Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm liberal and I think my "leaning" comes mostly from family and Christianity, also schooling, critical thinking, common sense. I truly have difficulty understanding how Christians can be Republicans.
I'm liberal and I think my "leaning" comes mostly from family and Christianity, also schooling, critical thinking, common sense. I truly have difficulty understanding how Christians can be Republicans.
That's what I thought, until I saw the politics of church.
I'm liberal and I think my "leaning" comes mostly from family and Christianity, also schooling, critical thinking, common sense. I truly have difficulty understanding how Christians can be Republicans.
I'm also a Christian and truly have difficulty understanding how Christians can be Democrats.
I started out a Democrat (growing up at Mom's), but later in life, my Dad 'opened' my eyes and mind and invited me (through good questions and sharing his opinions and rationale) to think critically. It's embarrassing now to think of how I thought as a young 'adult'!!
Dad taught me, and then let me, figure and make out some of the paychecks in his small business - so I could see all the deductions (from the employees) and see the real cost of wages, on the employer side too. Wow! I had no idea - how much it costs and how much was involved just to pay someone for doing something.
Then, we'd be watching the news on XYZ, and then he'd flip over the EFG, and we'd see the same story - but reported with a little different slant. Wow! I had no idea the same story could seem different!
Anyway, now, some 35 years later - I use my values. I value the individual (more than government) and liberty, and yet also society. If we don't have 'good fibers' (Christianity, etc) in society - well, the cloth just won't hold up well, or the government will end up 'helping' - and that's just not the best option.
Now, I'm QUITE conservative - and at times, yes, disappointed with Republicans. However, they are often the most 'conservative' choice going, and so I vote. I don't think I've ever missed a vote.
Liberty - E pluribus unum - In God We Trust (Those 'founding guys' were very wise!)
I'll start....I'm very liberal on most issues with exception to environmental regulations. I grew up in southwest virginia in Appalachian coal country. My grandparents, great grandparents and parents were/are involved in coal. The UMWA was very influential in shaping safer work environments for my family members. Coal is such an integral part of the economy in Appalachia and strict environmental regulations are detrimental to their employment. I consider myself very much a labor democrat.
What shapes your beliefs?
My change from very liberal to conservative was caused by the number of, as I saw them, socialists by the Democrat party. They nominated an admitted socialist, George McGovern, for President in 1972 and haven't swerved very far from that one since then. Then I started to see that progressives have taken over the Democrat Party and just can't go back to something like that.
I was in college when the Iraq War was falling apart along with Bush's second term and somehow my friends at college in my home state of NC somehow were northern liberals so I became a hardcore Democrat.
I'll start....I'm very liberal on most issues with exception to environmental regulations. I grew up in southwest virginia in Appalachian coal country. My grandparents, great grandparents and parents were/are involved in coal. The UMWA was very influential in shaping safer work environments for my family members. Coal is such an integral part of the economy in Appalachia and strict environmental regulations are detrimental to their employment. I consider myself very much a labor democrat.
What shapes your beliefs?
One of the big things was growing up in the Reagan years. Things were booming then. Life was good. So the liberal attempts to bring him down didn't quite jibe with my experience. Gas prices were low, jobs were plentiful, interest rates were down, taxes were down, but all the liberals did was complain about how his policies weren't working when they obviously were working quite well.
One of the big things was my view that life should not be purposely taken outside of self defense or war. Because of that, I am and always have been pro-life. I respected the opinions of people who were pro choice but they didn't respect mine. If you weren't pro choice then you were demonized. It's the same way today. If you're pro life then liberals in general make it quite clear that you aren't welcome in their ranks. On the other hand, because of that I am also anti-death penalty but even though that is against the vast majority of conservative opinions, I never found them attacking me over it the way liberals did over abortion.
One of the big things was Clinton. First it was the way he campaigned against Bush on breaking his pledge not to raise taxes, when I knew full well the very same people bashing Bush for breaking that promise had made him do it themselves because the budget battles had been all over the news. He hadn't raised taxes, he'd agreed to their taxes because they controlled Congress and threatened to shut down the government if he didn't go along. Then after the election, I was shocked when he got a pass for the Monica Lewinsky situation. Liberals dragged Clarence Thomas through the mud for making sexual remarks to Anita Hill because he was in a position of authority over her. But when the President of the United States actually had sex with an intern, that was perfectly OK with liberals. The hypocrisy in both situations was just stunning.
So that made me into a staunch conservative for most of my early life. More recently, small government has become a big factor in shaping my opinions and I began disagreeing with neo-cons as much as I always disagreed with liberals. I now think of myself as a libertarian and looked into the Libertarians but found them somewhat too extreme for me. Supporting the Republicans is the only way to keep liberals out of office. Should the Constitution Party ever gain any real traction in the country, I might switch to them although their overtly religious stuff bothers me.
Obama and his backwards screwed up financial understanding ... now I am a republican!
Damn, I did it all wrong... when I was paying down debt according to Obama Economics I should have just robbed people and spent more money. And when I ran out do as Obama does, go out and rob people again.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
