Your political awakening...

[Earth_First]

I'm just curious to hear what event(s) galvanized the shift from passive bystander to active participant?

For myself, it was certainly, and I remember it well, the "Prayer for America" speech delivered by Dennis Kucinich to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action in 2002.

[Philosoraptor]

1. Nixon's fall and the Vietnam war.

[BuelahWitch]

2. Clarence Thomas hearings and '92 LA riot

But I really have been interested in politics ever since before Watergate hearings.

[Toots]

3. Mario Salvio's sit in at Berkeley

We have made advances since those stone age days but there is so very much more to do...

[trumad]

4. Hopping on DU back in 2001

I've always been a Dem and voted stright line ticket.....but... the internet opened my eyes and DU made me into the mad man I am today. ;-)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. When Dad contradicted the Civics teacher at school

I paraphrase:

"Son, this country is not a democracy. This book and the class you're attending are telling you lies. The President is appointed by the military. They overthrew the democracy in 1964 and implanted a dictatorship."

1974. I was nine. Thank you, Dad. I miss you.

[illinoisprogressive]

6. My Mom

My mom, who is from france and not a citizen, is passionate about politics and she impressed upon us the evils of the gop. She did not like the republicans. Growing up my brother and I sat around the kitchen table discussing politics with her. I was around 11 or 12. As my younger siblings grew up they got in the act.
I always remember being into politics.
The past year, feeling very disenfranchised and finding the news talking up the gop and putting down dems I got to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. There had to be somewhere where democrat was not a dirty word and I could get the real stuff. I knew about blogs, so went in search of them. They have been my lifeline where I could be around the news that doesn't get reported, no busy ass licking and people who felt like I did.
It's a daily event.

[graywarrior]

7. Marched with Kerry in the first Earth Day march, Boston.

He became larger than drugs for me back then.

[twilight_sailing]

8. Howard Dean

[SCDem]

10. Howard Dean for me too

I've been a Democrat for longer than I could vote and was active volunteering in the 2nd Clinton campaign but Howard Dean changed my view of the world.

Every race matters. Get local. Look at numbers. Use them to your advantage. Create a smart strategy based on numbers. Grassroots does matter.

That's what I learned from Dean and I continue to be impressed by him and by what I've accomplished since I've heard Howard Dean.

[mikeargo]

9. Eighth grade

When my buddy Gene and I were the only ones that voted for McGovern in the mock election we had in history class.

[Mabus]

11. Mom and Dad

They were precinct committee people. They didn't trust the government for a number of their own personal reasons. My mom (now deceased) was a full-blood American Indian who gone through government run boarding schools and told she wasn't Indian and my dad served in Korea (where he was left for dead, declared dead, found crawling back with what was left of two fellow Marines, rushed to a MASH hospital where they almost killed him, sent back out where he eventually got shot up again and ended up with two Purple Hearts). They're distrust of the government solidified after the Warren Commission. I grew up always questioning. I was about 7 when I started making political phone calls to remind people to vote back in 1968. I was making the calls so mom could make dinner because dad was out putting up signs. My mom told me to use my "grown-up voice" when I called and she coached me on the script. I must have pulled it off because I made more phone calls that year and haven't stopped.

The year 1968 is also the first year I learned about political disappoint. My parents were big RFK and MLK supporters. They were devastated after both were killed. My dad dropped out of politics for a while but mom got a second wind. She continued being politically active until the day she died.

[EFerrari]

12. Jumping on a turquoise sectional and throwing leftover JFK campaign

literature all over our living room. Winning is fun. :)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. The civil rights movement.

When I was 14 we lived briefly in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. I was already aware of the incredible poverty of the blacks living in the deep south having driven through it. Two incidents occurred. I had to take a bus to school, and one morning my classmates leaned out of the window and screamed "nigger!" at an old black man walking on the road and spit at him. The man didn't even look up. He didn't shout back. He did nothing. How could a full grown man do nothing, say nothing, be so beaten down, as to let a bunch of ignorant crackers insult him?

The second incident took place in the all-white school. Integration of the schools had just begun. I was used to the racial epithets used by kids, even in Los Angeles, where I was from. But, one day our sweet grandmotherly teacher said to the class, "We'll never allow niggers to come to this school." The other students, literally, cheered her. I was shocked.

That was the spark.

[renie408]

14. It was some time after the 2000 election and before 9/11

I looked around and thought to myself, "Waaiiiittt a minute!!" I cannot remember the specific event that triggered my 'waking up'. But I distinctly remember that 'Oh shit' feeling.

[nevergiveup]

15. Barry Goldwater

please don't ask

[tbyg52]

16. A bit of a latecomer

(Other than voting and occasional contributions.)

Watching Bush shove us into Iraq all by our lonesome, and so many of our other elected representatives going along with it, in a panic.

[InvisibleTouch]

17. The 1992 election.

That was the first time I was seriously interested and motivated to vote, and started to be really clear in my mind as to why the Dems were the good guys and the Rethugs were vile (though I admit to having been a Perot fan for a while there, simply because I admired his independent spirit - before he flaked out, anyway!). Then with the Clinton impeachment/witch hunt, my involvement escalated a bit - and really intensified with the 2000 election/selection.

[LSK]

18. the leadup to the Iraq war and getting to fights with freeps on another board

[left is right]

19. Two things, both from the 50's, when I was just a kid

first, I remember seeing Joe McCarthy ranting on TV (it may have been some kind of retrospective-my parents insist I was too young to have heard it as an original) rant about the evils of the commies taking over the US government--I thought he was a very angry and dangerous man.
2nd, I had just forgone the usual trick-or-treating to raise money for UNICEF, raise quite a bit--really proud of the fact that I was helping to feed hungry children world-wide, when I encountered a barn painted with the statement, "Get the US out of the UN and get the UN out of the US." How could anyone have something against an organization that tried to help starving kids?!!
I have been a liberal ever since. And politically aware/active ever since.

[seabeyond]

20. impeachment of clinton. i was always politically aware

but this is when i started obsessively watching the news and spending so much of my time figuring out what was going on. too many lies. had to watch al the time to pull out the little bit of truth.

[hyphenate]

21. First awakening

1971, high school, with the promise of McGovern and the history of Boston at my feet. Pride in the Kennedy family, not caring for Nixon.

1974--registering to vote for the first time. Proud day not too long after my 18th birthday. Listening to songs like "Eve of Destruction" and other anti-Vietnam War music.

The 70s in general! John Denver, Earth Day, Involvement Day, MassPirg, Watergate!


The next major clincher was 1988, with the extremely nasty 41* campaign against Mike Dukakis, who was sort of a hero to me. (I used to live on the same street as he does!) I swore I would never recognize Poppy as my president.

From there, it just kept getting more and more important to fight the GOP and the BFEE.

[stevedeshazer]

22. Meeting RFK in 1968

A week later, he was murdered. :(

[WiseButAngrySara]

23. SCOTUS decision 2000 and exit poll analysis of 2004... n/t

[Sugarcoated]

24. Debating deep south cretins on a country music board

regarding the Dixie Chicks. What an eye-opener. The hate, intolerance, the black and white mentality. I really wanted to understand that. I listened to Rush Limbaugh, and to my frustration couldn't tell if he was on the level or twisting reality. I just didn't know enough. I realize now that's how so many fall for that swill, they just don't know what's going on. They don't try to find out, they just buy it.

I've always been interested in politics, but only at election times, and never any involvement beyond voting. The 2000 nightmare made me curl up in a fetal position, the feeling of powerlessness and unfairness was devastating. I didn't watch the news again till Sept 11, 2001. Instinctively I knew smirk and snarl were doing bad things, I was just so disheartened I ignored it. Then the 2004 election started heating up. I knew I was going to vote Dem, watched the Democratic debates and realized I didn't know a damn thing about them. What were their differences, voting records? When Kerry became the candidate I had to know why he was chosen, I wanted to know why I was going to vote for this man. Lots and lots of internet reading led me to the horrific realization that smirk and snarl and the right wing hate machine were stealing everything that wasn't nailed down while we weren't paying attention. I cannonballed into the political water and never looked back. Never, never will I ever curl up again.