How similar are your political positions to those of your parents'?

[Black_Zawisza]

What the title says.

 

[Camlon]

Completly different. I'm a moderate conservative compared to New Zealand politics and an independent compared to american politics. However compared to Norwegian politics, which is my home country I'm quite extreme and way out of their political spectrum. However my parents are left wing in Norway, so our opinions are quite different. My brother is even more left wing, but we both care about politics so when I see him we have a tendency to get into political fights, because we disagree with pretty much anything.

 

[Goshin]

My father was born in the 1920's and died a few years ago. My mother is 80.

Over the course of their lives, the entire political scene changed dramatically several times. When they were growing up, the concerns were The Great Depression and whether to get involved in "the latest round of European wars, and this Mr. Hitler fellow."
As they began raising a family, the Cold War and the USSR were the big issues. As their children grew up, they worried about sex, drugs, rock-n-roll and the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and how to address all these things both as individuals and as voters.
Then it was the 70's Energy Crisis, the Panama Canal, the economic downturn, the seeming spread of communism in many places including latin america. This is about the time I started taking an intrest in politics, but I'd heard their stories of times past also.
In the 80's they supported Reagan and thought things were going pretty well. So did I.
In the 90's they were largely indifferent to Bush and Clinton, but disgusted by Clinton's extramarital antics.
After that they started losing intrest in politics... who can blame them. :mrgreen:

They were Independents. In the 40's and 50's they mostly voted Democrat, like most Southerners. They voted for Carter in the 70's and became utterly disgusted with him, becoming staunch Republicans in reaction against what they considered a general change in the Democrat party for the worse.

They were religiously and personally conservative, and that was reflected in their politics but not to an extreme. Fiscally they were moderate to conservative, but again they avoided extremes.

The single biggest thing that stands out in my mind is that they were not "haters". They didn't hate anyone for their political affiliation and tended to show respect for the office of the President even if they didn't like the man in it. Even though they grew up during "seperate but equal" and were annoyed at Federal intervention during Integration, their views on race were quite mild and moderate for Southerners of their generation. They were even able to eventually adapt to the notion of interracial marriage, despite the fact that through most of their lives it was "simply not done".

I suppose one of their most durable political convictions could have been summed up as "don't go off the deep end, in either direction." They were often uncomfortable with major changes in society at first, but accepted that things change and that you had to adapt.

I suppose a lot of that stuck with me over the years, even though my own political views differ from any they espoused in a number of significant ways. I tend to favor some version of drug legalization, which they never would have supported, for one example. I tend to oppose most social spending, whereas they simply wanted it kept to a rational and affordable level and directed only at those who "deserved help".

In many ways I'm not all that different though, I don't consider that a bad thing.

 

[1069]

My political views are quite similar to my family's.
I'd say when I was a child, their views were more extreme than mine are now.
Now that I'm grown and they're old, they've mellowed and they're slightly more moderate than I am on a few issues, slightly more extreme on a couple, and about the same as me on most others.
Really, though, a lot of my socio-political views are my dad's, verbatim.
Nearly everything I know, I've learned from him. He's a very smart man.
But he's also older, and somewhat reclusive, and hasn't exactly kept pace with the times, culturally speaking.
I don't think he realizes, for instance, how much race relations have changed, and that racism- while still an issue- isn't the same type of problem it was in the 60s or 70s, and doesn't require the same sorts of solutions.

 

[jking948]

I grew up in a divorced household. My mom was the 2nd most liberal person I have ever met(my sister being the first), and my dad was much more moderate, but probably leaned conservative more times than not. I am much closer in overall fiscal leaning to my dad. However my mom(and sister for that matter) care most about the politicians social policy and they are very liberal socially. So I believe I am more liberal socially(not as much as them however) than my dad is. Therefore I am a mix with slight differences, and I am truly happy about that.

 

[Gardener]

Well, you know what they say about the apple not falling far from the tree. Well, mine sure didn't.

Of course, it hit a rock and deflected into a gully. In an intense rain storm it was washed into a stream, and bobbed away in the current until it washed up upon a beach. A cormorant pecked at it for a while, and then carried it off to to feed its young, but dropped it into the ocean when attacked by a ravenous gull. It eventually beached itself upon a tropical Isle where some natives found it, decided it was a magical artifact of some sort, dried it to a state of perfect preservation and use it in symbolic rituals for exorcising several lesser demons of local origin.

 

[Arcana XV]

Completely different. My father was a communist at heart and my mother has many socialist tendencies.

My sister has pretty much followed in their footsteps politically and leans very much left, while my sympathies lie more with the libertarian ideology of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism.

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

While I'm sure three's a number of areas where I'd find some room to agree with my folks, I'd have to qualify myself as "quite different."

I happen to think that the election process in the United States wouldn't stand up to internationally accepted standards with respect to transparency or honesty, given the voting systems the federal government has forced every state (with the sole hold-out exception of New York, last I checked) to use.

 

[RyrineaHaruno]

Dad is a Conservative, so I have more of my views from my mother who is also a Liberal. However my dad has some views that are similar to mine, since he thinks that pot should be legalized, and so do I.

I also think we have similar views on regulation of the market systems we both think we shouldn't have deregulated it to point it is now.

I guess that I have similar views to both my parents, but I more liberal like my mother.

 

[Cephus]

Growing up, we were similar, both my parents were relatively conservative, but as time has gone on, my mother has gotten a lot more liberal in her views while I've remained more or less conservative. Today, we probably don't share much in common politically.

 

[Gipper]

Very different. My dad is apolitical, and my mom is rather liberal in some areas but still conservative in others (she's an opinionated Christian). I'm liberal socially where she's conservative, and I'm conservative economically where she's liberal. It's just a difference of education and upbringing.

 

[Hoplite]

Fairly different. Both my parents are apolitical but they tend to be somewhat moderate when they can be forced to the polls.

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

Completely different. My father was a "libertarian" Republican and my mother is a mostly standard liberal. The only things we could reliably agree upon were guns and illegal immigrants.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

tagging a line for subscription. . .

 

[1069]

Completely different. My father was a "libertarian" Republican and my mother is a mostly standard liberal. The only things we could reliably agree upon were guns and illegal immigrants.

My kids are both libertarian-minded, when they think about politics at all.
It's totally the opposite of the rest of our family.
I'm hoping they'll outgrow it.
It's a disturbingly uncompassionate and unempathetic viewpoint, to my way of thinking.

 

[The Mark]

I never really asked my parents what their political positions are, but they seem in general to be conservative, in both the social and fiscial sense of the term.

I'm positive my views are at least somewhat to the left of my parents.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

The notion of my parents discussing politics with me is silly. They refused to answer questions I had when I was a kid and always informed me of how rude I was for asking. So - at that, we differ strongly. I openly answer questions my children have and discuss all issues with them if they're interested. I think it's a part of parenting and getting your children ready for the real world. If they have interest and questions then indulge but no brainwashing, let them choose their beliefs.

As a result of a disconnect from my parents in this way I still don't know what they think about certain things - what I do know I've gleamed from conversations about various issues over the years. but, again, them openly and directly discussing politics is silly. They still avoid the issue just like I avoid telling them what I think of their religious beliefs.

I do know my Mom is a registered Republican and my Dad's a Democrat - this contrast might explain their "no talkie" view on it with us kids.
My Mom isn't really into politics. Every time I've brought up various subjects she always says "I heard people talking about that . . . " and that's about it. So I've tried really hard to inform my Mom on things without bias (not hard for me because I'm neither Republican nor Democrat and like to learn the facts about things void of bias as much as possible - and then drawn my conclusions)

My Dad, well, he only has opinions about moral and religious issues (he's a minister) - and so things like immigration, fiscal responsibility and so on - none of these things seem to be a concern for him what so ever.

I seem to be the only on in my entire family, aside from my husband and my brother in law, who has interest in politics and enjoys a good meaty debate on issues and prefers to read a variety of sources for information and facts - not just one or two favored forms of media.

 

[Toothpicvic]

Polar opposite. My parents are Christian fundamentalists/pro-big govt socialist-minded idiots. I'm independent and non-religious with a libertarian streak.

 

[Psychoclown]

Both of my parents are conservatives, but with differences. My dad probably wouldn't call himself a neo-conservative, but I think he comes pretty close to their views. He's not opposed to government regulations or programs, he's accepting of what he sees as minor compromises in personal liberty for the sake of security and law enforcement, and he's fairly conservative socially speaking. My mom was socially liberal in her youth and then came to embrace conservatism. Now she's slowly starting shift towards a more libertarian view (my brothers and I have been working on her), but there are still some spots where she can have an authoritarian streak.

I started out as a fairly staunch conservative, but have moved increasingly towards a libertarian outlook, but I don't endorse even libertarianism entirely. There are a few areas where I definately break with mainstream libertarian views and even in areas where I agree with libertarianism I think the movement has too many extremists who don't think about the practical consequences of their beliefs.

 

[lizzie]

They were Independents. In the 40's and 50's they mostly voted Democrat, like most Southerners. They voted for Carter in the 70's and became utterly disgusted with him, becoming staunch Republicans in reaction against what they considered a general change in the Democrat party for the worse.

They were religiously and personally conservative, and that was reflected in their politics but not to an extreme. Fiscally they were moderate to conservative, but again they avoided extremes.

OMG- you must be my long lost brother!

 

[lizzie]

My parents are both very religious Christians, but the type that are the real deal, and live the life. They tend to vote conservative these days on social issues, and frankly, they aren't very well informed on economic issues, so their votes tend to be a little inconsistent in that area. I, otoh, am fiscally conservative, and tend to be socially libertarian. Neither of my parents are highly interested in politics, because their focus is on their religious and family lives. So generally, these days, I probably vote in a somewhat similar way to them, but for different reasons.

 

[spud_meister]

completely different, neither of my parents are interested in politics at all.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

How similar are your political positions to those of your parents'?

My father is one of the most contradictory conservative Republicans there are and my mother votes the way my father tells her.
She doesn't really know or understand anything about politics.

 

[Your Star]

Completely different, both my parents are conservative, and I'm pretty liberal.

 

[Hatuey]

Somewhere in between. My old man is an old soldier who still remembers when black people had to sit at the back of the bus. My mom had jungle fever and loves to garden. I grew up listening to them talk about life in metaphors.