Do you feel more liberal than ever before? What's your political journey?

[fujiyama]

I'm not what before is, but maybe, before the previous (s)election, or 9/11, or the war and its aftermath...

I realized I was a liberal during my freshman year of college, though ever since high school I disliked fundies and those trying to get prayer in schools, etc...I Remember the GOP pres primary where I first saw Bush and absolutely despised him ever since. Liked McCain and Bradley...but I later supported Gore wholeheartedly. Was devasted when he conceded.

9/11 was a terrible shock, and was extremely angry. I even gave Bush the benefit of the doubt for a few months after. What a mistake that was. I finally woke the hell up, when all their attention began focusing on Iraq...and I began getting freaked out about the PATRIOT Act and the loss of civil liberties. However, when the war broke out I realized it was a complete distraction from going after terrorism.

Ever since, I feel like I'm way to the left of the rest of society. Only DU makes me feel sorta normal (and in some respects I'm probably a moderate by this board's standards).

What's been your own journey? How long have you been a liberal/ progressive?

[JohnnyRingo]

1. I think I've stayed the same...

The radicals in office have shifted the viewpoint to the right.
......Waaaay to the right.

[durutti]

2. I've always been at least liberal.

Even before I knew what a liberal was. Lately, though, I've been having something of a crisis of faith.

[KG]

3. actually voted for reagan once.

when i was young and had a limited world view. once i got out into world and acquired some knowledge, experience amd maturity, i saw what was what, became a radical uber leftist.

[wyldwolf]

5. you do know that, among some on DU, you can't be trusted.

Voting for Reagan and all. :)

But had I been old enough, I would have probably done so myself. I was called a closet freeper for that admission during the Wes Clark dust ups last year.

Oh, well.

[wyldwolf]

4. Almost identical story here...

I was too young to vote for Reagan in high school but got caught up in the Reagan cowboy image (like a lot of kids have with Bush). By my Sr. year, though, I realized the GOP stood for nearly everthing I was against.

In college, a girlfriend tried to make me a young Republican. She didn't stay my girlfriend long (and the young Republicans probably would have kicked her out if the knew the stuff we did :evilgrin: )

Second year in college - wrote a scathing article for the college paper on a new organization on campus - the CSA (Christian Student Association) and was branded a "liberal" for the first time though I wasn't really "political" at that time.

Though I voted for Dukakis and really began to formulate my political views during Clinton's first run, I became really politically active during the Clinton impeachment and thereafter.

Today, I'm involved with a fast growing democratic group in my area, a post seat holder for my state party, and I'm waiting to see whether I should throw my hat into the ring for a city council or county commissioner's seat.

In reference to the last several lines of your post, DU makes me feel waaaaaay to the right sometimes but that is only because I know I'm a moderate and there is a somewhat small (in comparison) though very vocal further left population on DU.

[doni_georgia]

6. Think I was born liberal

Who I am was really shaped by what I saw growing up. I was a kid during Vietnam, and the images on the nighly news of senseless death and destruction, along with protestors trying to make a difference really molded who I am today. Also, the Civil Rights movement had a large impact on me. I actually remember Martin Luther King, Jr., although I was only 4 when he died. I remember seeing his funeral procession go past my house. Watergate also influenced who I would become. I remember in college when most of the people I was surrounded by were gungho Reaganites. I took a class that year - "War and Peace in the Nuclear Age" Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk was one of my professors. That class sealed it for me. A year or two later when the Iran Contra story broke, I knew I would never vote Republican - ever!

I mellowed out a bit during the Clinton years. I was busy doing the mom thing. Since 2001, I have come out of my complacency. I am probably MORE liberal now than I have ever been.

[Drifter]

7. I don't consider myself Liberal ...

Everyone I know thinks I'm a liberal (well, those that hate liberals). I don't really consider myself a conservative, but I do hold some conservative Ideals. I am definitely left leaning, and undoubtedly more so since Dim Son was annointed.

Cheers
Drifter

[ikojo]

8. I don't call myself a liberal because in MY mind

that word has a mushy meaning. I proudly call myself a leftist. Perhaps in the 1930s I'd be a liberal but not in the 21st century.

I grew up working class/lower middle class thanks to my parents divorce when I was six. I saw how my mom struggled and still never got ahead in Nixon's America and then Reagan's America. Now, as she approaches much deserved retirement at the age of 68, she is worrying about how she will pay for her medications in BUSH's America.

I am also a Cubs fan so I suspect that also has some bearing on my political leanings. I have always supported the underdog and is there any more of an underdog in baseball than the much beloved Cubbies?

My leanings have not changed since I was a teenager.

I knew the Republicans did not care about working people when I was six. They haven't changed in the ensuing decades. It shames me that the Dems have moved to the right but I work to change them from within.

GO KUCINICH!!!!!

[mike_c]

9. all my life (with occasional youthful lapses early on)....

I've always been a liberal. I find that as I get older I'm becoming more liberal-- perhaps that's the result of lifetime education. The more I learn about American history, the more I am appalled, and angry I at the crimes that have been committed in my name.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. You're not becoming more liberal...

...the ground beneath your feet keeps moving ever rightward.

[mike_c]

12. sad, but true....

I live and work in a very liberal community, so I'm always shocked by where the median line in American political sentiment actually lies.

[SarahB]

10. I've always been this way

A compassionate socialist in a country running on the machine of greed, selfishness, and fear.

[reprobate]

13. A republican in my youth, when republicans were really republicans

Until Kennedy, when I turned democrat. Then I saw the Democrat party move so far to the right that my politics could no longer really believe them.

Now I support the party because the world needs someone to replace bush. I see Kerry as the innoculation that the world needs.

Personally, I lean more towards the democratic socialists now myself.

[in_cog_ni_to]

14. Do I feel more liberal? No, but

I have never been more PROUD to be a Liberal and a Democrat than I do now. If I were a repuke, I would be so ashamed. How can they look themselves in the mirror?

[seabeyond]

15. i have never liked the word liberal

i live conservatively, adn more in thought with libeterian, in self rule areas. BUT.......i use the word liberal loudly all the time in the face anymore. and boldly look all right in the eyes. almost like a cuss word around here so i am a cussin everywhere. and you know though a tad embarrassment at first, nada now. i personally am not anymore liberal, but the word is an honor to say now

[ima_sinnic]

16. not a liberal, a radical

. . . and I have been that way since the 60s--I was 21 when I went to my first rally, the humongous Levitate the Pentagon in April 1967 and I continued to work against the Vietnam War until it finally ended. In the 80s I came out again against the atrocities in Central America. I have always hated selfishness, oppression, nationalism, and government lies and have NEVER voted for a Republican, not once in more than 30 years of voting. They have always been too conservative and me-first for my taste.