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I had civics and history teachers in high school who were conservative Republicans (and frequently voiced anti-welfare, anti-government handout views that could be construed as racist today). I never gave any thought to politics myself until my business college years...when I had an accounting instructor with identical views as the above, who rabidly hated Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter and wasn't shy about bringing it up in class if possible. If you weren't registered to vote, he ragged you to get out there and do it. You had better know the names of your representatives, too, and where they stood on the issues. He got me to thinking about how the country was weakened (the hostage crisis occurred right about this time), and a couple of years later I voted in my first Presidential election, for Ronald Reagan. I remember sitting on the sofa with my dad watching the first State of the Union speech and being excited about this new President...and about being a young grown up in what we hoped would be a stronger America. My views haven't changed since.
That accounting instructor sadly passed away in 2004...long before Barry was in the picture. I often wonder what he would have thought of him?
I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer a few months after graduating from college. Subsequently experiencing the American healthcare system as a 23 year old who had done "everything right" (earned a full tuition scholarship to college so no debt, significant savings, moved for a job with benefits in the midst of a recession, practical job skills) and witnessing what those who weren't so fortunate experienced made me FAR more liberal. Prior to my diagnosis, I was sympathetic to those suffering in the US but on some level believed that it happened to most of them because they did not plan well and did not sacrifice - or at least, did not do so as much as I did.
Boy, was I wrong.
My tune changed when in 6 months, my out of pocket medical expenses were more than my entire first year's take home salary. And there was absolutely zero help from charities or the government to be found. I quickly found myself working full time against doctor's orders, having a 2nd full time job fighting with my insurance company, and spending many weekend mornings contemplating if I would live to see 25 while standing in line at food pantries and talking to the people who also found themselves in that position - many sharing similar stories to my own. I'm 4 years in remission and am still repairing my credit and dealing with the financial ramifications of my illness, despite 4 years of promotions and salary increases. I will deal with the health side-effects for the rest of my life because I overdid it and was not able to take needed Rxs during treatment.
Meanwhile, people diagnosed with my same cancer in the UK and Canada received better treatment - including a standard chemotherapy that my insurance company denied coverage for.
If I could do everything right and still fear homelessness and be unable to afford my medications due to the misfortune of illness, what about people who did goof up? Or people who were not so lucky to have been born with above average intelligence?
I had planned on going to law school, but the economic crash stopped that. It gives me cold chills to think if I had been diagnosed during my first year of law school. And it wakes me up in a cold sweat to think if I had been diagnosed 5 months earlier when I was uninsured and deemed "uninsurable" at 22 years old due to a few seemingly minor preexisting conditions.
I was a moderate until I picked up the book "Free to Choose" as part of an assignment comparing Keynesian versus neoclassical economics. Been a libertarian ever since.
When i was in college I was far left wing liberal, I thought everybody deserved a paid education, paid retirement, paid medical and then got a paycheck big enough to have a house two cars and a boat.
Then i found out they wanted me to pay for all that for my neighbor too. I ended up conservative fast,
they say in your twenties you liberal once you grow up you become conservative
An oft repeated fallacy. The opposite is actually true.
Nope. Much of my worldview has been shaped by going to ghetto schools, and having a lot of section 8 housing moved into my neighborhood when I was about college aged. That made me pretty damned conservative. Which I shall remain.
I went from caring about politics to only looking out for myself. Whatever you can get away with, do it.
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