Do you think we're born with our political compass?

[Swede]

Is it both nature and nurture? Enlightened kinda means you've been made aware of others. Does the conserve in conservative overpower that?

[sakabatou]

1. No, I don't think we're born with a political compass.

But I do think we might be born with an ethical compass.

[Swede]

4. I agree.

I know good conservative people. I don't know any bad progressives,but I suppose they are out there.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. There is emerging evidence that at least some

politics are in the genes.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/politics/the-genetics-of-political-intensity-6862/

There is also increasing evidence that people ON BOTH extremes react to issues as if this was a form of religion.

I don't know what scares me more. The fact that it might be genetic, or the fact that it can easily be manipulated.

[babylonsister]

3. No.

I think how you're nurtured figures into it, as does your later years, where you live, who you are exposed to.

I am one of 3 females in my family who are liberal.
The two males are virulent rethugs.
We are all siblings.

Go figure.

[Vampire Knight]

5. Churchill once said

something along the lines of "if you're not a liberal when in your twenties, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative by the time you're 30, you have no brain".

Not to make any judgment on the veracity of the statement itself, but he certainly seemed to think that political convictions were fluid.

[imnKOgnito]

8. Likely false attribution

": : The quotation usually attributed to Churchill is, "If you're not Liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not Conservative when you're 35, you have no brain." However, the attribution is false. There is no record of Churchill ever speaking these words, and it is highly unlikely that he would have because Churchill himself did precisely the opposite. He entered politics as a Conservative and was a Conservative at age 25. He switched to the Liberal Party at age 29 and was a Liberal at age 35. (He returned to the Conservatives at age 49.) Also, his beloved wife, Clementine, was a life-long Liberal, and Churchill would hardly have delivered such an indirect insult to her."

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/33/messages/799.html

[Warpy]

16. He would also likely define conservative very differently

from the way the word is being used today.

He was also dead wrong about a lot of us. We are moving ever farther to the left as we age because a lifetime of experience has shown we can expect nothing from the right except robbery.

[napi21]

6. NO! Most if not all your politics is based on where & how you were raised.

Most people retain the politics of their parents. There are some who switch based on their own mature beliefs, but that too is based on their personal experiences.

[mzteris]

7. i was raised

a "federal repubican" and a states rights democrat... (read SOUTHERN Democrat who didn't want federal intervention/oversight and who were all racists - closet or otherwise)

I overcame my upbringing. It takes an epiphany and WORK! But it can be done. I can't imagine what I'd be if I hadn't seen the light. I can't discuss politics with my relatives at all - they're "good people" ostensibly, but when it comes down to it - they're racist self-centered @ssholes who hide behind "god" and "country" to bolster their bs attitudes.

[Fuzz]

9. No.

[imnKOgnito]

10. Perhaps so, perhaps not

I can say from my own experience that my father is a staunch conservative that moved to Seattle just after starting his family, and every one of his children is a liberal. My mother was also very active in the Southern Baptist Church for many years, though she was truly one that held the social justice aspects in the highest regards. We've long since converted her to militant liberalism. :-P

[Initech]

11. I'm gonna say no, but racism and sexism are. And that is a determining factor.

[Thirtieschild]

12. I wonder if I'd be conservative if I'd stayed in Texas where I was raised

There were three of us, all girls. Two of us got out and turned our back on our conservative upbringing. One stayed and is Christian right. Maybe I'm rationalizing my conservative youth (I voted for Nixon in 1960) but exposure is important and at that time I'd never been exposed to anything else. Curiously, and I have no idea why, I was always liberal about race, conservative about everything else.

[Jennicut]

13. As someone who grew up in a conservative family, I am unsure what happened.

My environment was one that worshiped Reagan. My parents love Rush, Beck, Hannity, etc. Loved W too.
I was disgusted by Republicans in 1988 when I was 12 and by 1992 I was thoroughly turned off watching the Republican National Convention. Watching the Dems, I knew that as young as 16, I had found my home. Was it that my genes were slightly different then my parents (did it skip a generation...my Grandparents were good Dems). Or was it that the environment I was raised in turned me off? Who knows. But I did have one thing at 16, the ability to empathize with those who are weaker in society. It made me turn away totally from Republicans.

[jtuck004]

14. I think both nature and nuture would have to be considered.

There is some research that points to personality traits being linked to the developed size of the brain in certain regions

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/06/23/personality-reflects-size-of-respective-brain-area/14896.html

Though they did not find an association with "intellectual ability", which may have more to do with connections in the entire brain...

And we know that changes in animals attitudes can be influenced in breeding experiments (silver fox in Russia).

So you may start out with something, but then the environment comes along.

And we also know that training occurs, so it is quite possible that similar siblings or others might be affected in different ways, depending on how they are influenced by their environment, how they are treated, what they are exposed to.

Interesting question.

[provis99]

15. well, my extended family has a mix of liberals and conservatives.

Oddly enough, there is a direct correspondence between the intelligence of my relative and his political beliefs. That is to say, the smart ones in the family are all liberals, while the stupid ones are all conservatives. Maybe it is genetic, but only so far as intelligence is tied to genetics.

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. Yes, I think we largely are.

You don't learn to be curious and interested in complexity.

[tabbycat31]

18. my sister is a corporatist Republican

and I'm a liberal Democrat. We were raised in the same household by liberal parents.