Your reason for becoming politically involved

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What was your motivation or basic reason for becoming active in politics some way, even if just putting a sign on your lawn or making a donation or attending a meeting or calling on a phone bank, or anything even including running for office? What was your initial motivation for switching from being just a spectator of it all to actually getting involved? Was it a single issue that meant a lot to you, or what?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. When I saw the witchhunt against Bill Clinton even before Newt Gingrich.

I was aware and concerned during the Reagan and Bush years, but I decided to become proactive during the Clinton years.

[RC]

15. Yes. When Whitewater came out a week or so after the election.

If there were anything to Whitewater, there was NO WAY they would have waited, it would have been ammunition during the election. That is what woke me up.

[ladym55]

2. It started with a local school levy campaign

We had to try three times ... second time went down by 27 votes. I wanted my kids' schools to be funded, so I worked on that campaign. This would have been the 1990s.

Flash forward to 2004 .... one term of Dubya had me sick at heart. My family's saying that it "didn't matter who was in power" and that "the little guy just survived" no longer held true. It DID matter ... big time. I started with the Kerry campaign in 2004 and have been active ever since.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Vietnam.

If I had been slightly older, it would have been the civil rights movement.

But it was Vietnam. That, and then the assassinations of MLK and RFK. But it was Vietnam, and the whole atmosphere of change about 1965.

[pnwmom]

11. Yes. nt

[socialist_n_TN]

18. That's me. I came to the conclusion..........

that my own government was trying to kill me. That changed EVERYTHING I thought I knew about this country.

[Dawson Leery]

4. The theft of the 2000 election.

[Initech]

22. Yup. Same here.

Not only was that the worst SCOTUS decision ever - it gave us two terms of the worst president ever and a blank check to do whatever the fuck he wanted. And we got endless war, No Child Left Behind, tax cuts for rich people, and the tea party.

[loyalsister]

5. A friend ran for office

I worked on her campaign. I developed strong social ties with other politically active people in the community. My intellectual interest expanded and it just became a part of my everyday life and social world.

[lpbk2713]

6. The Y2K Florida selection.

And the subsequent pillaging and plundering committed by the corrupt and evil BushCo Regime.

[Dawson Leery]

7. After the "Supreme" Court handed the election to Bush,

most of the people I knew believed that Bush's tenure would be a repeat of Reagan's corrupt tenure. It was a hundred times (if not more) worse than Ronnie's reign.

[johnnie]

8. When I was 7 or so and saw Wallace getting shot

I wondered why anyone would want to shoot anyone. I remember Watergate and I was about 9 or 10 and was fascinated by what was going on. As years went on I realized that the whole fucking thing is a scam and we have no say so as to who gets where and who does what. It's still cute to see people thinking they have a say so, but no...it doesn't work that way.

[Drale]

9. Before the 08 election

I was stuck in a waiting room for and hour and a half with only Fox news on the TV. It was at that point that I said these people are completely insane and I should probably learn about the other side. Before this I really could not careless about politics.

[pnwmom]

10. The Vietnam war. And various people at my Catholic school who were active in politics,

including one who had a relative in Congress.

[Speck Tater]

12. My natural weakness for hopeless causes.

Of course I can't change anything. I know better than to believe that anything I do will make a difference.

And yet... I keep right on trying.

Owa Tagu Siam. Owa Tagu Siam. Owa Tagu Siam.

[jwirr]

25. We call the the social worker syndrome in our family.

[Raine]

13. My parents were always into politics so I can't remember a time when I wasn't involved. My mother

always involved in the elections, working at the headquarters, GOTV etc. One time my mother ran the headquarters for the candidate that was running for Governor here in CA. My extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) were always interested in politics too. Ironically it was all on the republican side that is until Raygun took over the party in the 1970's. After that my moderate repug family became Democratic and went to work for them.

[pinto]

14. Politics was standard dinner table talk. JFK. LBJ. A belief that good government makes a difference.

And the underlying message to it all - it takes active public participation, not simply observation. Civic duty...

[Ikonoklast]

19. That was my house, too.

Politics is like Mother's Mlik in my family; Roman Catholic Irish-American Fenians, pro-Labor and Democrats from birth.

I'll never forget my Dad breaking down in tears that awful day in November.

[MoreGOPoop]

16. 1960

Watching the election returns with my Democratic parents. At the ripe old age of 5 I learned that Nixon was a Dick and that our President MUST be a GOOD person. RIP JFK...

[CTyankee]

17. Vietnam War. I had a little son. I was scared to death the war would last long enough

to take him.

A great motivator!

[Fumesucker]

20. My grandchildren..

I would like for them to have a decent world to grow up in and evidently very few other people I know care about it even enough to pay attention to what's going on.

[MrSlayer]

21. When I realized everything I was taught about politics was wrong.

I was taught that Democrats were for Black people and Republicans were for White people. That's the way my neighborhood was. I voted for Poppy Bush twice before I realized that these people were against just about everything I believed in personally. I was in a union and voting for Republicans when I found out they hated unions. I had black friends and they seemed to hate black people. I had destitute friends and found out they weren't interested in helping them. I just had my first kid and found out they wanted to get rid of public education. And so on and so forth.

What happened was that I got educated.

Democrats are or are supposed to be for the working class, Republicans are only for rich people.

[Blue_In_AK]

23. Events of the '60s

The assassinations, civil rights, the war -- just about everything that was going on back then in my late teens and early 20s.

[jwirr]

24. I was raised in a family that never failed to vote and talked together about politics. When I became

an adult I was not by any means rich, not even middle class. If I wanted to change anything I could see that I was going to have to work on it myself. Then came the Vietnam War and I really started lobbying for the things I want done. Still poor and still lobbying when I can.

[handmade34]

26. 'Vietnam'

'Silent Spring' the environment
Women's rights (abortion)
'Small is Beautiful' economic justice

[w8liftinglady]

27. My son and Iraq....

and the eye opening I got from 2002 on.
The screwing my son and his fellows soldiers/veterans got from the Bush Administration.
The tax cuts and health care cuts that happened while my kid thought he'd enlisted for all the right reasons after 09/11.
I've been a die-hard political activist ever since.

[Swede]

28. I cannot remember an actual event or moment.

It was a gradual awakening.

[Jamaal510]

29. This is my reason for getting politically involved:

[IMG][/IMG]
Even though I wasn't old enough to vote during the * presidency, I saw how he got us into two wars, ran up unemployment and eliminated the surplus, cut programs, and utterly embarrassed the country worldwide. And I'm frustrated with how our Congress has refused to let the president get much done. Since '08 when I became of voting age, I have been interested in learning which political ideologies and politicians best suit my interests, and how I can help the country avoid a repeat of the * years from 2000-2008.

[spiderpig]

30. Initially Vietnam, protesting as a college student

Back in the 60s.

Then Nixon and Reagan.

Don't get me started on the Bushes.

I've hauled my lazy butt out to protest - not only locally but DC (other coast) and London.

I've voted every election since I was legal. I call/write my senators and representatives. I've volunteered for call banks.

So when people ask "What are you doing about it?" I just say "See above".

[JI7]

31. anger , hate, so many things

[U4ikLefty]

32. acid.

[MichaelMcGuire]

33. At the time we were a people without a parliament, and continue to be a stateless nation. (nt)