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Lovin Politics Since 10 years old

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Ever since kindergarden I loved politcs, but never understood which party stood for what. At ten I asked my dad what each party stood for. I told him not to make dems sound bad ( he's a huge Republican) or Republicans sound overly good. How many years have all of you been into politics?
 
I would have to say right out of high school before Reagan's last term ended when he gave that beautiful speech.

He became a hero of mine, and this drew my personal interest.
 
Around about 13 years old or so, my Dad - a conservative buys a conservative tabloid, I read it throughly and believed every word of it. lol most of my life I was a conservative and as Winston Churchill said "A man under 30 and who is a conservative, has no heart" and he was right about me.

I hated immigrants, I hated the French, the Germans, the Irish, homosexuals, I believed war was glorious and honourable I believed all the news from this right-winged newspaper called "The Sun."

But when I went to University I lived with and met all the individuals that I once hated, they were just like me. I was completly wrong about my political beliefs, I started a "live and let live" outlook in life that liberals have, Bush's and Blair's propaganda for war with Iraq basically sealed my idenity as a liberal.

I was once a bigot, thanks to liberalism - I have a less discriminating look on life.

Let me give you some advice if i may satin (even though I'm only 8 years older than you.) lol
Always listen to the other side of the argument (something I never did til I was eighteen)
Never judge
Always be open to change your political beliefs
 
Pretty much like me Garza, I love History and Politics.


I remember the first time I feel in love with Politics... It was a school-day, in the 7th Grade, and randomly people started to cry and weep like I've only seen when a dear friend died but I was confused, I heard things like "the two brothers fell" and "my sister was in the towers" and even "my cousins best-friend lives in New York". After a while I just shook all this off, still confused, till I went into my Social Studies class and my teacher told us that the World Trade Center had been attacked, we spent the whole class discussing this situation, then, eventually watched the news.. I was just astonished that normal people like myself were running away in horror from a tidal wave of ash and debris, I was dazed for the rest of the school day. I went home and directly turned on to CNN (Communist News Network :rofl ) and my brother and I just sat there watching video after video of planes crashing into this magnificent building.

From that day forth I watched everything I could.. finally learned how to use the Internet and I immediately looked up all the different names I didn't recognize like Taliban, Al Jazeera, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein other other notorious names. I can remember staying up till 2 in the morning (on school nights) watching and waiting for the "shock and awe".. somehow I was memorized by the live videos of Baghdad's streets and the intercom Islamic preachings which were very silent in the background, while Saddam's statue shrouded in the background.

Yeah that's my story.. I feel fortunate to be growing up in these type of Political stand-offs.. makes it easier to learn and reflect on.
 
GarzaUK said:
Around about 13 years old or so, my Dad - a conservative buys a conservative tabloid, I read it throughly and believed every word of it. lol most of my life I was a conservative and as Winston Churchill said "A man under 30 and who is a conservative, has no heart" and he was right about me.

I hated immigrants, I hated the French, the Germans, the Irish, homosexuals, I believed war was glorious and honourable I believed all the news from this right-winged newspaper called "The Sun."

But when I went to University I lived with and met all the individuals that I once hated, they were just like me. I was completly wrong about my political beliefs, I started a "live and let live" outlook in life that liberals have, Bush's and Blair's propaganda for war with Iraq basically sealed my idenity as a liberal.

I was once a bigot, thanks to liberalism - I have a less discriminating look on life.

Let me give you some advice if i may satin (even though I'm only 8 years older than you.) lol
Always listen to the other side of the argument (something I never did til I was eighteen)
Never judge
Always be open to change your political beliefs


I already have gottin a little liberal, but I'm still way more conservitive. Thanks for the advice. Usually you're making fun of my name or signature.
I'll always be open to new ideas. Yes I am currently living in a conservitive family, but I usually talk to people who have a different opinion than me. My English teacher is a huge liberal and she is really the only person I talk politics with. I have big plans for myself. Maybe even President, I'm being serious. I plan to even go to one of the most liberal universities, wasington University in St.Louise Missouri. If I don't listen to the opposing side I won't debate that issue.
 
I can't say that it was a event. More like something that was buried inside me that kind of finally came out. I saw Bush during his first term. He was someone that wanted to do good. Then I heard people trying to talk bad about him. Then when the Iraq war started, I knew that Bush was doing the right thing, even though I was scared about the thought of war. Then I went to school one day and there was other students protest the war. I really didn't understand but it made me mad. So, I guess it is sometimes fueled by an astonishment of how people could not like bush. You liberals at this site have some good reasons, but there are others that hate republicans for no reason. And I want people to understand the republican message. As the 2004 election drew closer, I became more and more politically concious. Now I am a political science major and there isn't much that I love more.
 
pwo said:
I can't say that it was a event. More like something that was buried inside me that kind of finally came out. I saw Bush during his first term. He was someone that wanted to do good. Then I heard people trying to talk bad about him. Then when the Iraq war started, I knew that Bush was doing the right thing, even though I was scared about the thought of war. Then I went to school one day and there was other students protest the war. I really didn't understand but it made me mad. So, I guess it is sometimes fueled by an astonishment of how people could not like bush. You liberals at this site have some good reasons, but there are others that hate republicans for no reason. And I want people to understand the republican message. As the 2004 election drew closer, I became more and more politically concious. Now I am a political science major and there isn't much that I love more.

I understand the republican posistion and hate it. As soon as bush was elected, i let out an oh crap...and started actually studying politics so that i could reasonably debate the political subjects and not just rely on emotion. I am going to be a poli sci major starting next year at Colby or Kenyon or Hamilton...damn...the deadline is near...crap...

My love of politics started about three or four months before 9-11 and after i got even more energized about it, especially on civil liberties issues. So, it has been about four years now, loving it.
 
ShamMol said:
I understand the republican posistion and hate it. As soon as bush was elected, i let out an oh crap...and started actually studying politics so that i could reasonably debate the political subjects and not just rely on emotion. I am going to be a poli sci major starting next year at Colby or Kenyon or Hamilton...damn...the deadline is near...crap...

My love of politics started about three or four months before 9-11 and after i got even more energized about it, especially on civil liberties issues. So, it has been about four years now, loving it.


So sorry that you hate the Republican position. Do you hate me? Do I hate the dems veiws? no, I just disagree with it. now I do hate the liberal view point! How did you go that way man?
 
satinloveslibs said:
So sorry that you hate the Republican position. Do you hate me? Do I hate the dems veiws? no, I just disagree with it. now I do hate the liberal view point! How did you go that way man?
i don't hate repubs, in fact my two best friends are conservatives. i just see everything (with one or two exceptions) from the liberal point of view.
 
My parents taught me from day 1 that the Democratic Party was the party of the working people and the Republicans were for the wealthy. My father had protested in the Civil Rights movement, and in fact had been present at Matin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream Speech" and had marched the last part of the Selma to Montgomery March. My mother had participated in a few anti-Vietnam War protests and later worked for the Carter administration. They instilled in me a dislike of racism and bigotry, and the belief that the wealthiest country on Earth should be able to provide the basics for all its citizens. As I read more, I learned more about the hatred and hypocrisy of the Religious Right and how they encourage discrimination against homosexuals and try to pass Creationism off as science.
 
See, my mom is a conservative and my dad is a liberal, so i have never been pulled either way, they wanted me to find my own beliefs.
 
I've always been interested in law, since I was very young, and politics naturally followed. What helped to shape my views initially was two things:

1) An extremely liberal, asshole of a teacher who I took pleasure in arguing with, and
2) The fact that in my college-town high school, the rich professor's kids were all stuck-up liberals while the country honkys were all conservative. It pained me to see these well meaning but undereducated kids lose arguments, so, Devil's Advocate that I am, I started to defend them.

I eventually realized that I was no longer arguing the position for them, but for me. Part of the reason I came to NYU is because I grew to love arguing from the minority, and where better to do so? Since then, I've become exponentially more involved in politics. I work for my congressman now, and will be working with my DA or a NYS Supreme Court Judge this summer. I worked at the RNC last year, the Inauguration, and spent the weekend before the election campaigning for Bush in PA.

Despite all this, I'm a pretty moderate Republican. My fathers more conservative, becuse of his business, and my mother's more liberal, because of her non-profit, but they're both pretty casual about it.
 
RightatNYU said:
I've always been interested in law, since I was very young, and politics naturally followed. What helped to shape my views initially was two things:

1) An extremely liberal, asshole of a teacher who I took pleasure in arguing with, and
2) The fact that in my college-town high school, the rich professor's kids were all stuck-up liberals while the country honkys were all conservative. It pained me to see these well meaning but undereducated kids lose arguments, so, Devil's Advocate that I am, I started to defend them.

Despite all this, I'm a pretty moderate Republican. My fathers more conservative, becuse of his business, and my mother's more liberal, because of her non-profit, but they're both pretty casual about it.
YEah, law is kinda what originally got me too, that and 9-11 just hooked it. i have a liberal teacher who thinks i am a conservative because i argue that side just to **** her off. and i am kinda the exact opposite, i go to a predominantly minority school (51-49 i think) where the majority of people are conservative, lol. I have noticed that you have some moderate views, which is refreshing. honestly, my opinions since coming to this forum have been changing a little bit towards more moderate and i ahve been seeing the value in some conservative arguments, something i could never bring myself to do before.
 
ShamMol said:
YEah, law is kinda what originally got me too, that and 9-11 just hooked it. i have a liberal teacher who thinks i am a conservative because i argue that side just to **** her off. and i am kinda the exact opposite, i go to a predominantly minority school (51-49 i think) where the majority of people are conservative, lol. I have noticed that you have some moderate views, which is refreshing. honestly, my opinions since coming to this forum have been changing a little bit towards more moderate and i ahve been seeing the value in some conservative arguments, something i could never bring myself to do before.

When I hear someone say what you just closed with, whether its from the liberal side, or the conservative, it gives me a renewed sense of faith in the world.
 
ShamMol said:
honestly, my opinions since coming to this forum have been changing a little bit towards more moderate and i ahve been seeing the value in some conservative arguments, something i could never bring myself to do before.
This is interesting, because I see myself as doing the exact opposite in some of the more liberal arguments.
 
RightatNYU said:
When I hear someone say what you just closed with, whether its from the liberal side, or the conservative, it gives me a renewed sense of faith in the world.
you have seriously said some stuff that made me reevaluate, add, change, etc. my arguments.

and vauge-i see that too, especially with fant...grrr...
 
vauge said:
This is interesting, because I see myself as doing the exact opposite in some of the more liberal arguments.
When I came to this forum, I was convinced that my radicalism was only a phase, and I considered myself a liberal. Then, when I got to talking with conservatives, and some supposedly liberals, I found myself pushed farther left, through my opposition to them, and now I consider myself socialist. I see little value in the conservative's thinking, really, sad as that may sound. Only occasionally do I find a con's arguments making any sense. But yeah, Vauge, I find myself pushed farther left as I debate more and more.
 
RightatNYU said:
When I hear someone say what you just closed with, whether its from the liberal side, or the conservative, it gives me a renewed sense of faith in the world.

Amen! Sure I would say I was a Republican when I was young, but it wasn't real untill I found out that my English teacher was a big liberal. So I would bring up topics like " over 200 Iraqis saved by US soldiers" or I'd quote the bible. It's kind of funny because she is a Christian. She finally started to debate me. Now I've seen the other side and I'm sticken on the right. If she was president there would be a million saved trees, but thousands of innocent BABIES killed. The right gives me faith.
 
anomaly said:
When I came to this forum, I was convinced that my radicalism was only a phase, and I considered myself a liberal. Then, when I got to talking with conservatives, and some supposedly liberals, I found myself pushed farther left, through my opposition to them, and now I consider myself socialist. I see little value in the conservative's thinking, really, sad as that may sound. Only occasionally do I find a con's arguments making any sense. But yeah, Vauge, I find myself pushed farther left as I debate more and more.

So I am not alone! I must tell you, being a socialist in a small town in upstate New York is not very easy. I believe I became intrested in politics at about 14? I started out republican, and look at me now! Hah, but really I grew up in a house of hate. Told always to hate the french, the commies, the left, the gays, everything. And I found in a house of hate you can either succumb and agree or think for yourself and become radically different. I think we all know which I did. I also see myself sympathising with almost all sides of an issue. I think I have too much empathy sometimes, see all sides all too well and cannot come to a clear decision. In other words...I'd make a horrible president.
 
V.I. Lenin said:
So I am not alone! I must tell you, being a socialist in a small town in upstate New York is not very easy. I believe I became intrested in politics at about 14? I started out republican, and look at me now! Hah, but really I grew up in a house of hate. Told always to hate the french, the commies, the left, the gays, everything. And I found in a house of hate you can either succumb and agree or think for yourself and become radically different. I think we all know which I did. I also see myself sympathising with almost all sides of an issue. I think I have too much empathy sometimes, see all sides all too well and cannot come to a clear decision. In other words...I'd make a horrible president.
I was never a Republican, I was shaped by my leftist family early in life. But then, not two years ago, something happened. I know longer completely agreed with the liberal position, but I certainly wasn't moving right. I was a socialist. Then, I thought it was all just a bad phase, a childish idea that I had driven from my mind. So I came to this forum about 4 months ago as a strong liberal. As I engaged in debate, I finally found myself. My liberalism was just a way of feeling somehow 'advanced', it wasn't me.

But to you, VI, I'm glad you've come to the right side of the aisle. Isn't it odd how the left, not the right, is actually right?
 
anomaly said:
I was never a Republican, I was shaped by my leftist family early in life. But then, not two years ago, something happened. I know longer completely agreed with the liberal position, but I certainly wasn't moving right. I was a socialist. Then, I thought it was all just a bad phase, a childish idea that I had driven from my mind. So I came to this forum about 4 months ago as a strong liberal. As I engaged in debate, I finally found myself. My liberalism was just a way of feeling somehow 'advanced', it wasn't me.

But to you, VI, I'm glad you've come to the right side of the aisle. Isn't it odd how the left, not the right, is actually right?

Well now, once you begin thinking one side is right and the other is wrong you become just as bad as your enemy. Never think in black and white my child. :mrgreen:
 
V.I. Lenin said:
So I am not alone! I must tell you, being a socialist in a small town in upstate New York is not very easy. I believe I became intrested in politics at about 14? I started out republican, and look at me now! Hah, but really I grew up in a house of hate. Told always to hate the french, the commies, the left, the gays, everything. And I found in a house of hate you can either succumb and agree or think for yourself and become radically different. I think we all know which I did. I also see myself sympathising with almost all sides of an issue. I think I have too much empathy sometimes, see all sides all too well and cannot come to a clear decision. In other words...I'd make a horrible president.

Where upstate?
 
Cairo. It's a small down near Catskill, about 30min drive from Hudson.
 
V.I. Lenin said:
Cairo. It's a small down near Catskill, about 30min drive from Hudson.

Oh, okay. I'm from up near Utica, about 5hrs from the city.

Gotta love upstate NY
 
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