at what age did you first do something that's considered political

[Devra]

My first was when I saw President Clinton speak while he was running in the democratic primaries in 1992.

In 1996 grade I met Joe Bidden and got he joined our class picture and autographed it. I still have it on my wall.
and I saw Senator Kerry speak when he was running in the democratic primaries in 2004. (well I kinda saw him, It was crowded and I was near the back. the people around me were saying things like: "I see his hair", or "I think I see his hand". I still heard him though)

any one else

[nini]

1. 11... I helped out at the local Bobby Kennedy headquarters

I was devastated when he was killed still am actually.

That was quite the indoctrination into politics.

[hfojvt]

31. aha, I was only 6

when he visited my hometown. I only remember waiting at the airport with a large crowd, not actually seeing him, plus I do not remember hearing that he was killed, probably not until 1976 when Teddy was running against Carter.
My hometown is Huron, SD where there was a Humphrey drug, owned by HHH's father, and just fifty miles north of Mitchell, home of George McGovern. I remember seeing alot of McGovern signs on the way home from school in 1972. So, like a ten year old, that made me pro-McGovern. Then I saw him on TV saying that the space program was a waste of money. The space program was my sacred cow, so I switched to Nixon on the spot.

[nini]

2. You gave the year... but how old were you?

[Devra]

5. well let me think

I was in first grade, so I was 6.

[nini]

9. btw: belated welcome to DU

I'm sure you'll never forget seeing Clinton speak. I wish I could have.

[WCGreen]

3. I played HHH in the elections at our grade school...

Then, I marched in the very first earth day march ... I even made the front page of the local news...

[ghostsofgiants]

24. Played HHH?

You mean you married the boss' daughter and used that to thrust yourself into a position of great influence and basically get your way whenever you wanted?

</bad wrestling joke>

[WildEyedLiberal]

30. I'm ASHAMED that I got that joke

[no name no slogan]

4. 15 -- wrote for a student political newspaper

big stories were about the covert war in Nicaragua and apartheid. This was in 1984-85. We put the paper together ourselves and distributed it at school-- much to the chagrin of our right-wing principal who tried to stop us.

[trackfan]

6. I saw Jimmy Carter at Pershing Square, Los Angeles

a day or two before the 1976 election.

[WCGreen]

39. I was at the Carter Reagen Debate in 1980...

It was here in Cleveland.....

[Left_Winger]

7. I saw Jimmy Carter during the 1976 campaign

However, my father did put a "Vote Republican" sticker in by bedroom window in 1964. Please forgive me, I was very young and did not really know what it meant except that it really pissed off my maternal grandfather.

[Left Is Write]

8. At age 10, I voted for Jimmy Carter in our school's mock election.

[ZombieNixon]

10. I voted for Clinton at age 5 in my KG's mock election.

My best friend voted for Poppy. I was pissed. He's come around now, though.

[Left Is Write]

11. I voted for Clinton for real, twice.

And I'd do it again.

[Devra]

12. so would I

Well actually I do it for the first time, but still.

I haven't lived through that many presidencies but he was the best president durring my life time. And the only Democrat come to think of it.

[Left_Winger]

13. So did I

and would so again.

[Rising Phoenix]

14. 15 - I participated in a walk-out, because why not

[livetohike]

15. 8 years old in 1960 and earned 25 cents from my Dad to

pass leaflets for JFK in our neighborhood. I worked from the street list (my Dad was a Dem. committee man).

[GalleryGod]

26. JFK balloons...passed 'em out at a rally!

first time i met Teddy was that afternoon-he thanked me!

[livetohike]

47. What a nice memory!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

16. 19

take back the night rally

[Shell Beau]

17. I voted when I turned 18.

But I wasn't political then. I didn't turn on to politics until 9/11. That is when I realized how important it was. I was 23.

[ghostsofgiants]

28. 9/11 was waht got me truly interested in politics as well...

Though I was 16 when that happened. I had been developing somewhat of a political identity, but 9/11 was what convinced me to get as involved as I am in politics.

[Shell Beau]

48. I think that it definitely opened a lot of people's eyes.

I didn't so much hate Bush at that time. I was too busy mourning. And I thought he was doing an okay job if I am being honest. But when we went to Iraq, that is when I became pissed. And everything was put into perspective.

[ghostsofgiants]

63. I've always disliked him...

I just didn't have a full understanding as to how bad he actually was. After 9/11, when I would see him on CNN talking about how terrorists hated the US because of its freedoms and whatnot, that seemed far too simplistic to me. So I started reading up on foreignpolicy and whatnot, and came to realize that saying they hate freedom and bombing the shit out of them and their families isn't what's going to stop them. That knowledge just dragged me in from there, and here I am, four years later, studying political science and spending most of my free time on political websites, haha.

[Devra]

69. I stated hating Bush before he was elected

He didn't seem qualified, and it annoyed me that the people who liked him liked him because he was "just like them" I don't want a president that as good as me (I like to think he isn't. but I wouldn't go as far as to say that I am quallified to be president either) I want my president to be BETTER THAN ME!!!

04 was my first election (to vote in) and I watched/ read all I could about the two candidates. I even watched the battle of the bling on VH1!!!

I was dissipointed to learn that most people don't watch the debates enven in the enlightened so called liberal college atmosphere.

[ghostsofgiants]

70. See, I'd differ slightly there...

I don't consider presidents or leaders "better than" people. Nor should they be. The important thing is that they have the intellectual and humanistic capacity to lead and make decisions to benefit the people. To me, that's what Americans should look for in a president. Assuming they're better raises them onto a pedestal and enables them to opress more easily. If they're viewed as "better" people would be less likely to question their actions (though the questioning of Bush's actions have been somewhat suppressed) when those actions aren't in the interests of the people.

The ironic thing is that people assume Bush is "just like them", when he's clearly not. He comes from money and he's subservient to money. He said it himself, "some people call you the elite; I call you my base." His interests aren't in what's good for the people, his interests are in what's good for his business buddies.

That's probably not the most coherent thng I've ever written, but I'm tired, so cut me some slack, haha.

[Devra]

72. mabye I should have been more clear

I didn't mean it in a moralistic way.
I think the president should know more about forign relations than I do.
I think the president should know more about domestic policy than I do
I think that the president should know more about the government than I do. ie. "Al Gore talks about social security like it's some kind of goverment program" social security IS a government program.

I also think that the president should care about the people and what they want and need. I think he (or she) should care enough to learn about these things
I think that the president should be honest.
I think that the president should explain what his plans are, with out being deceptive.
I think that the president should be willing to addmit mistakes, when he makes them.

All in all I think that the President should be more Qualified than I am (at this time any way).

[ghostsofgiants]

73. Okay, now I would agree...

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Nikia]

18. It depends what you consider political

I am 27 years old now.
I voted for Dukakis in 1988 on Nickolodean's kid's call in your vote (forget what it wasreally called).
Around the same time, I saw the Ohio governor, Richard Celeste speak at the state fair.
I didn't see a presidential candidate speak until I saw Kerry speak last year.
I tagged along to some county Democratic women events with my grandmother when I was very young. When we went to the county fair, we always associted with local political people. Some of the local political people came over to my grandparent's house where they held spirited politcal conversations.
My other grandparents were Republicans and the Republican county sheriff, an elected position, went to their church. They also lived next door to a city councilman.
Both my grandmother's were on the county central committees of their respective parties.
I voted in the very first election that I could, which was a primary election.

[tjwash]

19. As a 20 something. I voted against Nixon

nt

[skygazer]

20. Kindergarten rebellion

It was 1966. First day of kindergarten. They had those little plastic chairs that come in the pastel colors and they had blue chairs and pink chairs. And the teacher told us that the boys sat in the blue and the girls sat in the pink and everyone dutifully sat down in the correct chairs except me.

I hate pink. Always have.

So I sat in a blue chair. And the teacher came over and said sweetly, "Now, Skygazer, girls sit in the pink chairs." I was scared right to death. I was a shy kid anyway, knew no one in the class and here I was defying the teacher on the first day! But I hate pink.

So I gripped the chair tightly with both hands and burst into tears. The teacher tried to get me out of it for a few more minutes, then gave up and called my mom.

My poor mom, who'd finally gotten the last of her six kids out of the house and was probably home with a stiff drink, had to drive to the school to find out what the "emergency" was only to be told that I wouldn't sit in a pink chair.

She said, "Why can't she sit in a blue one?" (Thanks, Mom. )

And after that everyone sat wherever they wanted to.

[Devra]

52. way to go

what kind of anal teacher did you have anyway?

[RebelOne]

21. When I voted for JFK.

[Devra]

74. which one?

just kidding
I did vote for Kerry though. He's a JFK too

[Shine]

22. I vividly remember watching Nixon resign when I was 10 yrs old.

I didn't really DO anything, besides watch TV that is, but it clearly stands out for me as my first REAL political memory.

I knew I was witnessing an historic event.

[grannylib]

27. I listened to his resignation speech from summer camp at age 14; whole

bunch of us were at Concordia Language Village summer camp (doing a year's worth of HS Spanish in a month, yikes) and we all skipped out on a "required" program on Spanish culture to hide out in one of the cabins to listen to the speech.
It was the first time I felt part of a group of people who were interested and involved on their own, and looking back I am really proud of our whole group, ranging in age from 14-18, who were interested enough and thought it worth the risk of disciplinary action by "La Senora" (camp director) to listen to that little chunk of history while it was happening.

[Devra]

53. that's ok

mine consisted of sitting on my dad's sholders and listening to Clinton for two hours. So it was pretty much the same. The only difference was where we sat.

[ghostsofgiants]

23. My first foray into political activity...

I was in grade 5, so I was 10 or 11 years old at the time. The provincial government wanted to make all public schools amalgamate, so there would be no more public schools devoted to a particular religion or denomination. I went to a Pentecostal school. The parents and teachers organized protests and whatnot. At that time I didn't know anything about politics, all I knew was I liked my school and didn't want it shut down. It's kind of ironic to think about, at that time I thought the Conservatives were great, because they wanted to save my school. Once I got into middle school/junior high I realized that this amalgamation really was a good move and then I began developing my own political identity, which resulted in a drastic shift to the left.

[grannylib]

25. At 3 I was at the "I have a Dream" speech by MLK Jr, my parents took

me; from then on, they hauled me to anti-war marches, sit-ins, building occupations on college campuses, civil-rights marches, all kinds of stuff. My dad was a Lutheran pastor, and every political activity in which they got involved was in the context of Christian community: we are doing this because we are believers, and many of the people we met or were with on these adventures were also Christian. My faith and my politics are inextricably linked. My childhood is the main reason I am politically active now, and why I can't help but think of Republicanism and Christianity as mutually exclusive.

[Devra]

54. that's so cool

I didn't do anything like that when I was three.
There weren't as many protests or any thing. Other than the fall of the berlin wall not much happened that year.
(I am not that clear on the time period to be honest. At the time I wasn't aware of politics, and we never got that far in history class to study it. Useually we barely get to Vietnam.)

[yellowdogintexas]

29. at age 12, I made a scrapbook of JFK stuff and got pins from

his campaign headquarters

Cast my first vote at age 18 in a local primary. My candidate won, he was an old family friend running for Circuit Court Judge. Many years later, he officiated at our wedding.

[wildeyed]

32. Protested apartheid outside the South African embassy

I was maybe 14 or 15.

[DrZeeLit]

33. 8 yrs old campaigned for JFK at my school election and then

at 16, I did "walk a mile for Kennedy," and volunteered.
When he was murdered, I told my mom that I was moving to Tahiti.
I was beyond upset.
But then I went to college and worked on the very first moratorium and have really never stopped.

yada yada yada... I could go on...

[slybacon9]

80. Turning to my mother for this answer...

as i was probably with you and too young to remember. We did a Mothers against nukes or something when i was like 6?...

I remember cuz i got stung by a bee on the top of my head...

[JanMichael]

34. My great grandmother was good friends with Sam Ervin

He lived across the street at the time; had a mean dog.

Watergate got on my last nerves....the TV would show it instead of Scooby Doo.

I thought it was crap; didn't have a clue how important it was, or what type of conversations I was listening to for years.

Stephanie

[GrpCaptMandrake]

35. 1976

Seventh Grade. I debated in favor of Jimmy Carter against a kid who was for Ford.

Didn't like Repiglicans then, don't like 'em now.

Also put flaming bags of cow manure at the entrance to KKK HQ in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Is that political or just juvenile delinquency?

[Texasgal]

36. In 5th grade

I refused to put my hand over my heart for the pledge of allegiance. My uncle had just parished in the Vietnam war weeks earlier and that memory had burned into my brain.

They called my parents, my mother showed up to school and explained that it "wasn't required" for me to put my hand over my heart for the pledge.

*sigh* Mom used be be so cool.... the repuke agenda has since gotten to her.

[Devra]

55. ya know it's funny

when I was in highscool bearely anyone said the pledge. They ususally just stand (out of respect or whatever). I don't know if my school is reparsenitive of the rest of the country but if it is. It seems that the fight to keep the words "under god" from the right is kind of futal.

In elementry school it's different because most kids will do what the teacher does. Espeshally when they don't yet understand the reason not to.

My mom taught 3rd grade (she is teaching 2nd grade this year) and she once had a principal who after reciting the pledge in the morning. would say "have a nice day".

The kids assumed that it was part of the pledge and started reciting it with him.

"... with liberty and justice for all. Have a nice day"

[Ellen Forradalom]

37. At age 9 I volunteered for the McGovern campaign

I walked up to local HQ after school, poured myself some coffee, added some non dairy creamer, and addressed and stuffed envelopes. My parents doubled my allowance for the duration of the campaign.

I wonder to this day about the people who received campaign literature addressed in an obviously childish hand.

[Arkana]

38. 6th grade, so age 11.

I defended Ted Kennedy to my friend, whose parents were (and still) Pubes to the end. Romney was running for Senate against him.

[cwydro]

40. OK don't hate me

but you can laugh hysterically...I wore a Nixon button in '68...course I was WAY too young to vote. I still have the button.

[SarahB]

41. Actively? Amnesty International letter campaigns at 15 probably.

I don't count my unfortunate experience of hearing Gerald Ford speak as an active President when I was 4. My parents were Democrats, but he spoke at my uncle's college graduation and I had the honor (? ) to get to hear it. (Very vague memory there.)

Although, legend has it I pooped on a state senator's sofa as an infant. That might be considered a political statement.

[Devra]

56. which senator?

[SarahB]

67. A state senator back in the 70's.

Not a US senator or anything. His name was Vard Johnson.

[samplegirl]

42. campaigned for local govt. at age eighteen

[RFKHumphreyObama]

43. I became interested in politics at a very young age

I first became interested in politics because, in the country where we resided during my first ten years, we had Fillipino servants who kept telling me what an evil man Mr Marcos was and how good Mrs Aquino was. In the late 1980s, I developed a profound and passionate interest in world politics (mainly due to things like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela and the Gulf War) and I watched the news every night and started reading adult biographies and autobiographies at the age of 8

I was a conservative early on in my life and I wrote to Ronald and Nancy Reagan telling them what wonderful people I thought they were and how much I had enjoyed Nancy Reagan’s memoirs. I was about 10 at the time ( and his office sent me back an autographed copy with a picture of him.

I remember supporting Clarence Thomas through his confirmation hearings with Anita Hill (what was I thinking) and of being a very strong supporter of the first Bush –I looked up to him as a father figure and even now, in retrospect, he was a much better President *II I admired what he was doing to bring peace to the Middle East and his negotiations with Gorbachev

Mind you, I became very enamoured with Clinton during his 1992 presidential election campaign and I remember being mesmerized by the inspiration, the hope and the passion in his voice and the wisdom of what he had to say. I can remember sitting up late at night watching the Frontline special on Clinton and Bush (it was screened late at night in my country). I remember tape recording the Election Night 1992 Coverage (it was morning in my country and I was at school if my memory serves me accurately) and returning home to watch Clinton being elected as President. I also remember watching all the news coverage of his election on the news that night and being so elated at his election. At the end-of-year school dance I remember happily gushing about how wonderful it was that Clinton had being elected to anyone who would listen.

I rapidly became disillusioned with Clinton due to a number of things –Somalia, Haitian refugees and a few other foreign policy issues. But then I remember following the coverage of the 1994 congressional elections from the newspapers in my country and absolutely detesting Newt Gingrich and also the anti-immigration agenda that Pete Wilson was pursuing. I also was impressed with the work Clinton was doing in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and the Middle East. I re-discovered my profound admiration and respect for him and this was only to intensify through the years as he allowed me to spend my teenage years in a world where peace and prosperity was the norm, where one could have hope and optimism for the future and where you could go to bed in the knowledge that there was a courageous and visionary President who had the best interests of the world at heart in the White House.

I miss those days

[Devra]

58. yeah so do I

Clinton was realy the first president I knew.
when Bush the elder was president the only thing I knew about him was that he was president, and that my dad didn't like him.
I was only alive for 2 of the regan years so I don't remeber a thing about him (Irronicly neither did he).

So the only presidents I have realy known anything about are Clinton and dubya.

Sometimes I wonder if I think dubya is so bad because Clinton was so much better or if I think Clinton was great because dubya is so much worse.

I miss haveing an Articluate President. I long for the day's where the only unbecoming behavior the president partook in was screwing an intern rather than screwing everyone.

Clinton could "feel your pain" he didn't add to it.

[rug]

44. I wrote to my draft board at age 17

and told them i was not going to register.

[Devra]

65. good for you

I would have done the same if I had to register.
Did you get away with it?

[rug]

77. I ended up fighting for CO status for a year

and then the draft lottery made it moot. #273.

While this was going on they kept trying to have me claim a student deferment which I declined. At the time they resisted giving a Catholic conscientious objector status.

Local Board 7, Times Square, NYC.

[wovenpaint]

45. Less than a minute

I was born-then started my first rant!

[Ptah]

46. Age 19

Went to Washington D.C. in the Spring of
1970. Nixon had city buses fortressed around the White House.

[arwalden]

49. I Wore My Dad's "Nixon Now" Button To School

...

[Ellen Forradalom]

60. I was one of two kids for McGovern

in my 4th grade class. The other was my best friend. All the rest for Nixon. A highly accurate reflection of the electoral vote.

[SCDem]

50. 7th grade Dukakis v Bush Debate

I chose to debate in favor of Dukakis and unlike Dukakis I did win our class debate

First Gulf war I protested with fellow protestors in neighborhood.

Now I am uber-involved!!

[indigo32]

51. At 10

I voted for Carter in a mock election at School.
But I really got turned onto it in my civics class as a Senior in HS. I brought my mom to our precinct caucus, she'd never done it before, and I got voted on as a representative to our District Caucus. Boy was that an eye opener. The pro-lifers were invading and I joined the opposition sub-caucus (we won that one BTW). That summer I volunteered for and shook hands with Michael Dukakis.

[El Fuego]

57. Going to a Clinton rally in 1991

Since then, there have been many, many events! I live in South Florida, and the Democratic candidates usually spend a lot of time here.

[1gobluedem]

59. I was ringing doorbells for Eugene McCarthy at age 8

And my mother would pay my friends and me to lick envelopes; a dime for every 10 envelopes. The pitcher of Funny Face came in handy!

[sufrommich]

61. When I was 12(1970)

I wrote a letter to Nixon asking him to stop the war.It was a social studies assignment to write a letter to a politician about anything you choose.Most of us wrote stop the war letters.I think our country has swung so far to the right that a teacher today would probably think twice about such an assignment.

[LaraMN]

62. Rally for Walter Mondale-- I must have been about 6.

My littlest guy's first experience was at age 14 months-- John Kerry rubbed his head at a local rally.

[Devra]

64. that's cool

I didn't get a verry good look at Kerry when he came to Delaware. I wish I could've seen Clinton and Kerry when they came to Philidelphia but. I didn't find out about it till after it happend.

[Dastard Stepchild]

66. 12 years old...

My school held mock elections, and I was the only one to "vote' for Dukakis in the upper classes. In DuPage County, that took some chutzpah.

[miss_kitty]

68. Age 5 or 6

I boycotted Sugar Babies and Sugar Daddys, because Robert Welch was in charge of the John Birch Society

[izzybeans]

71. In elementary school when I naively thought everyone agreed

that Ollie North was a traitorous scumbag and so spoke about it in class. ended in a parent teacher conference with the teach. telling my mother that I was too concerned about things happening in the world. I haven't slept since, metaphorically speaking.

[Chovexani]

75. When I was 13

I went to a rich, WASPy private school, and had a really cool liberal teacher for American History who happened to be a radical lesbian feminist. She got rid of our textbooks on the first day and taught from Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. She really, really opened my eyes to the world. Well some of the freeper kids got wind that she was teaching about Stonewall and the gay rights movement, during our unit on various civil rights movements (she even taught us about AIM and Leonard Peltier!). They circulated this petition to get her fired for "pushing the gay agenda" on students. I was so angry, because she was a really hard ass teacher but was very cool, anyone could come to her with a problem, and she was kind of a mentor to me because I was constantly getting picked on and she helped me a lot. Some of us got together and decided we were going to support her no matter what, and we tried to get a counter-petition together, spoke on her behalf when the issue came up in assembly, etc. Unfortunately the freeptards succeeded in having her railroaded out of the school, but that incident stayed with me. It was the first time I'd ever done anything that could be considered activism, but I didn't think it was at the time, I was just supporting a teacher who meant a lot to me. I've been fighting against freeper bigots ever since.

[Devra]

78. wow, supporting gay rights and going agenst the war at the same time

good for you

[kwassa]

76. 13 ... I debated against the Vietnam War in 1965

I think it was '65. At that time, there was almost nobody against the Vietnam War, I came within a couple points of winning the debate, which I based entirely on a book by Howard Zinn.

[Jean Louise Finch]

79. 8 year old writes to reagan

when I was 8 years old I wrote a letter to Reagan to tell him to please take better care of the earth, especially the trees.

About six weeks later, I got a big, thick brochure about the White House. It STILL cracks my mother up to think about how angry I was. I think even at that age, I knew irony when it appeared in the mail.