in right-wing militarism (reading Soldier of Fortune magazine, etc.) to escape a bad situation at home (in a word, poverty).

When I entered the military, I saw the reality of things. That is, how people who believed as I did were more often than not dickheads who loved the beat down others. I saw how the whole institution wasn't really geared to protect freedom, but to protect position and profits. In other words, the propaganda didn't really work for me, and I became one of the many who simply bided time, waiting to get out and use the G.I. Bill to go to college. Although many people do swallow the Kool-aid in the military, there are also many who make up the FTA crowd. These are the people I hung with and shared political views with.

I think that we often think of veterans as conservative because its the right-wingers who are most likely to boast about there military service. There are plenty of liberal and moderate veterans who are quiet about their pasts.

as a Christian I try to follow his teachings

I became interested in international politics when I was eight and my mom purchased a set of World Book encyclopaedias. We lived in the Asia-Pacific at that time –my dad was employed as a university lecturer there. The World Book encyclopaedias were from the US and focused extensively on American history and American politics. I quickly became fascinated with US politics and history and became acquainted with the various presidents. I always deeply admired and respected Democratic presidential figures such as Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter but for some reason I gravitated toward the Republican side of politics. Nixon, Reagan and Bush Senior were my early political role models. In 1991 I purchased Nancy Reagan’s memoirs, followed closely by a book written by Richard Nixon and finally Ronald Reagan’s memoirs. The country in which I then resided broadcast CNN live during Gulf War I (a war which then and now I passionately agreed with) and I began to look up to Bush Senior as a father figure, an international statesman and a visionary world leader. I wrote a letter to Ronald Reagan in 1991 telling him how much I admired him and I remember watching the whole Clarence Thomas proceedings on TV and angrily denouncing Anita Hill as a liar and a fraud (yikes, it makes me sick to think that I once thought like that). I briefly supported Pat Buchanan’s bid for the presidency in 1992 and mortified all my liberal friends in the US by proclaiming that I thought he’d make a great President (this was only a brief phase before I went back to supporting Bush).

By this time, our family had moved to Australia. Our Labor (the Labor Party here is the equivalent to the Democratic Party in the US) government there was deeply unpopular because of the international recession and a number of other factors and I became caught up in the anti-Labor trend. I became a strong supporter of the then Opposition Leader Dr John Hewson during my early years in Australia. Dr Hewson was basically a Thatcher-Gingrich style conservative in economic policy but was a social moderate –and has recently been very critical of the Bush Administration and the Howard government. So I moved further to the Right.

It was Bill Clinton who started to make me re-examine my political beliefs. I listened to him on the campaign trail in 1992 –the Australian media covers US presidential elections in great detail –and he stuck a chord with me. His speeches seemed so visionary, so full of hope and promise, so idealistic and so confident about the future and I was deeply impressed. By November that year I was one of his most passionate supporters and I remember being so elated when he was elected to the presidency –to me it marked a new era of hope and optimism.

Although I became disillusioned with Clinton early in his presidency, the Gingrich Revolution of 1994 pushed me sharply back into Clinton’s corner. I watched from afar the ideologically partisan, ultra-conservative, far right agenda being proposed by Gingrich in the US and it profoundly disturbed me. I had always detested the Republican witch hunt against Clinton and Ken Starr and Whitewater and subsequently the whole Monica thing confirmed to me how mean, spiteful and vindictive the GOP was. And as Clinton continued into his presidency, I gained a deep and profound respect for his vision, his intellect, his statesmanship and the era of peace and prosperity that the world enjoyed during his presidency. Some of my friends and family who had been sceptical or even hostile toward the US for years on end suddenly began to speak glowingly of the US and its role in world affairs under the Clinton Administration. I still think of the years when Clinton was in the White House as being the best years of my life and I am profoundly grateful to him for allowing me to grow up in an era of peace, prosperity, idealism, hope, optimism and confidence in the future

We also elected a hard right wing government here in Australia under a Prime Minister who I had never liked (John Howard). This government has proved to be the most ideologically partisan, unethical, corrupt and racist government in Australian history and I shifted sharply to the left. I also gained a new appreciation for the Labor Party and the values that it represented and I officially joined the party the same year the Howard government was elected.

When George W Bush was campaigning for the presidency, I was prepared to take him at his word that he was a compassionate conservative and I had high hopes that he would move the Republican Party back to the Rockefeller mould of liberal conservatism. But early on in the campaign, I began to have serious doubts about him. If he is so concerned about reaching out to minorities, why was he addressing the Bob Jones University? And I saw him in a debate with McCain in which McCain took a strong and principled stand against the Confederate flag and Bush kept fudging the issue and trying to have it both ways. And that disgusted me. Furthermore, several issues cropped up such as his drink-driving record, the “major league a-h-le’ remark about Adam Clymer and his close relationship with Charlton Heston and so on. But unfortunately I believed a lot of the media lies about Gore and I was still much too complacent and in the dark about how bad Bush was and I still thought news sources such as CNN and the like were reliable. I probably would have voted for Nader had I been in the US. Thank goodness I couldn’t vote

Over the last four years I have watched the * Administration destroy every hope and ideal that I cherish and hold dear and have thus moved even further to the left. I have watched as they have promoted prejudice over policy, profit over people and partisan ideology over common sense. And I have watched my government here in Australia do the same thing.

That is why I now consider myself a liberal

raised in democratic family, pictures of jfk all over house, so it was only natural. worked on political campaigns in the '70s(mcgovern, carter and many local). raised my own family in '80s, during reagan era, that is when i became a true liberal, and raised my family the same way. now things are out of control, whatever the r's are for, i'm against. whatever they're against, i'm for. we must take care of the needy, women must be in charge of thier own bodies and have equal pay, equal rights must be for everyone, living wage, etc. etc. etc. like bill mahrer said, "both parties will piss on you, but at least the democrats will give you an umbrella".

no exceptions.....if you believe this and live this you are a "liberal"....I was taught this as a child and it stuck.

I'm just anti-this-administration, and the liberal side of the fence seems like the best place to be these days.

I was raised by hard-core libertarians. This means my parents advocated some things that many of you would think are bad (free trade, no welfare, no gun control, etc...) But it also meant I was taught to think for myself about a lot of other issues, like religion and patriotism. My parents also made sure that I understood just how dangerous and immoral totalitarian governments are (regardless of whether they identify as right or left). There was no such thing as blind obedience in my house, only carefully thought through decisions and consequences, which made me much less vulnerable to my government's (and everyone else's) BS.

Until the year 2000, I voted primarily libertarian. However, I changed my mind in the 2000 presidential election and reluctantly voted for Gore because I had a bad feeling about Bush (and I thought his father was an idiot during Gulf War I), and didn't want him to win. I was moderately disappointed when Bush won anyway, but got over it in a few days. I thought the whole Florida vote thing was stupid and didn't pay much attention to it.

In 2001, 9-11 happened. Like the rest of the nation, I was horrified. I supported going to Afghanistan over it, and still don't regret that decision, although I think we've made a godawful mess of it. When Bush wanted to invade Iraq, I was sceptical, but moderately supportive because I thought his daddy did the wrong thing by withdrawing during Gulf War I, and I despise Saddam Hussein. I didn't have much patience with the anti-war protesters - I am not a pacifist.

However, something made me do a 180 last year. That something was Abu Ghraib. I kind of felt like something was wrong before that, but couldn't put a finger on it. Then the pictures of Abu Ghraib came out and it was like the light completely went on for me. I started thinking "how can we be the good guys if we are doing the same things that asshole Saddam Hussein did?" And I was really displeased by the response Bush made to the Abu Ghraib scandal - basically blaming it all on the peons. He didn't even apologize to the Muslim world, and it ruined America's reputation. That wasn't the response of a strong and honest leader, and it wasn't the response of someone I wanted to support. And I knew in my heart of hearts that the little guys don't torture people if they don't think that they at the very least will be overlooked by the higher-ups.

And that's when I really started paying attention to what was going on around me. I started hearing things about government funded news stories, and other rumors of corruption in Iraq, and after all that I just couldn't support this administration anymore. I happily voted for Kerry on Nov. 2nd, and was EXTREMELY disappointed in Bush's "victory" and his subsequent mandate speech. I joined DU a few days following the election and the second shoe fell when I saw all the statistics about vote fraud. I work with social science stats every day, and there is no doubt in my mind even now, even 8 months later, that something very very fishy happened on Nov 2nd.

Now I read the internet for news every day. I think my government is totally corrupt at this point, and I have no respect for any of them at all, including many of the Democratic congressmen/congresswomen out there, whom I perceive as weak and scared. I am also completely disgusted with the rise of the Nascar morons in this country, and hope they crawl back into their trailers soon (yes, I am an intellectual classist elitist and proud of it). I even joined the ACLU and carry their card in my wallet, which will probably get me put in a camp someday soon. Oh well. Better the rebel forces than the Empire, regardless of the consequences.

I still don't identify as a "Democrat", but am happy to lend what support I can to your cause as long as this asshole and his cronies are still in the White House.

Well, most people think so anyhow...even my kids and they are teenagers and aren't supposed to think that.

Can't think of a more liberal place in our country :)

I grew up on a farm. The farm hands were black and lived in a tar paper shack with no indoor plumbing and only 1 electric bulb. They used a kerosene heater in the winter and and an outhouse all year round. Josie was one of the ladies in the tar paper shack and she took care of me. I was 3 and she loved me like her own. I was too young to see color. I heard the word nigger from someone and I told Josie's daughter Corrine that she was a nigger. My mother overheard and made me apologise. Corrine forgave me.

In 1968 when I was 14 George Wallace was Governor and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. So was Martin Luther King. Most of the people I knew cheered. I cried. I watched the riots at the Democratic Covent ion on television. I was horrified.

In high school, during the Vietnam Moratorium, students that wore black armbands were suspended. A boy I knew from Junior High got killed in Nam. Another boy I knew lost a leg.

All during those years, the only thing I had to be proud of Alabama was the Crimson Tide and Paul Bryant. So every football season, I bring out my inner redneck and yell Roll Tide and think about how far we've come.

That's why I'm a liberal.

I started out extremely liberal. Both of my parents vote democrat, but for different reasons. What changed me?

Well, I started working as a minority in a minority owned business. That meant I was one of the sole white people working in a predominantly African American owned and operated place. As it happened, it involved me coming more up close to the poverty sector of this group and others.

Growing up lower middle class, I always felt that if you felt poverty as I had, or even worse, you simply struggled to get out of this predicament. I never assumed any different. Poor people did not want to be poor. Poor people were noble workers. Poor people just needed a chance to get out of this horrible existence.


It floored me when I was introduced to a sub world that milked the US system. People making more money than I was, were using the government rules to take advantage of programs they should not. And it was all a joke to them. It was raping and pillaging a system designed to help the people who truly needed help.

On top of that, I met some of the poorest elements of society where I was. And, honestly, they did not care to move up the ladder to the American dream. They were content where they were in the social structure. This really bothered me for quite a while.

Finally, I just came to the conclusion some people do not care to move their station in life. If the safety net is out there to keep them at bottom, they are fine with that. Others will struggle to get out. But what hit me hardest was the death of my idealism. The death of the perception in my life that all people want to better their lives, and are willing to work to achieve that goal. I honestly have to say, I feel that at least 30-40 percent of Americans no longer expect to work for better results. They expect the government to hand it to them.

That is when I became less liberal. I still hold forth many liberal ideals, but when the word "we owe" comes up, honestly, it makes me sick. Unless I personally owe someone something, I do not expect someone to collectively decide I owe another something based on their reasoning and try to extract cash for their decision. I think that is where I went on the conservative bent some. I do not owe based on my ancestors. I do not owe based on my gender or my race. When I first came into this life, I owed nothing. Any debt I incurred since then is my own. Do not try to pile on someone else's old debt on me.

Anyways...sorry for the mini rant.

I try not to judge by those examples. I do get angry at people no matter what color that try to play it though. My ex roommate who was a retired female Master Sergent and later a civil servant milked for all it was worth and she failed to acknowledge my tax dollars paid for her disability.

I am not trying to say there were not. In my particular case, I am in an area where African Americans compose a good portion of the poverty. Prior, I had not worked for a company that close in working with people in the poverty level. That was circumstantial. Being one of the lone minorities in a minority company also introduced me to racism being two ways. Prior to that, I thought it was something that white people did to others. But it seems irrational hatred is not a product owned only by whites.

But seriously, that was the underbelly to some of the changes I encountered in my young life. Working as a minority in that company gave me many more rewards than it did anything else. It truly taught me empathy, and strangely enough, allowed me to feel a small portion of the prejudices that are just part of the daily life of a minority in America. But understanding that, and knowing some of the obstacles they have in our free USA, it made me all the stronger in making sure I am differentiated from the "bad white American". Just as no one should paint a black, Hispanic, Asian, etc. with a broad brush; the return should not happen either.

There were a number of black people that played the race card. I came close to being prejudiced at that time but I noticed there were a lot of white people trying to "get over" also including me. I learned a lot about myself and race relations then.

In addition to the national events you mentioned, my big brother was in Vietnam and my family moved down the line from comfortable union-pay blue collar to welfare and never made it back. The world had gone to hell and I had to choose which rhetoric made sense, the steadfast liberal arguments of my parents or the narrow-minded, simplistic views of the local conservative Repubs. Liberals won on nearly every score. Vietnam had neither side in the win column for me because until my brother returned to our doorstep I remained enraged at our government. 1968 was an awful year.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Then my mother became a welfare queen and we were living on Easy Street with the rest of the welfare queens. As welfare queens we had a duty to keep those starry-eyed liberals in power. *sarcasm off*

Bobby Kennedy

for me. I too, had always considered myself a Republican until then.

I also felt that Clinton was awesome. I quickly turned 180 degrees after reading "Worse than Watergate" and "The Price of Loyalty".

and, BTW, WELCOME to DU!!:headbang:

I have always had a problem with laws against consensual adult behavior, such as drug laws, prostitution laws, gambling laws, and sodomy laws. I have always been opposed to censorship as well. I'm basically a big believer in personal freedom. People should be allowed to do as they please as long as they do not harm or endanger anybody else. I have always been anti-discrimination. I believe that health care should be a human right.

The "straw that broke the camel's back" for me came in the Summer of 2003. That is when the Texas sodomy laws were overturned by the Supreme Court. Imagine that, consenting adults having a right to have sex in their own home! Well, the right wing's reaction told me all I needed to know about that ideology. They were furious! I heard that the three right wing judges--Scalia, Thomas and Renquist--were the dissent. I heard the right wing talk show hosts and "Family" groups acting like this was a terrible injustice. A right to privacy, two consenting adults doing what they please without government intrusion, and they were furious about it. At that point, I decided that I was going to support the progressive cause. The radical right exposed themselves that day for the prejudiced, anti-freedom extremists that they really are.

My mother was unprepared both physically and emotionally to be the total bread winner for me and my brother. We were supported and educated on Social Security survivors' benefits. I don't know what would have happened to us without Social Security. I love the Democrats--especially FDR--for what they did for me and my family. I will forever be loyal and liberal.