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I lean towards the left but try to take a balanced position on political and social issues so cannot think of any issue where I have done a "180 degree turn." My views on religion, women's rights, etc. are my strongest and have not changed over the years although I have become a little more conservative on some others.
There was an interesting study from the Pew Research Center that I read today (I don't think it was posted in this forum). The political party that your age group is more likely to vote for is correlated to the President in office at the time you were 18 years old. Those 90+ today who were 18 when Roosevelt was in office were more likely to vote Democrat from 1994-2012 and the other results were:
Truman (age 83-89 today) - Republican (except in 2000 and 2006)
Eisenhower (age 75-82 or silent generation) - Republican
Kennedy/Johnson (age 67-74 or older boomers) - Republican since 2000 and previously Democrat
Nixon (age 61-66 or middle boomers) - Democrat (the opposite of Nixon's party)
Ford/Carter (age 55-60 or late boomers) - Republican
Reagan/Bush (age 43-54 or Gen X) - Republican
While the party you vote for is not necessarily indicative of your stand on specific social issues or how much those stands have changed over the years, I assume there is some correlation with political issues. I thought it was very interesting how the different age cohorts of the baby boomers varied. And with the exception of the Kennedy/Johnson cohort, most did not change their political party preference as they aged during that 18 year interval.
I thought Jimmy Carter is a Democrat. He still helps the "less than". j
Yes Carter is a Democrat, but the age cohort that turned 18 during the Ford/Carter terms are more likely to vote Republican. Just as my age cohort turned 18 during Nixon's term, a Republican, and have since been more likely to vote Democrat. It is just a statistical study that suggests that our political positions may be influenced by our experiences in our youth and our peers and can vary from those just a few years older or younger than ourselves. But then there are three kinds of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Yes Carter is a Democrat, but the age cohort that turned 18 during the Ford/Carter terms are more likely to vote Republican. Just as my age cohort turned 18 during Nixon's term, a Republican, and have since been more likely to vote Democrat. It is just a statistical study that suggests that our political positions may be influenced by our experiences in our youth and our peers and can vary from those just a few years older or younger than ourselves. But then there are three kinds of lies - lies, damn lies, and statistics.
I was always a bleeding heart liberal, atheist and pro-abortion. I marched in Berkeley against the Vietnam war as a teenager. I'm a middle boomer (Nixon Era). I met my husband 23 years ago and he is the exact opposite. With him I started listening to Rush Limbaugh and Dennis Prager. I have turned around, maybe not a full 180 but nearly there on all these issues. As Dennis Prager has said the left are really nice people....they're just wrong. I have changed my party affiliation to Republican. I don't go to church or read the bible but I'm wavering on whether or not God exists. And I now oppose abortion but in certain extenuating circumstances I'm ok with it. Just not because someone just doesn't want to have a kid.
All my life I have been very apolitical, I couldn't have cared less about who was in office because it really didn't affect me one way or another. Then along came Donald Trump and it all changed. I found I had to add my voice to those who are against him because a lot of people are going to be adversely affected if he is able to do the things he wants.
So, now I am very interested in politics and listen to every NPR show and every news broadcast I can to learn as much as I can. That is my 180.
One of my jobs when I was working was data collection. And a frequent question I asked people was "How religious are you?" Multiple choice answers were- "very", "somewhat", "not at all", "somewhat against", "very much against".
All the years I asked this question, only one person answered "very much against". At that time, this person's answer started me thinking- How much destruction has been perpetrated over the years in the name of religion?
So my 180 degree turn was to actually be against religion, because of the ways it intrinsically divides us. (this is not to say I don't believe in a higher power) The golden rule is adequate for me and it does not divide us in any way that I can see.
Please don't start on me. Of course (since I follow the golden rule) I respect others' beliefs and others' religious choices. I actually am in awe (at least a little) of true faith. I also recognize that good has occurred in the world at least in part because of religion.
I can still remember thinking, when the person answered "very much against"- Wow, who would be against religion? It was an eye opener for me.
I haven't changed much, raised in a union town, graduated a "liberal" university, I've always been liberal. However since I have moved around I have been perceived differently depending on where I lived.
In San Francisco I was considered a moderate Democrat.
When I went home to Wisconsin I was considered a Progressive
Now that I live in the South I'm considered the illegitimate sister of Michael Moore.
For the original question, about the only thing I've changed my views on is legalization. It's a law that just isn't going to work. So instead of criminalizing use, criminalize results -- IE DUI, crimes committed under the influence, etc. Basically I don't care how high you get so long as you stay in your house and don't get in the car, come to work, so forth where you could hurt someone else.
Race has never been an issue for me. Neither have gay rights. Because I don't care who you are sleeping with. I'm not going to criticize you, nor am I going to tell you how wonderful you are. You do you man.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron61
I've been a Conservative all of my life, now even more so. If anything has changed with me it would be that I rarely align myself with Republicans,who IMO are not Conservatives by a long shot. I am, it would seem, a man without a party and I am OK with that.
You're not the only one. I consider myself a Conservative as well, but it seems the Republican party has been taken over by mostly Libertarians pretending to be Conservatives who call everyone that's a true Republican Conservative a RINO. They called Teddy Roosevelt a RINO. Heck of Ronald Reagan rose from the grave, they'd call him a RINO. To me it's very sad to see what has happened to the Republicans. I'm not a socialist so I can't vote for a left wing Democrat. And I'm not a Libertarian, so I can't vote for a TEA party anarchist. I don't mind being a man without a party, but hate going to an election and finding no one running who represents or even cares about my views.
Quote:
Originally Posted by timppa
I'm not joking, although admittedly I was using some hyperbole. In arts and letters, humanities and social sciences, the prevailing winds lean very Left. I'm somewhere in the moderate middle, yet even that didn't seem to please certain Professors. When I tried to look at the world through a Marxist lens as they did, earned A's and had a 4.0 GPA in my major. It really was a role, as all the world's a stage.
I experienced this as well, though not to that extent. Science and engineers seemed to be politically neutral. Humanities were much more openly socialists/communists. Esp one history prof whose whole Western Civ course was used to build up justification for communism. All the events and facts, all the assigned reading was to build the case. If you made all the links and came to the proper conclusion, you did well in the class. If you didn't come to that conclusion, well, grading gulag for you comrade.
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