Did your political views change after your college years? (McCain, enemy, regular)

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by Happiness-is-close

Went in a liberal, came out a liberal, remain a liberal to this day. The definition of "conservative" will have to change before I probably will.

LOL..

Originally Posted by charolastra00

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.

Great story.

It reminds me that Conservatives love to say that "a Conservative is a former Liberal who got robbed" or some crap like that.

But more often than not, the truth is really that "a Conservative is a person who hasn't faced any calamities up to now."

I've seen friend after friend face some serious health, job or financial issues and it's amazing how liberal they become all of a sudden when they need some help.

[MIKEETC]

Originally Posted by sandsthetime

Colleges often get blamed as enforcing liberal views on their students. However, when you finally graduated college, did your political views remain the same or change as you entered the real world?

Did you become more liberal or less liberal? More conservative or less conservative?

I didn't think about politics while I was in college and didn't have any strong political views. When I finished college and entered "the real world," I realized why.

[politics is a joke]

[RCCCB]

Originally Posted by Mach50

I was in the Navy right after college, and voted strictly republican during the 90s.

I'm far more liberal today after seeing the ignorance and deceit of the Bush era. After those 2, I doubt I will ever vote Republican again.

I used to be a Democrat than saw the criminality and became conservative.

[ambient]

Yes, they became less conservative when I realized that the world is not so black and white as simple-minded people would have you believe. Education will do that to you.

[Hemlock140]

The first paycheck from the first "real job" out of college has changed many a graduate's political views, at least a little, when they see how much is taken out in taxes.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

The first paycheck from the first "real job" out of college has changed many a graduate's political views, at least a little, when they see how much is taken out in taxes.

Yeah...when they quickly forget all those government back loans and grants that helped them to get through college in the first place. Not to mention all of those federal research grants and taxpayer money being used to support these schools on top of everything else.

[Ringo1]

Originally Posted by ambient

Yes, they became less conservative when I realized that the world is not so black and white as simple-minded people would have you believe. Education will do that to you.

I guess that's what I learned to see the shades of grey in everything and not to use black and white thinking. A few philosophy and ethics courses will tend to do that.

Bottom line, it probably only cemented my liberal leanings. My parents were Republicans; nothing like today's Republicans though.

[crone]

Was a Barry Goldwater conservative throughout school and shortly after. the current crop of Republicans would not allow him in their party. No party would have me either. I came from a long line of anti slavery people who strongly supported the Civil rights movement and equal rights for everybody. But am also a rabid states righter. And I support single payer health care. Get rid of the insurance companies forever. Nobody should be making a profit off of another person living or dying. Does that make me a socialist?

I'll vote for Sanders or John Kasich.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by Ringo1

I guess that's what I learned to see the shades of grey in everything and not to use black and white thinking. A few philosophy and ethics courses will tend to do that.

Bottom line, it probably only cemented my liberal leanings. My parents were Republicans; nothing like today's Republicans though.

Philosophy classes most DEFINITELY cemented things in my mind that prevent me from ever considering being a conservative.

When my professor gave me a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique, that pretty much destroyed any chance that i'd ever be conservative. To this day, it's still the biggest influence on my thinking after the Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Originally Posted by crone

Was a Barry Goldwater conservative throughout school and shortly after. the current crop of Republicans would not allow him in their party. No party would have me either. I came from a long line of anti slavery people who strongly supported the Civil rights movement and equal rights for everybody. But am also a rabid states righter. And I support single payer health care. Get rid of the insurance companies forever. Nobody should be making a profit off of another person living or dying. Does that make me a socialist?

I'll vote for Sanders or John Kasich.

I like the idea of State's Rights...but as an African American, it just has a trail of blood and misery that's too long for me to swallow it as a political philosoply in any real way.

[dsjj251]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

The first paycheck from the first "real job" out of college has changed many a graduate's political views, at least a little, when they see how much is taken out in taxes.

The amount of federal tax dollars taken out of your pay check should in no way change your ideology since that number rarely changes from Administration to Administration, Democrat or Republican.