How many of you are former republicans, & why did you become a Democrat?

And may I say Welcome, and glad to have you.

for I have sinned.

:patriot:

Ford (most us Coloradoans did). Went Libertarian in 1980-84, saw the error of my ways, went Dem and have never looked back.

I voted for that godawful crook Richard Nixon TWO TIMES - I'm ashamed to say. Up until that time, I had never voted for anybody but Democrats. I really don't understand how I could have been so naive. Anyway, after the cracks in Watergate started leaking, I realized that along with everybody else in this country I had been lied to, and I made a vow right then, never again.

And I have kept that vow. And that's the truth!

for Nixon - after he was run out of office, of course. Good for you for admitting it.

I have vague memories of the Kennedy/Nixon race. I have a clear memory of saying something like 'eehw icky ugh" about Nixon at the dinner table. I was five years old. My parents were appalled.

I'm sorry to admit that I did think Nixon in '68 was the end-the-war candidate. I hated Humphrey because he was associated with Johnson, whom I equated with the war. It didn't take too long to figure out that Nixon had scammed us. I was 13 then.

Haven't gone too near a Republican since although, believe it or not, NJ was once represented in the Senate by a liberal Republican, Clifford Case.

I was in the Army when they dragged out the 'Contract with America'. Then and there I rejected them and became a Dem. My stepdad said 'It's about damn time'.

at a small community college back in 1978 or so. We met once, I got elected, and we never met again.

No, I wasn't being a mole. I was just that disorganized and disinterested. I was a republican because the Eastern Kentucky county I lived in was overwhelmingly Democratic and, it seemed to me, overwhelmingly corrupt and it seemed to me that the republicans might be better.

Of course, I was just a kid.

And then, the republicans nominated Reagan for the 1980 election and I began reading up on the guy. I realized very quickly that I wanted no part of any group that thought having Reagan in the White House was a good thing.

So, I switched to the Democratic Party and never looked back.

And I never, ever, ever, ever, ever voted for a republican for any office, not even when it was someone I knew and liked who was running unapposed in a local election.....

and I had no interest in politics until well into my 20s. I was also evangelical for awhile, and was surrounded by Republicans in that milieu.

However, I always knew a wide range of people and tried to expose myself to different points of view. The key things I can think of were:

-- Reading Noam Chomsky.
-- Getting a better understanding of economics (strangely enough, this was in business school).
-- The progressives I knew I tended to like. I knew they had a different viewpoint and worked from a different set of facts. This made me more open to understanding their positions.

but only because our town races have always been pretty much decided in the primaries because the Democrats usually don't run a candidate in the local election. So my parents wanted to be able to vote in the primaries.

So I registered Republican too and screwed up and voted for Ronnie boy in my first Presidential election.

Then I went to college and had many liberal professors who educated me about how wrong the Republicans were on every issue I cared about.

I began voting Democrat after. I didn't officially change my party at the Board of Elections until after I ran into some really disgusting Pukes, on my job. Then I decided that even for the sake of having a say in town politics, I couldn't stand being associated with the Pukes in any way shape or form any more. So I went down and officially became a Democrat.

I have vowed I'd cut off my right arm before ever voting for a Puke again.

ETA: My Mom is still a registered Republican again because of wanting a say in the town politics, but she votes Democrat in all the state and national races. My older sister is like me and changed offically to Democrat.

I never did and proud of it.

...a friend of mine did switch, why?

Republicans stated they are for government staying the hell out of our personal lives...yet here you have a republican congress and president getting involved on a decision to pull the plug on someone who wouldn't live normally.

Republicans state they are for fiscal responsibility...what the hell happened to that ideal the last eight years?

Republicans state they are for lessening our role in international politics and squabbles.....WTF you call Iraq and messing around in Russia's sphere of influence?

Republicans state lessen taxes and decrease government waste. Well, they did do the tax thing...but increased government waste.

Health care...no amount of tax breaks or incentives is going to fix this problem now.

...I joked with him one time, looks like the Democrats are more Republican than the Republicans.

except lately--now i'm just a pissed off, raging liberal

The republicans I grew up knowing were nothing like the ones now (my grand father was a repub mayor, my uncle a dem one).

For the longest time I believed the meme, smaller government more power to the states and so on (including things like gay marriage, et al) - as time wore on I saw that the repubs were wanting to control my life more and more, and some in the party were religious nut jobs who wanted to tear down the wall of separation of church and state and work more towards a church like country (based on their own brand of faith).

All I ever wanted was freedom (which is why I post so many threads on things being banned and such) - but that runs both ways for me, I call dems on it as well when I think they are going the wrong direction in that regards.

I see the basis of the democrat party as 'live and let live' - and that is what I want from my government. We don't always live up to that, but at least we are a big tent and we can work around our issues without theology getting in the way (though I see some using a new theology, as I call it, when it comes to the environment and how each of us impacts it and wanting to make laws that are based on flimsy studies, et al if it fits their ideals...yeah, I will get flamed for that).

I left my old party because they have only one way of looking at things. And even though I have clashed here many times with folks I have learned a lot and kept an open mind, to be filled with many opinions other than mine which have given me pause to think.

But don't think I won't leave the party if they keep up the repug ways with war funding, removing rights, etc and so on. I want to be free to live my life and my faith without imposing my beliefs on others - and that means we fight together for freedom.

The pugs have jumped the shark and now border on fascism. I won't be joining them or anyone else who wants to wander down that path.

The preNixon Republican party was more like the democratic party of today. Even Dr. King was a Republican. They were very progressive in some of their views. But with the current dominance of the conservative religious right. All that is nothing more than the Good Old Days of the Grand Old Party.

Worked in the country outside of the city. 18 years old and untraveled with a Midwesterners inferiority complex means good fodder for listening to Limbaugh.

I soon asked myself just why this guy never debates anyone.

I asked myself why things are debated that don't matter.

I asked myself why the media is more interested in Pop Culture than in current events.

I went to college.

I started to travel.

I learned languages.

I learned cultures.

I learned how stupid nationalism was and that nationalism was really a useless idea to the common man.

I learned how the faithful are fleeced and used by those of less than noble intent in the name of religion.

I went to grad school. (Business School no less.)

I saw economic decline and it was called "prosperity".

I saw intellectual decline and it was called a return to "family values".

I saw laws that really serve no purpose except to make money off of sending people to jails.

I saw a lack of community and that anyone with a sense of community was called a "communist" unless they put some kind of religion behind it...usually those who made accusations had no idea what a "communist" really was and equated even popular social movements to totalitarian communism.

I saw some of my fellow Midwesterners clinging to guns and religion out of fear.

To this day I am not as left as some folks here...but I am never going back to what I was.

Question answered?

Only voted for a Republican once, but it was Tom Campbell in the late 80s, so I don't lose too much sleep over it.

Funny (to me) story. It was on the third date with the person that became my wife. We're enjoying dinner, and all of a sudden, she busts out the questions. What was my stand on choice, gay rights, the environment and so on. I asked her is she was going to kiss me, or appoint me to the Supreme Court. I got kissed. Not too long after that I switched to Dem (being one in all but name), ended up as a deleagte to the state convention a couple of times and I'm working the Dem booth at the fair this weekend. A happy ending.

One parent was high up in state level party. Grew up made to dress up to go to rallies back in the day when teen for Nixon, et al.
Parent grew disillusioned with politics but still repub although did vote dem in last governor race!

Really feel more like independent after Kerry debacle but excited about Obama and yes, feel HOPE! For the economy, the constitution, perhaps even the intelligence of this country will improve!

I just listen and learn. Research on Songbird McCain is most dishonorable service and record, personally and career-wise. Obama is a true American story...pulling himself up from the bootstraps.

BTW, I am everything in the Songbird McCain / Pinocchio Palin demographic is looking for. I should be in the 28% Kool Aid Drinking set but my parents did send me to the finest schools and I have postgrad so I didn't check out my brain along the way.

I'm a Texas woman grew up in military from a large career officer military family, married to a decorated Marine Vietnam combat, platoon leader vet. My father and uncle were career pilots that volunteered to Vietnam and both flew sorties over N.Vietnam . We are small town ranchers and teacher and artist. We are both very committed Christians and believe in the Bible. We have both attended non-denom churches like Palin's and know exactly where they are coming from. We like the outdoors but we respect animals and the environment which is part of God's creation to be respected.

All that said, Palin exhibits none of the fruit of the Spirit that God says, that's how we'll know one of His Children. Lying identifies the father of lies and it appears that she can't do anything but lie. Her church has been declared heretical by the Assembly of God. No where in the Bible does it say Alaska will be a refuge before the Rapture.
Her church is a cult.

Torture should be a issue that American churches denounce from their steeples but I hear not a peep. That is sickening to me and just imagine what our precious Lord thinks of torture. Talk about hypocrisy. Pharisetical of McCain and Palin and we know Jesus wasn't so awful fond of the Pharisees.

Oh, and it is the most sexist thing that Songbird McCain has ever done from the many, many sexist things he has done in his life. Pinocchio Palin is an insult to all women. The only smarts this woman has is street smarts. Anybody that took 6 yrs or more and 5 colleges to graduate from state school with her major is not a rocket scientist.

How any Christian, military, country people can vote for this ticket is beyond me except for they have been such longtime Kool Aid drinkers and/or they are simply racist.

How's that for lipstick on a pig?

and Wes Clark made me a Democrat

I was 21 or so and had been brought up in a Republican family. My values started changing, so naturally...

we called him a "real Reagan democrat" because he was GOP until Reagan.

He was old school republican, believed in small government in the sense of no intrusion into private lives, not "don't take care of people" and he was for a strong military as a deterrent to war. He enlisted in WWII and was air force reserves until he retired as a Lt Col. His "civilian" job was military connected, building nuclear submarines.

When Reagan started talking about the possibility of a limited nuclear war my father went crazy. Almost. He did go into a depression for about two years. When he recovered he said he felt like he'd been lied to by the GOP his whole life. They did not believe in small government OR deterence. They believed in war and money.

He died in 2003 but for the last nearly 20 years of his life he was a VERY liberal democrat, more so than the rest of us. It was always interesting to get his take on things because having come from the other side, he'd often have different and sometimes better arguments than we did.

If you see me here defending other recent switches, people who were once knee jerk republicans but who have seen the light, like Andrew Sullivan and John Cole, I think its because of my dad. Once he made the switch there was no way he was going back. (Likewise, when you trash Sullivan because of something he did or said 5 years ago, I tend to defend him in part because of my dad. Dad was a good man always, but he got better as he aged. I'm willing to think others can do the same.)

Bush supporter. This is the founder of a financial discussion forum that has a big republican following. A good place for financial discussions, but there are also a lotta freepers there.

He has recently switched his support to Obama. Below is a vid that was posted yesterday. It's more a rant against Limbaugh & Ingraham regarding the Fannie/Freddie bailout but, the good news is, he's been encouraging his readers to vote D in Nov.

Video from Nov 9th: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uryFnPuq8A&eurl=http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/576-Lehman-Cops-Eating-Donuts-And-More-FanFred.html

Vote D post: http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/568-Republicans-Proved-Liars-Vote-Democrat.html

It's not the most glowing endorsement, but it is a hell of a start!

At times I can be an idiot.:)

* This was for Texas governor, not president.

in college. And realized that my stance on the issues matched up to Democrats. I would never, EVER consider voting repuke now.

In my defense, lots of democrats did too. Hell, he even carried the state of Massachusetts.

Not so much because I believed in him but for my intense dislike for Mondale. Regretted it almost immediately and never did it again.

either that or his open advocacy of a tax increase.

He made me realize our primary system was totally screwed up when such an unelectable person wins the nomination. There was absolutely no hope of him winning even by the most optimistic democrat.

I was for McGovern in 1972 until I saw him on TV saying the space programs was a waste of money. As a ten year old boy, the space program was my sacred cow, so I switched to Nixon. I watched the debates in 1976 and was rooting for Ford. I don't remember why. The media spent four years bashing Jimmy Carter and I used to listen to this one minute Ronald Reagan show on my clock-radio. So when it was time for me to vote, I registered as a Republican and supported Reagan. And all other Republicans. Not because it was my party, but based on what I knew about the candidates. I cannot remember most of the candidates, nor what I knew about the issues. McGovern was the incumbent Senator and my problem with him was that he had been in the Senate for as long as I had been alive. I didn't like the idea of lifetime politicians, and I still don't.

Throughout my college years as I realized I was gonna be in the workforce and probably not gonna be super-rich I began to move to the left on economic issues. In the debates in 1984, Reagan exhibited the early signs of Alzheimer's. He obviously did not know what he was talking about. I wasn't ready to move to Mondale, whose mannerisms annoyed me, but I was not very enamored of Reagan any more either. Before the debates I was also kinda blown away by Jesse Jackson's speech to the DNC (although I did not want to admit it). I also saw Jesse as the host of Saturday Night Live and he impressed me there (gosh but I was sophisticated, eh?).

By the time I graduated from college in 1985, I considered myself a socialist, and I still do, although I advocate neither revolution, nor government ownership, nor income equality. I cannot remember if I voted in 1986. I was moving from one state to another, so it probably did not seem right to vote for Governor or Senator of a state I was not gonna live in.

By 1988 I was a registered Democrat and voting for Jesse Jackson in the primary, although I do not always support the Democratic candidate. For example, I did not vote for Clinton in 1992 because he sounded like a moderate Republican to me, so I voted Socialist Workers, realizing I might be helping Bush to win. I did not like Steve Gunderson at all, my Republican Congressman in 1990 and 1992 who happens to be gay, strangely enough, but I voted for the Republican Scott Klug in 1994 and 1996. Klug seemed like a moderate and he performed well in one radio debate I heard. His opponent in 1994 seemed to campaign based on "it's about time Wisconsin sent a woman to Congress" which wasn't a winning issue for this man. In 1996, his opponent was former Madison mayor Paul Soglin. Soglin seemed to ignore our part of the district while his opponent made several appearances in our town as well as radio ads. In 1998, however, all of the candidates came to tiny Hub City to meet the county Democrats before the primary. I was one of about 12 people to goto that, so I had the pleasure of meeting Tammy Baldwin, who surprisingly won the primary.

Because of Republican pro-rich tax and budget policies, and because of their dishonesty about them, and because of my inability to rise above the median income (actually I have spent most of the last two decades in the bottom quintile) it's highly unlikely I will ever vote Republican again, except maybe in some local county offices. Plus, I have become more involved in the party machine, becoming a Precinctman in 2004, and now entering my 3rd term.

But, yeah, I was generally more Republican in my days before the Iraq War.

edit: hmm...it might be in my journal.

...I've cast votes for Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and Democrats. It just depended on the time, place, and individuals running for office.

The few Libertarian votes were mostly as protest votes when the other choices were corrupt.

I still see myself voting Green or Dem, but the GOP is dead to me since our contemporary version has so obviously embraced anti-intellectualism.

I don't see Dems as being saviors of anything but they are the lesser of two evils most of the time.

My mum was a hardcore Repub and in some ways still is; However I see her as more of an Independent Conservative or a Republican Liberal. We're Haitian (my mum was rooting for Bush in 2000), Katrina did a number on my mum. As Black people it just reaffirmed to her and to us how racist this nation is and how Blacks are stilll not recognized.


My mum's favorite phrase was this, "Dems and Repubs eat at the same table, while you beg at their feet. At least Repubs give you some crumbs." Katrina made her feel that the last statement is not for everyone but those who have a certain skin tone. The rest of us will suffer.

When I was 14, that shithead Reagan was elected. I was absolutely appalled. I couldn't believe Americans couldn't see through his act. They said he was the great communicator, for example, when he was obviously just reading cue cards. I hated this anti-abortion, anti-environmental schtick and his pandering to the religious nut cases (my parents were socially liberal). I just despised him in my bones from the word go. I became a staunch liberal in 1980. My parents eventually came around (voted for Clinton), never went back to repukes.

I was a child of republicans. I went to college as a born again Christian, withstood the liberal education, graduated a Christian. Voted for Clinton, just because I couldn't stand to look at Bush for another four years. Became a dem gradually, mostly from listening to Rush Limbaugh every day and becoming more and more sure he was lying and REALLY pissed when the focus went to <Monicagate. I was angry republicans were wasting my tax money on a blow job investigation and a marital issue. Eventually, I accepted the truth that I was pro=abortion, anti=control of religion and sex lives, that I liked gay people and couldn't imagine a God who would condemn them...Basically, Rush Limbaugh showed me the light: I didn't want to be like him.

That's when I woke up from the haze that was my youth. I grew up in a christian fundementalist household. Even though I was breaking away, I couldn't accept that the feelings I had that were in conflict with 'my party' - was really liberalism. When 9/11 happened, everything changed. I couldn't keep lying to myself, and I realized that something was very wrong. It still took a while to fully come around, but I had stopped supporting the party openly. In 2004 I cast my first full Dem Ballot, and haven't looked back since.

I was one of the first "18-year-olds" to vote. I registered for the election of 1972 and when I was asked to select a political party, I said "Independent," but the registrar said I had to pick a party. I was confused. I was thinking of the general election, but the registrar was asking about the primary election. She said, "You have to register with a political party," which I thought was odd, but went ahead a said "Republican." This was California in 1971.

I said "Republican" because I had grown up hearing about my grandfather, a Kansas farmer and staunch Republican. Well, I soon left the Republicans and registered "Independent," and voted as such in 1972. I voted for McGovern.

I was an Independent for 20 years, but registered "Democrat" in 1992 to vote in the Kansas primaries as I liked Paul Tsongas. I found his "everyone takes a hit" on getting the budget under control appealing. Well, Bill Clinton got the nod, so I voted for him.

Typically over the years, although I was an Independent, I voted for Democrats. Except in 1980 when I voted for John Anderson.

However, now I'm comfortable with the Democratic Party and have no plans to leave it...:D

because I was told to by my mom. But I worked for the McGreevy campaign in NJ my junior year in college and changed my registration immediately thereafter. I wasn't very political until the robbery of 2000, and ever more so after 11 september.

FWIW, my mom, a lifelong republican, is voting for Obama.